bluehash 1,581 Posted October 15, 2011 Share Posted October 15, 2011 Hello 43oher's I plan on getting my Technician's License in the next month. I was wanting to be a Ham from a long time. I finally bought the ARRL book, am two chapters in. Its not that hard. I have an engineering background, so the remaining should go well. I know some of you are (Rob, N1KSN and Mac) operators. It will save me alot of time, if you give me hints on equipment to buy and places to hang out(forums). There is so much info out there, that I'm getting lost. Till next time, 73. I'm so excited, I'll be using short codes. RobG 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RobG 1,892 Posted October 15, 2011 Share Posted October 15, 2011 You know, real hams build their own rigs The rigs I had owned: Kenwood TS-130, Yaesu FT-767, Kenwood TS-570D. I would recommend 570, but to be honest, older rigs (boat anchors) are more fun, I used to work on TS-520 when I was still in school. bluehash 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
bluehash 1,581 Posted October 15, 2011 Author Share Posted October 15, 2011 True. I'm sure you built yours Anyways, I'll give an update when I pass my exam. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RobG 1,892 Posted October 15, 2011 Share Posted October 15, 2011 You should visit W1AW, it's less than 2 hrs from you. Another nice place to visit, if you like this kind of stuff, is this AWA museum. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
zeke 693 Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 I'm a HAM as well (VE6ZEK). I run an FT-7R and an FT-8800R. I built my own J-Pole antenna from aluminum stock at home depot. Does that count? bluehash, gatImmusepete and RobG 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Fe2o3Fish 33 Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 Blue', You're 59 in North Texas! :-) I'd recommend that you lookup on the ARRL website and at least find a radio club or two near you if the group that gives you your exam is not close by. Naturally, with 'n' hams around you will get at least n-1 opinions. :-) Definitely find one of the ham testing websites (e.g. qrz.com) and take the practice exams. That will give you a good idea as to how ready you are for the test. You shouldn't have any real problems -- I are uh double E and it helped a good bit. :-D 73 and good luck! de Rusty/AE5AE bluehash 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Mac 67 Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 I would also recommend checking out at least a couple local clubs. You'll find a great mix of interests and personalities. Field Day is always fun. Tower rasing parties are fun. The QRP groups seem to do a lot in the way of home-brew projects. SDR (software defined radio) is pretty exciting stuff. My HF station includes an Icom 756PRO-II (above), an old 500w Heathkit SB-200 amplifier, a 5-band (20 thru' 10) Quad at 50 feet, and a ladder-line fed inverted vee for the 160 through 30 meter bands. I enjoy CW, SSB, digital modes, and DX (long distance) contacts (318 countries confirmed). Good luck in your studies... Very 73, Mike McLaren, K8LH gatImmusepete 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Mac 67 Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 Another nice radio was the Yaesu FT-847. It had a "general coverage" receiver from VLF through 6 meters (a great SWL receiver) and it covered all the ham bands from 160 through 2 meters. Tiny little thing too. In less than two years I worked my first 300 countries, and WAZ, and 5BWAS with this rig connected to a 90 foot long all-band no-tune Barker and Williamson folded dipole antenna. I also used the AMSAT "station" program running on a PC to control both VFO's on the FT-847 to compensate for Doppler shift which allowed me to work several states on CW through the Russian RS13 LEO (low earth orbit) satellite transponder (2m up, 10m down). Regards, Mike bluehash 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
bluehash 1,581 Posted October 16, 2011 Author Share Posted October 16, 2011 Wow, alot of you are operators-zeke and Fe2o3Fish too. I found out that there is a local club here. Also the repeater station is five minutes from my place.(http://www.wara64.org/) Thanks for the suggestions everyone. gatImmusepete and aspelveGlolve 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
GeoNomad 8 Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 Ham radio is a great hobby and a wonderful community. You will meet fine hams all over the world, on the radio, on the internet, and if you travel, in person. Start by meeting the local hams in the nearest club(s). Look for the various hamfests that might be near you. There are small regional ones and large divisional ones, and then there is Dayton. http://www.arrl.org/hamfests-and-conventions-calendar And most important, turn on the radio and LISTEN. Listen to HF, listen to 2 meters, listen to some morse code. Find your niche, maybe you will get hooked on digital transmissions (CW was the first digital transmission - it is all ones and zeros). Maybe satellite or moonbounce. Maybe contests. Maybe just having an HT on your belt and a radio in the car. There is something for everyone. And always something new. BTW, there are now over 700,000 hams in the US. More per capita than at any previous time. It is not a dying hobby. And a surprising number of new hams choose to learn CW, even though it is no longer required. You can do a lot more with a small budget or a small lot using CW. 73 :wave: Peter AB6WM - VE3SUN - C31LJ gatImmusepete 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
bluehash 1,581 Posted October 16, 2011 Author Share Posted October 16, 2011 Hi Geonomad, seeing you here after a long time. Thanks for your response. yes, I'm going to hit my local club. It certainly looks very interesting. Also, why do you have three call signs? gatImmusepete 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Fe2o3Fish 33 Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 Blue', I highly recommend you listen to the repeater and/or HF, even if it's with a scanner, just to get the conventions that people use on the repeater. Oh yeah, no calling 'CQ' on the repeater, either. Lots of things to do in the hobby, from the simplicity of CW on HF to using 802.11 wireless routers to make mesh networks, as I do. Just find something fun to do and go from there!! Have fun! -Rusty- Quote Link to post Share on other sites
bluehash 1,581 Posted October 16, 2011 Author Share Posted October 16, 2011 I have an old Pro-62 from a yard sale($5). I do listen in sometimes. gatImmusepete 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Fe2o3Fish 33 Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 Attaboy but program some memories! :-D That looks like my old Pro-43. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
zeke 693 Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 I don't have an HF radio right now so I take advantage of some generous HAM's online. Check out http://www.websdr.org/. There you'll find SDR's worldwide that you can listen to. I usually listen to the eastern seaboard using http://w4ax.com/ in Atlanta,GA. gatImmusepete, Fe2o3Fish, oPossum and 2 others 5 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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