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Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Region 5 Traffic Net Needs Operators

By KE5UTN

The Region 5 Traffic net covers the following sections:

Alabama, Arkansas, North Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, North Texas, South Texas, and West Texas.I serve as net control for the Tuesday and Thursday afternoon nets, and find that due to a lack of section operators, we often have traffic we can’t move. Most often we have shortages of ham operators in every one of those sections except Louisiana.

Traffic handling is a scary proposition for operators who haven’t ever done it, I know. However with just a little practice (practice you get by simply listening at first) you can go a long way in alleviating fear.

The ability to send and receive traffic is invaluable in crisis situations. That said, you will feel immense pride when you pass important health and welfare traffic.

Granted, most traffic sent on traffic nets is somewhat less than priority, it is appreciated none-the-less. When the recipients are called on the phone and given a message he/she is quite impressed and often express their gratitude.

To sum this up, show up on the Region 5 traffic net! Listen to how it is done and then GET INVOLVED! We need you on the air.

The Region 5 net meets Monday thru Saturday at 10:30am on 7.280mhz (for cycle 1) and 3:30 pm on 7.243mhz (for cycle 2) All times are Central Time Zone

On Sunday the time for cycle 1 is changed to 1:30pm, but the frequency is the same for this cycle.

Thanks, and I’ll see you on the net!

Monday, August 23, 2010

Courtesy on the Air

When I think of Amateur radio, it conjures up images of intelligent, thoughtful people enjoying a hobby they’ve earned the right to participate in. That said, it is extremely frustrating and disappointing when I encounter people intentionally interfering on the amateur bands.

One might think a person causing pointless interference would have better things to do, but all too often someone tunes up on frequency, or maliciously leans on their CW key for no apparent reason.

This is troubling because in weak signal environments of summer, any RF carrier can disrupt important communications and traffic nets.

When I got interested in becoming a ham, all I heard was antidotes about being courteous on the air, and most of the time people are courteous to the point of being annoying.

This is great when it happens. I often hear much doubling with people yelling, “Relay”.

Maybe the requirements for becoming a ham have become too lax. Maybe if people don’t feel they’ve earned the privilege of operating on the ham bands they are more likely to abuse it.

I think it’s up to all of us to preach to the up-and-comers to be courteous. This might seem like a hassle sometimes, but it serves a purpose, especially in emergency operations.

What are your thoughts?

Click my guestbook button and tell me. Let me know you were here.

As always, please consider visiting one of the Google ads on this page. Doing so will help me earn some money. Thanks.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

3 Steps to Become a Ham Radio Operator

By Daniel Taverne

If you are seeking information and advice on becoming a ham radio operator, let me tell you the first level license is called the “technician class” license.

Note: By no means is the order of the following list mandatory. For example, you can start studying first, or wait till you meet your area club.

Step 1:  Find an Amateur Radio Club in your area.

I’m pretty sure when I say just about every A.R. Club in the Nation has a web site. You can google something like “your city amateur radio club” and see what comes up. Ask them when the next technician exam is so you know how much time you’ll have to study.

Step 2: Find out what you need to study.

Some clubs offer classes preparation for the Tech exam, and other clubs have study materials they‘ll loan out. Still others may not have any materials to help you, so it’ll be up to you to get the materials. You can also look on qrz.com for practice tests, and arrl.com for study materials you can purchase..

Step 3: Take the test

Your test will be given by volunteer examiners and could take place anywhere. Testers I know  have given them at libraries, MacDonalds, at churches and just about anywere.

That’s all there is to it. Just three little steps and you’ll be an FCC licensed Amateur radio operator.

Friday, August 20, 2010

Ameritron Al-811H Linear Amplifier Demonstration video

I sure wouldn't mind getting my hands on one of these babies! This is awsome!

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Learn Morse Code

Here is a link to a great  resource for learning Morse code.  


Learn letter by letter, punctuation, numbers, and then practice with code streaming through your computer.


I learned  code in the army, but since I got out several years ago, I forgot most of it.  I was able to pick back up with it at the following link:    Click here to learn yourself.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

My Butternut Antenna Up-Close Video

I wanted to showcase my antennas, so I took some photographs and this video. Thanks Carlos, KB5YEG for the Antenna. He is one of the good guys.

My Station Antenna Pictures

Antenna Pictures Below

above: and below  IMAX 2000 Verticle 10-20 meters

below: Diamond 2 meter, 20 meter inverted V and 70cm ground plane


above:  The coils on my butternut
above 2 pics, the bottom of the Butternut. Me pointing at the ground rod.
I like these antennas.

Monday, August 16, 2010

Easy No Solder Homebrew HF Foot switch - Video

Here is a Video of the foot switch I rigged. I posted some stills of it below.



My Dog Snells My Feet and Dies!

As I was doing this how-to video, I decided to show off by doing some other tricks.  See what happens.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Ham Operator's "Pets Video"

Being as I'm utilizing this blog so you can become familier with me, I'm posting this video of my dog and cat playing.  It's pretty funny to watch.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Ham Radio & Technology for People with Disabilities - Links and Info.

Courage Center Handiham System

Courage Center is a nonprofit rehabilitation and resource center that advances the lives of children and adults experiencing barriers to health and independence. At Courage Center, we specialize in treating brain injury; spinal cord injury; stroke; chronic pain; autism; and disabilities experienced since birth. Founded in 1928, Minneapolis-based Courage Center offers advanced technologies and innovation provided in part through the efforts of thousands of volunteers and donors. For more information, visit CourageCenter.org.

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Audio on the Handiham website:  Click Here!!!  I am visually impaired and I really like this.  They do a great job.

This link may or may not require you to download.  I think you'll enjoy this, I know I do.

Address your disability.

Saturday, August 7, 2010

Ouachita Parish, Louisiana Storm Damage Video

High winds and heavy rain  brought down a limb and power line in my neighbor's front yard.   I'm reporting live from West Monroe, Louisiana for KE5UTN on line TV.

Friday, August 6, 2010

HERE COMES THE SUN - (WITH A Vengeance)

The following was posted on QRZ.com by  M1WML

The sun has been quiet for the past couple of years. Too quiet. Normally, our home star goes through a sort of rising and falling sleep-wake cycle that lasts 11 years, on average. At the so-called solar maximum, magnetic storms roil its outer layers and sunspots dapple its surface; solar flares arc magnificently into space; and clots of charged particles spew outward in bursts of plasma that can reach to Earth and beyond. At the solar minimum — the stage we've been experiencing lately — all of that drops off dramatically.

The recent solar minimum has been unnaturally calm, though, with literally no sunspots at all for extended periods, and the eerie silence has gone on for about two years — about twice as long as the typical minimum. "People began to get nervous," says solar astronomer Leon Golub, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, "that the sun would never come out of it."

But on Aug. 1, the sun woke up with a vengeance: there was, in the breathless words of the website SpaceWeather.com, "a C3-class solar flare, a solar tsunami, multiple filaments of magnetism lifting off the stellar surface, large-scale shaking of the solar corona, radio bursts, a coronal mass ejection and more." The event was captured in spectacular video by NASA's new Solar Dynamics Observatory, launched in February.

For the average person, it's the mass ejection that's most immediately relevant. A giant solar burp has sent a cloud of charged particles racing toward Earth. When the particles, which were predicted to arrive on Tuesday night, slam into Earth's magnetic field, the resulting electromagnetic storm is likely to trigger a spectacular show of northern lights across Russia, North America and northern Europe. It could also scramble communications between orbiting satellites and receivers on Earth, but the relatively modest size of the ejection has led experts to consider a major disruption unlikely. Still, says Golub, "we have no way of predicting this with any certainty."


Solar physicists also haven't got a good handle on why the sun sometimes goes quiet for extended periods. The most recent episode happened about a century ago, but back in the 1600's and early 1700's, the sun sank into a dead calm, known as the Maunder Minimum, that lasted for decades. At its lowest ebb, sunspot activity was about 0.1% of normal for some 30 years.


As it happens, the Maunder Minimum overlapped a period called the Little Ice Age, a time when the Thames River routinely froze over in winter and widespread famines, due to shorter, colder growing seasons, affected much of Europe. That coincidence has led to suggestions that reduced levels of solar energy caused the Little Ice Age — and indeed, a slight dimming of the sun does go along with solar minima. But it isn't enough to explain such a dramatic change in climate, and, says Golub, "the timing isn't quite right. The cooling started before the sunspots went away."

The same is true today. Solar variability can account for about 10% of the variability in worldwide temperatures, says Golub — which means that even if we were entering a modern-day Maunder Minimum, it wouldn't be remotely enough to counteract the warming effect from increasing levels of greenhouse gases.

And despite the sun's newfound wakefulness, we could well be entering another long period of reduced activity. "There are predictions," Golub says, "that the coming solar maximum will be a weak one." That's how it began last time: the peaks of solar activity got weaker and weaker, and then they went away altogether for 30 or 40 years. Or maybe this is just a false alarm. "People are predicting all the possibilities you could imagine," he says. "Somebody's going to end up being right."
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My comment:  This is interesting, and I thank M1WML for writing a great piece.  If we are going into a gradual lulling of solar activity, I wonder what impact that will have on HF Propogation.  As of late, it's been pretty noisy on the 75 meter band at night.  One operator, KC0MQS in Festus, MO accounted it to the current activity.  If no activity, does that mean no noise?

It'll be interesting to see what happens.  I heard about predictions of Mass Coronal Ejections ocurring in 2012 that could theoretically cause mass electromegnetic disruptions.  I hope the predictions I've been hearing are untrue.

A Big Rack Video

Check out this big rack.  It is really something!  Click the little "Play triangle" below to play the video.

6 Reasons People become Ham Radio Operators - Amateur Radio Operators

There are many reasons why people get involved in Amateur Radio. Some of these reasons include:

1. Contesting - competitions where the goal is making contacts and exchanging specific information.

2. Rag Chewing - free for all conversations on a particular frequency

3. Experimentation - modifying equipment and antennas to maximize performance in a variety of applications.

4. Round-table nets - Net control station calls for check ins then each one gets to talk when called upon.

5. Traffic Handling - Passing formatted formal messages from one station to another

6. Emergency Operation - Operators volunteer to serve in a variety of situations assisting police, fire, Red Cross, Salv. Army, etc. In addition these operators volunteer to serve the community as storm spotters. Also, walk-a-thon type situations are frequented by Hams with Portable radios.

Whatever your reason for being a ham, I encourage you to (if you don’t already) get involved with traffic handling. Your practice could, one-day, enable you to pass a message notifying someone that a loved one is safe and sound.

This is just something to think about.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

My Stuffed Chili Recipe

What ham doesn't like eating?  I know I lik to eat, that's why I'm sharing one of my favorite recipes with you.  I hope you try this.