N4KC - Back to amateur radio for a moment.  Amateur radio and how technology is affecting its growth.  There is a very good editorial in the August issue of CQ MAGAZINE about how ham radio has been dying...for over 60 years.  As with many other things technological, innovation and change is supposed to have been causing eroding interest in the hobby since the so-called glory days of the early 1950s. See, that was when people were buidling their own gear--because they could, before ICs, surface-mount technology, computers-masquerading-as-radios, and the like--experimenting, learning.  It was also before ubiquitous cell phones brought us the ability to talk without wires around the world, the internet, email, IM, and Facebook.  Ham radio is dying!  That became the cry from the masses.  And it only got worse when things began to change and the old timers felt their world crumbling beneath their feet. Hey, I was just getting into the hobby when SSB began replacing AM.  Talk about wars! Well, all that technology has failed to put a dent in our wonderful hobby.  The numbers are up and, as of right now, we have far more active amateurs than ever before.  Some of CQ's guesses on how to determine who is "active" may be statistically fuzzy, but I think they are about as close as we can get.  I'll throw one more thing into the mix: I hear people say that the bands are just not as crowded as they once were.  Well, they weren't in the pile-up for the Rwandan dx-pedition the other night!  Truth is, we have more bands now than we had in the '50s.  160, thanks to antenna experimentation and more widely available commercially made gear, is viable.  And many prefer VHF/UHF and FM now and spend more time there.  They were non-starters 60 years ago. No, CQ's point is right on.  The hobby is healthy and growing, innovating and morphing.  And it's still one heck of a lot of fun!

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WSPRnet - Has anyone solved the problem how to run WSPR with the ICOM-7600.

VA3QV - While bored and surfing you tube I found a few examples of how Amateur Radio Operators could work in their hobby…  The first few will be the obivious ones…. And if you also enjoy boating this one could be a real bonus…. 73bob

DX World of Ham Radio - Chris VK3QB, Allan VK2CA, Luke VK3HJ and Brenton VK3CBV will be activating YJ0VK from near Port Vila on Efate Island, Vanuatu, from the 27th August to 2nd September, 2010. Full details by clicking image above.

DX World of Ham Radio - Message from Steve, 9M6DXX: 9M6XRO, 9M6DXX, 9W6AMC, 9W6LEE and G3USR plan to activate the rare IOTA island of Pulau Sebatik, OC-295, from 24 to 27 September inclusive. The operation will be on 10 – 80m with the emphasis on 15 – 40m. Two stations will be used with amplifiers to a HexBeam and verticals located directly [...]

DX World of Ham Radio - Loren, AD6ZJ may again be QRV from Singapore during September. He will be active as time permits, mostly during weekends and nights. Any open bands but will focus on WARC bands and will include RTTY, SSB and CW. QSL via LotW, Bureau or direct to H/C.

VK2TPM - I'm enjoying having the 24 hour ABC TV news channel around. If you visit the Ultimo centre it's right there in the foyer:Presumably it will come in to it's own when a big story breaks but it is convenient being able to flip to it any time.It's weird that a high definition channel is being used for news, which is pretty much standard definition or less.When ABC insider Roi was asked what he

73s.org - Please share this with you clubs. The Drake Radio Group is sponsoring a free class “Google for the Amateur Radio Operator” This class is designed to as a boot camp and for the attendee to follow along. See it today, use it today type of class covering the use of Google free applications as a radio operator. We will discuss online identity, email, mail groups, calendaring, mapping, etc. as it applies to the radio operator. Class size is limited to 20 + class support people so Register asap by sending email to gary.ny8t@gmail.com. Where: Class will be held at the City of Springboro Community Room 320 West Central Avenue Springboro, Ohio 45066 Free parking and restrooms are available. This is a different location then the “Ham Radio Deluxe fundamentals” class was held. When: Saturday October 9th, 2010 0830-1700 (0830am to 5pm) Prerequisites: Laptop with Wifi, bring your charger. Laptop does not have to be Windows. Should have anti virus current with in a week. Should have computer operating system patches current. Should have Browsers current Suggest having Google Chrome browser installed, use of Firefox and Internet Explorer is fine as well. Class will not cover extensive use of browsers. Copy of FCC Amateur License to be presented at check in. Suggestion: Bring a small cooler with drinks and lunch. Learning opportunities during lunch. Schedule: 830 Checking and personal setup (connect to wifi, ensure Prerequisites are installed) 0900 Start 1100 Break 1130 Lunch and learn 1300 Break 1315 Start 1500 Break 1630 Tear down 1700 Completed Contact gary.ny8t@gmail.com for questions.

NT7S - A very quick update for those of you wondering what’s going on at the Milldrum residence. The baby’s due date was 22 July, but that’s come and gone and he still hasn’t shown up yet. Apparently he likes his current accommodations and is reluctant to change. The OB/GYN has decided that he’s had enough time, so she’s going to induce if Jennifer is not in labor by 1 August. So stay tuned, you’ll see some news very soon regardless of which way he comes. Finally, a brief message courtesy of my manager’s whiteboard:

W2LJ - I have often heard it said that, "If you listen to the radio long enough, you will hear everything." I think that in 30+ years as a Ham, that finally came true the other night. I was driving home from work and had the Icom in scan mode. It settled on one of the repeaters in New Jersey that is linked for statewide coverage. I heard a Ham relating the following story. He was driving through a certain town and got stopped by a police officer for going over the speed limit. He was also on the radio at the time. In New Jersey, when you get a speeding ticket a certain "point value" goes on your driving record, depending on how far above the speed limit you were traveling. If you accumulate more than 12 points in three years, your license to drive is subject to revocation. The Ham must have offered some kind of sob story and the officer must have felt sorry for this guy, or something, because he offered him a choice. He had to issue a summons; but was willing to avoid giving the guy the points for speeding if he would take a ticket for using an electronic device while driving. This is New Jersey's cell phone law. If you use a cell phone (other than a non-hands on system) while driving, you get a fine. The Ham agreed to the cell phone ticket instead of the points. What the officer didn't know, it seems, is that there is a specific exemption for Amateur Radio operators built into that law. As far as the law is written, Amateur Radio is NOT cell phone communications and is therefore permissible while driving. So our friendly "lead foot" Ham was explaining to his friend on the air how he is going to court to challenge and possibly have the driving offense expunged on the technicality. I was perturbed. First off, the police officer did this guy a favor. Even though Joe Ham broke the law by speeding, the police officer gave him a break by charging him with a lesser offense with a smaller fine and no points against his driving record. Joe Ham freely admitted his guilt and freely admitted that he was going to try and get out of this on the technicality that the police officer was probably unaware of. How about taking responsibility for your actions and taking your medicine like a man? As it is, he should be eternally grateful to the police officer for not issuing him the speeding points. Secondly, if this guy's argument works; and he does beat the ticket .... how is that police officer going to treat other Hams in the future? He will have gotten burned by one of us once. Think that's not going to reside in the old memory banks for a long time? Think this police officer is going to be sympathetic to some other Ham in the future? I doubt it. This kind of thing makes us all look bad. Fortunately, the friend that "lead foot" was talking to on the repeater advised him against his planned course of action. The friend was trying to be the voice of reason and common sense; but somehow I don't think his advice will be heeded. It seems that anything goes these days. I will keep an ear open to this repeater system over the next few weeks. I will be very interested to see how this turns out. 72 de Larry W2LJ

AmateurLogic.TV - AmateurLogic Xtra 1 is now available for download. Apple recently release the iOS version 4 update. For iPhone 3GS and 4 users the update works fine. However many iPhone 3G owners have complained about their device becoming considerably slower after upgrading. Tommy shows us how to restore the iPhone 3G to iOS version 3 and reclaim it’s previous speed. 7:32 It’s Summer here so we’ve taken a short break. Look for more full length AmateurLogic.TV episodes coming this Fall. View or Download View in web browser: YouTube

AE5X - Click for larger My little piece of Cold War history arrived today in the form of an NOS telegraph key built for the Soviet military in the 1980’s. For only $18, I had to have one. Shipping was quick (got here in 12 days) and the key seems as solid and well-built as I was hoping it would be. For a better description and far better pics than I could ever take, have a gander at Yury’s eBay store. This’ll be the first straight key I’ve owned/used in three decades so  I guess the folks on the next Straight Key Sprint from NAQCC will be suffering my poor sending come August 11. I’ll try to brush up a bit before then… Now if I can only figure out how to read these instructions! . .

9W2PJU - The scenario is, i have created a pdf file for my personal document, and then to make it safe i put a password so anyone else cant read the file except myself. After a month later, I've forgot the password but i want to read the file as soon as possible. here it comes, pdfcrack! ( also available on win32 ) Mission: recover the password target: piju.pdf's password weapon: pdfcrack http://pdfcrack.sourceforge.net/ estimation time: depends on the length of the password situation reports: no text, just photos status: password recovered, mission accomplished, all units please stand down :-)

DX World of Ham Radio - Simon, IZ7ATN informs he will be active until August 2 from Malindi, Kenya (on the coast of the Indian Ocean). Holiday-style activity. QSL via H/C.

DX World of Ham Radio - Simon, IZ7ATN informs he will be active until August 2 from Malindi, Kenya (on the coast of the Indian Ocean). Holiday-style activity. QSL via H/C.

QRPedia - Some words about a driver – it is a necessary program which is used by your computer’s operating system, for example Windows. Driver makes possible the usage of different devices which are installed or connected to our personal computer. As an example, those devices which can exploit that drivers can be your scanner, printer, sound card, digital camera and also USB. By using drivers for you it is so simple to plug and play those devices, because the main purpose of drivers is to provide communication between your hardware and your computer’s operating system. read more

Hamslife.com - Follow me at the new ham radio social page Ham Radio Nation   (http://www.hamradionation.com/home.php)

DX World of Ham Radio - Following their recent Press Release, the PJ7 DXpedition Team scheduled to visit Sint Maarten from 10/10/10 now have a website detailing all aspects of this soon to be new DXCC. Click below for full details: The team consists of the following: AA4NN, DJ9ZB, I8NHJ, K4SV, K6MM, K6TD, K9CT, K9ZO, N2WB, NF4A, W6KK, W6OSP & W8GEX

W8MRC - The July issue of Wireline is available here 73, Steve