A Citizen's Band (CB) radio is a public two-way individual radio service. In contrast, a 10 meter radio is an amateur or ham radio that can transmit frequencies hundreds of kilometers away. Though these radios are increasingly appearing similar, they’re significantly different.
Amateur Radio Digital Library is a Treasure Trove
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A grant from a private foundation has enable the Internet Archive to scan and index a trove of ham radio publications, including the old Callbooks, 73 Magazine, several ham radio group’s newsletters from around the globe, Radio Craft, and manuals from Icom, Kenwood, Yaesu, and others.
There are some old QST magazines and the index to newer ones. You can find catalogs and military documents. We miss a lot of these old magazines and newsletters. For example, RCA’s “Ham Tips” is something you won’t find anything like anymore. Most of the material is in English, but there are some other languages represented. For example, the Dutch version of Popular Electronics is available. There’s also material in Afrikaans, Japanese, German, and Spanish.
Read MoreGrid Hunters who Use Satellites Risk Losing an Important Resource
/AMSAT's Gridmaster Heat Map has served as an invaluable guide to grid-chasers using satellites, for those activating hams who need to be aware of which grids are in greatest need. AMSAT says in a recent weekly service bulletin that the map may be going away unless a replacement manager can be found.
Paul Overn, KEØPBR, will be stepping down after three years at the helm of the project in which he tracked grid rarity based on crowdsourced data from hams who updated him. Paul's Twitter feed, atgridmasterheat (@GridMasterHeat) displays a color-coded map of grid rarities ranging from green - the most common - to red, for rare.
The map plays an especially important role in the pursuit of AMSAT's prestigious GridMaster Award. This honor is conferred on any amateur around the world who works all 488 Maidenhead grid squares in the 48 contiguous United States via satellite and has those contacts confirmed in writing.
AMSAT is looking for a volunteer to assume Paul's post. The candidate should be capable of collecting crowdsourced data and transferring it to a spreadsheet or some other format and providing updates every week to satellite users.
