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KH6JRM''s Amateur Radio Blog

The busy weekend is over at last at KKBG-FM//KHLO- AM.  The news room is usually quiet and I get some time to catch up on the federal paperwork, station logs, and equipment maintenance.  It's nice working around state of the art equipment at a commercial broadcast station. 'Makes me wish for similar stuff at the home ham station.  One can dream...or is it dream on?  I managed to monitor some of the traffic going on this weekend in ARRL's newscomer contest, which resembles the old "Novice Roundup" of decades ago.  That contest was a blast, especially considering my dearth of operating skills in those days (mid-70s).  Those in this contest sounded like they were having a good time.  Some of these new operators were quite proficient and I'm glad to see the "newbies" getting into the swing of things. Speakin of new items, what do you think of the newly reworked ARRL website?  It's pretty fancy and seems eye catching--I'll have to

KH6JRM's Amateur Radio Blog

The 47th Annual Merrie Monarch Festival is wrapping up in Hilo today with a late morning parade and the final hula compeitition tonight.  The event has kept the radio station news room busy.  This event attracts contestants world-wide and is covered extensively by local tv and radio (hence my role today).  The Festival has also brought the Big Island some needed rain.  Hawaii Island has been griped by an extended drought which has raised the fears of farmers and residents alike. After the news shift, it's back to the QTH for some late afternoon cw and local ragchews.  Most likely, I'll be using the under the house 40-meter loop. I've disconnected the vertical because of thunderstorms and lightning.  If the heavy rains continue, I'll just unhook everything. No sense tempting Thor's hammer. A few years ago, a strike from above toasted a fiberglass mast I was using as an an- tenna support. Luckily, the antenna was grounded and all feeders disconnected

KH6JRM's Amateur Radio Blog

Now that the holidays are over, it's back to work at the radio station news room (serving 4 Hawaii Island radio stations).  The big item this week is the 47th Annual Merrie Monarch Festival, the premier Hawaiian Cultural event of the year.  Most of the on-air staff will be busy with all of the events surrounding the festival, so I'll have to be creative when it comes to ham radio time.  Every once in a while, one gets a cheery note that adds a bit of perspective to the daily grind.  Today, I received a nice note from John, KS4D (ex-KH6JRN), one of my early contacts when I was a Novice operator.  It was so good to hear from him.  John found me on my other blog site and brought me up to date. Oh, do I remem- ber those optimistic days when our "peanut whistles" gave us access to the world.  Despite all of the truly advanced media in use today, there is a certain warm feeling for launching a signal into the "ether".  I must be getting old..but

KH6JRM's Amateur Radio Blog

'Just a quick note to wish all of you a happy Easter. I'm working the Sunday shift at the KKBG-FM/ KHLO-AM news room during the holdiday. Things are fairly quiet for now, as the Big Island prepares for the annual Merrie Monarch Festival which begins Monday.  The event is the premier Hawaiian cultural event of the year.  The station is involved in some coverage, so I will be a busy fellow for the next few days.  I may be able to squeeze in a bit of cw over the next few days. The homebrew fiberglass vertical is working well, although lining up a few more radials will be a problem because of my rental home's small lot.  The four elevated counterpoise wires are helping, considering my lack of space.  I was planning to get a HF rig in my old Tercel, but I was sideswiped by a truck on Saturday morning, so that project will be on hold until the body shop fixes up the vehicle.  No one was hurt....rigs and cars can be replaced.... people can't.  Have a safe h

KH6JRM's Amateur Radio Blog

Another busy week at the radio station news room. Most of my time on the home rig was spent listening and working a bit of cw on the lower portion of 40 meters.  I spent some of my leisure time (what there is of it after a long day in the news room), checking out some interesting articles I found on the ARRL website.  Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU, has a general interest column that always has a few gems to offer. If you're into QRP like I am, you'll find Stan's review of the following worth a visit:  "Amateur Radio on it's (sic) Edge blog " by Tobias Wellnitz, DH1TW; "The Garage Shoppe" by Pete Goodmann, NI9N; and , on http://www.eham.net/ , an article by Charles Cohen, VA7CPU, entitled "How to QRP--Operating Strategies for the Power Challenged".  All of these articles offer some excellent advice on how to pursue your QRP interest. Until next time, Aloha, 73, KH6JRM.

KH6JRM's Amateur Radio Blog

Mother Nature has put a damper on this weekend's Drag Race at the Hilo Drag Strip...a wet track means no fast cars.  As a former racer, the heavy clouds were a disappointment, but safety outweighs other concerns. So, it's back to the QTH after I make my media reports to the newspapers and various racing websites.  I enjoy my "other" self at the race track--I don't race anymore, but I manage to keep my hand in by serving as the tower annoucer.  This is something that complements my job as a news director.  Nothing solid here...just a welcome es- cape from the real world.  In many ways, my artificial world on the weekends gives me a chance to relax and reduce the stress.  Amateur Radio serves a similar function. Of course, all of this changes when a natural or man-made emergency converts many hams to on-call communicators for various public service agencies  All told, I wouldn't have it any other way.  Fun and public service are united by Amateu

KH6JRM's Amateur Radio Blog

Well, after a few glitches and computer operator problems, the blog is up and running again.  I took a brief break to work on a few workplace projects while whatever was causing my blog to redirect to some weird sites passed through.  I suppose my inattention to detail had a lot to do with this. Multi- tasking can be a problem sometimes.  Between all of this, I did manage to work some nice cw on 40 meters, restring the vertical on my new Jackite fiber- glass mast (nice piece of work), and generally re- laxed at the rig.  The news department at the radio station has been a busy place with a tsunami warning last month (we did get a few small waves in Hilo Bay), a few moderate earthquakes in the Puna District, and drought induced brushfires in the Waikoloa area.  Big Island Amateurs were available for each of these situ- ations, and provided timely tidal information during the 27 February tsunami warning.  All told, we have been busy.  Our relationship with the public se