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eHam.net News

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Ham Radio Operators Conduct Successful Air, Ground Search for Lost Horse:

Posted: 26 Sep 2017 05:36 PM PDT
http://www.eham.net/articles/40141


SEDONA -- Melody the horse was found and returned to her owner after a
group of amateur radio operators conducted an air and ground search Sunday.
The group meets on the radio every morning at 7 a.m. in what is called the Knobby Knee Net. Most are members of the Verde Valley Amateur Radio
Association (VVARA). Sunday morning, Bill Burkett was the control operator
in charge when he received a radio call from Greg LaCrosse. He reported
that he and a group of horse owners from Phoenix were camped at the Bell
Trail trailhead near Sedona and that one of their horses, named Melody, had wandered away during the and was missing.


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Red Cross Seeking Ham Ops to Help Get Word Out from Devastated Puerto Rico:

Posted: 26 Sep 2017 05:36 PM PDT
http://www.eham.net/articles/40140


KALAMAZOO, Mich. (NEWSCHANNEL 3) -- As part of its large scale relief
efforts to help people impacted by Hurricane Maria, in Puerto Rico, the American Red Cross is teaming up with amateur radio operators. The Red
Cross has asked the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) for assistance to
find up to 50 radio amateurs to help record, enter disaster-survivor information into a safety wellness system and help restore communications
for millions of residents in Puerto Rico.
Newschannel 3 spoke with a Kalamazoo Amateur Radio Club member and Red
Cross volunteer, who will deploy to Puerto Rico later this week. Many West Michigan residents with ties to Puerto Rico haven't heard from loved ones,
in some cases for nearly a week. It's the hope these radio operators can
help establish basic communications to allow residents to get the help they need.


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Ham Radio Hobbyists Are Connecting the Caribbean After Hurricane Maria:

Posted: 26 Sep 2017 05:34 PM PDT
http://www.eham.net/articles/40139


The storm silenced much of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. But a
volunteer network of hams are helping people reach their loved ones. "Let
me just see if we got any answers to the relays." "'Whiskey Papa Three
Radio' -- listening," said Ángel Vázquez over radio. When Hurricane Maria
hit Puerto Rico with devastating force, making landfall on September 20, Vázquez was hunkered down at home. On a normal day, he would've been at
work; not far away, at the Arecibo Observatory, the world's second-largest radio telescope. There, Vázquez is Director of Telescope Operations.


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Sunspots Spotted During Solar Eclipse Not Uncommon:

Posted: 26 Sep 2017 05:34 PM PDT
http://www.eham.net/articles/40138


While observing the recent total solar eclipse, many observers may have
noticed a line of small, dark spots on the surface of the sun. These dark sunspots are areas that usually appear fairly regularly in the sun's atmosphere, although they have recently been suspiciously absent.
Astronomers in ancient China recorded sunspots around the 12th century BCE,
and referred to them as 'stars within the solar disk.' The Aztecs
considered them blemishes on the face of Huitzilopochtli their sun god. In Europe, people had a more difficult time accepting their existence because
they adhered to the Greek philosopher Aristotle's idea that all the heavens were perfect and unchanging. In fact, when a large sunspot appeared for
eight days in the year 807 CE, they dismissed the phenomenon as the passage
of the planet Mercury across the sun. Sunspots have also been dismissed as birds in flight passing in front of the sun, while one Renaissance
astronomer postulated they could be undiscovered planets. Sunspots are
large, highly magnetic storms on the surface of the sun, which usually
appear in pairs or groups on either side of the sun's equator. To an
observer on Earth, sunspots appear relatively small. However, because the
sun is 109 times larger in diameter than Earth, they are actually quite
large. In fact, the average sunspot is bigger than the Earth, while others
are quite huge. They can vary in size ranging from a few hundred miles to
many times the Earth's diameter. They can exist for less than an hour,
while larger ones can last up to over a half year. Some sunspots are large enough to be viewed without optical means, such as the large sunspot group
in 2002, which measured about 20 times the size of Earth, which was seen by Arizona Hot Shot David Malpas as he observed the solar disk through the
smoke of the Rodeo-Chediski fire that acted like a solar filter. In a cycle
of about every 11 years, the annual count of sunspots increases from only a
few to more than 100, and then decreases to nearly zero again as a new
cycle begins. The point at which sunspots appear and reach their peak of intensity is called the solar maximum, and when there is very little
activity, the solar minimum. At the beginning of a cycle, sunspot activity rises quickly then declines gradually. Solar cycles are usually relatively regular. However, there was a period between 1650 and 1710, called the
Maunder minimum (named after the astronomer who discovered it) when there
was little or no sunspot activity. This event also coincided with a
recorded period of cold temperatures and severe winters in both Europe and North America.


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Ham Operators Salute Early BeacoSystem:

Posted: 26 Sep 2017 12:33 PM PDT
http://www.eham.net/articles/40137


Members of the South East Metro Amateur Radio Club (SEMARC), including residents of south Washington and Dakota counties, set up a special event station commemorating early airmail and passenger service to the Twin
Cities Sept. 9. They operated from a tent set up at Indian Mounds Regional
Park in St. Paul, behind which was the 110-foot black and yellow tower and still operational beacon light atop the Mississippi River Bluff. The
special event was held to salute the airway beacon navigation system used
by pilots in the mid to late '20s and early '30s until 1935 when the radio beacon system was implemented. The early system of towers, beacons and
concrete arrows assisted pilots carrying passengers and mail in overnight service from Chicago to St. Paul. One relic of the system is a giant
concrete arrow still located in Cottage Grove, which points to Holman Field
in St. Paul.


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Are You Prepared For an Emergency in Thurston County?

Posted: 26 Sep 2017 12:32 PM PDT
http://www.eham.net/articles/40136


Do you have an emergency kit? Are you storing emergency supplies? Do you
have an emergency plan? Recent natural disasters in other parts of the
should make the rest of us think about if we are prepared for a disaster. Recent events in Texas, Florida, the Caribbean and Mexico point out the
fact that very few of us are truly prepared when a disaster strikes, even
if we know it will happen. Preparedness is not a goal, it is an ongoing process that improves your chances of surviving a disaster. As a ham radio operator, KA7FRZ, and a member of Thurston County Amateur Radio Emergency Service (TCARES) I am more acutely aware of the process and I am constantly preparing my home and my neighborhood by asking the tough questions that
opened this article, and providing answers to these questions. As the
recovery begins in the aftermath of the disasters that have affected our hemisphere in the last few months, amateur radio will play a big part in helping to get life back to normal. Many agencies and governments have
already requested amateur radio assistance in setting up communications in
the affected areas, and we responded in force to gladly help wherever and however we could. Ham radio operators from all over the country and the
region have been handling "health and welfare" messages, letting family
members living outside the disaster zone know that "we are OK", their
family members in the disaster zone are safe and well. We also use our communications abilities to help with survivor rescue, help with logistical issues relating to infrastructure recovery, help with information
concerning possible future threats from these monster storms, and many
other support functions.


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Past QCWA General Manager, Former ARRL Staffer Jim LaPorta, N1CC (SK):

Posted: 26 Sep 2017 12:27 PM PDT
http://www.eham.net/articles/40135


James "Jim" LaPorta, N1CC, of Frankston, Texas, died on September
20. He was 76. He was an ARRL and Quarter Century Wireless
Association (QCWA) Life Member. LaPorta served as QCWA General
Manager from March until December 2012.


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FalconSAT-3 Now Open for Amateur Radio Use:

Posted: 26 Sep 2017 12:27 PM PDT
http://www.eham.net/articles/40134


The Air Force Academy satellite FalconSAT-3 is now open for Amateur
Radio use as a digital store-and-forward system. Built in 2005 and
2006 by cadets and faculty in the Space Systems Research Center at
the US Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, FalconSAT-3 was
launched in 2007.


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Ham Talk Live #83 -- HandiHams:

Posted: 26 Sep 2017 12:28 PM PDT
http://www.eham.net/articles/40133


Thursday night at 9 pm Eastern on Ham Talk
Live! Lucinda Moody, AB8WF, the Courage Kenny
HandiHam Program Coordinator will be here to
talk about ways to help bring ham radio to
people with disabilities. Be sure to join us
and call in to ask your questions about
HandiHams!

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