Good thing I threw my TV out of the shack…
There is a new series of Big Brother being aired here in Flanders…
Do they even find people to watch these things? Can’t blame those playing in it, they all try to get rich and famous. [sigh]
Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe. (Albert Einstein)
Back to the K2 this weekend!
Exactly 20 years ago, on 6 March 1987, the roll on/roll off passenger ferry Herald of Free Enterprise left the Zeebrugge harbour to set course to Dover. Only a few minutes after its departure and due to a combined number of human errors the ship capsized. 153 passengers and 38 crew lost their lives, most inside the ship from hypothermia in the freezing water. This was the biggest non-wartime shipdisaster since Titanic in 1912.
Many lessons have been learned but one lesson seems to have been forgotten… Soon after the disaster got known to the public, normal (telephone-)communications got congested and became inpossible. But HAM’s were there to take over. Soon a network of radio amateur stations was set up under the lead of Claude ON7TK (who later received the ‘Golden Antenna‘ from DNAT and the city of Bad Bentheim).
Today, 20 years later, there doesn’t seem to be any organised network of (trained) radioamateurs to do this kind of tasks anymore. Yes, the Rode Kruis Noodnet (Red Cross Emergency network) still has a website but I don’t know of any radioamateurs in my region that are currently active in it.
During my activities in car rallies I am regularly in touch with Red Cross people of different ranks and they all seem persuaded that their communications systems can handle every possible disaster… [sigh]. For them, us radio-amateurs are only, as the name says, ‘amateurs’ or, translated, children with expensive toys. Certainly, we have come to the 21st century and soon in our country there will probably be more cell-phones (with dodgy ringtones) than people. We have satellite communications, we have trunking etc. But most people don’t realise that the bandwith on those networks is limited.
Of course we don’t regularly have any typhoons or tsunamis or earthquakes in our region, but is this an excuse not to be prepared?
Some of you smart guys will reply:”But we participate in field day twice a year, that is an emergency exercise!” Maybe it is, if you can call running around for 2 weekends to get all needed gear ready (not to forget the barbecue!) being prepared…
And you, are you ready? Or, like most people I know, don’t you even have a working flashlight anywhere in your home?
HAM RADIO IS THE ONLY FAIL SAFE COMMUNICATION SYSTEM IN THE WORLD! but only us HAM’s seem to know it…
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I have been looking into my K2-problem over and over and I can’t seem to find anything wrong. As I haven’t got the time nor the courage to take out and rewind the toroids I decided to order them ready made from the ToroidGuy. And, pleasant surprise, turnaround of this order is only 5 days!!! Ordered last sunday (25 feb.) the package arrived this morning! Thanks Mychael!
Now I’ll have to find the time to install them…
To be continued!
Have I mentioned the great blogs of Peter ON6TT? They can be found here in English and in Dutch
For those of you who don’t know Peter (you must have lived on Mars for the last 15 years…), Peter is a honorary member of the UBA (he was the guy who lobbied to get the Belgian contest stations 2 KW
and 2 by 1 callsigns).
During the last 15 years he was active from more DX-countries than most of us can ever dream of.
Moreover listening to Peter handling the pileups from yet another rare location is a joy to the ear.
Added the little utility you can see on the bottom of the left hand side column. Just as an experiment. It’s free for now and I don’t see any ads (yet).
If you haven’t made any arrangements to go to The Ham Radio in Friedrichshafen yet, the time is coming! Dates this year are June 22 to 24!Changed my contact adress. If you have your own domain name you should use it shouldn’t you? As of today my email address is [callsign]@[callsign].be, where [callsign] is MY callsign (of course). This is to prevent spambots from stealing it and using it to send spam to me later. I get more than enough spam already. For those of you who don’t understand (the non-HAM’s supposedly), you can also contact me via the form at the left hand side of every page.
And before one of you smart guys makes the remark, yes Thunderbird filters the spam very well. But the email client on my PocketPC doesn’t filter it at all… (Yes, Bill Gates again).
In a few weeks from now the old @KTK.BE address will cease to exist.
Not much new to mention here but something is bothering me… We all know that Thunderbird is probably the best e-mail client around. But does anyone know how I can get rid of this junk in incoming e-mails?
Comments:
So what’s stopping me? Maybe the fact that I have a business to run? Maybe the fact that I want to finish that K2 and get on the air again? Maybe the fact that I still have to finish decorating my house? Or maybe it is the fact that my father would like to have grandchildren before he turns 90?
Yes you understand, as for everyone my time is limited and as learning to use a new operating system takes some time (well a lot I guess), I’d better not get yet another project started…