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Radio Matters
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When Urb is not writing articles for newsletters, he is usually working on his website.
The site has 4 distinguishing characteristics:
The site has 4 distinguishing characteristics:
- We only study the correct answers
- We only study the questions most likely to appear on the FCC test
- It's the fastest and easiest path to a license
- It's totally FREE!
Computer Logging Programs
Introduction : If you are currently using a paper log, consider the following.
1. It is disaster prone.
2. Paper deteriorate over a period-of-time.
3. No way to search your paper log other than manually.
4. I’ve been using Amateur Contact Log (AC Log) by Scott Davis, N3FJP (www.n3fjp.com), for years.
5. You can evaluate it for free for 45 days.
6. Life-time registration of $24.99 after trial period.
Amateur Contact Log Features
1. Very easy and intuitive to use.
2. Tracking of Worked All States, Worked All Counties, Worked All Countries, DXCC, VUCC, Grids, Worked All Zones, IOTAs, Lighthouses and many other achievements.
3. The user interface is customizable! You can choose to display any of the data field you want and decide where you want them. The DX Spotting window can be set to any size you like! You can also change the font sizes of all the fields, list and text boxes.
4. Includes a database of countries and counties.
5. Query by band, mode, or power level to easily track your accomplishments by individual and multiple criteria.
6. Lists previous contact data with the station being worked including name, dates of previous contacts, QTH, etc., just by typing the call field and hitting the Tab key.
7. A bearing and distance calculator from your QTH for DX contacts and grid squares.
8. Full support for standard Amateur Data Interchange (ADIF) format. Export you whole log or selected records in ADIF for applications such as eQSL and the ARRL’s Logbook of the world (LoTW).
9. Easily manage your log and Logbook of the World (LoTW). AC Log will sign and upload your contacts to LoTW and download your confirmations from LoTW.
10. Upload QSOs directly to eQSL and Club Log.
11. Interface with most Elecraft, Icom, Kenwood, Ten Tec and Yaesu radios.
12. A Net Manager form, used for logging with multiple stations, whether you are managing a formal net or just joining in on a casual round table, this form makes logging with a group quick and easy.
13. Provides DX spotting on Telnet, your packet TNC or AGW Packet engine. Audio alert for needed spots.
14. Send keyboard CW via your comm port or Winkey and play wave files via you sound card.
15. Quickly print basic QSL label and address labels (does not support label printers and labels are not customizable through AC Log.
16. Interfaces with the QRZ and Ham Call Internet lookup service, as well as several free options.
17. Interface with many digital programs and other software via API inducing Fldigi, JTAlert, PSK Express more.
18. Optionally displays your call sign when the program loads.
19. Fully networkable. Whether you want to us AC Log for a DXpedition, or you just want to access your log from multiple PCs simultaneously at your home or club station, AC Log supports multiple clients updating a single database.
Epilogue :
If you’ve never used a computer logging program, try one, you’ll never go back. There are literally over a hundred computer logging programs. I’ve been using AC Log for years and think it offers the most features for a minimal cost.
Next Month :
The topic of next month’s article is Log Book of the World (LoTW). Many hams think LoTW is only for DXers. Not so, it is good for any ARRL award. I recently was awarded the Triple Play Award which required LoTW confirmation with each of the 50 states using CW, SSB and digital.
Introduction : If you are currently using a paper log, consider the following.
1. It is disaster prone.
2. Paper deteriorate over a period-of-time.
3. No way to search your paper log other than manually.
4. I’ve been using Amateur Contact Log (AC Log) by Scott Davis, N3FJP (www.n3fjp.com), for years.
5. You can evaluate it for free for 45 days.
6. Life-time registration of $24.99 after trial period.
Amateur Contact Log Features
1. Very easy and intuitive to use.
2. Tracking of Worked All States, Worked All Counties, Worked All Countries, DXCC, VUCC, Grids, Worked All Zones, IOTAs, Lighthouses and many other achievements.
3. The user interface is customizable! You can choose to display any of the data field you want and decide where you want them. The DX Spotting window can be set to any size you like! You can also change the font sizes of all the fields, list and text boxes.
4. Includes a database of countries and counties.
5. Query by band, mode, or power level to easily track your accomplishments by individual and multiple criteria.
6. Lists previous contact data with the station being worked including name, dates of previous contacts, QTH, etc., just by typing the call field and hitting the Tab key.
7. A bearing and distance calculator from your QTH for DX contacts and grid squares.
8. Full support for standard Amateur Data Interchange (ADIF) format. Export you whole log or selected records in ADIF for applications such as eQSL and the ARRL’s Logbook of the world (LoTW).
9. Easily manage your log and Logbook of the World (LoTW). AC Log will sign and upload your contacts to LoTW and download your confirmations from LoTW.
10. Upload QSOs directly to eQSL and Club Log.
11. Interface with most Elecraft, Icom, Kenwood, Ten Tec and Yaesu radios.
12. A Net Manager form, used for logging with multiple stations, whether you are managing a formal net or just joining in on a casual round table, this form makes logging with a group quick and easy.
13. Provides DX spotting on Telnet, your packet TNC or AGW Packet engine. Audio alert for needed spots.
14. Send keyboard CW via your comm port or Winkey and play wave files via you sound card.
15. Quickly print basic QSL label and address labels (does not support label printers and labels are not customizable through AC Log.
16. Interfaces with the QRZ and Ham Call Internet lookup service, as well as several free options.
17. Interface with many digital programs and other software via API inducing Fldigi, JTAlert, PSK Express more.
18. Optionally displays your call sign when the program loads.
19. Fully networkable. Whether you want to us AC Log for a DXpedition, or you just want to access your log from multiple PCs simultaneously at your home or club station, AC Log supports multiple clients updating a single database.
Epilogue :
If you’ve never used a computer logging program, try one, you’ll never go back. There are literally over a hundred computer logging programs. I’ve been using AC Log for years and think it offers the most features for a minimal cost.
Next Month :
The topic of next month’s article is Log Book of the World (LoTW). Many hams think LoTW is only for DXers. Not so, it is good for any ARRL award. I recently was awarded the Triple Play Award which required LoTW confirmation with each of the 50 states using CW, SSB and digital.
70 Years A Ham
It was 7:00 AM on November 25, 1949, the day after Thanksgiving, and I had been planning my trip to the FCC field office in lower Manhattan for many months. My ever-vigilant mother was using her best efforts to convince me not to go that day because it was drizzling, and snow was forecast for the afternoon. When she saw how important the trip was for me, she relented. What helped convinced her was the school was closed and the FCC was open.
I had been studying for the test for a few years, with a year of so taken off when the hormones kicked in and girls seemed more important that ham radio, thank goodness that phase passed quickly.
My Elmer, Jim McGinty, SK W2YYJ, would not let me take the test until I could copy Morse code at 18 words per minute (WPM) on W1AW. I disliked him at the time, but I will be forever grateful because not only did I copy the 13 WPM license test solid, but I was comfortable enough with my code to get on the air, with a home-brew rig on 40 meters. To this day over 80% of my High-Frequency (HF) QSOs are on CW. Three of my buddies took their FCC test when they could copy Morse at 13 WPM on W1AW, all three failed the code test, 2 of them never got a license.
If there were vanity calls back in those days, I would probably be W2YYJ today.
At one point I had been given a copy of an ARRL handbook, I had read it cover-to-cover, including ads. My CW test was not a problem, thanks to W2YYJ, and reading the handbook, plus an ARRL license manual put me in a state of mind where I was totally convinced, I would pass the test, I also passed the 2nd Class Radio-Telephone license. In due course W2DEC arrived in the mail.
Back in 1949 there were only three classes of license, Class A, B, and C. Class C was a Conditional license. If you lived too far from an FCC field office, you could arrange to have the test proctored, if you passed you received a Class C license. The entry level license was a Class B which roughly equates to today’s General, however you could not operate phone below 10 meters. You must be a Class B for a year before you could take the Class A test, then you could operate phone on 75 and 20 meters, there was no phone on 40 meters.
An interesting side bar was that most hams did not know that W calls were being reissued in the second call area. It was not unusual when people would say, “hi old timer” when I worked them on the air.
At the end of my licensing year I went back to NY and took my Class A license. I was so excited that I went to Harrison Radio and purchase a microphone even though I didn’t have a rig with a modulator.
The day after I received my driver’s license, I enlisted in the Army Signal Corps reserves, not out of any sense of patriotism but you could occasionally get free radio gear. When I came time to go into active duty service, during the Korean War, every person in my basic training battalion went to advance basic training, I went to 6 months of school at Fort Monmouth, NJ which was only about 40 miles from my home.
Ham radio has really been good to me, it might well have saved my life by keeping me out of combat during the Korean War and into the best radio and electronics school the Army had to offer.
In my late teens through my late 20s I had propensity to be in the right place at the right time, frequently for the wrong reason.
Significant changes over the past 70 years :
1. VE Sessions eliminating the need to travel to an FCC field office for a license or upgrade.
2. Code requirement eliminated for FCC issued ham radio licenses.
3. Transition from AM phone to SSB.
4. Vanity calls.
5. Satellite and moon bounce.
6. Operating a rig remotely.
7. Digital free software from Joe Taylor, K2JT, making QSOs with stations that are 20 DB below the noise level possible.
8. Joe Taylor’s FT8 produced more on-air QSOs than all other modes combined.
9. Discountenance of Novice and Advanced class license although present holders can renew them forever.
10. The demise of Heathkit signaling the shift of hams being technology based to appliance operators. Hams rarely build anything anymore.
11. One of the best sunspot cycles and one of the worse.
12. DXCC listing in QST transitioned from a half page monthly containing the mixed and phone honor rolls, new member and endorsements to an annual yearbook.
13. FCC does almost no rule enforcement.
14. You can no longer ascertain the location of person with an FCC issued call. When W1UL (my initials) became available I jumped on it with no problem with the FCC despite the fact I have live in New Jersey my entire life, except for military, and even them took basic training Signal Corps school at Fort Dix and Fort Monmouth respectively.
I’ll leave it to the reader to decide if these things are god or bad for ham radio.
It was 7:00 AM on November 25, 1949, the day after Thanksgiving, and I had been planning my trip to the FCC field office in lower Manhattan for many months. My ever-vigilant mother was using her best efforts to convince me not to go that day because it was drizzling, and snow was forecast for the afternoon. When she saw how important the trip was for me, she relented. What helped convinced her was the school was closed and the FCC was open.
I had been studying for the test for a few years, with a year of so taken off when the hormones kicked in and girls seemed more important that ham radio, thank goodness that phase passed quickly.
My Elmer, Jim McGinty, SK W2YYJ, would not let me take the test until I could copy Morse code at 18 words per minute (WPM) on W1AW. I disliked him at the time, but I will be forever grateful because not only did I copy the 13 WPM license test solid, but I was comfortable enough with my code to get on the air, with a home-brew rig on 40 meters. To this day over 80% of my High-Frequency (HF) QSOs are on CW. Three of my buddies took their FCC test when they could copy Morse at 13 WPM on W1AW, all three failed the code test, 2 of them never got a license.
If there were vanity calls back in those days, I would probably be W2YYJ today.
At one point I had been given a copy of an ARRL handbook, I had read it cover-to-cover, including ads. My CW test was not a problem, thanks to W2YYJ, and reading the handbook, plus an ARRL license manual put me in a state of mind where I was totally convinced, I would pass the test, I also passed the 2nd Class Radio-Telephone license. In due course W2DEC arrived in the mail.
Back in 1949 there were only three classes of license, Class A, B, and C. Class C was a Conditional license. If you lived too far from an FCC field office, you could arrange to have the test proctored, if you passed you received a Class C license. The entry level license was a Class B which roughly equates to today’s General, however you could not operate phone below 10 meters. You must be a Class B for a year before you could take the Class A test, then you could operate phone on 75 and 20 meters, there was no phone on 40 meters.
An interesting side bar was that most hams did not know that W calls were being reissued in the second call area. It was not unusual when people would say, “hi old timer” when I worked them on the air.
At the end of my licensing year I went back to NY and took my Class A license. I was so excited that I went to Harrison Radio and purchase a microphone even though I didn’t have a rig with a modulator.
The day after I received my driver’s license, I enlisted in the Army Signal Corps reserves, not out of any sense of patriotism but you could occasionally get free radio gear. When I came time to go into active duty service, during the Korean War, every person in my basic training battalion went to advance basic training, I went to 6 months of school at Fort Monmouth, NJ which was only about 40 miles from my home.
Ham radio has really been good to me, it might well have saved my life by keeping me out of combat during the Korean War and into the best radio and electronics school the Army had to offer.
In my late teens through my late 20s I had propensity to be in the right place at the right time, frequently for the wrong reason.
Significant changes over the past 70 years :
1. VE Sessions eliminating the need to travel to an FCC field office for a license or upgrade.
2. Code requirement eliminated for FCC issued ham radio licenses.
3. Transition from AM phone to SSB.
4. Vanity calls.
5. Satellite and moon bounce.
6. Operating a rig remotely.
7. Digital free software from Joe Taylor, K2JT, making QSOs with stations that are 20 DB below the noise level possible.
8. Joe Taylor’s FT8 produced more on-air QSOs than all other modes combined.
9. Discountenance of Novice and Advanced class license although present holders can renew them forever.
10. The demise of Heathkit signaling the shift of hams being technology based to appliance operators. Hams rarely build anything anymore.
11. One of the best sunspot cycles and one of the worse.
12. DXCC listing in QST transitioned from a half page monthly containing the mixed and phone honor rolls, new member and endorsements to an annual yearbook.
13. FCC does almost no rule enforcement.
14. You can no longer ascertain the location of person with an FCC issued call. When W1UL (my initials) became available I jumped on it with no problem with the FCC despite the fact I have live in New Jersey my entire life, except for military, and even them took basic training Signal Corps school at Fort Dix and Fort Monmouth respectively.
I’ll leave it to the reader to decide if these things are god or bad for ham radio.
Ham Radio - Something for Everyone
Prologue
During a recent training session, my friend John Zaruba, K2ZA, started his presentation with the statement : “Ham Radio is a thousand hobbies within a hobby.” Despite the hyperbole all the attendees got the point.
Background
When I received my Class B license (W2DEC) in 1949 my operating privileges were limited to CW. Phone privileges started at 10 meters through the microwave bands. When I received my Class A license a year later, I could operate AM phone on 75, 40 and 20 meters. It didn’t make a lot of difference because my rig didn’t have a modulator. There was also Civil Defense. Does anyone remember the little Gonset with the green eye? If you promised to participate in weekly drills your municipality would lend you a Gonset.
The Times are Changing
How times have changed. The operational option may not be a thousand, but they are a lot closer now than back when I was first licensed. Two of my bucket-list options are moon bounce (EME) and satellite, both require a large investment.
However, there are options available that require only a General Class license and a rig capable of operating on the HF Bands, which you probably have. I tend to accomplish tasks more quickly when I have a goal. My suggestion is to pursue a Worked All States (WAS) certificate. If you are relatively new to HF you will learn much about propagation while pursuing your WAS.
An excellent introduction to contesting is the North America QSO Party. It is a low pressure contest. You can only run 100 watts. Check it out at : https://ncjweb.com/naqp.
There are two events per year for CW, SSB and Digital. The exchange is your name and state. My first name is Urb. During my first NAQP SSB version, more than half of my contacts requested a repeat on my name. During my second SSB event, I became Bill and there were no requests for repeats of my name.
Emergency Communications
Have you ever wondered why ham radio exists? We certainly have choice bands that many commercial enterprises would pay large amounts of money to acquire. The answer is quite simple, During times of emergencies when commercial communications are not available, ham radio fills the gaps.
Make emergency communications preparedness part of your station activities. Look into ARES (Amateur Radio Emergency Service) or RACES (Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service.)
Prologue
During a recent training session, my friend John Zaruba, K2ZA, started his presentation with the statement : “Ham Radio is a thousand hobbies within a hobby.” Despite the hyperbole all the attendees got the point.
Background
When I received my Class B license (W2DEC) in 1949 my operating privileges were limited to CW. Phone privileges started at 10 meters through the microwave bands. When I received my Class A license a year later, I could operate AM phone on 75, 40 and 20 meters. It didn’t make a lot of difference because my rig didn’t have a modulator. There was also Civil Defense. Does anyone remember the little Gonset with the green eye? If you promised to participate in weekly drills your municipality would lend you a Gonset.
The Times are Changing
How times have changed. The operational option may not be a thousand, but they are a lot closer now than back when I was first licensed. Two of my bucket-list options are moon bounce (EME) and satellite, both require a large investment.
However, there are options available that require only a General Class license and a rig capable of operating on the HF Bands, which you probably have. I tend to accomplish tasks more quickly when I have a goal. My suggestion is to pursue a Worked All States (WAS) certificate. If you are relatively new to HF you will learn much about propagation while pursuing your WAS.
An excellent introduction to contesting is the North America QSO Party. It is a low pressure contest. You can only run 100 watts. Check it out at : https://ncjweb.com/naqp.
There are two events per year for CW, SSB and Digital. The exchange is your name and state. My first name is Urb. During my first NAQP SSB version, more than half of my contacts requested a repeat on my name. During my second SSB event, I became Bill and there were no requests for repeats of my name.
Emergency Communications
Have you ever wondered why ham radio exists? We certainly have choice bands that many commercial enterprises would pay large amounts of money to acquire. The answer is quite simple, During times of emergencies when commercial communications are not available, ham radio fills the gaps.
Make emergency communications preparedness part of your station activities. Look into ARES (Amateur Radio Emergency Service) or RACES (Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service.)
Morse Code's Influence On The Bar-Code Invention
Introduction :
Almost 70 years ago Drexel University graduate students, Norman Woodland and Bernard Silver, were sitting in a lab where a local business man was asking the department head if he could come up with something to help him identify products and associated parameters such as price. The department head said it couldn't be done. Woodland and Silver looked at each other and said, “there has to be a way.”
Eureka Moment :
Some time later they were sitting on a beach in Florida and Silver was telling Norman about Morse code, which he learned in the boy scouts. To illustrate his point he built a few words in the sand using one finger for a dot and two fingers for a dash. Folklore has it that they looked at each other and said, “Eureka.” The width of the bars projected a value as did the space between the bars. They applied for a patent which was awarded on October 7, 1952. Although the concept was sound, it took about 20 years before hardware and software development had the ability to exploit the concept.
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Epilogue :
Today, bar-coding is ubiquitous. When you check into a hospital the first thing they do is fit you with a bar-coded bracelet with all your vital information. You purchase a ticket to an event and your name and seat number is bar-coded. The list goes on and on.
Today, bar-coding is ubiquitous. When you check into a hospital the first thing they do is fit you with a bar-coded bracelet with all your vital information. You purchase a ticket to an event and your name and seat number is bar-coded. The list goes on and on.
Nocturnal Creative Problem Solving
Introduction :
Concentration is a disarmingly simple card game which is played by two or more people. The 52 cards of a well-shuffled deck are laid out on a surface face down. For this introduction, we’ll assume there are two players, Romeo and Juliet. Juliet wins the coin toss and goes first. She picks up two cards at random and if they match, she takes the pair and places them down in front of her and selects two additional cards. If she doesn’t produce a match, she put the cards, face down, into their original position and Romeo selects two cards. When there are no longer any cards face down the player with the most matches wins the game.
Here is a friendly piece of advice, if you’re an adult don’t even think about playing this game with a five year old unless you can handle total humiliation. A 52 card deck has 26 possible matches and a five year old frequently captures 20, or more, matches. How can this be and can a study of this phenomenon help us learn anything that might be helpful with future problem solving challenges?
First, let’s reject any thought that the five year old is just lucky with the first game because they will bash us consistently. What property do they possess that the average adult lacks? The answer is total concentration. Youngsters don’t have a multitude of seemingly insignificant thoughts running around inside their heads. We adults are burdened with thoughts about relationships, how to explain to the boss that we’re about to miss a deadline and so on.
Some people claim that a regimen of yoga permits focusing on a single topic. I never was able to reach such an exalted level of mind-control. However, I did discover a way to harness very high levels of concentration quite by accident.
I didn’t enter a college classroom until I was 46 years old. My initial reason for taking a college course was to learn how to program a computer. Like many people, I thought computer programming was about syntax, but it’s not, it’s primarily about logic and problem solving.
Early on in my first course, I was wrestling with a pesky problem. My program compiled successfully meaning the syntax was correct, but the program seemed to have a mind of its own and refused to do what I wanted. It’s a cliché in the computer field that a program does what you tell it to do, not what you want it to do. One night an interesting thing happened. I was thinking about my elusive program as I was falling asleep.
Several hours later I woke up with the solution to the problem. I went back to sleep thinking I had accomplished a major breakthrough. The problem was in the morning I remembered waking up in the middle of the night with the solution, but I didn’t remember what it was.
From that point on when I had a programming problem, I kept a listing of the program on my night table and if I awoke in the middle of the night I made notations on my program listing. I also kept a pocket notebook on my night table in case I came up with the solution to a non-computer problem. After several months I additionally discover I no longer had to make notes on my listings in the middle of the night, I remembered them in the morning. That was about 40 years ago and I practice this same methodology today.
What was the mechanism allowing me to harness my nocturnal creative problem solving abilities and could it be replicated by others? Over this ensuing 40 year period I have exposed the “problem solve while you sleep” methodology to countless numbers of people and only a few could not duplicate my success.
I’ll leave the explanation of the modality to those infinitely more qualified with the working of the mind than I possess. From a simplistic layman’s point of view I think that when we sleep we regress to the mind set of that wonderful five year old who whopped us at Concentration. I also believe, based on much experience, that we can train our minds to take directions for nocturnal subject matter selection.
How does this apply to ham radio in general and ham cramming specifically? When using this website try and do a study session and test session every day. When going to sleep, think about the associations you made connecting the questions with the correct answers. I’ll wager you a cup of coffee you start processing the relationships while you sleep within a few nights.
Epilogue :
I confess, my mind does not comprehend the mechanism our mind uses to solve problems in our sleep. But I do know it works and that's good enough for me.
Introduction :
Concentration is a disarmingly simple card game which is played by two or more people. The 52 cards of a well-shuffled deck are laid out on a surface face down. For this introduction, we’ll assume there are two players, Romeo and Juliet. Juliet wins the coin toss and goes first. She picks up two cards at random and if they match, she takes the pair and places them down in front of her and selects two additional cards. If she doesn’t produce a match, she put the cards, face down, into their original position and Romeo selects two cards. When there are no longer any cards face down the player with the most matches wins the game.
Here is a friendly piece of advice, if you’re an adult don’t even think about playing this game with a five year old unless you can handle total humiliation. A 52 card deck has 26 possible matches and a five year old frequently captures 20, or more, matches. How can this be and can a study of this phenomenon help us learn anything that might be helpful with future problem solving challenges?
First, let’s reject any thought that the five year old is just lucky with the first game because they will bash us consistently. What property do they possess that the average adult lacks? The answer is total concentration. Youngsters don’t have a multitude of seemingly insignificant thoughts running around inside their heads. We adults are burdened with thoughts about relationships, how to explain to the boss that we’re about to miss a deadline and so on.
Some people claim that a regimen of yoga permits focusing on a single topic. I never was able to reach such an exalted level of mind-control. However, I did discover a way to harness very high levels of concentration quite by accident.
I didn’t enter a college classroom until I was 46 years old. My initial reason for taking a college course was to learn how to program a computer. Like many people, I thought computer programming was about syntax, but it’s not, it’s primarily about logic and problem solving.
Early on in my first course, I was wrestling with a pesky problem. My program compiled successfully meaning the syntax was correct, but the program seemed to have a mind of its own and refused to do what I wanted. It’s a cliché in the computer field that a program does what you tell it to do, not what you want it to do. One night an interesting thing happened. I was thinking about my elusive program as I was falling asleep.
Several hours later I woke up with the solution to the problem. I went back to sleep thinking I had accomplished a major breakthrough. The problem was in the morning I remembered waking up in the middle of the night with the solution, but I didn’t remember what it was.
From that point on when I had a programming problem, I kept a listing of the program on my night table and if I awoke in the middle of the night I made notations on my program listing. I also kept a pocket notebook on my night table in case I came up with the solution to a non-computer problem. After several months I additionally discover I no longer had to make notes on my listings in the middle of the night, I remembered them in the morning. That was about 40 years ago and I practice this same methodology today.
What was the mechanism allowing me to harness my nocturnal creative problem solving abilities and could it be replicated by others? Over this ensuing 40 year period I have exposed the “problem solve while you sleep” methodology to countless numbers of people and only a few could not duplicate my success.
I’ll leave the explanation of the modality to those infinitely more qualified with the working of the mind than I possess. From a simplistic layman’s point of view I think that when we sleep we regress to the mind set of that wonderful five year old who whopped us at Concentration. I also believe, based on much experience, that we can train our minds to take directions for nocturnal subject matter selection.
How does this apply to ham radio in general and ham cramming specifically? When using this website try and do a study session and test session every day. When going to sleep, think about the associations you made connecting the questions with the correct answers. I’ll wager you a cup of coffee you start processing the relationships while you sleep within a few nights.
Epilogue :
I confess, my mind does not comprehend the mechanism our mind uses to solve problems in our sleep. But I do know it works and that's good enough for me.
If It’s Trash Day, I’m Collecting!
Prologue :
I was born in 1932, which by definition made me a depression baby. This episode in the life of Urb the emerging nerd, demonstrates that people were totally capable of doing economically irrational things during the height of the depression. They would throw things away needing only simple repairs.
How it all began :
At the time my trash picking started I was in 7th grade and I was the only student living far enough away from school that I couldn’t make it home for lunch, and back, in the allotted hour. I was a brown bagger.
On an early beautiful spring day I was walking leisurely to school and there in front of me was a beautiful floor lamp. I realized that if I waited until school let out the lamp would have been long deposited in a landfill (we call them junk yards back then.) I picked it up and started walking toward school. About two blocks from school was an empty wooded lot. I put my lamp in the lot and camouflaged it with a few branches and continued to school. I agonized all day worrying that someone would abscond with my lamp.
After school, there is was. I took it home and showed my father and he determined that the lamp had a switch that was not functioning. We went to a local hardware store and purchased a new one (Home Depots didn’t appear for many decades into the future.). Lamps similar to my trash pick find were selling for about five dollars of 1940s money.
A new switch cost about 20 cents. Although my knowledge of the consequence of the depression was very limited I still found it strange that people would throw away a five dollar lamp because it needed a 20 cent switch. The lamp, with a new shade, occupied a place of honor in the LeJeune household for years to come. My mother, God rest her soul, was very excited about anything I did not requiring a trip to see the principal of my school.
After the experience with the lamp, I started leaving for school about a half hour earlier that I usually did on trash day. One day someone threw away a pair of roller skates (the type you attached to your shoes and tightened with a key.) I fashioned a wagon with a milk box and the skates. I was now ready for the big time of trash collecting. I made a camouflaged den in the lot close to school and was in the trash picking business.
Turning Trash into an Art Form :
Even I was amazed at the quality and variety of things thrown away despite the economic conditions. When a discarded item contained gears I was in Trash-Land heaven. If a discarded item contained a motor, functioning or not, I was in paradise. Thrown away items with gears were especially prized, I used gears mounted on a piece of plywood to make Christmas presents. My relatives told me how creative I was, but my artwork typically wound up on their basements wall.
At Christmas time I loaded some of my artwork into wagon and traversed my neighborhood selling my wall hangings. When people asked how much? I replied, “whatever you think it's worth.” I made enough money to get nice presents for my mother and father.
Spare Parts :
Growing up my family lived in half of a farmhouse. I had a corner of the basement all to myself. My little den served as workshop, storage area, and a laboratory for perform experiments. My attempt at making artificial diamonds was a barn-burner, but an article for the future.
Epilogue :
An event viewed through the key-hole of currency frequently takes on a greater meaning when viewed through the rear-view mirror of realism. As an example, the fact that I lived at a greater distance from school than any other student probably lead me to trash pick. If I walked to school with other students I doubt I would not have trash picked.
I went through a period between jobs, a nice euphemism for being unemployed, and money was tight so I put my trash picking days to good use. On the bulletin boards of local super markets I posted notices, “Small appliances repaired , no fix no pay.” The results were a God-send when satisfied customers recommended me to neighbors and friends.
When times are tough we frequently receive the emotional help to give us the strength to get through these period, if we are alert to them.
Prologue :
I was born in 1932, which by definition made me a depression baby. This episode in the life of Urb the emerging nerd, demonstrates that people were totally capable of doing economically irrational things during the height of the depression. They would throw things away needing only simple repairs.
How it all began :
At the time my trash picking started I was in 7th grade and I was the only student living far enough away from school that I couldn’t make it home for lunch, and back, in the allotted hour. I was a brown bagger.
On an early beautiful spring day I was walking leisurely to school and there in front of me was a beautiful floor lamp. I realized that if I waited until school let out the lamp would have been long deposited in a landfill (we call them junk yards back then.) I picked it up and started walking toward school. About two blocks from school was an empty wooded lot. I put my lamp in the lot and camouflaged it with a few branches and continued to school. I agonized all day worrying that someone would abscond with my lamp.
After school, there is was. I took it home and showed my father and he determined that the lamp had a switch that was not functioning. We went to a local hardware store and purchased a new one (Home Depots didn’t appear for many decades into the future.). Lamps similar to my trash pick find were selling for about five dollars of 1940s money.
A new switch cost about 20 cents. Although my knowledge of the consequence of the depression was very limited I still found it strange that people would throw away a five dollar lamp because it needed a 20 cent switch. The lamp, with a new shade, occupied a place of honor in the LeJeune household for years to come. My mother, God rest her soul, was very excited about anything I did not requiring a trip to see the principal of my school.
After the experience with the lamp, I started leaving for school about a half hour earlier that I usually did on trash day. One day someone threw away a pair of roller skates (the type you attached to your shoes and tightened with a key.) I fashioned a wagon with a milk box and the skates. I was now ready for the big time of trash collecting. I made a camouflaged den in the lot close to school and was in the trash picking business.
Turning Trash into an Art Form :
Even I was amazed at the quality and variety of things thrown away despite the economic conditions. When a discarded item contained gears I was in Trash-Land heaven. If a discarded item contained a motor, functioning or not, I was in paradise. Thrown away items with gears were especially prized, I used gears mounted on a piece of plywood to make Christmas presents. My relatives told me how creative I was, but my artwork typically wound up on their basements wall.
At Christmas time I loaded some of my artwork into wagon and traversed my neighborhood selling my wall hangings. When people asked how much? I replied, “whatever you think it's worth.” I made enough money to get nice presents for my mother and father.
Spare Parts :
Growing up my family lived in half of a farmhouse. I had a corner of the basement all to myself. My little den served as workshop, storage area, and a laboratory for perform experiments. My attempt at making artificial diamonds was a barn-burner, but an article for the future.
Epilogue :
An event viewed through the key-hole of currency frequently takes on a greater meaning when viewed through the rear-view mirror of realism. As an example, the fact that I lived at a greater distance from school than any other student probably lead me to trash pick. If I walked to school with other students I doubt I would not have trash picked.
I went through a period between jobs, a nice euphemism for being unemployed, and money was tight so I put my trash picking days to good use. On the bulletin boards of local super markets I posted notices, “Small appliances repaired , no fix no pay.” The results were a God-send when satisfied customers recommended me to neighbors and friends.
When times are tough we frequently receive the emotional help to give us the strength to get through these period, if we are alert to them.
Random Acts of Kindness
Prologue :
About 15 years ago, during a trip to Florida on an oppressively hot August day, I was dispatched to the local super market to get an ingredient for dinner. As I approached the entrance an older gentleman was heading toward his car. He was using his shopping cart more like a walker then a transporter of grocery items.
I noticed his car had Purple Heart license plates. I walked over to him and said, “Thank your for your sacrifice and service.” He literally started to cry, commenting that he had the plates for about 10 years and I was the first one ever to comment on them. In the ensuing conversation he disclosed he was wounded during the invasion of Guadalcanal and was also awarded the Bronze Star.
Starting on that eventful day I approached every veteran I could identify by sticking out my hand and saying, “Thanks for your service.” In the ensuing years every recipient would say, “thank you,” and frequently a nice conversation would follow.
When Vietnam vets returned home they were treated with disdain. They didn't dare wear their uniforms in public because people would curse at them and frequently they were spit upon.
I am of the opinion that irrespective of our personal opinions of the military and wars we owe a debt of thanks to those who served, especially those who put their lives on the line. If I can identify a Vietnam veteran I shake their hand and say, “Welcome home and thank you for your service.”
What is a Random Act of Kindness?
A random act of kindness is simply a deed we do to give pleasure to someone else with no expectation of anything in return. Thanking a vet is just one example, however, the kindness universe is infinite.
We humans tend to complain frequently and give accolades rarely. Have you ever complained to the manager of a restaurant that the meat was overcooked and the server was impolite? Thinking positively, rather than negatively, the comment could be both your food and service was great.
The pervasiveness of a lack of positive feedback was driven home during my master's graduation at Monmouth University. The then New Jersey Governor Thomas Kean was the keynote speaker. He started his presentation with the question, “How many of you know this is the year of the teacher?” Many people, especially students, raised there hand. He then asked, “For everyone, not just graduates, how many of you have had a teacher who made a meaningful impact or change in your life?” Almost everyone raised their hand. Next question from Governor Kean was, 'How many of you ever took the time to thank teachers who had a meaningful impact on your life?” Almost no one raised their hand.
There is an important point here, just because someone is doing an outstanding job doesn't mean they wouldn't appreciate a pat on the back.
What Does This Have to do with Ham Radio?
Nothing and everything. Courtesy doesn't have starting and ending boundaries. Have you ever thanked anyone who helped you with a difficult point when you were preparing for you license? How about a speaker at a meeting? Almost everyone applauds the speaker but there is nothing like going up to the speaker and saying, “Great presentation, I learned a lot.”
How about thanking the outgoing officers of your club, the publisher of your club's newsletter or the person who makes the snacks at meetings?
Epilogue :
My father's mantra was, “The measure of a person is how they interact with someone who can do nothing for them in return. I think he was talking about random acts of kindness.
One last thought. Place a phone call to a couple of your ham radio friends and simply tell them, “Since I've met you I am enjoying ham radio much more which carries over to the qualify of my life.”
Thanking or complementing someone will make you happy and possibly make the recipient's day.
It's a win-win deal!
Prologue :
About 15 years ago, during a trip to Florida on an oppressively hot August day, I was dispatched to the local super market to get an ingredient for dinner. As I approached the entrance an older gentleman was heading toward his car. He was using his shopping cart more like a walker then a transporter of grocery items.
I noticed his car had Purple Heart license plates. I walked over to him and said, “Thank your for your sacrifice and service.” He literally started to cry, commenting that he had the plates for about 10 years and I was the first one ever to comment on them. In the ensuing conversation he disclosed he was wounded during the invasion of Guadalcanal and was also awarded the Bronze Star.
Starting on that eventful day I approached every veteran I could identify by sticking out my hand and saying, “Thanks for your service.” In the ensuing years every recipient would say, “thank you,” and frequently a nice conversation would follow.
When Vietnam vets returned home they were treated with disdain. They didn't dare wear their uniforms in public because people would curse at them and frequently they were spit upon.
I am of the opinion that irrespective of our personal opinions of the military and wars we owe a debt of thanks to those who served, especially those who put their lives on the line. If I can identify a Vietnam veteran I shake their hand and say, “Welcome home and thank you for your service.”
What is a Random Act of Kindness?
A random act of kindness is simply a deed we do to give pleasure to someone else with no expectation of anything in return. Thanking a vet is just one example, however, the kindness universe is infinite.
We humans tend to complain frequently and give accolades rarely. Have you ever complained to the manager of a restaurant that the meat was overcooked and the server was impolite? Thinking positively, rather than negatively, the comment could be both your food and service was great.
The pervasiveness of a lack of positive feedback was driven home during my master's graduation at Monmouth University. The then New Jersey Governor Thomas Kean was the keynote speaker. He started his presentation with the question, “How many of you know this is the year of the teacher?” Many people, especially students, raised there hand. He then asked, “For everyone, not just graduates, how many of you have had a teacher who made a meaningful impact or change in your life?” Almost everyone raised their hand. Next question from Governor Kean was, 'How many of you ever took the time to thank teachers who had a meaningful impact on your life?” Almost no one raised their hand.
There is an important point here, just because someone is doing an outstanding job doesn't mean they wouldn't appreciate a pat on the back.
What Does This Have to do with Ham Radio?
Nothing and everything. Courtesy doesn't have starting and ending boundaries. Have you ever thanked anyone who helped you with a difficult point when you were preparing for you license? How about a speaker at a meeting? Almost everyone applauds the speaker but there is nothing like going up to the speaker and saying, “Great presentation, I learned a lot.”
How about thanking the outgoing officers of your club, the publisher of your club's newsletter or the person who makes the snacks at meetings?
Epilogue :
My father's mantra was, “The measure of a person is how they interact with someone who can do nothing for them in return. I think he was talking about random acts of kindness.
One last thought. Place a phone call to a couple of your ham radio friends and simply tell them, “Since I've met you I am enjoying ham radio much more which carries over to the qualify of my life.”
Thanking or complementing someone will make you happy and possibly make the recipient's day.
It's a win-win deal!
I Now Have a Piece of Gear Smarter Than I Am
Introduction:
I’m in my 69th year as a ham and I have seen technology creep ahead, to wit, SSB took 5 years to go from the first article in QST to mainline usage. On the other hand, FT8 took only a few months to go from a Joe Taylor K1JT dream, to become the most popular mode for ham radio communications. At the suggestion of my good friend John Sawina, NA2R, I purchased a MFJ-993B automatic antenna tuner and it’s smarter than I am, however that’s a fairly low IQ bar.
Currently, my primary rig is a Yaesu FTdx3000. It’s a very nice rig but it shares a common deficiency, the internal antenna tuner is problematic. On 80 Meter the rig would output at most 15 Watts when trying to tune an optimized G5RV. At age 86, I’m too old to try and work 80 Meter DX with 15 so I was ripe to get the automatic antenna tuner that John had suggested.
Arthur Clarke was a noted science fiction writer and the co-writer of “2001 A Space Odyssey.” He had three adages, the third became famous, “Any sufficiently advance technology is indistinguishable from magic.” I played around with antenna tuners for six decades. Most had two capacitors and an inductor and all three were variable. Not only were there three variable components they were interactive. Change one and the other two required tweaking. When presented with a tuner with no knobs it was not only magic, it was smarter than me.
Introduction:
I’m in my 69th year as a ham and I have seen technology creep ahead, to wit, SSB took 5 years to go from the first article in QST to mainline usage. On the other hand, FT8 took only a few months to go from a Joe Taylor K1JT dream, to become the most popular mode for ham radio communications. At the suggestion of my good friend John Sawina, NA2R, I purchased a MFJ-993B automatic antenna tuner and it’s smarter than I am, however that’s a fairly low IQ bar.
Currently, my primary rig is a Yaesu FTdx3000. It’s a very nice rig but it shares a common deficiency, the internal antenna tuner is problematic. On 80 Meter the rig would output at most 15 Watts when trying to tune an optimized G5RV. At age 86, I’m too old to try and work 80 Meter DX with 15 so I was ripe to get the automatic antenna tuner that John had suggested.
Arthur Clarke was a noted science fiction writer and the co-writer of “2001 A Space Odyssey.” He had three adages, the third became famous, “Any sufficiently advance technology is indistinguishable from magic.” I played around with antenna tuners for six decades. Most had two capacitors and an inductor and all three were variable. Not only were there three variable components they were interactive. Change one and the other two required tweaking. When presented with a tuner with no knobs it was not only magic, it was smarter than me.
MFJ-993B Features:
- Automatically matches antennas with impedances of 6 to 1600 ohms or 6 to 3200 ohms
- Handles 300 Watts, match 6 to 1600 ohms, or 150 Watts, match 6 to 3200 ohms
- Tunes in less than 15 seconds, typically less than 5 seconds
- Over 20,000 non-volatile memories for tuner settings
- Four memory banks per antenna with over 2500 memories per bank
- Highly efficient switching L-network matching circuit
- 1.8 to 30 MHz continuous frequency coverage
- Adjustable target SWR 1.0 to 2.0, default is 1.5
- Lighted cross-needle SWR/wattmeter with high, low, and auto range options
- Multifunction backlit LCD display with contrast control
- Numeric reading for SWR, forward and reflected power
- Audio SWR meter with volume control
- Built-in frequency counter for remembering frequency-specific matching values
- Two SO-239 coax fed antenna connectors
- Connectors for random wire or single wire antenna
- Built-in 4:1 current balun for balanced line antennas
- Optional remote control
- Optional radio interface cables for compatible radios
Initial Start-up:
First, connect the tuner to a 12-15 VDC voltage source capable or supplying at least 1 Amp. For each band you must start at about 25 Watts input. When you start your first band at 25 Watts the relay-clicking sounds like it is about the shake the unit apart. Next go to full power and tune. Repeat this process for all bands used. You can tune several frequencies in each band so the correct settings are stored in memory. From that point tune-up at, or near, the same frequency is lightning fast.
Ongoing Operation:
The tuner lets you rapidly tune unbalanced, balanced or single wire antennas automatically. There is an antennas switch for two antennas. Search algorithms produce fast automatic tuning with more the 20,000 non-volatile memories. A maximum of 256 values of inductance and 256 values of capacitance are available. With the capacitance switched between the input and output side, there are 131,072 L/C tuning combinations.
The tuner learns and remembers; it automatically adjusts for minimum SWR and remembers the frequency and tuner settings, which are stored in non-volatile memory. The next time operation takes place on, or close, to an antenna, the tuner settings are instantly restored and you’re ready to operate in milliseconds. Each of the two antenna selections has four banks of memory which can learn and remember more than 2500 frequencies and tuner settings per bank.
Epilogue:
The MFJ-993B manual is available at: www.mfjenterprises.com/support.php. The tuner sells for $218.95 with free shipping and no sales tax from Ham Radio Outlet in Delaware: www.hamradio.com. It will not tune a piece of string or a wet noodle, but it comes close.
80 meters using the internal antenna tuner on my FTdx300 would not tune a modified G5RV. With the MFJ-993B it tuned the entire band with a 1.5:1 to 1.7 SWR.
It a great accessory for any ham shack. If you’re running more than 300 watts, get the MFJ-994B.
The Christmas Present That Change My Life
Introduction :
No one called me a nerd when I was growing up in Hillside, NJ although I could have been the poster boy for what we know today as a nerd. Maybe it was because it wasn’t until 1950 that Dr. Seuss created the nonsense word “nerd” for an imaginary animal in “If I Ran The Zoo.” By then I was already W2DEC.
During my pre-teen years some of the most common monikers describing me were precocious, crazy, studious, and a loner to name a few of the nicer names. I lived on a small farm and there were no kids my age close at hand so I became an expert at entertaining myself. It wasn’t easy but I convinced my parents that I should have a subscription to Popular Science when I was 11 years old. When the magazine would arrive every month I would disappear for a few days while reading the magazine cover to cover, including advertisements. One month the featured article described the manufacturing of industrial diamonds. “Ah ha,” I proclaimed, I can do that. The end result was almost a disaster but that’s a story for another time.
My Favorite Christmas Present of all Time :
My parents realized my isolation was starting to make me both crazy and anti-social so my 1944 Christmas present, a few weeks after my 12th birthday, was a one-tube radio kit. It was so cool. It was built on a one foot square piece of plywood. The components were mounted using Fahnestock connectors screwed into the plywood. The kit had an “A” battery about the size of a small shoe box. There was another box of parts including a one piece earphone. My folks gave me the present about 9 o’clock on Christmas day assuming on it would keep me busy for at least a week. By lunchtime music was emanating from my earphone.
Back around 1944 very few radio stations stayed on the air 24 hours a day. They would sign off at either 11 or 12 o’clock and like magic; another station farther out West would take its place. Since it was late December you could follow the clock with stations to the West Coast area before the east-coast stations started signing on again. It was great fun but my grades were not helped by my midnight DXing.
Big Discovery :
After a few month of broadcast band DXing and spending a good part of my allowance on replacement “A” batteries, I started to get bored. I had become fascinated with the variable capacitor, back then I had no idea what it was called. I did know stations changed as the capacitor rotated. I wondered what would happen if I spread the end plate out a little. What the heck, I could always bend it back. I grabbed my long-nosed pliers and give it a tug and it broke right off. I was crestfallen; I had destroyed my favorite toy. I spun the knob around and low and behold I was hearing non-broadcast station that I had never heard before. I was listening to stations above the high end of the broadcast band!
After a few weeks of mapping my new territory boredom again started to set in once again. Dare I take off another capacitor plate? I thought no, I had pushed my luck to the limit as far as capacitor modifications. However, I did notice there was a large coil of wire connected to the ends of the capacitor; again I had no idea of parallel components. This time I was smart enough to think through a modification that could be reversed. I got out my trusty soldering iron and disconnected one end of the coil and took off about five turns and soldered the newly exposed wire back onto to the mounting lug. Eureka, I was hearing a wholly different group of stations. Up until this point almost all of the stations produced by my experimentation were one-way broadcast. I keep repeating the process of unwinding about 5 additional turns. One day I heard two guys talking to each other; it was an event that would change the whole direction of my life. I was fascinated, these stations had call letters but they were different, they had a number in the middle! I wanted to become one of those people.
My uncle Will possessed voluminous amounts of worldly knowledge and his advice was, ignore them, they’re ham radio operators and are completely harmless. When I wouldn’t give up my goal I told my uncle that I wanted to become one of “them.” He told me to go to the library and ask for a book about ham radio. My local librarian pulled out a copy of the ARRL Handbook and I started reading it religiously. I renewed it so many times she finally said, “Keep it we’re getting a newer version.” I would read about a half hour a day and practice Morse code as well. Back then you had to do 13 WPM straight away. I was making good progress until the hormones set in. I was about 14 and I discovered girls. Ham radio went onto the back burner for almost two years. Fortunately, I came to my senses and picked up where I had left off. On the day after Thanksgiving in 1949, when I was 16, I made the trip to NYC and took and passed my first FCC ham radio license exam. It was for a Class B license and predated the Novice license by about two years. For good measure I passed my Second Class Radiotelephone license on the same day. A year later I returned once again to the FCC and upgraded to a Class A license and a First Class Radiotelephone ticket.
Epilogue :
It is now obvious; receiving the one-tube radio kit was the most fortuitous event in my young life. It pointed me to several careers, was responsible for getting me into a six and a half month school at Fort Monmouth, NJ and kept me out of combat during the Korean War. In addition, ham radio introduced me to a huge number of fantastic people. During my late teens through my late twenties, I keep showing up at the right place at the right time, frequently for the wrong reason!
Mom and Dad, as you look down upon your wayward son, I want to say thank you both for the greatest Christmas present ever.
Introduction :
No one called me a nerd when I was growing up in Hillside, NJ although I could have been the poster boy for what we know today as a nerd. Maybe it was because it wasn’t until 1950 that Dr. Seuss created the nonsense word “nerd” for an imaginary animal in “If I Ran The Zoo.” By then I was already W2DEC.
During my pre-teen years some of the most common monikers describing me were precocious, crazy, studious, and a loner to name a few of the nicer names. I lived on a small farm and there were no kids my age close at hand so I became an expert at entertaining myself. It wasn’t easy but I convinced my parents that I should have a subscription to Popular Science when I was 11 years old. When the magazine would arrive every month I would disappear for a few days while reading the magazine cover to cover, including advertisements. One month the featured article described the manufacturing of industrial diamonds. “Ah ha,” I proclaimed, I can do that. The end result was almost a disaster but that’s a story for another time.
My Favorite Christmas Present of all Time :
My parents realized my isolation was starting to make me both crazy and anti-social so my 1944 Christmas present, a few weeks after my 12th birthday, was a one-tube radio kit. It was so cool. It was built on a one foot square piece of plywood. The components were mounted using Fahnestock connectors screwed into the plywood. The kit had an “A” battery about the size of a small shoe box. There was another box of parts including a one piece earphone. My folks gave me the present about 9 o’clock on Christmas day assuming on it would keep me busy for at least a week. By lunchtime music was emanating from my earphone.
Back around 1944 very few radio stations stayed on the air 24 hours a day. They would sign off at either 11 or 12 o’clock and like magic; another station farther out West would take its place. Since it was late December you could follow the clock with stations to the West Coast area before the east-coast stations started signing on again. It was great fun but my grades were not helped by my midnight DXing.
Big Discovery :
After a few month of broadcast band DXing and spending a good part of my allowance on replacement “A” batteries, I started to get bored. I had become fascinated with the variable capacitor, back then I had no idea what it was called. I did know stations changed as the capacitor rotated. I wondered what would happen if I spread the end plate out a little. What the heck, I could always bend it back. I grabbed my long-nosed pliers and give it a tug and it broke right off. I was crestfallen; I had destroyed my favorite toy. I spun the knob around and low and behold I was hearing non-broadcast station that I had never heard before. I was listening to stations above the high end of the broadcast band!
After a few weeks of mapping my new territory boredom again started to set in once again. Dare I take off another capacitor plate? I thought no, I had pushed my luck to the limit as far as capacitor modifications. However, I did notice there was a large coil of wire connected to the ends of the capacitor; again I had no idea of parallel components. This time I was smart enough to think through a modification that could be reversed. I got out my trusty soldering iron and disconnected one end of the coil and took off about five turns and soldered the newly exposed wire back onto to the mounting lug. Eureka, I was hearing a wholly different group of stations. Up until this point almost all of the stations produced by my experimentation were one-way broadcast. I keep repeating the process of unwinding about 5 additional turns. One day I heard two guys talking to each other; it was an event that would change the whole direction of my life. I was fascinated, these stations had call letters but they were different, they had a number in the middle! I wanted to become one of those people.
My uncle Will possessed voluminous amounts of worldly knowledge and his advice was, ignore them, they’re ham radio operators and are completely harmless. When I wouldn’t give up my goal I told my uncle that I wanted to become one of “them.” He told me to go to the library and ask for a book about ham radio. My local librarian pulled out a copy of the ARRL Handbook and I started reading it religiously. I renewed it so many times she finally said, “Keep it we’re getting a newer version.” I would read about a half hour a day and practice Morse code as well. Back then you had to do 13 WPM straight away. I was making good progress until the hormones set in. I was about 14 and I discovered girls. Ham radio went onto the back burner for almost two years. Fortunately, I came to my senses and picked up where I had left off. On the day after Thanksgiving in 1949, when I was 16, I made the trip to NYC and took and passed my first FCC ham radio license exam. It was for a Class B license and predated the Novice license by about two years. For good measure I passed my Second Class Radiotelephone license on the same day. A year later I returned once again to the FCC and upgraded to a Class A license and a First Class Radiotelephone ticket.
Epilogue :
It is now obvious; receiving the one-tube radio kit was the most fortuitous event in my young life. It pointed me to several careers, was responsible for getting me into a six and a half month school at Fort Monmouth, NJ and kept me out of combat during the Korean War. In addition, ham radio introduced me to a huge number of fantastic people. During my late teens through my late twenties, I keep showing up at the right place at the right time, frequently for the wrong reason!
Mom and Dad, as you look down upon your wayward son, I want to say thank you both for the greatest Christmas present ever.
No-Test Upgrading to General from Technician Plus
Prior to March 21, 1987, the theory test for both the General and Technician exams were one and the same. The only difference between Technician and General Class was, people testing for General took a 13 WPM code test while people testing for Technician took a 5 WPM.
When the code requirements were dropped from amateur licensing requirements the Technicians licensed before March 21, 1987 were officially called Technician Plus license holders. Holders of Technician Plus licenses are eligible for an automatic, no-test upgrade to General. If you are in this category you must do the following :
I have an old call book and can supply you with the necessary information to satisfy requirement #2 above. If you’re not local send me a stamped self-addressed number 10 envelope.
Urb LeJeune W1UL
15 Hunter Drive
Tuckerton, NJ 08087
609-937-5487 if you have any questions.
73 Urb W1UL [email protected]
Prior to March 21, 1987, the theory test for both the General and Technician exams were one and the same. The only difference between Technician and General Class was, people testing for General took a 13 WPM code test while people testing for Technician took a 5 WPM.
When the code requirements were dropped from amateur licensing requirements the Technicians licensed before March 21, 1987 were officially called Technician Plus license holders. Holders of Technician Plus licenses are eligible for an automatic, no-test upgrade to General. If you are in this category you must do the following :
- You must be currently licensed as a Technician Plus
- Provide proof you were licensed before March 21, 1987.
- Attend a VE session and fill out all paperwork and pay the $15.00 fee since this is an upgrade.
I have an old call book and can supply you with the necessary information to satisfy requirement #2 above. If you’re not local send me a stamped self-addressed number 10 envelope.
Urb LeJeune W1UL
15 Hunter Drive
Tuckerton, NJ 08087
609-937-5487 if you have any questions.
73 Urb W1UL [email protected]
Perfect Pitch : Do You Have a Prepared Ham Radio Elevator Pitch?
Do you have a ham radio elevator pitch ready to be delivered on a moment’s notice? It’s typically 30 second to two minutes in length, the duration of a typical elevator ride.
You enter an elevator wearing your ham radio cap with your name and call. Fellow riders frequently ask, “What is a W1UL?” I respond with, “It’s my ham radio call, are you aware that hams are frequently the only source of communications during periods of natural or man-made emergencies?”
Wikipedia defines an elevator pitch as, “… a short description of an idea, product, company, or oneself in a way such that any listener can understand it in a short period of time.” the length of a typical elevator ride. It can be delivered, while waiting to pump your gas, at a cocktail party or waiting for a meeting or performance to start.
Getting to the crux of the ham radio mystique you continue, ham radio is many things to many people, which is a great starting line in your pitch.
Don’t try to be all things to all people, stick with the aspects of ham radio you enjoy and have passion and expertise. If you’re a DXer, tell the story of why you’re a DXer, do not try and explain the allure of VHFing, contesting, or moon bounce.
W1UL’s Elevator Pitch
The great thing about ham radio is that it is many different things to many different people. My favorite aspect of ham radio activity is what we call DXing. DX was originally meant contacting distant stations. Now DXing is the pursuit of contacts with different countries, we call them entities.
I first became interested in DX when I was about 15 years old when a marine ham in Guantanamo Bay Cuba tried to relay a message to his family in New York City. His wife had just presented them with a brand new granddaughter. This was my first contact outside the United States other than Canada. A few weeks later I woke up one night about 3 AM with a painful toothache, I turned on my equipment to see if anyone was on the air at this hour. At this point, I had never contacted a station west of the Mississippi River. Without touching any of the dials there was a station in Arizona calling CQ which meant he was seeking a contact with anyone. With trepidation, I called him and back he came. After our contact, I was tuning around and there was a station in Washington state. A contact with him was followed by a contact with California. I was so excited I totally forgot my toothache.
On that glorious night I learned that long distance communications, on the band I was then using, was only possible when both ends of the communications path are in darkness, much like the AM broadcast band. Once I absorbed that propagation reality I started getting up a between one to three in the AM to get on the air. Within a short time, I had added six new states as well as Hawaii, Venezuela, New Zealand, and Australia. I was hooked and I’ve been a DXer ever since.
Over the ensuing decades, I have now contacted every country in the world except North Korea and they don’t currently allow ham radio.
Epilogue
When developing your elevator pitch be yourself, it will help you memorize your pitch. Then, practice practice, and practice. When you think you have the pitch under control, practice some more. When you think you have it down pat, practice a little more. Remembering back to the definition of an elevator pitch, it should be capable of delivery in between in between 30 seconds and two minutes total time. Practice your pitch at various intervals. Learn what can be taken out and what must remain. The goal is to make it sound completely spontaneous and not rehearsed. It reminds me of a sign hanging in a financial research department, “Sincerity is very important around here, once you learn how to fake it you have it made.” You want your pitch to sound spontaneous even though the you have worked hours on the presentation.
Resources:
How to write a killer elevator pitch : https://theinterviewguys.com/write-elevator-pitch
How to Nail Your Elevator Pitch - The Muse :
https://www.themuse.com/advice/perfect-pitch-how-to-nail-your-elevator-speech
Elevator pitch - Wikipedia : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elevator_pitch
Elevator Pitch Examples with Examples : https://www.thebalancecareers.com
Do you have a ham radio elevator pitch ready to be delivered on a moment’s notice? It’s typically 30 second to two minutes in length, the duration of a typical elevator ride.
You enter an elevator wearing your ham radio cap with your name and call. Fellow riders frequently ask, “What is a W1UL?” I respond with, “It’s my ham radio call, are you aware that hams are frequently the only source of communications during periods of natural or man-made emergencies?”
Wikipedia defines an elevator pitch as, “… a short description of an idea, product, company, or oneself in a way such that any listener can understand it in a short period of time.” the length of a typical elevator ride. It can be delivered, while waiting to pump your gas, at a cocktail party or waiting for a meeting or performance to start.
Getting to the crux of the ham radio mystique you continue, ham radio is many things to many people, which is a great starting line in your pitch.
Don’t try to be all things to all people, stick with the aspects of ham radio you enjoy and have passion and expertise. If you’re a DXer, tell the story of why you’re a DXer, do not try and explain the allure of VHFing, contesting, or moon bounce.
W1UL’s Elevator Pitch
The great thing about ham radio is that it is many different things to many different people. My favorite aspect of ham radio activity is what we call DXing. DX was originally meant contacting distant stations. Now DXing is the pursuit of contacts with different countries, we call them entities.
I first became interested in DX when I was about 15 years old when a marine ham in Guantanamo Bay Cuba tried to relay a message to his family in New York City. His wife had just presented them with a brand new granddaughter. This was my first contact outside the United States other than Canada. A few weeks later I woke up one night about 3 AM with a painful toothache, I turned on my equipment to see if anyone was on the air at this hour. At this point, I had never contacted a station west of the Mississippi River. Without touching any of the dials there was a station in Arizona calling CQ which meant he was seeking a contact with anyone. With trepidation, I called him and back he came. After our contact, I was tuning around and there was a station in Washington state. A contact with him was followed by a contact with California. I was so excited I totally forgot my toothache.
On that glorious night I learned that long distance communications, on the band I was then using, was only possible when both ends of the communications path are in darkness, much like the AM broadcast band. Once I absorbed that propagation reality I started getting up a between one to three in the AM to get on the air. Within a short time, I had added six new states as well as Hawaii, Venezuela, New Zealand, and Australia. I was hooked and I’ve been a DXer ever since.
Over the ensuing decades, I have now contacted every country in the world except North Korea and they don’t currently allow ham radio.
Epilogue
When developing your elevator pitch be yourself, it will help you memorize your pitch. Then, practice practice, and practice. When you think you have the pitch under control, practice some more. When you think you have it down pat, practice a little more. Remembering back to the definition of an elevator pitch, it should be capable of delivery in between in between 30 seconds and two minutes total time. Practice your pitch at various intervals. Learn what can be taken out and what must remain. The goal is to make it sound completely spontaneous and not rehearsed. It reminds me of a sign hanging in a financial research department, “Sincerity is very important around here, once you learn how to fake it you have it made.” You want your pitch to sound spontaneous even though the you have worked hours on the presentation.
Resources:
How to write a killer elevator pitch : https://theinterviewguys.com/write-elevator-pitch
How to Nail Your Elevator Pitch - The Muse :
https://www.themuse.com/advice/perfect-pitch-how-to-nail-your-elevator-speech
Elevator pitch - Wikipedia : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elevator_pitch
Elevator Pitch Examples with Examples : https://www.thebalancecareers.com
Growing Up In Hillside, NJ
Background
Background
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I was born at a very young age and grew up in Hillside, New Jersey. Hillside was a small town nestled between Newark and Elizabeth, New Jersey. At the time I was growing up Hillside could socioeconomically be charitably described as upper-lower class. The town was sparsely populated and urban sprawl had bypassed this small town primarily inhabited by first and second generation Italians, Hungarians and Poles. The town’s cultural centers were the Italian-American Hall, the Hungarian-American Hall and, you guessed it, the Polish-American Hall. Hillside’s claim to fame was Phil Rizzuto, the legendary New York Yankee hall of fame shortstop and Yankee broadcaster for 40 years. Phil lived in Hillside for the better part of his adult life.
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The Polish hall had a 14 inch TV set on top of a high cabinet. This was decades before the advent of color TV. Milton Berle, AKA “Uncle Miltie” on Tuesday night and the fights on Friday filled the large room to standing room capacity with the TV set. If Joe Louis was boxing you had to arrive at the club at least two hours before the fight to get a seat. |
I lived in a farm house at the very edge of town. In the back of the farm were humongous wetlands which the residents called a swamp. One year my combination birthday and Christmas presents was a pair of binoculars, amplification factor of about two, and a Peterson bird field guide. I spend many hours exploring the swamp and bird watching filling up several notebooks with sightings.
Between second and eighth grades I had to walk a little over two miles each way to get to school. There were no school buses until Junior High and even then only students from specified grammar schools got transported by bus. My school didn’t qualify for busing. My grammar school didn’t have a cafeteria and everyone, except me, went home for lunch. For me, it was brown bag or don’t eat.
The Birth of “Urbie the Junk Boy”
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One day on the way to school, when I was about 11, I came across a table lamp someone had relegated it to the trash collection. I was fascinated by the ornateness of the lamp so I took it and hid it in a wooded area on the way to school. I retrieve my prize after school. When I got home I put in a bulb and plugged it in and guess what, nothing happened. I took the switch apart and noticed a compressed tab at the bottom of the assembly. I pried it up with a knife, put it all back together and Eureka it worked. That lamp adorned the family living room for years to come. Flushed with my victory over planned obsolescence I started leaving early on garbage day with an eye to acquiring more treasures. |
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My problem quickly became one of too much treasure. Looking back I’m amazed that in the middle of the depression people were throwing away items needing only minor repairs. I started carrying a fairly large box, but the contents got very heavy very fast. I made a wannabe movable cart from a pair of salvaged roller skates that I used to pick up heaver items. Eventually my junk truck became a small baby carriage. I love finding something with gears or a motor. Most of my acquired items required only minor repairs such as a replacement switch, line cord, or some replacement hardware. About a third of the items had nothing wrong. If I couldn’t fix an item, I striped it for parts.
My mother thought I could do nothing wrong and she started telling neighbors and friends about my prowess with fixing small appliances. Her publicity resulted in a small but steady stream in appliances for repair. If I fixed them, which was the usual case, they would give me a tip of a buck or two. This was in the mid-1940s when a buck would buy two hamburgers and two milkshakes with enough left over for a tip. I purchased a few tools with my earnings starting with a set of pliers followed by a soldering iron and a Heathkit Vacuum Tube Voltmeter (VTVM) from a kit. With the inclusion of a VTVM I really started to learn about electricity.
My mother thought I could do nothing wrong and she started telling neighbors and friends about my prowess with fixing small appliances. Her publicity resulted in a small but steady stream in appliances for repair. If I fixed them, which was the usual case, they would give me a tip of a buck or two. This was in the mid-1940s when a buck would buy two hamburgers and two milkshakes with enough left over for a tip. I purchased a few tools with my earnings starting with a set of pliers followed by a soldering iron and a Heathkit Vacuum Tube Voltmeter (VTVM) from a kit. With the inclusion of a VTVM I really started to learn about electricity.
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An uncle suggested that I put a sign on a few supermarket bulletin boards proclaiming, “Small appliance repairs, no fix no pay.” In the summer of my 13th year I made enough money fixing appliances to purchase a brand spanking new Hallicrafters S-40A to replace a home built regenerative receiver that never worked correctly although I suspected operator error. I used that receiver for years and it opened new horizons on the ham bands and what was between the ham bands. I loved listening to super strong Radio Moscow. I also started copying a US Navy code station just outside the top of the 40 Meter band.
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When people asked me what initially got me interested in ham radio I simply replied, “Junk.”
The North Jersey DX Association’s Secret Weapon
Background
September 1957 witnessed the introduction of The North Jersey DX Association (NJDXA). This event encountered broadly based yawns. Little did they know. The DXCC Mixed Honor Roll in the September 1957 issue of QST contained only 21 calls and the Phone Honor Roll contained only 13 calls. There were no W2s on either list although NJDXA member W2AGW was one country off the honor roll and NJDXA member W2BXA led the second call area on phone.
By 1966 the mixed DXCC honor roll swelled to 149 of which 28 (19%) were NJDXA members. There were only two W2s non-NJDXA-members who were on the Honor Roll. How could the NJDXA become a DX force of nature is such a short period of time? The answer is simple: we had a secret weapon, semi-private 2 Meter channels.
Background
September 1957 witnessed the introduction of The North Jersey DX Association (NJDXA). This event encountered broadly based yawns. Little did they know. The DXCC Mixed Honor Roll in the September 1957 issue of QST contained only 21 calls and the Phone Honor Roll contained only 13 calls. There were no W2s on either list although NJDXA member W2AGW was one country off the honor roll and NJDXA member W2BXA led the second call area on phone.
By 1966 the mixed DXCC honor roll swelled to 149 of which 28 (19%) were NJDXA members. There were only two W2s non-NJDXA-members who were on the Honor Roll. How could the NJDXA become a DX force of nature is such a short period of time? The answer is simple: we had a secret weapon, semi-private 2 Meter channels.
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Two Meters Shortly after the end of WWII the pre-war 2.5 Meter band was assigned to broadcast TV. Hams were assigned the current 2 Meter band obsolescing all pre-WWII VHF equipment. At the time huge amounts of surplus military electronic equipment became available in various “Radio Rows” around the country. However, that’s a story for another time. If you’re interested check out Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Row |
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The SCR522 quickly became one of the more popular VHF transceivers. It was designed as an air–to-ground 125 to 150 MHz transceiver and its 832 final tube delivered about six watts of AM. Four switchable crystals provided the ability to move around the band. Another popular “Radio Row” item was barrels of crystals, typically 25 cents each or 5 for a buck. Another very popular item was brand spanking new J38 keys in a box for 50 cents.
Most of the general 2 Meter activity was in the lower MHz of the band. The early pre-NJDXA operators set up shop at the very high end of the band where they were essentially undetected. There were two frequencies used, channel A for general DX chatting and channel D for serious DX-related communications. Channel D was barely inside the band and channel A occupied a spot slightly lower.
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In the late 1950, Gonset introduced the famous “gooney bird.” In the early 60s CD (Civil Defense) organizations were purchasing CD colored Gonset Communicators and routinely “loaned” the rigs to local hams for CD drills. All the 2 Meter operation was simplex because repeaters were still in the future. |
2M Gonset Communicator
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The NJDXA Secret Weapon
Simplicity was the keynote of the NJDXA channels. On channel A one might ask, “What’s happening on 40 Meters.” The “secret” operation was a bit more complex. Every member of the NJDXA received a current DXCC wish list from Ted Marks, W2FG, at the club’s monthly meeting. It was an ARRL DXCC county list embellished with a letter designation and a telephone number for each member. To illustrate, my letter identification was “D” (I was W2DEC at the time.) Next to KA0 (That's KA zero, the prefix for Iwo Jima) Ted would place “D” and the letter designation of any other members needing KA0. Another list contained the phone number for “D.”
Our alert protocol was a “single jingle.” If you heard some rare DX while in your normal listening phase you checked the wish list. If someone needed that country, you called them on the “twisted pair.” You let it ring once. Phone calls outside your immediate area were expensive back then.
Here is an example of what typically happened. Bob, K2GMO hears KA0IJ and calls W2DEC on the phone, letting it ring once. W2DEC then goes to channel “D” and simply says, “W2DEC.” Bob would say KA0IJ 14035. That was it. Any additional communications shifted to channel “A”.
If a member was out of 2 Meter range the “single jingle” the meeting took place on 14.295 MHz. 20 Meter phone ended at 14.300 MHz back then and all the DX activity took place at the low end of the phone band so 14.295 MHz was a good hiding place.
Epilogue
Hindsight is required to fully appreciation of the effectiveness of our clandestine operation. There was no internet, no spotting networks, no bulletins and propagation forecasting was in its infancy. The DX columns in QST and CQ were only sources of public DX information. By the time you received the magazines the information was three months old.
In the 1950/1960 era any DXer worthy of the name spent at least 20 hours listening for every hour of transmitting. The leveraging effect of 30 sets of ears listening for you was dramatic. Contrast that with a good friend of mine who has various spotting networks running all the time. When he sees a country he needs he turn on the rig works the DX and goes back to whatever he was doing. After years of this operational mode honor roll status is within sight.
I’m not proclaiming “search and pounce” as the preferred method of DXing, however, the old way provided a fantastic sense of accomplishment because honor roll status required years of concentrated individual activity. It has been my experience that the greater the challenge the greater the feeling of accomplishment when the task was finally completed.
Alphabet Soup for Ham Radio
The amateur radio question pools contain many acronyms and pseudo acronyms without defining their expanded meaning. The VE exams assumes a level of techno-speak many candidates don’t possess and the question pools abound with undefined acronyms.
This tutorial gives the VE candidate, as well as regular hams, a contextual view of question pool undefined acronyms. If you are relatively new to the hobby spend significant time with this tutorial. Become familiar with these acronyms and you’ll do fine preparing for the VE tests.
AC - Alternating Current - Voltage goes to positive peak, then to negative peak 60 times a second in US homes.
AGC - Automatic Gain Control - It reduces the receiver’s amplification of strong signals in order to prevent overload and to keep the output at a normal level.
AM - Amplitude Modulation - A form of modulation where amplitude changes at an audio rate. It’s used in AM radios, which contain entertainment in what is called the broadcast band.
AND - A digital logic gate giving a true output when all inputs are true.
APRS - Automatic Packet Reporting System - A radio-based system for real time digital communications.
ARES - Amateur Radio Emergency Service - Licensed amateurs who have voluntarily registered their qualifications and equipment.
ASCII - American Standard Code for Information Interchange - A character encoding standard.
BiCMOS - A semiconductor technology integrating two formerly separate semiconductor technologies.
CCD - Charged Coupled Device – A light-sensitive integrated circuit. It's what makes a digital camera work.
CEPT - European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations - Allows US hams operating privileges in most European countries.
CMOS - Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor - An advance semiconductor manufacturing technology.
CQ - A general call by an amateur indicating they are willing to talk to anyone. Can also be a specialized call such as CQ DX or CQ Wyoming.
CRT - Cathode Ray Tube –An obsolete picture tube replaced by LED (Light Emitting Diode) technology. The cathode ray tubes were used in television sets before LCD /LED flat screen TVs.
CW - Continuous Wave - Typically refers to a mode many of us love. Morse Code is slang for CW.
dB - Not an absolute value but a ratio of power level of a signal compared with a specified level on a logarithmic scale.
dBm - The power ratio in decibels (dB) of the measured power referenced to one milliwatt (mW).
DC - Direct Current – The flow of electronics from negative to positive. This is the output from batteries and power supplies to power radios and most electronics circuits.
DDS - Direct Digital Synthesizer - A type of electronic device used for creating various waveforms.
DRM - Distributed Resource Manager - A software application in charge of unattended background executions.
DSP - Digital Signal Processing – It helps reduce noise in the audio portion of the receiver. This makes it easier for the amateur operator to hear the other operator better. DSP is a very important addition to modern radios.
DX – Originally stood for distant stations. Today DX is the quest for working as many countries (entities) as possible.
EME - Earth Moon Earth - Bouncing signals off the moon so other stations can and receive the reflected signals to communicate with other hams on earth.
FCC- Federal Communications Commission - The US Governing body controlling all radio matters.
FET - Field Effect Transistor – A transistor using an electric field to control the electrical characteristics of this type of device.
FM - Frequency Modulation - A form of modulation producing frequency changes at an audio rate. FM is used in car and home radios because it has better audio quality and better noise suppression.
FSK - Frequency Shift Keying - A frequency modulation mode which transmits information through frequency changes of a carrier signal.
FSK441 - Frequency Shift Keying - FSK441 employs multi-frequency shift keying using four tones, at a data rate of 441 baud.
FT8 – FT8 is a weak signal digital mode that has becoming the most used weak signal digital protocol. Its popularity as a weak signal mode is due to a shorter transmit-receive cycle four times faster than JT65 completing a QSO in a little over a minute. FT8 was jointly developed by Joe Taylor, K1JT and Steve Franke, K9AN.
GPS - Global Positioning System - A space-based radio navigation system owned by the US government operated by the US Air Force. Also used in many cars and trucks for driving directions to a user-specified location.
HF - High Frequency - The portions of the radio spectrum between 3 and 30 megahertz.
Hz - Hertz – One cycle of a sine wave. The unit of frequency, in cycles (waves) per second.
IARP - International Amateur Radio Permit - Allows US amateurs a special license to enter and operate from foreign countries.
ITU - International Telecommunication Union - The international body controlling radio regulations.
JK - Jump Kick Flip Flop - A two stable electronic device used in computers and control systems
JT65 - JT are the initials of Joe Taylor, K1JT, a Nobel Prize winner who invented digital modes capable of copying signals well below the noise level.
kHz - Kilo Hertz - One thousand Hertz or cycles of AC voltage.
km - Kilo Meters - One thousand meters.
LCD - Liquid Crystal Display - A flat-panel display modulated optical device using the properties of liquid crystals. Used in computer monitors and televisions.
LSB - Lower Side Band - The part that is left over after removing the carrier and upper side band from an AM signal.
MDS - Minimum Detectable Signal - A measure of receiver sensitivity.
MF - Medium Frequency - Radio frequencies in the range between 300 kilohertz (kHz) to 3 megahertz (MHz), 1,000 to 100 meters.
MFSK - Multiple Frequency Shift Keying - A variation of frequency-shift keying (FSK) using more than two frequencies.
MHz - Mega Hertz - One million cycles of AC current per second.
MMIC - Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit - A type of integrated circuit device operating at microwave frequencies (300 MHz to 300 GHz).
MOS - Metal Oxide Semiconductor - It's a type of field effect transistor often used to form logic states in integrated circuits.
MOSFET - Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor - A type of field-effect transistor (FET).
MPE - Maximum Permissible Exposure - The highest level of RF powers considered safe for human exposure.
NAND - NOT AND gates are the same as AND gates except output is false instead of true.
NOR - A digital logic gate giving a true output if all inputs are false. It's an OR gate with inverted output.
MT63 - A electronic device constructed around a high speed DSP (digital signal processor) typically a dedicated external DSP unit like the Motorola EVM.
NASA - National Aeronautical and Space Administration - An independent agency of the executive branch of the US government.
NCVEC - National Conference of Volunteer Examiner Coordinators - Creates the various levels of question pools and selects questions for VE tests.
NPN - One of the two types of bipolar transistors.
NTIA - National Telecommunications and Information Administration.
NTSC - National Television System Committee - An analog television system used in many countries.
OR - A digital logic gate giving a true output when at least one input is true.
PACTOR - A combination of two earlier digital modes, packet radio and Amateur Teleprinting Over Radio (AMTOR).
PACTOR III - A software upgrade for existing PACTOR-II modems providing a new data transmission mode for improved speed and robustness.
PCB - Printed Circuit Board - A copper plated board used to mount electronic components.
PCBs - Poly Chlorinated Biphenyls - An environmentally hazardous synthetic oil formerly used in some high voltage capacitors and transformers.
PEP - Peak Envelope Power - Power measured at the peak of a signal as opposed to average power.
PHP – Originally, Personal Home Page, it now stands for the recursive acronym PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor - A programming language created by Rasmus Lerdorf in 1994.
PIC - A family of microcontrollers made by Microchip Technology.
PLL - Phase Locked Loop - A control system generating an output signal whose phase is related to the phase of an input signal.
PNP - One of the two types of bipolar transistors.
PPM - Parts Per Million - A measure of impurities in a product.
PSK31 - A digital communications mode which is intended for live keyboard-to- keyboard conversations.
QSO - A ham radio Q code meaning a contact between two hams.
RACES - Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service - An emergency standby radio service.
RC - Resistor Capacitor - An electric circuit composed of resistors and capacitors.
RF - Radio Frequency - Any frequency capable of being transmitted by an antenna.
RL - Resistor Inductor - An electric circuit composed of resistors and inductors driven by a voltage.
RLC - Resistor Inductor Capacitor - An electrical circuit containing resistors, inductors and capacitors connected in series or in parallel.
RS - A specific type of semiconductor flip flop having two discrete states, reset and set.
RTTY - Radio Teletype - A telecommunications system consisting originally containing two or more electromechanical teleprinters in different locations.
SCR - Silicon Controlled Rectifier - An SCR remains on until the end of current flow, (near the end of the half cycle) regardless of input signal. It is turned on by applying a voltage to a conduct trigger.
SS - Spread Spectrum - A technique that is the backbone of cell phone communications. Invented by actress Heddy Lamar, who was also proclaimed, “the most beautiful woman in the world.”
SSTV - Slow Scan Television - Television scan rates slowed down so they may be transmitted in the amateur bands.
STA - Special Temporary Authority - Temporary authorization temporarily allows a broadcast station to operate outside its normal parameters.
SWR - Standing Wave Ratio - A measure of the mismatch between an antenna and a transmitter.
TTL - Transistor Transistor Logic - A class of digital circuits built from bipolar junction transistors and resistors.
UHF - Ultra High Frequency - ITU designation for radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz)
VE - Volunteer Examiner - Administers amateur radio licensing exams on a volunteer basis.
VEC - Volunteer Examiner Coordinators - Organization approved by the FCC to coordinator VE activities.
VFO - Variable Frequency Oscillator - An electronic circuit capable of changing frequency.
VHF - Very High Frequency - Radio frequencies in the range between of 30 MHz to 300 MHz.
WSPR - Weak Signal Propagation Reporter - A computer program used for weak-signal radio communication between amateur radio operators.
XOR - Exclusive OR - A digital logic gate that gives a true output when the number of true inputs is odd.
A big thanks to John Roberts, KQ4WR, who corrected many mistakes and clarified many definitions.
The amateur radio question pools contain many acronyms and pseudo acronyms without defining their expanded meaning. The VE exams assumes a level of techno-speak many candidates don’t possess and the question pools abound with undefined acronyms.
This tutorial gives the VE candidate, as well as regular hams, a contextual view of question pool undefined acronyms. If you are relatively new to the hobby spend significant time with this tutorial. Become familiar with these acronyms and you’ll do fine preparing for the VE tests.
AC - Alternating Current - Voltage goes to positive peak, then to negative peak 60 times a second in US homes.
AGC - Automatic Gain Control - It reduces the receiver’s amplification of strong signals in order to prevent overload and to keep the output at a normal level.
AM - Amplitude Modulation - A form of modulation where amplitude changes at an audio rate. It’s used in AM radios, which contain entertainment in what is called the broadcast band.
AND - A digital logic gate giving a true output when all inputs are true.
APRS - Automatic Packet Reporting System - A radio-based system for real time digital communications.
ARES - Amateur Radio Emergency Service - Licensed amateurs who have voluntarily registered their qualifications and equipment.
ASCII - American Standard Code for Information Interchange - A character encoding standard.
BiCMOS - A semiconductor technology integrating two formerly separate semiconductor technologies.
CCD - Charged Coupled Device – A light-sensitive integrated circuit. It's what makes a digital camera work.
CEPT - European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations - Allows US hams operating privileges in most European countries.
CMOS - Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor - An advance semiconductor manufacturing technology.
CQ - A general call by an amateur indicating they are willing to talk to anyone. Can also be a specialized call such as CQ DX or CQ Wyoming.
CRT - Cathode Ray Tube –An obsolete picture tube replaced by LED (Light Emitting Diode) technology. The cathode ray tubes were used in television sets before LCD /LED flat screen TVs.
CW - Continuous Wave - Typically refers to a mode many of us love. Morse Code is slang for CW.
dB - Not an absolute value but a ratio of power level of a signal compared with a specified level on a logarithmic scale.
dBm - The power ratio in decibels (dB) of the measured power referenced to one milliwatt (mW).
DC - Direct Current – The flow of electronics from negative to positive. This is the output from batteries and power supplies to power radios and most electronics circuits.
DDS - Direct Digital Synthesizer - A type of electronic device used for creating various waveforms.
DRM - Distributed Resource Manager - A software application in charge of unattended background executions.
DSP - Digital Signal Processing – It helps reduce noise in the audio portion of the receiver. This makes it easier for the amateur operator to hear the other operator better. DSP is a very important addition to modern radios.
DX – Originally stood for distant stations. Today DX is the quest for working as many countries (entities) as possible.
EME - Earth Moon Earth - Bouncing signals off the moon so other stations can and receive the reflected signals to communicate with other hams on earth.
FCC- Federal Communications Commission - The US Governing body controlling all radio matters.
FET - Field Effect Transistor – A transistor using an electric field to control the electrical characteristics of this type of device.
FM - Frequency Modulation - A form of modulation producing frequency changes at an audio rate. FM is used in car and home radios because it has better audio quality and better noise suppression.
FSK - Frequency Shift Keying - A frequency modulation mode which transmits information through frequency changes of a carrier signal.
FSK441 - Frequency Shift Keying - FSK441 employs multi-frequency shift keying using four tones, at a data rate of 441 baud.
FT8 – FT8 is a weak signal digital mode that has becoming the most used weak signal digital protocol. Its popularity as a weak signal mode is due to a shorter transmit-receive cycle four times faster than JT65 completing a QSO in a little over a minute. FT8 was jointly developed by Joe Taylor, K1JT and Steve Franke, K9AN.
GPS - Global Positioning System - A space-based radio navigation system owned by the US government operated by the US Air Force. Also used in many cars and trucks for driving directions to a user-specified location.
HF - High Frequency - The portions of the radio spectrum between 3 and 30 megahertz.
Hz - Hertz – One cycle of a sine wave. The unit of frequency, in cycles (waves) per second.
IARP - International Amateur Radio Permit - Allows US amateurs a special license to enter and operate from foreign countries.
ITU - International Telecommunication Union - The international body controlling radio regulations.
JK - Jump Kick Flip Flop - A two stable electronic device used in computers and control systems
JT65 - JT are the initials of Joe Taylor, K1JT, a Nobel Prize winner who invented digital modes capable of copying signals well below the noise level.
kHz - Kilo Hertz - One thousand Hertz or cycles of AC voltage.
km - Kilo Meters - One thousand meters.
LCD - Liquid Crystal Display - A flat-panel display modulated optical device using the properties of liquid crystals. Used in computer monitors and televisions.
LSB - Lower Side Band - The part that is left over after removing the carrier and upper side band from an AM signal.
MDS - Minimum Detectable Signal - A measure of receiver sensitivity.
MF - Medium Frequency - Radio frequencies in the range between 300 kilohertz (kHz) to 3 megahertz (MHz), 1,000 to 100 meters.
MFSK - Multiple Frequency Shift Keying - A variation of frequency-shift keying (FSK) using more than two frequencies.
MHz - Mega Hertz - One million cycles of AC current per second.
MMIC - Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit - A type of integrated circuit device operating at microwave frequencies (300 MHz to 300 GHz).
MOS - Metal Oxide Semiconductor - It's a type of field effect transistor often used to form logic states in integrated circuits.
MOSFET - Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor - A type of field-effect transistor (FET).
MPE - Maximum Permissible Exposure - The highest level of RF powers considered safe for human exposure.
NAND - NOT AND gates are the same as AND gates except output is false instead of true.
NOR - A digital logic gate giving a true output if all inputs are false. It's an OR gate with inverted output.
MT63 - A electronic device constructed around a high speed DSP (digital signal processor) typically a dedicated external DSP unit like the Motorola EVM.
NASA - National Aeronautical and Space Administration - An independent agency of the executive branch of the US government.
NCVEC - National Conference of Volunteer Examiner Coordinators - Creates the various levels of question pools and selects questions for VE tests.
NPN - One of the two types of bipolar transistors.
NTIA - National Telecommunications and Information Administration.
NTSC - National Television System Committee - An analog television system used in many countries.
OR - A digital logic gate giving a true output when at least one input is true.
PACTOR - A combination of two earlier digital modes, packet radio and Amateur Teleprinting Over Radio (AMTOR).
PACTOR III - A software upgrade for existing PACTOR-II modems providing a new data transmission mode for improved speed and robustness.
PCB - Printed Circuit Board - A copper plated board used to mount electronic components.
PCBs - Poly Chlorinated Biphenyls - An environmentally hazardous synthetic oil formerly used in some high voltage capacitors and transformers.
PEP - Peak Envelope Power - Power measured at the peak of a signal as opposed to average power.
PHP – Originally, Personal Home Page, it now stands for the recursive acronym PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor - A programming language created by Rasmus Lerdorf in 1994.
PIC - A family of microcontrollers made by Microchip Technology.
PLL - Phase Locked Loop - A control system generating an output signal whose phase is related to the phase of an input signal.
PNP - One of the two types of bipolar transistors.
PPM - Parts Per Million - A measure of impurities in a product.
PSK31 - A digital communications mode which is intended for live keyboard-to- keyboard conversations.
QSO - A ham radio Q code meaning a contact between two hams.
RACES - Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service - An emergency standby radio service.
RC - Resistor Capacitor - An electric circuit composed of resistors and capacitors.
RF - Radio Frequency - Any frequency capable of being transmitted by an antenna.
RL - Resistor Inductor - An electric circuit composed of resistors and inductors driven by a voltage.
RLC - Resistor Inductor Capacitor - An electrical circuit containing resistors, inductors and capacitors connected in series or in parallel.
RS - A specific type of semiconductor flip flop having two discrete states, reset and set.
RTTY - Radio Teletype - A telecommunications system consisting originally containing two or more electromechanical teleprinters in different locations.
SCR - Silicon Controlled Rectifier - An SCR remains on until the end of current flow, (near the end of the half cycle) regardless of input signal. It is turned on by applying a voltage to a conduct trigger.
SS - Spread Spectrum - A technique that is the backbone of cell phone communications. Invented by actress Heddy Lamar, who was also proclaimed, “the most beautiful woman in the world.”
SSTV - Slow Scan Television - Television scan rates slowed down so they may be transmitted in the amateur bands.
STA - Special Temporary Authority - Temporary authorization temporarily allows a broadcast station to operate outside its normal parameters.
SWR - Standing Wave Ratio - A measure of the mismatch between an antenna and a transmitter.
TTL - Transistor Transistor Logic - A class of digital circuits built from bipolar junction transistors and resistors.
UHF - Ultra High Frequency - ITU designation for radio frequencies in the range between 300 megahertz (MHz) and 3 gigahertz (GHz)
VE - Volunteer Examiner - Administers amateur radio licensing exams on a volunteer basis.
VEC - Volunteer Examiner Coordinators - Organization approved by the FCC to coordinator VE activities.
VFO - Variable Frequency Oscillator - An electronic circuit capable of changing frequency.
VHF - Very High Frequency - Radio frequencies in the range between of 30 MHz to 300 MHz.
WSPR - Weak Signal Propagation Reporter - A computer program used for weak-signal radio communication between amateur radio operators.
XOR - Exclusive OR - A digital logic gate that gives a true output when the number of true inputs is odd.
A big thanks to John Roberts, KQ4WR, who corrected many mistakes and clarified many definitions.