HamRadioNow

Dick Norton N6AA remains kind of a renegade ARRL Director, part of a minority of Directors who oppose the League policy of muzzeling Directors who disagree with Board decisions. His presentations at ARRL Forums are always more interesting than the average recitation of facts and figures.
This forum doesn’t get into the disputed territory so much, but there are some enlightening moments, as well as the chestnuts about dues, needing more young people… but no one brings up incentive licensing (this may be a first, and if you’ve never heard the term…. good for you!).

We recorded this episode 14 years to the day after HamRadioiNow Episode ONE was released to an unsuspecting public. A hat-tip to that, and we move on.
Our first stop, Gary complains about his newest radio acquisition, a TYT MD UC 390, a waterproof dual-band DMR handheld. The problems: too loud at the lowest volume, and a dim screen (but remember, Gary is slowly going blind).
Then a comment about the previous episode on MARS and its 100 year anniversary, and on to a version of A Ham’s Night Before Christmas, recorded by Ashley Bernard (formerly KC1CPS - license expired). She recorded it back in 2014, apparently unaware that Gary had his own video up a few years earlier. Also unaware that Gary existed, as the poem was performed without credit. But we’re glad she even noticed and took the trouble to record her own version.
Next, hams in eastern Ohio (in the Charleston WV TV market) got on the news for helping out during the big east coast ice storm a few weeks ago. Then a note about the two major Hollywood movies out this year, apparently all about Ham Radio: Hamnet and Tron ARES. We’re looking forward to seeing them. No spoilers, please.
Finally, a look at the radio communications aspect of an NTSB final report on the midair collision between an Army helicopter and a commercial jet in Washington DC last year. There were many contributing factors. Among them was the problem that the ‘copter was on a military channel, and the jet was on the regular aviation frequency, so they couldn’t hear each other.
A YouTube guy who calls himself Captain Steeeve - a recently retired American Airlines pilot - reviewed the incident on his YouTube channel. Gary excerpted the radio-specific comments, but you can see the whole program here. He also talks about the problem with the antique AM radio system used by aviation, and the problem with what hams call ‘doubling’, and pilots call ‘blocking’.

Ya know that 'MARS MOD' you use to jeep your radio so you can talk on GMRS? Well, it's really a thing. MARS, the Military Auxiliary Radio System, turned 100 last year. It's changed some over that time, but it's still all ham radio operators providing public service communications in affiliation with the Army and Air Force. The 'Army guy', Paul English WD8DBY, and the 'Air Force guy', Dave Antry WD9HBA, were at the 2025 Dayton Hamvention®, and they talked to East Coast Host Gary K4AAQ about what MARS is today.
If you’re interested in the history, Gary found this PDF article while he was digging up the QST articles.

Way back in 2015, the World Radio Conference allocated a worldwide ham radio band at 60 Meters. Here in the US we are finally getting that band. A whopping 15 kHz wide, with Phone, RTTY, data and CW permitted, and a whole 9.15 Watts ERP power limit.
Of course, we’ve had 5 descrete ‘channels’ available on 60 for 23 years, initially for USB only, and later adding CW and data modes. One of those channels is in the middle of that new allocation, and it ‘disappears’ into the new band. But we keep the other four, at their cuttent 100 Watts ERP.
In this episode, hosts David W0DHG and Gary K4AAQ (eventually) discuss the details of the new band. Gary reviews some of the history, including several HRN programs tracing the inception and progressof the band. Find the programs in this HamRadioNow Playliston our YouTube channel.
The band becomes available 30 days after the new rules are published in the Federal Register.
Oh, and yeah, Gary had the wrong episode number. We docked his pay.

When you walk in the main gate at the Hamvention, the first exhibit you encounter is an outdoor collection of vehicles outfitted to the gills with ham radio. The banner says 'EmComm Vehicle Display', and some of the vehicles are truely that, sponsored by organizations dedicated to emergency response.
Others have diffeent purposes: contests, rovers, or just the ability to escape a poor home QTH and get to a better operating location, and they are personal projects.
In this episode we'll meet some of the hams responsible for these impressive rolling ham shacks, and take a look at what they've built.
About this episode
Last May, the HamRadioNow Mobile Production Unit (that's Gary K4AAQ, a handheld camera and a couple of wireless mics) shot some TOURS at the Hamvention, which the HRN Editorial Unit (also Gary K4AAQ, using DaVinci Resolve on a 13 year-old Windows PC) promptly edited and posted. The MPU also shot a bunch of interviews at the 'fest, which have been languishing on the editor's hard drive ever since, while life went on. Now, somehow, Gary found a few spare minutes to slap one of those segments together.
There are a bunch more. Apparently Gary could use some encouragement 👏 to spend time slaving over that hot editing computer. Perhaps you can make some comments. Or just tell him to burn the drives🔥 and forget the whole thing 😒. Either way.