John Jacobs W7DBO from the Field Radio Podcast is my guest. We talk about his podcast, podcasting and how he got involved with HamRadio360. John builds awesome custom go boxes (http://www.commstogo.com/). John and I discuss our experinces producing content for the internet about Ham Radio and Field Day!
A combination show: On the road to the race, an interview with John Rosica KA2FND of NVIS Communications, and raw video from the race at Stage #9. It's a little rough copy, but you are hams, hopefully you can pull the good stuff out of the noise. Doing sound in the field is apparently hard... I am getting some equipment to make it better in the future.
David W0DHG talks to Jim Wades WB8SWI and Joe Ames W3JY of Radio Relay International about the organization, it's beginnings, how it works, and why. Radio Relay International can be found at http://radio-relay.org/
I hope you enjoy!
The Audio version will be included next week....
In Episode 393, Gary KN4AQ plays several 'highly edited' clips from the February 2018 ARRL Hudson Division 'Town Hall' webinar audio. His goal was to condense several comments made by ARRL Hudson Division Director Mike Lisenco N2YBB into 'listenable' sound bites, without changing Lisenco's intent or losing context.
This is the webinar audio in its entirety. The only thing edited out is about 15 minutes of technical prep at the beginning as they got things working. You'll still hear a few minutes of the guys getting things ready, but there are some interesting remarks in that time. After that, there are no edits, nothing rearranged or deleted. The primary speaker is ARRL Hudson Division Director Mike Lisenco N2YBB. You'll hear several other voices from ARRL officials in the Division and its Sections, and some Q&A from webinar listeners.
The source of that audio is this web site: https://yourlisten.com/milen. 'Milen' is Milen Bourilkov KG2C. Thanks to Milen for recording the audio from the webinar. Unfortunately, Mike Lisenco had a very loud hum on his microphone. Gary ran it through noise reduction in Adobe Audition, so in this copy you'll only hear a few artifacts left over. There are a few spots where Mike spoke softly. The original audio left his voice obscured by hum, and the 'noise reduced' version is just difficult to understand in those few spots.
And here are the clips that Gary edited:
Curmudgeon hams will rant about how professional Emcomm agencies see no value in ham radio. And in some areas that's true.
The ARES forum from the Yuma AZ Hamfest - Roozy Moabery W1EH, ARRL DEC for part of the sprawling Los Angeles area, talks about how hams there have created a great working relationship with their served agencies.
This is a slide-show talk, but the slides are all text headlines for the topics Roozy covers, so the RADIO RATING is still A.
Dick Norton N6AA, the ARRL SW Division Director, is at the center of the dust-up (Firestorm?) at the ARRL Board of Directors. He's the director who was censured in a special Board Meeting last fall for what the Board said were inappropriate comments at the Visalia DX convention the previous spring. He's also the Director that Hudson Division Director Mike Lisenco N2YBB said was partly responsible for a 'toxic environment' at the League. Lisenco's comments came during a Hudson Division web Town Hall in early 2018, with a link from this QRZ.com discussion. (Note that the audio recording of that webinar is pretty bad, but it's also pretty interesting if you can tough it out.)
In this episode, Dick Norton discussed his censure and the ARRL Board Code of Conduct at the ARRL Forum at the Yuma AZ Hamfest in February. HamRadioNow's host David Goldenberg W0DHG recorded the session.
Radio Rating: A
Mark Brown N4BCD is the new chairman of the Huntsville Hamfest. A little birdie (named Michael Kalter) told him to cross the street and talk to that Gary guy for some free publicity, so we caught up on the latest from what's probably the #3 fest in the US after Dayton and Orlando.
Mark takes over after the passing of Charlie Emerson N4OKL, who we described as "the benevolent dictator of the Huntsville Hamfest" back in HamRadioNow Episode 29.
RADIO RATING: A
Sunday morning was the 'drop-by' time for HamRadioNow, apparently. Gary looked up from the laptop where he was working on the HRN website to see QRZ.com founder Fred Lloyd AA7BQ standing there. So of course, let's do a show!
We just got started when the Dayton Hamvention's media guy Michael Kalter W8CI walked by. Both Michael and Fred were time-limited (wrong show, guys), but they generously gave us what they could, and probably a little more. Thanks!
RADIO RATING: A.
The full title is Florida Amateur Spectrum Management Assn., or FASMA.
Last year, Bryan Fields W9CR led a coalition of dissatisfied repeater owners and members of the Florida Repeater Council in a successful effort to take control of that organization. There was some conflict, but eventually Bryan's group prevailed. They changed the name to reflect a broader focus, and re-incorporated. Now they have to make good on their pledge to provide better coordination service. Bryan explains how.
Radio Rating: A.
The call signs are: WA4YL, AC4YL and AG4YL. So what do you think this show might be about? Dawn, Catherine and Melanie had just given the YL Forum at Orlando, and Gary invited them to keep going on the show.
RADIO RATING: A.
Bruce Perens K6BP. Pretty sure we don't need to say any more.
RADIO RATING: A
Gary takes you on a video tour of the Orlando HamCation, Sorry, the video is jumpy, but you'll get the idea.
Then we get a surprise guest in the SIB. Fan of the show N1LGQ stopped by to chat, and we put him on the air.
RADIO RATING: B. Even though the TOUR is video, Gary narrates it on-camera pretty well.
Kyle Krieg N0KTK had a beef with Gary, and he expressed it in the HamRadioNow Facebook Group (or maybe it was YouTube.. we get confused). Gary wasn't going to record an 'On the Road' to Orlando, and Kyle was going to 'give him crap' about that, in person.
So of course when Kyle shows up at the SIB*, Gary pushed the Facebook LIVE button and they had a short... OK, 70 minute wide-ranging discussion.
We didn't make a YouTube video for this, but you can see it on FACEBOOK. We did rip the audio for the podcast:
RADIO RATING: A.
*Studio In a Booth
New AMSAT President Joe Spier K6WAO joins Gary for a wide-ranging discussion of all things AMSAT.
RADIO RATING: A. Nothing to see here. Move along (and play the audio).
Jason Johnston KC5HWB from HamRadio2.0 helps Gary inaugurate the first LIVE broadcast from a hamfest - the Orlando HamCation. Gary built a new version of the SIB (Studio In a Booth) with webcams and live switching on his laptop. It sort of worked.
David W0DHG is putting up a short (30 minute) episode test, along with an on the road interview with host emeritus Gary Pearce KN4AQ.
Digital Voice for Amateur Radio was the most complex of the three documentaries that HamRadioNow's Gary Pearce KN4AQ produced for DVD, before starting the online show. In 2007, Gary traveled to Alabama and Dallas in one trip, Chicago and St. Louis in another, and Washington DC in a third to gather interviews and footage of what was then just emerging as Digital Voice systems for Amateur Radio. The program was edited and released on DVD in 2008.
The DV modes for HF included a hardware modem from AOR and a software/sound card system called WinDRM (which evolved to today's FreeDV). The VHF/UHF modes in use then were D-STAR and P-25.
Of course, these modes have evolved since this program was produced, and newer modes like DMR, Yaesu System Fusion, and NXDN have been developed. Consider this program a snapshot in the early history of Amateur Radio Digital Voice. It's certainly not a current tutorial on operating those modes today.
And some more D-STAR history:
Radio Rating: C- at best. This was a video documentary, and while there is a lot of talking, most of the pictures you're missing are equipment in operation, locations, and a few graphics. You'll miss a lot, but since there's so much information, you'll learn a lot, too. [The Radio Rating is our estimate of how much you'll get from the program audio without the video. It's not a rating of the overall program. Those are always A+]
David and Gary catch up on the final details of all the proposals and revisions that are going into the ARRL Board of Directors meeting this weekend.
Radio Rating: A
Links:
In this episode we review what's been going on with the ARRL, from the Code of Conduct to the proposed revisions to the Bylaws and Articles of Association. We look at a new group that's formed to protest some of the ARRL Board's actions. And mostly we read some detailed responses to inquiries that Gary and others sent to some of the Directors. They're not coming on the shows yet, but they are being more responsive than we saw initially (though, as Roanoke Division Director Dr. Jim Boehner N2ZZ noted, those responses won't satisfy many critics).
That new group is called myARRLvoice. Some members of the 'steering committee' for the group are former Board members who could not speak in opposition to League policies until their terms expired on January 1. Now they can. Their web site will have links to the documents we reference in the show.
At the end of the show, you'll see a note about what we've been calling The Best Part of the Show™. That's the banter that comes after we 'formally' close the show (and say Over and Out), that may or may not be related to the main topics of the show. We're not fooling our guests into thinking they're having a private conversation. Facebook LIVE is still running, as is the recording hard drive. But it still gets a little looser than our usual taut, tightly formatted interview segment. And if you're not asking "What show is he talking about?" at this point, you haven't been paying much attention. But it really does get looser.
Anyway, we cut that off the YouTube version of the show this time. OK, it's still a 90 minute show. We're still not fooling anybody. But maybe it'll scare a few less people away.
The full show is in the audio version, and on the Facebook LIVE recording session, if you want it.
Radio Rating: A+. As usual, a few web sites, but we don't even put the text we're reading on the screen (Gary didn't have time to format it). [The 'Radio Rating' does not measure the quality of the program content. It's our guess as to good a radio show it is, without video].
* The show title is a somewhat awkward takeoff on Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, which caused me to wonder 'how deep that is?' Wikipedia to the rescue: The title refers to the distance traveled while under the sea and not to a depth, as 20,000 leagues is over six times the diameter, and nearly twice the circumference of the Earth. The greatest depth mentioned in the book is four leagues. The book uses metric leagues, which are four kilometres each. - Gary KN4AQ
Hal Tourley W8HC is our tour guide for this preview of the 3Y0Z Bouvet Island DXpedition, where 20 top DXpeditioners will travel to the most remote spot of land on Earth to warm up from the brutal winter we're having in North America.
Radio Rating: B+. We've got some pictures and maps from the DXpedition website, so if you can visit there sometime soon, you're all set. (The Radio Rating is our estimate of how well you'll understand the program from just the audio track, without the video.)
