HRN 467: Ode to a Decibel

A decibel is 1/10 of a Bel. By rights, this should be 1/10 of a show, but it’s at least 1/3. So bonus.

We did it again! NO AUDIO for the first 3:45, so slide on down.

Well, at least we didn’t resort to an Ask Me Anything 🙄. Instead, Jim NO1PC and David W0DHG scraped Gary K4AAQ’s Facebook feed for Elmer questions that he answered in his usual “here’s how to build a clock” complexity. Or not! The dB answer was an attempt to simplify, to explain decibels without any math. Almost no math. Because Gary doesn’t know the math. He does it all by remembering 3 dB and 10 dB. Everything else slides between those two markers.

Then there’s a dual band antenna mystery to solve, some background on just how unique your call sign is, and a review of tone decode. All with a low grade fever.

HNN 466: A Few 'Minutes' with the ARRL Board

The SHOW

The PROMO (not quite a proMORE

Welcome to Ham Nation Now (apparently)*

Even here in 2023, most ARRL Directors are not noted for frequent appearances on the ‘independent’ ham media. Mike Ritz W7VO, however, got swept onto YouTube as he addressed a radio club to discuss the January ARRL Board meeting, and the special meeting dealing with Ria Jairam N2RJ’s book issue. Mike found Ria ‘guilty as charged’. Ria joins us to review Mike’s video and dispute much of what he said.

Then we move on to review some other items of interest from the Board meeting: Field Day rules; more HQ oversight of Section Managers; steps to deal with the statistic that only 25% of newly licensed Amateur Radio operators will utilize their licenses on a regular basis; promoting operation on 10 and 6 meters; and the ghost of Code of Conduct.

And just as we crossed the 2-hour mark. the Internet crashed at Gary’s studio - no Zoom guests, no live stream (‘emergency maintenance at Comporium Cable’s fiber system). So we were done!

*Ham Nation Now? Well, that’s what Mike Ritz W7VO kept calling us. Maybe we need to say our name more often.

LINKS:

• Here’s the video with Mike Ritz W7VO: https://youtu.be/A8fDCx-dzcc

HRN 465: A Bouvet Valentine ♥

The 3Y0J Bouvet DXpedition is over, a couple of weeks early. It was disappointing for all concerned - hams who wanted an All Time New One, the big-gun DXers who still needed the island to climb the higher rungs of the DXCC list, and probably most of all for the guys on… or near the island. Weather and rough seas prevented all but the most minimal operation, mostly cw and FT8 on 30 and 17 meters. Almost no SSB.

The big disappointment for us, though, was the behavior of far too many hams on the air and on the DX spotting web sites. Jamming, bootlegging and DIY ham police (and plenty of rookie operating errors) made the operation sound bad on the air. And on the clusters, lots of mostly anonymous comments that ran from snide to mean. Hmm. Aren’t we better than that?

Yeah, there was a lot of money involved. That’s nothing compared to the risk the crew took to get on the island at all. Maybe if your HRN hosts were more committed DXers, we’d feel your pain. We’re not. It’s not that big a deal for us. But we’re thinking it probably shouldn’t be for you. Be disappointed. Don’t be an ass about it.

Here’s our ‘airing of grievances’.