Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, David Goren, who shares this clipping from the New York Times archive:
My how times have changed!
FCC Enforcement circa 1941
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Category Archives: Ham Radio
Alexander shares a few photos and notes from Hamradio 2022 in Friedrichshafen
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Alexander (DL4NO), who shares the following photos and notes from Friedrichshafen:
First Hamradio After Two Years
Alexander (DL4NO)
Finally the biggest amateur radio event in Europe happened again: Last weekend hams from Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Italy, Poland, Belgium, Netherlands, GB and more gathered in Friedrichshafen. The location is quite attractive, in Germany but near Austria and Switzerland. I could not get any numbers yet. But the event was quite a bit smaller than in 2017 when I was there the last time.
As every year amateur radio societies from Europe and the ARRL had booths. The most remarkable was from the Austrian OeVSV with their own stage. They had their own, quite interesting lectures. For example Austrian Hams have used the geostationary satellite QO-100 for LoRa experiments. They are quite active with LoRa as this technology allows to transmit data quite slowly, but quite far and with a minimum of power. Their project is called MeshCom. Continue reading
Radio Waves: Future of AM in UK, BBC and Nuclear War, SAQ Unable to Air on Alexanderson Day 2022, ITU Ham Station Celebrates 60 years, and RRI International Quiz
Radio Waves: Stories Making Waves in the World of Radio
Welcome to the SWLing Post’s Radio Waves, a collection of links to interesting stories making waves in the world of radio. Enjoy!
Opinion: The Future of AM Radio
England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland (FrequencyFinder.co.uk)
Summary
AM radio in the British Isles is now in terminal decline with audiences dropping and many transmitters closed already. The majority of the remaining transmitters will likely close by the end of 2027. Over the next few years, the BBC and major commercial broadcasters will be looking to minimise their AM transmission costs by reducing transmission powers at the high-power sites and closing some of the low-power transmitters serving small audiences.
A coordinated AM shutdown may then follow at some point, most likely in 2027, though some independent broadcasters may continue using AM beyond this. This article explores these issues in more detail.
Click here to download the full PDF of this article.
The Last Word – The BBC and Nuclear War (Atomic Hobo Podcast)
This episode of the Atomic Hobo podcast focuses on the role of the BBC before and after nuclear attack:
https://soundcloud.com/user-494087291/the-last-word-the-bbc-and-nuclear-war
Click here to listen via Soundcloud.
SAQ unable to air on Alexanderson Day (The Alexander Association)
Note: the The Alexander Association has announced that they will be unable to put SAQ on the air this year on Alexanderson Day. There are no more details other than the title of their post (the content still reads as if the transmission will happen as planned).
Check the Alexander Association website for more details.
ITU’s ham radio station celebrates 60 years on air (ITU)
By Nick Sinanis, callsign SV3SJ, President of the International Amateur Radio Club (IARC), and Attila Matas, callsign OM1AM, Vice-president and Station Manager, IARC
Did you know that the United Nations specialized agency for information and communication technologies owns and operates its very own radio station?
Residing at the headquarters of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the 60-year-old amateur station operates under the callsign 4U1ITU.
It started broadcasting on 10 June 1962 and was officially inaugurated the following month by then UN Secretary-General U Thant and ITU Secretary-General Gerald Gross – himself a ‘’ham” radio enthusiast known by the personal callsign W3GG.
Recognized as a unique “country” in the ham radio community, 4U1ITU operates in accordance with privileges extended by ITU and the Government of Switzerland. It has also earned the DXCC (or ham radio “century club”) award from the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), confirming air contacts with 100 or more countries.
From its long-time home on the 5th floor of the Varembé Building in Geneva’s international district, this unique broadcasting outlet still today serves as a model for the highest standards of amateur radio station operation everywhere.
From one to a million
4U1ITU’s first contact, or “QSO” in ham radio parlance, was made with a German station called DL4VK. Further QSOs followed, amounting to over 1,300 contacts worldwide in the first 24 hours.
In the six decades since, ITU’s radio station has made over a million contacts using Morse code carrier wave (CW), voice (SSB), and digital operational modes, based on more than 20,000 two-way QSOs with radio amateurs around the world.
4U1ITU can operate on most of the frequency bands allocated to amateur and amateur-satellite services as identified in Article 5 of the Radio Regulations.
Aside from letting licensed radio amateurs in ITU, its Member State representatives, and its conference and meeting delegates contact fellow radio hams, the station promotes international goodwill and cooperation across the community. It also allows hands-on demonstrations of amateur radio communications for delegates and meeting participants. [Continue reading…]
RRI Voice of Indonesia: International Quiz 2022
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Armed Forces Day QSL Card
On May 14, 2022, this blog published an announcement of the Annual Armed Forces Day Crossband Test.
The blog included a link to a PDF file that listed all the details, such as times, frequencies, and military stations that were participating (including some that were aboard ships), and there was even a link where you could submit your information online to receive a QSL card. I thought it would be fun to see if I could hear some of the military stations.
At 3:29 pm on May 14, I posted a comment on the blog:
1850Z & 1925Z — 14.487 MHz — Station sending CW CQ CQ CQ (I can copy but not read the rest), believed to be NSS — US Naval Academy transmitting for Annual Armed Forces Crossband test.
At 3:37 pm, I posted:
1934Z — 14.487 station NSS announces in voice they are listening 14.234.0 USB. Additional contacts in SSB. “It’s raining buckets here.”
Not hearing anything further, I filled out the QSL request for — which asked for two-way contact information. I explained that I had only heard the Anapolis station, but I gave the details. Frankly, I did not hold out much hope for receiving a card, but yesterday it arrived.
As I reported elsewhere the MFJ 1020C active antenna/preselector made it possible to hear the Armed Forces Day station.
It was a very nice surprise to received the QSL card in the mail.
Kostas explores an alternative to Morse Code that’s been used in prisons, with roots in ancient Greece
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Kostas (SV3ORA), for sharing the following guest post which originally appeared on his radio website:
TAP: A Morse alternative mode for the HAM, with no need for training
by Kostas (SV3ORA)
Introduction
The thinking of this new mode, came to me when someone posted that he quit the HAM hobby because he did not learn Morse code and he did not want to use computers to do the job for him. Some time I faced a similar situation and I believe many do one day or the other. So I thought that I had to do something about it. It is too bad people quit the hobby or missing the fun of the KEY operation, because of the obstacle of Morse code. No matter what CW operators that already learnt Morse might say, the fact is that Morse requires patience, continuous practice and most importantly time. After all military had dedicated courses on it in the past, so it must be more than true. These are things not all people can, or are willing to do. An alternative that gives the same pleasure like Morse and operates with the same techniques, but requires no training and time must exist. Meet the TAP mode!
Mode description
This mode has its roots to ancient Greece. You may read the article in Wikipedia for more information on the Polybius square. A form of it, was used in the previous century in was times, for in-prison communication. A modified version is presented here by me, that fits perfectly the HAM radio. This modified TAP code scheme, is dedicated to HAM radio and includes the numbers and the letter “k”.
This is all you need to know in order to send and receive TAP. It is easy to follow and easy to generate on paper. This is a 6 by 6 table, with the first six alphabet letters placed in the first line, the next six in the second and so on. After the alphabet ends, the numbers are put in the same manner. Thats it!
Sending TAP
It is better to describe the sending procedure with an example.
To send the letter “i” you send two dots (“i” is on the second row), wait a bit and then send 3 more dots (“i” is on the third column). In other words, you first count the number of rows where the letter exists, then wait a bit and then you count the number of columns where this letter exists. Before sending the next letter, leave a bit of more time, so as to distinguish that this is a separate letter and not the time between rows and columns. Thats it!
Try it now without any transceiver! Write the TAP table on a piece of paper (you do not need to write the row and column numbers), or read it from the website. Tap on your desk with your finger and send some words to the colleague near you. See how easy it is?
There are actually four spacings involved. The spacing between adjacent dots, the spacing between the row and the column, and the spacing between letters and the spacing between words. Follow the PARIS spacing, like Morse code does, if you intent to write a software for it. However, in practice, manual operators would need to consider just two spacings, the spacing between rows and columns and the spacing between letters. These are the most important. Just make the one bigger than the other and communication should be achieved without problems.
Receiving TAP
It is better to describe the receiving procedure with an example.
To receive the letter “i” you listen two dots (“i” is on the second row), then a short scilence time and then listen 3 more dots (“i” is on the third column). In other words, you first listen for a number of dots (this is the row where the letter exists), then sense the scilence and then you listen for the next number of dots (this is the column where the letter exists). The scilence time between two letters is greater than the scilence between rows and columns and this can be distinguished easily. Thats it!
Try it now without any transceiver! Write the TAP table on a piece of paper (you do not need to write the row and column numbers), or read it from the website. Put your coleague to sent you some TAP words and you should be able to decode them by counting the rows and columns in the TAP table.
A programmer that may need to implement the mode in software, should follow the PARIS spacing to distinguish the different parts of the code, as described above.
TAP advantages
Here are some advantages I can think, of TAP in comparison to Morse.
- No training is required, start using it imediatelly, even by non-HAM people and kids. This probably is the greatest advantage and this is why most would want to use TAP in HAM radio.
- The encoding/decoding square can be drawn easily, it is very easy to remember how to draw it.
- Decoding by hardware or software means, becomes very easy, as there are no dashes to account for. Dot lengths can be anything and can be even varying from dot to dot, it does not matter.
- All you count, is how many ON-states (taps) there are and the rough timing between them, to decide between a row-column or a letter. Because of this intependency from dashes, the code can be used on any means, radio, light, pipes, walls, desks etc.
- If dot lengths are kept very short (up to the point where channel noise allows it), RF amplifiers can be pushed beyond their limits (due to limited duty cycle), or otherwise run cooler within their limits. There are some mediums, like light communication, where bright pulses of light can be produced easily (eg. xenon tubes), but not kept for duration and TAP is ideal on them.
TAP disadvantages
Here are some disadvantages I can think, of TAP in comparison to Morse.
- Speed limit issues probably. TAP beginners achieve for sure faster speeds than Morse beginners. However, a trained Morse HAM, can achieve greater speeds with Morse.
- Learning the table by heart, can be tricky in comparison to Morse. However war prisoners had tricks to learn by heart the 5×5 TAP square.
- Not known (yet) among the HAM community, like any new mode. Why not change that by let HAMs know about it?
TAP common points to Morse
There are some common points shared between TAP and Morse code.
- Both are relatively slow modes.
- Both are ON/OFF keying modes, efficient class-E amplifiers can be used.
- Both share the same channel bandwidth and noise-related characteristics.
- Both are human-oriented, although TAP does not require training. Both share the PARIS timing when implemented in software.
- Both allow for the “joy of the KEY”. You send TAP with the same equipment as Morse.
- Both are ideal for homebrew QRP, due to efficiency and transceivers simplicity.
A little off-line, off-grid camping
You might have noticed a lack of posts this weekend and that would be because I was completely off-grid and off-line, camping with two good friends in Pisgah National Forest.
It was brilliant, actually. I got to hang with friends I’ve known for over 30 years, test my new one person backpack tent (a.k.a. the “Bear Burrito”–the one on the right above), and of course I played a bit of radio.
Black bears are a fact of life here in the mountains of western North Carolina and we spotted three hanging out within 25 meters of our campsite.
By the way: the trick when camping with bears? Don’t put food in your tent, else that whole “bear burrito” thing becomes a reality.
I had a fabulous time putting my Elecraft KX1 “Ruby” on the air. I made perhaps 15 contacts in CW (Morse Code) with 3 watts of power.
One of the cool things about the KX1 is you can change the mode to SSB and actually tune through several shortwave broadcast bands (if you have the three or four band version of the KX1). Of course, I had to do a little SWLing.
As I mentioned in my previous post, I’m also a proper coffee snob and I firmly believe coffee tastes better when brewed outdoors. Yesterday morning, I brewed a pot of Rock Creek French Roast.
Off-grid, off-line camping recharges my internal batteries and it’s for this reason, I’ll be doing a lot more this year with my family.
It’s is also a brilliant way to experience an environment without any forms of radio interference (QRM or RFI). If you want to do some proper DXing, take your radio on some primitive camping experiences. It’ll remind you what life was like before switching power supplies ruled the world!
A Practical Application of Ham Radio – the Commuter Assistance Network
The big gun of the operation, the Motorola CDM 1250. While sitting on The Big 94 repeater, it also scans NY State Police frequencies.
By Jock Elliott, KB2GOM
Disclaimer: this isn’t about shortwave; it’s about 2 meter ham radio, but it’s something I thoroughly love doing in the world of radio.
About 40 years ago, a Citizens Band operator named Ed Barnat started a loose-knit group called Tri-County Assistance. Its purpose was to detect problems on the roadways and report them in real time. Ed acted as the central hub for information and in turn relayed it on to the proper authorities for action. He also used the information gathered through the Tri-County net to provide on-the-air traffic reports for local radio stations. Back then, there were no cell phones and no traffic apps on smart phones. CB and broadcast radio were the only sources of traffic info for commuters.
In time, Ed got his ham license – N2RKA – and added a 2-meter section to the Tri-County net. Somewhere along the line, I got my ham license and participated in both sides of the net. Then change of jobs forced Ed to stop running the Commuter Assistance Net as it was now known.
Thrown into Deep Water
A couple of hams tried to continue the net, but struggled and ran into trouble. One day, I had just checked in when the repeater owner came on the air, because of a problem, he forbid the two hams from using his repeater to run the net and added, “Jock, if you want to run the net, you can.”
Holy smokes! I believed firmly in the concept of the Commuter Assistance Net. I had a wife and a son, and if they were out on the roadways and had a problem, I would want them to get help (no cellphones, remember?). So I agreed, but being Net Control is very different from being a net participant, and I had to figure it out as I did it. That was over 25 years ago.
At first, I kept a strict log of the callsigns of the hams who checked into the net, and I maintained a list over 70 agencies that I might need to call with an incident. With the advent of the Traffic Management Center (see below), now I have a single point of contact, and I keep a hash mark tally of the number of hams who participate each week.
One of the things I am most proud of is the lack of bureaucracy. We’ve operated 25 years with no dues, no bylaws, no formal membership list, and only three meetings . . . all for pie and coffee.
The Dawn Patrol
Scanners are part of the commuter net. Below are some of my notes for the week and my hash tag tally of check-ins day-by-day.
Every workday morning at 6 am, I fire up a Motorola CDM 1250 transceiver on 146.94 and announce: “This KB2GOM, net control, standing by for the Commuter Assistance Network.” 146.94 is an open repeater (no tone) that is located on Bald Mountain, north of Troy, NY. Its coverage footprint is enormous, reaching far to the North, South, and West. The East is pretty well blocked by the Berkshire Mountains. Official backup is our sister repeater on 147.330 – PL 146.2, and if both repeaters are down, find the net on simplex at 146.520.
The Big 94 — 146.94 — repeater has a huge footprint.
The net serves the Capital District of New York, which nearly at the eastern edge of the state, about 145 miles north of New York City. Workday mornings, a large number of commuters drive into the three major cities: Albany, Schenectady, and Troy, which have a population of about 600,000. People commute to state government offices (Albany is the capital of the state), colleges, universities, and a variety of companies.
The net runs every morning from 6 am until 8:15 am and sometimes longer when a major event happens such as a blizzard or major accident. On an average day, there a relatively long stretches of silence, punctuated by check-ins. On a typical morning, 8-10 hams will participate, and we’ll handle 1-2 incidents a day.
Most of the time, the incidents are disabled vehicles in or out of traffic which I report by phone to the Traffic Management Center, which is run by the NY State Department of Transportation. The TMC is located in the same room as the State Police dispatchers, and when a report comes in, troopers or HELP trucks, as appropriate to the situation, are sent to handle the call. Sometimes TMC calls to let me know about incidents, so the communication is a two-way street.
A trash truck that almost went over the guardrail.
Sometimes we get accidents, accidents with injuries, chemical spills, vehicles (including a propane tanker) on fire, rollovers, and even a truck that smashed into a bridge overpass. During one morning, an ice storm swept through the area, and I handled 70 calls in two hours.
Just Two Rules
Everyone is welcome to participate in the Commuter Assistance Net. The goals are simple: to detect problems on the roadways and report them to the proper authorities and to share that information with net participants.
The net has just two rules. The PRIME DIRECTIVE is: Don’t cause anything! Rule two: when in doubt, report anyway.
With all the traffic cameras that seem to be just about everywhere, one might ask: “Why do you even need a commuter net?” Three reasons: (1) the cameras don’t see everything; (2) the folks at TMC can’t monitor all the cameras all the time; it’s impossible, and (3) there is nothing like a trained observed (which the net participants are) to let you know what is actually going on in a particular situation.
Sometimes Funny Happens
Here’s a true story from the net that was posted on Reddit:
Going back a few years, I had a job that required me to commute about 45 minutes each way. On one local repeater, on 146.94, there was a “commuter net” that ran every morning from about 6-8, net control was a fellow that worked from home named Jock Elliot, KB2GOM. The ostensible purpose of the net was to track commute traffic conditions, warn about backups, construction, obstructions, debris, and to get assistance to stranded motorists. Jock had the local traffic center (the one that provides traffic reports to all of the broadcast media in the area), DOT and several fire and police departments all on speed-dial and would bring them up to date. Sometimes, they would call him as well with info, because he could be counted on to get eyes on the situation. I was a participant every morning during this stretch of time.
It was a fairly relaxed net, the channel was quiet most of the time, owing to it being largely event-driven, so some light banter went by most mornings . . . more some days than others, depending on the overall conditions . . . you get the idea, I hope.
Anyway, it was protocol, when a car was spotted along the side of the road, we would call it in, and Jock’s first question was always, “Is it occupied?” The answer to this question would decide what order he called DOT (which had a free roadside assistance service), police, and the traffic center. If it was occupied, it was in that order; if not, it was traffic center, then police.
That leads us to one particular morning. Jock gave me a call. It went like this:
Jock: KC2***, KB2GOM. Are you on this morning?
Me: KB2GOM, KC2***. Go ahead.
Jock: Do I remember right, that you take I-90 east?
Me: QSL.
Jock: Have you passed Everett Rd. yet?
Me: Negative. Probably about ten minutes ahead.
Jock: Great. The Traffic Center is telling me that they’ve got a report of debris in the road. When you get there, would you get a closer look at it so I can tell them what it is?
Me: Roger that.
About ten minutes pass. . . .
Me: KB2GOM, KC2***. I have eyes on the debris.
Jock: KB2GOM. What is it?
Me: There is a mattress sitting in the middle lane, about a hundred feet past the offramp.
A beat.
Jock: Is it occupied?
Finally, I am deeply grateful for all the hams who have participated in the net over the years . . . over 150 by my best estimate.
One day, I was thanking one of the net participants, and I said: “Without you guys, I would be just a weird old guy with a radio.”
Fred, W2EMS, came back to me: “Ah, Jock . . .”
Me: Yeah?
Fred: “Even with those guys, you’re still a weird old guy with a radio!”
When I stopped laughing, I said, “Guilty as charged.”
So if you are in the Capital District of New York on a workday morning between 6 am and 8:15, drop a call on 146.94 . . . everyone is welcome!
- End —