[handiham-world] Handiham World Weekly E-Letter for the week of Wednesday, 29 August 2012
- From: Patrick Tice <wa0tda@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: handiham-world@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2012 12:27:44 -0500
*Courage Center Handiham World Weekly E-Letter for the week of Wednesday,
29 August 2012*
This is a free weekly news & information update from Courage Center
Handiham System. Our contact information is at the end, or simply email
handiham@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx for changes in subscriptions or to comment. You
can listen to this news online.
MP3 audio stream:
http://www.handiham.org/audio/handiham.m3u
Download the 40 kbs MP3 audio to your portable player:
http://www.handiham.org/audio/handiham.mp3
Get this podcast in iTunes:
<http://www.itunes.com/podcast?id=372422406>
http://www.itunes.com/podcast?id=372422406
RSS feed for the audio podcast if you use other podcasting software:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/handiham
------------------------------
*Welcome to Handiham World.*New Tech Net Begins Next Week!
*[image: VOM with coax and clip lead]*
It isn't every day that we launch a new net. The official start date is on
Thursday, 6 September 2012. The net will meet at 7:00 PM each Thursday
United States Central Time and will remain true to local time throughout
the year.
Here are some key things to remember about the new Tech Net:
- *It is perfectly okay to simply listen to learn. You are participating
just by listening. *
- *You should check in if you have a comment or question related to a
technical topic. (Checking in to get on a net roster is not part of this
net.)*
- *When it is clear that a particular topic is under discussion and the
discussion is not finished, please do feel free to add to the discussion if
you have additional information on that topic. If you have some other
technical question not related to the topic at hand, please wait until the
current topic has been discussed and it is time to move on. *
- *The net will be moderated and the discussion facilitated by the Net
Control Station (NCS). *
- *The Handiham Tech Net will meet each Thursday evening at 7:00 PM USA
Central Time and last around an hour. *
- *The net is heard on the following nodes and links:*
*HANDIHAM conference server Node 494492 (Our preferred high-capacity node.)
KA0PQW-R, node 267582
KA0PQW-L, node 538131
N0BVE-R, node 89680
IRLP node 9008 (Vancouver BC reflector)
WIRES system number 1427*
Email me at handiham@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx with your questions & comments.
Patrick Tice, WA0TDA
Handiham Manager
------------------------------
Handiham remote base station report
Thanks to Jose, KK4JZX, we are making some great progress on some of the
software issues that our users have been experiencing. One such issue is
some pretty noticeable lag in the response of the software to user input.
For example, I can press the space bar to toggle the transmit/receive and I
have counted delays up to six seconds! Other times the response will be
nearly instant, as it should be. This was found to be caused by the code in
the software telling it to reference a website that was no longer
available. While the software waited for a response from a website that was
never going to answer, the delay appeared. Echolink users who regularly use
public proxies are familiar with how the application is unresponsive when
it is querying a proxy that either does not exist or is already in use.
This is a similar deal, so we are working on a way to fix it.
HOSTS file Phone Home fix
*Remote Base Update: After a couple of weeks of code analysis, a workaround
was found by KK4JZX. It has been found that the W4MQ client wants to "Phone
Home" for some reason and, thus, the workaround requires that Handiham
remote base users implement the HOSTS file Phone Home fix. Once the Phone
Home fix is implemented, the W4MQ client will function much faster for both
sighted and non-sighted users. Reports are coming in and we are getting
feedback indicating that the experience is a much more rewarding one. The
delays encountered with the PTT function are gone and it is now much more
responsive. Stay tuned for additional fixes that we plan to release as part
of the Handiham remote Base client software bundle!*
You may visit the remote base website to download the current installation
files, which do not yet contain this fix:*
http://handiham.org/remotebase/ *
[image: Status check screen showing w0zsw offline.]
*W0EQO at Courage North is in service. W0ZSW is in service. *
*Solar Activity Forecast:* Solar activity is expected to be very low to low
with a slight chance for moderate activity for the next three days (29-31
August).
*Geophysical Activity Forecast:* The geomagnetic field is expected to be
predominately quiet for days 1-3 (29-31 August).
Credit: NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center
Please contact me directly at wa0tda@xxxxxxxx if you have a remote base
comment.
------------------------------
Video from an active radio club is a good watch:
*Check out this excellent video "What is Ham Radio Night? North Hills
Amateur Radio Club". It's in HD and features one club's way to showcase
Amateur Radio to the general public, and to introduce ops who might not
have considered one or another aspect of ham radio to check it out and try
something new! Doug, N6NFF, club president, introduces the video at the
following YouTube link:*
http://youtu.be/XNEh457rels
------------------------------
Some users fail to get the E-letter
[image: cartoon guy shaking fist at dead computer]
After last week's e-letter failed to arrive for some users, I took a close
look at the Freelists Mailing Manager error watch report. A number of
subscribers had the e-letter rejected because of spam content, which of
course was a filtering error on the part of their providers. Users with
q.com email addresses were affected, among a few others. If you do not
receive expected mail, please know that your internet service provider may
be blocking it. There is nothing I can do about about it, so it is up to
individual users to set their own email preferences in their email client
software and with their service providers.
We do provide two links that never change, and they always point to the
latest content. If your ISP insists on blocking your messages, you can
always use these links. Typically the weekly e-letter will be released by
3:30 PM USA Central Time each day. If you wait until at least then to check
the links, you will get the latest version.
*HTML version of Handiham World:
http://www.handiham.org/local/blind/this_week.htm *
*Download the 40 kbs MP3 audio to your portable player:
http://www.handiham.org/audio/handiham.mp3*
*In checking some older reports, I found that on occasion the same ISPs
were blocking the weekly e-letter. If delivery of your weekly e-letter has
been sporadic, please contact your ISP or simply use the links above. *
------------------------------
*A dip in the pool*
It's time to test our knowledge by taking a dip in the pool - the question
pool, that is!
Let's go to a question from the Extra Class pool:
E1E13 asks: *What are the consequences of failing to appear for
re-administration of an examination when so directed by the FCC? *
Possible answers are:
A. The licensee’s license will be cancelled
B. The person may be fined or imprisoned
C. The licensee is disqualified from any future examination for an amateur
operator license grant
D. All these choices are correct
Don't worry about spending any time in prison! However, if you fail to
appear for re-administration of an examination when so directed by the FCC,
your license will be cancelled. This can happen to you even if you are
perfectly innocent of any impropriety regarding the original exam. It may
happen that the session had some flaw in its administration and the FCC has
simply decided that everyone who had tested at the same session must be
re-tested. When we say "cancelled", what is really meant is that the
license or upgrade that you earned in the flawed test will be cancelled.
So, for example, if you hold a General license and tested for Extra,
passed, but then were called for retesting and did not respond, your Extra
Class grant would be cancelled and your privileges would revert to General,
just as before the test. Cancellation does not mean that your license would
be taken away except in the case of a first license earned at a flawed
session. If you already held a license prior to that session, it would
still be valid.
Please e-mail handiham@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx to comment.
*
------------------------------
FCC sees no need to extend relief from private land use restrictions*
This may be old news for those of you who follow other ham radio news
sources, since it came out right after last week's e-letter news. The long
and short of it is that even though the FCC acknowledges the value of
amateur radio in emergency communications, it does not see any need to
extend a PRB-1 type of exemption for ham radio antennas to private land use
restrictions such as covenants set up by homeowner associations. This does
not seem surprising to me, because there are options for housing that do
not have such restrictions as well as other options for getting on the air.
Still, it generates a bit of heat in discussions among ham radio operators
and will probably continue to do for some time. If you care to read the FCC
document for yourself, you may do so on the Handiham website at:
http://www.handiham.org/node/116
For more context, ARRL has a story entitled "FCC Releases Congressionally
Mandated Study on Amateur Radio". Find it here:
http://www.arrl.org/news/fcc-releases-congressionally-mandated-study-on-amateur-radio
The CQ Newsroom blog has a concise, easy to follow story:
http://cqnewsroom.blogspot.com/
*For extra credit: * While you are visiting the CQ Newsroom blog, find out
which country elected an amateur radio operator as their new prime
minister!
*
------------------------------
This week @ HQ
The Handiham System will be closed Friday, 31 August through Monday, 3
September, which is the USA Labor Day holiday. We will reopen with limited
service on Tuesday, 4 September. (Pat will be out until Wednesday.)
I have completed a new Extra Class audio lecture on the Volunteer Examiner
program. Find it in the Audio This Week page links in the members section.
The September digests are in production. We already have the Daisy version
of September 2012 QST. Worldradio is also available for September in Daisy
as of this afternoon. (Thanks, Bob, N1BLF!)
The August CQ audio has been recorded and is in DAISY format for our blind
members. Members using NLS digital cartridges may receive the digest by
Free Matter postal mail. George, N0SBU, has sent the 4-track tape version
out for September. 4-track tape service ends in December.
DAISY audio digests are available for our blind members who do not have
computers, playable in your Library of Congress digital player. Handiham
members who use these players and who would prefer to receive a copy of the
monthly audio digests on the special Library of Congress digital cartridge
should send a blank cartridge to us in a cartridge mailer (no envelopes,
please), so that we can place the files on it and return it to you via free
matter postal mail. Your callsign should be on both the cartridge and the
mailer so that we can make sure we know who it's from. Blank cartridges and
mailers are available from APH, the American Printing House for the Blind,
Inc. <http://www.aph.org/>
Digital Talking Book Cartridge Catalog Number: 1-02610-00, Price: $12.00
Digital Talking Book Cartridge Mailer Catalog Number: 1-02611-00, Price:
$2.50
Order Toll-Free: (800) 223-1839.
The Library of Congress NLS has a list of vendors for the digital
cartridges:
http://www.loc.gov/nls/cartridges/index.html
Get it all on line as an alternative: Visit the DAISY section on the
Handiham website after logging in.
------------------------------
Wednesday is EchoLink net night. Note the new time - 1/2 hour earlier
beginning in September.
This is your last 7:30 PM net!
No ham radio license? No radio? No problem! Listen to our net on line using
your computer or tablet/smartphone at 11:00 AM Central Time daily -
Everyone welcome! <http://www.radioreference.com/apps/audio/?feedId=9593>
The Wednesday evening EchoLink net is at 19:30 (19:00 beginning is
September) United States Central time, which translates to 00:30 GMT
Thursday morning. Beginning September 5, there is a time change to one
half hour earlier than before.
The 11:00 daily net will be heard at 16:00 GMT.
The following EchoLink nodes are always connected to the Handiham
Conference:
HANDIHAM conference server Node 494492 (Our preferred high-capacity node.)
KA0PQW-R, node 267582
KA0PQW-L, node 538131
N0BVE-R, node 89680
Other ways to connect:
IRLP node 9008 (Vancouver BC reflector)
WIRES system number 1427
More information about repeaters and nodes may be found at
http://www.handiham.info.
A big THANK YOU to all of our net volunteers who keep things running so
well.
------------------------------
Stay in touch!
Be sure to send Nancy your changes of address, phone number changes, or
email address changes so that we can continue to stay in touch with you.
You may either email Nancy at hamradio@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx or call her at
763-520-0512. If you need to use the toll-free number, call
1-866-426-3442.
Handiham Manager Patrick Tice, WA0TDA, may be reached at
handiham@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx or by phone at 763-520-0511.
Mornings Monday through Thursday are the best time to contact us.
The Courage Handiham System depends on the support of people like you, who
want to share the fun and friendship of ham radio with others. Please help
us provide services to people with disabilities. We would really appreciate
it if you would remember us in your estate plans. If you need a planning
kit, please call. If you are wondering whether a gift of stock can be given
to Handihams, the answer is yes! Please call Walt Seibert, KD0LPX, at
763-520-0532 or email him at walt.seibert@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Call 1-866-426-3442 toll-free. -- Help us get new hams on the air.
Get the Handiham E-Letter by email every Wednesday, and stay up-to-date
with ham radio news.
You may listen in audio to the E-Letter at www.handiham.org.
Email us to subscribe:
hamradio@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
That's it for this week. 73 from all of us at the Courage Handiham System!
Pat, WA0TDA
Manager, Courage Handiham System
Reach me by email at:
patt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx or handiham@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Nancy, Handiham Secretary:
hamradio@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
ARRL is the premier organization supporting amateur radio worldwide. Please
contact Handihams for help joining the ARRL. We will be happy to help you
fill out the paperwork!
The weekly e-letter is a compilation of software tips, operating
information, and Handiham news. It is published on Wednesdays, and is
available to everyone free of charge. Please email
handiham@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx for changes of address, unsubscribes, etc.
Include your old email address and your new address.
Courage Center Handiham System
3915 Golden Valley Road
Golden Valley, MN 55422
763-520-0512
hamradio@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
*
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