it is about ham radio
Gosh!!! I must be slipping ... it's like a whole month between blogs, but then I did not promise to be on a roster or a schedule. I am not one of those people who create the news to make the news, like buss your face with a hammer so that I can scoop and report on it, that is desperation journalism, not that it does not happen, but surely not in our Caribbean ... so you have to be careful with the information sources these days, all of them are not decent and honest, like once ago.
I can't end without saying something about our most lovable SKB school children. They are nice docile, most innocent and lovable in school, but when school let out it is like the plague is unleashed, killer ants and killer bees, may be a welcome sight in comparison. Within hours of the container being landed on the Society site, every glass window was glassless. I should not mention that our sexually active "hotties" have also invaded the container through a hole in the floor. Well, maybe it is not those "hot teenagers" but adults that are invading the container, because the "teenagers" have parents who have them under tight control. Please, this is the Caribbean, we live here ... and some parent are the ones under control.
I understand that my comments last month seemed to cause a ruckus and hams were calling for me on two meters one evening to either clarify or verify or explain, what I wrote in plain language. I did not write in any code, but I now get the impression through the grapevines that everyone is quite clear, and may be in agreement, of sorts, with what I said and what I did not say. The facts are UNDENIABLE, indelibly written in history, but some people have a hard time with it because the word POLITICS may be an adjective here. I suspect that some people also recognized the truth, but they are not "old" and "unemployed" like me, so they had to suck-it-up, act like they are blind, deaf and dumb, and walk on the other side. Maybe I am too stupid for that so I just had to say something
I was speaking to a ham today and he seem to feel that the emergency exercise coming up shortly is a result of my blog or other comments. I seriously disagree with him. My writing had nothing to do with that. The Society has an active committee that plans these exercises and they are doing what they must on their 2010 agenda, and that has nothing to do with the fact that there was no exercises in the last 5 to 7 years or more. It is quite normal for clubs to have very low activity at times. The cycle may be somewhat similar almost akin to the sun spot cycle. It may be logical for clubs to flourishing at sun spot cycle peaks, and I can see why local interest in our club could be waxing at this time.
Here is an extract from my recent email to the society secretariat and membership
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I also heard from my equipment service engineer, and within the next 14 days or so, all things remaining equal, I should have my TS-940SAT transceiver repaired and on the operating table again. At that time I expect to conclude the first phase of my 40-meter and 80-meter short loaded vertical antenna experiments.
As you may be aware V44KO and I embarked upon a short vertical antenna building program. Although the antennas being built meet our own specific need, they can also fill the needs of the average ham in V4 land who [a] have antenna installation space constraints, and [b] needs to work DX consistently. For me ham radio fun is making DX contacts and, as you know, that is more difficult to do with horizontal antennas, even two wavelengths above ground. The vertical antenna will always be top of the class in DXing. In our 'island' case it works great all the time because we are practically living in salt water, and can almost get away with just 2 and 4 radials, instead of the minimum 120 radials.
We are now into the Hurricane Season and I expect that SKNAARS will serve to motivate the hams to get their ham radio station at full capability ASAP. I expect that the NARC and SKNAARS will seek to have their HF nets activated and on-the-air. I am hopeful that these may also operate at evenings and not just on Sunday. I would also like to see a common net where all V4 hams can meet daily. The inter island rivalry may be good, but not that good for our Federal ham radio communications.
I am closing now but just two things. [1] The lack of a local source of coax cable seems to be the root cause or claim of most ham operators not being able to get on the air. While I appreciate the argument for using the popular RG-8 and RG-213 cables, I have not used any of these cables over the last 20 plus years and I am not aware that I cause any local TVI, BCI or whatever, and given the friends and neighbors we have these days, I would know. I have always used RG-59, even to the kilowatt level when I used the Drake L-4B. I am aware that hams in other places are experimenting with RG-6 cable successfully, and I would suggest that we should also conduct tests and experiments here, more so since we have no service usage "code" as yet. We also have RG-6 in abundance and it is also available in our hardware stores.
The other logical option is for SKNAARS to supply the hams with the brand, cable and size that they require. I see 1000-ft drums of coax cable on eBay at very good prices.
[2] Ham radio as we call it is really a group of people conducting scientific research from various locations across the face of the planet. It seems logical to me that our little one by naught city lot at Taylor's Range, next to a Church and two schools, is not anywhere close to adequate for conducting any real scientific experimentation, in say propagation, on 160 meters. Our location would be extremely hard pressed to hold a 1200-ft Beverage antenna, never mind two at diagonals. So how do we expect to really engage seriously and fruitfully in our hobby of scientific experimentation from a 100-ft x 50-ft city lot? So we have to stay on UHF and let our radio site look like a Chippie cell site.
I am of the view that it is time, after some 37 years, that we look seriously at our ham radio role to determine if it is in our destiny to continue with scientific experimentation in the field of radio communications from V4 land, otherwise known as St Kitts and Nevis. If we agree that we do have work to do, I believe that we need to determine what acreage of land we need for our scientific research, and approach the Ministry of Lands, with haste, for the few acres [3 to 5] that our scientific research requires. I believe that we have the engineering expertise within our ranks to determine what 'land' we would require for the earmarked scientific research and experiments from 1.8 MHz. It is high time that we call upon all the ham radio expertise that we have with our twin island Federation and move our ham radio up 3 notches in a step.
As you may be aware V44KO and I embarked upon a short vertical antenna building program. Although the antennas being built meet our own specific need, they can also fill the needs of the average ham in V4 land who [a] have antenna installation space constraints, and [b] needs to work DX consistently. For me ham radio fun is making DX contacts and, as you know, that is more difficult to do with horizontal antennas, even two wavelengths above ground. The vertical antenna will always be top of the class in DXing. In our 'island' case it works great all the time because we are practically living in salt water, and can almost get away with just 2 and 4 radials, instead of the minimum 120 radials.
We are now into the Hurricane Season and I expect that SKNAARS will serve to motivate the hams to get their ham radio station at full capability ASAP. I expect that the NARC and SKNAARS will seek to have their HF nets activated and on-the-air. I am hopeful that these may also operate at evenings and not just on Sunday. I would also like to see a common net where all V4 hams can meet daily. The inter island rivalry may be good, but not that good for our Federal ham radio communications.
I am closing now but just two things. [1] The lack of a local source of coax cable seems to be the root cause or claim of most ham operators not being able to get on the air. While I appreciate the argument for using the popular RG-8 and RG-213 cables, I have not used any of these cables over the last 20 plus years and I am not aware that I cause any local TVI, BCI or whatever, and given the friends and neighbors we have these days, I would know. I have always used RG-59, even to the kilowatt level when I used the Drake L-4B. I am aware that hams in other places are experimenting with RG-6 cable successfully, and I would suggest that we should also conduct tests and experiments here, more so since we have no service usage "code" as yet. We also have RG-6 in abundance and it is also available in our hardware stores.
The other logical option is for SKNAARS to supply the hams with the brand, cable and size that they require. I see 1000-ft drums of coax cable on eBay at very good prices.
[2] Ham radio as we call it is really a group of people conducting scientific research from various locations across the face of the planet. It seems logical to me that our little one by naught city lot at Taylor's Range, next to a Church and two schools, is not anywhere close to adequate for conducting any real scientific experimentation, in say propagation, on 160 meters. Our location would be extremely hard pressed to hold a 1200-ft Beverage antenna, never mind two at diagonals. So how do we expect to really engage seriously and fruitfully in our hobby of scientific experimentation from a 100-ft x 50-ft city lot? So we have to stay on UHF and let our radio site look like a Chippie cell site.
I am of the view that it is time, after some 37 years, that we look seriously at our ham radio role to determine if it is in our destiny to continue with scientific experimentation in the field of radio communications from V4 land, otherwise known as St Kitts and Nevis. If we agree that we do have work to do, I believe that we need to determine what acreage of land we need for our scientific research, and approach the Ministry of Lands, with haste, for the few acres [3 to 5] that our scientific research requires. I believe that we have the engineering expertise within our ranks to determine what 'land' we would require for the earmarked scientific research and experiments from 1.8 MHz. It is high time that we call upon all the ham radio expertise that we have with our twin island Federation and move our ham radio up 3 notches in a step.
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I don't think that another month will go by before I am back here blogging. I suspect that next week, DV, I may have some trinkets to share, and maybe a snap or two. I hope the 'grease truck' is moved shortly so the Society can get on with their projects. Did I post the 'grease truck' snap here before? I don't think so. In our beloved country some people can just trespass on the "little people's" property and nothing at all for it, and then when some folks get upset and assertive, everybody find to say " but why didn't you come to see me?" but all the time that we bawling out hard under the pressure everybody, everywhere, was deaf and dumb. As the saying goes, today for me and tomorrow for you. This is just a statement, no threat or anything else.
I can't end without saying something about our most lovable SKB school children. They are nice docile, most innocent and lovable in school, but when school let out it is like the plague is unleashed, killer ants and killer bees, may be a welcome sight in comparison. Within hours of the container being landed on the Society site, every glass window was glassless. I should not mention that our sexually active "hotties" have also invaded the container through a hole in the floor. Well, maybe it is not those "hot teenagers" but adults that are invading the container, because the "teenagers" have parents who have them under tight control. Please, this is the Caribbean, we live here ... and some parent are the ones under control.
I think we need to find a new site for our Society. The Church next door, could pray about their break-ins and vandalism at every 'prayer meeting'. Why are we waiting to get raided and all our remaining assets vaporised. Security systems will not stop the burglars, and insurance will not compensate us adequately, if at all. These are modern times and we know how thing go in this place, so why are we playing the fool while making believe that we are smart?
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