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.

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

I am in need of a contact with Alaska. It is the last state I need to qualify for my 50/50 award.

Do we have any Alaska stations out there willing to make a sked or any suggestions on Alaska operators I may contact ?

My Alaska connections either do not respond, have antennas that are currently down or are no longer on 80 meters.

Thanks in advance for any help, and/or suggestions. 73 Steve Stuckey AC9GK. You can contact me via e-mail at:
ac9gkx@gmail.com

Or you may simply reply to this POST via the “Comments”

A CBC Story by Paul Colbourne · for CBC N.L. · Posted: Jan 27, 2019 7:00 AM

It’s not just a hobby. In a crisis, amateur operators provide a lifeline !!

Larry Horlick (VO1FOG) still marvels when he thinks about what happens when he turns on his ham radio.

“I’m taking my voice and that radio is converting it into an electrical signal and the amount of electrical energy that he is receiving is so minuscule,” said Horlick, a Coley’s Point resident who is one of a group of radio enthusiasts in Conception Bay North.

Amateur radio was around for nearly a century before the internet, and to this day is the only form of communication that does not depend on a network.

Even in a world of smartphones, Facebook and texting, ham radio still holds a mystique for many people. More than two million people around the world still use the technology. Of the estimated 40,000 users in Canada, as many as 1,500 live in Newfoundland and Labrador.

An amateur radio user can connect with anyone practically around the world. The only countries that do not allow amateur radio operators are North Korea and Yemen.

The legacy, and appeal, of Marconi

If amateur radio has a prophet, it surely would be Guglielmo Marconi, the communications pioneer who in proved — in St. John’s — that radio waves follow the curvature of the Earth by bouncing off the ionosphere.

No longer did telegraph wires or “ground waves” bind communication. Now it was possible to talk to anyone in the world who also had a transmitter and receiver.

“When other hams discover you are from Newfoundland, they want to know about Signal Hill,” said Horlick, referring to the place where Marconi received a wireless transmission in December 1901. Carbonear ham radio operator David Parsons agreed the allure is strong with colleagues. “A friend of mine visited me last year and that is one of the things he had to do — go to Signal Hill and see where it all started,” Parsons said.

Right in the middle of the action

Geographically, Newfoundland is in the centre of a lot of amateur radio activity, because it happens to be between Europe and the rest of North America.

“We’re centrally located — you’ve got everything all around us here,” Parsons said, pointing to a screen to see which parts of the world are likely to be reachable. “It’s a really good spot for radio.”

For many enthusiasts, amateur radio is a hobby.  They log their daily “QSOs,” or contacts. While talking to other people around the world, they exchange weather, call signs or other information.

There are contests on who can make the most contacts over a certain amount of time. Some even talk to astronauts on the International Space Station.

However, this hobby has a serious side as well.  In the event of natural disasters or other emergencies — when more conventional forms of communication go down — amateur radio operators are called on to help.

In the summer of 2017, for example, damage to  fibre optic cables meant that internet and phone services failed in much of Atlantic Canada.
Parsons and other amateur operators helped keep communications open. They were on alert to help ambulances and other emergency personnel locate people in distress or to just relay information from one station to another. The incident proved that a communications system that gets taken for granted can be vulnerable.

“The internet, the world wide web, is just that. It’s a web of interconnected signals that are transmitted by satellite,” said Parsons, adding that the chance of failure becomes greater as the world becomes more interconnected with Wi-Fi, satellites and cellular towers.

Parsons and Horlick both belong to BARK — the Baccalieu Amateur Radio Klub — which operates in the Conception Bay north area. The club holds an annual field day every year where about a dozen local operators use only generated power to make contact with hundreds of other operators worldwide.

The Society of Newfoundland Amateur Radio — or SORNA — is another organization that is trying to recruit new members through education and community outreach.

Becoming an amateur radio operator, though, it is not as simple as buying the equipment. After all, a ham radio is capable of operating in the commercial radio spectrum, where ships and air traffic controls operate. Operators require a licence, and the licensing process is a verification of your skill.  

“You really got to know what you are doing, so you do not interfere with their operations,” said Horlick. “That could be very dangerous.”

Source: CBC Newfoundland and Labrador

Listen to the new episode of ARRL Audio News on your iOS or Android podcast app, or online at https://www.blubrry.com/arrlaudionews/. Audio News is also retransmitted on a number of FM repeaters. Click here and then scroll down to see the list.

This month we have the pleasure of featuring one of our most regular check-ins to the net each evening, WW8X, Joe Loverti, Sr. from Ohio.

Joe has had an interest in radio since the day he built a ‘foxhole’ radio consisting of a coil of wire wrapped around a Quaker Oats cereal tube.
Being able to hear radio stations like KDKA or WSM with just that coil in a simple circuit that included a pencil lead attached to a safety pin that danced across a razor blade is a thrill that’s stayed with him through the years.

Instead of doing his high school homework, he spent many late night hours DXing the AM broadcast and shortwave bands with his Mom’s old Philco console radio, which he recently restored. 

I would be willing to bet, many of us GERATOLers gained our initial experience in radio, the very same way. Many of us East Coast broadcast band DX chasers would tune in KDKA as well, along with WLS in Chicago and WOR in New York. If you were one of the Broadcast Band listeners back in the day, what were the “far away” stations you tried pulling in at night, and what type of receiver did you use ? Feel free to leave a “comment” to this post to let us know.

Joe’s Current Station

Joe enlisted in the Navy and learned CW at Radioman “A” School, in San Diego. He says the training he received gave him an ‘unfair’ advantage for getting his ham ticket and also helped him pass the Extra Class code exam – since 20 wpm CW was the mandatory speed for graduating out of Radioman school.

He got orders to COMCARDIV 3 (Commander Carrier Division 3) at NAS Alameda, in 1964. And, soon went to sea on a number of memorable “WestPac tours” serving aboard a few US Navy aircraft carriers, which included the USS Hancock (CVA-19), USS Ticonderoga (CVA-14) and the USS Enterprise (CVAN-65) among others. One interesting assignment as an admiral’s staff radioman was standing watch as an operator on the highly secure, radioteletype, Fleet Flash Net, while the ship conducted operations on Yankee Station in the Gulf of Tonkin.

After the Navy, his marriage to Paula (his best friend of 50-years), his education and trying to start a commercial art career took him away from radio for a few years. Eventually, his interests with radio returned in 1976 and he received the novice call WN8CDW, which later changed to WD8CDW when the FCC dropped the Novice designation. 

Like many hams, Joe has always enjoyed building Heathkit gear and his first ham station was comprised of a Heathkit DX-60B, an old Hammerlund receiver along with other items he picked up at a small nearby hamfest (better known as The Dayton Hamvention). Imagine how cool that must have been, having Dayton Hamvention right in your back yard ? He later built two Heathkit amplifier kits: an SB-220 and SB-1000, after upgrading from a ‘rock-bound’ novice and getting his Advanced ticket by taking his exam in Columbus, Ohio before the FCC, as many hams did back in those days.

Living in Miamisburg, Ohio (hometown of the Drake radio company) he is also fond of Drake gear, (As evidenced by his QSL card below) in particular, the venerable Drake C-Line twins along with a solid-state Drake SPR-4 receiver. Eventually, he upgraded from a dipole with a feed line out of his basement window, to a Mosley Junior Tri-bander on a small 40 ft. tower and earned a DXCC with about 150+ confirmed countries. One of many fond memories of DXing was the time he wondered why the DX station’s signal went up in strength as he turned the beam 180 degrees away from them until he released his working those VKs and ZLs via the ‘long path’. Or, the time he started a huge pile-up on 15 meters after working VR6TC, Tom Christian, on legendary Pitcairn Island. Today, Joe says he still has very little trouble working most stations that he can hear with his roof-mounted, Hygain 5-band trapped vertical, Icom 7300, AL80-B, Flex 3000 and a couple of vintage Kenwoods (TS-520S and TS-830S), despite the fact that Miamisburg sits down in a river valley.

Well as any ham father might do, Joe tried to get his son interested in the hobby at an early age, but as a youngster, he showed little interest – until one night in his early 20s, while serving in the US Coast Guard onboard the USCGC Spencer. While standing a 12-hour radio watch, Joe Jr. heard his dad WW8X and a ham friend chatting away on 80 meters. He recalls that was the moment the “ham radio light got turned on”. It was hearing those familiar voices, loud and clear in the middle of the Caribbean – thousands of miles away from home that worked its magic on him. It was then that Joe Jr., now WS8X, a familiar signal on the Geratol net, not to mention one of our NCS operators last season, decided to begin studying for his own ham license.

Joe Sr. has many interests besides ham radio and is often torn between where to spend his spare time. At age 72, he continues to work full-time from home as a graphic designer for Siemens. He has a personal website at www.caneflyrods.us dedicated to building Spit Bamboo Fly Rods. And he also likes restoring vintage radios, painting watercolor pictures, woodworking and putting miles over the pavement peddling his bicycle. Once he even went as far as logging 60 solo hours flying a Cessna 150 before deciding he didn’t really want to be a pilot after all! 

One cold December evening in 2010, he stumbled upon the Geratol net and was very impressed by the friendliness and warm welcome he received and decided to stick around for “just a little while”, and went on to earn his own Geratol number “2599” in 2011.  The Geratol net has become a special “go-to” place when he wants to play radio, and like his son, enjoy hearing those familiar voices from far away. With WW8X, the magic of that simple ‘foxhole’ radio has really never gone away. 

I would like to personally thank Joe for the outstanding bio material he provided, so we could publish this feature article on our website. As many of you may agree, we are truly blessed on the GERATOL Net with some pretty amazing operators, and just plain great folks in general. Joe, WW8X is a prime example. He checks in often, puts Ohio in many, many logs each and every season. Congrats on your Ham Radio and personal achievements Joe, and thanks for being part of the GERATOL Net gang !!

Kenny, WV1Y from Rhode Island, continues to recover from his injury, but is finally out of the rehab center, and back on the air from his home QTH.

Ken asked me to post a note of appreciation to all the GERATOLers who sent him cards and good wishes as he was recovering in rehab.

The GERATOL bunch is a great group of folks, and your cards and letters to Ken really cheered him up at time when he needed it most !! Well done folks !!!

To all GERATOLers, aspiring GERATOLers, SWL’s and anyone else reading this POST on the GERATOL Website, we wish you a healthy, happy and great “hamming” new year in 2019 !!!

CQ CQ Have you been “Naughty” or “Nice”  ?

“Ho ! Ho ! Ho ! This is Santa on 3.668 !! Merry Christmas to all GERATOLers young and old, those with Numbers and those still working toward their numbers !!”

“But remember, if you have not checked into the net this year, Santa is telling you that your getting COAL in your stocking, and my reindeer will make sure to accidentally “clip” your dipole or vertical antennas !! Ho ! Ho ! Ho !

“Just kidding, have a great Christmas Holiday, and Happy New Year to all GERATOLers !!”    Ho ! Ho ! Ho !

Just a reminder, for those looking for a last minute Christmas gift, or to get ready to sport your own GERATOL logo apparel at the upcoming Ham Radio Flea Markets this Spring, the arrangement George put in place with the vendor remains, and the “link” may be found at any time on our web page under the “Files” section of the upper menu, or just click on the link below.

https://www.onctees.com/geratol

What a great way to publicize our Worked All States net at your next Ham Radio Club meeting, Ham Flea Market or any Ham Radio event. When folks approach you and ask you what the heck a GERATOL is, you can explain the net workings, and invite them up.

12/17/2018

Registration  is now open for the QRP Amateur Radio Club International “Four Days in May” (FDIM), Thursday – Sunday, May 16 – 19, at the Holiday Inn, Fairborn, Ohio. The annual FDIM event for QRP enthusiasts and builders takes place in conjunction with Hamvention®. Registration begins the evening of Wednesday, May 15.

Most of Thursday will be taken up with seminars, “meet the speakers” opportunities, and an open room for casual show and tell. Most of Friday and Saturday are open to attend the Hamvention and visit the QRP-ARCI Toy Store.

Friday evening activities typically include “show and tell,” vendor displays, and a homebrew contest. Saturday evening features social activities and a banquet, while Sunday is open for Hamvention. Attendees are invited to display their QRP-related projects at FDIM. One evening will feature vendors offering QRP-related products, with some offering FDIM discounts. Dress is casual for all events.

Reservations and special room rates for FDIM will be available after January 1 through the QRP-ARCI website. For more information, contact FDIM 2019 Chair Norm Schklar, WA4ZXV. 

Source: ARRL Website

Kevin N1KL Site Administrator