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I put this off for a bit, got busy lately, but made a few contacts where I grabbed the nice colorful QRZ images of the stations contacted. I’m not putting the details like I have in the past on my ham radio related blog posts. Most everybody knows roughly where Italy, Guadaloupe, and Kuwait are on the map. They are valid contacts the other day … they’re in my LOG. 9K2UU was a repeat contact – this time I caught him early in a Pileup calling “CQ DX” and contacted him rather easily. He has a nice chalet in KUWAIT – nice pictures on his QRZ.COM page – and links to Youtube Videos of his BIG tower and antenna installations.

IV3CNZ – Fiumicello, Italy. I wanted to get this image – I like his use of the Maritime Flags (noting use of the Pennant “3″ flag) for his call sign and the nice sail boats on the water scene. (I was first a Signalman in the U.S. Navy which put me learning and using the flags and pennants as well as Semaphore and Morse Code by Flashing Light. I also qualified as a Radioman, and stood Navigation Watch (Quartermaster of the Watch) underway. All of that long before we ever got Satellite Communications systems or GPS for Navigation. I also discovered and activated Navy M.A.R.S. onboard ship and operated as “NNN0NAD” on H.F. Bands – S.S.B. putting through Phone Calls (Radio – Telephone Patch Calls) for the officers and crew.)

FG5GP on Guadaloupe Island

9K2UU in Kuwait

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73 de KA4UDX,

Alan Spicer

http://www.qrz.com/db/KA4UDX

* Alan Spicer – First of all I’ve been watching all of the news of the Boston Marathon Bombing – and the take down of the suspects, as well as the Texas Explosion … and my prayers go out for those affected.

A lot of the FBI and the Police finding the suspects in the Boston Marathon Bombing has to do with the Internet community … a lot of persons pulled down pictures and videos and searched for suspicious persons in those medial items and flagged a lot of them. I believe the Federal and other police used this HELP to facilitate their information seeking, and take down of the suspects. In that light Brian Lasusa had a post that readers of InformationWeek’s email bulletins got yesterday … I figured it was worth repeating on here. He may have said it better than I could have. I found it on the web at:

http://wirelessworldnet.blogspot.com/2013/04/being-social-in-face-of-disaster-best.html

Words can’t even begin to describe our collective sadness at what happened this week in Boston and West, Texas. Though the tragedies are very different in nature, one thing that they have in common is the ongoing social media responses.

A quick search of #WestTX on Twitter pulls up the latest news, info on missing family members, startling pictures and words of support. Meanwhile, in Boston, people took to Facebook and Twitter to keep friends and family updated on their safety in the immediate aftermath of the bombing. Days later, social media profiles are ablaze with shares of police alerts on possible suspect vehicles, updates on neighborhood lockdowns and more.

While many of the posts have been incredibly helpful, there’s always a flutter of nonsense: Misinformation — both accidental and intentional — can easily devalue the genuine efforts of concerned people. Case in point: Several individuals identified as suspects quickly found themselves part of a social media witch hunt. To their credit, they quickly went to authorities to clear themselves.

It’s easy to let emotions get a strong hold, especially when the faces of the victims are repeatedly flashed on our screens. Unfortunately, kneejerk reactions do very little to help dispense valuable information and only make things worse.

In a disaster, natural or man-made, the best thing a social media “volunteer” can do is ignore mainstream media and share information from official sources such as the Red Cross or police/government profiles.

Do you find social media tend to be helpful or detrimental in a crisis situation? Let me know at tom.lasusa@ubm.com.

Tom LaSusa
Community Manager
InformationWeek.com

(* Alan Spicer – P.S. – I didn’t “Social Media” any about the above tragedy situations … I didn’t Tweet, I didn’t Facebook, or anything. But I do like to look up locations of all sorts of things [my Ham Radio Contacts is a big one] on Google Earth. I did look up the location of the last suspect being found hiding in the boat … and look around via Google Earth at the surroundings – including M.I.T. and Harvard Universities. The Google Earth imagery is from 2010 – and shows the house with a Boat Trailer but not a boat … at the time of that imagery. It was also interesting the surroundings of that house – I thought seemingly a bit commercial in nature – perhaps the location of that house made his decision and entrance to that location for hiding a little bit easier?)

* Another P.S. I almost forgot – I got an email from the Amateur Radio Community (one of the older Social Media *things* that people tend to forget about these days) related to the Boston Marathon Bombing …

Subj: Radio Amateurs Provide Communication Support in Boston Marathon Bombings
Radio Amateurs Provide Communication Support in Boston Marathon Bombings
04/16/2013

As has happened many times in years past, over 200 Amateur Radio operators participated in communications for the Boston Marathon on Monday, April 15, 2013. Unlike prior challenging situations such as very warm weather for the runners or other weather-related challenges, this year’s marathon will be remembered for the bombings that took place at the finish line. Despite this heinous act, professional first responders, medical volunteers from the American Red Cross that staffed the route, and Amateur Radio operators performed magnificently in the face of adversity.

“Within minutes, cell phone systems became overloaded and making phone calls and text messages was difficult. Amateur Radio operators performed communication duties under duress and performed admirably. No Amateur Radio volunteers were injured on the course in this terrible act,” said Steve Schwarm, W3EVE, who is the Amateur Radio Course Communication Coordinator and associated with a consortium of clubs and groups known as Marathon Amateur Radio Communications (MARC).

“At the finish line net control, which was only 400 feet from the initial blast, we heard the explosion. I poked my head outside to confirm what I thought it was and saw the white smoke. We immediately knew what had happened and commenced a roll call of all ham operators and medical tents. State Police authorities initially ordered us to lock down and post a ham for security watch outside the net control trailer. Thankfully none of our people were hurt,” said Paul Topolski, W1SEX, Amateur Radio Finish Line Coordinator.

Following the explosion and roll call, Topolski stated that they began pulling together updates and sent the information via the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) Web-EOC software tool and provided updates via Amateur Radio. Shortly after sending a few updates both Boston Police and Massachusetts State Police gave the order for the tent area to be evacuated. “In my mind, the course end of things is where a lot of work needed to happen as runners eventually needed to be stopped, congregated and transported to safety and staging areas,” Topolski said. “At the finish line, our job was to check on the safety of our people, provide those initial updates and evacuate per police instructions. Three of our Amateur Radio operators redeployed to the Boston Marathon Course Net Control Center.”

Across the course outside of the finish line after the bombings occurred, first aid stations were consolidated to larger first aid stations to pool runners for pickup and to keep runners warm as there were enhanced tents along the route where runners could be kept warm and hydrated. At the Heartbreak Hill first aid station, amateur operators had a complete base station setup, including a computer, and were prepared to handle health and welfare traffic as required. Several shelters were set up along the route at churches and schools, and Amateur Radio operators from secured first aid stations went to those shelters, providing communications in those areas until runners were moved out of their locations.

“My role at the request of Steve, W3EVE, as event organizer before the race was to shadow the course medical tent coordinator for the Red Cross, Kandi Finch,” said Rob Macedo, KD1CY, who is also the Eastern Massachusetts ARES Section Emergency Coordinator. “It was a challenging position but all organizers on both the Amateur Radio side and Red Cross side said things went well in coordinating during normal race conditions and particularly after the bombings.”

At course net control, which was away from the bombings, ham operators controlled their nets calmly and professionally while also expressing an appropriate level of urgency. Over a dozen amateurs at the net control center pooled together to announce messages and keep status of changes along the course route as required.

“Despite the total lack of warning in this situation, amateurs followed a creed I’ve long since preached since the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the mutual aid response to those attacks: ‘blessed are the flexible for they will not get bent out of shape,’” said Steve Schwarm, W3EVE. “Amateurs on the course did what they had to do to assure their own safety and runner safety working with the Red Cross medical people. They did an outstanding job and I was told so by Red Cross organizers as well.”

From an ARES perspective, a heightened state of awareness on the Boston Marathon event is typical, but within 15 minutes of the bombings, Eastern Massachusetts ARES Assistant Section Emergency Coordinator, Carl Aveni, N1FY, issued an ARES Stand-By and requested that amateurs give availability for the next 24 hours. Within minutes, 20 amateurs offered their availability.

“In terms of having amateurs within ARES who cannot get directly involved in the marathon, we have a process where we have them monitor in case of a situation like what occurred on Monday. That process paid off and facilitated a rapid response to our request for possible additional support,” said Aveni.

“Additional details and more input to this story are unfolding and will be updated as that information is pulled together,” Macedo said.

–Thanks to Paul Topolski, W1SEX; Steve Schwarm, W3EVE, and Rob Macedo, KD1CY, for the information.

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Alan Spicer

Alan Spicer Marine Telecom

+1 954 683 3426

communications @ marinetelecom.net

NetAmerica Alliance Model: Uniport – a.k.a. Ericsson MBR L21. This picture is of an L21 in Pompano Beach, Florida during testing without an external antenna.

In the next few days we will be installing and testing an Ericsson L21 on a yacht in the Miami, Florida area. We will be connecting an external antenna – and activating the unit on a 4G LTE connection (likely AT&T). Actually with the picture above we have tested one NOT on a yacht but in a house.

Often nobody wants to be the first one to try a product, and yachts are no different. Everyone wants proven technology and systems. Well these units were designed to be used in homes and businesses (and mobile platforms? ie the name Mobile Broadband Router) with either the built-in cellular antennas or with an external antenna. (With the picture above: 04/18/2013 – an L21 has been tested on AT&T LTE 4G Network … 4G Sim Card. We had to enter “broadband” as the APN in order to get it to work.)

They have some very neat functionality built-in to them. Not many on yachts probably know what an “Asterisk Software PBX” is … but I do. I have experimented with the software. But basically the Ericsson L21 came with a limited miniature installation of Asterisk PBX installed and configurable as part of the Very Nice Web GUI (Management Interface.) This PBX allows 1 RJ-11 actual hard wired Telephone extension … This could even be used as a connection (as was done before with Ericsson W25 and W35) to a boats actual hardware PBX system. But what’s even cooler about this is that it allows 4 VOIP Phones. That could be hardware SIP Phones or Software SIP instances. In other words you could pick 4 important locations (or persons) that get a SIP extension to the “Mini-PBX” that can make and receive VOIP telephone calls. A SIP VOIP provider is required – and that can be easily configured in the system.

* Anyway I will try and post the results of the installation testing after it’s done, on here.

—

Alan Spicer Marine Telecom

+1 954 683 3426

communications @ marinetelecom.net

Amateur Radio Contact – 8030 Miles to http://www.qrz.com/db/A41MX on 18 Mhz (17 Meters) – this will be a 2nd contact for us as we had 14 Mhz (20 meters) contact in 2011.

Google Earth geography – A41MX in Oman – 8030 miles

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73 de KA4UDX,

Alan Spicer

RK6CI. UA6BRD, RZ6BX Google Earth Geography for Ham Radio Contacts on SSB 20 Meters (14 Mhz) band … at 6000 + miles distance. (Click to enlarge image.)

(Also 4Z5KA in Israel at 6609.5 miles.)




Video of the short 4Z5KA contact to Israel

We have a nice radio path to Russia on 20M this morning … at 6000+ miles. I just worked two stations in tandem (working together on same frequency) RK6CI and UA6BRD near Kropotkin and on another frequency close by … RZ6BX near Dinskaya in Russia.

I plot these on Google Earth as well as logging them in my electronic ham radio log (on eqsl.cc web site) because the extra labor of love of doing the geography is not only fun for me – but also educational.

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73 de KA4UDX,

Alan Spicer

Happy Easter to everyone!

As always please see the links at the top and to the right … and call me if you need anything.

Amateur Radio: CQ WPX SSB Contest 2013




CQ WPX SSB Contest 2013 #13 (from my Youtube page)

And this is a special embed from Youtube … SN5V – This is an example of what it looks and sounds like from the OTHER SIDE at a station in Poland. This guy is operating single band on 15 meters … doing very well. Very good operator. Very efficient – and good at pulling stations out of the mud (the noise.)




SN5V in Warsaw, Poland operating in the CQ WPX Contest. A rare look a what a good operator and station looks and sounds like – in the contest.

Another one of those weekends to wear extra sun block or a tin foil hat There was plenty of R.F. (Radio Frequency) energy in the air as Amateur Radio Operators in the U.S. and around the World operate their stations (or portable / mobiles) in the contest to contact as many other operators as possible. Hams, as they are call, Ham Radio Operators, scored points for contacts both within their own countries and DX – other countries. They got score multipliers for things like “How many call sign prefixes they worked”. The bands were crowded on 20 meters and 40 meters. 15 meters wasn’t as bad … and we even had 10 meters (28 Mhz) open up.

On Saturday I “played radio” in the contest for around 5 or 6 hours – starting out on 10 meters. Surprisingly the band was open and I made some nice contacts on there for the contest. I worked my way through 15 meters, 20 meters, and 40 meters and shut down operations some time lated Saturday night and called it a night.

I went back “On The Air” on Sunday afternoon late after some celebration for Easter Holiday … and started at the lower frequencies first … 40 meters was pretty quiet … so I ended up operating mostly on 20 meters today. This band was jam packed … with stations litterally on top of each other across the U.S. voice SSB Amateur Band Segment. This is how it goes in contests. Because of radio propagation – stations in different areas often cannot hear each other. I recorded a video of radio operations where 2 stations were “working” the same frequency at the same time in the contest … and I could hear both of them. With stations so close to each other in frequency there is a lot of interference. 3 Khz bandwidth of SSB signals and some stations with lot of power (up to 1500 watts) or very powerful yagi gain antennas (or both) and working sometimes only 1 or 2 Khz apart or less … makes for a very noisy and difficult environment to work in. Most people would NOT think this was fun. The first squeeky screaming or “whop whop whop” of an adjacent frequency station would send them running for the television, their iPhone, or even bottle of aspirin. But not many of us Ham Radio operators. For us – it is a challenge. It’s being an “operator” and having to turn a lot of dials and push buttons to enable different filters to try and get away from the QRM (Interference) caused by other stations nearby in frequency. After all of the buttons and dials have been used … then it comes down to the human being as the decoder of the communication. The Signal-To-Noise has to be deciphered by the persons ears – eyes – and brain. Extract the voice from the mess and make that contact!!!!

And quite a few I did make. I probably won’t win any awards … there were stations with 1000′s of contacts – I believe I have heard contact serial numbers in the 4000′s range. But those may be multi-operator – multi-band – multi-radio stations … or at least they operated almost continously for 2 days (as many hours as they could put it following the contest rules.) Some of them might thank the other hams like me that went on and “surfed” the bands calling as many stations as I could … while they remained Camped Out on single frequencies calling “CQ WPX Contest” and saying “QRZ … ?” (Who is calling me?) to get the next station trying to reach them. So we helped each other. I hope the winners enjoy their awards. For me I did get a bunch of contacts in my log – I also uploaded to my Electronic QSL service (eqsl.cc) so I get credit in there as well for all of the contacts.

Here is my logging program with my STATS at the end of the contest at 8:00 PM Eastern tonight:

You can click it to enlarge it

KA4UDX – CQ WPX SSB – Log Final Stats

* I got 118 contacts, 273 points, 104 multipliers (looks like this was one for each Call Sign Prefix that I worked), and 28,392 final score according to my logging program. 273 x 104 = 28,392. It looks like US contacts were good for 1 point each, and DX – other countries were worth 2 or 3 points. So there was some encouragement to work Canada and other Countries around the world. But also I had in my mind that Each Prefix was a Multiplier … including each new Prefix on the U.S. contacts. And I did quite well in getting a lot of unique U.S. and World prefixes by my contacts.

All in all great fun … time for the aspirin and to go horizontal (zzzzzzzzzzzzzz) for the night.

P.S. Oh I recorded a lot of video … I’m slowly uploading what I can (YouTube: alanspicertelecom.) This has the audio of what “working” in this contest sounds like … you would get to hear me actually working stations near and far (well they were all some kind of far) and the difficulties in getting through! If the sh^t ever hits the fan … Ham Radio Operators would be good people to have around – that can make communications work in adverse conditions.

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73 de KA4UDX,

Alan Spicer

On 20 Meters today …

Amateur Radio: 6W2SC – Senegal, OK4RQ – Czech Republic, IZ0VXF – Italy, YU1DW – Serbia, EA4AOC/1 – Spain, PJ2/VA7AM – Curacao Island in the Caribbean (S.W. near Venezuela), DR20CFT – Germany.

* Video of the audio on my radio on all except EA4AOC/1 – not uploaded yet, and PJ2/VA7AM, and DR20CFT - something happened on Youtube with the processing of this video and many hours later I finally deleted it on there since it’s dead anyway.




6W2SC in Senegal on 20M. At the beginning I said it was going to be difficult – because there was a ringing noise (QRM) on frequency, I have powerline noise locally, and the station was operating Split Frequency in a DX Pileup. I’ll never make it you say? I did make it – with 100 watts and an OCF Dipole at barely 30 feet off the ground. (and some magic dust like Santa Claus uses.)

6W2SC – QRZ image (click to enlarge – or look him up on QRZ.COM)

6W2SC – Senegal – 4206 miles away …




OK4RQ from Czech Republic on 20 Meters. 5005.8 miles away.




IZ0VXF on 20 Meters at Lido di Lavinio Anzio ( Roma), Italy. 5175.4 miles away.




YU1DW – Serbia on 20M – I edited and shortened this video because the audio level was too high into my camera at first. I made contact with this guy near the start – but left the video running for awhile after. Often stations like to hear what they sound like over on this side of “The pond”. Where the audio distorts (clips) it’s my web cam not his audio. 5440.8 miles away.

PJ2/VA7AM on Curacao Island in the Caribbean … Worked him on 20-meters as well. No video yet because the upload failed.

PJ2/VA7AM – Google Earth geography (click image to enlarge)

EA4AOC/1 – Spain – he was not in his home call district “4″ hence “Portable” or “/1″ Geography to follow …

EA4AOC/1 (portable in Spain Call District 1) Google Earth Geography … location is an approximation as he didn’t say where he was actually and all I can do is approximate by where Call District 1 area is. Anyway he was portable / mobile … in Northwest Spain – that’s close enough for government work.

DR20CFT – Germany (More pictures – look up his call sign on www.qrz.com.)

DR20CFT – Google Earth geography (click image to enlarge) 5019.6 miles away.

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73 de KA4UDX,

Alan Spicer

Nice QSO with PT7ZT in Brazil – 20 Meters – 14 Mhz – 3475.1 miles.

This is my 4th contact (from my log) with this station …

Action	Callsign 1st	Date/Time 2nd	Band 3rd	Mode	RST	Comments
LIMITS	PT7ZT	-
	PT7ZT	05Jun2011 23:01	17m	SSB	55	73 from Fort Lauderdale
	PT7ZT	09Jul2011 21:38	15m	SSB	59	59 Florida – ITU 8
	PT7ZT	09Jun2012 19:29	20m	SSB	59	001
	PT7ZT	24Mar2013 02:47	20m	SSB	59	73 from FTL.

(no video, sorry)

PT7ZT – Brazil – Google Earth Geography – click to enlarge.

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73 de KA4UDX,

Alan Spicer

Nice contact to Martinique in the Caribbean to FM4NB on 20 Meters (14 Mhz) – Distance 1469.1

FM4NB – QRZ.COM image

FM4NB – Google Earth Geography … Click it to enlarge

Video coming …

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73 de KA4UDX,

Alan Spicer

A nice contact with MI1CCT in Northern Ireleland … I also heard a friend ham in the local area (N2DUI) work him as well. This was on 20 Meters – 14 Mhz band and the distance is 4071.9 miles.

MI1CCT Northern Ireleand (Notice – where Titanic was built also on this map) Google Earth Geography

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73 de KA4UDX,

Alan Spicer