Tag: ham radio

How Many 1-Shot DX Contacts Can You Make?

To all hams who enjoy DXing, here is a challenge for you:

You only have one shot of calling DX.

If they don’t return to you in one call, then you have to try again after working another DX station with the same rule. Doesn’t matter the power or antenna situation – 1 watt or 1000.

Only.

One.

Shot.

How many can you make?

First of all, it can be done (I discovered this with 100 watts on CW with a G5RV with the 2009 Desecheo Island Dxpedition K5D), and secondly, it’s a testament to proper listening skills that allow you to do this – operating split, analyzing the operator’s technique, analyzing the technique of the callers, finding the open spots. Sure, your 5-beam stack on a hill 3 miles from the DX station would get in MUCH easier than my G5RV on the ground with dog poo all over it. But all things considered, it’s still a challenge for the most of us.

Foundations of Amateur Radio Podcast Logo
Foundations of Amateur Radio Podcast Logo

I heard this on an episode of the Foundations of Amateur Radio Podcast by VK6FLAB. It’s an excellent, 3-minute-or-so podcast that answers a question or poses a challenge like this. It’s definitely my favorite podcast because Onno, in his comedic deadpan attitude, always questions the status quo, presents an interesting challenge, or a fascinating discovery, with no overhead, no music, no pizazz.

Lol too many commas.

Listen to the Foundations of Amateur Radio podcast directly, on Overcast for iOS, or iTunes.

Also, listen to Onno’s former podcast – What Use Is An F-call? – which answers the question, what use is an F (for foundation license in Australia, equivalent to the technicians license in the US) call. There are 206 episodes, directly, on Overcast, and on iTunes as well.

I won’t be attending Dayton Hamvention this year :(

Bittersweet.

I won’t be attending the 2017 Dayton Hamvention this year. I have been asked to be a groomsman for a close friends wedding.

The wedding takes place on May 20, 2017.

Hamvention takes place on May 19-21, 2017.

There may be a chance that I attend a Thursday session like FDIM or Contest University, or even partially on Friday; who knows. It’s but a 5.5 hour drive away from St. Louis, but this time I’m not sure of the wedding schedule. We shall see. If I can’t attend, at least W5KUB will be livestreaming it.

With all the YOTA US stuff going on, and Dayton being the best meeting of interested persons in all things ham radio, it’s a bummer, but it’s what you do for your friends. 🙂

Check them out at alianderic.wedding.

 

Collegiate Ham Radio is on fire today!

Today was a maelstrom of emails, reddit posts, facebook messages, ARRL articles, some more emails….all thanks to this article: http://www.arrl.org/news/arrl-acting-as-catalyst-in-college-radio-club-revitalization-campaign

I posted it to the amateurradio subreddit, where it got some discussion. Then, another post, nearly simultaneously popped up on reddit regarding interest in a “University/Colleges on the Air” – of course they couldn’t call it Schools on the Air, as that would compete with the other SOTA, but that’s besides the point.

There are a lot of college and university amateur radio clubs out there, both active and defunct. There have been attempts to collect interest, either through collegiate contests or sub-contests (such as the Intercollegiate Championship that hasn’t been going on since 2011), online communities (like CollegeARC developed by Brent and Bryce Salmi from Rochester Institute of Technology K2GXT, but went defunct sometime in mid to late 2013 after they graduated), and now the Dayton Hamvention Collegiate Dinner and the Collegiate Ham Radio Operators Facebook Group.

I have great interest vested in these topics. Throughout my ARRL Youth Editorship, I poked and prodded ARRL to do more to promote amateur radio to colleges, and vice versa.  It cam in the form of free books, promotional materials, and licensing materials, but never have they showed the support they are featuring in the article.

ARRL provides a large amount of grants and scholarships totaling many tens of thousands of dollars – or more – but many of these scholarships often go unclaimed! This is because too many don’t know about them.

Promoting amateur radio in colleges is a huge untapped resource for both the hobby, and the STEM economy. Every technical job I had was resultant of something ham radio related, and it’s obvious that it the hobby has huge merits in electrical and computer engineering and computer science.

Plus, as mentioned in the article, colleges are super competitive! College football wouldn’t be a thing if they weren’t!

Although I don’t agree with the name “Ivy + Amateur Radio” as an all-inclusive invitation to colleges and universities across the world to join up, I still think the ARRL is doing collegiate ham radio a great service to show support, especially from the CEO level. After all, a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet.

I hope to see something great come of this! Conference championships? Colleges/Universities on the Air? A yearlong QSO party for colleges? Incorporating “college” category into large ARRL contests like sweepstakes and ARRL DX? Revamping school club roundup? Tons of ideas.

Please feel free to contact me at n0ssc@arrl.net or comment below if you wish to talk college ham radio. Or send your support straight to the ARRL CEO Tom Gallagher NY2RF, himself!