Amateur (ham) Radio has a problem. The number of active hams has been on a steady decline for at least 20 years. The ARRL knows it but continues to claim that the number of new hams - those who have passed their Technican exam - either rises or holds steady year-to-year so the picture is rosy, in an odd sort of way. No, what Amateur Radio has is a participation problem. The ARRL knows this and puts programs in-place to attract and retain new hams, things like satellites, digital modes, Moon bounce, Summits On the Air, EMCOMM and more. It's all good stuff - there's nothing really bad in Amateur Radio. But it just isn't working. The retention rate, based on my purely anecdotal evidence, can't be more than 20% at the most.
We've all heard the stories of why the millennial and post-millennials are not interested in ham radio - the internet, smartphones, the lack of immediate gratification, the perception that it's for old fuddy-duddies. There's a bit of truth in all of this; in the world of ubiquitous internet connectivity, instantaneous communications modes like Twitter and Snapchat, the 'there's an app for that' mentality and an always-on 24 hour news cycle very few kids today see the relevance of ham radio. Plus when a 16 year-old walks into a ham radio club meeting and sees that everyone else there is collecting Social Security you begin to understand their point.
This is why I think we're targeting the wrong group. The ARRL and other organizations shout that we've got to "get 'em while they're young". Why? It's impossible to compete for the post-millennial's attention and two decades of trying have shown it really doesn't work. Instead I say "get 'em when they're ready".
My feeling is that most kids today do not have the requisite maturity and life experience to understand just why Amateur Radio is important. We've spent too much time emphasizing the 'doing' and not enough time explaining the 'why'. Of course its fun to talk with another ham via an Amateur Radio satellite, but why is ham radio communication via satellite important? We recruit thousands of hams every year to support charity events like fundraising walks or bike rides, but we don't spend much time talking about why it's important we support them. Most clubs hold weekly nets, but we never stop to really discuss why it's important to participate.
Amateur Radio is all about communicating, and in many instances the why comes when the ham radio operator can put it all in perspective. The why is the 9/11 attacks taking out a single point of communications failure atop the World Trade Center, crippling regional communications for months. The why is Hurricane Katrina wiping southern Mississippi and much of Louisiana off the map as ham radio operators crouched on hospital rooftops trying desperately to reach out for assistance in a region without power or communications. The why is the captain of the replica sailing ship HMS Bounty, sinking in the raging ocean waters caused by Super Storm Sandy, contacting the Coast Guard using Winlink on an Amateur Radio frequency to report her last position, this after all other communications systems on the boat had failed. The why is Puerto Rico, flattened by Hurricane Irma and almost entirely dependent on Amateur Radio communications for health and welfare traffic for months after the storm.
To understand the why you must first have the life experience necessary to understand the impacts of each of these events to put them in perspective and understand the role Amateur Radio played. A post-millennial 16 or 17 year old does not have the necessary life experience.
But the Florida homeowner who's ridden out three hurricanes in one season does have the experience and perspective to understand why the ability to communicate is important. So does the Soldier who spent a year in Afghanistan running tactical communications nets supporting military convoys. So does the firefighter who relied on his Motorola handheld to call for assistance while fighting a wildfire. It's precisely these individuals Amateur Radio should be targeting, people who are old enough to understand the importance of communication and have the experience and perspective that allows them to intuitively understand why Amateur Radio is important.
Reaching out to kids is important if for no other reason than let them know that Amateur Radio exists and it's there for them if they have the interest. However, I feel the real target market needs to be generation-x crowd, those born in the 1970's and 80's. These folks have been around the block a few times and are better able to grasp the relevance of Amateur Radio in the real world. The good thing about this age demographic is that it's self-replenishing. Everybody grows older, gains life experience and is better able to put things in perspective. We need to adjust our aim to specifically target the 30 - 50 year old crowd. If we do I'm sure our recruiting and retention rates will improve. We certainly can't do any worse than we have in trying to keep the millennials on-board.
W8BYH out
15 July 2018
07 July 2018
Got Batteries?
This afternoon, just out of curiosity, I decided to inventory my battery stash. One of my fears is being caught in an emergency without batteries. Irrational? Ever try to buy common battery types when a hurricane is approaching? Batteries are one of the first commodities to disappear in the panic buying just before a storm, any storm. People who live their lives in a mind-meld with their smartphones never seem to think about how they will power the things when the lights go out. I think most plan to just sit in their cars with the engine running so they can recharge their phone. Until the gas runs out.
I'm not saying you can recharge an iPhone 7 with a handful of AA cells. What I am getting at is that most folks don't plan for disasters. They just react as events unfold, and that reaction is usually fear - fear of being without. That's why you find folks who claim to live a gluten-free lifestyle snatching loaves of Wonder Bread off the store shelves right along with the guy that eats three PB&J sandwiches a day.
The same for batteries. A few years back, the day before an ice storm was scheduled to hit the Atlanta area, I watched a guy in the local Wal-Mart buy the last three 6-volt lantern batteries they had in stock. I asked him what he was planning to run with them and he told me he had no idea, he just wanted to make sure he had batteries - any batteries, I guess. Of course I was the one with two Coleman battery powered fluorescent lanterns that needed those batteries. It was at that moment I realized I needed to:
One of the technological advancements of the last decade that made this feasible is the LED (light emitting diode). The LED has revolutionized the portable lighting industry. This means a two AA-cell LED flashlight can put out more light than an old 2 D-cell unit powering an incandescent bulb. The LED is also more energy efficient so batteries last longer and the quality of the light put out by an LED is much better - it's a cleaner, whiter light that does a much better job of penetrating the darkness.
LED technology has also made its way over to portable lanterns. When I got home after my Wal-Mart battery encounter I went on-line and ordered a Streamlight Siege LED lantern to test against my old Coleman fluorescent lanterns. It took about 10 minutes of testing to convince me that the LED lantern was the way to go. The Coleman lanterns got chucked in the trash that night (I didn't have batteries for them anyway) and I've been using the Streamlights ever since.
So over the course of the last few years I've swapped virtually all of my emergency gear over to devices that take common batteries - all my flashlights, lanterns, AM/FM/Weather radios, even most of my handheld Amateur radios and one HF/VHF/UHF radio (Yaesu FT-817) is set up to run on AA or D-cells.
But what about devices like smartphones and tablets that don't take standard batteries? For those I've taken a different approach. Rather than try to keep various power sources on-hand for each type I just have a small bank of 12 volt 32 amp hour golf cart batteries I can hook up to a USB adapter. One of these batteries is capable of charging an iPad at least twice, and a smartphone perhaps half a dozen times before needing to be recharged itself. With several of these golf cart batteries on-hand I feel certain I can keep the phones and tablets running for several days or power other critical devices like higher power Amateur radios.
But do I have enough batteries? That answer requires planning for a likely emergency scenario over a clearly defined span of time. I plan for a weather related disaster of up to 72 hours in duration. If my local government can't get things back up and working even to minimal levels in 72 hours then I'm taking the bug-out option. So knowing all the devices I want to keep working for 72 hours - all my lights and radios - how many batteries do I need to keep on-hand to meet the minimum stockage requirement? I think the number will surprise you. I plugged it all into a spreadsheet and came up with 76 (seventy six!) AA-cells and 22 D-cells. This is the minimum number I need to keep on-hand in the event of a 'surprise' weather event. Think I'm being overly dramatic? Every week during spring and summer someone in the central US comes home from work and in the time it takes to prepare dinner their house is either destroyed or severely damaged by a tornado. It can and does happen on a regular basis. Just ask the folks who live in Tornado Alley. When a tornado is bearing down on your part of town it's a lousy time to run to the store to look for batteries.
Next, let's look at source. If the bunny on TV - the one with the drum - is to be believed the only good battery is the more expensive battery. The bunny sells a lot of batteries, but what he's banging his drum about isn't necessarily the truth. A number of studies have shown that generic alkaline batteries tend to last just as long in average consumer devices as the more expensive name brand versions. The term 'average consumer device' means things like radios, flashlights, game consoles, etc. There are valid reasons for going with more expensive batteries for high drain electronics like digital cameras, but then you are talking about moving away from alkaline and over to the far more expensive lithium technologies. For the types of devices I'm talking about powering, good old generic alkaline batteries are just fine, thanks. I've found the best source, and the easiest to deal with, is Amazon and their house brand Amazon Basics batteries. The Amazon Basics AA batteries sell for $0.23/cell when bought in quantities of 100 or more. Compare that to $0.40/cell for 100 of the bunny's batteries when bought from Amazon. The same economics apply for AAA-cells, D-cells and other sizes. Some folks bring up the bogey man of 'shelf life'; in fact, the bunny bases an entire ad campaign around the freshness of his (or her? I'm not sure) batteries. The truth is, common battery types like AA's get used for a lot of things around the average household - in clocks, remote controls, alarms, toys, musical devices, etc. Your battery stock will get rotated through regular usage. Just buy the cheaper generics, use 'em, and when your stockage level drops below your minimum, replace 'em.
So there you have it. When it comes to batteries my philosophy is you can never have enough but it's easy to have too little. If you are serious about preparing for likely disaster scenarios take a hard look at the emergency devices in your house and how you plan to use them, then calculate out the number of batteries you will need for a scenario that lasts 48 or 72 hours. That way you won't find yourself at Wal-Mart battling half the town for the last blister pack of the bunny's batteries.
73,
W8BYH
 |
| Enough? |
I'm not saying you can recharge an iPhone 7 with a handful of AA cells. What I am getting at is that most folks don't plan for disasters. They just react as events unfold, and that reaction is usually fear - fear of being without. That's why you find folks who claim to live a gluten-free lifestyle snatching loaves of Wonder Bread off the store shelves right along with the guy that eats three PB&J sandwiches a day.
The same for batteries. A few years back, the day before an ice storm was scheduled to hit the Atlanta area, I watched a guy in the local Wal-Mart buy the last three 6-volt lantern batteries they had in stock. I asked him what he was planning to run with them and he told me he had no idea, he just wanted to make sure he had batteries - any batteries, I guess. Of course I was the one with two Coleman battery powered fluorescent lanterns that needed those batteries. It was at that moment I realized I needed to:
- Switch my battery powered devices such as radios and flashlights to models that used common battery types
- Make sure I always had enough batteries on hand to meet clearly planned out emergency power requirements
- Find the cheapest and most reliable source of quality batteries
One of the technological advancements of the last decade that made this feasible is the LED (light emitting diode). The LED has revolutionized the portable lighting industry. This means a two AA-cell LED flashlight can put out more light than an old 2 D-cell unit powering an incandescent bulb. The LED is also more energy efficient so batteries last longer and the quality of the light put out by an LED is much better - it's a cleaner, whiter light that does a much better job of penetrating the darkness.
LED technology has also made its way over to portable lanterns. When I got home after my Wal-Mart battery encounter I went on-line and ordered a Streamlight Siege LED lantern to test against my old Coleman fluorescent lanterns. It took about 10 minutes of testing to convince me that the LED lantern was the way to go. The Coleman lanterns got chucked in the trash that night (I didn't have batteries for them anyway) and I've been using the Streamlights ever since.
 |
| The Siege lantern comes in a 3 D-cell or smaller 3 AA-cell version |
But what about devices like smartphones and tablets that don't take standard batteries? For those I've taken a different approach. Rather than try to keep various power sources on-hand for each type I just have a small bank of 12 volt 32 amp hour golf cart batteries I can hook up to a USB adapter. One of these batteries is capable of charging an iPad at least twice, and a smartphone perhaps half a dozen times before needing to be recharged itself. With several of these golf cart batteries on-hand I feel certain I can keep the phones and tablets running for several days or power other critical devices like higher power Amateur radios.
But do I have enough batteries? That answer requires planning for a likely emergency scenario over a clearly defined span of time. I plan for a weather related disaster of up to 72 hours in duration. If my local government can't get things back up and working even to minimal levels in 72 hours then I'm taking the bug-out option. So knowing all the devices I want to keep working for 72 hours - all my lights and radios - how many batteries do I need to keep on-hand to meet the minimum stockage requirement? I think the number will surprise you. I plugged it all into a spreadsheet and came up with 76 (seventy six!) AA-cells and 22 D-cells. This is the minimum number I need to keep on-hand in the event of a 'surprise' weather event. Think I'm being overly dramatic? Every week during spring and summer someone in the central US comes home from work and in the time it takes to prepare dinner their house is either destroyed or severely damaged by a tornado. It can and does happen on a regular basis. Just ask the folks who live in Tornado Alley. When a tornado is bearing down on your part of town it's a lousy time to run to the store to look for batteries.
 |
| Live anywhere near a colored square? Mother Nature has a something in store for you. Maybe not this week, or even this year, but soon... |
Next, let's look at source. If the bunny on TV - the one with the drum - is to be believed the only good battery is the more expensive battery. The bunny sells a lot of batteries, but what he's banging his drum about isn't necessarily the truth. A number of studies have shown that generic alkaline batteries tend to last just as long in average consumer devices as the more expensive name brand versions. The term 'average consumer device' means things like radios, flashlights, game consoles, etc. There are valid reasons for going with more expensive batteries for high drain electronics like digital cameras, but then you are talking about moving away from alkaline and over to the far more expensive lithium technologies. For the types of devices I'm talking about powering, good old generic alkaline batteries are just fine, thanks. I've found the best source, and the easiest to deal with, is Amazon and their house brand Amazon Basics batteries. The Amazon Basics AA batteries sell for $0.23/cell when bought in quantities of 100 or more. Compare that to $0.40/cell for 100 of the bunny's batteries when bought from Amazon. The same economics apply for AAA-cells, D-cells and other sizes. Some folks bring up the bogey man of 'shelf life'; in fact, the bunny bases an entire ad campaign around the freshness of his (or her? I'm not sure) batteries. The truth is, common battery types like AA's get used for a lot of things around the average household - in clocks, remote controls, alarms, toys, musical devices, etc. Your battery stock will get rotated through regular usage. Just buy the cheaper generics, use 'em, and when your stockage level drops below your minimum, replace 'em.
So there you have it. When it comes to batteries my philosophy is you can never have enough but it's easy to have too little. If you are serious about preparing for likely disaster scenarios take a hard look at the emergency devices in your house and how you plan to use them, then calculate out the number of batteries you will need for a scenario that lasts 48 or 72 hours. That way you won't find yourself at Wal-Mart battling half the town for the last blister pack of the bunny's batteries.
73,
W8BYH
04 July 2018
New Mobile Comms Suite
This week I updated the UHF/VHF comms suite in my CEV*, HQ-6. OK, it's actually my F-150 but hey, I can dream can't I?
The radios I've been using in my truck for the past two years were either an Icom 880H or an Icom ID-440. Both are very good radios but I wanted improved capabilities. I wanted the ability to do cross-band repeat from my truck, I wanted a larger screen that presented more information, I wanted dual receive and I also wanted D-STAR. That narrows the choice down to just one radio - the Icom ID-5100. I've been using the ID-5100 for the past 6 months in my shack and I've come to appreciate it as one of the best dual band mobile radios on the market today. So I sold off a few things (these days in my house ham radio must be a zero sum gain) and picked up a second ID-5100.
I also bit the bullet and bought a Ram X-grip mount for the radio head. If the F-150 has a drawback it's that the dashboard provides zero clean, smooth and level spaces for mounting accessories. Shame on you Ford. Not everything must be an exercise in eclectic styling and swoopy angles. It's a truck, fer' christ sake. The X-grip mount has a big suction cup that, so far, is sticking tenaciously to my windshield with the ID-5100 control head attached. I wouldn't take it off-roading, but for normal road travel it seems to work just fine.
The antenna remains the same old tried-and-true Comet SBB-5 on a mag mount stuck in the middle of the truck roof. I've used this antenna for more years than I can count on a variety of vehicles and recommend it highly. It's a single piece of stainless steel and it presents a reasonable SWR on both 2 meters and 70 centimeters. When you get it mounted it'll require a little tweaking with a tuner to get it optimized, but once you do that you can pretty much forget about it for the next decade or so. With the matching Comet mag mount base this antenna stays in place even when cruising at 85 mph up Interstate 75 (don't ask me how I know...).
One of the big things I like about the ID-5100 is how Icom implemented cross-band repeat. I've got other mobile units that can do cross-band, but getting to the cross band feature set requires some funky button pushing and a fair amount of biting your tongue. With the ID-5100 cross-band repeat is just a few taps away from the main screen and everything is clearly indicated on the display. Another great 'sneaky-pete' feature of the ID-5100 is that once you have all the settings in place you can disconnect the remote head and hide it away in your vehicle - the base unit will continue to operate. So I can be roaming a local park with a low power UHF hand-held and work my local VHF repeater on cross-band repeat with the radio completely hidden from view.
But it's not just cross-band repeat and D-STAR that make this radio great. As I type this I'm listening live to the Atlanta Radio Club radio traffic supporting the annual Peachtree Road Race in Atlanta. The repeater, W4DOC, is located in downtown Atlanta is right on the edge of my ability to receive signals from its location. Although race radio traffic is barely registering 1 or 2 bars on the ID-5100, received audio is excellent. If I didn't know better based on the radio's display I'd say I was hearing net control at full strength and full quieting. The receiver in this radio is outstanding.
So the UHF/VHF comms upgrade is done. What's next? Maybe a prefabricated HF operating position for the back of the truck. But first, I gotta' go get the ribs done for the 4th of July dinner.
W8BYH out
*Combat Engineer Vehicle (CEV) - I used to be a combat engineer. The CEV was a true 'MacGyver' piece of gear used by combat engineer units in the US Army. It was a 'do-all' vehicle based on the M60 tank that sported plow, a crane and a 165mm demolition gun. In short, the perfect commuting vehicle for Atlanta traffic. Sadly, my wife won't let me have one, so I have to make do.
The radios I've been using in my truck for the past two years were either an Icom 880H or an Icom ID-440. Both are very good radios but I wanted improved capabilities. I wanted the ability to do cross-band repeat from my truck, I wanted a larger screen that presented more information, I wanted dual receive and I also wanted D-STAR. That narrows the choice down to just one radio - the Icom ID-5100. I've been using the ID-5100 for the past 6 months in my shack and I've come to appreciate it as one of the best dual band mobile radios on the market today. So I sold off a few things (these days in my house ham radio must be a zero sum gain) and picked up a second ID-5100.
I also bit the bullet and bought a Ram X-grip mount for the radio head. If the F-150 has a drawback it's that the dashboard provides zero clean, smooth and level spaces for mounting accessories. Shame on you Ford. Not everything must be an exercise in eclectic styling and swoopy angles. It's a truck, fer' christ sake. The X-grip mount has a big suction cup that, so far, is sticking tenaciously to my windshield with the ID-5100 control head attached. I wouldn't take it off-roading, but for normal road travel it seems to work just fine.
The antenna remains the same old tried-and-true Comet SBB-5 on a mag mount stuck in the middle of the truck roof. I've used this antenna for more years than I can count on a variety of vehicles and recommend it highly. It's a single piece of stainless steel and it presents a reasonable SWR on both 2 meters and 70 centimeters. When you get it mounted it'll require a little tweaking with a tuner to get it optimized, but once you do that you can pretty much forget about it for the next decade or so. With the matching Comet mag mount base this antenna stays in place even when cruising at 85 mph up Interstate 75 (don't ask me how I know...).
One of the big things I like about the ID-5100 is how Icom implemented cross-band repeat. I've got other mobile units that can do cross-band, but getting to the cross band feature set requires some funky button pushing and a fair amount of biting your tongue. With the ID-5100 cross-band repeat is just a few taps away from the main screen and everything is clearly indicated on the display. Another great 'sneaky-pete' feature of the ID-5100 is that once you have all the settings in place you can disconnect the remote head and hide it away in your vehicle - the base unit will continue to operate. So I can be roaming a local park with a low power UHF hand-held and work my local VHF repeater on cross-band repeat with the radio completely hidden from view.
 |
| Cross-band repeat using a small UHF handheld is a great tool for mobile work |
But it's not just cross-band repeat and D-STAR that make this radio great. As I type this I'm listening live to the Atlanta Radio Club radio traffic supporting the annual Peachtree Road Race in Atlanta. The repeater, W4DOC, is located in downtown Atlanta is right on the edge of my ability to receive signals from its location. Although race radio traffic is barely registering 1 or 2 bars on the ID-5100, received audio is excellent. If I didn't know better based on the radio's display I'd say I was hearing net control at full strength and full quieting. The receiver in this radio is outstanding.
So the UHF/VHF comms upgrade is done. What's next? Maybe a prefabricated HF operating position for the back of the truck. But first, I gotta' go get the ribs done for the 4th of July dinner.
W8BYH out
*Combat Engineer Vehicle (CEV) - I used to be a combat engineer. The CEV was a true 'MacGyver' piece of gear used by combat engineer units in the US Army. It was a 'do-all' vehicle based on the M60 tank that sported plow, a crane and a 165mm demolition gun. In short, the perfect commuting vehicle for Atlanta traffic. Sadly, my wife won't let me have one, so I have to make do.
31 May 2018
The Russians Are Watching
And so are the Chinese, the Iranians, the North Koreans, and very likely the eeevil Canadians (just joking about the Canadians).
A few days ago the ARRL posted a news item about how Army MARS will require their operators to use computers that are completely disconnected from the internet while running the Data Modem Terminal software during MARS operations. This comment is telling:
Think it can't happen to you? Did you ever wonder why the Geek Squad at Best Buy was all but giving Kaspersky anti-virus software away?
W8BYH out
A few days ago the ARRL posted a news item about how Army MARS will require their operators to use computers that are completely disconnected from the internet while running the Data Modem Terminal software during MARS operations. This comment is telling:
"Despite a stand-alone environment, we assume that all computer systems in private citizens' hands are infected with hostile software code of some sort and are not secured," he said. "No amount of virus and malware scanning software changes that assumption. We can, however, isolate computers by disconnecting them from the intentional network in which hostile software will report and receive instruction."We are in an era where real-time monitoring of your digital radio communications activity is not just possible, but probable given the software you are using and the activity you are supporting.
Think it can't happen to you? Did you ever wonder why the Geek Squad at Best Buy was all but giving Kaspersky anti-virus software away?
 |
| We're watching, Comrade! |
W8BYH out
28 May 2018
On Prepping
'Prepping', or preparing for the next disaster or the ultimate apocalypse, is an activity that a lot of Amateur Radio operators (gleefully) participate in. Actually, it's more like the Preppers are participating in Amateur Radio. Either way, there's a huge overlap between ham radio and prepping. I hang out on the margins of this activity because I understand the importance of being prepared for likely disaster situations (note the emphasis on likely). Also, if 23 years in the Army teaches you anything it's to be prepared. And there's no organization better at prepping than the United States Army. It's an obsession with them. Lastly, there's a bit of perverse pleasure that comes from facing a disaster, even a small one like a power outage, with all the supplies and systems in place that allows you to look around your small castle and say, "I've got this".
I read a lot about prepping, follow a few forums devoted to prepping, watch a lot of YouTube videos on prepping and even participate in disaster prepping exercises through my local ARES group. Too much of what you read or see on-line is focused in the wrong direction for the average citizen. It seems most of the 'fantasy' preppers talk about bugging out to some remote retreat where they've tunneled into the side of a mountain, installed biological and radiological filters and blast-proof doors, laid in a 20 year supply of food and water, run hydroponic gardens and have a wonderful time riding out the apocalypse. They actually made a how-to movie about it:
But let's get real. Most of the likely disasters we face will be triggered by Mother Nature - either weather or earthquake. Hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires, lightning strikes, snow storms or just run-of-the-mill flooding routinely impacts millions each year. Those of you (un)lucky enough to live in southern California face annual wildfire risks, plus every time San Andreas burps you're running into the streets hoping it isn't The Big One.
And then there's the impact of poorly maintained infrastructure. In August 2003 drooping power lines on a residential street in Ohio shorted out on tree branches, causing a generating station in East Lake, Ohio, to go off-line. A cascading series of events ended up shutting down power to huge sections of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island and the province of Ontario. Think about it. Some poorly maintained power lines on a residential street ended up cutting power to millions of people across the northeastern US and Canada.
While these are not full apocalypse situations, it shows that the S*** does Hit The Fan more than most people realize, and that it can happen without warning.
So how do you prepare for the most likely scenario you may face? Well rather than blather on and on I'm just going to let Scott Conover, AC2FV from Long Island tell you how it should be done. In May 2016 Scott posted an excellent, easy to watch and easy to follow video on just what it takes to survive a 'likely scenario' event. Using Super Storm Sandy as the defining example, Scott goes through the impact the storm had on Long Island, the survival scenarios it generated and how he mitigated them.
I strongly recommend this video to everyone concerned about prepping, even if you have zero interest in communications or ham radio. It is the most level-headed discussion of the topic of real-world prepping and response that I've seen. Watch and learn:
W8BYH out
I read a lot about prepping, follow a few forums devoted to prepping, watch a lot of YouTube videos on prepping and even participate in disaster prepping exercises through my local ARES group. Too much of what you read or see on-line is focused in the wrong direction for the average citizen. It seems most of the 'fantasy' preppers talk about bugging out to some remote retreat where they've tunneled into the side of a mountain, installed biological and radiological filters and blast-proof doors, laid in a 20 year supply of food and water, run hydroponic gardens and have a wonderful time riding out the apocalypse. They actually made a how-to movie about it:
But let's get real. Most of the likely disasters we face will be triggered by Mother Nature - either weather or earthquake. Hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires, lightning strikes, snow storms or just run-of-the-mill flooding routinely impacts millions each year. Those of you (un)lucky enough to live in southern California face annual wildfire risks, plus every time San Andreas burps you're running into the streets hoping it isn't The Big One.
And then there's the impact of poorly maintained infrastructure. In August 2003 drooping power lines on a residential street in Ohio shorted out on tree branches, causing a generating station in East Lake, Ohio, to go off-line. A cascading series of events ended up shutting down power to huge sections of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island and the province of Ontario. Think about it. Some poorly maintained power lines on a residential street ended up cutting power to millions of people across the northeastern US and Canada.
While these are not full apocalypse situations, it shows that the S*** does Hit The Fan more than most people realize, and that it can happen without warning.
So how do you prepare for the most likely scenario you may face? Well rather than blather on and on I'm just going to let Scott Conover, AC2FV from Long Island tell you how it should be done. In May 2016 Scott posted an excellent, easy to watch and easy to follow video on just what it takes to survive a 'likely scenario' event. Using Super Storm Sandy as the defining example, Scott goes through the impact the storm had on Long Island, the survival scenarios it generated and how he mitigated them.
I strongly recommend this video to everyone concerned about prepping, even if you have zero interest in communications or ham radio. It is the most level-headed discussion of the topic of real-world prepping and response that I've seen. Watch and learn:
W8BYH out
26 May 2018
2018 Hurricane Season
Mother Nature's getting an early start. Better batten down the hatches.
To open this interactive web map in a new tab you can click here. The developer, ESRI, is the leading provider of geospatial-based web mapping and they provide this map as a part of their emergency and situational awareness services. It's good stuff. I'd bookmark it... just saying.
W8BYH out
To open this interactive web map in a new tab you can click here. The developer, ESRI, is the leading provider of geospatial-based web mapping and they provide this map as a part of their emergency and situational awareness services. It's good stuff. I'd bookmark it... just saying.
W8BYH out
Ham Radio Deluxe
For the past 4 months I've been 'struggling' to figure out Ham Radio Deluxe (HRD). I put 'struggling' into quotes because the struggle always came in 15 or 30 minute blocks when I had time to play with it. But inevitably I'd get frustrated because I always thought that HRD was getting in the way of my operating. I'd rather be on the radio than fiddling with the radio.
But in the past week I found myself with a lot of extra time off from work as I was playing nursemaid to my lovely XYL who had knee replacement surgery (she's doing fine, thank you). I became determined to figure out this program and make a decision to either keep using it or turn to something else.
My motivation for learning HRD ended up being digital modes. I've been an SSB guy since I first got my General ticket over 15 years ago, but I really wanted to give digital modes a try. This was spurred by my interest in emergency communications. As much as I like voice communications I realize that passing messages by voice is a highly error prone process. Some level of expertise in digital communications is necessary if you expect to communicate effectively in times of emergency.
So, I thought I'd start with PSK31 and work up from there. PSK31 is extremely popular, allows keyboard-to-keyboard chats and there's usually someone hanging around the pre-determined frequencies on 80, 40 and 20 meters looking for a contact.
There's a lot of good digital mode software out there, the most famous being Fldigi (for 'fast, light digital'). Fldigi is free software that is maintained by a very talented development group and is something of the standard in digital communications. It is excellent software and is my #1 recommendation for someone looking for a digital mode package. But because Fldigi's focus is just on digital it leaves out a lot of features to support other modes of operation like SSB. I was looking for something more broad-based, something that could support all the modes I was interested in using - SSB, AM, digital and, perhaps some day, CW. I was also looking for an integrated logging program.
By process of elimination I settled on HRD and ponied up the money for an annual subscription. I manage application development for a living so I'm not afraid to pay for good software. I understand the costs involved in the development and maintenance of good software. But on the flip side I also expect a certain level of development and maintenance activity that you don't often find with 'freeware'. The management team at HRD seem to understand this, and they maintain steady progress on bug fixes, feature requests and bringing on new capabilities.
(Time for an aside here, because I know someone is going to bring this up. Several years ago HRD got a bad rap for how it was treating its paying customers. Things came to a head when, out of spite, one of its support staff turned off several customers access to the software in retaliation for bad reviews. Soon after HRD management was reorganized and the new management team has been working hard at both improving the HRD software and doing damage control. The new HRD is not the old HRD, both from a software and management perspective. Yet reviewers on forums like eHam and QRZ.com continue to bitch about this incident as though it happened yesterday, using it as a tool to bludgeon HRD. To those I say, give it up. It's unwarranted and grossly unfair to the current management team, who are bending over backwards to provide a quality product and support.)
HRD is a program so chock full of variables that it can take days to get it all figured out. But the #1 variable, the one that seems to bedevil most users, is making the proper connection to the radio. This is where HRD excels compared to other programs. The guys who built the rig interface module knew what they were doing. After a few frustrating tries at manually configuring the connection parameters I threw up my hands and tried the 'auto-connect' feature. BINGO - instant connection. The module polls the radio, grabs the necessary connection settings and does the software configuration for you. But this is just to get the radio to talk to the software to control things like frequency and mode settings. Further configurations for digital modes can be a whole other level of frustration, even if your radio (like my IC-7300) has an integrated sound card. This is because proper configuration is a balancing act between your radio, the software and your computer hardware settings. If you use an external soundcard interface like the excellent Signalink things can be even more painfully complex. Only Rube Goldberg could have dreamed up something more twisted.
But things are not all peachy-keen on the HRD side. The HRD suite reflects its development origins where new modules were 'bolted-on' to a core product. This type of development is very common and is used across the software industry, but if the modules are not integrated from both a function and look and feel perspective the performance and user experience can be a bit rough. We see this in HRD with things like inconsistent menu structures, differences in icon & type styles, etc. as you move from module to module. We also see this as different modules try to compete for the same computer resources like serial ports. It can take developers several software versions to get new functionality fully integrated and matured and the hiccups smoothed out. Here's a hint - it took Microsoft well over a decade to get all the bits and pieces of what we know as Microsoft Office to work together seamlessly and share the same look and feel. The Microsoft Office development team members can be counted in the hundreds. HRD likely has less than a dozen. Given the overall complexity of HRD, the clean-up effort required to bring legacy code up to snuff and the work needed to develop, test and integrate new features I'm willing to give the HRD team time to smooth things out.
OK, back to PSK31. After several hours of tweaking I was finally rewarded with settings on both the radio side and the HRD side that allowed me to transmit a clean PSK31 signal. I happened to get it running just before a busy digital mode contest weekend, so I had lots of opportunities to hone my settings and set up my macros. Once I got things figured out it was like shooting fish in a barrel - see a PSK31 CQ call signal stream in the waterfall, click on it, throw your callsign back and the odds were better than 50/50 that the other station would acknowledge you. Easy peasy. The log filled up fast. But I'm sure for most of you reading this, PSK31 is old news.
But it was while playing with PSK31 that I found perhaps the biggest benefits of HRD:
But in the past week I found myself with a lot of extra time off from work as I was playing nursemaid to my lovely XYL who had knee replacement surgery (she's doing fine, thank you). I became determined to figure out this program and make a decision to either keep using it or turn to something else.
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| Ham Radio Deluxe logging window |
My motivation for learning HRD ended up being digital modes. I've been an SSB guy since I first got my General ticket over 15 years ago, but I really wanted to give digital modes a try. This was spurred by my interest in emergency communications. As much as I like voice communications I realize that passing messages by voice is a highly error prone process. Some level of expertise in digital communications is necessary if you expect to communicate effectively in times of emergency.
So, I thought I'd start with PSK31 and work up from there. PSK31 is extremely popular, allows keyboard-to-keyboard chats and there's usually someone hanging around the pre-determined frequencies on 80, 40 and 20 meters looking for a contact.
There's a lot of good digital mode software out there, the most famous being Fldigi (for 'fast, light digital'). Fldigi is free software that is maintained by a very talented development group and is something of the standard in digital communications. It is excellent software and is my #1 recommendation for someone looking for a digital mode package. But because Fldigi's focus is just on digital it leaves out a lot of features to support other modes of operation like SSB. I was looking for something more broad-based, something that could support all the modes I was interested in using - SSB, AM, digital and, perhaps some day, CW. I was also looking for an integrated logging program.
By process of elimination I settled on HRD and ponied up the money for an annual subscription. I manage application development for a living so I'm not afraid to pay for good software. I understand the costs involved in the development and maintenance of good software. But on the flip side I also expect a certain level of development and maintenance activity that you don't often find with 'freeware'. The management team at HRD seem to understand this, and they maintain steady progress on bug fixes, feature requests and bringing on new capabilities.
(Time for an aside here, because I know someone is going to bring this up. Several years ago HRD got a bad rap for how it was treating its paying customers. Things came to a head when, out of spite, one of its support staff turned off several customers access to the software in retaliation for bad reviews. Soon after HRD management was reorganized and the new management team has been working hard at both improving the HRD software and doing damage control. The new HRD is not the old HRD, both from a software and management perspective. Yet reviewers on forums like eHam and QRZ.com continue to bitch about this incident as though it happened yesterday, using it as a tool to bludgeon HRD. To those I say, give it up. It's unwarranted and grossly unfair to the current management team, who are bending over backwards to provide a quality product and support.)
HRD is a program so chock full of variables that it can take days to get it all figured out. But the #1 variable, the one that seems to bedevil most users, is making the proper connection to the radio. This is where HRD excels compared to other programs. The guys who built the rig interface module knew what they were doing. After a few frustrating tries at manually configuring the connection parameters I threw up my hands and tried the 'auto-connect' feature. BINGO - instant connection. The module polls the radio, grabs the necessary connection settings and does the software configuration for you. But this is just to get the radio to talk to the software to control things like frequency and mode settings. Further configurations for digital modes can be a whole other level of frustration, even if your radio (like my IC-7300) has an integrated sound card. This is because proper configuration is a balancing act between your radio, the software and your computer hardware settings. If you use an external soundcard interface like the excellent Signalink things can be even more painfully complex. Only Rube Goldberg could have dreamed up something more twisted.
 |
| Why design something simple when it's far more fun to make it overly complex? |
But things are not all peachy-keen on the HRD side. The HRD suite reflects its development origins where new modules were 'bolted-on' to a core product. This type of development is very common and is used across the software industry, but if the modules are not integrated from both a function and look and feel perspective the performance and user experience can be a bit rough. We see this in HRD with things like inconsistent menu structures, differences in icon & type styles, etc. as you move from module to module. We also see this as different modules try to compete for the same computer resources like serial ports. It can take developers several software versions to get new functionality fully integrated and matured and the hiccups smoothed out. Here's a hint - it took Microsoft well over a decade to get all the bits and pieces of what we know as Microsoft Office to work together seamlessly and share the same look and feel. The Microsoft Office development team members can be counted in the hundreds. HRD likely has less than a dozen. Given the overall complexity of HRD, the clean-up effort required to bring legacy code up to snuff and the work needed to develop, test and integrate new features I'm willing to give the HRD team time to smooth things out.
 |
| A bit of keyboard chat with KG4ZQY in Brunswick, GA. I find that the PSK31 baud rate closely matches my touch typing speed, so keyboard-to-keyboard is actually a lot of fun |
But it was while playing with PSK31 that I found perhaps the biggest benefits of HRD:
- The data mode module talks to the radio configuration module which talks to the rig control module which talks to the logbook module which talks to the callsign lookup module which talks to the DX cluster module which... well, you get it. Everything talks to everything else, fairly seamlessly and quickly. The developers have done a good job integrating the various modules that make up HRD.
- HRD is stable. It has not frozen or hiccuped even once on the three Windows 10 laptops I've tested it on. Now that's an accomplishment. In the software world stability trumps features every time. I'm glad HRD has focused on stability, even if it's at the expense of bringing on new features.
I now have HRD running on a Panasonic Toughbook with an i5 dual core processor, 16 GB of system memory and plain-jane Intel graphics - good but not great specs for a laptop today. The software just loafs along, gobbling up less than 2% of system resources and plays well with other software packages like Winlink 2000 that demand access to serial ports and other resources.
I can't say if HRD is the best thing going for an integrated ham radio software package. I can say that it works and works well for me. I'll continue to train up on Fldigi simply because that's the standard within the ARES groups I support, but for general use, HRD - and the IC-7300 - makes for a crackerjack setup.
W8BYH out
I can't say if HRD is the best thing going for an integrated ham radio software package. I can say that it works and works well for me. I'll continue to train up on Fldigi simply because that's the standard within the ARES groups I support, but for general use, HRD - and the IC-7300 - makes for a crackerjack setup.
W8BYH out
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