*UPDATED: Courage Center Handiham World Weekly E-Letter for the week of Thursday, 11 October 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. This update corrects several errors or status changes. *Handiham Office Moving As Jose, KK4JZX, reminded me in an email this morning, change is inevitable. He had three excellent quotes about change: - *"Become a student of change. It is the only thing that will remain constant."* - Anthony D'Angelo' - *"We must learn to view change as a natural phenomenon - to anticipate it and to plan for it. The future is ours to channel in the direction we want to go... we must continually ask ourselves, 'What will happen if...?' or better still, 'How can we make it happen?' " *- Lisa Taylor - *"All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy, for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter into another." *- Anatole France Well, fasten your seat belts, because we are moving again, thanks to a big change. The Handiham Program, originally part of Courage Center's Camping Department, is moving back to Courage Center. Since 2009 we have been officially "officed" (Is that even a word?) at Camp Courage near Maple Lake, Minnesota. Our mailing address has always been at the main Courage Center address in Golden Valley, Minnesota, and that has not changed. However, we are moving lock, stock, and barrel out of our digs at Camp Courage. There is a fairly short timeline for the move, because the moving truck arrives at camp the last week in October. This move will address ongoing problems we have had with logistics, since Camp Courage is an hour drive west of the Twin Cities metro area. While any move is disruptive and unsettling (that change thing, you know), it is necessary to help us continue operating the program. In the upcoming weeks we will be extremely busy with this project and will be unable to offer our services at the usual level. Services affected will range from the remote base station availability, tech support on lost or forgotten passwords, detailed communications on technical support issues, the equipment program, and answering the phone. Yes, even answering the phone is difficult when you are planning for and following through with a project this big and time-consuming. On the plus side, Nancy will be able to take most of the regular calls and email messages during the regular hours she works. Since Pat (that's me!) will be managing the move - which is going to mean being away from the phone and computer for long periods of time and traveling to and from Camp Courage (a three hour round trip for me), obviously I will not be available. While I will try my best to stay in touch, I will likely not have time for weekly audio lectures, and perhaps even the weekly e-letter and podcast will see some scheduling changes. I will know more about when services will resume sometime in November. In the meantime, we appreciate your patience. Email me at handiham@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx with your questions & comments. Patrick Tice, WA0TDA Handiham Manager ------------------------------ Kudos to MFJ[image: MFJ antenna dummy load] MFJ Enterprises celebrated their 40th anniversary October 5th and 6th (Friday and Saturday) in Starkville, Mississippi. The event was carried live on the W5KUB website, and darn it, I missed it because we were busy all last weekend. This morning, when I checked the W5KUB website, I saw that there is archived video of the event. It did serve to remind me that MFJ has been around a long time, and when the MFJ catalog arrived in the mail this week, I was intrigued by the huge selection of ham radio accessories that have been added over the years. There are things you just can't find just anywhere - things like azimuth-elevation rotators, ceramic doorknob capacitors, air-wound coils, ceramic insulators and other project parts, feed-through panels for antenna cables, and the Speech Intel Enhancer for people with hearing deficits. It's a rare ham shack that doesn't have at least some MFJ products, that's for sure! In any case, the annual catalog was a welcome sight in my mailbox, and it enjoys a spot in my periodical collection, within arm's reach from the main operating position in the radio room. Congratulations to MFJ on four decades of providing products to the ham radio community. ------------------------------ Correspondence: *KB3LLA located some information about accessibility extensions for the popular web browser Firefox:* Firefox Accessibility Extension Documentation: Overview and Installation: http://firefox.cita.uiuc.edu/ *WB3CAI reports on the Baofeng UV-5R: * *"My first discharge of battery with flashlight took 22 hours, but I probably listened and transmitted a little. Now running only flashlight and it has been 12 hours and I am hoping to get closer to 30 hours from it. Interesting that it says it is NiMH battery and the 1800 standard battery is Lithium Ion."* *W2WU passed on this bit of news on an upcoming event:* The ABC show "Last Man Standing" is shot at CBS Studio City (which is different than CBS TV City, btw). They put together this event: *Correction: This event has been cancelled. * *K0LR found an omission in the remote base keyboard shortcuts list: * *While re-reading the Web Transceiver help file today, I found a mention of a keyboard shortcut that is not included in the keyboard command table or in Jose's listings. The shortcut Shift+P toggles the preamp on and off.* *Editor's note: This has now been updated on the Remote Base website. Thanks, Lyle!* ------------------------------ Tonight! Don't miss the new Tech Net. This week is session six. [image: TMV71A transceiver] We have heard lots of positive comments about our new Handiham Tech Net, a place to discuss technology related to amateur radio. The Tech Net is on the air at 19:00 hours USA Central Time each Thursday. The regular Handiham Radio Club Wednesday evening net is at the same 19:00 hours, just one day earlier. Daily nets are at 11:00 hours USA Central Time. New this week is our audio archive, so if you missed the first five sessions, you can find them here: *Missed the weekly on the air Handiham Tech Net? Listen to it here!<http://handiham.org/audio/handihamtech.mp3> * *Missed last week's Handiham Tech Net? Go to the archive page. <http://www.handiham.org/audio/technet/> * Frequency in the local Minnesota repeater coverage zone: 145.45 FM, negative offset with no tone and 444.65 MHz with 114.8 Hz tone in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul Minnesota. The UHF repeater will be heard more easily in the Eastern Twin Cities. You will find our daily net on the air at 11:00 hours USA Central Time, with the Sunday session featuring a special trivia question theme for a change of pace. A Wednesday evening session at 19:00 hours USA Central Time also offers a chance to take a guess at a trivia question and visit with your friends on the air. Ideal for those who can't make the daily morning session! Then Thursday evening at 19:00 hours return to the Tech net and learn something new! *EchoLink nodes:* 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 ------------------------------ *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 the General Class pool, where we take a look the venerable station logbook: G2D09 asks: What information is traditionally contained in a station log? Possible answers are: A. Date and time of contact B. Band and/or frequency of the contact C. Call sign of station contacted and the signal report given D. All of these choices are correct Any old-timer can tell you the right answer here: D, All of these choices are correct. Modern logging software has form fields for all of this data and more. You can still get printed log books, and they have spaces for these essential pieces of information arranged in columns like a spreadsheet. Most of us also like to add a few notes about the other operator's name and location, and possibly even some notes about the conversation. While keeping a log is no longer a requirement, it is still a good idea to keep at least some record for purposes of documenting your progress toward awards or just to help you recall names and callsigns when you meet someone on the air "later on down the log", as the old saying goes. I have to admit to being a bit lax in my logging. I no longer keep any paper logs, but will typically make a few notes on a bit of scratch paper or with notepad on the computer as I participate in a roundtable session on HF. If I happen to be controlling the radio with Ham Radio Deluxe, I make a note of the contact in the built-in logging software. If not, well - lately I just don't have a consistent way to log the contact. I might have to give XMLog another look - A standalone logging program might just be the best way to stay consistent when using different rigs and different computers, something that I have not been able to stick to with the HRD system. If you care to take a look at the free XMLog software, which is blind-accessible, you can find it at: www.xmlog.com. XMLog is an amateur radio logbook system for Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Vista, and Windows 7. Please e-mail handiham@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx to comment. ------------------------------ *UPDATE! Remote Base health report: W0EQO is on line. W0ZSW is on line. [image: Image of TS-480SAT courtesy Universal Radio] W0EQO is on line, but W0ZSW is now working because the rig is now exchanging telemetry with the control computer. * If problems show up, please email wa0tda@xxxxxxxxx New! Keyboard commands list updated: http://handiham.org/remotebase/w4mq-keyboard-commands/ *Solar Activity Forecast:* Solar activity is expected to be low with a chance for an isolated M-class flare over the next three days (10-12 October). *Geophysical Activity Forecast:* The geomagnetic field is expected to be unsettled to active on day one (10 October), due to high speed stream effects. Quiet to unsettled conditions are forecast on day two (11 October) and mostly quiet levels are expected on day three (12 October). Credit: NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center * ------------------------------ This week @ HQ UPDATE: Our office is closed on Friday 12 October 2012. * *We are in the process of moving file storage back to our Golden Valley location. *This is a time-intensive process and will affect my availability for audio lectures and office hours through the end of October. *Change in address for equipment donations: *Please contact Pat, WA0TDA, before making any donation of equipment. My phone number is 763-520-0511 and my email address is pat.tice@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx The address is now the same as our postal mailing address. This should simplify our contact information. Courage Center Handiham System 3915 Golden Valley Road Golden Valley, MN 55422 *Equipment change: *We no longer accept antennas, except small accessory antennas for handheld radios. *Equipment program temporarily suspended again: *Due to our move, the equipment program is suspended until further notice. *The October CQ has arrived this week, thanks to reading volunteer Bob Zeida, N1BLF. It will be available on Friday in DAISY format for our blind members. QST and Worldradio have arrived and we have read selected articles for our blind members. *Our blind members using NLS cartridges or 4-track tape cassettes will receive their mailing soon. Tape users, please remember that your tape service ends this year as we phase out the old cassette system. ** *Digital mailers are important! *If you do mail a digital cartridge to us, please be sure that it is an approved free matter mailer. Otherwise it will quickly cost us several dollars to package and mail out, which is more than the cost of the mailer in the first place. We don't have a stock of cartridges or mailers and not including a mailer will result in a long delay getting your request back out to you. 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. * ------------------------------ 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 *