On the Web : October 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

Sunspots: Magnetic Trilobite

The Japanese Space Agency's Hinode spacecraft, launched in September 2006 on a mission to study sunspots and solar storms, took an amazing high-resolution movie of the birth of a sunspot the size of our planet. The detail of sunspot 10926 breaking through the turbulent surface of the sun. It is a magnetogram — a dynamic map tracing the sunspot's intense magnetism — covering a 6-day period in December 2006. Have a read in the NASA Science News releases at science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2007/18sep_trilobite.htm. Fascinating stuff.

NASA Podcasts

NASA has three dozen topical daily multi-media features that are all, in my opinion, quite interesting to watch. Subjects include earth studies, shuttle and moon stories, deep space and much more. These podcasts are in addition to NASA TV and the print stories. See what interests you by dialing up www.nasa.gov/multimedia/podcasting and have a read. You'll need Apple's iTunes program, free for the download on Windows and Mac, that makes subscription management as simple as clicking a mouse button.

Quickies

Via Glenn Hauser, here's a Web site that has numerous pictures of WWVH, the time-and-frequency standard station now off limits to the public. These pictures, taken in 2005, show the current antennas, rather than the old pre-1992 installation destroyed in a tropical storm. Snap over to www.well.com/user/dmsml/wwvh and have a look. Here WWVH can often be heard at various times depending upon the season and the gray line.

Find the latitude and longitude of any USA address (for free) at geocoder.us. There is also a lightweight page for mobile Web users at geocoder.us/mobile.html, easier to use than the the other coding sites that are too much for the small handheld units.

Most radio amateurs now know of the FCC rules protecting us from limitations on installing reasonable amateur radio antennas and towers, but I didn't know there were FCC rules for direct broadcast satellite, broadband radio service and television broadcast antennas. I found an information sheet that helps the user in dealing with local restrictions on these broadcast reception antennas. Have a read at www.fcc.gov/mb/facts/otard.html and bookmark it for future use should you move.

An alternative to the mapping programs such as Mapquest and Google Maps is Terrafly. It uses data from the USGS and you might find the site interesting. Have a look at terrafly.com and see if the layout is useful for your research.

In closing, just a reminder that I've moved just about all the bookmarks collected over the years onto a Web site. It's convenient for accessing all bookmarks from anywhere I am. Use the Sitemap at mysite.verizon.net/trscons to browse around... and it includes links from this column that were collected over the years.

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Revised 9 October 2007

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