by Michael Martens | May 26, 2013 | emcomm
Summer time usually gets pretty active in the life of an emergency communications volunteer. When we don’t have severe weather to capture our attention, we are out volunteering our services as communicators for community events. One such event I help out with is...
by Michael Martens | May 20, 2013 | MURS
Growing up in the country we had a long, wooded driveway. You’d never know who was coming up the drive: could it be a delivery person, the mailman, or perhaps someone wanting to cause mischief. I wish we had a product like the Dakota Alert Driveway Monitor to...
by Michael Martens | May 12, 2013 | Antennas
Last fall, my good friend and great amateur radio operator Dennis, W9PBB passed away. In his will he donated all his amateur radio and electronic gear to the local amateur radio club. We helped the family clean out his house last fall, but had to leave the tower until...
by Michael Martens | May 5, 2013 | ARES/RACES, emcomm
What a great day to get lost. It was warm and sunny spring day during a Boy Scout Camporee when 4 Scouts got lost. Of course the boys were lost on purpose as part of one of the largest Search and Rescue Merit Badge clinics in the history of the Scouting program. The...
by Michael Martens | Apr 26, 2013 | weather
Here’s a picture of the vehicle our local television station is now using for storm chasing. I haven’t seen it out in the field yet, but I do certainly love the satellite dish. No pictures of the inside, but I peered into the deeply tinted windows and...
by Michael Martens | Apr 18, 2013 | Amateur Radio, Antennas
The most common use of my J-Pole and Slim Jim antennas is for FM operation on the VHF and UHF amateur radio bands. Typically FM simplex and repeaters use antennas that are vertically polarized. J-Poles, being vertically oriented are also vertically polarized, which...
by Michael Martens | Apr 7, 2013 | Amateur Radio
Alright, you’ve just received your ham radio Technician license, or are in the process of earning your license. You’ve been reading the literature and looking at radios to get started with. Maybe you’re even shopping around on eBay or the other sites...
by Michael Martens | Mar 29, 2013 | Amateur Radio, Antennas, Marine, weather
I originally wrote this article on March of 2012, but over the past year this topic has been one of the most searched blog posts on my site. Lightning safety is an important topic, so I revisited the information, updated it and present it again at the top of my blog....
by Michael Martens | Mar 24, 2013 | Antennas
At one time there weren’t restrictions or rules on antennas. If you wanted to get on the air, you went outside and strung up a bunch of wire. Maybe you were lucky enough to install a tower in your backyard for a vertical or beam. Before the days of cable...
by Michael Martens | Mar 17, 2013 | Aviation
Do you live close to a busy commercial airport? When people think of living near the airport, the first thing that comes to mind is the constant noise of jets taking off and landing. But that noise may be music to your ears if you are an aviation buff. There is a...
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