Track a Weather Balloon

Want to track a weather balloon here is a very neat website that tracks all the weather balloon across the country.  Here in Pittsburgh the NWS launch balloons at  7:00 AM and 7:00 PM. Some times at other times like during storms.

https://tracker.sondehub.org

The SondeHub Tracker provides live and historical view of the data contained within the SondeHub Radiosonde telemetry database. This data is openly available, and licensed under Creative Commons By-SA 2.0. While primarily designed to assist with the tracking, recovery and re-use of meteorological radiosondes, it also provides a view of the meteorological data gathered by these devices.

So who wants to go on a fox hunt?

NASA Need Ham Radio Operators

The HamSCI Festivals of Eclipse Ionospheric Science will occur October 14, 2023 and April 8, 2024 during spectacular North American solar eclipses.

The Festivals will consist of multiple events, each with a goal of increasing our understanding of sun-ionosphere-earth relationships. ​Participants will include volunteer amateur radio operators, short wave listeners and science researchers from multiple US universities.

HamSCI FoEIS Events in which you can participate

  • The Solar Eclipse QSO Party (SEQP)
  • The Gladstone Signal Spotting Challenge (GSSC)
  • Learn how to participate by visiting the HamSCI FoEIS Contest Info Page
Planned Events – Details To Be Announced at a Future Time
  • Doppler Effects on the Reception of WWV and CHU Utilizing the Grape 2 Low-IF Receiver
  • The Use of Time Delay of Arrival (TDOA) Measurements to Profile Ionospheric Layer Height Changes During Solar Eclipses
  • Tracking Traveling Ionospheric Disturbances Using Doppler-shifts of AM Broadcast Stations
  • ​VLF Reception Exercise

Read More about this here:
https://science.nasa.gov
https://hamsci.org/eclipse

VE Testing Session – Feb 25th

VE Testing Session

Steel City Amateur Radio Club will be conducting a VE testing session Public Demo at the Carnegie Library in Carnegie PA.  The testing session will start at 2:00 PM on Feb 25th and is open for new hams and upgrades.  Please check out our VE Testing Page for more information. Also please contact Chris K3PQ at k3pq@w3kwh.com for pre-registration to guarantee a spot for you at the testing location.  Walk in allowed but register people will be tested first.

Carnegie Library
300 Beechwood Avenue
Carnegie, PA 15106-2644
Google Map Link

Bill to Eliminate Private Land Use Restrictions on Amateur Radio

FROM: ARRL.ORG

Congressman Bill Johnson (OH-6) introduced a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives (H.R.9670) on Thursday, December 22, 2022, to eliminate private land use restrictions that prohibit, restrict, or impair the ability of an Amateur Radio Operator from operating and installing amateur station antennas on property subject to the control of the Amateur Radio Operator.

The exponential growth of communities subject to private land use restrictions that prohibit both the operation of Amateur Radio and the installation of amateur station antennas has significantly restricted the growth of the Amateur Radio Service. These restrictions are pervasive in private common interest residential communities such as single-family subdivisions, condominiums, cooperatives, gated communities, master-planned communities, planned unit developments, and communities governed by community associations. The restrictions have particularly impacted the ability of Amateur Radio to fulfill its statutorily mandated duty of serving as a voluntary noncommercial emergency communications service.

Congress in 1996 directed the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to promulgate regulations (Public Law 104–104, title II, section 207, 110 Stat. 114; 47 U.S.C. 303 note) that have preempted all private land use restrictions applicable to exterior communications facilities that impair the ability of citizens to receive television broadcast signals, direct broadcast satellite services, or multichannel multipoint distribution services, or to transmit and receive wireless internet services. ARRL attempts to obtain similar relief for Amateur Radio were rejected by the FCC with a statement such relief would have to come from Congress.

ARRL Legislative Advocacy Committee Chairman John Robert Stratton, N5AUS, noted that Congress, in 1994 by Joint Resolution, S.J.Res.90/H.J.Res.199, declared that regulations at all levels of government should facilitate and encourage the effective operation of Amateur Radio from residences as a public benefit. He continued by stating that “H.R.9670, the Amateur Radio Emergency Preparedness Act, is intended to fulfill that mandate and preserve the ability of Amateur Radio Operators to continue to serve as a key component of American critical communications infrastructure.

ARRL President Rick Roderick, K5UR, and Mr. Stratton both extended on behalf of the ARRL, its Members, and the Amateur Radio community their thanks and appreciation for the leadership of Rep. Johnson in his tireless efforts to support and protect the rights of all Amateur Radio Operators.

For the full text of the bill, click here (PDF).

Become your own time lord

INTRODUCTION
Twenty years ago it would have been unlikely for a private individual to have an atomic clock at home. With few exceptions, precise time technology was used exclusively by professionals at national scientific laboratories, the military, and a small number of specialized commercial companies. But in the past ten years an abundance of military, dot-com, and telecom surplus has made it possible for motivated individuals to obtain yesterday’s start-of-the-art timing technology for personal use today. High-end precise timekeeping instruments, such as atomic frequency standards and frequency counters,
VLF receivers and phase comparators, Loran-C and GPS disciplined oscillators can be hunted and purchased for cents on the dollar. Today hundreds of individuals own rubidium, cesium, or GPS-based frequency standards and are keeping time at home to fractions of a microsecond. Many of these people are ham radio operators who have a
technical appreciation of, and need for, precise frequency. Some are retired military personnel who are nostalgic for gear they used years ago in the service. A few are curious engineers who enjoy the challenge of building clocks with ever increasing accuracy. Others are clock and watch collectors who want to augment their mechanical collections with specimens of modern electronic timekeepers. Whatever the circumstances precise timekeeping is a historically rich, intellectually stimulating, and
technically challenging field. Amateur time enthusiasts join mailing lists such as time-nuts or TACGPS. The latter was started by Dr. Tom Clark about ten years ago to freely share his clever, low-cost, PC software controlled, Motorola VP GPS receiver-based precise timing solution. In short, some of us have caught the “time bug” and are on the slippery slope of ever greater frequency stability and more precise time.
The following sections are a view into my clock collection, time & frequency experiments, and home timing laboratory.

ATOMIC CLOCK COLLECTION
People collect just about anything: books, stuffed animals, postage stamps, cars, vacuum tubes, clocks  and watches. Some of us have a hobby of collecting modern and vintage electronic instruments related to precise time: oscillators, atomic frequency standards, phase comparators, time code displays, and radio (WWV, WWVB, Loran-C) or satellite time/frequency receivers (GOES, GPS). Over the years my collection has grown to include instruments from companies such as Austron, Astrodata, Berkeley, Bliley, Datum, Efratom, FEI, Fluke, FTS, General Radio, Hewlett-Packard/Agilent,
Kinemetrics, Odetics, Oscilloquartz, Sigma Tau, Stanford Research, Spectracom, Sulzer, Symmetricom, Systron-Donner, Tracor, Trak, True Time, TST, and Vectron. Photos of the collection may be found on my web site. There are frequency standards ranging from a vintage 1 kc General Radio tuning fork oscillator to a modern 100 MHz Sigma Tau hydrogen maser, representing stabilities from 10-3 to 10-15.

Read the full article here at: www.leapsecond.com

Ham radio repeater connects lost hiker with help

FROM: The Laconia Daily Sun

BELMONT — Off trail, after sundown, as the temperature and snowflakes are falling, and with a dead cellphone, it seemed that all factors were against a local man in the woods Sunday evening. Yet he was safely home by the end of his ordeal, and was able to communicate with his wife and emergency services via his amateur radio skills.

Edward Lawson, 79, set out late Sunday afternoon to take a walk with his dog, an Alaskan malamute named Molly. They headed to a section of woods south of Leavitt Road, an area they were both familiar with, with the plan to do a short hike and then head home.

“I did not take my daypack,” Lawson said. Had it been a longer hike, he said he would bring a pack containing extra clothing, a flashlight, orienteering tools, and other equipment in case of unforeseen circumstances. But this was just going to be a short walk in the woods, so he left the pack behind.

The plan changed, though, when they got into the woods. Molly and Ed were feeling energetic, so they departed from their intended trail to head off a side path. Ed knew this trail ended with a need to bushwhack in order to meet up with a snowmobile trail, but what he didn’t know was that the area had been logged recently, and the area he had to bushwhack through now looked different.

When he wasn’t able to connect with the snowmobile trail, he realized that his departure from his plan would mean a much longer time in the woods than originally intended. He pulled out his cellphone to notify his wife, and saw that the battery was completely drained. However, he had one more piece of equipment: a small, handheld radio.

Lawson, a ham radio hobbyist, knew that the radio would be able to connect with a repeater set up on top of Gunstock Mountain, which would broadcast the signal across a network of other repeaters throughout the state. His message, asking for someone to contact his wife, was immediately answered by Bill Barber, a ham radio operator in Hudson. Barber also looped in Rick Zach, another ham radio hobbyist, who lives in Gilford and is familiar with hiking trails in the region.

When Lawson’s wife heard that her husband was in the woods after dark on a December evening, she called 911.

“They started a search using both police and fire apparatus,” said Zach, who was impressed by the industrious solution emergency responders employed. They positioned emergency vehicles in strategic areas around where they thought Lawson might be, and they sounded each vehicle’s siren, one at a time, at timed intervals. Then they radioed to Lawson to see if he heard any of them, and if so, at what time. Lawson didn’t, but even that information was helpful, Zach said

Finish Reading on the papers website here…

Internet Archive to Build a Digital Library of Amateur Radio

Internet Archive SVG Vector Logos - Vector Logo ZoneInternet Archive has begun gathering content for the Digital Library of Amateur Radio and Communications (DLARC), which will be a massive online library of materials and collections related to amateur radio and early digital communications. The DLARC is funded by a significant grant from the Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC), a private foundation, to create a digital library that documents, preserves, and provides open access to the history of this community.

The library will be a free online resource that combines archived digitized print materials, born-digital content, websites, oral histories, personal collections, and other related records and publications. The goals of the DLARC are to document the history of amateur radio and to provide freely available educational resources for researchers, students, and the general public. This innovative project includes:

  • A program to digitize print materials, such as newsletters, journals, books, pamphlets, physical ephemera, and other records from both institutions, groups, and individuals.
  • A digital archiving program to archive, curate, and provide access to “born-digital” materials, such as digital photos, websites, videos, and podcasts.
  • A personal archiving campaign to ensure the preservation and future access of both print and digital archives of notable individuals and stakeholders in the amateur radio community.
  • Conducting oral history interviews with key members of the community.
    Preservation of all physical and print collections donated to the Internet Archive.

READ THE FULL ARTICAL HERE

Fall Simplex Drill @ Nov 19th

There will be a Simplex Exercise Conducted on Saturday Morning November 19th Beginning at 10 AM and will conclude at 12 Noon for ALL of the Southwest District. The Map below shows everyone’s County Simplex Frequencies. As before, EC’s are to start their County Net on their County repeater {Allegheny: 147.090+} for everyone to check in on, then proceed to your County Simplex Frequency and make as many contacts as possible. Then at 10:30am Operators can try to reach any of the Counties they can. Operators do not have to stop at noon, but the nets can close.

Steel City members should have their radios program for Allegheny County ARES simplex channel of 146.550 Mhz. {You should also have 146.520 Mhz National Calling frequency program into your radio too}. We will need a couple of operators to man the ECOM station at the club house.

Click On Map For Full Size Image

If you want to be part of the 2m range test and try to reach other counties here is our neighboring counties simplex frequencies:

Beaver 146.580
Butler 147.570
Armstrong 147.540
Westmoreland 146.580
Fayette 147.540
Washington 147.570

Steel City College Scholarship Program

The Steel City Amateur Radio Club is please to join with the ARRL Foundation Scholarship Program to be offering our club college scholarship program for 2023 academic year.  The SCARC has set up an $1000 scholarship to any license radio operator going into a Science, Technology, Engineering or Math field of study at any institution. Our only requirements is the winner must hold a current amateur license and has a home address within the ARRL Western Pennsylvania Section. Application for the 2023 academic year have now open on October 1st, 2022.  Please click on the link below to find out more requirement and to submit your application to the ARRL Foundation.

Link: http://www.arrl.org/scholarship-application