A dying breed

It seems people are leaving amateur radio and this world faster than they are entering this hobby. I bought the May and June 2008 copy of QST, the main magazine for the American Radio Relay League, has a page called silent keys. It is the list of ARRL member who have died in the last month. The 2 month sample shows about 200 per month are leaving us. This matches what saw at the Ham Radio store and the club pictures I see online and the age of the guys who oversaw the exam. At 46, I feel like I'll be a kid in this group.

One of the justifications for ham radio is to have a group of trained radio operators who can set up a communications net in an emergency. If what I saw at the Maker Faire was how they are recruiting, then there won't be enough Hams in this world to do what is done now in the next 10-15 years.

Here they were at the Maker Faire, HAMS, the ARRL, a group that has historically prided itself on DIY and invention, and all they did was hand out pamphlets. That is not how you recruit. Where were the demos. The electronic workshops. A talk or two about moon bounces. Can anyone imagine how amazing a radio would be if a homebrew Ham teamed up with a Steampunk artisan. What gorgeous radios you would have. Some of the Steam Punks would probably love the idea of using Ham radio.

The number of people reusing parts would have loved to see some restored working tube radios.

They could have had a morse code class. Teach people to send "Hello World" in morse code.

Even go retro and sell and help people build crystal radio kits.

If there was a set of QRP stations and supervising control operators, there could have been a local net set up for people to use with supervision.

There are probably some QRP kits that could be built in an hour or 2. To eliminate some issues, use the QRP kits to use FRM or walkie talkie frequencies.

There is so much that the ARRL could be doing, and they aren't. Especially since Morse code is no longer required for any of the 3 levels as well as ALL the possible questions for the exams are published.

This is a hobby that you can enter for $200, less if you get a used radio. And if you never get more involved, you have all the gear you will ever need. If you drop out, in an emergency, you will be able to get a message to someone when the cell phones and land lines are out after the next big earthquake.

If I am wrong here, let me know. Let me be flamed be the 200 new hams under the age of 30 that are joining every month. Otherwise the ARRL and the local clubs better get their act together.

Balcony antenae mount

I passed my Technician exam. 35 out of 35. I should have my call sign between Wednesday and Friday this week.

One thing I've found is that being in my office, the small rubber duck antennae does not work. So the guys recommended a mobile magnetic mount antennae. I get both 2DB gain at 2M, and I can place it on the balcony rail.

They did not sell a bracket to mount it. Since I live in a condo, I am not allowed to buy something to permanently attach it to the balcony. Neither The Ham Radio outlet, Radio Shack, Fry's or Orchid Hardware had a ready built bracket. With some ideas in mind I wandered the hardware store. The end result is that I built a PVC contraption that I attached to the balcony. It has an iron metal flange acting as a ground plate. PVC and metal pipe use the same threading. The only pain was to seal the PVC. I used silicon caulk to plug the hollow fitting used to attach the flange.

To seal the opening, I stuffed a plastic bag into the pipe. Then used silicon caulk to fill the pipe and create a plug.

I am definitely getting signal from repeaters that I did not get a signal from before.

I used 3/4 inch PVC pipe. Here is an image of the parts.


Here is the test assembly of the parts.



Here is the installed bracket.


I used 5/8 inch clear plastic tubbing and 11 inch tie wraps to attach the bracket to the balcony. I ran each of the 2 tie wraps through a 4 inch piece of the tubing to help prevent damage to the wood. I know I'll have to replace the tie wraps every couple of years.

Once thing I can play with is to attach a larger ground plate to the antennae. The antennae is designed to take advantage of using the entire roof or trunk of a car as a ground plate. We'll see.

I'll put up another post when I get my call sign. This is Mike India Kilo Echo Yankee clear.

Becoming a Ham

While I was at the maker faire, the ARRL guys convinced me that I should get an amateur radio license. When an emergency hits, it will be working. Cell service is taken down and used for emergency use only. Land line can be knocked out for a few days. But amateur radio will be available. I looked into it and found it was a simple read a book and pass a 35 question multiple choice test. I'll have my technician amateur radio license this Saturday I hope.

As opposed to when I took my solaris and cisco ccnp tests, the FCC publishes the questions. One of the books I bought are all the questions with explanations. I read the book in a day and I am getting only 1-3 questions wrong on the 6-8 practice tests I take each day. So I will pass. But to be sure, I am going to the 8AM test in Cupertino. If I fail, I'll head to the Redwood city location for the 10:30 this Saturday. Wish me luck. I'll post my call sign and the repeaters I'll lurk on when I get it next week.

I have the radio already. A Yaesu FT-60R. No, I am not transmitting. I've been listening to a palo alto repeater, 145.230, N6NFI.

The have been some conversations I've want to put my 2 cents in and just am not allowed yet.

As a side note, I am typing this out on a ASUS eee 900. Yes, for the $550, there are more powerful machines. But for blogging, twittering, checking email, google reader, reading PDFs, this is a great small lite machine. I do wish the battery has more umph. It is only supposed to last 2 hours. This I will keep in the backpack.