WDØDXD

The summer season is finally here. I know summer doesn’t officially start until June, but we all know that Memorial Day kicks off the summer season.

So during the summer I typically work on my other hobby/passion/obsession. If you want to check out what KBØASQ does for fun when he isn’t tinkering with Ham Radio, take a look at Classicpickups.com.

Vintage Pickup Trucks have been a part of my life for almost 20 years now.  I have let it slip for the last five years or so, but the bug bite bad again this year, so off we go again.  At least Ham Radio is less expensive.

ARRL Bulletin 14 ARLB014
From ARRL Headquarters
Newington CT May 25, 2011
To all radio amateurs

SB QST ARL ARLB014
ARLB014 Senate “Companion” Bill to HR 607 Avoids Impacting Amateur
Spectrum

On Thursday, May 19, Senators Joe Lieberman (ID-CT) and John McCain
(R-AZ) introduced S 1040 — The Broadband for First Responders Act
of 2011 — in the Senate. While it has a similar objective to HR
607 — introduced in February by Representative Peter King (R-NY-3)
— this Senate bill, unlike HR 607, does not call for auctioning any
portions of Amateur Radio spectrum. Both bills call for the
allocation of the so-called “D block” of spectrum, 758-763 and
788-793 MHz, to facilitate the development of a public safety
broadband network.

On learning in February that a Senate version of HR 607 was being
drafted, ARRL Chief Executive Officer David Sumner, K1ZZ, met with
staff members of the Senateâ?Ts Homeland Security and Governmental
Affairs Committee who were working on the bill to share the ARRL’s
concerns with regard to HR 607. “They seemed very receptive to our
argument and appreciative of the public service contributions of
radio amateurs,” Sumner said. “It is gratifying to see that S 1040
avoids impacting our spectrum allocations.”

Sumner explained that while some media reports are referring to S
1040 as “the Senate version of HR 607,” it is important that radio
amateurs not oppose S 1040: “There is no reason for us to do so. We
support the creation of an interoperable broadband network for first
responders. Other than to oppose any method that would impact
amateur spectrum use, we do not support one method over another of
achieving that objective. We only oppose one aspect of HR 607, not
the entire bill.”

S 1040 has been referred to the Senate Committee on Science,
Commerce, and Transportation, chaired by Senator Jay Rockefeller
(D-WV). Senator Rockefeller earlier introduced his own bill, S 28,
to address the same general topic. Neither Senate bill would impact
amateur spectrum.
NNNN
/EX

I made a post a week or so ago about my Icom 746Pro not transmitting.  I stated at the time that I didn’t have time to work on it, so I was going to send it off to get fixed.

Well I looked around and found some reviews for Mike Nadeau – N1EQ.  They were all good so I contacted him about working on the rig.

Icom 746Pro

I have to say, from start to finish, Mike has one of the most professional service organizations I have worked with.  Being in the computer business, we have to send things off for repair all the time.  I would love to find a company as organized and responsive as Mike.

You have to request a time to send the unit in, so I did that and when the time was appropriate, we double boxed it and shipped it to Mike Fedex Ground.  I wish I knew why it takes so long to ship from the middle of the country to the East cost, but it took 6 days. to get to Mike.

He got it on Wednesday Afternoon and by Thursday morning at 8:47am my time, he had it fixed.  Here is what he found:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
Mike Lisenco, N2YBB
n2ybb@arrl.org

May 19, 2011, Massapequa Park, NY – A delegation of Amateur Radio operators from the Long Island / New York City area met this morning with Congressman Peter T. King (R-NY) to discuss his recent proposed legislation, HR 607, and its impact on Amateur Radio.

Congressman King said that he fully understands and appreciates the importance of Amateur Radio and the service it provides to the community, and that he would see to the modification of the bill so that the 420 – 440 MHz band would be excluded from the spectrum to be auctioned. The delegation included Mike Lisenco, N2YBB, ARRL Section Manager for New York City / Long Island (NLI), Peter Portanova, WB2OQQ, NLI Local Government Liaison (LGL), George Tranos, N2GA, NLI State Government Liaison (SGL), and Jim Mezey, W2KFV, NLI ARES Section Emergency Coordinator (SEC).

“The Congressman went on to explain that it was never his intention to remove the 70 centimeter band from Amateur use. He further asked us to `get the word out’ and inform the Amateur Radio community that 70 centimeters is not in jeopardy,” said Lisenco.

Lisenco, Mezey and Tranos spoke about the importance of Amateur Radio emergency communications while Portanova, who is also the local AMSAT representative, addressed satellite and other amateur use of the 70 centimeter band.

The Congressman was very receptive to the group, who also extended an invitation to attend Field Day locations in his District.

It has been another crazy week around the shack this week.  I got my Icom 746Pro sent off for repair and it is already on its way back.  I have a lot of un-ham related projects going on too.

So one of the projects worked on this week was getting started rebuilding the local ham pool available for spotting duties.  I know it’s late, but there has been some turn over in local emergency management and the local Weather Service Office.

We have meet with both and now have a plan.  We have two members who are going to man stations at the Weather Service and our shack at the Red Cross.  They will then call a Wx net during severe weather.

They are also working on procedures for call up and how to get the information to Weather Service personnel and Emergency Management.  We are really starting from scratch, since the system kind of fell by the wayside the last couple of years and we have no documented procedures from before.

The final step will be to call hams in the local and surrounding counties to try and get them to participate.  We will be recruiting two types of spotters.  The full blown kind that will go to specified locations and some that just report from their home QTH.  Most of the area that we cover is rural, so home QTH is almost as good as a roving spotter.

Wish us luck, anyone with experience in this would be encouraged to post a comment.

I had heard about it, but was hoping I would get lucky or they had fixed it.  Today, my 746Pro just quit transmitting.

It sits behind me and I mostly am doing JT-65 or PSK and just click and transmit.  Well this morning I tried making a couple of JT-65 contacts and couldn’t raise anyone.  I thought it was odd, but I had to get some work done and just moved on.

Later in the afternoon, I tried again to make some contacts.  This time still no go, so I turned around and looked at the 746Pro and no power out.  I checked my settings and every thing seemed correct.  So I moved up the band and tried to key it in AM mode, still nothing.

So I have to get it out of the cabinate and I suppose I will have to send it in.  I know I could fix it myself, but I just don’t have time to mess with it.  I also want this to be one of my reliable rigs, so I better do it right.

Let you know what I find out.

I have been following the 3D printer arena for a little over a year.  In some ways it reminds me a lot of the “good ol days” of Amateur Radio.  A person has an idea, and all they have to do is spend a little time on the personal computer and render a drawing.  Then move the file over to the printer and in a few minutes viola, you have a working piece.

That version didn’t work, make a few adjustments and reprint.  For those of you that aren’t familar with 3D Printing, take a look at the following video for a really good example of what you can do with a 3D printer:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7h09dTVkdw

The video shows a more expensive commercial unit, but If you want to build your own, take a look at http://reprap.org for a place to start.

Keep an eye on my blog for some Amateur Radio Related products made with 3D Printing.

I finally decided to get Amateur Radio plates for my pickup.  I have been holding off trying to decide if I wanted to get a vanity call sign.  I just couldn’t come up with anything that sounded good.

I even thought about going back to the first call sign that was issued to me back in 1978, WDØDXD.  Just didn’t seem like it was worth it to go and change everything.  So a couple of weeks ago I finally sent the form in to get the plates made.

I received a letter from the State of Nebraska saying my app was approved and that the plates would be at the courthouse after May 16th.  We had one of the first slow days at the business in a couple of years today, so I thought I would give them a call to see if they had come in early.  Sure enough they had them.  So I ran down and picked them up.

Now I really have to be careful driving.

Again for the Hallicrafters fans.  This is a follow-up to the previous post.

I am alway amazed at what we were able to accomplish prosecuting the war.  I often wonder if we would still be able to do that today.  I hope we don’t have to find out.

I sure am glad the transistor came along.  That is one packed panel van. My guess you got to now your partner pretty good.

Another one of my new favorite tools to use in the Ham Shack.  The Helping Magnifier.  If you have ever had to  solder crimp connectors on to a cable or hold a circuit board vertically to desolder a connection, this is the tool for you.

I purchased mine over a year ago from Harbor Freight, Item #00319.  I know I have seen them at other hardware stores, so they shouldn’t be hard to find.  I have resisted the “I need a magnifying glass” for a long time, but at my age I finally had to succumb to the need for addtional help.  So I finally got it out of the package a few days ago and I really don’t know how I did with out it.