Ham Radio operators are the eyes of the National Weather Service

By Bob Cox, from Star-Telegram Even in the age of high-powered Doppler radar, instant communications and the Internet, the National Weather Service and local safety officials still rely heavily on old methods for accurate observations and emergency communications. Volunteer amateur — or ham — radio operators still play a primary role in providing on-site information about tornadoes and storm conditions to weather forecasters and letting emergency responders know what’s going on. "There’...

Super HT Portable Radio

By Harold Melton, KV5R, from The Athens Amateur Radio Club Let's face it: (1) HT batteries are way too expensive; (2) they never last long enough -- especially for big events like disasters and walk-a-thons; and (3) H-T antennas don't work very well. If you have ever been involved in serious portable operation, you know the need for more power and better antennas. I'll assume you have an H-T that can run directly on 12 volts, and the appropriate DC power cord and remote speaker-mike. ...

‘Koala Talkers’ dig ham radio at DeLand school

By Linda Trimble, from News-JournalOnline.com DELAND, FL -- Five-year-old Samara Cortez is still learning to spell her last name and now she's learning to tap it out using the di-dah-dit sounds of Morse Code. This week, the kindergartener at Starke Elementary in DeLand also had the chance to talk about Christmas plans and pets with a Horizon Elementary student in Port Orange, using amateur radio. Samara is one of the "Koala Talkers," named for Starke's school mascot, who are learning ab...

Students and Teachers Invited to “Fly a File” on ARISSat-1

From the ARRL On February 3, 2006, cosmonaut Valery Ivanovich Tokarev hand-launched the Amateur Radio satellite SuitSat-1 from the International Space Station during an extra vehicular activity (EVA), NASA's term for a spacewalk. A discarded Russian ORLAN spacesuit, SuitSat-1 was equipped with an Amateur Radio transmitter that transmitted telemetry and greetings from youngsters to the youth of the world in several languages. In 2010, an Amateur Radio satellite -- ARISSat-1 -- will once ag...

Putting a Bar Code on Places, Not Just Products

By Nick Bilton, from The New York Times If you walk past the gift shop of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, or Meltdown Comics in Los Angeles, or Cheeseburger Baby in Miami, the chances are that you will see a sticker in the window that has a Google Maps logo and a one-inch-square with a series of pixelated black-and-white cubes called a QR Code. In the coming weeks, Google plans to send out 100,000 of these stickers, each with their own QR code, to a new demographic of businesses Goo...

Amateur Radio and Scouting In My Life

My article is up on eHam.net! Please check it out and comment on eHam, or if you would rather, read it below and comment here! :D By Grant, KB3QFQ, from eHam So, you're new to the ham radio thing. You have no clue what "73" means, what DXing is, and seriously, what the HECK is propagation? Actually, that probably doesn't describe you at all. But that's how I started. Boy Scouting is a huge part of my life. I have attended Scouts for over ten years and have just received my Eagle Scou...

Library in your pocket

By MOTOKO RICH and BRAD STONE From The New York Times With Amazon’s Kindle, readers can squeeze hundreds of books into a device that is smaller than most hardcovers. For some, that’s not small enough. Many people who want to read electronic books are discovering that they can do so on the smartphones that are already in their pockets — bringing a whole new meaning to “phone book.” And they like that they can save the $250 to $350 that they would otherwise spend on yet another gadget. ...

iRobot: Grandma’s Little Helper

From Times Online It has suction cups instead of hands, two sets of tank-tracks instead of feet, and is strong enough to carry an adult up a steep flight of stairs. Meet your grandmother’s new live-in helper: a robot built by an American company that has already pioneered robot vacuum cleaners and robot bomb-diffusers — 2,000 of which are on duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. The company, iRobot, says it plans to give collectively an extra “one million years of independent living” to elderly...