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I haven’t heard about this too much in the last few years, but back when I first got my license, I helped out with this. So I figured I would mention the Pumpkin Patrol since it’s now October and Halloween will be here before we know it!

When I was helping out, I was stationed on one of 2 bridges near where I lived. One was in the village of Fultonville, just off Exit 28 on the NY Thruway, and the other was in Amsterdam off of Exit 27 of the Thruway. Both bridges, went over the Thruway and were accessible because they were State routes that went over the bridges. Now I had heard on the news about kids throwing stuff off of the bridges down on to roads and cars. And after a particularity bad incident, the NY State Police decided to stop the problem right off. That’s where volunteer Ham Radio operators like myself came in.

I had heard on the local repeater they were looking for a few people to help cover bridges and that they needed someone to cover one of those 2 bridges by me. So I called the man in charge at the time, Jack, WA2YBM, and ask if I could help. Long story short, I got all the info and a plaque for the car so the police knew who I was, and went out and sat on the bridge till midnight and did my check ins. I did it a few more times. Then I didn’t hear anything about it for a while, so I never really did it again.

Although, given the chance, I might be willing to still do it, if the need arose. It was fun, but to be honest, it was also a little boring. But I kept myself occupied and still enjoyed the experience overall. If there is a Pumpkin Patrol in your area, I would encourage you to sign up and be a part of it. Especially if you’re looking for something for the first time out. This would be a good way to break the ice.

Here’s a link to a quick story from a couple years ago. Just a blurb on the news…

73.

 

Rich Gattie, KB2MOB, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New York, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

Sad picture, isn’t it? For those of you that know the Kenwood TS-440S well it is a familiar picture: VFO#5 covered in “Evil Brown Glue“, or EBG as it is mostly referred to. As I wrote in my last post, I counted my unfinished projects and fixing my TS-440S was highest on my list, so I took it apart yesterday. Mine is actually not covered in much EBG at all, but that is because I already removed a lot of the stuff some time ago. But now that the shroud is off you can clearly see that the EBG has crept under most components. No wonder the VFO was unstable or not working at all.

I prepared everything well, so the actual disassembly of the rig and the VFO was a piece of cake. I put some more photo’s on my website for you to enjoy. I already discovered that I don’t have one of the transistors which needs to be replaced. Will have to get them next weekend when we go up to Taipei. In the mean time I’ll keep myself busy with removing the components and cleaning the PCB, which is a little more work than I anticipated. I’ll keep you posted. 73 de Hans

P.S. lots of rain and wind the last couple of days, which we haven’t had for a while. Apparently it cleaned the power lines of dust and grime…..and the arcing. The bands are nice and clean again.

Hans "Fong" van den Boogert, BX2ABT, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Taiwan. Contact him at [email protected].

I was playing with my DVAP and the Icom E92 earlier in the day and I wondered if there was a new version of the WinDV software available. I’d previously been running 1.1.3 successfully. I checked over at http://www.Dutch-star.eu and sure enough there was! Version 1.3 was there. As before, installation was very straightforward. First impression was of the changed user interface, with a light blue background and and more rounded controls. The program works well. I quickly hooked up to the K6MDD repeater in San Francisco and had a nice QSO with Darryl, WA6YTD. Darryl confirmed the audio was good and that the program was doing everything it needed to. I enjoyed the option that if the station you are working or hearing is sending a lat/lon, then that is shown in terms of a Google Maps link that you can click on and see the position of the station. Easy to do, but enjoyable to use.

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

Today I grabbed a little time on HF with the K3.  I was pleasantly surprised to find 10m and 12m were open, so I listened around on those bands.  I worked a Welsh station, GW4BKG on 12m SSB and was pleased with a 55 report for my 10W.  Later I worked a mobile Italian station on 12m operated by Claudio, IW6DRH on SSB. That is the first time I believe I have made transatlantic contact from my QRP station to a mobile station, so again was pleased with him picking up my call first time.  Claudio was 57 to me with some QRN and he gave me a 55 report.  The antenna I was using was my homebrew 90ft doublet.

I later found some videos of Claudio on the web, so here is one that shows his mobile setup and him operating from his car. Thank you Claudio for the contact and the video!

Alan Steele, VA3STL, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Ottawa, Ontario. Contact him at [email protected].

Please read Part 1 for the beginning of the story and some background.

Based on the information that I’d previously described, I sent an email to the Logbook of The World (LoTW) desk at the ARRL in mid-June briefly explaining what I’d learned and asking what would be needed for them to issue a certificate so that I could upload my contacts. (Briefly, each contact is “signed” using a digital certificate to ensure that it’s valid. The ARRL issues a certificate to an operator when it is satisfied that the contacts were made legally.) I got a quick response back which referred me to the ARRL’s Reciprocal Operating page which gives the requirements needed to operate from different locations around the world.  The information provided for that page links to OH2MCN’s terrific site that has details for hundreds of countries. The information on his site is largely provided by hams who have operated from those locations, but sometimes it’s not always completely up to date. (As an example, you can see my contribution to the entry for the Cayman Islands, which in turn has been updated since I wrote to Veke.)  Unfortunately, the information for Costa Rica did not include the updated details regarding SUTEL (and still doesn’t as of the time that I’m writing this.) I responded back to both the LoTW desk and the DXCC desk (since the DXCC desk is ultimately responsible for determining if an operation is “legal”), but did not hear back from them prior to leaving for Costa Rica.

After I returned, I electronically requested a certificate for my operation. As with most operations from other that a home country, I was advised that I needed to contact the ARRL with the required supporting documentation. I sent another note to the DXCC desk in early August again explaining the situation but after a couple of weeks of no response, I sent a note to Joyce, KA2ANF, my Division Director who did whatever magic Division Directors do and got me a reply form the DXCC desk. Unfortunately, the reply was substantially the same as the initial responses that I’d gotten back (referring me to the Reciprocal Operation page) and didn’t address the changes in the licensing authority. It said that even though their information was outdated, that I’d need a license or some other documentation from the local licensing authority.

At this point, it occurred to me that many of the people who I’d emailed or spoken to had operated recently from Costa Rica, certainly within the last two years, and several had been issued LoTW certificates. Since there was precedent, I figured that the best way to find out how they had gotten their certificates was to ask, so I gathered up a list of email addresses, and sent out an email, that said in part:

…I noticed that you have recently uploaded contacts from a Costa Rica operation to LoTW, and I was wondering if you’d recently obtained a certificate without a paper license, or if you had a previously-issued license that was used to obtain your certificate. To be honest, I’m hoping that you might fall into the first category meaning that there is precedent for my certificate to be issued under the same conditions.

Over the next couple of days, I got back responses from pretty much everyone I wrote to (and some that I didn’t; my note got passed on to a few others who I hadn’t originally written) and the story from each of them was the same: No, SUTEL wasn’t issuing licenses but it was OK to operate from Costa Rica as long as you were in the country legally and had an appropriate US license. N0KE, AA8HH, N0SXX, and K4VAC (which is a club) all confirmed that they’d been issued LoTW certificates based on the “new” information about licensing. Better still, I received information from several hams that included emails between themselves, the ARRL, and in some cases, between Keko, TI5KD, the president of the Radio Club de Costa Rica where the licensing information was explained and accepted as valid by the ARRL.

I wrote another note to the DXCC desk and provided this information, and waited. After another couple of weeks, I sent a reminder note (I know those guys are busy, and my issue certainly wasn’t a big one) and got a response back. They’d started to investigate, and would be getting back to me. I felt that at least they were finally reading what I’d written and there was hope. Just a few hours later, and I got back another email telling me that my operation was accepted and a LoTW certificate would be issued shortly. (It was.)

I’d like to thank everyone that I mentioned here for their help in getting through all this. In particular, Keko, TI5KD  was very patient in explaining the situation and helping me to be confident that I would eventually get through the red tape.

On a final note, I realized that in the spirit of “giving back” to the ham community, the best thing that I could do would be to get the information on OH2MCN’s site updated, so I’ll be writing to him shortly with the details that I’ve provided here (though in a more concise form).

In the last few days several people have posted in their blogs or in forums that conditions on 10m have been great. Either I have been listening at the wrong times or this QTH is as bad on the higher HF bands as it is on VHF. When I have tuned across the 10m band I have found only one or two signals strong enough to be heard above the S4 noise level I now have on this band and none loud enough to work.

It’s probably my QTH. Last year when Olga was away in Ukraine I operated from the car with my QRP K2 and an MP-1 antenna on a mag mount and from just a few miles away but overlooking the coast I worked DX on 15 and 17m that I had never heard from home. Unfortunately going mobile is no longer an option as I am not allowed to drive due to my illness.

Something must be working right though. Most of the day I have been running WSPR on 10m with 5 watts to the dipole and my signal was spotted on 5 continents. It’s good, but it isn’t the same as having an actual conversation. You can see why my interest these days is turning more towards things like EchoLink.

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

In my last post regarding the ARRL and my disillusion of their discontinuing of most online courses I did not want to leave things on a negative note. We can complain about something each and every day but for me it's not about the complaining it's the solutions that matter. I turned to the internet to see what was out there regarding any online anything for Amateur radio!!! At Google typing in "online ham radio courses" netted my LOTS of study guides on how to become a radio amateur. As I weeded through the  many many many hits I came across some gem's. No they are not full fledged....the real deal.....online courses I was looking for but very good none the less.



AE4RV offers an excellent propagation primer it's in flash format.
K9LA has come very good tutorials on propagation on his website. 
The Potomac Valley Radio Club has Webinars and some dealing with propagation.
Wikipedeia I found to be very good for information as well as great links on most any subject.


101 Science offers an in depth electricity and electronics tutorials.
Smart flix offers many DVD's and some good ones on electronics.
Youtube has to many to mention just search electronic tutorial and the flood gates open

I have found that there also is lots of information on antennas, feed lines and RFI out there. The online course from the ARRL were a step by step learning process. It followed a building block strategy but at this time it's just not out there.
In closing I understand the ARRL is very keen on Ecomm  and it is certainly understandable. The weather that has brought about permanent change to many in the world is a good reason for Ecomm. Terrorism is not just "over there" anymore it can happen right at home and thus another need for Ecomm. BUT an amateur having a firm grounding in antenna theory, understanding feed lines, RFI, propagation and some electronics makes Ecomm all that much stronger.


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