Building a shortwave/HAM radio station...

At 08:07 PM 4/16/2011, you wrote: Best way? Get a license. Never been easier; the tests are multiple choice and the tests and answers are posted online, legally. There's something like 35 questions on any given exam, out of a pool of 625 or something, but there's like 5 ohm's law questions and they'll ask you one of them, and 10 rules and regs, and you'll get two of them, etc. No more morse code requirement for a technician class license. That gets you access to 50 MHz and up-- the six meter, two meter, and 70cm bands are the more popular ones. Lots of used gear out there for that. You can build a soundcard interface or buy one. Packet radio uses AX.25 and usually the two meter band to send 300 baud serial data keyboard-to-keyboard, or more often, keyboard to mailbox. You get a little box called a TNC (a radio modem) and plug it into a radio. You can do some of what you want without a license (just listening) but many of the resources for learning how to do this stuff are on the air, and it you can't transmit, you can't ask. Sounds like you're interested in digital modes. There's some of that available to the technician class ham. There's the original digital mode, morse code, but that's hard for some people to learn. There's packet, like I mentioned. There's RTTY (radioteletype) but I'm not sure how much of that is out there on 6- and two-meters. There's an entirely new set of protocols out there, called D-Star, which is true digital. The radios for D-star are built digital from the ground up. That's a voice-over-digital mode, whereas many of the others are data (messages) over digital. Getting a license: You need each lower level first before you can get the next one. Start with Technician, then if you want to use lower frequencies/other modes, get the General Class license. You can buy/beg/borrow a license manual lots of places, but make sure it's recent. Lots of people use the ARRL manuals or the Gordon West ones, I personally think the later are better. The question pools change. The current Tech questions went into effect July 1 2010 and are good until the middle of 2014. The General class exam changes to a new question pool July 1 2011. Example: http://www.aesham.com/photos2/ARR0847.jpg This URL will probably get split up, you'll have to stitch it together. It's all ARRL publications and there's books, CDs, and study guides. http://search.cartserver.com/search/search.cgi?bool=AND&cartid=a-6994&a…go.x=16&go.y=7&go=GO! Read a book, and then go here to take practice exams (this is just one example, there are lots) http://www.qrz.com/exams or http://www.qrz.com/xtest2.html Here's a "Getting ready for your ham exam" site that looks good: http://www.radioexam.org/ THEN, find an exam near you. The best way to to go to a hamfest, which is a swap for amateur radio and computer gear. There's one every few months here in the midwest. What state are you in? Go here to find hamfests: http://www.arrl.org/hamfests-and-conventions-calendar Search by city and state, or zip code (that's all you need to fill in) The problem with that one is that it only lists ARRL sanctioned events, and there are a lot more than just those. You'd have to tell me your state and what major cities you're near for me to do some digging. Partial list of exam coordinators: http://wireless.fcc.gov/services/index.htm?job=licensing_5&id=amateur That's a lot of info; I hope something was helpful. 73 (best regards) de N9QQB 210 . [Philosophy] "Brilliance is typically the act of an individual, but incredible stupidity can usually be traced to an organization." --Jon Bentley NEW: a50mhzham at gmail.com ? N9QQB (amateur radio) "HEY YOU" (loud shouting) ? Second Tops (Set Dancing) ? FIND ME ON FACEBOOK 43? 7' 17.2" N by 88? 6' 28.9" W ? Elevation 815' ? Grid Square EN53wc LAN/Telecom Analyst ? Open-source Dude ? Musician ? Registered Linux User 385531