My path to hamming.

AAAHHH.... Preserving the knowledge of the ancients??
@BTPost , it has been my observation, has been ready to offer up helpful advise on request. And it is well appreciated. The sense of superiority relating to license class means little to someone that is looking to receive some information on how to overcome an obstacle or fill in a lack in personal knowledge. Is that not the definition of an "Elmer"?

 

And thus the "presserving".... Thanks..

 

I for one, am a complete novice. Nor have I ever been around ham radios before, but I have my tech ticket, and my simple baofeng radio, and will learn a step at a time, as time and money allow.

 

Kell,
Check this guy out...very informative and helpful!

 

I decided that I would be a Radio Officer on Merchant Marine ships when I was a teenager.

A long time ago, I was talking to a Scoutmaster from Connecticut at a Scouting Jamboree, reviewing the steps my son would have to go through to make Eagle scout. I ended by saying "He's got plenty of time: he's just fourteen", and the Scoutmaster smiled and said "No, you don't: once they get a whiff of perfume and gasoline, they're gone"!

I had a CB set, too, back before it became popular. For a while, it was just like ham radio on six meters: people were polite, they didn't cuss, and "afterburners" weren't available or necessary. Then, within a couple of years, it all went to hell and CB was taken over by a crowd of foul-mouthed morons who just wanted to act like they were important. You were smart to get out: when you lie down with pigs, etc.

That's good advice. I think the most important part of that is to make an honest and private assessment of your own personality and needs. If you're an armchair traveler, then you'll probably like operation on the "Low bands" where you can talk for longer distances on High Frequencies (HF), but if you like "cutting edge" technology and want to make your own equipment, you might experiment with microwaves or TCP/IP over AX.25. Of course, if you're more interested in working with a team and being out-of-doors (even in foul weather), then you'll most likely be more comfortable on VHF/UHF, involved with Emergency Communications and Disaster Preparedness exercises (which can also involve "HF" radios, but rarely out in the field).

That's also good advice. Clubs are great places for newcomers to learn about the hobby, and after you've gotten your feet wet you may find that one of the "old buzzards" has a spare "rig" on a shelf that you can borrow or maybe buy for short money. The first rig I ever bought was priced at $85 dollars, but the flea-market seller dropped the price to the $45 that I had in my hand, and threw in a couple of crystals and a microphone, just because he could see I was a newbie and my paper route money wouldn't stretch to his asking price. I made an antenna out of electrical tubing my dad got at work, and I was on Six Meters and proud as could be. (I was also in every TV set withing two blocks, but that's another story ).

An Elmer (tutor) is a great asset, and clubs are a good place to find one. I will differ on this one issue, though: letting your wallet be your guide isn't the way I would go at first. I suggest you sample a variety of activities, including EmCom, and become familiar with the equipments which other hams use, and observe what features they use on their radios and which ones they don't bother with. For example, a built-in morse code "keyer", or automatic sending capability, might be important for a Morse enthusiast, but it's probably not something that you'd want to pay extra for if you're not into "pounding brass", and a panoramic frequency display might be great during contests or "DX chasing", but you'd probably not be interested in that if you don't have time to compete in on-air contests (and you can set one up on your home computer with many rigs anyway).

I'll add my personal advice: shop around a lot. There are dozens of dealers for any rig you're interested in, and dozens of prices: discounts of up to 25% off "list" are common.

Another thing your Elmer will help you with is the language: "DC to Daylight" used to mean a rig that would cover about 500 KHz to 30 MHz on receive, and transmit on all the ham bands from 160 to 10 meters (1.8 MHz to 29.7 MHz). I'm not up on current jargon, so ask around, because "DC to Daylight" might infer a rig that goes from 160 all the way up to 70 cm these days.

This is, admittedly, a personal preference, but I wish I had paid the extra money for a "matching" power supply when I bought my first modern transceiver. The supply I got is perfectly adequate for the job, but it doesn't look nearly as nice as the matching PS that the radio manufacturer sells, and having matching units will increase the resale value a lot if you decide to move up later on.

There is no subject on earth that will get you as many different opinions as "antennas", closely followed by "feedlines". For what it's worth, I advise that you stick with with reliable, well-tested types which have stood the test of time: ham magazines might have articles on "off center fed" or "G5RV" or other novel designs, but old timers will tell you that you're better off using more conventional layouts -

1. A balanced antenna, i.e., a dipole, will work over wide segments of the band(s) they're cut for, and are self-supporting, and can be sized for most urban lots.
2. Balanced feeders will work over a wide range of voltages and currents, and are both more efficient and less expensive than coaxial cable.

I don't know if I'm "more knowledgeable"; I'm just old.

What an antenna tuners does is match the impedance of the feedline/antenna combination to the impedance your radio was designed to work best with. It doesn't matter if you choose internal vs. external (I recommend you spend for an internal tuner right up front, both for ease-of-use and for resale value), a tuner is just a combination of capacitors and inductors which acts as a transformer that "matches" the rig and the line. It doesn't "fool" your rig at all: it just makes a mismatched feed line/antenna combination usable.

Here's the problem: coaxial cable is too convenient. It's used so much in commercial work that many hams assume it's the best thing to use for the ham bands too, but that's almost never the case. Commercial stations are almost always on a single frequency, so the antenna is cut to match exactly that wavelength, and the coax is a good match at that one frequency. However, when the antenna is being used on a frequency it is not cut for, the resulting mismatch between the antenna and the coax will be reflected back to the tuner, and coaxial cable is notoriously lossy in that situation! Although a tuner may be able to transform the impedance at the other end of the coaxial cable into a value that your rig is able to use, it can not reduce the loss in the coax!

Trust me on this: "tuned feeders", i.e., open-wire line between your tuner and your antenna, will be a big advantage. They're cheaper to buy, last longer, and will operate efficiently over a very wide bandwidth. You can use short lengths of coaxial cable to get through the walls of your house, but you'll be much happier and a lot more relaxed when you use "ladder line" instead of coax.

Whatever you do, take the time to plan it well. A few extra hours and a few extra pennies will make the difference between an eyesore and a professional-looking installation that is weatherproof, unobtrusive, and ready for added cables later on.

Get extra insurance. Be sure that your house policy covers lightning damage, and that ham radio is a permitted use. Most importantly, remember that lightning protection is for people, not radios: I still disconnect my antennas when there's a thunderstorm coming, even with a lightning protector in the line.

It's a good idea to install extra rope and a system of pulleys so that you can lower the antenna to the ground without needing to climb. If you have to hire a cherry picker to do that, it's money well spent: the flexibility and durability will pay back the expense twice over.

I'll leave you at that: as has been said, it's best to start small, do a lot of research, find an Elmer, join a club, and pick what aspect(s) of the hobby interest you before you spend money.

FWIW. YMMV.

William Warren

 

My biggest concern is not the learning time, and money spent, that is part of any hobby, my concern is I don't hear any hams talking in my area. I have a home patrol scanner programmed to monitor every frequency hams are supposed to be using in my area and all i've heard is an occasional tone on the repeater. I will be very disappointed if i invest the time and money and have no one to talk to. I'm afraid that the HAM scene is on its way out and i'll be talking to myself until SHTF. Guess i'll find out tho, i'm testing next week and should have a station up shortly after.

 

Hi, Tekdoggy

What frequencies are you monitoring, and do you live in an urban area or somewhere rural?

Most places in the country with appreciable population have active hams, particularly working some of the repeater frequencies. Check a repeater listing to see what repeaters are active in your area and give those a try.

 

144.200, 144.390, 146.520, 146.685, 146.850, 432.100, 444.925, 446.000 I live in a rural area, town of about 10,000 surrounded by much smaller towns of less than 200 people

 

This is also why I haven't gotten my license and just listen in only --- because where I live in an suburban area there is very little traffic on the repeaters I have tried out with my 3 Baofengs. ... and these are the repeaters that the Ham Outlet store guys with beards said are the most popular. It seems like maybe cellular, plus the Internet have made Ham a dying hobby. I finally decided that with so few people talking on the popular repeaters where I live that I would wait until we move permanently to our retreat land.

 

Another concern I had was the OPSEC issue of listing your home address on the application that nowadays anyone can look up on the Internet. We were renting to a new tenant and I Google'd his name and found him listed in the Ham database along with his home address.

So my question is, can you put your license address as your UPS Store mailbox?

We use a UPS Store address for EVERYTHING to not reveal where we live. One of my family members works in a 'high risk' occupation in terms of the potentially risky people they interact with and thus we do not want to reveal our home address in any public records. One of this family member's colleagues had a stalking / home invasion from one deranged member of these 'high risk' populations they administer to --- the bad guy found her home via a simple public records search on Google.

 

Absolutely. The reason for the address is so they can send you your license and any contact information if licensing/statuses change. As long as it is a legitimate address you can put it down on the application.

From the FCC directly (why they need an address). Highlighting mine:
If your license has not expired, 47 C.F.R Section 97.21 requires you to file timely for an update of the license as necessary to show your correct mailing address, name, club name, license trustee or custodian name. Revocation of your station license or suspension of your operator license may result when correspondence from the FCC is returned as undeliverable because you failed to provide the correct mailing address. For an operator/primary station license, the application must be made on a FCC Form 605 (edition date of July 2005 or later). Use purpose AU, Administrative Update, for an address or name change only and file the Main form only. (For a club, military recreation, or RACES station license, you must now file through a Club Station Call Sign Administrator. See the Public Notice on CSCSAs ( text - pdf - Word).)

Lastly, again directly from the FCC, Form 605 (the one you fill out to get your license...available here: ) asks for a PO Box and/or Address (page 10).

 

I started listening to shortwave seven or eight years ago. Started off with a little grundig i had gotten from radio shack for 25 or so dollars. Learned to wrap some wire around the antenna to get better reception. I then moved to a grundig G3 and it does an okay job. It has an antenna jack so after picking up the piece needed to use the antenna jack i built a 100 foot antenna using the part from radio shack, a borrowed soder gun and 100 or so feet of solid copper wire. The grundig G3 has the single side band selector switch so listening to amateur transmissions is not an issue. The problem with the G3 is that the led display is real sensitive to cold temps. The antenna gets me many commercial broadcasts from the US, canada, latin america (mostly central america), and asia. I used to think that when the shtf i would just pick up a used transceiver and start broadcasting, really if things were that bad there most likely would not be anyone around that would care. I have recently come to discover the error in my thinking and it should have come sooner. Finding broadcasts to listen to had taken me awhile, and what used to seem like dead air i now know is just the opposite. So if receiving has that much of a learning curve then the transceiver must be so much more difficult. So i am studying for the both the tech and the general. Passing the tech will not be an issue, but the general might be another matter. My time table is end of october, beginning of november. I have decided not to give my call sign out on the internet when i am assigned one. The whole reason is the FCC database thing.

 

Good call and in places like this board it's very likely that one or both of the following will happen. 1) Several people will suggest you take it down for OPSEC reasons, or 2) The mods will redact it for you...for OPSEC reasons. I've given mine out to a number of members through PM but not posted it in any threads.

 

I had the same experience, and it was a sad day for me.

In the 90's, I was very active on VHF, both using voice repeaters and "packet" digital communications. Personal events caused me to "hang up the mike" for several years, and when I was able to join the hobby again, I found that, in my neighborhood, two meters was an electronic ghost town, with very little activity. Many hams had moved on, both because of age, and also because they wanted new challenges: frankly, I suspect that many whom started on two meters left because they got enough money set aside that they could buy more capable gear for the "low bands".

Repeaters are really nice for certain things, such as having traffic-reporting nets that hams can listen to while they commute to work. We had one in my area for years, and it was a much better place to get alerts and detour suggestions than any commercial radio station. There are linking methods in place for many repeaters, which allow users to enter a Touch Tone code that hooks up a local machine to any of the others on that network, and it's the kind of things that's great for prearranged contacts: I used to demonstrate ham radio at a local museum, and we would "link" our local repeater to one in the Antarctic, so that visiting Scout groups and schoolchildren could ask an operator at the other end about penguins, polar bears, and if it was true that he couldn't leave all winter.

Repeaters are not-as-nice for other things: they don't encourage new contacts from distant stations, their limited range means that most communications are "humdrum" contacts about local events that most users know about anyway, and there's a tendency, even among experienced preppers, to assume that the repeater will always be available, thus discouraging the self-sufficient, independent stations which will be essential in any long-term emergency.

So, long story short, two meters and 70 cm (the "450 MHz" band) aren't nearly as active as they were during the early years of repeater use.

But ...

From a "prepper" perspective, that may be good news. A less active machine means more time for tests, for having discussions with other prepper hams, and for finding out which machine(s) will be in range of your BOL when needed. Fewer users means more productive use of your time while you keep your skills sharp.

Now, this is only partly an answer to your problem: after all, if there's little happening on two meters, then you'll probably want to listen in a busier part of the spectrum. However, "shortwave" isn't used nearly as much now as it was when I was a kid: satellites and TV have replaced most international broadcast stations, and even the BBC has cut back on it.

If you'd like to have a chance to listen to hams and commercial users on the shortwave bands, I suggest you shop for a used "General Coverage" receiver which will allow you to tune in the "medium wave" frequencies used for overwater airplane flights, communications between deep-sea fishermen, and hams who are outside your local area. Here again, an "Elmer" is a very good idea, since a tutor will be able to show you what to expect before you risk disappointment: many, if not most, commercial users have migrated to satcom, and almost all Marine traffic has been diverted to VHF, so I'd advise you to check around and get lots of advice before you buy a receiver that doesn't meet expectations.

HTH.

William Warren

 

Passed the tech and general exams today, should have everything setup and tested withing 5 more days. Thanks for all the help.

 

Well done!