Category: Ham Radio Now

HRN 545: How to Run a Hamfest

The biggest hamfests are growing – Dayton, Orlando, Huntsville. Many smaller hamfests are struggling, or have closed down. Some clubs have had trouble finding a chair person and staff to put on shows that have been around for decades. Facilities are only getting more expensive, while attendence and income are falling.

The ‘RARSfest’ – coming April 5 and hosted by the Raleigh (NC) Amateur Radio Society – is hanging in there, maybe even growing a little. It has a robust flea market, and good array of commerecial vendors, and even attracts one of the big ham radio stores, plus a variety of activities. It’s been a while since any major manufacturer had come to show their wares at any but the biggest shows.

RARSfest Chair Nancy Torborg KB2TNR will join us to talk about how she picked up the event when RARS was struggling to find a new chair, and what she’s done to keep th show going.

Find the event at https://www.rarsfest.org/

The Western Washington Amateur Relay Association has adopted a plan to migrate all repeaters in their area to ‘Narrow FM’ over the next 10 years.

The idea is to increase the number of repeater channels (and the number of repeaters). The plan could as much as double the number of available repeater channels.

It’s mostly simple. For users, it’s probably a menu setting in their radios, but OLDER radios won’t have that option.

For repeater owners, it *may* be as simple as a menu setting for more modern UHF repeaters. On two meters, it’s likely also a small frequency adjustment, and trimming up a duplexer, but if the repeater is really old, it might be replacement time.

Members of the WWARA will be here to talk about it.

Our guest is Jim Masarra N2EST, cartoonist, animator, graphic designer. You’ve seen his work in QST (including some covers), and other ham books and publications. On the cusp of resirement, we talk about is career in and out of ham radio, and how the ARRL seems to have lost its sense of humor.

Have him design a QSL card for you!: https://hamtoons.net

https://HamRadioNow.tv
The most important Amateur Radio program on the Internet
music theme:
Odd News by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Artist: http://www.twinmusicom.org/

East Coast Host Gary K4AAQ made his first transmission on ham radio 60 year ago today, January 11, 1965, under the call sign WN9NSO, in the Chicago suburbs. Ham Radio was very different back then… and it was the same. We’ll review.

Meanwhile, West Coast Host David W0DHG lives just a few miles from one of the several fires devastating the Los Angeles area. He’s safe (for now), but he knows many people who have lost homes. We’ll check in.

https://HamRadioNow.tv
The most important Amateur Radio program on the Internet
music theme:
Odd News by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Artist: http://www.twinmusicom.org/

HRN 541: 🥊👴AAQ vs GPT🤖🥊

Recently Gary K4AAQ bullied ChatGPT into submission on some incorrect information about GMRS channels. Both entities (meat sack and bit sack) say wrong things with absolute confidence. This time, Gary thinks he’s right.

Meanwhile, we might as well retire. AI is doing podcasts now.

HRN 540: O Holy… Grail?

This week, Jason KC5HWB did a show titled "Do We Have TOO MANY Digital Modes?". He was talking about Digital VOICE modes on VHF/UHF, including D-STAR, DMR, System Fusion, P25, NXDN and M17, and how some hams think we should just have ONE DV mode. That show is here:

There’s more to talk about on that suject, so Jason joins Gary K4AAQ live to carry on, with one of Gary’s favorite topics, the ‘Holy Grail’ multi-mode VHF/UHF DV radio. Will we ever get one?

We may talk about some GMRS stuff, too.

HRN 539: Known 4 Always Answering Questions

Just repurposing Gary’s prolific comments on Facebook and Reddit

Not much of a show

HRN 537: Helene Follow-up 🌀
While Hurricane Milton has more recently crossed the state of Florida, we don’t have any Ham Radio information from there yet. Meanwhile, activity in western North Carolina continues daily in recovery from Hurricane Helene.

Steve McAtee N0JJO recently returned from several days deployed in the area and joins David W0DHG and Gary K4AAQ to relate his experience.

https://HamRadioNow.tv
The most important Amateur Radio program on the Internet
music theme:
Odd News by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Artist: http://www.twinmusicom.org/

HRN 536: Ad Hoc Helene 🌀 Nets

Two ad-hoc nets carrying Health & Welfare traffic for western North Carolina in the wake of Hurricane Helene have gotten all the attention. Here’s what happened