By John AB8O

“Rookies, newbies”, whatever. It doesn’t sound that good. However, if you are new to ham radio, you fit the bill. Have you Got On The Air yet? Your new license (“ticket”) shows that you know the basics: a transceiver, a dipole, a mic. As always, the devil is in the details.

Have you joined the ARRL? Google it and find the American Radio Relay League. You don’t have to join but sometimes it helps. They are the folks that produce the many books on ham radio topics, from getting started to digital to satellites and more.

It’s important that you know that the family of ham radio wants you to join us and Get On The Air (GOTA). Do you need some technical assistance? Trouble finding gear?
How exactly DO you put up a dipole? How do I make contact (have a QSO)? There are local hams that are here to help. An old term to describe one of these mentors is “Elmer”.
We can hook you up with an Elmer.

Why not use the Forum on the Milford Amateur Radio Club website (www.w8mrc.com) to ask any question you want. Steve, K8JI, publisher of the website will help you connect to the proper help.

Why not join MARC on Field Day? It’s June 25, 26 and 27. Directions are available on the website. You can see how others work the bands under contest conditions…and YOU can try your hand at operating the station. It’s a lot of fun. AND… the place is crawling with Elmers

So, don’t sit on your ticket! Use it. We can help. We’ll try to get an ongoing dictionary of ham terms. Until then, you can see the same thing in the back pages of QST, the monthly mag you get when you join the ARRL. I still look forward to each issue. Also, start googling ham radio…you’ll find a real world of stuff that will interest you. 73!

This is a great archive that I found that has all the archives of the Popular Science magazine going WAY back.

Steve

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Source: Popular Science

We’ve partnered with Google to offer our entire 137-year archive for free browsing. Each issue appears just as it did at its original time of publication, complete with period advertisements. It’s an amazing resource that beautifully encapsulates our ongoing fascination with the future, and science and technology’s incredible potential to improve our lives. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

In the future, we’ll be adding more advanced features for searching and browsing, but for now, enter any keyword into the box below and dive in.

Space Weather News for April 10, 2010

Source

SUNGRAZING COMET: This morning, the sun had a comet for breakfast. The icy visitor from the outer solar system appeared with little warning on April 9th and plunged into the sun during the early hours of April 10th. One comet went in, none came out. Visit here to see a death plunge movie from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory.

SOLAR WIND STORM: The first major solar wind storm of the new solar cycle has come to an end. The event, which stretched from April 4th to April 8th, ignited auroras over both poles and many points in between. Highlights include Northern Lights over an active volcano in Iceland, green skies in Minnesota, and a kaleidoscopic display of Southern Lights over Antarctica. Start browsing the updated aurora gallery here

by Matt Sepic
Source: www.npr.org
April 5, 2010

Listen to the story

Only a few years ago, blogs listed ham radio alongside 35 mm film and VHS tape as technologies slated to disappear.

They were wrong.

Nearly 700,000 Americans have ham radio licenses — up 60 percent from 1981, a generation ago. And the number is growing.

Ham radio will never have the sex appeal of the iPhone, but it does have a certain nerd appeal, says Allen Weiner, an analyst at the technology research firm Gartner.

“If it creates its own experience, that’s really what’s key here,” he says. “If it just emulates an experience that you can get online, it’s not going to grow.”

Newcomers to ham radio include Helen Schlarman, 89, who has a compact, two-way radio in her home in suburban St. Louis. She looks up a friend across town by pushing the talk button, announcing the letters and numbers of his call sign (W-0-S-J-S), and then announcing her own (W-0-A-K-I).

Steve Schmitz’s voice crackles through Schlarman’s radio.

“Hi Helen, how you doing, W-0-S-J-S?” he says, ending his response with his own call letters.

Many “hams,” as they’re known, hang postcards from global contacts on their walls, the way hunters show off deer antlers, but Schlarman’s chats are mostly local. She says this hobby is perfect for an outgoing person who spends a lot of time inside.

“It’s a different community,” she says. “There [are] no stereotypes of age; it’s just talking and sharing and enjoying.”

Until recently, ham radio was declining as older operators died. Then the Federal Communications Commission phased out the Morse code test that many saw as a stumbling block to getting a license. Last year more than 30,000 new applicants signed up to become ham radio operators, according to Maria Somma, an official with the American Radio Relay League.

At a ham radio convention near St. Louis, the crowd swapping antenna parts and other equipment is mostly male, and over 50. But 15-year-old Jonathan Dunn is attending along with his father. He says Facebook and texting are fun, but making friends using a $200 radio that doesn’t come with monthly fees is more rewarding.

“With ham radio you can talk to new people, all kinds of ages, races, and it’s just amazing what a little radio can do. Because no matter where you’re at, if you have the right stuff and the right power you can talk to anyone,” he says.

Jonathan’s dad, Steve Dunn, says the polite chitchat between ham radio operators is good for teenagers. “If young people have the opportunity to communicate with a wide range of people, that instills a certain amount of confidence in their ability to carry on the lost art of small talk,” he says.

Even the most die-hard hams concede that amateur radio will never be a mainstream hobby. With smart phones and other devices, people are more plugged in to the Internet than before. But people are still discovering the joy of communicating with a technology that’s existed for nearly a century.

Read the story on NPR

It looks like WKRC will air a story on the Weather Amateur Radio Network during the 5:30 show on Friday 4/9. A couple of weeks ago I did an interview with Michelle Boutillette at our net control point at WLW radio. That is what will air tomorrow. We covered way too much to be included in a regular news story, and I know she wanted to include other information, so I’ll have to see how it turns out after editing just like everyone else. Unfortunately I’ll be at a track meet so will not be able to watch.

In any case, stories about WARN and the spotter program as a whole help raise awareness and interest. Tune in if you can.

Mike Nie

Mike Nie – W8VMX
Public Information Officer
Weather Amateur Radio Network (WARN)
mnie@warn.org

The April issue of Wireline is available here.

73, Steve

Reinvigorated Sun and Prominence

Credit & Copyright: Alan Friedman (Averted Imagination)

Explanation: Dramatic prominences can sometimes be seen looming just beyond the edge of the sun. Such was the case last week as a giant prominence, visible above on the right, highlighted a Sun showing increased activity as it comes off an unusually quiet Solar Minimum. A changing carpet of hot gas is visible in the chromosphere of the Sun in the above image taken in a very specific color of light emitted by hydrogen. A solar prominence is a cloud of solar gas held just above the surface by the Sun’s magnetic field. The Earth would easily fit below the prominence on the right. Although very hot, prominences typically appear dark when viewed against the Sun, since they are slightly cooler than the surface. A quiescent prominence typically lasts about a month, and may erupt in a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) expelling hot gas into the Solar System. The next day, the same prominence looked slightly different.

Source: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

Our next club meeting is Thursday, April 8th.

The VE testing session starts at 6:00 PM and our meeting follows at 7:30 PM. You do not have to be a member to attend a meeting.

MARC 2010 Officers

President: Rick Colburn, NV8C
Vice President: Jeff Clemmons, KD8LZK
Treasurer: Jim Linn, WB8RRR
Secretary: Barb Steward, KA8AXY

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