As a followup to my last post regarding the steps needed (if any) to acquire my UK amateur radio call once moved there. I do want to  thanks all those who posted comments and who emailed me regarding this question. It would seem I have just a few readers in the Uk as I did have loads of emails from there and some fantastic contacts were passed on to me. Well the verdict is in right from the Ofcom office. It would seem I have to start from the beginning and get my foundation, intermediate and then my full licence. Until the time I pass my first step the foundation licence I can apply for a reciprocal permit for 20 pounds and renew it every 6 months if need be. I'm not at all disappointed having learned this, in fact I am excited to get the old grey matter going again and I am very sure that once I have made it all the way to the full licence I will have gained some good knowledge and awaken some lost knowledge. I also became a member of the RSGB (Radio Society of Great Britain) my welcome packet arrived the other day and I was very impressed. There was a copy of the RSGB's magazine RadCom, a very nice members certificate, RSGB lapel pin and a cool key chain. I was on their website and like the ARRL it is full on amazing information and links. I spent an afternoon with a nice cup of tea navigating the information and links of their site. I also found links were I could now start warming up my grey matter for the licence adventure. The foundation licence theory is not a problem at all I just have to bush up on their rules and regs. Once I get the foundation licence is seems I have access to all bands and a power limit of 10 watts. Heck my main mode of operation here is QRP at 5 watts. With the foundation I am good to go and just keep upgrading and adding more privileges and output power.  In my retirement this will be a great way to pass the time, learn and meet the great hams of the UK.
Mike Weir, VE9KK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Brunswick, Canada. Contact him at ve9kk@hotmail.com.

In this episode, Martin M1MRB is joined by Chris Howard M0TCH, Dan Romanchik KB6NU 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 Xiegu X108G Review by Ed Durrant DD5LP.

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

• Solar Minimum Sunspot
• ARRL Again Calls for Action on Symbol Rate Limits
• Theft of MB7TV SSTV Repeater
• 160m Band Wireless Power Transfer
• Sony to Cease Shortwave Radios Production
• Yaesu FT818
• Kempton Rally
• UK QSL Bureau Volunteers Wanted
• The CWops Award for Advancing the Art of CW

Colin Butler, M6BOY, is the host of the ICQ Podcast, a weekly radio show about Amateur Radio. Contact him at info@icqpodcast.com.

I came across this story in my archives, written by me way back in August 1992. This was before mobile phones were commonly available, so ham radio turned out to be critical in this incident. Even today, there are many places in the Colorado backcountry where mobile phones don’t work but amateur radio can communicate. My callsign at the time was KBØCY

Something happened on the way to Uncompahgre Peak on August 8, 1992.

Around noon, my brother, my two nephews and I made it to the summit and had just signed the log. I called on 146.52 and contacted Chris, NQ5V, who was somewhere to the east of me (Creede, I think). This must be his summer location, since his callbook address is Texas. We talked about the trail up Uncompahgre, since he was interested in hiking it.

After I signed clear with NQ5V and was about to start down the mountain, a teenage boy came up to me and said he had been sent to “find the guy with the radio” because a girl had been hit by a rock down below and was hurt. I am not sure how they knew I had a radio, other than I used it once on the way up the trail. The story seemed rather sketchy and I was skeptical but asked NQ5V to standby on frequency because we may have a medical emergency. At that time, Arnold, W7JRC, from Cedaredge, CO, came on frequency and said he had a phone nearby. (NQ5V did not have a phone available.) A second, older teenager came up the the trail with more information. He said he was a pre-med student and had search and rescue experience. He had more detailed info which made the story more clear. At this time, I concluded that we had a real emergency and asked W7JRC to call the authorities. I handed my HT to the older teenager and had him describe the victim’s condition to W7JRC. W7JRC had some trouble contacting the police, but eventually got through to the Ouray County Sheriff’s Office. (It turned out we were in Hinsdale County, but we did not know that at the time.)

Jim, NR5Y (also close to Creede, I think) came on frequency and said that he was close to a telephone. I was not always able to communicate with NR5Y, so NQ5V relayed to NR5Y. Since W7JRC was having trouble with getting the telephone call through, I asked NR5Y to also try to place a call. He called the Mineral County Sheriff, who relayed to Hinsdale County. All this time, I was moving down the mountain to try to get closer to the victim without losing my radio contact. About this time, my HT battery went dead, so I switched to my spare (Good thing I had one!) As I moved onto the saddle below Uncompaghre, I lost contact with W7JRC and contact with NQ5V got much worse, but usable. About this time, Doug, NØLAY, came on the air and his signal was very strong at my location which allowed me to stay on low power and conserve my HT batteries. N0LAY apparently came on the air in response to a call from the Hinsdale County Sheriff. N0LAY also had a radio which was on the sheriff’s frequency and relayed information from me to the sheriff’s dispatch.

I had not proceeded down any further because I was certain that I would lose radio contact with NØLAY. The victim had several people with her that had First Aid training and was about 1000 feet below me at the bottom of a cirque. I sent the older teenager back down to the victim with instructions to signal me as to her condition. We both had signal whistles – two whistles meant her condition was the same (stable), three whistles meant her condition had deteriorated. After I got the two whistles back, I felt like things were going to be OK.

About that time, NØLAY relayed that an ambulance had been dispatched to the trailhead and a search and rescue person was on the way up the trail with a trail bike. Also, a helicopter had been dispatched from Montrose. It took us a little while to communicate to the sheriff where the victim was, but we had a pretty good topo map, so we eventually gave them an accurate fix on the location. As I was listening to NØLAY relay, I realized that my Kenwood TH-77A could receive most police frequencies. NØLAY provided me with the frequency and I programmed it into the HT, scanning between 146.52 and the sheriff’s frequency. This allowed us to listen in on what was going on. In fact, many times I was clearly hearing the various parties while they were having trouble communicating.

The S&R guy on the trail bike made it to the accident scene without us noticing him. He had parked his bike about half a mile away from us and had scrambled down to the victim. The first time I was aware of his position was when he transmitted from the accident site. He confirmed that the girl was pretty bashed up, but stable, and needed a helicopter ride out. About this time, the sheriff’s dispatch reported that the helicopter was about 5 minutes out (I think it turned out to be more like 15 minutes away). Soon the helicopter came up on the sheriff’s frequency and I could hear the S&R guy coordinating with the helicopter pilot The two-seater helicopter landed and they put the girl in the second seat. Apparently, she was stable enough to walk to the helicopter with some assistance. The alternative was to put her outside the chopper in a litter. The helicopter lifted off and set back down a few minutes later near the ambulance which was near the trailhead. The two-seater chopper was not a medical evacuation helicopter and the plan was that Flight-For-Life from Grand Junction would pick up the victim at the ambulance location. It turned out that Flight-For-Life was unavailable so they took the victim to a hospital by ambulance (to a local clinic, then Gunnison, I think).

We stayed on the ridge until the chopper headed for home, then we did the same. On the way down, the S&R guy on the trail bike caught up with us and we talked about the accident. He said the girl lost some teeth, had facial cuts, internal bleeding and swelling in the face, but was in stable condition. He said that without the radio report that they would be just getting the initial call at the time he was heading home. That is, we saved about 5 hours on the response time with amateur radio.

I have carried my HT on every 14er hike I have ever done and had considered the possibility of using of using it for emergency communications. I guess I never gave it too much thought because people venturing into the backcountry need to have a self-sufficient attitude. That means being prepared and preventing or handling any emergency situation on your own. But the unexpected happens, and here I was in the middle of a medical emergency. It certainly has caused me to take this emergency communications thing more seriously.

Things I learned that day:

• Always carry an extra HT battery (or two)
• Always carry a decent portable antenna (more than a rubber duck)
• Always carry a good topo map, even if you don’t need it to follow the trail.
• Make note of what county you are hiking in when in unfamiliar parts of the state. This aids in getting to the right Sheriff’s office. (This is important because the person you contact via radio is likely to be two or three counties away.)
• My signal whistle (which has caused considerable abuse from a few hiking companions) is actually useful.
• Extended coverage receive is very useful in emergencies. (I am still thinking about extended transmit — I clearly could have used it in this case.)

I was very pleased that everyone reacted quickly but in a professional manner. The radio amateurs all helped out when they could be stayed out of the way when appropriate. I am sure we can find some things that could have been done better, but I felt like things went well overall.

– Bob KØNR

The post Rescue on Uncompahgre Peak (1992) 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 bob@k0nr.com.

Get a remote signal report via WebSDR

I've been making modifications / upgrades to my old Heathkit HW-101.

I've had a good number of CW QSOs and a couple of phone contacts with it so far and received good reports.   One concern I had, regarded losing the first DIT of a letter on initial relay closure.  There is an upgrade article for the HW-101 with a section describing a fix for losing the first DIT of a letter on the initial close of the relay.  The modification involve replacing a resistor with a lower value that triggers the VOX.  It's a resistor change from 470k to 1k which seems kind of extreme to me.

According to the article you will hear the initial DIT in the sidetone but above 20wpm that DIT is not transmitted due to a delay of the relay closure because it's driven by a VOX circuit.

This test is difficult to describe to a remote CW operator.

I recalled that webSDR stations usually offer a remote recording facility.  I found a webSDR station that was within propagation on 40m today and sent my CQ with my call while recording from that remote station.  My call, of course, begins with  the letter A, which begins with a DIT.  I paused for the VOX delay to timeout between sending my call-sign, thus causing AA4OO to be sent with the relay closing at the beginning each time.  I started the recording before my call and stopped when I was finished and downloaded it.

remote webSDR station recorder

I confirmed, that although the initial DIT was shortened a bit above 20wpm, it was still being heard and didn't affect copy of words that began with a DIT on relay closure.  So I've decided to not do that modification at this time.  I previously used DEOXIT on the both sets of relay contacts in the HW-101, because there seemed to be some corrosion present that was affecting receive at times, and that has cleaned up the performance of the relay considerably.

So if you're wondering how to get a remote signal report when no one is answering your call the facilities of a remote webSDR station may help.

NOTE: The HW-101 doesn't have a precise VFO readout, even after calibrating it with the built-in crystal calibrator.  I use the reverse beacon network to spot me and take the frequency reported by remote beacon to enter into the frequency of the webSDR station to find my signal.

This works for getting a SSB report as well

Richard Carpenter, AA4OO, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from North Carolina, USA. Contact him at aa4oo@hamradioqrp.com.

The newest OTA I’ve discovered is the World Castles Award, or COTA – Castles on the Air. Not sure if COTA is official or not, but let’s call it that for now, since it rhymes so well with SOTA, POTA and BOTA. (IOTA is only a half-rhyme).

You might think “We Americans don’t have any castles here; we were settled after the period of castle-building, so how is this relevant to me?” Well, you can think that if you want to, but you might be wrongish. True, we have no castles in North America (or do we? – see below), but we do have other structures that the wise men and women of WCA have recognized as eligible structures of note. Happy Dance! Here’s a new game we can play once we’re all worn out activating all the mountains in SOTA, parks in POTA, and beaches in BOTA.

Here in the Southeast that I inhabit, there are scores of eligible structures. In my own tiny hometown of Decatur, GA, pop. 18,000, I find that we, too, have a castle called Oakhurst Castle. I need to find out what that is, and of course, activate it. Look for me on Dxsummit some day.

Forts, even if not fortified, can qualify, such as Fort Jackson, SC, where I spent three happy months one summer and most if not all other military bases with “Fort” in their title. Also, historic forts like Castillo de San Marcos in St. Augustine, Florida qualifies but the towns of Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers and Fort Pierce where we can imagine forts once stood, are sadly excluded. However, don’t despair – you can still go to the beach in those towns and activate your suntan via BOTA!

Mansions, or “Stately Homes,” also seem to qualify, such as the indisputably stately Biltmore House in Asheville (raise your hand if you’ve been there). The WCA styles it as “Biltmore Castle.”

Scanning the list I see others in my haunts I can consider activating and some that raise questions such as one on Marco Island known only as “Unknown Castle.”

But there is one I expected to see that has been overlooked – probably the only purpose-build Castle in the United States, and it’s certainly not unknown; of course I’m talking about Cinderella’s Castle at the Magic Kingdom (raise your hand again if you’ve been there). If you are as hurt as I am at this (rather slight) slight, please join me in a letter-writing campaign to the WCA to help right this wrong. We’re Americans – we fought for our freedom, now we must fight for Cinderella’s honor!

Signing off for now, de k4wk, 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.

Amateur Radio Weekly is curated by Cale Mooth K4HCK. Sign up free to receive ham radio's most relevant news, projects, technology and events by e-mail each week at http://www.hamweekly.com.

My first impression of my new TYT MD-380 (and Steve, KA4RSZ, felt the same way), was the solid, sturdy feel of the thing.  Not at all what you’d expect from an $88 plastic cased electronic device of any sort.  We were both quite impressed, and the reason has become clearer as I’ve learned more.  This radio or its kin, were built for non-ham, heavy-duty use by folks like security guards and retail store personnel, not dainty and refined hams such as ourselves.

Reading the User’s Manual has been fun, and incidentally makes the bizarre Icom manuals seem lucid.  Filled with handy tips, I love where it cautions me on page one “Do not transmit too long, for the radio may heat and hurt the user.”  Also advising “if the radio appears smelly or smoke, please shut off…”  Great tips for us all.

On page six it is reassuring to be told “wearing the radio in your waist will not make you feel uncomfortable.”  I just love Chinglish!

Signing off for now, de k4wk, www.hamdon.com.  Thanks for listening; you’re in the log.

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