Posts Made By: Ron Hranac

It's my understanding that license restructuring is now in the hands of the FCC, which has taken no action to date. ARRL's activity in the BPL arena is not related to what the FCC is doing in its review of the various proposals received.

As for amateur radio, it will still be here a few years from now.

73,
Ron
N0IVN

A reminder to those in Colorado this weekend. Tonight (Saturday, April 16) is Denver Astronomical Society's monthly open house at Observatory Park on the University of Denver Campus. The historic Chamberlin Observatory and its 20-inch Alvan Clark refractor will be open to the public, and DAS members will have telescopes set up in the park next to the observatory building. Observing activities are slated to begin around local sunset.

More information about the open house and how to find the observatory are available on DAS's Web site:

http://www.denverastrosociety.org/openhouses.html

Ron

Hi Mike,
I have a Tak TOA-130, and use a Tele Vue Bino Vue with it on occasion. The TV bino includes a 2x amplifier for use with refractors. The eyepieces I use in the Tele Vue bino include a pair of 32mm Plossls, 24mm Panoptics, and 14mm Radians. With the 2x amplifier, the effective focal length of these eyepieces is reduced by half--that is, the 24mm Pans become the equivalent of 12mm, and so on. The 24mm Pans, by the way, produce some stunning views.

At last Saturday night's Denver Astronomical Society monthly open house, I had the binoviewers set up most of the evening for members of the public. Transparency was so-so (it was hazy), and typical city light pollution plus the quarter moon in conjunction with the haziness made the sky pretty much shot for anything but the moon and planets. The air was fairly stable, though, supporting higher magnifications. I ended up using the 14mm Radians most of the evening (equivalent to 7mm in the binoviewer, yielding about 143x magnification, or just under 30x per inch of aperture). Needless to say, views of Jupiter and Saturn were outstanding, and members of the public really liked looking through a telescope using two eyes.

Ron

Saturday, May 14th the Denver Astronomical Society will host its monthly open house at Observatory Park on the University of Denver campus.

This month's open house provides a double-header of sorts: white light and H-alpha solar viewing from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. MDT, plus the usual evening observing starting at twilight.

The historic Chamberlin Observatory and its 20-inch Clark refractor will be open to the public. As well, DAS members will have a variety of telescopes set up in the park next to the observatory building.

DAS's Web site has more information, plus directions to the Observatory.

http://www.thedas.org/

Ron

Hi Bill,
I belong to Colorado's D-24 ARES group (Douglas & Elbert counties). We have a generally good relationship with the Douglas County Sheriff's Office--one of our served agencies--plus the Salvation Army, among others. Politics do sometimes get in the way, but for the most part our assistance is well-received.

Perhaps a bigger issue is when a changing of the guard occurs--for instance, after a new sheriff is elected. We often have to start from scratch educating the new powers-that-be about who we are, what we do, our capabilities, and the nature of the relationship.

73,
Ron (N0IVN)

This Saturday, June 11th, the Denver Astronomical Society will host its June open house at Observatory Park on the University of Denver campus. The historic Chamberlin Observatory and its 20-inch Clark refractor telescope will be open to the public. DAS members will have a variety of telescopes set up on the lawn next to the observatory building for public viewing, too. Activities get underway at dusk.

If you're in Colorado this weekend, make plans for an evening of stargazing, looking at Jupiter, the moon and other night sky objects.

http://www.thedas.org/chamberlin.html

Ron

No e-bay posts or links allowed...sorry, your post had to be deleted.

Ron

Amazing how well that old ham radio technology works. Thanks for sharing, Bill.

73,
Ron

This Saturday the 13th the Denver Astronomical Society will host its August open house at Observatory Park on the University of Denver campus. The historic Chamberlin Observatory and its 20-inch Clark refractor telescope will be open to the public. DAS members will have a variety of telescopes set up on the park’s lawn next to the observatory building for public viewing, too. Activities get underway at dusk.

This is a great family activity, so if the weather cooperates make plans for an evening of stargazing, looking at Jupiter, the first quarter moon and other night sky objects.

http://www.thedas.org/chamberlin.html

Observatory Park is fairly easy to find. Take I-25 to Evans, go west on Evans to Fillmore St. (about four blocks east of University Blvd.), turn south on Fillmore, and go about a block and a half. You’ll see the Chamberlin Observatory building in the park, near Warren & Fillmore. DAS members generally have telescopes set up on the south & southwest side of the observatory building.

Ron

Hurricane Katrina took out electricity, telephone (landline and cellular), radio and TV stations, water, Internet & e-mail. With the exception of satellite phones and sporadic landline phone service, traditional communications is largely unavailable.

This past week I was contacted by a number of folks looking for ways to use ham radio to communicate with family or friends in the affected areas. I've been referring them to SATERN's Web site (more below).

Ham radio has been providing health & welfare as well as emergency communications during the aftermath of Katrina, as is often the case when disaster strikes. "When nothing else works, ham radio still gets through" has proven to be more than true.

SATERN (Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio Network) is a partnership between Salvation Army and amateur radio. Its Web site at www.satern.org includes an on-line form where one can register traffic (messages) to be relayed via ham radio. SATERN has activated an emergency communications net on 14.265 MHz.

Red Cross recently announced an on-line family links registry where you can register yourself, a missing loved one, or view the existing list: www.redcross.org.

The American Radio Relay League's Web site (www.arrl.org) has published some information and stories about ham radio's role in providing communications related to Katrina.

73,
Ron Hranac, N0IVN