Not one but TWO Meteor Showers tonight!

I went up to the Foothills Parkway last night and saw over 50 meteors in about a 4-hour span. And it wasn't the peak!

Via Lifehacker:

Two meteor showers—the Delta Aquarids and the Alpha Capricornids—are both reaching their peak tonight and into Tuesday morning. And with a moon that will be just 6% full, the dark skies could be the perfect stage for quite a meteor show.

Neither of these showers alone is especially strong; Delta Aquarids is more visible in the Southern Hemisphere and Alpha Capricornids only produces up to five meteors per hour. But two showers peaking on the same night together, in combination with a dark sky, bodes well for good views. Together, the showers could produce 20-25 meteors per hour.

Read more here - http://bit.ly/2MqBacq

Ham Radio 2-Meter Band Threats Popping Up

A recent proposal at a recent CEPT conference may pose a threat to the popular 2-meter band in Amateur Radio.

In June, France presented a proposal to make part of the band (144-146 MHz) part of the Aeronautical Mobile Service with Primary allocation. French defense contractor Thales is requesting that they have primary use of the bands, with amateur radio having secondary use.

Even though the proposal will not appear until the World Radiocommunications Conference in 2023, already Amateur Radio organizations in neighboring places like the UK and Portugal are voicing strong objections with it. While it's going to be an uphill battle for any entity to try and overtake the allocation of the amateur radio bands in any country, the fact that it is being proposed and considered is a sobering reminder that hobbyists' contributions to the world of communications are still secondary to everything else occupying the spectrum. No matter how useful ham radio is in regards to community service, weather spotting, experimentation, scientific studies, etc., we are given the access to the ham bands at the mercy of governing bodies such as the the ITU, and if an agency with a need, and money, wants to come in and try to overtake the bands, they will certainly try.

While I'm not screaming that the sky is falling, I am saying that we need to continue to show that we need our amateur radio bands around the world. 2 meters is arguably the most popular band in VHF, if not the most popular overall, offering new hams a chance to break in and get their feet wet with ham radio. Amateur radio repeaters are all across the band, so that you can talk on an HT from your car, or on a hiking trail, or on the side of the road, and reach somebody in another city or county whether it be for emergencies or just to pass the time talking with a friend or a complete stranger.

I've touted the benefits of SKYWARN and emergency services such as ARES, but other services benefit from 2 meters. Clubs will coordinate with community organizations to provide communications for events like triathlons, road cycling tours, and other public events. Nets are held on many 2 meter repeaters (and simplex) for a variety of clubs and topics. There's also other modes of communication used as well, such as APRS. 2m is a good place to test out new modes of communication and on occasion talk to the International Space Station!

In short, 2 meters is not something I see being given away anytime soon, but as long as businesses and governments are thinking that ham radio is "old tech" and "ancient" the best way to show them that it is far from the case will be to use these bands and use them constantly, consistently, and with the best intentions that ham radio has to offer.

Ahhh, Nature!

Another hobby I have picked up is photography.  While I'm not going to be making a career of it anytime soon, I do like to take pictures worth a damn!

Below are some from a recent trip to the Smoky Mountains:

Small rainbow to right of a rain cell moving through Wears Valley

Rain cell in Wears Valley

Rain cell over Cove Mountain (from Foothills Parkway "missing link")

The Sinks

Rain cell south and west of Foothills Parkway (near Look Rock)

 

Sunset from overlook

 

Sunset from overlook

Sunset from overlook

   

Sunset from overlook

 

Sunset from overlook

Sunset from overlook

An end to a beautiful day in East Tennessee!

Drones and Storms

I've been struggling to find places to fly my drone, so sometimes I just take it to my cul-de-sac and just throw it up and let it hover while things occur, such as 4th of July Fireworks, a recent Recycling plant fire, and this one of storms that were in the area. 

During a break in the rain I sent it up about 150'-200' and let it take some shots of lightning at night, and I got a few cool shots.

Last 4th of July, I took it up for some fireworks shots. It's amazing how many people were shooting off fireworks. Those aren't fireflies!

On May 1st there was a fire at Ft. Loudon Recycling facility in Knoxville. I sent up the drone to get some shots and captured a thunderstorm as it approached the fire.

I'm hoping to be able to fly in other areas but it may be easier to ask for forgiveness rather than permission. Can't fly in State or National Parks, so that rules that idea out as well...

Where have I been?

Sometimes life just gets in the way and you forget that you have websites to keep up with.

So where to start? 

Well one of my recent hobbies has been drone flying. I received a DJI Phantom 3 Standard (P3S) as a Christmas gift in 2017 and have been flying it whenever I can. I'll post some videos below.

I've flown it mainly over family property or over my house. I went to Cove Lake State Park and got chewed out royally by a Park Ranger (turns out State Parks were off-limits). I am hoping to fly it over a few places in the future but getting permission seems to be very much an act of Congress these days...

Ham radio has been somewhat on hold as we've installed new flooring over the winter and with my mother moving in, space has been very cramped and so setting my HF equipment back up has been secondary to everything else. I've still been running SKYWARN nets along with several great friends and ham radio aficionados. Fortunately the weather has not been as severe in this area as it has been in years past, so I can focus on other priorities.

Regarding work, my company's changed in the last couple of years. I was working for Scripps Networks, Interactive, now I work for Discovery, inc. Scripps was acquired by Discovery starting in October 2017, and finalized the following March.

Really, other than that, not much groundbreaking news. But hopefully that will change. I plan to be updating this page more often now that I have some things to focus on.

Stay tuned!

Apollo 11 Anniversary in Real Time

Relive the Apollo 11 landing in real time, it's as if you're in Mission Control in Houston:

https://www.firstmenonthemoon.com

How many???

How many ham operators does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

• 1 to install the bulb...
• 1 telling them they're using the wrong bulb...
• 1 telling them they've installed bulbs for 35+ years and that he knows how to properly install one and that the installer's doing it right...
• 3 to commandeer the group conversation to discuss a completely different topic (e.g. body aches/pains)...
• 1 to post on Facebook about how frustrating it is to listen to all the garbage in the house over a stupid bulb...
• 7 to come into the group just to say they're "listening" then back away...
• 1 to question whether the installer has the right license class for the wattage of the bulb being installed...
• 1 to casually throw in the fact that you only need a 10w bulb to see most things in the house...
• 1 who is a Brand X bulb mark and has all the products made by that company...
• 1 who worked for the light bulb company telling you how great that bulb is...
• 1 who hasn't worked for the Brand X light bulb company (or any light bulb company for that matter) to tell you why Brand Y is still better...
• 1 to compare Brand X and Brand Y and brag that their Chinese bulb does the same job for less money...
• 1 who is the house owner and jumps in there to tell everyone to play nice or he'll shut off the power to the house so that no one gets to use their light bulbs PERIOD...

• And 1 to announce to the entire house that there will be an ARES net in 5 minutes and clear the house so that they can use it.

If you've been in ham radio for any length of time you know exactly what I'm talking about.

Has it been a year already?

Sometimes it's easier to SAY you're going to update your blog than it is to actually UPDATE your blog...

A lot has happened since I last posted. Most of it in the last 5 days. Here's the ham radio side of things:

Because of a drought, the city of Gatlinburg suffered major wildfire damage last Monday and citizens and business owners/employees have yet to be allowed back in. As of now, 10 people have died and several are still missing.

You can listen to a portion of the net I helped call here:

The following night, an EF-2 tornado hit McMinn County and did damage to several buildings. 2 fatalities were reported and several were injured.

I called nets on both of these nights. Already riding on very little sleep following the disastrous Chimney Tops 2 fire, I called the SKYWARN net that was needed for several severe storms that hit the region the night after the Gatlinburg Firestorm. We tried a few new concepts and they seem to be working out well.

In other news, I've revamped the East Tennessee SKYWARN site and We've rebooted This Week in Amateur Radio.

And in yet more SKYWARN news, it's that time again for SKYWARN Recognition Day this weekend. It runs from 7PM ET Friday to 7PM ET Saturday (0000z-2400z).

I've been running full steam this whole week, so I'm pretty drained. I promise to elaborate on all of this at a later time this weekend.

On a personal front, I left my previous job of 13 years and have taken on a new job at Scripps Networks Interactive. I've been blessed with an amazing career opportunity and so far, I am (hopefully) making the best of my new career.

Again, not much time to devote for now, but I will update this weekend. Hopefully I will have some time to devote to this on a regular basis. 

SKYWARN Recognition Day 2015 is TONIGHT!!!

Just a quick reminder that tonight after about 9PM, I should be at the National Weather Service participating in SKYWARN Recognition Day. 

It's an annual event where the local NWS bureaus have ham stations set up to make contacts on HF, VHF, UHF, repeaters, APRS, you-name-it. 

This year, I'm taking my DMR radio to work up a few digital contacts if possible. I got permission from the folks at Vol-Net to use their system, so hopefully we'll be able to make it work.

I'll attempt to tweet out my frequency as I go along (@k4hsm). Sometimes I'll be scanning around, other times I may call CQ on a dead frequency. I typically get on repeaters more than HF, but that changes based on band conditions.

So do be looking for me tonight. SKYWARN Recognition Day goes for 24 hours from 7PM-7PM ET (0000-2400Z) so if I'm not around, be listening for WX4MRX all day, because someone should be there!

My Tennessee QSO party activity (or what should've been!)

Well, I *WAS* supposed to participate mobile during the Tennessee QSO Party this past Labor Day weekend. Unfortunately, the stars bounced out of alignment and a number of things conspired to prevent my quest from being fulfilled.

Just after work on Friday, I felt an "itch" in the back of my throat, which became the late summer cold I've been contending with all weekend long and still am fighting off. I was awake most every night trying to sleep, and too tired to stay awake during the day. But couldn't rest because my throat felt like it hot coals were embedded in my larynx and lying down made it worse.

Needless to say, talking hurt and not talking made the pain only more noticeable.

Fast-forward to Sunday morning. I got a text at 9am asking when I would be heading up to Morristown to meet my friend Jim to operate mobile. I texted back that I was recovering from a cold but I was getting better and wanted to get up and get mobile.

However, Jim couldn't have me around because...well...I was sick!!! The reasons are many but they made sense and I was extremely bummed out, because we'd been planning this for months. All gone to hell in a handbasket.

I eventually got out of bed and got on the radio and tried calling "CQ TNQP" on PSK31, and was met with about as much enthusiasm as a fox in a chicken coop. I finally made one contact after putting myself on the DX Cluster, basically announcing that I'm out there if anyone cared. Another station tried to reach out to me, but it was in the middle of a sneezing fit and when I finally took care of it they were gone.

I did get on voice - albeit unenthusiastic - and called CQ and worked several here and there on 40 meters, which seemed to be the main band to work on this day. But most all the bands were dead until late in the afternoon heading into the evening. Someone even put me out on the cluster and I became a hotspot right as my throat began to feel the effects of talking over several hours. Perfect timing, again!

Overall, I made just under 100 contacts. It wasn't my greatest showing. But I probably would have had way better success had I not gotten sick to begin with...

It seems I have a history of this happening when contest time appears, no matter which I want to work. One Field Day event we did at Melton Hill Dam, the day it took place, my voice was lost due to allergies, and I pinched a nerve in my shoulder blade area and moving my neck hurt tremendously. But, I had to stay because the group was using my callsign (I was the only extra class licensee at the time) and I had to stay in order to allow us to use the full allotment of bands to operate. To make matters worse, I checked into the Tennessee Phone Net to relay some bonus points (no one else apparently wanted to help!!!) and they couldn't hear me...BECAUSE I HAD NO VOICE!!! Imagine both my frustration as well as the receiving station trying to hear me, as well as all the other stations (im)patiently waiting their turn...

There's always next year, I suppose.

ULS Still Down (to the surprise of nobody familiar with government)

In case you weren't aware, the FCC took down the ULS site for upgrades and it was expected to be offline for the extended labor day weekend, but, since this is the federal government we're talking about, it turned out about as well as you would expect.

From the ARRL:

“Over Labor Day weekend, a dedicated FCC team worked day and night to complete major IT upgrades,” the FCC’s Chief Information Officer David A. Bray, said in a statement. “This work included physically moving more than 200 different legacy servers out of FCC's headquarters to a commercial service provider.” This move — a cost-saving measure, Bray explained — ran into trouble when it was determined that additional cabling was needed to complete the transition. “Unfortunately, this delayed completion of all of the system upgrades — even with the FCC team working around the clock throughout the holiday weekend,” Bray explained.

For now, attempts to log in to the ULS to look up callsigns (or apply for a vanity callsign for free!) is met with "page cannot be displayed" errors or a continuous "loading" action which will eventually time out.

It should be back online today, but I'm not holding my breath for it.

Only time will tell.