18E HAMs
 

Any HAMs out there?

Mainly 20m day and 40m night. I'm working on my home station, but also trying to keep it relevant to our current inventory.

I'm on 2m and 70cm as well, and I keep that MFin THANG on me.

NorCal Ham here; trying to get both my HF and a packet station up and running, but am pretty well-versed in 2m/70 cm. NOT an 18E or any SF; former Eastern European Linguist ('88-97).

73,

AF6SC

Well I used to be...N4SDK, sadly I let my license lapse/expire. To long of a time to resubmit.

It was great while in the military, back then we'd check in to Maritime Moblile and do phone patches...Hard to get the wife to say "over" at the end of her xnsmission...lol

Now days, no need for it I guess..I did mostly 20 and 40 meter CW DX, QRP...

I actually got a hit on the space shuttle I think about 1990 or so...

Guys - been thinking of doing this of late, just "because." Is this something a mere light weapons dude can pick up ?

I can do ten pullups, count to fifty-nine unassisted; do some minor "cyphering" without having to take my shoes and socks off, and I once held a duck under water until it farted.

I see I must first pass an exam to get my "license." Something I can study for over the holidays and take the test ?

It's easy. A little time spent studying and you can take the Technician and General tests sequentially on the same day and have sufficient privileges to XMIT worldwide. Study a bit more and you can get the AE certs and do the same on every available band. ARRL publishes some decent study guides and there are several websites where you can take practice exams using the same official question pool as you will see when you test for real. Then you can start haunting swap meets, ham fests, and Ebay to outfit your shack.

^ This. At least passing the General is going to give you a boatload of bandwidth with HF. As mentioned, same day, same fee, you keep passing tests you can keep taking them. Pass the Tech, take a break get some coffee, hit the head, sit back down & take the General at least. There is a container ship of stuff on the Tech that is regurgitated on the General. If you don't setup to pass the higher bar it's slacker time.

Free PDF versions of well known study guides here.

Online free practice exams here.

When you get there, Volunteer Exam Coordinator POC's are here. Better, find a nearby radio club if possible and they can give you the skinny on the usual who/where.

The real "learning" doesn't happen till you get your ticket anyway. Study the material, start banging away at the practice exams. Remember, General is the key.
There's no Morse requirement for quite some time, so no worries for the heathen.
. .

:munchin

Dam, you guys make it easy!!! Thanks Badger; I think I'll get it into gear and get after this stuff. Thinking more along the lines to get the skill set up now so when I retire/retire I can establish commo with some like-minded folk.

I truly believe we are entering a time-period wherein we will NEVER get the facts or real news from any commercial or governmental entity. Even Fox News has turned turn-coat. you can't rely on jack sh*t any news media put out. need hard, multiple, confirmed sources to plan from these days. Ca't get it from the stablished media.

Here is an additional resource: https://hamstudy.org/.
I found it a bit more direct to study the questions and answers directly. I'm not an electronics guy. I found the depth of material in the study guides to be more than I was really interested in knowing. As Badger said, you really do the learning you need once you get your license and start figuring out how to use your equipment to do what you want to.

If I can do it, anybody can. Please feel free to reach out if there is anything I can do to help out or any questions I can answer.

Good luck!

Skywarn net
 

Possibly of interest, Skywarn is working a nice net including those that are new to HAM radio. It came up on my radar for communication. I am not a radio operator. Link to follow.

https://www.weather.gov/oun/amateurradio

Respectfully,

Bob

That's a great point, thanks for that.

First, for those that might be searching for a local radio club, if you can't find one, contact your NWS office and ask to be put in contact with the nearest SKYWARN group. These are volunteer weather spotters (NOT storm chasers) that are called out & spot & report severe weather, reporting in to the nearest Nat'l Wx Service office for that area. You all know how satellite says 1 thing, IMINT might say another but you really want to know about eyeballs on the ground. They usually are comprised of a high percentage of amateur licensees so they are another source for knowledge. If they are well-funded they might even have public-sector county radios on non-amateur freqs. But if they're like most, they are destitute, running on their own dime off amateur repeaters with Wouxuns, Yaesus, Baofengs or whatever they can scrape together.

SKYWARN is also a great way to give back to the community. While my area seems to "miss" the worst of the wx that passes over us, we have a vigorous SKYWARN group I'm in and have been thanked profusely by those in a poorer county "downstream" of our weather because they're very much "trailerhood" victims of t-storms/tornadoes (just how the stuff ebbs & flows). Turns out they listen to us, not the couple of guys in their own county who can't even see what's coming. So it's gratifying.

Jim, you picked no better time than now to embark. We are coming OUT of the shittiest piece of a solar cycle and things are really going to be looking up propagation wise. Get licensed, get on the air. You will enjoy it.

Finally in the evangelical marketing department, it still doesn't hurt if you learn Morse code. (Keys are cheap.) When the band IS really noisy temporarily and voice isn't working, you can ALWAYS work HF CW to somewhere. If the old-school Boy Scouts can do it, and a skinny beach-combing kid from the 60's can do it, so can you. [/rant] :D

Badger52, They had recognition day at Skywarn yesterday. This is how it came onto my radar. Looking over the communication it seems everyone is very supportive. Many operators with tips and techniques. I monitor on my shortwave. Thanks for being part of it.

Respectfully,

Bob

Nice; smarter than the average bear. :cool:

I fear in the coming unpleasantness many will want that capability that don't currently have it. There might be others thinking about it though. I have a full station & some portable capability but, to scratch a nostalgia itch from when I was a kid, thought I'd pick up a Tecsun portable SW unit even though there are fewer actual broadcasters of news now. Before the election, the particular one I was looking at was in the $140-150 range and sellers all over. Now, in the $250 range and many places OOS.

SW listening capability going the way of ammo? Hmm.

That may be a good sign that a lot of people are paying attention.

Took the first step
 

Thanks to all! I have ordered the ARRL Ham License Manual 4th edition. I have read and reread this thread and am now embarking on something that I have wanted to do just never done.

V/R

Bob