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!

Introduction:

• A sticky, stormy night in Texas, just right for podcasting and Russ’ attempt to take over the MintCast.

Announcements:

• Pimpin’ the band: Thanks, as always, to Gamma Leonis for the theme music for the show.
• We recently learned of Tom, KB4HQA’s, unfortunate car accident after leaving the Dayton Hamvention this past May. We wish him a speedy recovery and return to podcasting.
• Richard is a fan of America’s Test Kitchen.

Topics:

• Pimpin’ the network: If you have a podcast and want to reach LHS listeners, please visit Black Sparrow Media and contact us to become a member! The Waveguides Podcast did and so can you.
• Who is your hero in amateur radio, living or dead? Let us know! Richard is gathering information for his super-secret project.
• Storm watchin and workin on radios. While a storm raged in Texas, Richard received an email about an IC-735 that would not power on reliably. Richard’s trouble-shooting philosophy: start with the things that are cheap to replace.
• Richard is hoping to pursue a high-speed multimedia (HSMM) and mesh radio project using DD-WRT or OpenWrt for use in emergency communications. Used routers, such as the Linksys WRT54GL, are ideal and can be found for little money.

Feedback:

• Leif, KC8RWR, wrote to clarify a comment to episode 86, explaining that he’d like to try using an NE602 frequency converter to an RTLSDR radio to receive ham bands.
• Brian, G3XGY, heard Russ on the Mintcast and is looking forward to listening to episodes of LHS! Welcome, Brian.
• Leif, KC8RWR, offers a suggestion for Grant, who was having difficulty with the LHS live Linux CD handed out at Dayton. He thinks it may have been due to Linux not recognizing Grant’s video card. Thanks, Leif.
• Harrison, VE2HKW, a sometime participant in MintCast, expresses his appreciation for episode 85, our interview with David Rowe and discussion of Codec2. Thanks, Harrison. Speaking of Codec2, Russ reports that David Rowe has won the 2012 ARRL Technical Innovation Award for his work on Codec2. Congratulations, David!
• Harrison, VE2HKW, wrote to ask for help with his Icom IC-735 (as mentioned above).
• Claudio of the LinuxBasement podcast thanks us for the mention in episode 87.

Contact Info:

• Contact Richard at [email protected], Russ at [email protected], or both at the same time at [email protected].
• Listen to the live stream every other Tuesday at 8:00pm Central time. Check the LHS web site for dates.
• Leave us a voice mail at 1-909-LHS-SHOW (1-909-547-7469), or record an introduction to the podcast.
• Sign up for the LHS mailing list.
• Sign up for the MAGNetcon mailing list.
• LHS merchandise is available at the Merch link on Web site. Check out the Badgerwear or buy one of the other LHS-branded items at PrintFection.com/lhs or Cafe Press. Thanks!
• Thanks to Dave from Gamma Leonis for the theme music.

Music:

• “The Television Song” by Bryan Dunn, from the album Vicious Waltz, courtesy of Jamendo.
• “Total Breakdown” by Brad Sucks, from the album Out of It, courtesy of Jamendo.

Recovering from a heavy cold and cough yesterday and because there was apparently nothing doing on 50MHz, I thought it was about time I got the HF JT65A gear going again, which I did and made some
enjoyable QSOs on 14MHz.

I’d wondered from time to time about making remote control QSOs. I use the Logmein client to control my PC if I’m out and about and just recently, I’d noticed that their iPad/iPhone client was free for the basic service. Since for datamodes, I didn’t need anything more than screen control – no need to ‘pipe’ audio, this should work just fine.

So last night, I sat on the sofa downstairs, with my iPad and tried to control the PC running JT65-HF. It seemed to work just fine. It felt odd calling someone without being in front of the radio and being able to tweak the power/alc settings and of course to be able to hear signals! However, I made the leap of faith and R2DX was my first ever remote control QSO. I followed on with AB1J and a German station.

I also have the Logmein client on my iPhone, so this lunchtime, I tried the same type of experiments across the Internet from the office. Although broadly successful, there was too much latency, and though I could see signals being decoded and press the appropriate buttons – the timing didn’t always work out correctly. Apologies to Harald DL8ZBA who must have wondered what was happening when I calleed him!

Nevertheless, this looks quite promising, particularly around the house and perhaps further afield when there is a good network connection.

Welcome to Handiham World.

New Tech Net Offers a Chance to Get Questions Answered

We all run into technical problems with our amateur radio equipment, antennas, computers – you name it. Ham radio is a highly technical activity, so we all need resources to help us answer questions and figure out how to track down solutions. Of course there are on line forums for such things, but having an on the air “tech net” gives us a much more spontaneous and interactive way to participate in a group discussion that may well help us learn new things.  The idea is for the Tech Net to facilitate discussions about technical topics.  It is not a lecture series, nor is it a “check in for the count” kind of net.  We welcome participants whether they simply want to tune in and listen or whether they want to transmit to ask or answer a technical question. 
It isn’t every day that we launch a new net. The official start date is on Thursday, 6 September 2012. The net will meet at 7:00 PM each Thursday United States Central Time and will remain true to local time throughout the year. To be sure we are clear about this, the net will meet at 7:00 PM Minnesota time summer and winter, regardless of the change between Standard Time and Daylight Time.  This means that there will be a one hour shift relative to GMT each Autumn and again in the Spring. It is just easier to stick to the same indicated local time than to use a static GMT hour.
In the summertime, when the Tech Net is on the air at 7:00 PM (19:00 hours), the GMT hour will be 19:00 + 5, making the net time 24:00 (or 00:00) GMT.  In the winter, when Minnesota goes to Standard Time, the difference between Minnesota time and GMT becomes + 6 hours.  In that case, the net is heard at 0:100 hours GMT.
Please feel free to get on the HANDIHAM conference the next couple of Thursdays at what will be our official net time for pre-Tech Net anticipation discussions!
Here are some key things to remember about the new Tech Net:

• It is perfectly okay to simply listen to learn. You are participating just by listening. 
• You should check in if you have a comment or question related to a technical topic. (Checking in to get on a net roster is not part of this net.)
• When it is clear that a particular topic is under discussion and the discussion is not finished, please do feel free to add to the discussion if you have additional information on that topic. If you have some other technical question not related to the topic at hand, please wait until the current topic has been discussed and it is time to move on. 
• The net will be moderated and the discussion facilitated by the Net Control Station (NCS). 
• The Handiham Tech Net will meet each Thursday evening at 7:00 PM USA Central Time and last around an hour. 
• The net is heard on the following nodes and links:

HANDIHAM conference server Node 494492 (Our preferred high-capacity node.)
KA0PQW-R, node 267582
KA0PQW-L, node 538131
N0BVE-R, node 89680
IRLP node 9008 (Vancouver BC reflector)
WIRES system number 1427

Email me at [email protected] with your questions & comments.   
Patrick Tice, WA0TDA
Handiham Manager