HAM Radio anyone?

[MonkeyZero]

Be careful, listening to scanners is exactly how I got bit by the amateur radio bug

Getting the first level of license (Technician) is stupid-easy, costs $15 and you can get on local repeaters, FM/line of sight coverage and some longer range stuff in the 28MHz frequencies. At 28Mhz, on the right days (when propagation is good) you can transmit a lot farther.

I've got the Ham radio for dummies book and have been going through it slowly. It preps for the tests and all that so I figure if I ever finish reading it I might go test out. I would definitely like an in car rig eventually. Big ole whip to grab further signals and for sure bounce off of local repeaters.

My uncle in Atlanta has been doing it for years and he showed me his handheld probably a decade ago. I was interested then but didn't pursue it until recently. Apocalyptic paranoia I guess.

 

[Steverino]

I've got the Ham radio for dummies book and have been going through it slowly. It preps for the tests and all that so I figure if I ever finish reading it I might go test out. I would definitely like an in car rig eventually. Big ole whip to grab further signals and for sure bounce off of local repeaters.

My uncle in Atlanta has been doing it for years and he showed me his handheld probably a decade ago. I was interested then but didn't pursue it until recently. Apocalyptic paranoia I guess.

Katrina was another reason I got into it. Ham radio was the only game in town, all the phones were out, land line and cell, with limited texting. I'm sure that's been enhanced since, but has yet to be proven/tested. Then, the only way you could notify officials that you had an emergency or knew someone in your neighborhood that needed assistance was via amateur radio. Our local repeater was "commandeered" by the local EOC, it was the only operating ham repeater in South MS. All the others were either damaged, destroyed, under water and/or out of backup emergency power.

I'm also certified via Skywarn, which is just a fancy way of saying that if I see and report severe weather, the National Weather Service is more likely to believe my reports instead of Billy Joe Bob across town calling them and saying he "just seen a dang twister"

I had a small VHF radio in my truck. I'm hoping to install it in my new car this fall. I really miss not having it on the road.

Yes, you can just pick up your cellphone and call anyone, anywhere these days, but to me (and yes I'm a bit nerdy about some stuff) there's something magical about there being nothing between you and the other station thousands of miles away but air. No internet, no satellites, nothing.

 

[wagdog]

Yes, you can just pick up your cellphone and call anyone, anywhere these days, but to me (and yes I'm a bit nerdy about some stuff) there's something magical about there being nothing between you and the other station thousands of miles away but air. No internet, no satellites, nothing.

That's the beauty of it for me. That and making that connection on a piece of gear you built yourself.

All this radio talk made me fire up my station. I fixed the antenna tuner too - ready to go. No QSOs yet, but I'm just listening on 40m - some kind of contest going on.

 

[wagdog]

My son is huge into it. We have a 90 foot antenna strung between two trees in the backyard. He has talked to the space station, from NJ hit Australia with a one watt transmission of some sort, has his third license (I don't know exactly what it's called but it's two up from the technician license) and him and his friend made the following that has got him interviewed several times by trade magazines:

Emergency Antenna Platform System



Local newspaper article: http://wc2fd.com/images/4/41/Express-Times-2014-11-24.jpg

That's awesome. Great to see kids into radio and especially awesome to see them building and innovating.

I was into CB when I was a kid and always intended to get an amateur license but never did until I was much older.

 

[gtrjunior]

When I was growing up, my grandfather was a HAM radio junkie....I was fascinated by it but he wouldn't let me touch it!!! He was a grouch most of the time...

 

[wagdog]

Sweet, just made a CW QSO with a station in IA on 20m. CW is a little rusty, going to listen for a few days and practice copying before really getting back on the air. Just glad to see the antenna is working.

 

[Steverino]

Sweet, just made a CW QSO with a station in IA on 20m. CW is a little rusty, going to listen for a few days and practice copying before really getting back on the air. Just glad to see the antenna is working.

Good deal. Solar activity or lack of it has made for poor conditions for a while, but for folks like me who never got to witness the "glory days" of great propagation just treat it like any other day. My G5 is up at about 55' so it works pretty good. That's a nice 7200! I almost bought one a few months back, but waited for the 7300.

What was the deal w/the VersaTuner? Glad you got it going

 

[wagdog]

Good deal. Solar activity or lack of it has made for poor conditions for a while, but for folks like me who never got to witness the "glory days" of great propagation just treat it like any other day. My G5 is up at about 55' so it works pretty good. That's a nice 7200! I almost bought one a few months back, but waited for the 7300.

What was the deal w/the VersaTuner? Glad you got it going

Didn't even know the 7300 had come out. Just looked at pics, wow, nice... want, lol. My wife actually got me the 7200 a few father's days back; I had been without a radio for a while (previous had an Icom 746, which I liked a lot). She was shoulder surfing me on the computer and saw the 7200 - nice surprise.

My antenna is probably 40' at the peak. The legs come down at an angle. If I have time I might try to work on it before winter.

The tuner had a broken trace on the underside of the circuit board. I ran a small signal into it and traced it to find it. Put a jumper between the two parts and now it works.

 

[Steverino]

When I was growing up, my grandfather was a HAM radio junkie....I was fascinated by it but he wouldn't let me touch it!!! He was a grouch most of the time...

Yeah, old guys can be grouchy when little kids come around their ham gear

One thing that older hams really should be doing is introducing the hobby to youngsters. There's a whole universe of things to do in AR, from Morse code to digital, DXing (long distance) to local ARES and Skywarn stuff. There's something for everyone if you have an interest.

 

[Steverino]

Didn't even know the 7300 had come out. Just looked at pics, wow, nice... want, lol. My wife actually got me the 7200 a few father's days back; I had been without a radio for a while (previous had an Icom 746, which I liked a lot). She was shoulder surfing me on the computer and saw the 7200 - nice surprise.

My antenna is probably 40' at the peak. The legs come down at an angle. If I have time I might try to work on it before winter.

The tuner had a broken trace on the underside of the circuit board. I ran a small signal into it and traced it to find it. Put a jumper between the two parts and now it works.

Heck, if you don't mind dropping down to phone, maybe we can scratch out an open freq somewhere on 40 or 20? Mine's not too hot on 80m, even with a tuner, but almost resonant on it's own at 7200. It's oriented North/South, practically pointed right at you Maybe one day we can give it a shot.

 

[wagdog]

Heck, if you don't mind dropping down to phone, maybe we can scratch out an open freq somewhere on 40 or 20? Mine's not too hot on 80m, even with a tuner, but almost resonant on it's own at 7200. It's oriented North/South, practically pointed right at you Maybe one day we can give it a shot.

Sure, that'd be awesome. Bet we'd be the only two MWGL'ers to ever talk over the radio.

If you're south of me, I'm guessing 20m would be best and probably midday/early afternoon?

 

[wagdog]

Yeah, old guys can be grouchy when little kids come around their ham gear

One thing that older hams really should be doing is introducing the hobby to youngsters. There's a whole universe of things to do in AR, from Morse code to digital, DXing (long distance) to local ARES and Skywarn stuff. There's something for everyone if you have an interest.

This.

The old guys who are like "you have to learn CW" or you shouldn't be on the air are killing this hobby (or perhaps have killed it). Even though CW has been removed from the licensing requirements now, the damage was done.

Kids can see the appeal with PSK-31 - it's like chat software, but you don't need the internet. Besides, you can send WAY more data than you can with CW.

 

[parrotheada1a]

I'm not into ham, but I have a Bearcat scanner that I use for chasing trains and listening to the firefighters and ambo's working. The local and state PD is a no go, they use a trunked digital format + encryption software. My cousin's hubby has been into ham since he was a teenager, don't know what equipment he has. One thing I remember well from going over to their house was that he had a paper from NASA certifying that he had spoken to a shuttle crew while they were on orbit. I always thought that was pretty cool. FYI, my company builds a lot of stuff for RF/ microwave frequency applications... splitters, antennae, waveguides, sectional amplifiers to name but a few.

 

[Steverino]

I'm not into ham, but I have a Bearcat scanner that I use for chasing trains and listening to the firefighters and ambo's working. The local and state PD is a no go, they use a trunked digital format + encryption software. My cousin's hubby has been into ham since he was a teenager, don't know what equipment he has. One thing I remember well from going over to their house was that he had a paper from NASA certifying that he had spoken to a shuttle crew while they were on orbit. I always thought that was pretty cool. FYI, my company builds a lot of stuff for RF/ microwave frequency applications... splitters, antennae, waveguides, sectional amplifiers to name but a few.

This is going to sound crazy, but I used to leave a scanner on next to my bed, just barely audible. If the scanner stopped on something exciting, I'd wake up just long enough to listen in Back before all the law enforcement freqs went to the trunked systems, I'd memorized all the 10-codes and signals.

I have tried to talk to the ISS on several occasions with no success. I've since discovered it's not an easy task, not because of any radio-related issues, but because a) an astronaut/cosmonaut has to be available; they only get on ham freqs when they're not working, like after dinner or before breakfast and b) the astronaut/cosmonaut has to be a ham to start with, they're not all into amateur radio. There can be months when there's no one up there to operate the ham VHF rig, and c) when they do talk to hams or the public, it's usually to grade-school classroom field trips.

I've used home-made beam antennas, trying to get someone to answer my calls when the ISS flies over, even got out there one evening with a car battery and 50W, I could've reached Mars if someone was able to answer. One morning the ISS flew right over at pre-dawn, lit up so bright my Iphone was able to get a pic of it. I called and called, but the crew was talking to a classroom somewhere else on the planet, most likely out West.