HRN 426: Squelch

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What can you say about squelch? This should take about 5 minutes, tops.

What? it’s almost 3 hours? 😱 Well, we do go deep, and we goof around some. But yeah, we even cut some stuff out to just end the show and get to dinner.

The show begins at 13:35, with about 54 seconds left on the countdown

Before we dug into Squelch, we talked about this week’s MARS/Amateur Radio Interop activity, scheduled for Monday night through Saturday afternoon. It’s all on 60 meters, channel 1 (5330.5 kHz) with a nightly 10 PM nationwide broadcast (and some check-in stuff), and Noon Local Time ‘net’, Tuesday thru Saturday (so 4 regional ‘nets’. As I type this on Tuesday afternoon, we’ve had one ‘broadcast’ and one ‘net’. I’ll have some video and we’ll talk more on the next episode.

Then, it’s ‘all Squelch, all the time’. You might wish we had squelched ourselves a little earlier, but you do have playback control. Use it!

LINKS:

HRN 425: AnyTone AT-D878UVII Plus - 2nd Look

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Slide in about 5 minutes to skip the silent ‘testing’ period

The AnyTone AT-D878UVII Plus and the 578 mobile version are often cited as the ‘Best DMR radios in Amateur Radio. DMR - Digital Mobile Radio - in ham radio has progressed from the strictly commercial radios that were first brought into the amateur service to several lines and models designed to be ‘real’ ham radios, with features and operation more like the Icom, Kenwood, Yaesu and Alinco radios that we’ve been using for decades.

But how close did they come? Are they ‘real’ ham radios? And what is a ‘real’ ham radio, anyway?

Over the course of a swift 🙄 two hours, David W0DHG, Jim NO1PC and returning host Gary K4AAQ (yes, a slightly new call sign) review the pros and cons and make some comparisons.

The bottom line: let’s just say they do not agree.

Jeff Wittich AC4ZO... SK

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Jeff Wittich AC4ZO helped out on a lot of HamRadioNow episodes, enough to nearly be a co-host. He came with me to Dayton and Orlando several times. The first time, in 2007, he was the Dayton Virgin back when we were making shows on DVD.. While I think he enjoyed it, it was never his favorite thing to do. He did it because I asked him to. I asked him to because he was very good at it. He was very good at just about anything he tried to do.

Except… staying alive.

In the fall of 2020, Jeff was diagnosed with brain cancer. It was bad - Grade 4 Glioblastoma - incurable, with an average prognosis of about 2 years. He underwent surgery and radiation therapy to remove as much of the cancer as possible, but there was no way to remove all of it. As 2021 progressed, Jeff held his own for a while, but his strength was limited. He couldn’t work. In June, he was able to go with us to visit the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a dream trip. Shortly after that, though, his doctor discovered new cancer in his lungs and lymphatic system. Brain cancer usually doesn’t spread like that. It was a mystery, but worse, it robbed him of what might have been another year of life. Jeff passed away on August 2nd, 2021.

If you watch the videos, it will be obvious that Jeff was more than my video partner. He’d been my best friend since we met in the mid-90s, just after he got his ham license. He was a brilliant, mostly self-taught engineer, and he was always happy to help or share his knowledge, especially with new hams. We had a lot of fun together, and very few hard times.

We lost a good one. - Gary K4AAQ

HRN 415: FCC Reallocation Proposal 3/5GHz

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Andre Hansen K6AH, David Erickson KB5UGF and Jim Aspinwall NO1PC join David W0DHG to discuss the SPECTRUM DEFENSE and proposed changes to the 3GHz and 5GHz bands. These changes will affect current ARDEN networks across the nation. Below are links referenced in the show. Please remember before you response, make sure it's professional and to the point. And please reach out to your served agencies and representatives.

CALL TO ACTION: https://www.arednmesh.org/content/call-action-defense-part-97-allocations

TEMPLATE COMMENT LINK: https://www.arednmesh.org/content/templates-submit-comments-3-ghz-fcc-docket-19-348

ARDEN ARTICLE: https://www.arednmesh.org/content/qst-june-2017MJARS Links: https://www.mjars.org/save-3-3-3-5ghz

HRN 406: Woolsey Fire and Ham Radio

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Ben Kuo AI6YR visits in studio with David W0DHG to talk about how Ham Radio played a part in the recent Woolsey Fire in Southern California. Over 90,000 acres and 1400 structures, and 3 lives were lost

HRN 401: AREDN Inc.

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Randy Smith WU2S joins David and Darren AJ6BL to talk about Amateur Radio Emergency Data Network.

Links from this episode: 

AREDN:  https://www.arednmesh.org/

AREDN Baker to Vegas: https://www.arednmesh.org/content/baker-vegas-2018-broadband-mesh-support

Trevor’s Bench” http://www.trevorsbench.com/meshchat-messaging-for-mesh-networks/

 

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HRN 400: Gary's Top 10 Episodes

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Gary joins David to reminisce about his favorite 10 episodes. Some good stuff here.  

Top Ten: (counting down in an order that Gary carefully selected)

10 - HRN 82: Dipole 33k views! Woohoo. Jeff AC4ZO, Bobbie KD4ZVW (a rare appearance), Cyndi KN4AQ and Gary build and hang a simple dipole at Jeff's QTH.

9 - HRN 288: Amodeo Unplugged. Gary's loooong interview with Last Man Standing Executive Producer John Amodeo NN6JA, as the show completes its 5th season (thus insuring a long life in syndicated reruns). They talk TV, and a little ham radio. Of course, the show (with John) has new life on the Fox network.

8 - HRN 359, EmComm Extra #18: Force of Two. David and Gary talk to Jeremy Dougherty NS0S and Michael Smith N5TGL about their experience in Puerto Rico as part of the ARRL "Force of Fifty" – not quite the story ARRL was telling.

7 - HRN 76: HamRadioNow Visits the KH6HME Hawaiian Beacon. Gary visits the legendary KH6HME Hawaiian Beacon on the side of the Mauna Loa volcano.

6 - HRN 345: Appliance Boy meets Circuit Girl. Gary nervously interviews silicon valley legend Jeri Ellsworth AI6TK and Jeri's friend Amy Hendron KM6FZE at the close of the 2017 TAPR DCC.

5 - Episode 152: Friday Night BS #1 (and HRN 209: BS #4 - Goodbye, Bill. WA6ITF, SK,) Gary was hoping to enlist the legendary Bill Pasternack WA6ITF, co-founder of Newsline, in a series of Bull Sessions on HamRadioNow. Unfortunately, that run ended at 3 when Bill passed away. In Bull Session #4, a group of Bill's friends and Newsline contributors came together to reminisce and pay respects.

4 - HRN 315: Do NOT Call CQ on Repeaters (Click Bait). A Reddit thread led to Gary's video essay on repeater etiquete.

3 - HRN 161: Yaesu's System (Con)Fusion. The title was more inflamatory than the video (and the name caught on some in ham-land). Gary demonstrates Yaesu's new digital voice mode with radios he was reviewing for QST, and then friends from the Charlotte Digital Group help him with a totally unscientific comparison of D-STAR, DMR, Fusion and P-25.

2 - ALL of the On The Road videos (lumped together). Who would have thought that long videos of a camera pointed out the window of Gary's Q-Mobile, driving cross country while Gary alternately monologs about ham radio and operates various bands and modes, would be really popular. But they were, and always received requests for more. The longest trip was from North Carolina to Seattle, Washington. There's a YouTube Playlist on the HRN YouTube channel that has all (most?) of the On The Road episodes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUoD0WsDfYI&list=PL24Rak2jsMJSQyroTqXeRde7v-K7xTGWp

1 – HRN 2, Part 2 – AMSAT (Lou McFadden W5DID – Working model of ARISS 1)

 

Honorable Mention (in no particular order)

Ham Radio Now Episode 1 - Orlando HamCation (starting after the terrible tack-on extra introduction)

HRN 270: Emcomm Extra - Hurricane Matthew Edition – David's First Show on HamRadioNow.

HRN 342: It Ain't Parity Until We Say It's Parity (on Ham Radio Now)

HRN 258: 5 Watt Field Day (or... Field of Beams) on HamRadioNow

HRN 182: World's Best Hobby - Dave Bell W6AQ (SK) on HamRadioNow

HRN 144 Part ONE - ARISS to the MAX - the CONTACT! (all 4 parts). A rural NC school has a great ARISS contact, and the participants dissect it in detail. Part Four is Gary's 1992 'documentary' of an early SAREX contact that his home club, the Raleigh Amateur Radio Society, conducted.

HRN 136: CQ Magazine Update ('What the heck?'). CQ Magazine Editor Rich Moseson W2VU talks to Gary about the magazine's trouble publishing on time.

HRN 132-1: My Stupid Plan for 60 Meters, Part One (and part two). On second thought, this doesn't belong here! But it's kind of fun.

HRN 100: Big Whoop! (Just for Gary's Rush impression at the beginning)

HRN 91: AmateurLogicTV (The George & Tommy Show). Gary corners George and Tommy at the Huntsville Hamfest.

HRN 80: ARRL President Kay Craigie N3KN 'Meets the Press'. Kay agreed to come by the HRn booth at Dayton for an interview. Little did she know Gary would take her prisoner.

HRN 69: Last Ham Standing (Review of Last Man Standing). Included because Gary had to fight Fox Inc. to keep the YouTube video 'on the air' after a takedown challenge for copyright infringement.

HRN 32 Part Two - TWiT Tour, Leo Interview (All 3 parts...). Gary and Cyndi vacationed in the Bay area, including a stop at the TWiT Brickhouse (home of Ham Nation and all the TWiT shows). Gary snagged an interview with Leo, and a tour of the studio. TWiT has since moved to somewhat less picturesque quarters.

HRN Episode 17 - Erin King AK4JG, Young Ham of the Year. Erin has since pretty much disappeared from public eye, but she did get to MIT, and interned on Google's Project Loon.

HRN Episode 14 - Simple Station/Antenna Launching Contest. Field Day Fun and useful instruction.

HRN Episode 12C Part 1 of 3 - Hamvention TOUR - FRIDAY (All 3 parts - Friday, Saturday, Sunday) Jeff AC4ZO and Gary produced an extensive series of "Tour" videos at the 2013 Hamvention.

HRN - Episode 7: DMR Digital Mobile Radio (Pre-Yaesu Edition). This early interview (just Episode 7) got the most complaints of any HRN show, with viewers upset that Gary "wouldn't let his subject talk". 

HRN 303: HamRadioNow2.0 from the HamCation (Katie WY7YL and Jason KC5HWB). This episode, shot in the SIB (Studio In a Booth) in Orlando, was just talk-show fun with Katie and Jason.

HRN 283: A Ham's Night Before Christmas - LIVE on HamRadioNow. How could we not include this version of Gary's legendary Ham Radio Christmas Poem? 

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