“They had what I wanted to buy so I bought it. Battery came, battery works. It didn't change my life much other than I now have the battery when before I did not have the battery. Battery arrived promptly with all the fanfare deserving of a battery purchase, delicately wrapped in an adorned Velvetine box encrusted in jewels and cryptic writing, Sanskrit I believe. All this in consideration I am satisfied with my purchase but bothered by the constant need for online sales organizations to request glowing comments for mundane everyday purchases like a battery. There you asked, I answered.”
The DIPOLE - the Worlds finest Amateur Radio News Source like a Dipole there are two sides to every story, we ignore those sides, digging deeper for unwanted lobes and parasitic reactions Building on the popularity of FT8, a new mode has been announced known as "FTGreat" or "FTG" for short. Why is it so great? Well, in the words of lead developer Chip Anderson K1QRP, "This new mode eliminates the tiresome need to actually make contacts in order to win awards like DXCC, WAS, and the prestigious Fred Fish 6m award.” He added, “We all know your station could make the contacts if you were there, so why should you be punished just because you have to mow the lawn?" Once you install the software (a step the developers are hoping to eliminate), you simply enter your location and details about your station - power, frequencies, antennas (optional), etc… after which the software looks at conditions and decides which contacts should go in your log. There is even the potential to use bands not currently allocated to amateur use, since no transmissions are necessary. Psychologists are applauding the release of FTG as a stress reducer for anxious hams and a boost to marital harmony. A prominent marriage counsellor for ham operators has seen a dramatic drop in business because "...now you can watch a romantic movie with your wife without pretending to use the bathroom to work a rare DX station. It’s a win-win!"
The DIPOLE - the Worlds finest Amateur Radio News Source like a Dipole there are two sides to every story, we ignore those sides, digging deeper for unwanted lobes and parasitic reactions The American Amateur Radio League has announced a brand new award program effective November 1, 2021. In order to counteract the North American wide phenomenon of inactive, dead-air repeaters, the ARRL as initiated the Repeaters On The Air (ROTA) Award. Absolutely no simplex contacts will be allowed and submissions of such will be grounds for automatic disqualification as are contacts made via D, E & F Layer propagation, only contacts made via full duplex repeaters will count. All Digital & Analog Modes are acceptable.
Points for QSO's will be assigned thus: Repeaters used once a day: 1 point Repeaters activated once a week for Local Nets only: 2 points Repeaters that have not been kerchunked in over a year: 100 points QSO Multipliers are thus: ISS repeater multiplier =X(-100) 2M band point multiplier = X (-5) 70cm band point multiplier = X (0) 6M band point multiplier = X (10) 10M band point multiplier = X (100) 33cm band point multiplier = X (1000) 23cm band point multiplier = X (1000) above 23cm band point multiplier = X (10000) Certificates will be awarded at 1,000,000 points with endorsement for each million points thereafter. Full details of ROTA will be posted to the ARRL web site November 1, 2021. -VA7SL reporting from ARRL HQ, Newington CT,. The DIPOLE - the Worlds finest Amateur Radio News Source like a Dipole there are two sides to every story, we ignore those sides, digging deeper for unwanted lobes and parasitic reaction In 2009 Billy Bob Braithwaite was an unemployed West Virginia coal miner trying to escape his troubles, using crystal meth, and suffering through the downward spiral that is addiction. In the Summer of 2009 an old friend came upon him in his misery and took Brathwaite under his wing, nursing him back into the mainstream of society. During this time Billy Bob came to notice that his friend was an Amateur Radio Operator who was constantly whipped by his wife (XYL) and not allowed to put up visible antennas on his home, have more then one antenna on his car or be allowed to operate while she was in the vehicle with him. At that moment Brathwaite had an inspiration in which he hoped he could help payback his kind hearted friend in some small way. Billy Bob Brathwaite became the World's first known Amateur Radio Life Coach. An now in 2021 for a very reasonable fee Brathwaite will meet with you in a counseling session to get the root of your limitations and then pay your wife a visit. He can point to several examples of his success stories such as VY3OMG who was not allowed anything larger then a 2M 1/4 wave whip hidden just outside a side yard window and now boasts one of the World's largest Quad antennas on a 120' tower. Then there is WW4AW who went from just having just one single Baofeng handheld with a bent rubber duck antenna to one of the World's largest shacks and an impressive array of operating positions as well as door locking systems. Braithwaite's favorite client to date is AX2CAR who went from carrying a handheld hidden in his glovebox to this impressive mobile array and a World Class Contest Rover. (Shown below is his daily commute configuration) Brathwaite claims that though his methods may be considered unorthodox by many you can not argue against his results. The Life Coach claims that he is so busy now with word of mouth referral that he cannot service all the requests and is considering mentoring others to fill the need for more Amateur Radio Life Coaching. When pressed for reactions from the spouses of these Operators Brathwaite was evasive and did not give any conclusive answers as to the spouses reactions. In fact our investigations were unable to uncover any reactions from an XYL nor did we actually meet or even see any of them. That aside the Ham Radio operators we met were happy and living fulfilled lives, fully accepting who they were as individuals and living their best lives. -VA7SL reporting from Burnsville West Virginia The DIPOLE - the Worlds finest Amateur Radio News Source like a Dipole there are two sides to every story, we ignore those sides, digging deeper for unwanted lobes and parasitic reactions In my first article I described the most common types of Ham Radio Nets, in this submission I shall discuss some of the more esoterica of Net traffic:
-VA7SL reporting from Net Control The DIPOLE - the Worlds finest Amateur Radio News Source like a Dipole there are two sides to every story, we ignore those sides, digging deeper for unwanted lobes and parasitic reactions (The VHF and above Radio World is littered with quiet repeaters, too quiet in fact. A tried and true practice to encourage activity is for the repeater sponsors to host a daily or weekly Net. What you will find is that there are several different styles of Nets that can be employed and many are based on the personality of the Net Controller. Here is a list of the most common type of Amateur Radio Net types and an explanation of their raison d'être:
de VA7SL reporting from Mission Control (Editors Note: VA7SL is a Net Controller on the Trans Canada Net and has been found guilty of all the sins of which he writes by a jury of his peers) The DIPOLE - the Worlds finest Amateur Radio News Source like a Dipole there are two sides to every story, we ignore those sides, digging deeper for unwanted lobes and parasitic reactions Recently discovered documents have revealed that the first ham radio mentor was not named Elmer, but Bruce. The documents were found at an archeology dig beneath a coffee shop in Newington, Connecticut. The key discovery was a Ham club’s meeting minutes dated April 1, 1914. Just under the agenda item “Discussion: AM Voice – Is it Real Ham Radio?” was a note calling on the club to officially recognize the contribution of “Bruce ‘Sparky’ McTavish” for his outstanding work in mentoring new hams. According to ham historian Chris Smart (yes, that’s his real name) VE3RWJ, “It turns out that the original ‘Elmer’ was actually a student of Bruce’s. Elmer took over mentoring new hams after Bruce was electrocuted, having accidentally connecting 240VAC to his Morse Code key.” Smart continued, “A teacher to the end, Bruce’s last moment on Earth provided an important lesson for us all.” As a result of the discovery, the ham community is in a state of confusion. Being against any form of change, most hams say they will still refer to their teachers as “Elmer” despite the new information. However, national organizations are seeking to correct the record and give Bruce his due recognition. The Radio Amateur Society of Australia is going to sponsor a “Worked all Bruces” award and the Radio Society of Great Britain has put forward a proposal to formally change their name to the Radio Society of Great Bruce. de Adrian VE7NZ reporting from W1AW Newington, CT The DIPOLE - the Worlds finest Amateur Radio News Source like a Dipole there are two sides to every story, we ignore those sides, digging deeper for unwanted lobes and parasitic reactions. The International Telecommunications Union has undertaken a pilot project to commence June 1, 2021 in ITU Region 2 (North America) to encourage Amateur Radio Operators to be more inclusive as a hobby and identify with their Callsigns and their Personal Pronouns. An ITU study revealed that this hobby is very skewed towards 'incel males' (men who consider themselves unable to attract women sexually) and in order to open up the hobby to more different sexual persuasions it has been advised that openly identifying with your personal pronouns would help to accomplish this. European delegates to the ITU have already voluntarily embraced this project before the assembly even had time to vote on the recommendation. Amateur Radio Operators will now identify as per normal in their country of license but will then add their 3 to 5 personal pronouns of choice as per the example table above.
-by VA7SL reporting from the International Telecommunications Union in Geneva, Switzerland The DIPOLE - the Worlds finest Amateur Radio News Source like a Dipole there are two sides to every story, we ignore those sides, digging deeper for unwanted lobes and parasitic reactions. A new study published in the science journal Standing Waves shows that RF signals are disappearing at an alarming rate. Some scientists are going so far as to say that if action is not taken immediately, the airwaves could be completely silent by 2040. The study’s chair, Dr. Bunsen Huneydo said, “We looked at daily activity on the HF bands from 3.5 to 29 MHz over the last 11 years. For a while the bands were showing healthy growth with plenty of activity, but in just the last five years signals have become much weaker and some have even disappeared completely. Worse hit has been the 10 meter band where we haven’t observed a signal for over two years… the extent of the devastation is breathtaking.” But what is causing it? Scientists have a few theories but the main culprit seems to be that there are simply too many antennas absorbing a limited supply of RF. As this simple formula shows, RF is depleted at a rate inversely proportional to the square of the distance between any two stations: Scientists warn that, as cos (1/x) increases, we risk reaching “the point of no return” where RF levels will never recover. But what does this mean to the average ham? The short answer is we must all help conserve RF. Where hams used to just have one radio, it is now common to own three or even four radios, each with an RF absorbing antenna. Of course, some of the worst contributors to the crisis are the so-called “Big Gun” stations. These use aluminum farming techniques that have gotten way out of control…covering acres of land with multiple towers reaching up to 100 feet and scooping up every signal that goes by. The International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) and member societies like ARRL are calling for urgent action and plan to table a number of propositions at the next WARC meeting in Geneva. Among them would be a limit on antenna farming, a program for offsetting RF absorption by deploying more transmitters around the globe, and requiring hams to turn off their receivers when not really listening. Perilous times. - Adrian VE7NZ reporting from The United Nations Radio Exposure Alliance League (UNREAL) The DIPOLE - the Worlds finest Amateur Radio News Source like a Dipole there are two sides to every story, we ignore those sides, digging deeper for unwanted lobes and parasitic reactions. The US Federal Communication Commission has given notice for public comment on the proposal to establish re-licensing requirements for Amateur Class license holders of the Advanced and Extra Class license. The public input period will be 6 months in duration ending September 8th 2021. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said "It has come to our attention that the skill set required to operate Amateur Radio has changed substantially and old guys with 30 words per minute on CW just don't cut it anymore." Further background was provided showing that older operators struggle with Digital Modes, Software Defined Radio and many more of the newer aspects of communication and aren't nice to newer Hams. "We need these class of operators to be a shining beacon for this hobby, leading the way in technological change and embracing it and providing leadership", said Pai. When pressed as to what would happen to license holders that do not pass the re-licensing test Mr Pai said, "We do not want them to be removed from Amateur Radio, we understand how important this hobby is to license holders, however a significant lowering of privileges is being considered, proposals have suggested being downgraded to General Class." Scott VA7SL reporting The DIPOLE - the Worlds finest Amateur Radio News Source like a Dipole there are two sides to every story, we ignore those sides, digging deeper for unwanted lobes and parasitic reactions. |
VE7NFRNorth Fraser Archives
October 2023
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