Posted on 06/08/2015 6:14:38 AM PDT by jaydee770
Right - we have quite a few packages of that vacuumed sealed in our emergency kit.
Even if you are an apartment dweller, you can find repeaters with less than a watt of transmitting power.
The contests the ARRL have and their awards are excellent, in that it helps educate new HAMs that it isn’t all about power.
Also, base stations are great. The true value of HAM comms is that its also mobile, and meant to be mobile. Guess which form of communication was both reliable and served to knit all the related responders in a single net at the Oso landslide?
Amateur, despite the millions on millions spent by the various local, state, and federal alphabets on comms gear.
Same with Katrina, same with almost every other major disaster in the last 25 or so years.
Some guy with an ICOM 31 is all it takes, or even a Baofeng.
I know folks keeping radios and spare batteries in faraday boxes. Even nuclear war can’t stop amateur radio.
Next time I fire up the smoker (hopefully soon! It’s got me hankering too!), I will endeavor to post some BBQ-pron.
“...A suggestion... Creating youtube videos in, ahem,
“Morse Speak”...”
Heh! With “background music” from UVB-76...
We need a 20m FReeper net like the old 14313 I used to net control (with about a hundred others) back in the 80s; couldn’t talk politics but we could chew the fat world-wide.
>> Even if you are an apartment dweller, you can find repeaters with less than a watt of transmitting power <<
Agreed. Been there, done that. And I’ve also hosted my former club’s repeater at my home QTH.
But if your only ham activity is working local repeaters via a handy-talky, then probably you’ll soon get bored and become inactive.
My point is that hamming is fun and challenging mainly when you can work a station (preferably non-local) that’s new and unexpected, and/or when you can get on the air with a novel (preferably homebrewed) piece of equipment.
On the other hand, if it’s just the same-old same-old day-after-day, via your neighborhood repeater, I think you’ll likely lose most of your enthusiasm after a relatively short time.
>> I have the room for at least 80m. Maybe, just maybe 160m (it’ll be close) <<
To put out a decent signal on 160, I think you’ll want an antenna that has a significant vertical component, plus a system of ground radials — the more the better for the latter.
On the other hand, something entirely horizontal like a dipole or Windom is not likely to perform well on 160m unless it’s more than a quarter wave (ca. 132 ft.) above the earth. Horizontal antennae too close to the earth will radiate most of their ERP at very high angles — even straight up.
>> We need a 20m FReeper net like the old 14313 <<
I don’t think you could pick a worse frequency. Last I knew, the maritime mobiles and hurricane nets tried to operate there, but a bunch of really nasty lids were always hanging around to muck up the works.
I didn’t mean pick THAT frequency :-) Just a 20 or 15m freq somewhere in the General band. I gave up on 14.313 because of all the liddy stuff, and my 200W TS120S going through a low tribander couldn’t fight it.
I usually make a big batch then freeze it in single serving size containers. So good when you want yummy homemade soup. I have beans in glass storage containers filled with beans that will probably last till the next ice age. :))
Same here. I batch freeze single servings. In the winter I make a large batch with a bone-in ham. Is to die for.
“...To put out a decent signal on 160, I think you’ll want an antenna that has a significant vertical component, plus a system of ground radials...”
I had not even considered a vertical for 160m, so I had to google it. Saw a home-brew example that looks like something even I could handle. Thanks for the advice!
I’m working with a Scout troop to incorporate HAMs into 50 milers, service projects involving nets for MS walks, etc.
The homebrew stuff is definitely where we are going.
We are also working on a version of capture the flag using a fox hunt sort of thing.
>> I had not even considered a vertical for 160m <<
As I said before, to put out a useful signal on 160 you really need an antenna with as much vertical component as possible, like 50 feet up a tree, then another 82 feet horizontal to a neighboring tree — with as many ground radials as possible at the base of the first tree.
And it would be even better if you can go 66 feet up the first tree, then another 66 feet over to the second tree.
(If you have a completely horizontal antenna, however, you’re probably going to limit yourself to contacts within 10 or 15 miles of your home QTH — unless the antenna is more than 132 feet up in the air. But if you have a tree or a supporting structure that’s 132 feet tall, then you may as well make yourself a full-quarter-wave vertical. With an antenna like that, you’d REALLY get out on 160!)
K1MAN izzat you?
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