Any HAM radio operators here? I'm interested in getting some equipment to setup a HAM radio transmission/reception system and possibly look to hook it up to a terminal for text transmission too. I'm totally in the dark on this, so I'm looking for anybody who can point me in the right directions, thanks.

I know I need a license, but I'm just starting to dig into things, obviously want a 2 way system, kinda hoping I can do an attic based antenna if at all possible, I remember a bit from when I was a kid about atmosphere bouncing and such, but I have a lot of rust to scrap off my memories... why do you have some gear you're looking to part with and any chance you coming up to VCF East?

At 09:24 PM 4/16/2011, you wrote: I lived in a typical Milwaukee 2-story duplex for several years, with those wonderful walk-in attics. Even tho I was on the first floor, I was able to drop a fishing sinker down the outside of the sewer vent from the attic. A little jiggling on the line got it to fall all the way through to the basement. I then pulled down a heavy duty polyester pull-string, and then some coax. I put a wire dipole up there for six meters (50Mhz) and a few 2 meter yagis and dipoles. The yagi was on a cheep TV antenna rotator. Once when I had to be in Arlington Height and Rolling Meadows, I called my wife (also licensed) on 2 meter simplex. It was choppy but perfectly copyable. Now I live in a one-story home with high ground all around me. I have a 12-foot tower on the roof with about eight feet of mast sticking out. I have 6m, 2m, and 70cm antennae up there and do alright, but definitely not spectacularly. Many of us old 6-meter fans are awaiting redemption. We have been in a long trough of low solar activity, which normally ramps up and then down again on an 11-year cycle, but this one we're going into isn't setting the ionosphere on fire yet. Not by a long shot. Six meters is often called "the magic band" because of how it sometimes acts like a local/regional band and then goes nuts and lets you chat with folks several countries away. I used to play with aurora-mode on six. Any time there's reports of strong aurora borealis up north, I'd turn my antenna north, bounce a signal off the aurora, and chat with folks almost due west of me. I've worked people in Colorado and Nevada, from SE Wisconsin, with my beam pointed north. The raspy whisper of aurora mode takes some getting used to. Someone else will have to talk about the ping jockeys that bounce a highspeed morse signal off the ion trails left by the almost continuous rain of small meteors hitting the atmosphere and burning up. I've never tried it but it's an amazing mode. Hope that whets the appetite a little.

Yes, I remember reading about people could sometimes talk a world away on the 6meter and that is damned cool! :-) We're right in the middle of the next big solar spike so communications will be wonky, temps with suddenly spike (I'm sure Al Gore will love that) and we'll probably see some brown outs and power grid anomolies... oh joy! ;-)

On Sun, Apr 17, 2011 at 12:24 PM, Curt @ Atari Museum <curt at atarimuseum.com> wrote: One other thing. Other than Packet radio there is PSK31 which can be a lot of fun for text based stuff. My partner was able to communicate with someone in the USA from australia using psk31, using less than 10 watts. Lots of fun.

When I get back, I suppose I can drag you to one of the upcoming hamfests. I think the BARA show in NJ will be the next for me. Be warned that my tables tend to attract REAL hams (the older guys that still build stuff). I think I could also lend out a nice Icom receiver so you can get a feel of what is out there. -- Will On Apr 17, 2011 8:51 PM, "Curt @ Atari Museum" <curt at atarimuseum.com> wrote: So could this could be used for Videotex transmissions ? How much bandwidth can you squeeze out of the system? Ivy Gardiner wrote:

On Mon, Apr 18, 2011 at 12:49 PM, Curt @ Atari Museum <curt at atarimuseum.com> wrote: I'm not sure about videotex (I'm not sure even what it is to be honest.) PSK31 is mainly used for text, at around 31baud that was sort of designed for 50 wpm typists. It's one advantage is fairly low bandwidth at around 30Hz or there abouts (from memory and I'm probably wrong to be honest.) ~Ivy

On Mon, Apr 18, 2011 at 03:09:12PM +1000, Ivy Gardiner wrote: Telidon and Prestel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telidon) Slow scan tv would be the closest to graphics, at least on HF. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow-scan_television You could run up old fashioned analogue fast scan tv on the higher bands. I don't know of any amateur doing digital tv *yet* but I am sure it has already happened. http://www.darc.de/distrikte/p/07/betriebsarten/ \ amateurfunkfernsehen/digitales-atv/ - 73 Diane VA3DB

I thought I'd mention, the recieving antenna is quite forgiving about wavelengths but the transmitting antenna needs to be tuned or you'll damage your final.

Making a tuned antenna in the attic can be a little tricky.

And this is where I disagree. For a small suburban lot, a transmatch and some wire can make a lot of sense.

Conersely, a 1:1 SWR does not make an antenna any good, a dummy load is 1:1. Sheesh the SWR myth continues and continues and won't die.

Exactly! A dummy load is 1:1! It's better to talk about the antenna system.

Dave, get your ticket back you lid. ;-) It's very easy now and the fun one can do is worth it.

---snip---> > hoping I can do an attic based antenna when I was a kid about atmosphere rust to scrap off my memories... why part with and any chance you coming Hi I thought I'd mention, the recieving antenna is quite forgiving about wavelengths but the transmitting antenna needs to be tuned or you'll damage your final. Making a tuned antenna in the attic can be a little tricky. Dwight

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

Superb, I'll start with the licensing, I know some of Morse from when I was a kid, and I'm sure I can brush up on it and get back up to speed, I

just missed Will Donzelli, he's off on a equipment run out west, and I know he's huge into HAMfest stuff so I'll also see if I can catch up with him once he's back, maybe it will be good for me to go to hamfest and see some stuff as well... So packet is the same as the old x.25

protocols?!??! If so, that's great as I used to work with that stuff many years ago, so I think I should be able to get up to speed in a couple of months, I'll take a look at what you've liked, thanks Tom!

Curt

Tom wrote about amateur radio licensing: Note that in the US, the exam fee covers any number of exams taken in the same session. In other words, once you take the Technician exam, and pass it, you can try to take the General exam immediately at no extra charge, and if you pass that, you can try the Amateur Extra exam. There is no penalty for failing an exam, so you may as well try to get as far as you can at one sitting.

There are lots of online resources to help with studying, so you don't even have to buy a study manual. I bought study manuals, but barely cracked them open. I did practice tests online. The Technician class was a piece of cake. I had to study a little bit for General, and a modest amount for Amateur Extra. I passed them all at one sitting, no sweat.

A huge amount of the Novice exam is what I would consider "common sense". There are only a few questions about theory (like Ohm's Law), RF safety, and operating privileges. The General and Amateur Extra exams have progressively more questions on theory (e.g., impedance and Smith charts).

I've mostly only operated "phone" mode (voice) on 2m/1.25m/70cm. Years ago I was interested in packet, but that seems to have almost dried up and blown away. I'm interested in trying RTTY and PSK31 modes on HF, but I don't have any HF gear yet.

I wrote: allison wrote: Oops, I meant Technician class.

What really pisses me off is the snorting derision from the old timers about "no-code Generals" and "no-code Extras". When I upgraded to General, they were still considering dropping the code requirement so I had to take the code portion of the test. That doesn't mean that people getting tickets post no-code worked any less to get their license, but to hear these guys talk you'd think if it wasn't done THEIR way, it shouldn't be done at all. 73 de kc7afe.

On 4/17/11 3:27 PM, Gene Buckle wrote: It turns out that my fears were unfounded, and ham radio experienced quite a bit of growth as a result of the no-code tech, and (from what I saw at the time) that growth was largely positive. Now, knowing this, I have no problem with it at all.

I always wondered why CW was considered by so many to be such a high barrier to entry. I got 5WPM code at 100% when I was eleven years old to get my (pre-no-code) Tech license. If I could do it, anyone could, but apparently many people thought they couldn't. I still don't get that.

I always wondered why CW was considered by so many to be such a high barrier to entry. I got 5WPM code at 100% when I was eleven years old to get my (pre-no-code) Tech license. If I could do it, anyone could, but apparently many people thought they couldn't. I still don't get that.

On Apr 18, 2011, at 11:05 PM, Rod Smallwood wrote: That's not universally true. I struggled with Morse code, and never got much better than a sloppy 5 WPM. And, it's not a matter of "somebody to teach": one of my elmers was Gordon West WB6NOA himself (I'm originally from Southern California, and was a member of a radio club that had Gordon as a member for a while).

We had this exact same argument with SMD soldering a few months back. Some people just can't do it for whatever reason, and it's not always because they lack desire or a teacher. Some skills are just simply out of some people's reach. And that's OK: I'm sure some of the skills I have are out of other's reach. It's part of being human. We all have different abilities and maximum levels of achievement.

I use Morse on a daily basis and am completely self taught (over 50years ago). I don't think it=92s an "I can/can't do it situation." Learning it = is another matter. If you can't pick it up yourself then find somebody qualified to teach you.

After all, the military and commercial shipping used to train thousands = of 20wpm morse operators. Provided you are not visually and or aurally =

impaired (I am partially both and still have no problems) then CW is for you. Why use CW? That=92s the easy one. It will always get through where = voice will not. =20

Thanks for the comments. There appear to be two issues arising from = this. Firstly on/off keying versus FSK. I did say voice not FSK as the = comparison so I maintain that is still fair comment.=20