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TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese electronics makers JVC (6792.T: Quote, Profile, Research) and Kenwood Corp (6765.T: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Monday they would merge under a holding company on October 1 to fight fierce price competition and growing costs of product development. But the new entity would still fall far behind some of its rivals in size as combined sales of the two companies totaled 823.7 billion yen ($8 billion) in the year ended March 31, or less than one-tenth of Panasonic maker Matsushita's (6752.T: Quote, Profile, Research) 9 trillion yen. Kenwood offers car electronics and audio equipment, while JVC...

C.Q. C.Q. all ham radio operators, short wave listeners, public service monitors and anyone interested in the subject. I’m announcing my wish to revive the Ham Radio ping list. A lost Freeper (Denver Ditdat) had the list at one time, but with his absence for almost two years, and his freepmail to me that he had lost most of the original list, I think that the ping list should be built again. There is a large population of Freepers who are hams. My wish in resurrecting this ping list is to once again bring news pertaining to all FReepers, hams...

Are there any FReepers who are also ham radio operators?

I have a collins R390a/urr that was given to me by a eldery vet for chistmas I have contacted a Chuck Rippel in VA but he said did not have the time to repair it I am posting this because free republic has good info and maybe someone knows how I could repair this it sat for a long time in a enclosed garage and needs cleaning as well as minor repairs( at least I hope)

Who: NØNJY/6Y5, KBØIRW/6Y5 (Rick and JoAnne Donaldson) What: Jamaica DXPedition When: 12-14 October 2007 Where: Runaway Bay, Jamaica, West Indies Why: For FUN! Island DXpedition (Celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary and 18 years as hams radio operators together!) QSL: Home call (NØNJY) Operational Times: APPROXIMATELY 17ØØ-21ØØ UTC on Friday and Saturday, and 17ØØ-2ØØØ on Sun Frequency: Split frequency operation during operations hours on 14.19Ø +/-1Ø KHz, TX, Listening 14.2ØØ – 14.23Ø (+/- 1Ø KHz) Equipment: ICOM IC-735, Alinco Power Supply, Home brew antenna (Pictures on blog site for equipment) Blog site with much more information for comments, and QSL information...

Is anybody near a transceiver as they read this? Please freep mail me. GeorgefromNewEngland

good source for used ham radios?

Home : Feature SKYWARNApril 2007 - Rick Moran If someone were to ask you to take your car out on a stormy spring evening, with every expectation that you could soon be in the midst of golf ball-sized hail pelting the finish, not to mention the possibility of broken glass and the danger to your own personal safety, what would you say? Now consider that in order to ?enjoy? such an outing, you would have to take special training annually and spend many hours of your free time studying for a communications license as well. If you say, ?No thank...

Where Will Ham Radio Be in 50 Years? What will it be like? Or will it even exist?

Morse code is in need of some serious SOS. The language of dots and dashes, first used during the infancy of electronic communication in the mid-1800s, is going the way of Latin. Beginning today, amateur or "ham" radio operators in the United States won't be tested in Morse code – also known as Continuous Wave – in order to be licensed by the federal government. In an effort to advance the hobby, the Federal Communications Commission in December agreed to eliminate the five-words-per-minute Morse code requirement for people seeking their upper-level class licenses.

[A] Florida court had ordered that 43 year-old Navy Capt Lisa Nowak, KC5ZTB, who was facing charges of attempted kidnapping and battery, could be freed on bail. However, the introduction of the more serious charge that she intended to murder Colleen Shipman reverses that. More at: http://www.southgatearc.org/news/february2007/astronaut_love_kidnap_plot.htm

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: NEWS MEDIA CONTACT: December 15, 2006 Chelsea Fallon: (202) 418-7991 FCC MODIFIES AMATEUR RADIO SERVICE RULES, ELIMINATING MORSE CODE EXAM REQUIREMENTS AND ADDRESSING ARRL PETITION FOR RECONSIDERATION Washington, D.C. – Today, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopted a Report and Order and Order on Reconsideration (Order) that modifies the rules for the Amateur Radio Service by revising the examination requirements for obtaining a General Class or Amateur Extra Class amateur radio operator license and revising the operating privileges for Technician Class licensees. In addition, the Order resolves a petition filed by the American Radio Relay League, Inc....

Collin County Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) Skywarn Spotters were on the job last night when storms went through the Northern cities of Anna and Westminster that produced two tornadoes. At 8:30pm last evening the National Weather Service in Fort Worth alerted our appointed severe weather Assistant Emergency Coordinator (AEC)Ted Best, KD5JEO, of the severe weather potential for Collin County and asked that we activate our spotters. David Patrick, W7DAV, did a outstanding job as our Net Control Station (NCS) for this particular spotter activation. As is usually the case, a separate frequency was used to provide support from our...

Undelivered mail from 1956 comes back to DeLand DELAND -- It's been a long, mysterious journey for one little postcard. In 1956, George Hitz dropped a postcard into his Stetson Avenue mailbox, hoping a fellow HAM radio operator in Riverside, Calif., would soon get it. No one knows whether the postcard completed its cross-country journey, but it was returned to its starting place this week bearing a 1956 DeLand postmark and a "return to sender" stamp. George Hitz as a teenager at his HAM radio shack on Stetson Avenue in DeLand, from where he sent the card to California. Hitz,...

Radio Buffs Lobby to Make Historic 500 kHz a 'Memorial Frequency'For almost a century, 500 kHz was a lifeline for ships worldwide. Better known as 500 kilocycles, it was the spectrum reserved for ships and the shore stations that communicated with them in Morse Code (sometimes referred to as CW, for continuous wave). If you're a real radio old-timer, you might refer to the frequency as 600 meters. "To ensure that SOS calls were always heard, all ship and shore stations were required to monitor 500 kHz at all times," said Richard Dillman, secretary and chief CW operator of the...

"Why don't you take a picture of our antenna up there above that Rising Sun?" Larry asked. "A kamikaze plane hit the Lex right there in 1942." The decal on the superstructure of the USS Lexington shows the location of a kamikaze aircraft hit during an engagement in World War II. To the right and above it is the ship's ham station Hustler 5BTV antenna. Larry Boudreau, W5LDB, was the host during my operation in the 2004 Texas QSO Party aboard the USS Lexington. We were standing on the busy gangway leading up from the beach to the entrance...

Five 60-foot dish antennas at Stanford, known as the Bracewell Observatory, are about to be demolished by the school. Bob Lash organized the Friends of the Bracewell Observatory Association to help rescue the dishes and he's done all that he can do to persuade Stanford to stop the demolition. Yet it could happen any day, at the whim of the Dean of Engineering for Stanford, Jim Plummer. Stanford has obtained the demolition permit from Santa Clara County Commissioners. The Bracewell Observatory is named for Professor Ronald Bracewell, a father of radio astronomy, who created this site and built the dishes...

CQ CQ CQ - Doctor Raoul has kindly asked if I would ping the Ham List in the hopes that a technically skilled Freeper may be able to assist with repairs to PA systems to be used in Freeps. Excerpts from his Freepmail appear below: ========================================================= I have a number of Amplivox portable PAs. It may be that I'm not aligning the prongs on the battery case or perhaps corrosion. Have a schematic on bottom of case. Need them checked out and then we can send them to people doing counter-protests. I think it's possible to wire them up to...

Last month, a briefly worded press release went nearly unnoticed. It simply read: "Effective January 27, 2006, Western Union will discontinue all Telegram and Commercial Messaging Services. We regret any inconvenience this may cause you, and we thank you for your loyal patronage." After 155 years, and millions of telegrams and Telex messages, a major part of American history quietly slipped into obscurity. For more than 100 years, Socorro was part of that history. With today's telephones, cell phones and e-mail, we can contact almost anyone we wish immediately and cheaply. This wasn't always the case. In Socorro's early days,...

When another disaster on the scale of Hurricane Katrina comes along, the League will be able to deploy "ham gear ready to go," thanks to manufacturers' donations of Amateur Radio gear, ARRL members' generous monetary contributions and a federal grant. The ARRL Ham Aid-sponsored "Go Kits" now being assembled at League Headquarters are the third leg of a program that's already reimbursed certain out-of-pocket expenses for ham radio hurricane zone volunteers and helped restore Amateur Radio backbone infrastructure along the US Gulf Coast. "To me, this is a first step in ramping up ARRL's ability to support Amateur Radio volunteers...

A century-old hobby filled with dots and dashes is embroiled in a debate about its future and what level of training should be expected of those called on to help during local and national emergencies. Morse code, a slowly dying language, has become radio's equivalent of Latin: historically important, but increasingly irrelevant in a world of cell phones, computers and instant messaging. With mariners and the military having moved to other technologies long ago, ham radio operators are virtually the sole practitioners of a technique that made national and international communication possible with the telegraph.

The Maritime Radio Historical Society, in cooperation with the Marconi Conference Center, will return historic Morse code radio station KPH to the air from its original Marin county, CA location on Sunday, 26 February. KPH, once called the "wireless giant of the Pacific", arrived in Marin county in the early 1920s. With its receiving station at Marshall, CA and transmitters at Bolinas, CA, KPH provided telegram service to ships at sea via Morse code. Operation at Marshall continued until the beginning of WWII when KPH was shut down for the duration. After the war the receiving station was moved to...

When World War II veteran Rear Adm Barry K. Atkins was interred in Arlington National Cemetery January 30, Amateur Radio enabled coordinated rifle salutes at the cemetery and in Hartford, Connecticut. Atkins was a longtime resident of Connecticut, and Alex Parley of Windsor--a member of Atkins' US Navy crew during World War II--requested the special honor. "Their destroyer, the USS Melvin, sank the Japanese battleship Fuso in the battle of Surigao Strait--the only destroyer known to have sunk a battleship," explains Mac Harper, W1FYM, of Glastonbury, Connecticut. Through a series of communications that began when Parley requested help from ARRL...

It was the fourth night after Hurricane Katrina, and something like a thousand patients, doctors and staff were trapped at Medical Center Louisiana in downtown New Orleans, surrounded by floodwaters. Outside, reports were grim. People were drowning in their attics. Inside the hospital, there was no running water, no power, no phones and no Internet. Cell phones didn’t work. Each day the authorities said evacuations were about to begin, but nothing happened. The staff thought they’d seen everything the disaster could bring. Then, in the middle of the night, a pregnant woman dragged herself out of the foul, dark water...

KENT -- Scarcely a day passes that George DeVilbiss isn't at his workbench, repairing, improving or otherwise tinkering with his ham radio equipment. Scarcely a day passes that he doesn't talk with other hams across the nation or around the world. It's a pursuit that for 75 years has been more than a hobby for DeVilbiss, now 91. "It's really a way of life," he said. A short, lively man whose accent still carries traces of a small-town Texas boyhood, DeVilbiss recently began writing an account of his life in radio. That life began, he said last week, because he...

Growing up during the Depression, Ray Bintliff still remembers listening to the adventures of The Shadow and Little Orphan Annie on his parents’ Philco console radio. The 83-year-old Acton resident comes from a generation of Americans who heard history coming into their living rooms. On radios made by Zenith, RCA and Sparton, they heard Orson Welles announce a Martian invasion and FDR pronounce a "Day of Infamy." They heard about the D-Day invasion at Normandy and the antics of Fibber McGee and Molly. Many, like Thomas Romano of Grafton and John V. Terrey of Carlisle, followed a boyhood passion for...

Ham Radio Operators "True Heroes," Rep Mike Ross, WD5DVR, Says in "Salute" NEWINGTON, CT, Feb 9, 2006--US Rep Mike Ross, WD5DVR (D-AR), this week offered "A Salute to Ham Radio Operators" (on the floor of the US House. Ross, one of two Amateur Radio licensees in the House of Representatives (the other is Rep Greg Walden, W7EQI, R-OR), addressed his colleagues February 8 to recognize the contributions of the Amateur Radio community in the wake of last year's devastating hurricane season. "Citizens throughout America dedicated to this hobby--a hobby that some people consider old fashioned or obsolete--were true heroes in...

Rooted in the 1920s, the Military Affiliate Radio System (MARS) began as a way for amateur radio operators to train soldiers to use the latest radio equipment. By the begin-ning of the Korean conflict, MARS also became a way for troops and their families to communicate faster than ever. As a newly enlisted Marine, Bert Ponsock worked as a radio tech at the operations center in Itami, Japan, from 1952 to 1954. The site was a popular stop for American servicemen on R&R. Every morning, Ponsock took stacks of service members’ written notes to the ham shack. “The Lieutenant had...

I found it rather ironic that, on the very day of President Bush's State of the Union address, in which he said that the US is "addicted to oil", we learned that US government international broadcasts are cutting about 90,000 transmitter hours per year. High-powered international broadcast transmitters need a lot of fuel, and in most cases it's oil. The two are not directly connected, of course, but it's a coincidence that reminds us just how energy-inefficient broadcasting, and especially international broadcasting, can be. I was a shortwave listener and DXer for many years before coming to work at Radio...

Did you ever want to participate in a International Space Station mission? Starting Friday, February 3rd, you may get your chance. An old, used Russian spacesuit has been transformed into a most unusual earth orbit satellite. Just add one Kenwood TH-K2AT handi-talkie transceiver, a battery pack, a sensor for temperature readings, a compact voice synthesizer and telemetry device and a small helmet-mounted antenna and you are good to go. The modified spacesuit will be thrust out of the space station into orbit and will begin broadcasting voice messages and slow scan television on 145.990 MHz FM in the two-meter amateur...

Satellites on a Budget - High Altitude Balloons Balloon photograph taken from 25km. Image credit: Paul Verhage. Click to enlarge. Paul Verhage has some pictures that you'd swear were taken from space. And they were. But Verhage is not an astronaut, nor does he work for NASA or any company that has satellites orbiting Earth. He is a teacher in the Boise, Idaho school district. His hobby, however, is out of this world. Verhage is one of about 200 people across the United States who launch and recover what have been called a "poor man's satellite." Amateur Radio High...

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, it's become clear that a major contributing factor to the tragic loss of life was the near total breakdown of communication systems. Once electricity, telephone, and cell phone services failed, people were unable to let rescuers know of their dire situation...and died as a result. A simple, instant, and virtually zero-cost solution: A "National SOS" public emergency network that connects millions of Family Radio Service (FRS) radios already in use by the public with 650,000 amateur "ham" radio operators -- people renown and prepared for emergency communications. The output frequencies of FRS radios are easily...

After watching a steady stream of television coverage of the horrendous conditions victims of Hurricane Katrina endured in the deadly storm's wake, ham radio operator Dennis Motschenbacher had had enough. On Monday morning, the 57-year-old sales and marketing manager for the American Radio Relay League Inc., a nationwide amateur radio organization based in Newington, Conn., packed up his 5-year-old, four-door Toyota Camry and headed for Mississippi with food, water, camping gear -- and his trusty ham radio equipment. Once there, Motschenbacher will join some 700 other ham radio volunteers already posted in hurricane-ravaged areas to help provide communications between evacuee...

Amateur radio networks help victims of the hurricane With telephones down and wireless service disrupted, at least one group of people did manage last week to use technology to come to the rescue of those in need. Often unsung, amateur radio operators regularly assist in emergency situations. Hurricane Katrina was no exception. For the past week, operators of amateur, or ham, radio have been instrumental in helping residents in the hardest hit areas, including saving stranded flood victims in Louisiana and Mississippi. Public service has always been a large part of being an amateur radio operator. All operators, who use...

By LAURA SEIB WSBT-TV Reporter From 1,000 miles away, amateur radio operator Bela Lindenfeld, of Benton Harbor, has coordinated the rescues and reunions of 86 Hurricane Katrina victims. BENTON HARBOR -- From a cramped corner of his Benton Harbor home, Bela Lindenfeld has orchestrated the rescue and reunion of 86 Hurricane Katrina victims. The 65-year-old has put in 14-hour days on his ham radio, finding out where people are who need help and connecting them with emergency services. "There are no communications, no cell phones, no telephones. You have to remember the police stations, the fire stations were flooded. The...

ARRL President Jim Haynie, W5JBP, this week called on the Amateur Radio community to exercise patience as the Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans flooding relief and recovery efforts move into high gear. "I know many people would like to move now," Haynie said. "Please don't. I know many of you want to enter the fray, come to the coast and get involved. Please, not yet." Haynie instead advised hams eager to assist to make sure they're prepared, refresh their skills and knowledge of protocols and procedures. The ARRL now is seeking experienced Amateur Radio emergency volunteers to help supplement communication...

I've been reading a lot of posts lately where FReepers are getting to meet one another as they congregate at counter-protests, support rallies, etc., and was reminded of a tradition that Amateur (Ham) Radio Operators used (and probably still do - FR Ham Operators chime in): Call Sign Cards Call Sign Cards were/are cards about the size of a standard postcard that had the Ham Operator's FCC call sign, i.e., K5KFY, WB5NGT, printed in large font on the card, along the operator's name, address, and phone number. Many were personalized with photos, designs, location-specific images (such as someone from San...

It may have been Friday the Thirteenth, but it was a lucky day for Morse code--and particularly for veteran CW contest ops Chip Margelli, K7JA, and Ken Miller, K6CTW. During a May 13 appearance on NBC's The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, the pair was able to pass a message using good old fashioned Morse code more rapidly than a pair of teenaged text messengers equipped with modern cell phones. The victory, which replicated a similar challenge that took place recently in Australia, has provided immense encouragement to Amateur Radio's community of CW operators, who been ballyhooed the achievement all...

April 16, 2005 A race to the wire as old hand at Morse code beats txt msgrs By Mark Henderson DOTTY and old-fashioned means of communication can still be the best: Morse code has seen off the challenge of the text message in a contest pitting the best in 19th-century technology against its 21st-century successor. The race to transmit a simple message, staged by an Australian museum, was won — at a dash — by a 93-year-old telegraph operator who tapped it out using the simple system which was devised by Samuel Morse in 1832 and was the mainstay of...

Amateur radio operators will take part in a scavenger hunt this weekend, seeking information rather than hub caps or cowboy hats, in an exercise designed to get them acquainted with Southeastern Connecticut before a major emergency drill next month. Wayne Gronlund, who is coordinating the event, said he is trying to put together at least 50 amateur radio enthusiasts for TOPFF, a weeklong exercise that will include simulated terrorist attacks on ports in New London, New Jersey, Canada and the United Kingdom. “We know we're not going to have enough amateur radio resources in New London County to provide all...

Editor's note: Typically, only ARRL members get to read the "It Seems to Us ..." editorials that run each month in QST. We're posting this editorial that appears in the March, 2005 issue of QST in the hope that both ARRL members and nonmembers might appreciate it and find it informative. Threats to radio amateurs' access to the radio spectrum come in several forms. We can lose allocations, either at the international or the domestic level. The ARRL and the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) devote a lot of resources to the protection and expansion of our international allocations through...

Unheard by most of us is a constant conversation over the airwaves in the di-da tones of Morse code, the crackling of static and staccato voices keying in and out: Ham radio operators who broadcast from garrets and garages, tents and trucks, homes and businesses. Saturday's Radio Fest 2005 offered a glimpse into this world at Fort Ord's Stilwell Community Center, sponsored by the Naval Postgraduate School Amateur Radio Club, the Monterey Bay subsection of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the Amateur Radio Relay League. Radio Fest looked like nothing so much as an electronics garage sale,...

NEWINGTON, CT, Feb 25, 2005--At the urging of the ARRL, Rep Michael Bilirakis (R-FL) has introduced The Amateur Radio Spectrum Act of 2005 into the US House of Representatives. The bill, designated HR 691 , has been referred to the House Energy and Commerce Committee where Bilirakis serves as vice chairman. Like previous versions of the proposal, the current measure would require the FCC to provide "equivalent replacement spectrum" to the Amateur Radio and Amateur-Satellite services in the event of reallocation to other services of primary amateur spectrum or the diminution of secondary amateur spectrum. The bill also would cover...

Amateur radio operators are frequently unsung heroes when disaster strikes, and the tsunami proved to be no exception with VoIP technology linked to VHF and shortwave radio playing a big role in relaying information from the South to concerned relatives and friends around the world. The amateur radio service is uniquely prepared for emergency communications, explained President of the Radio Amateur Society of Thailand Mayuree Chotikul. Radio amateurs have the operating and technical skills coupled with the ability to transmit from their homes or a mobile location and they are not dependent on vulnerable public communications networks, she said. For...

The Internet is busy breathing life into a world once dominated by ancient technology and vacuum tubes. On a sunny Thursday afternoon, a handful of young students learn from amateur radio enthusiast Ian Soutar that the Internet has not only changed amateur radio, but also revitalized it completely. For example, says Soutar, anyone with a computer and an amateur radio ("ham") licence can get on-air: there are more than 10,000 broadcasting "nodes" hooked up to receive and broadcast voice-over-Internet communications. Soutar got involved with the Esquimalt high school ham club in part to keep the hobby from dying: most of...

WASHINGTON, – Ham radio operators and amateur radio clubs plan to "Ham It Up for the Troops" on May 28 during the second annual Amateur Radio Military Appreciation Day to thank active duty, veterans and retired military people for their service and sacrifices to the nation, according to ARMAD's founder and former Air Force sergeant Emery McClendon. "ARMAD is a day when all amateur radio operators and amateur radio clubs worldwide are invited to gather at public locations to allow our citizens to express words of thanks and appreciation to our military members and coalition forces in a live format,"...

The Collins Amateur Radio Club, in cooperation with the Cedar Valley Amateur Radio Club will be operating a special Amateur Radio Station at The Carl and Mary Koehler History Center, 615 1St. Ave. S.E. Cedar Rapids on February 19th and 20th to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the WWII invasion of Iwo Jima. February 19th is 60 years, to the day, from the landing on Iwo Jima by American forces. In that battle, which was fought to secure an emergency landing site for B-29's that were bombing Japan, 6,821 US forces were killed and 19,217 wounded. Iwo Jima was...

I'm going to be taking a bit of an extended break from Free Republic, and I'd like to offer the Ham Radio Ping List to anyone who may be interested in its upkeep. The list has been a low-volume one since I created it, but the new admin would of course be free to maintain it any way he or she wished. Reply here or Freepmail me and I'll send you the text file containing the list and the ping banner. 73, DD

Internet noise threatens emergency radio 10:31 14 January 2005 Exclusive from New Scientist Print Edition Barry Fox After the tsunami hit Sri Lanka on 26 December, Victor Goonetilleke, head of the island's amateur radio society, delivered a short-wave radio set and two 12-volt car batteries to the prime minister's emergency headquarters in Colombo. At the same time, three of his friends drove through the devastation to Hambantota, on the hard-hit south-east coast, where they set up another battery-powered short-wave radio. For two days, while the military struggled to restore electricity supplies and phone lines, the prime minister was able to...

Big Apple broadcaster amps up ARRL radio spot for Limbaugh network fill (Jan 13, 2005) -- ARRL Media and Public Relations Manager Allen Pitts, W1AGP, says it's nice to have friends in high places. One of the friends of Amateur Radio public relations is Howard Price, KA2QPJ, of New York City's WABC-TV (Channel 7). Pitts says Price--acting president of the Broadcast Employees Amateur Radio Society (BEARS), the ham radio organization at ABC TV and Radio in New York City and an ARRL Special Service Club--heard the League's new radio public service announcement (PSA) and had an idea. "He passed it...