Notes from the Shack

This is where we post timely news and other information targeted to the active ham radio operator.
The posts were named Notes from the Shack, filtered, and placed here to make them more readily accessible to the target audience.

Anyone is welcome to read these postings.  

Please enjoy.

 

Are You an Active Ham

The United States leads the world in having the greatest number of licensed amateur radio operators. There are about 763,000 among all US License Classes. About 8,000 of those have Novice licenses, 387,000 have Technician Licenses, 179,000 General, 38,000 Advanced and 150,000 ...

/ Notes From The Shack

Radio Frequency Exposure Rules

Updated Radio Frequency Exposure Rules Become Effective on May 3, 2021 From the ARRL Newsletter

The FCC has announced that rule changes detailed in a lengthy 2019 Report and Order (R&O) governing RF exposure standards go into effect on May 3, 2021 ...

Derby Day 2024 with CARC

A POTAstic Day!

On Saturday May 4, 2024 CARC members and friends met at Pine Grove Furnace State Park for Derby Day.

Or as one local radio station morning show (Red 102.3) called it in their parody commercial done in the style ...

/ Notes From The Shack

Sandpatch Mountain and Railroad Tunnel

For many years, I was a member of the Yahoo Groups Sandpatch List. Sandpatch, named for Sandpatch Mountain and tunnel, is where the Baltimore & Ohio, now CSX, crosses the Alleghenies. It was built after the world famous Horse Shoe Curve ...

/ Notes From The Shack, Rail Fan

Field Day Tips

After Field Day 2020 was in the books a group of us from the Cumberland Amateur Radio Club K3IEC Field Day crew discussed what worked, what didn’t work, and what we can do to improve. Some of our thoughts may well apply ...

/ Notes From The Shack

DMR Contesting

Contesting has been a part of the great wide world of amateur radio since at least 1928 in the US. Contests typically involve spending hours in the shack on the HF bands (160M, 80M, 40M, 20M, 15M, 10M) and in some ...

Keep it simple. Mastering the Two-Meter Analog HT

I have come to the realization that while for most new amateur radio operators, the first radio is a HT. That is great, but too many are encouraged or choose to get a DMR, D-Star, or System Fusion radio as their first ...

/ How-To, Notes From The Shack

Pennsylvania QSO Party Results

We did not operate our traditional Portable Multi-Transmitter / Multi-Operation station this year due to the weather forecast calling for rain, cold temperatures, and high winds associated with hurricane remnants. But quite a few members played along at home. The PA QSO ...

/ Notes From The Shack

Portable On The Porch

Sometimes you just have to go play outside. But there is life... so what do you do?

Operate portable from the porch?

Or, get a good look this crowded setup...

Yeah, this little folding tray table is kinda ...
/ Notes From The Shack

Logging Question

From our friends on the N3FJP groups.io site.

The resounding answer, from multiple people was NO!

You worked it, you logged it. You may never get a QSL card, but you made the QSO.

Many operators had ...

/ Notes From The Shack

Radio License Counts and Percentage

When I have too much time on my hands I enjoy crunching numbers. We had some cold, wet weather recently. I stayed indoors. That was my invitation to curl up with a good database and extract some numbers.

My research was ...

/ Notes From The Shack

FT8 Addiction?

With some help from our friends at WSJTX@groups.io.com

FT8 is one of the many digital modes in the WSJT-X software suite from Joe Taylor, K1JT and his team of collaborators. The basic software covers everything from weak signal HF to earth-moon-earth and ...

May Day -or- May Day Distress Call

The first day of May is May Day. A celebration of spring.

But Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!, when said three times, is also a distress call.

Mayday got its start as an international distress call in 1923. The distress call was first recognized ...

/ Notes From The Shack

Memory Aids for Call Signs

What on earth is this doing here? It will make sense after you read the story.

Some people find memorizing things is easier if they associate it with something else. This is how a lot of acronyms come in existence and how ...

/ Notes From The Shack

Call Sign Memory Aids

I have seen some nifty call signs lately. The call signs mentioned below are all active.

Some people are fascinated by license plates and try to make clever sayings from state issued letters and numbers. I suspect many of these ...

/ Humor, Notes From The Shack

A Few of Frank’s Favorite Gadgets

Frank shares with us some thoughts about his favorite gadgets. These are not going to change the world, but they just might brighten your day. Complete with photographs.

Link to content:

How Do I Favorite Things [PDF]

...
/ Notes From The Shack

In Memoriam ** Thelma – Radio Dog

We received the sad news that Thelma - Radio Dog passed away. Thelma was a trained service dog for club members Mark Anstine, KC3UVG and Paula Anstine, KC3UVH. Thelma was a active participant in club events and will be missed.

Please consider ...

/ Notes From The Shack

Keep Calm and Use Your Ham Radio

As wars and rumors of wars flood the media, sometimes you just need to step away.

Go to the shack... Turn the transceiver on and do what you enjoy doing: whether you choose to hunt down new-to-you grid squares in FT8, ragchew, ...

/ Notes From The Shack

Special Event Station K3IEC

On Saturday September 21, 2024 between 0000 and 2359 UTC, listen for K3IEC on-the-air! Club members will be operating a special event station on various bands and modes to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the club.

Watch this space for ...

/ Notes From The Shack

CARC Celebrates the National Railway Historical Society

On Saturday August 24, 2024, ten Cumberland Amateur Club members (Andrew AF3I, Rob KC2FLY, Frank KB3PQT, Doug KC3CPT, Richard N3EPY, Steve N3FWE, Bill N3GTY, Charlene WG3Q, John WA3KCP, and Darrel WB3FNJ) operated a Special Event station celebrating the National Railway Historical Society ...

/ Notes From The Shack

Florida QSO Party Spelling Bee

Members of the Cumberland Amateur Radio Club (CARC) recently participated in their annual event called Derby Day.

The traditional date of this event aligns with the Kentucky Derby on the first Saturday of May. A scheduling challenge forced our Derby Day ...

/ Notes From The Shack

Field Day 2025

ARRL The National Association for Amateur Radio® is the organizer of ARRL Field Day. This year’s event takes place June 28-29, 2025.

The ARRL Field Day official website is: http://www.arrl.org/FieldDay

Field Day is always held the fourth full weekend in June. It ...

/ Notes From The Shack

Morse Code Challenge

** FAMOUS HISTORICAL PHRASES RENDERED IN MORSE CODE **

Club President, Frank Mellott KB3PQT, offers a challenge to viewers of this blog page.

Frank gathered several well-known phrases from history and applied the corresponding dots and dashes to paper.

...
/ Notes From The Shack

Amateur Radio License Stats

** So how many active hams are there? **

Curious Newcomer (CN) and Experienced Elmer (EE) both started interesting groups.io threads. One asked for people to tell what they do on the air, and the other has had a lot of ...

/ Notes From The Shack

FLrig Software.

Software can make radio more fun ! When I read that headline my first reaction was --- "What? Software can make radio more fun?" YES, it is true. Even a fairly modern ham radio can benefit from software enhancements ...

WSJT-X and JTAlert — Guest Author: N6DBF

So, what's this all about?

  • A female voice is saying "Calling You"
  • and then a male voice says "Wanted DX".
  • While in the background,
  • the Stereo is playing some of that good old time rock and roll.
...

Take a Break. Play Radio Outdoors.

Take a break from radio... ...or play radio outdoors !

Amateur radio is a fun hobby! It is amazing to receive a Slow-Scan Television (SSTV) image from the International Space Station, or realize the FT8 digital contact you just completed ...

/ Notes From The Shack

Share The Airwaves

Share The Airwaves

It's OK to just want to play radio!

This weekend, as I was watching an email thread unravel on a ham radio reflector, I was reminded of one of my nephews. He was about 4 years old, ...

/ Notes From The Shack

Why Play Radio?

Why Play Radio...

For about 50 years or so, rail fans have used radio scanners to listen to the railroad frequencies in the land mobile FM portion of the 137-174 MHz band. The railroad frequencies are right below the ...

I took a Vacation from the 80 Meter Band

Fun with N3FJP software – An Update!

A few months ago, I shared some data that I had extracted from my N3FJP Amateur Call Log.

At that time about 41% of my lifetime QSOs were on 80 meters.

In an effort to ...

/ Notes From The Shack

Digital Landscape

• Do you have an interest in DMR radios?

• Perhaps you are hesitant to wade into digital radio communications because it seems as if there are so many different “standards”.

• D-STAR, WIRES, FUSION, C4FM -- Where do I ...

Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS)

Amateur radio on the international space station

20th Anniversary Celebration

SSTV Image reception from space is within your reach !

The 20th anniversary of Amateur Radio on the International Space Station event is going on through December 31, 2020. The astronauts and ...

/ Notes From The Shack, Special Event

Learning Is Always Good !

Learning new stuff is always good!

My dad’s cousin is 86. She was a math teacher and has been interested in computers since the late 1970s. She studied and earned her amateur radio license around the same time and became ...

/ Notes From The Shack

N3FJP Software Fun

Part of the Notes From The Shack... series.

Scott Davis, N3FJP and his fine team at Affirmatech have created a constellation of software logging packages. His AC Call Log is one of the more popular software loggers, and there are dozens of ...

/ Notes From The Shack

Eight year old enjoys Ham Radio

Not just for grown-ups!

Faye KN4WDF recently was the Virginia Fone Net Net Control Station and reported that she had talked to a newly licensed ham on another net she runs. The new ham is an 8 year old girl ...

/ Notes From The Shack