For the last year or so, I’ve been the net control station for our club’s 2-meter net, which takes place on Monday evenings at 8 pm Eastern time on our club repeater on 146.96 MHz. Lately, we’ve had a couple of youngsters check in. Last week, one of them had his sister check in (well, say hi, at least).| KB6NU's Ham Radio Blog
On our club net Monday Night night one fellow checked in and noted that he and his wife had just returned from walking a mile and a half. He then went on to say he was doing it so that he’d be in better shape to prowl around the flea market at the Dayton Hamvention, which is taking place this year on May 19 – 21.| KB6NU's Ham Radio Blog
This was recently posted to /r/amateurradio. I’ve always wanted to try FreeDV, and it’s supposed to be relatively easy to do with my Flex 6400. This seems like a good opportunity for me to get this all working and make some contacts……..Dan| KB6NU's Ham Radio Blog
Cool #hamradio stickers?| KB6NU's Ham Radio Blog
For the past month, the ARRL has been running the following in the weekly ARRL Letter: Open Positions at ARRL Come join the headquarters staff of ARRL The National Association for Amateur Radio®! We are currently seeking qualified applicants for the following positions: Membership Manager Advertising Sales Manager Administrative Coordinator Technical Editor W1AW Operator Assistant […]| KB6NU's Ham Radio Blog
Only recently, have the repeaters here in Ann Arbor implemented All Star Link capabilities. It’s a pretty cool way to connect repeaters. I received the message below, and thought it deserved more publicitiy. I just sent them a $12 donation myself…..Dan On behalf of the Board of Directors, we would like to graciously thank all […]| KB6NU's Ham Radio Blog
One of the nice things about operating POTA is that you get to work stations that you may not work otherwise. And, of course that means stations whose call signs spell words. Here are two POTA QSLs. This was a park-to-park. Reed writes, “Thanks for helping me activate US-1800 here in WV.” Dewey writes, “Glad […]| KB6NU's Ham Radio Blog
I should have posted this sooner. My bad. If you’re in the Northwest and are interested in digital communications, please consider attending this conference in person. If you’re not, you can still sign up to attend the sessions virtually. There’s even an option for your club to attend virtually….Dan We are pleased to invite you […]| KB6NU's Ham Radio Blog
Last week, I taught my fourth one-day Tech class at DEFCON. DEFCON, as some of you may know, is one of the premiere hacker/cybersecurity conferences.| KB6NU's Ham Radio Blog
In the latest Great Lakes Division newsletter, there is a article titled, “What kind of Ham Radio Classes is your club teaching?” Its basic premise is that one-day Tech classes—the kind of classes that I teach—are inferior to more traditional classes. There’s so much misinformation in this article, that I just had to reply. The […]| KB6NU's Ham Radio Blog
My wife, Silvia, is a stickler for keeping the garage door closed, even if I’m just outside doing some gardening. So, I have a garage door control that I keep in my gardening toolbox, so that I can close the door when I’m outside and then get back in when I’m done.| KB6NU's Ham Radio Blog
My friend, Rick, K8BMA, sent me an email this morning that included Nancy, WZ8C’s, article on instant character recognition. This article is often cited as gospel when it comes to learning Morse Code. While I agree with her thesis that instant character recognition (ICR), I’m not sure that her advice to “overlearn” Morse Code is […]| KB6NU's Ham Radio Blog
On Mastodon a couple of days ago, @vk2tty commented on the recent edition of Zero Retries 0210, a newsletter written by my friend Steve, N8GNJ. VK2TTY wrote: Most striking though, was @n8gnj’s writing on the failure of our [national associations] to keep track of the threats to amateur radio spectrum allocations. He proposes another such […]| KB6NU's Ham Radio Blog
My birthday was last Wednesday, and for my birthday, I convinced my lovely wife, Silvia, to head “up north” (as we say here in Michigan). We spent four days in East Tawas on the shores of Lake Huron, going to the beach, enjoying our state parks, and, of course operating some Parks on the Air. […]| KB6NU's Ham Radio Blog
Ten years ago, I developed a leadership seminar for amateur radio club officers. We held a couple of session here in Michigan, which the participants found to be useful, and I suggested to the ARRL that they offer this—or something similar—to club leaders across the country. In typical ARRL fashion back then, I never heard back from them.| KB6NU's Ham Radio Blog
About five years ago, I joined the Rotary Club here in Ann Arbor, MI. As I had, by this time, served as president of our local amateur radio club, I began comparing how our Rotary Club operating to how our amateur radio club operated. What a huge difference! The members of the Rotary Club were committed and really got things done. The members of the ham radio club, on the other hand, showed practically no commitment at all, had to be coerced into doing much of anything, and when they did, the...| KB6NU's Ham Radio Blog
A swallow’s nest attached to the picnic shelter where we operated from this morning. Mama swallow was not happy with me taking this picture. In fact, she dive-bombed me earlier. She had at least three chicks in the nest.I often do POTA activations with two friends: Paul, KW1L and Rick, K8BMA. We almost always operate CW. On a recent activiation, Paul asked if there was a way to do a joint activation like many phone operators do. If you hunt phone POTA activators, they often say something ...| www.kb6nu.com
I tried to find a better piece of clip art to illustrate leadership, but came up short. So, instead here’s something dopey. :)This afternoon, I was talking with a fellow who approached me about providing leadership training for ham radio club officers. Back in 2012, when I was the Michigan Section Affiliated Club Coordinator, I developed just such a course, based on my work as a facilitator for the Rotary Leadership Institute. The topics I covered included:| KB6NU's Ham Radio Blog
A proposal to make it less expensive for older members to become Life Members (#40,41). The motion reads, “The ARRL establish a reduced-rate, revenue-neutral Life Membership program for individuals age 70 or older, with cumulative annual membership of 25 years or more, at an initial rate of $750.” To me, this seems too little and too late. I’m not sure that many 70-year-olds are going to find this an attractive offer, since they’re going to have to live until they’re 85 for this to ...| KB6NU's Ham Radio Blog
Last fall, under the aegis of Ham Radio Village, I was awarded a grant to take my one-day Tech class on the road. Ham Radio Village believes that more people in technical fields should have amateur radio licenses and that amateur radio is underrepresented in the hacker, STEM/STEAM, and maker communities. Currently, there is little outreach to these communities about the benefits of amateur radio in their fields.| www.kb6nu.com
