On the Web : August 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.

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.

Greater Delaware Valley Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society's MS150 Bike City-to-the-Shore Ride September 29-30, 2007

Time is growing short and your help is appreciated. From Bill Ferguson, WA3BXW: "This year I am actively involved in the MS150 bike race to be held the weekend of September 29 and 30th, 2007. We are actively looking for amateur radio volunteers for the event, and trying to publicize the need for ham operators everywhere we can. Our goal is at least 200 operators by event time. The (w3bxw.com) BEARS 147.345 and 146.640 repeaters are the main repeaters being used for the event this year." If you would like to help with radio operations, please click here to sign up and spread the request for communications help among your friends. If you would like to participate as a bike rider and/or donate to the MS Society, please explore the Chapter's Web site. Thanks!

On Sunday, September 15 the National Weather Service is hosting an open house from 1 to 4 p.m. The Philadelphia NWS office hosts this popular annual event at its home in Westhampton (across the road from the Burlington County Emergency Services complex. Dial up www.erh.noaa.gov/er/phi/announce/open_house2007.html for details. My guess is there may be an informal talk-in on the Burlco ARES/RACES repeaters.

Repeater news. On July 26 I noticed a new call on the Burlington County ARES/RACES repeaters. I had a brief conversation with KB2BAA, John, who was working on and testing the network. John told me the call had finally been changed a day or two earlier from WB2SOY (remember K2QIJ's call on the system?). The new call is KC2QVT, assigned to Burlington County's Office of Emergency Management. For several months the 448.325 Chatsworth repeater was intermittantly off line or not functioning at all, and ARRL coordination records had moved it from Chatsworth to Browns Mills. John tells me the 70 cm repeater is now, finally, repaired and is co-located with the Westhampton 147.150 repeater. Once everything is buttoned up, the 448.325 output will (as before) be repeated on Chatsworth's 145.470 and by default 147.150 and 145.470 will continue to be linked. If the PL is turned on (often no PL tone is required, especially during nets and activities), the PL is 127.3 for all three repeaters; in my opinion it is easier just to program the radio with the tone turned on and be done with it. A personal observation: in Chatsworth, 448.325 was a wonderful single-site repeater usable with a 70 cm HT from Trenton to Hammonton, and I have no doubt that the coverage and good performance will continue. On 70 cm, WB2YGO and W3BXW also cover large areas of the county; get a repeater listing from the home page at W2XQ.com.

DX Net. The Sunday evening gathering to talk of DX and contesting and all things amateur radio on K2AX (145.150, PL 91.5) Winslow had been put on summer hiatus. Check in with K2AX (Mark) to find out when the net will start up again. Propagation conditions will improve in September as the day and night equalize in length, and gray line DXing opens opportunities for antipodal DXing.

Traffic handling is yet another world within amateur radio. Dan Ostroy, K2UL, has on his Web site home.att.net/~k2ul a section that tells all about the National Traffic System's radiograms and emergency services aspects. The pages also focus on traffic handling within New Jersey. This is the "Relay" in the ARRL. If you are at all interested in message handling, these pages are recommended reading.

World of Radio. For the past few centuries, Glenn Hauser has aired a weekly 30-minute shortwave DX tips and media news show on a number of radio stations around the world. As I write this I'm listening to show number 1367. One option had been podcasts — listen when you want to — via Jim Obrien's Web site but the service disappeared a few months ago. Now I learn that the World Radio Network — www.wrn.org — is handling the podcast service; copy and paste http://www.wrn.org/listeners/stations/rss.php?id=49&s=eu into your podcast sofware. For a listing of all the show airings go to http://www.worldofradio.com/.

Reading assignments. If you are a moderate to heavy user of Google Earth and/or Google Maps, I found a couple of interesting books at Barnes and Noble. Google Earth for Dummies — I have always found the " ...for Dummies" offensive — by David A. Crowder (Wiley, ISBN 978-0-470-09528-7) is a useful overview on how to use the program to its full capabilities. I found the discusion on making your own KML mapping files and sources of coordinates particularly interesting. Google Maps Hacks by Gibson and Erie (O'Reilly, ISBN 0-596-10161-9) has tips for geographic searching and remixing, making the most of the program. There's even a discussion on how Google Maps was used to beat a traffic ticket! Both books can be used as reference tools, picking out the information or solutions desired. Unlike novels, you do not have to read these texts from front to back to find answers you seek.

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Revised 11 August 2007

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