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PrePared Ham Forum is Back.

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Sorry folks the PH forum has been down since Oct 2019 and just today got it back up and running no thanks to GoDaddy.

To Celebrate the resurrection, I plan on giving away some radios.

I have 2 Baofeng UV-5RTP radios I will be giving away in a contest, details to follow soon. https://amzn.to/38YfoF3

I will program these to be ready to go in your AO(Area of Operations) for all of the local repeaters.

To win you will need an Amature Radio License and a few other things to be able to enter, like liking and sharing the PH face page post on this contest ….

So stay tuned for more details.

North American SSB Sprint 9/22/2018

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Dear Fellow Ham,

Just a quick note to let you know about a very fun, short (4 hour) contest happening this weekend. It is the North American SSB Sprint contest, which takes place this Saturday evening, September 22nd, 2018 (UTC: Sun Sept 23, 0000Z – 0359Z)

Door Prizes!
One unique feature of the NA SSB Sprint is the door prizes!  Anyone with a submitted score of 1,500 points or greater is put into a drawing for a number of door prizes that have been provided by sponsors of the event!  Making 50 contacts with 30 multipliers is all it would take to generate 1,500 points to qualify!
W.A.S. T-Shirt Award!
Also, there is an NA SSB Sprint Worked All States T-Shirt awarded to everyone who manages to work all 50 states during the event.  That feat has actually been accomplished by several operators in the past! Imagine WAS in just 4 hours!!
Certificates and Trophies!
There are certificates and trophies in ALL of the power classes for ALL of the states and provinces.  There is even a Team Competition with awards.  Persons can form, name and register a 2 to 5-person team, such that the final scores from each of the 5 team members are added to generate a “Team Score”. Team members can be located anywhere.  Register your team at https://ssbsprint.com/team-registration/

Unique QSY Rule:
This contest, as with other NA Sprints, has a unique QSY rule.  If you call CQ, and someone answers your CQ, after that QSO has completed the person that called you gets that frequency and will then work the next caller, who will then get the frequency following that QSO. This has a couple of nice outcomes.  If you want to call CQ, you can find a spot to do so because you don’t have the band full of stations just calling CQ, since frequencies get vacated.  Also, after you call someone who is already on a frequency, when you complete that QSO, YOU GET THE FREQUENCY!  Many times there will already be stations ready to work the next station, which in this case will be YOU!  So you make two QSOs on that frequency.

For more information regarding this event, go to https://www.ssbsprint.comWe hope that you will be able to participate in and enjoy the NA SSB Sprint this weekend.  Even part-time participation can put you in the running to receive a door prize and having your state on the air may just make it possible for someone to get WAS during the event.

73, Bob KW8N & NA SSB Sprint Contest Committee
https://www.ssbsprint.com

P.S.  If you get a chance, please enter your planned activity at https://ssbsprint.com/planned-activity/my-planned-activity/ so that we can be sure that all States and Provinces will be on the air.

ARRL Reaches Agreement with Community Associations Institute on Parity Act

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05/28/2016
After 2-1/2 months of intense negotiations, ARRL has reached an agreement with the Community Associations Institute (CAI) — the national association of homeowners associations — concerning amended language of the Amateur Radio Parity Act. This will allow H.R. 1301 to proceed to what is hoped will be passage of the bill in both houses of Congress this year.

“We express support for H.R. 1301, the Amateur Radio Parity Act, as proposed to be amended,” the CAI statement said.

ARRL, working with CAI and Congressional staff, agreed on an amended bill that would allow every amateur living in a deed-restricted community the ability to install an effective outdoor antenna.

“We are pleased with the agreement with CAI over new proposed language in the legislation, and thank CAI and the Congressional staffers who helped make this happen,” ARRL Hudson Division Director and Legislative Affairs Committee Chairman Mike Lisenco, N2YBB, said. Lisenco stressed that, while the agreement with CAI is significant, there is still much work to be done.

read more here

http://www.arrl.org/news/arrl-reaches-agreement-with-community-associations-institute-on-parity-act

FCC Seeks Comments on Petition to Grant Lifetime Amateur Radio Licenses

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**Please dont forget to share this post via the link button above**

 

I received this in my Weekly ARRL.org email notice.

Frankly I think its a great idea to allow for lifetime licenses for amateur radio operators to have their FCC licenses granted for life.

What do you say?  If you have an opinion, please use the links provided and let the FCC know.  I will do so once this article is written.

 

The FCC is seeking comments on a Petition for Rule Making (RM 11760) that asks the FCC to grant lifetime Amateur Radio licenses. Mark F. Krotz, N7MK, of Mesa, Arizona, filed his request with the FCC last November. He wants the FCC to revise § 97.25 of its rules to indicate that Amateur Radio licenses are granted for the holder’s lifetime, instead of for the current 10-year term. Krotz noted that the General Radiotelephone Operator License (GROL) already is issued on a lifetime basis, and he maintained that not having to renew licenses would lighten the FCC’s workload.

“It would be mutually beneficial for the FCC and Amateur Radio operators to update Part 97 to grant operator licenses for lifetime,” Krotz said in his filing. “The FCC would benefit by reducing administrative costs.”

In 2014, the FCC granted lifetime credit for examination elements 3 and 4, but applicants seeking relicensing under that provision still must pass examination element 2.

Individuals may submit comments via the FCC’s Electronic Comment Filing System (ECFS).

 

 

A Stealthy HOA HamStick directional Dipole

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Over the next few weeks I will be updating this post with the details on my built, tuning and on air operation of my MFJ Ham Stick Dipole.

I built the basic setup today and got it tuned on 20 meters in about 1.5 hours

Here are some photos of the start of the project.

 

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25 feet up on a painters pole

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What the dipole looks like against a cloudy sky

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Detail closeup of the MFJ-347 mini Dipole mount with 2 20 meter ham stick dipoles attached

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The MFJ 259B(thanks Paul Anova for the loan of your analyzer) showing a SWR of 1.4 at the midpoint in the 20 meter band.  It took about an hour and 4 different positioning of the stainless steel wips into the fiberglass base of the hamstick.

This is sneak peek at the project and I will follow up with a very detailed build, tune and operation on 20 and 40 meters bands using both Phone and digital PSK31.

Stay tuned……..