K1DWU's Ham Radio News

I've been a Technician-class amateur since August 9, 2008, but frankly haven't done much with it until the past two weeks. I started studying on HamTestOnline for my General-class license about two weeks ago, and have spent many an hour reading through ... [Source: PlanetHam.org / 07-01]

I was contacted about a week ago; by a private telecommunications firm in California. They are experiencing some intermod or some kind of mixing problem on one of their repeaters, I guess. They asked me if I'd be willing to listen to a Morse Code ID that is ... [Source: PlanetHam.org / 07-01]

Today I did a full rebuild of the 6m QRP AM transceiver on a much smaller (dead bug style) board so that it will fit in a small diecast (or aluminium) box. In the course of the rebuild I tried out the RX varicap tuning idea which works, but I was unable to mov... [Source: PlanetHam.org / 07-01]

The Eastern MA Section Traffic Manager report for May, 2009 has has been posted to nts.ema.arrl.org for your viewing pleasure. [Source: PlanetHam.org / 07-01]

In days of old when men were bold and hams were required to log their operations And it wasn't supposed to be just a casual bit of hit-and-miss record keeping. If commercial traffic was being interfered with and a radio ham suspected of the interference, the ... [Source: PlanetHam.org / 07-01]

On the afternoon of Monday, June 29, US Supreme Court Justice David Souter -- in one his last official duties on the high court -- swore in Julius Genachowski as the new Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. Genachowski, who clerked for Souter aft... [Source: PlanetHam.org / 07-01]

[Source: PlanetHam.org / 07-01]

School won't be out this summer for Army MARS members as they begin the second round of an intensive retraining program -- MARS 101 -- that begins July 5. The 12 week course is designed to align MARS procedures with the newly-revised National Incident Manageme... [Source: PlanetHam.org / 07-01]

Okay, it took a while but I've finished the voice keyer project! The last article about this voice keyer I'd receive the wrong package. The second time I did receive the correct PCB but the programmed GAL-chip was a 20-pins one instead of a 16-pins. After rece... [Source: PlanetHam.org / 07-01]

Back from a long summer vacation, George and Tommy visit the Capitol City Hamfest and run into an old friend. Peter shows us how to create a warm spot. Plus plenty of Amateur Radio news and Viewer email [Source: PlanetHam.org / 06-30]

Gab, IK3GES, began a Greek island tour on June 28th and plans to visit four Greek islands [Source: PlanetHam.org / 06-30]

Following the very successful event of the Geoparks weekend, the Global network would like to offer a diploma endorsed by HRH The Duke of Edinburgh (the Queen of England's husband) to anybody working either GB6GEO the HQ station as an instant qualifier for the... [Source: PlanetHam.org / 06-30]

The Amateur Radio mooonbounce operations last weekend as part of the commemoration of 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing in July 1969, proved to be a great success [Source: PlanetHam.org / 06-30]

The Isle of Man ARS incorporates our RSGB RAYNET organisation and we are very keen to improve our local communication systems. As a part of this improvement strategy we are developing a Society Web Site which includes a Forum [Source: PlanetHam.org / 06-30]

An International Space Station school contact has been planned with participants at Inukjuak Space Camp, Kuujjuaq Quebec, Canada on 1 July [Source: PlanetHam.org / 06-30]

30 days are over, now here's the result. I believe that it's just a sampling methode, but thanks for the reader and also visitor the blog to join on this poll. This is multiple choice and all visitor could vote also multiple answer. From 21 votters it looks th... [Source: PlanetHam.org / 06-30]

One of the great things about Field Day are the stories. Every year, I add a story or two to my repertoire. This year is no exception. Story #1 starts about 1:30 pm on Saturday. I was at my post at the public information table/GOTA station. We had been ready t... [Source: PlanetHam.org / 06-30]

This is from the IRLP Website: The IRLP uses a Voice-Over-IP (VoIP) streaming software called Speak Freely. Speak Freely is very similar to other VoIP software packages (such as Microsoft NetMeeting and VocalTec iPhone) with one difference... It runs u... [Source: PlanetHam.org / 06-30]

There is a Nebraska IRLP Net Node: 9875 Day: Sunday Time: 8:30 CST I would encourage every member to join in. [Source: PlanetHam.org / 06-30]

Larry E. Price, W4RA, was honored at an evening reception following the first full day of Ham Radio 2009 convention activities in Friedrichshafen, Germany on Friday, June 26. The reception was hosted by the convention sponsor, the Deutscher Amateur Radio Club ... [Source: PlanetHam.org / 06-30]

Tonight whilst doing the religious tune around the HF bands I was fortunate to come across the CQ Call of LU3DX - Luc from Argentina. I gave just one shout back and was surprised to hear Luc return asking for my Pre-Fix. We exchanged 5/8 - 9 reports both ways... [Source: PlanetHam.org / 06-30]

Now you can find out what the AmateurLogic.TV crew is up to by following us on Twitter. Visit www.twitter.com and search for amateurlogic. [Source: PlanetHam.org / 06-30]

Have you ever tried to revisit a web page that you can remember seeing a few days/weeks/months ago, and found that it has completely disappeared? A few weeks ago I remember seeing a beacon map of Europe. I'm sure it was a 2m (144MHz) beacon map, but perhaps th... [Source: PlanetHam.org / 06-29]

Disclaimer: For those who don't know, I'm an employee of Buddipole, and I do speak quite a bit of my positive experiences with some Buddipole products in this post. Yes hams, it's that time of the year again. Field Day , the Super Bowl of the ham radio world. ... [Source: PlanetHam.org / 06-29]

With a sea of information coming at us from all directions, how do we sift out the misinformation and bogus claims, and get to the truth? Michael Shermer the editor in chief of Skeptic Magazine lays out a "Baloney Detection Kit," ten questions we should ask wh... [Source: PlanetHam.org / 06-29]

ARRL Headquarters will be closed in observance of Independence Day on Friday, July 3. There will be no  ARRL Audio News ,  W1AW bulletin or code practice transmissions that day. The ARRL Letter will be posted a day early on Thursday, July 2. League Headquarter... [Source: PlanetHam.org / 06-29]

WMA ARES Section Emergency Coordinator John Ruggiero N2YHK is looking assistance with this season's Massachusetts State Triathlon in Winchendon at the Lake Denison Recreational Area . Assignments will vary but will generally include various checkpoints along t... [Source: ARRL WMA / 06-29]

Dan Littel, AJ9K has advised that he will be on vacation in Alaska between July 1-11, and will try to be active during a few passes during his stay [Source: PlanetHam.org / 06-29]

There was once again a big turn out for Ireland's 80m Counties Contest, although maybe not quite the numbers active on New year's Day. The AREN demonstration station at the Civil Defence Headquarters in Roscrea was very successful [Source: PlanetHam.org / 06-29]

As part of the July 4 celebrations special event stations which be active on HF from July 1-4 in each of the original 13 colonies [Source: PlanetHam.org / 06-29]

The Canadian astronaut Robert Thirsk, VA3CSA, called CQ Field Day from on-board the International Space Station [Source: PlanetHam.org / 06-29]

During the period from July 1 through July 5, at least nine of the Original 13 American Colonies will be active on the amateur satellites as part of a special event organized by Ken, KU2US, in New York [Source: PlanetHam.org / 06-29]

WB8IMY was away from home on Field Day, yet still managed to catch a bit of the Field Day spirit. [Source: PlanetHam.org / 06-29]

I view amateur radio as a wonderful hobby. It's a chance for anyone to learn a wealth of things, at their own pace, though self- investigation. It's a good fit for those interested in electronics and computers. What upsets me is when the majority of hams in ... [Source: PlanetHam.org / 06-29]

During this busy Field Day weekend, I received an email from Alex XE1MEX reporting that he has achieved DXCC via Satellite. This is quite an accomplishment since he made most (or all?) of the contacts via LEO satellites. It turns out that I have worked XE1MEX ... [Source: PlanetHam.org / 06-29]

Been doing some more work on the SixBox AM transceiver and have come up with a simpler and better TX lineup. I abandoned the osc/multiplier in one stage and went instead for a 3rd overtone xtal followed by a modulated buffer and PA. The third overtone oscillat... [Source: PlanetHam.org / 06-29]

Birmingham Scout County will be holding their 'Live the Magic Camp' next weekend, while further south in Luton, GB0LS will be taking to the air [Source: PlanetHam.org / 06-29]

At a gala function held in Midrand on Wednesday, the South African Amateur Radio Development Trust presented the annual Radio Amateur of the Year and Construction awards [Source: PlanetHam.org / 06-29]

An Expedition 20 ARISS school contact was planned with participants at Karel de Grote High School in Antwerp, Belgium. The event took place on Saturday 27 June [Source: PlanetHam.org / 06-29]

Steve White, G3ZVW, who has been writing his 'Whatever Next' futuretech column in RSGB's RadCom magazine since January 2001 will switch to writing the 'Sport Radio' column soon [Source: PlanetHam.org / 06-29]

The Gonset company was doing well with its compact design of mobile radio equipment in 1962 when the founder of the company, Mr. Faust Gonset, W6VR founded a new company, SideBand Engineers. Its goal was to create ideal mobile equipment with latest transistor ... [Source: PlanetHam.org / 06-29]

While all the radio hams are out playing Field Day today, I'm clearing out a few links and comments (having absolutely nothing at all to do with amateur radio) that have been accumulating in my blog about this crazy nonsense pile for too long. It's a good time... [Source: PlanetHam.org / 06-29]

I wasn't going to write another D-star related blog this month. But Chris' feedback and some news that Scott, KI4LKF released some source code of his work changed that. The rtpdir bridge - to bridge EchoLink, IRLP, D-Star and Asterisk. I'm very glad to see hi... [Source: PlanetHam.org / 06-29]

Happy Field Day! I wish you all good luck; but most of all good fun! Enjoy the sun and clear blue skies (hopefully) ! Enjoy the camaraderie, the excitement and the anticipation. Enjoy the operating, the food, the cold drinks and everything that is good and ... [Source: PlanetHam.org / 06-29]

Models, parts, designators, references -- they're all part of the radio game. The more you tinker and swap and change, the more of these little bits of "radio DNA" get lodged in your gray matter -- and there's nothing you can do about it. Resistance is futile!... [Source: PlanetHam.org / 06-29]

The Northern California DX Foundation Board of Directors is pleased to announce the appointment of Ed Muns, W0YK as an Advisor to the NCDXF Board of Directors [Source: PlanetHam.org / 06-29]

The IARU Region 1 reports that the North Korean embassy in Tripoli is again using 14.328430MHz for traffic with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Pyongyang [Source: PlanetHam.org / 06-29]

The RSGB reports that the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) is moving towards requiring commercially produced, finished amateur radio equipment to conform to international standards for emissions [Source: PlanetHam.org / 06-29]

Darrell VO1MDS is making available a new series of 'Fun with Amateur Radio' videos on YouTube [Source: PlanetHam.org / 06-29]

Steve G0KYA, RadCom's propagation columnist and author, has launched a new blog devoted to amateur radio [Source: PlanetHam.org / 06-29]

Two new sunspots appeared last week, numbered 1022 and 1023, and both were Cycle 24 spots. 1022 lasted through June 23 and 1023 until June 24. On June 24 geomagnetic indices were unsettled [Source: PlanetHam.org / 06-29]

The American Radio Relay League's round-up of the forthcoming week's DX activity [Source: PlanetHam.org / 06-29]

Ok first off I promise not to turn into a D-Star fanatic. Nothing has urked me more lately than the D-Star hype fanatics. The most recent example is this D-Star newsletter. D-Star isn't for everyone, nor is it the saving grace of amateur radio. Bombarding f... [Source: PlanetHam.org / 06-29]

NYT > Science - In a worldwide event, amateur radio operators will talk to each other by bouncing their messages off the craggy face of the moon. [Source: NewsBlotter.com / 06-29]

Why I like Field Day? I have another opportunity at learning and meeting other ham radio operators in our county. There are good memories in my long term read only and Field Day operation is among them. Moments exist like Polaroid pictures stretching across my... [Source: PlanetHam.org / 06-28]

Due to storm-related power outages at ARRL HQ, there will be no  ARRL Audio News for Friday, June 26, 2009.  The ARRL Letter was sent out on schedule. We apologize for any inconvenience. [Source: PlanetHam.org / 06-28]

Along with the bug spray and toolbox, don't forget your camera when you head out to Field Day this weekend. We are looking for good-quality photos -- well lit, in focus, action-oriented subject matter -- of your Field Day operation. A few tips : Be sure your p... [Source: PlanetHam.org / 06-28]

An Amateur Radio special event station in Massachusetts in conjunction with other special event stations from each of the original thirteen colonies will be QRV for a Fourth of July Thirteen Original Colonies celebration on July 1-5, 2009. A handsome commemora... [Source: PlanetHam.org / 06-28]

Interface [Source: PlanetHam.org / 06-28]

On the same day -- June 25 -- that the Senate confirmed the nominations of Julius Genachowski as FCC Chairman and current Commissioner Robert McDowell, President Barack Obama nominated Democrat Mignon Clyburn and Republican Meredith Attwell Baker to be FCC Com... [Source: PlanetHam.org / 06-28]