Ham Radio Is Changing

About every three months my ham club, the Highland Lakes Amateur Radio Club, holds a Sunday afternoon workshop on some topic that is of interest to enough people to make it worth while. The workshops are not limited to members and anyone who is interested can attend. The Club has held construction workshops where we built antennas for emergency use, technical lectures about antenna principles, practical workshops on the use of the new power connectors, the use of an antenna modeling program and several workshops on how to set up, configure and use the digital keyboard modes. We try to stay abreast of established and changing technology in our hobby. All of the workshops held have had a pretty good turnout and almost everyone attending has commented that the workshops are very helpful.

Not too long ago I attended an informal get-together of hams where there was a discussion of the coming digital revolution in our hobby. During the discussion of digital voice one old timer commented that it was regrettable that the world of ham radio as we know it was changing. After thinking about that for a minute I told him that I thought it was a good thing, which was met with a “Harrump, I beg your pardon.” I told him that ham radio is a constantly changing hobby. It changed when AM came on the scene. It changed again when single sideband arrived. It is changing again as digital emissions become the primary mode of operations. I said that we should be thankful it did and does or we would all still be using spark gap transmitters.

There are many digital keyboard modes: that is, computer via radio to radio and computer. They run the gamut from slow and narrow bandwidths to fast and wide bandwidths The descriptions of each mode along with how each one sounds are are found at: http://www.wb8nut.com/digital.html Have a look and listen at your leisure. Hams have and are working on improving email like messaging from station to station via radio and station to Internet via radio. In emergencies hams can transmit such messages for emergency agencies and for health and welfare inquiries.

Then there is digital voice. One manufacturer has a system called D-Star, which is somewhat popular but uses a privately owned vocoder. Other manufacturers also offer primitive digital voice systems but they likewise use proprietary vocoders. See http://www.hamradio-dv.org/ What is a vocoder? It is the hardware and software that converts analog voice to digital and digital to analog voice. Your cell phone contains one. Ham radio will progress much faster when hams come up with a standard non-proprietary vocoder and I believe that will happen in the not too distant future. See below.

Most human beings naturally resist technological change. The older we get the more we resist changes in our lives. For the most part, however, change has been good for humankind. It has brought us the marvelous age in which we live and promises even more wonders in the future. Some of my older ham friends still use AM (bloated bandwidth mode) below 21 MHz. Some think that all true hams can and still do operate CW. To those friends I say enjoy your modes of operation. There is room for all of us in this hobby. Make sure, however, that you make room for and do not interfere with the new modes for they are the future of Ham Radio.

Ham Radio Encouragement I Received

My father and a neighbor introduced me to the art and science of radio communications when I was in the fifth grade living in Beaumont, Texas. For my 12th birthday my father gave me the Boy's First Book of Radio and a neighbor gave me an old hardback Radio Handbook. From those publications I built a crystal radio and with some effort got it working. I could only receive about three local AM broadcast stations but it was a marvel to me. Later I built a one tube regenerative radio and after much experimenting got it working. I put up a better antenna and I could hear not only local stations but stations as far away as Houston, San Antonio and Dallas. Sometime later I added a one tube audio amplifier with a speaker. I was fascinated that I could pull electronic signals containing information out of the air from equipment I had built.

In 1955 and 1956 neither my father nor our neighbor had any time to devote to being ham radio operators. They were both construction engineers in the oil industry and spent a lot of time on job sites scattered all around the State of Texas. So, other than occasional encouragement, I was pretty much on my own with my world of radios. In the Summer of 1956 my father took me to his employer's (Sun Oil Company) geophysical lab where he introduced me to two engineers who were hams. After spending some time with them and then going over to the home of one to see the equipment in his “shack” I was hooked. I wanted to be a ham radio operator.

In 1956 I had my first paper route, which gave me a little extra money left over after parent mandated savings. I ordered the ARRL License Manual and purchased a code key from one of the two hams I had met. I took my audio amplifier apart and rebuilt it as a code practice oscillator. I rewound the coil on my regenerative radio as the two hams advised and eventually I was able to receive the 80 meter ham band. I slowly learned and then copied CW every evening that I could.

One day right after school was out for the Summer of 1957 I decided I was ready to try for my license. At that time the Novice license could be given by a ham over the age of 21 so I met with the two hams and took my first test. Also, in those days the person administering the exam did not grade it but sent it to the FCC. The hams who administered my exam, however, looked over my answers and told me that I passed. I had to wait 6 weeks for the test materials to go to the FCC field office in Beaumont then to Pennsylvania and for my license to come back from the FCC. The hams suggested I spend my waiting time building a two band 6AG7 / 6L6 pi output 35 watt transmitter and putting up a dipole antenna, which I did. In 1957 the local electronics stores had most of the parts one needed and the remaining parts could be salvaged from old radios. So I collected the parts and built the transmitter. I put up the antenna using some wire my dad salvaged from a job site. I ordered four crystals from an advertisement in back of the License Manual.

I continued to listen to 80 and 40 meters and copy CW almost every night, improving my speed and proficiency. Occasionally I would tune up the band and hear some hams using AM. There were also some hams using a new funny voice mode that sounded like duck talk called Single Side Band. I had to rewire a couple of places in my transmitter but eventually I got it to work into a 75 watt light bulb. In the meantime, and unbeknown to me, my dad and the two hams had gotten together and selected, and my dad and mom bought a Hallicrafters S-38D receiver, which they presented to me on the day my ticket arrived from the FCC. I could not believe my good fortune. It had a big beautiful slide rule dial with a separate band spread scale. I installed a knife switch for my antenna change over between the transmitter and the receiver, set up my station and went to listening to hams on my new receiver. It was a magic time for me.

The very next evening I heard another novice ham calling CQ on 80 meters. When he paused I nervously threw the knife switch to transmit and tapped out his call several times on the key followed by DE (this is) and my KN5HWH call several times, closing with a K (over). I threw the knife switch back to receive and waited. Nothing. Perhaps he did not hear me. Perhaps he did not tune to my frequency. Perhaps my transmitter is not putting out enough power. Perhaps my antenna was not performing. After a moment of silence that seemed like an eternity there he was, calling me back. I had my first QSO (contact) that evening. I became a devoted ham radio operator for life at that moment.

I made a number of CW contacts during my time as a Novice. I went on to upgrade to the Technician license and later the General license. In addition to CW I have used AM, FM and SSB. Currently, I am learning all of the new digital modes. I now hold an Amateur Extra license. I am an ARRL VE (volunteer examiner), an ARRL certified instructor and I participate in classes and examinations for prospective ham operators. I am involved in Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) and Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (RACES). I have participated in many ham field days, emergency services (my first one was Hurricane Carla in 1961 at the Beaumont Red Cross headquarters) and many activities in my more than fifty years as a ham. I have made a lot of good life-long friends in the hobby. I have thoroughly enjoyed every minute of my time spent being a ham. It is all because of the support I received from my father, a neighbor and my father's friends.

What do young folks today have to compare with my introduction to amateur radio? The world. There is not only ham radio, which is entering the digital communications era, they can build and experiment with computers. They can learn to program them or to write code for games and other applications. They can build and work on automobiles, especially the coming “green” cars. They can build airplanes, rockets, robots or a myriad of things. There are so many things they can do if they are encouraged and helped along the way. I was fortunate in having a father and several of his friends help me pursue my interest. If you see or know of some youngster to whom you can lend a hand and some advice in his/her quest to learn something you are familiar with please do so. You may help him/her develop a career path or a life long hobby or maybe just help him/her learn the right path through life. At the very least you may get him/her off the couch and out from in front of that mind-wasting boob tube or some time-wasting game unit and on the way he/she really wants to go.