AmateurRadio.com

Randomly, I was browsing through Facebook this morning and I noticed Paul G4RRA say that he was about to drive up to the site for the RSGB 70MHz cumulatives.

Although I only have the vertical available for 70MHz, I wondered what if anything I would be able to hear. Of course, having the Noble NR4SC readily available means that there is no fiddling around connecting up transverters. Which, on a sleepy Sunday morning might have been enough to to deter activity!

The SSTV activity from the ISS generates a huge amount of interest. I noticed some of the RTL-SDR groups on Facebook having a lot of fun decoding the pictures. Good publicity for the hobby!

Randomly, I was browsing through Facebook this morning and I noticed Paul G4RRA say that he was about to drive up to the site for the RSGB 70MHz cumulatives.

Although I only have the vertical available for 70MHz, I wondered what if anything I would be able to hear. Of course, having the Noble NR4SC readily available means that there is no fiddling around connecting up transverters. Which, on a sleepy Sunday morning might have been enough to to deter activity!

The SSTV activity from the ISS generates a huge amount of interest. I noticed some of the RTL-SDR groups on Facebook having a lot of fun decoding the pictures. Good publicity for the hobby!

Series Eight Episode Four of the ICQ Amateur / Ham Radio Podcast has been released. In this episode Martin M1MRB / W9ICQ is joined by Ed Durrant DD5LP and Martin Rothwell M0SGL to discuss the latest Amateur / Ham Radio news. Colin M6BOY rounds up the news in brief, and this episodes feature Q and A and Repair Tips.

• Essex 2m Activity Day March 2015
• Rotary Celebrates its 110th birthday
• Cansat - Rocket Launched Instruments in a 330ml Can
• New Open Source Data Mode FSQ
• D-STAR, DMR and C4FM Repeater Maps
• WG2XPN 70 MHz Beacon update
• Amateur Radio Based Group Rescues Released Broadcast Frequency
• Indoor Marijuana Growers caught due to radio interference
• Radio Astronomy and SDR Dongles

Series Eight Episode Four of the ICQ Amateur / Ham Radio Podcast has been released. In this episode Martin M1MRB / W9ICQ is joined by Ed Durrant DD5LP and Martin Rothwell M0SGL to discuss the latest Amateur / Ham Radio news. Colin M6BOY rounds up the news in brief, and this episodes feature Q and A and Repair Tips.

• Essex 2m Activity Day March 2015
• Rotary Celebrates its 110th birthday
• Cansat - Rocket Launched Instruments in a 330ml Can
• New Open Source Data Mode FSQ
• D-STAR, DMR and C4FM Repeater Maps
• WG2XPN 70 MHz Beacon update
• Amateur Radio Based Group Rescues Released Broadcast Frequency
• Indoor Marijuana Growers caught due to radio interference
• Radio Astronomy and SDR Dongles

Tomorrow I am going to try to build my little 40m Pixie kit that I bought for just over £7 from China. This build is an attempt to see if I am “up to the job”. I know the limited performance the Pixie is capable of and on 40m BC breakthrough may be a major issue here in the UK.

I really really miss doing real building and truly experimental amateur radio. This is a step on a long road. My health has been so poor in the last 16 months or so that there was no way I could have attempted this before. People have been very kind and offered me building help and help with antenna erection. These offers have come from all over the world – the world is filled with good and very kind people. There are far more good and kind people than evil ones.

By normal standards a little Pixie build would be trivial. For me it is a major step and test of my current abilities. I do so hope I can manage this! Please don’t laugh – to me it is a major step.

There’s something that just didn’t sink in as I interviewed CQ editor Rich Moseson W2VU at the Orlando HamCation for this episode. CQ is in trouble, and advertising is the problem. Or rather, lack of it. Rich said that while subscriber numbers are important, the real revenue comes from ads, and the ham radio manufacturers and retailers that had been buying the ads in the magazine can’t afford to buy them, or as many of them, today.

Subscriber numbers bring in advertisers, of course, but if the companies can’t afford the ads, it doesn’t matter. And I got that, for a minute or two, but then I sort of lost the concept. But the bigger connection I didn’t make until maybe the 10th time I watched the interview (yes, I do that, because I like to hear myself talk) was that ads in the digital version of the magazine are an even tougher sell. So if CQ were to go all-digital to save printing and postage, it wouldn’t help enough. They’d make even less money because they wouldn’t get many of the ads that they do get now. At least that’s my takeaway.

It’s not just CQ and ham radio – digital media, including print, audio and video, isn’t valued as much as “traditional” media, even if the audience is the same. I’m no expert in this, but that’s the conventional wisdom I read in the trades.

One other thing to consider before you watch the episode is that sub-$50 Chinese HT you marvel at. They don’t advertise or support ham radio in any way other then selling you a radio for peanuts. Some of their distributors are beginning to advertise for them, but the companies themselves are still mostly a cypher here in the US. I’m just sayin’….

There’s more from Orlando at HamRadioNow.tv.

73, Gary KN4AQ

As the price has dropped to £199 (a drop of £50) from Nevada I am now very tempted to buy one of these as 10m is my favourite band of all.  It is just coming up to the Es season too. Power output is ideal (for me) and it does all modes. I owned the original Lincoln President transceiver and it served me well for many years.  It worked all over the place on SSB and even on 10m AM.

This is basically a CB radio with bells and whistles, although as delivered it is 10m amateur band only. It covers CB bands with a simple, illegal in UK, mod.

Anyone any views?