HamRadioNow

It only takes David W0DHG and Gary K4AAQ 37 minutes to tell you that we’re not doing a show this Sunday. Because Gary (and Cyndi KD4ACW) are heading out to Vancouver BC for a train trip through the Rockies. So we talk (but don’t do a show) about programming Gary’s DMR HT for the trip.

The Live Stream has shifted
to 7 PM Pacific, 10 PM Eastern Sunday,
0200Z (Monday, during US Daylight Saving Time) (not that you podcast listeners care, but maybe it opened up a window to watching the live show on YouTube or Facebook)

How do you program your VHF/UHF radios? Totally by hand? Using software? Either way, do you have a plan? A strategy? Or do you just chunk channels in there willy-nilly?

In tonight’s show, hosts Gary K4AAQ, David W0DHG and Midwest Correspondent Kyle AA0Z reveal their elaborate plans for programming their radios, and the software they use.

So there’s that, but so much more. Starting with the Hammy awards.

And finally, thanks to Jason Johnston KC4HWB from Ham Radio 2.0 for giving us the lead-in at the end of his show.

LINKS:

RT Systems

Chirp

Raleigh ARS Field Day 1990

Ham Talk for that amazing show intro

Hammy Awards 2020

We’re not doing a show on Sunday, July 3rd, because holiday. But we can’t leave you high and dry. High is up to you. Dry we can help with a little. David and Gary popped online to do a five-minute quickie, and almost an hour later, they were done.

Among other things, they discussed moving the show to a different time/day. There’s a poll on the HRN Facebook Group, asking when you the audience would like to see the show live. The results will ‘influence’ our choice.

Of less significance, Gary has a new green-screen background. He’s saying goodbye to the old Cary studio (just a memory, and also a picture), and he made a composite of the stuff lining the new studio. See if you can spot the discontinuity errors.

Have a good holiday and we’ll see you next week.

David was up almost all night. Could he do a show?

Jim was on the road. Could he show up?

And Gary had spent a live stream earlier in the day* insulting Kyle AA0Z while restreaming Kyle’s Field Day live stream, then had the audacity to invite Kyle to come on the show. Would he show up?

The answers to these important questions will be revealed as you watch or listen to this week’s thrilling episode.

*see the previous entry in the HamRadioNow.tv web site for the two HRN Field Day live streams - links below. Sorry, audio listeners - the Field Day Live Stream (Parts One and Two) are only on video (YouTube and Facebook). We recommend Part Two.

LINKS

Kyle AA0Z’s YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/KyleAA0Z

Kyle’s Please Copy Marathon (where Gary shows up at the end, as seen from Kyle’s stream): https://youtu.be/1tmwXtytUTs

HRN’s Field Day Live Stream, Part One (on YouTube): https://youtu.be/bk6x8M1LlYM

HRN’s Field Day Live Stream, Part Two (also on YouTube) where Gary restreams Kyle, and Kyle discovers it at the end and restreams Gary’s restream, thus breaking the Internet and fracturing the Matrix: https://youtu.be/q9XCbQxWhiA

Sean Kutzko KX9X and Nancy Livingston N9NCY are about to embark on a vacation from their home in central Illinois to Glacier National Park in Montana. The point of the trip is hiking and camping, but because Sean is Sean (and Nancy seems enthusiastic about it), there will be hamming. Mostly on Satellites from ‘rare’ grid squares, and some six meters. And they came by to talk about the trip.

If that seems ambitious, our own Jim Aspenwall NO1PC will hit the road starting Field Day weekend for a month-long, coast-to-coast vacation. That’s a family-visit oriented thing, but it will also include lots of hamming and Parks On The Air. Follow Jim’s progress on APRS.

We give a few random Field Day tips (and point you to Ria N1RJ’s show for ‘Your comprehensive guide’.

And finally, Gary relates how he techno-shamed local hams because he’s a 😈 bad ham 😈

LINKS:

Sean KX9X links:

https://www.wildwestrove.com/

YouTube Satellite Operating Tips playlist on DX Engineering

Working the Ham Satellites - PDF Slideshow

DX Engineering On All Bands blog

Listen to Sean’s first ever ISS contact

This is a jam packed show.

First, we talk with John Hays K7VE. John is Outreach Manager with the Amateur Radio Digital Communications Foundation. For the past three years, this group has made grants totaling millions of dollars to Amateur Radio groups and projects… and they’re just getting started. Find out where they got the money and how they give it away (maybe to your club?). John also talks about the state and future of Digital communications in Amateur Radio.

Next, we take up the case of Jason Frawley WA7CQ. The FCC has proposed fining Jason a record $34,000 for interfering with government communications involving a forest fire near his Idaho hometown (and a tower where he has communications equipment) last summer. But this is not an allegation of jamming, a false emergency call or misdirection of emergency personnel. Jason says he had a good reason to use the Forest Service frequency to alert the firefighters about something he knew… something the FCC did not detail in their Notice of Apparent Liability that proposes the fine. There are lots of question marks that will hopefully be filled in over the coming months. We have a spirited discussion.

Finally, this was the June VHF Contest weekend. Gary drove the Q-mobile up to a ‘high spot’ in his neighborhood and made a few contacts on two-meter SSB and FM, and then six-meter SSB. He made a little movie out of the experience. And Gary’s wife Cyndi KD4ACW makes a return appearance to the show because the VHF Contest has special significance to her and Gary’s relationship. Yes… VHF ‘Roving’ was their first date 💘

Host Gary K4AAQ caught what he describes as the Holy Grail of scanning – a beginning-to-end major (for his little burg) police manhunt, from initial call to final resolution. He says that almost never happens.

And it only took an hour and a quarter to begin that segment of the show. David W0DHG (or, as Gary incorrectly typed in David’s title: WDHG) and Jim NO1PC had plenty of other stuff to talk about first.

Yes, once again it’s a totally wasted… we mean thoroughly engaging, entertaining and occasionally useful two hours of banter from your favorite YouTube/Podcast media hams.

LINKS:

Lizzo’s Music Video (cued to the Kenwood shot)

Reddit thread about the Lizzo video

RadioReference.com

It’s Sunday night of the Memorial Day weekend. David W0DHG, Marty NN1C and Gary K4AAQ have nothing better to do, but no show topic is planned. We were gonna skip the week due to the holiday, but here we were. So we started the streams, pushed record, and away we went. Gary’s Wirecast program crashed in the middle of recording, hence the two parts on YouTube and Facebook. The audio version is edited together as one piece (enjoy the sound effect). (Side note: Gary originally titled the re-start After the Crash, and it started getting way more views than the initial recording. Who knows why, but Gary figured that maybe that title was a bit of clickbait, so he changed them to Part 1 and Part 2. Integrity is a bitch.

Marty caught COVID at the Hamvention®. He said it was rough for a few days, but he was feeling a lot better as of the show. But still testing positive. We talked about getting ready for Field Day. Gary pitched the HamRadioNow Field Day Playlist on YouTube, especially The Last BIG Field Day documentary that pretty much started things off for ARVN and HamRadioNow. And there are lots of other videos from ARVN, HRN and ‘KN4AQ’ to get you in the mood for Field Day. And as David had to bail for family time on the left coast, Marty and Gary somehow started talking about television production.

LINKS

HamRadioNow Field Day Playlist on YouTube

The Last BIG Field Day

So, GMRS - General Mobile Radio Service - is a thing. It’s becoming a big thing, or so it seems. And at least around Gary’s area (Charlotte NC), a lot of hams also have GMRS licenses. And with the fee dropped from $70 to $35, likely a lot more will (GMRS users are happy about $35, while many hams are grousing about it).

And it turns out that your hosts already had GMRS licenses. David is WROT234. Jim is WQWB533. Gary is WRPG652. Those call signs just trip off the tongue, don’t they.

Well, we explain a lot about what GMRS is. We even have a few viewers join us on Zoom. That worked, so we’ll be doing more of it. Watch for Zoom links in the YouTube and Facebook announcements, and be a star.

Links:

Wikipedia’s GMRS article

FCC’s GMRS page

MyGMRS web page

RepeaterBook’s GMRS area

NotaRubicon YouTube Channel