On the Airwaves - October 1, 2023

Amateur radio operators, also known as ham radio people, are providing communication assistance to survivors of the Alabama tornadoes who are left without power and other means of communication. They are helping connect shelters, relief centers, emergency operation centers, search and rescue groups, and relief organizations. These unpaid volunteers are using their radio skills to send critical messages during the crisis. A nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System and Wireless Emergency Alert will be conducted to ensure the systems work in the event of an actual emergency. The test will be conducted on October 4th at 2.20 p.m. Eastern Time. Ham radio played a significant role in the host's childhood, and he eventually obtained his technician license and became actively involved in the ham radio community. On the island K5VDL Blogspot.com With over 220 people dead and a path of destruction hundreds of miles long survivors of the Alabama tornadoes found themselves in whole cities without power, telephones, internet, cell phones or other ways to communicate and who was there to help in this devastation? The amateur radio operators Ham radio people are providing communications between shelters, relief centers, emergency operation centers, search and rescue groups and a host of relief organizations as they respond to the crisis. In the days to come more hams will arrive from around the country to be assigned where they're needed most. These unpaid volunteers are using their radio skills to get critical voice and digital messages through. When other systems go down or are overwhelmed ham radio people using modern equipment still are reliable like they always have been. To learn more about amateur radio in emergencies go to emergencyradio.org Well, welcome back to this episode of On The Airwaves with your host Brad Lowe K5BDL First thing I want to mention is a nationwide alert coming up on this Wednesday October 4th for the Emergency Alert System also known as the EAS and also the Wireless Emergency Alert WEA on your cell phones warning tones and text alerts will be sent to your wireless phones and also will be conducted over network television and radios and they will be conducted about 2.20 p.m. Eastern Time which is 1.20 p.m. Central on that date here's a little bit more about that If you have ever received an AMBER Alert on your phone or seen an alert on your TV screen you've witnessed Emergency Alert Systems in action. A nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System for TV radio and wireless emergency alerts for cell phones will happen Wednesday afternoon. The importance of this is to test our national capability of getting an emergency warning alert to the entire country out there. This test is to ensure the systems work in the event of an actual emergency that could be severe weather or wildfires, a hazardous materials event or even terrorism In an emergency, the alerts can be broadcast to a specific area. So if you had a tanker with hazardous materials that would roll over and their fluid is leaking out you could warn the people in that area The Federal Emergency Management Agency will conduct this nationwide test on Wednesday, October 4th at 2.20 p.m. Eastern Time It will be clear that it's a test but if wireless emergency alerts are turned off on your cell phone you won't get this test message You have to have that turned on If you have that turned off you won't get this message Right now these alerts can only be used for national emergencies but local law enforcement hope to be able to use this technology one day in the event something serious happens Right now there's no way for us to be able to send out a mass message so it'll be interesting for us to be able to see how this technology might evolve Alright, we'll be on the lookout for that And also it was mentioned that if it's not conducted on October 4th that alternatively it'll be one week later on October 11th Ham Radio, it's 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Radio, it's not your granddaddy's radio anymore Ham Radio, it's not your granddaddy's radio anymore Ham Radio, it's not your granddaddy's radio anymore Ham Radio, it's not your granddaddy's radio anymore Ham Radio, it's not your granddaddy's radio anymore Ham Radio, it's not your granddaddy's radio anymore Ham Radio, it's not your granddaddy's radio anymore That's really where I got my start In fact, many of the people that I grew up around as a kid In fact, many of the people that I grew up around as a kid That listened to me, literally on the radio Grow up over the years From being 4, 5, 6 years old To, you know, I used to run into some of those people When I'd come back after college Being 25, 26, 27 years old And the same people are still out there On 11 meters In the town that I'm from So that's my lived experience I grew up around radio I grew up around tweaking and tuning That's just my upbringing And so when I was 13 or 14 I approached the local club in my area And was thinking about studying for my technician This probably would have been about Let me do the math here This probably would have been about the mid to late 90s 95, 96, 97 Somewhere in there For various reasons, I didn't end up taking my technician exam For various reasons, I didn't end up taking my technician exam But I kind of put it aside for middle school and high school But I came back to it after high school As soon as I graduated And I was getting ready to head off to college I was like, this is the time to get my license So before I went off to school I went to the local field day in June Sat for my exam and got my technician in one try Without even studying, which was fantastic, right? I think I may have reviewed the book twice Like I just skimmed through it real quick But again, I had grown up around a lot of this stuff Listening to the scanner growing up My dad had a portable scanner And a bass scanner I used to listen to local repeaters I used to listen to the Sunday night ham radio net Including the news programming Including the news programming That comes on with all the local nets That comes on with all the local nets That's literally my childhood Sitting there with a portable scanner Listening to ham radio news Across the local net on Sunday nights Literally my childhood in a nutshell Another fond memory for me was in my bedroom I used to take a boom box Hook the telescoping and metal antenna Up to aluminum foil And hang that aluminum foil all over my ceiling And then use it to pick up AM broadcast stations From around the world at night I mean, that's what I spent my time doing as a kid And I loved every minute of it So when I finally got my technician license When I was done with high school Going to college In college, oh, I was really active I was using local repeaters I was helping out with storm spotting when I could I used to go to a local park to operate Before parks on the air was even a thing I was doing it all the time Because I really couldn't operate from my dorm room At least without blowing out a bunch of speakers And causing RFI and problems and all kinds of stuff In fact, I don't have any pictures of it I wish I would have I used to jam a copper J-pole Diagonally in my dorm room window On the fourth floor At the University of Wisconsin And that was a lot of fun People go, what's that in your window? And I'm like, oh, don't worry about it So that was my college experience I had my tech license, you know, I was 20 years old Moved out to Colorado, was still a tech And I was a technician for probably about 11 or 12 years Before I even thought about Getting my general I was having tons of fun with my technician privileges I mean, I was doing HFCW I had good friends of mine that were general We would operate together on the general class bands When we were together at local parks I really just didn't have a real Push to want to upgrade Finally, after 12 years, I went to a local ham fest In Colorado, and just out of the moment They made a PA announcement They were having testing Anybody want to come take your test, come sit down And I was like, I'm here, I might as well give it a shot I didn't study at all I sat down and missed it by one question So then, of course, I had to go in Study a few sections real fast And then one week later at the next ham fest I passed and got my general ticket That was like four or five years ago Now, I think it's been like 13, 14, 15 My math's bad, I can't do math right now But that's how long it's been for me And like I said, I just grew up around it And I've always wanted to continue To expand my knowledge And I really don't have a push to be an extra Because I know I can go and memorize the answers And just go take the exam But I don't want to do that I want to continue to learn, continue to experiment And when I'm at that point where I feel like I have that knowledge That an extra class should and would have Then I'll go and take that exam But I just don't think I'm there yet So that's kind of my story Why I became a ham I said certainly it was The love of radio The ability to key up your radio And have your voice go around the world And talk to somebody out of nowhere That you have no clue where your voice is going And hold a conversation with somebody Whether it's another state Or another country That to me is still fascinating to this day Love it, love it, love it I hope the younger generation That's coming up will continue to have that Even though they grew up around the internet And a much more connected society Than I did growing up So that was one thing The other thing was storm spotting I said I'm kind of a weather nut So that was a really attractive part to me as well That I still try to participate in when I can But it's really tough when you have a family So for me it's just a fascination with RF And what it can do I mean who hasn't been thrilled with Making a contact on a half a watt Thousands of miles away Designing your own antennas And tweaking and changing antenna arrangements And seeing what it does to your signal And understanding how RF behaves That's what gets me excited And that's what keeps me coming back to this hobby Again and again and again It's so true, ham radio is the hobby of a thousand hobbies I tell to new hams all the time You could spend 10, 15, 20 years And get pretty proficient in one area of the hobby And you're only scratching the surface And you'll spend your whole lifetime experimenting And still not become an expert In all the different areas you can do Inside of ham radio And that's why I think it's one of my favorite hobbies ever Because there's always something to do Always something to experiment with Tell me why you became a ham radio operator I'm curious Everyone's always got a story And I want to hear why you became a ham So drop me a comment down below Let me know Send me a tweet, send me a DM Whatever you want to do I just love hearing what got people interested in the hobby So thanks so much for watching I'll catch you again next time And our thanks to Matt K0LWC For that bit of information About ham radio And how he became involved And he does have a very active YouTube channel Be sure to check that out And be good to follow him And everyone else That is involved in ham radio And now time for this week's ARRL audio news Brought to 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