Amateur radio operators vital in emergencies great and small

~ Josh, K6KNX ~ Leave a comment

When I first moved to the Santa Cruz Mountains, my house came with a small gas-powered generator and a manual transfer switch for the key electrical circuits. The seller warned me that the power went out regularly in the winter, owing to the many, many trees that fall and the ensuring havoc they wreck on the power lines, combined with the fact that a road that has – maybe, 50 residents – is not usually a priority for PG&E.

Fast forward a few years, and after some of the catastrophic Northern California wildfires that were likely sparked by PG&E equipment in wildland/urban interface areas, the utility now has a hair-trigger for the Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPS) events every summer. These range from a day or two to over a week.

When the power goes out, many people lose internet access immediately. That also means they lose the VoIP service that has become so popular. In less than a day, depending on cell service provider, the battery backups for the cell sites go down, rendering cell phones useless. In most of the South Coast of San Mateo County and much of the Santa Cruz Mountains, the terrain makes cell service impossible without a very nearby cell tower that is powered and operational.

All of this makes emergency communication difficult. Most landlines will still work — unless the outage is due to tree damage, which often also takes out the telephone lines. If that’s the case, many homes are left without any modern means of communicating an emergency to the county dispatch center.

The solution? Amateur radio.

When our small town experiences an outage of any length, or a pre-planned outage, the fire department emergency operations center (EOC) is activated. And unlike a lot of urban EOCs, ours is staffed not by a bunch of brass in white shirts, but by a pair of civilian volunteers from the local amateur radio club and potentially a volunteer firefighter. They institute a controlled radio net on our local emergency service amateur repeaters and staff a VHF/UHF amateur radio station 24 hours a day at the fire house. From there, they can receive calls for service and relay those calls via phone to the county dispatch center. If the telephone link to the county center goes down, the ham radio operators can even page the firefighters manually to respond to the station. A number of our firefighters are also licensed hams with radios capable of communicating on both the public safety frequencies and the amateur bands, giving them a variety of communication options in truly dire emergencies. (I’ve personally had to respond to an fire call, and used the amateur repeater and EOC volunteers to notify my family where I was and how to reach me – via ham radio – if there was an issue at home.)

In my “day job,” I work for a major metropolitan police department. We have a modern, digital, trunked radio system with several layers of redundancy if we experience failures in an emergency. In the event of the most catastrophic failure, however, the final failsafe is still amateur radio volunteers, spread throughout the city, to provide communication via amateur radio bands and repeaters.

Amateur radio operators are fond if saying that when all else fails, ham radio works.

That’s true.

You can have the fanciest commercial or public safety communications system in the world, but when things go really bad, ham radio operators will still be able to throw some spare wire into a tree or hang it off a building, and communicate around the world with gear they can carry in a backpack. It’s one of the most critical, and under appreciated, disaster preparedness skillsets.

Long break due to the 2020 CZU Lightning Complex Fire and COVID, but back now!

~ Josh, K6KNX ~ Leave a comment

So, my last post was almost a year ago. It’s been a long time, but I’m back! The CZU August Lightning Complex Fire hit in, well, August of 2020. We live in an area that was evacuated, but my partner and I are both volunteer firefighters with our local, all-volunteer fire brigade. We sent our kids to stay with family while we took time off from our day jobs to volunteer full time with the fire brigade. We lived with all of our important belongings (including my Icom HF radio and equipment) packed in our trailer for the duration, ready to go if the fire jumped the nearest fire break and made a run for our house. Thankfully, our town was spared the terrible destruction that most of the small towns in the Santa Cruz Mountains suffered. After the fire was finally contained, it still took us a couple months to get everything unpacked. And then with COVID hitting and the kids essentially homeschooled for most of the last year, I haven’t had a ton of time on the radio or to write.

The fire did give me a lot to write about, though, as our local amateur radio club is an integral part of our rural emergency response capabilities. Over the next couple weeks, I’ll talk about how our local hams contribute to our tiny town during emergencies and how you can get involved in emergency communications, even with just a Tech license!

Vanity callsign issued!

~ Josh, K6KNX ~ Leave a comment

After what seemed like an interminable wait, the FCC finally processed and issued my license grant for the K6KNX call sign!

As I mentioned in a previous post, I chose this callsign for a couple reasons. Primarily, it’s easy to say both phonetically and non-phonetically with letters that are pretty distinctive and difficult to misunderstand. (Note: after a few months of using it, the “X” does occasionally get mistaken for an “S”, but I attribute that more to my poor enunciation than anything else.)

I also appreciate that there was only one prior holder, and that the call was first used in the 1950’s. It’s not the oldest call around, but it goes back for a while and was renewed by the previous holder for several decades. I’m always interested in learning about, and preserving history, so I wrote to the family of the prior holder, to see if they’re willing to provide any insight into the previous holder’s amateur radio activities and history, so that I can include it in my station records. Who knows? Maybe when I kick the bucket, the next holder of the callsign will make a similar inquiry of my kids, and there will be a nice package of historical information for them dating back to the initial issuance.

Choosing my first amateur (“ham”) radio

~ Josh, K6KNX ~ Leave a comment

I’m trying to decide what radio to buy first, and frankly, the choices are overwhelming. I’ve spent weeks reading articles, product reviews, considering what my needs are, and I’ve learned a few things. I’ll outline the information that was helpful to me, and then give the factors that went into my decision and the radio I chose.

Manufacturers:

There are three major players in the amateur radio game: Icom, Kenwood, and Yaesu. All three make great products. If you stick with one of the major manufacturers, the decision of which is going to be largely stylistic and personal. I’ve never used a Yaesu product. I’ve used Kenwood radios at work as a “professional land mobile radio user” and found them to be boringly predictable and useful, but with uninspired feature sets and utilitarian interfaces. I’ve only played with Icom products, I really like the look and interface of their products, particularly the newer base and mobile radios.

There are a few budget players in the game too, notably Alinco, Baofeng, and Wouxoun. I don’t know much about Alinco, and the Baofeng and Wouxoun devices have reputations for being cheap, with corresponding feature sets and durability. My budget isn’t huge, but I’m also not on a shoestring. I’d prefer to spend money on a quality product that will last for a while, so I’m only going to look at the three major players.

Right now my amateur radio interests are all over the map — basically, I want a chance to try out everything: digital modes, APRS, satellites, you-name-it. And as a volunteer firefighter in a rural community, emergency communications is a top priority. So I’m looking for a pretty full featured device. Specifically, I know that I want the following:

  • Dual band for both the 2m (144MHz) and 70cm (440MHz) bands
  • An integrated TNC (terminal node controller) for packet modes
  • GPS and APRS (automatic packet reporting system)
  • Full duplex for satellite contacts
  • Front panel programmable
  • Plenty of memory for tons of stored frequencies/tones/etc

I’m pretty enamored with the Icom mobile and base station radios, so I looked first at the Icom handhelds, but none of them had the feature set I was looking for. I have literally zero experience with Yaesu, so that took me to Kenwood.

Kenwood offers three amateur portables: the K20, D72, and D74. I knocked the K20 out of consideration right off the bat, because it’s a monobander for the 2 meter (144MHz) band. That left the D74 and D72. The D74 is a tribander that handles the 144MHz, 220MHz, and 440MHz bands with a really nice, color display with most of the features I wanted, except full duplex capability. This is really only important for working amateur satellites, where the uplink and downlink occur on different bands, and it’s useful to be able to hear, in real time, whether or not your voice is being re-transmitted on the downlink. You can accomplish this with two radios, but why use two radios when you can do it with one?

That left me with the Kenwood TH-D72. The display is simple but functional, and it fulfills all my requirements. I found it for $399 (not including shipping) from GigaParts. So while it’s one of the more expensive handhelds on the market, it gets high marks for overall build quality, features, and reliability. I read a few reviews that indicated the durability leaves something to be desired, but we’ll see.

Understanding amateur radio callsigns

~ Josh, K6KNX ~ Leave a comment

Sequential call sign overview

As I started my trip down the rabbit hole that is amateur radio, I was confounded by the callsigns. They seemed so random and nonsensical! In case they seem that way to you, too, here’s a quick breakdown:

The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) designates a prefix (or several) for each country. In the United States, we have several: “W”, “K”, “N”, and “AA” through “AL.” The prefix can be one or two letters (ex: “K” or “KN,” “W” or “WA” etc.)

After the prefix is the numerical call district. In the U.S., we have ten call districts, numbered 0 through 9, which correspond to a geographic part of the country. For example, California is call district 6. Here’s the official map, produced by the American Radio Relay League (ARRL):

While call district numbers indicate where the license holder lived when the callsign was issued, we are not required to change call signs when moving. And after getting your first call sign, you can request a change to a “vanity” call, which can be from any call district.

The part after the call district number is the suffix. This is often random, though some hams choose a suffix with personal meaning, like their initials.

There’s a lot of history to radio call signs, which I’ll delve into another time. It’s interesting … if you’re into stuff like that. For now, let’s just get a handle on the basics for practical ham radio use.

Each class of ham radio license is entitled to a different format, and the higher the license class, the shorter the callsign format. I am going to mention two other license classes that we didn’t talk about earlier – Novice and Advanced. Neither of these licenses are issued anymore, but anyone who held one was allowed to keep it. You’ll see them below just for context.

Here’s a quick guide to the shortest callsign formats available to each license class:

Novice: 2×3 (ex: WN6ABC)
Technician: 1×3 (ex: W6ABC)
General: 1×3 (ex: K6KNX)
Advanced: 2×2 (ex: KA6JM)
Extra: 1×2 or 2×1 (ex: K6JM or NG6A)

Though, since the FCC issues callsigns sequentially and does not go backward, all new Technician and General-class licensees are being issued 2×3 call signs, despite there being plenty of 1×3’s available.

Of course, you’re always welcome to request a vanity callsign from any “lower” (or longer format) group, and many hams simply maintain their original callsign.

Vanity call signs

After the FCC issues your initial call sign, you’re welcome to apply for a “vanity” call sign of your choosing. This can be any available call sign from any group that you’re entitled to. So, as a General, I can choose any available 1×3 or 2×3.

How do you find available call signs, you ask? Well, the most accurate way is to search the FCC’s Universal Licensing System (ULS) for possible calls you’re interested it. That’ll tell you pretty definitively if it’s available. There are also a lot of other resources like the AE7Q website or RadioQTH.net. I really like the “available call” feature on RadioQTH (click here), which lets you select a format, prefix, call district, and even partial suffix, and it’ll show you a list of calls that are available now, or in the (semi) near future that match your criteria.

There is a ton more to selecting an amateur radio callsign, but I think that’s enough for now. Delving into ham radio is a lot like trying to drink from a fire hose. Check back later for more on picking a radio and to see how my first forays into the airwaves go.

I applied for my amateur radio “vanity” call sign!

~ Josh, K6KNX ~ Leave a comment

I mentioned before that I was searching for a shorter, 1×3 format callsign to replace my initial sequential callsign issued by the FCC. I finally settled on one and put in my application on the ULS. I settled on K6KNX. Here’s how I arrived at my decision, and a few factors for you to consider when deciding on your own vanity callsign.

Choosing the right amateur radio vanity call sign

There are a ton of factors that can go into choosing the right call sign. Once you’ve identified the format(s) available to you, based on your license class, you need to figure out what’s important to you.

  • How are you going to operate primarily? On VHF/UHF, call signs are often stated non-phonetically, whereas on HF, they’re usually spoken phonetically due to higher amounts of noise. Some letters are pretty “wordy” when spoken phonetically.

  • Do you plan on learning Morse code and doing a lot of CW (continuous wave) operation? If so, you might want to listen to how your callsign sounds in Morse, and how complex the letters are to send. (Here’s a Morse code translator!) (And here’s an example in .wav format of my call, K6KNX in Morse code:
  • Do you want something that is personalized or unique to you, such as your initials, or the prior callsign of a family member?
  • How does the callsign look? Are you going to be happy seeing it on QSL cards, in digital modes, etc?
  • Do you want a callsign with some history? In decades past, callbooks were published with the callsigns, names, and addresses of radio amateurs. You can look through digital scans of these old callbooks to see when your prospective callsign was issued and who held it, even pre-ULS. I searched the old call books until I found that K6KNX was first issued in 1955, and that it was held by its’ first caretaker until his death a few years ago. Here’s the link to the old amateur radio callbooks on the Internet Archive.
  • Does the callsign just feel and sound good to you? Your call sign is more unique than your name, and hams often get known more by their callsign than their given name. Is the call something you’re going to be happy being associated with? Are you going to be happy saying it on the radio?

A little general advice

Once you’ve answered the questions above, make a list of possible calls. Then search the ULS, or one of the other online resources, to figure out which ones are available. Then say them to yourself, both in normal pronunciation and standard NATO phonetics. How does it sound? Listen to it in Morse code, or try tapping it out on your table. Is it easy to hear and easy to send? Does it make you happy? This is a hobby, after all, and your call is going to be something you use every day, so it ought to bring you a little happiness every time you say it or hear it.

Applying for that perfect vanity call

You can apply directly via the FCC on the ULS (Universal Licensing System) for free or you can pay a third party (such as WY5I) to submit the app on your behalf, usually for some cost. I submitted directly thru the FCC without problem. It was a painless process, and now I’m just waiting the 18 day FCC-imposed waiting period for my new call to issue. It’s a 1×3 that has been available for some time, so I’m not expecting any competition. With any luck, my 18 days will come and go and I’ll have a new call sign of my choosing.

I’m in the mandatory waiting period, so I’ll let you know how it goes. If there are no hiccups, my new license and call should issue on June 23rd, 2020. Check back then to see how it went!

License issued! Callsign KN6JDY

~ Josh, K6KNX ~ Leave a comment

The FCC maintains a database of licenses in the ULS, or Universal License System. Apparently they no longer mail out paper copies of amateur radio licenses, so the fastest way to check a license (including seeing if yours has posted yet!) is to simply check the ULS database. So, of course I’ve been checking the ULS daily (sometimes twice a day) to see if my license posted and what my first callsign will be.

Amateur radio callsigns are issued sequentially, according to license class. They do not go back and “fill in the gaps” by finding previously issued, but now available callsigns. In typical U.S. government fashion, they just charge on ahead. I saw a few days ago that new Technician and General class callsigns in California were in the “KN6XXX” range. As a 2×3 (two digit prefix, then the district number, followed by a three digit suffix), it’ll be a little “wordy”, but depending on the suffix, it might not be too bad.

Well, it posted yesterday!

Bitmoji - "Woot!"

The Federal Communications Commission decreed that henceforth on the airwaves, I shall be known as … KN6JDY. Kilo-November-Six-Juliet-Delta-Yankee.

I’m officially licensed by the Federal Communications Commission to operate a radio station per the Code of Federal Regulations, Title 47, Part 97. Sounds super important, huh?

It’s not the worst, but not the best, either. As a General-class licensee, I can apply for a “vanity callsign” of the 1×3 variety, which would be a little shorter. At least three syllables shorter phonetically. I’m in the process of finding one that resonates with me, but more on that later.

For now, I’m going to add some frequencies to a my Kenwood portable (more on that, too!) and at least get on some of the local repeater nets to exercise my newly-granted access to the RF (radio frequency) spectrum.

License exam(s) passed!

~ Josh, K6KNX ~ Leave a comment

I took my amateur radio license exams for the Technician and General class licenses today through the W5YI Volunteer Examiner Coordinator (VEC) organization. It was about as painless as taking a test could be. The coordinator emailed me ahead of time wth the exact procedures to be followed, Zoom meeting info, and so forth.

At the appointed hour, I logged into the Zoom meeting and waited. They schedule several examinees for the same time period, but each is handled in turn, so I waited for about 15-20 minutes until it was my turn. Once the VEs let me into the Zoom virtual conference room, I was asked to pan and tilt my laptop around the room I was in (I used my living room) to prove that there were no study materials, other people, etc that could compromise the test. The guys were thorough, even asking me to show them a few areas a second time, so they could be sure there were no relevant materials in view.

I then screen shared my desktop, so the VEs could verify that I had no exam materials or other windows open on my desktop. They then got me logged in to the ExamTools website and authorized the exam.

I studied with HamStudy.org, which is associated with ExamTools, so the interface looked pretty much identical. Taking the actual exam felt just like the dozen or so practice exams I took on HamStudy. I passed the Technician exam with ease. As with all ham radio exams, passing one element allows you take the next element at no additional cost. studied for the General class test, so I happily had the VEs load up that exam. Fortunately, I also passed that one with relative ease. After a brief round of congratulations from the VEs, I logged off.

A couple hours later, I received my Certificate of Successful Completion of Examination (CSCE) from the coordinating VE:

Now the waiting games begins. W5YI VEC will electronically send the successful examination to the FCC for my license to be issued, but I can’t operate until it posts on the FCC’s Universal Licensing System, or ULS.

Waiting, waiting… More to come.

HamStudy.org to study for the amateur radio license exams

~ Josh, K6KNX ~ Leave a comment

The license exams for amateur radio licenses aren’t open book, but the question pools are public. The question pools are decided upon by the Volunteer Examiner Coordinators (VECs), revised every few years, and published on the internet. Nothing on any of the exams should be a surprise.

Some people buy the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) books for each license class and actually learn all the material. Some people learn a fair amount of material in the question pools, memorize enough of the answers, and still pass the tests. The latter approach works well for the Technician and General class tests, with question pools around 400 questions each. I’m not sure it’d work for the Extra class test.

HamStudy.org is an excellent resource. The website allows users to read the question pools and answers, quiz themselves flashcard style (with an “Explain” button if you want to learn more about a particular answer) and even take full-length practice tests. HamStudy.org also has a mobile app, so you can study and take practice tests anywhere.

The website and app even track how many questions you’ve seen in a given pool and your “aptitude,” or the percentage that you tend to answer correctly. Since these values are cumulative, you can even temporarily “reset” your history to do a study session as if you were brand new, which gives you a much more accurate aptitude measurement, since you aren’t fighting against all the wrong answers you gave when you started.

My plan is to study and do practice exams for the Technician question pool until I’m passing those practice exams in the high 90% range, and then start on the General-class pool, with an occasional foray back into the Tech practice exams just to stay sharp. Once I can pass both practice exams on a consistent basis with 90%+ score, I’ll try and get into a remote format test, since I don’t anticipate this COVID lockdown ending any time soon.

(Follow up postscript: the benefit to using HamStudy.org (or the HamStudy app) and then testing with W5YI (or anyone else using the ExamTools.org site for testing) is that the interface will look very similar. The exam will feel like just another practice exam.)

How licensing works

~ Josh, K6KNX ~ Leave a comment

License classes

In the United States, amateur radio licenses are regulated by the Federal Communications Commission, or FCC. There are currently three classes of license available, which grant progressively greater privileges on more of the amateur radio spectrum. The current license classes are Technician, General, and Extra. Each license class requires a separate test, anywhere from 30 to 50 random questions from a pool of several hundred possible.

Technician-class licenses grant privileges on the VHF (very high frequency) and UHF (ultra high frequency) bands, but only very limited privileges on the HF (high frequency) bands, which are usually used for long distance communication. VHF/UHF frequencies are pretty local, but a Technician-class license gets you access to a whole network of amateur radio repeaters, which allow for longer-distance communication (more on repeaters later.) Interestly, the amateur radio satellites use the VHF/UHF frequencies, so any Technician can use satellites to communicate with others, often thousands of miles away!

General-class licenses grant the operator access to all modes, on some portion of all bands. This is the first step to long distance communication via HF radio waves. (Yeah, fellow radio nerds, I know Techs get some privileges on 10 meters, but it’s limited in spectrum and power.)

Extra-class licenses just add a bit of extra spectrum on some bands. And bragging rights, since the Extra-class exam is significantly more technical and detailed, and longer, than the General exam. (I have a General, and I’m studying for my Extra, but it is definitely a lot to learn for someone without a background in either telecom or electrical engineering!)

Testing

“Ok, ok! I’m convinced. How do I get one of these fancy government permission slips?”

It’s really not all that hard. Just study, make an appointment with a Volunteer Examiner Coordinator (VEC), and go take the test! Back in the dark old days, you had to walk uphill both ways, through the snow, to an imposing FCC field office to take the test in front of a cranky, tenured FCC examiner. Old hams still tell tales of those days, usually as they’re lamenting the fact that you no longer have to pass a Morse code test and how FT8 is going to be the death of ham radio.

Those days are over.

Amateur radio is one part of the world where the participants actually do a pretty good job of policing themselves, so the FCC farmed out testing to organizations called Volunteer Examiner Coordinators, or VECs. These VECs accredit Volunteer Examiners (VEs) who are just licensed hams who have agreed to proctor license exams. The VEs run the tests and submit passing tests to the FCC to get licenses issued.

Obviously, this being May of 2020, we’re in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, and pretty much everything in person is closed, so most VEs haven’t been doing in person testing. Fortunately, the resourceful and dedicated people at both the Anchorage VEC and W5YI VEC have taken to administering tests remotely or in the case of W5YI, completely online. As of right now, Anchorage still requires an in person proctor, who doesn’t need to be a licensed ham, but they can’t be related to you, and must have one of several occupations (firefighters, police officers, doctors, nurses, and a few others) that are licensed, background checked, or otherwise generally considered “trusted.” Obviously, given the shelter-in-place orders, this could still be tough.

It looks like I’ll be taking my exam through the W5YI VEC. The test is administered through a combination of a Zoom call for monitoring and an online testing platform called Exam Tools, so no in person proctor is necessary. I’m going to try to pass both the Tech and General exams in one sitting. I’ll let you know how it goes!