AmateurRadio.com

The Edmonton Amateur Radio Society is sponsoring a “Try Amateur Radio Day”  tomorrow at the local high school. When I saw this online, I thought, “That’s a pretty great way to get the hobby in the public view.” Just setup, do some operating and invite people to stop on by and have a look or even get on the air.

Photo Courtesy of Tryon ARC/K2JJI

Now I have helped with something like this with the Tryon Club I was a member of back in my home town. We have what’s called “Railfest” which is just a little fair near city hall and organizations from the area come to setup and meet the public, as well as having food and games and such. It’s a lot of fun. But something I noticed was that my fellow club members never went beyond saying ‘Hi’ to people that stopped by. They didn’t engage them in a conversation. It was like they were shy.

So I took the initiative and started talking to folks. That what I do for a living. I talk and engage listeners and people. Kids, passersby and such. It made for some nice conversations and getting the word out, that there is a club in town. Plus we had the usual pamphlets and PR material and a couple radios setup. All would be just nice to look at and be kind of there if you didn’t engage your visitors. So that’s a good bit of advice. Engage them in a conversation. If you get a small group of people around your table or area, and others see it, they will probably make it a point to stop there and see what is going on.

73.

Rich also writes a Tech blog and posts stories every Tuesday and Thursday on Q103, The Rock of Albany’s website, as well as Amateur Radio stories every Monday thru Friday on AmiZed Studios and hosts a podcast called The Kim & Rich Show with his fiance’ Kim Dunne.

My friend is getting back into ham radio for the first time since he was a boy, and one of the first things he wants is a straight key. I’ve steered him toward the Nye Viking Speed-X key. You can spend lots of money on keys nowadays, and I admit that some of them are mighty pretty. But the eham reviews of the Speed-X key suggest that looks aren’t everything. Unless you’re willing to spend a fortune for a luxury-model, I say put your money on the Speed-X. It’s worth every penny.

Probably the best way to mount this key is to screw it down to your desk if you’re willing to. Or you can buy a nice heavy aluminum base for this key straight from Nye Viking. But here’s how you can make an attractive, heavy base for not a whole lot of money. Here’s the finished product (I made this years ago):

I found this inexpensive piece of wood at Michael’s (an arts and crafts store). It was unfinished with the edges already routed as shown. When you find your own piece of wood like this, figure out where you want to mount your key. I used nuts and bolts to mount my key, but wood screws probably would have been better (by the time you’re done with this project, you’ll have a hard time getting to any nuts on the underside because they will be covered with felt). If you do decide to use nuts and bolts, drill holes for the bolts now so that you know where those holes are in the next step.

Flip the piece of wood upside down and go to work hollowing out as much of it as you can, starting about a half inch in from each edge. I can’t remember if I used a chisel, a Dremel tool, or both, but either would work. Just be careful not to hollow out so much that you punch through to the other side! Leave enough wood in the spots where you’re going to bolt or screw down your key so that you have a good strong mount when you’re done.

Once you hollow out the underside of your piece of wood, take a hot glue gun and glue in as much lead shot as you can stuff in there. This is what makes the base nice and heavy so that your key doesn’t jump around while you’re pounding out CW.

Give the block of wood a quick sanding, stain it with your favorite stain, varnish it, and mount your key! If you are using nuts and bolts, I recommend using a bit of Locktite to keep them from coming loose.

The last step is to glue a piece of felt to the underside of the block of wood. This hides the unsightly gob of lead shot and glue you’ve put in there, and it lets you slide the thing around on your desk smoothly. Don’t worry, it won’t make it too slippery. If you’ve put enough lead shot in there it will stay put just fine while you’re pounding brass. Here’s a look at the underside of mine:

If you build one of these yourself, let me know! I’d love to hear from you.

Items required:
Wooden base (available from craft store)
Felt (also available from craft store)
Lead shot (available from sporting goods store)
Nuts & bolts (or wood screws) to mount key
Dremel tool and/or wood-chisel
Hot glue gun
Wood Stain
Varnish

As I proudly blogged about on 28 August, I did successfully pass my first attempt at the US extra exam and walked out of the VE session with my signed CSCE in hand.  I started checking the FCC ULS database the following week.  I had certainly been given the impression from the local VE team that they send the results off and typically upgrades or new licenses are shown within just  few days.  True enough, I noticed the FCC had received the upgrade information on 1 September.  I will admit I burned a hole through cyberspace refreshing the browser several times on Friday, 2 September hoping I would see the approved status show.  However, that was not to be. 

Over the weekend I had a ball working the Colorado QSO party on Saturday and spent a few hours on Sunday and Monday on the air.  I knew with it being a long holiday weekend I would expect to see any movement until Tuesday, 6 September.  Unfortunately, Tuesday 6 September came and went and the same status was showing. 

I became somewhat curious and decided to look into the amount of time which it took the FCC to fully approve my technician to general upgrade in January 2008.  Based on the information in the ULS database, the FCC received the request and it went to approved status all in the same day with the license being mailed the following day.  Something seemed a bit odd as I couldn’t understand what would be causing the delay this time.

When I review the status on the FCC ULS database this is what I see.

09/01/2011  Modification Received
09/01/2011  Redlight Review Completed
09/01/2011  Offlined for Alert List Review

I decided to utilize social media and the many hams I follow on Google+ to see if anyone else had experienced this.  Within a short amount of time another ham responded and told me what the status of Offlined for Alert List Review means.  Basically it is the FCC equivalent of the FAA’s No Fly List.  They went on to say that my name in on the FCC’s list of people who should not be given a license.  WHAT????

Now if you know me, you know I’m a God fearing, law-abiding, tax paying, red blood American.   Since getting my technician class licensed, I successfully upgraded to general in Jan. 2008 (without issue) and have had a couple of background checks for my volunteering with the Denver Police Dept.  In addition, I had my passport renewed in the Spring of 2011 and successfully re-entered the country after visiting Belgium and England during the June/July 2011 timeframe.  So what does the FCC think I’ve done wrong?

Well…if I knew the answer to that question I probably wouldn’t be writing this blog post.  I figure this must just be a case of mistaken identity.  After all, the name Jerry Taylor is fairly common.  Perhaps another Jerry Taylor has some FCC complaints logged against them and the FCC just needs additional time to confirm that I’m not the same Jerry Taylor.  Or, perhaps the FCC is casting a bigger net and another Jerry Taylor has been flagged in another government database.  At this point, I really don’t know. 

So what have I done about this?  Well…I’ve decided at this time NOT to contact the FCC.  I would probably only be able to speak to an admin level type person who may or may not know anything about why my application is on hold.  Instead, I utilized my ARRL Life Membership and contacted the ARRL Regulatory and Advocacy group.  At least these are fellow hams who should have the knowledge and insight to work directly with the FCC to clear this up.  Unfortunately, I’ve not heard back from the ARRL as of yet.

I wouldn’t think it would be too difficult to determine the right Jerry Taylor from the wrong Jerry Taylor (if this is the case), but who knows.  I’ve not done anything wrong and can’t think of any reason why this would or could be happening.  I’ll keep you all posted as I learn more.

Until then….

73 de KD0BIK/AE

An interesting news item on Taiwanese television: people were complaining that they had to run USB extension cables from inside their home, through the kitchen, over the washing machine, onto the balcony, to get some decent wireless internet access from their dongle. Why couldn’t Chunghua Telecom provide decent coverage inside their apartments? “Because this is not why it is called wireless, is it?”

I love these NIMBY (not in my back yard) paradoxes: people don’t want antenna towers close by, but still expect a perfect service from their mobile phone or WiMax providers. But it made me ponder and come up with a theory.

We recently moved into our own semi-detached house. After emigrating from the Netherlands to Taiwan we were living-in with mother-in-law. It wasn’t that bad, but there’s no home like your own home, right? Back in the Netherlands we had a 90 year old town house. The kind of a house where you point your finger at the brick wall and there is a hole in it. Despite the soft walls, I could take any radio or HT and have clear reception throughout the house. So late at night I monitored 40 meters, practised taking morse code or talked some on my HT in bed before going to sleep. Heaven!

Here in Taiwan I am lucky to get any radio signal inside our new home. Shortwave is completely empty. Mediumwave too, apart from one or two local stations. FM is not much better, even though we live only kilometres from the nearest broadcasting facility. And it wasn’t much better in mother-in-law’s apartment. On the roof top or balcony things are fine and I can hear the world and some more. In the reinforced concrete cage that we live in now it is no dice.

So what is my theory? Radio is dying because we can’t receive it any more! We amateur radio operators know how to, but we are being curtailed by antenna restrictions. And potential hams? They don’t even get to discover the magic of radio waves, because they live in boxes that keep radio waves out. I started out with shortwave listening after accidentally finding Radio RSA on an old radio I found in the attic. I doubt that my son will ever make such a discovery on his own. But luckily he has a father who is heavily into radio, so he will turn out right, don’t worry.

For now I put up an old CB antenna on the balcony – with the railing acting as a counter poise – and I am enjoying myself. I was just testing the whole set-up when KA5PNX called me, so the first QSO was some good DX as well. Things are looking good so expect more reports from the Far East in the future.

73 de BX2ABT a.k.a. Hans “Fong” van den Boogert

The last 24 hours here in Upstate NY has been flood warnings and weather watches, and I want to get away from that for a bit. A good place to go, I think, is California. So why not join in on their 45th running of their QSO Party which is probably the largest in the U.S.

Image of Flag of California/Wikipedia

So the object of the party is of course to work as many stations in the Golden State as possible on phone and CW. Stations may be worked once per mode/band combination for points with California Counties (58 of them) as individual multipliers. And California stations will get credit for working stations inside and outside of the state with US States and Canadian Provinces as their multipliers. The party runs from 16:00 GMT October 1st till October 2nd at 22:00 GMT.

The Northern California Contest Club sponsors the CQP and offers a variety of awards open to stations inside and outside of California.  Some of the awards include plaques for the top operators in the Youth (under 18) and YL categories. California QSO Party chairman, Rick “Rhino” N6RNO, says that last year the contest attracted a record number of log submissions, and they are hoping to beat the previous record this year, by as big a margin as they can.

The rules for the contest, as well as a complete list of awards can be found on their website.

73.

Rich also writes a Tech blog and posts stories every Tuesday and Thursday on Q103, The Rock of Albany’s website, as well as Amateur Radio stories every Monday thru Friday on AmiZed Studios and hosts a podcast called The Kim & Rich Show with his fiance’ Kim Dunne.

Welcome to Handiham World!

I don’t know how it is for you, but in our household Labor Day here in the USA marks the unofficial end of summer.  Yes, I know that by the calendar September is still really a summer month. Autumn isn’t official until Friday, 23 September 2011.  But if you are an early riser like me, you can notice quite a difference week to week as the morning daylight retreats and it is really quite dark when you make that first pot of coffee or take the dog out.   

Help us win the Dr. Dave Challenge!

W0GLU License Plate

This vintage automobile license plate was issued to Rex Kiser, W0GLU, in 1971 by the State of Minnesota. It has renewal stickers for 1972 and 1973. Rex is now a silent key, but had literally decades of volunteer experience for the Handiham program. The license plate was a gift to us from Miriam Kiser, Rex’s wife.
Rex’s specialty was repairing and modifying amateur radio equipment for the use of our members with disabilities. He soon became our crew leader, taking charge of shop activities. Back in the early days, the modifications to equipment included mounting clothespins on band-switch knobs so that people with muscle weakness could get enough leverage to change bands by themselves. The Handiham System also kept a “fleet” of loaner CW transceivers, Ten-Tec Century 21 models. These would be modified by Rex and his crew for use by blind hams. The mod included cutting away part of the plastic bezel covering the radio’s frequency display dial and putting tactile bumps on the dial to mark frequency intervals. The blind user could put his or her fingertips through the hole in the bezel and feel the raised markings on the frequency display dial. This was about as analog a frequency display as you can get! It was only in later years that frequency displays started going digital and the door began opening to voice frequency announcements.
In later years, Rex and his crew installed voice modules in radios like the venerable Kenwood TS-440SAT, a very popular radio that appeared in the late 1980’s. The VS-1 speech module made it the most blind-friendly HF radio of its day, and the built in automatic antenna tuner in the SAT version freed blind users from the hassle of fiddling with manual tuners. Needless to say, Rex and his crew knew these radios inside and out!
W0GLU was also a regular net control station on the PICONET, which meets daily except Sundays on 3.925 MHz. I would describe Rex as a well-rounded ham radio operator who enjoyed many aspects of radio and electronics. Injured serving his country during WW2, shrapnel pierced his spinal column and he never walked again. That didn’t keep Rex from driving his own car and maintaining his considerable upper body strength. I was surprised when he decided to take up adapted skiing with his disabled vets group, but I shouldn’t have been. As I said, Rex was a well-rounded guy, interested in helping others by volunteering and in living a good and worthy life.
Rex Kiser, W0GLU – A great ham radio operator who inspires us still.

Image: Rex poses for the camera in the Handiham repair shop.