AmateurRadio.com

Stories you’ll find in our February, 2015 issue:

Monitoring the Russian Navy (Part 1)
By Tony Roper
In previous articles, military monitoring specialist, Tony Roper, took us inside NATO war games (TSM July 2014) and showed us how to monitor the Russian Air Force (TSM October 2014). In the first of a series, Tony turns his attention to the Russian navy and shows you how you can listen in CW and, amazingly, even track their positions.

The Amateur Radio Parity Act is Down, But Certainly Not Out!
By Richard Fisher KI6SN
The Amateur Radio Parity Act of 2014, proposed last June by U.S. Representative Adam Kinzinger (R-Illinois), never got out of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology. To paraphrase American author-humorist Mark Twain, the death of H.R. 4969, “is an exaggeration.” Proposed to protect radio amateurs and other communications hobbyists from private communities’ unreasonable antenna restrictions, it is expected to be back in play in the newly minted 114th Congress. Think of the legislation as merely hibernating.

Listening for WWII POWs
By Rich Post KB8TAD
It wasn’t the New Year’s Eve he had anticipated. Twenty-two year old Second Lieutenant George Klare was navigator on a B-17G bomber based in England. As part of the 418th squadron, he was at the navigator’s table reviewing the flight path of the bomber in the direction of Hamburg and its synthetic oil refineries, which were so vital to the German war machine during World War II. He had no idea that this might indeed be the last time he would see London during the war.

W9GRS: Middle School Amateur Radio Station Update
By Troy Simpson W9KVR
Teaching junior high science can never be accused of being boring, at least here in rural Illinois. Coming off what I would call a “rebuilding year,” in my last article, the 2014-2015 school year has seemed to hit its stride and halfway through we can say it has been a very eventful year! The school station W9GRS has settled into its new home in Room 115 with the sounds of PSK31 tones and voices often filling the air during the last class period of the day.

D-STAR – its History and its Future
By Cory GB Sickles WA3UVV
In 1999, about 10 years after the genesis of P25, the Japan Amateur Radio League (JARL) began developing a new standard for digital voice and data operation. Predominately funded by the Japanese government, in a similar – but different – way we might find a project funded by a grant allocation, the JARL committee’s work was released in 2001 and the Digital Smart Technologies for Amateur Radio—D-STAR was created. But why has the second oldest and first digital voice methodology created specifically for amateur radio taken so long to take hold and what is its future?

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