08.27.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 9:41 pm by Administrator
I am planning a trip and have been checking some of my weather resources that I provide links to on www.HamRadioResources.com . One that I start with gives me a really nice three day overview of severe weather threats. You probably get this information from your local TV weather. But here is probably where THEY get their information from! Click here to view the site. It’s from the Severe Storms Forecast Center in Norman, Oklahoma. The upper portion of the website gives you plenty of information on current happenings. But scroll down a screen or so. You will see three maps. One for today. One for tomorrow. And one for the next day. Double click the day’s map you are interested in. Then mouse-over the hot links to show the % probabilities for each type of severe weather threat for that time period.
Forecasts generally are not all that accurate more than three days out. I start here to see what is comming a few days ahead of time. Then as the threats get closer I use other tools. I will cover them later.
Enjoy this one and stay safe! You can use these resources for ham radio SkyWarn operations…
Jon Kreski, AB9NN
Owner
www.HamRadioResources.com
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08.24.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 4:43 pm by Administrator
My girlfriend recently took a picture of me and then told me that she thought it would look nice on my website at www.HamRadioResources.com , so I uploaded it. Thought you might want to have a look. In the non-ham world I am an Auditor for SCA Tissue in Neenah, WI. It’s a fun job with great people and it lets me afford my ham radio equipment. And - I get to do some ham listening and talking on my commute and on my lunch break.
Getting the photo to show up on the website was a bit or an adventure. I use a table on the index page and in the section that the photo is in it has three columns. The photo was sized larger than the column it was in, so the browser refused to show the photo. I would have thought that it would have shown the portion that would fit, but I guess now.
OK - I hope the photo shows up well for you!
Jon Kreski, AB9NN
Owner
www.HamRadioResources.com
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08.15.08
Posted in HF Mobile at 8:26 pm by Administrator
Last weekend I was driving up to WalMart to pick some things up and had the FT-857d mobile in scan mode as I drove. I heard the usual police band chatter, somone on a repeater, so ariline traffic, and then it stopped on 164.520 - the National Calling Frequency in the 2 meter band. Hmmm…. someone passing by on the local freeway I thought. Or maybe a base station looking for DX contacts? Wasn’t sure what it was. Both sides of the conversation were nice and clear.
I took the radio out of scan mode to listen a bit. I had put this frequency in the memory bank some time ago and had only heard one other conversation on it. Most mobiles use the repeaters if they know the tones, etc.. So what was this? I heard something about 31,000 feet over Madison, WI. Not a bad trip - good clean signal into my mobile in Appleton, WI. Must be mayb 150 miles… SWEET! There was a net going on. So I checked in and got a confirmation of my signal.
Turns out that this was a project of the University of Wisconsin Near Earth Space program. They said it was their 46th launch. This one with a good ham radio repeater on board. And it was in memory of a slient Key (deceased ham). I thought that was quite nice.
Ham radio is an interesting hobby. If you listen long enough you will surely find things of interest. I like the hobby because there are many different modes to explore and tons of different frequencies to use - all with their own propagation characteristics. If you have been a ham and maybe are not active as much as you have been - give a listen. You’ll be suprised what you run across. If you are not a ham, then contact the www.ARRL.org for information on how to get started.
Until next time,
73’s!
Jon Kreski, AB9NN
www.HamRadioResources.com
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07.25.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 6:51 pm by Administrator
One of the really neat things about having a ham radio is that many of these radios also will do wide band scanning. What is that? As I understand it, it will scan a wide array of different bands of frequencies. I own a Yeasue FT-857d… Nice radio - does all bands and I think all modes. Or at least enough to keep my busy for a long long time. But it also does wide band scanning. I use that to scan the police, ambulance, rescue chopper and air traffic control towers. This week begins EAA in Oshkosh, WI. What is EAA and were is Oshkosh? EAA is the Experimental Aircraft Association. And they have their annual fly-in each summer. 10,000 planes. One airport. 500,000 visitors. We’ll go and see the F-22 Raptors do an air show. And see tons of planes. And get too much sun and have too much fun. For a couple of hours. But both BEFORE and AFTER the fun will continue. Because I will be scanning the air control towers. And THAT will be fun!
If you have a wide band scanning capable radio, I strongly encourage you to go down to Radio Shack and get their scanner frequency book. And it is a book. I think it’s in the hudreds of pages for one region of the country. And it has more frequencies than you could ever imagine! I would buy one just to see what’s out there. Then get updates from the internet. But, without seeing the contents of the book you probably won’t understand everything that you can scan.
Then go to Google and just do some searches. Try things like “scanner frequencies”, etc.. (without the qoutes). Be prepared to bookmark some good sites and spend maybe a 1/2 day digging through stuff.
I was kind of suprised just how good reception I got from using my mobile ham antenna. I get police and airport frequency reception from a three county area in Wisconsin. Pretty nice!
OK - if you can enjoy this part of the hobby - think of local events that might be in your area and tune in for some fun!
Jon Kreski, AB9NN
www.HamRadioResources.com
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07.18.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 8:11 pm by Administrator
An elmer of mine uses the term “Stay Radio Active!” when ending our local ARES / RACES net. Recently, I became somewhat bored with my new hobby. Same old contacts. Same old frequencies. So I decided to try a few new things. Most of my radio work was daytime while on the way to / from work or on lunch break. Never at night. So I decided to try some night time HF. MAN! What a fun night! It put a whole new twinkle in my eye and got the geek juices flowing! I have had a few other contacts that did the same thing.
The point being - instead of doing LESS ham radio because I was bored - I did more or the same amount in new way. I strongly encourage you to try new techniques. Try adjusting your radio’s settings. Try new modes. Try new frequencies. Try different times of the day or night. I think you will receive a nice reward!
Thanks for taking your valuable time to read this blog!
Jon Kreski, AB9NN www.HamRadioResources.com
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07.15.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 7:21 pm by Administrator
Have you heard good mike technique? Have you heard really BAD mike technique? I have heard both. The thing that amazes me the most is the number of people that listen to bad mike technique and say nothing about it - even when asked for feedback! I was taught, righly so, that proper mike technique is important in getting your message over the airwaves. You can have the highest power transmitter and the best antenna… but if your mike technique is either so quiet or so distrorted that you can’t understand the message - it doesn’t matter!
I am a relatively new ham. And I have a TON of repect for those that have been in the hobby a long time. But I have noticed one thing. Many of those “old elmers” have really bad mike technique. I can think of one guy that runs a net and constantly over-drives his mike. Nice guy - bad ham. Another guy has a huge antenna farm. And his mobile antenna was measured as highest effective radiated power. But I sat and watched his mike technique on field day as he worked with another ham’s HT. Great guy - took a chunk of his time to program the HT for the other ham. But when he went to communicate - the HT was at arm’s length and he was just about wispering. Great guy. BAD HAM!
Another common problem is wind noises from breathing into the mike while holding it too close to your mouth. Should be talking ACROSS the mike - not into it.
Other problems are clearing your throat with a gut wrenching deep cough - right in to the mike - when getting started on a new rant… without being polite enough to at least say “Oh - excuse me…”.
Speaking of rants - enough of mine! I hope that I have given you something to think about. Please speak in a clear, deep, loud voice. Hold your mike about an inch from your mouth and speak across the mike. Ask for feedback from other hams. And if you give feedback - be honest and be critical. If you just say it sounds fine because it’s “OK”, you aren’t doing anyone a favor.
Please be really careful with mike technique and modulation levels during emergency communications like SkyWarn and the various em comm nets out there. Lives could depend on it.
Another trick is to key the IRLP code that allows you to have your audio replayed for you over the air so you can listen to what you sound like. You will have to get the codes from the people that grant you access or from www.IRLP.org I think should have them.
OK - thanks for taking your valuable time to read this. 73’s!
Jon Kreski, AB9NN
www.HamRadioResources.com
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06.27.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 7:16 pm by Administrator
I see a lot of people doing a lot of good things to make field day a really nice event that new hams will want to go to. People will have tents, trailers, food, drinks, advertising, etc.. This is really nice for those of us that are new to the hobby. It makes Field Day seem like going to the county fair. We get to see neat radios and antennas. We get to watch some of the best in their field do what they do. We get to ask all sorts of questions and maybe even help operate or log. Form that perspective - BRAVO and thanks for those that do all that.
But what is the reason for field day? To be prepared to operate in a field if needed. Or at least that’s one reason. And from that perspective, we should NOT prepare for field day. Why? Will we be given a month’s advanced notice that we will need to operate in a field should a disaster strike? I suspect not. Will we have all sorts of food and drinks and such when we get the call to activate? Probably not.
I argue that, for field day, we should grab our go kits and go operate. Nothing more. This is a great chance to check those kits in near real situations and find out what we don’t have in them and / or what could be included or improved. As Vince Lombardi believed - practice makes perfect. How many people will sign-up for a couple of hours here and there or simply visit in a real disaster situation? I think we should have an activation list for field day. A great way to check the accuracy of the phone numbers and e-mails on the list.
That’s my rant for the day! Thanks for reading this… Please click around www.HamRadioResources.com and enjoy!
Jon Kreski, AB9NN HamRadioResources.com
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06.14.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 5:01 pm by Administrator
This week we had a tornado siren go off in Appleton and there were sightings of spin-ups in several counties near us. During this time I had a chance to listen to SkyWarn operations. I heard some wonderful work. Very valuable work. But I also heard some very bad work. One thing you are taught in emergency communications classes is that if you don’t have something that IS an emergency message - SHUT UP! I heard a number of people calling net control and spending valuable air time saying things like, “I have a good view of the horizon and there’s nothing to report from here!”.
Maybe it’s just me - but I don’t see the need to report - that there is nothing to report…
If you haven’t been trainend in emergency communications, I suggest the ARRL training courses. They are pretty good. I think they are well worth the time.
73’s!
Jon Kreski, AB9NN www.HamRadioResources.com
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06.10.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 7:22 am by Administrator
Being a brand new ham I ran out and plunked down a bunch of money for a shiney new multi-band HF/VHF/UHF mobile antenna. All shiney and new! Stainless steel set screws and all. After a few weeks on the highways the set screws loosened up and fell out. No problem. Went to the local hardware store and got some replacements. Also got some Lock Titie to make sure they didn’t come out. One problem was that the replacements weren’t stainless steel. Sure enough, after a long hard Wisconsin winter the ham radio antenna showed signs of rust. And road salt, etc.. And grime… The gunk was all over the whip and coils.
I used a product that impressed me. I am not easily impressed. The product was MAAS Fine Polishing Creme. You can find it by searching GOOGLE for MAAS polishng creme. Most of the corrosion and rust came off when the creme touched the gunk. Some took a bit of work with a toothbrush. But MAN! You should see that antenna sparkle now! Does it work better? I don’t know. But I want my car to look nice and it does now.
Thought I would pass along the tip.
Have a great day!
Jon Kreski, AB9NN
HamRadioResources.com
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06.07.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 10:14 am by Administrator
Last night was a big night! I made my first mobile HF dx contact - Appleton, WI USA to Italy! Since I received my license all of my mobile HF work has been daytime. I finally took the time to see what the 40 meter band would be like at night. WHAT A DIFFERENCE! I knew that it would be from listening to AM talk radio and doing some short-wave listening (SWL). But to experience it in terms of another ham repeating MY call sign to confirm the contact was really a neat experience. I was suprised that my 100 watt signal made it through the noise. we had electrical (thunder) storms roll through earlier in the day and they were east of Appleton. He said my signal was 5 by 7. Not bad for a skinny coiled tri-band trunk mounted antenna. I run a UHV-6 by Comet. I can change coils for the HF segments of the band. 2 meters and 440 are fixed. While it doesn’t cover the entire band segment for each band, it does a good job in the sections it is tuned for. At around $150 (plus mount - around $40), it’s a good first choice antenna vs a much more expensive screwdriver antenna. Maybe I will own one of those some day, but for now this lets me get some experience and is a good value for the money. If you do buy one of these antennas you will need to use some Lock Tite to lock the set screws down. Make sure you do a good job when you tune it and make sure your ground is very good before you use that stuff though. I use the heavy duty stuff - it’s a long antenna and I don’t want it comming off during SkyWarn operations…
73’s
Jon Kreski, AB9NN
www.HamRadioResources.com
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