Senator Ted Cruz Praises Amateur Radio Volunteers for Emergency Preparedness

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Senator Ted Cruz Praises Amateur Radio Volunteers for Emergency Preparedness

Senator Ted Cruz, in a strong pre-Memorial Day message, publicly highlighted the critical role that Amateur Radio Service volunteers play during disasters, praising and thanking ham radio operators who provide essential communications when storms and emergencies knock out power and cellular networks and communities are cut off. Sen. Cruz observed that in these emergencies, it is ham radio operators who step forward, bringing with them the tools, expertise, and commitment to reconnect people when it matters most. He noted this dedication was clearly demonstrated in 2017 when Hurricane Harvey’s catastrophic flooding devastated communities across Texas, and that it was demonstrated again more recently in the horrific Camp Mystic floods. He emphasised that as the Nation prepares for yet another summer storm season, ham radio’s role remains just as vital as ever.

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Project Pursues Mysteries of Sporadic E-Skip

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Loyd Van Horn, W4LVH, is a fan of mysteries, and there are perhaps few ham radio mysteries greater than that of Sporadic E-skip, which makes its appearance on VHF in the Northern Hemisphere every year at about this time.

Loyd is the force behind DX Central, a resource for DXers that does, among many things, data analysis. This month, he unveiled SEDAP, an acronym for his Sporadic Es Data Analysis Project. It can be found at fmdxdata.com and is free to use by hams, educators and anyone with a hobbyist's interest in this special season that turns propagation magical in the eyes of many.

He compiled more than 95,000 FM broadcast logs from North America to get the data relevant for the project, which goes beyond simple spreadsheets by adding interactive visualisations.

“SEDAP allows us to physically watch ionospheric clouds spawn, compress and track across the continent in real-time. We can finally see what a typical season looks like on a macroscopic level.”
— Loyd Van Horn, W4LVH

Loyd Van Horn also plans to include amateur radio data from 6 metres. He said that will permit analysis of days that had no propagation alongside days with active openings - days on which the maximum usable frequency did not reach the FM broadcast band.

Open-Source Software Modem Called a Vara Replacement

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Developers have announced the release of Mercury, an open-source software modem that they are calling a replacement for Vara. Mercury is a digital radio OFDM protocol, which can be used for HF broadcast and peer-to-peer ARQ connections with compatible TCP interfaces.

According to Peter Bloom, general coordinator of the developer Rhizomatica, Mercury is compatible with Windows, Linux and several non-Intel architectures. 

“... the newest element of Rhizomatica’s HERMES software suite, it is built for reliable store-and-forward email and file transfer over HF radio links. He said it is compatible with most HF transceivers, and it complies with ham radio use. ”
— Peter Bloom, General Coordinator of the developer Rhizomatica

The project coordinator is  Rafael Diniz, PU2UIT. 

He said that Mercury has a number of advantages over Vara, including improved performance over high-SNR links.

There is no license fee.

More Information - https://www.rhizomatica.org