The HAM Radio Thread

[Jarred J.]

22 contacts in under an hour, then the flex caused the pc it was on to crash.


since i had to work, i missed a good part of field day so all the operators that stayed up all night wanted to go home. once it crashed the antenna came down.


i was on a roll too.


canada, ohio, AL, VA, South Florida, east texas and a few other places on 40 and 20 meters

 

[kadetklapp]

Yeha, tell me about it. I was really pleased with the radio until that happened. Then I went and did some research on the Googles and found many threads on many forums complaining about issue after issue with the 257HP. Not happy

Have they made it right yet or did you just toss it?

 

[Ben E.]

Have they made it right yet or did you just toss it?

Idk, I sent the guy an email like 2 weeks ago and haven't heard anything. Probably have to call them like I did last time.

 

[Rofocowboy84]

Well, on Sunday I went to the Mid-Atlantic Radio Club's HamFest for the test, after a week and a half of studying. I told the guy I wanted to try for all three, and he just laughed. An hour later, all he could say was "wow", as another VE handed him the Extra test that I had passed. 34/35 Tech, 32/35 General, and 40/50 Extra. Not the most outstanding of scores, but I'd say it's pretty damn good for only 35 hours of total study time. So anyway, I'll know my call within the next couple of days, and then maybe I'll buy a radio sometime before my license expires in 10 years, lol...

 

[Jarred J.]

it may already be there check the fcc datatbase. depending on who your examiners go through (arrrl ones take forever)


I had my callsign on the monday after i took my examine on a saturday at 9 am


havent really had the need or want to the extra as of yet.


i dont own any generalclass equipment lol.


i have 2 2m/44o radios a 2m all mode and 3 2m 440 chinese hts.


Gary there is a whole hell of a lot more to ham radio then storm spotting, working events, etc. its also good if one or more of your REACT group get a ham licensce because during a large emcomm type situation, your group leader could be a react liason to your local ema or civy defense if there were ever a need for them in your area.

 

[GaryErrol]

Gary there is a whole hell of a lot more to ham radio then storm spotting, working events, etc. its also good if one or more of your REACT group get a ham licensce because during a large emcomm type situation, your group leader could be a react liason to your local ema or civy defense if there were ever a need for them in your area.

Four of our members already have a ham license. The team on a whole has discussed getting ham licenses for many of the members.

 

[Rofocowboy84]

it may already be there check the fcc datatbase. depending on who your examiners go through (arrrl ones take forever)

I had my callsign on the monday after i took my examine on a saturday at 9 am


havent really had the need or want to the extra as of yet.

I checked yesterday and it wasn't up yet. The VE said it should be there by the end of the week.


I don't really have a need for the Extra either, I don't even know if I'm going to get a radio any time soon. For me, it was more of a personal challenge, just to see if I could do it...

 

[ryanm]

Well, on Sunday I went to the Mid-Atlantic Radio Club's HamFest for the test, after a week and a half of studying. I told the guy I wanted to try for all three, and he just laughed. An hour later, all he could say was "wow", as another VE handed him the Extra test that I had passed. 34/35 Tech, 32/35 General, and 40/50 Extra. Not the most outstanding of scores, but I'd say it's pretty damn good for only 35 hours of total study time. So anyway, I'll know my call within the next couple of days, and then maybe I'll buy a radio sometime before my license expires in 10 years, lol...

Congratulations!!

 

[Rofocowboy84]

Congratulations!!

Thanks!

 

[Rofocowboy84]

Well, I FINALLY got my call, AB3QO! Not too shabby, might not even have to get a vanity one now, lol....though they did screw up the spelling of my last name and street address, so I'll have to get that fixed...

 

[FFParker]

Well I have read this thread and never threw my bio out there so here goes.


Call N4PKR (its a vanity, my last name is ParKeR. its in my signature)


I grew up in a ham family, my father (k5cvd, later w4jap) and my mom (kb5aqo) would always talk on "5-2" on there "2 meter rigs"


as a kid I would enjoy going into my dads "shack" and sit and listen to all his buddies around the world. I got to talk to the space station which i thought was awesome, hanging out with with all the family friends (turns out all hams) good stuff. Well parents split, mom dropped the ham stuff, dad passed so I didn't have the exposure to ham but I always kept the will and want. It wasn't until I was placed as the cadet comm. officer for the civil air patrol where as buddys dad asked if I ever thought about ham, long story short he took me and his son to take our test 4 hours away where we both passed. After years of hamming, some of my ham buddys today watched me grow up as family friends"


Call bio


Started out as Ki4UAA in '07 ( with the way i talked it sound like i was saying YA YA!)


upgraded to general in '10, decided it was time to get a better call so I went with a systematic call sign change....


loo and behold, I got pinned with KJ4YJJ ( Come on, really! Does someone at at the FCC HATE ME?) so after stewing about it for a while, i finally came up with a vanity and wah lah.


rigs I have owned


heathkit 2 meter (unknown model)


htx 252 " pocket size 25 watt 2 meter" loved that rig


yaesu ft 2500 another right that I loved


ft 1500 wasnt impressed


ft7800


htx10 good starter rig


ft8900 with matching comet 8900 antenna traded for my current rig


icom 751 (non alpha)


ic706mkII (non g)


---handhelds


vx150


vx170


htx 404


icom v8


Current rigs


kenwood (tm V71) great rig trade the 8900 for


yaesu ft840 I use ham sticks on 10/12 20 40 and 75


meters


I use my ht1250 for uhf ham and xband repeat on a separate bank from my fire stuff of course:bonk:

 

[ryanm]

Well, I FINALLY got my call, AB3QO! Not too shabby, might not even have to get a vanity one now, lol....though they did screw up the spelling of my last name and street address, so I'll have to get that fixed...

Mine is N5QZ. We were giving a test a few years ago and the guy there had a KD5Qxx (don't remember the last of it) call. He asked if he should get a vanity call or a new systematically assigned one to get rid of his 'Q-call' that he wasn't sure about.


One of the other people at the table suggested he look at his CSCE... which was signed by N5QS, N5QT, N5QZ... and also present were N5QI and N5QE (as well as several others!). I'm not sure what he decided, but at least he had something to think about.

 

[kitn1mcc]

also DMR aka MotoTrbo is making roads into ham radio DMR-MARC Network the motorola XPR series are great for hamming and non hamming fun

 

[GaryErrol]

Four of our members already have a ham license. The team on a whole has discussed getting ham licenses for many of the members.

I took the test for Technician Ham License today and passed. I should have my call sign by the end of next week, they said.

 

[FFParker]

Congrats gary!

 

[ryanm]

I took the test for Technician Ham License today and passed. I should have my call sign by the end of next week, they said.

Woohoo, Congrats!

 

[Jarred J.]

congrats gary! welcome to the madness.


anybody going to huntsville hamfest?

 

[GaryErrol]

I took the test for Technician Ham License today and passed. I should have my call sign by the end of next week, they said.

New call sign KC9WLW. I've already applied for a Vanity one, something that means something to me and I won't want to confuse with my GMRS license, not that I really think I would, just like the idea of being able to be unique like W9CJH (CJH is my wife's maiden name initials.

 

[GaryErrol]

New Vanity Call appeared this morning, yes I watch light night TV and surf the net at the same time.


It is N9PTC (PTC in reference to my PT Cruiser).

 

[Ben E.]

New Vanity Call appeared this morning, yes I watch light night TV and surf the net at the same time.

It is N9PTC (PTC in reference to my PT Cruiser).

Congrats on the license and the vanity call, sorry about the PT Cruiser.

 

[Jarred J.]

worked a bike event this weekend that covered 3 countys.


i worked the "county liason" station for my county then backed up 2 more aid staions becuase we didnt have enough volunteers.


since my project box is stuck in limbo i had to go with the ol back up.





i went and bought a folding table at the mart so now i dont have to borrow one anymore.


so i threw the batteries in a back up plastic zombie ammo can i have.


50 ft of coax and wires for batteries to radio in another,


solar charger and accesories in another


10 x10 pop up.


my icom 207h dual bander thats in my car.


dual band jetstream antenna and 48 feet of aluminum camo poles


the antenna is on 4 poles 20 feet in the air. (its in the pic somewhere lol)


laptop with g band antenna into an unsecured wireless router to montior aprs of event net contol who was mobile


i didnt bring the big solar panels out due to the inclement weather, i set a small one on the ground.


batteries took 3.5 hours to recharge yesterday so im guessing i burned up some juice on them.





so given the info above can you see the antenna and guess its height in regards to its surroundings lol

 

[GaryErrol]

I've had a GMRS license for over 10 years. While I knew my home address was listed on the FCC web site, I really didn't think much about it. But now with a ham license I sense that my call sign will most likely pop up more. So not wanting to have nuts pop up at my home for any number of reasons, including my wife having to deal with them (full time chair user). I got a Post Office Box and now have that as my mailing address for the FCC.


My question is, I now have two copies of my license. One with my street address and the other with the post office box. I want to have the wallet copy laminated but wonder if having the one with the street address wouldn't be a better idea, or does it matter? The one with the post office box address is the latest one but the one with my street address shows the same info as my drivers license and other forms of ID. So which should I have laminated and carry?

 

[Jarred J.]

shouldnt really matter as long as you have one with you whenever you transmit.


did you run into the problem of already having a FSN number on file? or did you advise your tester that you had a gmrs licensce already.


we had a guy test and forgot he already had a number from fcc. it took him 6 weeks to get a callsign due to that

 

[GaryErrol]

If you meant FRN when you said FSN, yes I had one at the time of the testing. I had a copy of it that I copy and pasted to Word directly from the FCC web site. They were so stunned that I had that info, they had to logged into the FCC site hoping to prove I had some how fabricated the info, which of course I had not.


The issue is that I changed my mailing address, for the most part for the FCC, to a PO Box. I have two copies of the license. The first one where they had my home mailing address and the second the PO Box after I changed it in their data base. Originally I was going to laminate the newest one with the PO Box on it but then I got to thinking that a PO Box address does not quickly prove the license belongs to me. After all, I'm not the only Gary E Smith, nor do I believe I'm the only one here in Indianapolis, although I doubt that the E for the other one is for ERROL.


As far as having my license with me while transmitting, yes I will although I doubt I'll ever be stopped. I've had radios in my vehicles for over 10 years. I work a lot of local events so the LEO's are use to seeing me around. I don't do stupid things, don't chase police calls (if anything I'd want to go the other way).


So, I'll just laminate the one with the street address and if I find out later I need the one with the PO Box, I can then have it laminated.

 

[Jarred J.]

Seems we have a few new members on the board that are operators.... figuyre i'd bring the thread back up so they can post up

 

[kitn1mcc]

so who's going to Dayton

 

[Ben E.]

10 meters has became the suck since I made my post on the 1st page of this thread. Obviously I hit a cycle just right when I first got in to 10.

 

[Rofocowboy84]

I still haven't gotten a radio....maybe I should before I hit my 1 year mark...

 

[Jarred J.]

You can buy a 2m-440 HT for like $60...


whats the dealio?

 

[Rofocowboy84]

You can buy a 2m-440 HT for like $60...

whats the dealio?

The problem is that when I buy something, I always want the best of the best. So instead of even giving a cursory glance to the cheap portable dual banders that probably have more features than I'll even use starting out, I tend to want to hold out for the top of the line Yaesu or Icom that I'll probably only use 1/4 of the features. I may just have to give in and get something more in my price range, lol...

 

[Jarred J.]

sounds like you need a


kenwood th- d72a


those will do aprs and you can sends texts via the radio....


if i had $400+ dollars i didnt need i'd get one. Our club has FINALLY come to the realization of how far behind they are when it comes to APRS and the like. we are a blind spot in the state for APRS. they bought the equipmemnt to get an igate and a digipeater up and running.

 

[Rofocowboy84]

sounds like you need a

kenwood th- d72a


those will do aprs and you can sends texts via the radio....


if i had $400+ dollars i didnt need i'd get one. Our club has FINALLY come to the realization of how far behind they are when it comes to APRS and the like. we are a blind spot in the state for APRS. they bought the equipmemnt to get an igate and a digipeater up and running.

That's the funny thing, I'm not even worried about APRS or anything like that right now, just getting on the air...

 

[RyanZ71]

That's the funny thing, I'm not even worried about APRS or anything like that right now, just getting on the air...

Heck I've been in Amateur Radio for 20+ years and I still don't know what APRS is.

 

[Jarred J.]

Automatic packet reporting system


Automatic Packet Reporting System - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


some people mis identify it as automatic position reporting system which is kinda what it does more so then packet.


with the right radio you can send texts to other hams with repeaters tied intot he internet known as igates.


go to Google Maps APRS to see what it can do.

 

[kitn1mcc]

the DMR-MARC guys are working on a gateway from the DMR-MARC network to APRS network

 

[RyanZ71]

Thanks Jarred.

 

[Ben E.]

I run an APRS app on my smart phone. WAY cheaper and easier, IMO. I used it on our honeymoon just in case interested people wanted to see where we were at. My dad ended up watching us on Google Street View while we were driving in the mountains of Colorado into the town were were going to, just like was in the car.

 

[RyanZ71]

I run an APRS app on my smart phone. WAY cheaper and easier, IMO. I used it on our honeymoon just in case interested people wanted to see where we were at. My dad ended up watching us on Google Street View while we were driving in the mountains of Colorado into the town were were going to, just like was in the car.

I know APRS is helpful for ARES operations but other than that I am not sure I would want anyone to know where I am at...

 

[Jarred J.]

I know APRS is helpful for ARES operations but other than that I am not sure I would want anyone to know where I am at...

its good for long runs/bike rides/ etc where it covers a large distance and volunteers may not be from that area. we have 2 runs that come through our county where one starts 100 miles away away and ends 50 miles away and the other one goes from nashville to lynchburg and back.


a nashville club runs that event and they may not be familiar with all the lil roads here and there.


its alos good for searhes etc.


you CAN turn it off its not permanent. you can also set it up as a beacon so its always at your house so people can find you lol...


also it can be setup as beacons on checkpoints on events so other folks with aprs can "find" you.


its a neat tool in the bag but not something i could easily afford considering both mobile rigs that do it are around the price of a good used HF rig

 

[RyanZ71]

Very good points. My Kenwood TM700D is equipped with APRS, I've just never bothered to set it up or learn about it. I am going to be selling my current truck and getting a sedan for awhile but after I am able to purchase a truck again, I'll be sure to install the APRS antenna onto it for future use.