innismir.net

Last Saturday both myself and Matt, KB1OSV, headed down to the SEMARA clubhouse to particpate in the ARRL June VHF QSO Party. I had previously participated in the January VHF Sweepstakes at the club and had a good time. When I brought up the fact that I was going to be activating the station at the last business meeting, Matt offered to show up as well with his FT-897 so we could operate on 2M as well.

The day of, I arrived at noon and Matt had already set up his 2M beam. We attached it to the top of a 18ft painter’s pole that he had brought and lashed it to the stairs, giving it about 25ft clearance off the ground. Matt travels a lot and he has his entire station broken down into a waterproof Pelican case (radio, other electronics) and a travel bag (antennas, tools, etc.). Very impressive. We set up his 897 which I manned for 2M and he operated the club’s TS-570 for 6M.  Being both rookies, we managed to muff the start of the contest. At 1300EDT we started scouring the bands and were confused as we heard almost no activity. We then realized that we both were mistaken that 1300EDT was NOT 1800UTC, the start of the contest, it was 1700UTC. Whoops. Stupid daylight savings.

As 1800UTC FINALLY rolled around, the bands sprung to life. I made the first contact of the afternoon at 1801UTC. Unfortunately, I should have savored it, as it was one of five contacts I made during the contest. 2M was mostly dead for most of the afternoon and I was only able to work three grids. Matt had better luck on 6M, as the band occasionally opened up and he was able to work stations in the midwest and southeast United States. By the time 6PM rolled around and we both had to leave, we worked a grand total of 16 contacts and 10 grids. Not anything impressive, but definitely not bad considering our setup and time limitations.

We both had a good time. It was Matt’s first VHF contest and it was my first time running SSB on 2M. I was impressed when the band did show brief (really brief) signs of life and was able to hear as far north as Northern New Hampshire and as far west as eastern New York. If and when I am able to get a house with a permanent antenna setup, I think a 2M beam is definitely in my future. Matt and I agreed that we would definitely want to try this again and he has access to a mountaintop with a shelter and power through his astronomy club. I think that if I ever get a radio that can run 2M sideband, I may take him up on his offer.

While rolling through my RSS feeds (Hat tip to KE9v) on the train this morning, this came as shock, but not really one that I couldn’t say I didn’t see coming:

The days of Navy and Marine Corps MARS may be fast coming to an end. This, according to a directive released by the commander of the Naval Network Welfare Command. One that says that this branch of the Military Affiliate Radio Services will terminate all operations at the end of this summer. Amateur Radio Newsline’s Bruce Tennant, K6PZW, has the details:

According to the May 16th directive, the commander of the Naval Network Welfare Command has decided to sunset the Navy’s MARS mission effective September 30th. Sunset in this case means to terminate and disband. As a result, the Naval Network Welfare Command has requested that all military and civilian positions be deleted and left un-funded after that date.

MARS, for you non-hams, provides a way for families to keep in touch with deployed troops abroad via something similar to a telegram system, among other things. It’s not surprising that with the ubiquity of cell phones and Internet access in even the most far-flung areas that we’re seeing the end of MARS usefulness.

However, when I read the story, another story did pop to mind. What was Navy/Marine MARS paying attention too? Why, the fact that those new hams don’t know Morse of course!

After more than a dozen years, Morse code will soon be returning to Military Affiliate Radio System (MARS) nets. In the mid-1990s, the Department of Defense (DoD) did away with CW operation across the board — including MARS nets — as automatic systems such as the Internet, SATCOM, cell phones and e-mail became available and the payroll cost of manual operators escalated.

MARS members who had embraced CW operation knew that Morse code, the most “digital” mode of all, was an important tool for Emergency Communications. After Hurricane Katrina demonstrated the need for more robust — not to mention quickly deployable EmComm resources — some MARS members led a campaign to resume CW operations on their nets. This resulted in the Chiefs of Army MARS and Navy-Marine Corps MARS calling for a census of interested MARS members as the first step to reactivating regular training nets.

…In announcing the return of CW to MARS nets, Navy-Marine Corps MARS Chief Bo Lindfors cited an emergency where CW was sorely missed: “I remember the [1998] Northeast Ice Storm shortly after I became [Navy-Marine Corps MARS] Chief and the unnecessarily lengthy effort by all of southern New England to receive one voice EEI [Essential Elements of Information Report] from a northern New England member whose antenna was covered in ice and lying on the ground. It took more than an hour when CW could have handled it in a few minutes. As more and more of our members enter MARS with no Morse code experience, I am afraid that we will soon lose that skill set if we don’t do something.”

I did it when I first read it, and I’ll do it now:

It scares me to think that what we are seeing with Navy/Marine MARS may be a portent to the hobby itself if Hams don’t start stepping it up and focusing on more relevant technologies rather then things we have been doing for generations. Instead of focusing on D-STAR, 802.11b, 802.16, APCO P25, and similar ideas large swaths of the community is dismissing them as “not real radio” and instead continue to focus on technology that is as old as the hobby itself. If we continue to ignore advances in the communications spectrum, we’re likely in a few years time going to have a conversations with the FCC straight out of Office Space:

FCC: So what you do is you take the messages from people and you deliver them to other people?
Hams: That, that’s right.
FCC: Well, then I gotta ask, then why can’t people just send their messages directly to other people?
Hams: Well, uh, uh, uh, because, uh, people are not good at the complexities of message handling.
FCC: You physically take the message from someone?
Hams: Well, no, I, I, use the telephone, or, or the fax.
FCC: Ah. Then someone other Ham must physically deliver the message to the recpient?
Hams: Well… no. Yeah, I mean, sometimes.
FCC: Well, what would you say… you do with your spectrum?
Hams: Well, look, I already told you. I take messages and I send them to other people!! I have communications skills!! I am good at making oscilators!!! I know morse! Can’t you understand that?!? WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?!!!!!!!

Could pushing new technologies have saved Navy/Marine MARS? Possibly. Do I want to be asking this same question in 20 years time after the FCC starts to disolve Ham Radio? I’d rather not bother to find out.

Happy Digitial Transition Day!

It’s the end of an era! Today, the FCC has mandated that analog TV transmissions cease by midnight and stations broadcast only in digital format.

Confirmed Boston Area station cut-over times are:

• WBZ-4 ending regular programming at 12:30 PM, then starting nightlight programming
• WSBK-38 shutting down analog completely at 1:00 PM
• WHDH-7 shutting down analog completely at 11:59 PM, then moving their DT signal from the current 42 to actual 7
• WLVI-56 shutting down analog completely at 11:59 PM

Still Unknown:

• WCVB-5 (Cutting over to nightlight service)
• WGBH-2 (Cutting over to nightlight service)