Everything Ham Radio Podcast

Hello everybody and welcome back to the Everything Ham Radio Podcast! In this episode we are going to be talking about Batteries, the Milford Amateur Radio Club, Upcoming events and hamfests for the next two weeks and wrap up the episode with some news from around the community!     Tech Corner - Batteries Nearly all large rechargeable batteries in common use are Lead-Acid type. The acid is typically 30% Sulfuric acid and 70% water at full charge. NiFe (Nickel-Iron) batteries are also available. These have a very long life, but rather poor efficiency (60-70%) and the voltages are different, making it more difficult to match up with standard 12v/24/48v systems and inverters.   Batteries are divided into two types based on application:   Starter Deep Cycle • Designed to deliver short bursts of high amps • Designed to deliver sustained power • NOT designed to discharge to low levels • Designed to discharge lower without damage • Not designed to absorb power rapidly •

Hello everybody and welcome back to the Everything Ham Radio Podcast! In this episode we are going to be talking about the Jamboree On The Air, the Red River Radio Amateurs Amateur Radio Club, Upcoming events and hamfests for the next two weeks and Hurricane Matthew and other news. Tech Corner - Jamboree On The Air Jamboree-on-the-Air(http://www.scouting.org/jota.aspx), or JOTA, is the largest Scouting event in the world. It is held annually the third full weekend in October. JOTA uses amateur radio to link Scouts and hams around the world, around the nation, and in your own community. This jamboree requires no travel, other than to a nearby amateur radio operator's ham shack. Many times you can find the hams will come to you by setting up a station at your Scout camporee, at the park down the block, or perhaps at a ham shack already set up at your council's camp.   Tell Me More Scouts of any age can participate, from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts and Venturers, including girls. Once at the ham radio station,

Hello everybody and welcome back to the Everything Ham Radio Podcast! In this episode we are going to be talking about the RST Reporting System, the Moore County Amateur Radio Society and we are going to announce the winner of the Nanuk 904 case provided by Gigaparts.com.   Tech Corner - RST Reporting System History of the RST Reporting System Many years ago, right around 1934 to be specific, an amateur radio operator by the name of Arthur W Braaten, W2BSR, made up the current reporting system that we use today. At the time there wasn't a standardized system in place that amateurs could use to tell the transmitting station what their side of things sounded like. Of course, they could've just used the S-meters that was on their radio's, if they had them that is. But that really doesn't tell you a whole lot about how you sound. There has been times in my limited conversations on the HF bands, where I could hear the other station just fine. They were clear and very understandable, but they barely moved the

This is a special episode of the Everything Ham Radio Podcast! This is just a short episode that I wanted to get up today where I talk about International Podcast Day. It is started today, 9/29/16 at 3pm PDT and goes for about 30 hours. There is a new live stream every hour!  Fellow Podcasters, people that might be interested in doing a podcast, or just those that might be curious, check it out. http://www.internationalpodcastday.com http://www.everythinghamradio.com/2016/09/eth-idp/  

Hello everybody and welcome back to the Everything Ham Radio Podcast! In this episode we are going to be talking about Power Tech Corner - Power Cords Where to Connect Power on a Mobile Setup You should always connect the positive side to either the hot terminal of the battery or the input leg of the fuse bose as close to the battery as possible. The negative side should be connected to the chassis where your your battery is connected. The reasoning behind this is because vehicle come standard now with a battery monitoring system that monitors the battery voltage as well as power consumption needs of the vehicle(i.e. When the A/C is turned on, more power is needed). The monitor is typically connected between the batteries negative terminal and the chassis ground. You need to bypass this monitor when connecting radio equipment so alway connect your negative side to the same location as the negative battery lead is connected to. Because you are more than likely going to be killing the power to the entire vehicl

Hello everybody and welcome back to the Everything Ham Radio Podcast! In this episode we are going to be talking about     Tech Corner - Coax Coax is probably one of the main components of your station that you should NOT skimp on the cost of. You should always get the best coax that you can afford! You can have the best radio and the best antenna but have crappy coax and your neighbor could have a crappy radio and antenna but awesome coax, and your neighbor will nine times out of ten have a better signal than you do.   Let's do some math…   For easy math, let's say that your coax has a line loss of 3 dB per 100 feet and you have a 100 foot run, your radio has a transmitter power of 100 watts and your antenna has a 3 dB gain.   100(w) - 3 dB(coax loss) = 50(w) 50(w) + 3 dB(Antenna Gain) = 100(w)   In this example, you didn't gain anything but you also didn't loose anything. Let's take it one step more now and say that you have 200 foot run now.   100(w) - 6 dB(200 ft coax lo

Hello everybody and welcome back to the Everything Ham Radio Podcast! In this episode we are going to be talking about Elmers     Tech Corner - Elmers Origin of the term "Elmer" The term "Elmer"--meaning someone who provides personal guidance and assistance to would-be hams--first appeared in QST in a March 1971 "How's DX" column by Rod Newkirk, W9BRD (now also VA3ZBB). Newkirk called them "the unsung fathers of Amateur Radio." While he probably was not trying to coin a term at the time, here's how Newkirk introduced "Elmer" in his column and, as it turned out, to the rest of the Amateur Radio world: "Too frequently one hears a sad story in this little nutshell: 'Oh, I almost got a ticket, too, but Elmer, W9XYZ, moved away and I kind of lost interest.'" Newkirk went on to say, "We need those Elmers. All the Elmers, including the ham who took the most time and trouble to give you a push toward your license, are the birds who keep this great game young and fresh."--Rick Lindquist, N1RL As you can see,

Hello everybody and welcome back to the Everything Ham Radio Podcast! In this episode we are going to try something a little different than I have in the past. Since I have added some new responsibilities at home, I am now totally limited to working on my podcast at work. So I am pretty much limited to the solo head style of podcasting unless I can get lucky and get someone that wants to get up early on Saturday between 7 and 9:30 am. My interviews will probably be limited only the Amateur Radio Club Spotlights if I can get in contact with someone early enough. I want to extend a big THANK YOU to Fred Kemmerer who is the president of the club that I featured in this episode. I emailed their club email on Friday afternoon to just let them know that I was featureing them in my podcast episode and mentioned that if someone would be available on Saturday morning that we could possibly do an interview about their club. He was able to check the email in time and we were able to do the interview. Not only once, but

Hello everybody and welcome back to the Everything Ham Radio Podcast! In this episode we are going to be talking about Echolink. What is Echolink? Echolink is a piece of free Windows software that allows you to connect to repeaters, other users or conference servers all over the world. Below is what the official description is: EchoLink® software allows licensed Amateur Radio stations to communicate with one another over the Internet, using streaming-audio technology.  The program allows worldwide connections to be made between stations, or from computer to station, greatly enhancing Amateur Radio's communications capabilities.  There are more than 200,000 validated users worldwide — in 151 of the world's 193 nations — with about 5,200 online at any given time. After you download the software, you will need to validate your call sign. This is done to make sure that those that are using the software do indeed have an amateur radio license. There are a couple ways that this can be done. You can upload

Hello everybody and welcome back to the Everything Ham Radio Podcast! In this episode we are going to be talking about some things that have been happening lately. We are going to learn what the Amateur Radio Emergency Services(ARES) is and talk about the Hellgate Amateur Radio club in the Amateur Radio Club Spotlight.   LA Flood   Brad Kieserman, the Vice President of Disaster Services Operations and Logistics for the American Red Cross, called the flooding disaster "the worst to hit the United States since Superstorm Sandy, and we anticipate it will cost at least $30 million – a number which may grow as we learn more about the scope and magnitude of the devastation." According to estimates, more than 40,000 homes were damaged or destroyed, leaving tens of thousands of residents displaced. The flooding also left 13 people dead. As of early today, August 20, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was reporting that about 3100 evacuees remained in Red Cross shelters. The Louisiana Emergency O

Hello everybody and welcome back to the Everything Ham Radio Podcast! In this episode we are going to talking with Allison Hollier, KG5BHY. Allison is a fellow ham blogger that I learned about last year. She has a weekly YL net that she started last year and during each of the nets she has a technical portion of the net. She writes a blog post that corresponds with the technical topic of the net. The Weekly North Texas YL Net is every Monday evening at 8pm on the 442.325 (127.3 tone) repeater which is linked to the 442.225 (110.9 tone) repeater. Even though this is a YL net, OM's are allowed to check in as well. However, the first part of the net is dedicated to YL's only. The net starts with YL checking, followed by the technical topic of the day. After the technical topic, the net is opened to anyone that wants to check in. Third party traffic is also allowed for the net to possible get non-ham females involved in the net as well. Allison introduced me to something that I didn't know existed during this int

Hello everybody and welcome back to the Everything Ham Radio Podcast! In this episode we are going to do something a little bit different than what we have been doing. I had planned on doing an interview for this episode but I had a hard time getting a schedule nailed down. So since I was one a time crunch and didn't have time to actually research a topic, record it, edit it and get it up in time, I had to figure out something else to do. So seeing that this is episode 30, I figured it was a good time to do a little look back on this podcast and my blog as a whole. I even went a little further back and talked about my life as a ham, especially what has changed over the past 6-7 years since I have been married. The reason that I did that is because in the next episode, my guest is going to be my lovely wife. We are going to be talking about her perspective at being a non-man being married to a ham. Let's take a look back at all the podcast episodes so far: ETH000 - About Me ETH001 - DStar ETH002 - Yaesu Syste

Hello everybody and welcome back to the Everything Ham Radio Podcast! In this episode we are going to talking with David Ericson, KB5UGF about Hamnet Mesh networks.   OpenWRT DD-WRT Mesh Technologies Broadband hamnet(BBHN) Amateu Radio Emergency Data Network(AREDN) Equipment Brands Linksys Router - WRT54G Ubiquiti Area Mesh Networks Orange County, CA mesh Heart of Texas ARC mesh   Emcomm driven - when all else fails, amateur radio is there   Tools Ubiquiti RF Link Calculator Google Map of Mesh Nodes     Are you looking to buy a new radio, or maybe a new laptop or tablet? Maybe you are just looking for some connectors or batteries. Whatever you are looking for, amateur radio gear, computer equipment, battery chargers, or whatever, check out Gigaparts. As an added bonus just for yall, my faithful readers/listeners, Gigaparts has allowed me to share a $10 off coupon with you on any purchases over $150! All you have to do is enter the coupon code below at checked out to get t

Hello everybody and welcome back to the Everything Ham Radio Podcast! In this episode we are going to with Alan Applegate, K0BG about Mobile Radio Installations. Alan has been a ham since 1976(I believe he said) and has a major passion for operating mobile. His website is a massive repository of information on everything dealing with Mobile Operations, so head on over there and check it out!   Greenivative Magic GMAG 6 Give-a-way!   Gigaparts has graciously donated a GREENIVATIVE Magic GMAG 6 to be raffled off! I would like to say thank you to Gigaparts and especially Jeff Sinclar, KJ4YIO, for the donation for this raffle!   So How Do I Enter?   Entering the raffle is super easy! All you have to do is send me an email to k5clm at everythinghamradio.com. In the subject line put "Green Power". This raffle is going to go for two episodes, so you will have two chances to enter. The deadline for the raffle will be August 5, 2016 at 11:59 PM Central Time. Each episode will have a different subj

Hello everybody and welcome back to the Everything Ham Radio Podcast! In this episode we are going to be talking with Christopher LaRue, W4ADL about Hams with Disabilities. Chris is a visually impaired amateur radio operator just recently passed his Extra Class test. We talk about some of the challenges that he has and about some ideas that can be done by all of us Check out the IRLP website for information about IRLP. IRLP 9251 – *World* – world net on echolink. Gives questions from questions pools 8-9 est Paranormal net 9-10 est John -W2JLD – Net Manager Ham Test Prep – Android App Nellis Amateur Radio Club – Las Vegas   Are you looking to buy a new radio, or maybe a new laptop or tablet? Maybe you are just looking for some connectors or batteries. Whatever you are looking for, amateur radio gear, computer equipment, battery chargers, or whatever, check out Gigaparts. As an added bonus just for yall, my faithful readers/listeners, Gigaparts has allowed me to share a $10 off coupon with you on an

Hello everybody and welcome back to the Everything Ham Radio Podcast! In this episode we are going to recap my experience with Field Day 2016, we are going to talk with a couple local hams during Field Day and with a few hours left of Field Day talk about how it is going so far. My local Field Day station is sponsored by the Johnson County ARES team and is hosted at the Johnson County Emergency Operation Center. We ran a 3F station and ran under the call sign of KY5O. At the time of this recording(about 7am on Sunday morning) we had approximately 150 contacts. We had a GOTA station as well and made several contacts on it as well. For our first interview we talk with Ken Bush, KB5YBI. Ken has been an amateur radio operator for a little over 23 years. He is the Johnson County EC for the ARRL and is one of the major volunteers for the Johnson County, whether is it during a storm or emergency or just helping taking down a tower. In my second interview, we talk with Keith Beucler, KE5AWF. I have kn

Hello everybody and welcome back to the Everything Ham Radio Podcast! In this episode we are going to talk about Portable Stations. While the episodes this quarter have been about "Things to do on HF", this topic is more of a general ham radio topic and ties into our mini theme of Field Day which is coming up this weekend. For more information about Field Day check out episode 20, and check out episode 11 where we talked about Go-Packs. When you think about a portable station, or really any stations, there are three main components that you must have, a radio, an antenna and a source of power. Depending on the size of your portable station determines the size of equipment that you will need or want. If you are looking for something to use for SOTA or for a go pack, you will probably want smaller antennas, smaller low power radios and a lighter power source. If you are talking a setup for things like Field Day or a QSO party or even some public service event, you might want something a little bigger. We are go

Hello everybody and welcome back to the Everything Ham Radio Podcast! In this episode we are going to talk about Emergency Power. While the episodes this quarter have been about "Things to do on HF", this topic is more of a general ham radio topic and ties into our mini theme of Field Day which is coming up in a couple of weeks. Emergency power comes in all shapes and sizes. You can have a gas generator or a solar panel with batteries. It really on depends on what you want and how much you want to spend. There are some repeaters that run solely on "backup power". This type of setup will generally have a whole bank of batteries and a solar panel to charge them. Gas Generators   Gas generators are probably the most typical type of backup power that is used. They can range from a small 1000 watt generator that you buy from like a home improvement store or department store all the way up to a 20+kW generator that would be used to power like an Emergency Operations Center. For the typical

Hello everybody and welcome back to the Everything Ham Radio Podcast! In this episode we are going to Field Day!!! Objective To work as many stations as possible on any and all amateur bands (excluding the 60, 30, 17, and 12-meter bands) and to learn to operate in abnormal situations in less than optimal conditions. Field Day is open to all amateurs in the areas covered by the ARRL/RAC Field Organizations and countries within IARU Region 2. DX stations residing in other regions may be contacted for credit, but are not eligible to submit entries. Dates Field Day is always the fourth full weekend of June, beginning at 1800 UTC Saturday and running through 2059 UTC Sunday. Field Day 2016 is June 25-26. 3.1. Class A and B (see below) stations that do not begin setting up until 1800 UTC on Saturday may operate the entire 27-hour Field Day period. 3.2. Stations who begin setting up before 1800 UTC Saturday may work only 24 consecutive hours, commencing when on-the-air operations begin. 3.3. No class A or B station

Hello everybody and welcome back to the Everything Ham Radio Podcast! In this episode we are going to Contesting Kids Day Twice a year, ARRL offers an event designed to promote Amateur Radio to our youth.Kids Day is designed to give on-the-air experience to young people and hopefully foster interest in getting a license of their own. It is also intended to give older hams a chance to share their station and love for Amateur Radio with their children. When: Saturday, June 18 1800 UTC through 2359 UTC Suggested Exchange: Name, age, location and favorite color. Be sure to work the same station again if an operator has changed. To draw attention, call "CQ Kids Day." Suggested Frequencies– 10 Meters: 28.350 to 28.400 MHz 12 Meters: 24.960 to 24.980 MHz 15 Meters: 21.360 to 21.400 MHz 17 Meters: 18.140 to 18.145 MHz 20 Meters: 14.270 to 14.300 MHz 40 Meters: 7.270 to 7.290 MHz 80 Meters: 3.740 to 3.940 MHz You can also use your favorite repeater (with permission of the repeater's sponsor). Be sure to observe thir