HamRadioNow

This episode wraps up our TOUR of the 2025 Hamvention®, but not our coverage. Gary still has a hard drive full of interviews to edit, and those will come out over the next few weeks. And maybe a live show with David W0DHG?This episode includes both Saturday and Sunday, and just a little more pork chop. There are a few fun callbacks, to one of Gary K4AAQ's Ham Nation episodes and his pre-HamRadioNow video on programming D-Star radios, and Riley Hollingsworth K4ZDH's One Big Knob presentation at the 2007 Dayton Hamvention.

The Dayton Hamvention® is open all day Friday and Saturday, and a half-day on Sunday. East Coast Host Gary K4AAQ returned for the first time since 2017, and found it a bit more crowded. He expected to see other YouTuber media everywhere, but not so much... he did find some of them all in a pack in the flea market. But the star of the show? No, not the equipment (the other guys cover that in depth). It was a pork chop. You have to try it. And he found a 'HamRadioNow Audio Simulator'. We don't call it that in the episode, but you'll know it when you hear it.

East Coast Host Gary K4AAQ made it back to Dayton for the first time since 2017. Has much changed? Can he even remember (not really). This is a quick look at the tail end of Thursday, setup-day, before the fest opens Friday morning.

Richard "Dick" Norton N6AA, ARRL Southwestern Division Director, talks about the state of the ARRL at the Orange (CA) Section Convention.

The biggest hamfests are growing - Dayton, Orlando, Huntsville. Many smaller hamfests are struggling, or have closed down. Some clubs have had trouble finding a chair person and staff to put on shows that have been around for decades. Facilities are only getting more expensive, while attendence and income are falling. The 'RARSfest' - coming April 5 and hosted by the Raleigh (NC) Amateur Radio Society - is hanging in there, maybe even growing a little. It has a robust flea market, and good array of commerecial vendors, and even attracts one of the big ham radio stores, plus a variety of activities. It's been a while since any major manufacturer had come to show their wares at any but the biggest shows. RARSfest Chair Nancy Torborg KB2TNR joins host Gary K4AAQ to talk about how she picked up the event when RARS was struggling to find a new chair, and what she's done to keep the show going. (David W0DHG was working for this mid-week recording session).And this being Gary's ‘old home' hamfest, we've done some shows from there before. Here's one.

The Western Washington Amateur Relay Association has adopted a plan to migrate all repeaters in their area to'Narrow FM' over the next 10 years.The idea is to increase the number of repeater channels (and the number of repeaters). The plan could nearly double the number of available repeater channels. It's mostly simple. For users, it's probably a menu setting in their radios, but OLDER radios won't have that option. For repeater owners, it may be as simple as a menu setting for more modern UHF repeaters. On two meters, it's likely also a small frequency adjustment, and trimming up a duplexer, but if the repeater is really old, it might be replacement time.Members of the WWARA Narrowband Study Committee are here to talk about it. We welcome WWARA Chair Scott Honaker N7SS. Kenny Richards KU7M, and Steve VanWambeck N9VW, They join show hosts David W0DHG, Gary K4AAQ and the return of Jim NO1PC for the discussion.

Our guest is Jim Masarra N2EST, cartoonist, animator, graphic designer. You've seen his work in QST (including some covers), and other ham books and publications. On the cusp of resirement, we talk about his career in and out of ham radio, and how the ARRL seems to have lost its sense of humor. Have him design a QSL card for you!: https://hamtoons.net

January 11, 1965, Amateur Radio Station WN9NSO made its first, shaky 5 wpm CW… attempt… in the 40 meter Novice band. 60 years later, WN9NSO is now K4AAQ, our East Coast Host. Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear, as Gary talks about what ham radio was like for that Novice, 60 years ago. No repeaters. No digital (RTTY was it). No computers. Lots of AM.Gary opened up the Zoom and was joined by Ron K9ID, a friend from the Chicago suburbs and then WN9RPD/WA9RPD, and a newer friend, Jerry KE4TTS. Join us for a trip down memory lane.

David W0DHG and Gary K4AAQ discuss AI chat engines. Specifically, how Gary bullied chatGPT into correct answers about GMRS channel steps (for the record, it's 12.5 kHz). Somebody in a Facebook group asked that question, and someone else got the answer from a confident chatGPT, but chat GPT got it wrong (they said 5 kHz). The challenge was ON, and Gary emerged victorious, with chatGPT backing down… a couple of times!Moving on, David found a newsletter author/podcasterwho experimented with AI voices (from NotebookLM) to generate a ‘podcast' based on his most recent newsletter. Theresult was interesting. Then Gary found the same robot voicesin a show discovering that they weren't real!We can retire at any time.Finally, Gary challenged a discussion from the Ham Radio Crash Courseon why repeaters are so quiet… lately. Gary's point: it ain't ‘lately'.

This week, Jason Johnston KC5HWB of the Ham Radio 2.0 show was reacting to viewer comments that there were Too Many Digital (Voice) Modes. East Coast Host Gary K4AAQ has been preaching on that topic for years, and while his Q-Mobile does have radios for D-STAR, DMR and System Fusion… and so does his belt…. he wouldn't mind having one rig to rule them all – a 21st Century ‘Multi-Mode'. That's his Holy Grail

East Coast Host Gary K4AAQ goes solo, with a timewaster of an episode. He's just repurposing some of his many Facebook Group and Reddit responses to newbie ham and GMRS questions. After he gets done talking about his bike helmet.

To show, or not to show… that is the question.Are we running out of gas for HRN, or just a temporary lull. Hard to tell. This is Gary's solo thoughts on the topic, but we'll have a conversation about it soon.Also, how to keep ham radio from turning into Fox News.

Ham Radio activity - ‘unofficial' and ad hoc as it may be - continues in the mountains of western North Carolina. The Mt. Mitchell 145.19 repeater remains active every day. For this show, we talk to a ham who was deployed at a couple of locations last week. Steve McAtee N0JJO lives in the Charlotte NC area, and heard a call go out for hams to assist. He geared up and set out, and now that he's back, he tells us his story.We know that Hurricane Milton hit Florida last week, and undoubtedly there are ham radio stories to tell from that event. We'll see if we can find some hams to tell there stories from Milton in the next few weeks (contact Gary at kn4aq@arvn.tv if you have one of those stories).

Last week, HRN hosts David W0DHG and Gary K4AAQ talked about some ad-hoc ham radio nets that spun up just after Tropical Storm Helene devastated a large area of North Carolina's mountains, knocking out power, internet, phone and cell communications, flooding towns and destroying roads. The nets appeared to have no connection to any formal ham radio emcom organization. Initially they were passing lots of incoming Health & Welfare inquiries from hams or friends of hams on 40 meters (7232 kHz) and an ultra-wide coverage repeater on Mt. Mitchel (145.19 MHz). We speculated that messages like that probably couldn't be delivered.We even streamed a few hours of the 40 meter net on our YouTube channel.On this show we get the background. Dan Gitro K2DMG became the Net Control station on the Mt. Mitchel repeater for days on end, and he joins us to talk about how it got started and what it became as the days went by.

Hurricane Helene

Last January, a repeater group in Harrisburg PA had some special guests at their monthly club lunch – a half dozen representatives from the FCC, and a couple of ARRL officials stopped by to talk about ham radio and GMRS, and answer questions from the assembled club members. Just your average club luncheon.Fortunately, the whole thing was recorded and ended up on YouTube. However, it was nearly two hours long, and some of it was kind of rambling (we're looking at you, K4AAQ). So, we cut it down to just the essense, about 30 minutes worth. We still recommend watching the whole thing – there are some stories and anecdotes that we cut out that are pretty entertaining. Maybe this edited version will whet your appitite for more.

David W0DHG and Gary K4AAQ banter about a big FCC-ARRL 'luncheon' last January, alterntives to saying 'Zero' in call signs, and GMRS linking.

Ham Radio Comm, in search of any Emergencies that might need our help. Well, West Coast Host David W0DHG and East Coast Host Gary K4AAQ (BRAT? maybe…) don't hit on that theme too hard, but it is a good question. Where's the Em?Anyway, David spend last weekend doing some COMM at the Angeles Crest Ultra Marathon, and even though he failed to document it up to Gary's standards, he did describe it pretty well. Gary mentions this ARRL news story on Hurricane Debby that really inspired the episode title. Yet another review of an event where all we did was stand by to stand by.Then David found a news story about an LA area ham who got help via the PAPA linked repeater system when he fell and couldn't get up (cue the TV commercial). It was recorded, and we play it back with our usual on-point commentary.

East Coast Host Gary K4AAQ goes solo for this show, noting that he needs another HT like he needs another hole in his head. But, Prime Day and pressure from peers got him to part with a bit under $25 for the Quansheng UV-K5. Note that this review does NOT get into any of the aftermarket firmware options, and that seems to be what is getting everybody excited. That is a hot mess of options and confusion, and so maybe someday.

On the heels of Hurricane Beryl, Bob Inderbitzen NQ1R, ARRL Director of Marketing and Innovation was interviewed by The Weather Channel about ham radio. It was a great shot in national media, which means that East Coast Host Gary K4AAQ needed to take it apart to see how it could have been better, while West Coast Host David W0DHG pulled Gary back to reality.Well, back in his younger days, Gary was no novice in the PR world, and he's got some legacy video to prove it:Gary's Field Day Interview (Studio): https://youtu.be/vkH21ERvp7I?si=8JP1U...Gary's Katrina Interview: https://youtu.be/yC0u42MnMdM?si=USDdI...Gary's Field Day Interview (Field - we didn't play this one in the episode): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyTcy1hFYQY.

As (barely a) Hurricane Beryl approaches landfall on the Texas coast, East Coast Host Gary K4AAQ welcomes ARRL South Texas Section Emergency Coordinator Jeff Walter KE5FGA to the show to talk about Amateur Radio emcomm in his area.

It may have been the longest DAY of the year, but it was still a long NIGHT for K4AAQGary edited a little home movie of this year's Field Day operation. Then a look at some of the media from this year. Finally some thoughts on the GMRS linking controversy.Links to the News Stories and stuff:Our Field Day PlaylistTell Josh to 'Approve' of usHey, it really was Escambria, not Escanaba. I blame my reading glasses:WLOX TV storyKPLC TV storyLakawana News 16 storyWAKA TV storyReddit GMRS thread

Our guest, Dr. Johnathan Kramer, ESQ, is a lawyer dealing in ‘dirt' - no, not Stormy Daniels. Real Estate. We'll learn about his career and a bit about putting up antennas in HOA territory.We had some technical trouble with the live stream this time… and with the local recording. Between the two, we recovered most of the show, with a few minutes missing in the middle. You won't even know… but it might be a little confusing for those who watched live on YouTube, or came to the YouTube channel late, but before we replaced the video (it takes hours to do that. Now you know.

For the past 10 days, ARRL's Logbook of the World and online courses have been down. Something slowed down QST production (the print version) for a day or two. But the website and email forwarding service are working.What's happening? ARRL is only saying that “a serious incident involving access to our network and systems” has occurred. Is it a fire in the engine room? Malware? Ransomware? Somebody didn't pay the ISP? All those and more are filling the information vacuum. So are we

Episode 524 - New England Correspondent Marty NN1C takes us to the Hamvention, holds out in the pouring rain to see the rush of equally drowned hamfesters pour (too literally) through the entry gate at 9 AM, and then waits out ICOM's BIG REVEAL of… circuit boards

Gary K4AAQ is back from vacation, and we're back on the air. A (relatively) short show - David W0DHG had some stuff to do, so just an hour. We do the usual ramble around a few topics. Gary shows his broken (and extracted) tooth (so be glad this is just audio) and a home movie from Hawaii to wrap things up.

In theory, we're on hiatus until May, but we had a few minutes to chat about the Hollywood Hills, David's Emcomm deployment (no hams were harmed in that deployment), and a bit of eclipse.

Gary's Q-Mobile - now 17 years old and 230,000 miles long, is running fine. But the ICOM 7000 HF rig developed a hiccup on 40 meters. Put a little RF to the Tarheel 200 antenna, and it shut down. He finally gets around to fixing it. David W0DHG told him how in a previous episode. Gary K4AAQ had to do it the hard way.https://HamRadioNow.tv

For the next few weeks, East Coast Host Gary K4AAQ and West Coast Host David W0DHG have a bunch of family and other activities, so we're goona take a break from the show. David may gin up some shows solo (Gary will be gone lots longer)… we'll see. But sooner or later we'll be back… tanned and rested (or dragged ot and exhausted). See ya on the other side!

Can the creating of a simple show jingle (using AI) drive the theme of the whole show?Sure, why not. Also, a visit to the Charlotte Hamfest for a few minutes.Also, can you guess the age of the average ARRL member? Stay tuned to find out!

The Network Effect is when you connect a network (IRLP, AllStar, Echolink, D-STAR, DMR, Fusion, etc) to a quiet, local repeater and turn on a busy nationwide or worldwide reflector, talk group, room, whatever. The repeater isn't quiet anymore… but who's talking. Nobody you know.Also, Gary K4AAQ will be volunteering for a big, new (to him) event: the Assault on Mt. Mitchell. That's a 100 mile bike ride from Spartanburg SC to the top of Mt. Mitchell in NC. With all the up and down (and the big UP at the end to the 6600' summit), the riders will see a total of 11,000 of vertical climb. And, we lost some hams this week. Bob Heil K9EID, of course, but also David W0DHG's friend Gary Apgar NY6Y, and Gary's friend and local hero Danny Hampton K4ITL. Danny was Dayton Hamvention's Ham of the Year in 2009, and founder of a regional repeater network in the Carolinas, long before the Internet came along to make it easy.

Gary K4AAQ has that new phone/camera gimble and wireless podcast mics. So he's got to go to a hamfest. It's been a while. No SIB (Studio In a Booth). Maybe they'll let him sit in on the YouTuber's Forum?Then he and David W0DHG yammer about other stuff.

The Amateur Radio Emergency Preparedness Act is now in the Senate as S.3690. That bill joins House Bill H.R.4006, with the goal of giving hams living in HOA neighborhoods some reasonable relief in being able to put up antennas.Don't place your orders yet

One sure path to YouTube stardom is to do a lot of unboxings. That may be why we don't do them very often. But this time, we do one.East Coast Host Gary K4AAQ was getting jealous of all the YouTubers walking around hamfests with their phones mounted on fancy sticks, and using some kind of wireless mic gizmo to talk to people (and hear them) more than six inches from the phone. So he bought a set, and opened it up live on this show while West Coast Host David W0DHG looked on over Zoom. Next… a demo. Then… a hamfest? Dayton? Stay tuned.Here's what he got:- Hollyland LARK Max- DJI Osmo Mobile 6 Gimbal Stabilizer

Trivia question #1: Who said that (To the Moon, Alice)?Trivia question #2: What year did Gary K4AAQ say it was when he introduced this show?We're not answering those here. Watch (or listen to) the show.In January, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) landed a ham radio station on the moon (along with some other stuff, we're sure, but we have our priorities). Its one-watt transmitter sent some telemetry on 437.41 MHz, along with a cleverly embedded Morse code (not cw) signal, as received by these guys in the Netherlands, and partially decoded by this guy, with help from a few other very advanced hams (read the blog and comments). Best we can tell, it was just a little more advanced than OSCAR 1's Hi Hi Hi back in 1961. But it still counts as the first freakin' ham station on the moon.

Gary K4AAQ just got back from a week of skiing

Winter Field Day, the last full weekend in January.Field Day - the summer version - is the most popular event on the ham radio calendar. The winter version isn't even close, but it is a thing. And many hams are passionate about it. Our guest Marvin Turner W0MET, King of Winter Field Day (so dubbed by host Gary K4AAQ) tells us all about it.The weather is kind of an upside-down, of course. While summer Field Day is more or less pleasant in the northern US and Canada, it's hot and muggy in the southeast, and just hot in the west. Late January can be serious winter iun the north, and more temperate as you head south, though ‘summer-like' may be reserved for Florida. Winter Field Day isn't just the winter version of it's summer event. Some rules are the same, but many are different. For one thing, ‘Winter' Field Day is worldwide (with half the world actually being ‘summer', but who's counting). And it may be a bit more emcomm focused. Marvin tells us all about it.

For a short while, the ham radio world was abuzz with comments on a shot at the very end of the Netflix movie Laave the World Behind, about a NYC couple who rent a house on Long Island for a weekend getaway. The world quickly goes to hell, though they only get vague signs of it as TV, cable, internet and cell phone service goes out. Then weird things start happening around them. SPOILER ALERT At the very end of the movie, there's a bunker with an elaborate ham station, receiving a digital message about cities being under attack and elevated radiation, advising anyone receiving the message to take shelter. The movie got fairly favorable critic reviews, but terrible audience reviews.Gary K4AAQ and Cyndi KD4ACW were among the ‘terrible review' contingent. David W0DHG hadn't finished the movie yet, but after hearing Gary's review, he was eager to see how bad it really was. Oh, and Gary plays a few clips to demonstrate what was so bad, and to show that ham station. Also… no Netflix take down (so far).But first… David and Gary look at an NBC TODAY Show clip of an Erie PA area high school ham club (actually an Advanced Technology Group) complete an ARISS contact. All ARISS contacts are special events, particularly to the groups and schools involved. What made this contact unusual is that 1) the students did all the work, and 2) it made Network level news. They also made the local news, and they have their own YouTube Channel with their own play-by-play of the event, and other group activities.Here's the link to our ARISS Playlist, including that 1992 SAREX contact.

A small Christmas Miracle (and really kind of pre-Christmas).Netflix released their copyright©claim on HamRadioNow Episode 506: How Can We Podcast With All This Light

Aka The Monkeyman TrialA very wide coverage, busy UHF repeater in the Charlotte NC metro area had been plagued all year by a pest. Drunk, profane, nonsensical and relentless. Ignoring him didn't work, so they tracked him down. The repeater owners told him to stop many times. The FCC told him to stop… twice. He didn't. But now identified, he got his ham license: KQ4GAD. But nothing changed. The repeater was still frequently subject to his profanity, sound effects and music, and streams of nonsense. As time passed, the pest increasingly directed his rants and ramblings toward one ham, Brad O'Dell KK1LL. Brad was leading the team that hunted the pest down and revealed his identity. Ramblings became threats, so at the suggestion of former FCC Enforcement Counsel Riley Hollingsworth K4ZDH, Brad swore out a complaint in County Court, asking for a ‘No Contact' order. After managing to avoid the process server twice, resulting in continuances, the pest, Joshua Duffy KQ4GAD, faced off with Brad in court. Duffy never spoke… at least not in the hearing. As the hearing begain, his attorney immediately offered to accept a No Contact order for one year, provided that no evidence was presented and made part of the record. Brad agreed. It was over.But our story isn't. In this episode, we'll talk with Brad and Ted Williams KE6QEY, President of the Charlotte Amateur Radio Club, owner of the repeater. We will hear some audio of Duffy swearing, threatening and rambling (and we're not beeping anything out, so this episode has some explicit language). We'll hear briefly from Duffy himself, outside the courtroom, in an interview he gave HRN's Gary K4AAQ, who attended the hearing. And Brad and Ted will tell the whole story.Oh… The Monkeyman Trial? That comes from the monkey-like sounds our pest was fond of making. You'll hear one recording of that. So before the hams knew who he was, they called him ‘The Monkeyman'.

He was drunk. He was profane. He was worse than annoying. He wouldn't go away, plaguing a Charlotte area repeater for months. Then he got his ham license... and nothing changed. He was ordered off the repeater (many times). The control ops contacted the FCC - they wouldn't act. Nothing worked. Then he began targeting one individual ham for harassment, and that created an opening for a legal remedy outside the FCC.Gary also previews a bill in the South Carolina Legislature that mirrors PRB-1, but would extend the protection to HOA residents.

East Coast Host Gary K4AAQ had volunteered to do radio at a local Christmas parade. As he was lacing up his sneakers, about to leave home, wife Cyndi KD4ACW called to dispatch him to the hospital where mom had been taken with chest pains. Gary had planned to do some video and interviews at the event for today's show. Instead Gary and West Coast Host David W0DHG talk about how to weigh conflicting obligations to family and community (and Podcasting). (Mom didn't have a heart issue, but it was still something serious. She's OK now)David also had comments on how his favorite event, the Baker to Vegas charity run, has decided to replace ham radio with communications from Verizon (while still urging them to volunteer for other jobs). There's more to that story, and it's not isolated to that event. The MS Society is using ham radio less for smaller, more urban walks. And in the Emcomm arena, Auxcom leaders have been saying that hams should be cross-trained for communication on other systems. That's something to dig into on a future show.Meanwhile, we noted that the new FCC rule dropping the data-rate restriction of ‘300 baud' on the HF bands, replacing it with a 2.8 kHz bandwidth limit, has finally been published in the Federal Register, and will take effect on January 8, 2024. So not quite the Christmas present we expected, but Happy New Year! And a FNPRM (Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking) clock is ticking for comments on how to handle data rate/bandwidth of the VLF, VHF and UHF bands. That spectrum is not covered by the new HF data bandwidth rule. Finally, no news on the Netflix Watch. HRN Episode 506, How Can We Podcast with All This Light?, is still dark on YouTube due to Netflix's copyright complaint. Check Episode 506 for details, and listen to the audio version while the video is down.

HamRadioNow Episode 506 is still down on YouTube, by order of Netflix. We've filed a ‘dispute' via YouTube. We're waiting.But not patiently. In this episode, David W0DHG and Gary K4AAQ explain what's happened. And that's pretty much it… a short show.

We finally get to the real show based on the Netflix series All the Light We Cannot See. The show is a four-part mini-series about clandestine broadcasting during WWII. It's set mostly in a small, coastal French town that is occupied by Germany, and is being bombarded by Allied planes coming across the Channel. A young woman named Marie has taken over broadcast duties from her uncle. Her broadcasts contain coded mssages helping the Allies make precision bombing runs. Marie is being hunted by Werner, a reluctant German radio operator, using DF equipment to pinpoint her location.This being the main theme of the series, there is a lot of radio operation, and a lot of gear. Little of it is explained in detail, and what detail they show is usually somewhat wrong. That's because this is media for the general public, and getting it right would be boring and take too long. So it's the usual Hollywood license for any technical profession, whether it's radio, medicine, law, etc. Details get in the way of storytelling.Our goal is to highlignt the radio operating, and note the errors, while appreciating that a program has this much radio (and radio people) at all. So we pulled about 17 minutes of footage from the series, play it and comment on it.Or at least we tried. YouTube had a different idea. Halfway through the show, they start blacking out the video and audio, with a title saying they detected copyright material. When Gary comes back on screen, the video resumes, but the YouTube bot isn't very precise with its timing. Eventually, YouTube just takes the stream down, noting a copyright violation.But they give us a chance to appeal. Gary takes it immediately, and to his surprise, within minutes he gets email from YouTube saying they AGREE with his appeal and restore the program.But the program they restore is the one with big segments blocked out, and ending early, where they terminated the live stream. Thanks for nothing!Gary recorded the episode locally, and uploaded it to our YouTube channel, thinking A) they won't file a copyright claim on this one, because they already agreed that it was Fair Use, and B) Don't believe that for a second.Yep, the upload was not only flagged but fully blocked, worldwide. Gary filed a dispute… we'll see if this one is handled with the speed that Netflix responded to Episode 504. They filed a copyright claim there, too, based on us showing their trailer. Gary filed a dispute, and Netflix relented in less than 24 hours.LINKS:Helge LA6NCA's original demonstration of the DF equipment (in Norwegian, with English subtitles)

First… I'm giving everything a new number - episodes, promos… if I far… sneeze, I'm giving it an episode number.So, we had planned to do the episode that we Promo(re)d last Sunday sometime during the week. Well, we couldn't. It'll be on this coming Sunday, December 3 at 3pm Pacific, 6 pm Eastern, 2200Z. We'll be reviewing and picking apart the radio mistakes in the Netflix series All the Light We Cannot See. So what are we doing here in 505? (Besides piling up episode numbers?) Mostly celebrating that I was able to win another Fair Use battle. We played the trailer to the show last Sunday. Netflix filed a Copyright claim and demonetized it (even though we don't monetize). That didn't affect anyone's ability to watch the show, but there's a principle involved. I disputed the claim based on Fair Use. Netflix caved… er, agreed in les than 24 hours, a new speed record. We kept this show fairly short. No such promises for Sunday. -Gary K4AAQ

This episode is a PROMO for an upcoming HRN show. This one comes with homework:We like watching shows that have ham radio in them. Sometimes it's just for the show, and sometimes it's to pick at how much they got wrong

East Coast Host Gary K4AAQ played radio (and Pavement Police) at a local Christmas parade on Saturday with the Cabarrus Amateur Radio Society, and made a little movie of it.Before that, West Coast Host David W0DHG was playing hooky from the show, out doing a POTA event with his WaveTalkers co-host Chris W6AH. They were live on 17 meters, and after we announced the frequency, a few members of our live audience jumped on 17 and worked them!

The FCC jumped the gun on releasing the Report and Order on RM-11708, replacing the old “300 Baud” data limit on the Amateur Radio HF bands with a bandwidth limit of 2.8 kHz instead.They told us it would be part of their November 15 meeting, aired live on YouTube. Instead, they sent notice of the approval in a press release two days early, on November 13. So YAY, it's approved with no drama. But we kinda wanted to hear them talk about us a little. Oh, well… the new rules take effect 30 days after publication in the Federal Register, and that hasn't happened as of ‘press time' (12 noon, November 15). If you go there, search for WT Docket No. 16-239.LINKS:The final Report and Order PDFGary's marked up version (probably the same as the official version)

Not really that much going on. But David W0DHG and Gary K4AAQ haven't chatted in a while, so they did.LINKS:— The RATPAC Gift Suggestion show (with Gary's Ham's Night Before Christmas)— USA 1939 movie about Ham Radio

Happy Episode 500, everybody!And now back to work.The FCC is about to release a Report and Order abolishing the antiquated 300 ‘baud' limit on data rates on the HF bands, replacing it with a 2.8 kHz bandwidth cap instead . The draft R&O was released last week, and Gary K4AAQ picks it apart. It should be finalized at the Commission meeting on November 15, 10:30 am Eastern, with video available live (and on Memorex for later).In the last half of the episode, Gary opens up the Discord and chats with Jeff N4POD, and a brief visit with David W0DHGLINKS:— Gary's annotated PDF of the R&O— FCC November 15 Meeting Annoucement, Video Link— ARRL's 2005 Regulation by Bandwidth petition to the FCC (pdf)Quote from the petition: The simplest means of streamlining the Commission's rules, while at the same time providing maximum flexibility for the incorporation of new digital communications looking forward to the next decade, and to protect ongoing Amateur communications, is to provide for band segmentation by bandwidth rather than by emission mode in the Part 97 Rules. (emphasis added)

DXer and video producer Bob Allphin K4UEE released the K1N Navssa DXpedition documentary on DVD in 2015, a few months after the highly successful DXpedition itself. HamRadioNow's Gary K4AAQ did the editing and voiceover for the production. DVD sales were good enough, but now it's time to release the program to the world on YouTube, free to watch for everyone. Yep, that's the link, right here.In this episode, Bob and Gary chat about the show, and about some of the DXpeditions Bob has been on, particularly the Bouvet Island attempt he led that had to abort, and the subsequent attempt that was only partially successful. And Bob announces that he'll be offering a clearance sale of his remaining DVDs - 3 for the price of 1 - coming soon to his web site.Before that, though, NorCal Host Jim NO1PC gives us a short tour of this weekend's Pacificon hamfest, which was reduced in size some from the recent past.Links:K4UEE's websiteJames Brooks documentary collection on VimeoClubLog's Most Wanted DX Entity list