With Varying Frequency - Amateur Radio Ponderings

Logs have been submitted to the ARRL and eQSL (sorry not LoTW at this time - maybe if I get time in winter to struggle with LoTW again).

 Club made 407 logged voice QSOs and 25 logged digital QSOs. 

With mulitpliers it tallies to 1030 points.

 Band Breakdown (phone):

• 80m              139 QSOs
• 40m                62 QSOs
• 20m              172 QSOs
• 15m                10 QSOs

The rest were other bands and modes.

Full report on our antenna experiments to follow!

73

Steve
K9ZW

Link to a PDF version of the HTR Front Page

Ham radio operators share their passion
Annual Field Day dials in hobby’s local enthusiasts

By Cindy Hodgson
Herald Times Reporter June 24, 2007

MANITOWOC — Rich Weyer took a “Ham Cram” course offered by the ManCoRad Radio Club in April. After the intensive one-day course and an exam, he became a licensed amateur radio operator.

On Saturday, Weyer was at Silver Creek Park participating in Field Day, an annual public demonstration of amateur radio, also called ham radio.

“This is my first Field Day,” said Weyer, who is from Sheboygan Falls. “I’ve been asking a lot of questions and learning a lot.”

Weyer said he’d always wanted to get into ham radio, and finally this spring he did.

“There’s just so much you can do with amateur radio that it just kind of boggles the mind,” he said.

Weyer and the others who gathered for the local Field Day, part of Amateur Radio Week, were among an estimated 30,000 people participating across the country, according to Steve Weinert, education coordinator for the ManCoRad Radio Club.

ManCoRad stands for Manitowoc County Radio, and most of the 80-plus members of the club are from Manitowoc County, Weinert said.

There are multiple objectives behind Field Day, which actually is held during two days, ending at noon today, according to Weinert.

It is a time for ham radio operators to set up their equipment and ensure it’s working in case it is needed in an emergency.

“This is a fun way of doing a preparedness drill,” Weinert said.

The event also is a chance for club members and their families to operate the club’s equipment. Finally, it’s a way to educate the public about amateur radio clubs.

Weinert said more than 100 people typically stop by during the weekend. Some are people who notice the crane hoisting antennas more than 100 feet high, and even people playing disc golf at the park may come over to see what’s happening, he said.

Those who stop by can talk with the ham radio operators and watch demonstrations of traditional Morse code, voice communications, digital (typed) communications, and an advanced type of digital communications that connects with the Internet, making e-mail possible even if local Internet service is unavailable.

“It would be like the Internet never went down,” said John Meyer of Menchalville, a member of the ManCoRad Radio Club for 20 years.

The ability to help in an emergency by providing backup communications is one aspect of the hobby that appeals to ham radio operators.

“We’re serving the community,” said Mary Langer, who was there with her husband, Ken. The Langers are from Norman, which is in Kewaunee County.

ManCoRad members have assisted with communication during weather emergencies, according to Weinert, including riding in squad cars after lightning damaged police communications equipment.

Another appeal of ham radio is the opportunity to talk with people around the world.

“From my little home station, I’ve talked to over 200 radio countries around the world,” Weinert said. He specified “radio countries” because each radio entity is not necessarily one country.

Communication can be as simple as making contact or it can become a whole conversation, according to Weinert. For example, he spent about 45 minutes talking with someone from New Zealand.

“You meet friends all over the world,” Meyer said.

He became friends with a man from Sri Lanka. The two visited each other’s countries, and now the friend’s son is attending the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay — all because Meyer is a “ham.”

One objective of Field Day is to see how many contacts can be made. Last year, the local club contacted nearly every part of the United States as well as Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, South America, Europe and Africa, according to an e-mail from Weinert.

He said people participating in Field Day would try to make contact with the space station Saturday night. He thought they would be able to hear people on the space station but probably wouldn’t be able to talk to anyone there.

People interested in learning more about the ManCoRad Radio Club can call 920-686-8281, send e-mail to info@w9dk.com or visit the Web at www.w9dk.com.

Meyer said Ham Cram, the one-day licensing class, will be held again at the end of September.

—-

Thank you to the HTR for covering field day 2007!

73

Steve
K9ZW

Twice this week a plaintive mournful howling turned out of be high winds whistling through the Log Periodic Antennas.

Then loud “pinging” as bits of tree branches and perhaps a chunk of hail or ice hit the antennas chimed in as well.

The wind gusts recorded around the 50 mph (80 kph) range, so there really was no real danger.

In stock form my set-up is engineered for 110 mph (180 kph) wind with three times the antenna loading, and with everything carrying 1 inch of ice! That doesn’t mean that smaller parts wouldn’t separate or be damaged, just that the big stuff is engineered to stay up there.

Joining in to the howl and pings were two more loud noises. The rush of rain as heavy as a firehose’s spray arrived, followed with thunder as loud as artillery simulators!

Impressive lightening strikes six to eight miles away still lit the sky like daylight!

Nothing like summer weather where the plains & Great Lakes meet!

The forecasts look reasonable that Field Day should be dry and safe, but in case of weather moving in the crane comes down in only two or three minutes.

73

Steve
K9ZW

As we are approaching 24 hours to start of Field Day 2007, the contrast in various on-line postings as to expectations of “professionalism” in the Amateur Radio ranks has caught my eye.

There are ECs and AECs (Emergency Coordinators and Assistant Emergency Coordinators), Radio Officers and what every the title of the day might be, simply Emcomm Leadership who not only have bought into extensive training as an end in and of itself, but openly talk about turning away any Amateur Radio volunteer who isn’t interested in massive hours of classes, other “professionalism exercises” and some have openly written they would thwart the effective use of any volunteer who didn’t agree to set aside some of their constitutional rights to be “their volunteer.”

The difference between competency in being an Emcomm Volunteer and being a mindless drone willing to set aside common sense in order to help seems to escape these false leaders.

Granted these leaders have allowed their organizations to become addicts to FEMA and Homeland Security money, and the “strings attached.”

We’ve had mandates to the ARES/RACES volunteers - think about this mandates to unpaid volunteers - that demand they do x number of this or that drills, nets, courses or whatnot to volunteer. 

We’ve even had fully qualified First Responders/Firemen told that their current & documented present ICS (Incident Command Structure) training needed to be repeated for ARES/RACES !!  What lack of common sense.

They have let a distance open between their heavily committed enthusiasts and the average Radio Amateur to the point that they now call for the exclusion of the average amateur from their ARES/RACES operational plan.

Locally we are blessed with leaders at the county level who are club members first, and Emcomm leaders second, so this is a problem imposed on them from State and Beyond.

Bringing this around to Field Day, a joint club and ARES/RACES event, we have the great fortune where the average amateur gets a chance to participate and the ARES/RACES enthusiast gets a chance to work with people more along the lines of the mixed skill and ability pool that they would need to draw from in any long term real emergency.

And most importantly, while the lessons are being learned from Field Day, we all will be having a lot of FUN doing the event! 

 And you know what, we’ll do all that learning and have all that fun as Radio Amateurs - Hams if you prefer, not as some sort of junior cadets lockstep to some mindless government program.

Catch you on the air tomorrow!

73

Steve
K9ZW

Once turned on a Publicity Machine is an amazing thing to watch!

As a club we’re being mentioned for our Field Day event on 4 or 5 Broadcast Radio Stations, one Broadcast Radio station is confirmed for a visit during Field Day, we’re included in the local newspaper’s web version, we’re told we will be in today’s print version, an area TV station is planning to visit during Field Day, and now we’ve been invited to partake in a live audio Broadcast Radio show Friday morning!

We’ve received some welcome encouragement on our PR campaign from our ARRL Section Manager, and as usual we hope to “export” anything that worked well for us to other clubs.

I just spoke with the crane operator, and he is good-to-go, so the 126 ft “insta-tower” should be all ready. 

This is going to be fun!

73

Steve
K9ZW

 Recognizing that Field Day often has a people draw higher than most other summer Club Events, Mancorad W9DK has combined several smaller events into FD 2007.

 Our Family Picnic will be Saturday late afternoon.  This way the non-ham spouses & family members will get a first hand chance to see the Field Day set-up.  And we do have to eat sometime!

A Linux Digital HF Experiment is planned.  Bob N9LVU has prepared a Linux Based Digital Ham Station computer for Field Experimentation.  He’s used the effective PuppyLinux and flidigi Ham Digital Package to build what looks to be a screamin’ machine out of an old mid-grade Pent-III box!  More on this after Field Day.

Local Invites have been extended to school groups, politicians, media, other clubs and the interested public.  We expect and are planning for an increase in visitors this year!

The Mancorad New Member Drive will continue at Field Day with a GOTA effort sans dedicated station and plenty of club handouts for possible new club members.

We are also kicking off a Ham Cram Candidate Drive for our Autumn 2007 Ham Cram at Field Day, again with handouts and contact information.

Should be a LOT of fun!

73

Steve
K9ZW