radhardened (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
radhardened) wrote2010-02-26 05:56 pm
radhardened) wrote2010-02-26 05:56 pm
Entry tags:
getting into amateur radio
This summer will mark the 15th anniversary of my getting my amateur radio technician-class license. But I haven't done much with it over the years. As a high school senior I used it for contingency communication with my parents when I drove to the university ~2 hours away to visit my boyfriend, especially when the roads were snowy. I completed ARRL's online introductory Amateur Radio Emergency Communications course a few years ago. I got a handheld VHF/UHF yagi antenna for working amateur radio satellites and even wrote a simple python web application to tell me when those satellites would be making promising passes over my part of the sky. I managed to listen in on the voice traffic for a few AO-51 passes, but I never made any contacts myself, satellite-mediated or not, and the web app broke in upgraded versions of python.1 So my gear has been sitting on a shelf, collecting dust. A few months ago I looked around for transmitter hunting (a.k.a. fox hunting) activities in my area but found none.
But recently a couple of things are renewing my interest in amateur radio. The first is the great how-to videos by Diana Eng, fashion nerd, hacker, maker, and ham radio ambassador. Just from an attracting-women-to-amateur-radio public relations standpoint, she's a breath of fresh air next to the stale and patronizing efforts like this audio (mp3) public service announcement by ARRL. She is awesome.
Also, I'm joining HacDC in an entry into Hackerspaces in Space2, a high-altitude ballooning contest that will take place this summer. Points will be awarded for minimizing cost, mass, and recovery time. The amateur radio connection is that we may use APRS for telemetering the position of our balloon. Incidentally, HacDC's club station callsign is KB3TEA, which is awesome.
For what it's worth, I've got a copy of Kristen Haring's book Ham Radio's Technical Culture sitting on my to-read bookshelf. I'm not familiar with the author, but I'm interested to read her perspective on the topic. Meanwhile, I'm joining my local ham radio club, so I'm sure I'll be forming my own perspective soon.
1 I just discovered HamSatDroid for my Android phone, which looks quite nice. I wish it included, e.g., AO-51's operating modes, but maybe I can add that myself if I can convince the operations group to publish the schedule of operating modes in a parser-friendly format.
2 No, not really in space. But near space.
But recently a couple of things are renewing my interest in amateur radio. The first is the great how-to videos by Diana Eng, fashion nerd, hacker, maker, and ham radio ambassador. Just from an attracting-women-to-amateur-radio public relations standpoint, she's a breath of fresh air next to the stale and patronizing efforts like this audio (mp3) public service announcement by ARRL. She is awesome.
Also, I'm joining HacDC in an entry into Hackerspaces in Space2, a high-altitude ballooning contest that will take place this summer. Points will be awarded for minimizing cost, mass, and recovery time. The amateur radio connection is that we may use APRS for telemetering the position of our balloon. Incidentally, HacDC's club station callsign is KB3TEA, which is awesome.
For what it's worth, I've got a copy of Kristen Haring's book Ham Radio's Technical Culture sitting on my to-read bookshelf. I'm not familiar with the author, but I'm interested to read her perspective on the topic. Meanwhile, I'm joining my local ham radio club, so I'm sure I'll be forming my own perspective soon.
1 I just discovered HamSatDroid for my Android phone, which looks quite nice. I wish it included, e.g., AO-51's operating modes, but maybe I can add that myself if I can convince the operations group to publish the schedule of operating modes in a parser-friendly format.
2 No, not really in space. But near space.