(I learned something new today…(A nephrologist is a physician who has been educated and trained in kidney diseases, kidney transplantation, and dialysis therapy… etc.))

Eugene Clark plans to ride his bike on a 100-mile trip from Quincy, Fla. to Albany, GA along with friends and family. On Sunday, he plans to

Clark goes to the gym every day and his fellow riders say that he rides all around his local area to stay fit. Ritaann Becker from Havana, Fla, a close friend of Clark’s said while coming back into Quincy, Clark’s home town, there is a big hill.  Clark is the last one to make it but he does it successfully. Beker finds Clark’s determination and drive to be an inspiration to her.

A Cyclist At 80

Clark said that he got the idea for his birthday ride a few years back. “It’s going to be fun,” he said.  Clark’s son Bob will be joining with is dad on the ride. Clark  says that he feels he is in better shape at 80 than he was when he was practicing medicine. “I am way stronger than I was when I quit my practice,” said Clark. “I realized that between 70 and 80 you can gain muscle mass and strength.” He said that although he rides regularly and feels he can successfully complete the ride, the heat and the hills might pose a problem. “That one in Quincy is a pretty good hill,” said Clark. “I’ll do what I can. We (cyclists) don’t call it quitting, we call it cross-training when we have to get down and walk. I will finish it though.”

Clark said that he will continue riding bikes as long as he is able, but has no plans for  future birthdays. “I hope I can still ride,” he said.

In addition to riding with the Pecan City Pedalers, Clark also serves as the section manager for Georgia Amateur Radio Emergency Services (ARES), which he says is his “real passion.”

Clark is credited with opening the first dialysis center in Southwest Georgia in 1976 and in February the Clark Home Training Center on the 1200 block of North Jefferson Street was dedicated and named in his honor.

Inappropriate Use of Amateur Radio: The Board authorized the President to appoint an ad hoc committee to prepare guidelines for use by the amateur community and others to identify inappropriate uses of Amateur Radio, while preserving our role of providing communications during times of disasters and for public service events. The Board asked the committee to present its findings to the Executive Committee within 30 days.

In recent months the FCC has started an all out war on the way Amateur Radio Operators serve their communities. Once again the Feds are quick to demonstrate their lack of regard for the service Amateur Radio Operators provide. They seem to readily discount the potential Hams have to saves lives and property during disasters.

Does the ARRL really need to create new and amend existing guidelines to pave the way for Amateur Radio Operators to work with the Feds? Why are more regulations necessary to allow Amateurs to do what they have done for a very long time? I just can’t believe that big government and the ARRL have to stick their noses further into the goings on of the Amateur Radio Service.

We all agree that using Amateur Radio properly makes sense. But when those rules prevent a (paid) local emergency manager from talking about an ARES matter with a volunteer ARES leader over the air, in my opinion, the FCC has begun to outlive it’s usefulness.

Click on the comments link below and VOICE your opinion!

Police Scanner Crystal 1254 - 155.2900 MHZ 10.7 RS RG US $4.99 Auction Ends: Saturday Sep-04-2010 11:20:02 PDT   | Watch this Item

Police Scanner Crystal 144 - 152.5100 MHZ 10.7 RS RG US $4.99 Auction Ends: Saturday Sep-04-2010 11:22:30 PDT   | Watch this Item

Police Scanner Crystal 693 - 152.1800 MHZ 10.8 BC US $4.99 Auction Ends: Saturday Sep-04-2010 11:31:31 PDT   | Watch this Item

However, there is a group of youngsters in Calabasas, CA. that have become licensed Amateur Radio Operators. That action has led them to become leaders in a new wave of shortwave listeners.

They still consider Morse Code and the old guy with a box of radio parts and coax cable to be very old fashioned.

One middle school 16 year old always thought that cell phones were the most reliable form of communication,. “After all”  he said, “Everyone uses cellphones”.

Kids Enjoying Amateur Radio

That thinking changed one day when there was a power outage in his area.

He then realized that cell phones and the Internet, things he took for granted every day,  just stopped working!

He also learned that battery powered radio equipment and solar powered repeaters continue to provide communication when “shore power” is dead.

When the youngster’s science teacher talked to his class about learning basic radio principals and receiving extra credit for passing the FCC Amateur Radio license exam, the youngster was all ears.

17 students passed the FCC exam that school year.

Over the next three years, 57 middle school students have earned their license. Plans are being made to offer the two day learning sequence in the coming school year.

The basis of the teacher’s motivation to bring Amateur Radio into the classroom was his personal decision to become a licensed Ham Radio operator right after the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

The youngster said he was nervous when he first signed on after he obtained his license and his new radio.

“I heard all these adults talking and thought, What will I say? I have only talked to one person my age over the radio. But they can hear your voice and know that you’re young.” he said.

Since high school students have tried and failed to find teachers that will sponsor the program, an attempt will be made to create a high school club to serve as a follow-up to the middle school class and help to keep teens active on the air.

I helped my son achieve his No Code Tech license when he was 11 years old. We attended a two day learning sequence sponsored by  SPARC, the Suffolk Police Amateur Radio Club of Long Island New York.

I served as a VE for a number of years and held sessions at Suffolk Community College.

I assisted a long time friend and fellow Amateur KF2P with classroom instruction for the No Code Tech License while working at Brookhaven National Laboratory.

Click on the comments link below and add your personal follow up to this story:

Are you a youngster with a Ham License? Who helped you get into the hobby?

As an adult, have you helped youngsters achieve their license?

Are you a teacher that would like to comment on this idea for your own classroom?

KENWOOD HT Battery Charger BC-9 US $9.95 (0 Bid) Auction Ends: Monday Sep-06-2010 15:46:20 PDT   | Watch this Item

1 Kenwood KS-201 HT Front Speaker - Black US $11.21 Auction Ends: Tuesday Sep-07-2010 0:16:06 PDT   | Watch this Item

Kenwood TK-290 VHF Handheld WT HT Transceiver TK290 US $150.00 (0 Bid) Auction Ends: Tuesday Sep-07-2010 6:16:53 PDT   | Watch this Item

KENWOOD SC-14 HT SOFT CASE US $21.95 Auction Ends: Tuesday Sep-07-2010 22:28:29 PDT   | Watch this Item

KENWOOD SC-29 HT SOFT CASE US $21.95 Auction Ends: Tuesday Sep-07-2010 22:29:40 PDT   | Watch this Item

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdMIeABaH7Q]

Although the Canadian engineer behind this solar-powered ham-radio setup uses it for camping and search-and-rescue missions, we can also see this being adopted for broader emergency use, especially in the aftermath of natural disasters that may damage power lines and cellphone towers. Pretty nifty.

LONDON (AP) — A rebuilt World War II code-cracking computer developed to intercept Nazi messages lost to a desktop computer Friday in a contest to decipher an encrypted radio message.

The challenge marked the first time the Colossus machine had been used since former Prime Minister Winston Churchill ordered models of the top secret computer destroyed, according to Britain’s National Museum of Computing, which organized the contest.

Churchill had feared Britain’s national security would be threatened if the state of the art computer’s technical details ever leaked out.

However, not only was Colossus beaten by a home computer, but by one in Germany.

Bonn-based software engineer Joachim Schueth deciphered the message, which was encrypted by a Nazi-era Lorenz cipher machine and transmitted by radio from Paderborn, Germany. It took him two hours Thursday, an hour and 35 minutes faster than the Colosssus. He used ham radio equipment and a computer program he wrote especially for the challenge.

Schueth paid tribute to Colossus and those who used it during WWII at the Bletchley Park code-breaking center, outside London, saying their work was important to Germans because “it helped to shorten the lifetime of the Nazi dictatorship.”

But Colossus, the world’s first programable computer, was no match for its electronic descendants, he said.

“Putting Colossus in a competition with modern computers may be a bit unfair,” Schueth wrote on his Web site.

Colossus eventually completed the challenge in three hours and 35 minutes, after overcoming difficulties intercepting the distant radio signal and repairing a blown valve.

“We’ve lost appreciation of just how hard it was to intercept signals, interpret them and put them on Colossus and run them,” said Andy Clark, director of the Bletchley Park-based computing museum.

“The past two days have brought into sharp focus just how hard they had to work,” he said.

Experts spent 14 years rebuilding the Colossus using stolen design plans and by gleaning information from those who helped create the original.

Ten Mark II Colossus machines enabled code breakers at Bletchley to decipher top-secret communications sent by the Nazi high command.

The rebuilt computer will continue to operate as the museum’s centerpiece, Clark said.

Fort Atkinson No electricity? You still have options. No electricity and no phone line? Well, there’s still ham radio.Much of the ham radio’s appeal is its independence, said Dennis Rybicke, a member of the JefCARES, an Amateur Radio Emergency Service in Jefferson County. Ham radios aren’t dependent on commercial electrical power or telephone services. They can be operated on batteries and generators. Whether ham operators prefer communicating in Morse code on old brass telegraph keys, talking on hand-held radios or sending computerized messages via satellite, they all share an interest in global happenings and reaching out to help others in times of need, Rybicke said.

Rybicke is one of many dedicated hobbyists still clinging to the time-honored and respected tradition of being an amateur ham radio operator in an age when a myriad of technological advances offer communication access to a global community. Within that world of radio frequencies, ham operators are filling a variety of roles, including providing backup during emergencies, weather monitoring services and enhancing international goodwill.Although the main purpose of amateur radio is fun, it is called the Amateur Radio Service because it also has a serious face, Rybicke said.Countless lives have been saved where skilled hobbyists act as emergency communicators to render aid, whether it’s during an earthquake in Italy or a hurricane in the United States, Rybicke said.

After Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and other cities along the Gulf Coast, a Brodhead woman asked for help from the local ham operators in contacting a relative who lived in one of the states hardest hit by the 2005 storm.As a section traffic manager in Wisconsin, Rybicke relayed the woman’s message to the National Red Cross working in that area. We pride ourselves on getting the message exactly right, Rybicke said.Every word in the body of a message is counted before and after it’s sent, he said. In Wisconsin, it’s ham radio operators that report weather conditions statewide. Every day from 4 to 7:15 a.m., ham radio operators are busy collecting weather data for the national weather service, Rybicke said. About two years ago, one of the local ham operators spotted a tornado out of town on Highway 106 and immediately informed the Sullivan weather station, Rybicke said.That tornado hadn’t shown up on the weather services’ radar screen, Rybicke said.It’s a neat feeling to provide this service, Rybicke said.

Since Rybicke first received his ham radio operator’s license in 1958, the 64-year-old retired New Holstein High School teacher has taken many advanced classes to become a skilled operator.He also has seen many technological changes in ham radios.When I started, the radios were huge, Rybicke said. Now, they’re 100-watt transmitters in a little box.Operators also now have access to pocket-sized hand-held radios, he said. Rybicke’s home-based radio antennas are unobtrusive, buried in his backyard and strung among tree limbs outside his home. Communicating on the ham radio also can be considered a trip down memory lane. It’s a big party line, Rybicke said. You can call one person and everyone can listen to the conversation on their radios. You might have 25 or more people talking together. It would take one heck of a party line on a cell phone to do that.

HAM RADIO Q&A

Q: Who are the people operating ham radios?

A: They are from all walks of life and three or more generations. They are volunteers involved as emergency responders, weather monitors and global neighbors.

They even can communicate with astronauts on space missions by radio frequencies called amateur bands.

The bands are reserved by the Federal Communications Commission for use by hams at intervals from just above the AM broadcast band all the way up into extremely high microwave frequencies.

Q: Why do ham operators need to be licensed?

A: The FCC created the service to fill a need for a pool of experts who could provide backup during emergencies and acknowledges the ability of the hobby to advance the communication and technical skills of radio and enhance international goodwill.

Q: What are the amateur radio bands?

A: Look at the dial on an old AM radio and you’ll see frequencies marked from 535 to 1605 kilohertz. That is one radio band. Other bands exist for amateur, government, military and commercial radio uses. Amateurs are allocated 26 bands spaced from 1.8 megahertz, which is just above the broadcast radio frequencies, up to 275 gigahertz. Ham operators can talk across town, around the world, to space satellites and even bounce signals off the moon.

Q: What are the costs of becoming a ham operator?

A: Basic study materials for passing the FCC test to get an initial license cost less than $40. Classes also are offered by many local groups for people who want more interaction. A ham radio can be bought for less than $200. Used radios also are available for sale at flea markets across the country.

Q: Where can you find additional information?

A: The best ways to learn about amateur radio is to talk to hams face-to-face. Hams take pride in their ability to Elmer (teach) newcomers the ropes to get them started in the hobby.

Published at: http://www.GazetteXtra.com/news/2007/nov/17/ham-radio-operators-have-fun-help-keep-communities/

Issue #058 of our newsletter in its new format is now posted on the NAQCC web site.

In that newsletter you’ll find info about our NAQCC sprint which takes place this Wednesday evening, November 21 – or in UTC that’s Thursday, November 22 0130-0330Z. Note the switch in UTC time. We hope you have your homebrew key ready for the special award. Don’t forget to use the autologger to submit your results.

In addition to more info about the sprint, you’ll also find the following in this edition:

2. The final results of our October Challenge.
3. General Club News – SKCC moves sprint dates to avoid conflict!!
4. Cartoon of the month – New feature by W9CBT!
5. Member News – What our members have been up to recently.

And that’s not all, so click on over to http://www.arm-tek.net/~yoel/newsletter_current.html right now and check it out.

Back when Vertex took on Yaesu, its quality control and product line literally came back from the edge of extinction. No, I am not talking about the old FT101-B-E-EEE and F series. They were outstanding radios. I owned an FT101B an FT-101E and the matching FL2100B amplifier. That equipment offered nothing but rock solid performance.

Where Yaesu got into a bunch of trouble was during the post FT-101/pre-Vertex days. Equipment either came out of the shipping carton with a host of inherent problems or were seriously lacking in features. Perhaps you also remember the likes of the FT-757 GXII and its never ending problems. My FRG-7700 receiver was very nicely designed for its day and was easy to operate. If you were a non-discriminating SWL listener it was a rather solid receiver for the money. However, I quickly learned to forget about weak signals or trying to pick out DX in a pileup. Yaesu, in their infinite wisdom provided no slots for filters. Attempting to do any form of serious listening led to operator fatigue in a very short period of time.

Quality in Yaesu’s VHF/UHF product line faired much better back in those days. Thinking about todays standards in radios (yes… cell phones are radios too) I began to laugh when I started thinking about the contrast between my FT-470 and todays technology. The reliability factor in the FT-470 was great for its time but the radio always felt as if you needed two hands to hold it and a pencil between your teeth to push the buttons. I guess we have all become spoiled. Now we can all watch TV, get turn by turn driving directions, listen to music, take photos and videos, make calls with speed dial, have a 1000 slot phone book and “surf the Net” on a device that is 1/2 inch thick and weighs just ounces. In addition, the standby time is around 450 hours. I don’t remember what my FT-470 weighed but adding that extended “high powered” Ni-Cad battery on the bottom made it possible for the radio to double as a blackjack (bludgeon) if you so desired. The extended battery hanging from the bottom of the relatively small radio reminded me of ballast hanging from the base of a construction crane!

It seems that when Yaesu tried to seriously compete with the likes of Kenwood and Icom in those days, their quality control simply fell off the cliff and they gave the impression of giving up their attempt at competing.

As we all know, Vertex performed wonders for the Yaesu product line. I am not going into detail here. The products offered by Yaesu/Vertex today are truly outstanding. A friend of mine just purchased the FT-897D. With a few shortcomings (don’t they all have shortcomings), the radio is turning out to be a good performer and seems to be indicative of the future of Amateur Radio gear. What I mean is that the 897D and the Kenwood TS-2000 are trending toward combining the HF/VHF/UHF radios all into one package. I personally think the jury is still out on this but it does seem to be the trend. It was not long ago that Kenwood dropped the TS-570D. That came as a surprise to me. I always though of that rig as a mainstay in the long lineage of the Kenwood HF rigs. One begins to wonder if Kenwood is going to offer the TS-2000 series as its only HF rig in the future. Having an “all in one” piece of equipment reminds me of the VCR/TV combo of the past. If one breaks, you can’t just discard the other. Well, suppose you have one of these all in one radios and your HF side goes dark. What then? You also end up giving up the working sections of the radio until it returns from from the tech bench. What’s you opinion?

If anyone can provide information about Motorola’s future plans for Yaesu, please fill me in. Since I have been and employee of Corporate America for the past 25 years, I have learned not to trust anything I hear or what I am told. So, as was said during a recent Newsline broadcast that Motorola states that they are not going to make changes to Vertex/Yaesu, I expect the opposite to be true. Time will tell.