Ham Radio Operators. VANity. Kind of neat.

https://www.arrl.org/getting-licensed ^ | it hasn't been it's a vanity post | kawhill

[kawhill]

Before you can get on the air, you need to be licensed and know the rules to operate legally. US licenses are good for 10 years before renewal and anyone may hold one except a representative of a foreign government. In the US there are three license classes—Technician, General and Extra.

[Myrddin]

I went after my ham license first, then inside of 3 weeks took the FCC 2nd class radiotelephone license. A couple months later, I upgraded to FCC 1st class radiotelephone license with a SHIP's radar endorsement. The commercial licenses paved the way to working in the San Diego commercial fishing fleet as well as large ships, base stations and even a research sub at Ballast Point. Field Service Engineer at Marine Electric Company. I eventually left that work for better pay at Pacific Telephone.

I reconnected with the ham community when I was in grad school at San Diego State...Microbiology Department. Nerds? 😊

[pingman]

My brother left me an ICOM VHF/FM transceiver when he died. Model IC-V8000, brand new, in box. Looks like a mobile unit. Nobody on CL wants it.

[Reno89519]

Yes, most can so you have to program it carefully. That's a bit of a chore to make the lists of frequencies and repeaters, power levels, etc., but once done, easy to upload to all of the radios using CHIRP (https://chirpmyradio.com/projects/chirp/wiki/Home

[SkyDancer]

My dad has a Hallicrafters S40B and an S38C - I love dialing through lisrening to chatter.

[Reno89519]

Check the local clubs. That’s likely 25 years old and the tech has changed a lot, might not be worth much. Problem with the clubs, and understand that I am 64, is that most of the folks are in their 60s-90s. Not many under 60, even less under 30 interested in amateur radio. It is good for emergencies but nothing further nowadays.

[Myrddin]

My first "new in the box" radio was the ICOM 22S. It was a synthesized 2m rig, but used a diode matrix to set each frequency as a huge improvement over having to order a pair of TX/RX crystals as my old SBE-144 mobile and Standard hand-held required. Later, ICOM offered the handheld 2AT with mechanical frequency dials to set the frequency directly without a diode matrix board. Eventually, the industry was blessed with embedded controller chips, keyboard entry, LCD displays and enormous memory capacity. Current offerings are first class and feature packed.

BTW, I worked at Radio Shack to pay for grad school. It was beyond helpful to have a ham license and commercial license as an employee there. I had almost 400 regular customers. That helped my commissions to pay for school.

[Big Red Badger]

Yuppers
CBs are about done but for Truckers.
.
Breaker 19

[ViLaLuz]

Thanks for the info. I got the novice license back in 1974 IIRC, but that’s long expired. Like you I want to get back into it for emergency comes. (Also a NAVET)

[Jonah Hex]

I have my Technician license currently, put together a QRP rig, and studying online for my General ticket. I’m at a point in my life when I’ve started taking on “old man” interests. :-)

[Myrddin]

Most of the Pocatello Amateur Radio Club are 60+ vintage, but we do have a few in the 20 to 40 age group. One of the new college kids is interest in the new digital wireless technologies in the 2.4 and 5 GHz range. They use repurposed access point hardware. The technology class is Amateur Radio Emergency Digital Network (AREDN). It's on my "to do" list.

After my surgical wounds heal, I want to dig a footing for my 27 ft vertical antenna. That will be fed with a 4:1 UNUN and tuned with an automatic antenna tuner at the base. Should be good for DX from 6 to 40 meters. I'm also planning a broad band terminated dipole with coverage from 6 to 80 meters. It's a wire antenna fed with a 12:1 balun and terminated in the center with an 800 ohm 500 watt non-inductive resistor. The antenna is the design used for HF Automatic Link Establishment (ALE) protocols. I find it attractive as a broadband antenna that works all the bands I can about and won't need much care even in cold Winter weather.

[WhoisAlanGreenspan?]

I can’t see for crap but I read all day on FreeRepublic. I hold on for dear life both up and down the stairs many times a day, but I’m still a pretty damned good pool player. At 66 years old I’m taken it as it comes, old man.

[gibsosa]

bump for later

[Bobalu]

I have kept my Advanced ticket as it is the ONLY class that proves you did the code ;-)

You can be an extra and not even know how to send a morse SOS call....

I also use morse with microcontrollers... I can hear the text without using something like a crappy 1602 LCD...

[MeneMeneTekelUpharsin]

Ham radio operator here (Extra Class - back when it took 20wpm on the key to get it). Awesome hobby. More young folks need to be encouraged to participate.

[dagunk]

Relearning Morse. Been a while, 66 or 68, somewhere in there. Had the technician, let it lapse.

[Myrddin]

I recently picked up a new CB. It runs on 13.8 or 24 volts. AM/FM 40 channels. There are models that support AM/FM/SSB as well. I picked it up for compatibility with emergency communications. That gives me ham/GMRS/CB connectivity. My ham antennas can operate on HF including CB. Bigger antennas with better capture than typical commercial CB. My 70cm ham antenna is broad enough to support GMRS as well. I'm mostly interested in broad connectivity in an emergency. My wife is both a ham and now retired police/fire/emergency dispatcher. In an emergency, she can handle the full range of comms and on the air protocols.

[Texas resident]

I bought a Realistic brand short wave radio from Radio Shack in 1991. Still have the thing. I was living in New Jersey and I wanted to listen to Texas A&M football games. They were broadcast on the 19 meter band. Warbly sound, but it was better than nothing.

[Myrddin]

I'm 67...soon 68. Still working full time as a software engineer. My office is in the basement. Kitchen on the ground floor. Bedrooms 2nd floor. I'm up and down all day. I'm not pleased that my health is taking a hit this year. Bad liver enzymes and iron deficiency anemia. My gallbladder went away two weeks ago. An ERCP is scheduled Wednesday in hopes of clearing out my common bile duct. Friday brings a lung CT to discern if the "node" on my lung is an issue. Meanwhile, I just keep working. Hoping to get the liver fixed up, the anemia resolved and no bad new from the lungs.

[Myrddin]

CHIRP is a good utility. Pretty broad support. I have a few DMR radios that rely upon special support code from the radio supplier. Lots of extra configuration with color codes and trunk groups to make DMR work. It works well, but I really don't like being dependent on proprietary support code to program the hardware.

[teletech]

Thought about it forty years ago, but had to be fluent in Morse to get it. Been thinking about it.

I have 67 years in the hobby and actually met my wife through Amateur Radio. She has 63 years in the hobby. Both she and I hold Extra Class Licenses. I remember having to take the morse code exam for all three of my licenses (Novice, General and Extra).

I think it was a good move when the FCC dropped the code requirement. Now it seems a lot of new "Hams" want to learn the code after they get licensed. ( I hold a code practice net on 6 meters every Tuesday evening at 7 PM CST on 50.090Mhz.) for those who are just learning the code.

You're never to old to get into the hobby. I'm 80 and I still love the hobby.