Have you ever owned or used a really good thing? This might be a really good tool; you know, the right tool for the right job. Maybe it was a really good home utensil, a really good car, or just a really good and memorable day.

I was listening to 10 Meter FM yesterday; I have used the handy practice of 'keeping an ear' on the "MUF" by listening to 29.600 MHz FM simplex for several years now. I never really thought what a great thing it was though! Its so simple to set the frequency, squelch control, and audio gain (volume?) level -- and just walk away. If the radio starts to squawk, I can hear it pretty much from anywhere in the house. I then walk into my radio room and listen for the call area and location of the station I am hearing. With that information, along with noting the time of day and solar indices, I can assess for myself if this is a sporadic E-layer signal, or maybe F-layer. I can also of course adjudge a general sort of score to the band, based on if the contact is single hop, double hop etc. What a really cool tool -- a good thing!

Yesterday was particularly rewarding as well, I had been kicking back around the house after working on a new entertainment furniture system for my home theater, and I was enjoying the product of my labors. I then heard my Yaesu FT-100D break squelch, and a Ham from Tennessee came in with a nice full quieting signal. This is also the really cool thing about 10 Meter FM simplex because of its channelized nature. If you listen over a course of hours, and you need not necessarily stay particularly close to the radio, you hear skip come in from various locations around the world.

In this instance the guy in Tennessee was good to listen to. He said that it was his birthday, and he was celebrating by choosing to just hang around the radio all day, and so celebrate this portion of his life. What a wonderful thing to be able to do! I mean, try owning a short-wave propagating radio in places like Iraq, China, Cuba, Korea etc. -- do ya think people in government and politics simply won't allow it -- at the least they are going to lend a very close ear! This guy though was kicking back, (giving me signal information!) and chatting with another Ham about the rail roads, and his other hobby as a 'railroad buff'. Pretty cool stuff!

The question that he posed to the other Ham even gave me an opportunity to repay my gratitude for his contribution toward warming my day. He had asked about a particular control function of rail road signaling that I happened to know the answer for, and history of. He also mentioned an RFI problem that he was having where I could provide some help. This particular QSO makes me think of another one that I had on 29.6 MHz. about 20 years ago.

I was standing in line in the grocery store with a UHF hand-held radio hanging from my belt. The guy behind me in line asked if the radio on my belt was a cellular telephone, in this 1986 time era cell phones were bigger and not all that common. I told him it was an Amateur Radio transceiver, he looked puzzled, so I explained further. As part of this explanation I ultimately came to provide a demonstration. I 'functioned up' the 29.6 MHz. radio in the auxiliary remote station that I used on Santiago Peak. It just so happened that the band was nicely open to Japan, and I started a brief QSO with a Ham in Yokohama. The guy in the grocery store freaked out! He started going from patron to patron in other lines saying, "this guys talking to a guy in Japan with a radio on his belt". It was really a bit embarrassing but, I also enjoyed the novelty of the moment!

I found myself compelled to wait for the guy after I had made my purchases, and he his, to better explain how this had worked, and in the hope that he might become a Ham Radio operator too. I wish I had kept touch with him. I have inspired folks in the general public before but, I would like to know if he ever got his Ham license. It was a good thing though anyway!

So, if your inclined, check out 29.600 MHz. FM simplex, you can also do similar things as far as DX assessment on 6 Meters too. So in this time of a fourth coming New Year, give it a try -- its a good thing!

Sporadic E: This refers to the "E layer" of the ionosphere. Both 6 Meter as well as 10 Meter communication are often conveyed via the E layer. Sporadic E-layer is a specific reference to ionized 'patches' at the elevation of the E-layer (approximately 50 miles up). These are often referred to as "E Clouds".

F-layer: The F layer of the ionosphere is the next layer above the E-layer approximately 200 miles up. Hams are probably more aware of F-layer skip, although they often mistake F-layer propagation for what is really E-layer skip.

Single hop, or double hop skip: Signal "skip" propagation takes place in various 'hops' between the Earth and the ionosphere, dependent upon what the MUF is available for. Each hop covers a distance from about 800 miles to 1200 miles, dependent upon the frequency band, and also signal propagation conditions.

Full quieting: On Frequency Modulation (FM) we typically adjudge or qualify signal strength via how well the signal is 'quieting' extraneous noise, either within our receiver, or maybe that of the repeaters receiver we are using. Signal strength readings on 'S meters' doesn't really tell you much but, relative quieting does!

RFI: This stands for Radio Frequency Interference. In the case of this example, it was signal rectification to, or within, the circuitry of a home weather station. I suggested that this Ham build up a few 'common mode' filter chokes for the input, output, and power supply leads of the weather station.

UHF: This is the abbreviation for the Ultra High Frequency band of frequencies between 300 and 3000 MHz.

Auxiliary Link Station: This is the more proper name for what many Hams in California have called 'Remote Base Stations' for the last three or four decades.

Functioned up: A common way of saying that I punched up the 10 Meter transceiver via remote Touch-tone commands.

Simplex: A reference describing 'point to point' FM communication, rather than by using an FM repeater.

DX assessment: For me, I always want to know why and how my signal is propagating to some distant (DX) location. Its one thing to make the contact but, the real fun is in knowing why and how things work.