HRN 354: Lightning Talks from the 2017 DCC

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What do you do when a DCC presenter can't make it to the conference?

Invite the audience to jump in. That's what happened on Friday afternoon. Steve Bible N7HPR solicited 5-minute "Lightning Talks" and the audience stepped up.

00:00 Our fundraising pitch comes first, then...

3:57 Kurt Kiesow KF6QNC "Autonomous Wave-Powered Ocean-Going HF Station"

9:55 Sterling Coffey N0SSC "Faraday Open Source Digital Radio"

15:37 Bill Engelke AB4EJ "DWatcher: D-STAR / DX Monitor App"

21:10 Dr. Brandon Wiley KF5WVW "Emergency Data Exchange Network"

25:38 Ward Silver N0AX "Need for a Sessionless, High-Rate, Interference Tolerant Mode for Competitive Use"

31:28 Tom Holmes N8ZM "The DARA Thursday Night Group"

The impromptu Lighntning Talks were a great success. Expect a somewhat less surprising reprise in 2018.

Radio Rating: Four of the talks came complete with Powerpoint slides (who brings slides to a conference when they're not scheduled to present a talk?). Those get a Radio Rating of C+. Sterling only had a web site, but it was useful (and Steve Bible commented on how good it was), so we'll give him a B-. Ward Silver was the only one without graphics. so that gives him an A. Remember, the Radio Rating doesn't measure how good a talk was, just how good it is as 'audio-only'. And your mileage may vary.

HRN 353, EmComm Extra #16: Orbiting SATERN

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SATERN's been busy. Well, so have all the EmComm services, but SATERN's in our spotlight for this episode. We're talking to Salvation Army National SATERN Liaison Bill Feist WB8BZH (pronounced "Feest" or "Feast").

Like most Amateur Radio EmComm groups, SATERN (Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio Network), is going digital... slowly. We'll find out about that and lots more in this patented HamRadioNow In-Depth conversation. Bill reviews activity for the Eclipse, and back-to-back-to-back hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria.

And as nice as the Skype video is, this is another radio show. All talking heads (and a little web you can look up yourself), so a Radio Rating of A.

http://satern.org

HRN 349, 350, 351, 352: Friday Morning at the DCC

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Almost like binging Netflix... here are five talks from the 2017 ARRL & TAPR Digital Communications Conference, held September 15-17 in St. Louis.

  • HRN 348: Welcome to the 2017 DCC

    • Before the DCC sessions get started, TAPR President Steve Bible N7HPR spends a few minutes welcoming everyone to this year's conference, giving the lay of the land (bathrooms, lunch) and introducing the people who help put on the event.

      Listening to this session gives you a little more of the "DCC Experience." If you consider attending in person one year, you'll have a better idea of what to expect.

  • HRN 349: Radio Amateur's Digital Notebook

    • Jon Poland N0WL reviews ways to keep track of just about everything in your ham radio life with tools on the Internet.

  • HRN 350: Education, Testing, Training

    • David Bern W2LNX and his local club (the Montgomery MD ARC) cover all the bases in making new hams, with the help of the Laurel VEC.

  • HRN 351: Fusion from the Inside

    • Chris Petersen K9EQ digs into the capabilities and possibilities of Yaesu's System Fusion.

  • HRN 352: Noise in a Digital World

    • I really wanted to call this something obscure, like The Wet Diamond Noise Blanker (you'll see why), but I restrained myself.  FlexRadio's Steve Hicks N5AC gives an illuminating talk on how SDR technology lets you detect signals that are 'below the noise level' - and how you might not even know what 'the noise level' really is.

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