Update: Welcome to “With Varying Frequency – Amateur Radio Ponderings

This month is With Varying Frequency’s 50th Month online. Amazing to think that there is so much to share that in the fifth year I have dozens of stub articles I want to finish and post, and so much more to pass along.

Here is a copy of the first post from January 2007. Though Scott NE1RD has moved to other projects, and Jeff KE9V has pushed the “Master Reset Button” starting his blogging efforts over numerous times in these years, both remain “net friends” and NE1RD & I have met in person. The first post:

Welcome to With Varying Frequency – Amateur Radio Ponderings.

With so much to learn about Amateur Radio, the use of Internet Based Communications to coordinate & share Amateur Radio, and Netiquite there seemed only one way to go – to simply jump right in!

I’ve been greatly taken by the Feeds & Blogs of great amateur radio works like 100 Pound DXpedition by Scott NE1RD and Long Delayed Echoes by Jeff KE9V. I highly recommend you check out their projects.

I’m hoping to be able to touch a few topics I’ve stumbled across & share some the lessons about amateur radio I’ve had the good fortune of learning!

It is NOT my intention to post daily, or even on a set schedule, or to compete with established references, feeds and blogs.

It is my goal to share links to these fine works and maybe help another radio amateur in their efforts!

As the posts have gone up somethings have changed for With Varying Frequency:

• The “Share Back” of information remains the first focus.
• Doing the posts is a personal exercise. This is my second focus. That 400-500 people daily like to take a peek at my attempts to write is humbling. Thank you!
• Unless it affects Amateur Radio I’m leaving politics alone. Doesn’t read well, and there are better places to read about general politics.
• Recounting of Lessons Learned is important, as is the Opinion I’ve picked up from those lessons. “Your Mileage May Vary,” as they say and we may not agree. That is OK!
• As there is no way to recount those lessons without at least hinting at the identity of local clubs, amateur radio community, and their members, that simply comes with the territory. If you don’t want to be quoted or observed doing something, don’t do it or do it in private – but you can never expect the rest of the amateur radio community to be silent.
• Cross Posting and General Amateur Radio Announcements were dropped – there are other better places to get the latest DX News, or Emcomm Information.
• Purely Creative Materials – like the iCard Series of Posts – were experiments that didn’t fit the Amateur Radio theme and were stopped.
• Some the equipment reviewed costs a bit more money than most of us have in our pocket spare while we walk around. I didn’t start out with great gear and don’t (yet) have the very top gear out there, though I do have a decent station in the making. I’m willing to plan,save up, and scrimp elsewhere to have this station. You can too. I hope my efforts to better my station are en encouragement.
• As a friend reminded me when some club things were going badly, “First it has to be FUN.” No wiser words have been spoken about these little extra activities in life – like blogging.

I hope the posts do share what others had taken the time to teach me, and the pleasure & joy I get our of share hobby.

73

Steve
K9ZW

K9ZW Latest Build Project – Bulbdial Clock Kit

The Bulbdial Clock kit is based on an original design concept from IronicSans.com and developed at Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories. It works like an indoor sundial, but with three shadows of different length. You tell the time just like you do on a normal clock, by reading the positions of the hour, minute, and second hands.

LINK URL Bulbdial Clock Kits.

These kits fascinate me, and I now have one queued up for the next project to build.

Should be fun!

73

Steve
K9ZW

The 2011 Wisconsin QSO Party – Press Release from Lynn K9KR

Just in:

The 2011 Wisconsin QSO Party is scheduled for March 13, starting at 1 PM local time.
All the necessary information is on our club website — http://www.warac.org

Everything is the same as last year, with the exception of one change we made for the awards to be given to Wisconsin amateurs — we are going to be sending a certificate to the top scoring single operator fixed entry and also to the top scoring single operator mobile entry.

Thanks for your help. Hope to see you on the bands.

Lynn K9KR
Chairman WIQP for WARAC

I always have fun running this event – hope to catch you on the air during the QSO party!

73

Steve
K9ZW

A Net Find: Why Ham Radio Endures in a World of Tweets | Epicenter | Wired.com

Noticed this Wired Article – touches on some of the points of why Amateur Radio rocks!

Enjoy!  – 73  Steve K9ZW

 

Why Ham Radio Endures in a World of Tweets

By David Rowan, Wired UK February 7, 2011  |  7:00 am  |  Categories: Future Shock, Letter From the UK, Media

Somehow it makes little sense that amateur “ham” radio continues to thrive in the age of Twitter, Facebook and iPhones. Yet the century-old communications technology — which demands such commitment that you must generally pass an exam to receive a license — currently attracts around 350,000 practitioners in Europe, and a further 700,000 in the United States, some 60 per cent more than 30 years ago.

What is it about a simple microphone, a transmitter-receiver and the seductive freedom of the open radio spectrum that’s turned a low-tech anachronism into an enduring and deeply engaging global hobby?

via LINK URL  Why Ham Radio Endures in a World of Tweets | Epicenter | Wired.com.

Which Way is North? – NOAA’s Geophysical Data Center’s Geomagnetic Data

Which way is North?

If you are like most of us, you’d assume that it is the same direction year to year, and matches what is on the map.

Not so – I checked my home QTH at this NOAA Website – LINK URL http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/geomagmodels/struts/calcDeclination

I found that it has moved from an East to a West declination in my lifetime:

Important for survey work, it is useful to know for DX bearings in cases of wide declination – example take Bisbee, AZ the offset is roughly 10 degrees.

Interesting tool and useful if you are putting up a tower or configuring a multi-antenna array.

73

Steve
K9ZW

G0KYA’s Amateur Radio Blog: Stealth Antennas – now available in USA

From Steve G0KYA’s Blog:

LINK URL G0KYA’s Amateur Radio Blog: Stealth Antennas – now available in USA.

My copy of his book arrived while I am traveling and I’ve found it a great read, having already run through about half of the book in short order.

I bought mine through the ARRL.

Looks excellent – recommended!

73

Steve

K9ZW