Any other amatuer radio operators out there?

I just recently got my Tech license . Any other hams on the forum? I'm currently using an HT but am looking for a mobile rig to put in my pickup.

Cheers!

KG7HSZ

I've been a HAM for years. A couple of friends got into way back before cell phones and the Internet were common. I got the Tech license, which differs from today's license. I am technically a "NO-CODE" technician, as I did not take or pass the code element.

I've thought about upgrading, but just never got around to studying. I hear there is no code requirement for any level today, so it ought not be too bad to study for.

I have a mobile rig that I keep on a shelf in my room. (2 actually, but the crystal set is not tuned properly and not really worth tuning IMO. I used it as a temporary base station for a short time, but I have it mostly because it was $5 as a swap meet and I wanted something to play with.)

I also have 2 handy talkies, but one is receive only now, and I'm not even sure that works. The one that does work is never charged.

I just haven't desired using my HAM stuff since cell phones and internet got to be so ubiquitous. I sometimes see other HAM license plates on cars and remember that I have one, but I don't even have my mobile rig in my Jeep and then I feel sad. I think that if you have a Jeep, and a HAM license, you really OUGHT to have a radio installed. My new spring project: find a place to mount my radio in my Cherokee.

I got my Novice in 8th grade. Going through a class led by a family friend and studying up was a great father/son activity. I got my Tech sometime later. My father went all the way to the end with an Expert license and frequently volunteered for marathons and parade communications (Football Hall of Fame was one of his favorite local events to help with). I never had much interest in using it. A whiz-bang Commodore 128 and Atari 2600 attracted all my attention in those years. I think I renewed it once, but then let it expire the second time. My call sign was N8JYT. (Remember it, because a local club member phoneticized it as Jumbo Young Turkey).

When seeing license plates and antennas on cars, I've wondered how active the community still was in this mobile data age. Especially things like "packet" (I think that's what the computer data sent by radio was called).

Oh yeah, my cal is KB8VUB (Phonetically it has been called, "Killer Bears Ate Very Ugly Boy").

Packet is data sent via radio waves, similar to Wi-Fi, but different. Only saw a small demonstration that my friend did a long time back.

I used the Autopatch a fair amount around the area before cell phones were popular. You could key up the local Repeater and patch into it's telephone connection and make local calls. Just had to remind the person on the other end to not swear, etc.

Homer you are correct about no code nowadays. It seems that the off road community is a huge part of keeping ham radio alive. At least here in Nevada where terrain can make cell phone and CB almost useless outside of a city. I read that the FCC is issuing thousands of new licenses a month as well as many upgrades so it seems it isn't going anywhere. I think there is a large "prepper" following as well. Packet radio is huge, we get a Net from Alaska on a local repeater here in Reno via echolink (Internet node) every morning. Another expensive hobby to keep my we use annoyed.

Yeah, with the licenses easier to get I think a lot of people are finding time to get licensed and on the air, at least for 2M and 440. I'm way behind the times, so I don't know what frequency bands tech licenses are allowed on, but it's not a big jump into the next license bracket with no code requirement.

I think I found a spot for my radio. I could remove the sun visor clips and mount a bracket between then and screw them back into place. It would jsut be a metal strip running between them, but would give me something to hang the radio mount.

PLUS, it would help hold up the headliner that has started to sag there...

Homercidal said:

PLUS, it would help hold up the headliner that has started to sag there...

Click to expand...

Perfect. The tech license allows 2m and 70 cm voice and CW only in limited frequencies in other bands. I studied online for a week before testing and only missed 2 questions so anyone can do it.

Been meaning to get my license for years now. A few years back, a buddy of mine got his expert level license shortly before we went on a week-long boundary waters trip. He meant to bring his handheld along, as well as all of the study materials for the tech level license, help me study and then administer the test when we got back. But, in the frenzy of packing, he forgot all of that stuff and we've never picked it up again. Still want to do it one of these days...

I used to use my HT all over the place back in the day. Camping trips we'd tie a rock onto a rope and toss it over a high tree branch and use it to pull up a 300-Ohm J-Pole antenna (Built with 300-Ohm TV antenna wire.) that you could roll up an place in your pocket. This REALLY extended useable range!

Once while visiting Sleeping Bear Dunes we keyed up and talked to repeaters in Wisconsin using our 5W HTs.

I admit that sometimes after listening to the regulars and Elmers on the repeater or link I get terribly bored. It's the same boring conversations over and over, usually. What would be nice is if I could reach my buddy in Manchester on HF, but I don't have an HF rig!

The one thing I've been wanting to do for a few years is to restore an old Hallicrafters S-38 Shortwave set. It's not a transmitter, but still a cool little AM radio.

Just in case anyone is interested, you can listen & talk to the astronauts/cosmonauts on the ISS:
http://www.issfanclub.com/frequencies
Regards, GF.

You could build a helical array antenna and bounce your signal off the moon.

Weird. I just got an email from a friend reminding me to check my expiration date. Apparently he just got his notice and wanted to make sure I remembered before I expired. Good idea since a license lasts for 10 years, many people may have moved or changed email hosts during that time.

I was still good until December, but I did register on ARRL.ORG and I even signed up with some bonus money from work, so I could get the magazine. I'm pretty sure I've never been a member.

Extra class here. I have an HF radio in the closet but haven't gotten around to putting up a permanent antenna. Once a year or so I will throw up some temporary wire in a tree just to get on the air.

HF seems fun but really expensive. At this point I think I'll just throw a mag mount antenna on the truck and use my HT as a mobile until the wife ups my allowance enough for me to get an actual mobile. Most of the repeaters here in Reno are linked so it's pretty easy to find one you can hit and talk across town even with just 5 watts.

I'm interested in working some of the digital modes (like PSK31) but homebrewing and house renovations don't give me much time to play with the radio.

I've been playing around on Echolink lately. Kind of like a cheaters DX. The interwebs make everything possible.

KG7HSZ

FastAndy said:

HF seems fun but really expensive. At this point I think I'll just throw a mag mount antenna on the truck and use my HT as a mobile until the wife ups my allowance enough for me to get an actual mobile. Most of the repeaters here in Reno are linked so it's pretty easy to find one you can hit and talk across town even with just 5 watts.

Click to expand...

Look around for a decent used rig. I bought a brand new mobile from Radio Shack for not a lot of money years ago. I think it was discounted to $130 and does repeater functions so you can use it to expand your HT range if you are out hiking with friends or whatnot.

I see Yaesu and Icom have mobile rigs for $150 to $200. Mostly basic 2M/440 rigs, but basic these days is still pretty decent.

And there is nothing wrong with using an HT as a mobile. I did that most of the time and other than the limited power and range, they work pretty good, even with a mag mount or glass mount antenna.

BTW I found a nice tutorial on building a glass mount antenna from scratch years ago and it worked very well the first time I made one. The second one didn't tune in as good, but still worked ok. They were fun to build. I'll see if I can dig that up again.

Here are the plans I found for the Glass Mount 2M antenna. They were actually in QST. If I recall correctly, I think I discovered the reason the second antenna didn't do so well was because I tried to mount it where the factory tint was located at the top of my windshield. It worked real good on the back window of my old Dodge truck, but not so good at the top of my Jeep antenna.

Glass Mount 2M antenna Plans

This would be fun to build again, but this time I think I am going with a 1/4 wave mounted off the end of my trailer hitch and supported by the body partway up the Jeep. It's too cold to plan or build at this time. It's a spring project.

Homercidal said:

Here are the plans I found for the Glass Mount 2M antenna. They were actually in QST. If I recall correctly, I think I discovered the reason the second antenna didn't do so well was because I tried to mount it where the factory tint was located at the top of my windshield. It worked real good on the back window of my old Dodge truck, but not so good at the top of my Jeep antenna.

Glass Mount 2M antenna Plans

This would be fun to build again, but this time I think I am going with a 1/4 wave mounted off the end of my trailer hitch and supported by the body partway up the Jeep. It's too cold to plan or build at this time. It's a spring project.

Click to expand...

Seems to be a link only accessible if you're a paid AARL member. I'm not but I am very interested in through glass antennas.

KG7HSZ

Well crap. I can send you the very short instructions if you like. I am very certain they can be found online with enough looking anyway, if you know what you are looking for. I also found an alternate, but similar, design that may or may not be better suited for your tools. Let me know.

ALSO In case anyone is interested, I just recently discovered the HEATHKIT is coming back into the making and selling of kits and whatnot. Long story short, they have new management, who seem to be very intelligent and caring people, and plan to release new and classic kits and very likely some new items as time goes on, and this should start first half of 2014. They are keeping things very low-key at this time, instead focusing on building a good team and good products, but you can visit their web page:

http://www.heathkit.com

And by clicking on the links get more information and take a survey that may help them decide what kinds of things to make available. It's a fairly lengthy survey, but not boring if you are into Amateur Radio and the associated.

I've always wanted to build a Heathkit transceiver from scratch. These day's I don't know that I would spend $1000 on a radio, but I would definitely be interested in some other kits if they were useful to me.

I was at one point. I think mine expired. Just a Tech but got into it because my ex gf outta high schools father was hardcore into it, and therefore, everyone in the household was as well. It was kind of my way of smoothing things over and showing interest in something other than rabbit hunting with him. I was never interested in morse code but it was cool to watch all the gadgets in work in his base station and with some simple di-poles talk at such great distance. I only used 2m operations and repeaters around the area. Simplex was a feature that was nice to talk truck to truck as well, and utilized quite often. If anyone lives here around Ohio (Zanesville area) and is an operator I'd be more than happy to give you my Icom 2100 mobile rig with a Diamond antannae. It just sits around the garage and I have no desire to use it again.

I'll pay shipping for the icom if you'll extend the offer to the OP.

I'd be happy to help ya out. Its an Icom 2100H I believe. It was put on the scope shortly after purchasing and needed no tuning at all. Think max is 55 watts. Really nice rig, but probably a bit outdated. The mic has all sorts of doo dads and hickamajiggs to piddle with too. PM sent.

Subing for future reference. Ham radio is something that's always held some interest for me I've just never got the time and money, its always one or the other ya know.

Extra Class here.

Currently running an Icom IC-7400 into an Ameritron 811 linear.
Also have a Yaesu ft-857 to install in the truck, just havent had the time to do the install.

Mostly enjoy collecting qsl cards from special event stations, and chasing DX when i have the chance. Ragchew once in a while but its not really my thing.

73

jhoneycutt said:

Subing for future reference. Ham radio is something that's always held some interest for me I've just never got the time and money, its always one or the other ya know.

Click to expand...

Study the flash cards on hamexam.org or something similar. It's free and then test when ever you are comfortable. It should be no more than $15 for the test and you'll be licensed for 10 years. You can get a HT radio on Amazon for about $30 and you'll be all set with minimal investment.

FastAndy said:

It seems that the off road community is a huge part of keeping ham radio alive. At least here in Nevada where terrain can make cell phone and CB almost useless outside of a city. I read that the FCC is issuing thousands of new licenses a month as well as many upgrades so it seems it isn't going anywhere.

Click to expand...

First, congrats and welcome. Rubicon Trail got me started. No cell coverage, but awesome repeater KA6GWY has helped many times for emergencies - large and small. Also pretty cool talking with buddies via echolink when traveling for work while they're having fun in the backwoods.

Ended up getting General and became a VE. Involved in over 400 new HAMs getting their ticket via the off-road brotherhood. Upgraded to Extra last year myself.

Hope to get HF rig going this summer on some dirt we've got west of Tahoe for some fun, but use 2M all the time - usually to radio the wives that we're not coming home for another night or to bring more beer when they come up:rockin:

WB6MYR (snagged my Dad's call sign).

EHV hooked me up big time.

My truck didn't really have an ideal place to mount a mobile rig so I made a bracket type shelf like stand out of a piece of "weldable metal" I found at Ace Hardware for $6 that fits over the transmission hump. I just need to tidy up the wiring and get to programming. It's not pretty but it's stable. Please the truck and it's driver aren't all that good looking anyway.

Thanks again EHV!

My pleasure Andy. Glad to see it arrived safe and sound. I figured the rig was no good without the Diamond antennae so you will be off and rolling once it gets juiced. Just a heads up the antennae will flip down for low clearances by lifting up and then hinging down. Enjoy the hobby.

N2FRH - General class here, since 1984 I believe. It has been a while and I don't know if my license is still active since I lost my card. Is there a place to check? The ARRL?

I did a lot of code in my HF days. Besides just CQing around, I used to handle traffic and was part of several traffic networks. Also chatted and used autopatch on 2 meters before cell phones became popular.

Sad to hear that you don't need to know code anymore to get a license. It was sort of a right of passage at one time. I worked so hard to bust through 13 words per min to get my general class license. That gave you the honor to use voice on HF freq.

With so many other hobbies and kids, I haven't been active in some time. But I'm proud to be a ham (if my license is still good)

Oh, and my first set up was a Hammerlund HQ-110A receiver with a Merck VFO and an Eico transmitter. Later, I got hi-tech when I bought my first transceiver. It was a Kenwood TS-520 which was a tube rig and needed to be tuned up. I later got a solid state rig that was more powerful and needed less tuning, but that Kenwood was always my favorite. And the Hammerlund was a great receiver.

Extra Class here, since '92, earned it with 20wpm morse code. Not very active lately, used to run a lot of contest ops, had a blast. Still have the HF rig, Kenwood TS850, nice unit. Don't take time for it much anymore, fire up the HF 2 or 3 times a year just to prove it still works.

de KE3FC

Cider123 said:

N2FRH - General class here, since 1984 I believe. It has been a while and I don't know if my license is still active since I lost my card. Is there a place to check? The ARRL?

Click to expand...

According to QRZ.com you're valid until 4/25/2015

Cheers

FastAndy said:

According to QRZ.com you're valid until 4/25/2015

Cheers

Click to expand...

TNX and 73's

A lot of fond memories using my HF gear. I was a member of a local ham club back in the 80's. There were still a bunch of guys around who were radio operators from the WWII era. I learned a lot from those old sparks.

I've had my extra for maybe 15 years but no radio anymore. My renewal came and went about 4 months ago and I missed renewing. Seemed like you had to have a club like ARRL or similar send in your stuff. I think I can still renew but unsure what to do. Been meaning to call QRZ or someone but keep forgetting. My brother back in OH has multiple HF radios and a big beam and still talks globally on a weekly basis.

Roadie said:

I've had my extra for maybe 15 years but no radio anymore. My renewal came and went about 4 months ago and I missed renewing. Seemed like you had to have a club like ARRL or similar send in your stuff. I think I can still renew but unsure what to do.

Click to expand...

Times have changed, as usual
Can renew online and there is two year grace period after expiration

http://wireless.fcc.gov/services/index.htm?job=cft&id=amateur&page=cft_renew_amateur

Good to know. Thanks.

Thanks for that link as I've now submitted my renewal application and would have had no idea how to do it without that link.

AC8KD amateur extra checking in.

Is this a net now?

It seems so. Glad to see is popular in this crowd.