Subj : Amateur Radio Newsline (B)
To : All
From : Daryl Stout
Date : Fri Jun 08 2018 09:05 am
THOUSANDS FLOCK TO HAM RADIO FRIEDRICHSHAFEN
PAUL/ANCHOR: With Hamvention a memory, all eyes and ears turned recently
to the largest hamfest in Europe. Ed Durrant, DD5LP, was there - here's
his report.
ED'S REPORT: As most will know, Ham Radio Friedrichshafen is the largest
Hamfest in Europe. This years theme was radio scouting (audio clip) of
course, with lots of fun, that was the combined scout troops from several
European countries, who were attending Ham Radio Friedrichshafen this
year. The theme extended into other youth orientated events including the
hand-over of Youngsters on-the-air from the UK Organisers to the South
African organisers.
Attendance at the event was probably about 10% reduced due to the
unfortunate coincidence that the date clashed with the IARU CW field day.
There were several new dealers with new products, with Magnetic loop
antennas, practical for portable use to enormous, high power home station
ones. One young Spanish company, Komunica, are designing and building HF
and VHF mobile antennas in Europe, with new antennas due out in September.
It's good to see not everything is being produced in the far east.
SDR radios were very much in presence, with several different companies
displaying new or extended models. Of course the "big 5" were there, and
this was a chance to see the new Kenwood TS-890S, and talk with its
designer. As well as get a look at the Yaesu FTDX101D, FT-818ND, and the
software update to the FT-2D Fusion handy to make it into a hot-spot.
In general the slightly reduced numbers in the very large halls made it
easier to get around. Only in the flea market was it as busy as ever. The
addition of the Maker Faire, with their Cosplay dressed people walking
around added some flair and fun.
Despite dire weather predictions, not one drop of rain fell over the three
days of the event. rather it was sunny, and in the high twenties
Centigrade the whole time.
So if you've never been to Ham Radio in Friedrichshafen, why not plan a
visit for next year, when it moves back to its usual weekend, which is
June 21st to the 23rd 2019.
That's Friedrichshafen for another year, now it's time to get ready for
the WRTC in 6 weeks time. How did that go? "Dib di Dib Dib Dah Dah Di
Dah"?
For AR Newsline, this has been Ed Durrant, DD5LP.
**
RADIO SCOUTING GOES TO CAMP
PAUL/ANCHOR: Here in the United States, radio scouts are getting busy
with summer camp. Here's Bill Stearns, NE3RD.
BILL'S REPORT: This week in Radio Scouting, summer camp season has
started, and scouts are breaking codes, and sending CW in Oregon.
William Coverdell, WD0BC, is activating K2BSA/0 at Camp Geiger in Saint
Joseph, MO, from June 10th to July 21st. The camp will be offering
radio merit badge classes throughout the six week period. Scouts will
be getting on the air with a generous station that is completely scout
owned through 100% donations.
Ed Evans, WV8ED, is activating K2BSA/8 at Camp Arrowhead in Ona, WV,
from June 17th to the 23rd. Ed will have a ham radio demonstration
station located in the STEM area of the camp for the week.
Richard Zarczynski, AC8FJ, is also activating K2BSA/8 at D-Bar-A Scout
Ranch in Metamora, MI, from June 24th to the 29th. This event is the
very successful Trail to Eagle program designed for the older Scout,
which gives them the opportunity to work on the merit badges they need
to complete their Eagle Scout rank requirements in a timely manner.
Michael Boensch/W8MKB and Richard will again be offering the radio merit
badge course, and maintaining the special event station, making others
on the airwaves aware of, and promoting the long history of the Trail To
Eagle program over the various amateur radio bands.
We have many other activations at other scout camps over on our Scout
Camps on the Air page at scota.us. If you want to help out a local
scout camp, with donations of gear or your time, and don't know who to
contact, please contact us through our website.
Finally, I received a report from Russ Mickiewicz, N7QR, about scouts
out in Oregon that were having some fun with another popular merit
badge: Signs, Signals, and Code.
A new generation of code-breakers and communications experts was
launched at Oregon's Sunset Trail District Camporee in May, 2018.
About 100 scouts learned the crafts that had once been vital for
communications and survival: semaphore (flag) signals, Morse Code,
and code ciphers.
Scouts were broken up into teams after training. One team would be
sending a coded message in semaphore, while the other team would decode
the message, and then send their response back with Morse Code using a
flashlight. The semaphore team would record the message, and confirm the
correct decode by sending an R in semaphore back to the other team.
For the rest of the story and more information on radio scouting, please
visit our website at www.k2bsa.net.
For Amateur Radio Newsline, and the K2BSA Amateur Radio Association, this
is Bill Stearns, NE4RD.
