Pirate radio is a topic of interest to Amateur Radio operators on several levels. One is the potential for on-air interference to our legal operations, another is the attractively outlaw nature of the endeavor itself. Who amongst us has not at least fantasized about broadcasting our favorite music and opinions to the unwashed multitudes?
The theory has been advanced that Web 2.0 is the new pirate radio. Why? Because it has a low entry price, it requires a minimum of equipment to function and it will take your message to the hearts and minds of those who might otherwise be kept from it, for whatever reason.
Having been employed in the radio broadcasting industry at the time of Radio Caroline’s original operations, I found the reference to her in the post called “Is the Web 2.0 Community the Next Pirate Radio?” on The Quincy Cove blog to be quite interesting. The purpose for banning Radio Caroline and the current banning of information going to and from totalitarian nations have many similarities. However, the solution may be different. Yesterday the solution was pirate radio, today it seems to be the Internet.
A new 2m D-STAR DV Access Point (DVAP) Dongle was demonstrated recently by the NCR D-STAR Association (Annandale, VA) at the Vienna Wireless Society Winterfest. The DVAP is from Internet Labs (AA4RC), the manufacturer of the DV Dongle.
The new device’s purpose is to allow Amateur Radio operators to walk away from their computer and still transmit and receive D-STAR voice and data using a separate D-STAR radio operating in the two meter ham band.
Consisting of a Gaussian Minimum Shift Keying (GMSK) modem with a built-in two meter transceiver, it has a maximum power output of about 10 dBm, or 10 milliwatts. Operating range is approximately 325 feet using the included SMA-based antenna, your mileage may vary. The D-STAR DV Access Point Dongle was also featured a detailed article in the D-Star Info newsletter.
Request for Information
A Wisconsin statewide database of mostly ham radio repeaters hosting Skywarn/weather nets has been managed and maintained by the Milwaukee Area Skywarn Association for a number of years. In preparing for the 2010 weather season we need your help to update and verify it’s accuracy.
This list which goes into a national database also helps local clubs promote their activities and attract new members interested in public service. More importantly, having accurate and current freq lists are essential to any emergency responder communications plan. Please share this message to those related in this field.
FREQ LIST and/or submit changes:
SOURCE: Skip Voros, WD9HAS, Executive Director, Milwaukee Area Skywarn Association
Carol Maher, W4CLM, certainly deserves to have her shack included in Way Cool Ham Shacks. What you see is but a small part of the collection of old school and new style equipment. A former ship board radio officer, W4CLM is an antique AM ham radio equipment restoration fan. Carol has a nice selection of significant rigs ready to operate. I suggest visiting her Web site for the complete tour. Oh, yes. She does have a Henry amp.
K4GZX’s DIY Projects is a must visit site for the ham who is a homebrewer, or a DIY’er. The site obviously hasn’t been updated in quite a while, but it still features a boatload of cool projects and “How To” articles.
The projects and articles include: antenna construction and theory, transmitter and receiver construction, the care and feeding of power supplies, APRS, alarms and security, LEDs, test equipment, data acquisition, infrared, lasers, microcontrollers and lots more. There are even plans for building a bat detector.
There are five pages of projects, so don’t accidentally quit looking after the first one. Just reading all that could kill a weekend.
The latest edition of the ARRL ARES® E-Letter contained some excellent suggestions for Amateur Radio operators making personal preparation for a disaster.
As we start a new decade, let’s review some of the basics of Amateur Radio disaster preparedness. The following are tips from John Covington, W4CC, of Dallas, North Carolina.
You must make sure you’re personally prepared for a disaster before you can even consider helping with Amateur Radio. If you are preoccupied with personal matters, you won’t be able to help ARES®. To be ready for disaster communications, do the following: Train regularly with your local ARES® group.
Think about how you might best be able to help during a disaster. Some of us are good at installing antennas and equipment, others of us are better at operating on the air. Not everyone is suited to doing every job. Sometimes just having helping hands, spare equipment or supplies can be helpful even if you cannot operate the radios yourself. Generators need fuel, operators need coffee, and stations need to be set up. Figure out where you best fit in. Decide how you can help out if you stay home: Can you deploy at a shelter or EOC for a few hours? Operate from home?
If you must evacuate, can you deploy from where you have evacuated to, such as a shelter?
Have all resource materials you need in printed form. Don’t depend on computers, PDAs and so forth as they may not work in a disaster, require electricity and are relatively fragile.
If you use a computer regularly in your on-the-air operations, make sure you practice doing things such as calling nets and handling traffic the pencil-and-paper way once in a while. Remember, you may not be able to spare the amp-hours or the table space to run a computer.
IARU Region 2 and Radio Club de Chile Request Amateurs to Keep Emergency Frequencies Clear (Feb 27, 2010) — A massive 8.8 magnitude earthquake hit Chile today at 0634 UTC, triggering a potential tsunami. IARU Region 2 and the Red Chilena Nor Austral de Servicio (RECNA) have suggested Amateur Radio operators monitor the following emergency communications frequencies for traffic pertaining to the earthquake and tsunami: 3.738, 3.750, 7.050, 7.100, 14.200, 14.350, 21.200, 21.350, 28.300 and 28.500 MHz.
IARU Region 2 Area Emergency Coordinator Jorge Sierra, LU1AS, reports that there is now traffic at frequencies of 40 meters from people seeking information from people in Chile: “We would appreciate if amateurs would leave free the frequencies used by RECNA, as well as the usual IARU Region 2 frequencies on in 20, 40, and 80 meters.” In addition to the above frequencies, you may also want to listen to the worldwide emergency communication Center of Activity frequencies: 14.300, 18.160 and 21.360 MHz.
Other suggested monitoring frequencies are 3.720, 7.045 and 7.060 MHz. Hawaiian Amateur Radio operators on the lookout for a possible tsunami are monitoring 7.088 and 3.888 MHz. — Thanks to Radio Club de Chile’s (RCC) Emergency Coordinator Aldo Oppici, CE3WAD, and W2VU, KI6SN, K3ZO, PY2ZX, PY5YA and El Grupo Argentino de Radiotelegrafia for the information.
SOURCE: ARRL
Continue reading about Chile Requests Emergency Frequencies Be Clear
If you are nostalgic for a look at a Radio Shack Catalog, vintage 1939 to 2005, then the Radio Shack Catalog Online Archive is just the site for you. They even have some Radio Shack TV commercials touting CB radios and eight-track tape players.
What is RadioShackCatalogs.com? This website is dedicated to America’s technology store… RadioShack. Radio Shack has been in business since 1921, over 90 years. And for 65 of those years has produced an outstanding electronics and technology catalog, surpassing the catalog of all rival companies.
Through the decades, this catalog expanded to contain a mix of hi-fidelity stereos, amplifiers, radios, phonographs, speakers, TVs, CBs, communication equipment, computers, electronic components, antennas, electronic test equipment, educational kits, toys, gadgets, appliances, tools, batteries, and more.
Products from the RadioShack catalog were purchased by the everyday consumer, hobbyist, and professional. At this website you will be able to view these old 1939-2005 Radio Shack catalogs, year by year, page by page. What’s unique about this website is that the catalogs are presented as a VIRTUAL catalog, in a "page-flipping" format. This gives you the experience of paging-through an actual Radio Shack catalog.
SOURCE: RadioShackCatalogs.com
ARRL Great Lakes Division Director, James Weaver, K8JE, in his e-newsletter WEAVER’S WORDS made some interesting observations concerning the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Red Cross and ARRL that has been referred to here previously.
The new MOU between Red Cross and ARRL does much more than include an agreement to support RC and to acknowledge the appropriateness of criminal background checks for its ham supporters. When it is signed by both organizations it will provide a clear distinction between amateurs as official Red Cross volunteers and amateurs as partners but not RC volunteers. This should be a very helpful distinction. Basically it means that amateurs can provide volunteer communications support to the community through RC without becoming RC volunteers if this is what they choose.
Why is this potentially an important distinction?
It has been my personal experience that RC chapter officials typically conclude anyone who provides support to them is a RC volunteer. This conclusion may be justifiable for "the man on the street" who walks in to a chapter house and says he wants to help. On the other hand, the conclusion may or may not be accurate regarding individual members of an ARES(TM) unit that also offers to help. The ARES member may, in fact, be volunteering to support ARES in its assistance to RC, but not be interested in being a RC volunteer.
The FCC has responded to a request for clarification on the use of the ROS data mode and questions have been raised about the use of CHIP64 by US Radio Amateurs.
In response to a request for clarification on the use of ROS, the FCC has reiterated that Spread Spectrum emission types are only authorized on the 222-225 MHz and higher frequency amateur bands.
They also said:
"The licensee of the station transmitting the emission is responsible for determining that the operation of the station complies with the rules. This would include determining the type of emission the station is transmitting and that the frequencies being used are authorized for that type of emission."
CHIP64 is mode that US Radio Amateurs have used successfully on HF for several years. It is a Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS) mode and would appear to fall in the same category as ROS.
Read the FCC response on ROS on the Digital Radio Yahoo Group at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/digitalradio/message/34812The CHIP64 Digital Mode - Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS)
http://www.arrl.org/FandES/field/regulations/techchar/Chip64.pdfARRL Virginia Section National Traffic System uses CHIP64 on 80m
http://aresracesofva.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=88&Itemid=95Digital Radio Yahoo Group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/digitalradio/
SOURCE: Southgate Amateur Radio News RSS Feed
My name is Bob, and I am a ham radio operator, freelance web developer and a retired commercial radio personality. It turns out that I also enjoy blogging...
