How to track Hurricane Irene Live in New York?

Posted on August 28, 2011 by f1jxq

Severals kind of services are available online to track Hurricane Irene, which is the first of the 2011 hurricane season in the Atlantic.

For the first time also, the City of New York had to be ordered a mandatory evacuation of the city for 370 000 people. In the East Coast of the United States, nearly 1 million people have had to be evacuated. Hurricane Irene has a diameter of about 820 km, the equivalent of almost 1/3 third of the total length of the U.S. east coast.

LiveStream Hurricane Irene

A special livestream of Hurricane Irene live broadcast from Manhattan:

Continue reading →

Posted in Ham Radio Weather | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Following Hurricane Irene in New York with Google Maps in real time

Posted on August 26, 2011 by Passion-Radio

Because Hurricane Irene heads up the eastern seaboard and New York, where 250,000 people were evacuated due, Google Maps is providing update of its service real-time tracking of storms, as well as forecastsof rain and hurricanes impacts.

google-maps-hurricane-irene-2011
Click to open full size.

The service is available in the Google Crisis Response project, already used in the past for example for the earthquake in Haiti, and available here: http://crisislanding.appspot.com/

You can also check the new Google Maps Weather Forceast services :

google-maps-weather-ireneAvailable here.

Posted in Ham Radio Weather | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Morse Decoder: Android phone apps to decode morse code

Posted on June 18, 2011 by f1jxq

morse-decoder-android phoneMorse Decoder is an Android phone apps to decodes Morse code characters through the built-in microphone of your Android phone.

Morse Decoder can be used by Ham Radio operators or anyone else interested in decoding Morse code from a Radio or any other device.

Morse Decoder includes a “waterfall” to show a frequency spectrum of about 50Hz to 2300Hz. A narrow band DSP filter can be set for the frequency of the Morse code tones by tapping the waterfall. The DSP filter is followed by an automatic gain control (AGC) to compensate for changing signal strengths.

The detected signal will be shown as a graph and several algorithms will then detect the speed of the Morse code and convert them into readable text. Speeds of less than 4 Wpm (Words per Minute) to more than 50 Wpm can be decoded.

How to decode morse with a Android phone:

Place your Android phone against the speaker of the radio or the device which transmit the Morse code. If there is a tone present the waterfall will display a blue or white vertical line (As stronger the signal as brighter the line) Slide the red rectangular on top of the vertical line. Even though Morse Decoder uses a 200Hz wide AFC (automatic frequency control) it is recommended to move the slider always on top of the vertical line. It may take several initial characters containing both dots and dashes before the WPM speed estimation acquires the actual Wpm and decodes the characters correctly.

Posted in HAM Radio 2.0, Ham Radio software | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Solar storm & Southern Aurora Lights Alert: The season begins!

Posted on May 29, 2011 by f1jxq

The recent period of low solar activity seems to be over.

Sunspots appear everywhere on the solar disk and one of them the 1226 sunspotactivity shows a very strong, creating a geomagnetic storm on Earth. Solar wind speed 643.2 km / sec, density of 2.4 protons/cm3.

So far, none of these blasts had no effect on the earth, but this is changing as the active region turned toward Earth in the coming days.

This activity allow us these beautiful pictures of Southern Aurora Lights by Ian Stewart via spaceweather.com, aurora australis, seen in Tasmania, Australia May 29, 2011.

southern aurora australis lights australia

DX propgation is back and here to stay from now!

Posted in Ham Radio Weather, Radio Propagation | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Google Earth & Maps: Japan Earthquake & Tsunami pictures before/after

Posted on March 14, 2011 by Passion-Radio

Following the earthquake and devastating tsunami that hurt Japan, Google has worked with satellite imagery provider GeoEye to get the latest pictures of the earthquake and the worst affected areas in Japan.

Here are pictures before and after the earthquake and tsunami, available on Google Earth.

Picture of Yuriage in Natori (Japan)

japan-quake-tsunami-yuriage-natori-japan Continue reading →

Posted in Ham Radio News | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Photos slideshow of Japan Icom Radio Factory Tour

Posted on February 12, 2011 by f1jxq

VA7OJ/AB4OJ, Adam Farson of NSARC radio club did a real good job with a complete photos slideshow and full report of his ICOM radio factory tour in Wakaya Japan the 5 november 2010.

Website of VA7OJ : http://www.ab4oj.com/ – http://members.shaw.ca/farson/ – http://www.qsl.net/icom/

Icom Japan Global Website : http://www.icom.co.jp/world/

Posted in Ham Radio News | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Demographics of americain amateur radio: Who is US ham radio?

Posted on February 6, 2011 by f1jxq

Thanks to studies made before with the TOP 20 amateur radio websites in US, we can know a little more about the ham radio users on Internet.

The following figures are based on analysis of 570,000 unique visitors and 55 million page views, only for the month of December 2010, using Google Ad Planner.

demography-amateur-radio-usGooole says: Ham radio in US is a male at 66% more than 35 years old for 80%, mainly with some college education for 52% and a household income more than 50 000 $ for 59% of them.

Did you reconognize yourself in this description ?

Posted in HAM Radio 2.0, Ham Radio News | Tagged , | 3 Comments

Unrevealed! Top 20 US Amateur Radio 2.0 for Google

Posted on February 5, 2011 by f1jxq

Google launch a number of innovative services, so many that it’s not so easy to follow and know them all, or sometimes to understand the real value or interest.

This may be the case with Google Ad Planner, primarly an online tool to create media plans and advertising on Internet and Google.

So what is the relationship with amateur radio?

Doubleclick / Google Adplanner, lets us know which websites have the more unique visitors, page views, in any given topic, and for ham radio too !

In other words Google knows and reveals “approximate” statistics for any websites or blogs (except those from Google of course) and making more than 2 to 3,000 visitors per day.

This tool provides the first classification, objective and based on the audience of amateur sites in the U.S., here for the month of January 2011.
Continue reading →

Posted in HAM Radio 2.0 | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Clublog : Statistics of amateur radio traffic log online

Posted on February 4, 2011 by f1jxq

clublog

Discovered thanks to the excellent blog of Laurent F1JKJ, Clublog recently published comprehensive statistics based on QSO logs, ordered by HF bands and transmission mode, for over 40 years, from 1970 to 2010 ! Continue reading →

Posted in HAM Radio 2.0, Ham Radio software | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

How to Twitter for hamradio operator

Posted on January 30, 2011 by f1jxq

Twitter? Everyone have heard about it but few hamradio actually use it for real.

Twitter is a microblogging platform, that allow to broadcast a tweet, a short message of 140 characters to share an information.

The platform has proved useful for example during major events, such as Haiti or Tunisia.

For hamradio, the tool can also help to develop new practices and uses.

twitter-radioamateur

Some twitter example of uses for OM

- Follow in real time amateur radio news;
– Subscribe to alert services from DX Cluster;
– Share photos, videos and live impressions during a contest, an activation;
– Tell your friends (followers) your geographical position and send a signal online to indicate his activity on air, in real time;
– Relaying weather alerts, emergency messages, support;
– Etc.

Feel free to share comments about other idea to use Twitter for amateurs radio.

Continue reading →

Posted in HAM Radio 2.0, Ham radio operator | Tagged , | 7 Comments