What s this nq4i feed

[moto400ex]

This guy keeps saying the same thing over and over again broken up by ocassional other people on the feed.  What is this??

[KMSY]

I found this:

http://www.nq4i.com/

[Hollis]

That is Amateur Radio. i.e., Ham radio stations.
SSB means 'Single Side-Band. CQ means 'calling any station', etc.
(I used to be of them myself! formerly known as KN1OQS)
Thanks for the link - I've bookmarked it.

[twobowlers]

NQ4I (Rick) is owner of a large amateur radio station in Georgia that is heavily involved in something called "radio contesting".  You probably heard something similar to:

"CQ contest, CQ Contest, NQ4I" a few times followed by a very brief information exchange with another station followed by the CQ call again.

Amateur radio contests involve operating radios for a defined period of time (usually 24 - 48 hours) and talking to as many people as possible in as many locations as possible during that interval. A decent number of ATC folks turn out to be ham radio operators. Both endeavors require one to be accurate, precise and to have language and technical skills.

Of interst to this forum, perhaps, is that Rick (NQ4I) is a great guy and is also a commercial pilot. He's flown for the USAF, Eastern Air and last time we spoke he was flying G4s and G5s for Net Jets.

Mark
KI7WX

[moto400ex]

So its a Ham radio contest and the point is to talk to as many people as possible?

[twobowlers]

So it's a Ham radio contest and the point is to talk to as many people as possible?

There are dozens of contest variants with different rules but "as many as possible" is the easiest way to explain it. The Wiki entry for radio contesting is decent and a web search for amateur radio contesting will unearth a ton of information on this activity.

The rationale for radio contesting is to keep radio operators sharp for times when emergency communications are required. It's also fun.

By way of tying this to aviation, I've had some really fun contacts with aeronautical mobile stations. I think that counts as "audio" so perhaps I won't run too far afoul of the forum sponsor  for taking up bandwidth off topic

An aside, this site is a lot of fun and I was very surprised to come across the NQ4I reference today while seeing what new clips were posted.

Mark

[digger]

To keep the subject creeping off topic...       

When I was in the Civil Air Patrol, I got a chance to take a flight on an Air Force Reserve C-130. During the flight, which began and ended at PIT, the flight engineer made contact with a ham operator, who made a phone patch, and allowed several of the CAP cadets to phone home, while we were circling over Niagra Falls. Waaay cool...   

[Panop]

Not sure if this is more off topic or less but in the early 1990s there was an Aussie night freighter pilot (Metroliner I think but I'm not sure of that) who would sometimes while away the boring wee hours by tuning his HF radio to the 27Mhz Citizen's Band (I presume - unless he carried a separate CB radio) and chatting to overnight truck drivers and others as he flew over the Australian countryside.  Being at great height compared to them he could communicate with lots of trucks over quite an area who could often not hear each other.  His CB callsign was 'Skyhigh' or something similar.  As he said. "Same job, different altitude."  Has anyone else encountered similar elsewhere?

[moto400ex]

Thats funny you mention that, I ran across this video on youtube of something similar.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=xz3te661APk

[Panop]

Excellent - thanks for that!

[moto400ex]

Wonder what type of aircarft hes talking about.  As far as I know, Jet A is around 4 dollars or more per gallon.  Hes talking somewhere to the tune of 8500 gallons.  If I remeber correctly Jet  A weighs about 6.7 lbs per gallon so I cant imagine this being and type of regular business jet.  Thats seems to be 56500 lbs of fuel. 

[Panop]

He says it carries 18 passengers and he is going to England so it would have to be one of the bigger long range ones such as a Global Express though I'm not sure if they carry that much fuel.

[moto400ex]

Good guess but I think a Global express has a Max fuel capacity of around 43000 pounds.  Cant really think of any other aircraft unless it a BBJ but im sured that carries more fuel.  Maybe he was exagerating.

[Panop]

One comment on youtube may have the answer:
New York billionaire Nelson Peltz owns a 727 with a custom interior that will only accommodate about 18 passengers (minus the 4 person crew if I remember correctly) and has extended range tanks in the cargo bay. With almost 10,000 gallons in the wings and the extended range fuel tanks $35,000 would be an accurate estimate for this aircraft.

Maybe not that one but I reckon we're in the ballpark.  A lot of uninformed comments at youtube doubted the credibility of the clip but it sounded genuine to me.

[dave]

NQ4I is a friend of mine and was part of a ham radio streaming audio experiment.  I should have filtered it out so it didn't show up in the top feeds but I didn't have time.

He's a G5 pilot so at least it was a little aviation related. 

Rick and I met through ham radio and have been friends for many years.

So there you go.

Dave

[KPryor]

I'm curious how many hams we have here.  My Dad (KI9P) and I have been hams since 1983, although I'm not terribly active with it these days.
Ken Pryor
KA9PHI

[Hollis]

Retired one here:
KN1OQS
Also AOPA and ARRL.

73s (- - ...   ... - -)
Hollis