AmateurRadio.com

From the ARRL web site:

On August 20 — in response to a Spring 2012 Congressional directive — the Federal Communications Commission released its findings on the Uses and Capabilities of Amateur Radio Service Communications in Emergencies and Disaster Relief: Report to Congress Pursuant to Section 6414 of the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012.

There was hope that the thousands of comments from amateur radio operators concerning the restrictions that homeowners associations place on the use of antennas would get the FCC’s attention. Maybe the FCC would see that the overall effectiveness of the amateur radio service for emergency use is being limited by these arbitrary, overly restrictive rules? (See a summary of my comments here.)

But, the FCC responded with this simple statement:

Moreover, while commenters suggest that private land use restrictions have become more common, our review of the record does not indicate that amateur operators are unable to find homes that are not subject to such restrictions. Therefore, at this time, we do not see a compelling reason for the Commission to revisit its previous determinations that preemption should not be expanded to CC&Rs.

I am not surprised by this response but still disappointed.

73, Bob K0NR

Lots of yard work today.  As a reward, I put some time in behind the key tonight.  All the bands seemed to have a lot of background noise tonight for some reason. Last night, while listening on 20 Meters during the QRP Fox hunt, the background noise was almost non-existent.

Anyway, I worked OK1DX on 30 Meters at 10.120 MHz. He was calling “CQ DX” and wasn’t getting any takers. So I threw my call out there and got an immediate response.  Pavel was 579 here and I got a 559 in return.  No surprise there.  The QSO was a bit more than your normal run of the mill DX QSO; and by the end, Pavel had told me that I had also come up to 579.

Here’s the kicker.  I was running 5 Watts to my 88′ EDZ antenna.  He was pushing 400 Watts into a dipole. My first inclination at learning he was pushing 400 Watts, was to wonder why he was only 579 here. I would have thought at that power he would have been 599+.

Of course, there are reasons for that, I know. But sometimes, even as a QRPer, I fall into that “more power equals louder” trap myself.

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

On Tuesday, when Mr. Liu from the NCC asked me for my opinion on matters regarding radio amateurs in Taiwan, I gave him my two wishes:

1 – an English version of the exam, to get more foreigners licensed.

2 – being able to choose your own call sign.

Both requests were torpedoed right away. First off, when the NCC would make an English version of the exam then they would also have make a Japanese version to accommodate them. And then an Indonesian version. And a …….. well, you get the drift.

Assigning call signs was a more sensitive matter. Even though the R.O.C. on Taiwan has been independent since 1949, it has not been recognised by many. Hence, over here we depend on the generosity of our next door big brother – the P.R.C. of China – to be able to use some prefixes from the ITU assigned block for China (Taiwan uses BM, BN, BO, BQ, BU, BV and BX, China the rest of the B-block). Amateur radio call signs are kept back for 20 years after expiry, so the resulting pool is small. So, unfortunately, once you get your call sign you are stuck with it, because the NCC doesn’t want to hand our new ones at your will. And even though changing areas would be a good reason, they still refuse. I am now living in area 3, but I still have to use my area 2 call because the NCC doesn’t want to assign a new BX3 call to me.

Luckily I am happy with my call. After all, ABT stands for “Any Bloody Thing” and that is how I enjoy the hobby: any bloody thing goes! Have a nice weekend.

I was at home but too busy to play radio, so I did the WSPR thing on 10 MHz all day. Here is a screenshot of the local morning session.As you can see I am right in the middle between JA2GRC, DU1MGA and W8TOD in Beijing. W8TOD in Beijing??? There must be something wrong with his set up of WSPR! But there isn’t. On the QRZ.com page of Warren you can read the following:

I live in Beijing, China currently and am operating under the “less than one watt” and the “it’s legal if you don’t get caught” rules.

There you go! Stay under the radar, mingle in the crowd and you can get your radio fix, even if it is not allowed. The radio situation in Asia is messy, so turn it into your advantage.

Mind you, I wouldn’t do what Warren does and as I wrote yesterday, I am very careful in my actions, because I want to enjoy my hobby for a long time. So I do my best to play by the rules, but I will bend them if necessary.

You never know when you’re going to learn a new and better way of doing something. TJ W0EA posted this on the KX3 list, which led to (what I thought) was a fascinating discussion on how to coil and store antenna wire.

You’d think that winding up a wire antenna is a pretty mundane thing, eh?  But no, there is an art to it, so that when you’re out in the field, you’re not dealing with a tangled mess and cussing like a sailor on shore leave. I tried the method shown above and dang it! It works!

I love it when I learn a new way to do something better.

I am taking some needed vacation time from work on Friday and Monday.  Have to use what days are coming to me as I found out my department is being eliminated due to a contract change.  Originally, I was given to the end of August; but found out that I was extended until the end of October, in order to help train the guys from the new company that is taking over the contract.

But I digress. I still have a lot of yard work to do and hope to accomplish it over this prolonged weekend. But I am also hoping to perhaps get out to one of NJ’s state parks to do a park activation.  Maybe Hacklebarney State Park which is located between the villages of Chester and Long Valley in Morris County. If the weather’s nice on Sunday, perhaps the KX3 and the PAR can get a workout.

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