Arkadelphia Siftings Herald - News

Arkadelphia Siftings Herald - News: "The HAM radio operators club in Clark County is active in reporting weather alerts, said Burns. The club is adding new repeaters, which are specially-built transmitters and receivers, placed in strategic locations. They automatically repeat signals to other stations that would normally be unable to hear the signals directly, thus extending communications range.

Burns said the beauty of a HAM radio is that when all other communications fail, the HAM radio is still reliable."

For those of you who are scratching your heads about my last post on Google Docs we have this excellent video that may go along way toward understanding how it works.

J.J. Pickle Campus hosts free SKYWARN session - University

J.J. Pickle Campus hosts free SKYWARN session - University: "Ham radio operators represented a large proportion of the 250 who attended. Ham radio is important to weather reporting because operators are part of a wide, reliable communication network. When the weather starts to look bad, ham radio operators broadcast the conditions they see. Local media outlets listen to ham radio broadcasts to stay on top of developing weather.

Storm chasers from the Texas Severe Storms Intercept team also attended the training. Their mission is to put warnings out faster by reporting severe weather as it happens.

'Chasers will go out and meet the weather, run along with it. We do our own forecasting and give reports as we go,' said Jeff Draper, a Volente firefighter and storm chaser.

Chase team member Shane Hale said storm chasers are often firefighters.

'You're crazy to run into a burning house; you're crazy to run into a tornado,' Hale said."

Google Docs Radio Log

Hello HAMs This is Ron Thomas speaking (KE7NIW). Recently, Tom Roederer (KE7QVG) and I played with an an experiment which included Dan Wilson (KE7NIX) and we were advised along the way by Micheal Moore (K7UUU).

What we were doing is sending Dan Wilson north on 101 and he would call in at selected mileposts on the 147.300 repeater.. (We call this the OTRC30 repeater) Since all of our radios (Yaesu HT's) have the ability to assign alpha-numeric values to a frequency saved in memory . This makes it easy if everyone assigns the same name... which we have done.

As Dan proceeded North we recorded how we received his transmissions and he carried a log book and recorded his impressions as he went. Mike pointed out to us that the repeater would faithfully retransmit the signal just as it received it. So, if Dan was in a spot that gave the repeater a weak or static filled signal that is what we received.

While this was going on Tom and I were working with a program you may have not heard about... It's called Google Docs. Tom and I both have accounts and because I chose to share it with him as a collaborator ... We both had access to the document on the internet at the same time. As collaborators we both could edit and make entries and changes to the document in real time on-line. Off to the side of the document is a chat page where we were able to talk to one another about the entries and changes we were making. Did I mention Tom was at his home manning his station and I was at my home on my radio?

Google Doc allows for an unlimited number of collaborators working on the internet simultaneously. All of you could have tuned to the OTRC30 repeater and been with us during this test. You could all have been typing entries into the log... adding new columns and asking questions and making suggestions in the chat feature. We could all have been part of the adventure and your expertise in radio communication could have been tapped to make a really great log format....

Now the benefits don't end just there !!! The log is saved on line not on each of your individual computers. Access is granted only to those you wish. The document is not subject to someone's crashing computer. Access can be allowed only to others as a read only document where they cannot make changes or as a collaborator who has full document change privileges.

You can upload docs that you have on your computer now and share them with whomever you please. You can download a doc to your own computer for your own personal use. Not done yet. As you will be able to see I am making this same log document available for all of you to look at by making it a google doc web page.. This web page will automatically update itself on that web site any time Tom or I make a change to it.... here is the link:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=p8-S2viWpi0R1824zq0zVOw

More? You want more? Sure... Google Docs also makes power point presentations and word style documents...

The bottom line ... How much does it cost? Nada! It's free. Document storage and use is unlimited...

I can help you get started or you can do it yourself... Questions? email me at:

teckron@gmail.com

MyFox Philadelphia | Ham Radio Operators Unite to Save Lives in Delaware: "All over the world there are radio stations run by a single person, mostly for fun. Now authorities in lower Delaware are organizing some of those stations to save lives.

The new Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service group, launched last year, will use ham radio operators both in the field and in the county's new Emergency Operations Center to relay on-the-ground reports of weather conditions and other emergency situations back to emergency managers."

Restrictive Antenna Ordinance in Oregon:

Restrictive Antenna Ordinance in Oregon:: "The amateur radio community in the Central Oregon area is under assault in the guise of a highly restrictive antenna tower ordinance being proposed before the Deschutes County Commissioners. The ham community has tried repeatedly without success to provide viable input into this process through meetings, testimony, example legislation, etc. All our efforts have been pointedly ignored by the planning board and they are on the verge of passing the MOST restrictive ordinance in the entire country at the county level.

I urge you all to read the proposal for yourself and to do whatever you can to motivate support for our efforts to shut down this proposal."

Index Journal | Greenwood, SC | News

What other communities are doing...

Index Journal | Greenwood, SC | News: "“We are working as if Hurricane X is coming up and getting ready to swipe the coast, causing massive evacuations,” Steadman said. “We learned from Hurricane Floyd that people who are not from South Carolina and are put on that evacuation route of 178 heading north, they don’t know where they are going. Saluda County and Greenwood County had a lot of people that showed up in church parking lots and needed food, shelter, gas and all of that kind of stuff.

“So, we’re simulating that. We’re also testing all of our different technology, like the ham radio statewide system that was put in after (Hurricane) Hugo, to see if we have any bugs in the system.”"

NEW THINGS...

ron thomas

Folks, we have created a couple of new links on the right side of the page for you to explore. One is to Lincoln County RACES/RATS and the other goes to the Central Oregon Coast CERT (Community Emergency Response Team). A few of us Newbies are on the CERT team and a lot of us are in RACES/RATS. We hope you find them useful when navigating away from our website....

Another addition which will need your input is the new calendar that we can list in great detail all of the events that members would want to know. They can be listed out to 3 years in advance. I know that you folks know what the events are but I don't. As we start to fill in dates on the calendar you need to email me about the dates you want to see on the calendar and I will get them on...

If you would like to see a demonstration of how our calendar can look here is a link to the Longview Hills Calendar to see just how we can use ours...
Click here

As time goes on.. I will teach those that want to learn how to put events on the calendar and those that want to put things on the website how to do it...

ARRLWeb: Surfin': Real Low Banding on 600 Meters

ARRLWeb: Surfin': Real Low Banding on 600 Meters: "The March edition of QST is the annual antenna issue. Since I like reading about antennas, I found a lot of interesting reading in the new issue of the official journal of the ARRL. What really grabbed my attention was an article by Patrick Hamel, W5THT, about the ARRL 600 meters/500 kHz experiment and the antennas used at stations involved in the experiment (600 meters is the radio band abandoned by maritime and claimed by hams for experimentation)."

ARRLWeb: New ARRL Volunteer Examiner Manual Now Online

ARRLWeb: New ARRL Volunteer Examiner Manual Now Online: "The Ninth Edition of the ARRL VEC/VE Manual is now online on the ARRL Web site. The Manual, the most complete source on the Amateur Radio Volunteer Examiner Program, has everything you need to know in order to be an ARRL Volunteer Examiner.

'We're really excited about the new Manual,' said ARRL VEC Manager Maria Somma, AB1FM. 'We've put a lot of work into it, taking suggestions from Volunteer Examiners all over the United States. It's very comprehensive, yet easy to understand.' Somma said the Manual is full of new and timely information, taking into account the licensing rule changes that went into effect last year.

'One of the biggest changes to the Ninth Edition is the del"

ARRLWeb: New ARRL Volunteer Examiner Manual Now Online

ARRLWeb: New ARRL Volunteer Examiner Manual Now Online: "The Ninth Edition of the ARRL VEC/VE Manual is now online on the ARRL Web site. The Manual, the most complete source on the Amateur Radio Volunteer Examiner Program, has everything you need to know in order to be an ARRL Volunteer Examiner.

'We're really excited about the new Manual,' said ARRL VEC Manager Maria Somma, AB1FM. 'We've put a lot of work into it, taking suggestions from Volunteer Examiners all over the United States. It's very comprehensive, yet easy to understand.' Somma said the Manual is full of new and timely information, taking into account the licensing rule changes that went into effect last year.

'One of the biggest changes to the Ninth Edition is the del"

Radio Ham wannabees tune in on learning: "SEASIDE - Imagine yourself sitting in a bustling room, barking out short-hand words like 'CQ' - seeking you - over a radio just a little larger than a standard iPod, hoping to connect with someone outside an area that has been deemed a natural disaster area.

Then imagine that short-hand language of yours is the only way for people in that bustling room to communicate with the outside world, because cell phones, land lines and Internet services are out of operation."
*

Hello Folks...

At the last club meeting we were asked to put a poll on the website regarding the time members would prefer to meet... Look on the right side of the page and scroll down... You will see the poll there. Just click the radial circle of your preference and then the push the vote button at the bottom of the box... below that is a statistics button for you to check how the vote is going.

Hope you enjoy this new feature... You don't have to wait for a meeting to get a poll rolling.. Just email me at teckron@gmail.com and we will get your poll started.

Amateur radio today

NEW DIRECTIONS RADIO

NEW DIRECTIONS RADIO: "eorge Brand (WA8SC0/0) and several other MOTHER-reading hams have suggested that 1 tell folks just how simple and inexpensive it can be to get a 'no frills' amateur rig on the air. These folks are afraid that all this talk about slow scan TV, 5-band SSB transmitters, and radio teletype 'is going to scare a lot of people away. Presented like that, ham radio looms up larger than life and the average person is going to think he can't handle it.'."

Radio Ham wannabees tune in on learning: "Imagine yourself sitting in a bustling room, barking out short-hand words like 'CQ' - seeking you - over a radio just a little larger than a standard iPod, hoping to connect with someone outside an area that has been deemed a natural disaster area.

Then imagine that short-hand language of yours is the only way for people in that bustling room to communicate with the outside world, because cell phones, land lines and Internet services are out of operation."

The Ham Band Video