[SMCARA] What I did this summer

[Grant Graessle]

Hey everyone!
As most of you know, I am now enrolled in the Naval War College course, 
which means that (at least for this academic year) I will miss the SMCARA 
meetings. Bummer!  This past month was really a bummer because I had a few 
neat stories to tell when Pete Butt asked "what did you do for the good of 
HAM radio this past month?"  Normally I wouldn't post to the listserve, but 
as most of you know I was off in Japan for a little extra Reserve duty.  I 
had some interesting things happen that is worth posting to the listserve. 
While in Japan I did the following:

I bought a Japanese anime DVD while in Japan.  I learned the hard way about 
"regional coding".  Apparently, the entertainment industry is working with 
the electronics industry to screw us over and make a few more bucks while 
they are at it.  Seriously, their claim is that they are attempting to 
self-regulate and enforce copyright laws.  In addition they are also trying 
to stagger release of movies to earn a few more bucks.  What they have done 
is divided the world up into regions.  US/North America is region 1, Japan 
and the far east (excluding China) is region 2. etc.  Most DVDs will be 
coded for a certain region.  In addition, DVD players sold in certain 
regions will be coded to read only DVDs coded for a particular region.  So 
if you buy your DVD player in the US, and then buy a disc in Japan, the DVP 
probably won't read the disc.  There are hacks around this (hey we're HAMs, 
hacking is what we do!) and there are DVPs that are coded to read any 
region.  But I didn't find this out until I stuck the disc in, and the DVP 
came up with the "you dummy" error message.

While in Japan, I did get to visit the "Akihubara" electronics district. 
This place make Times Square look like a small back water town. The 
Akihubara is about 24 square blocks of just about any type of electronic and 
parts that you might want.  Neon signs everywhere.  Karaoke signing salesmen 
out in front of stores.  I didn't buy anything. I had already learned my 
lesson from note #1.  But I had fun looking. If only AJ had given me his 
credit card, I would have bought a message chair. These things are 
fantastic.  Only Y380,000.  The only bummer that I had here was that I did 
go into two stores that specialized in amateur radio.  The fun of going into 
HRO is that the salesmen are also HAMs and are more then happy to give you 
their free opinion.  These guys in Japan where just salesmen.  No real 
interest in the hobby, other then to sell you something.

I did meet KD6YYP (SKCM Poca Rivera).  He had let his license lapse. But the 
lapse was only a year out! So I walked him through the FCC website, and his 
license is now renewed.  He had earned his license in Diego Garcia where 
there was lots of free time for extra curricular activities.  He is back in 
business now.  We also walked through the process of how to get a Japanese 
license and how to get a PI license for when he move back to his home.  What 
a neat experience.

I bought a new antenna.  I bought a Maldol HVU-8 multi band antenna.  My 
favorite elmer, W4OKW, is helping me install the new toy.  I should be back 
on the air in the next few days.

And that's what I did this last month!
73s

KE4RTJ, Grant Graessle