AmateurRadio.com

Bob Heil, K9EID, is a very busy guy (especially today as he gets ready to debut his new show on Leo Laporte’s TWiT network called HAM Nation), but I had the opportunity to catch up with him to find out more about his plans:

Bob, when Leo Laporte, “The Tech Guy,” offered you the opportunity to host a show about ham radio on his amazing TWiT Network, what was your first reaction?

I was very thrilled and extremely honored to have Leo recognize the importance of the ham radio community.

Talk some about the equipment you’ll be using to record the show. Will you be broadcasting live?

The show will be done live from my station lab where I develop all of our amateur radio as well as professional series products. I use a P.C. based computer fed with an Alesis Mix 8 USB mixer. Using one of our PR 40 into the mixer, it gives me great flexibility with tailoring the audio right where we need it. For camera, I am using what most of the TWIT hosts are using, the new Logitech C 910 HD camera. Very small but extremely high quality for the size and cost.

You’re going to have a massive technically-oriented audience that may not have much familiarity with Amateur Radio. What are some of the goals you’re hoping to achieve with the show?

It is amazing how many hams are in that TWiT audience. It was one of the leading factors that led Leo to invite our industry onto his network. As Leo, I will let the chat room guide us to the subjects they want to know more about but I already have guests lined up to do all types of technical things – kit building, antennas, types of transceivers, digital communications, D Star, emergency communications, Field Day activities, etc. . . any ideas? Please pass them on. We, the amateur radio community now has a platform on Tuesday night where we can share with the world.

What are some of your personal interests as a ham? What equipment do you run in your shack?

If it were not for my interest in ham radio back in the mid 50’s as a high school teenager, I would never have been able to accomplish anything close to what has happened. The basis of everything I do was learned from great mentors I met on the air. I spent 17 years as a technician exploring SERIOUS VHF work. Since 1976 when I upgraded, I have been all over the map but I STILL revert to much of my original gear that I have had over the years including my 1956 Harvey wells, 1958 CE 20A, 1962 HT 37. I love all of the vintage gear and you can find me on AM several nights a week. Because my station is my lab for my company, I have many late model transceivers to keep up with the technology and what needs to be done to make then sound good.

Tune in Tuesday nights, starting tonight, 6pm Pacific/9pm Eastern at http://live.twit.tv.  You’ll also be able to watch the show via the embedded video below.  Good luck, Bob!

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We are very pleased to announce the winner of
1,000 Photo QSL Cards
from KB3IFH

Thanks to Randy for sponsoring this month’s drawing.
We had almost 500 entries!

We’re giving away more great prizes soon.
Stay tuned and get ready to enter.

OK, onto what you’ve all been waiting for!

The winner of our May 2011 prize giveaway is…

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A new electronic payment processing company called Square, named after the shape of their credit card reader that plugs into the audio jack of your smartphone, makes it possible for hams to inexpensively accept credit cards at hamfests. They charge a flat 2.75% of the transaction, but there is no per transaction fee, monthly fee, or equipment to buy or rent.

It’s brilliantly simple.  Download and install the free app for iPhone, iPad or Android. Attach the reader to the audio jack of your phone. Enter the amount of the transaction on the screen, swipe the card, and have them sign on the touchscreen with their finger.  Done.  That’s it.

I think it’s a no-brainer.  Apparently, so does Visa who made a “strategic investment” in the company just last week.

Here is a video demonstration:

Why is this great news for small-time sellers at ham radio swapmeets? Until now, it’s been prohibitively expensive and somewhat complicated for occasional sellers to setup for credit card processing.  Anyone who has tried to price it out knows the drill: statement fees, gateway fees, transaction fees, and on and on.  You simply had to do a certain amount of business each and every month to make even having the capability of accepting credit cards worthwhile.  With Square, there is no transaction fee or monthly charge of any kind.

Without fail, it seems that I always run out of cash just about the time I spot a great deal on a piece of gear. The seller could accept a personal check, but if we’re talking about a pricey item then that’s a pretty risky proposition.  They could use one of those “knuckle buster” card imprinters, but with those there is no real-time authorization and by the time you realize there is a problem a crook could be long gone.  With Square, lack of available funds isn’t an issue.  You’ll know if there is a problem right away.

Some people might balk at paying $13.75 in fees to sell a $500 radio.  Compared to cash, it does cost more.  But, think of it this way: accepting credit cards will give you access to a much wider selection of buyers. You’ll likely get a better price for your radio gear making the fee irrelevant.

Sign up for an account on their website and they’ll FedEx you a free credit card reader.

Editor’s note:

Some reader comments have expressed concern about chargebacks.  Here is the relevant info from their website:

How Square protects you from disputes

One part of building any payment service is dealing with cardholder disputes. As with everything else at Square, we strive to make dealing with these as simple as possible and we’ll certainly never charge you for it. Read below for a guide on how this works.

• If one of your customers sees a charge they don’t recognize on their statement, they can call the toll-free number in the payment details that goes straight to us. We have all the information needed to look up the payment and help them get a better idea of what was sold. If we can’t find enough information about the purchase in your account, we’ll reach out to you and ask for more details so we can let your customer know.
• Sometimes, the customer may go straight to their bank before calling the number and dispute the charge. If that happens, we’ll get a letter from the customer’s bank telling us that this payment is in dispute. We will then contact you to gather more information so we can provide the issuing bank as many details as possible to get it resolved successfully.

Some of the information we can provide in order to resolve disputes are:

• Customer’s signature
• Description on what was sold
• Precise location data
• Whether the reader was used for the payment or not

Because descriptions help describe purchases to customers, we always recommend our users add a description for the item or service sold as well as issue receipts. Also, make sure that your Account page accurately represents your business name. A customer may not remember the charge if it reads “Joe Smith” instead of “Joe’s Coffee Shop.”

(via KB2MOB @ AmiZed Studios)

AmateurRadio.com is offering a free prize drawing!
Deadline to enter: 9 May 2011 18:00 UTC

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Talk about the trip of a lifetime! This from their new website launched today:

Jan Mayen Island is a volcanic island in the Arctic Ocean and part of the Kingdom of Norway. It is 55 km (34 miles) long (southwest-northeast) and 373 km2 (144 mi2) in area, partly covered by glaciers (an area of 114.2 km2 or 44.1 mi2 around the Beerenberg). It has two parts: larger northeast Nord-Jan and smaller Sør-Jan, linked by an isthmus 2.5 km (1.6 mi) wide. It lies 600 km (about 400 mi) northeast of Iceland, 500 km (about 300 mi) east of central Greenland and 1,000 km (about 600 mi) west of the North Cape, Norway.

Jan Mayen island is not placed at the top of the 100 Most Wanted DXCC list, but it’s still very wanted in some areas and modes – especially West Coast of the USA, Japan, Oceania, Africa.

After a deep analysis of specific areas vs. modes, we decided to focus on CW and RTTY as our primary modes during JX7VPA.

Since our path towards Africa (where, according to feedback we received, it is still very wanted) will be a bit more difficult due to island’s terrain, we will try to test long path conditions if short path fails.

First day of our activity will be used to check openings toward different areas as conditions we will find at the island may be a big surprise due to polar day period 24/7.

The biggest threat we must face while at Jan Mayen is auroral activity. Since the island is in range of often Au oval’s activity, any increase of A/K indexes may result in deep RF blackouts. Please keep that in mind if our signals disappear from bands suddenly.

Take a moment to check out their website and of you’re a CW or RTTY op, mark your calendar for early July.

I was looking through the online scanner feeds available on RadioReference.com and found a list of the Top 50 Audio Feeds. Most of the large police departments can have quite a few listeners at one time, sometimes approaching a couple hundred listeners.

The single Amateur Radio repeater on the list caught my eye: the KE6RRI 147.435MHz repeater located near Los Angeles. The feed had 120 listeners which is pretty amazing for a ham repeater (for comparison, Chicago Fire Dept. had 40 and Las Vegas PD had 39 at the time). There was obviously something going on here that was attracting attention. So, of course, I tuned in.

Well, it’s quite the experience. Let’s just say that the conversations are colorful.

I remember as a newly licensed teenager that I was super-paranoid about following the rules. I’d stay well clear of the band edges for fear my signal might bleed over due to some malfunction. If the FCC said that I had to identify every ten minutes, I’d make sure to do it every five. Like Christian Slater’s character in the pirate radio movie Pump Up The Volume — I imagined those yellow vans conspicuously marked “F.C.C.” circling the neighborhood just waiting for the most minor of infractions as their signal to move in. Apparently, after spending a little time listening to the 435 repeater online, the folks on this machine don’t seem to worry too much about that.

There are two interesting interview segments worth listening to on The RAIN Report where Hap Holly, KC9RP, interviews Christina Holzschuh, KE6RRI, the current owner of the repeater: Part 1 Part 1 (14 min.) Part 2 Part 2 (14 min.)