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Kenneth, W6KWF, used to dump all of his N, BNC, and PL-259 RF adapters in two quart-sized Ziploc bags. Now all of his connectors are organized by rows in this Plano 1258 tackle box from Bass Pro Shops.

He mentioned a great old trick for keeping track of your connectors at group events. He paints a little dot of nail polish on each one. Now he always gets them back! 🙂

Check out the video below and lots more at his blog, The Life of Kenneth.

How do you organize all of your RF adapters and connectors?

Every fall, I take the deep-discharge marine battery out of the pop-up camper and put it safely in the basement for winter storage. I’ve never used it for ham radio purposes, mostly because I’ve never needed it and it’s tied up for most of the summer.

Recently we had a “long-ish” power outage (not uncommon during snowy, windy Maine winters). While we had plenty of heat from the fireplace, it didn’t take long for the batteries in our various phones and tablets to kick the bucket.

Luckily, Verizon’s data network is very robust and almost never goes down — even during extended power outages. Other than listening to the local ham radio repeaters and public safety scanner traffic, we rely on Internet access to check on power restoration and keep track of the weather.

I figured it was time to put that unused high-capacity battery to some good use in the off-season.

I decided to order a 12-volt plug socket with eyelet terminals. There were quite a few choices on Amazon but the reviews of the NOCO GC018 struck me as particularly good and I didn’t have to wait for it to arrive from China. The price was right at just under $7 shipped (with Prime) and 232 great reviews didn’t hurt, either.

I wasn’t familiar with the NOCO brand, but what immediately impressed me was how well made it was. It feels like it will last awhile and the connections are very solid. The 3/8″ eyelets aren’t flimsy and they’re low-set to minimize bending. Unlike other options, it has an in-line 15A blade-type automotive fuse which I usually keep on hand. The fuse is well-protected from moisture and the socket has a durable end cap.

I wouldn’t plug a 100w HF rig into the socket, but a 25w mobile radio should’t draw more than 10 amps. A small “pocket-sized” 175-watt inverter would work great with this setup.

To create my charging hub, I used a little Bestek splitter with two 12v sockets and two 5v USB outlets (one 1.0A, the other 2.1A). I would’t use it to power anything with a substantial current draw, but it works great for charging multiple low-power devices. While a 12-volt cigarette lighter socket isn’t the best connector around, it’s the defacto standard for 12-volt consumer devices. Just don’t charge the deep-discharge battery indoors!

My rough math says the battery should be good for well over 150 hours of continuous phone charging. That should last us for most any power-free scenario short of complete and utter societal breakdown — and if that’s the case, I probably won’t be needing my cell phone!

What does your household emergency power setup look like?

Ham Talk LIVE! Episode 2
w/ Don Wilbanks, AE5DW
Amateur Radio Newsline and Ham Nation

Thursday, 25 February 2016
9:00 PM Eastern Time (02:00 UTC)

Listen to this episode LIVE (and to all previous episodes) in the player below:

The ARRL reported today that the FCC is seeking comments on a Petition for Rule Making that asks the FCC to grant lifetime Amateur Radio licenses. Mark Krotz, N7MK, of Mesa, Arizona, submitted the petition in November, 2015.

The petition, RM 11760, notes that the FCC currently issues lifetime General Radiotelephone Operator License. The petition also notes that the Federal Aviation Administration issues permanent airmen certificates.

Here is an excerpt from the petition:

Amateur radio operators wishing to make a comment on the petition may do so here.

With over 120 cosponsors in the House and Senate, the Amateur Radio Parity Act (ARPA) is gaining momentum. The House version, HR 1301, has been favorably reported out by the House Energy Subcommittee on Communications and Technology and is on its way to the full House Energy and Commerce committee for consideration. This is great news, but there is still a lot of work to do.

Colorado ham Kurt Fehlhauer, KUØO, has created an easy-to-use website to help hams tweet their support for ARPA to their representative and senators. SupportParity.com lists the cosponsors of the bill and makes it easy to tweet your member of Congress to thank them for their support — or encourage them to sign on.

Visit SupportParity.com to see where your members of Congress stand and let them know that your support the bill.

Neil Rapp, WB9VPG, is taking to the Internet airwaves Thursday, February 18th at 9:00 pm Eastern (02:00 UTC) with a brand new live call-in podcast. Ham Talk LIVE! will feature general interest ham radio topics and special guests with a wide range of ham radio expertise.

Unlike traditional ham radio podcasts, Rapp says he hopes to create something a little different. “I really look forward to just doing some open line shows,” he says. “I want it to be a conversation and just talk about happenings more than just disseminating information. We already have people doing a great job with that, and I enjoy watching and listening to them.”

Thursday night’s episode will discuss DXing and contesting and will feature well-known DXer Dr. Scott Wright, KØMD. Next week he’ll host popular Amateur Radio Newsline anchor Don Wilbanks, AE5DW.

To tune into the show, you can visit HamTalkLive.com. To participate, listeners can either call Skype username ‘hamtalklive’ or dial (812) 638-4261. “I don’t have a call screener. Once I answer they will be on immediately so I won’t answer until I’m ready for the caller,” Rapp says.

The show will last 30 minutes each week. If listeners miss the live show, a downloadable podcast will be available on iTunes, Spreaker, and possibly other outlets soon after each broadcast.

If the format works out well, he may extend the show longer than the allotted thirty minutes. “If people listen, I’ll definitely extend the time,” he says.

Rapp is a high school chemistry teacher and sponsors the ham radio club at his school. He was first licensed in 1976 at the age of five. He is the recipient of the 2014 Indiana Radio Club Council Amateur of the Year award, the 2003 Indiana Radio Club Council Technical Excellence Award, and the 2004 ARRL Professional Educator of the Year award.

Every amateur radio operator is attracted to different aspects of our diverse hobby. For Cliff Batson, N4CCB, of Nashville, Tennessee, it’s QRP — making radio contacts with 5-watts or less.

“I’m not an expert, but I have quite a bit of passion and enthusiasm for QRP. There’s just something magical about being able to make contacts using less power than a nightlight,” says Batson.

Batson started a video blog called QRP School late last summer and recently added his twentieth episode. He’s already covered topics like using a deploy-anywhere vertical HF antenna (below), solar power operations, building a computer-to-CW interface, bringing your gear along on vacation, and many more. He says that he hopes to add even more QRP-related videos soon.

“Ham radio is a big hobby, and there’s room for all of us to enjoy whatever we enjoy, while letting others do their own thing,” he says.

If you enjoy QRP or want to learn more, you can visit his site at QRPSchool.com and subscribe to his YouTube channel.