Amateur Radio???

kaiser715

kaiser715

Doing hard time
Joined
Jun 1, 2006
Location
7, Pocket, NC
Anybody here into ham radio? I'm thinking about it, trying to decide if it's worth it to me for the time and money into it.
 
I got one 3 years ago. Half the people in my club had one so it made it more worth the effort. A CB can't touch a Ham, no matter what anyone says. $200 can get you a good radio and antenna and you should be able to hit 50 miles. Plus if you hit a ham radio club's repeater, you can go another 50.

Cell coverage was horse shit where I grew up and where I went to school, so having a radio got me out of a few bad situations. If you can hit a repeater, you can tap into the phone system and make local phone calls. I've used that several times, like getting stuck while deer hunting in below zero temps.

I've gotten pulled over and was able to listen to the trooper's conversation with dispatch. Soldering one lead and breaking another would allow me to transmit on those private channels, but it's a little illegal.

I'll only use the ham if friend have one or during wheeling. The majority of people are in Ham clubs and have events on the radio and have random chats with random people about nothing much important. It's not fun to listen to, but I suppose its a good technical hobby for some people.
 
Yeah, that was what I was wondering, does it have useful application in the "real world" or is it just a bunch of geezers that like to hear themselves talk with nothing to say? Sounds like a little of both.

A couple of years ago, I was near Franklin, NC, came upon an older couple with a medical emergency, it took me over 15 minutes to drive to where I could call for help, as there was no cell signal there. One of the VFD that responded was a HAM, showed me he could hit a repeater from the location. That kinda made it seem worthwhile.
 
It's just like any other hobby. To do it right you need to either A, get equipment free/cheap or B spend a TON Of money.
I used to work for Ericsson up in Lynchburg, (cellular, and private radio divisions) Since they had all the possible rf stuff there, and we made everything, TONs of guys up there with BIG into it.
I took the first level test, and played with enough equipment from "surplus/scrap" bits to make my own stuff. Both handheld (most useful) and vehicle mounted. But I felt a bit stupid trying to get the right type of ant for my old Maxima. :)
A few people had Civics etc with seperate electrical systems to drive their radios :)
As for useful, it is in some situations. MUCH better range/clarity than CB or FRS/GMRS. IF other people with you are into it.
Would I get back into it? Nah. I got other things to waste money/time on. You can get the basic license fairly easy. It's gotten a LOT easier, now that you don't have to do the 5wpm code bit. (Ermm, I think it was 5wpm? I don't know, it caused the most profanity of anything since college I have taken?)
There are quite a few local clubs, sooooo you would prolly do much better getting details from them, instead of some schmuck that hasn't kept is bit up to date for several years. :) (That and they usually have used bits for sale cheap)

If you go for it, good luck. If not, cheers, you are lazy/have enough hobbies like me. :)
 
kaiser715 said:
Yeah, that was what I was wondering, does it have useful application in the "real world" or is it just a bunch of geezers that like to hear themselves talk with nothing to say? Sounds like a little of both.
Click to expand...
Speaking of "useful" for "short range" ham and the handhelds.
We used to always use them for the mountain runs around Lynchburg. (Mountain Masochist etc, not that I actually RAN in them but I was willing to help. http://www.extremeultrarunning.com/mmtr.htm ) Since we made the police band radios, some of them got "scrapped" and became freebies. :)
I wish I still had my old MRK's from Ericsson days. Both for beating small animals, and talking.
They are GREAT for talking in around mtns if your friends are scattered, or it's an emergency.
For most areas cell phone coverage has improved now days. :) So I'm lazy.
 
If you got any ? hit me up I have been a ham for almost 15 years. It's a great hobby that you can overlap in to almost everthing you do.

I would love to set up a fox hunt a ure for a bunch of 4x4 hams

for those who do not know what a fox is ,It's a hidden transmitter that you try and locate .....

Oh and I'm only 32 and know a bunch of guys and gals who are both older and younger
 
catfishblues said:
Lizooki on this board is another hammer. Can't remember his call sign right now, though.
Click to expand...


KF4ZGZ - got plate on the front of my rig.

It's one of those "lifetime" hobbies...even moreso than 4 wheelin'.
When you get so old your poor , beaten, battered bones can't take the beating of the trail anymore.....you can talk to the other old coots on the radio and tell lies about it! :rolleyes:

Actually, it's a great hobby that is in fact a service. It's allowed and regulated by the FCC so we can help in times of trouble.
Even it the marvelous age of technology we live in, the sat-phones, cell phones and computers fail. Tey either lose electricity or get overloaded.
The Radio geeks have always come though.

You can get involved as much as you want....spend as much or as little as you want. I just went to a hamfest (ham radio flea-market) this weekend and used handhelds go for $75 and up.....mobile radios $100 and up.

Go here www.arrl.org and look around.


Matt
 
As prev stated, HAM will reach out a LONG ways, I was hitting greensboro repeater towers in Uwharrie last November with my 6 watt handheld that I paid about $120ish for!!

So what that means is I could have got a dial tone, made an emergency ph call if needed, etc while on the trail where cell phones have zip for signal.

I have wheeled with other hams, and nice to be able to talk with them all the way across the park. Probably saved us an hour or so one day when I asked Bruce H if that had finished clearing Dutch John (old blazer/workday) and they had not, so our run went another direction.

So yes, well worth it, you can have a ton of fun just on the ICOM t2h, it is RUGGED as heck, and those 6 watts can reach out pretty decent.

Tim Kings ICOM7xx series radio, 2m, on the top of the mountain at Crackers Neck, was talking to the repeater in Winston Salem! (100+ miles) Since that radio has 10m, etc we also listened to some folks talking up in new england if I remember right, while up there.

Final note, on Feb 23, TECHs will start having access to 10m band phone (and several others with morse), same as the TECH PLUS folks... www.arrl.org is best place to read up on all of this!

Sam
 
yager said:
so the big questions.. Can you use the CB bands on a HAM radio?
Click to expand...

While some rigs are capable, or can be easily converted to do so...No, it is illegal.

Ham radios and cb's are "type accepted" for their intended purpose on their intended frequencies.

And no ( before you even ask! ) the modifiable truck stop cb's aren't legal on ham bands.

Matt
 
will throw this out there...Matt or one of the others might know 100% for sure on this:

"in theory" the issue with transmitting on CB is the wattage the ham radio is capable of...and if you ONLY transmit at CB levels...(5 watts?) I am not sure that is actually illegal?

If it really is illegal (even at the correct wattage) that is a shame since the electronics in the Ham stuff is usually much cleaner sounding...

I would assume whatever this answer is, would ALSO be true for GRMS and FRS bands / wattages? (GRMS actually does have license to be legal)

EDITED to say, you CAN listen to them on the HAM units though and again, the electronics really sound much cleaner!! You can ALSO listen to ATF traffic, Railroads, Fire Dept, Police, certain older cell phones, basically anything non-scrambled...basically anything a scanner could pick up...

Sam
 
4 WATTS MAX ON THE CHICKEN BAND (CB)
but with a good tuned antenna and radio you might get up to 10 watts PEP off the antenna



I saw that on the 23 most will grandfather in.
 
SHINTON said:
will throw this out there...Matt or one of the others might know 100% for sure on this:

"in theory" the issue with transmitting on CB is the wattage the ham radio is capable of...and if you ONLY transmit at CB levels...(5 watts?) I am not sure that is actually illegal?
.

Sam
Click to expand...

Nope...the issue w/ the equipment is NOT the power output.
On the back of every CB sold in the US is an FCC type acceptance label. Aviation radios, marine radio, GMRS,FRS, ham radios. All have these label somewhere or another as to their intended use.

The only loopholes I know of is end-user mods of CBs to work in the 10m ham band. You can mod it for yourself and use it only if you are licensed. ( note: this may not be true anymore)

Other radios can be modded to work on ham bands you have privileges on. The FCC doesn't want people modding other radios to work on CB channels. Now this is a power output issue, and a frequency issue. CB is channelized and transmitting off of freq (between channels w/a slider or vfo) is also a no-no.

Building your own ham radio from scratch or a kit is also OK as long as you are licensed.

Matt

Another note: a lot of handhelds in ham, business, and aviation bands are the same radios.....just different firmware and software inside controlling frequncies. But these are still type accepted for intended band use.

EDITED FOR CLARIFICATION
 
yager said:
so the big questions.. Can you use the CB bands on a HAM radio?
Click to expand...

Not with an out-of-the box radio. You might be able to do a few modifications to a 12 or 10 meter radio, but I've never heard of it being done.

CB Freq: 26.965 to 27.405 MHz
Typical HAM: 2 meter 144 - 148 MHz and 70 centimeter 420 - 450 MHz


The 70 cm should allow you to talk with people using family band radios.
 
Back
Top