Category: army

Spy Radio: AN/PRC-64

Richard Fisher, KI6SN, had a post back in August 2009 that talked about an interesting transceiver that was in use by the military in the 1960s and 1970s: the AN/PRC-64. The radio is crystal controlled, limited to four channels between 2.2 to 6.0 MHz, has a max output of 5W for CW and 1W for AM PHONE. Its distinguishing factor is the rigs small form factor: 9.8 x 5.1 x 4.7 in.

What really makes this a spy rig is its ability to be paired with another device: the AN/GRA-71. The AN/GRA-71 is a burst encoder. The encoder allows the transmission of CW messages of speeds up to 300 wpm… some serious QRQ.

A government evaluation report on the radio concluded, based on tests conducted in Vietnam supporting Special Forces teams, that the radio had an effective range while operating in CW mode of between 40 and 300 miles. I imagine with both the power output and frequency range (and assuming the use of a field expedient wire antenna) the radios were not normally used for long haul communications… probably more like a range of not more than 75 miles.

10M?

Last week was busy – I spent the whole time down in Seoul attending meeting after meeting with my evenings spent on a bunk bed in a communal room (trying to save a little cash for Uncle Sam). The week was productive, but tiring. The main US military garrison in Seoul, Yongsan, has a lot of amenities that you will not find up at my camp. I got to enjoy many of the various restaurants located there as well as venturing off into Seoul itself, located just outside the gates. Two key finds in Seoul: a restaurant that serves American Chinese food and an Irish pub that serves Guinness from the tap. I enjoy Korean food quite a bit, but also like a variety. Most people know that Chinese food in the US does not come close to resembling the actual cuisine of China… and I have no problem with that. Serve me up some Orange Chicken or General Tsao and I am a happy man. Top it off with a fresh pint of Guinness… now you’re talking.

However, by Saturday morning I was still tired and unmotivated to put up my Buddipole… despite the lure of the 10M contest. I did have a QSO with my dad via EchoLink. He used an app on his Android cell phone and connected through my EchoIRLP node (EchoLink Node #496698 and IRLP Node #3370). My friend brought by some freshly made Hotteok. These pancakes are delicious and I enjoyed them while they were still hot with some coffee. Still wasn’t motivated to put up the Buddipole.

Sunday – the Buddipole went up. A 10M dipole with the Buddipole consists of only the 9.5ft whips on either side of the VersaTee. 10M was not really cooperating. In all I had only nine contacts: Australia, Malaysia, The Philippines, and Guam. Surprisingly, I only heard one JA and he couldn’t hear me. No stations from Asiatic Russia either.

After sunset, I switched the antenna from a 10M dipole to a 40M vertical. I thought I might look for some JA stations to practice my CW. I have yet to understand how the JA’s use 40M. The JAs can use phone down to 7.030 MHz. This compacts the CW to between 7.000 and 7.030 MHz. PSK-31 is suppose to be around 7.038, but I have never seen any PSK-31 traffic on 40M over here. I must be looking in the wrong place. Shortwave stations still come in at 7.100 MHz and above. So after sunset, all the 40M action is wedged between 7.000 and 7.100 MHz. So far I have not found any one band location where the QRS folks hang out (like the old Novice band in the US). Maybe with a bit more listening I can crack the code on how the JAs manage 40M.

As for the HLs… I’ve only heard two on the air. Where are all the HLs?

Here’s the good news… cue Bing Crosby… I am heading back to Kansas for leave this coming Friday! Christmas at home with the XYL and harmonics!!

Army Ham in Space!

Army Colonel Doug Wheelock, KF5BOC, has put together an awesome YouTube video of himself making contacts over North America prefaced by a tour of the International Space Station. He has just successfully returned to Earth. Welcome Home, Sir!

Makes you want to go right out and get an Arrow II.

NA1SS VOICE FREQUENCY (region 1).
Region 1 = Europe * Middle East * Africa * North-Asia
RXdownlink: 145.800Mhz (FM).
TXuplink: 145.200Mhz (FM).
—————————————————————————–
NA1SS VOICE FREQUENCY (region 2 & 3).
North and South America * Caribbean * Greenland
South Asia * Australia * New Zealand * Oceania
RXdownlink: 145.800Mhz (FM).
TXuplink: 144.490Mhz (FM).

On these links you can see the ISS position:
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/tracking/index.html
http://space.cweb.nl/space3d_iss_globe_xp107.html

On this link you can see ISS crew’s work and sleep times:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/timelines/

Hamfest: Lufkin, TX

I recently took a trip back to the states to attend an exercise at Fort Hood, Texas. I arrived a day early and had a free Saturday. Checking the ARRL website for nearby hamfests, I saw that there was one scheduled in town of Lufkin. Early Saturday morning I hoped in my rental car and sped east along Texas Hwy 7. I arrived around 10am. The hamfest was held at a church and I parked in the front lot along with a healthy population of vehicles bristling with antenna.

Making my way to the rear entrance of the church building, I saw that there was a small group of tailgaters with their wares out. I headed inside to the entrance table where I was told there was no charge to attend. Excellent! Now, this wasn’t a huge hamfest – but what it lacked in size, it made up in spirit and the friendliness of the local hams.

I perused the tables inside, arrayed around an indoor basketball court, not seeing anything that immediately caught my eye. Then again, I really wasn’t in the market for anything. There was a MARS booth – which impressed me that they would be present at a small event like this. In one corner the hamfest organizers were selling Lufkin Hamfest t-shirts. I scooped one of those up. Next I ran across some late 1990s issues of QRPp, the journal of the Northern California QRP Club, which I picked up for 50 cents each.

I always enjoy cruising the parking lot at a hamfest to see the variety of mobile installations. I had never seen such a large HF antenna mounted on a sedan before. The antenna mount was rock solid and I imagine this ham enjoys his mobile HF QSOs.

Buddipole to the rescue

Spinning & Grinning has been quiet for too long. Life here in Korea has been really quite busy. But I can’t complain about the commute, with my quarters only a short three minute hike to the bunker where I work. I don’t go off the camp here nearly as much as I should. By the time I get to my room after work, I am usually just too tired to make the effort. Summers in Korea are HOT. Not Iraq hot, but more of a Georgia heat… with all the humidity. I don’t have a car here, so all my movement is on foot and using public transit. The summer made it fairly uncomfortable to go out and explore. Now the summer is gone and the weather is just right, in my opinion.

My quarters here in Korea are not conducive for amateur radio operations. There are low-lying power lines everywhere and not many trees. It is also impossible to establish a permanent feedline exiting my room as there is no existing access and I can’t drill a hole through the wall without incurring the wrath of the garrison commander.

The answer: the Buddipole. I’ve read NE1RD’s blog on his 100lbs DXpedition and am well acquainted with the virtues of the Buddipole. With a Buddipole, I would be able to quickly set up and take down an antenna that would let me get on the HF bands. For a feedline, I would be able to support a short run out of my window and out to the Buddipole that would have to be located nearby.

Coinciding with the CQ WW DX Contest, I decided to set up the Buddipole and give it a try. I’ve used Hamstick dipoles before without much success. I didn’t have high hopes for the Buddipole, simply for the fact that it is a compromise antenna and I had it set up right next to a three story building. I should have had much more confidence. When I fired up the rig, 20M was alive with activity and I had a 1:1.0 SWR. It was a great feeling to be behind the mike again and I enjoyed logging the contacts.

Now I need to go get some QSL cards printed up for HL2/AD7MI.

4th of July

I have been here in Korea for just over two weeks and am settling in at Camp Red Cloud, located north of Seoul. I think I’ve done a poor job in the blog of laying out the last month and half in which there has obviously been some significant changes in what I am doing.

On May 20th, I graduated from the School of Advanced Military Studies, culminating my two years at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, knee deep in graduate-level text books and Army field manuals. One of the requirements for graduation was to write a monograph on a military subject. I choose to write on the early history of MARS prior to World War II, when it was known as the Army Amateur Radio System (AARS). During this years Hamvention at Dayton, I had the opportunity to present the paper and I am pretty happy on how it all came together. No significant research had ever been done on early MARS history so I spent the majority of my research combing through primary sources and even conducting a few interviews with the few remaining former members of the AARS. If you have an interest in MARS, the history of radio in the Army, or the origins and organization of radio emergency communications, the paper is available here at no cost. One facet to the history of the AARS that I found intriguing was the relationship that grew between the AARS and the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression. The ARRL recently posted a short article I wrote on the subject and you can see it here if you are interested.

My assignment following school was to Korea with the 2nd Infantry Division. To actually get there, I elected to take a less typical means of transportation for part of the journey. I decided to take Amtrak from Kansas City to Seattle, where I would board a government contract flight to Seoul. I had ridden trains quite a bit in Europe, but never had taken a train for more than a short distance in the United States. I had also recently read Waiting on a Train: The Embattled Future of Passenger Rail Service, A Year Spent Riding Across America by James McCommons. If you are interested in passenger rail travel, enjoy a good road trip, or would like to know why train travel fell victim to the car culture, you will enjoy this book. The author, James McCommons, travels all the primary Amtrak routes (with mixed experiences) and talks with US rail movers and shakers around the country. Overall, he said Amtrak was good and getting better. I decided to see for myself.

One of the countries more historic and picturesque routes is that travelled by the California Zephyr. Originating in Chicago, the train traces its way west, climbing through the Rockies west of Denver and on to the Sierra Nevada’s an into California, terminating near San Francisco. My folks still live where I grew up near San Jose, so California was great for a stop over. I could then take Amtrak’s Coast Starlight from San Jose through Northern California, central Oregon through Eugene and Portland, then on to Seattle.

The train ride west was wonderful and I did write a post about it. The stop over in California was a lot of fun. Arriving during the early evening of Thursday, June 10th, I was able to get some sleep and meet my dad for some QRP portable field operations. We headed up to the Santa Cruz Mountains, above Saratoga, strung up a 40m dipole and had fun playing with my FT-817 and KX1. Although we didn’t achieve any great DX contacts, it was a great time. Saturday morning we headed over to a local monthly hamfest known as the Electronics Flea Market @ De Anza College. De Anza College is a little known junior college which has overseen the growth of Silicon Valley. Although I did not find anything I couldn’t live without, I enjoyed roaming around and seeing what the vendors had.

Before lunch, we headed over to the Computer History Museum in Mountain View. Founded in 1999, the museum opened long after I had left the Bay Area. Very cool museum!

Then it was back to the train station in San Jose and I hopped on the Coast Starlight and headed north. The train ride was relaxing with some amazing scenery.

I spent Sunday night in Seattle and caught a shuttle bus on Monday to SEATAC. Flying with AMC can be an experience and differs from a commercial flight. The AMC counter was located at the far end of the international terminal and I joined a long line of guys with short haircuts and heavy, canvas green bags. Although I had to check in at 7:00pm, the flight wasn’t scheduled to board until 1am. They didn’t pack the flight, so there was a little elbow room. Instead of flying directly to Korea, our route would take us to Anchorage, followed by Yakota (near Tokyo) and then Osan Airbase in Korea. We got to Anchorage, deplaned for fueling, reboarded and then sat for three hours. Apparently the weather was bad over Japan, so we were held over for about 24 hours in Anchorage. I had been stationed in Alaska during 1993-1994 and it was nice to see that midnight sun again (sunset at 11:30pm with sunrise at 4:30am).

From Anchorage to Japan with a short layover and then on to Korea. The rest of the story is here.

And on the amateur radio side of things… My equipment is here. I shipped over my Icom IC-7000 for HF and a Kenwood TM-D710A to use with my EchoIRLP node. Also on the way is a Davis Vantage Vue weather station that I hope to get on line and on APRS. I need to get my Korean license and have all the necessary paperwork. Just need to get it turned in now. There is a monthly hamfest in Seoul next Sunday that I am going to try an attend – that should be an experience and I will have to bring my camera.

Have you been enjoying Jeff’s new podcast at KE9V.net? Cornbread Road is a Jeff at his best, weaving a tale of mystery and amateur radio in the heartland.

I will endeavor to keep my blog up to date with posts about my experiences here in Korea.

Korea Arrival


I arrived on Thursday, June 17th, to Osan. Osan hosts a major air base and is about an hour south of Seoul. It was a fairly straight forward process of working through Korean customs, despite the long line. I grabbed my bags and was directed to a bus. We were transported up to Yongsan, the hub of US military presence in South Korea and located in Seoul. After some initial inprocessing I headed over to the Dragon Hill Lodge. The Dragon Hill is a really nice resort/hotel run by the US military, similar to ones located in Hawaii and Germany.

I was able to do a load of laundry, buy a towel (I’d forgot to pack one!), check email, and do a webcam Skype call back home. I tried staying up until 9pm, with the time change really working it’s evil. I woke up around 3am, ready to go… but with nowhere to go. The gym opened at 4:30am, which allowed me to get in a workout. Friday’s inprocessing was to be conducted in civilian attire – unusual but I wasn’t complaining. Like most inprocessing, it dragged quite a bit. Those of us leaving Yongsan and heading up to 2nd Infantry Division-land were herded onto a bus and transported up to Camp Stanley, less than an hour north of Seoul. Driving through Seoul is a reminder of the duality of Korea. Seoul is a super modern city with everything you could think of. But it doesn’t take too far of a trip until you reach areas that could easily be considered third world.

Camp Stanley is a small installation, maybe half mile by half mile square. It serves as the inprocessing location for all 2ID soldiers. Here our records our updated, equipment is issued, and everything is done to prepare a recently arrived soldier to be integrated into his unit, ready to get to work. However, it is a Monday through Friday schedule. Upon our arrival we received a general briefing covering the Do’s and Don’ts, issued rooms and bed linen (no towel – but I had bought mine earlier), and we settled in for the weekend. Restricted to the camp while we inprocess, there are all the basics amenities located within short walking distance: Post Exchange (PX – like a small department store), Commissary (the military’s grocery store which stocks just about everything you could get stateside), a food court, community activities center (like a rec center; pool tables, TV, video games, and free wifi), gym, and library (also with free wifi).

I’ve considered pulling my FT-817 out to see what I can hear, but think I will wait until I arrive at my final destination, which should be sometime next week.

DXpedition to the Land of the Morning Calm


It has been almost two years of having my nose buried in the books. The school work had a significant impact on my time for radio (school as well as the addition of a new harmonic just over a year ago). Other than last year’s field day, I have not been on the air that much.

My next assignment is in South Korea and I hope to have a little bit more time on the air while I am there. The process for getting an amateur radio license for South Korea is pretty straight forward. What I don’t know at this point is what my housing conditions will be like and how that will impact my ability to get an antenna up. Worse case will see me putting up an antenna for temporary/portable operations. Ideally I’ll get a dipole up or maybe even a mini-beam like I had in Iraq. The plan is to also get up an APRS weather station and I will bring along my embedded EchoIRLP node.

If my job allows, I will try and operate a MARS station in Korea. When I was in Korea during the early ’90s, there was a pretty active MARS station down in Seoul, but I have heard that lately MARS activity has diminished a bit in Korea. There is a long history of US servicemen operating on the amateur radio bands while serving in Korea. An interesting story of ham servicemen playing an early role with Korea goes back to the Korean War. Take a look at the March 1951 QST on Pg. 40 for “Hams Aid Korean War Effort” [it is available for download by ARRL members]. Looks like there is also an interesting book called SOS Korea 1950 that I will have to get. During the war and for a while afterwards, South Korea prohibited amateur radio operations. After South Korea came back on the air, they have made it relatively easy for US servicemen to operate.

Now I have to draw up my packing list of what to take. I am limited to the amount of gear I can take with me for my year-long tour, so I need to plan carefully.

The Dayton Hamvention…. through the eyes of a first timer

This was my first ever attendance of the Dayton Hamvention and it was an awesome experience.

I began planning the trip back in February and thought it would be great to attend as well as convince my dad to come out from California so we could enjoy it together, as he had never attended either. Due to commitments at school, I could not get to Dayton until Friday in the late afternoon, too late to take advantage of the opening day. As I drove my rental car away from the airport, I started to see all the ham-laden vehicles, dripping with antennas and sporting callsign license plates. Linking up with my dad at the hotel, we headed to Smokey Bones for dinner and a chance to strategize our plan for Saturday.

Our hotel rooms included the free breakfast (which was actually pretty good) and started serving at 7am. We quickly polished off our meals and headed to the shuttle bus parking lot at the old Salemn Mall behind Sears. Arriving at 7:30am, only a few dozens cars had filled the parking lot, but a line off modern green city transit buses awaited eager hams looking to make their way to Hara Arena. I’d ordered both of our tickets and bus passes ahead of time and we proceeded to the first bus in line with our Hamvention programs. Flipping through I eyed the forum’s listing and saw that my name was there for my presentation on the history of the Army Amateur Radio System. I hadn’t told my dad I was presenting, so I asked him to look on page 43 and tell me if that program looked interesting. His eyes got a bit big and he said, “That’s you! No wonder you were interested in attending the MARS forum.” I was glad I was able to pull off my surprise.

The bus dropped us off at the entrance to the flea market with about 20 minutes prior to the gate opening. I was immediately struck by the massive size of this event, the hard planning that went into its orchestration, and the army of folks running it. Through my entire experience at the Hamvention, those individuals who made everything happen were professional, competent, and made the entire visit that much better.

As we made our way into the flea market, the hardest decision became where to start. We began wandering around the various rows taking in the immensity of the outside vendors. A few of the stalls actually resembled my basement collection of radio gear and I was reminded once again I need to complete some long delayed Spring cleaning. I wasn’t in the market for anything, I just wanted to poke around and see what was there. I truly believe that if what you need isn’t being sold at the flea market, then you probably don’t need it. I also have an idea for a kind of amateur radio triathlon. It would work as follows: (1) Interested hams would be presented schematics for a monoband HF transceiver once they arrived at the flea market entrance, which would start their time; (2) The hams would then have scour the flea market for all the requisite pieces and parts (including an antenna); (3) Next, the hams would assemble their rigs a solder station tent; (4) … and then move to an open area to erect their antenna and make a contact; (4) Scores would be determined for speed in accumulation of parts and building, least amount of money spent for parts, and the overall aesthetic presentation of the rig built. There would have to be different classes of competitors: those moving under the power of their own two legs, the scooter crowd, and the golf cart folks.

After getting a feel for the flea market, we headed for the main indoor arena to see what was what. The place was packed and it was hard to move around.

We soon moved to one of the side halls and began to cruise the indoor vendors. The Begali stall, in my opinion, was the coolest. Elecraft was packed three deep. Dad had to rest his heels for a bit while I cruised around and saw the Wire Man, Davis Instruments, the ARRL’s spread, Tarheel, and even the Linux in the Ham Shack folks… who were also swarmed with folks. Dad needed a breather and it sounded like a good opportunity for lunch. As a forum speaker, I got a parking pass for the front lot, so with a quick ride to back on the shuttle, I was able to retrieve the rental car, pick up Dad, and head out for lunch. For me, the Hamvention was a marathon, not a sprint… so we were setting a good pace.

After lunch, I was able to change into a bit more respectable clothes for my upcoming forum presentation back at the hotel and then we headed back, taking advantage of the parking pass access to the front lot. On our way back in we passed the HFPack crowd, sporting their radios and posing for pics. What a great looking group!

Prior to the MARS forum was a gentleman talking about his SSTV setup. Incredible! He operates SSTV while mobile with an elaborate setup that combines APRS with SSTV. His entire installation was top notch and extremely professional.

The MARS forum was well attended. MAJ Ron Jakubowski chaired the event and it began with an overview by each of the services MARS chief. I then had the opportunity to give my presentation on the history of the Army Amateur Radio System. I was followed by Jim Aylward who gave an awesome brief on how MARS can best posture itself for its future role of providing emergency communications. He also gave an excellent overview of his Go Kit and had some great overall suggestions for tips and techniques to use in the field. After the forum I had the opportunity to talk with some of the audience and then I turned and saw Jeff Hammer! I’d last seen Jeff in Taji, Iraq in 2008 as I was packing up to head home and he was just arriving. I handed over to Jeff the Baghdad Amateur Radio Society’s footlocker of equipment and my Cushcraft MA5B mini-beam. Jeff is a true MARS professional, having set up the first MARS station in Afghanistan back in 2004. After I left Iraq, Jeff continued to push the capabilities of MARS in Iraq as well as showing some of his fellow soldiers the excitement of operating a DX station on the amateur bands.

After the forums for Saturday, Hara started to clear out and my dad and I followed suit. We enjoyed a nice dinner at the Olive Garden near our hotel and then settled down for a good night’s sleep.

Sunday morning we were up, breakfasted, checked-out, and back in action. I cruised what was left of the outdoor flea market. There really wasn’t too much left but I enjoyed poking around what was there. I picked up an old Signal Corps field manual covering techniques for field operations that looked interesting. Then I saw the 2600 van! A gentleman nearby said that they had been selling a high-end energy drink and he observed that the 2600 guys were pretty weird looking – which is saying something for the hamvention crowd. On Sunday, those who were scooter-bound seemed to obey no speed limits as they used the thinning of crowds to dart from seller to seller.

At 9:00am I moved inside. The crowds were much thinner and I could actually move around. My dad headed to the forums to hear Dan Van Hoy talk about his adventures of hamming in Hong Kong. I hit the main arena: Icom, Kenwood, MFJ, Buddipole, and Idiom Press were my favorites. Buddipole was selling a book by B. Scott Andersen, NE1RD on his use of the Buddipole in pursuit of his 100lbs DXpeditions. Kenwood had a D710 hooked up and I was able to see my APRS icon (I was walking around with my VX-8GR strapped to my backpack, emitting a low-watt APRS beacon).

Over in the side hall I was finally able to get close to Elecraft. I talked to the Turbo Tuner guy about a few problems I’ve been having with my mobile ops. I picked up my obligatory free Yaesu ball cap and took in their impressive display of rigs. I bought the Wireman’s book, which is a treasure trove of knowledge. From the ARRL area, I scored a 2010 Hamvention button and saw that they were starting to tear stuff down. I got to talk to the Linux in the Ham Shack guru Richard, K5TUX.

Over in the adjacent hall was Pietro Begali, I2RTF, and his daughter with perhaps the coolest booth. Pietro was chatting with everybody and having a great time.

I made my way back to the forum rooms and found my dad as well as catching the end of Dan Van Hoy’s adventures in Hong Kong. When he was complete, we worked our way to room number one to hear Jim Stafford, W4QO, Wes Lamboley, W3WL and Hal Kennedy, N4GG. These gentlemen had, far and away, the coolest presentation at the hamvention. They had a spark gap transmitter! That actually worked! Before the team demonstrated the transmitter, they gave a great brief on the early history of amateur radio. Then they truly electrified the crowd with “Blue Lightening”, the spark gap device. At the end, they allowed folks from the audience to come up and send their calls – but only after a long safety brief.

And that was it. We had a nice lunch and made our way to the Dayton Airport to head back home.

Overall – What an experience! My dad and I had a wonderful time. I don’t know when conditions will allow me to attend again, but I hope it is soon. If you have never been, I encourage you to go next year. Just to take in the sights, it is worth the trip.