JOTA 2011 :

The 54th Jamboree On The Air will take place on 15 and 16 October 2011.

This year's theme is: Peace, Environment and Natural Disasters.

An exciting activity that focuses on the strength of Scouting: to act and support in unforeseen circumstances. Scouts are prepared.

This a great opportunity to showcase amateur radio to the youngsters and as many clubs as possible should participate

http://scout.org/en/information_events/events/jota/the_54th_jota_2011

Got My License Renewed :

Ham Radio Classes In Trivandrum :

Kerala State Science and Technology Museum,Thiruvananthapuram is conducting Classes for Amateur Station Operators Licence from 31st July 2011 at its premises.

Classes will be held on Saturdays and Sundays from 4pm to 6pm.There will be 10 sessions. Coaching is given for General Class licence. Course fee is Rs.1000/-. Interested persons are requested to register before 28th July 2011.

For further details contact : 2306024, 9447036180

Courtesy : VU3DDE

Special Event Station TC1ØØTAF :

Special event station TC1ØØTAF will be QRV from July 23 to 31to commemorate the 1ØØth anniversary of the Turkish Air Force. Activity is on all HF bands using mainly SSB but also SSTV and PSK31.

QSL via TA1HZ. In addition, look for special event TC7EYOF to be QRV from July 23 to 30 from Trabzon during the 11th European Youth Olympic Festival.

QSL via YM7KA.

Rotor Control Software :

The PstRotator program

http://www.qsl.net/yo3dmu/index_Page346.htm

works with a wide variety of rotators, tracks the Moon, and supports multi-user remote operation over the Internet. It also integrates with most logging software and satellites trackers.The user interface offers quite a selection of methods for pointing and display, as well.

Courtesy : YO3DMU

Interesting Link :

http://www.theage.com.au/digital-life/ham-radio-far-from-over-or-out-20110706-1h135.html#ixzz1SLwQ37CI

TRX Workshop At Kollam - Additional Info :

ALL are invited!! but with a valid amateur licence.

Jota TRX is a simple SSB (LSB) only, single conversion, 40M transceiver designed by VU2DEV, OM Ramaprabhu.

It works on 12Volts Battery and outputs a Minimum Power of 15Watts average (30 watts pep) at 13.8 Volts sufficient to contact Soth-India and a few operators have contacted as far as Germany, South Africa etc running only a good Dipole antenna!

The proposed workshop’s main aim is to promote HomeBrewing! As such this project is NOT meant for beginners.

For registration and for more details, contact,VU2SYT on 9446854749 or VU3HLX on 09895654344 .

RAJESH R.K NAIR, VU2IDB

Treasurer, QARL &

PRO to workshop event

Link to Hamtoons :

http://www.hamradiosecrets.com/ham-radio-cartoons.html

Courtesy : OM Paddy, VU2PEP

Amateur Vertical Antenna Calculator Link :

http://www.ur5eaw.com/antenna.html

Courtesy : OM Paddy, VU2PEP

Transreceiver Workshop :

Quilon Amateur Radio League conducts a Transreceiver Workshop on 13th, 14th and 15th of August 2011 at Kollam. Interested Hams who would like to participate may register before 18th of July 2011 with the Secretary. Number of participants will be limited to 10 licensed HAMS only.

For more details Please contact the Secretary OM. P.Surendran,VU2SYT, on his mobile No.9446854749, 8547000864 or on his email, vu2syt@yahoo.com.

Phonetics :

Excellent posting by Peter Bucy in HamRadioHelpGroup@yahoogroups.com,

It's pretty easy to catch a call sign when the station uses standard phonetics. It's really difficult for me when I'm trying to parse the words that they throw in instead of the standard alphabet. It is especially tough when working a weak station. It would not be so bad if so many people didn't use the names for countries, states, or cities. Did that station just say "Canada" instead of Charlie, or is it a Canadian station? A lot of DX station say "America" instead of "Alpha." And it seems that "Sugar" is heard more than "Sierra."

And I don't think that it is because in my absence from ham radio that the amateur radio community adopted a new phonetic alphabet. Then it get really confusing when one station says "Sugar," and the other station confirms his call with another phonetic that starts with "S" but is not "Sugar."

If we all use the same phonetic alphabet, the brain and ear become trained to strain to hear a weak signal phonetic. Trying to figure out if the station said, "Sierra," "Sam," "Sugar," "Spain," or "Sweden" just makes the job tougher.

Courtesy : OM Pete,KD4CQZ (HamRadioHelpGroup)