Thank You for Making Our Hamfest a Success
Thank-you to the sponsors, attendees, seminar speakers, vendors, volunteers, and our hosts: the Minnesota National Guard. Your support and involvement made this event a great success!
See you next year ‼️
Ham Radio Tech: Anderson Powerpoles® - Putting It All Together
One of the really annoying things about ham radio is the sheer number of different cables and connectors out there. With USB alone, there are four or five common ones, and let’s not even talk about all the other connectors for the variety of wall warts.
Reach into your power cord stash and you’ll see a variety of plugs: four- and six-pin, barrel connectors, banana plugs, T-connectors, and many more. It makes you wonder:
Do these manufacturers enjoy the misery they inflict by forcing all these cables and connectors onto the world?
AMSAT OSCAR 7: the Ham Satellite That Refused to Die
When the AMSAT-OSCAR 7 (AO-7) amateur radio satellite was launched in 1974, its expected lifespan was about five years. The plucky little satellite made it to 1981 when a battery failure caused it to be written off as dead. Then, in 2002 it came back to life. The prevailing theory being that one of the cells in the satellites NiCd battery pack, in an extremely rare event, failed open — thus allowing the satellite to run (intermittently) off its solar panels.
Advice for Parents and Grandparents on Getting a Young Person Interested in Amateur Radio
When I got my amateur radio Technician license in March 2019, most of my family were not licensed, the exceptions being my mom, who had held her Technician class license since her middle school years, and my grandfather, who had an Advanced license. However, neither of them was very active, aside from the occasional listen in on an 80-meter net here and there by my grandfather.
Despite their lack of activity, the fact that some in my family knew what amateur radio was gave me an advantage in the radio community right off the bat. They were willing to take me to local club meetings, Field Day setups, and countless other events that some parents might have taken one look at and turned away from. In fact, one of these outings, and a particularly significant one at that, provided some of the biggest reasons that I stayed involved with amateur radio.
Geerling Engineering's Take on the FCC's "Delete, Delete, Delete" Docket
Jeff and Joe Geerling provide a quick but insightful overview of the FCC’s DELETE, DELETE, DELETE docket, offering their thoughts on its implications—especially from Joe’s perspective as a broadcast engineer. Their discussion is a great starting point for understanding how these regulatory changes could impact radio and wireless communications.
FCC, Deregulation, & Amateur Radio
In this video Bill shares with us about what the proposed FCC Deregulation really means for the radio amateur, and what we need to be watchful of.
