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Callbook??? Whats a Callbook????

Being a V.E. for ham radio sometimes brings on some rather unique things. This past session took us into something rather new. Recently their was a law passed that IF you held a ham radio license you could be grandfathered back in as an active ham without retaking a test. As part of the V.E. team we have to verify that the person actually previously held a valid ham radio license.

One of the other V.E's had the foresight to bring along with him a callbook from 1986. What is a Callbook? A callbook is what we as hams used to look up a fellow hams call etc. for the purpose of QSL'ing and on one occasion I had AES use it to verify I was a ham before selling me a radio. Callbooks were used before the dawn of the age of computers. Instead of  going to a website search box and typing in the call, you would have to leaf through this huge book to find the call you were looking for. To top things off there was one callbook for the United States and another one fo DX contacts.  These books were a bit expensive and had to be bought annually to keep you up to date, plus a quarterly subscription would be offered to find new licensee's. Personally I would buy mine every other year for the U.S. one and would ask someone locally if I needed info for a DX contact. The call books we're a bit costly at the time they were about $35.00 plus shipping and maybe taxes depending where you purchased it from.

Back to the exam, as my fellow V.E's filed in for the session they were wondering what we were using a phone book for? The phone book they were referring too was the callbook and of course they were young and never new of what a callbook was or how to use it. After a brief explanation to them of what it was and how to use it they began to use it and look up calls of hams they new that had been licensed over a long period of time. That exam session lasted less than an hour as we had only 2 hams and they both grandfathered. the session was an educational paperwork session and 2 older hams were able to get on the air once again just in time for Christmas!

Wondering about Space Weather Apps.

Lately I have been seriously doubting the validity of space weather apps or propagation apps. It seems that when there is a contest on a given band the propagation or conditions for that particular band sky rocket.
Is this really the cause of ideal conditions or are they just reporting the activity on a given band? To me it seems to be the later. I casually participate in contests and the contest I recently worked was the arrls 10 meter contest. I decided to work phone only. It was rather difficult to find and work contacts even though yes their were some pile ups especially on some rather unique or rare contacts ie...W1AW centennial contest stations. However it seemed the contacts were not as many as I would have thought. QRN noise was about an S5 on my meter. Anyways I checked my app. On my smart phone to what the propagation was reported as. You guessed it 10 meters was peaked out to the top while the other bands were rock bottom.
My thoughts are propagation actually effect all bands in one way or another. Anyways just an observation I made.

GOOD READING AND TIPS

I thought this would be the perfect time to write about a book I recently read. The book is called " The Complete DX'er" by Bob Locher W9KNI. The book shares Bob's operating techniques and skills he has used to get the DXCC and many more awards. For myself I was frustrated about getting my WAS contacts especially a qsl from Hawaii. I have made several qso's to Hawaii but never managed to ge a qsl either through LoTW or regular QSL cards. A member from the local radio club I belong to tipped me off about Bob's book. After reading a few chapters I began putting to work the things he talked about in the book. Soon my WAS number has dropped to needing 9 more states and I have received a qsl from Hawaii. I really don't want to say much more about the book and spoil it for you. If you can pick up a copy of the book and read it. Once your done with it keep it around for reference. You won't regret it!
73's
Mike/N8GBU

Never Trust the Internet!

I have been reading some material on DX'ing and one constant I have come across is don't trust the internet on conditions etc. I have found this to be very true. Numerous times I have tried the bands after the internet reported poor conditions and managed to make a couple DX contacts!

Electronic Logging and QSL's

One thing that I have been wanting to share my thoughts on is Qsl's and the online logbooks. When I first earned my ticket the only way to confirm a contact was through the regular mail in the form of a regular QSL card commonly called Wall Paper. As technology has progressed we have moved into communications by computers and keeping logs on a computer instead of a paper log. Which brings me to my thoughts on logging and qsl's. Today there are 3 major players in online logging and qsl's. My top 2 are the LoTW and EQSL, there are also some others. LoTW is the ARRL's version of online logging as you may know. Many people use this free service and you can obtain ARRL awards by having confirmed contacts on their online logbook and if needed you can do a combination of old hard copy QSL's and what is on their online logbook. The draw back not everyone choices to use them and they do not except confirmations from other online logbooks. There is no real qsl card involved in their logbook just text copies of the contact information.

Next comes EQSL a very unique service! On EQSL offers a few more features than LoTW. One really nice feature is they have printable e-qsl cards. You basically can design your own or upload one you had made. They have their own awards which I believe is to follow suit with Lotw. They do have different member levels. The first level is a absolutely free and as you donate (if you choose to) you can get a few more features.

Both LoTW and EQSL are tied for my top logbook/qsl services. One worth mentioning is QRZ.com, they are the number one source for call sign look up. They are a bit costly in my book, you buy features to make life easier using their sight. You can elect to have no ads on the website, the ability to upload adif's for a fee. My problem with that is I like many other ham's are on a fixed income and its very difficult to make those lump sum payments instead of making payments. I have also found out by my personal  experience that even fewer hams use their logbook service. 

Wolverine SSB Net

I have been working on my membership requirements to join the Wolverine SSB net. A min of participating of 4 nets for 3 months. I now have 5 for January and 4 for this month. They are a fun bunch to chat with.

N. A. QSO Party

Tried my luck at a little contesting. I have found I need to work on understanding logbook programs. All in all it was a lot of fun!

SNOWY DAY/10 METER CONTEST

Today was a very snowy day as a matter fact as I write this it is still coming down. I have taken the snow blower out 3 times now to clean the snow off. Also today was the 10 meter contest. I didn't officially enter the contest but had a lot of fun making contacts. My last count was 31 qso's without really trying. I'm happy to say a lot of my contacts came from South America!

Intermod

I have been trying to help out the local radio club with an intermod problem on one of the repeaters by monitoring a couple frequencies they suspect is coming from.  I have had my scanner on 24/7 trying to catch any transmissions to no avail. I'm just wondering if they have the right frequencies or there may have another problem. One frequency they did give to me was apparently a frequency used to send data to set of the tornado sirens! It was interesting, first and foremost a tornado warning in November? Yes we have had a tornado in the area in November which tore up a section of Defiance Ohio. Anyways first I get the warning over the weather radio, then over the T.V. and then the sirens went off! Something to think about if you ever thought about buying a weather radio and haven't yet. Anyways I'm back to monitoring to see if I can hear anything on the scanner. 

73's

Deeply Saddened

Well I'm very saddened to report that the body of baby Elaina was found. Her body was found in a garage near her Mothers boyfriends home. Autopsy report showed she had numerous broken bone NOT similar to a fall. Her Mother and Mothers boyfriend have been in custody since the beginning of the search for obstruction of the investigation.

I have been busy in the care giver mode, its not exactly my cup of tea. However it gives me a sometime to be on the radio and chase DX. My latest contacts include Australia, Germany,Sweden, Luxembourg, Guantanamo Bay and a host of South American countries. It has been really difficult trying to QSL some of these stations. What it all comes down to is personal choice of where the opposing station chooses to put his or her logs.  Some people choose Log Book of The World others EQSL and so on. For ARRL type awards they either have to be submitted by Log Book of The World or have the hard copy qsl or both. The other electronic log books are not accepted. Which means I have to sit down and sort through my logs and see if I can get a hard copy qsl card from DX stations not on LOTW.

73's 

PILE UP ON 2 METER'S !!!!!

Hello and welcome to my Blog. Yes there was a pile up on 146.520 this morning! I had my radio in the scan mode when it picked up one short conversation after another sort of like a special even station or maybe a contest. It turned out to be a rarity. A HAM Radio operator in a KC-135 flying 30,000 feet somewhere over Michigan. I tried my best to get through to him but my efforts were useless. There were I'm sure many closer and more powerful Michigan stations however either way it was well worth the effort!

MISSING CHILD!!!

HELP NEEDED FINDING THIS LITTLE GIRL!  THIS IS LITTLE ELAINA 18 MONTHS OLD, SHE HAS BEEN MISSING ABOUT 19 DAYS.

U. K. AMATUER RADIO

Lately I have been more and more activity by the U.K. In my opinion they seem to be more involved in Amateur Radio than Americans or they like to publicize and talk about it a lot more than American Hams. For example AMSAT-UK is updated regularly plus for members can read the newsletter. I know AMSAT in the U.S. had problems with  hackers and were down for a long time. The newsletter they sent was bi-monthly with material I had already read on AMSAT-UK. Online there are numerous websites I have found very helpful from the U. K. However no one can out shine K7AGE's YouTube site! I have nick named him every ones " ELMER" he has many "How To" video's. Randy, K7AGE can also be found on Twitter.
Back to the U.K. I have always been a fan and on my bucket list to visit London. In my earlier years of operating I had a mini-quad and a TS-430S and was quite excited to be able to carry out a QSO on phone with a gentleman from the U.K. Back then band conditions were not the greatest and I was very lucky to make a QSO out of the U.S.

FIELD DAY WEEKEND STARTS TOMORROW ! I WILL BE OPERATING ON 20 METERS PHONE UNDER THE CALL W8HHF THE RADIO CLUB CALL SIGN WHERE I BELONG. I WILL BE OPERATING THE NIGHT STARTING ABOUT 11 P.M. EST.

GOOD LUCK TO EVERYONE AND BE SAFE !

73'S

 

FIRST CONTACT !

I decided to come down here into the ham shack to program the memory channels I had saved in my computer. After successfully getting all that done I decided to search around for a special event station, another sub hobby of mine in ham radio. While searching the bands 20 meters was not the greatest so I moved to 40 meters. I came across two gentleman rag chewing or so I thought! To my surprise one of the gentleman was a guest operator at A.R.R.L. H.Q. station W1AW ! WHAT A FIND! A FIRST FOR ME! I have been licensed since fall of 1982 and this was the first time I had EVER came across a guest operator at W1AW ! The excitement and adrenaline started flowing with the hopes of  getting that qso from W1AW and qsl them hard copy of course ! The other gentleman was kind of elderly and I think he just wanted someone to talk to. Finally my turn came---- I thought for sure there would be a pile up of sorts and had myself prepared to battle the pile up. I was wrong I made it through no problem except for the band conditions. I received a 55 signal report but who's complaining? I actually was in a qso with a fellow ham at ARRL  HQ !

I think he was as excited as I was, he was telling me about all the new equipment there and the place was very well equipped. After completing the qso and very carefully logging all the needed info, I sat and thought about how nice it would be to travel there to tour the place and be a guest operator. Hopefully someday that pipe dream may come true !

73's

Mike/N8GBU

ARROW Communication Association

I recently came across this website while looking for additional frequencies to program into my H.T. as I have been frequently traveling the Ann Arbor Michigan area. This site has lots of good reading and Helpful links!

73’s

ARROW Communication Association

Amateur Radio Repeaters

I wanted to share this webpage I found. It is from AC6V and is loaded with all kinds of information. I needed repeater offsets for the different bands. My Yaesu VX7R is a 4 band radio and recently decided to program it. I have never used repeaters on 220, 440 and 6 meters. Needless to say the offsets are very different and also a lot of the repeaters are on PL.

73’s

Amateur Radio Repeaters

UNSETTLED WEATHER!

I was going to go to the Fulton County Hamfest today but that's not going to happen. We had thunderstorms and rain all night and the weather man promising more on the way.  The radio club that has this event is the club that had the exam session in which I upgraded to Extra Class. They have a great bunch of guys there and I was looking forward to possibly seeing some of them again. Checking the "Space Weather" or propagation outlook for today doesn't look very promising either, just an overall bad day for ham radio!

BBC News - 'Screaming' traffic cones unveiled in Birmingham

 

BBC News - 'Screaming' traffic cones unveiled in Birmingham

Follow the above link ! It seems in the U.K. they have came up with these new traffic cones to alert workers when some one has broken through their barrier. It also transmits on 433 Mhz to let workers further down the construction site the barrier has been broken. Will we see these in the USA? Time will tell?

73,s