CQD CQD MGY...

Sorry I haven't posted in 3 months. Fact is, I haven't done much radio to talk about.

Lauren's too busy with school to get on the air, but all that may change. We're moving our bedroom back downstairs, where all the radios reside, so we may both be getting a little more airtime. Maybe even Jes will partake in some on-air activity.

I turned 40 last week. Not too happy about it, really, but you can't stop it from happening. It was uneventful, a couple of dinners, and a weekend in Pigeon Forge with the wife.

There they opened a new museum called "Titanic" on Thursday, almost 98 years to the day it set sail on its ill-fated maiden voyage, and we went to it on Sunday. We took pictures of it and naturally, the antenna is what attracted my attention. Since this is a mockup of the forward half of the ship, the entire antenna wasn't there. However, I still contemplated what the resonant frequency of that mockup was...

It's hard to see from this photo but the 4-wire antenna is suspended from the mast in the front to the 2nd funnel (on the real Titanic, there was a 2nd mast positioned behind the 4th funnel, or "dummy" funnel).

The museum did an excellent job in maintaining the historical accuracy of all parts of the Titanic. Radio buffs will be extremely pleased with the way the radio officers John Phillips and Harold Bride are portrayed. They sent distress signals right up until power went out in the radio room and the ship was moments from going under.

Sadly, John Phillips (left) died. Harold Bride survived the sinking, passing away in 1956.

There is a page dedicated to the Marconi room of Titanic I highly recommend. It includes the radio traffic messages passed between Titanic and many of the ships who were rushing to her aid. Titanic used the callsign "MGY", which it was assigned in January of 1912. You'll see the calls of "CQD MGY" (CQD was the predecessor to today's SOS distress call) and the ships that responded.

This photo is the only known photo to exist of Titanic's actual Marconi room. It's a double exposure photo taken by Father Frank Browne who disembarked Titanic at Queensland, her last stop before crossing the Atlantic towards her destiny and history. Had Father Browne remained on board, not only would he have most likely died, but the photos he took would have been destroyed by the sea, and with it, many of the unique photographs only Father Browne was able to capture, including one of Titanic's Captain Smith, and that of a child playing on one of the decks, the only photos of their kind known to exist.

If you make your way to Pigeon Forge (or Branson, MO) do stop in and pay a visit. It's well worth the time and money. We spent about 3 hours in the museum (self-guided) and there's information about Titanic even the most hardcore of enthusiasts will discover. There's even an interactive exhibit that will show you the Morse lettering and will allow you to tap out your name on a touch-screen straight key.

I may even start calling my radio room a Marconi room...if I can ever freshen up on my CW...but that's another story.

$25k in communications, in a $500 car

A few weeks ago Jalopnik posted images of a ham who had a Dodge Colt for sale...

The car itself was priced at $500, but the electronics inside are valued at $25,000!!! Just one look inside and it's impossible for me to imagine the ability to actually drive this thing, much less operate while mobile, with all the radios, scanners, GPS's, mics, and even a Game Boy.

I'm sure plenty of questions come into mind when looking at this, the first being "Why?!?!?!". Well, why do we string 5 dipoles over our homes, along with 3 omnidirectionals and a beam or 2? Why do we climb mountains with 20 lbs of radios to operate from the peak of some rock no one has heard of? Why do we build morse code transmitters inside of tuna cans? Why build J-poles when we could buy them?

Along the same lines, why do some people collect Barbie Dolls, collectible plates, baseball cards, etc. Why, why why?

I don't know if anyone would actually buy this beast, but then again, one man's junk is another's treasure. I'm sure the hydraulics on the rear push the value of the Colt to $1000.

By the way, it looks like the folks at HamSexy had a heads-up on this last April.

Being 6'3", I don't think I'd fit in the car with it empty, so I'm going to have to pass.

Still, I wonder if the stereo works. If so, does it have the original 8-track?

New Year's resolutions

As New Year's approaches, I've often shied away from any New Year's resolutions since 7th grade. In fact, the last resolution I made was in 7th grade to not make any more of these things. And up to this point, it's been a resolution well-kept.

However, with Lauren now licensed (and newly granted vanity assigned) and my other daughter Amber more interested since her big sister got her ticket, I've decided to make a few resolutions, and then check them to see if I kept them at the end of 2010 (by the way, is it pronounced "Twenty-Ten" or "Two-Thousand Ten"?).

1. I resolve to get Lauren an HT*.
2. I resolve that Amber will at least study to get her license, with Jes, Lauren and I helping. Hopefully it's before the Question Pool change on July 1.
3. I resolve to re-install a mobile in the minivan.
4. I resolve to talk with Lauren on the radio at least once/week on the way home from work*.
5. I resolve that I'll get Lauren and Jes on 10 meters (if the band will ever open up!)*.
6. I resolve to get a dipole antenna and string it up and get back on 40/80 meters.
7. I resolve to contact at least 20 countries on HF.

Now, let's see if these are attainable this year...

Oh, and I'll lose 30 pounds....

* It seems Lauren decided to see if she could fly and jumped out a window at a friends house on New Year's Eve. She's fine, but grounded for a month. So some of these will not take effect until February...

SKYWARN Recognition Day 2009

It's been a somewhat slow month for me being on the radio. After Lauren got her license things have been quiet.

I talked to her on the way home from work one evening. My friend Jason, KF4VDX jumped in and talked to her briefly, but other than that she's not had time to get on the air. She's doing homework or is at my mom's house, her friend's house, or my sister-in-law's and she's without a radio.

I'm looking to get her an HT as I promised her. I'm looking at a Yaesu or even a Chinese-made radio. I know, that whole thing with China and the economy but dammit if you can pick up a dual-bander for $95, you can't help but take it into consideration...

Another friend of mine lost his wife last month. I went to the receiving and paid my respects. I also found another friend who's been overseeing the SKYWARN activities for the NWS. His name is Ed Bradley, W4VGI. We talked (for the first time in 2+ years in person) and briefly discussed some issues that had occurred over the last 2 years. I won't go into detail, but he did invite me to the Morristown office for SKYWARN Recognition Day on December 5. I said I would look into it and asked him to let me know when he needed operators.

Fast forward to Friday, December 5.

I'm cruising my Facebook early in the evening and see someone post that they were headed to their weather service office for SKYWARN Recognition Day and I uttered a few curse words thinking (as I usually do) it was the next weekend. I got an email from him a couple of weeks before, and not surprising to me I forgot about it.

It had been 3 or 4 years since I participated (from the Morristown office, that is, although I worked a few stations from home one year) and was eager to get back up there. I called on the Morristown repeater to the ham station WX4MRX and found that Ed was there, and asked if he needed help. He eagerly accepted, and I got permission from the Mrs. and headed up to Morristown (an hour's drive from home).

When I arrived a couple of hams were on station and trying to make some contacts. It was a bit nostalgic coming back to the old place. The last time I remembered it, the actual station had 3 radios (Two 2m/440 dual-band Alincos and a 220 radio) and an APRS setup. I was pleased to see it has since been upgraded to include an HF station and additional radios on most VHF bands.

Gone are the two CRTs and in its place is one LCD with a switch to two different PCs, one for APRS, the other for internet. There are 3 Yaesu FT-8800R's for 2m/440 operation, the 220 radio (Alinco DR-235 MKIII), a Mirage B5018G amp, and Icom 718 HF rig with IT-100 Auto-tuner, and various meters and power supplies to keep the radios working. The new setup is off to the lower right, and a layout of the setup is below.

I was amazed at how much the station had changed since I last visited, but it was a pleasant surprise. Not to mention jealousy at the sophistication of the layout. The last thing I want to do is show a pic of my hamshack...

After Ed and I had a talk to catch up on the last couple of years, I got to it, trying to make contacts. I participated in the inaugural event 11 years ago and I had a very active evening, making contacts all over the US and locally. I had a great time and have worked them from Morristown off an on over the years.

Unfortunately it was not a good night on HF this time around as far as band conditions go. Everything from 10 to 20 meters was dead or dying, and 40 was noisy and polluted with the shortwave stations, and 80 was not active yet (unless you wanted to talk like a CBer on the usual outlets). I started on 20 and worked a few weather service stations, tried a few on 40, and 80 was no luck at all, even as I was wrapping up.

I only contacted about 20 stations on HF. In hindsight, I completely skipped over VHF. I could have hopped on the local repeaters and made some contacts that way (I forgot they were allowed) and completely ignored that fact.

Also, it appeared that Ed may have not submitted WX4MRX as a weather service station until it was too late, several stations were asking why we "weren't on the list".

Like Field Day, I'm thinking ahead to next year. Hopefully I'll be better prepared and I'll try to recruit some additional help for the graveyard shift. I had a couple of guys there for the first couple of hours, but they left and I was by myself until I left the weather service office at about 4am.

It's an interesting event and one I really enjoyed doing. Perhaps if I have enough time in advance I can take the family up to help participate. That would certainly bring out the hermits if they hear a female voice or even more so a kid's voice calling "CQ". Don't worry, I'll be sure to send them home before midnight.

Lauren's got a new callsign

Well less than 2 months after my daughter Lauren passed her ham test, she decided that KJ4QNH was not for her. Something about the letter "Q" she didn't care for.

So we applied for and got her a new callsign through the Vanity system.

She is now K4LRN. The suffix "LRN" is short for her name, something she liked when we looked at what callsigns were available.

I checked late Thursday evening and it was still pending, so either yesterday or today it went through.

Merry Christmas, Lauren!

EDIT: The expiration is on Christmas Day of 2019, so it did come into effect on Christmas Day.

My Christmas present to you: How to renew your ham license for FREE! *

If you've been licensed for over 10 years, chances are you've received notices from companies offering to renew your license for a "minimal fee".

Well, I'm about to save you some money, because you don't have to pay a dime if you do it yourself*.

All you need to do is to go to the FCC's Universal License System (ULS) site and renew online.

A few "quick notes":

• *If you have a vanity callsign (like I do) you will need to pay the vanity fee (currently $13.40 as of the posting of this article). This fee can also be paid online.
• You cannot renew until it is 90 days before the date of expiration and up to 2 years after the expiry. If you wait to renew after the expiration date, you CANNOT transmit on amateur radio frequencies from the date of expiration until it appears in the ULS as renewed! If you wait until after the 2-year grace period, it cannot be renewed, you will need to take the Technician Class exam to get re-licensed.
• This whole renewal process will NOT be instantaneous, it may take several days to process, so the sooner you fill out the renewal request during the 90-day window, the sooner it will get processed and you will not have to chance an interruption from using ham radio.
• If filing online is still not for you, then you can still print and fill out the Form 605 and file via snail mail. That's free as well. Also, the ARRL will do it free for members, but Vanity calls are $13.40 + $5 for processing.

Find your FRN

You will need to know your FRN (FCC Registration Number) in order to renew. Don't know it? Don't worry, all you need to do is look it up on the ULS search page.

To search for your FRN:

1. Go to the ULS main page.
2. Under the "Search" area, click "Licenses".
3. In the search page enter your callsign.
4. Locate your callsign. Under the "FRN" column (in the center) is your FRN that you will need to log in and renew your license. Write it down!

If you already know your FRN and password, go to the login page, sign on, and wait for me down below. Otherwise, continue on...

Chances are, you've never had to use ULS before, since either you've been a ham for less than 10 years, or renewed it before ULS online renewal was enacted, let someone else do it for you, or you got a new callsign (due to vanity request or license upgrade) and the 10-year term was reset upon the issuance of the new callsign. Therefore when you get back to the ULS sign-on page, click "Register".

When you get there, you will have 3 options, click "Update" in the middle.

Personal Security Question

Now, if this is your first time using ULS, you probably have not set your Personal Security Question. If you have previously set up your Personal Security Question, skip to the next paragraph. If you have NOT set up a Personal Security Question, you will need to fill out an online request form and someone with the FCC will manually set this question and email you once complete. This may take a couple of days! To get to the request page, click the link that takes you to https://esupport.fcc.gov/password.htm.

On the next page, click "Set your Personal Security Question" and the next page is where you fill out the Personal Security Question you want to set.

You will need your FRN, enter your contact info, and provide a current email address, then set whatever you want for your Personal Security Question. You can either choose a preset question from the dropdown menu, or set one up that you alone will know.

Again, someone contracted with the FCC will set the question and answer you chose so once again write it down!

Reset your password

Once you have received your email from the FCC that the Personal Security Question has been set up (or you already know it and skipped the previous paragraph) you will need to set your FRN password.

• From the ULS main page, click "Login", then go to the link to contact tech support, then click the link to reset your password.
• Enter your FRN (you did write it down, didn't you?).
• Answer the Personal Security Question you set up.
• Enter your new password (minimum 6 characters, combination of letters, numbers, and special characters (I highly recommend you do NOT use your callsign (if it was a 2X3).
• Once your password is reset you may get a notification from the FCC advising that your password was reset.

Time to Log in to the ULS

Hopefully you haven't given up hope and are not shilling out $5-10 for someone else to renew your license at this point. We're almost there, I promise!

You've gone through setting up your Personal Security Question and/or password, so now it's time to log in.

• From the ULS main page, click "Login".
• Enter your FRN (again, you did write it down somewhere?) and password.
• You should now be viewing your information (callsign, address, etc.):
• On the menu to the left, you will see a link to renew your license so click the link.
• The next page will show your callsign in a box on the left (you should have "Eligible" selected above the box with your callsign). Click you callsign to highlight it, and the select the "Add" button in between. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click "Continue".

• Follow the remaining instructions to finish the registration and submit once you are ready.

If you have a Vanity call, you will be prompted to pay the fee associated with renewing a Vanity callsign once the renewal application has been successfully received. It will be in a "pending" mode until the Vanity fee is paid. I plan cover that process in a later posting.

And that, my friends, is what they're charging you for. So now, if all has gone through successfully, you will be placed in the queue for renewal. It shouldn't take more than a couple of business days to get updated in the ULS but give it up to 10 business days before attempting to contact the FCC for an update. Check the ULS for your callsign and note the expiration date should now read 10 years from now. You should also receive an email confirmation.

I admit for some this may be too much, but if you stuck with it this far, you hopefully saved a bit of money. If not, then you're not out an incredible amount of money if you let someone else do it for you. But still, why pay someone else to do a job that you should be able to do on your own for free?

I'd love to hear from anyone who followed these directions and get some feedback one way or the other. Also, if you could proved additional screenshots (especially if you have to renew your Vanity) I would appreciate it, as I never thought to grab screen captures while renewing mine, but then again, this idea didn't occur to me until after the fact. If you have a sequential callsign that's due for renewal, I can try to help if possible. My email is gregk4hsm at gmail dot com.

Morse Code keyer manufacturer moving to Knoxville

Today I found that Scott Robbins, W4PA was buying Vibroplex and moving the company here to Knoxville.

I met Scott at a RACK meeting several years back. He was working at Ten-Tec and was notorious as a contester (before retiring last year).

He was the guest speaker and gave an example recording showing how he can use two radios simultaneously to make contacts during contests. While tuning with one radio, he's making a contact on another. I don't know what he did for writing down the contacts...

It's good to know that there's some economic boost around here. Even if it's "ancient technology". Wonder if he's hiring?

Meet my daughter, KJ4QNH!!!

Nearly a year ago, I posted that my daughter Lauren was studying to be a ham. Unfortunately, with school, life, girl scouts, and basically everything else getting in the way, we were limited to 1/2 hour Q&As once or twice a week on much of what she already studied, and a few sample tests on QRZ, most of which she missed passing by a couple of questions.

As summer approached, I was looking forward to sitting down with her and studying, but she would lose interest (or rather, she was wanting to play with her friends, watch TV, play her Nintendo DS, etc.) or I would not be able to help her due to household "honeydews" that were never-ending.

I was determined not to force her in to doing this. I didn't want to pressure her, and only wanted her to get her license because she wanted to do it, not because I (or my wife) wanted her to. I walked a fine line between encouraging her and making her. I figured if I forced her in to studying, it would only discourage and block her from wanting to get her license, but I would often remind her that she needed to study.

I would occasionally ask her "are you still interested in getting your license?", and she eagerly replied she was determined to get it.

We continued to study together whenever possible and even my wife (Jessie, K4RLJ) was occasionally helping. Her biggest stumbling blocks were the frequencies allocated to Technician class licensees, what bands belonged to what frequencies, and the questions relating to Ohm's Law.

Then I remembered that on occasion ham groups have all-day classes followed by exams that same day. I was listening to a local net and caught some guys talking about one that had just occurred the Saturday prior and decided to email some folks and ask if there was any more such groups that were going to take place anytime soon. I was met with 4 different groups conducting such classes, but none were here in town. One was 2 hours south in Chattanooga, another in Kingsport, and yet another in North Carolina.

I then got an email from a friend who was a VE for W5YI and was going to have a class in my wife's hometown of LaFollette (about an hour north of here) and checked with Lauren and we decided we would do that one.

I gathered that this would be the key to Lauren's passing her test. There wouldn't be any TV, internet, or other distractions and she could focus completely on the task at hand. Plus she had been studying off-and-on for over a year, so my wife and I were confident she would focus her efforts and possibly pass the test. We didn't expect her to pass, but we didn't expect her to fail, either.

I did this once before with my sister-in-law when she was about 13. That one was an all-day session, where one person read off all the questions, and the correct answer, and they moved on to the next question. They then took the exams the next morning. Unfortunately she failed her test.

She did eventually get her ticket after studying and my wife took her to an exam session in Lafollette scheduled just for her. She did not, however get much more involved and her license has expired. If she wanted to get her license, she'd have to re-take the test and get a new callsign.

This session was different from my sister-in-law's. We met at Paradigm Church, which was located at a small shopping center on the far end of town. There, they gave her the questions and correct answers on a study sheet and they let everyone study at their own pace, without reading the pool aloud.

There was one person who was blind, and while Lauren was studying, several of us who were sitting around with nothing to do decided to help him and went into another room and read the questions and answers to him. His father who wasn't licensed either helped out as well.

They would study for 45 minutes and then take a 15 minute break. There was a 90 minute lunch in between.

The guys there were very nice about providing pizza for everyone and a few drinks to pass around. It was small, but quiet, and Lauren was concentrating like I've never seen before.

The study session was scheduled to last until 4PM, but Lauren had already gone through the pool by 11AM. She wanted to take the test right then, but there wasn't enough VEs to administer the examination. I quizzed her on several parts and she would miss one or two, and I would have her go back and re-study those portions. Finally, as the afternoon went on, the VEs arrived and started to fill out the Form 605's for her to get her exam when they asked for her picture ID...and guess who forgot to pick up her picture ID...

I suddenly entered a panic mode. I called Jes and proceeded to freak out asking for anything with her picture on it. Her school had picture IDs produced for those times when they might (god forbid) get lost or missing and I fortunately had one in my wallet. They asked for a photocopy. And guess who didn't have a copier in his back pocket...

I then scoured the town for someone...ANYONE...with a copier handy. The local pharmacies didn't have them anymore. For once, Walmart didn't have what I needed. All the check cashing places with copiers and faxes were all closed. Fortunately there was a rental place open at the local mall and I was able to coax the person behind the counter to photocopy the ID.

By the time I got back (30 minutes later) the other two who were studying alongside Lauren were in the middle of their tests, and Lauren was waiting on me with the photocopy.

We filled out the paperwork, handed over her $14 application fee, and away she went. It was hard not to stare at her while she was taking the test, but I fought the urge as best I could.

20 minutes later, she turned everything in. And we waited.

And waited...

Aaaaaaand waited...

I couldn't get any kind of yea/nay from the VEs one way or the other. We sat there patiently while they graded the other tests and hers. I would see them mark the test and pray it wasn't hers they were bleeding red ink all over.

They told one of the others that she had passed, but hadn't told us if Lauren passed. The longer it went on, the less confident we felt that she had passed.

Finally, the VEs called her up to sign her name on the CSCE. "So she passed?" I asked. "Well heck yeah she did!" was the reply, and Lauren smiled as bright as she possibly could.

We called Jes, her grandmother, some friends, and I posted her success on Twitter and Facebook and the kudos came in from hams the world over.

She missed 7 of 9 questions she could miss and still pass the exam. It took 11 days to get her callsign as the FCC was slow to process the paperwork and Veteran's Day also had an effect on the delay.

Earlier this evening, she had her first QSO with Jim, KQ4AB, who was the man who was overseeing the test session. At first I thought I would be her first QSO, or maybe Jes, or a couple of friends of ours who have kids that are hams, but I thought that she should check in to his net and have a quick QSO with him. He got a kick out of it and I recorded it on my cell phone. Here's the video.

So now, I have a wife and daughter who are hams. Just one more daughter to go. And she's cracked open the book and begun her journey. It may be a couple of years (she just turned 8) but she's determined to be like her sister.

I couldn't be happier.

Hey "balloon boy", you're doing it wrong!

Like many of you, last Thursday I was glued to the TV watching this "UFO" over Colorado with what was believed to be a kid inside the lower compartment. Thousands of feet over land, thoughts were the obvious for me: Was Falcon Heene cold? Did he have adequate oxygen at whatever altitude he was located? Was the helium mixing with the lower compartment? Was he even on board?

I was relieved when he wasn't on the balloon and then began to wonder where he was. I was out of the house shopping for clothes for a funeral when I got word he was found at home.

I've dabbled with high-altitude balloons over the last 3-4 years, most notably trying to get one across the Atlantic. I have a little bit of knowledge about helium and zero-pressure balloons like what we used for the attempts. I'd like to think I, though not the expert, had a little more than the average bear about what was going on. So when I saw the balloon in the sky with only helicopter cameras and high-def zoom for reference, I couldn't judge just how large this balloon was. It could have been 30' in diameter, 50', 100' maybe? It wasn't easy to determine.

Then, when I saw it coming down to the ground, only when I saw the rescue person chasing after it did I see how big it truly was. I gathered it to be 10-15' in diameter after using the chaser for reference (see below).

When I saw the balloon's true size, it couldn't possibly lift off the ground with a 6-yr-old, much less carry him 50 miles.

I had my doubts based on what I did with launching balloons for Spirit of Knoxville back a couple years ago. I've emptied large tanks of helium into a 1500kg latex balloon and it would have maybe 15 lbs of lift.

How, then could a 50 lb boy (rough guess) reside in a roughly 20 lb "UFO" (another rough guess) with that much helium? It didn't seem possible, at least to me.

My suspicions were validated when the balloon turned up no boy inside. Only after the drama did we see the actual launch of the balloon, and even there I was stumped at how people might think a child was in there, as flimsy as it was slowly climbing into the sky.

I am on a couple of ARHAB mailing lists, and this was a hot topic for those who are more adept at calculating lift, volume, and the specs of what size balloon would be needed for lifting large payloads (like children). However, the debate was somewhat divided, several thought the balloon might be able to lift 60+ lbs of human into the great beyond, and others (like me) felt it was not possible. Of course, I weighed in more of the stability of the craft as opposed to just lift vs load.

In the image to the right, this was SNOX II, our 2nd attempt to send a payload up and out over the Atlantic. The balloon is what's called "zero-pressure". There is an opening at the bottom to vent excess helium as the balloon climbs to a higher altitude and the balloon expands. The venting of helium balances out the lift/load ratio, and once it has reached an equilibrium, will cruise at altitude for several hours. If you look carefully, the bubble at the top of the balloon is filled with about 13 lbs of "positive lift" helium. Below it is an anchor, but the payload was just under 12 lbs, the maximum legal size payload we could use for FAR 101 exemption of balloon flight rules. I'm holding the payload and ballast to the right of the balloon, by the way...

Now, compare the bubble in the SNOX balloon to the helium that filled the "UFO" in the picture above. Even with one side of the "UFO" deflated, I'm speculating that the helium in the SNOX balloon is roughly a third the capacity of the Heene balloon. 13 X 3 = 39 lbs of positive lift. Give or take 10 lbs, is it possible the "UFO" balloon could haul a 6-year-old boy?

I am certainly not an expert mathematician. I did well in math until we started subtraction in Kindergarten, and it was downhill from there. However, even looking at my past experience I certainly think there's no way that the Heene balloon could have ever gotten off the ground.

Now, it looks more like the whole incident was an elaborate hoax by Richard Heene and his wife and kids, who were also in on it. You have to ask what kind of deranged mind would concoct such an elaborate hoax as this, but then again, I've never watched Wife Swap to see just how insane he is.

I'm not one who would do some of the things he's done, such as taking my kids tornado chasing or hurricane chasing. The closest I've come is taking my oldest (Lauren) with me to Foothills Parkway to watch an approaching thunderstorm system, and that frightened her to where I decided not to do that again anytime soon.

Who knows what Heene was thinking when he came up with this scheme. I'm just glad he's not a ham operator. Who knows what kind of trouble he would cause then...

I do think, though, a "reality show" about a balloon autonomously crossing the Atlantic would sell much better to TV execs than whatever he had going on.

Congrats to George's daughter

TWIAR's producer George Bowen, W2XBS left the following on TWIAR's web site:

My apologies for not having TWIAR edition #860 available on the web site. This weekend, my daughter and Bill Barans son Zachary successfully passed their technician exams and should have their call signs this week. This endeavor to have yet another ham in my family has taken up considerable time, which resulted in edition 860 not being available. Please look for a brand new This Week in Amateur Radio and TWIARhn (Edition #861) this coming weekend October 10th. This weeks Edition #245 of TWIARi International is now up and available.
73 George - Executive Producer

This Week in Amateur Radio

Looks like George has a decent excuse this week.

I've been trying to get my daughter Lauren (age 9) motivated into getting her ticket before next June, when the question pool will change. We got started late in the summer, and she was very motivated. But, as time went on, she started to get distracted with her friends, TV, etc. My quagmire is that I will not push her because I don't want her to get licensed because I want her to, but because she wants to get her license.

It's tough to keep her motivated and not seem pushy. She hasn't looked at the book for a couple of weeks now. But, my other daughter Amber (who turned 8 last Sunday) has now expressed an interest in ham radio as well. Perhaps a little competition is good for motivating them. They tend to be competitive in many things (as sisters tend to be) so maybe I need to light a fire under Lauren by teaching Amber.

I also can try to find an all-day class where they spend about 8 hours learning the question pool, and then they take the exam the following day. Problem is, where to find one around here?

I took my sister-in-law to one of these classes when she was 13 and very much interested in getting a license. Unfortunately she didn't pass the exam (missed by 3 questions) but she kept at it and got her license about a month later. She ended up letting her license expire, but she spoke to me recently about wanting to get it again.

Maybe I ought to conduct my own session with all three of them. Although my patience threshold would be equivalent to that of Lewis Black.

Thanks but no. I'd better find someone else to lead the classes.

Autopatch...who uses THAT anymore?

Back when I got my license in 1993, cell phones were nowhere near the "state of the art" they are these days. In fact, 7.6 million had them in 1991. Now, 203 million of us in the U.S. alone have them.

They were large, bulky, and heavy (look at the monstrosity to the right), they lasted for all of a few hours on a charge (without talk time), and if you did use them, you were either charged a ridiculous amount of money per minute, or you had limited talk times per month. And don't even get me started on roaming charges...

Because only doctors and celebrities could afford these miracles of modern technology, the "poor man's cell phone" was the autopatch, or a phone patch hooked up to a repeater. Back in 1993, we had 3 repeaters in Knoxville with autopatch capability, and all were open for use. I was fascinated to listen on a scanner to hams using the patch to call home, find out what they needed to pick up from the grocery store or the fast-food joint, or just to see if little Johnny got home from school okay. Every so often a 911 call would roll in and usually it was a car wreck where people were banged up but okay.

There were those who used it daily for the same thing over and over. One in particular would call his mom and ask her what she needed, and every time he called, she said the same thing: "Pick me up some 'see-grets'," or "cigarettes" as we would say.

Some hams would never have a QSO with anyone other than the autopatch. I can recall many hams who would make their patch call then leave, never to be heard from again until the next time an autopatch was needed.

My first autopatch call was to my mom, if I remember correct. She wasn't too thrilled. She didn't like the "one-way" aspect of it where I couldn't hear her unless I un-keyed the mic. Still, it was great to have the ability of calling home while on the from work to see if I needed to stop and get something along the way, or call my then-girlfriend (now the wife) to check on things.

Knoxville must be the exception to the rule, because just about any other city I've been to, from Des Moines to Destin, not one phone patch outside of Knoxville was "open". They were off the air, toned with an unpublished tone, or a code was needed to be entered that the repeater owner needed to provide (and who were they to do such a thing?). I can recall one repeater trustee in Florida who said flat out he wouldn't give out the patch code to "foreigners" like myself. That ended the otherwise pleasant QSO immediately and swearing off of "his" machine.

One repeater here in Knoxville had its user base centered around the autopatch, and it was not unusual to see 50-60 patch calls made per day. Along with funny IDs, weather info, and an occasional TWIAR or Newsline airing, it was a happening repeater.

Then came the modern era of telecommunications. Phones got smaller, smarter, and most importantly, cheaper. My first cell phone was circa 1996. I got a whopping 60 minutes per month to use, at $49.99/month. My first cell phone was the popular Nokia phones with that "Snake" cell phone game that was so addictive. Text messaging? Wasn't that what beepers were for?

Over the years, as cell phones gained popularity, autopatch use was inversely proportional, and nowadays one autopatch call a day is above average. I myself have not used an autopatch for several years. Until today.

Today is my younger daughter's birthday. So one of her requests was to have a sleepover with her friends. And my other daughter's friends. And their sisters. 9 kids (including my two) camped out in the living room overnight last night. All girls. Then there's my wife, and our two dogs and a cat, all girls. I was drowning in an Ocean of estrogen.

This morning I get (rudely) awakened to the sounds of kids hollering about how hungry they were (similar to birds when the mom brings a worm to the nest) and my wife dispatched me on a mission to get doughnuts from the nearby Krispy Kreme. The task was simple: One dozen plain glazed and one dozen with rainbow sprinkles. I arrive at the doughnut shop and discover the rainbow sprinkles have been substituted with brown and orange Halloween Sprinkles since it's October. To make sure I don't scar my daughter for life I decide to call my wife to ensure I can get these sprinkles. Alas, I discover I have left my cell phone back at home, because I was still in a stupor heading out the door and forgot to take it with me.

So I go back to the Trailblazer and get on my ham radio, trying to remember how to use the autopatch. Back "in the day" one repeater had the simple "* up, # down" method, where you keyed the mic, announced your call, punched in the * key followed by the 7-digit number, then listened for the repeater to acknowledge the connection and read back the phone number. Another repeater (Tim Berry's WB4GBI on 147.075) was slightly different. You had to key the mic and push *, listen for the dial tone, then key up again and punch in the phone number. An extra step, but nothing like the one used by the local radio club. I can't even remember the sequence, but it was like a 3-digit code to get the patch up, then the 7 digits.

It had been so long since I needed the autopatch, things changed a bit. One repeater's autopatch I couldn't access, so it may be offline (the repeater trustee sold the machine when the club running the repeater dissolved) and the other machine (147.075) changed its format to *up, # down without the need for listening for the dialtone.

Attempt #1 succeeded, but no one answered the phone and I left a message begging for someone, anyone to pick up. Strange, since there's 9 kids and my wife, someone SHOULD have heard it. I call again, and again, I get the answering machine. Since the machine is working, I know my house hasn't burned to the ground, so I try my wife's cell phone. For some reason, it didn't want to connect all 7 digits on that attempt. I try again and this time it connects, but I get her voicemail.

I then decide to make the executive decision to get the doughnuts with sprinkles. In the end, I made the right choice. My wife claims she was not near the phone and it was in the bedroom out of earshot (apparently the 100 decibel level of kids drowns out a phone/answering machine) and the cell phone was on vibrate and she didn't have it on her.

It never ceases to amaze me how the best technology built into a cell phone is useless when you don't take it with you. But it's nice to know that the autopatch is still there "when all else fails".