Amateur Radio Station W8RKO
Previous callsign: WB8GXB (1970 - 2007)
Dayton, Ohio
EM79wq
Welcome to the NippyNet Domain
Sunday, May 20, 2012 at 22:54:29 UTC
Local weather at W8RKO
Magnetic field dials are from nasa.gov. If you want to know more about the magnetic field dials check out the Space Environment Center web site.
Solar-terrestrial indices for 20 May:
solar Flux 131
A-index 12
K-index at 2100 UTC on 20 May was 2
:Product: Geophysical Alert Message wwv.txt :Issued: 2012 May 20 2105 UTC # Prepared by the US Dept. of Commerce, NOAA, Space Weather Prediction Center # # Geophysical Alert Message # Solar-terrestrial indices for 20 May follow. Solar flux 131 and estimated planetary A-index 12. The estimated planetary K-index at 2100 UTC on 20 May was 2. No space weather storms were observed for the past 24 hours. No space weather storms are predicted for the next 24 hours.
Gray Line Map from John Walker (www.fourmilab.ch/earthview)
Callsign change from WB8GXB to W8RKO
I was licensed in 1970 as WN8GXB as a novice. Once upgrading the "N" was automatically dropped and replaced with the current letter series of the time which was a "B". My dad was licensed as W8RKO in the mid 50's and he held that call until his death in 2006. I decided to apply for his call sign as allowed by the FCC under the vanity program for a family member's call. My call was officially changed on March 27, 2007. I had the "GXB" call for 37 years so changing call signs is with mixed emotions. I always liked my dad's call sign. The letters "RKO" were significant at the time as this was the trademark for RKO Pictures. Their logo was the earth with a tower sticking out of it. So now W8RKO will continue in the family as it has for approximately 52 years.
What is the significance of the domain name?
My first dog was a Fox Terrier named Nippy (1967 - 1975) so that influenced the domain name. No other significance than that. My web page contains various topics that may be of interest to us at the time. Most of the content will be Amateur Radio related. I will try to post various projects or experiments I am working on. My interests include amateur radio, flying, electronics, and computers. The dogs are Silky Terriers. The Silky is one of the most intelligent dog breeds. Their characteristics are 1) they like to hear themselves bark, 2) demand all your attention, and 3) take over the house if you let them. Two of them are rescue dogs from the shelter that someone just decided to throw out.
Weather data is real time from my Davis Instruments Weather Monitor II weather station. The wind speed is taken from the 70-foot level of my Ham Radio tower. If you go to the current weather page it will update at 5-minute intervals. Click Refresh to obtain the most current data. This page may take a few seconds to load. You will have to use your "back" button to return as you are going to another web server.
The web site was tested with IE version 6 so some of the pages may not work with other browsers.
Comments or questions can be directed to: 
Complaints will be answered by the webmaster shown below...or I should say his teeth...
The webmaster:
Jake
There is also a human webmaster but I try not to admit it. Dog paws are a little difficult on the keyboard so when necessary we have to obtain human help. If you realy want to know what the human looks like click here