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knotquiteawake wrote:Also, before I went and started ordering the parts of that gigantic j-pole I kind of wish I would have seen the plans for the 1/4 wave groundplane... would have been a better starter project. Little bit easier to get going and much easier to find a mounting location. I might just build a 1/4 wave first anyways and finish up the j-pole afterwards. Depends on part prices and tool availability.

You'll find that the J-pole works much better than a 1/4 wavelength ground plane. Mounting shouldn't be too much of a problem, a couple of U-bolts to mount a flat bar to a pipe or TV mast, and mount the j-pole to the flat bar.

SRO1911 wrote:drudge up an old thread...

Sat a couple tests today - EXTRA ticket is on its way!

Extra makes general and tech seem like a kindergarten quiz - brain is still reeling.

<aybe one of these days I will put it to use, not likely wince 2m and 440 is all I ever mess with lol.

"11" (hope you don't mind the informality )

Congrats on passing the Amateur Extra exam - that's super! Yep, even with the code requirements being dropped, the Extra class license still takes a lot of work to achieve.

Different folks get the Extra for different reasons... I wound up being dis-satisfied with the limited frequencies I had while DX'ing on HF, plus I wanted the ability to get a 1x2 (like N5WD) callsign through the Vanity program when it was first re-introduced in the 80's. Getting the Extra (I still had to pass the 20 word per minute CW exam at that time) took a bit of work, but it solved both problems for me... got my never-before-issued N5WD call, and rook my DXCC country count up to 290 or so.

Who knows.. there's a bunch of different things going on with ham radio, and you may put that Extra class license to work sometime soon.

73 Wayne N5WD

MadMonkey wrote:Oops, I completely forgot that I posted in here

I don't know what I'm looking for. Just something to tinker with and learn on... I'm most likely staying a Technician for now.

Well, you could find a radio that would let you get on 10 meters (29.3-29.5MHz, IIRC) where you can do voice in the 29.4-29.5 region. On a good day, with a minimal antenna, you can talk around the world. Plus, if you have 6 meters (50-54 MHz), you can also do a bit of DX'ing (talking to stations far away) as well, though the times that 6 meters are open is less frequently than 10 meters.

Plus, if you decide to start working on CW, that'd let you get into the 80, 40 and 15m band where technicians have a CW allocation.

Like I said before, one of the "Big 3" radios can be had used for a couple of hundred dollars and up - more for newer radios with more features.

Plus, if you get one that has a general coverage receiver, you can hear some pretty cool things on shortwave frequencies.

By the way, if anyone is coming to the Fort Worth hamfest this weekend, give me a shout on 147.160 simplex, and we can meet for an eyeball QSO! I hope to be there Friday evening and on Saturday morning.

73 Wayne N5WD

Dori wrote:What do you guys think about this for $40? " onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

You are basically buying a disposable radio that works pretty well for short-range direct simplex work, and does pretty well with repeaters that have good receivers and/aren't too far away. Around here (Fort Worth and NW of downtown) people are able to hit our club's repeater pretty well as long as they're getting a good strong signal from the repeater. They are disposable because if they break, there's really no one servicing them, unlike what you'd find from the "Big 3" (Yaseau, Kenwood and Icom).

Main Trading Co in Paris, Tx imports the Woxun radios, and has lots of accesories for them.

73 N5WD

MadMonkey wrote:Any recommendations on a relatively inexpensive setup for home? My dad used to have an awesome base station but it was sold off after he passed on.
I'm pretty much using my license for video equipment on my RC planes and multicopters. I really need a radio.
Rather do a non-handheld first. Just something to get my feet wet. I've had my license for about 12 years but still haven't owned a radio

What kind of radio are you looking for? What license do you have? If it's a Technician, then you're limited to the VHF/UHF bands with a little bit of 10 meters thrown in. If you're planning to upgrade soon, then you can find a used radio that will cover you for today, and be useful after you upgrade your ticket. So many different possibilities ...

mojohn wrote:KF5ZMD here. New to HAM, just got a call sign too.

John

Congrats, John, and welcome to the fraternity!

Mike1951 wrote:I've heard you several times on Salt Grass and at least once on 145.41.

The Salt Grass Link System is a pretty good semi-statewide network. I can link into it through IRLP up here in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, but the closest node we have that's on RF is the Corsicana link, and it's a mite too far for me to hit from northwest Fort Worth. Used to be on all the time when I was making regular trips down to Houston to MDAnderson.

lrpettit wrote:However, I have no radio, I'm not an electrical engineer, and I'm having a hard time figuring out what I would use one for unless some natural disaster hits Dallas. The "contest" part of it doesn't seem all that appealing. I don't have family or friends that are licensed (that I know of). Can't use it for business purposes. Is this something that was far more useful before email, cell phones and Internet showed up?

In a way, yes... the internet (and VOIP telephone calls over the internet) have made it so that there's probably very few people that are so isolated in this world that they can't find someone to talk with.

But, with the advent of internet-linking (linking radios in one geographic area to a radio or a repeater in another part of the state/country/world), the social aspect of amateur radio has been boosted to the point where you can certainly carry on a friendship with someone, no matter what part of the world they live in, and talk with them like they're sitting next door at almost any time of the day or night. Before the internet, that wasn't possible on ham radio due to the changing frequency characteristics, atmospherics, sunspots, etc.

There's public service activities (some folks live for helping charities and civic organizations with their communications needs), storm spotting (especially needed in spring and summer in Texas), building your own equipment (there are a lot of folks dedicated to operating a radio that uses less than one watt of electrical power, and talking around the world with that one watt! As well as folks that build and operate high-powered equipment) and folks who just sit and chat with someone they meet on the radio. There's all kinds of things to do, but if you're not a very social person, you might not find something that strikes your fancy. Most people, given the chance, do.

Beiruty wrote:I would be interested in geting my HAM radio licenses. Not sure where to start. I guess as an IEEE member and Computer and Communication Engineer, I should know best.Silly me, I am bit lazy.

Well, the obvious place to start would be with the entry-level license (you can take more than one license-level exam at a test session, assuming you keep passing the tests) called the Technician license. It requires a written test that is based on the ham regulations (FCC Part 97) and electronics theory. To help you learn the material for the test there are several resources available (look for the currently running other thread about ham radio) including the Gordon West WB6NOA books (available from Amazon or W5YI.com) or the ARRL Technician class license book (arrl.org). There's also a lot of free material on the net. Just Google "technician ham license".

I'd also suggest that you find your local ham club(s) and see what they have to offer. Sometimes you won't have to purchase anything, the club will have books/materials for you use.

Then all ya gotta do is figure out what part of ham radio interests you; talking locally or worldwide, chasing rare foreign stations, experimenting with digital modes, building your own equipment, public service and stormchaser work, or really driving yourself crazy by trying to do it all!

Hope that helps a bit.

73 Wayne N5WD

Charles L. Cotton wrote: Martha isn't happy so all of these are going to be pretty elaborate because they have to virtually disappear. The ground-mounted HF vertical will be easy because I'm going to hide it behind a tree. Long, buried coax isn't a line loss problem at HF frequencies. The dual band vertical and the 2 meter beam will be located in a secluded part of our back yard (hidden by trees) on a specially designed mast that will raise and lower electrically. (Thanks Jim.)

There are some VHF/UHF antennas that can be raised into a tree, hung by a rope inside the tree so that they're completely hidden when the tree is in bloom. Might be a wife-approved modification to your plans.

73 Wayne N5WD

N5WD here. Extra class license... Got started in high school as WN5WDB in 68, then took he general (conditional) license while at Phan Rang AB in S Vietnam -got WA5WDB, then. Upgraded to KF5ZC when I ventured to the FCC office in Dallas to take the Advanced ( with 15 wpm code send & receive) in 1980, then upgraded to Extra ( still with the 20wpm morse test) shortly after they started the VEC program. With the Extra, I got a virgin call sign N5WD which happens to be my initials, so I imagine I'll hang on to this call for the rest of my life. My wife is Pam, W5PHD, and we both have Belize calls V31WD and V31UA. Active in digital and 6 meters. I sponsor the ham club at the high school where I teach and am in the process of putting together a UHF repeater for the school's club. I also have an IRLP node running in a simplex node in northwest Fort Worth.

dpleban wrote:I hope to take my test when i get back from afghanistan.

Check with the comm guys or the MARS station wherever you are -there are supposed to be VE exams in country occasionally.