# Ham / amature radio basics



## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

I saw a reqest to more info on ham / amature radio
so here goes radio fish and garyin ohio please hop in and expound on what i am giving

i am a technician class amature radio operator 

the classes are now technitian , general , extra 
there used to be others like novice , advanced , tech plus ect.. 
there is no requirment for a technician class operator to know mores code 
i tried , there are some great programs like code quick i liked it had i given it the time and effort it needed i would have had no problem copying at the 5 words per minute needed . however before i found the time they droped the code requirment for general so now as soon as i get time i can upgrade 

technician class gives you access to 50 mhz bands and above IE 6meters ,144mhz 2 meters, 440 mhz 70cm being the primary bands with 222mhz 1.25 meters and bits of higher freq bands on up into microwave.

2 meter and 70 cm are the primary vhf and uhf bands for techs and use repeaters for longer distance communication there is a network of repeaters all thru the country , there are books of them published that you can take on your travels , and there are many listings of them on the internet.

an amature radio license is a license issued by the Fedral communications commision , and is good in all 50 states and is accepted by most other countries for use abroad , but frequencys vary from country to country.
the license is a license to use operate , exparement , and work on amature radio equiptment antenas and such. 
amature means no buisiness use , non buisiness use only 

good websites are ARRL.org and QRZ.com

when i got my ticket (license) i got the technitian class manual read it and went in for the test , given by a local ham radio club the first saturday of every month , i later learned that they gave classes for about 30-40 dollars it was an all day saturday class and then the test was given at the end , i probably would have been a easier way to go but i had plenty of electrical theory that i grasped the concepts very easily and it was just rules and safty or operation for me basicaly if you can pass the test for a drivers licenes you should be able to pass a ham radio exam they are not made to be difficult or misleading , all the questions they can ask you are avalable in the back of the book so if you can answer every question in the question pool in the book you will be anxiosly waiting the 4-7 buisiness days for your new call sign to post , followed by your actual paper license a few days after that to arive in the mail.

2 meter , i am usualy asked how far will it go , that depends and that is part of what you learn you get a much better uncerstanding of the world and how radio waves propigate what makes them go shorter or farther distances.

amature radio is all about exparementing with your rig building testing but generaly practacing by having casual chats with other hams or participating in Nets kind of like the original confrence call. thru practice you will gain familiarity with your radio , antenna , conditions , and where you can and can't get reception 

the volenteer side , as soon as you have your CALL you can help in all sorts of volenteer events , like bike races and rides , walks , runs , or other events that would benifit from radio communications.
many of the weather spotters are also hams and the amature network is used extensively to track storms and dangerouse weather.
ARES amature radio emergency services and RACES radio amature civil emergency services train and work to provide emergency comminications for al sorts of emergency communicatiosn needs and are tied to the county department of emergency managment to give aid and assitance.

amature radio is a vast hobbie and has fasets for most everyone.

local clubs are a great resource they can even help you find an Elmer (experinced ham to help giude you to get started)

please add info about your ham experience 

73 , KC9DIT Pete


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

I should add my wife or XYL is also a ham i think she took the test to get me to stop suggesting that she should take the test , she got the study guide from the library read it and took the test passed , i should add she is not a technical person (liberal arts major) and then decided she needed a vanity call so she sent off for one also got the license plates , an now never for gets he license plate number wich is good because she has a mini van that looks like everyone elses mini van and it gets real lost in parking lots. 

but seriosly we do use the home radio to talk to the other in the car from time to time seems like we are both home now more than not so we don't talk much over the radio anymore but i still liek to chat on my way to work , used to have quite a group every morning for company too and from work 

the local repeater also has auto patch to connect from you radio to the repeater to a phone line to 911 , it is just another tool for communications we are all about having more than one way to comunicate , but it can be a fun and educational one.


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## radiofish (Mar 30, 2007)

Lets see- well I have had my ham radio license since I was 16 years old/ 34 years now. Having had a Novice, General, and then an Advanced Class License. That started back when the exams were given by the FCC at a Federal Building. I did mine in the Federal Bldg. in Detroit. Back then morse code (CW or continious wave) was required for any license. The technical questions were much more complicated. I'll pull out an old Advanced Class testing book from the late 80's and scan some of the technical electronics questions. Then if you pased both the morse code and wriiten exam elements, it took the FCC at Gettysburg, Pa office 6 to 8 WEEKS to mail you your actual paper license.

Now you can get a book for the class of license you will be testing for, with the actual question pool for the exam you will take. They do a basic teaching of electronics, FCC Part 97 Rules and Regs, and operating practices for HF/ VHF/ UHF in several modes such as AM, FM, SSB, CW, TV, working satellites, Earth-Moon-Earth (bouncing your signals off of the moon and hearing the time delay due to the distance), meteor scatter, etc. I have a QSL card from when I worked the Space Shuttle during STS-51 (I think, need to look for it). For some hams it is about talking to foreign lands chasing exotic stations (DX) and waiting for the elusive QSL cards to come in the mail in envelopes with foreign stamps. Many older hams will remember DX stations asking for "A Green Stamp" which is a 'one dollar' US bill to cover postage from their country back to the US.

There are many facets of amateur radio. It is not all pick up a microphone and start talking.

I highly recommend theis ham radio super site, where you can find anything you could ever want for ham radio info. It may seem overwhelming, but take the time there and follow the links for any info!

www.ac6v.com

Many of us hams take delight in building some or all of our own equipment, antennas, or accessories. In the past hams were known to be scroungers, out looking for discarded electronics to stock our 'junk boxes' with resistors, capacitors, inductors, wiring, switches, etc. Get an older ARRL Handbook from the 1950's, 1960, or the 1970's and look at the homebrew equipment. My mom hated me bring home old broken TVs and taking them apart in the 1970's!! You needed to work with an enclosure sheet metal usually, drill holes for tube sockets, switches, and connectors. Then bench testing the gear, giving it the 'smoke test'. It it smokes, then trace the circuit and figure out the value of the component that you will replace in a RLC circuit. Resistor, Inductor, Capacator which makes a tuned circuit/ how you find the operating frequency.

Plus there are many different types of antennas. 
Some hams will buy a commerical manufactured antenna, but I prefer to build my own out of copper water pipe, copper wire, PVC pipes, or whatever I come up with. My 1/2 wavelenght or longer (full wave loops, several wavelenght end fed wires, etc.) wire HF antennas are suspended between tall trees using halyard lines that were placed there by using a bow and arrow. The arrow with a 1/4" X 4" carrage bolt weight taped to the end has a fishing line attached, I pick a spot and let it fly. Then I haul my laynard line up over the tree limb, finally the antennas are hauled up to their final position.

Here is a homebrewed HF mobile antenna for 1.8 MHz (160 meters) to 30.0 MHz (10 meters) with a 102 inch CB stainless steel whip on top. It fits the standard 3/8' x 24 t.p.i (turns per inch threads) mobile antenna mounts.










How will you feed the energy to or from the antenna. 










By using coaxial cable? 
If so what impediance? 
Most ham gear is designed for 50 ohms of impedience and comes in different sizes. The thinner cables such as RG-58, RG-8 mini/ foam, will take 100 watts on HF and are not too lossy on VHF/ UHF frequencies. Then the thicker 50 ohm impediance coax cables like RG-8, RG-213 and such will take full legal limit of 1.5 KW and the insertion loss in dB is less on the higher frequenices. Can you solder your own BNC, SO-239, or N-Type connectors to coaxial cables? That is so you can connect your radio to accessories, switched, or antennas fed with coaxial cabes without the el-cheapo crimped on connectors.

For HF frequencies I prefer open wire feed line/ ladder line in 450 ohms impedience. It will take over the legal limit (if you build your own amplifer), has low loss insertion in dB over long lenghts of feed line, and it is a balanced feed line as opposed to coaxial cable that is an unbalanced feed line.

Equipment - do you want the newest computer menu mini HF/ VHF/ UHF transceiver? Or would you be happy with the older equipment with dials, knobs, and the look and feel of real ham radio of yesteryear.

Here are some of my 19 inch rack mounted military surplus receivers (BC-639 VHF/ with power supply dated 1945) Collins R-388 sated 1951, and Collins R-390a dated 1963)










Some folks are brand loyal with their gear. I can say that also, I prefer the R.L. Drake tube type HF gear made in the USA from the 1960's and 1970's.. I have Drake TR-3s, TR-4s transceivers with the remote VFO's, Drake B-Line Twins (T-4XB and R-4B) and a set of C-Line twins (T-4XC transmtter and R-4C Receiver with all of the bells, whistles, and filters). Plus a pair of Drake TR-7 solid state transceivers with the PS-7 power supplies and all of the accessories.



















Some of my Heathkit gear - small HW-8 QRP CW transceiver on top, and a HW-16 CW transceiver (my very 1st novice crystal controlled xmit frequency rig with the external VFO HG-10B). a 440 MHz beam against the wall and some QSL cards in the corner of the photo.




















Plus every ham should have at least one oscilloscope in order to monitor electronic waveforms.


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## Wisconsin Ann (Feb 27, 2007)

Oh my...what a FANTASTIC thread already  Thank you both!

On RadioFish's advice a while back, I contacted the local group and boy howdy...talk about enthusiasm!

eta: btw, I LOVE dials and switches...and I already have a oscilloscope!


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## CrashTestRanch (Jul 14, 2010)

OKAY 

Now repeat all that a little slower and in LAYMAN terms ound:


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## AngieM2 (May 10, 2002)

Radiofish - is that a Collins piece of equipment in the rack? And Heathkit I see on the desk. I see a D-104 mike. I have 1976 Golden Eagle D-104 around here packed away somewhere, never connected, just collected.

Last house (when I was married) we had the 100 sky needle with array on top. I used the low bands for when he would go to Antiqua, we'd stay in touch that way. (Pre-cell phone).

I took my General at FCC on Battery St, in San Fran. and Advanced FCC at Fed Building Denver. I was so nervous on the 13 wpm send receive, that I practiced up to 15 wpm. 
My Dad, took the Extra when the 20 WPM was the requirement and then the real technical stuff. I've been around ham radio since about Oct 1952 (my crib was in the radio room).

Before house: One apartment, 6th floor, then hubby and I could not have an antenna, so we used a Johnson KW matchbox to the Kenwood or Icon transceiver, the other side to a 32 copper wire to aluminum foil taped to the sliding glass window. The wire was tape inside a corner with the foil around it - other side of glass was another piece of alum foil (tin foil anyone?). then the 32 guage wire from there over, via insulator, the patio railing, then over the street to a tree. Worked fine. 

At the house we had slow scan tv. Really neat to pick up the MARS rover tv signal direct and watch it scan to the tv in the ham room.

And the real ham fest where you could get good stuff, and really build something. tubes even. Dad still has his tube stuff, and few extra tubes.

Oh, low band mobile is neat also. then hubby and I did that a lot when he was traveling salesman. would take us 3 days to wire a car for the equipment in the car, and the amplifier in the trunk. (early 1970's) CB's drooled over the radio equipment when they saw it. and the large antenna on the bumper would get kind looks from the truckers.

Angie
WB8RME (Advanced Class)

*YL of W4ZWE (has over 300 QSL cards from DXing.)
ex- XYL - of deceased W4VOL


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## AngieM2 (May 10, 2002)

one other thing and I'll hush. 

One time I was talking on the low band single sideband rig in the car, the power supply was under the hood.... 

Well, we did not turn the mike gain down, and my voice drove it so hard with the harmnonics in it, that I blew a paper capacitor under the hood. Sounded as if a football or something harder hit the hood of the car.

I always had a voice that could cut through the QRM on SSB. 

I'm going to have to see about getting active again. I have a handheld 2M to see about using (ICON). Heck 2M handheld with a repeater touchtone was the first "cell phones" type usage that I knew.


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## PNP Katahdins (Oct 28, 2008)

CrashTestRanch, I felt the same way once upon a time. I got interested in shortwave listening and my then-boss was a new ham. He shared his ham-club newsletter with me once and it was way beyond me, but two-way radio still sounded more interesting than just shortwave listening.

If there is a local ham club in your area, try going to a couple of meetings. You can find local clubs via http://www.arrl.org/find-a-club and plug in your location.

The ham term "elmer" means "mentor" and it really helps to have at least one that you can bug with simple questions.

The OM (old man, Paul in my case) is really into Morse code and building antennas. I am more interested in voice communication and the computer side of stuff. We both like to contact other countries, known as "chasing DX" (DX means distance). We've both contacted over 300 countries or territories.

Our radios and amplifiers are mostly made in Tennessee by Ten-Tec. I do have a couple of Yaesus for travel and even token Kenwood and Alinco mobile rigs.

There are on-air nets (roundtable discussions) on various frequencies that you can listen to with a scanner or shortwave radio.

Greencountypete, I love your call!

Here's our antenna farm:










73 and dit dit de Peg KB9LIE


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## AngieM2 (May 10, 2002)

Wisconsin Ann said:


> Oh my...what a FANTASTIC thread already  Thank you both!
> 
> On RadioFish's advice a while back, I contacted the local group and boy howdy...talk about enthusiasm!
> 
> eta: btw, I LOVE dials and switches...and I already have a oscilloscope!


Ann - you have a silly scope already! Cool. Have you tried to build anything yet? I like to solder, just have not done it in a LONG time.


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## AngieM2 (May 10, 2002)

Peg - love your antenna farm.

Were the antennas put up in miserable weather? I've found those put up during cold damp, drizzley weather work better than those put up on pretty medium warm days.


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## radiofish (Mar 30, 2007)

CrashTestRanch - even I did not know that much about ham radio when I started long ago. Well one of my Uncles WB8AHX was/ still is an Extra Class, so I was exposed to it at a young age. 

With amateur 'ham' radio there is complicated math involved, in many electronics functions - so I hope that that is not intimidating for you. If you want to be really intimated by electronics, look up "Smith Charts" used for calculating antenna impedances. They are complicated enough mathematically, to make some people want to run away and hide. Even I had difficulty with them, while in school for my electronics/ physics degrees.

Ohms Law is the basic math formula that every ham should know. 
One version is - P (power) = I (amperage) X E (voltage). 

Angie - yes in the 19 inch wide rack the black (R-388) and grey (R-390a) HF receivers are Collins equipment. To the left of the rack gear is my large Heathkit DX-100 AM./ CW transmitter with 100 watts of pure modulated carrier AM signal output.

In the Drake Twins photo, one can sort of see the faceplate of my 2nd Collins R-388 receiver, below the black radios/ HF amplifer's manual. At the end of the line of gear is a green Heathkit SB-200 HF amplifer excited by a Drake TR-7. On the floor in that photo is one of my electronics tool boxes. Not shown are any of my soldering irons, soldering guns, and soldering stations for electronics/ antenna work. Or are any signal generators, Volt Ohm Meters (VOM), or any of the other test equipment that I have. 

Also yes I have several Astatic D-104 microphones and the Astatic 10-D (bullet shaped chrome heads) high impediance microphones on the - grip to talk 'G stand'. I removed/ rewired around the internal speech amplifers and the "roger beep circuitry" - I don't need them extras. Along with several other Shure 444 desk microphones (black and grey ones). I do run most of the time VOX - voice operated keying, instead of push to talk for my microphone audio.

Way back in the day long before the internet, I dabbled with 'ROBOT" manufacturing brand slow scan equipment. I also did some RTTY operating using old teletype equipment, before the AMTOR and PACTOR digital modes came along.

For those thinking of buying any used ham gear - never ever buy any equipment without a manual/ schematic/ operating instructions. Let alone testing it to make sure it works correctly/ ask to make an on the air contact or two to ensure that it does work!! Or it is what you like to operate? Ham Radios are like cars, not all of them have the same options/ or standard features. Documentation may not be available anywhere even on the internet, and if it needs repair, how are you gonna troubleshoot the electronics without a schematic even if you have the electronics knowledge and tools. Even if you sent the broken radio gear off to a factory authorized 'repair tech', they may not have any paperwork either.

Plus with the newfanged microcomputer chip menu driven radios, I have to pull out the manual to see how to program it and run all of the bells and whistles. It seems that every button/ switch on the front panel has at least 3 or 4 functions it can preform.

If you can find them - look in used book stores for any of the ARRL books such as the Operating Manual, Antenna Book, Novice Antenna Handbook, Low Band DXing, Radio Amateurs Handbook, etc. They can be a great aid in understanding the many new concepts of how amateur radio works.

de KK6ZY


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## PNP Katahdins (Oct 28, 2008)

Libraries either have or can get many ham books for you to read. I love inter-library loan!

Peg


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## PNP Katahdins (Oct 28, 2008)

Angie, we have 40 acres of pasture and woodlots. There's a 40-meter homebrew vertical with raised radials (so the sheep can graze underneath) behind the house towards the fenceline. It was put up in a snowstorm for the Wisconsin QSO Party, which is in early March. Works great!

Paul put up a dipole for 17 meters Monday in the heat and it was good enough for both of us to work Guam on CW with 100 watts that night. We had taken down a Cushcraft multi-band vertical and don't have the better replacement up yet in a different location.


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## NoClue (Jan 22, 2007)

I'm a ham too. I don't have a shack full of gear though.

I have a handheld Yaesu 7x for portable operations, Yaesu 8900 base/mobile for VHF/UHF ops with homemade j-pole, and a MFJ 20 -meter SSB with a homemade dipole.

My 20-meter rig is low power - about 20 watts, and my antenna is as basic as an antenna can be - strung between my chimmney and an oak tree. Still, I've been able to make contacts across the US, and with the UK, France, and Sierra Leone. Admittedly, some of my success in making contacts has relied on the other guy having better equipment than I do, but I consider that to be part of the art of making contacts. My rig is also portable - the whole thing - radio, power supply, and antenna fits in a backpack.


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## PrairieOaks (Jan 22, 2009)

Peg, do you make more on the sheep farming or the antenna farming?

73 Ron KC9PPR


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## PNP Katahdins (Oct 28, 2008)

Hi, Ron, I thought that was you in the Wisconsin thread! We make more on the sheep farming of course, but that's not saying much. Radios tend to retire here, like the dogs.

Peg


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

PNP Katahdins said:


> Greencountypete, I love your call!


well thanks that was my assinged call no vanity


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## hardrock (Jun 8, 2010)

Taking the "tech" test aug. 5. I think I'm more confused about antennas than anything else. Hope I don't ask you guys too many stupid questions.


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

to better understading antenas and all electronics 
it helps if you can think like an electron everything makes more scence when you slow it down and deal with it at the electron level also electron flow principals help so that you don't have to think of everything backwards so as soon as you can come to the realization that the electrons that run your appliences, lights ect... are comming from the ground thru the ground stake outside your house , and that the power company just provides the pull to get the electrons thru your appliance and to the power plant.

similarily in physics you can only push a trailer never pull one unless you use a vacume coupling or magenet 

antenas make a lot more scence when you build a few and learn the theory behind each antena you build. there are some great web sites with calculators to help you build the antena also you can stop thinking of it as an antena you are building a shaped and tuned electo magnet


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## radiofish (Mar 30, 2007)

Here are several links from my favorite ham radio website at www.ac6v.com where one can find darned near anything you ever wanted to know about ham radio..

How to become an amateur "ham" radio operator..

http://ac6v.com/help.htm

Here are some VHF/ UHF antenna projects.. There was a post from someone about to take their Technician Class test. This may give you ideas for homebrewing antennas, which are easy to do if you any sort of mechanical skills and a few basic handtools. You don't need to run out and buy a commerically manufactured antenna, in order to get on the air.

http://home.comcast.net/~buck0/hampage.htm

The ac6v antenna projects page.. You can locate antenna ideas by alphabetical name, or by frequency (band).

http://www.ac6v.com/antprojects.htm

Here is a do it yourself copper pipe J-Pole, where they show you how to construct your own.

http://www.n7qvc.com/amateur_radio/copper.html


More antenna info to follow when I have more time..

de KK6ZY


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