In this episode, Martin M1MRB / W9ICQ is joined by Chris Howard M0TCH, Martin Rothwell M0SGL, 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 PiStar

We would like to thank Alexander Zigar (M0SUV), Antony Mark Tilt and Philip Stephenson (KØPWS) and our monthly and annual subscription donors for keeping the podcast advert free. To donate, please visit - http://www.icqpodcast.com/donate

• ARES and ARRL Promote Ham Harvey Assistance

• Digital Modes for Foundation Level?

• ARRL finally realizes “status quo” isn’t going to cut it

• ARDF Record at YOTA 2017

• Ofcom Resolves Car Locking Issue

• UK M6 amateur handles Emergency Call

• Three ELaNa CubeSats Delivered to ISS

• Galapagos Islands DXpedition

• Estonia on 60m from September 2017

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

In this episode, Martin M1MRB / W9ICQ is joined by Chris Howard M0TCH, Martin Rothwell M0SGL, 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 PiStar

We would like to thank Alexander Zigar (M0SUV), Antony Mark Tilt and Philip Stephenson (KØPWS) and our monthly and annual subscription donors for keeping the podcast advert free. To donate, please visit - http://www.icqpodcast.com/donate

• ARES and ARRL Promote Ham Harvey Assistance

• Digital Modes for Foundation Level?

• ARRL finally realizes “status quo” isn’t going to cut it

• ARDF Record at YOTA 2017

• Ofcom Resolves Car Locking Issue

• UK M6 amateur handles Emergency Call

• Three ELaNa CubeSats Delivered to ISS

• Galapagos Islands DXpedition

• Estonia on 60m from September 2017

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

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.

Stories you’ll find in our September, 2017 issue:

Icom IC-R8600 All-Band All-Mode Software Defined Receiver
By Bob Grove W8JHD

To say that Bob Grove, a longtime radio reviewer, is impressed with this new offering from Icom, is a severe understatement. Bob writes, “With the release of this Software Defined Receiver, analog receiver design is relegated to history. Never before have so many features and options been offered in one general-coverage receiver. No wonder it comes with a 93-page, 8 x 10-inch instruction manual!”

Electrical Pioneers: The Life and Times of Guglielmo Marconi and Ernst Alexanderson
By Georg Wiessala

Regular TSM contributor, Georg Wiessala, explores the lives of two of radio’s legendary pioneers. He notes, “It is hard to imagine in our own age just how groundbreaking, confusing and inspirational the work of the early radio pioneers was in theirs, at a time when even the Eiffel Tower became a radio mast. However, our era of borderless communication and technological advance carries with it echoes of the ‘globalization’ of earlier times, as the 19th Century turned into the 20th.”

Rocky Mountain Ham Radio Inc., the Dayton Hamvention 2016 Club of the Year
By Wayne Heinen N0POH

RM Ham, as Rocky Mountain Ham Radio, Inc., is known, is a different kind of amateur radio group—it’s not a club where you fill out an application, pay your dues and join. You can only become a member by participating with the group and over time, if you pitch in on a regular basis, you get an invitation to have your name added to the roster. The exclusive nature of this club is actually its greatest strength. Wayne explains the incredible things this group of hams have accomplished and how your club can benefit from their organizational skills.

Impact of the FCC’s TV-Band Repack
By Mike Kohl

Despite the reported $1.75 billion set aside by Congress to pay winners in the spectrum auction, there are many surprises awaiting the FCC that perhaps should have been expected in advance. Not the least of which forces the FCC to go back to congress to ask for enough money to affect band repack changes. Radio stations, low-power TV translators, even amateur radio clubs will be affected by changes mandated by the FCC. Mike explains the process currently changing the landscape of America’s TV band that will continue taking place over the next three years.

Scanning America
By Dan Veeneman
Dubuque, Iowa, and RACOM

Federal Wavelengths
By Chris Parris
Portable WHCA Trunked Systems

Milcom
By Larry Van Horn N5FPW
Twentieth-Century Military Monitoring—This isn’t Your Daddy’s Milcom Anymore

Utility Planet
By Hugh Stegman NV6H
Tracking the Buzzer: The World’s Most Popular Radio Station?

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

VHF and Above
By Joe Lynch N6CL
Honey, I Repurposed the Loop!

Amateur Radio Insights
By Kirk Kleinschmidt NT0Z
Are Hams Well-meaning Scofflaws?

Radio 101
By Ken Reitz KS4ZR
The Ups and Downs of Antenna Installations

Radio Propagation
By Tomas Hood NW7US
Historic Event in Cycle 24: the GLE

World of Shortwave Listening
By Jeff White
Shortwave Broadcasters Meet on the West Coast of North America for the First Time

The Shortwave Listener
By Fred Waterer
North vs. South Korea on Shortwave; CFRX, BBC Programming and More!

Amateur Radio Satellites
By Keith Baker KB1SF/VA3KSF
Spotlight on Chinese Amateur Radio Satellites

The Longwave Zone
By Kevin O’Hern Cary WB2QMY
Gear up for a New Season!

Adventures is Radio Restoration
By Rich Post KB8TAD
The “Moving Coil” Radio: National NC-100 (RCK Version)

Antenna Connections
By Dan Farber AC0LW
Antenna 101: A Nuts and Bolts Review

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].

The Banggood portable BF-UV8D retails on eBay for just £14.25 with free shipping to the UK from China. In all honesty, just how can anyone compete?

This is a 5W RF 400-480MHz transceiver and comes complete with charger, back clip, antenna and battery. If I was Yaesu, Icom and Kenwood I’d throw in the towel now. Once the Chinese really wake up, the Japanese manufacturers have no chance of surviving. The Japanese will be driven more and more to niche markets, then die. I cannot see them staying around in the amateur market for too long.

At the moment the Japanese have quality on their side, but the Chinese will soon be as good. At the moment it seems everything, just about, is made in China. Recently I bought some Olympus binoculars – these said “Made in China”. The Chinese seem to be able to make most things at prices that simply cannot be matched.

20 years from now we’ll be living in a very different world.

You can buy a 433MHz module for just over £1 with free shipping from China!!

They make profits too, so how do they do it?

Roger Lapthorn, G3XBM, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Cambridge, England.

In this episode, I am joined by Ian Kahn, KM4IK, as a guest co-host. Ian has been on my podcast before in episode 69 where we talked about PSK31 and in episode 74 where we talked about Field Day. I have really enjoyed having Ian on my show and was happy that he agreed to join me in this episode as a guest co-host.

We had a great conversation about many major things that have happened recently.

We start off talking about the major event hitting my home state of Texas and reeking major damage all along the Gulf Coast. Yea, I’m talking about Hurricane Harvey. I have several friends that are helping out right now down in the disaster area and more planning on deploying there soon.

We continue our discussion with last weeks major event, the “Great American Solar Eclipse”. We talk about our experience was, some things that we saw and was other hams around the country were doing, including the study that was performed by HamSci.

We went on to talk about how it never seems to fail how things always “come back into style”. Morse code is coming back to the Navy, HF is being taught to the national guard to use instead of relying totally on Satellite Phone communications and also how there is a push to get back into using Earth base navigation for ships at least as a back up to GPS.

We wrap up the episode by talking about HamJam 2017 in November. HamJam is a ham radio conference with three great speakers talking about three great topics. There are several really awesome raffle items.

Check out the show notes and listen to the episode

Curtis Mohr, K5CLM, is the author/owner of Everything Ham Radio Blog and Youtube channel. Contact him at [email protected].

In this month’s QST I found an article that sparked my interest entitled “Comfort design for your station” This is an area I feel that gets looked over when setting up a station. Most of the time I find we lean more towards how the setup looks as to the ergonomics of the setup. I am very guilty of falling into the trap of setting up a station making sure it looks very pleasing to the eye. After a contest or two and having to sit down at the radio for over 6 hour or more at a time I become very aware that it’s all about ergonomics first and looks later.  These days setting up a station most of the time does not just mean a radio but it can include a computer monitor, Laptop and various bits and pieces.  Some of the mistakes I made:

Rig and monitor up to high

1. I had selves on the desk and I decided to put the monitor on one of the shelves, it looked very cool but over time I found the slight angle my head was on looking up (just slightly) became a chiropractic issue! I then decided to purchase a moveable arm for the monitor so I could adjust it to any position and this proved to be a great investment. 
2. Since the radio is the most expensive item I had it front and center on the desk. For me over time I found having my arm extended in front of me was not very comfortable. It may sound strange but the best position for me is having the radio off to my left or right side. My right arm keeps its natural bend as I tune and adjust the radio. 

   Monitors on swivel arms

Sideview of swivel arms

3. I’m not sure about Icom, Kenwood or Yeasu but Elecraft has only 2 heights for the rig……either flat on the desk or with tilt stand (K3) or legs (KX3).  For me both are just not comfortable. I wish they would incorporate adjustable legs for custom heights. I did purchase the Elecraft K-pod which fixed this height issue but that was not the sole reason for the K-pod purchase. 

Mike Weir, VE9KK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Brunswick, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].