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The Handiham World Weekly E-Letter for the week of 26 July 2006
This is a weekly news & information update from Courage Center's Handiham System. Please do not reply to this message. Use the contact information below, or simply email handiham@courage.org. For subscribe/unsubscribe information, please see the bottom of the page.
Listen in MP3 or RealAudio, later in the day, after podcast audio is posted. The text of the e-letter must be mailed before the audio is put on the website in order to get news out as quickly as possible. Audio appears later in the same day, so if you check too early, the instant this mailing arrives, you will hear last week's audio:
Streaming MP3:
http://www.handiham.org/audio/handiham.m3u
Download the e-letter via accessible MP3:
http://www.handiham.org/audio/handiham.mp3
The Handiham podcast is at:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/handiham
In this edition you will find:
Greetings, everyone.
Picture: Red Cross truck at Dayton, complete with its own antenna farm.
These are folks who are prepared. You should be, too.
Listen up, everyone. Hear the sound of a ham radio station that is unprepared during summer heat waves. (No sound!)
Yes, it's the disturbing sound of silence. When you don't prepare, you are off the air in a heat emergency that causes commercial power to drop!
This past week, there was an unusual coincidence of major power outages in New York City, California, and in the country's heartland, in St. Louis. The outages were protracted, too. I saw a news report about St. Louis that told of many power customers still being in the dark after more than a week following severe storms. In New York, the source of the overload conditions hadn't been found, making more outages a real possibility. California, in the grip of a record heat wave, saw many customers losing power last Sunday. According to CNN, a record 50,270 megawatt peak was reached in California - that's one heck of a lot of power! And that number was reached despite efforts by businesses to cut back on power usage following a plea by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Scientists have reported that globally, 2005 was the hottest year on record, and according to a report released from NOAA's National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C., the average temperatures of the first half of 2006 were the highest ever recorded for the continental United States.
Since power grids become more brittle and likely to fail during extreme heat events, ham radio operators everywhere should be planning ways to stay on the air when commercial power is not available. Your own plan can be quite simple; just keep a handheld radio with a charged battery pack and several spares available to make it through short outages. However, the folks in New York and St. Louis would go through those batteries in a day or two, even with modest usage. That's when you have to plan for either more battery capacity, as in larger storage cells, or some way to charge batteries without the power mains. Here are several options:
The ARRL has some articles and resources about alternative and emergency power available online. This is a good place to read some basics. Find this and other relevant links in the RekkyTec Links.
Patrick Tice
patt@courage.org
Handiham Manager
Avery's QTH: Freeloaders
Picture: Avery studies the 2006-2007 ARRL repeater directory.
Welcome once again to my humble QTH.
One weekend I was looking for something to do, so I turned on my two meter rig. I chose my club's repeater frequency, as I was planning to talk to a couple of my long-time club buddies.
Hmmm... I found a conversation already in progress; a couple of unfamiliar people involved in a QSO. I thought I would just wait for them to finish and then use the repeater myself.
Gosh! They seemed to on talking forever and ever! One subject after another came up and was hashed over.
"Well, OK." I thought to myself. I will just go do something else until they are done."
Several hours later I thought I would give it another try. By Golly! They were still there! Still talking about nothing of much importance. Had they asked permission to use the repeater? NO! Did they make any effort to join the club? No! Freeloaders, for lack of a better word, are what they were. What is worse is that this went on for several evenings and weekends.
Putting a repeater on the air involves a considerable amount of expense. The cost of the repeater, its antennas, and possibly site rental, are all part of the bottom line. Since this was a wide-area metropolitan system, it meant rental of a couple of separate transmitter and receiver locations and phone lines.
Those phone lines for repeater controls represent a monthly expense that has to be paid. Parts for repairs, when necessary, have to be purchased. The electricity to keep the repeater running has to be paid on a monthly basis also. Someone has to put in their time, energy, and gas money to run out to the repeater's location to take care of upkeep.
Most everyone expects guests to use a repeater system for short periods of time, as when traveling through a city, or to meet someone else before moving to a simplex frequency. But when going on someone's repeater for a longer period of time, whether it is owned by a club or an individual, one should be sure to ask if it is OK first.
Suppose you want to make use of a really good repeater system more often than just casually. If it is sponsored by a club, join the club and pay your dues to help keep the repeater on the air. Who knows, you may even have fun taking part in some of the club's other activities like maybe operating in a contest or attending a picnic.
If you have equipment to donate, or if you are a person with a disability who would like to learn more about amateur radio, Just give me a call, toll-free, at 1-866-426-3442, or email me at
avery.finn@courage.org
Until next time, best 73 from K0HLA, Avery
Do I hear $20? How about $25?
The ARRL may be giving eBay and the other auction sites a little competition in the Amateur Radio arena this fall when the first ARRL Online Auction gets under way. Auction proceeds will help to support the League's educational services and programs. The event now is in the planning stages, says ARRL Business Services Manager Deb Jahnke, K1DAJ.
"We will soon embark on an exciting new venture," Jahnke said in providing the broad strokes of the online auction to ARRL Headquarters staff members. Jahnke and her Business Services team will plan, organize and manage the event, which is planned for late October -- the exact dates haven't been set yet -- and she promises it will be lots of fun.
"This will not be just another boring auction, because we plan to include many unique and special items related to Amateur Radio," she said. "We are seeking items that will interest our audience, ranging from DXpedition vacation rentals to restored Collins 75A4s." Jahnke says this inaugural online auction will be limited to 100 items.
The auction will be open to all.
(ARRLweb)
HAMVENTION® attendance
The official Dayton HAMVENTION website reports that the preliminary attendance figure for Hamvention® 2006 is 20,324, a slight drop from the 2005 attendance of 20,411, but higher than 2004.
Our take on the show was that the traffic to the Handiham booth was about the same as in past years, though we did suspect that high fuel prices dampened some of the enthusiasm prospective attendees might have about making cross-country auto trips to Dayton. There are two ways high fuel prices impact large trade shows like Hamvention:
Overall, considering these effects, the show did very well indeed. We plan to be back again next year.
Assistive Tech This Week:
 | Assistive Tech is "AT", or assistive technology for people with disabilities. It may be loosely defined as any kind of device or technology that helps a person with a disability to perform a task. It could be a special spoon that is easier to hold, a speech chip in an amateur radio transceiver, or a software program that allows a blind user to hear what is displayed on a computer screen. We have decided to feature a new AT idea in this space on a regular basis, so let us know if you hear about some new technology, however simple or complicated, that may help people with disabilities to get things done! |
Here's a note from Kitty, WB8TDA, who has a couple of assistive technology tips for us:
Send your ideas about AT to patt@courage.org and we will feature them here. You can also let me know if you would like to visit Courage Center to learn more about assistive technology. We can even train you to use JAWS!
|
Let's ask Elmer!
Dear Elmer,
Last week I was listening on my local two meter repeater and heard some talking that sounded like a commercial radio station, then there was even some music. The audio level wasn't too high, but the repeater signal was strong, as usual in my location. It would come on, then go off for awhile before returning. I never did hear any identification. What was going on, and is there anything I should've done about it?
Signed, New Tech
Dear New Tech,
Sometimes when we are listening on repeaters, we can hear some pretty strange sounds. Intermodulation can occur when two radio signals mix due to some unexpected condition. This can cause the repeater to think it is hearing a regular input signal when in fact it is hearing this odd, unexpected signal instead. However, I don't think that is what is happening here. What you are describing sounds like an "open mike". An open mike made the international news recently when President Bush said a word he wishes he hadn't during a break at a conference. An open mike is one that is "listening" when we don't expect it to! When it happens on ham radio, it is usually embarrassing, annoying to other repeater users, always an illegal transmission when it goes out without identification, and even potentially dangerous, as it can tie up a repeater system during an emergency or public service event.
What probably happened was that a ham radio operator was driving to work, and the two meter radio in the car was turned on, tuned to the receive frequency of the repeater you were also listening to. What that mobile station didn't realize was that the microphone was on the driver's seat, and was being periodically keyed to transmit as the driver sat next to it. This can also occur when a handheld radio is in a pocket and gets sat on! Sometimes a passenger in the car or even a pet can key the rig without meaning to.
I'd say you should put out a call on the repeater stating that "someone has an open mike", and then identify your own station. Recently I also heard a station with an open mike. I made that call on the repeater, and listened after identifying my station. Soon the open mike transmission resumed, and, what was even worse, music was clearly heard in the background. I switched my receiver to the repeater's input frequency, which is the frequency the repeater is hearing the mobile stations on, and I could hear the mobile station transmitting directly without going through the repeater. This indicated to me that the station with the open mike was not too far away, but, since the signal quickly faded, it was a mobile station moving away from me. I made another call on the repeater, and continued listening. There was no further transmission from the open mike station, which meant that either the driver realized the mistake and corrected it, or drove out of repeater range.
In a severe, long-term open mike situation, members of your club who are familiar with "fox hunting" or "hidden transmitter hunting" will probably be called upon to locate the offending transmitter and inform the owner of the problem.
If you ever have an open mike yourself, you must correct the condition immediately when you discover it, and then identify your station as required by law. The best thing to do is to make sure you avoid open mikes in the first place by using a well-placed microphone holder and returning the mike to it when you are finished with a series of transmissions. That will keep it out of the way of passengers, pets, and even you, when you are busy driving.
One other thing. Never turn the audio on the mobile radio all the way down. That makes it IMPOSSIBLE to hear other stations calling you, including those who might want to tell you that there's an open mike! The other thing it avoids is you transmitting when you think there is no repeater activity, when, in fact, there is. This is very embarrassing. If you are disturbed by the audio from the mobile radio, simply switch the power off. That way you will not be fooled into thinking you are listening to a clear frequency when the repeater is being used.
His email address is:
elmer@handiham.org
Editor's note: No email is ever sent FROM the elmer@handiham.org address. This address has been harvested by spammers and used as a spoof address. Never open any email from Elmer's address. We report all such occurrences to the FTC.
ARRL emergency and alternative power links:
http://www.arrl.org/tis/info/emergency.html
Connecticut Solar - a supplier of solar parts with a page about ham radio applications:
http://www.ctsolar.com/Amateur%20Radio%20Solar%20Power.htm
AFB's Access World online:
http://www.afb.org/aw/main.asp
HAMVENTION®:
http://www.hamvention.org
You wanna see a REAL antenna farm?
http://www.qth.com/w0aih/
Freedom Box:
http://www.freedombox.info
73 from all of us at the Courage Handiham System!
Pat, WA0TDA
Manager, Courage Handi-ham System
Reach me by email at:
patt@courage.org
ARRL is the premier organization supporting amateur radio worldwide. Please contact Handihams for help joining the ARRL. We will be happy to help you fill out the paperwork!
The weekly e-letter is a compilation of software tips, operating information, and Handiham news. It is published on Wednesdays, and is available to everyone in a choice of formats. To administer your subscription to the HTML version, go to:
http://www.handiham.org/mailman/listinfo/handiham-list.
The text-only version is at:
http://www.handiham.org/mailman/listinfo/handiham-text-list.
The Handiham World Weekly E-Letter for the week of 19-21 July 2006
This is a weekly news & information update from Courage Center's Handiham System. Please do not reply to this message. Use the contact information below, or simply email handiham@courage.org. For subscribe/unsubscribe information, please see the bottom of the page.
Listen in MP3 or RealAudio, later in the day, after podcast audio is posted. The text of the e-letter must be mailed before the audio is put on the website in order to get news out as quickly as possible. Audio appears later in the same day, so if you check too early, the instant this mailing arrives, you will hear last week's audio:
Streaming MP3:
http://www.handiham.org/audio/handiham.m3u
Download the e-letter via accessible MP3:
http://www.handiham.org/audio/handiham.mp3
The Handiham podcast is at:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/handiham
In this edition you will find:
Greetings, everyone.
We are deep into a drought and heat wave here in Minnesota. High dew points combined with warm weather and frontal movements can bring severe weather, including high winds, tornados, and heavy rains with flash flooding. Yes, summer can be mighty uncomfortable, but this kind of hot weather presents us with the opportunity to make ourselves useful as emergency communicators in SKYWARN or other public service activities. I've talked about all that before, and I know you have taken steps to get your stations ready. So instead, I want to tell you about another summer phenomenon: summer VHF propagation.
During the hot summer days, I hear hams talking about making six meter contacts. I thought, "why not try listening on six and see if I can hear anything?" Many of us have six meter gear that has seldom or never even been tried on that band. In my case, it is an Icom IC-706 Mark 2 G.
So on one particularly hot day, which happened to fall on a weekend, I retreated as far away from yard work as I could and hid in the basement ham shack. As usual, I turned on a two meter rig that always listens on a local repeater. I heard stations from Fargo, North Dakota, hundreds of miles away, working through another repeater. Obviously the summer propagation was favorable for long-distance communications on VHF, so I decided to switch on the Icom 706 and try 50.125, the USA National SSB Simplex Frequency (USB). The first problem I encountered was an odd whistle on 50.125. It was repeated on some other frequencies up and down the band, so it would require some sleuthing to locate the source.
"That can wait", I thought. "The band opening is NOW."
So I continued tuning the band, and sure enough, there were stations hundreds of miles away having QSO's. Believe it or not, after almost 40 years as a ham, this was the first time I had ever heard this kind of six meter skip on my own equipment!
Now I have some work to do. I have to trace the interference problem. The usual suspects are other radios in the shack, the computers around the house, and switching power supplies. After that, there is the antenna system, which needs to work for six meter transmit. A bit of research will be needed there, too. Finally, I think I need to talk with someone in my club who works VHF SSB. Maybe I can get some beginner's operating tips.
I never thought I'd be thinking this, but I'm glad we have a bit of hot weather ahead of us yet this summer, so I can check out those band openings!
Patrick Tice
patt@courage.org
Handiham Manager
Avery's QTH: Brother, can ya spare me a rig?
Picture: Avery with phone. "Operators are standing by."
Welcome once again to my humble QTH:
In one of my weekly columns, I told you about the Handiham equipment loan program, and how we have a waiting list and not enough donations of used ham radio gear. The idea was to alert potential donors about the need that is out there. We have hams who cannot afford gear to get on the air.
Now it seems that all of a sudden we are getting more equipment loan requests than ever! I guess people read that column or heard me on the audio podcast and learned about the loan program. Of course we have also heard from some donors.
There is what I call a "Wish List." It is a database where I keep a list of people requesting various items by the date the request comes in. This list has been very long for some time now, and it is getting longer.
When a gift of equipment comes in, I open the list, checking with the people in the order they are on the list to see if they are still interested in the item. If they still have an interest, we fill out a loan agreement form and send it to the person for signing. Basically the loan agreement just says that a person will not sell, trade, or give away the item being loaned out and that when the person is done using it they will return it so that someone else may use it. Also, it states that the equipment will be used with in the rules and regulations as stated by the Federal Communications Commission. Once the loan agreement is signed and returned to us along with the shipping charges, we ship the item out. If for some reason they no longer desire the item the next person on the list is contacted to see if they still want the equipment.
In order to be placed on the "Wish List", a person must have a valid amateur radio license and have been a Handiham member for at least a year, or have achieved a new license or upgrade while a member. There are some other ways to get on the list, such as attending a Handiham Radio Camp. Many years ago when we started the loan program, we soon found out that a few people would take advantage of us by joining Handihams only to get equipment. Sometimes we would never hear from them again once they received the gear, and in a few cases, they sold or ruined the gear and asked for more! Now we are much wiser because we get to know our members who request gear, and the members in turn benefit by working toward a ham radio goal. It is a win-win situation for everyone: we get can get more hams on the air, and the kind donors who help us with gifts of radio gear they no longer use have found a great way to share the fun of ham radio with others!
If you have equipment to donate, or if you are a person with a disability who would like to learn more about amateur radio, Just give me a call, toll-free, at 1-866-426-3442, or email me at
avery.finn@courage.org
Until next time, best 73 from K0HLA, Avery
Husband & Wife Field Day Team:
Hello, Handiham readers and listeners!
I am Marilyn Dorn, N7NWQ, and I live with my husband Larry, N7MRN, in Pahrump, Nevada. We are both blind and have done many a Field Day in local parks and in the mountains. The past few years, we've decided it's much easier on us to work Field Day from home.
Rather than go for number of contacts or points, we find ourselves striving for working all states, as many Canadian provinces as possible, and at least one overseas contact, whether or not that contact is part of Field Day proper.
We've come as close as all but one state on Field Day before, but it wasn't until this year that we finally got them all. Even more amazing to me is that the whole list was checked off with contacts on 20 meters. The band was wide open throughout the entire contest.
We put a list of states and provinces onto a digital recorder before Field Day starts. As we make contacts, we delete these from the list. That way we have an easy way to review what we still need. By the time we both headed for bed by about 1:30 a.m. Pacific time, we only needed 1 state... Connecticut. When I woke at about 8:30 I decided to see what was on the bands instead of heading back to bed and losing the morning hours. I heard a 1 call and tried for it, just in case he was in CT. I got a response immediately and, when he said he was in Connecticut, I asked him to repeat it. I was afraid I was projecting my desperate wish for CT. He was indeed in CT. I deleted it from our list, woke Larry to tell him that I'd gotten the last one, we exchanged a kiss and some "woo-hoo's," and went back to bed.
We got only four provinces from Canada this year, but we got Barcelona, Spain and the Virgin Islands. When checking notes on who got which states, we were also surprised to find that we'd each gotten 25 of them. How's that for sharing the work?
Somehow the goal of working the states has overtaken the idea of counting contacts. It can be difficult for blind hams to keep track of duplicates as well, unless you have computer logging, which we don't. It's a fun and different way of participating in Field Day. Field Day is my one contest and big ham radio day. I've been hooked on it ever since my first one as a Novice in 1989.
73, Marilyn, N7NWQ
Ham Radio trumps the cell phone - in Mumbai (Bombay)
Here is another media hit for ham radio, and it just goes to show that amateur radio operators around the world are ready to communicate, even when the brittle technologies like cellular phones fail.
CNN-IBN reports that when Mumbai was attacked on 7/11, cell phone connections failed but there was an alternative: Ham radio. You can read the story, entitled "HAM bailed city out of mobile mess", on IBN:
http://www.ibnlive.com/news/ham-bailed-city-out-of-mobile-mess/15488-3.html
Thanks to Jean, KC0HKB, who works to further health, disability rights, and world peace from Pune, India, for alerting us to this story. Find out what Jean is up to by reading this article that appeared in "The Hindu":
http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/mp/2005/05/31/stories/2005053100520400.htm
I first met Jean at California Radio Camp, where she just bowled us all over with her high-energy approach reporting for Radio For Peace International. We all knew she would make a great ham radio operator, because she has a passion for communicating and drive to accomplish her goals. You can hear her Disability Radio Worldwide reports on shortwave radio and via the Internet. Find out more here:
http://www.rfpi.org/disabilityradio/
Assistive Tech This Week:
| Assistive Tech is "AT", or assistive technology for people with disabilities. It may be loosely defined as any kind of device or technology that helps a person with a disability to perform a task. It could be a special spoon that is easier to hold, a speech chip in an amateur radio transceiver, or a software program that allows a blind user to hear what is displayed on a computer screen. We have decided to feature a new AT idea in this space on a regular basis, so let us know if you hear about some new technology, however simple or complicated, that may help people with disabilities to get things done! |
Steady as she goes!
Here is a freeware computer program that may be of use to hams who have Parkinson's or other conditions that cause hand tremors.
The program is called SteadyMouse, and can be found at:
http://www.steadymouse.com
Thanks to Andy, KB9JOZ, for the news about SteadyMouse.
Send your ideas about AT to patt@courage.org and we will feature them here. You can also let me know if you would like to visit Courage Center to learn more about assistive technology. We can even train you to use JAWS!
|
Let's ask Elmer!
Elmer is on his summer vacation. We are hoping he will write us soon and let us know where he is!
His email address is:
elmer@handiham.org
Editor's note: No email is ever sent FROM the elmer@handiham.org address. This address has been harvested by spammers and used as a spoof address. Never open any email from Elmer's address. We report all such occurrences to the FTC.
RekkyTec Links
Six meter resources:
| New Repeater Directory Online! |
 Looking for an online source of repeater information? There is a new online repeater directory, courtesy of the good hams at http://www.ham-shack.com!The new directory is available thus far for United States repeaters by state and Canadian repeaters by province. United States: http://www.ham-shack.com/repeater.html Canada: http://www.ham-shack.com/can_repeater.html |
73 from all of us at the Courage Handiham System!
Pat, WA0TDA
Manager, Courage Handi-ham System
Reach me by email at:
patt@courage.org
ARRL is the premier organization supporting amateur radio worldwide. Please contact Handihams for help joining the ARRL. We will be happy to help you fill out the paperwork!
The weekly e-letter is a compilation of software tips, operating information, and Handiham news. It is published on Wednesdays, and is available to everyone in a choice of formats. To administer your subscription to the HTML version, go to:
http://www.handiham.org/mailman/listinfo/handiham-list.
The text-only version is at:
http://www.handiham.org/mailman/listinfo/handiham-text-list.
Greetings, everyone!
In this edition you will find:
The Handiham World Weekly E-Letter for the week of 5 - 12 July 2006
This is a weekly news & information update from Courage Center's Handiham System. Please do not reply to this message. Use the contact information below, or simply email handiham@courage.org. For subscribe/unsubscribe information, please see the bottom of the page.
Greetings, everyone!
I am on vacation this week, so today Ed, N0EPD, is telling us about ham radio safety. Listen in, as it's only available in audio format. See you all next week!
Streaming MP3 of the current week's letter:
http://www.handiham.org/audio/handiham.m3u
Download the N0EPD safety talk via accessible MP3:
http://www.handiham.org/audio/handiham070506.mp3
The Handiham podcast is at:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/handiham
73 from all of us at the Courage Handiham System!
Pat, WA0TDA
Manager, Courage Handi-ham System
Reach me by email at:
patt@courage.org
ARRL is the premier organization supporting amateur radio worldwide. Please contact Handihams for help joining the ARRL. We will be happy to help you fill out the paperwork!
The weekly e-letter is a compilation of software tips, operating information, and Handiham news. It is published on Wednesdays, and is available to everyone in a choice of formats. To administer your subscription to the HTML version, go to:
http://www.handiham.org/mailman/listinfo/handiham-list.
The text-only version is at:
http://www.handiham.org/mailman/listinfo/handiham-text-list.
Avery makes news. 
