HRN 493: Obsessive Public Service

East Coast Host Gary K4AAQ here (the 👑 of HAM)…

You can operate public service effectively with a single mobile radio (I recommend a dual-band, dual-display radio, though), and probably a dual-band HT. So that's why I have 5 mobile radios and a scanner, and 10 or so handhelds, all programmed and ready to go. Obsessive. Borderline compulsive.

A short, live ‘broadcast’ from Sunday - audio’s ok, video’s pretty bad.

This episode is a mini-doc of my prep and some operation during my big annual Public Service event, BikeMS New Bern. I was just going to shoot a few snippits on my phone (Goole Pixel 6 Pro). I ended up with lots more than I expected - enough to make a show! And look 👀 it’s less than 30 minutes long!

HRN 492: When, Jessica?

It’s fun to see Ham Radio bantered about in the halls of Congress. At the end of a 3-hour hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s subcommittee on Communications and Technology last June, Arizona Congresswoman (and friend of Ham Radio) Debbie Lesko ‘grilled’ FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel about the status of the proposal to replace the long-obsolete rules on HF data rates in Amateur Radio with something more modern… perhaps a 2.8 kHz bandwidth limit, and anything you can stuff into it. When’s that gonna happen, Jessica?

Rosenworcel acknowledged the need, but noted that the FCC’s inquiry, back in 2017, is now ‘stale’. This seems to imply a renewed proposal (NPRM?), another round of comments, and finally maybe some action? In other words, don’t hold your breath.

Anyway, we’ve got the clip from the end of the meeting. Again, fun to hear us mentioned.

This show is a solo anchor effort by East Coast Host Gary Pearce K4AAQ. David W0DHG and Jim NO1PC had family obligations. So after taking care of business, Gary brought in the HRN Discord Server’s Studio 73… an audio/video room for our viewers to come chat.

LINKS:

• Gary also noted that he’d never really seen ARRL CEO David Minster talk, so he included this interview on W1DED’s YouTube channel.

• Here’s the link to the YouTube video of that House Committee hearing. It should take you right to the end, with Lesko and Rosenworcel.

  • Credit to Ham Radio Crash Course for bringing this clip to our attention. See Josh’s analysis.

• HOA Antenna Bill update? On the RATPAC YouTube channel, with Fred Hopengarten K1VR & John Stratton N5AUS .

  • Use GovTrack to keep up with the bill.

HRN 491: Hurricane Idalia Update

As Hurricane Idalia worked it’s way across the Southeast on Wednesday afternoon, HamRadioNow East Coast Host Gary K4AAQ (on the edge of the outer rain bands near Charlotte NC) talked to two of his South Carolina neighbors about Emcomm operations. John Gendron NJ4Z is the South Carolina Section Manager, and Gordon Mooneyhan W4EGM is the SC Public Information Officer.

Things were a little busier in Georgia and Florida, so our guests from those states weren’t able to make the broadcast. We’ll see about following up later.