Amateur Radio is aboard during attempt to become oldest circumnavigator
02/18/2019
Jeanne Socrates, VE0JS/KC2IOV, is used to solitude. The lone 76-year-old yachtswoman passed the southern tip of Africa — some 300 miles to the north — on Valentine’s Day as she forged on toward Australia and New Zealand in her 38-foot sailing vessel Nereida. While underway, Socrates keeps in touch with a community of friends via Amateur Radio — although she had to yield to the ARRL International DX CW activity over the weekend — and she’s sticking to a schedule of 7.160 MHz at 0230 UTC daily. Socrates reported making contact with some ham radio friends on the US west coast on February 17. She’s been blogging her progress.
Jean Socrates and her array of marine radio gear
The retired math teacher and UK native also is no stranger to circumnavigating the globe, having already become the oldest woman to complete a solo, non-stop, unassisted round-the-world voyage. Ham radio served as her link to terra firma during her earlier adventures. Since 2013, she’s made two additional attempts to become the oldest person to circumnavigate Earth, the goal she’s now attempting to achieve. She departed Victoria, British Columbia, last October.
Two earlier attempts were cut short when her vessel was damaged in rough seas. Then, she suffered serious injuries in a fall last year.
Socrates is working around a damaged mainsail. “We seem to be having many more days of light wind giving slow speed, than stronger wind giving good speed — need a wind of well over 15 knots and, preferably, for us to be headed downwind. Any upwind travel immediately gives poor boat speed — that’s when the damaged mainsail is badly missed,” she recounted in a recent blog entry. She’s been using the vessel’s trisail — typically used for high-wind conditions — because the Nereida’s mainsail repair was showing signs that it might not hold up in the wind. Socrates said she’ll continue to work on the mainsail as time permits. — Thanks to Southgate Amateur Radio News for some information
The US Amateur Radio population once again grew by about 1%, based upon 2017 and 2018 year-end FCC database statistics provided by Joe Speroni, AH0A. The 755,430 total licensees represent nearly 7,300 more ticket holders than those that were in the database at the end of 2017. Nearly 51% of the Amateur Radio population in the US — 384,145 — hold a Technician license. Generals are second with 175,949, and Amateur Extras number 147,369. Advanced and Novice licensee populations continue to decline, with 39,607 Advanced and 8,360 Novices, as the FCC no longer issues Advanced or Novice licenses. A more significant statistic is 31,576 new FCC licenses last year, although that’s 620 fewer than came aboard in 2017.
“New amateur licenses granted by FCC are down 2% over last year,” noted ARRL Volunteer Examiner Coordinator (VEC) Manager Maria Somma, AB1FM, “but this is the fifth year in a row the total has been greater than 31,000. I predict that the number of new licensees will be more than 30,000 at the end of this year as well, and I’m optimistic this trend will continue.”
Upgrades also are down slightly, compared to last year — 9,456 in 2018 versus 9,576 in 2017, she added. “For the fifth year in a row, we have conducted more than 7,000 Amateur Radio exam sessions in a year — an important milestone for the ARRL VEC,” Somma recounted. “Our program continues to provide outstanding service to the ARRL, its members, and the entire Amateur Radio community.”
ARRL VEC filed a total 30,393 license application forms last year, compared to 31,014 in 2017. That includes new, upgrade, modification, renewal, and club station filings. At 7,035 in 2018, the number of exam sessions conducted by ARRL VEC marginally trailed the 7,075 held in 2017. ARRL VEC served 34,493 exam applicants in 2018, compared to 35,352 in 2017. Exam elements administered by ARRL decreased from 47,152 last year to 45,817 this year, Somma said. Nearly 1,800 new Volunteer Examiners (VEs) have been added to the ARRL VEC program.
Our Featured member this month, is none other than one of our longest standing GERATOL members and most experienced Net Control Operators; Harv – AA4HF, GERATOL # 329.
We all know Harv by his distinctive operating style, which is a reflection of his status as a true Southern Gentleman. Whether greeting a mere handful of check-ins, or dealing with a work list a mile long, Harv’s professional demeanor and calm approach is a reflection of the experience the GERATOL NCS stations like AA4HF bring to the net each evening. Harv first assumed the NCS reins as a substitute net controller on the GERATOL Net, back in the early eighties. Following that, he served as a regular NCS in the mid eighties, starting on Monday nights, then moving to the Tuesday evening early net. Yes, we used to have an “early” net and a “late” net, when conditions were much better.
Harv was first licensed in 1958 as KN4YPT. Many of the “old timers” recall the “N” in the prefixes, which were often part of our first call signs, as Novice operators. Some “N” calls remain, but most 2×3 “N” calls are a thing of the past. Harv is one of the (W.A.L.) or Worked All Licenses gang, going from Novice all the way to Extra Class.
As is the case with many early Ham Radio enthusiasts from the 50’s and 60’s, Harv’s first Ham Station consisted of a separate Transmitter and Receiver. In his case, his first station consisted of a homebrew single 6L6 15 Watt CW transmitter, in tandem with an Allied Ocean Hopper regenerative receiver.
Remember the “selectivity” on that type of vintage receiver? Amazing we still made QSO’s using receivers like the Ocean Hopper or the National NC-60 Special or even the Lafayette HA-63, to name a few, but we did. His antenna was a long wire double dipole 80 over 40, but also loaded up on 15 as well. Also, like many of us, he had an Elmer who lived nearby. In his case it was Bob, W4ORH. It was, and is to this day, the Elmers who keep Ham Radio alive, and who play a huge part in keeping young folks interested in our hobby.
Example of an “Ocean Hopper” Receiver
As often is the case, “life” got in the way of Hamming for Harv, and due to the fact back in the period he was first licensed, “proof of operating time” was a requirement for renewing your ham license. Unfortunately since he was unable to get on the air while he was in college (University of Tennessee at Martin) in order to fulfill the “on the air time” required, he could not renew his license. Regardless, we still view Harv as one of our “50” Years as a HAM gentlemen. His interest in Ham Radio never died however, and in the early seventies he once again became a Novice operator. Realizing Novice privileges were not going to suffice, he quickly upgraded to Advanced and Extra the following year.
Harv, AA4HF Station Today – a long way from his first station !!
Harv completed his first Worked All States in 1958. At that time, only 48 states were required, since HI and AK did not enter the union officially until 1959 !! Imagine that !! How many others got their first Worked All States only using 48 states ?
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His first DX QSO was with a German station, DL1IB, which took place on March 3, 1959. He received his GERATOL # 329 directly from the ARRL in 1979. In addition to his GERATOL # 329 and Director’s # 37, Harv is also a recipient of the GERATOL Hall of Fame Award, the 25th Anniversary Award as well as the very seldom given, GERATOL Phoenix Award. The Phoenix Award is something only four other members, in addition to himself have achieved.
AA4HF – Harv’s Mix of New and Old Ham Gear
Other Ham Radio related activites for Harv included some public service work, handling health and welfare traffic during weather related events. In addition, he operated via the Military Affiliated Radio Services (MARS) conducting phone patches, voice and digital traffic for over 40 years.
Outside of Amateur Radio, Harv’s interest include music, hunting, fishing and motorcycles in his younger days. He served as a Manager of Engineering and as an Inormation Technology Director. He has also taught programming languages at the local community college at night for several years. He’s been retired now for 17 years, but does operate a computer systems and a network support business, which he says is just enough to keep him off the streets and out of the poolroom !! Hi Hi
Congrats to Harv on his distinguished Ham Radio career, and thanks to him for his dedication to the GERATOL net over the years, and as our longest standing Net Control Operator on the net. Feel free to post a comment, expressing your thoughts about Harv’s Featured Member article. My thanks to Harv for providing me with the information necessary to complete this POST.
Congratulations to Al – N3NH and to Tom – N1TL on receiving their QCWA numbers in February !
On behalf of the GERATOL Net Community, congratulations to both of you on your 25th anniversary as Ham Radio Operators, and your recent membership in the organization that recognizes that milestone, the QCWA !
Can learning ham radio make for better engineers and software developers ?
When a group of Navy engineers and software developers took time away from their day jobs in December, they spent the time pursuing a task long considered passe: they became licensed amateur radio operators.
Some 23 employees from Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division (NAWCWD) took a week-long class in amateur radio at Point Mugu, California culminating with an FCC amateur radio license test. All passed and are certified at the “technician” level for amateur radio operation.
Now, Navy officials say the move may make the workers better at their jobs. The staff gained an understanding of radio frequency (RF) propagation that’s essential to what they do, said Brian Hill, electromagnetic maneuver warfare experimentation lead and collaborative electronic warfare supervisor at NAWCWD.
Retired Senior Chief Information System Technician Lee Moburg, a wireless amateur radio (HAM) operator, manned the HAM radio at Naval Hospital Bremerton during a 2016 exercise. Some Navy leaders are turning to ham radios to improve understanding of electronic warfare. (Douglas H Stutz/ U.S. Navy)
Hill, who earned his amateur radio license in high school, noticed that while most of his department’s recent hires had degrees in computer science, many had little background in RF theory or operation.
“You can explain antenna patterns and concepts like omni-directional vs directional using Smith charts, but it’s helpful to add a demonstration to really convey the concept,” Hill said. “You can explain modulation as a concept, but for a demo… let them listen to how modulated digital signals with audio frequencies sound… For those who never knew the joy of hearing a 2400 bps modem connect over a telephone line, it was a new concept!” These concepts are central to electromagnetic maneuver warfare.
“We need to be able to have awareness of all threats and opportunities from [zero frequency] to light within an integrated system,” Hill said. “Our adversaries are looking at the entire spectrum to use against us, and we need to do the same. Having awareness of how the atmosphere changes from daylight to night and how that affects propagation of [high frequency] is important.”
This can be critical for young developers/engineers whose experience is typically limited to the UHF/EHF-based systems now in vogue across communications, guidance and ISR technologies.
When Ian Mann, the division’s target design engineering branch head, heard about Hill’s class, he wanted his team to attend as well. Having earned his own license, when he previously worked at drone-maker Aerovironment, Mann knew the course could help inspire ideas among engineers.
“When I talked to Brian and found out his small class was already on a waiting list, I knew we needed to make the class bigger,” he said. “Many of our engineers know their specializations, but rarely does an aeronautical engineer think about how he changes the polarization of the C2 antenna when the airplane banks for a turn. They are not just moving the airplane but the antenna too. This has already started conversations and I hope many more continue.”
Taught by a local amateur radio instructor, students enjoyed the course, he said.
“It was worth the effort and people are already asking to go to the next class offering,” Mann said.
“We are looking at doing a fox hunt soon,” Hill said. “The team will design a directional antenna, actually build it in class, and then use their antennas to find a hidden RF beacon somewhere on base.”
Similar plans for developers to get hands-on experience performing basic electronic warfare support functions are in the works as are potential cross-disciplinary classes in additive manufacturing.
Article by Eric Tegler on Electronic Warfare News in C4ISRNET
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