The Skinny on Ham Radio: Getting Licensed

The Survival Mom ^ | Jan 2012 | Survival Mom

[Erasmus]

They tried teaching me but I put a capacitor in backwards and it exploded.

Yeah. I did that once with a resistor. Got the color bands pointing the wrong way. What a mess!

[Erasmus]

We're still talking capacitors here, right?

≤}B^)

[thecodont]

Before cell phones changed, we were able to listen to them on the scanner. Amazing stuff there.

I could pick up entire conversations on my old black-and-white TV set. The TV broadcast I was watching would get interrupted and then I'd (entirely by accident of course) listen in on someone's phone call. I could hear BOTH parties.

[RhoTheta]

Thanks for the QRP references. My 2006 Handbook has a chapter on the Norcal 40A (although I'm not sure they still market it). It is to be had used for around $100 with a couple neat options installed. They are single band rigs (with plug-ins for changing bands), so I have to decide what band to go with.

I'll have to research the Oak Hills though.

[Stegall Tx]

Not to be disrespectful but why get a license at all?
If SHTF, who cares if you’re licensed?

Like any skill, it takes practice, and you can't practice without your ticket. Not legally, at least.

[Bobalu]

I keep several Ham rigs...mostly low-power CW radios and unbuilt kits in a homemade faraday cage for EMP protection.

It's just a couple of metal garbage cans :-)

http://buggingin.blogspot.com/2009/10/emp-protection-on-cheap.html

[driftdiver]

yer testing me right, cause thats just silly

[cva66snipe]

A few years back a fifth grader I think it was summoned National Park Rangers with his handheld HAM Radio likely VHF. It was in The Great Smoky Mountains Park. His class was on a field trip to a waterfalls which was about a four mile walk round trip. Cell phones will not get out in that area due to terrain. I've been to that water fall several times myself.

The event was tragic as one of his classmates had fallen in the creek and drowned in a deep pool with some very strong undercurrents. He managed to hit a repeater and in doing so got help too them much sooner.

But even if a person doesn't have a license monitoring is legal and you can gain valuable knowledge in times of crisis like tornado watches and warnings etc. You'll likely get the warning a minute or two before the weather alert tone goes out to activate weather radios. Weather Wathers {Sky Warn} uses HAM.

Don't throw away your old Analog TV outdoor antenna. Put them too good use. It makes a great outdoor scanner antenna and can increase you monitoring in some cases several hundred miles depending on the frequency. You can also use a 10-20 DB 50-950 MHZ TV signal amplifier with it. You will have to modify the mounting to make the elements lay vertical instead of horizontal but it does work reasonably well.

I haven't had my scanners on since last summer but you can get a lot of heads up. In event of state or area natural disasters HAM will likely be the first communications in and out. Many State Emergency Management Agencies have used and/or monitored HAM as does NOAA.

[Erasmus]

If you put the resistor in backwards, the current reads the color bands in the wrong direction, and you get the inverse of the resistance that you were expecting.

Things blow up that way.

Oh, ≤}B^)

[driftdiver]

First time I’ve ever heard that and I dont think you are correct. Not with a basic resistor.

[mylife]

Thanks for the knowledgeable post.

[alarm rider]

Interesting, if I just wanted to listen what are the best radio sets/deals?

Thanks.

[Erasmus]

First time I’ve ever heard that [...]

That makes two of us, because I just made it up.

≤}B^)

[Professional Engineer]

I vaguely recall this incident.

I’ve been doing Skywarn for 20+ years. Lots of fun, and gets the public service aspect in.

[Moose4]

We had a fairly significant tornado outbreak here in North Carolina back on April 16 and I spent the afternoon glued to the local SKYWARN net getting information. I didn’t check in because we had no severe weather out my way (other than a small tree falling on my truck causing no significant damage) but the real-time information from spotters was worth listening to. The most heartbreaking thing was listening to a guy transmitting from his car in his front yard...he’d arrived home to find his house literally *gone*, swept off the slab it’d been sitting on.

Another true ham story...back in the mid-90s when I lived in Virginia the town I was in got hit by a freak downburst thunderstorm, 70+ mph winds and hail. Not only did all the power get knocked out citywide, phone lines were down or unreliable, and every public safety communications repeater on top of a nearby hill got knocked out as well. One guy, just north of town, had a 2-meter repeater and tower in his backyard, and somehow, it was still operational. So a couple of hams went to the city 911 center and a couple more went to one of the outlying counties’ sheriff’s office, and for about six hours they passed mutual-aid traffic between the two jurisdictions using that one functional repeater. It wasn’t a huge thing in the overall scheme of recovery, but it was a help.

My ticket is up for renewal this year (got my Tech in 1992, Advanced in 1995) and even though I’m not active in the hobby right now, I will renew it for sure. Someday, I’ll get back on the air.

}:-)4

[halfright]

Heavily involved in RACES/ARES here in PA. Mitt has no idea what he is talking about. There is a robust analog and digital infrastructure in place with many modes and bands for when the SHTF and we practice every week for that event. We are well supported in our county and are afforded state training in the Incident Command System from FEMA. Here is my humble home station....Bleep you, Mitt.

[Clinging Bitterly]

Soooo, I don't know what brand/model that mobile radio is in the photo at the link, but it is tuned to 27.345 - CB ch. 34, NOT a ham radio frequency.

If someone posted that article on qrz.com they would have a field day (so to speak).

[Clinging Bitterly]

I’ve made ONE on-air CW contact...

I was never a big CW fan myself. Made a scant few contacts as a novice back around 1980, but I never went back to it after upgrading!

I passed my Extra in '09. The extra HF band segments are worth the effort. If any effort is needed, that is. I took the test on a whim and didn't study at all. Without "fresh" knowledge from studying I had to scrape really deep in the old brain pan for some of the answers, but they were in there!

Funny thing - lately, I sometimes imagine myself getting a decent set of paddles and doing some CW again. Just fleeting thoughts, mind you!

[Clinging Bitterly]

Don't get licensed.

Without time on the air it would be difficult if not impossible to become a proficient operator. I don't know many hams who would give an unlicensed operator the time of day, so the problem becomes, in those "15 second" transmissions, one would be exchanging information with exactly whom?

Licensing would not be the pressing issue if/when a time comes where anarchy prevails, and indeed in such times there might be occasions where one would have good reason not to personally identify - but meanwhile, unlicensed freebanders will not likely become skilled operators on the HF frequencies, all of which are allocated to primary users/services which actively protect them.

[Charles Martel]

I would like some to tell me in English a HAM radio to buy and where. The best antenna to use in a HOA police state.

I've heard that the FCC is actually looking to bust the HOAs' ban on antennas and amateur radio stations. Don't know if legislation has yet taken shape, but I doubt that Zero would sign such a thing unless it were attached to something that he really wants. For that matter, Romney seems to have little use for amateur radio, either.

God preserve us from these dazzling urbanites...