April 2017
Greetings all for the month of April!
In March my son Aiden, began studying for his Tech class Ham license by using the Ham Radio School.com book and website with the practice questions for the exam. I found this book at Ham Radio Outlet here in Denver and it was really recommended by Clay (K3CRS) the manager there, so I decided to check out for Aiden. I already have 3 other licensed kids in my family, and although they aren’t really using the ticket they will have it one day if they want. We essentially used ham radio as a home school subject too for the kids, so who knows, they may want to get on the air one day! So as I was looking for a study book at HRO Clay sold me on this one! The book and website are authored by Stan Turner, WØSTU. Stan, a Colorado resident, wrote the book and website as a training tool for his children, featured in pictures and captions throughout the book. I think this is absolutely outstanding, and am really happy to support a local guy and especially another amateur operator who wants to help bring new folks into the hobby. Each chapter has actual test question numbers by each subject and explanations for the topic. Very simply written and explained. The chapters are only a few pages long at most and make good sit down sessions with your child to study and spend some time with. THEN, after you go over a chapter, you can go to the website and take practice tests for THAT chapter, with the pages and test question number stated along with the actual Tech test exam questions. I am really impressed and will recommend this study guide in the future to others! Glad HRO decided to carry this book! And, thanks to Stan for a` GREAT PRODUCT!
The book by Stan Turner, WØSTU and Aiden studying!
Robert, KC8GPD, a major Part 15 enthusiast, runs an carrier current AM and part 15 transmitter setup in his apartment complex in Lakewood CO. He has quite a studio setup. Robert sent me the following article about a Tenant Run Apartment Network, with none other than Les Paul, one of the performers and operators of the apartment station.
So one night watching the Andy Griffith Show on MeTV here in Denver these great shots came up of good ole’ Barney Fife in the Mayberry Sheriffs office with the “police” radio’s in full view. So I shot these pictures and have always wondered what kind they are. Any ideas?
What about the old microphone?
As it turns out, according to some hams on QRZ.com: The ham rig shown in the early show was an Eico 720 cw transmitter, and 730 modulator. Some tine later, an Eico 723 Cw transmitter was shown. It is interesting to note the ham gear mentioned was shown along what should have been considered a ‘proper’ police type radio at the time…a control console and mike from a Motorola base station. And, as it turns out, the microphone may have been from Motorola of the day, but in this case it was plugged into what was the CW key jack on the Eico. Very interesting!
And another cool radio that bears the answer to the question, “what the heck is this? This is from the Netflix series “Frequency” which is based on the movie of the same name starring Jim Caviezel and Dennis Quaid. The plot is the grown child finds his dads stored away for years ham radio and talks to his dad in the past due to an aurora borealis phenonmenon. They then go on to solve a series of murders. The “TV” show on Netflix uses the same premise, character names, etc (with a few differences). And this is the radio used in the series:
WHAT IS IT?
By the way, wanna see a list of some famous ham radio operators, go to:
http://www.oocities.org/siliconvalley/campus/4400/famous.htm
Here is the Pica.cz Model P75/P175 FM analyzer
This little handheld battery powered unit is a really cool little audio/RDS/MPX RF carrier monitor and analyzer that is easy to carry around and even hook up to your computer with many features to monitor your FM signal. Check out all the details at Pica.cz. It also can be used as a remote modulation monitor with free software to see the parameters of the FM signal you want to look at. It decodes all RDS information and the text data too. It shows you deviation and audio levels, pilot injection and more. Basically everything you want to know about your signal. The software will show you all this and more simultaneously and can serve as a remote modulation monitor with alarms to alert you to problems.
A screenshot of the monitoring software hooked up via USB to the handheld unit showing audio levels, MPX spectrum and levels, RDS information, modulation peaks and averaging, and carrier information.
NEXT MONTH! DMR (Digital Mobile Radio) is taking over the amateur radio VHF and UHF airwaves big time here in the front range of Colorado. The TYT MD-380 and Connect Systems CS-800 UHF are now part of the KEØVH mobile hamshack, and I am going to let you know about their performance and a review on both of those radios for DMR! BTW, check out the www.RMHAM.org website for great information on this mode and the setup here along the front range in Colorado. See also the DMR-Marc Network at http://www.dmr-marc.net/ for a great look at what DMR is and how it is being utilized now in amateur radio. If you have heard the digital audio available now on cell phones, the audio available on DMR radios is very similar. Radio’s for this mode are easily available, not expensive, and with the groups using them very easily set up due to pre written “code plugs”. MORE NEXT MONTH!
Check out the back issues of my articles available now! Copy or click these links into your browser to see previous installments:
http://www.ke0vh.com/hamshack/archives/TheKE0VHHamshack201701Jan.pdf
http://www.ke0vh.com/hamshack/archives/TheKE0VHHamshack201702Feb.pdf
http://www.ke0vh.com/hamshack/archives/TheKE0VHHamshack201703Mar.pdf
I will be adding more to my website archives here soon.
Or see the complete archives at:
http://www.smpte-sbe48.org/wp/
AND
BY THE WAY, check out Icom’s new APRIL offering for hams: http://www.icom.co.jp/fb/170401/
Don’t forget the SBE Chapter 73’ Of The Air
IRLP (and Echolink) Hamnet, every MONDAY EVENING
At 7pm Mountain time (9pm Eastern) for radio discussions, both
Broadcast engineering and amateur radio.
Details on how to
Join are at http://www.ke0vh.com/net/net.html. I hope
You will be able to join us and share your engineering and Ham exploits. 73s and God be with you!
