NooElec and AmateurRadio.com have picked the winners of our
June 2017 SDR Receiver Giveaway!

Look to see if your name and callsign appears, and follow directions
below to claim your prize if you’re one of our 30 winners…

Prize Package Winners

Two (2)
NESDR SMArt XTR HF Bundles
(with TCXO upgrade module)

Gayland W9AKW
Stan UA3SAQ

Five (5)
NESDR Nano 2+ ADS-B Bundles

Don N0SUB
Scott AF7IL
Federico IW2MVI
Dwain KB1JLO
Stan W0KP

Five (5)
NESDR Nano 2 ADS-B Bundles

Christos SY2BRK
Don KF4A
Dave KM4OWF
Dick KN7AT
Dean N4AJK

Five (5)
NESDR SMArt and NESDR SMArt XTR Two-Packs

Alan W7ALN
Chab YT7WA
John AC2NZ
Vladimir UT1PG
Dennis ZS4BS

Three (3)
NESDR SMArt XTR bundles with antennas

Dave M0LMN
DeWayne KB9ZJ
Miguel EA7JWDTen (10)
NESDR SMArt XTR SDRs

Doug KD5OUG
George VK2NGA
Eric G4EBO
Evariste F5OEO
Jeff VE6DV
Galina UB3ETG
Dustin KD0QYR
Marco PE1ONA
Peter DG1FK
Karl VE7JKD

 Claiming Your Prize

If your name and callsign appears above, please e-mail me at:

[email protected]

Please provide your full name, callsign, and complete shipping address including country.
This is ESSENTIAL to make sure you get your prize as quickly as possible.

We must hear from you by Monday, 19 June 2017.

You can get future winner announcements by
subscribing to our free Amateur Radio Newsletter (subscribe below),
following our posts via RSS feed, via Twitter (@amatradio),
or via Facebook (facebook.com/amatradio).

Sign up so you won’t miss our next prize drawing!

Please tell your friends about this giveaway!

Thank you to NooElec for offering these fantastic prizes!

Visit their website at NooElec.com / eBay store / Amazon store

Interested in ordering now on their website? Use coupon code
‘AMRADIOTENOFF’
for $10 off orders of $100+
(valid through June 17, 2017 at NooElec.com)

NooElec and AmateurRadio.com have teamed up
to give away
Software-Defined Radio (SDR) Receiver Packages
to 30 lucky ham radio operators worldwide!

…plus NooElec will even pay the shipping worldwide!
The deadline to enter is 14 June 2017 at 18:00 UTC.

Prize Packages

Two (2)
NESDR SMArt XTR HF Bundles
(with TCXO upgrade module)
 Listen to and watch frequencies from
100kHz – 2300MHz+ with this bundle.

Five (5)
NESDR Nano 2+ ADS-B Bundles
Includes 2 calibrated and programmed SDRs,
4 antennas, and 5 RF adapters per prize.

Five (5)
NESDR Nano 2 ADS-B Bundles
Includes 2 calibrated and programmed SDRs,
4 antennas, and 5 RF adapters per prize.

Five (5)
NESDR SMArt and NESDR SMArt XTR Two-Packs
One of each per prize.

Three (3)
NESDR SMArt XTR bundles with antennas

Ten (10)
NESDR SMArt XTR SDRs

Eligibility

All licensed ham radio operators worldwide!
(Free worldwide shipping is included!)

How to Enter

It’s very simple!
Leave a comment to this post.
(e-mail address will not be shared)

Entry Duration

Only 1 week!

You may enter only once from
7 June 2017 18:00 UTC
to
14 June 2017 18:00 UTC

(multiple entries from the same entrant will be discarded)

Winner Announcement

15 June 2017

You can get the winner announcement by
subscribing to our free Amateur Radio Newsletter (subscribe below),
following our posts via RSS feed, via Twitter (@amatradio),
or via Facebook (facebook.com/amatradio).

Sign up so you won’t miss our next prize drawing!

Please tell your friends about this giveaway!

Thank you to NooElec for offering these fantastic prizes!

Visit their website at NooElec.com / eBay store / Amazon store

Interested in ordering now on their website? Use coupon code
‘AMRADIOTENOFF’
for $10 off orders of $100+
(valid through June 17, 2017 at NooElec.com)

Don’t forget to enter! Just leave a comment to this post.

Friday
9:15 – 10:50 TAPR Forum
10:30 – 11:30 Instructor’s Forum
Noon – 1:00 D-Star Forum
1:00 – 2:15 Techniques of Best Operators Forum
2:30 – 5:00 Antenna Forum

Saturday
9:15 – Noon Youth Forum
10:45 – 12:15 AMSAT Forum
1:30 – 2:30 MESH Forum
2:15 – 3:30 System Fusion Forum
3:30 – 5:00 DX Forum

Sunday
9:15 – 10:15 West Mountain Radio Forum
10:30 – 11:30 Tower Safety Forum

If you follow Bob Heil’s show Ham Nation you’ve surely noticed that he’s taken a keen interest in reviving the Amateur Radio tradition of project building. Here is Ham Nation episode 292 where they walk through an easy pine board power supply project:

There’s no better way to learn than by doing. Luckily, we’re experiencing a real renaissance in kit building and general tinkering. It’s a great trend!

If you haven’t taken the time to subscribe to Ham Nation’s YouTube channel, head on over and check it out. It’s well worth your time!

A great story sent by David Richer, WB6VGO about how amateurs helped rescue a sinking vessel in the Pacific.

Excellent work!

On September 28, 2016 at approximately 0300 UTC, Charles Houlihan, KD6SPJ, a net relay relay station for the Pacific Seafarer’s net while monitoring 14.300 received a call for assistance from the captain of the Sailing Vessel (SV) Rafiki. The captain reported that the SV Rafiki, a 35 foot sailing vessel, was taking on water. Charles who was the captain of the SV Jacaranda and located at sea, contacted Randy VanLeeuwen, KH6RC also a net relay and located in Hawaii. Randy contacted the US Coast Guard Station to report the incident and provide Rafiki’s location, 230 miles south of Cold Bay, Alaska.

Randy remained in constant radio contact with the Rafiki until contact with lost. Fred Moore W3ZU (Florida) and Peter Mott, ZL1PWM (New Zealand) additional net relays maintained contact with the captain of the Rafiki until the arrival of the Coast Guard the subsequent rescue.

According to a press release issued by the United States Coast Guard Station–17th District, a Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter and an Air Station Kodiak HC-130 Hercules were dispatched to the Rafiki’s last reported position. Upon arrival the crew of the Jayhawk helicopter were successfully able to hoist the captain and one additional crew member to safety aboard the helicopter.around 1000 hours UTC. Both men were reported to be uninjured. The vessel was abandoned.

This real-life incident happened during the daily “roll-call” conducted by the amatuer radio operators (or “hams”) and members of the Pacific Seafarers Net. Everyday at 0300 UTC amateur radio operators from North America, Hawaii, New Zealand and Australia monitor the progress of maritime amateur radio operators who are sailing on the Pacific.

Prior to the start of the roll call for “maritime mobile” vessels, a call for medical, emergency or priority traffic is broadcasted. It was after such a call for any emergency traffic that the call for assistance from the Rafiki was received.

According the the net’s website (www.pacseanet.com): “The Pacific Seafarer’s Net is a network of volunteer Amateur Radio Operators that handles radio and internet email communication traffic between sailing and motoring vessels operating on all oceans and land-based parties. The land station Net Control Amateur Stations are located in various locations throughout the Continental United States, Hawaii, Australia and New Zealand. Communications traffic consists of daily position reporting and automatic posting of positions on several websites, message handling via email relays, Health and Welfare traffic, phone patch services, search and rescue coordination, and vessel equipment inventories for search and rescue operations. Life threatening emergencies are taken from any vessel whether or not they have ham radio licenses. Net control stations keep computer databases on participating vessels and their movements throughout the oceans.”

Got this great tip from Larry KG4ZAR:

Every ham seems to have a HT or two in their shack and sooner or later they find the rubber duck antenna loose.

Most times it’s the locking ring/nut on the chassis mount that’s worked loose. If you use one of the improved 1/4 wave aftermarket antennas, this becomes a more frequent problem.

Trying to tighten up this ring (especially on one of the Chinese radios) usually means grabbing a pair of needle nose pliers and making a mess of things, along with pinching your fingers when the pliers slip off the ring.

A much simpler way to tighten these rings is to purchase a cheap set of “snap ring pliers.” A set of these pliers (with various interchangeable tips) are under $10 at Harbor Freight and you’ll find many other uses once you own a set.

Trevor Holyoak, KD7GHI, grew up in a house full of homemade gadgets that his dad made including clocks, a TV, and radios. He learned basic electronics from him, and practiced on a 150-in-one kit from Radio Shack.

“I watched him do CW and string wire antennas across the yard, and so I was aware of ham radio at a young age,” he said. “He built our first home computer, a Sinclair ZX81, from a kit and that got me started down a path that I’m still on today.”

Holyoak is a professional computer programmer and began creating Android apps on the side a few years ago.

“I got the idea to create the Ham Radio Podcasts app because I had already built a couple of other podcast apps for specific interests, and I discovered that there are a bunch of great amateur radio podcasts out there,” said Holyoak. “I put them all together in an app that makes it easy to listen to them. You can stream the episodes as you listen, or you can download them and listen to them later when you don’t have a data connection.”

A few of the twenty featured podcasts include 100 Watts and a Wire, ARRL’s The Doctor is In, Everything Ham Radio, Ham Nation, Ham Radio 2.0, Ham Radio 360, Ham Talk Live, and HamRadioNow.

Like many hams, Holyoak’s involvement in ham radio throughout his life has waxed and waned. “After a few years I became inactive, although I still kept a radio on hand in case of emergency,” he said.

It wasn’t until last year, when he was asked him to spearhead an emergency communications effort in his local area that he finally became active again. He is now very active and is currently studying for the General test. He purchased an all-band, all-mode base station and was recently elected as an officer for his local club.

“Since I’m currently a Technician, I mostly have been active on 2m and 70cm FM, although I’ve also been dabbling in SSB on 6m and trying to figure out how to reach someone on 10m with a end-fed long wire antenna,” he said. “I’m very interested in getting into digital modes on HF once I get my General license.”

Listening to the popular ham radio podcasts has been an easy way for him to get back up to speed quickly and learn about new aspects of the hobby.

“Personally, I most enjoy the podcasts that are in a particular technical subject that I’d like to learn more about,” he said. “Some of my favorites are ARRL’s The Doctor is In, Everything Ham Radio, and Ham Radio 360.”

The app is available free (ad-supported) on Google Play:
Ham Radio Podcasts