From us:
A YouTube video tour of IOWA’s legacy radios here.
And an original video created on VHS tape for the crew of the USS Iowa (BB-61) for her last decommissioning in October of 1990, converted to digital and posted on YouTube here.
From Orlo, K6SUJ:
Orlo got to “Ring the Bell” after 2000 hours of service.
From Roee, 4Z1KO/KU6L:
Roy put together a radio inspired trivia game for a recent general membership meeting. Try it!
From Mike, WB6DJI:
Mike received a A25RU DX Expedition Plaque. He made 3 QSOs for this Botswana Russian DXpedition.
From Jerome, W9JGC:
After a recent SKYPE call, we put the call out for shack pictures. Jerome answered the call with the following pics:
My desk
Another view of the operating position
A view of my antennas
Another view of my antennas
Part of my key connection
Some gear in storage
From Bruce, AD7MM:
Bruce has been exploring Moab, Utah lately. Here are some of his (fantastic!) pictures.
From Doug, W6HB:
Here’s the KISS presentation on EZ Up Antennas from our March 10, 2021 meeting.
From Mike, K0TAX:
On January 16, Mike’s book was published and made available on Amazon.com.
The Survivor’s Legacy: How the Holocaust Shaped Future Generations by Sally Lefton Wolfe and Michael Leonard Farkas with Margery Walshaw.
From Bruce, AD7MM:
On December 13, Arizona Highways chose one of my photos for their Photo of the Day.
Mist rises during a frosty sunrise along the Mogollon Rim in Central Arizona (https://www.arizonahighways.com/photography/photo-archive).
From Roee, 4Z1KO/KU6L:
A special event operation of ham radio operators in Israel on Hanukkah 10-19 December 2020
Objective:
Advertising and celebrating Hanukkah on the air of amateur radio operators around the world.
All times listed in the document are IST (Israeli standard time (UTC+2))
General:
On the days of Hanukkah this year, special Israeli radio amateur stations will be operated with the call signals ending in letters from the word CHANUKAH, with the number in the reading letter indicating the number of the candle (the serial day of the holiday) in the menorah.
There will be a lot of publicity for the special session on Facebook, on websites and forums of radio armature operators around the world.
Dates and times:
Beginning on the evening of Thursday 10 December with the lighting of the first candle (around 17:00), in a sequence of all holidays until midnight on Saturday 19 December 2020 at 23.59 Israel time. A total of 9 days.
Method:
- On 12/10/2020, on the eve of the lighting of the first candle in the city in Hashmonaim, the special stations will start operating with the call signal 4X1C (a group under Mark 4X1KS).
- On 12/11/2020, on the eve of the lighting of a second candle in the city of Haifa, the special stations will start operating with the 4X2H call signal (a group under Danny 4Z5SL).
- On 12/12/2020, on the eve of the lighting of a third candle in the city of Tel Aviv, the special stations will start operating with the call sign 4Z3A (group under Jan 4X1VF).
- On December 13, on the eve of the lighting of a fourth candle in the city of Netanya, the special stations will start operating with the call sign 4X4N (a group under Eli 4Z1NB).
- On 14/12, on the eve of the lighting of a fifth candle in the city of Beer Sheva, the special stations will start operating with the call signal 4X5U (a group under Epic 4X1TI).
- On December 15, on the eve of the lighting of a Friday candle in the city of Kiryat Shmona, the special stations will start operating with the reading signal 4X6K (a group under 4Z1KD).
- On December 16, on the eve of the lighting of the seventh candle in the city of Ashkelon, the special stations will start operating with the call sign 4Z7A (a group under Yuri 4Z5PN).
- On 12/17, the lighting of the eighth candle in the city of Jerusalem will begin with the operation of the special stations with the call sign 4Z8H (a group under Howard 4X1ZZ).
- The “Shamash” station will use the call sign 4X0NER and will be active in sequence all holidays and will give a bonus for any “signal” like Joker. (a group under Slava 4Z5MU).
Logs and contacts:
It is mandatory to maintain an electronic log (ADIF) which will be sent (uploaded) to the IARC website at the end of the activity (under the responsibility of all group managers).
For the purpose of the special event, a website will be built with a large menorah in the middle and all the special reading signals will be used as holiday candles, and will be lit every evening during the holiday according to the number of the candle in the menorah.
After completion of operation, all connections of the special stations will be streamed to the LoTW website
QSO’s:
The director of QSL (QSL paper) is Slava 4Z5MU.
From Dan, K6YIC:
Here is some of the Teletype stuff I have been getting unto lately. There are California DX Asociation videos of a TT-187, a TT-192 and a TT-307. Watch the YouTube videos here: Teletype TT-187A, Teletype M28 TT-307 and Teletype M28 TT-192A.
From Bill, W6AJ:
Bill’s father got his first ham radio license 101 years ago this October (2020). He was 6AE originally. He let his license expire and then was licensed as 6DCE. Around the late ‘40s, he had the opportunity to get his old call, or as close as they had available, and he got W6AJ. Shortly afterwards he had the opportunity to get W6AE but he preferred to stick with W6AJ because people would often miss a trailing e. Bill eventually changed his call to W6AJ. Both W6AE and W6AJ were available, but Bill stayed with W6AJ because his father had preferred it.
From Roee, 4Z1KO/KU6L:
International Lighthouse Lightship Weekend presentation
BIARA member 4Z1KO Roee Cohen, 4Z5SL Dan Katzman, 4X6DK David Kehat, 4Z1KD Gil Lianni, 4X1KW Gal Fucsh and 4Z1DZ Chanan Zabar will work a station, callsign 4X5IQ/LH – ISR013, on 80m, 40m, 20m and SAT from Acre (Akko) in Israel on the weekend of August 21-23, 2020.
Read his presentation here.
From Gurbux, W6BUX:
Hand-Crafted Keys and Paddles by W6BUX
BIARA Associate Gurbux Singh W6BUX, who is an avid CW enthusiast, has a background in Mechanical Engineering and grew up in Rangoon, Burma where his parents had a machine shop and foundry and also had the Amateur Radio station XZ2KN where he got hooked on Morse Code. After immigrating to the USA in 1974, he got back into ham radio and of course CW. After 60 plus years as a CW operator, he has a discerning eye and a feel for what makes a good key or set of paddles for sending good code. Not satisfied with what was available off-the-shelf, he decided to craft his own for his personal use.
He noticed that most manufacturers used springs for returning the contacts to open and that made them have a dead feel that was not smooth. That was true for straight keys and paddles. Instead of springs, he uses repelling magnets to open the contacts and this gives them a very smooth action and almost no lag in opening the contacts when keyed. He likes this return movement technology so much that he has also modified an off-the-shelf Kent key which had springs into one with magnets for opening the contacts. Some of his ham friends who have had a chance to use his products whether at his home or on board the USS IOWA, or on Field Day, are amazed and impressed with how good the “feel” is. Gurbux uses only his home made keys and paddles and has no reason to buy them from other places.
Incidentally, Gurbux uses only basic hand tools and does not have or make the use of fancy machines to make these. It is the enjoyment of making them for his own use, not for selling them, which gives him satisfaction. Making one key can take many weeks or months but who keeps track when one is having fun as another part of his hobby of Ham Radio.
