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Ham College episode 52 is now available for download.

General Amateur Radio Exam part 23. Solid State devices, Standing Waves.
1:04:40

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George Thomas, W5JDX, is co-host of AmateurLogic.TV, an original amateur radio video program hosted by George Thomas (W5JDX), Tommy Martin (N5ZNO), Peter Berrett (VK3PB), and Emile Diodene (KE5QKR). Contact him at [email protected].

In this episode, Martin M1MRB is joined by Edmund Spicer M0MNG, Bill Barnes N3JIX and Ed Durrant DD5LP to discuss the latest Amateur / Ham Radio news. Colin M6BOY rounds up the news in brief and this episode’s feature is Martin M1MRB, Edmund M0MNG and Colin M6BOY visit to Yaesu to get hands-on with the new FTDX 101D.

ICQ AMATEUR/HAM RADIO PODCAST DONORS

We would like to thank Nigel Wells (2W0CGM) and our monthly and annual subscription donors for keeping the podcast advert free. To donate, please visit - http://www.icqpodcast.com/donate

- UK Foundation Licence Changes - Bouvet Island DXpedition News - New Digital Mode FT4 - Radio Ham to Set Up Emergency Communications Centre - RSGB ARDF Championships 2019 - Experts Predict Long and Deep Solar Minimum

Colin Butler, M6BOY, is the host of the ICQ Podcast, a weekly radio show about Amateur Radio. Contact him at [email protected].

In a recent episode of the ICQ Podcast, I had Howard Michel WB2ITX as my interview guest. He’s the CEO of the American Radio Relay League as of late last year. It was important that Howard get interviewed about League matters as he was hired after a brief misfire to replace the legendary CEO David Sumner K1ZZ. As I told ARRL President Rick Roderick in the Q&A session with him a year or so ago at the Mississippi Section Convention in Jackson, MS, “You guys made a mistake in hiring someone from Wall Street to be CEO of a membership non-profit organization. Don’t make one again.” My Division Director, David Norris K5UZ, was seated in the row in front of me, nodded his head and turned to give me a knowing look. From my interview with Howard Michel, and from what else I’ve seen coming from him, they did not make a mistake.

One of the strategic matters that this new CEO faces is the common perception that Chief Executives are walled-off from the organization’s customers or just come out of their catacombs to glad-hand, smile, and ask for something.

Indeed, if you listen to my interview with him here, I think you’ll find that he has a clear but not tight-fisted vision for making the Headquarters more customer service oriented, inclusive, and modern in it’s business operations. This should yield better service experiences for members. Perhaps equally important, it may attract new members to the League as the 150,000 or so current members pale by comparison to the 750,000 licensed hams in the U.S.

One of the strategic matters that this new CEO faces is the common perception that Chief Executives are walled-off from the organization’s customers or just come out of their catacombs to glad-hand, smile, and ask for something. As error prone as this perception is, there is enough of an everyday reality that validates it to the rank-and-file customer base to make it the default mental setting, so to speak. In addition, there’s the “We’re the ARRL. And You’re Not!” barrier (apologies to the comedian Chevy Chase of Saturday Night Live fame).

As I was listening to Howard respond to my questions, I was pondering these matters. It hit me that it might be informative for all involved if there were opportunities to interact with Howard as just another ham operator so as to “see” him that way as opposed to a mostly a face with a monthly column in QST or on the pages of the ARRL’s website. An idea was formulated on the spot: get him on the air in a mini-event so as to work Howard on the air at W1AW!

So I sprang this on him without any real sense of how he would respond by asking a one of my final questions: How’d you like to make some news? I proposed that we set up a date and time to appear on W1AW’s station on 20 meters and let the ICQ Podcast team promote it as a joint mini-event where hams could “put the CEO to work” by working WB2ITX on the air. He immediately caught the humorous pun in this and agreed enthusiastically.

Please put May 13, 2019 at 2:00pm Eastern Time on your calendars. Tune your antennas, rigs, and amplifiers (if you have them) to 14.254+/- and put that CEO to work! Howard promises a special QSL card from the League HQ for worked contacts.

Frank Howell, K4FMH, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Mississippi, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

YPM - 274 courtesy: VE3GOP

This coming weekend will see another monthly CLE challenge. This time the hunting grounds will be 270.0 - 319.9 kHz.

 





For those unfamiliar with this monthly activity, a 'CLE' is a 'Co-ordinated Listening Event', as NDB DXers around the world focus their listening time on one small slice of the NDB spectrum.

If you've been meaning to participate in  CLE, then maybe this weekend is a fine time to try!

A nice challenge in this one is to hear YPM - 274, located in northwest Ontario near Pikangikum.

'YPM' runs just 25W into a 100' vertical but is well-heard throughout North America. Listen for its upper-sideband CW identifier (with your receiver in the CW mode) on 274.368 kHz.

Summer lightning storms may provide additional listening challenges but maybe we will get lucky.

When tuning for NDBs, put your receiver in the CW mode and listen for the NDB's CW identifier, repeated every few seconds. Listen for U.S. NDB identifiers approximately 1 kHz higher or lower than the published transmitted frequency since these beacons are modulated with a 1020 Hz tone approximately.

For example, 'AA' near Fargo, ND, transmits on 365 kHz and its upper sideband CW identifier is tuned at 366.025 kHz while its lower sideband CW ident can be tuned at 363.946 kHz. Its USB tone is actually 1025 Hz while its LSB tone is 1054 Hz.

Often, one sideband will be much stronger than the other so if you don't hear the first one, try listening on the other sideband.

Canadian NDBs normally have an USB tone only, usually very close to 400 Hz. They also have a long dash (keydown) following the CW identifier.

All NDBs heard in North America will be listed in the RNA database (updated daily) while those heard in Europe may be found in the REU database. Beacons heard outside of these regions will be found in the RWW database.

From CLE organizer Brian Keyte, G3SIA, comes the details:

 Hello all

Our 243rd co-ordinated listening event is this weekend, covering a 50 kHz
frequency range - about three times wider than usual. 

    Days:     Friday 26 April - Monday 29 April
    Times:   Start and end at midday, your LOCAL time
    Range:   270.0 - 319.9 kHz  (NDB signals only)

In part of the frequency range it might be quite a challenge to tease out
the NDB signals from among the DGPS ones.
Any first-time CLE logs will be very welcome, as always.

Please log the normal NDBs you can identify that are listed in the range
(it includes 270 kHz but not 320 kHz).

Please send your CLE log to NDB List, if possible as a plain text email
and not in an attachment, with 'CLE243 FINAL' at the start of its title.

Show on EVERY line of your log:
  #   The Date  e.g. '2019-04-26', etc.  (or just '26')
  #   UTC  (the day changes at 00:00 UTC).
  #   kHz  - the beacon's nominal published frequency if you know it.
  #   The Call Ident.

Those main items can be in any order within themselves, but BEFORE any
other optional details (Location, Distance, etc.) later in the same line.

As always, give details in your log of your own location and the receiver,
aerial(s), etc. that you were using.
If you send any interim logs, be sure to send a FINAL (complete) one.

You can find anything else to help you, including CLE seeklists for your
part of the World, from the CLE page, http://www.ndblist.info/cle.htm

Please look out for our 'Any More Logs?' email at about 17:00 UTC on
Tuesday so that you can check that your CLE log has been found OK.

Do make sure that your log has arrived at the very latest by 08:00 UTC
next Wednesday, 1st May.
We are hoping to make all the combined results within a day or two.

Enjoy your listening
Brian and Joachim

-----------------------------------------------------------------
From:      Brian Keyte G3SIA      ndbcle'at'gmail.com
Location:  Surrey,  SE England    (CLE coordinator)
-----------------------------------------------------------------

(Reminder:  You could use any one remote receiver for your loggings,
stating its location and owner - with their permission if required.
A remote listener may NOT also use another receiver, whether local
or remote, to obtain further loggings for the same CLE).


Steve McDonald, VE7SL, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from British Columbia, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

Hello and welcome to Episode #282 of Linux in the Ham Shack. In this episode: In preparation for Hamvention 2019, LHS has released a newer version of the LHS Ubuntu-based distribution. This distribution has updated software packages and custom PPAs. We go in depth into what's in the distribution, installation caveats, upgrade paths to the latest version of Ubuntu, desktop environment options and much more. Thank you for listening and we hope to see everyone in Ohio this May.

73 de The LHS Crew

Russ Woodman, K5TUX, co-hosts the Linux in the Ham Shack podcast which is available for download in both MP3 and OGG audio format. Contact him at [email protected].

Here is this week’s space weather and geophysical report, issued 2019 Apr 22 0049 UTC.

Highlights of Solar and Geomagnetic Activity 15 – 21 April 2019

Solar activity was very low throughout the period. Region 2738 (N06, L=301, class/area-Hhx/400 on 17 Apr) produced several B-class events including a B8 flare at 20/0050 UTC. Region 2739 (N05, L=258, class/area-Cro/20 on 18 Apr) was inactive and stable during its migration across the solar disk. No Earth-directed coronal mass ejections (CMEs) were observed.

No proton events were observed at geosynchronous orbit.

The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit reached high levels on 15 April with moderate levels observed throughout the remainder of the reporting period.

Geomagnetic field activity reached unsettled levels on 15-16 April due to coronal hole high-speed stream (CH HSS) influence. Quiet conditions were observed throughout the remainder of the reporting period.

Forecast of Solar and Geomagnetic Activity 22 April – 18 May 2019

Solar activity is expected to be very low throughout the outlook period.

No proton events are expected at geosynchronous orbit.

The greater than 2 MeV electron flux at geosynchronous orbit is expected to reach high levels on 02-12 May with normal to moderate levels expected throughout the remainder of the outlook period.

Geomagnetic field activity is expected to reach active levels on 27 April and 01-02, 07 May in response to several recurrent, negative-polarity CH HSSs. Quiet to unsettled levels are expected throughout the remainder of the outlook period.

Don’t forget to visit our live space weather and radio propagation web site, at: http://SunSpotWatch.com/

Live Aurora mapping is at http://aurora.sunspotwatch.com/

If you are on Twitter, please follow these two users: 1. https://Twitter.com/NW7US 2. https://Twitter.com/hfradiospacewx

– – – – – – – – – – – – –

Be sure to subscribe to our space weather and propagation email group, on Groups.io

https://groups.io/g/propagation-and-space-weather

Spread the word!

– – – – – – – – – – – – –

Links of interest:

+ Amazon space weather books: http://g.nw7us.us/fbssw-aSWSC
+ https://Twitter.com/NW7US
+ https://Twitter.com/hfradiospacewx

Space Weather and Ham Radio YouTube Channel News:

I am working on launching a YouTube channel overhaul, that includes series of videos about space weather, radio signal propagation, and more.

Additionally, I am working on improving the educational efforts via the email, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, and other activities.

You can help!

Please consider becoming a Patron of these space weather and radio communications services, beginning with the YouTube channel:

https://www.patreon.com/NW7US

The YouTube channel:
https://YouTube.com/NW7US

..

Visit, subscribe: NW7US Radio Communications and Propagation YouTube Channel

Over the years, one of the ‘most heard’ NDB signals from Alaska was the decades-old beacon located near the western tip of the Aleutian Islands at Adak.

'ADK' had been around in one form or another since WWII but it suddenly vanished from the air in 2012. Like numerous other NDBs in Alaska, as well as in the lower 48 and Canada, once officially NOTAM’d (Notice To Airmen) as shut down for ‘maintenance’, they often never return.

Such was the case assumed by all NDB DXers with regard to ADK, especially following the cryptic 2015 NOTAM announcing a permanent closure. It was hard to believe that this early-morning regular was now gone for good.

Transmitting on the lower edge of the AM broadcast band (530kHz), ADK was often stumbled upon by wayward BCB DXers or sought-out as a good propagation indicator for the pre-sunrise Asia-North America path on the BCB. I’m sure that some even heard it on their analog car radios back in the day when many of them would tune down as low as 520kHz!

All that changed this weekend when Dan, VE7DES, a regular weekend-contributor to the RNA database, found ADK had risen from the dead after all these years and was putting a nice signal into the southern west coast of Canada!

It seems that ADK’s antenna had been blown down in the summer of 2012 which explains its sudden demise. An FCC employee in Alaska has indicated to me that in recent months there had been much interest in reviving ADK which would apparently allow more airlines access to the field than had previously been the case ... whatever the reason, NDB DXers are delighted to hear their long-lost friend once again!

Hopefully it stays around for many more years yet, but just in case, why not give a pre-dawn listen for its CW identifier on 531.034kHz, with your receiver in the CW mode. Long haul propagation can often be excellent in this part of the spectrum in the early morning and ADK has been logged from Hawaii to Illinois.

Here’s how ADK's 25 watts sounded here this morning at around 0530 local time.

***************************
Heads up for CLE243 this coming weekend ... final details coming mid-week:


Steve McDonald, VE7SL, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from British Columbia, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].