In this episode, Martin M1MRB is joined by Chris Howard M0TCH , Martin Rothwell M0SGL, Dan Romanchik KB6NU, Ed Durrant DD5LP and Frank Howell K4FMH to discuss the latest Amateur / Ham Radio news. Colin M6BOY rounds up the news in brief and this episode’s feature is When HF is Quiet.

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• National Security Risks with Amateur Radio Violations
• The CWops Award 2019 for advancing the art of CW
• 1940s Radio Times now online
• WSJT-X 2.0 Full Release now Available
• "Suspicious" Post Office Package Was Ham Radio Equipment
• Worked All Postcodes
• 2018 QST Antenna Design Competition Winners Announced
• Scouts at AJ2019 Awaiting Amateur Radio Call
• Logbook of The World Tops 1 Billion QSO Records
• New Amateur Radio Packet Gear for International Space Station

Stories you’ll find in our December, 2018 edition:

The Beginnings of FM Radio Broadcasting
By John F. Schneider W9FGH

We take broadcasting on the FM band for granted today, but getting to this point required early proponents of FM broadcasting to fight every step of the way. Among FM foes were the giants of AM broadcasting; the emerging powers behind television; that rascal David Sarnoff of RCA; even the FCC itself and the fact that there were only 25 FM receivers in the entire world. John explains all the things you don’t know about FM radio (including the fact that Edwin Armstrong didn’t invent that method of modulation—by a long shot) and how FM almost died in the aftermath of World War II.

The EICO story; the Electronic Instrument Company and its Kits
By Rich Post KB8TAD

Founded in 1945 by Harry R. Ashley, with an investment of $1,500, EICO was a competitor of Heathkit and Allied Knight-kits in the heyday of kit-built test equipment, audio products and ham gear. All those kits are now in the nostalgia category, but because they were well documented, mostly put together with screws rather than rivets, they can still be repaired and used. In fact, Rich tells us that some of the ham and audio gear and certain useful pieces of test equipment have become quite collectible. Rich also explains how, despite a shift to consumer electronics audio gear, like Heathkit and Allied Radio, EICO never made it past the computer era.

Classic Rock Era is Alive on Shortwave
By Ken Reitz KS4ZR

There’s something about Classic Rock music that just won’t fade. And, anyone who remembers shortwave radio programming in the 1970s and 80s, knows that rock music was readily found on the shortwave bands from the BBC and VOA’s regular music programming to private American shortwave stations such as WRNO “The Rock of New Orleans,” and Radio New York Worldwide. But thanks to programming on WTWW, WRMI, Radio New Zealand International and the Mighty KBC, the bands are alive once more with the pulsing sounds of Classic Rock.

BCB DX’ing With That Old Transistor Radio
By Richard Fisher, KI6SN

You have to wonder how many AM transistor radios have been relegated to the back of our junk drawers because “they just don’t work very well.” A reasonable guess would be in the seven figures over the decades. For strong local stations that may be just fine, but for the BCB DXer, the shrinking antennas bring awfully discouraging results. These transistor portables are more prone to local manmade interference as well. Richard shows us an easy and inexpensive solution to this dilemma in a tunable AM broadcast band loop antenna. Follow his step-by-step instructions and make even your transistor radios perform.

Scanning America
By Dan Veeneman
Fayette County (GA) and Intro to ULS

Federal Wavelengths
By Chris Parris
Federal Wavelengths 2018 Wrap Up

Milcom
By Larry Van Horn N5FPW
Monitoring Santa Claus, NORAD and Combat Air Patrols

Utility Planet
By Hugh Stegman
Chasing Italian MF Coastal Stations

Shortwave Utility Logs
By Hugh Stegman and Mike Chace-Ortiz

VHF and Above
By Joe Lynch N6CL
CubeSats go to Mars

Digitally Speaking
By Cory GB Sickles WA3UVV
Complex Simplex

Amateur Radio Insights
By Kirk Kleinschmidt NT0Z
Confessions of an Autotuner Abuser

Radio 101
By Ken Reitz KS4ZR
Chasing AM Band DX: Then and Now

Radio Propagation
By Tomas Hood NW7US
Winter DX is at the Door

The World of Shortwave Listening
By Rob Wagner VK3BVW
Propagation Tools, Wire Antennas and DX News

The Shortwave Listener
By Fred Waterer
New Programming from Spain and Greece Plus: Christmas Around the World

Amateur Radio Satellites
By Keith Baker KB1SF/VA3KSF
Amateur Radio Satellite Primer (Continued)

The Longwave Zone
By Kevin O’Hern Carey WB2QMY
SDR Startup: It’s a Wrap!

Adventures in Radio Restorations
By Rich Post KB8TAD
Recollecting My First EICO: The 425 Oscilloscope

Antenna Connections
By Dan Farber AC0LW
First Antenna: The Selection Process

The Spectrum Monitor is available in PDF format which can be read on any desktop, laptop, iPad®, Kindle® Fire, or other device capable of opening a PDF file. Annual subscription is $24. Individual monthly issues are available for $3 each.

Every once in a while, I look at the number of licensed radio amateurs in the US and ponder how ham radio participation rates compare with other hobby activities. Take a look at this post from 2005: Some Amateur Radio Statistics and this one from 2015: Ten Year Trends in US Ham Licenses.

The latest number of FCC amateur radio licenses (March 2018, from ah0a.org) is 749,711 (Novice: 8847; Technician: 379,735; General: 174,478; Advanced: 41,153; Extra: 145,498)

The population of the United States (2018 estimate) is 325 million which means that FCC amateur radio licensees are 0.2% of the US population. (Yes, this number surely overstates the number of active radio hams.) From the 2017 Annual Report, ARRL membership is 159,070, which is a decline of 3% from the previous year, apparently associated with a recent dues increase. There is a slight time skew in the numbers but this means that ARRL membership is ~21% of the FCC licensees. This represents about a 2 point decline from the same calculation for 2005. Not a good trend.

It is interesting and maybe even useful to compare these numbers to other activities we are familiar with in the US.

Fishing

I stumbled across an in-depth analysis of sportfishing (basically all kinds of recreational fishing) by the American Sportfishing Association.  This report on US Angler Participation says that 49 million people in the US participate in fishing, or 15% of the US population. Frankly, that number seems a bit high but let’s just go with it. Perhaps what’s more interesting is their analysis of renewal rates for fishing licenses and potential reasons for why people start and stop fishing. Oh, guess what? Young people are not pursuing fishing at the same rate as adults so there is concern about the future of the sport. Browse through the website and you will find reasonably good data on the state of fishing in the US.

Outdoor Sports

The Outdoor Industry Association publishes data on a wide variety of sports ranging from bicycling to birdwatching. According to their numbers, every activity they track has a larger percent of the US population than the FCC amateur radio license number.  A very popular outdoor activity is bicycling, with a participation rate of 24%. Other significant sports listed include camping (21%), running (21%), hunting (6%) and downhill skiing (4%). Even birdwatching comes in at 3% and snowshoeing is listed as 1%.  This report also analyzes participation rates, motivations and trends by race, age and other factors. Good stuff.

Chess

I came across a web page that asks the question “how many people play chess?” This caught my eye because I think there are significant similarities between the game of chess and amateur radio. The answer: no one knows.

One study claims that 15% of the US population plays chess at least once per year.  This would be close to 50 million players and put it in the same participation class as camping or bicycling. That just seems too high…I can name quite a few of my friends and family that camp and bike. I can’t name hardly any that play chess regularly.

The US Chess Federation has 85,000 members, who are presumably actively involved in chess (for the most part). There are probably many times more people that play chess casually. A wild and generous guess of 10 times or 850,000 players would still only be 0.26% of the US population.

The chess community has many effective programs to help children get started in the game. This is probably a real strength for that community. However, I noticed several discussions in online forums lamenting the fact that children tend to drop the game in their teen years. Also, Sports Illustrated just published an article about how chess has always been dominated by men with women making limited gains in participation.

Model Railroading

Then someone on reddit asked why ham radio magazines have disappeared but model railroading magazines are quite available at the local bookstore. Now that is an interesting comparison. Model railroading is a well-established hobby that many people pursue for enjoyment. It is a bit “old school” with a strong hands-on “maker” aspect to it. It has also has seen the impact of newer technology, especially digital electronics. In terms of alternative activities, it is seeing competition from radio-controlled cars and aircraft.

This online forum puts the number of US model train hobbyists in the range of 150,000 to 300,000, but without much in the way of hard numbers (just anecdotal evidence).  One person argued that the number is more like 1 million hobbyists. This web site makes the claim (without references):

Today there are a half million model railroaders and toy train hobbyists in the US and Canada!

But many model railroaders see challenges ahead. This Wall Street Journal article discusses how the demographics of the railroader population are changing: End of the Line for Model Trains? Aging Hobbyists Trundle On

This web site also discusses the trends in model railroading. I found this quote to be relevant:

This hobby (as well as a lot of other markets) is currently dominated by the baby boom generation. They will be dwindling in numbers over the next ten years, and the generations behind them just don’t have the numbers to fill in unless there is a significant boom of interest in model trains.

One commenter suggests there are 1 million model railroaders in the US.

Analysis

First, I am struck by the number of different hobby and sports activities available to us. From a historical perspective, North Americans have significant leisure time and a multitude of activities to choose from. Some of those are “mainstream” in the sense that most people are aware of them and many people do them (examples: fishing, bicycling, running). Other activities fall into a niche (< 1% of the US population) but still have vibrant communities that pursue them with gusto (examples: chess, amateur radio, model railroading). The participation rate for Chess may actually be higher than 1% of the population…I’m really not sure…but it looks more like a niche activity than a mainstream hobby.

The mainstream activities tend to have access to good data on participation in the sport or hobby while the niche activities tend to be lacking reliable data. It seems that the more popular activities have a industry association or member organization with sufficient resources to pursue obtaining participation data and maintaining it over time. The information available concerning sportfishing and outdoor activities was pretty impressive. Chess, amateur radio and model railroading…not so much. If you are worried about the health of a hobby or sport, the first step is to have accurate data. (I recently heard that ARRL Headquarters is pursuing this. I certainly hope so.)

Participants in many of these activities express concern about the demographics of their communities. There are lots of comments on web sites about needing to attract younger participants for the future of the hobby, along with comments about how kids don’t seem to be interested. The big concern was getting kids involved but there are also issues of low participation by women. Certainly, we hear these same concerns in the amateur radio community.

One big takeaway is that amateur radio is not the only community that is concerned about growth. I’d really like to hear from radio amateurs that are active in chess and model railroading, to compare and contrast their experiences.

73 Bob K0NR

The post Ham Radio, Chess and Model Railroading appeared first on The KØNR Radio Site.

Welcome to the final episode of 2018! In this episode, the hosts invited anyone to participate in a live Q&A and year-end wrap up. We explore the past, present and future of Linux in the Ham Shack, memories of news and important events of 2018 in the open source and amateur radio world and contemplate predictions for the future of life on planet Earth. Thank you for everyone who participated and we hope you enjoy this roundtable discussion. Happy holidays and all the best for 2019 from the LHS Crew.

This year, on December 7th for Pearl Harbor Day, I was flattered to be invited to the USS Batfish in Muskogee, OK for their annual “Pearl Harbor Tribute” Event.  The Muskogee War Memorial Park has a permanent Ham Radio Club that meets regularly at the location, and operates HF from their radio room, also from inside of the submarine itself.  For Pearl Harbor Day, they planned something special.

Several students from various areas attended the event and were able to operate the HF bands on both 20- and 40-meters.  Several classrooms in the area were also on-the-air for demonstration of HF propagation, Ham Radio operating practice and education.  The video below shows a special event with some of that operation.

Also recorded was Message Traffic from inside the USS Batfish using the callsign WW2OK, honoring the life of CPO James Booe, the Band Master aboard the USS Oklahoma killed on Dec 7th, 1941 during a Disabled American Veterans Naming Facility (in his honor) in Florida.  This was a special request from the group in Florida that honored us with the request.

We heard MANY MANY schools on the air discussing history with other ships that took the time to activate on this date.  Our youngest military licensed student sent a Traffic Message to Florida.  Each QSO with a student was unique and hopefully memorable.  From my listening vantage point, those QSOs between ships and school students were priceless and worth the effort by all those involved.

On Saturday, I had the privilege of talking to a group of radio amateurs on the topic of electronic measurements. I opened the session with a short discussion of “why do we even need electronic measurements?” This was captured in three “laws” listed below:

Bob’s First Law of Electronic Measurement

With electricity, most of the time we cannot observe what is going on without measuring instruments.

Bob’s Second Law of Electronic Measurement

When we can observe electricity directly, it is often a bad thing.

Bob’s Third Law of Electronic Measurement

Lord Kelvin was right

The post The Three Laws of Electronic Measurement appeared first on The KØNR Radio Site.