Eric June, KU6J - Silent Key

Eric June, KU6J, who was an active SOTA activator, chaser, programmer and mapper has become Silent Key, passing away unexpectedly on 8th January 2016.

Eric was active across North America in the SOTA organisations, and was a involved in the final summits lists for the W6 SOTA Association.

Eric KU6J originally got into ham radio with a Technician no code license as an adult because he was into hang gliding and utilised 2 meters with other hang glider pilots and their ground crew. Eric later got into CW, upgraded to extra and was an excellent CW op on the HF bands, as well as on the VHF weak signal modes.

Eric used his professional software writing skills to write programs to interface the SOTA activations to the CW Reverse Beacon Network, which change the process of SOTA CW activations.

The ICQ Amateur / Ham Radio Podcast wishes to pass on their condolences to Eric’s wife Tamar, and their family.

Realtime Band Conditions Website

The purpose of a new experimental Web site is to provide actual realtime band condition information to CW QRPp, QRPe and CW/SSB for Contesters interested in increasing their scores.

It can also be of benefit to other Radio Amateurs to determine band conditions for Nets and casual QSO's.

This information is NOT based on any software predictions or any kind of satellite based readings. It is based on a new Ionospheric sounding method called "HF Ionospheric Interferometry" which operates very similarly to the PolSAR system used by NASA.

More information - http://www.bandconditions.com

Australian Radio Ham Celebrates 105 years

Believed to be the oldest active radio amateur in Australia, Darcy Hancock VK5RJ recently celebrated his 105th birthday.

This great milestone at an Adelaide hotel was with family and friends including two great grand-children.

We learn that Darcy is still having regular contacts with the group on 80 metres in the mornings and afternoons on most days.