HRN 427: Our Ten Point Tooth Anniversary, and MARS Interop
/10.2 years ago, HamRadioNow evolved out of ARVN//AmateurRadioVideoNews’s DVD production business with a series of programs recorded during a visit to the Orlando HamCation in February, 2012. So we’re a couple months late… hence the ‘point tooth’ appendage to the big Ten Years. Well, we were kinda off the air that month, and we forgot all about it for the most recent two episodes (apparently it wasn’t that big a deal). But watching the 7th Anniversary Episode of HamRadio 2.0 reminded us. So Congratulations, Jason KC5HWB and congratulations, us! (BTW, Jason has been producing ham radio shows full time for the past two years. Awesome!).
Gary remembers: I wasn’t the first ham to think of the show name HamRadioNow. Ten years ago, when I went looking into that name, I found out that the domain HamRadioNow.com was already owned… but not in use… by Tom Loughney AJ4XM. Tom’s early career was as a broadcast engineer, and he had hopes and dreams of making shows under the HamRadioNow banner. But they weren’t coming together when I asked him about the URL. It was about to expire, and he let it go, so I got it. Thanks, Tom - I hope we’ve done you proud. Note that we’ve promoted ourselves as HamRadioNow.TV, but it would have been awkward to have a different ‘dot com’ out there. I’m glad we have both.
As part of the ‘celebration’, we’re giving away one of Gary’s old (and beloved) handhelds, an ICOM W2A. This model was manufactured in the early 1990s. It’s a dual-band, dual-display radio that can receive on both a VHF and a UHF channel at the same time (take THAT, Anytone 878 and most Baofengs). It holds 30 VHF and 30 UHF memory channels, and it’s the first ICOM dual-band, dual-display radio in a ‘smaller than a brick’ form factor. And as of a recent check of used equipment, it has almost zero monetary value. It comes with the drop-in charger, but needs a new battery. Then it should be good to go! It did work when we tested it before the show, but it offered ‘as is’ with no warranty or expectation that it will be anything more than a curious paperweight.
Enter to win? This giveaway is open to licensed hams only, and the radio will be shipped only to a US postal address. If you quality, enter by leaving the comment “I want it” on either this episode’s YouTube page or Facebook Group post. Make sure your name and call sign are obvious in your comment. We’ll choose a winner at random from qualified entries after Friday, May 13, 2022, and reply with ‘It’s You'!’ as a reply to your comment. You then reply by email to kn4aq@arvn.tv, and we’ll get your shipping address. Then we’ll tie the package to the back of a nearby turtle and send it on its way.
Meanwhile, back on our episode… Last week we noted that a MARS/Amateur Radio Interoperability Test would be happening during the week. Gary tuned in from his Q-Mobile, and later (thanks to a tip from host David W0DHG) on some WebSDR receivers. The operation demonstrated 60 meter propagation, both daytime and night, as the MARS stations (using ‘tactical’ call signs like Delta X-Ray) requested some real-time information from hams in specific locations around the US. We played some video of our observation while Army MARS Chief Paul English WD8DBY / AAA6B told us what we were watching. It was fun listening, and probably even more fun for the hams who participated.
We also welcomed back Marty Sullaway NN1C (formerly KC1CWF or 🐔with🍟). Marty is now a young adult with an apartment, a job and a car payment. Then Marty and NorCal host Jim Aspinwall NO1PC started getting all technical on us about stuff David and Gary didn’t understand, but we let them banter a while before we shut things down.
