Cyrus Cassidy #45437 Posted September 19 Share Posted September 19 I just passed the technician and general tests a few weeks ago and am busy setting up several rigs. Here is what I'm currently working: - Yaesu FT-65R, dual band 2m/70cm HT. I have all the local repeaters programmed and have participated in several nets. - Yaesu 2980 single band 2m mobile. I have this mounted and wired into my pickup and am waiting for delivery of the antenna I ordered. - ICOM 7300 HF base station. I have a power supply and an external tuner, and was given a dipole antenna, but I haven't set anything up yet. I would like to put a 2m base station in my office, next to where the 7300 will go. We have a group of statewide volunteers who monitor a net for emergencies. With millions of acres of literal wilderness, HT ham radios are a good way to get help in the backcountry. I would like to volunteer with these folks when I'm teleworking, Is anyone else a ham? KF0ROC 5 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Original Lumpy Gritz Posted September 19 Share Posted September 19 I was, no longer active. K6MTY 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Okie Sawbones, SASS #77381 Posted September 19 Share Posted September 19 KC5RR Extra I also have the ICOM 7300. IMO it is the best radio on the market for the buck. I mainly chase DX. Up to 236 countries. 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Duncan Posted September 19 Share Posted September 19 (edited) KB9CWU with a General class license. Edited September 19 by Matthew Duncan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bgavin Posted September 19 Share Posted September 19 My Dad was K7PKT, Extra Class. He failed to renew on time (10 years late) and had to requalify. He taught electronics at Boise College, so the written was a no-brainer for him. He need to brush up on his Morse code. I wrote him a simple program for his computer where he could type in a phrase and it would play the dits and dahs. He was 80+ years old when he again passed his Extra exam. Dad never had much use for me in the computer business until after I wrote that program for him. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eyesa Horg Posted September 19 Share Posted September 19 My step Dad was W1CJA, no idea why I remember that! He would always say W1,Canada,Japan,America. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Todd Hayseed Posted September 19 Share Posted September 19 Started off as KB6MRP, let that expire. Came back as KJ6SSV, which sounds neat in morse code. Vanity changed that to N6RVT, of which I was not the original owner, the previous one also being a licensed RVT. And am also WRDR790 Which is a GMRS call sign I have actually never used. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texas Lizard Posted September 19 Share Posted September 19 I almost did...Bought an old radio receiver from a neighbor...It was an RME 69...It went from bottom of the AM up to 32 megacycles.....Had to rebuild it...Had trouble finding some of the vacuum tubes....I t seems that an 80 and 6D6 and 6C6 vacuum tubes were some what out dated....Had lot of fun finding people talking in many place.... Texas Lizard Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rye Miles #13621 Posted September 19 Share Posted September 19 I recently had a 10lb ham and I couldn’t get any stations on it at all!! I even tried a coat hanger for an antenna!🙄 1 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Chapo Posted September 19 Share Posted September 19 (edited) I am a ham, NM9K, amateur extra. I have a 43 foot tower in my yard with a 3 element yagi for 20/15/10, wire fan dipole for the WARC bands, a vertical for 2m, a 33' vertical for 40/80 a 2m/70 cm yagi that isn't hooked to anything right now, and a 3 element 6 meter yagi. In the shack, I have a Kenwood TS-590, Ameritron AL-80B, and a Kenwood 2m rig. In one truck I have the same Kenwood with Larsen 2/70, and in my other truck I have a 1/4 wave with a Yaesu FT-8800. Good luck on your journey. If you guys want to have a SASS Net on the air, pick a time. Preferably 20 or 40 meters. Edited September 19 by El Chapo 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texas Lizard Posted September 19 Share Posted September 19 28 minutes ago, Rye Miles #13621 said: I recently had a 10lb ham and I couldn’t get any stations on it at all!! I even tried a coat hanger for an antenna!🙄 Did you turn the ham to tune in???? Texas Lizard 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chief Rick Posted September 19 Share Posted September 19 I have my General license. I set up an end-fed half-wave (EFHW) tuned for the lower end of 80-meters in an NVIS configuration in order to make contacts with closer regions of the Gulf Coast during emergencies. Still working on the height above ground because I was not able to hear much from South Louisiana during this past hurricane. I have been able to make contacts on 80, 20 and 15 meters. I have a REZ Antenna Systems Ranger 80 portable that I just received last week. I plan to play with it this weekend and see what kind of contacts I can make hooked up portable to a Yaesu FT-891. I may also make an 80-meter center-fed dipole just to see, if I have the time. My wish list for a home antenna is a DX Commander Signature 9 or 12 for DX. I have an HT but I only use it for special events. Not enough range to reach the repeaters in my area so it's not of great use unless there are other amateur operators within a mile or so of my location. Very similar to using a CB radio. The antennas on HTs, even the best ones, are not going to extend the range very much. I have managed to get 10 miles with my HT after hooking it up to a 2-meter J-Pole 7-feet off the ground. 73 KI5RGH 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyrus Cassidy #45437 Posted September 19 Author Share Posted September 19 48 minutes ago, Chief Rick said: I have an HT but I only use it for special events. Not enough range to reach the repeaters in my area so it's not of great use unless there are other amateur operators within a mile or so of my location. Very similar to using a CB radio. The antennas on HTs, even the best ones, are not going to extend the range very much. I have managed to get 10 miles with my HT after hooking it up to a 2-meter J-Pole 7-feet off the ground. 73 KI5RGH Pard, I'm over 60 miles from the nearest repeater, and my HT hits it without any trouble. That said, it's on top of a mountain 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Linn Keller, SASS 27332, BOLD 103 Posted September 19 Share Posted September 19 KD8NGE, General Class. New metal roof means attic antenna was removed as worthless ... running a dual band mag mount on the new tin roof (no holes, warranty remains intact, hits repeaters reliably) Assembling what I need for POTA activation, I'm five miles from a state park and a state wildlife area. Parks On the Air is suddenly popular. My end-fed half-wave fell from the backyard tree, I ran over it with the riding mower. Soldered it back together with as many chunks as I could recover, added a random length of lamp cord, I can run PSK-31 from 6 through 160, but phone from fifteen through 160 is out. It will, however, run CB channels 1 through 23 with SWR of less than 1.8:1. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sedalia Dave Posted September 19 Share Posted September 19 KC7CEX Amateur Extra. Also have my GROL with Radar endorsement. Member of 2 local clubs. K5GVL and W5NNI. K5GVL is very active with ARES, Races, and SkyWarn. Both clubs are very active supporting community events. K5GVL has a self contained enclosed trailer that can be set up where ever it is needed. In addition to radios for HF through 70 cm, the trailer is also equipped with radios that can communicate all City, County, State, and Federal first responders. We even have extra mobile units and HTs that we provide to the local LEOs working security at the local county fair. In my 30 plus years of ARES/Races this is the most well integrated Ham club I have ever seen. 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocWard Posted September 20 Share Posted September 20 KE8PHY, Amateur Extra. My daughter is KE8PHZ, she's also an Extra. I'm a member of our local ARES group and for UHF/VHF I run a Kenwood TM-V71A in both my truck and at home for both ARES and club nets. I use a Compactenna for both applications. At home, I have the antenna on a tripod in a spare bedroom that I use as my shack. I haven't yet figured out how to do something with my new Subie other than a Yeasu FT60 running to a mag mount antenna. I've not done anything with my Extra privileges as of yet as Mrs. Doc is not fond of the idea of antennas around outside the house. Like @Linn Keller, SASS 27332, BOLD 103, I am interested in POTA, and picked up a Yeasu FT-897 and tuner off of QRZ. It works fine on 2 meters, and as soon as I can get an antenna and power supply, I plan on hitting some parks. Below is a picture of my truck when I was out with ARES during the solar eclipse. I brought the antenna from my house, just in case I had to go simplex. I can hit the 2 meter repeaters in our county from the counties to the South, East and North without any real problems using just the antenna on the truck. I haven't tried West. 2 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Linn Keller, SASS 27332, BOLD 103 Posted September 20 Share Posted September 20 (admiring whistle) NIIIIICE!!! Studying for my AE. ARES here too, Burning River Traffic Net, and now that I have access to the antenna analyzer, I hope to get my EFHW trimmed to where I can run phone as well as PSK31! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rusty Rick Posted September 20 Share Posted September 20 WB2KGM been ham for 45 years. Also use the 7300 with a 5BTV great set up. Use a LDG match box, into 600 watt amplifier Also into ham TV - looking for TV DX 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vail Vigilante Posted September 20 Share Posted September 20 KJ7TZS. Extra. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vail Vigilante Posted September 20 Share Posted September 20 That 7300 is a great radio. But for pure fun nothing beats a walkie in 2 meter. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lawdog Dago Dom Posted September 20 Share Posted September 20 Reviewing for the technician license. Polk County has a good group of hams that have monthly meetings. They’ve been very helpful with my questions. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Linn Keller, SASS 27332, BOLD 103 Posted September 20 Share Posted September 20 18 minutes ago, Lawdog Dago Dom said: Reviewing for the technician license. Polk County has a good group of hams that have monthly meetings. They’ve been very helpful with my questions. Not that I'm cheap or anything (okay, my college girlfriend said I was so tight I squeaked when I walked) ... There is an enormous overlap between Tech and General. Study for your Tech, take the practice tests, then hit the General practice tests. It costs fifteen bucks to test for your license. If you take & pass Tech, walk out the door, turn around and come back in and say "I'd like to take the General," it's another fifteen. If you hand in your test, it's graded, you get your congratulations, tell them RIGHT AWAY you'd like to take the General. No extra cost! 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muleshoe Bill SASS #67022 Posted September 20 Share Posted September 20 KG5GYL I have a Kenwood TS 520SE (amazing rig) My main radio is Icom 718. My 2 m and 440 radios are Yaesu 7800 and Kenwood TM 261A and a TM 251. Antennas are home made one slopper on a 40 foot mast and a couple J poles mounted to house. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lawdog Dago Dom Posted September 20 Share Posted September 20 Growing up our neighbors were Frank and Rose. Frank was old school ham (W9ACJ) and did nothing but code on 2 meter. On a Sunday night after dinner if we were out in the driveway shooting baskets, we could hear Frank dot-dot-dashing away to some far away land, and he would tell us about it later in the week. When CB radios came out he thought that was the creation of the devil himself! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subdeacon Joe Posted September 21 Share Posted September 21 On 9/19/2024 at 11:12 AM, Rye Miles #13621 said: I recently had a 10lb ham and I couldn’t get any stations on it at all!! I even tried a coat hanger for an antenna!🙄 You need the pineapple rings, cherries, and whole cloves. You might get by with just the cloves if you use enough of them. But the geometry needs to be just right. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will Kane Posted September 21 Share Posted September 21 (edited) K5JX. Amateur Extra since 1977. First licensed as a Novice in 1968, when I was in the 11th grade. Inactive for now but have done a bunch of DXing and contesting over the years. My favorite mode is cw. Edited September 21 by Will Kane 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wallaby Jack, SASS #44062 Posted September 21 Share Posted September 21 On 9/20/2024 at 10:04 AM, DocWard said: KE8PHY, Amateur Extra. My daughter is KE8PHZ, she's also an Extra. I'm a member of our local ARES group and for UHF/VHF I run a Kenwood TM-V71A in both my truck and at home for both ARES and club nets. I use a Compactenna for both applications. At home, I have the antenna on a tripod in a spare bedroom that I use as my shack. I haven't yet figured out how to do something with my new Subie other than a Yeasu FT60 running to a mag mount antenna. I've not done anything with my Extra privileges as of yet as Mrs. Doc is not fond of the idea of antennas around outside the house. Like @Linn Keller, SASS 27332, BOLD 103, I am interested in POTA, and picked up a Yeasu FT-897 and tuner off of QRZ. It works fine on 2 meters, and as soon as I can get an antenna and power supply, I plan on hitting some parks. Below is a picture of my truck when I was out with ARES during the solar eclipse. I brought the antenna from my house, just in case I had to go simplex. I can hit the 2 meter repeaters in our county from the counties to the South, East and North without any real problems using just the antenna on the truck. I haven't tried West. ....... you might want to take a little extra care around low bridges and stuff ...... 🙃 1 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Linn Keller, SASS 27332, BOLD 103 Posted September 21 Share Posted September 21 I was coming home from the annual Civil War Show in Mansfield one year, running a dual-band mag-mount. Had it too far aft and didn't realize the sheet metal was starting to contour out from under it (dear old Dad tried to teach me at a tender age that "Hurry Up is Brother to Mess It Up" ... this wasn't the first time I proved the Grand Old Man right!) On the way back, sustained 65 MPH speed limit, I ended up dragging it most of a mile by the coax until I realized something wasn't right ... pulled over, put it back where the metal was FLAT, pulled out a spatula and scraped the egg off my face! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocWard Posted September 21 Share Posted September 21 (edited) 6 hours ago, Wallaby Jack, SASS #44062 said: ....... you might want to take a little extra care around low bridges and stuff ...... 🙃 No worries, I just let all the air out of my tires to get low enough! Seriously, I lowered the tripod, folded the legs, removed the counterpoise, and put it in the back seat, then hooked my radio back up to my normal antenna (at the rear corner of the cab). Edited September 21 by DocWard 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Chapo Posted September 23 Share Posted September 23 On 9/20/2024 at 4:04 PM, Linn Keller, SASS 27332, BOLD 103 said: Not that I'm cheap or anything (okay, my college girlfriend said I was so tight I squeaked when I walked) ... There is an enormous overlap between Tech and General. Study for your Tech, take the practice tests, then hit the General practice tests. It costs fifteen bucks to test for your license. If you take & pass Tech, walk out the door, turn around and come back in and say "I'd like to take the General," it's another fifteen. If you hand in your test, it's graded, you get your congratulations, tell them RIGHT AWAY you'd like to take the General. No extra cost! I agree and took my tech and general at the same time. The volunteer who gave me the general exam looked annoyed because he couldn't sign off when I passed them both. I waited about 6 months and took the Extra. The general is a little bit harder than the tech. The AE is a LOT harder than either one. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Linn Keller, SASS 27332, BOLD 103 Posted September 23 Share Posted September 23 Antennas are a perpetual puzzle, a never ending project, unless you have acreage enough to put up what you want and leave it. An OM of my acquaintance bought a truckload of forty foot, well creosoted, utility poles from his employer before retirement. He put up a full wave, horizontal loop, a full 160 meters of heavy cable ... it worked so well he was accused of running power. Best antenna I had was 40 meters of wire, but it was a God-awful looking thing ... up from the foundation to gutter level, through an insulator to a backyard tree, up to the highest fork of a dead snag and back down at an angle, corner off on a low branch and over to the elm, then back to the house and through an AH-4 tuner. Absolutely marvelous antenna! Then Hurricane Sandy came rip roarin' across the Appalachians and tore down all 40 meters of antenna wire and killed a perfectly good elm. I've run mostly end fed half waves since then, with varying degrees of studied mediocrity: after hoisting three successive lengths of wire, each intended to work on multiple bands, and finding each effort was worse than the previous, I tore the whole cob house down. When I tried to activate POTA the other day, my tripod mounted, manpack antenna on a Big Kansas coil and aluminum window screen for counterpoise, worked far and away better than my EFHWs! I had a Diamond J-pole in the attic until we put on a new tin roof, which effectively turned the attic into a Faraday cage. I took advantage of the metal roof by popping a magnetic mount dual-band mobile antenna on that brand new metal roofing! Phenomenal ground plane, hits every repeater I have programmed in, and with no holes drilled, it doesn't void the warranty! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chief Rick Posted September 24 Share Posted September 24 I set up my FT-891 and REZ Ranger 80 Saturday evening. Tuned the antenna to 14.5 MHz and made a contact in AZ before the mosquitoes started to carry me away. Next month (October 10th) our local ARES will be holding an event. I will set up my radio and antenna to TX/RX on 14.275 If anyone is interested in making contact, I'll post back with times we will be active. Separately, if anyone wants to make contact one evening - what's a good day/time/freq? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El Chapo Posted September 24 Share Posted September 24 14 hours ago, Chief Rick said: I set up my FT-891 and REZ Ranger 80 Saturday evening. Tuned the antenna to 14.5 MHz and made a contact in AZ before the mosquitoes started to carry me away. Next month (October 10th) our local ARES will be holding an event. I will set up my radio and antenna to TX/RX on 14.275 If anyone is interested in making contact, I'll post back with times we will be active. Separately, if anyone wants to make contact one evening - what's a good day/time/freq? I'm available any evening after 7 pm mountain time. This time of year, 20m is probably ideal at least for an hour or so after that. Your privileges start at 14.225 IIRC. Above 14.300 it's usually pretty dead. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Linn Keller, SASS 27332, BOLD 103 Posted September 26 Share Posted September 26 HF will allow you to listen to shortwave broadcasts. Not all nations have the same band utilization as the US; there are foreign 40-meter commercial stations operating in what the US uses for ham radio commo. I'll be hooking up my magnetic loop antenna and aligning it southward about 10 am. Hurricane Watch Net activates at that time. Their web site has frequencies, modalities and other useful information: The Hurricane Watch Net (hwn.org) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sedalia Dave Posted September 30 Share Posted September 30 Reall pissed me off reading the news today. Reporter standing in the mud interviewing a person impacted by the flood. All they could do was complain about how the cell phones didn't work and they had no means of communicating with the outside world. When the reported was asked by the news room about what the residents could do to communicate with the outside works the reporter shrugged and said they had no clue. %$$^^%%$$## dips**t reporter had no clue that local hams are working around the clock communicating with the outside world. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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