Earth Hour Party

Sorry I've been away folks. I had some family issues going on. But the good news is, I'm Back!

Are you coming to the Earth Hour party on March 28, 2009? Earth Hour is a movement to show solidarity toward reducing the carbon footprint created by the excessive use of power our modern technology requires. I encourage you to go to the website and get informed.

This means no computers, TVs, lights, etc. And it also means no ham radio, Internet surfing, myspace, twittering, blogging, eBay, facebook, etc. (unless you are using a green alternative power source).

Here's an idea! Call all your friends and have an Earth Hour party by candle light. Make sure the beer is cold before turning off the refrigerator. ;)

Ken

W.O.E.

I was rumaging through one of my old diddy bags down in the shack and came across the two items pictured here. The bag had the letters "W.O.E." on it. They might have come home from a past Field Day exercise or perhaps some long forgotten DXpedition to who knows where or maybe my last visit to Connecticut? The puzzle is...what are they? Can anybody help? Please leave a comment with the name of the item, how and where it is used (the more creative the better.) Just click 'Comments' below this post. For sake of reference I'll call the one on the left, the WH1 and the one on the right, the RS1. I'm not sure, my memory is really getting bad, but this may just be a ploy to see if anyone actually reads this blog. ;)

I promise to keep digging and if I remember the actual story behind these two items, I'll share it in a week or so. And regardless, I'll post some of the more creative comments I get. So put on those thinking caps. For those of you who have ever been away to summer camp, this is kind of like those camp fire stories we remember making up. Maybe someone will actually come up with the real answer.

What does W.O.E. stand for you say? Well, I'm not sure...it was just on the bag. By now everyone in the world knows what W.M.D. means and somehow I think they might be related in some small way.

That's all for now O.M.
73, DE WA2KKG

Technorati Profile

Scratch-n-Sniff Ham Radio?

Scratch-n-sniff is a technology that allows advertisers to put a panel of micro-encapsulated scents on a print advertising piece, which when scratched, emits the aroma of the product being advertised such as perfume, bourbon, pine trees, and literally any scent. Versions of scratch-n-sniff technology were introduced commercially back around the late 1960's by both 3M and NCR.

So, scratch-n-sniff ham radio? Well, no -- or maybe, if you use your imagination. What if we had a scent modem? Think about it... I mean, we already have modems that convert analog audio to digital audio and back to analog audio at the other end of the transmission. A scent modem would convert 'analog' scents to digital scent files and back to scents at the other end! I once toured a commercial lab that created scents for various uses. They could create practically any scent. They had a chemical formula for each one. Mix the right combination of chemicals and sniff...root beer, bubble gum, or steak on the barbie! So, all we need is a device, a scent modem, with a multi-scent replaceable cartridge just like in an ink jet printer. Somebody get working on that, please.

Besides the smell of the rag chewer's overheated PC board in his HT, while running full power, what could scratch-n-sniff do for ham radio? Picture a field day exercise where hams set up their equipment and operate out in the open for a day or a weekend. As you sit in your shack and make contact with this outdoor field location wouldn't it be great to smell the fresh cut grass under the antenna farm or the Mountain Laurel and wild flowers around the edge of the field. And can't you just smell those burgers and sausage & peppers cooking on the grill. Those aromas are as much a part of a field day exercise as the hum of the transmitters and amps and the chatter of the operators around the tent. What a contact that would be -- and without the flies and mosquitoes!

Now, how about that contact you'd like to make with one of those south sea island DXpeditions. Can you picture that little island with it's white sand, a couple of tents for sleeping and the gear, and an antenna or two strung between a couple of palm trees laden with tasty coconuts? When you've finally made it through the pile-up, wouldn't it be nice to smell that wonderful salt sea air and be able to sniff the coconut milk from a freshly cracked coconut the operator is sipping through a straw as he confirms your call sign and report? Now that would be a contact to remember -- and without that unwelcome deposit on your head by a passing sea gull.

Or, what about that contest contact where the operator on the other end is sitting in his shack in his underwear and hasn't showered in forty-eight hours -- well, maybe I'll pass on that one.

Well, this has been fun. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. So, somebody get working on that scent modem thingy. I'll buy one!

Until next time...

73 OM
DE WA2KKG

Spy Vs. Spy

Ham radio operators have many different activities available from which to choose. There is literally something for everyone. Some favor code (CW), others like using repeaters, others DX, and still others are into moon bounce. These are but a small fraction of the niche interests available.

There is one interest I had never thought about before until one of my ham friends asked me one day, "Want to help us catch a spy?" What are you talking about, I asked, and what does this have to do with ham radio. As it turns out, this activity is probably pretty rare among hams, but it combines the activities of radio direction finding (RDF), antenna design, CW, home brew receiver and antenna building, and maybe even public service, of a sort (if they catch him).

Hap and Frank (names are changed to protect the innocent?) have been following a station operating within a designated ham band that sends coded groups for about a half hour the same time once a week. Of course their immediate concern was this was obviously not an authorized amateur radio operator because the station never identifies with any call letters.

Coded groups are simply groups of alpha-numeric characters that are usually five characters in length. In the simplest of terms, if you could break the code and knew what each number or letter stood for, you would know what the message said. Hap and Frank aren't trying to break the code, which would be quite difficult for the untrained, they just want to locate the guy through direction finding techniques such as triangulation. By rotating or otherwise moving the antenna(s) to find a null (lowest signal reception) you then know that the signal is coming from one of two points plus and minus 90 degrees from their compass reading. I find this whole activity fascinating in that is reminiscent in some ways to what I did forty-some years ago during my military service with the United States Army Security Agency (USASA).

They are experimenting with different types of antennas to get compass readings that are consistent from week to week. The first time I visited their site I was Hap's helper -- Frank couldn't make it. That morning we were using a huge Adcock antenna they had made out of wood and plastic paired with a commercial amateur radio receiver. I think the Adcock probably stood twenty or twenty-five feet in the air. It was transported to the site each week on a car-top carrier and probably consisted of 20 or 30 pieces all together. It took maybe a half hour for them to set this thing up each week, if you knew what you were doing; a lot longer if you didn't. By rotating the Adcock slowly by hand and listening to the signal rise and fall they hoped to get a good reading. The morning I visited we set up in a thick morning fog that lasted throughout the spy's operating schedule. We couldn't get an agreed upon null. Was it the fog? Was it the QSB? Was the antenna not set up properly? Were we not far enough away from from metal objects like the cars in the parking lot? These are some of the things that DFers have to contend with.

The second time I visited they were trying a two vertical array coupled to a home brew crystal controlled receiver with a signal strength meter mounted to the top. This time I was only an observer. Each antenna was mounted on a 2 foot by 2 foot piece of plywood with a rope attached. One member of the team would pull one of the verticals across the grass in a rough arc from the stationary antenna until a null was reached. Then a compass reading was taken. After several attempts at this, each time trying to mentally eliminate the effect of the QSB that was happening on the signal, they had several different but close readings. Later at home Hap compared the latest readings to ones from previous attempts and realized that they could now statistically arrive at an average which led to a true bearing to the spy. Success!

Now that they have a bearing they believe is reliable, they plan to move to another location one or two hundred miles away to take more bearings. This is phase two and may take several attempts to also arrive at a reliable bearing. If they then draw these bearings on a map, the point that they cross is where the spy is located. Of course that's not the end because that will only tell them, hopefully, what city he's in. Then it's on to phase three which might be going to that city and driving around with car-top mounted DF equipment.

Well, I'll have to leave the rest of this story for some time in the future. Needless to say, Finding the spy will be a little bit of a let down, as their project will be over. In this case the joy is in the journey. They tell me that once they locate the address of the transmitter, they will be turning over all their evidence to the proper authorities.

Until next time...

'73 OM
DE WA2KKG

Thanks to K6BMG for the nice graphic of an Adcock design.

Ham Radio and Public Service- Part I

One thing ham radio operators have always been known for is participating in public service events. We'll deal with public service for disasters and other emergencies such as RACES, ARES, and Skywarn in Part II. This is about using our radio equipment, our training, our enjoyment of the hobby, and a few hours of our time to help out people in a public way. Often these are events are organized by non-profit groups to raise money for a cause. Most times amateur radio groups like ARES, RACES, and other radio clubs organize local hams to provide radio communications for these events.

In this area of the Mid-Atlantic United States there are too many events of this type to list them all. However, some local events where hams have been of help in this area are: March of Dimes Walk-a-thon, MS-150 Bike Tour (MS as in Multiple Sclerosis), ironman competitions, marathons, Memorial Day and Independence Day parades, Walk for Hunger, Breast Cancer awareness walks, and so many more. Last year I organized a group to provide amateur radio communications for our local PBA Bike Race which ran a 30 mile route. It was great fun and the PBA officers were very appreciative of our efforts.

How do ham radio operators help out? What public service do they provide? First, we often provide radio communications for the organizers during the setup phase. Many of these events involve hundreds of participants and many functions must be organized, such as parking for participants, meal services, transportation back to the start, etc. Hams 'shadow' the key organizers during the hours before the event, so they can communicate with other members of the planning team who may be on the other end of the field, setting up the food tent, or at the finish line for example. Often one ham with a higher power mobile radio acts as net control for the day coordinating message passing by low power hand held radio operators out on the course. See the links below for great tips for the net control station and the shadows and checkpoints.

During the event hams continue to provide radio communications for all areas. The event may be a ten mile walk, a fifty mile bike race, or an outdoor gathering covering an area larger than several football fields. Hams may pass messages, called traffic, to each other on behalf of the organizers about where the leaders of the race are, for instance, by placing themselves at appropriate checkpoints along the route. In a five mile walk or a parade, hams may position themselves along the route or simply join in with the walk to watch for people who are in need of medical help, such as treatment for hyperthermia or a twisted ankle. In a bike race, hams at checkpoints coordinate other hams riding in roving bike repair vans to the location of riders who have broken down. Sometimes a ham radio operator is positioned at a rest stop or checkpoint along the route to watch for participants who may have become temporarily disabled and need assistance.

While these events are great ways to be of service to the public and help publicize amateur radio, it seems fewer and fewer hams are helping with these events. Just last night I received an urgent reminder email from our club president that we are committed to provide public service communications support for the local March of Dimes walk-a-thon and he needs 6 to 8 hams to properly handle it and he only has 2 who have volunteered. The walk is now only 6 days away! Why is that? Are we losing our public service spirit? Are we all just too busy... or too lazy?

These events are good ways to learn how to participate in a net. They help show amateur radio in a positive light. They are often outdoors in warm weather -- who doesn't need a little more fresh air and sunshine? There may be perks like a free t-shirt, free food, a free goodie bag, etc. Spring is the beginning of the season for these events. Contact a local club or two in your area and tell them you want to be contacted for the next public service event they do. If you don't know of a club in your area, check the listing the ARRL keeps HERE. Below are a couple of links to some helpful information about operating in public service events of this type.

Helpful Operating Hints by Bruce Pigott, KC1US
Net Control Tips by Madeline Lombaerde, KD6JTU

Until next time...

73 OM
DE WA2KKG