AmateurRadio.com

Continuing my idea of plotting up what I hear on VHF/UHF from the car, here’s the map from last week. Nice to get back on GB3FX (Farnham 50MHz) for a couple of QSOs with Roger, G4HZA who I used to work often in the mornings. I was also pleased to work M1ELK/M on Beacon Hill near Newbury on 145MHz simplex (those simplex contacts are gold-dust) and interested to hear a mobile on the hills near Bromsgrove in Worcestershire, which is a good haul from here

View Heard this week 19/11 in a larger map

Not shown on the map are D-STAR QSOs made from home, of course. But I had a particularly enjoyable QSO on Wednesday evening with Keith, WD8AFB in Orlando. I’ve spoken to Keith a couple of times before and we share an interest in low power HF portable operating which it’s always fun to talk about. Keith had just got an FT817 and was trying to find the optimum antenna to use from hotel rooms when he’s out on the road.

Calling all Central Florida QRP Ops… there’s a small group of us in Orlando that like to gather together on the 2nd Saturday of the month for some breakfast, show n tell, and portable ops in a nearby park.

Antenna Tweakers

Operating site

K3RLL in action with KX-1

We just had a nice time of antenna tweaking and operating down by Lake Sylvan. There’s still room for more of you, so mark your calendars and plan to join us on the 10th of December 2010. Leave me a comment if you’d like me to send an email reminder to join us, or if you’d like to get on our list for future outings. Snowbirds are welcome too!

72,

Kelly K4UPG PB #173

In contrast to my giving up the frequency for a DX station while in the middle of a “run” during a contest (as I recently mentioned), I heard a particularly bad bit of operating on last Sunday while trying to work Bob, VP8LP in the Falkland Islands. I’ve worked Bob before on several bands but needed a contact from him on 15m. He had an excellent signal and was steadily working stations, the vast majority of which were good operators, standing by when Bob was working another station and not responding when Bob wasn’t calling them. (Please see my post about The DX Code of Conduct if you haven’t already.) There was, unfortunately, one exception to the “good guys” on the frequency.

As Bob was steadily working the pile, a ham started calling K7NRA on the frequency. After he did this once or twice, assuming that perhaps he was unaware that there was another station on the frequency, I responded to him and said that the frequency was in use and gave my callsign. (The other ham was using his callsign, or what I presume was his, though I neglected to note it. While normally I don’t like to “pick on” people in a public forum, what was going on was heard by dozens of other hams, and if I could remember what it was, I’d post it here.) The other ham said “Well, there’s supposed to be a special event for K7NRA on this frequency and I’m going to call him, this is his announced frequency”.

It was pretty clear that the guy calling wasn’t hearing K7NRA, and aside from that fact that he refused to stop interfering with an active frequency, his general technique was awful. He was calling “blind” (meaning he didn’t hear the other station), and kept calling “CQ CQ CQ CQ CQ CQ K7NRA”, which doesn’t actually make a lot of sense. CQ generally means “calling all stations”, thus saying “CQ K7NRA” means “calling all stations with a callsign of K7NRA”; by definition there will only be one. There are exceptions to using a “directed CQ”, such as when calling “CQ DX” (looking for any DX station) or “CQ NJ” (looking for a station in New Jersey), but proper procedure when calling a particular station is to simply call the station. If I were to call that station, I’d say “K7NRA this is K2DBK” or, if K7NRA was listening for other stations, I would likely just give my callsign only.

Several other stations responded to the caller (some more politely, and some, unfortunately much less so), and he refused to move, insisting that he had “as much right to the frequency as anyone”. Unless he had an emergency (which clearly was not the case), what he said was not true. The FCC rules governing the amateur radio service state that nobody can “own” a particular frequency (including by “publishing” use of a particular frequency at a particular time), and further, if any frequency is in use, with the exception of use in an emergency, nobody is required to relinquish the frequency for another station. Thus, the caller was not only wrong, but he was violating the rule that says “No amateur operator shall willfully or maliciously interfere with or cause interference to any radio communication or signal.”

The guy would not give up, and continued to attempt to call K7NRA repeatedly. The worst of it was when one station was speaking with Bob, and was showing ham radio to a young Boy Scout for the first time. All the others stations on the frequency patiently stood by while Bob spoke with the youngster, all except the guy calling K7NRA, who simply wouldn’t stop. Several hams were telling him (in language that probably violated another part of the FCC rules) exactly what they thought of him, to no avail. While this was happening, it occurred to me what a terrible impression this was making on the young Scout. Is this how we want to entice others into our hobby?

After the contact with the scout was over, Bob, who could hear the guy calling the K7 station, finally said “The station calling CQ, this is VP8LP, please go ahead”. That did the trick, the station stopped calling. Bob called several more times with no response, and finally said “well, I guess I’ve figured out how to shut him up!” and went back to working the pileup.

I would like to say that Bob’s comment had a permanent effect, but unfortunately that was not the case. The caller kept coming back, Bob would respond to the “gentleman calling CQ”, which would usually shut him up for a while, and so on. This went on for a while, with the occasional argument back and forth between the guy calling K7 and others on the frequency, until finally propagation changed enough that he was no longer heard on the frequency.

After this was over, I did a little research to see what “special event” he was talking about, since an initial check of the spot clusters didn’t show any activity for K7NRA. After a little digging I discovered that in fact the Yavapai Amateur Radio Club was, in fact, doing a special event to celebrate the “birthday” of the NRA, as described on their website. The frequency occupied by VP8LP was also one of the frequencies advertised (21.355mHz), but what our caller failed to notice was that the event was scheduled for the 17th of November, not the 14th of November, when this all occurred. This caller was not only wrong from a legal and ethical standpoint, he managed to get a lot of people annoyed at him by trying to work an activity that wasn’t even happening. As they say, you can’t outlaw stupidity.

In contrast to my giving up the frequency for a DX station while in the middle of a “run” during a contest (as I recently mentioned), I heard a particularly bad bit of operating on last Sunday while trying to work Bob, VP8LP in the Falkland Islands. I’ve worked Bob before on several bands but needed a contact from him on 15m. He had an excellent signal and was steadily working stations, the vast majority of which were good operators, standing by when Bob was working another station and not responding when Bob wasn’t calling them. (Please see my post about The DX Code of Conduct if you haven’t already.) There was, unfortunately, one exception to the “good guys” on the frequency.

As Bob was steadily working the pile, a ham started calling K7NRA on the frequency. After he did this once or twice, assuming that perhaps he was unaware that there was another station on the frequency, I responded to him and said that the frequency was in use and gave my callsign. (The other ham was using his callsign, or what I presume was his, though I neglected to note it. While normally I don’t like to “pick on” people in a public forum, what was going on was heard by dozens of other hams, and if I could remember what it was, I’d post it here.) The other ham said “Well, there’s supposed to be a special event for K7NRA on this frequency and I’m going to call him, this is his announced frequency”.

It was pretty clear that the guy calling wasn’t hearing K7NRA, and aside from that fact that he refused to stop interfering with an active frequency, his general technique was awful. He was calling “blind” (meaning he didn’t hear the other station), and kept calling “CQ CQ CQ CQ CQ CQ K7NRA”, which doesn’t actually make a lot of sense. CQ generally means “calling all stations”, thus saying “CQ K7NRA” means “calling all stations with a callsign of K7NRA”; by definition there will only be one. There are exceptions to using a “directed CQ”, such as when calling “CQ DX” (looking for any DX station) or “CQ NJ” (looking for a station in New Jersey), but proper procedure when calling a particular station is to simply call the station. If I were to call that station, I’d say “K7NRA this is K2DBK” or, if K7NRA was listening for other stations, I would likely just give my callsign only.

Several other stations responded to the caller (some more politely, and some, unfortunately much less so), and he refused to move, insisting that he had “as much right to the frequency as anyone”. Unless he had an emergency (which clearly was not the case), what he said was not true. The FCC rules governing the amateur radio service state that nobody can “own” a particular frequency (including by “publishing” use of a particular frequency at a particular time), and further, if any frequency is in use, with the exception of use in an emergency, nobody is required to relinquish the frequency for another station. Thus, the caller was not only wrong, but he was violating the rule that says “No amateur operator shall willfully or maliciously interfere with or cause interference to any radio communication or signal.”

The guy would not give up, and continued to attempt to call K7NRA repeatedly. The worst of it was when one station was speaking with Bob, and was showing ham radio to a young Boy Scout for the first time. All the others stations on the frequency patiently stood by while Bob spoke with the youngster, all except the guy calling K7NRA, who simply wouldn’t stop. Several hams were telling him (in language that probably violated another part of the FCC rules) exactly what they thought of him, to no avail. While this was happening, it occurred to me what a terrible impression this was making on the young Scout. Is this how we want to entice others into our hobby?

After the contact with the scout was over, Bob, who could hear the guy calling the K7 station, finally said “The station calling CQ, this is VP8LP, please go ahead”. That did the trick, the station stopped calling. Bob called several more times with no response, and finally said “well, I guess I’ve figured out how to shut him up!” and went back to working the pileup.

I would like to say that Bob’s comment had a permanent effect, but unfortunately that was not the case. The caller kept coming back, Bob would respond to the “gentleman calling CQ”, which would usually shut him up for a while, and so on. This went on for a while, with the occasional argument back and forth between the guy calling K7 and others on the frequency, until finally propagation changed enough that he was no longer heard on the frequency.

After this was over, I did a little research to see what “special event” he was talking about, since an initial check of the spot clusters didn’t show any activity for K7NRA. After a little digging I discovered that in fact the Yavapai Amateur Radio Club was, in fact, doing a special event to celebrate the “birthday” of the NRA, as described on their website. The frequency occupied by VP8LP was also one of the frequencies advertised (21.355mHz), but what our caller failed to notice was that the event was scheduled for the 17th of November, not the 14th of November, when this all occurred. This caller was not only wrong from a legal and ethical standpoint, he managed to get a lot of people annoyed at him by trying to work an activity that wasn’t even happening. As they say, you can’t outlaw stupidity.

Series Three Episode Twenty-Four of the ICQ Amateur / Ham Radio Podcast. News Stories include:

• UK Space Agency starts CubeSat pilot programme 
• World DX Club introduces e-membership 
• Wi-Fi partners with mains networking tech 
• UK Dreamer's Band first transmission (8.760kHz) 
• Indy Officers under fire for radio chatter 
• ARRL President makes final QSO WIA Centenary station
• Creation of a high-performance diode could change modern electronics 
• Ofcom to automatically renew Short Contest Callsigns
• Caribbean DXpedition head back to St. Lucia 
• WW2 activities of Radio Amateur G5HF
• Understanding LF and HF Propagation
• RAIBC amateur radio audio course discs
• Paper Aeroplane Released Into Space on 70cm
• Help the National Radio Centre
• Five Towns Repeater Group puts GB3WY on the air 
• FM interference to amateur radio satellites

Your feedback, upcoming events and Martin (M1MRB) completes the TenTec1330.

Series Three Episode Twenty-Four of the ICQ Amateur / Ham Radio Podcast. News Stories include:

• UK Space Agency starts CubeSat pilot programme 
• World DX Club introduces e-membership 
• Wi-Fi partners with mains networking tech 
• UK Dreamer's Band first transmission (8.760kHz) 
• Indy Officers under fire for radio chatter 
• ARRL President makes final QSO WIA Centenary station
• Creation of a high-performance diode could change modern electronics 
• Ofcom to automatically renew Short Contest Callsigns
• Caribbean DXpedition head back to St. Lucia 
• WW2 activities of Radio Amateur G5HF
• Understanding LF and HF Propagation
• RAIBC amateur radio audio course discs
• Paper Aeroplane Released Into Space on 70cm
• Help the National Radio Centre
• Five Towns Repeater Group puts GB3WY on the air 
• FM interference to amateur radio satellites

Your feedback, upcoming events and Martin (M1MRB) completes the TenTec1330.

The Ottawa Amateur Radio Digital Group are organizing the first Ottawa D-Star Symposium at Carleton University on Saturday 27th Nov. 2010.  The will be a number of speakers and the the focus will be on some of the current developments such as the Freestar network, hotspots, DV and DVAP dongles and the D-RATs software.  We are lucky to have Eric Meth, VE3EI, from Icom Canada as well as one speaker Andrew, M0GRU, who will be linking in from the UK.

The current talk plan is:

• Welcome and Introductions – VA3STL and VE3CVG
• D-STAR Past, Present, Future – VE3EI
• The VA3ODG System – VE3CVG – where we are and issues
• DVAPs, Dongles and HotSpots – M0GRU
• Break (5 min)
• The Spaghetti Bowl – FreeStar, USTrust, NI-STAR, ircDDB, G4ULF – VE3CVG, VA3OMP,others
• Lunch Break (30min)
• ID1 and High Speed Data – VA3YH
• D-RATs -VA3STL
• Break (5 min)
• About YMCA
• About Almonte VA3AAR
• Existing Projects
• Project Opportunities
• Where do we go from here?

Space is limited but if you are in the Ottawa area and would like to attend then please contact me.