AmateurRadio.com

If you know a bit about programming and have been thinking of writing a ham radio application, here’s a word of advice. Don’t. If you do, it will take over your hobby, your spare time will never be the same again and you’ll be lucky to receive much thanks for it.

First, you’ll have to spend countless hours answering emails that ask the same basic questions. You’ll have to do this no matter how much time you put into writing documentation or creating an FAQ or a wiki, because no-one will read it. And believe me, starting the day with an inbox full of the same old questions gets tiresome very quickly.

Second, you’ll be expected to know why your program won’t run on a user’s computer, without being given any idea what kind of computer it is or what version of operating system it uses. If the user has done anything that might affect your program’s ability to run, you won’t be told that either. And beware if you should choose not to spend too much time looking into someone’s obscure problem. One user of VOAProp who had a problem several years ago that I was unwilling to solve threatened to write to the RSGB accusing me of lacking in ham spirit. That bruising encounter is one reason I gave up developing programs for the hobby completely and now make it as clear as I possibly can that the programs I wrote continue to be available on the sole condition that I provide absolutely no support for them whatsoever.

Third, you’ll receive a lot of requests from armchair programmers for changes and improvements. Some of these might be good ideas, though you still may not want to implement them. But many will be things that only that person thinks is a good idea, quite possibly because they haven’t read the instructions or understood how the program is supposed to be used. These requests will contain no acknowledgement of the amount of time you will have to spend making these suggestions happen. You’ll have the job of justifying why you shouldn’t spend several hours or days coding some function that you personally have no interest in using. And some people find it hard to take “no” for an answer. If you wanted to write programs to someone else’s spec you’d get a job as a programmer, wouldn’t you? Then at least you’d be paid for it.

Last, but by no means least, you’ll get complaints about bugs. Yes, complaints, even if your program is free. Often, these emails will be the first contact you ever have with that particular user. But don’t expect them to start with any pleasantries. If you are particularly unlucky, as I was with one email I received from someone who couldn’t get KComm to run, you’ll be blamed for wasting their time. Sometimes the “bugs” will be due to user error or failing to read the instructions, but it’s rare that you’ll receive an apology after pointing that out. And believe me, those who complain most bitterly won’t get the joke if you offer to refund what they paid for the software.

Fortunately there are users who will make you feel that your effort is worthwhile. You might even be lucky and build a team of online friends who test your program and give you useful feedback about it. But it doesn’t take many of the other sort of comments to make you wonder why you bother. If you develop your program solely for your own use you will save yourself a lot of trouble.

It’s a good job no-one takes my advice because if ham programmers didn’t release their programs for free and put up with all the brickbats I’ve described the hobby would be a lot poorer for it. But if you’ve ever seen a program mentioned in some old forum posting and been unable to find a copy of it, now you know why.

So next time you use a bit of free ham radio software ask yourself: Did I remember to say thank you for it? Before bothering the developer with a question, take the time to read the documentation and search any relevant forum for the answer. And if you think you found a bug or have a suggestion for an improvement, try not to make it sound like a criticism or a demand. A little tact goes a long way.

The Radio Society of Great Britain are conducting a survey of radio amateurs based in the UK. On their website, RSGB say, “The objective of the survey is to gather as much information as possible on 21st century amateur radio operation in the UK. The survey, which is internet based, will run for three months and the data collected will be used to determine the direction that amateur radio takes over the next 10 to 20 years”.

With my cynical hat on, I’m afraid I’ll have to take issue with the last point. Amateur Radio will take its own direction, regardless of any survey results! In my opinion, perhaps a better way of putting it would be that the survey would help shape the RSGB’s attitude to taking amateur radio into the future.

I’ve just completed the survey myself and I encourage you to do so if you are based in the UK. I was surprised at some things that it dwelt upon and surprised at some of the things that it didn’t cover, or only lightly touched. There is more I might say about this, perhaps when the survey is over, but I wouldn’t want to be accused of leading the witness!

Either way – take a few moments to respond – it can only help for as many people as possible to take part in the survey.

It will be interesting to see what use is made of the results.

The RSGB’s Amateur Radio Survey can be found here

Peter, G4NKX, uncovered a can of worms the other day after encountering some unpleasantness by CW users in what has traditionally been the PSK segment of 40m starting at 7.035MHz. It appears that the 40m band plan in IARU Region 1 (Europe) has been changed, but nobody has been told, including the IARU.org website which still has copies of the old band plan coming up top in Google searches for “IARU Region 1 Bandplan“.

Under the current European band plan for 40m, CW now has free reign up to 7.040MHz, with narrow band digimodes from 7.040 to 7.050. So the start of PSK31 operation is now presumably 7.040MHz. However the bright sparks who sit in their ivory towers and decide this sort of thing clearly forgot about the real world in which people don’t find out about something unless it is shoved under their noses. People will operate where they hear other people operating, which creates a very powerful inertia against any form of change. These band plan changes came into effect on 29th March 2009, yet people are still in ignorance of them 18 months later. Where was the letter from the national society to each licensed amateur, informing them of the changes?

But more to the point, why change? It’s just a recipe for chaos and an opportunity for the band police to cause unpleasantness, just for the sake of an extra 5KHz for CW operators. It also now means that digital mode users in Europe must use a different part of the spectrum to those in the USA, making transatlantic digital DX impossible without incurring the wrath of the policemen. Frankly, I don’t blame PSK31 users for staying where they were and refusing to be shunted around by bandplan changes that don’t give them any benefits.

I’m somewhat confused about what the 40m USA bandplan is. The document on the IARU website for Region 2 shows narrow band digital modes starting at 7.035MHz. But I thought people in the USA operated PSK31 starting at 7.070MHz and other narrow band modes like JT65A at 7.075MHz? No wonder I have never heard any Stateside DX on digital.

Radio waves don’t stop at IARU regional boundaries so what is the point in having bandplans that put digital modes in different parts of the band in different regions? It just goes to prove that the powers that be who make these decisions think the only modes that matter are SSB and CW.

Because of the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles as single political entity effective 10/10/10 (one of those dates that you don’t have to worry about whether that is in “American” or “rest of the world” format), the status of some existing DXCC entities will change. The details of this have been discussed elsewhere and the ARRL has said that there will be new entities formed for DXCC award purposes. All of those locations are in the Caribbean, and all are easy to work from the US, particularly from the east coast where I’m located. Because of the way that the DXCC program works, anyone who wants to keep their DXCC totals up will need to work all the “new” entities in order for them to count for award credit. To help out all those who will be interested in contacting these new entities (and there will be a lot of us), DXpeditions have been planned to activate all of those islands starting on the 10/10/10 date. I hope that everyone keeps in mind the DX Code of Conduct that I wrote about last week. It’s going to be tempting for everyone to try to force their way into the pileups, but it’s important to realize that: A) The operators working the DXpeditions are experienced and in all likelyhood they will work you and B) Even if you aren’t able to work those DXpeditions, all the islands have regular activity and they’ll be on the air again soon.

The different DXpedtions agreed on a bandplan to minimize the interference between themselves. My recommendation is that you print out a copy of this document (PDF file) and keep it at your operating location. By following the bandplan, you’ll have a much better chance of working the station that you think you’re working. 

Be patient, you’ll work them, these are not difficult islands to get to and it’s not worth getting into an on-air fight in an attempt to work them. Be courteous and you should have a good shot. Good luck.

I, on occasion, have the need to have recordings of activities on our local repeaters.  Being the local area DEC, recordings do come in handy when running training sessions in the future.  Sometimes, it’s nice to have a recording of an on air event as well.  When I’m operating in my capacity as a control operator, it comes in handy to have recordings of repeater traffic.

Having a VOX actuated recorder comes in handy.  Especially for recording repeater activity.  I stumbled on Vox Recorder for Windows by Nino Porcino, IZ8BLY.  Wrote a handy little app that will not only record the files, but also name them as well.

Caveat:  I have only run this on a 32 bit OS.  If you have experience running this in any of the 64 bit versions of windows, please comment below and let us know.

You can find VOX Recorder for Windows at:

http://xoomer.virgilio.it/aporcino/VoxRecorder/

Linux in the Ham Shack took a bit of an unintended hiatus over the last month. We’re in the process of trying to catch back up to where we’re supposed to be. The current episode recording schedule has been posted and is accurate. We’re going to do a couple of broadcasts two weeks in a row and then the next three releases will be coming out in rapid succession so we’re back on track.

After the Dayton Hamvention, Southeast Linux Fest, Joplin ARC Hamfest and Ohio Linux Fest, things have slowed down a bit on the event front, but we’re just starting up again when it comes to the show. So please stay tuned, tell your friends about us, and make sure to pick up a shirt or a ball cap. These are high quality items, and the only way you can get them is online or when we’re at an event close to you. Also, check out the new BADGER WEAR! You can find a link to all of our merchandise at the top of this Web site. Have a good week, everyone, and thanks for listening!

73 de The LHS Guys

Welcome to Handiham World!

At this time of year I am always taken by surprise at how quickly the daylight hours fade every day here in the northern hemisphere. That means more hours of darkness and more HF radio fun in the evenings, as we mentioned last week when we extolled the virtues of 160, 80, and 40 m for long-distance communications. Things are also looking up in the daytime communications department, because my Windows sidebar gadget, “Full Sun 2.1” by John Stephen, shows me the face of the sun becoming more regularly dotted with sunspots. More sunspot activity means that the shorter wavelength HF bands like 10 and 15 meters will soon become much more reliable for very long distance daytime contacts.

If you have a Technician Class license, now is the time to consider an upgrade to General Class so that you can really use and appreciate all of these HF bands at a time when conditions favor some really great operating.

What makes me think about this upgrade business today of all days, when I am busy with your weekly E-letter and podcast is that tonight I will be teaching a two hour General Class course on rules and regulations. The course is open to anyone, but of course Technician Class license holders would probably be the most interested since they have already completed their first license and are familiar with ham radio terminology and operations, at least on the VHF and UHF bands. While some HF frequencies are open to Technician Class licensees, pretty much everyone realizes that an upgrade to General is a necessity if one is really going to enjoy shortwave operation.

One advantage that I feel that I have in teaching rules and regulations is that those who have passed the Technician are already familiar with the fact that we are regulated by the Federal Communications Commission and that the section of the rules governing the Amateur Radio Service are called Part 97. Anyone with a license should already know about frequency charts and about how the various levels of license allow for operation in different band segments. Everyone is already familiar with the fact that transmit power levels are regulated and that examinations are given by a VE team. Starting with this foundation of basic knowledge makes the General Class study regimen that much easier. I always start out the course by assuring my students that the examination for General Class will be 35 multiple-choice questions without any Morse code testing. Yes, I know that the code requirement has been gone for quite awhile now, but I still encounter students who either don’t quite believe it or simply haven’t gotten the news. One thing I have learned over years and years of teaching is that one cannot assume that the students know all of these basics on the first day of class!

Although I am very familiar with teaching into a microphone for our blind Handiham students, these courses taught in front of a class of students from the general public will only occasionally have a blind participant. This is going to sound a little bit odd, but I have to remind myself that I will now be expected to provide some visual learning cues as I speak and answer questions. For a traditional teacher of amateur radio at a typical radio club course the situation is reversed and that teacher may have considerable difficulty working with blind students. It all serves to remind me that the first time I meet my students I am going to have to assess them to find out how they learn and be flexible enough to adapt my teaching style accordingly. In teaching amateur radio courses, flexibility is the key. Your students will help guide you if you are open-minded enough to listen to them – just as we always tell new operators to listen on the bands before transmitting.

When I see a classroom full of students who are interested in amateur radio, I know that they are motivated to learn. After all, amateur radio classes are completely voluntary and these people could be doing something else instead of sitting in a ham radio class. This is a tremendous advantage and opportunity for me – and you – as teachers in amateur radio. Our students want to learn. We need to make sure that we are prepared to teach by having our teaching materials and any audiovisual equipment ready to go at the beginning of class so that we can move right into the topic at hand and make sure that we use the time as efficiently as possible.

Today we have the Internet and all of its amateur radio resources as study aids for post-class reinforcement of each week’s classroom topic. Since I am teaching rules and regulations and the radio club has chosen the ARRL General Class License Manual as the official study guide, I will be referring my students to the section of the ARRL website that provides further information about that particular book, including extra study material, any corrections that might need to be made in the text, and – most importantly – a question pool organized to follow the book. Not everyone knows about this special question pool, so I never assume that my students have discovered it on their own. Believe me, it makes quite a difference to be able to follow the question pool in the same order as the chapters in your textbook. I also freely recommend other amateur radio websites that might help with either studying or practice examinations.

One disadvantage of having to teach the chapter about rules and regulations is that it is not considered a “fun” topic. When one thinks about rules and regulations, it brings to mind memorizing really dull legal-sounding rules and lots of frequency limits. I won’t deny that there is some of that, but your job as an instructor is to help the students learn how to learn. That might mean pulling out the US Amateur Radio Bands frequency chart and helping the students to make sense of a page full of data that might otherwise seem overwhelming. One trick is to divide the frequency bands into the ones where there are no special General Class subsections and those that do have subsections. Breaking the frequency chart down in this manner can help your students remember which bands they may get questions on regarding frequency limits. Of course there is going to be some memory work no matter what you do in the classroom to help the students organize their thinking. I tell my students in no uncertain terms that they will have to sit down and do some memorization and that they will do it as homework. My volunteer instructors at Handiham Radio Camp have told me for years that studying at home is vital to ultimately passing the examination during the VE session at camp. Fortunately most radio club classes meet weekly for 8 to 10 weeks, giving your students much more time to study at home. Just be sure that they understand what to study and help them develop good study habits.

My classes are always interactive. I don’t prefer to lecture from a podium for an hour and then have a question-and-answer session. Most people learn best if their questions are answered the instant they pop into their heads. If you wait to have a question and answer session you will find that many of your students have forgotten questions that might’ve come up during the lecture. A better way to conduct the class will be as a discussion that can be interrupted to answer questions. Time will be a factor, so a good teacher learns to manage this kind of interactive classroom experience in order to keep the class moving along while still allowing the students to participate actively during the entire class period.

Since my class is going to be in a two hour time frame, I am going to plan for a mid-class break. Your students will be more alert if they can attend to personal needs and walk around a bit instead of having to sit for an extended period of time.

Finally, when you are wrapping up your class, your students may feel overwhelmed with all of the material that you have managed to cram into the evening’s session. Once they return home and think about what they have learned, which may even take the rest of the week, they may have other questions that they wish they had asked during the class. That’s why I always provide my e-mail address and invite my students to ask questions whenever they think of them. My radio club teaches classes in Technician and General, offering the first license in the spring of the year in conjunction with an emergency weather spotter course. The upgrade class to General is offered in the autumn. All of the classes are taught by a team of volunteer instructors so that no one instructor will be tasked with many classes to prepare for over the course of 8 to 10 weeks.

I hope your radio club is offering classes as well. Over the years I have received the sad news from time to time that a radio club is dissolving and distributing its assets to worthy causes like the Handiham System. While I am always glad to receive support for our program, I really hate to see an amateur radio club closing its doors. I suspect that one of the biggest factors in the demise of these clubs was the absence of an education program to teach amateur radio classes. A club without an educational program is a club that is not building a base of new amateur radio operators in their community. This is a recipe for an aging club membership that will eventually diminish to a few members and eventually the plug will be pulled on the club. Don’t let that happen to your club. Volunteer to help with an education program. If you have never been an amateur radio instructor, you may want to sit in on a class taught by one of your other club members or even a neighboring radio club’s class. The idea is to learn how to teach and then get out there and do it. Rest assured that your efforts will be rewarded by the new members you will bring into the amateur radio community. You will have more members in your club, and these new members will have new ideas. Eventually they will become instructors themselves and they will also serve in leadership positions and provide new club programs. They will be the ones who will take up the mantle of “Elmers” who will be able to keep amateur radio healthy and growing into the future.

I always feel honored when I am asked to teach one of our classes. I hope you will feel that way, too.

I hope to hear you on the air soon.

A dip in the pool

No one told you there was going to be a quiz, right? I thought it would be fun to pick a question out of the question pool and see how many of us can remember the right answer. Ready? Here we go:

G1A01 [97.301(d)]

On which of the following bands is a General Class license holder granted all amateur

frequency privileges?

A. 20, 17, and 12 meters

B. 160, 80, 40, and 10 meters

C. 160, 30, 17, 12, and 10 meters

D. 160, 30, 17, 15, 12, and 10 meters

Do see how sneaky I can be? In my opening remarks I specifically referred to teaching my students about dividing the frequency chart into bands where General Class licensees have full privileges and bands that have frequency restrictions. Think about which one of these is the correct answer and we will provide it at the end of this newsletter and podcast.