 On December 2, this dairy truck crashed and rolled into the Logan River in Utah. Brent Yeates, KA7FAP, was able to help rescue the driver and call for help on his handheld transceiver. [Photo courtesy of KSL TV Channel 5]
In areas where cell phone signals just won't work, Amateur Radio gets through. That's what happened when Brent Yeates, KA7FAP, of North Logan, Utah, found out just before noon on Wednesday, December 2 when he came across a dairy truck that had crashed and rolled over in the Logan River as he drove on Route 89 through Logan Canyon.
As 38,000 gallons of dairy products were spilling into the Logan River, Yeates waded through the cold river to help get the driver out of the truck's cab and then put out a call on his handheld transceiver. Another ham, Brent Carruth, AD7VF, of Logan, was monitoring the repeater and heard Yeates make the call. Carruth listened as Yeates give a first-hand account of the condition of the driver and the seriousness of the crash and then called 911. According to The Herald Journal, Utah Highway Patrol officials originally reported that the call for help came from a motorist who traveled to a cell phone reception area before dialing 911.
"What happened Wednesday, where a radio operator happened upon an accident, was not an isolated incident," Carruth told the newspaper. "It happens more frequently than one might suppose." Yeates, who owns property in the canyon and travels it weekly, agreed saying he says he helps a crash victim at least once a year: "When you pull up on an accident, your first concern is to make sure the driver or passengers are okay. I grabbed my fire extinguisher because there was smoke coming from the truck and I could hear the driver talking and he said he was okay."
This is not the first time a radio amateur was on hand to help out in Logan Canyon: In March 2008, Eldon Kearl, K7OGM, of Fish Haven, Idaho, was driving in the Logan Canyon, Utah area when he came upon a driver who lost control of her truck in the snow. Her truck fell more than 100 feet over a cliff, and two of the three passengers were thrown from the truck. Using his handheld transceiver, Kearl was able to contact Roger Ellis, KE7HTE, of Logan through the local repeater to ask for help.
Carruth explained that a radio operator virtually anywhere in the mountains of Cache or Rich County can broadcast a signal to the repeater that sits atop Logan Peak in the Bear River Mountains east of Logan. The cluster of communication equipment rises about 5200 feet above the valley floor, giving gives the spot a strong vantage point over much of the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest. The Logan River rises in the Bear River Mountains in Idaho and flows south, then southwest through Logan Canyon and the Wasatch-Cache National Forest to the city of Logan in the Cache Valley. It then joins the Little Bear River a few kilometers west of Logan and about eight kilometers upstream from where the Little Bear River joins the Bear River. -- Information provided by The Herald Journal |
Sat 28 Nov 2009 |
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Written by ARRL Newsletter
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 On Wednesday, November 25, the FCC issued a Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) -- WT Docket No. 09-209 -- seeking to amend the Commission's Amateur Radio Service rules to clarify certain rules and codify existing procedures governing the vanity call sign system, as well as revise certain rules applicable to club stations.
According to the FCC, almost 80,000 licensees have replaced their sequentially issued Amateur Radio call signs with a vanity call sign since the program began in 1996. When the program began, the Commission established what they called "the broad outlines" of the vanity call sign system, concluding that call signs generally should not be available for reassignment for two years following the death of a licensee, or expiration or termination of the license for that call sign. In doing so, the Commission made exceptions for former holders of the call sign, close relatives of a deceased former holder and club stations of which a deceased former holder was a member.
The Commission did not, however, specify all of the procedures governing the vanity call sign system, but indicated that the procedures "would be set out in the Public Notices announcing 'starting gates' for the groups receiving initial priority and that the procedures would be adjusted from gate to gate as experience dictated." The procedures announced in the Public Notices announcing the gates are still in effect, but they are not set forth in the Commission's Rules. The NPRM states that the FCC "now believe[s] that certain provisions should be codified in our rules, and others added, so that the vanity call sign system will be fair, equitable and transparent to all amateur service licensees. The Commission also decided in the Vanity Report and Order [issued in 1996] to resume issuing new club station licenses. We believe that certain rule changes to the club station licensing rules may be appropriate."
The comment period for WT Docket No. 09-209 will extend for 60 days after it is published in the Federal Register. Historically, items appear in the Federal Register approximately 7-10 days after they appear on the FCC Web site. Reply comments can be made up to 75 days after publication in the Federal Register. Read more here |
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Sat 28 Nov 2009 |
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Written by Loyd C. Headrick
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On Saturday, November 21, astronauts Mike Foreman and Randy Bresnik completed the second EVA (extra-vehicular activity) -- NASA's term for a spacewalk -- of their mission. While on the 6 hour, 8 minute EVA, Foreman installed the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) antennas for 2 meters and 70 cm on the Columbus module. NASA ISS Ham Radio Project Engineer Kenneth Ransom, N5VHO, told the ARRL that this new antenna -- along with another VHF antenna -- was developed by ARISS in cooperation with the European Space Agency (ESA) to support an experiment involving the maritime Automatic Identification System (AIS). "Both antennas were installed on the Earth-facing starboard edge of the Columbus module," he explained. "The AIS antenna is forward and the ARISS antenna is aft. The ARISS team is planning to migrate some stowed Amateur Radio gear to take advantage of the new antenna." Frequencies available for transmission to and from Columbus will be 2 meters, 70 centimeters and 13 cm. To start, two radios for 2 meters and 70 cm that don't see much use on the ISS will be moved and installed in Columbus . The space shuttle Discovery is expected to return to Earth on Friday, November 27 and will bring Nicole Stott, KE5GJN, back from her stay on the ISS. |
Sun 08 Nov 2009 |
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Written by ARRL News Editor S. Khrystyne Keane, K1SFA
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Just the other day, the Doctor and I got to talking about ARRL Sweepstakes. I showed him my crystal mug and whisk broom from last year's Sweepstakes running (the W1AW team did quite well), and he showed me what kind of antennas I should look into for domestic contests. Being more of a DX RTTY contester, I really don't know much about the domestic side of things. I dabbled in the February NAQP RTTY Contest last year from K1TTT -- and will do so again in 2010 -- so I made sure to listen attentively. Here is what the good Doctor had to say:
Figure 1: Azimuth pattern of a half-wave dipole at a height of half a wavelength has a -3 dB beamwidth of of 87 degrees on each side -- a close match to the coverage needed by W1ZR to reach US and Canadian stations. Click the picture to enlarge.
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Each contest brings its own special requirements to the antenna designer. While many popular contests focus on communications outside North America and require the ability to send signals to all points of the compass, Sweepstakes is different, with a need to cover just the US and Canada. That means generally shorter range contacts and contacts in a limited range of directions, depending on station location.
In addition, points are gathered based on individual contacts multiplied by ARRL Sections. Thus, it is desirable to have the capability to reach all 80 sections on at least one band that will have propagation available. ARRL Contest Manager Sean Kutzko, KX9X, notes that many a contest superstation's secret weapon for Sweepstakes is a 40 meter dipole up between 25-30 feet. He says 40 meters is the Sweepstakes "money band" -- you can get close-in contacts during daylight and rake in the distant Sections when the band goes long in the evening hours. He said he had never put in a serious effort at Sweepstakes without a low dipole for 40, no matter how much aluminum he had up in the air.
Figure 2: By adding a 5 percent longer than the dipole and 6 feet behind it, I reduce -- but don't eliminate -- rearward radiation and provide some gain to the front where distances are longer. Click the picture to enlarge.
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Another great solution is a multiband Yagi that can be pointed towards the areas with the best propagation. If possible, have it relatively low -- perhaps at a half-wave length above ground -- to be able to cover the close-in stations, as well as those at the continent's far edge. Obviously, from the Central US or Canada, distances tend to be shorter than they are from the coasts with stations near the edges better able to make use of higher antennas. If you have the ability to try different heights, by all means try lowering your antenna from the optimum height for transcontinental contacts and see what works best for you.
If you're like me and don't have rotatable HF arrays available, all is not lost. First you need to figure out what azimuths you need to cover and then try to match those to fit your location. From my Connecticut location, I would want to cover from the direction toward old friend Don, WT1I, in Ocala, Florida (bearing 214°) up to Mark, KL7TQ, my old Army buddy in Eagle River, Alaska (322°).
There are many ways to compute the bearing to a station. The easy way out is to just use www.qrz.com. If your listing includes your latitude and longitude, bringing up another station and "looking at the details" will provide you with the bearing to their station. If you don't know anyone at the edges of the desired coverage area, just put a city name in the "Name Search" function and pick one that comes up. It doesn't get much easier -- or, if you must, you can use spherical trigonometry.
Figure 3: If I have no need for coverage to the rear, I can optimize the reflector length to achieve more gain by focusing almost all of my signal to the front. Click the picture to enlarge.
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Using my station as an example, the range of bearings I want to cover requires a beamwidth of 322°minus 214°, or 108°. A half-wave dipole at a height of half a wave length has a -3 dB beamwidth of 87(see Figure 1). At a width of 108 it's only down to -4.6 dB from the peak. That's pretty close, and might be good if I had a lot of distant stations behind me, as in Central US or Canada, but I don't.
If I were to put a wire reflector, 5 percent longer than the original dipole, 6 feet behind it (for 20 meters), I would have an easy to deploy 2-element Yagi with the pattern shown in Figure 2. To make it resonate in mid band, I need to trim about 4 inches from each end of the now driven element and I'm good to go. Note what I have -- a bit more gain in front, a lot less in the back, but still plenty of signal toward northern New England. My signal at the edges of my coverage area is now stronger than the dipole's -3 dB points.
If I don't have many stations to my rear, an additional 1 dB of forward gain can be achieved at the expense of rearward signals (see Figure 3) and a higher SWR by shortening the reflector a few inches -- about 2.5 percent over the driven element should do the trick. This may be worthwhile if you are right at a corner of the country. For more bands, just use parallel elements and multiple reflectors. See the article by Marcus Hansen, VE7CA, to get the idea. Azimuth plots represented in Figures 1, 2 and 3 represent the output from the EZNEC antenna modeling software by Roy Lewallen, W7EL.
Thanks Doctor! Do you have a question or a problem? Send your questions via e-mail or to "The Doctor," ARRL, 225 Main St, Newington, CT 06111 (no phone calls, please). Look for "The Doctor Is IN" every month in QST, the official journal of the ARRL. |
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