Tim's Radio Shack – N9BRV

Well, the fun never ends with Amateur Radio!!!  Who-da-thunk-it?  This last week I listened in for about three days to a Sled Dog Race that was out in Oregon. The official name of the race is the Eagle Cap eXtreme and you can find more information out about it here: http://www.eaglecapextreme.com/ Now, since I was listening to it from an Amateur radio point of view, I was not actually listening to the race but listening in on all the Ham radio operators that were set up for communications and emergency management. It was very interesting listening in as you could hear first hand how amateur radio should work in emergency situations! I learned a lot from this and it was lots of fun not only listening but watching from a tracker map on the internet. I listened in with a program called Echolink which is exclusive Ham Radio operating software.

So, of course I didn’t listen in for 24 hours a day, yes I did go and get some sleep but I was pretty glued to the event for the three days that it ran. Echolink is some pretty awesome software that will run on a computer, iPhone, iPod, iPad, and other types of phones. The only thing is, you have to be a licensed Amateur Radio Operator to use it. The video you see above, is just an example of how it works and in this video, I have it running on my iPod. It worked rather well! I’ve also been able to talk with people in England and Australia and have heard people talking on it clear from Russia! It is a pretty nice piece of software especially if you are a new Ham Radio Operator and don’t have much by way of High Frequency (HF) privileges or equipment. So if you are a “New Ham” or even an old experienced Ham Radio Operator, it is worth checking in to this great little piece of software! Go check it out here: http://www.echolink.org/ Well, I’ve been windy enough in this post so I’ll turn off the radio for a bit 😉
73’s, KC9WZF – Tim