AmateurRadio.com

I have my opinion on ARRL asking FCC to grant more HF privileges to Technician-class licensees.

I verbalize them in this video:

After you hear my comments, please leave your comments.

Thanks, 73 de NW7US dit dit

Visit, subscribe: NW7US Radio Communications and Propagation YouTube Channel

It is time for another W0C (Colorado) Summits On The Air dinner!

Last year, we had 15 people get together for an informal dinner in south Denver (Lone Tree): Steve WG0AT, Wayne AD0KE, Brad WA6MM, Caleb W4XEN, Carey KX0R, John N0TA, Curtis KC5CW, Mark N0MTN, Bob K0NR, Joyce K0JJW, Steve K7PX, Al  KH7AL, James KI0KN, Walt W0CP and John N1OIE. It was so much fun meeting people and swapping SOTA stories that we are going to do it again this year.

Wednesday March 21^th  at 6 pm
Chili’s, 10460 Park Meadows Dr, Lone Tree, CO 80124-5413

Dinner details:
   No agenda, no organization, just have fun, pay for your meal
Please wear something with your name/callsign (name tag, shirt, cap, etc.) to aid in making connections

Please send this to anyone you know that might be interested.
RSVP back to Bob K0NR: [email protected] so we have an accurate count for the reservation.

I hope to see you all there!

73, Bob K0NR

The post WØC Summits On The Air Dinner appeared first on The KØNR Radio Site.

Bob Witte, KØNR, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Colorado, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

Stories you’ll find in our March, 2018 issue:

The Air Show Experience
By Brian and Jo Marie Topolski KA1VCA

Veteran air show attendees, Brian and Jo Marie, recount the various aerial acts they saw during last year’s air show schedule, including some they had never seen before, and they let you know what frequencies they were monitoring along the way. You’ll also get tips on attending air shows near you—when to arrive, what to bring, what not to bring, where to set up for the best view and why you shouldn’t leave early.

Air Show 2017:
My Flight in a B24 Liberator and Flying with the Geico Skytypers
By Kevin Burke

Over the years, as a veteran air show attendee with media credentials, Kevin has found himself in the air in some amazing air show aircraft. Last year he had the chance to fly in a WWII-era B24 Liberator as well as the chance to fly in a WWII-era Navy SNJ-2 trainer with the Geico Skytypers, both of which gave him unforgettable rides. He gives us some terrific photos he took of the vintage aircraft he saw.

TSM Guide to Monitoring Air Shows
By Larry Van Horn N5FPW

Anyone who has attended an air show will tell you it is thrilling to watch the close quarter flying of the Blue Angels delta formation or the hair-splitting maneuvers of the Thunderbird opposing solos. But there is a way you can add to the experience by monitoring the performing teams’ radio communications. With a radio scanner in hand, you will experience a whole new perspective of the show that few attendees will get—the radio communications from the aircraft cockpit of the show performers. Larry gives you the frequencies you need to complete the air show experience.

Drones 101: Learning to Fly Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems
By Mario Filippi N2HUN

Over the past few years, drones, known to the Federal Aviation Administration as small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUAS), have exploded onto the consumer scene, and their popularity keeps growing. Once found only in hobby shops, drones can now be purchased at big box stores or on-line ready to go, batteries included. So where does one start? How does one navigate the process of selecting a drone, buying one, and obtaining some basic training? It’s a little more complicated than you might think, as Mario explains.

TSM North American Air Show Schedules

This year there’s an air show coming to an air field near where you live. Take a look at the 2018 TSM Air Show schedule for some of the more popular aerial acts on this year’s tour.

Scanning America
By Dan Veeneman
Scanning Stark and Tuscarawas Counties (Ohio) and Dakota County, Minnesota

Federal Wavelengths
By Chris Parris
Super Bowl 52 On Scene Report

Milcom
By Larry Van Horn N5FPW
Military Aerial Refueling: Extending the Reach

Utility Planet
By Hugh Stegman NV6H
Canadian Coast Guard Broadcasts

Shortwave Utility Logs
Compiled by Hugh Stegman and Mike Chace-Ortiz

VHF and Above
By Joe Lynch N6CL
Review: InnovAntenna’s 2-element 50MHz LFA-Q Super-Gainer Quad Style Yagi

Digitally Speaking
By Cory Sickles WA3UVV
NXDN: Icom and Kenwood’s other DVs

Amateur Radio Insights
By Kirk Kleinschmidt NT0Z
KH6-A-Rama and Other Low-Band Takeaways

Radio 101
By Ken Reitz KS4ZR
Mysteries of the Expanded AM Band and Travelers’ Information Service

Radio Propagation
By Tomas Hood NW7US
Can You Hear Me Now?

The Shortwave Listener
By Fred Waterer
Listening to Argentina on Shortwave

Amateur Radio Astronomy
By Keith Baker KB1SF/VA1KSF
Another New AMSAT Satellite is Commissioned

The Longwave Zone
By Kevin O’Hern Carey WB2QMY
600 Meters Awaits You!

Adventures in Radio Restorations
By Rich Post KB8TAD
A Different Hallicrafters Model 8R40

Antenna Connections
By Dan Farber AC0LW
Receive-Only Antennas: Can You Hear Me Now?

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.

Ken Reitz, KS4ZR, is publisher and managing editor of The Spectrum Monitor. Contact him at [email protected].

Here is this week’s space weather and geophysical report, issued 2018 Mar 05 0116 UTC.

Highlights of Solar and Geomagnetic Activity 26 February – 04 March 2018

Solar activity reached low levels on 02 Mar due to an isolated C1 flare from Region 2700 (N06, L=328, class/area=Cro/30 on 26 Feb), which was the only active region with sunspots this period. Solar activity was very low throughout the remainder of the period and no Earth-directed 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 26-27 Feb and 03 Mar and moderate levels were observed on 28 Feb and 01-02 Mar. Normal levels were observed on 04 Mar.

Geomagnetic field activity reached active and G1 (Minor) geomagnetic storm levels on 27 Feb due to the influence of a negative polarity CH HSS. Generally quiet and quiet to unsettled conditions were observed throughout the remainder of the period.

Forecast of Solar and Geomagnetic Activity 05 March – 31 March 2018

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 18-25 Mar and moderate levels are expected on 17, and 26-30 Mar. Normal flux levels are expected for the remainder of the outlook period.

Geomagnetic field activity is expected to reach G1 (Minor) geomagnetic storm levels on 18, 22 and 26 Mar due to the influences of multiple recurrent, CH HSSs. Active levels are expected on 15-17 and 21 Mar with generally quiet and quiet to unsettled conditions likely through 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

Check out the stunning view of our Sun in action, as seen during the last five years with the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXN-MdoGM9g

= = = = =

BOOK SALE: Space Weather and Sun Science – get these from Amazon, and help us stay online!

NOTICE: When you buy this (or any item after starting with this link), you are helping us keep our SunSpotWatch.com and other resources “on the air” (up and running!). In other words, you are helping the entire community. So, check out this book:

Here is the link to Amazon: http://g.nw7us.us/fbssw-aSWSC

We’re on Facebook: http://NW7US.us/swhfr

Visit, subscribe: NW7US Radio Communications and Propagation YouTube Channel

So you have run the latest Windows and found out that 10 is full of bloatware and updates to nail your PC to the ground. You may have also tried Linux, but found some things it does, and some things it won't, or impossible to be made to work, like camera drivers for example. Stuff which would work with Windows no problem. You may have tried running Windows Apps under Wine on top of Linux, some work, but some refuse point blank, or you have just found Linux too geeky and given up?

You have also discovered there is a lot more software around for Windows against Linux, especially for our radio hobby.

Also there is the no security update problem with those using ageing copies of XP, 2000, Vista and Win 7. Like myself whom will fall into the no support trap in another 18 months or so?

You also don't like paying for a new operating system and want it for free!


Well I might of found something that is being developed as an open source operating system that appears to fit the bill called ReactOS.
 
ReactOS is only up to version 0.47a, so it is in it's very early stages of development and I guess full of bugs, but it does seem to work as you would expect from a Windows operating system.

I have done a bit more research around the Web and found that that only a day ago, Chris Barnatt of Explainingcomputers.com had just made a video about the product, which I have bopped the link here for you all to watch:




This seems quite an exciting development as operating systems go, and something tight fisted penny pinching Radio Hams have been looking around for a number of years. Currently, I am not minded to move to it yet until it gets passed the beta stages, but it is something I would welcome very soon.




Steve, G1KQH, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from England. Contact him at [email protected].

Sunday March 4th was a beautiful and slightly cool (mid-seventies) day in Jupiter, Florida and was the day I selected for my first #POTA activation (parksontheair.com).  I picked the 11,000 acre Jonathan Dickinson State Park, KFF-1887, just six miles from my Florida QTH.  I scouted out locations a few days earlier and chose the picnic area near the river, with cooperating pine trees with handy limbs.  Using my unique antenna launch tool (see pic) on only the second try I hit my target limb and hoisted the “high” end of an EndFedz antenna cut for 20 meters.  My battery was charged, I had my sandwich, I even had a cushion for the hard picnic table bench seat.  Right on time I was ready to spot myself, all settled and happy.  Do you hear a “but” coming?

This was also the weekend ARRL chose, without checking with me, for their hugely popular annual DX Contest.  There were a few thousand hams on 20m, most, it seemed, with a kilowatt and a pretty good beam competing with me barefoot with a dipole up all of fifteen feet.   I spotted myself on DXSummit.fi but apparently nobody cared.  I raised my friend Rick on the local repeater and got him to listen for me at 14.244 a few miles away and we could barely hear one another on ground wave.  We were in a wall of sound (and I was learning the value of a filter for sideband.)

So there’s my POTA Pickle; I’m in the right place and all set to operate POTA but cannot compete with a thousand big gun stations.  Well  golly, let’s join in on the fun then.

First I took down the End Fedz that just doesn’t work that well for me and put up my link dipole made from lamp cord and began to hunt and pounce.  Worked a dozen international stations in an hour and called it, after all, a good non-POTA day.

This is Wayne,  K4WK, http://www.hamdom.com. Thanks for listening; you’re in the log.

 

Wayne Robertson, K4WK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Georgia, USA.

I just received some good news from Mike, WA9PIE.  He writes in an email:

The first release of Ham Radio Deluxe for 2018 (Ham Radio Deluxe version 6.4.0.794) is now available for download. Please download it from the Download pages on our website at:

https://www.hamradiodeluxe.com

This release includes a number of important changes including the addition of the Icom IC-7610, resolves a Logbook exit problem, resolves “sort on LOTW date”, API for QSO Forwarding now populates Logbook with My Station data, a number of fixes for the Kenwood TS-480, applications remember screen position, enable CI-V address to be entered directly, and a number of stability enhancements.

The full release notes can be found here:

http://ReleaseNotes.hamradiodeluxe.com

I would like to acknowledge and thank Mike Blaszczak (K7ZCZ) and our beta team on their hard work in getting this release out.

All those who have purchased Ham Radio Deluxe at any time in the past should download and install this version in order to benefit from all bug fixes. You are entitled to them. Our clients who are covered by an active Software Maintenance and Support period are entitled to Feature Enhancements.

As announced previously, we expect to release as many as 9 releases in 2018. There will be no releases between 1-Nov and 1-Jan. We continue to focus on reducing our development backlog with five developers dedicated to all applications in the suite.

Please watch these newsletters for updates. Pass these updates along to your friends. Newsletters will also be posted on our website’s blog at:

https://www.hamradiodeluxe.com/blog

Thank you es 73 de Mike, WA9PIE

HRD Software, LLC

Visit, subscribe: NW7US Radio Communications and Propagation YouTube Channel