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Let's talk some HAM radio -- a new potential hobby of mine.
12/31/14 | Vanity

Posted on 12/31/2014 5:22:29 PM PST by Usagi_yo

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To: PeterPrinciple

Bttt


81 posted on 01/01/2015 7:41:04 AM PST by Cottonbay
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To: Stentor
Wow. I was an 11 year old listening to Radio Moscow on a 39 Philco Cathedral with an antenna running about 75 feet up a hill on a clothesline pole. I stopped when I started listening to Jean Shepherd and Long John Knebel out of WOR in New York.

Well, even today I still listen to the Short Wave Bands other than the Amateur Radio Bands. Most of us started as SWL'ers and then got into Amateur Radio. Since the FCC dropped the Morse Code requirement, the ranks of Amateur Radio have grown steadily.

82 posted on 01/01/2015 8:07:12 AM PST by teletech (Say NO to RINOS!)
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To: Usagi_yo
Find(google) your local HAM club and go to one of their meetings.
83 posted on 01/01/2015 8:20:50 AM PST by mad_as_he$$
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To: cva66snipe

>> There’s nothing like listening to some pilled up Moron cussing away on a CB enhanced <<

Gotta disagree a bit. I think the “trash talkers” who seem to have taken over 75 meter phone are equally odious.


84 posted on 01/01/2015 8:39:42 AM PST by Hawthorn
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To: jlindseyx42

>> Unless you live in a big metropolitan area or are prepared to spend $10,000 for an antenna, you will be wasting your time and money <<

You’ve just made the most ill-informed comment of the year.

For a few hundred bucks, anybody with a license can use a QRP CW rig with simple wire antenna to communicate with virtually the whole world. Been there, done that.


85 posted on 01/01/2015 8:44:45 AM PST by Hawthorn
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To: iontheball

You are correct. However, I should disclose that while I have had substantial training with electronics, I have not taken the tests due to a lack of time and money for the toys.

“One expensive hobby at a time” my wife says. :-)


86 posted on 01/01/2015 10:23:18 AM PST by taxcontrol
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To: Usagi_yo
Got my licenses in 1952: Novice (no longer available) and Technician. Let them lapse while traveling around with the Air Force. Decided to get back in the game about fifteen years ago and got Technician back. Finally decided to upgrade and got my Amateur Extra.

Most of my activity has been through repeaters, and some public service work (annually helping provide communications for a local marathon). There's something for everyone in ham radio, whether it's ragchewing, DX, contesting, or whatever. Find what interests you most. Join a club if there's one near you. Support your local repeater, so you can use repeaters elsewhere with a clear conscience.

You're on the right track. "When all else fails, there's ham radio." Come the Zombie Apocalypse, or anything like it, if you've developed your skills you will be a valuable part of the Resistance.

87 posted on 01/01/2015 4:45:59 PM PST by JoeFromSidney (Book RESISTANCE TO TYRANNY, available from Amazon.)
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To: Sasparilla

And many of these repeaters are capable of connecting into the telephone landline system (called AUTO PATCH) allowing you to make telephone calls with your radio.


88 posted on 01/01/2015 5:07:07 PM PST by OldMagazine (You can only do what you can do.)
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To: ExSES
Back in the "Old Days" you had to be proficient in Morse Code but that is no longer required.

It is in my house. Greek and Latin are also required to be treated like a human adult.

The young kidz do great with code.

/johnny

89 posted on 01/01/2015 8:31:29 PM PST by JRandomFreeper (gone Galt)
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To: Grammy
Even if you know where to look it is hard to find.

Except for the minimum wage guy with the ladder, and some random owl flying through your yard.

It's the nature of life.

/johnny

90 posted on 01/01/2015 8:34:23 PM PST by JRandomFreeper (gone Galt)
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To: cva66snipe
What would stop Bubba from running a TV station next door to you and coming in on every electronic piece equipment you own?

Not federal laws. That's for sure. Men with guns would have to stop it.

/johnny

91 posted on 01/01/2015 8:37:20 PM PST by JRandomFreeper (gone Galt)
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To: Usagi_yo

bfl


92 posted on 01/01/2015 8:44:20 PM PST by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
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To: JRandomFreeper
"Except for the minimum wage guy with the ladder, and some random owl flying through your yard."

It would have to be quite a ladder. The wire is 80 feet off the ground, at the end of a half mile long driveway, on a downward slope of about 200 feet . As I said, we are in the woods..... BIG trees.

Our only real issue is wind, which takes down big branches. We have only had to re-set the wire once when a falling branch shifted it. Not hard to do with a slingshot with fishing line and weight attached for that very purpose. The wire has a line on each end with a weight, to allow the trees to move. That way the wire floats over each branch it sits on, and it isn't stretched and broken.

93 posted on 01/01/2015 10:09:16 PM PST by Grammy (Save the earth... it's the only planet with chocolate.)
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To: GraceG

check out ARRL.org
The Amateur Radio Relay League is the place to look.

de W3CF/4


94 posted on 01/02/2015 5:17:31 AM PST by halfright (FAST & FURIOUS! DON'T ALLOW THEM TO DIVERT YOUR ATTENTION.)
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To: JoeFromSidney

My family and I considered getting a radio license off and on over the past 14 years or so, because we’re several miles from the nearest power lines and working phone lines. Cellphone service is intermittent and location-dependent. So we’re isolated and often doing our own technical work (building projects, repairs, including vehicle repairs, electronics, solar/electric installations, etc., by ourselves). But we repeatedly decided that it wasn’t worth the hardships and/or risks and promises to make the journey for the license and promise to meet often afterward for socializing.

We didn’t want to make the 100 mile trip to one of the urban centers or resort areas to socialize and take the test and wouldn’t be able to attend regular meetings afterward in any of the distant cities. Driving down from 9,200 feet elevation is not something that we want to do often, with such trips (and longer ones for medical visits) being necessary more often than we like. Such descents in elevation during long drives are not conducive to socializing. For example, hearing what others are saying is more difficult for a while after descending that far for hours. When we must make a long drive down the hill, we try to get business done as quickly as possible and head back up the hill.

The roads from our place will be sprayed over with ice by high winds most days over the next couple of months. We’d have to dig through about a half of a mile of ice on the private roads (and sometimes more on the public roads) with the consistency of sand, and oftentimes, we haven’t made it more than a few feet without 80+ mph winds replenishing the ice dunes within minutes. Nighttime temperatures often go down into the minus-30s (F). We’ve had to do vehicle repairs during those conditions because of damage caused by driving through the ice.

From our perspective, it appears that ham radio is a hobby for folks who have plenty of friendly neighbors nearby in more populated communities (very few neighbors within ten miles here and not so friendly) or plenty of time and money to spend on socializing. The only folks we’ve seen interested in radio in our area are the local government folks with the new multi-million-dollar county government communications complex despite the very sparse population.

So we know that we’re on our own. We try to stay in good physical shape, maintain the best of low-cost clothing for working outdoors in the climate (goggles, parkas, especially boots, etc.) and stock up on food, fuel and other necessities before this time of year. Internet access is the most dependable so far, although there are sometimes outages on the provider’s end. As long as the same wireless provider is in business, we’re allowed to access through a relay over 20 miles away for a monthly fee without being required to make long trips.


95 posted on 01/02/2015 11:41:25 PM PST by familyop (We Baby Boomers are croaking in an avalanche of corruption smelled around the planet.)
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To: JoeFromSidney

Also, I don’t know what a VE session is (no expansion of the acronym on the radio club site). “A valid photo ID and/or ORIGINAL birth certificate” and apparently, “The ORIGINAL of any valid CSCEs” required (no expansion of acronym). I’m not an employee of local government or connected business there anyway (composition of the club).

I’m in the West. If we get back to MO, NE or AR someday, maybe we’ll consider testing with people there.


96 posted on 01/03/2015 1:39:30 AM PST by familyop (We Baby Boomers are croaking in an avalanche of corruption smelled around the planet.)
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To: Political Junkie Too

“Ham Cram is a process where you spend a day studying the tests, focusing on memorizing the correct answers.”

And learning nothing.


97 posted on 01/03/2015 7:21:07 AM PST by bitterohiogunclinger (Proudly casting a heavy carbon footprint as I clean my guns ---)
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To: familyop

VE stands for “volunteer examiner” which are the folks that give the license examinations. They usually are a team from a ham club. CSCE is “certificate of successful completion of examination” which you won’t need to worry about unless you previously took one of the tests and are going for an upgrade of license.

If it’s your first examination, all you need are two photo IDs and the test fee. If you pass the exam and later take another test for an upgrade of class, bring along a copy of your current license.


98 posted on 01/03/2015 7:44:12 AM PST by damper99
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To: bitterohiogunclinger
Perhaps. But if the goal is to get a license before TSHTF, then one does what is necessary.

-PJ

99 posted on 01/03/2015 11:38:17 AM PST by Political Junkie Too (If you are the Posterity of We the People, then you are a Natural Born Citizen.)
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To: damper99
Thank you for the information. I dug around a little for the meanings of the acronyms. My radio experience from former duties and other interests didn't include ham.

"If it’s your first examination, all you need are two photo IDs and the test fee."

That rules me out, then. I'm an American (no immigration cards or passports), was honorably discharged (no military ID since then) and only tried civilian (police) patrol work for a short while during the '90s. So, only one photo ID and no intention to join the local bureaucracy to get another one.

No problem. There are other ways for people not associated with the public sector to communicate including other legal ways of using radio. And it will still be of interest to learn more about ham radio frequencies, protocols and users without broadcasting on it.


100 posted on 01/03/2015 12:17:23 PM PST by familyop (We Baby Boomers are croaking in an avalanche of corruption smelled around the planet.)
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