AmateurRadio.com

If you’ve used Google Maps then you have probably tried the Street View feature that lets you look around a place on the map as if you were actually there. Unless you are in Germany, that is. Germany remains the largest European country that is not covered by the Street View service. The German government has forced Google to offer an opt out service that allows people to request that their houses are blurred out of the pictures in the same way faces and vehicle registration plates are. Some privacy campaigners in Germany would prefer that appearing in Street View should be an opt-in feature.

Street View has been available as an option on the aprs.fi APRS tracking site for a few months now. It’s fun to virtually travel along with an APRS user and see what they see. But Street View has a serious use too. If you’re house hunting then it would be a great way to see whether you like the neighbourhood, for example. When Olga and I went to Prague last month the taxi driver from the airport wasn’t sure exactly where our rented apartment was but because I’d “visited” the area in Street View a few days earlier I recognized where we were and was able to direct him right to the door. (Incidentally the Czech government has also called a halt to further data collection in the Czech Republic pending talks with Google.)

I don’t know what people think they are achieving by insisting on being able to opt out of Street View. It shows nothing that you can’t see just by being there. What are they trying to hide? Anyone can take pictures of an area, upload them to the internet (without blurring anyone’s face or vehicle registration number) and link them in a way that anyone searching for pictures of that place will find them. All Google has done is go about it in a more methodical way. Are we going to have controls on publishing photos on the internet now?

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

This month WorldRadio Online features an article in the CW FISTS Club column entitled CW Naysayers: Would You Like Hollandaise Sauce With That Hat?  The article by KC0CCR outlines, correctly, the growth of amateur radio and CW usage since the demise of the code test.  KC0CCR quips: “Will those who predicted that ending Morse Code [...]

This month WorldRadio Online features an article in the CW FISTS Club column entitled CW Naysayers: Would You Like Hollandaise Sauce With That Hat?  The article by KC0CCR outlines, correctly, the growth of amateur radio and CW usage since the demise of the code test.  KC0CCR quips:

"Will those who predicted that ending Morse Code testing would be the death knell of Morse Code on the airwaves, please find your hat and eat it? Would you like Hollandaise sauce with that?"

The irony of this is FISTS led the charge against eliminating the code test and even petitioned for more stringent CW testing requirements, 180 degrees out of phase with the direction CW testing, amateur radio, and the rest of the civilized world was heading.  FISTS' own petition to the FCC stated:

"...Morse code proficiency assists amateurs in acquiring the very skills that form the basis and purpose of the Amateur Radio Service, and provides something essential to our country - technical skill and experimentation. There exists no simpler entry into the field of radio-frequency circuit design. Without Morse proficiency this easy entrance will be closed."

"Retaining the Morse code requirement encourages amateurs to become proficient in Morse code and many other activities...."

"Failure to keep Morse testing part of the licensing structure undermines many core activities integral to the Amateur Radio Service and nullifies one of the traditional objectives of the Service, i.e., to train a ' . . . reserve pool of qualified radio operators and technicians.' "

While the FCC NPRM was open for comments, the FISTS Code Crusader webpage rallied the troops and rattled the sabers to encourage everyone to protect the CW test and all that was good and wholesome in amateur radio:

"LET THEM HEAR FROM US!! Start a petition at your local club!! We will not just sit by quietly and let them dumb us down any further!!"  (emphasis added)

Presumably a large number of hats sporting Hollandaise sauce will be FISTS caps?
Anthony Good, K3NG, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Pennsylvania, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

The October edition of WorldRadio Online magazine is available now.

Highlights include:

* An End-Fed Dipole That’s Easy to Build and Great for the Field – a trail-friendly design inspired by Kurt N. Sterba’s Aerials column in the August edition of WorldRadio Online, where four stacked F114-61A toroids are the secret weapon along with one-quarter wave of RG-174U coax…

* Seeing What Others Are Hearing: A DX Cluster Primer – How to tap into the information flowing through the DX Cluster network

* Radio & Relaxation = The Great Family Vacation – One ham’s adventures combining radio fun with family holidays.

Stephen Rapley, VK2RH, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New South Wales, Australia. Contact him at [email protected].

One of the reasons I’m not endlessly filling my log with DX contacts is because I actually get more enjoyment and interest out of trying new things or just tinkering about. On Sunday I decided to try using my K2 – which has been redundant since the few mobile excursions I made earlier in the year when Olga was away – for HF 30m APRS. I connected it up to the magnetic loop. I didn’t have a spare sound card I could use for the packet modem, but the microphone input of the USB dongle I use for computer audio playback was free, so I set it up for receive only.

When I previously tried to use that USB audio device to decode HF packet via the AGW Packet Engine I had no luck at all. At the time, I concluded that this was due to 300baud packet being a higher speed mode than PSK31 and the USB device was somehow losing the information necessary to decode it. However it now appears that the reason it didn’t work before is because the AGW Packet Engine opens the device at a higher sample rate than most digital mode programs. For the last few weeks I have been using TrueTTY as a packet decoder and this uses a 11025Hz sample rate. I used TrueTTY to decode the audio coming from the cheap dongle and it appears to be just as sensitive as it was when the audio was coming from my best sound card.

This morning I tried listening on 14076kHz, the JT65A frequency, and decoded several stations despite the high noise level on 20m. So it seems to me that it is possible to use these cheap USB dongles for sound card digimodes as long as the software you use samples at 11025Hz. Some programs unfortunately don’t let you set the sample rate and may use a rate as high as 48000Hz. This is unlikely to work if my experience is anything to go by, so I still don’t recommend that you buy one of these cheap devices for digimode use unless you have a specific application in mind that you know it will work with.

I have now ordered another of these cheap USB dongles which I plan to make into a “DIY SignaLink USB” with the aid of the digital VOX circuit developed by Skip Teller, KH6TY. This will allow me to use the K2 for HF APRS, WSPR or other QRP activities using the magnetic loop, and free up the K3 for other purposes using the multiband dipole. In fact I will then be able to use four amateur bands and four different radios simultaneously if I want to!

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

As a bypass survivor, each morning when possible, I go for a brisk walk. We are blessed to live in a nice development in Orlando which has a bit of lakefront and also has some irrigation and flood prevention ponds. This water attracts a good selection of wildlife which makes it fun to be outside and exercising even though the heat and humidity are often both above the 90 mark.

We have ducks, baby ducks, coots, turtles, snakes, eagles, hawks, osprey, sand hill cranes, storks, cormorant, anhinga,  raccoon, possum, squirrels, armadillos, feral cats, foxes, geckos, lizards, frogs, toads and all sorts of other neat critters to entertain us at various times of the year.   This morning I spent some time watching the water birds fishing on all the new fingerlings from this year’s hatch of bass, bream and tillapia that gather in the grass along the water’s edge.

Today a heron demonstrated how to do catch fish and I realized that the heron could teach me some things about operating QRP style search and pounce.

The heron has a particular style… they spread their wings like this great photo demonstrates so well (thanks Chris Harshaw and http://www.wikimedia.org). So what’s that got to do with ham radio? Like a karate master who learns from the world around him, a good QRP op can learn from the birds! The heron shades the target with its wings to take the glare off the water so it can see better. It also causes the fish to become confused and they can pick off the loner or easiest target.

Same thing with QRP… we need to spread our wings by tuning around a bit more agressively and listening for the ones we can snag. Not always the strongest, but a signal that is decent and an op that genuinely wants to make a contact. When we find that contact we need to pounce on it and not waste time.

Yes, I learned a bit from watching that heron this morning. He caught quite a few fish in a short time using his form of search and pounce. That heron was quick and moved from spot to spot gingerly and didn’t miss his target very often. No wonder he’s grown so large! I want to be more like that heron when I am on the air.

Still time to cast your vote in the poll for the best ham radio location in the USA.

72,

Kelly K4UPG PB #173

Kelly McClelland, K4UPG, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Florida, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

Charles Preston, a member of the Buddipole User Group email reflector has just posted links to two clear and useful guides to using the A123 Battery Packs available from Buddipole. While the Buddipole site links to documents about the batteries there’s very little practical information available about how to nurture these batteries. Similarly the Cellpro Multi4 charger documentation is more geared to the primary market – radio controlled airplane enthusiasts – so it’s great to see advice directly relevant to our intended use.

The first document is a Guide for Buddipole A123 Battery Packs and it explains how to maintain them and likely operating times for popular transceivers. The core of the document is how to charge the A123 Packs using the Multi4 charger (also available from the Buddipole site). There’s also mention of how to approach charging the Battery Packs with a solar panel and mention of the Genasun GV-4 Li 14.2 V MPPT controller. BatterySpace.com also sell a version of this charger designed for LiFePO4 batteries. Prices between US$110-119.

It’s great to have all of this information available.

The second document is Charging a Buddipole 4S2P or 4S4P A123 battery pack with a Cellpro 10s charger and focusses on the larger charger.

Three cheers for Charles Preston!

Stephen Rapley, VK2RH, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New South Wales, Australia. Contact him at [email protected].