AmateurRadio.com

This morning I once again brought my HT outside with me while I sipped my morning coffee. Don, VA3XFT, was my first contact. Don is a friendly, helpful fellow. The first time I met him was yesterday evening, when he heard me calling for Wade, VE3WGK — when Wade didn’t answer, Don called me and offered to call Wade on the telephone for me. I didn’t take him up on it then, but this morning I did take him up on his offer to call and find out more about the amateur radio station at the Ontario Science Centre. When he came back on the air he said that the station is manned every day from 1000-1400 hrs. Thanks, Don!

After another contact with Steve, VA3SF (who, like Don, operated the repeater we were using), I prepared to go to the Ontario Science Centre. My wife decided to come along, making it a grand adventure. We walked to the nearby subway terminal and soon were rumbling along. After transferring to a bus, we arrived at the Ontario Science Centre and made our way to amateur radio station VE3OSC on the fourth level.

Bill, VA3WTT, volunteering at VE3OSC

Bill, VA3WTT, was manning the station. This Scottish gentleman showed us the warmest hospitality, inviting me to come into the booth, sign the guestbook, and check in to a 2m ARES net that was in progress.

NØIP checking in to the Toronto ARES 11:00 daily 2m net

Ken, VA3KRS, was net control and gave me a warm welcome.

Bill also helped me get on 40m, where I tapped out a CQ with some Bencher paddles. For some reason the HF radio seemed deaf, so I’m not sure all was in order at the moment. But no matter! I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the station of the Ontario Science Centre Amateur Radio Club. It’s a great idea. I applaud the Ontario Science Centre for including this permanent display, and I applaud all the hams who man it every day.

Bill gave me a very nice QSL card, pictured above, and shook my hand. After saying farewell, my wife and I made our way to the OMNIMAX theater where we watched a documentary on the building of the Canadian Railroad through the Rocky Mountains. It was informative and full of amazing footage of a restored steam engine puffing through some sublimely scenic parts of Canada.

None of this would have happened had I not brought along my HT on this trip. Only because I happened to contact Wade, VE3WGK, did I learn about the station at the Ontario Science Centre. I’m glad I brought the HT, and I’m glad I met Wade and all these other fellows on the air. Maybe when I get back home I’ll even EchoLink back to Toronto and chat with them again on 2m and 70cm.

Here you can see some more photos of our trip to VE3OSC, the amateur radio station at the Ontario Science Centre.

Click to view slideshow.

Today the FCC release a Notice of Inquiry (NOI) regarding Deployable Aerial Communications Architecture (DACA).  In a nutshell, this technology involves deploying a light aircraft containing communications equipment over a disaster area to provide emergency communications.  Those familiar with mobile wireless will recognize this as somewhat analogous to a COW (cellsite on wheels), and the military has been using similar technology for years.

A whitepaper on DACA describes the potential for this technology:

The DACA vision for disasters involves an aerial capability that is deployable within the first 12-18 hours after a catastrophic event to temporarily restore critical communications, including broadband, for a period of 72-96 hours. This capability would be useful in situations where the power grid may be inoperable for 5-7 days, depleting back-up power supplies and resulting in an almost complete failure of landline, cellular, land mobile radio, broadcast, and cable transmissions, as well as Wi-Fi and Internet services. In such circumstances, access roads and bridges may be impassable, preventing communications repair crews and fuel suppliers for generators from entering the area. If DACA systems were available, users on the ground could continue to rely on their day-to-day communications devices in a transparent manner.

While DACA technology does not involve amateur radio, nor does amateur radio have a horse in this race, amateurs may find DACA technology interesting, as the recent interest in unmanned balloon experiments with amateur radio payloads would suggest.  The FCC in the NOI is seeking comment from industry on logistical, regulatory, and technological questions.  I imagine it will be several years before we see DACA technology ready for prime time and probably only in major metropolitan areas.

The view from Chinatown, Toronto.
You’ll have to imagine the siren.

One hour after finally rolling to a stop in Toronto yesterday, I felt like I had come home. Don’t get me wrong — there are all sorts of reasons I like living in the (relatively) small town of Granite Falls, MN. The congregation I pastor loves the Lord and loves one another, and the area is a beautiful part of the country. But I grew up in the big(ger) city, and I’ve come to appreciate things that for many years I took for granted (and that most of my country friends despise).

Mountain ranges of brick, concrete, steel and glass towering over concrete valleys. Endless streams of people flowing with a rush of different accents, different languages, different colors. Magical groves of old ivy-covered buildings. Flowery fields of shops, inns, and restaurants, some native grown, but even more transplanted from the four corners of the world. Toronto is all of these and more. It’s an unusually clean city, and friendly, too.

Not that it’s a perfect place. I have no doubt that there is a seamy side to Toronto like everywhere else. And let me tell you, the traffic is the worst I’ve seen anywhere. But as horrible as the traffic is, it brings out something great in this city: pedestrians, and a spectacular profusion of small shops that cater to pedestrians.

My daughter in Chinatown.

Cities like this are the last bastion of the small businessman, because the countryside is being has been taken over by big box stores. I shop at Walmart; these people shop at mom and pop stores. The industrial revolution may have begun in the big city, but it manifested itself most fully when it ravaged the countryside. The rural area I know is infinitely more industrialized than anything I’ve seen here.

Anyhow, yesterday evening after a cookout put on by the bride’s family I programmed my HT with a bunch of repeaters in the area. This morning I enjoyed my coffee outdoors, HT in hand. “NØIP portable VE3 listening,” I called. My first contact was on the VA3SF 70cm repeater with Jay, VE3EMP, a nice fellow who welcomed me to Toronto. Then I chatted at length with Wade, VE3WGK, on the 70cm VA3XPR repeater. Wade is the CANWARN coordinator here in central Ontario, and he is also a volunteer for the Ontario Science Centre where there is an operational Amateur Radio Station on display. He encouraged me to email him about visiting this station, and so I did. I’m hoping to visit the station tomorrow, but time will tell.

Here comes the bride!

Afterward we went to Chinatown, where the bride introduced us all to a delightful Chinese bakery. Even more exotic was the taro bubble tea she introduced me to a block down the street. Amazing!

Eventually the bride and her family departed, leaving my wife, daughter and I to stroll around Chinatown.

Who knew the Great White North could be so hot?!

Whew, was it hot! I bought some painted fans for the bride, for the bridesmaids and for my wife, and my wife also got a fancy hat to keep the sun off her fair red-headed skin. My daughter picked up a silk robe and a casual dress, and I bought myself a much-needed new watchband.

Strolling through Chinatown. That guy looks like he has spent too much time at the radio!

This evening, my wife and I went for another long walk. (Did I mention all the long walks I’ve been taking here in Toronto?) We had a late supper at a magnificent little Mediterranean restaurant. I haven’t had a felafel that good since I was in Israel! I was smiling so much and complimenting the fellow behind the counter so much that he gave us some baklava, refusing to let me pay him.

Ah, Toronto!

Photographs taken by my XYL. Thanks, Monica!

Not graduation – began working on my American Morse DCP paddles tonight, just as I thought I would.

I spent some time polishing up the aluminum.  First, I gave the metal pieces a light scrubbing with one of those copper Chore Boy scrubby pads.  Then I used some Noxon metal polish (that I forgot I had!) that I found on a shelf. Lastly, a going over with a polishing wheel on my Dremel.

Not a mirror finish, but a lot shinier than they were originally.  All I did was remove the top layer of oxidation. I am sure that with time, the metal will get dull again, but for now, it looks pretty darn nice!

Tomorrow night I will assemble everything – shouldn’t take long at all.

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

If you’re really into QRP portable operations, you know, QRP from the great outdoors, then you may have heard about Steve Galchutt WG0AT.

If you haven’t ever heard of Steve, then you owe it to yourself to find out more.  Steve and his two pack goats, Rooster and Peanut are a QRP portable operating team, extraordinaire.  Seems like Steve and the boys are always out somewhere, inducing RF into the ionosphere to somewhere.

Besides being a superb QRP op, Steve is also a gifted videographer when it comes to his adventures.  He has an entire YouTube channel devoted to them:

http://www.youtube.com/user/goathiker?feature=results_main

I have had the honor and privilege to work Steve when he’s been out and about as well as from home.  Check out his YouTube videos.  You will be entertained, educated and inspired all at the same time!

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

BTW – got an e-mail from Elecraft – a certain small 5 lb box will be here next Wednesday. WooHoo!

There are lots of scams on the Internet and I’m usually pretty good at catching them right away. This one, however, was a little trickier and I wanted to take a minute to spread the word about it so that you don’t fall prey.

I received an e-mail notifying me that I had received a Twitter direct message (though Twitter’s user-to-user messaging system).

A crazy Tweet about ME?!  It sounded scandalous! I immediately clicked through the link in the notification to see what the ruckus could be.  But wait…

OK, now I was starting to get a little suspicious. I don’t normally stay logged into my Twitter account, but I’ve never had to sign in to view a Tweet. A little bit of a closer look revealed this:

Sure enough, the URL was “tvviiter.com” — a common “phishing” scam where the bad guys try to trick you into entering your username and password into an otherwise authentic-looking login screen.

Disaster averted!

So what happened here?  Most likely the victim who sent me the direct message in this case, clicked on a similar link at some point and had their username and password stolen.  The scammers then logged into their account, Tweeted out a spam message to the person’s followers offering whatever male enhancement product of the day, and then tried to trick more folks into giving their info by sending out direct messages through the victim’s account.

Unfortunately, unlike most “phishing” scams that are obvious forgeries, these appear to the recipient as legitimate Twitter direct messages. The key tip-off, however, is the fact that the login URL is not “twitter.com” but a spoofed misspelling of the domain name.

The moral of this story… make sure you know “where you are” when you enter your username and password!  A hacked Twitter account is a lot less of a big deal than a hacked bank account.

In July I’m giving a 45 minute talk on amateur radio to a local neighborhood group that restored and maintains an old historic schoolhouse down the road from my QTH.  I plan on bringing my FT-897 and throwing a dipole up in the yard so I can tune around the bands and maybe even whip up a phone QSO.  (It sure would be nice if 20 was open to Europe.)  I’m going to avoid “death by PowerPoint” and just work off of some simple bulletpoints.

So, any suggestions on what to talk about?  What would you definitely not talk about?  Any tips from seasoned speakers on things to wow the audience with?