Subj : Amateur Radio Newsline (B)
To : All
From : Daryl Stout
Date : Fri Jul 20 2018 10:16 am
YOUNG HAMS' INVITATION TO 'BREAKFAST'
JIM/ANCHOR: Another way to hook youngsters on ham radio in the internet
age is to start with their smartphones! Paul Braun, WD9GCO, tells us
how one ham did it.
PAUL: One of the hot topics in ham radio today is how to attract new,
young hams to the hobby in a world that's full of the internet and cell
phones. One ham, Denny Johnson, KD5DLK, has found a way to combine all
of those. His initial plan was to get the school systems in his area to
use the Skywarn training materials as the curriculum in a science class,
and then get the students Skywarn certified. Since most of them had
smartphones, his plan was to create a channel on Zello, a popular app
that allows mobile phones to behave very much like an HT. He figured it
would bring them in contact with Skywarn spotters who were also hams,
and hopefully spark interest. And then he started thinking bigger:
JOHNSON: So I created this Zello channel, and I thought, "You know, we
need to do something a little broader, outside of Skywarn" so I created
the Digicomm Cafe, which is just a Zello channel open to everybody. We
had this breakfast club that we started, meets every Saturday morning at
8:00 Central where we bring in different guests every time. Recently, we
had Don Wilbanks in as a guest, and we've been doing this now for the
last three months.
PAUL: The Digicomm Cafe channel on Zello introduced him to the World
Wide Amateur Radio Guild who had a similar mission, and they have
channels of their own on a different service. They liked what Johnson
was doing, so they offered to bring Digicomm Cafe in as part of the
Guild. Johnson accepted.
JOHNSON: I have a channel called "DigiCommCafe" without a space between
"comm" and "cafe." The one with a space is for everyone, the one that's
all one word is for hams only. It's linked to many RF modes, including
Echolink, Allstar link, DMR, D-star, Fusion and it's also cross-linked
to Zello, which we only give permission to those who are licensed hams
to use, and the IRN on Teamspeak, so people could come in from any one
of those different modes to communicate in the channel.
PAUL: Johnson's idea seems to be working:
JOHNSON: I did a presentation at the local library here in Harrison,
Arkansas. A young boy, 13 years old, with his father came up from
Clinton, Arkansas. He's always been passionate about weather, but
within two days, he took that test, got certified as a spotter. Two
days later, he got his ham license, and now he is running the Little
Rock Skywarn Zello channel!
PAUL: For more information about The Guild and Digicomm Cafe, please
visit their website at TheGuildGlobal dot ORG. For Amateur Radio
Newsline, I'm Paul Braun, WD9GCO.
**
FIRST BREAK HERE:
Time for you to identify your station. We are the Amateur Radio Newsline,
heard on bulletin stations around the world, including the K2ADA repeater
in Ocala, Florida, on Fridays and Saturdays, at 7 p.m.
**
OLD RADIOS DIE HARD - OR NOT
JIM/ANCHOR: The actor Bruce Willis might be the last person you'd expect
to be talking into an HT. But it happened on screen 30 years ago this
year, and his costar, it turns out, was a Kenwood model that's now
vintage. Here's Neil Rapp, WB9VPG.
NEIL: As the blockbuster action-thriller "Die Hard" marks the 30th
anniversary of its theatrical release in the U.S., there are still
plenty of people who believe that Bruce Willis was the movie's star.
Remember him? His portrayal of New York City cop John McClane came into
sharpest focus during a dramatic hostage rescue scene in Los Angeles.
Everyone recognizes Bruce Willis, of course, a tough guy who takes no
prisoners, even in the face of those who do. But his costar? Trivia
buffs might offer the name of Bonnie Bedelia who plays his wife, or
identify Alan Rickman as the evil Hans Gruber but - guess again.
Amateur radio operators know better: In the July, 2018, issue of the
ARRL's magazine QST, it is revealed that a Kenwood HT - the model
TH-31BT to be exact - was Bruce Willis' real co-star. This was the
radio that John McClane managed to grab from one of the hostage-takers,
and later used to spy on the captors' conversations. Ultimately, the
radio helped him save the day, when he used it to call emergency
response to the scene, and keep him connected to outside support, as
the drama unfolded.
Well, hams aren't surprised at all by this revelation. Why should they
be? Admiration for radio's potential - like the movie - dies hard.
For Amateur Radio Newsline I'm Neil Rapp, WB9VPG.
(QST Magazine)
**
SLOVENIA GETS ALLOCATION ON 60 METER BAND
JIM/ANCHOR: Welcome to the 60 meter band, Slovenia! The Association of
Radio Amateurs of Slovenia, has notified Tom Kamp, DF5JL, the Region 1
HF Manager of the International Amateur Radio Union, that all Class A
operators now have access to the 60 meter band on a seconary basis
between 5351.5 kHz to 5366.5 kHz. The hams are given a maximum EIRP of
15 watts. According to the IARU, the change took effect on the 14th of
July.
(SOUTHGATE)
**
CELEBRATING 20 YEARS OF NETWORKING REPEATERS IN KANSAS
JIM/ANCHOR: There's nothing like togetherness, whether it is a gathering
in person for eyeball QSOs, or hams getting together on the air.
Networked repeaters bring another kind of important togetherness. In
Kansas, hams are noting two decades of that interconnectedness in the
most appropriate way possible. Lloyd Colston, KC5FM, has the details.
LLOYD: The nice folks in Kansas are celebrating twenty years of statewide
networking repeaters with a net on August 18th at 9 p.m. Central Time,
on the K-Link system. Today, the system has 20 repeaters, linked with
worldwide connectivity on IRLP NODE 9335, and ALLSTAR NODE 46304.
Justin, NV8Q, reports that in 2008, the tenth anniversary net had 54
check-ins.
Details can be found at WWW.KS0LNK.NET
If you are in Kansas on the 18th, head over to Salina on the 19th for
the Kansas American Radio Relay League State Convention.
For Amateur Radio Newsline, this is Lloyd Colston, KC5FM, reporting.
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