[ETS/PARC List] A FREE Column for Your Newsletter

Wed Oct 8 13:35:17 EDT 2008

Dan, KB6NU, writes a good blog. After reading the columns below follow 
the link and read many more interesting topics.

73
Drew

This really is an informative newsletter/blog check out the link below.  
73 Drew

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	A FREE Column for Your Newsletter
Date: 	Sun, 05 Oct 2008 10:30:52 -0400
From: 	Dan Romanchik KB6NU <cwgeek at kb6nu.com>
To: 	drumor at optonline.net

Hi--

My name is Dan Romanchik, and my callsign is KB6NU. For over five years, I have been blogging about ham radio at www.kb6nu.com, and for almost a year, I have been writing a column for ham radio newsletters that I have been offering for free to any club that wants to publish it. Sometimes the material is directly from my blog, sometimes it's original material.  I'm attaching a couple of columns so that you get a taste for the length of the columns and the topics I write about.

If you think that this is something that you'd be interested in, please feel free to join the mailing list that I use to distribute the column. To join, go to http://kb6nu.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1. Every month, you'll get my column. If you have the space and like the column, feel free to run it.  If you don't have the space, or don't like the column, feel free to delete it.  I won't be offended.

Currently, I'm sending it to 80 clubs around the country. They seem to like it, and I think you will, too. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me.

73!

Dan KB6NU
----------------------------------------------------------
CW Geek and MI Affiliated Club Coordinator
Read my ham radio blog at http://www.kb6nu.com
LET'S REALLY MAKE THE ARRL THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR HAM RADIO

COLUMN #1
Ham Cram, or the One-Day Tech Class

by Dan Romanchik, KB6NU

I used to be skeptical of one-day ham radio classes, sometimes called "Ham Cram" classes. After teaching a couple of these classes over the past year, however, I've become a supporter of this method of teaching, at least for the Technician Class license test.

One reason I'm an advocate of the one-day class is that I think a lot of people "learn by doing." I'm not an expert on pedagogy, but my guess is that more people learn by doing than learn by reading or by listening. That being the case, isn't it a good thing that new hams get their licenses quickly so that they can begin doing--thereby learning--more quickly?

Second, people are busy. Tell them that the class is going to eat up one evening a week for six to eight weeks and a lot of them will tell you that they just don't have the time to do it. Squeezing in six to eight hours on a Saturday is, however, something that they can do.

Critics of the one-day classes say that if people just cram for the test, they may learn enough for just long enough to pass the test, but they really don't know enough to be "good hams," whatever that may be. There's some truth to this. It's important not to abandon them once they get their tickets. I encourage all of the students to join a ham radio club and make myself available to answer any questions they may have as they get started in ham radio.

Critics also say that releasing this horde on the amateur bands will create nothing but chaos. Fortunately, I've personally seen no evidence that the hundreds of folks that have taken these classes across the country have created said chaos.

Make Your Next Class a One-Day Class
I would encourage you to give this a try. Make your next Tech class a one-day class. You don't conduct Tech classes? Well, get started! Another benefit of the one-day class format is that it's easier to find teachers since it takes less time for them, too.

As I mentioned previously, over the past year, I've taught two "ham cram" classes. We've learned a few things along the way.

Perhaps the most important thing is to stress that students should study the material before coming to class. The study guide we use is one that I've written. You can find the KB6NU No-Nonsense Study Guide online at http://www.kb6nu.com. You can also purchase a pre-printed version of the study guide at www.booklocker.com/books/3408.html. 

Another key is to not get bogged down on a particular topic. Our class runs from 9 am to 3 p.m., at which time, the VEs come in and give the test. To cover all of the material, you have to keep one eye on the clock and keep plowing ahead. To help you do this, a set of PowerPoint slides for teachers of Ham Cram Tech classes is available at http://w9pe.us/.

We conducted our first class last August. Nine out of twelve passed the test that day; the remaining three passed on their second attempt. In early May, we taught our second one-day class. This time, eleven out of twelve passed. In September, we held our third class and thirteen out of fourteen passed. 

I am encouraged by these results, and I am planning to make these one-day classes a regularly-scheduled event here in Ann Arbor. Time will tell if these people become active, life-long hams, but so far, so good. If you have any questions about our experience with the one-day class, please e-mail me at cwgeek at kb6nu.com.

COLUMN #2
Using a Mac in the Shack

By Dan Romanchik, KB6NU

A couple of years ago, I decided to switch to the Mac for business use. (I am a freelance website developer.) I haven't regretted it for a second. The thing just seems to work better.

Last October, I decided to switch to a Mac in the shack and purchased used, iBook G4 Mac laptop. Unfortunately, I can't say that I've never regretted this move. The reason I sometimes regret this choice is that there just aren't as many ham radio programs available for the Mac as there are for the PC, and those that are available are either more expensive than their PC counterparts or don't work as well. 

For example, let's take a look at logging programs. When I first started looking, I found one that was kind of expensive (MacLoggerDX -www.dogparksoftware.com/MacLoggerDX.html); one that was free, but didn't want to work so well (RUMLog - http://www.dl2rum.de/rumsoft/RUMLog.html);and one that worked OK and cost somewhere in between the first two (Aether- www.aetherlog.com/). Considering that there are at least a dozen logging programs that run on a PC, this was slim pickings.

I ended up purchasing Aether, but was never very happy with it. For one thing, it took forever to do any kind of sort or look up previous QSOs. Another pain was that it carried over none of the information from the previous contact, so you had to enter all of the information from scratch,even if you didn’t change frequencies or bands. It also had an odd way of doing notes about a contact, and I was disappointed to find out that it didn't import the notes from the ADIF file I created from the N3FJP logging program I used previously. 

For PSK, It's CocoaModem
I had much the same experience when looking for a PSK31 program. Instead of a the wide variety of PC PSK programs, I only found a couple of Mac programs that decode PSK. Fortunately, I am much happier with my choice here (cocoaModem - homepage.mac.com/chen/index.html). It's a great program,with a polished user interface, and it's free, to boot.

The only problem with cocoaModem is that it doesn't support the wide range of digital modes that some of the PC programs do. One I'm interested in is SSTV. Unfortunately, cocoaModem doesn't do SSTV.

A Happy Ending
Well, a couple of weeks ago, I'd had enough of Aether and decided to start searching for logging software again. Since RUMLog was still free, I decided to give the new version (v 3.0, March 15, 2008) a go. I'm happy to report that this version likes my computer a lot better, and I like using it a lot! 

One of the coolest things is that it did import the notes from my N3FJP ADIF file properly. So, now, when I type in a callsign, the program searches the database, finds all the previous contacts I've had with that station, and then displays them in spreadsheet style WITH the notes. If I've taken notes about a previous conversation, I can pick up right where I left off. Very cool.

It also has a very nice way of showing you what countries you've worked, on what bands you've worked them, and whether or not you've QSLed that country or not. Not only that, it shows what type of QSL you have, either a paper QSL or a Logbook of the World (LOTW) QSL. And, after you supply your user ID and password, it will download your LOTW QSLs and update the appropriate QSO records. Very cool!

Still unresolved is what to use for contesting. None of the programs I've seen so far are useful for contesting, and I think that what I will end up doing is using my old PC laptop running N3FJP or N1MM software. I'm not a big contester, so I think I can live with that.

One thing is for sure--I'm not going back to the PC aside from some niche applications like contesting. The Mac's ease of use and ease of setup has won me over. For information on even more ham radio software for the Mac,go to www.machamradio.com.
---
When not trying to convince his friends and family to convert to the Mac,Dan works a lot of CW and PSK, and even a little SSB, on 20, 30, and 40m. You can read more about his adventures in amateur radio by pointing your Web browser to www.kb6nu.com.