The Multi-Band Radio Project

Here's an article talking about the Department of Homeland Security's Multi-Band Radio project. This initiative is creating a software defined radio that will enable multiple agencies to communicate with each other over various existing VHF and UHF bands. The price target is a whopping $4K to $6K per radio. Thales Communications, Inc. won the contract to create the first demonstration radios.

The concept seems reasonable, but the price tag seems a bit steep. Software defined radio technology is leading edge, but certainly not bleeding edge. While several modulations and digital standards will need to be handled, this complexity will undoubtedly be handled in software. I would think the radios could be mass produced much cheaper than $4K per radio, though I've been spoiled by the pricing we've enjoyed as amateurs over the years. I wonder if Thales will have to buy chips for AMBE, IMBE, and other proprietary protocols or if they'll be able to procure licenses for software implementations.

It would be nice to get one of these radios and hack it for the ham bands. Even better, it would be cool to hack a multi-band VHF/UHF amateur radio and make it meet the requirements of the Multi-Band project and sell it for $4K to $6K :-)

The Legality of the D-STAR AMBE Vocoder on US Amateur Frequencies and Its Implications

First, let's get this out of the way: I'm not a fan of the AMBE vocoder being used in the otherwise open D-STAR protocol. I've enumerated the issues of a closed, proprietary protocol in previous blog entry and won't rehash them here. In the past few days I got into an online debate about the D-STAR vocoder. (Yes, I'm a glutton for online punishment, and I get sucked into long debates.) I was giving more though to D-STAR and the proprietary vocoder. While D-STAR can and often does transport voice, over the air the modulation is digital (GMSK, QPSK, or 4FSK at a maximum of 4.8 kbs according to the spec). The D-STAR protocol itself is fully documented and open, but when you get to where the AMBE-encoded digital voice sample fits, it shows where the bytes go but nothing about the AMBE encoding itself. The digital AMBE protocol is proprietary and as far as I understand, you can't decode it off the air unless you have the proprietary chip from the company who delevoped AMBE called Digital Voice Systems, Inc. or DVSI. This chip can be in an Icom rig, the DV-Dongle, or a homebrew rig using the proprietary chip.

Per the DVSI End User License Agreement in page 3 of the AMBE-2020 manual, it is illegal to reverse engineer the protocol and create a compatible vocoder if you own a chip:

"2.3 END USER shall not copy, extract, reverse engineer, disassemble, de-compile or otherwise reduce the DVSI Voice Compression Software to human-readable form. END USER shall not alter, duplicate, make copies of, create derivative works from, distribute, disclose, provide or otherwise make available to others, the DVSI Voice Compression Software and Technology and/or trade secrets contained within the PRODUCT in any form to any third party without the prior written consent of DVSI. The END USER shall implement reasonable security measures to protect such trade secrets."

I believe the AMBE technology is patented so it would be illegal to create a compatible vocoder even if one doesn't own an AMBE chip. From a technical standpoint I think it would be nearly impossible to reverse-engineer the protocol strictly by looking at just an off-the-air AMBE data stream extracted from D-STAR packets.

FCC Part 97 says this in regards to data emissions:

§97.309 RTTY and data emission codes.

(a) Where authorized by §97.305(c) and 97.307(f) of this Part, an amateur station may transmit a RTTY or data emission using the following specified digital codes:

(1) The 5-unit, start-stop, International Telegraph Alphabet No. 2, code defined in ITU-T Recommendation F.1, Division C (commonly known as "Baudot").

(2) The 7-unit code specified in ITU-R Recommendations M.476-5 and M.625-3 (commonly known as "AMTOR").

(3) The 7-unit, International Alphabet No. 5, code defined in ITU-T Recommendation T.50 (commonly known as "ASCII").

(4) An amateur station transmitting a RTTY or data emission using a digital code specified in this paragraph may use any technique whose technical characteristics have been documented publicly, such as CLOVER, G-TOR, or PacTOR, for the purpose of facilitating communications.

What constitutes proper public documentation of technical characteristics is up for interpretation. I would consider it something that is sufficient to demodulate the signal that is transmitted over the air. I think the spirit of this paragraph is to prevent potentially illegal content from being transmitted in a concealed manner on amateur frequencies, such as business communications.

If you don't know the digital code being transmitted, the transmission is essentially encrypted. I think this makes AMBE in its current state illegal on amateur frequencies according to §97.309 (a)(4). The AMBE protocol is simply not publicly documented to a level that allows demodulation. If the FCC interprets this differently and does consider the level of documentation on AMBE sufficient to satisfy the language §97.309 (a)(4), they are essentially in a Catch-22 situation allowing encrypted data transmissions.

I'm curious what others think about this. Again, I don't have anything against D-STAR, DVSI, or the AMBE technology itself, but I don't believe that the use of the technology on amateur radio frequencies is in accordance with the rules as they are written. If it is in accordance, it gives de facto authorization to encrypted data transmissions, something which has been taboo from day one.

Where Your Sunspots Went

NASA has figured out why the sunspot cycle has been moving at glacial speeds. No Maunder Minimum, so don't sell those HF rigs yet....

Homebrew Field Day Tarp Canopy

This weekend I had an opportunity to stage my Field Day operating tent and refine my homebrew tarp canopy.

The tent is an inexpensive family "Ozark Mountain" model I bought at Walmart several years ago. It's a pretty good tent, though definitely not a Eureka tent, of which I have two for backpack hiking. The Walmart tent is spacious but in rain it leaks like a sieve. This is where the canopy comes in. It shades the operating tent and provides shelter from the rain. The last time I used this setup, the operating tent temperature stayed rather comfortable throughout Field Day weekend.

The canopy is constructed with several heavy-duty so-called "contractor grade" tarps. The main one is 20' x 16' and the sloping ones on the sides are 12' x 16'. Tarp sizes are somewhat like wood stud measurements, at least here in the US, where a 2" x 4" ("two-by-four") is actually 1.5" x 3.5". The size on the package is the fabric cut size, before it's sewn and the grommet holes are installed. Therefore a 20' x 16' is actually about 19' x 15'.

The wood poles holding up the tarp are 2" x 3" studs, each with one galvanized nail in the top to pass through a tarp grommet hole. Guy lines are common poly rope from the hardware store, each about 11' long. Sixteen inch galvanized spikes are used for stakes to anchor the ropes to. If you use a taut hitch knot, you can easily adjust the guy line tension after the canopy is erected without having to untie the rope from the stake. The stakes are out about 9' from the poles and corner poles get double guy lines at right angles. (For added stability you can use double guys lines on the side poles spread by 60 degrees or so.) The side taper tarps are anchored to the ground by four to six 16 inch galvanized spikes.

Later in the weekend we had a thunderstorm come through and a somewhat expected design weakness occurred. Water pooled on the main tarp on both sides of the cabin tent roof peak. Several gallons of water collected, and if allowed to continue to collect, it would undoubtedly bring the whole works down. I remedied this by taking two 2" x 4" x 10' studs and installing them on each side of the cabin tent under the main tarp to push it upward, creating a sloping roof that shed water, not allowing it to collect as before. On the top of the 10' studs I placed plastic coffee cans so the sharp edges of the wood wouldn't damage the tarp. In the bottom of the studs I drove a galvanized nail which digs into the grass to provide extra stability.

You can build this homebrew canopy with more or less poles, but naturally the more poles and guy lines you use, the more stable it will be and the more wind it will be able to handle. The tarp canopy performs well with just the main 19' x 15' part, but the side taper tarps provide some more protection if you get a thunderstorm. It's never the rain that comes straight down that gets you, it's the stuff that is blowing horizontally :-)

My sleeping quarters for Field Day is a Eureka Timberline 2 tent I've had since the 90s. This tent is waterproof through hurricanes and tornadoes. I slept in this over the weekend and worked some DX on 40m with my portable lightweight backpack dipole, fed with a Yaesu FT-817 and a BLT tuner.

Amateur Radio Information Handouts

KB6NU asked on his blog for an FRS/CB/Amateur Radio comparison chart for Field Day use. This got me thinking and I was able to create this PDF. I'm in the process of creating another one comparing cell phones, satellite phones, and amateur radio and I hope to post that one within the next few days in time for Field Day. The goal with that one isn't to make amateur radio look better than wireless phones but rather educate folks on what the strengths and weaknesses are of each and when it is appropriate to use one versus the other, primarily in an emergency situation.

If anyone has any suggestions for the FRS/CB/Amateur Radio handout, please email me privately at anthony dot good at gmail dot com. If you happen to use my handouts at an event, please shoot me an email as well.

73

QRN

Everyday I receive in my email the FCC Daily Digest. It's a good summary of the daily goings-on at our favorite government agency, with everything from the ho hum daily batch of long distance slamming busts to multi-billion dollar auctions and initiatives. You'll often find enforcement actions involving broadcast stations, radio pirates, and radio amateurs. For communications professionals it's a must have, for radio amateurs it gives you a broader view of the wireless landscape outside of amateur radio. I recommend all hams read it.

In yesterday's FCC Daily Digest there was a somewhat humorous licensee blooper, not involving a ham, but a glider flying association. For years they had an FCC license to operate an aviation communication system in Texas for directing traffic around their landing area. They began experiencing interference on their frequency a year ago and decided to file a complaint with the FCC. The only kicker was that their license had expired in 2003. Ooops. FCC fine: $9,000. Ouch. Expensive mistake. No word on the interference problem.

Here's yet another interesting short, portable antenna for sale: It works from 3 to 52 Mhz, is only 25 feet long, requires no radials, and has a mystery gray box on the feedpoint end. And by the way, you'll need an antenna tuner on some bands. Only $125 plus shipping and insurance. No exact gain or efficiency specifications are on the website, but the company claims it will outperform any antenna in its class. Sigh. Where do I begin? If you need an antenna tuner for some bands, just cut to the chase and throw a 25' piece of wire on the tuner and be done with it. Spend the $120 you save on beer.

Four days until the US DTV transition, take two. If you're a US citizen owning a functional TV and you weren't aware of the transition, please drive to your nearest undertaker to get your measurements taken.

Random acts of kindness are cool. N8ZYA wrote of a random act of kindness he was the recipient of recently. What a nice key and a nice story.

I heard through the grapevine that the Rochester, NY Hamfest was quite good this year. They moved to a new venue and made it one day instead of two. The move and consolidation apparently had quite a revitalizing affect. I used attend the Rochester 'fest often when I was younger as it's only a three or four hour drive from Northern PA, but haven't gone for a long time. I'm marking my calendar for Rochester next year, and hopefully I can drag some friends up.

And finally, a hearty ham shout out to KA3DRR for the kind words on his blog :-) 73

More Fun Than You Should Legally Be Allowed to Have for $10

I've been wanting to jump into software defined radio or SDR as the next phase of my amateur "career". I started off small and purchased two SoftRock Lite II receiver kits from KB9YIG. The PC board is a mere half inch by one and half inches long and the design is amazingly simple, yet coupled with some good software you will think there is a kilobuck rig hiding somewhere. And it only costs about $10 and an hour or two of your time to put it together. Connect this little puppy up to a computer with a stereo input sound card and you have a high performance HF receiver.

The SoftRock Lite II kits are as the name would suggest, rock bound. They are monoband receivers covering approximately 48 kHz of spectrum, or 96 kHz of spectrum if you have one of those high performance sound cards. I initially ran the free Rocky software which worked quite well, but later loaded up PowerSDR from FlexRadio which is also free and was blown away.

I spent a few hours just clicking on signals, playing with filters, and messing with the different displays. FlexRadio offering this software for free is pure genius. They put all the functionality into the interface that can be used with their hardware, teasing you enough to buy a FlexRadio without being obnoxiously commercial or nagging. I can say that I'm 100% sold on SDR. I'm likely going to get a multi-band SoftRock RXTX and ultimately a FlexRadio.

For giggles I tried to get the SoftRock to play with an old Pentium II 450 MHz box so I could have another receiver in my garage workshop. No can do. The software requires more horsepower than the old box can give.

I'm curious how well a QRP SoftRock RXTX would perform with a little netbook running XP. It could be a sweet little setup for portable operation.

Are They Real?

If you're an adult male living in the free world with some miles on your odometer, you've undoubtedly been to one of those "gentleman clubs" at least once in your life. You all don't have to admit it :-) Don't worry, this a family-oriented PG-13 blog though I'm probably going out on a limb with this analogy today. I know many of you are more God-fearing and/or family-oriented these days. I know I am. The last time I went to one was 16 years ago, right before I got married. You may have been to one after work sometime, enjoying a few beverages with your workmates, or perhaps in a far off land while serving our country when you were a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed twenty-something. You know the drill. You were sitting there with your friends and the next performer walks out on stage. A new song begins to blare out of the cheap, heavily distorted PA system. You immediately recognize the song as Brickhouse by the Commodores. And quite a fitting song it is as the blond performer is quite... ummmm.... well-equipped, if you catch my drift.

Your friends sit there in silent awe for the moment, mouths agape, and someone breaks the awkward silence with the question, "Yea, but are they real?". Everyone hems and haws around taking long looks, adjusting their positions in their chairs to get a better vantage point, checking out dimensions and analyzing movement of those wondrous orbs in the dimly lit club. Theories and speculation will start to fly. One of the more vocal friends will analyze every movement, giving play-by-play like John Madden at a tied football game in the fourth quarter with 30 seconds on the clock. This will go on for a minute, but one of the members of the group who is more appreciative of the female form and less of semantics, or perhaps just had more to drink, breaks his silence with an emphatic "Who cares!!??!! She's beautiful.". Everyone laughs and nods in agreement, each takes another sip of their drink, and the conversation moves on until Hot for Teacher by Van Halen starts up.

A certain unnamed bastion of amateur radio thought has an article (or rather, infomercial) about one of those "virtual amateur radio" systems called CQ100. The basic concept is you download some software, fire it up, and you can talk to other hams all over the world, not using the aether but rather Ethernet. The website studio audience response was quite predictable as this is an even worse heresy than Echolink. Echolink most of the time uses amateur radio over-the-air frequencies at some point, but this virtual amateur radio doesn't. The usual debate over what's real radio ensued. Lather, rinse, repeat....can we move on to a fresh topic that hasn't been beaten to death like abortion or gun control?

Over at QRZ

where war was recently declared on trolls, the "it's not radio" sniping remains in effect in signatures and avatars.

One prominent poster has an avatar with the word "Echolink" and a red slash through it.

Another poster had an avatar with "microphone + computer NO!, microphone + radio YES!".

Recently I've been using Morse Runner to practice my contest exchange. It seems so real, simulating pileups, QRM, QRN, fading, LIDs....essentially the whole nine yards. It's fake but it seems so real, so much so that I get upset when I'm not working the pileup well, thinking that the other virtual ops are getting angry at me. I have to admit that I find myself enjoying it so much that I get my contest "fix" in a short amount of time.

In this day and age where amateur radio is struggling to attract members in a world that has largely passed it by in technology, while the Titanic is sinking the people who ate steak for dinner are still in the dining room making fun of the "poor saps" who had veggie burgers. These virtual amateur radio systems are indeed fake. But who cares?

To adapt a statement I read in a political blog regarding a political party, we need to stop hunting heretics and we need to be looking for converts. "Is it real amateur radio?" shouldn't be the question, we should ask if people are having fun with it and how can we get them on the air. Having these discussions in forums where purists and curmudgeons duke it out over how their version and vision of amateur radio is more hammy than everyone else's version doesn't help our cause and just turns people off.

Much like the "Are they real?" question in the club, the real amateur radio debate is pointless. They're there, they are as real as one is going to see.... just sit back and enjoy. If you're not going to enjoy it and you're going to analyze it to death, go to another club and don't wreck the fun we're having here.

In Defense of the Cookie-Cutter QSO

These days I tend to listen to the radio at night rather than engaging in QSOs while I'm doing other things like answering email or building something in the workshop. For the longest time I was listening to the AMers on 80 meters but recently became tired of the repetitive complaining about "slop bucket" closing in on them and the other quirky "AMisms" unique to this group. I began to see the darker/stranger side of the AM group, with the tin foil hat hermits going into political rants and Orwellian scenarios. I've also had some lingering technical questions about the AM group. Some are operating way too wide, and I would bet money that several are running power way over the legal limit.

One night I was tuning around 80 and stumbled upon the Marconi Net. I had ran across them before but hadn't really given them much listening time. It sounded like a decent net, claiming to be more intelligent discussion and, interestingly enough, "legendary". I tuned in the next few nights expecting more thoughtful discussion but after the opening monologue heard partisan political sniping, endless complaining about the AMers, jammers QRMing the net, and diatribes about jammers and how you should ignore them. Meanwhile rather loud jammers would play adult film audio, play animal sounds, or make comedic quips in background. Puzzlingly, this group complains about the AMers drifting into their net frequency and the AMers complain that the legendary Marconi Net drifting into their frequency. There must be some anomaly in the time-space continuum that causes doppler shift of signals on both frequencies causing them to collide.

The legendary (as the net control will remind everyone frequently) Marconi Net claims on their web pages to be non-adversarial, yet their net as far as I can tell is mostly adversarial. They're in a continual war with AMers and jammers. The net control directs everyone to ignore the jammers but then attempts to call them out by callsign and occasionally taunts them. Browsing the net's list of web links at their group website you see the typical ham links you would expect and some topical links likely resulting from discussions, but then there are a slew of political pundit links, indicating an obvious political slant to the net. However, to their defense they don't call the net "fair and balanced" (insert emoticon here). But the net at times essentially resembles a certain news network-type talk show without the female eye candy. Much like the Puritans left England to escape religious persecution only to implement persecution here in the New World, the legendary Marconi Net escapes inane roundtables only to create another one. I doubt Marconi would want his name associated with this net.

As much as I complain about mindless cookie-cutter CW QSOs, it seems the more I hear amateurs talking on the air, the less I want to hear. Perhaps it's better to just know someone's name, rig, antenna, and meds and not their infallible religious beliefs, conspiracy theories, or regurgitated broadcast radio pundit material.

Problems are Fixable, for Those Who Want to Fix Them.

Fred Lloyd, the founder of QRZ.com, has announced that he will no longer tolerate trolls and will ban first time offenders for 90 days and repeat offenders will be permanently banned. This is definitely a step in the right direction and hopefully Fred can pull it off without amateur lawyers threatening lawsuits and a backlash from the troll establishment that has been allowed to flourish for years.

Of course, the obligatory First Amendment arguments cropped up shortly after the announcement. Some folks think the First Amendment gives them the right to say anything anywhere. Not so. It disallows the government from passing laws that infringe on your free speech; it says nothing of free speech in private venues and forums.

I think the QRZ moderators have their work cut out for them. The definition of trolling is quite subjective and up for interpretation. Some people are going to try to muddy the waters with endless hot air filled arguments about what is and what isn't trolling. I have a simple let's-cut-through-the-BS litmus test for what should be allowed:

• Is the post in question beneficial to amateur radio?

• Is the post related to amateur radio?

• Are the claims, opinions, or information in the posting credible, reasonable, and/or logical?

• Is the post consistent with the spirit of amateur radio?

If the moderators can't answer "yes" to at least two of these questions, the material isn't suitable for an amateur radio forum. Note that if this test is applied to all material at the site, the political forums should be gone and numerous avatars and signatures need to go.

Ironically, this clamp down at QRZ.com will likely be a boon to eHam's web counters as moderation there is as common as ice fishing in Florida, and QRZ refugees will undoubtedly end up there. However, (puzzlingly) the moderators there have indicated that they would like URLs to who is causing the problems in their forums. I have a URL they should check... eham.net .

Problems are fixable.... for those who want to fix them.

Is it Possible to Create an Amateur Radio Internet Utopia?

To anyone who reads this blog regularly it comes as no surprise that I'm dismayed with the state of our Internet forums. What I consider the two main general topic amateur radio forums, QRZ.com and eHam.net, eHam has become a veritable landfill and QRZ drifts into that territory frequently though is admittedly better than eHam. This appears to be mostly due to lackadaisical or non-existent moderation over the years. As the jerks and trolls are allowed to rule the roost, the intelligent people give up after awhile and leave, creating a sort of Dead Sea effect. Also, it seems to me that participation in these forums is declining. I don't have hardcore data to support this, so it's just an impression or perception on my part. Both of these forums have some "gem" articles ocassionally, but unfortunately the negative tends to drown that out.

Blogging to me has become an escape from that world, though it's not a direct replacement. In blogging I think you tend to develop a community that has the same "groupthink" and new ideas aren't necessarily introduced or cultivated within the group. Though I can argue this the other way as sometimes we get blog-to-blog responses and little mini-battles between blogs.... occasionally :-) . You can get blog trolls as well, though I haven't seen much of that in amateur radio blogs I frequent.

I think all in all the Internet has been good for amateur radio from a technical standpoint. There are tons of technical resources and projects. Most well-moderated special interest reflectors are of value and the Internet has enabled or extended some of our technologies like APRS and IRLP. Unfortunately, in my opinion, we've done a lousy job with general amateur radio forums and it's sad because this could be one of the entry points into amateur radio for people in the general public who are curious about what amateur radio is. Considering that the general public probably knows the least about amateur radio than ever and those who do often have a negative or antiquated impression of it, it's more important than ever to have a good Internet presence.

One of the forums that I regularly visit for one of my other hobbies has the best forums that I've ever seen in my 20 years of being online. People are friendly and act like adults. Discussions are civilized, informative and enjoyable to read. There's a sense of brotherhood. Newbies are welcomed. Posters who insult others disappear quietly along with their vitriolic postings. Discussion of politics or religion are squashed. "Name and shame" of companies or organizations is not permitted. Basically they have a good set of basic common sense rules, and a good team of moderators who have a set of balls... something clearly lacking in our major forums. This forum is international and garners some major traffic.

I've been debating for awhile whether to start a new amateur radio forum site, though I'm uncertain whether it's worth the hassle. I don't want to make a profit on it, though I would probably sell banner advertising or take donations to cover hosting costs. Right off the bat, anonymous posters would be prohibited. There would be some sort of authentication process to insure that members are licensed. Non-hams would be allowed to get accounts after their identity was authenticated and they would use their real names or we'd give them some "ham-in-training" callsign. A quick Google search would be performed on each applicant, looking mainly for amateur radio forum and reflector postings. Anyone who has been a jerk is simply denied membership. If you've been fined by the FCC, you're out. Written a troll article that Eham mindless published? Denied. Threatened to sue someone or played the "I'm an attorney" card? Out. You're a know-it-all professor who has 20 antenna patents, but everywhere you go you've made people want to run you down with a steamroller? No membership for you. Needlessly inserted politics or religion into conversations, continually use amateur radio to stroke your ego, stirred up mode warfare, or insulted new hams? No thanks, we don't need you -- you can stay on one of the other forums you frequent.

I think I could build a real good forum though starting a forum and getting participation early on is the hardest part and getting good content is a key to this. News articles are fairly easy to come by, however the site can't become a mirror of the ARRL website and drown out unique content (like this site). The site needs to capture the adventurous spirit of amateur radio and it needs a fresh and modern look and feel, one that would make someone want to dive in and learn more. We need to make it sexy, but not HamSexy.

I think WorldRadio could have successfully transformed into such a web portal in their transition from a paper publication to the so-called "online" format as they already had the content, the authors, the readers, and the advertisers to pull it off. Could ARRL create such a portal? I think they have the resources to do it, but I really think it needs to be independent of ARRL as we don't want amateur radio to be viewed as a "one horse" organization hobby. Furthermore, the ARRL is in a "damned if does, damned if it doesn't" situation with public forums and moderation.

I'm curious of the thoughts of others in amateur radio blogademia. I'm sure there are others out there who have thought about starting a new forum.

Mischellany

I've had writer's block lately as far as amateur radio topics go. I have about 30 potential articles in my drafts area, but I can't seem to get any developed into something that I would be willing to see the light of day. (Do other bloggers out there in amateur radio blogademia do that?)

So, lacking a good amateur radio topic that would produce my normal size article, here are some bite size ramblings about things both amateur radio and not-so-amateur-radio....

Sunspots...or the lack thereof. Stay calm everyone. Yea, we should have seen some by now but we're not in a Mauder Minimum yet, or at least not far enough along to declare one. If we do head into a minimum, so what I say. This is what amateur radio is about - dealing with whatever is thrown at you and communicating. Sometimes the challenge is a small lot that is unfriendly to antennas. Sometimes it's antenna restrictions. Noisy XYLs. Lightning strikes. This time the sun may be throwing us a curve ball. In any case, think of how scientifically historic of a time it will be. Want to still have fun? Go to six meters; it's going to be Sporadic E season soon.

I wish more folks would listen to NPR (National Public Radio) rather than watch biased news sources like Fox or MSNBC or political pundits who lately have been going off the deep end. I just can't get over the quality of programming at NPR. In a sea of bad radio stations, NPR is a shining star. They can take the driest topic and make the most interesting 10 minute report that has you riveted to the radio. They have the most thorough reports I've ever listened to and are the antithesis of the sound bite reporting seen on other networks. Occasionally they do have a report with a liberal slant, but it's not a liberal propaganda haven like some would like to believe. And I've seen them report on some conservative topics quite well, the most often cited one being the Newt Gingrich report. For true excellence in broadcasting, check out the lower end of your FM radio dial and find your local NPR station. You'll be amazed.

If you haven't heard about the Swine Flu you're probably living in a cave. This one has me concerned. I doubt Mexico is going to manage this properly, both in containing it and properly discovering and reporting the extent of it. Potential pandemics lead me into other thoughts. The Earth is overpopulated. We travel too much. But there is one simple thing you can do: wash your hands for 20 seconds several times a day. I'm amazed in this day an age how many men I see in restrooms who don't wash their hands and just walk out the door.

I recently upgraded to Microsoft Office 2007 on my work machine. Yea, I know I'm a bit late on the scene. Even though I'm in IT, I tend to stay slightly behind in order to get more reliability and security in software. I can't believe how badly Microsoft dorked up this product. The ribbon thing goes totally against standard Windows user interface standards and it takes too much brain power and time to find what you want. And for some reason the main Outlook window doesn't use the ribbon; every other Office program and child window of Outlook uses them, and you can't get rid of it. I've spent about three hours so far customizing the QuickAccess toolbar to get everything I need. The ribbon thingy is an abomination. It's not scalable. Microsoft put another nail in their coffin. Watch out, here comes Google Apps. I predict Google will release an OS within the next two years.

The United States is one of the good guys because of what we do, not because we are the United States. The bad guys torture. If we torture, we become one of the bad guys, plain and simple. Add torture and some theocracy to the US and you have another state like one of those evil Middle Eastern countries. Let's stop kidding ourselves and using ephemisms like enhanced interrogation techniques. It is what it is. I don't care if it is more effective at extracting information. Ponsi schemes are more effective at generating money than real investing and they're easier. But it's unethical and illegal. So is torture. The US wasn't built on taking the low road or the easy road.

I am not K3NG on Myspace (link not provided...search MySpace and click on the profile of the dude with a hat, sunglasses, and 5 o'oclock shadow from three days ago). I can't figure out why a 35 year old guy with children has pictures of slutty naked women on a web page. Furthermore, I like real hip hop...you know, the music that was made by two guys on the street with two turntables and a microphone, not five thugs with no talent and a few million dollars of promotion, like this MySpace K3NG seems to like. And MySpace is like so five minutes ago. Has-beens are on MySpace, the dudes who are keeping it real are on Facebook. No wait, that's passe....Twitter is where you want to be. Me? You can find me on telnet. IP and port to be announced later.

G3XBM wrote a nice little article on the Quaker News. I've been studying the Quakers for a few months now. It's hard to quantify just what Quakerism is as it has no creed or official holy book. They basically believe that God is within us all and we all can receive revelation if we are open to it. The Quakers are universalists, believing that there is no particular one way to God. The more conservative Quaker groups tend to be more Biblical universalists while the liberal groups resemble religious universalists. If you're interested in a different approach to religion or would just like to learn more about Quakerism, I suggest you read A Quaker Book of Wisdom by Robert Lawrence Smith.

I'm a moderate Pennsylvanian Democrat. I voted for Arlen Specter in several elections when he was a Republican. I voted for the candidate, not the party. I will continue to vote for the candidate. Watch for the words traitor and failure to be thrown around in the coming days and weeks. Can you say alienation of moderates?

My next amateur radio project? I think I'm going to build this spify little SDR radio...

Back to you. de K3NG

Amateur Radio and Earth Day

Today is Earth Day in case you hadn't heard. I didn't get to celebrate, other than going to my daughter's Earth Day chorus concert at school. But it got me thinking about one little good thing we do for the Earth - recycling electronics. I love to unsolder parts from old circuit boards and make rigs. I'm a pack rat and have several boxes of old stuff, like old TVs, AM/FM radios, CBs, clock radios, microwave radios, etc. It's a joy making rigs out of this stuff, it saves money, and it keeps stuff out of the landfills.

Do your part for the Earth, recycle....make rigs out of old stuff. (And while you're at it, save energy and run QRP!! :-)

Happy Earth Day!

There Weren't Rumors of My Death to Begin With

WorldRadio this month has a new column for the FISTS club. In their first article entitled "Rumors of my Death have been Greatly Exaggerated" they present a case backed up with statistics and recent observations that CW isn't dying after all. The "money shot" quote that sums it all up:

...the use of CW on the amateur bands did not depend on proficiency tests. Passing a CW test did not make operators continue to use it year after year. Once an operator passed CW tests, he was free to use whatever mode he wished. Some, of course after testing, never used CW again."

This is exactly what proponents of eliminating the code test were saying would happen before the code test was eliminated. The conclusion above doesn't quite agree with what a FISTS official said back in 2007:

“People are basically lazy and don’t want to do what they don’t have to do….the chances of them trying [CW] are slim to none.”...

FISTS lobbied to keep the code test, and it was common for code test proponents to accuse those in favor of eliminating the code test of wanting to eliminate code altogether. There are people today still commenting/lamenting about the "anti-CW" movement, though I have yet to find a ham who is actually anti-CW.

Perhaps this revelation that the CW test and CW usage are two totally different things will finally reach some folks....

...can I get an Amen over here?

BPL, It's Not Dead, But It Sure Smells Funky... Part III

One of the first commercial Broadband Over Powerline systems installed in 2002 in Manassas, VA is still running despite the service provider pulling out a few years ago. The municipality is still running it, but according to this Washington Past article, they are attempting to determine whether it's a worthy investment going forward. Currently the system supports about 670 customers at $25 monthly recurring revenue. The municipality intends on spending $77,500 to keep the system running until June 30th. Doing some back of napkin math, that's $38.55 per customer per month. Apparently the system still isn't cash flow positive after nearly six years in operation. Hmmmmm.

Manassas was one of the showcase BPL systems that then FCC Chairman Michael Powell visited creating a media event that launched BPL into the broadband spotlight. Several radio amateurs attempted to show him the interference from the system at the time but were unsuccessful in garnering an audience. The FCC went into full cheerleader mode afterwards and a three year BPL marketing blitz ensued. Manassas amateurs went through several rounds of field measurements and had to debunk several reports and filings from the BPL equipment vendor and service operator, which made the system one of the more notorious and high profile interference cases.

Save Phone!

The latest news from CQ Magazine, paradoxically reported on both eHam and QRZ but not on CQ's own website, is that for the first time in 20 years the number of CW logs submitted for the CQ World Wide DX Contest has exceeded the number of phone logs. This, my friends, is a clear indication that phone operation in amateur radio is dying. We need to do something about it.

One major problem that I see is that we don't test for phone operating skill anymore. Today's amateurs are lazy. They're not going to try phone operation unless you force them to do it. You need to test for it so they get proficient at it and want to use it.

Phone operation always works; everyone has mouths and can speak. It's fun to operate phone, you just need to pick up a microphone and give it a try. Everyone says phone is hard, but there are two year olds who have learned to speak. Phone operation is more efficient than CW. What takes minutes to be sent in CW can be spoke in seconds with phone. Many people send and receive CW with a computer. You don't need a computer to operate phone. Need I go on about the benefits and superiority of phone?

We can't let the anti-phone forces within amateur radio win. These people hate phone operation, so much so that many of them often operate 100% CW. Some are too lazy to even unpack the microphone from the box their rigs came in. Some companies cater to this perverse extremist group by selling CW only rigs. Even ARRL has been infected by the anti-phone movement.

Folks, do your part and fight this anti-phone insanity that is threatening to destroy amateur radio. Return amateur radio to its roots and keep the phone mode alive! Operate phone in the next contest. Preserve phone operation by getting on the air and ragchewing on phone, even if it means talking about your medical ailments or how you memorized the serial number of your rig. Boycott anti-phone contests that allow only digital modes, or (gasp) CW. Shout down those lazy shmucks who want to outlaw phone operation by eliminating phone mode questions in FCC tests. Tell anti-phone organizations that you support our right to operate phone. We need to move quickly, otherwise amateur radio and all that is good and wholesome will be destroyed.

Photo credit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Microphone_U87.jpg

Grounds and Lightning: Often Misunderstood Stuff

Lightning and grounds seem to be one of the most misunderstood topics in amateur radio. Eham for once actually has a good article on grounding. I agree with most of the article, except for the part where the author seems to imply that 3:1 SWR which is 25% reflected power means 25% loss of signal, but otherwise he's spot on. Here are some of the key points from the article and some of my own that I've been preaching over the years:

Safety grounds and RF grounds are two different things. You should have a safety ground, though these days in a typical shack with modern equipment a three prong plug will usually suffice.

RF grounds at the station operator position can be difficult to accomplish and are usually the wrong solution for whatever they are being used to fix. Thirty feet of #6 wire and an eight foot ground rod is not a good RF ground. Larger diameter wire doesn't make a ground a better RF ground. If you really need an RF ground at your operating position, you probably have bigger problems that you need to address. "RF hot" mikes indicate a problem with RF coming back on your feedline or an antenna too close to the operating position. If you're using a random wire or some other antenna that needs an RF ground, do one at the antenna feedpoint or just do a ground counterpoise.

A good ground will not prevent lightning strikes. I remember hearing a 20 WPM old codger Extra who was conducting a meeting program on grounding and lightning say that his station was never hit by lightning due to his good grounding system. This is total bunk and anytime you hear this from anyone it's an immediate sign that they don't know what in the world they are talking about. Lightning jumps several thousand feet from the cloud to ground (actually it's usually a two step process from ground to cloud and then the main strike from cloud to ground). The resistance of your ground system is infinitesimally small in this equation and can't encourage or discourage a strike. A good ground system can prevent damage by steering the current to earth ground and keeping all equipment at the same potential, but it can't prevent a strike.

Grounded equipment can get fried. I've seen this throughout my professional career in wireless. I've seen perfectly grounded equipment get totally fried and awfully grounded equipment come through fine. At sites with bad grounding systems it's often better to just leave equipment ungrounded and floating, if the equipment is only connected to antennas on the tower and not other connections like telco lines. I've seen a lot of gear get fried from nasty stuff coming in telephone POTS lines and T1s. Lightning strikes themselves don't do the damage directly, it's the difference in potential between ports on equipment that fries it.

A common ground point can lessen or cure RFI in the shack. I've noticed in a few shacks that just having a common ground between the computer, rigs, power supplies, and tuner can lessen or stop RFI from computers. It didn't matter whether the ground was connected to an earth ground or the building ground system.

Get Ready For Field Day

With a little more than two months until Field Day, now is the time to start planning for your club Field Day if you haven't started yet. Here are some ideas for Field Day success:

Appoint a Field Day Coordinator. This person should be the point man (or woman) for all planning and operations. The Coordinator makes final decisions on matters and makes sure that no one is left out of the fun.

Pick a location that is a good compromise between good radio propagation and public access. Location is especially important if you intend on operating VHF or UHF, but also consider members who may not be able to access a remote site and the general public who may visit.

Plan your setup ahead of time. It’s a good idea for several club members to visit the site ahead of time and determine antenna placement, operator positions, etc.

Accommodate both the hardcore contesters and casual operators. This is often difficult to do, but a good Field Day Coordinator can schedule operators so the “high scoring” operators are on the right bands at the right time, while getting the casual operators or less experienced hams on slower bands so that everyone gets to operate.

Have a meeting before Field Day to demonstrate the equipment and software that will be used during the event. Conduct a brief discussion on setup and scoring, and do practice QSOs to get people familiar with the exchange and equipment. Have computers running the logging program that you have selected.

Grounding, grounding, grounding! Ground everything, including computers. This will prevent a lot of RFI problems.

Safety first! Instruct your operators on how to gas up generators and disconnect power systems. Provide hand and eye protection where needed and don’t forget about warning signage.

Planning food and sleeping quarters is just as important as antennas and rigs! People spend more time socializing and eating than operating at Field Day. Make sure you have good food and enough of it, and you’ll get more people to your event. Sleeping quarters are important for your overnight operators.

Don’t forget about new members or people who may be interested in your club who would like to stop by and operate. Appoint several personable members to be the “welcoming committee” for people who stop by and to assist newer, less experienced hams on how to operate.

“Ride shotgun” with other operators. Often there’s someone who doesn’t operate CW, but is interested in seeing how it’s done. Bring headphone Y adapters and let them listen in while you work CW. Some people may want to operate, but don’t want to run the logging computer. Team up and let them operate and you log.

Take pictures and post them on your club website and do a slide show at next year’s Field Day preparation meeting.

Signage. Have easy to read and eye-catching signage pointing to your Field Day location. Signs along the road should have no more than seven words.

Things you can’t forget or never seem to have enough of: first aid kit, extension cords, fans, headphones, audio adapters, pens and paper, rope, tools, chairs, and duct tape.

Reward your Field Day Coordinator after the event (and the cook, too!). Coordinating Field Day can often be a stressful and thankless job. Show your appreciation for a job well done.

Remember, Field Day is not just a contest, a social event, an emcomm exercise, a camp out, or a cookout. It's all of these and it's fun.

It's the End of the World As We Know It

...and I feel fine. Or so goes the catchy song from R.E.M.

This NewScientist article about what will happen if the sun decides to belch an unusually large amount of plasma our way at the wrong time has been circulating in amateur radio circles the past two weeks. I first saw it on a six meter aficionado reflector. Immediately someone wrongly assumed that the potential disaster was EMP caused, and of course the obligatory discussion of the virtues of vacuum tube transmitters over solid state due to EMP immunity ensued. And then like clockwork, someone posted how CW would be better than all the digital modes since most computers would be disabled, but alas, there is a lack of skilled CW operators these days so it was determined that phone operation would "have to suffice." Luckily the thread died down before the potential solar event could be blamed on a political party or the dangers of it could be downplayed as an effort to destroy capitalism and install a world government.

The dangers from the sun spewing plasma are real, but aren't anything new. These events cause geomagnetic disturbances which in turn can cause large DC currents in power networks. The currents cause heating and destruction of network components; this phenomenon occurs more frequently in northern latitudes. If several failures occur in a power grid network it can cause a cascading effect resulting in a widespread blackout. It can take a long time to recover from this as it is difficult to synchronize and bring generation facilities and network interconnects back online.

Naturally, with widespread blackouts the communications infrastructure could fall apart. Cell sites usually have battery backup ranging from 20 minutes to several hours. Many sites have generators with fuel capacities of a few days to a week or two. Mobile telephone switching offices and landline telephone switching offices most always have large battery banks lasting several hours and generator fuel for several weeks.

Obviously this is all of interest to amateur radio as we could provide emergency communications, but it brings up a rather bleak scenario of a blackout over a much more widespread area, perhaps the whole northern US and Canada. It's one thing to send "The family is OK" messages from a Red Cross shelter in a disaster area the size of Rhode Island, but a large multi-region disaster is a whole different story.

I was reading a commentary somewhere, either in QST or Worldradio Paperless Reloaded Edition (now with Adobe Technology), about how the National Traffic System is essentially on life support. And understandably so. It's somewhat like those antique engines on display that you see at the county fair each year. They're fun to run and watch in action, but they just sit there and pump water out of a bucket and back in. Quaint, but noisy. I've wanted to get involved in the NTS several times over the past five or six years, but it just seems futile. The messages you hear come through are mundane happy birthday or "don't forget to renew your license" messages, though much like the question of how would you test an Internet SMTP mail system, I guess this is all you can really do until a real disaster hits. Needless to say it's difficult to hold the interest of many people with NTS today. I think NTS participation also suffers from amateurs lacking the time these days to participate in organized events. I think club participation across the board is down and amateurs are just less inclined to commit to something like NTS that requires a lot of time on a regular basis.

On the technology side it would seem that the NTS really should be transformed into an electronic email system, like the Internet. The obvious answer would be Winlink, but I think it's the wrong answer. I don't often criticize the ARRL, but I think the decision to support Winlink was the biggest "screw the pooch" move they have made in recent years. The system is centralized, lacks openness, is (in my opinion) needlessly complex, is Windows-centric, and the de facto protocol used on HF is proprietary (although development of a new open protocol is underway). We need HF email that can be activated on an ad hoc basis on any OS. Going back to the argument that NTS is suffering from a lack of amateurs being able to commit regular time, any traffic system going forward needs to be decentralized, not require continual care and feeding, and it needs to be "sleeper cell" based. The PSKmail system is much more suited for this type of operation, but unfortunately it still seems to be under everyone's radar and development is going a bit slow.

I know I've really gone on a tangent with this article, but could we respond to a large scale disaster like the scenario in the article? Is NTS up to the challenge? Is Winlink the right or wrong solution? I'm curious to hear your thoughts.

Now Where Did All That Hertz Go?

ARRL reported several days ago about the introduction of a bill called the Radio Spectrum Inventory Act. The bill would mandate an inventory of radio spectrum mismanaged, errr I mean managed by the FCC and NTIA, from 300 Mhz to 3.5 Ghz, and would create a public website portal of the spectrum inventory. Apparently everyone forgot about the FCC Universal Licensing System , though arguably it seems the NTIA's spectrum is often in an unaccounted for "black box". But the bill is just that, a bill at this point, so there's no need to get worried just yet. However, in the coming days watch for tin foil hat and black helicopter conspiracy theories on various alleged amateur radio websites about the pending demise of 40m CW or the ARRL potentially benefitting from a wholesale amateur radio spectrum sale, despite the inventory not involving any HF spectrum and ARRL not having anything to do with the bill. Not that anyone in amateur radio has formulated such theories before... :-)

But old buzzard conspiracy theories aside, I think there are two, perhaps three potential outcomes of this inventory. One obvious one is that it's an attempt to find more spectrum suitable for auctioning. Past spectrum auctions have been quite profitable and America's appetite for mobile wireless bandwidth is insatiable. Another result may be more whitespace type initiatives. The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) has had UHF TV whitespace proponents niping at their heals for some time now; expect similiar battles with spectrum licensees.

The bill doesn't make mention about the actual usage of the spectrum, only its allocation. If the inventory happens and actual usage is measured I think we're going to see a lot of questions about our spectrum, especially 440.

One thing that worries me is that this inventory will renew talk from those in the Open Spectrum camp. These folks have rather nice-looking-on-the-surface-and-on-paper ideas, perhaps with good intentions, often based on Open Source Software movement experience and ideals. The basic idea is that spectrum can be shared by intelligent devices and used more efficiently. The more radical are pushing for an elimination of all regulation, disbanding of the FCC, and a complete anarchy from DC to daylight. ( {cynical} After all, if it works for software and TCP/IP networks like the Internet, why not the wireless spectrum?) It seems most of these people have limited wireless experience, probably consisting of unlicensed WiFi, which is great for what it was intended for but hardly takes into account the needs of other services like broadcast and emergency two-way services. Others are just politically motivated, prefering total deregulation regardless of the implications. Hopefully these folks won't gain a foothold with our often technology-challenged politicians. We need those experienced in wireless communications and engineering, and not purely IT and the Internet determining our spectrum policy.

Amateur Radio and Homeowners' Associations

I'm at loss why radio amateurs are so up-in-arms about Homeowners' Associations or HOAs. When my wife and I purchased our first home years ago we had several criteria, and one of them was that the home was not part of an HOA. We satisfied that criteria and I have a 40' tower in my backyard on a one acre lot with a beautiful view in the country.

HOAs are a legal agreement. If you enter into an agreement, you are bound to it. They were created to insure a certain atmosphere or environment in neighborhoods to maintain quality and property values. The majority of the residents involved in the HOA should determine the rules. If the majority doesn't want antennas, that's what the HOA doesn't want. As a radio amateur, one can choose whether or not they want to participate in an HOA.

Some argue that there are areas of the country in which HOAs are virtually unavoidable. I find this hard to believe, but if it's true, they need to move to another part of the country. I like to ice fish. I'm not going to ice fish if I live in most any state in the lower 2/3 of the continental US. That's the way it is and there is nothing I can do to change that. Furthermore, if I want to shoot my rifles or raise cattle, I can't do that on my one acre lot. That's a choice I made with the purchase of the property.

I think some believe that they have special privileges as radio amateurs as they could provide emergency communications. This is living in the past. Amateur radio can certainly provide emergency communications in a time of need, but those instances are few and far between and it can't be argued today that amateur radio is crucial to any emergency agency disaster plan.

We need to put an end to the anti-HOA rhetoric in amateur radio. Homeowners' Associations are what they are and we look silly when we challenge something that is clearly a legal arrangement that we each personally choose whether or not we want to participate in. If you're in an HOA that restricts antennas, you need to view it as a technical challenge and not a legal challenge. Get clever and experiment with stealth antennas. Don't pretend it's the 1950s and your shack is the neighborhood NORAD center. Don't give the locals a bad impression of amateur radio. Be an amateur radio operator and not an amateur lawyer. Work within the limits, seize the amateur spirit and overcome the technical obstacle before you.

Just What Is the "Dumbing Down" of Amateur Radio?

ARRL reported on the FCC denial of the KI4NGN petition requesting the amateur radio testing question pool be increased from 10 times the number of questions on tests to 50 times the number of questions. The reasoning behind the request was that examinees have been memorizing questions which is producing amateurs who don't have the knowledge for their class of license. The "dumbing down" of amateur radio was cited as an issue.

I'll admit that when I prepared for my Extra class license in 1999, I memorized questions by taking the test over and over again using an online test website. I'm sure a lot of people do it. But I don't think it really mattered because most of what I learned for amateur radio came from my schooling in electronics and communications in college, training in my professional life, interacting with people in my local club, and just by reading at my own leisure when I became interested in a particular topic. A lot of the higher level technical skill I gained has come after I passed my Extra.

I consider "dumbing down" a rather ignorant and insulting term. I first heard the term listening to conservative talk radio here in the US. I think dumbing down means different things to different radio amateurs who use the term. The I-do-100%-code/any-other-mode-is-evil people think it means anyone who hasn't passed a CW test. The DXers consider it to mean people who can't figure out how to operate split. Some contesters consider it anyone who wants to ragchew in the middle of the band during Sweepstakes.

Technical requirements have undoubtedly changed over time. In the 1950s amateur radio went from being viewed by the general public as a national emergency communications system and state-of-the-art technology sandbox that was well respected to just another hobbyist activity. Some of this was the changing times as technology passed amateur radio by and some of it was amateur radio's doing, living in the 1940s which had long since passed. It wasn't really dumbing down, the landscape and environment around amateur radio had changed, which in turn changed the qualifications needed to become a licensee.

The FCC, in its typical cold, objective, matter-of-fact style, rejected the dumbing down argument as testing is merely to determine if the applicant has the qualifications to run a station. This presents an interesting question though: what more qualifications are needed to run a station as an Extra versus a General, or a General versus a Technician? I would have to say little to none. There are not really any more qualifications required to operate on the bottom 25 Khz of 40 meters than there is in the rest of the band. If someone is going to electrocute themselves or fry their gonads with RF, an Extra can do it just as easy as a Technician. No number of exam questions or the elimination of memorization is going to change that.

There are varying levels of technical knowledge-equiped amateurs within amateur radio, but by and large I don't think it's related in any way to license class or tests. Due to my professional background in electronics and communications, I have more technical knowledge than a lot of amateurs I meet. However, I've met several amateurs who have their double EE degree who can run circles around me. Some EE elitists may look down upon me and others for our lack of knowledge, but one has to ask, is such knowledge really needed to operate an amateur radio station?

If we look at some of the biggest jerks and idiots on the air and in the amateur radio world on the Internet, some of them have outstanding technical qualifications. I can think of one infamous amateur (who I won't name here) who has his PhD in Physics and holds several patents. The guy is the lowest life form on the planet when on Internet forums and as far as I am concerned is useless to amateur radio. But he can pass any technical test you can throw at him.

If I tune across the 80 meter phone band at night, there are some real dim bulbs. I'm tempted to enumerate some of them I've come across, but let's just say you can find a lot of people who are racist, lack any business knowledge, don't know what they are talking about when it comes to politics, or they're just stuck in the 1950s when it comes to their view of amateur radio. No amount of testing can prevent this element from getting into radio. As Ron White says, "you can't fix stupid."

I think all of this illustrates the stupidity of the "dumbing down" claim by some in amateur radio. Some would like to raise the technical bar higher than it currently is. But like it or not, there really isn't a whole lot of technical knowledge needed to run a station this days. It's not 1920 and you don't have to make your own rotary spark gap transmitter or make your own condensors. Any knowledge beyond the basics doesn't mean one is going to be a better operator. Having highly technically skilled hams doesn't mean a thing if they are social morons. If we raise the bar higher it will certainly reduce our numbers, and one has to ask what purpose it would serve. It's not like the general public is breaking down our door to get trained engineers or communications specialists like they did in WWII.

We need to recognize the "dumbing down" claim for what it is. It's a divisive, inflamatory term for people who are hung up on classifying who is better than who or those who are upset over changing testing requirements over the years. It's for those who are living in the past and for those who don't have a grasp of the reality outside of amateur radio.

What's Your Myers-Briggs Type Indicator?

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is an interesting tool for identifying personality traits. It summarizes your tendancies with four letters:

I - Introvert / E - Extrovert

S - Sensing / N - Intuitive

T - Thinking / F - Feeling

J - Judging / P - Perceiving

You can take a quick (free) assessment here. More detailed descriptions of the four temperaments and sixteen different profiles are here. No particular profile is right or wrong, superior or weak, they merely describe tendancies. I've found the profiles to be amazingly accurate.

The middle two letters indicate your basic temperment:

ST (sensing, thinking): Guardians

NF (intuitive, feeling): Idealists

SF (sensing, feeling): Artisans

NT (intuitive, thinking): Rationals

I'm curious what profiles other radio amateur operators in blogademia have; please post your four letter profile in the comments. I'm an INTJ or Introverted Intuitive Thinking Judging profile.

Welcome Laura Smith...

Dear Ms. Smith,

Welcome to your new job at the FCC and I hope you enjoy your new digs in Gettysburg.  Here are a few items I would like to mention...

Radio Amateurs tend to be a crusty bunch.  We complain about a lot of things.  A lot of folks will complain about actions you take and ones you don't.  This is to be expected.  You know what is right and what you need to do.  Just do what you think is right and ignore the Monday morning quarterbacks, the cynics, the blowhards and the amateur lawyers.

You're in charge of enforcement for something that is totally unique at the FCC, Amateur Radio.  There's just no other service like it (what other service can use a VFO?), but you know that already.  It has historical significance but beyond being an American and international tradition, it's an opportunity for citizens to do neat things with wireless and communications that otherwise wouldn't be possible.  Your work contributes to the overall image of amateur radio and will help it continue to survive, even beyond your tenure at the FCC.

Riley was good guy; he was one of a kind.  He restored respect to amateur radio enforcement.  However, we don't expect you to be another Riley and fill his shoes.  But you can learn a thing or two from his adventures.  You can bend the rules a bit to get things done.  (Yes, he bent the rules, but that's OK!)  Sometimes you have to crack some eggs to make an omelet.  Sometimes you just need to send a well-worded letter out, even if someone isn't directly breaking a rule but just being a jerk.

Can you see if you can do something about that nutcase up in Canada?  Yea, I know he's over the border and out of your jurisdiction, but the new administration hasn't POed Canada yet, so you may be able to pull some strings.  Fly up to Industry Canada with some Florida oranges and maybe a case of good Kentucky bourbon and I'm sure they'll help you out.  (I'm sure we have some CIA "freedom tickling and intense interrogation" specialists that are looking for some projects....send them up north :-)  After you take care of that nutcase, take care of the other nutcases he's spawned here.

Communicate.  Tell folks what you're doing and why you're doing it.  This was one reason why Riley was so effective.

About getting your license.  I know you want to wait until you pass a code test before you get your license, even though it's not required.  That's admirable, but don't let that stop you.  We know you're going to be busy.  (If you listen to the code folks, they'll tell you all the scofflaws are on phone :-)  )  Anyway, I'm glad you want to get your "ticket".  I hope to "see" you on the air.

Again, congratulations on your new position at the Commission.  I know you'll do well.  Have fun doing it, and we're glad to have you on the job!

Sincerely,

K3NG

Two Years Into No Code Testing: Lessons Learned?

A blog entry by N4KC reminded me that it's now been two years since the elimination of the code test.  As far as I can tell CW is still quite alive and well.  Despite Armageddon-type predictions, amateur radio hasn't been overrun by rabid rule-breaking CBers and everyone didn't throw their keys and paddles in the trash heap in favor of 100% phone operation, or (gasp), a digital mode.  I'm not going to rehash the code test debate; been there, done that, have the tee shirt.  But there's much to be learned by taking a step back and analyzing the debate itself and the outcome of this change.

There are undoubtedly those who are still in opposition to the elimination of the code test who will argue that the code test elimination was a failure since it didn't add large numbers of new amateurs.  It certainly didn't, but I noticed that the rate of new amateurs did increase in the six or so months after the code test elimination.  Unfortunately I don't have historical monthly data available, but I see from AH0A's statistics that we are still growing the net number of amateurs.  We'll never know if we can attribute this to the code test elimination, but undoubtedly it has had some positive effect.  Unfortunately I doubt our monthly net increase in amateurs is going to continue in the coming years due to baby boomer mortality rates.  But in regards to the code test, the "failure due to the lack of growth" argument is largely a straw man created for pro-code test people to attack.

I look back at the FISTS petition against the code test elimination, and one thing that strikes me is that other than their final conclusions and "let's hop into a time machine back to the 1950s" rule change recommendations, it's 100% correct...in regards to what they argued.  FISTS, like so many other FCC petitioners, missed the boat entirely as they argued in favor of CW skill and CW itself as mode.  They didn't get it then and probably still don't get it today that this was never about CW the mode, it was about a test.

So amateur radio wasn't destroyed by the lack of a code test, CW is still as popular as ever, and our numbers, while not growing at exponential rates are stable and on the positive side for now.  Red herrings, irrelevant arguments, and character assassinations of the mythical lazy no-coder lost to logic and common sense.  There's a lesson in there somewhere.

There is undoubtedly going to be more change in the coming years.  I think we'll see proposals for eliminating multiple license classes and I think the FCC will deregulate amateur radio (and HF spectrum in general) to some extent in the coming decade, perhaps giving licensing and policing duties to an external entity.  Who knows what else is coming.  These changes are naturally not going be the same as the code test issue, but we need to learn from this past event that we need to listen to reason and not irellevant arguments and emotion, and not necessarily follow tradition.

A Data-Driven FCC Chairman - Exactly What We Need

FierceTelecom has an interview of Blair Levin who talks briefly about Julius Genachowski, the FCC Chairman nominee, and the challenges facing the FCC .  It sounds like Mr. Genachowski is an excellent candidate with a good head on his shoulders.  One quote that stuck out was "Julius tends to approach problems from a very data-driven way".  Considering the last two chairmen we had, this is a welcome approach and hopefully we'll have less politics and blatant commercial interests driving FCC decisions.

Real Amateurs Know, Live, and Stand Up For the Code

Often in amateur radio we have people who say condescending things or make insensitive, demeaning remarks about other amateurs.  The comments are often relating to an operator's license class, their current skill set, or their lack of skill or interest in a particular operating mode.  While these comments both sadden and anger me, what troubles me the most is when others hear or read such comments in public forums such as club meetings, on the air, or on the Internet, and no one says anything against these negative remarks.  Have we grown so ambivalent or numb to the negativity and the audicity of these people that we can't stand up for the basics tenets that are the foundation of amateur radio?  Or is it perhaps that many agree with these negative comments?

I'm reminded of the Amateurs' Code.  While it's long in the tooth it's just as applicable today as when it was written by Paul M. Segal, W9EEA, in 1928:

The Radio Amateur is

CONSIDERATE...never knowingly operates in such a way as to lessen the pleasure of others.

LOYAL...offers loyalty, encouragement and support to other amateurs, local clubs, and the American Radio Relay League, through which Amateur Radio in the United States is represented nationally and internationally.

PROGRESSIVE...with knowledge abreast of science, a well-built and efficient station and operation above reproach.

FRIENDLY...slow and patient operating when requested; friendly advice and counsel to the beginner; kindly assistance, cooperation and consideration for the interests of others. These are the hallmarks of the amateur spirit.

BALANCED...radio is an avocation, never interfering with duties owed to family, job, school or community.

PATRIOTIC...station and skill always ready for service to country and community.

I have to admit I used to get annoyed when people would remind others of the Code and quote it like Bible scripture.  But we need it more today than ever and we need to not just quote it -- we need to follow it and we need to make our voices be heard when others don't.  Otherwise we might as well consider ourselves just as bad as those who blatantly violate the Code and tarnish our wonderful hobby.

Another Storm of the Century Coming Through

Tonight here in Eastern PA we're awaiting four to six inches of snow.  We have plenty of bread and milk.  I'm not sure why everyone stocks up on bread and milk when bad weather is coming, but I guess it's just human nature.

The storm is coming up the east coast; I'm seeing power outages in various areas down south.  We haven't had a long power outage here in quite awhile.  We used to get a good one every six months or so, but the reliability of electric power has definitely improved over the years at our location.  Call me weird, but I always liked long power outages and the snow that often comes with it.  While everyone likes to run to the store to pick up bread and milk, I like to run my station on battery power and stay in contact with folks.  The last "good" outage we had we ran an all day net on 2 meters.  About six or seven years ago we had an extended power outage over Christmas.  We cooked the Christmas ham on the grill outside, the sides I cooked with a Coleman hiking stove, and the house was heated totally with the woodstove.  It was one of the best Christmas dinners we ever had, at least in my opinion....though my XYL may think differently!

There's something strangely satisfying about not having the usual amenities and finding ways around it.  There's really no need to keep my rigs going during a power outage or have QSOs by candlelight, but there's some sort of victory or sense of accomplishment in being able to operate independent of all outside energy sources and be somewhat isolated yet remain in contact with the outside world.  I guess as radio amateurs we're all a little quirky.  I may be a little quirkier than some...

The Bare Necessities

In this tough economy I've often wondered what is the minimum amount you could spend on a station to get on the air?  Or what if you had to sell most everything in the shack except for the bare minimum?  By "get on the air" or "bare minimum", I don't mean just getting on CW on one HF band.  That's too easy.  You could do that with a few parts scrounged from an old AM/FM radio to build a Pixie or some other minimalist rig.  That would be a fun excercise but you would probably grow tired of a rockbound wide-as-a-barn-door frontend direct conversion receiver rather quickly.  I'm talking about a station that you could operate daily, get your WAS if that's what you want to do, work some DX, and maybe even casually operate a contest.  I would want HF, 6 meter, and 2 meter capability.  440 would be nice as well.  I would have to have CW, phone, and digital capability. 

Here's what I would choose:

Antenna:  60 meter dipole with insulators made out of PVC pipe scraps scrounged from the shed.  Cost: $0 

Feedline:  Homebrew ladder line.  I made some of this a few years ago using 3/8" PVC well pipe cut into four inch pieces and #14 stranded house wire.  The pipe was about $25, though I have plenty of it left.  The spool of wire was perhaps $20.  Scrounging around one can probably do this without any out-of-pocket expense.

Tuner:  Balanced L tuner.  I built one of these with a piece of wood, scrap ground wire from Shadio Rack, two plastic Folgers coffee cans, two switches, and an air variable capacitor from an old tube rig.  The out of pocket cost for me was $0, however if one doesn't have a capacitor, it could get costly.  The more enterprising radio amateur could homebrew a variable cap with tin can pieces and some long screws.  One of these days I'm going to try that.

Rig: I have to pick the Yaesu FT-817.  It does CW and phone on all the bands from 160m to 440 Mhz.  You could probably pick one up on eBay these days for $400 to $475.  There are certainly many other rigs that would fit the bill.  An added bonus with the FT-817 is the rubber duck antenna for VHF and UHF operation and it's portable enough to take hiking and camping and can easily be used mobile.  The receiver isn't the greatest in the world, but it's probably one of the most versatile rigs out there.

Paddle:  Homebrew it!  I would build a paddle out of a ruler and junkbox parts.  Out of pocket cost: $0

Power Supply:  There are many choices here.  You could use batteries and charger from an existing cordless power tool from the workshop, use car battery charger with a battery, or just homebrew one from parts scrounging.

Computer: Asus ePC.  I haven't touched one of these puppies, but I understand they run Linux and it looks like they have soundcards built in.  You could run free open source software like fldigi for digital modes and several logging programs.  Cost: $300

Worked K5D / Testing the YAPI

I was futzing around on 30 meters with my prototype multi-band Pixie I'm calling a YAPI (Yet Another Pixie Implementation) when I by accident found K5D on 10.106 using my FT-897.  I worked him with 5 watts on the third call (using the 897) so now I no longer have the distinction of being the only radio amateur in the free world who hasn't worked K5D on some band or mode.

For some reason the YAPI isn't receiving didly squat for CW on 30m, although it is getting a pay-to-pray station and some foreign broadcaster quite well with its wide-as-a-barn door direct conversion receiver.