On the Web : February 2007


If you enjoy reading 'On
the Web', your ham radio
club can publish this
column on an exchange
basis with SJRA. Contact
Ted, , for the exchange details.
SJRA

Our contributions to the South Jersey Radio Association club bulletin "Harmonics" includes lengthy Web addresses. As the URL's can be difficult or a nuisance to type into your Web browser, the postings here should make it easier to get to the Web sites SJRA members are interested in. Look for the posting at w2xq.com at the time "Harmonics" is scheduled for delivery in the south Jersey area. Questions, suggestions or contributions are always welcome.
SJRA's home territory

This month I'm digging through a pile of notes that have accumulated on to-do lists. Enjoy.

Quickies

John Neuhaus, WA2JXE, has compiled an unofficial FCC document locator Web site that purports to be easier to use than the agency's own pages. Strictly text, the site loads very quickly and may just be the answer to finding that piece of information you are looking for. Further, Neuhaus has a spectrum allocation chart and table that is a breeze to use, and numerous CFRs (Code of Federal Regulations) and links to third-party frequency charts and lists. Almost all of this is for the USA, but there are a few references for the rest of the world. It looks like this Web site should answer the incessant questions in the newsgroups of who operate on what frequency ranges. Check out jneuhaus.com for yourself.

G4ILO has a number of interesting radio-oriented Windows programs at g4ilo.com. In the field of HF signal propagation, he authored the popular HFProp, but that now has been replaced with his VOAProp. The Voice of America released its radio propagation program to the public, but the engineering-oriented program requires a significant amount of technical data to be used effectively. VOAProp is G4ILO's front-end software to the VOA software, making the forecasting significantly easier for the consumer public. I heard the program mentioned on a recent "This Week in Amateur Radio" show and, in my opinion, it was worth the time spent to download and install the two programs. A nice touch: the user can toggle between the HF amateur bands and the tropical/international broadcast bands.

More on propagation: check out the interesting geophysical and aurora pages at the Tromsø Geophysical Observatory Web site in Norway. One interesting slant: the 3-hour K-indices graph is nicely presented within the overview of current conditions. CT1BOH includes this data within an interesting propagation summary page. I don't understand Portuguese, but it really isn't a handicap in exploring the CWSP links page. There are more than a half-dozen radio propagation Web sites in the mix.

The CWSP page also led me to a nicely done DX and contesting set of pages by DF3CB. Are you a contester or a DXpedition QSL manager? DF3CB has an interesting freeware Windows application for logging and QSLing. The price? It's free. Details at df3cb.com; the pages are in English.

I've been moving the bookmarks collected over the past 13 years onto a Web site so that I can access them from any Internet-connected computer anywhere I travel. That includes radio and amateur radio starting at mysite.verizon.net/trscons/bm_radio.html. If the compilations help you explore the Web, that is good. And I'm interested what you've found. Please drop me a note with new sites or corrections to the entries, and I'll post them for all to see. Clearly, we all know of AC6V, QSL.net and various other super-size collections of links. But there are some smaller gems mixed in the coal bin called the Internet. What have you found?

Overheard on the ride home: last month I mentioned the old-time radio shows on CHML-900. Now check out RadioLovers.com that has many old-time radio shows, free for the downloading. I found this at deadline so I haven't looked at the contents — but it sure looks interesting!

In closing, the Jersey Triangle Repeater Association (JTRA) has a new Web domain. Now on K2AX.com, the Web page will soon change to additionally highlight DX and contest activities. The VE testing information has a new home as well. If you are studying to upgrade your license (passing a code test is no longer a requirement), the testing sessions are local... in Atco. The February 22 is cancelled as it makes little sense to test a few days before the no-code rules take effect. Watch for the announcement of the March test date and location.

---
Get newsfeeder HELP! Newsfeed help - Add RSS URL W2XQ - Keep up to date with breaking news, info as it happens!
Links open in a new browser window.
Revised 1 February 2007

Read the previous month's column or the next month's column.

Go to the top of the page.spacerGo to previous page.

This page's URL : http://w2xq.com/sjra/sjra_2007-02.html