AmateurRadio.com

So this is what we’re looking at……

A possible Category 2 or 3 hurricane, which has not encountered ANY huge land mass to speak of, paralleling the coast, making an almost 90 degree left turn and slamming into the US, somewhere between the DelMarVa peninsula and Cape Cod.  Unfortunately, New Jersey looks like the prime target as of right now.

In addition, we will have Full Moon tides to deal with and the fact that Sandy has not hugged the coast line makes a huge difference.  If Sandy had hugged the coast, there’s the chance she could have weakened.  But she will be coming in directly from open water, in effect, making her a water siphon that is expected to drop anywhere from 4 to 8 inches of rain (or more) on us by the time she pulls out of here Tuesday night.

The South Plainfield CERT Team filled 600 sand bags with 1,500 pounds of sand; and distributed them to flood prone neighborhoods today.  We will resume again tomorrow; after another 2,000 pound load of sand is dropped of at the Department of Public Works tonight.

Personally, I am as about ready as I can be.  Loose objects outside around the house have been taken down and stowed.  Grocery shopping is done and we have enough food to last over a week – even longer if we have to ration.  There’s extra bottled water in the house and tomorrow, after showers are done, the bathtub will be cleaned and filled in order to serve as an emergency supply.

The freezer in the basement has been topped off with two huge bags of ice.  I have another two coolers loaded with ice, if needed.  Flashlights are ready and batteries have been bought.  Candles are ready also, should the electricity go out (and it most likely will at some point). The cars have been topped off with gas. The grill outside has propane and can be pressed into service to cook food, if needed

My lead acid batteries, which can power the HF rigs are all charged and ready to go. The HTs are charged and so are all the batteries.

I just hope, that by the grace of God Almighty, that this thing makes a right instead, and heads out to open seas.

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!

Larry Makoski, W2LJ, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Jersey, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

I didn’t feel like playing in the CQWW SSB contest this weekend particularly. Remember the story of ‘Golf Four Victor X-Ray Elephant‘? Well, that! So this morning, I thought I’d set the 1W 28MHz WSPR running again for the day.

This was the result

Tim Kirby, G4VXE, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Oxfordshire, England. Contact him at [email protected].

I’ve been watching all of the innovative work going on in the smartphone and tablet arena and wondering how we could get more of that going in ham radio. To be sure, there are always radio amateurs developing creative technology. Some examples are adaptations of D-STAR, IRLP, improvements on APRS and sound card modulation modes. However, amateur radio is missing a standardized platform for handheld communications. Such a radio platform could open up lots of software innovation in this space.

What I have in mind is a dualband (2M/70cm) handheld transceiver that is built on top of the Android operating system. (Sorry Apple Fan Boys, iOS is a non-starter based on Apple’s walled garden philosophy.) This radio would have some of the hardware features we now take for granted in smartphones: GPS, WiFi, USB, maybe even a camera. I’d also include APRS hardware built-in, similar to the Yaesu VX-8GR or the Kenwood TH-D72A. I’ve hacked together a concept photo shown on the left of this post (click to enlarge). We would probably want to maintain some of the most important direct hardware controls such as PTT, volume and channel select. The rest of the user interface would be done via a touchscreen display, where the power of the Android OS comes into play.

While this hardware configuration is exciting, the real power comes from having a software developers kit (SDK) with a stable Application Programming Interface (API). This would unleash the creativity of all those software-oriented hams out there and a plethora of apps would emerge. There are plenty of ham radio apps available on the Apple and Android platforms…it’s just they are missing the radio as part of the package. An obvious area for innovation would initially be in APRS or maybe D-STAR. We could actually have the equivalent of SMS text messaging on ham radio, backed up via the WiFi connection. (Yeah, this kind of exists already but it is really cumbersome to use due to the braindead menu-driven user interfaces of current radios.) Just think how easy programming the radio would be with a touchscreen approach.

This is the type of product development that requires significant investment, but the technology is readily available. I suppose a garage shop operation could get this done but one of the big radio manufacturers could easily pull this off. Maybe one of those upstarts from China might want to take this on. Whoever does it, just send me $5 per unit and I’ll be happy .

That’s my best idea for this morning. What do you think?

73, Bob K0NR

Bob Witte, KØNR, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Colorado, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

Here in the US we usually have a “storm of the century” every few years, but this coming week we’re having a “storm of a lifetime”.  Dubbed by the media as “Frankenstorm”, Hurricane Sandy is projected to hit the east coast somewhere between the North Carolina/Virginia border and New York City sometime on Monday.  A few hours ago the models were putting the path right over my QTH, and now they’re projecting the path south of the Radio Artisan lab.  Either way we’re going to get a bunch of rain, probably 6 to 10 inches.  Earlier in the week it was looking like the hurricane would collide with a high pressure system from Canada that would turn it into a monster snowstorm, essentially a “noreaster”  snow hurricane!

So today I’m busy getting gas for the generator, stockpiling water, putting away anything that isn’t tied down, and installing some temporary guy lines on my modest 40 foot tower.  In addition to the generator, I have 150 Ah of solar-charged battery to run rigs.  Since we live in the country we’re pretty well stocked up on food, ammo, and liquor should things get ugly.  The only bad thing is that I work at home, so there’s no excuse to not get to work next week.

10m WSPR spots @ G4ILO 26 October 2012

A really good haul of spots, especially considering that time out was taken around lunch time to try and make a few contacts. If these conditions keep up, the weekend’s CQ WW contest will be very interesting.

Julian Moss, G4ILO, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Cumbria, England. Contact him at [email protected].

I received a telephone call tonight from South Plainfield’s Director of Emergency Management.  He wanted to know if I can come down to the Emergency Operations Center on Saturday from 12:00 Noon to 4:00 PM to help distribute sand bags to the various South Plainfielders who want them.  Possibly Sunday, too. Good thing I wasn’t planning on participating in the CQWW DX SSB Contest this weekend.

All of this in anticipation of Hurricane Sandy arriving sometime early next week.  Of course, I offered my assistance immediately.  Hurricane Irene is still fresh in my mind, even though it’s been 14 months since she graced us with her presence.  She was the most destructive storm to hit New Jersey – ever.

The forecasts are all over the map, if you’ll pardon my pun. Anywhere from nothing but some strong wind, to the possibility of a “White Hurricane” if a cold front from Canada moves into place at just the proper time.  We had a “White Hurricane” back in 1991, the much vaunted “Perfect Storm”.  I still vividly remember THAT one and am not looking for a repeat performance.  I thought those were supposed to be “once in a lifetime” events, anyway!

Here’s hoping and praying that Sandy is so impressed with her pre-arrival media coverage, that she turns out to be nothing more than a big fizzle!

By the way, got on the air tonight looking for some good DX in advance of the big DX contest this weekend. I didn’t check out the TelNet Cluster; but I suspect all the DXers must have been hanging out in the SSB portion of the bands as there was nothing doing in the CW sections. Dead as a door nail. Can you say, “Disappointing”?

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!

Larry Makoski, W2LJ, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Jersey, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

Some time ago I blogged about the Captcha's one would have to deal with when trying to leave a comment on some blogs.  Over time Captcha's have changed and not for the better. I can remember when they were simple......a pain but still simple to solve. Then I guess cyber bots became smarter so the Captcha's  became harder!!  The new Captcha's had a "wave" to them along with upper and lower case letters. Then as fate would have it the dam bot's did it again became somehow smarter....the Captcha's then had an UNCOOL way of blending their letters together and burring them to boot, oh and lets add numbers now too.
So my latest Captcha rant is......this week I was going to post a comment on a blog and on the comment page it contained the Captcha  along with the comment box. There was the blur, the wave and numbers as usual so I filled in the maze and then added my comment. I proceeded to hit the post button I was then informed my Captcha attempt did not match....surprise surprise!! I was instructed to hit the back button and try again. To my surprise my comment was gone and I had to start all over again!!! Is this the NEW Capthca....mess up and your punishment is to start all over again. I guess from now on I am going to  have to add but another step to my comment process, highlight and copy the comment in case I am punished and have to start again and maybe again and again....you get the idea.
I am stepping off my soapbox now........thank you.

Mike Weir, VE9KK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Brunswick, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].