Courage Center Handiham World Weekly E-Letter for the week of Wednesday, 22 May 2013
This is a free weekly news & information update from Courage Center Handiham System. Our contact information is at the end, or simply email handiham@couragecenter.org for changes in subscriptions or to comment. You can listen to this news online.
MP3 audio stream:
http://www.handiham.org/audio/handiham.m3u
Download the 40 kbs MP3 audio to your portable player:
http://www.handiham.org/audio/handiham.mp3
Get this podcast in iTunes:
http://www.itunes.com/podcast?id=372422406
RSS feed for the audio podcast if you use other podcasting software:
http://feeds.feedBurner.com/handiham
Welcome to Handiham World.
2013 Hamvention® is a wrap!
Image: Pat, WA0TDA, and Hap, KC9RP, pose for the camera in front of the RAIN
Report banner. The Handiham booth and the RAIN Report booth were neighbors
in the Silver Arena.
Dayton Hamvention® was a great experience again, and it always surprises me how many people I meet there, including some fellow hams from Minnesota - and even though we might live in the same place on the map, it takes Hamvention to get us to actually see each other face to face. Others, like Hap, live in another State, but seem so very familiar because we hear their voices on podcasts or on the air so often. I enjoyed visiting with Hap and recording an interview for the RAIN Report.
Image: Bob Bruninga, WB4APR, at his PHEV (Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle), a
converted Toyota Prius, in the outdoor flea market at Hamvention. Bob
created a solar-powered and plug-in vehicle out of the stock Prius, and has been
promoting this kind of
technology at past shows. Most of you probably know Bob for one of his
other projects, APRS, the Automatic Packet
Reporting System.
Image: Converted Toyota Prius with trailer in foreground showing banks of solar cells that can be pulled along behind while driving down the road. The car itself has two banks of solar cells, one on the roof and the other on the hood.
Bob has his callsign license plate, WB4APR.
Image: Christoph, DF9WM, and Bill, W3AOK, stopped by the Handiham booth to pay
us a visit. Christoph was visiting in PA and he and Bill drove from there
to Dayton for the big show.
Image: Christoph poses in front of HARA Arena.
Image: Pat, WA0TDA, and Jim, KJ3P, at the Handiham booth. Jim is our volunteer
reader for QST magazine each month and we were sure glad to be able to meet him
in person!
Image: My son Will Tice, KC0LJL, pulls some booth duty. I was sure
glad he could come along and help with the driving between Minnesota and
Ohio.
Image: I paid a visit to the Kenwood booth, where I found this awesome TS-990S
transceiver. The 990 uses Voice Guide technology to provide complete audio
accessibility to the radio's menu tree and frequency readout. The voice guide
feature was enabled at the booth, making the radio easy to check out. It
was right there on a small pedestal, easy to get at, so you could change the
frequency and check out the menus and the front panel. Kudos to Kenwood
for a very user-friendly display. While I was busy looking at the radio and
thinking about taking the picture, a gentleman walked up to the radio and
started navigating through the menus. Since the Voice Guide was enabled, this
made for a really impressive audio tour through the menu system. Now I wish I
had made a recording, but I didn't think of it at the time and it was pretty
noisy in the convention hall in any case. I have no doubt that this radio is
very accessible, but as with all large top-of-the-line units, there are many
controls on the front panel. This means that any new user will have to be
patient and thoughtful about how to learn their way around this excellent
transceiver. There is no way that one could simply sit down in front of it and
begin operating, and that is the trade-off for all of the features and
functionality of a high-end radio. If you are interested, I strongly suggest
that you meet the radio in person at a local amateur radio dealer. The nearest I
could tell from the Kenwood website is that the Voice Guide feature must be
built in rather than an add-on option, but I could not confirm that because the
download section of the Kenwood website was not working so I could not get a
manual.
I hope to have more photos and stories from Dayton in upcoming editions, so stay tuned.
Patrick Tice, WA0TDA
Handiham Manager
Handiham.org croaks and gets a makeover
What is it about computers that makes them so prone to going into a tailspin just when you need them the most? Or is that just Murphy's Law at work? Anyway, upon my return from Hamvention, I discovered that Handiham.org had gone down. It was the Drupal database again, something that had plagued the public front entrance to the website for quite some time. After the good folks at Network Solutions restored the site from a backup, I decided it was time to do some much-needed housekeeping and clean up the look and feel of the Handiham website. After all, it is where most people will learn about us and find out basic information about ham radio and exactly what it is that we do. At the same time, we must be careful to make the website as functional as possible for all users. Mobile users make up a greater proportion of website visitors than ever before, so that means that the website must be readable on mobile devices. Many people will use traditional desktop computers, so it goes without saying that the website layout must work for them as well.
I have come a long way in my understanding of website design over the years. Something that just puts your message on the web might have been good enough 10 years ago, but today we expect to not only deliver information to anyone seeking to learn about the program, but we also must be able to deliver program services to our members. When I work on website design I always consider how the page will resolve for our blind visitors and members who use screen readers or magnifiers. One happy consequence of the growth of mobile devices is that websites designed for mobile often work very well for screen reader users. They're less complicated and have a more straightforward flow of information.
While our Main website was out of service for a day or so, our members-only section was never affected, nor was the Handiham remote base website. The Handiham mailing lists were not affected. And, as you might expect, our backup website at www.handiham.net also remained in service.
I hope you find the new website interface easy to use. As we move forward I will be continuing to look for and clean up any problems that might show up. If you do run into any kind of accessibility issue, be sure to let us know about it. There is nothing worse from the standpoint of a website developer than to be thinking that everything is A-OK when in fact something is broken and users are too polite to let you know about it! For those of you who are technically inclined, our website runs Drupal seven with a "Corolla" theme that is based on Adaptive Theme. We hope this will make the website easy to use and accessible to everyone.
Bulletin Board
Recently I had an enquiry about software for Morse code learning, and here is what I came up with:
- Here is one that might work: http://www.justlearnmorsecode.com/
- This is the DX Zone list: http://www.dxzone.com/catalog/Software/Morse_Code_Training/
- WinMorse changes text to code: http://www.dxzone.com/dx5170/winmorse.html
May I use the remote base stations to listen to W1AW?
- That was a question from a remote base user, and the answer was an enthusiastic "yes"! You will find the W1AW operating schedule on the ARRL website. It is important to remember a couple of things about receiving W1AW successfully. Since the user lives in California, he must check the W1AW schedule using the "Pacific" time zone column in the schedule. Of course propagation must be considered, so choosing the correct frequency band is vital. The station is located in Minnesota, while W1AW is in Newington, Connecticut. That means we are talking about radio propagation between the New England states and the upper Midwest, not California where the user resides. Band conditions can be quite variable during the summertime, so there is going to be a certain amount of experimentation involved in choosing the best frequency for reception at the most convenient time of day. W1AW transmits on multiple frequency bands, so if you have no luck on one band, try another one. Sometimes people are looking for code practice, which is a mainstay of W1AW's schedule. Others may be interested in the digital or phone bulletins, which are also in the transmission schedule.
- The best way to figure it all out is to pay a visit to:
http://www.arrl.org/w1aw-operating-schedule - Finally, it is good to remember that you can use the Echolink application
to listen to either remote base station. You will find details on Echolink
operation at:
http://handiham.org/remotebase/
Summer audio fun:
- In response to a member's comments about history and recollections of the
early days of operating, I got to thinking about one of my favorite
podcasters, Jeff Davis, KE9V. Jeff had done a podcast called "Long
Delayed Echoes", which was all about radio history, and did he ever do
a great job. Jeff's podcasts are among the most compelling and fun listening
you will find anywhere - but the catch is that you can't find them anymore,
at least for now. I Tweeted Jeff the other day and he did have some
good news in his reply, which is that his series "Cornbread Row"
will be repeated this summer. Keep up with the latest from Jeff at his
blog:
http://ke9v.net/blog/
Power outage? Why not - everything else has gone sideways this week.
Yes, this week has been a doozy for things going wrong. Not only did we have the website problem, but several power outages – one of which really messed up remote base station W0ZSW. We don't have any especially bad or stormy weather today but that didn't stop the power company from treating us to a nice 15 minute break from work just before noon. Today's outage turned the ham shack/home office dark and left me scrambling to get the computer files saved in the time allowed by my uninterruptible power supply. The IRLP node went down, Echolink went bye-bye, and the microwave wouldn't work, so there was nothing to heat up lunch while the computer wasn't working. What a waste of time! I don't know how it is where you live, but here in the Twin Cities summertime seems to be the worst for power outages. Some are storm related and last only a second or two. It is easy to understand when a lightning strike causes the power to drop. What is not so easy to understand is why the power goes off on a fine day when there is no excessive air-conditioning load, no wind, and no apparent reason for any damage to the power grid. As I said, this happens much more frequently in the summertime. I am speculating here, but I think that there is construction that probably interrupts the power. The summer season is also construction season here in the upper Midwest. One nice service that our power company offers is the availability of an outage map on the Internet. Of course, this assumes that you have some way to access the Internet during a power outage, but with a smart phone, this is not a problem. Call me crazy, but I think power companies have an obligation to their customers that extends beyond just getting the power back on again as soon as possible. I would really like it if there would be some way to give me a heads up when a power outage is likely to occur, such as during major infrastructure changes to the power grid or the connecting up of a major new section of town or whatever. If the power company knows that maintenance is taking place, doesn't it make sense to let customers know that there could be a power outage within a given time window so that they can be prepared? I suggested this on our power company's Facebook page. I would like to get an auto dialed robotic voice message or a text message prior to an outage so that I can prepare. Sometimes, power outages are unpredictable. We know and understand that. But I just can't believe that every single one of these outages, especially the ones during fine weather, can't be covered by notification events.
Do I have a responsibility for some level of power protection as a homeowner?
Yes, of course I do! I did not lose my work on the computer because I have an uninterruptible power supply. An alternative would've been to work on a notebook computer that has its own built-in battery supply. I know that as an emergency communicator, I need a source of backup power should there be an extended outage. For that situation I have a gasoline generator. Since lighting is important, I keep LED flashlights in known locations. I keep the batteries charged in my handheld radio. While I am aggravated when the power company fails to deliver, I know that I have a plan to protect my computer files and to keep emergency power flowing to things like the refrigerator and the basement sump pump.
Plan ahead to be ready for a summer emergency!
Handiham Nets are on on the air.
Last Wednesday evening we ended up with a substitute NCS at the last minute - it worked out well, though - It's great when we can be flexible enough for the net to get picked up by a volunteer. This morning's net almost turned into an informal rag-chew and roundtable when no NCS showed up. It's one of those summertime things. People get busy during the fine weather just doing outdoor stuff, and getting on a net might not be convenient. Ironically, today was one of the first times in ages that I have actually showed up EARLY for the morning net. I was checking out the port triggering on the router and ran the Echolink application, so what the heck. No mistaking anything we have for WX today for "pleasant" or "Spring-like". It's a lousy, cold, rainy one up here - a perfect day to retreat to the ham shack!
Thanks to N4STF for picking up this morning's session and to KB3ZUK for grabbing the reins last Wednesday evening.
We are scheduled to be on the air daily at 11:00 USA Central Time, plus Wednesday & Thursday evenings at 19:00 USA Central Time. A big THANK YOU to all of our net control stations! What will Doug, N6NFF, come up with for his trivia question tonight? Will I guess we'll just have to tune in and listen!
We maintain our nets at 11:00 hours daily relative to Minnesota time. Since the nets remain true to Minnesota time, the difference between Minnesota time and GMT is -5 hours. The net is on the air at 16:00 hours GMT.
The official and most current net news may be found at:
http://www.handiham.org/nets
A dip in the pool
It's time to test our knowledge by taking a dip in the pool - the
AMATEUR RADIO question pool, that is!
Let's go to the
Extra Class
pool and examine a question about RF exposure and MPE (maximum permissible
exposure):
E0A06 asks: Why are there separate electric (E) and magnetic (H) field MPE limits?
Possible answers are:
A. The body reacts to electromagnetic radiation from both the E and H fields
B. Ground reflections and scattering make the field impedance vary with location
C. E field and H field radiation intensity peaks can occur at different locations
D. All of these choices are correct
What do you think? Frankly, RF exposure is sort of an afterthought to many ham radio station owners - but it shouldn't be! The FCC is probably going to revise exposure standards, an indication that knowing about MPE and designing stations to be safe is a high priority. All of the choices above are correct, so answer D is the right one. When planning your station layout and antenna and feedline systems, it is (or should be) part of the planning process to measure for safe distances between your antennas and your family and the neighbors.
Please e-mail handiham@couragecenter.org to comment.
This week @ HQ
Handiham Office Closed on Memorial Day:
Countdown to the Allina-Courage Center merger:
- Did you know that our parent organization, Courage Center, is merging with
Allina Sister Kenny Rehabilitation Institute this Spring? Of course
you did, you read it here:
http://www.couragecenter.org/ContentPages/partnershipagreementannouncement.aspx - The formal merger will take place in June, so we have been busy preparing. This has included planning meetings, special training in new systems, and working together with our colleagues to make sure that everything proceeds as smoothly as possible. I will update you on some of the changes in upcoming newsletters. There will be differences in how you pay your Handiham membership dues, for example. We are excited about the new partnership between these two respected non-profits that will help us serve our communities and Handiham members better.
The May DAISY digest for our blind members is ready for use, and...
...June audio is in production. Some of this brand-new audio may be available by later in the week, time allowing. I am going to have quite a lot of time tied up in transition meetings and training.
- Our thanks to Bob, N1BLF, Jim, KJ3P, and Ken, W9MJY, for reading this month. Look for these DAISY materials in the members section.
- There is no Friday Notify mailing this week.
New! The Icom IC-706M2G manual read by volunteer Lyle Koehler, K0LR, is in the manuals section in DAISY format. As with our other DAISY offerings, the book is in a single zip file that may be downloaded and unzipped to your computer for transfer to an NLS player or other compatible DAISY reading device. I have a report from a DAISY device user that the manual is very good and easy to navigate.
Radio Camp application packets are still available.
2013 camp dates call for arrival on July 28 and departure on August 2. We have confirmed that we will offer our campers who pass Technician at camp brand-new handheld radios. Radio camp will emphasize ham radio fun and getting on the air.
We will feature:
- Technician beginner small group class - Get your first license and get on the air!
- General Class study group for those who need a quick review before taking the General exam.
- Extra Class study group for those who need a quick review before taking the Extra exam.
- VE session conducted by SARA, the Stillwater (MN) Amateur Radio Association, on Thursday, August 1, at 1:30 PM.
- Operating Skills small group get on the air sessions and discussions
- ARRL update - What's new at ARRL.
- Extra Class seminar for those with Extra Class licenses who want to participate in more advanced technical projects and discussions
- Several stations to operate, including maritime mobile on the camp pontoon boat with Cap'n Bill, N0CIC
- Sailing with Skipper Bill, K9BV
- Handiham Radio Club meeting and elections
- Dining in the nearby newly-remodeled Woodland dining hall.
- Fun in the sun during Minnesota's excellent summer season - at Camp Courage on beautiful Cedar Lake!
For a Radio Camp application, email Nancy at hamradio@couragecenter.org or call her at 763-520-0512.
Digital mailers are important: If you do mail a digital cartridge to us, please be sure that it is an approved free matter mailer. Otherwise it will quickly cost us several dollars to package and mail out, which is more than the cost of the mailer in the first place. We don't have a stock of cartridges or mailers and not including a mailer will result in a long delay getting your request back out to you.
DAISY audio digests are available for our blind members who do not have computers, playable in your Library of Congress digital player. Handiham members who use these players and who would prefer to receive a copy of the monthly audio digests on the special Library of Congress digital cartridge should send a blank cartridge to us in a cartridge mailer (no envelopes, please), so that we can place the files on it and return it to you via free matter postal mail. Your callsign should be on both the cartridge and the mailer so that we can make sure we know who it's from. Blank cartridges and mailers are available from APH, the American Printing House for the Blind, Inc.
Digital Talking Book Cartridge Catalog Number: 1-02610-00, Price: $12.00
Digital Talking Book Cartridge Mailer Catalog Number: 1-02611-00, Price: $2.50
Order Toll-Free: (800) 223-1839.
The Library of Congress NLS has a list of vendors for the digital cartridges:
http://www.loc.gov/nls/cartridges/index.html
Get it all on line as an alternative: Visit the DAISY section on the Handiham website after logging in.
Stay in touch
Be sure to send Nancy your changes of address, phone number changes, or email address changes so that we can continue to stay in touch with you. You may either email Nancy at hamradio@couragecenter.org or call her at 763-520-0512. If you need to use the toll-free number, call 1-866-426-3442.
Handiham Manager Patrick Tice, WA0TDA, may be reached at handiham@couragecenter.org or by phone at 763-520-0511.
Mornings Monday through Thursday are the best time to contact us.
The Courage Handiham System depends on the support of people like you, who want to share the fun and friendship of ham radio with others. Please help us provide services to people with disabilities.
Call 1-866-426-3442 toll-free. -- Help us get new hams on the air.
Get the Handiham E-Letter by email every Wednesday, and stay up-to-date with ham radio news.
You may listen in audio to the E-Letter at Handiham Weekly E-Letter in MP3 format
Email us to subscribe:
hamradio@couragecenter.org
That's it for this week. 73 from all of us at the Courage Handiham System!
Pat, WA0TDA
Manager, Courage Handiham System
Reach me by email at:
handiham@couragecenter.org
Nancy, Handiham Secretary:
hamradio@couragecenter.org
ARRL is the premier organization supporting amateur radio worldwide. Please contact Handihams for help joining the ARRL. We will be happy to help you fill out the paperwork!
The weekly e-letter is a compilation of software tips, operating information, and Handiham news. It is published on Wednesdays, and is available to everyone free of charge. Please email handiham@couragecenter.org for changes of address, unsubscribes, etc. Include your old email address and your new address.