After passage of the hands-free cell phone bill – many people spoke out about other types of radios being disallowed under the measure – like CBs and other 2-way radios. House Substitute 1 for House Bill 229, sponsored by Representative Ruth Briggs-King and being filed today, would carve out an exemption for 2-way radios with a fixed placement in a vehicle while making the hands free cell phone bill stronger.
In a world that is always looking to use new technology, there are still plenty of uses for ham radio, which dates back to the early 1900?s.
Just ask people who need communication when emergencies strike.
Amateur radio devotee Cary Beuershausen and his fellow hams in Northeast Florida are about to put their game faces on. Every hurricane season, members of the local branches of the national Amateur Radio Relay League check their equipment and get ready to report for duty. When shelters open and if disaster strikes, they become vital cogs in a communication network that keeps emergency officials informed and victims comforted.
I was tuned in to Skywarn last night for the first time as severe weather rolled through. This network, which is carried over amateur radio on repeater N8DUY (145.150 Mhz) and K8RUR (146.920 Mhz), is also carried on the Internet through Radio Reference. Skywarn told me about tornadoes observed by trained spotters, water across the road and trees down. Last night there were 35 people on the network, radioing in reports from all over Washtenaw County.
Anyone who may encounter a “ham” radio operator today might think that person is living out some strange science fiction fantasy, awaiting the impending alien invasion with radio in hand and ready to coordinate the masses. With so many avenues for communication to choose from in the 21st century, from text messaging, tweeting to Facebook, the amateur radio user is like the great-great grandfather of social networking – except this hobby and way of public service is still very much alive and well.
As Belmont County Emergency Management Director Dave Ivan can tell you, amateur radio – or “ham radio” – operators aren’t just people who like to play with toys. They often can save lives.
This weekend, the public can get a glimpse of “hams” in action during the American Radio Relay League’s annual Field Day, during which ham operators will construct emergency stations in parks, shopping malls, schools and backyards around the country, using mainly emergency power supplies
Jan-Albert Koekemoer ZR1JAK brings news that the South African amateur radio satellite Sumbandila (SO-67) is back on the air.
The nominal frequencies for the SO-67 FM transponder are Uplink 145.875 MHz and Downlink 435.345 MHz +/- Doppler shift.
In a world where iPhones enable Internet searches from any location with a good cell signal, communicating with a radio may seem a bit old fashioned. But a new generation of ham radio operators is keeping the tradition alive by combining decades-old radio techniques with modern technology.
By day Colin Wheatley works as an executive editor for McGraw-Hill publishers, but by night he loses himself in the lifelong hobby of “ham” radio.
An Inland radio station that broadcasts adult contemporary music over an area from Riverside to Temecula claims a Los Angeles station has interrupted its signal since 2007 and has petitioned the FCC to help clear the airwaves.
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Squelching out the QRM of Ham Radio Searches
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