What happens to all your stuff ❓

Some estimates show that nearly two-thirds of Americans don’t have a plan. For some, it’s procrastination. Others don’t know where to start. “So many times we hear from the family of a Silent Key who are overwhelmed with what to do with a lifetime worth of amateur radio gear,” said ARRL Director of Development Kevin Beal, K8EAL. “Simply thinking through what needs to be done ahead of time can prevent the stress on our loved ones after we are gone.”

ARRL this week held a webinar, hosted by Beal and Dino Papas, KL0S, to discuss the first steps of planning. “It is something that, unfortunately, doesn’t get a lot of attention. The bottom-line up front is, ‘what happens to all our beloved ham gear when that inevitable day comes along that we become a Silent Key?’… Unfortunately, that day may arrive unexpectedly – so we need to prepare ahead of time to make it as simple as possible for our families,” said Papas.

“Your station is an asset, just like anything else you’ve built and put resources into. Deciding now what happens when you become a Silent Key can help solidify your legacy to ham radio,” said Beal. The ARRL Legacy Circle recognizes the generosity of individuals who have planned support for ARRL through wills, trusts, life insurance gifts, and other ways. The ARRL Legacy Circle ensures that ARRL and amateur radio will continue to thrive for generations to come.

On Thursday, July 11, 2024, ARRL® The National Association for Amateur Radio® joined The Weather Channel for a live chat about the value of amateur radio during hurricane season and beyond.

ARRL’s Bob Inderbitzen, NQ1R, talked about how radio helps inform the warning process through surface observations relayed through the Hurricane Watch Net and other nets to WX4NHC, the amateur radio station at the National Hurricane Center.

Viewers were told how local ARRL volunteers serve their local agencies through the Amateur Radio Emergency Service® (ARES®) and how they could get licensed through ARRL materials and become a part of it.¹

W2AEW has posted a short video on his YouTube channel showing some of his solo Field Day setup at the Guglielmo Marconi Memorial Park in Franklin Twp NJ - former site of the Marconi Wireless Corp East Coast transmitting station.

Equipment used in this video

• FX-4C SDR Transceiver
• Par End-Fed Tri-band antenna
• Miniature “Camelback” morse code key
• Mini Iambic Paddles
• Emtech ZM-2 Antenna Tuner
• Battery

An introductory video by W2AEW describing how complex impedance and admittance are represented on the Smith Chart, and how to convert between them. Includes a demonstration using a [VNA](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_analyzer_(electrical) to illustrate the complex impedance representation on a live smith chart with variable resistive and reactive components.)

The notes used in the video are available.

About W2AEW

[W2AEW] was originally licensed as a novice in the late seventies (KA2IZZ), but then dropped out of the hobby after entering college and then the workforce. Re-entered the hobby as a Tech (and then a Tech Plus) in 1997 (KC2BOG). Vanity call (W2AEW) issued October 1998. Upgraded to Advanced in November 1998, and to Extra in 2000.

[W2AEW is] a Life Member of the ARRL, a Volunteer Examiner, and the Technical Coordinator for the Northern New Jersey section of the Hudson Division of the ARRL. ¹

W2AEW produces a series of (primarily tutorial) videos about basic electronics, circuit design & analysis, test & measurement, and ham radio.

Related Videos

• Exploring Hara Arena in Trotwood | Everything Left! | Abandoned Ohio
• Return Visit to Hara Arena and a surprise garage sale there
• Exclusive Abandoned Exploration of Hara Arena in Dayton/Trotwood, Ohio. Part 2 (The Arena)

Amateur radio operators can use the APRSlink gateway to manage their Winlink accounts using an APRS equipped radio.

The APRSlink gateway allows APRS users to:

• Read short email messages sent to their callsign@winlink.org account
• Send short email messages to any valid email address or Winlink 2000 user
• Perform email related maintenance
• Be notified of pending Winlink email via APRS message
• Query APRSLink for information of the closest Winlink RMS packet station

Complete gateway documentation, including a command reference, is available on the APRSlink page.

This collection of videos demonstrates some APRSlink features using a Yeasu FTM-400DR transceiver.

About Winlink

Winlink, also known as the Winlink 2000 Network, is a worldwide radio messaging system that uses amateur-band radio frequencies to provide radio interconnection services that include email with attachments, position reporting, weather bulletins, emergency relief communications, and message relay. The system is built and administered by volunteers and administered by the Amateur Radio Safety Foundation Inc., an American charitable entity and 501c(3) non-profit organization. [ 1 ]

Winlink website: http://www.winlink.org/

About APRS

Automatic Packet Reporting System (APRS) is an amateur radio-based system for real time digital communications of information of immediate value in the local area. Data can include object Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates, weather station telemetry, text messages, announcements, queries, and other telemetry. APRS data can be displayed on a map, which can show stations, objects, tracks of moving objects, weather stations, search and rescue data, and direction finding data. [ 2 ]

APRS website: http://www.aprs.org/

Footnotes

[ 1 ] “Winlink”, Wikipedia, retrieved July 18 2017, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winlink.

[ 2 ] “Automatic Packet Reporting System”, Wikipedia, retrieved July 18 2017, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_Packet_Reporting_System.

What’s inside the Baofeng UV-5RB? Find out in the All About Circuits Teardown Tuesday: Baofeng Amateur Radio Transceiver article.

Our served agencies are accustomed to utilizing direct (i.e. person-to-person) and virtually instantaneous communications to conduct their operations. These means of communication (e.g. the telephone, email with attachments, and instant messaging through a wide variety of platforms) depend upon extensive, and often fragile, infrastructure which can be disrupted during incidents ranging in scale from a localized fiber-optic cable cut to regional severe weather events.

As past FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate, KK4INZ, said in Ham Radio Now Emcomm Extra #8, when an incident occurs “they just want their email to work.”

Traditional public service (aka Emcomm) messaging often does not meet the expectations of today’s served agencies (our customers). Amateur Radio operators typically utilize indirect communication paths with paper forms for origination / delivery and transcription style transfer methods (e.g. voice or CW); this is not the direct style of communication preferred by our customers.

Some improvements in public service messaging have been realized through the development of the Narrow Band Emergency Messaging Software (NBEMS) Open Source software suite which allows Amateur Radio Operators to transfer data such as small files, text-only emails, and ICS Forms over RF without requiring networking infrastructure. Although NBEMS can eliminate the requirement for manual transcription during message transfer, because data and messages may be delivered to radio operators on common interchangable digital media such as USB drives it suffers from the limitation of being an indirect form of communication and may still fall short of our customers’ expectations.

AREDN (the Amateur Radio Emergency Data Network), which has been on the agenda at recent club meetings, provides a way for way for Amateur Radio to meet our customers’ needs for direct communications through a high-speed IP data network. AREDN uses a redundant, and resilient, radio mesh to provide a TCP/IP medium when other network infrastructure has failed.

Anyone interested in wireless networking may find Wireless Networking In The Developing World—a free book about designing, implementing, and maintaining low-cost wireless networks—to be a useful reference. This book was written by subject matter experts with vast experience in deploying wireless networks in the field and connecting communities to the global Internet. It may be downloaded as a free PDF, or purchased from Amazon to help support the WNDW project.

Craig Fugate, KK4INZ, was the FEMA Administrator over the course of the Obama presidency and was a vocal proponent of the public service communications provided by Amateur Radio Operators. The February 21, 2017, episode of Ham Radio Now was dedicated to an interview of KK4INZ; during this interview he discusses what Amateur Radio Operators need to do in the future to remain a valuable public service asset during emergencies.