HamRadioNow

It’s fun to see Ham Radio bantered about in the halls of Congress. At the end of a 3-hour hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s subcommittee on Communications and Technology last June, Arizona Congresswoman (and friend of Ham Radio) Debbie Lesko ‘grilled’ FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel about the status of the proposal to replace the long-obsolete rules on HF data rates in Amateur Radio with something more modern… perhaps a 2.8 kHz bandwidth limit, and anything you can stuff into it. When’s that gonna happen, Jessica?

Rosenworcel acknowledged the need, but noted that the FCC’s inquiry, back in 2017, is now ‘stale’. This seems to imply a renewed proposal (NPRM?), another round of comments, and finally maybe some action? In other words, don’t hold your breath.

Anyway, we’ve got the clip from the end of the meeting. Again, fun to hear us mentioned.

This show is a solo anchor effort by East Coast Host Gary Pearce K4AAQ. David W0DHG and Jim NO1PC had family obligations. So after taking care of business, Gary brought in the HRN Discord Server’s Studio 73… an audio/video room for our viewers to come chat.

LINKS:

Gary also noted that he’d never really seen ARRL CEO David Minster talk, so he included this interview on W1DED’s YouTube channel.

Here’s the link to the YouTube video of that House Committee hearing. It should take you right to the end, with Lesko and Rosenworcel.

Credit to Ham Radio Crash Course for bringing this clip to our attention. See Josh’s analysis.

HOA Antenna Bill update? On the RATPAC YouTube channel, with Fred Hopengarten K1VR & John Stratton N5AUS .

Use GovTrack to keep up with the bill.

As Hurricane Idalia worked it’s way across the Southeast, HamRadioNow East Coast Host Gary K4AAQ (on the edge of the outer rain bands near Charlotte NC) talked to two of his South Carolina neighbors about Emcomm operations. John Gendron NJ4Z is the South Carolina Section Manager, and Gordon Mooneyhan W4EGM is the SC Public Information Officer.

East Coast Host Gary K4AAQ had a guest spot on his friend Martin Brossman KI4CFS’s YouTube show, talking about GMRS for HAMS. Here’s how Martin described the show:

Relating GMRS to FRS and Amateur Radio.

Thanks to Gary Pearce for joining me today to discuss GMRS for Ham Radio operators and people considering getting into it. Gary's website Ham Radio Now TV https://www.hamradionow.tv/ and YouTube channel    / hamradionow  

The list of GMRS frequencies https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

For people in the NC area, the GMRS Facebook group is https://www.facebook.com/groups/60762...

The GRMS resources site mentioned is https://mygmrs.com/ https://mygmrs.com/repeaters

FCC regulations https://www.fcc.gov/wireless/bureau-d...

The frequencies and power levels of the GMRS channels https://www.rightchannelradios.com/bl...

The GMRS radio I show in the video https://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?p...

Check out my NC Ham Radio Group on Facebook North Carolina Amateur Radio Operators https://www.facebook.com/groups/86393...

The MEWE group for NC Ham Radio https://mewe.com/group/5fad98dc9cd239...

Our Group.io listserve https://groups.io/g/NCAmateurRadioOpe...

My Ham Radio Website HTTP://KI4CFS.com and FB page https://www.facebook.com/KI4CFS/ - Martin Brossman - KI4CFS

My Facebook feed reminded me that 6 years ago, I was headed out to Wyoming to view my first ever Total Eclipse, along with Jeff AC4ZO (SK) and Bobbie KD4ZVW (Cyndi KD4ACW took her dad, Mac W4PVT (SK) down to the Columbia SC area, also along the path, but 'iffy' for clear WX. We all got lucky with clear skies).

Later that month, we did a show to review the experience - HRN 343 "Totaled". So as David W0DHG battens down the hatches in preparation for Tropical Storm Hilary in Los Angeles, we did a short intro, and then we present a rerun of that show from 2017. Cyndi and I are planning (and have reservations) for the next Total, in April 2024. - Gary K4AAQ

Gary just rambles a bit letting you know we’re on summer vacation. Back next week… or anytime.

Gary K4AAQ begins reviewing the ARRL comments on RM 11953, the request to modify the HF side of Part 90 (commercial radio regs) to allow high power, wider bandwidth data to be used for “High Frequency Trading” on the various stock exchanges. The ARRL says this has a clear potential to create significant interference in the ham radio bands and for other HF users.

After a bit, Ria N2RJ joins the show and, well, makes it more interesting. David W0DHG and Jim NO1PC have the week off. So we modify the name of the channel to Ria’s HamRadioNow Shack just for this episode.

The ARRL has increased dues… no surprise considering inflation. The shocker is that they also divorced the printed magazine from basic dues, and made it a fairly expensive add-on. We review the changes.

Gary K4AAQ has a short slide show of his trip to DC (not much ham radio in it). And in the post-show, Jim NO1PC explains that he is the ‘mystery’ Redditor who created a HamRadioNow sub-Reddit. Meanwhile, David W0DHG tries not to melt in his non-air-conditioned studio, as he waits for winter.

David W0DHG anchored this episode from his un-air conditioned West Coast Studio during an LA heat wave. Gary K4AAQ was in Witless Protection in an undisclosed location somewhere near Washington DC (with a cameo from Cyndi KD4ACW). Jim NO1PC wasn’t complaining, but we kept the show short, anyway.

Junie N1DUC, along with her feathered flock of friends, is the ball of energy behind a new YouTube channel Ham and Quackers. Junie has only been a ham for a few years, but she’s dedicating the channel to helping even newer hams learn about the hobby and get comfortable on the air.

Meet Junie and Mochi🦆 in this episode… then go watch their show!

It started with Wouxun, one of the first brands of inexpensive Chinese radios to hit the VHF/UHF FM ham radio market in the US and around the world. We pronounced it like we saw it: Whax-on. Until somebody checked and learned it was more like ‘Ocean’, sort of.

Some of the brands that followed seemed more anglicized: Baofeng… we came close. BAY-oh-fang. Gary K4AAQ favored BO-fung. Then recently, his YouTube surfaced an eight-year-old video with a guy pronouncing many of the Chinese names, including TYT. Watch… listen… there will be a quiz. It will probably be on the final (or the next update of the Tech question pool).

Then we all take a trip through Troubleshooting-land in a segment Gary called “The Trouble With Shooting”. Jim NO1PC and David W0DHG help Gary second and third-guess the problem with an antique Kenwood TH-F6 radio that refuses to accept manual programming on just one of its 400 memory channels… or did it? It’s misdirection and confirmation bias run amok. It could happen to you.

Finally, Jim tells us where he’s been lo these past few weeks, on vacation in a silver hot dog.

And next week, we have a guest lined up: A new YouTuber and relatively new ham, Junie N1DUC has a thing for our web-footed friends, so duck and cover (probably the show title) and check out https://www.hamandquackers.com/

And c’mon and join our Discord: http://discord.gg/FDP3JnyDun