Amateur Radio (Ham)

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mac man
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Amateur Radio (Ham)

Post by mac man »

Picked up a handheld/mobile.Thought about an older vacuum tube model for a base(home)unit.Handheld is a 5w and it can hit repeaters about 25 miles away.Just adding a 5/8 wave 2 meter antenna and no power booster it can hit repeaters 50 miles away.Nice to have in a vehicle or in an area where cell service is not available.
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Re: Amateur Radio (Ham)

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mac man wrote:Picked up a handheld/mobile.Thought about an older vacuum tube model for a base(home)unit.Handheld is a 5w and it can hit repeaters about 25 miles away.Just adding a 5/8 wave 2 meter antenna and no power booster it can hit repeaters 50 miles away.Nice to have in a vehicle or in an area where cell service is not available.
Do you still have to get a license for those? I looked into it once a long time back but the idea of learning morse code turned me off.
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Post by mac man »

Yes,but the FCC no longer requires morse code for the Technician,General,and Extra(all amateur license's).
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Post by Artful »

mac man wrote:Yes,but the FCC no longer requires morse code for the Technician,General,and Extra(all amateur license's).
didn't they abandon Morse code after 1999
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Post by bakerjw »

mac man wrote:Yes,but the FCC no longer requires morse code for the Technician,General,and Extra(all amateur license's).
LAME LAME LAME LAME!!! Of course that is the response of all amateurs that learned code to get their licenses. I never did get to 20 words per minute to get my amateur extra license but I did do 13 to get my general. The Internet really killed the heart of amateur radio imho.

In December at my sons wedding an old friend came and brought me his brothers old Heathkit HW-101 tube sideband radio. It had been at his parents house for years and his brother told him to give it to me. It covers from 10M to 80M which can get me most of the way around the world. Remember, if the Internet ever gets taken down then the hams will be the go to people.

There are a lot of 2M mobile radios out there. Heck I have one in my truck that isn't even hooked up. A lot of small countries even use 2M for military operations since the equipment is so affordable.
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Post by silencertalk »

Chatrooms killed radio.

The decades of code requirement made the numbers so small to begin with that it was an easy death.
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Post by Cheetah »

Is an amateur license good nationally? I've been trying to get in touch with the radio club back home for a couple years, but since I'm rarely actually home it's proven impossible. I want to get my license but it's hard when the place that does testing won't return emails or phone calls :P
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Post by Crosshair »

rsilvers wrote:Chatrooms killed radio.

The decades of code requirement made the numbers so small to begin with that it was an easy death.
Exactly, Hams can complain all they want about it, but the code requirement kept it from growing. It certainly turned me away from it. Requiring people to know Morse code to get their ham license is like requiring people to know how to drive and maintain of Model T before getting their drivers license. It's something most people have no interest in learning to do from memory and is basically obsolete.

I don't know Morse code, but I can write it down and translate it later and I can transmit if I write it out beforehand.
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Post by bakerjw »

Way back in the day there were 2 kinds of people. The CBers and the hams. One environment was self policing and the other was a uncontrolled zoo. One had no requirement for operation and the other was rigidly controlled and self policing. As some may remember, at one time CB required a license. Anyway that precedes the content of this thread.

Anyway the FCC came out with the original tech license many many years ago which was similar to the Novice. It had no code requirement and allowed the use of 2M and the other bands used for handhelds along with some HF privileges. Imho it was a very good call as it made it easier for people to get into ham radio. I started with the no code tech and it was all I needed. Besides storm spotting I got my license to use the autopatch of a local repeater to be able to call home if needed since I couldn't afford a cell phone at the time. In time I met some hams who had towers and good HF gear and got to see what the HF world was about. That is why I opted to learn code so that I could get those privs. So suffice to say that there has been a no code tech license for 25+ years.

When I got my license the Internet was starting to blossom and cell phones were becoming more readily available. So there was a no code license available and the hobby was still starting to die. It had nothing to do with having to know code because it wasn't required. Heck you can get the study guides from Radio Shack that give you the questions and the answers to study. Radio was old technology that people weren't interested in pursuing.

My only complaint with the FCC is removing code requirements for accessing the bulk of the HF bands. It used to be a badge of honor to go to the amateur extra band areas because to be there meant that you could do 20 words per minute. I only managed 13 but I did get it and passed enough tests to get my advanced license.

My license is valid in all 50 states and I believe in our territories. You can also get permissions in some other countries to broadcast. I always wanted to transmit from the Vatican. That always sounded cool.

Send me a PM Cheetah and I'll see what I can find to get you a testing location.
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Post by mac man »

bakerjw wrote:
mac man wrote:Yes,but the FCC no longer requires morse code for the Technician,General,and Extra(all amateur license's).
LAME LAME LAME LAME!!! Of course that is the response of all amateurs that learned code to get their licenses.
I have never learned code.
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Post by continuity »

I still think 6 meter is a good all purpose band. Better non-repeater reach, albeit not as clear as 2 meter all the time.

Sorry.....my fit all HAM meeting break the ice comment. :lol:
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Post by silverbulletexpress »

If you are in a real shtf situation I wonder if the repeaters will be up? Maybe 10-20 meter stuff might be handy?
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Post by mac man »

silverbulletexpress wrote:If you are in a real shtf situation I wonder if the repeaters will be up? Maybe 10-20 meter stuff might be handy?
That is what I would like to know,how many repeaters may still be functioning and what band would be least affected in that type of situation.
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Post by TypeR632 »

Guys you are all talking chinese to me. Were is a good place to go and read up on this?
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Post by bakerjw »

With good sunspot activity you can cover the world with 10 meters. Or even 11 meters.
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Post by mac man »

bakerjw wrote:With good sunspot activity you can cover the world with 10 meters. Or even 11 meters.
That would be interesting,I need to get a higher amateur class license.
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Post by silencertalk »

bakerjw wrote:Way back in the day there were 2 kinds of people. The CBers and the hams. One environment was self policing and the other was a uncontrolled zoo. One had no requirement for operation and the other was rigidly controlled and self policing.
In the past, to be on the internet you had to be at a university or be a scientist- and the signal to noise ratio went to hell once AOL starting giving out email to the general population.

CB users are like the first wave of AOL users.

But it helped the internet grow and made it more useful overall.

Radio kept the steep entry level and that made it shrink.
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Re: Amateur Radio (Ham)

Post by gunham »

L1A1Rocker wrote:
mac man wrote:Picked up a handheld/mobile.Thought about an older vacuum tube model for a base(home)unit.Handheld is a 5w and it can hit repeaters about 25 miles away.Just adding a 5/8 wave 2 meter antenna and no power booster it can hit repeaters 50 miles away.Nice to have in a vehicle or in an area where cell service is not available.
Do you still have to get a license for those? I looked into it once a long time back but the idea of learning morse code turned me off.
To listen No. The only time you NEED a license is to Transmit. :D
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Post by TypeR632 »

So if I want to speak directly to a specific person on the west coast or a different country can I do that at anytime?
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Post by Cheetah »

Seems I need to start studying/looking deeper into things. I can test out fairly close to base, I was trying to do it back home just so I could meet some of the people in the area who were into radios and learn from them, but ARRL's site doesn't show any upcoming tests within 100 miles of home, and there are 35 that pop up within the same distance of base. Now I just need to learn the material..
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Post by TypeR632 »

http://www.yaesu.com/


VX-8DR: What kind of range could you get out of this?
Is there a way to boost these up?


What kind of range can you get out of a mobile unit for your car?
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Post by TypeR632 »

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Post by bakerjw »

I have a couple of Yaesu 2M/440 mobiles. They are pretty solid radios. Range depends on a number of factors - antenna type, antenna height, surrounding terrain. An old ham friend of mine N9BBV had a 2M Ringo Ranger on his tower at 70 feet. He could bring up repeaters 90 miles away. Mounted on a car with a 5/8 mag mount you can usually expect to bring up a repeater up to 30 miles away.

Handhelds such as the VX-8DR can bring up repeaters but since they obviously have less transmit power they have less range. I used a handheld for a long time in my car for my commutes. It'd bring up repeaters 15 miles away but was more sensitive to terrain blocking.

A repeater is a receiver/transmitter that receives on one frequency and transmits on another. My favorite back in Peoria Illinois transmitted on 146.970, received on 146.370, and had a PL tone of 103 hertz. The PL tone is a sub audible tone (a mild hum) that is broadcast whenever you transmit. The repeater has a detector in it that will cause it to transmit if it hears the sub audible tone.
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Post by continuity »

bakerjw wrote:With good sunspot activity you can cover the world with 10 meters. Or even 11 meters.
Except if you want to talk to someone 1/4 to a mile+ away. In my experience, the lower freq's aren't idea for local com.
What amount of a man is composed of his own collection of experiences... and the conclusions that those experiences have allowed him to "know" for certain as "Truth"? :Ick
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