Ham Radio Now

HamRadioNow viewers will probably remember Jeff Wittich AC4ZO. Jeff appeared on more than 40 episodes, and gave me invaluable help in producing many of the hamfest podcasts from Dayton, Orlando and Huntsville* Jeff and his wife Bobbie KD4ZVW need help. Last year (Fall of 2020) Jeff was diagnosed with brain cancer - Grade 4 Glioblastoma - incurable, with an average prognosis of about 2 years. He's undergone surgery and radiation therapy to remove as much of the cancer as possible, but that's what gives him those ~2 years. There's no way to remove all of it, and it will grow back. Jeff and Bobbie have had to retire early. The cancer and surgery have left Jeff both mentally and physically unable to continue the field engineering he'd done all his life. Bobbie retired to spend full time taking care of Jeff in the time he has left. They've launched a GoFundMe campaign: https://www.gofundme.com/f/lets-pay-i...​ to help with the mounting expenses. The goal is $25,000, which seems modest to me. They do have good insurance, but it doesn't cover everything, and with early retirement, their incomes have dropped significantly. This GoFundMe is a bridge for Bobbie to life, eventually, without Jeff by her side. So if you find yourself so inclined, maybe kick in $5 or $10. And enjoy the Best of Jeff in this video. *with a nod to Cliff W4FT, who also assisted in hamfest show production (and yes, I do miss you, West Coast Cliff!).

David visits with some of the members of Ham Cam International. This informal radio club meets via JITSI. They talk about Ham Radio, help each other learn and accomplish Ham Radio goals and provide a place to connect with other like minded Ham's from all over the planet. I got to meet and talk with a number of members and learn about their Ham Radio Community. If you want more information please reach out to: Colin: m1eak@btinternet.com https://www.konaweb.com/net/jitsi_welcome.html https://www.facebook.com/groups/3685877891464623

Howard WB2UZE and John K2NY of the Long Island CW Club visit with David W0DHG and talk about their CW training program. The club started in 2017 offers over 45 hours of CW classes EACH week, and has grown to over 600 members from all 50 states and 15 countries all over the world.

Jim  NO1PC joins David W0DHG to again try and inspire everyone to get out next weekend for FIELD DAY!

David W0DHG talks with Elmer NO1PC about what changes will be in effect for Field Day 2020, and how we will participate. Hoping that we will work you on Field Day. Please remember to send us a radiogram for points ( send to our calls @arrl.net).

Norm Goodkin K6YXH visits with David W0DHG and talks about getting up and running to do remote testing for Amateur Radio Licenses. Norm mentioned that there were a lot of other players involved, but this is a good review of what they went through to get up and running. We discuss security concerns and how it works

It's Friday night... I made it through the week. What are you doing right now with Ham Radio?  I heard from several of you: Helping out in County Call Centers, School Free Lunch distribution and Virus Testing. WOW!

What does "be prepared" mean to Ham Radio? Got stuff, I talk about some of my bags that are ready to go... And JOTA/JOTI

David W0DHG is hunkered down in Los Angeles. Just a quick episode, but hoping to chronicle this adventure over the next few day, weeks, and perhaps months. Please email me w0dhg@arrl.net if you have suggestions for shows or want to join me via the internet. John Hopkins Website: https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6  

Andre Hansen K6AH, David Erickson KB5UGF and Jim Aspinwall NO1PC join David W0DHG to discuss the SPECTRUM DEFENSE and proposed changes to the 3GHz and 5GHz bands. These changes will affect current ARDEN networks across the nation. Below are links referenced in the show. Please remember before you response, make sure it's professional and to the point. And please reach out to your served agencies and representatives.CALL TO ACTION: https://www.arednmesh.org/content/cal... COMMENT LINK: https://www.arednmesh.org/content/tem... ARTICLE: https://www.arednmesh.org/content/qst... Links: https://www.mjars.org/save-3-3-3-5ghz

HRN 414: There Is No Such Thing As Free Rack Space! David Goldenberg W0DHG and Jim Aspinwall NO1PC discuss this week's BIG California ham radio story. Was the repeater kicked out of the CalFire vault, or did the state just decide that it needed to be "official"....

The ARRL and TAPR Digital Communications Conference is an international forum for radio amateurs to meet, publish their work, and present new ideas and techniques. Presenters and attendees will have the opportunity to exchange ideas and learn about recent hardware and software advances, theories, experimental results, and practical applications.  

David and Jim Aspinwall NO1PC talk about Ham Radio: EmComm, Hurricanes, and Elmering

 David talks with Violetta Latham KM4ATT about Team Exuberance and their upcoming K3LR trip, and her other adventures in amateur radio!

Ward Silver N0AX joins Jim Aspinwall NO1PC and David W0DHG for the first of the ElmerCast Series. We talk about GROUNDING! 

Jim Aspinwall NO1PC joins me to talk about Elmering and our joint effort to bring new content to the Amateur Radio Community!

Marty Sullaway NN1C (formerly KC1CWF) is in the house! We talk Ham Radio, his visit to Los Angeles and plans for 2019!

Ben Kuo AI6YR visits in studio with David W0DHG to talk about how Ham Radio played a part in the recent Woolsey Fire in Southern California. Over 90,000 acres and 1400 structures, and 3 lives were lost

Gary KN4AQ, Cyndi KD4ACW, and David W0DHG talk about their trip to Los Angeles and their visit to the stage of Last Man Standing! 

Mike Ritz W7VO joins David to talk about his race to become the  division director in the Northwestern Division. 

David visits with Ria Jairam to discuss her run for Hudson Division Director.

Live video shot in the San Fernando Valley. David joined Paul Strauss WD6EBY and Orv Beach W6BI (and a few others) for a trip to the DARN Verdugo Peak repeater site and another location above Simi Valley.  This trip was to help increase bandwidth and coverage of AREDN Mesh.

Randy Smith WU2S joins David and Darren AJ6BL to talk about Amateur Radio Emergency Data Network. Links from this episode:  AREDN:  https://www.arednmesh.org/ AREDN Baker to Vegas: https://www.arednmesh.org/content/baker-vegas-2018-broadband-mesh-support Trevor’s Bench” http://www.trevorsbench.com/meshchat-messaging-for-mesh-networks/

Gary and David review Gary's favorite shows. 

Darren and David setup a ZumSpot. We also made some changes in the studio in order to bring you better audio. This is the first episode to use the Wirecast Rendezvous feature, and it worked great!

David and Guest Darren La Groe talk about getting up and running on DMR. Darren get's David up to speed on the nomenclature of DMR. We get my MD-380 working.

Gwen and David talk about their 2018 Field Day from San Vicente Park in the Santa Monica Mountains. We had a great time at Field Day, and hope that you did too. Please let us know in the comments what you did for Field Day!

Ria Jairam N2RJ joins Gary and myself to discuss her announced plans to run for Hudson Division Director.  The first few minutes contains some ECHO, but it goes away after about 15 minutes. 

I'm back, May was busy, but I have a new show and more coming next week. In 398 I introduce a new sidekick (you asked for one) and I talk about how I got started in Ham Radio. 

This weeks guest Richard Bateman KD7BBC owner of HamStudy.org talks about the  HamStudy product, a newly released set of mobile applications, and signalstuff.com if you are interested Richard gave me a discount code for the products from signalstuff.com: hamradionow   (all lower case - good until 5/31/2018)

John Jacobs W7DBO from the Field Radio Podcast is my guest. We talk about his podcast, podcasting and how he got involved with HamRadio360. John builds awesome custom go boxes (http://www.commstogo.com/).  John and I discuss our experiences producing content for the internet about Ham Radio and Field Day! 

A combination show: On the road to the race, an interview with John Rosica KA2FND of NVIS Communications, and raw video from the race at Stage #9. It's a little rough copy, but you are hams, hopefully you can pull the good stuff out of the noise. Doing sound in the field is apparently hard... I am getting some equipment to make it better in the future. 

David W0DHG talks to Jim Wades WB8SWI and Joe Ames W3JY of Radio Relay International about the organization, it's beginnings, how it works, and why. Radio Relay International can be found at http://radio-relay.org/

Dan KB6NU, Marty N6VI(in studio guest!), and Gary KN4AQ join David W0DHG for the first show recorded from the West Coast Studio. We talk about the new ARRL proposal to the FCC to add HF privileges for Tech class licenses. We also talk about the Hudson Division Town Hall and MyARRLvoice.... Gary plays several clips lifted from the Hudson Division Town Hall webinar (February 2018) in which Director Mike Lisenco N2YBB makes some strong (and unsupported) statements about the censure of fellow Director Dick Norton N6AA, at one point accusing Norton of creating a "toxic environment" at the Board. You can hear a full, unedited recording of that Town Hall (with noise reduction to eliminate a loud hum on Lisenco's audio) at the HamRadioNow web site for Episode 393:  https://www.hamradionow.tv/episodes/2018/3/5/hrn-393-tech-enhanced-lisenco-on-the-hudson-whats-next

Curmudgeon hams will rant about how professional Emcomm agencies see no value in ham radio. And in some areas that's true. The ARES forum from the Yuma AZ Hamfest - Roozy Moabery W1EH, ARRL DEC for part of the sprawling Los Angeles area, talks about how hams there have created a great working relationship with their served agencies. This is a slide-show talk, but the slides are all text headlines for the topics Roozy covers, so the RADIO RATING is still A.

Dick Norton N6AA, the ARRL SW Division Director, is at the center of the dust-up (Firestorm?) at the ARRL Board of Directors. He's the director who was censured in a special Board Meeting last fall for what the Board said were inappropriate comments at the Visalia DX convention the previous spring. He's also the Director that Hudson Division Director Mike Lisenco N2YBB said was partly responsible for a 'toxic environment' at the League. Lisenco's comments came during a Hudson Division web Town Hall in early 2018, with a link from this QRZ.com discussion. (Note that the audio recording of that webinar is pretty bad, but it's also pretty interesting if you can tough it out.) In this episode, Dick Norton discussed his censure and the ARRL Board Code of Conduct at the ARRL Forum at the Yuma AZ Hamfest in February. HamRadioNow's host David Goldenberg W0DHG recorded the session. Radio Rating: A

Mark Brown N4BCD is the new chairman of the Huntsville Hamfest. A little birdie (named Michael Kalter) told him to cross the street and talk to that Gary guy for some free publicity, so we caught up on the latest from what's probably the #3 fest in the US after Dayton and Orlando. Mark takes over after the passing of Charlie Emerson N4OKL, who we described as "the benevolent dictator of the Huntsville Hamfest" back in HamRadioNow Episode 29.  RADIO RATING: A

Sunday morning was the 'drop-by' time for HamRadioNow, apparently. Gary looked up from the laptop where he was working on the HRN website to see QRZ.com founder Fred Lloyd AA7BQ standing there. So of course, let's do a show! We just got started when the Dayton Hamvention's media guy Michael Kalter W8CI waked by. Both Michael and Fred were time-limited (so, OK, wrong show, guys), but they generously gave us what they could, and probably a little more. Thanks! RADIO RATING: A.

The full title is Florida Amateur Spectrum Management Assn., or FASM. Last year, Bryan Fields W9CR led a coalition of dissatisfied repeater owners and members of the Florida Repeater Council in a successful effort to take control of that organization. There was some conflict, but eventually Bryan's group prevailed. The changed the name and re-incorporated. Now they have to make good on their pledge to provide better coordination service. Bryan explains how. Radio Rating: A.

The call signs are: WA4YL, AC4YL and AG4YL. So what do you think this show might be about? Dawn, Cathrine and Melanie had just given the YL Forum at Orlando, and Gary invited them to keep going on the show. RADIO RATING: A. 

Bruce Perens K6BP. Pretty sure we don't need to say any more. RADIO RATING: A

Gary takes you on a video tour of the Orlando HamCation, and... what? This is just audio? Yeah, you're gonna miss something. But it's more or less narrated, and we're giving it a RADIO RATING of B. Then we get a surprise guest. Fan of the show N1LGQ stopped by to chat, and we put him on the air.

New AMSAT President Joe Spier K6WAO joins Gary for a wide-ranging discussion of all things AMSAT. RADIO RATING: A. Nothing to see here. Move along (and play the audio).

HRN Host Gary KN4AQ scrambled to set up a new SIB* for the Orlando HamCation. He thought it was all working before he took it apart and hauled it to the 'fest.  He didn't. But the show must go on. Of after swatting bugs (the system kind, not the Florida kind... the HamCation isn't infested...) Thursday night and early Friday morning, Gary pushed the LIVE button, and Jason Johnston KC4HWB from HamRadio2.0 helped him launch this hamfest's series of shows. Most of the problems were video related, and while you'll hear about them, you won't see them. You also won't see that the whole show is out of sync. The subsequent shows worked better, after Gary beat on the system a little more. OK, a lot more. RADIO RATING: A. All these Orlando shows are Talking Heads in the SIB, so you don't need no stinking (out of sync) video. *Studio In a Booth

From the archives of Amateur Radio//Video News... Digital Voice for Amateur Radio was the most complex of the three documentaries that HamRadioNow's Gary Pearce KN4AQ produced for DVD, before starting the online show. In 2007, Gary traveled to Alabama and Dallas in one trip, Chicago and St. Louis in another, and Washington DC in a third to gather interviews and footage of what was then just emerging as Digital Voice systems for Amateur Radio. The program was edited and released on DVD in 2008. The DV modes included an HF mode called WinDRM (which evolved to today's FreeDV), and VHF/UHF modes D-STAR and P-25.  Of course, these modes have evolved since this program was produced, and newer modes like DMR, Yaesu System Fusion, and NXDN have been developed. Consider this program a snapshot in the early history of Amateur Radio Digital Voice. It's certainly not a current tutorial on operating those modes today. Radio Rating: C- at best. This was a video documentary, and while there is a lot of talking, most of the pictures you're missing are equipment in operation, locations, and a few graphics. You'll miss a lot, but since there's so much information, you'll learn a lot, too. [The Radio Rating is our estimate of how much you'll get from the program audio without the video. It's not a rating of the overall program. Those are always A+]

David and Gary catch up on the final details of all the proposals and revisions that are going into the ARRL Board of Directors meeting this weekend. Radio Rating: A Links: http://myARRLvoice.com http://www.central.arrl.org/ https://www.arrldakota.org/dakota-division-news

Oh Noooo... another two-hour plus episode :-( Is it too late to tell you that the important meat of this show runs a scant 90 minutes. Get in at the 7:45 mark, and you'll be done about 93 minutes. The last 45 is just David and Gary goofing around. In that 90 minutes we review what's been going on with the ARRL, from the Code of Conduct to the proposed revisions to the Bylaws and Articles of Association. We look at a new group that's formed to protest some of the ARRL Board's actions. And mostly we read some detailed responses to inquiries that Gary and others sent to some of the Directors. They're not coming on the shows yet, but they are being more responsive than we saw initially (though, as Roanoke Division Director Dr. Jim Boehner N2ZZ noted, those responses won't satisfy many critics).  That new group is called myARRLvoice. Some members of the 'steering committee' for the group are former Board members who could not speak in opposition to League policies until their terms expired on January 1. Now they can. Their web site will have links to the documents we reference in the show. Radio Rating: A+. As usual, a few web sites, but we don't even put the text we're reading on the screen (Gary didn't have time to format it). [The 'Radio Rating' does not measure the quality of the program content. It's our guess as to how much you lose if you aren't watching the video of the show].

Hal Tourley W8HC is our tour guide for this preview of the 3Y0Z Bouvet Island DXpedition, where 20 top DXpeditioners will travel to the most remote spot of land on Earth to warm up from the brutal winter we're having in North America. Radio Rating: B+. We've got some pictures and maps from the DXpedition website, so if you can visit there sometime soon, you're all set. (The Radio Rating is our estimate of how well you're understand the program from just the audio track, without the video.)

The ARRL has yet another proposal coming to the January Board Meeting — a fairly extensive revision to the Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws with some curious changes in how the board can remove a member and a Director. CQ is pointing it out, but they've got their own trouble getting issues printed. And our friend Dan KB6NU has details on his Blog. David and Gary review the review. Then they talk about the state of and future of HamRadioNow as Gary plans his escape. Links:  Dan's blog http://KB6NU.com CQ Newsroom: http://cqnewsroom.blogspot.com/

David and Gary meander around several topics and eventually land on the proposal by ARRL Hudson Director Mike Lisenco N2YBB to confer voting privileges in board meetings on the League President and three Vice Presidents. We're told that Mike will submit the proposal as a motion at the January ARRL Board Meeting. And there are cats. Radio Rating: A. You won't miss anything except the cats, and David's UFO.

From the title, you might expect 2017 DCC Banquet speaker Tom McDermott N5EG to just list all the specialties that make up ham Radio, from ATV to DX, Repeaters to QRP. But that's not the direction he takes. Tom's looking at the leading edge of technology as it applies now, and will apply in the near future, to ham radio.  And that makes this talk depart from the usually non-technical DCC banquet presentations. He probably left some spouses behind, but even if you're a non-so-technical ham, eventually you'll catch up. Radio Rating: C. However, you might need some of Tom's slides to help you keep up. Many of them are just headline text, but there are enough pictures and charts, and a few comics, that you'll miss the context here and there. As usual, if listening leaves too many blanks, head to the web site and watch the video for Episode 375. And this completes our series from the 2017 ARRL & TAPR Digital Communications Conference, held September 15-17 in St. Louis, MO. HamRadioNow is viewer (listener) supported. There's no advertising, and this year no KICKSTARTER for the DCC. If you want to help out a bit, stop by https://HamRadioNow.tv and 'click the pig'.