AmateurRadio.com

I’m taking a bit of a break from radio. Perhaps it’s because I’m feeling a bit run down or perhaps I’m suffering from radio burnout but at the moment I can’t even be bothered to turn on APRS or WSPR or something that will run even when I’m not there.

I think the events unfolding in Japan may have an influence on my feelings too. We are used to seeing disasters on our TV screens but the scale of this one seems to eclipse anything in living memory. Hobby activity seems frivolous when you consider how the inhabitants of north eastern Japan must be feeling. The floods that hit my own home town seemed devastating at the time and after more than a year many people are still not back in their homes. But by comparison with what has happened in Japan, what happened to us pales into insignificance. It will take many years before life returns to normal for many people there – if it ever can for the tens of thousands who will have lost family members and loved ones in the disaster. My heart goes out to them. It is yet another reminder that the works of man are as nothing compared to the forces of nature.

If the earthquake and tsunami were not bad enough there is also the impending threat of a nuclear disaster. One is eerily reminded of the Chernobyl disaster, the 25th anniversary of which is only just over a month away. Though the nuclear power experts assure us that everything is under control and there is no risk of another Chernobyl, the headlines scrolling across the screen still scream “Meltdown.” This is a disaster that is going to have repercussions across the world, and I’m not talking about the economic shockwaves from such a big blow to the world’s third largest economy though I’m sure we will soon feel them.

The Three Mile Island nuclear incident in 1979 halted the development of nuclear power in the USA for thirty years. It is unrealistic to expect that what is happening to the Japanese nuclear plants won’t have an impact on how people here feel about nuclear power. Engineers have and will continue to argue that the Japanese plants were 40 years old, that actually they coped with the effects of this major disaster pretty well, and that the UK is not in an earthquake zone so we would never experience such problems. But for as long as these images are fresh in people’s minds, nobody will want a nuclear power station in their back yard. And in a country as small and crowded as the UK if we are going to have nuclear power someone will have to.

This is a disaster, not just for Japan, but for the entire nuclear industry.

Do you know someone who is getting ready to take their Technician class license exam?  Have them check out KE4GKP’s free online video study guide:

What do you think?  What resources do you recommend for someone studying for their Technician ticket?

Series Four Episode Three of the ICQ Amateur / Ham Radio Podcast. News Stories include:

• New Amateur Radio bill introduced in Congress 
• Italian 145.800MHz repeater shuts down 
• Radar intruders in Amateur bands 
• Cadets’ using 5MHz WSPR clarified 
• Contest University 2011
• FSTV beacon GB3CZ back to full power
• Mass SOTA/WAB activation planned
• Goonhilly rejoin deep space comms programme
• Celebrating 85 years of hospital radio
• D-Star active in Johannesburg
• Cell-phone to fly in space

Your feedback, upcoming events and Martin (M1MRB) discusses the 6m band.

Although I’ve never personally suffered a break-in, I know others who have and I’ve been giving quite a bit of thought to “hardening” my home against theft and doing everything I can to create a deterrent.  I’ve done all the commonsense stuff: installed deadbolts, added more motion-sensitive exterior lighting to the back of my home, and made arrangements with a neighbor to have the mail and newspaper picked up daily when I go on vacation.

Most of us have a pretty big collection of expensive radio toys.  We also have the FCC callsign database pointing every criminal to the exact street address where they can find our expensive toys.  And then there’s the antenna farm in the backyard broadcasting RF to the world and and the message to passerbys that “there’s something interesting and valuable here!”

Two weeks ago I began doing research on timers and other devices that fool burglars into believing someone is home.  I figure that the best way to protect my home is to discourage a burglary to begin with.  To me, this is the best plan.  By making the house appear “lived in,” I hope to counteract the other factors that may make my home especially interesting to thieves.  I certainly want to avoid my home being pegged as an easy target.

I stumbled onto a cool little device called FakeTV.  I contacted the manufacturer with a few questions and they kindly provided me a demo unit to evaluate.  It arrived quickly and I was pretty interested to see if the device lived up to some of the comments and reviews that I had read online.  The FakeTV device is about the size of a fist — smaller than I had imagined.  It’s very solidly built and is unobtrusive.  My wife thought that it made a nice nightlight as well and the kids were mesmerized by it.

Now, I’m a pretty skeptical guy and am not easily impressed.  FakeTV is pretty cool.  It works a lot better than I expected it would.  Looking at a window at night, I cannot tell the difference between a television and this device.  The way it randomly switches colors and brightness creates a very, very convincing effect.

The Fake TV has some limitations.  First, I think it would be most effective in a second floor window.  You really don’t want the would-be burglar to be able to peek into the window and see the device.  It would kind of defeat the purpose.  When I tested it, I put it on the first floor and it was very realistic with the blinds closed.  However, at very close range with my face near the window I would probably have been able to hear the sound from the TV and it was conspicuously absent.  Putting it in a room on the second floor (maybe a spare bedroom or den?) facing the road or driveway would probably be most effective.

I tested a few different configurations and it seemed to be most effective in a completely dark room.  Other lights on in the room seem to diminish the quality of the FakeTV “effect.”  I don’t think that you would want to use a light on a timer in the same room that you’re using the FakeTV device as I think the light would completely overpower it.

According to the manufacturer, it uses about 3W of power.  The cost to operate the FakeTV is about $5 per year on average.  Compared to about $150 per year for the same effect from leaving on a medium-sized LCD TV, you can see how FakeTV would pay for itself rather quickly.

The retail price of FakeTV is about $30.  I haven’t seen them at Wal-Mart, Target, or any of the other big box stores but I wouldn’t be surprised to see them soon.  Considering the investment I’ve made in radio equipment, I think $30 for this kind of deterrent is fair.

Big news today for Apple fans.  After years of speculation —  it’s here.  The Verizon iPhone. The cost?  $199 for the 16GB version.  $299 for the 32GB version.  Both require a contract, of course.  No word what the Verizon iPhone plans are going to cost or whether they’ll be different than other smartphone plans.

The new CDMA iPhone will be available to existing Verizon Wireless customers on February 3rd.  Everyone else will have to wait until February 10th.

Will you be switching?  Why or why not?

What are your favorite ham radio apps for iPhone/iPod Touch?

At the beginning of each year I always think it’s fun to try and set some goals for the year. Sometimes I find my focus changes and I end up not doing them, but it’s always interesting to look back on

Here’s what I’m thinking of at the moment:

1 – Activity. Try to maintain my rule of calling CQ each day on one band or another and to let no CQ call go unsanswered – even if it’s just a quick hello.

2 – 70MHz. I seem to have spent more time on 70MHz than ever before in the last year. I’m currently enjoying 70MHz FM, but I hope to focus on CW/SSB during the Sporadic E season. Although the FT847 gives me some CW/SSB capability at low power and a poor receiver. I want to improve on that. It may involve a transverter driven from the FT817, or perhaps modifying the FT847. Keen to do *SOMETHING* to improve what I can hear on 70MHz.

3 – 50/144/432MHz. I’m keen to install a collinear antenna for these three bands. The intention is to erect a small mast on the house which will also support a TV antenna for the boys’ TV. On top of the mast can go a collinear for 50/144/432 MHz. I’m hoping that I can use this antenna for Sporadic E on 50MHz as well as regular FM operation on 144 and 432MHz. Currently I have no vertically polarised antenna for 144 and 432MHz and it would be useful to be able to scan the FM channels to monitor propagation more closely, as the repeater channels very often show hints of openings before there is adequate activity on SSB.

4 – 1296MHz. I’m getting more intrigued by 1296MHz and would like to get some sort of capability on the band in the year. Not sure whether this may just be simple 1296MHz FM from a handheld or something else. We’ll see. I can do so simple 1297MHz receive using a scanner, so it will be interesting to see if that yields any results.

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