Amateur Licensing, VECs, and VEs

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Last week, our own Max (AI7LG) briefed us on how licensing works and especially the history and current operation of the VEC (Volunteer Examiner Coordinator) program.  As a relatively new VE, Max had a great review of the topic and was able to present a lot of useful information.

We tried casting this meeting via Zoom, but had some technical difficulties.  Because of that, we were unable to produce a suitable recording of the meeting.  I will include a link to the slides here, though.  I may be able to sync up the audio to a copy of the slide presentation over the next few days, but I'm not going to promise anything.

Without further ado, here is the link to the presentation slides:  AARG Testing presentation.

One thing to note, Max's VE group, Aurora Amateur Radio Group based in Alaska, is offering FREE remote testing until the end of 2022.  You'll still be on the hook for the FCC fee, but the testing fee is waived until the end of the year.

 

Radio History

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As was mentioned on the last Sunday Net, we received a feedback form on the web site last week from Kathy Ackford, who is a youth services librarian for studymap.org.  Kelly has been using some information from our web site in support of a class she has been teaching 10-14 year old students about radio.

One of Kelly's students, a young man named Dylan, has been doing research on radio along with his father.  He found a link with some great information on the history of car radio.  While this is oriented towards broadcast radio (not amateur radio), it is still quite an interesting read and includes a timeline of how car audio has developed over the decades.

If you are interested, Dylan's link is here:  https://www.titlemax.com/articles/the-history-of-the-car-radio/

Note that I have scanned this link for malware and found it to be clean, but I have not traced all of the links within this page.  Remember your computer security and make sure your browser and system patches are up to date!

 

1.25m Mobile Radio Available

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FYI, Dan (N7XDL) purchased an Alinco 1.25m single band radio from a swapmeet and is willing to sell it for the same price he bought it for... $50.  This is a great radio that will work well on our club repeater and can be used as either a mobile or base station (with a suitable power supply).  It would also make a decent addition to a go-kit setup.

If you are interested in buying this radio from Dan, please contact him directly.  If you need his contact info, use the contact form on the web site and I'll get it to you.

Basic Topics Meeting – 5 May 2022 – Shakeout Followup and Preparedness

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Not your typical meeting on the "Revenge of the Fifth," but some interesting and useful information for our basic topics class this month.  We started with a review of the Shakeout and SAFE Neighborhood programs, along with our analysis of the club's participation in the Shakeout.  We followed up by moving into a discussion on preparedness, including reviewing Murray City Fire Department's resources.  Finally, we finished by watching a video produced by the Bountiful Emergency Preparedness group where they analyzed the Marshall fire in Colorado and discussed what is right and wrong about our emergency kits.  Several really good factors on preparedness were presented.

Here's the recording of the first part of the meeting:

Here's the recording of the Bountiful CERT presentation:

And here are some links as mentioned in the meeting:

Utah Shakeout!

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Once again, it is time for the Great Utah Shakeout!  This annual event is primarily geared towards local government and businesses to talk about, evaluate, and test their response to a large earthquake event.

The event will be taking place on this coming Thursday, 21 April 2022, and the simulated earthquake will happen around 10:15-10:21 AM MDT.

What are we doing as a club?  We have distributed a signup form for people interested in participating in the event, but as it is a work day, a lot of our members will be unable to participate.  Given the lack of interested people, we are just asking people to familiarize themselves with the club eComms Protocol, which details the actions that should be taken in the event of an actual emergency.  If you can, also please visit your S.A.F.E. Neighborhood location (i.e. your local elementary school) and check in with the staff there to make sure they know where their S.A.F.E Neighborhood J.I.T. (Just In Time) kit is, what it's for, and how to access it.  It would also be a good idea to review your own personal 72-hour kit (or check out the recommended items for a 96-hour kit from the S.A.F.E Neighborhood program).

Don't remember what the S.A.F.E. Neighborhood program is?  Review our class on it.

Remember, the action items for Thursday (if you can) are to turn on your radios at 10:15 AM on the 21st.  Tune in to the club repeater at 223.96 MHz (PL 103.5 Hz) or the ARES assigned simplex frequency for Murray City at 147.600 MHz (no tone).  See the eComms Protocol page for details and the standard load channels.  Join the net if there is one in operation or start it if no one else is there.  Some time during the day, visit your S.A.F.E. Neighborhood school and ask them if they know where their J.I.T. kit is and what they are supposed to do with it.  Ask to see it!  Report your findings.

 

Advanced Topics Class – 14 April 2022 – Remote Base Operations

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If you were unable to join us for the meeting on the 14th, you missed out on a great presentation by Gary (KK7DV) on Remote Base radio operations.  Sadly, I forgot to hit the "record" button on the Zoom session, so if you missed it, you really missed it.

Gary talked to us about the remote base setup operated by UARC at Leamington Pass Canyon down near Delta, UT.  He went into the details on the radios and antennas at the site, which is located at an old AT&T microwave relay facility (the microwave horn antennas are still there, although the equipment to use them is long gone).  Gary talked about how the site connects to the internet (via a WiFi shot to a public ISP in Delta) and how the system is supported by a UPS.

After the talk and pictures, it was demo time!  Gary connected to the Leamington system using the RCForb software (see the link for details) and was able to tune around, adjust the beam antenna's direction via a remote controlled rotator, and showed transmitting and receiving on multiple HF bands.  He discussed some modifications that had to be made to the RCForb Server software in order to control the antenna rotator and to add the ability to select three antennas when the radio on site (a Kenwood TS-480) normally only has two antenna inputs.  These modifications were facilitated by the RCForb software developers giving Gary access to the source code for the radio driver so he could add support for the custom hardware that is used to manage the additional antenna.

Gary also runs a remote base radio at his property in the Salt Lake valley, and he demoed that including accessing the Farnsworth 2m repeater and also made a contact with our own Chris (W7CHP) on 146.52 simplex!

Finally, Gary finished up by talking about the WebSDR setup in Corrine, UT (that we have covered in a previous meeting), indicating that these systems are great for exploring what is currently on the air.

Seriously, if you missed this one, you really missed out.  Thanks, Gary, for the guest appearance at MARC!

Basic Topics Class – 7 April 2022 – Introduction to DMR

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Cody (W3AMG) from Bridgecom Systems joined us via Zoom and talked to us about DMR (Digital Mobile Radio).

In the presentation, Chris (W7CHP) mentioned a codeplug, which can be downloaded here:  AnyTone - MARC_878 v1.24 (04_07_2022).rdt (note, this is a zip file... you will need to unzip it after downloading and before importing into your codeplug management software).

You may also be interested in our earlier presentation on DMR here:  Training Class - DMR and an earlier presentation on code plugs here:  Monthly Meeting - DMR CodePlugs.  These presentations were both from 2020.

Advanced Class 10 March 2022, HamSci: Ham Radio Science Citizen Investigation, Measuring the Ionosphere with Amateur Radio

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For our advanced class in March 2022, we took advantage of a very good presentation given by RATPAC.  The presentation was Ham Radio Science Citizen Investigation, Measuring the Ionosphere with Amateur Radio.

In the presentation, given by Dr. Nathaniel A. Frissell (W2NAF), who is a Space Physicist at the University of Scranton.  Dr. Frissell discussed how space weather (by which we mean mostly solar output, flares, sunspots, etc.) affect the ionosphere layers and, by extension, HF communications.  He first showed how existing ham radio resources, the Reverse Beacon Network, WSPRnet, and PSKreporter have been collecting information about propagation of radio waves and the condition of the ionosphere.  He then discussed several projects that are in progress to allow ham radio operators to build/implement and operate their own personal space weather observatories, and how to contribute that information to scientific research.

This was a bit more advanced than many of the topics we have covered, but provided great insight into how the ionosphere works, how HF radio propagation works, and how space weather impacts our communications on the HF bands (and others).

While we did not record the class ourselves, this presentation, and all of the other RATPAC presentations, are available online for your viewing pleasure.  See the links above for more information.