Posted on 10/17/2017 7:37:53 AM PDT by US Navy Vet
I am thinking of getting into Ham Radio. Any suggestions on process/equipment/How to start?
I take it Muslim’s frown on Ham Radio...
Free and cheap ham radio projects list by WA5VJB
http://www.wa5vjb.com/references.html
They sell cheap antennas, too.
LOL.
my tastebuds stand corrected.
[full disclosure - not a hammee, I travel too much]
You will receive a lot of good advice to join a club. I would recommend taking that one step further. Find a club with a purpose. Some clubs are more social gatherings, other clubs provide services to the community. One example is the MARS (Military Auxiliary Radio System) program (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_Auxiliary_Radio_System).
Joining a club with a purpose will add a sense of urgency to your training and may even provide some tax write offs for your volunteer activities (for example mileage). Seek out a tax adviser to make sure you stay on the good side of the IRS.
Check this out.
http://www.thetubecenter.com/
No thanks. Too old to learn Morse code.
Great - I’ll let him know.
This isn't just a receiver either you can transmit too - be careful where you do transmit. If you want to transmit and receive at the same time you need to get two of them as it is only half-duplex (you can only transmit or receive). However there seems to be a setup where you can connect them together.
There is a cool project (a bit of a learning curve but so is ham radio) called GnuRadio you should check it out.
If you are just into receiving signals you can buy a SDR(Software Defined Radio) Dongle (what a funny word)for just a couple of bucks on Amazon I think I got one for $12. It plugs into your USB port. Turns out all flatscreen TVs have these incredible wideband receivers in them if you know how to activate the chip correctly so economy of scale has made these chips very cheap.
These are some ideas to get you going. Antennas and amplifiers are probably where one wants to spend the big bucks these days the radios can be simulated via software now. Oh and one more cool thing I've been meaning to try I don't know how well it works - its a frequency analyzer made with the fore-mentioned hackrf and an android phone RFAnalyzer
Good luck - thanks for being in the Navy
Not needed.
A poster by the name of GOYAKLA sent a link to a site that sells them and I passed it on to gramps.
There is — in my opinion — a good “First Book” to buy, and that is on Amazon called “The Dummies Guide To Ham Radio.” One of those black & yellow books. Excellent.
Tells you a bit about The Whole Enchilada, and is a very, very good first briefing.
Ham clubs can be stuffy and clubby, but most are extremely welcoming to newbies. I’m a member of ours.
Don’t start your explorations with the ARRL License Manual. It’s dense and heavily detailed and a little boring. Start with the Dummies Guide. THEN get a license manual.
Take the test (given my ham clubs) before you think you’re really ready. You’ll find out what it looks and feels like, and there is no downside to not passing. You can take it again right away, or at the very next session, but having taken it, your nervous factor will be zeroed out.
AND! There’s an excellent chance you’ll pass.
You’ll learn mostly by, experience, by doing. You will never finish your studies — I’ve been at this since 1962, and I still have tons of mountains to climb.
Good luck, and “73.”
I am a VE and most of the time the test sessions are very relaxed, I like to get new Hams into the hobby.
73
KE4HTS
Go to eham.net. Great repository of information. Also arrl.org.
MARS has changed significantly in recent years and one of the services has shut down their program (USAF, I think). You need skills and equipment well beyond the beginner level in order to participate. It’s a good thing to aspire to do after learning other baseline skills to support that level of interest.
Good advice on clubs with purpose(s). I belong to two local clubs that have strong involvement in providing communications support to public events like bicycle road events. This allows you to learn how to operate in a controlled net environment like what would be used in disaster support communications. It also builds skills in working with a served organization to meet their needs for participant safety during the event.
In this part of the country (OK), these skills are also important when operating as part of a storm-spotter network that reports conditions to the National Weather Service. Here is where you’ll learn the value of a good mobile radio with enough power output to stay in contact with the local repeater for communicating back to the weather service office. It’s usually one of the first projects where the first-timer/new ham seeks the assistance of a more experienced operator, usually referred to as an “Elmer.”
Choose a club that is also engaged in helping new hams learn about operating on the world-wide bands, normally called the HF or “shortwave” bands. A club that activates a station during the annual Field Day in June will expose you to HF antennas, feedlines, remote power equipment operations, getting on the air when there are lots of signals to sort out. The best thing to learn on this weekend activity is that an HF antenna doesn’t have to cost a lot of money in order to make contacts. You might even get your first exposure to Morse code during the event or maybe one of the new digital modes.
Great hobby. You will never regret it!
As some have said already, there are so many facets to the hobby it hard to pin it down. I have an Extra class license, obtained when some code proficiency was required. I found learning code and studying for the written exams were an absorbing and enjoyable challenge on its own. I have no interest in digital communication, local clubs, or contesting. I live on the East Coast, and What thrills me is to hear that my signal at 100 Watts skips across the wine-dark sea and booms into Spain and Eastern Europe. I marvel at this often.
It was the Navy/Marines that shut down it’s participation in MARS preferring to rely on the Army to lead in that space. My only reason for holding them up was to address the issue of purpose. I was not away of the work with the National Weather Service. That is also a great example!
Thanks for the info.
I do know that here in Colorado, due to the mountains, there is a lot of potential dead terrain. I would imagine that there are a fair amount of repeaters but I also assume that there is strong need for support during rescue operations. There might be clubs related to those type activities in other states as well.
BFL
73,
Steve
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