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MicroHAMS Digital Conference 2021 – Update

Since 2007 the Microsoft Amateur Radio Club (MicroHAMS) has held a conference focusing on digital communications: the MicroHAMS Digital Conference (MHDC). The mission of the MDHC conference is to “inspire, inform and educate.” As such, the MHDC presenters offer a variety of topics across a wide range of skill levels. 

One of the virtues of going online is that we can invite presenters that would be impractical to bring to the Seattle area.  This year, half of our presenters are from outside our area.  The latest updates will be published on the MicroHAMS web site at http://www.microhams.com/mhdc2021/. 

This year’s conference will feature the following – 

  • Walter Holmes, K5WH – Free DV Digital Voice for HF 
  • Gregg Marco, W6IZT – Rig in a Box solution for DXpeditions 
  • Bob Bruninga, WB4APR – The APRS author will discuss the latest developments 
  • Paul Elliott, WB6CXC – Developing and tracking drift buoys 
  • Paul Sturmer, KI7WLV – High speed communications from HuskySat-1 
  • Bryan Hoyer, K7UDR – The ultimate packet workstation 

Now in our 14th year, we are repeating the online format from last year’s event. The 2021 conference will be streamed to YouTube and at no charge (donations welcome). One of the virtues of going online is that we can invite presenters that would be impractical to bring to the Seattle area and support an unlimited number of attendees. In 2021, half of our presenters are from outside the Pacific Northwest.

During the conference, there are two ways that attendees can interact with our presenters. Attendees can ask questions in the YouTube chat channel, which we will pass on to the presenters during Q&A. For live Q&A, each session has a Zoom breakout room available at the end of the session. Presenters and attendees can hang out and answer questions in person for the hour after their session has aired. The entire conference will also be recorded and available on YouTube for viewing later.

See you Saturday! (April 24, 2021)
Scott Honaker, N7SS for the MHDC Team 

 

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The makeup of the 2021-2022 Board of Directors

With a thank you to Kenny Richards KU7M for acting as Teller for the 2021 Board of Directors election, your board members met Tuesday April 6th to organize themselves into the 2021-2022 Board of Directors for the club with the following results:

Laurence Starks, AG7NB will once again serve as president

Dennis Tillman, W7pF will once again serve as vice president

Grant Hopper, KB7WSD will once again serve as secretary

David Jenni, W7CF will once again serve as treasurer

Scott Honaker, N7SS will again serve as a director and chair of the MHDC

Miguel Mayorga, KC7IGT will again serve as a director

And newly elected to the board, Brian Stucker, KB2S will also serve as a director.

Thank you to all our members for voting, and thank you to all of the board members for being willing to serve and guide the club for the next year.

73,
Grant, KB7WSD

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Presentations from meetings….

A new series has been started on the MicroHAMS YouTube channel. Since the club meetings have been made available to remote members via Teams, the presentations were also recorded. The first of the series is available now and is from the January 2020 meeting. It is John Miles, KE5FX’s talk about frequency measurements.

Update: (2020-06-07) The second in the series is now available from the April 2020 on packet TNC’s.  And the third from the Feb 2020 meeting on the HuskySat-1 development.

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MHDC 2020 Wrap Up

This year we identified a new venue that has room to grow and meets our needs. We started our planning around the new venue when the virus struck. We kept adjusting our plans as the requirements changed. There was a temptation to simply cancel the conference rather than continue to pursue this moving target. Ultimately, we felt it was more important than ever to deliver the conference. The virtual format also offered us the opportunity to reach out to speakers we could not practically bring to Seattle.

We normally get about 100 people at the physical conference. You may have noticed we saw between 300-500 people actively watching the stream over the course of the conference. Interestingly, we also saw 2000 unique views during the conference so clearly some people only attended a portion of the day or specific sessions. We’re pleased with these numbers but if we had been better prepared for all the changes, we would have created a larger advertising push for a greater reach.

We’re happy to announce the videos have been published to YouTube on the Microhams channel. You can find the agenda with the links to the corresponding video on the Microhams web site at MHDC2020. We would encourage you to pass this information along and share broadly with others.

The final accounting isn’t complete but it appears the donations just covered our expenses this year. Feel free to help others find the donate button on the Microhams web site so we can continue to bring you this content in the future. We don’t know what next year will look like but we’ll be ready. We already have a date and deposit on a venue.

It would also be very helpful if you would complete the conference survey so we can improve the conference experience in the future. The survey is short and should be quick. You can find it HERE.

Mark your calendar. We hope to see you Saturday April 24, 2021!

Scott Honaker, N7SS

MHDC 2020 Chair