ARVN: Amateur Radio//Video News Home Page

Documentary Videos

"A carefully crafted, professional production on par with any
other documentary you're likely to see"

DVD Only!

Since 1999, the call sign W3AO has been in just about every Field Day log as the Columbia ARC/PVRC rise head and shoulders above every other Field Day operation. 2004, though, was the last year they claimed the category 50A. How do they do it? And why is their station count now in the low 20's?

This 41 minute program will give you an in-depth look at this huge operation. It will make an excellent club meeting program. The DVD includes a BONUS Feature: the 1971 Pacific Palisades FD Movie. $20

Details and free
Preview Video HERE

Read your reviews on

here, and
here

The Dayton Collection 2009

The Documentary side of our Hamvention® coverage is another Jeff & Gary TOUR, with footage shot in both 2008 and 2009. We poke our noses (microphones and camera) into everything that's going on at the world's largest hamfest.

The complete 2007 and 2008/9 TOURS are now on-line!

Come see Dayton our way. Watch the Tour video HERE.
(Dayton 2010 and 2011 video will be free on-line, if we ever get them done)

Digital Voice
for Amateur Radio

Digital Voice isn't just the future – it's here! This program covers HF and VHF/UHF modes of digital voice systems, including AOR, WinDRM and FDMDV on HF, and D-STAR and P-25 on VHF/UHF. $20

NOTE: This program needs updating. We were hoping that would happen in August 2012, but we didn't get to it, and it's not on the immediate schedule.

more info / free preview / QST Review

ARDF USA
"Fox Hunt" Championship

ARDF - Amateur Radio Direction Finding - is European style on-foot fox hunting. This program documents one of the USA Championship events. It features the techniques, equipment operation and people. You may want to try it, or you may not, but it's fun to watch and learn! $15

more info / free preview / order the DVD

Amateur Radio on the
International Space Station

This DVD documents a contact between the Space Station and schools in Maryland, North Carolina and Quito, Ecuador in November 2008. The entire video is available here (courtesy of YouTube). The DVD has bonus footage of an exciting 1992 SAREX contact. $10

more info / watch the video / order the DVD

The ARVN Archives

Out of date, out of mind, out of production

(but we'll make one for you if you insist....).
Click here to open the vault.

Forum and Seminar Videos
(note that all new Forum programs will become HAMRADIONOW.tv episodes.
So stop by the HamRadioNow home page
to see what we've produced lately)

Ham Radio Deluxe
Orlando Forum
2012

Complete on the web
(please 'click the pig' to support this video)

Rick Ruhl W4PC is one of the new owners of the Ham Radio Deluxe "Swiss Army Knife" rig control-logging-multimode program. The new team is making a formerly free product a paid enterprise. He explains it all to a full-house at the Orlando HamCation, Feb. 11, 2012

Click HERE to watch the video

DCC
2011
2012

ARRL/TAPR Digital Communications Conference

The 2012 ARRL/TAPR DCC will be part of HAMRADIONOW.tv. We will probably release them as individual episodes as we get them edited, rather than wait until they're all done. They should start to appear toward the end of October or early November.

ARVN shot every seminar at the 2011 DCC in Baltimore, and we have released them in a new way.... on the web. Watch all the videos HERE.

You can watch them free, streaming on the web. ARVN requests a voluntary contribution to cover the time and expenses of creating these programs. To contribute (or just learn about the deal),...

Click the Piggy Bank

2008 DCC DVDs HERE.
2009 DCC DVDs HERE.
2010 DCC DVDs HERE. (produced by TAPR)

Dayton Hamvention®
Seminars and TOUR documentaries

Hamvention 2012 videos are on the web, part of HamRadioNow.tv. Some of the previous Hamvention video is also on the web, and eventually it will all be there. Sadly, we're still working on editing footage from the 2010 and 2011 Hamventions.Happily, when we do get it out (before the 2013 Hamvention... maybe) it will be part of our "free to watch" on-line material.

Click HERE to see ARVN''s pre-2011 Hamvention coverage.

Standing Up
for Standing Waves

Understand SWR better than you ever have by "seeing" it, revealed by a set of lights on a transmission line. This is a seminar video featuring Bill Hays. $10

more info / free preview / order the DVD

D-STAR Radio Programming

ARVN's KN4AQ takes to YouTube to present a free tutorial on call sign programming for D-STAR radios. The program concentrates on ICOM's 2820, 92AD and ID-800 radios, but the techniques are similar for other radios. The ID-880's "DR" mode, though, is a different animal. FREE (also included on the D-STAR User Seminar DVD)

watch it here

Customer Comments	Reviews and testimonials from actual customers
	ARVN on the RAIN Report: Hap Holly interviews ARVN's KN4AQ. This is a two-part interview. You can download the mp3's from these links: PART 1 PART 2 In the RAIN ARCHIVE, you'll find them at 11-21-2009 and 11-27-2009
Make me a copy of that...?	What to say when someone asks you to burn them a copy of an ARVN video, and other thoughts about this little business.
O therStuff	Visit here for some QST articles, a Christmas poem (!) and non-ARVN video,all from ARVN's prolific KN4AQ.

Will ARVN DVDs
play on my
computer?

ARVN: Amateur Radio//Video news

and can I
stream or
download ARVN
programs?

Yes, but...

ARVN DVDs are "DVD Movies" - that is, they are the same as the "Hollywood" movies you rent from Blockbuster or Netflix. They should play in a standard DVD player hooked up to your TV just fine (but note that they are in the American NTSC format, so hams in PAL or SECAM areas will need "multistandard" monitors, or computers, to play them. ARVN DVDs do not have regional restrictions).

They should also play in computers that have a DVD drive (and this is worldwide, not just in the USA), but there is one hitch. The computer needs the proper CODECs - MPEG2 for video, and Dolby Digital AC3 for audio. Most PCs that came with a DVD drive have the codecs installed, but some don't. The Windows operating system (and Windows Media Player) do not have the codecs as a standard feature.

If you need a codec, you can find them on the web, probably for free. Google "MPEG2 codec" and "Dolby Digital AC3 decoder "(look for "AC3Filter") and you'll see a variety of sources.

If Hollywood DVDs do work, but an ARVN DVD doesn't, I'll replace it. Sometimes a DVD player just doesn't like one DVD, but it's happy to play another.

If you've tried everything and can't get the DVDs to play, I'll give you a refund. We'll both be sad, because you really wanted to see the program, not just get your money back. So I'll try to make that happen.

One more thing: Streaming/downloading. OK, that's two things. If you've somehow missed it, ARVN is starting to put our stuff up on the web. This web site is the best place to discover it, but no secret that it's hosted on YouTube.com/KN4AQ. And instead of charging for it, we're asking for voluntary contributions. Click on Arvin the Piggy Bank over to the right to learn more. Not everything is up there yet, but we're working on it.Well we keep making DVDs? Maybe. For some stuff we certainly will, though frankly, DVDs degrade our new HD quality. BluRay? Not yet on that. Too expensive, and maybe not a big enough market? Let me know. Another alternative is mp4 on DVD ROM. That won't play on your DVD player (it may on a few BluRay players), but it'll look great on most reasonably recent computers. And you can probably burn your own DVD-movie from one. We're working on it.