HamRadioNow

Welcome to Ham Nation Now*

Even here in 2023, most ARRL Directors are not noted for frequent appearances in the ‘independent’ ham media. Mike Ritz W7VO, however, got swept onto YouTube as he addressed a radio club to discuss the January ARRL Board meeting, and the special meeting dealing with Ria Jairam N2RJ’s book issue. Mike found Ria ‘guilty as charged’. Ria joins us to review Mike’s video and dispute much of what he said.

Then we move on to review some other items of interest from the Board meeting: Field Day rules; more HQ oversight of Section Managers; steps to deal with the statistic that only 25% of newly licensed Amateur Radio operators will utilize their licenses on a regular basis; promoting operation on 10 and 6 meters; and the ghost of Code of Conduct.

And just as we crossed the 2-hour mark. the Internet crashed at Gary’s studio - no Zoom guests, no live stream (‘emergency maintenance at Comporium Cable’s fiber system). So we were done!

*Ham Nation Now? Well, that’s what Mike Ritz W7VO kept calling us. Maybe we need to say our name more often.

LINKS:

Here’s the video with Mike Ritz W7VO: https://youtu.be/A8fDCx-dzcc

The 3Y0J Bouvet DXpedition is over, a couple of weeks early. It was disappointing for all concerned - hams who wanted an All Time New One, the big-gun DXers who still needed the island to climb the higher rungs of the DXCC list, and probably most of all for the guys on… or near the island. Weather and rough seas prevented all but the most minimal operation, mostly cw and FT8 on 30 and 17 meters. Almost no SSB.

The big disappointment for us, though, was the behavior of far too many hams on the air and on the DX spotting web sites. Jamming, bootlegging and DIY ham police (and plenty of rookie operating errors) made the operation sound bad on the air. And on the clusters, lots of mostly anonymous comments that ran from snide to mean. Hmm. Aren’t we better than that?

Yeah, there was a lot of money involved. That’s nothing compared to the risk the crew took to get on the island at all. Maybe if your HRN hosts were more committed DXers, we’d feel your pain. We’re not. It’s not that big a deal for us. But we’re thinking it probably shouldn’t be for you. Be disappointed. Don’t be an ass about it.

Here’s our ‘airing of grievances’.

No Sunday night show this weekend because 🏈 (only the ‘Big Game’ takes us off… usually we ignore football). But we have bits and pieces. And the weekend’s not over (it’s Saturday afternoon as I - Gary - type this, so who knows?). Hopefully this will tide you over until the next big show.

But for now… I was on the phone with my original ham radio mentor from way back in the early 60’s. Back then he was Bob K9ZGT. Today he goes by his middle name, Winston (or Win), but to me he’ll always be Broken Old Bottles Bob. We talk about our early days a bit and what he’s been through. One of the chat room comments was ‘He’s an interesting guy’ - and so he is.

Then I booted up the studio, hoping Kyle could find some bandwidth down in Orlando (his phone is struggling) for a live shot. Hasn’t happened yet. We’ll be back if he can do it. Meanwhile, David popped up while working on his ARES group’s emcom trailer, so we get a quick tour. It’s pretty visual, but it’s on the podcast feed, too.

Bill Brown WB8ELK started launching near-space ham radio balloons in 1987. I think he can tell us more about this balloon from China than we’re getting from CNN. Joining Bill is Todd McKinney KN4TPG, a student in Atmospheric Science in Huntsville AL. Todd got interested in HAB (High Altitude Ballooning), and got his ham license so he could fly balloons with APRS and WSPR transmitters. Together they have insights on the Balloon from China that you won’t hear in the mainstream media. And then we talk about what’s happening on the balloon front in ham radio.

LINKS:

Bill’s website: WB8ELK.com

Bill’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@WB8ELK

Our guest is Ria Jairam N2RJ, podcaster, YouTuber and Director of the ARRL Hudson Division. Ria’s kind of getting picked on at the ARRL (our words, not hers). She tells us about that trouble and a division in the ranks of the Board falling along lines of transparency vs secrecy. We’ve heard that before when a Board Code of Conduct tried to silence Directors who disagreed with policy passed by the board. Listen to Ria’s take. Ask your Director to explain what’s happening. That might be interesting.

In Episode 461, Glam Ham Natalie Gray NW6S revealed that she was one of the writers for the upcoming blockbuster video game Hogwarts Legacy. Gary K4AAQ jumped on the idea of introducing Ham Radio into the Harry Potter inspired project, because that’s what we always do.

Later, Gary felt the need to hammer the point home by creating a scene we wish we’d seen in the movies, and we present it for your consideration (but probably not Natalie’s 🙄).

Hogwarts Legacy, it turns out, won’t have any Harry Potter or Lord Voldemort in it anyway. Or BaoFeng radios. The game is set in the late 1800’s. So it could have some Spark Gap. Maybe Marconi can turn out to be a Wizard.

Our little play is audio only because we don’t have a movie set. And it’s ‘vertical’ because we produced it for our new TIK TOK channel. Yep, we have one of those now. What else might go there? Who knows.

The Amateur Radio Emergency Preparedness Act (don’t call it ‘Parity Act 2.0) is about to be introduced in the new Congress. What is it? How did we get here? Where will it go and how will it get there?

John Robert Stratton N5AUS and Fred Hopengarten K1VR were two members of the ARRL Legislative Advocacy Committee that drafted the bill from the ashes of the Parity Act, starting in 2019. They found a sponsor in Congressman Bill Johnson (R-OH), and worked with his staff to refine the language of the Bill (it didn’t need much). It was introduced at the end of the previous Congress just last December so the Committee could start rounding up co-sponsors. Sometime soon after the new Congress gets itself organized, the Bill will be reintroduced. And then begins the process that any Bill faces to work its way though Subcommittees, the full Committee (House Energy and Commerce), the House, and then the Senate. We have two years to get it done. The clock is ticking.

At some point soon, the League will start asking you to contact your Representatives, and maybe donate some cash to offset the lobbying expenses. That’s coming up, but not yet. We’ll be back. Watch this space.