No more Morse required.
Dad had a shortwave receiver down in the basement, we would listen to it every so often. That got me interested in the two of us getting our licenses. This was around 1982 when I was eight years old. I tried my best to learn Morse code but never got the hang of it. We never got licensed but I learned a lot about the hobby.
What would be a good starter radio?
I still have my Advanced license, son his General, but neither of us are on the air. Tech has changed so much that I would be totally lost now.
73 de KF4MA
Anyway...
FCC Info: https://www.fcc.gov/wireless/bureau-divisions/mobility-division/amateur-radio-service
These two sites give all of the test prep you need, and are free: https://hamexam.org/ and https://arrlexamreview.appspot.com/index.html
The exam is now fully published, a formality, so you need to study the questions and answers, learn them. Long overdue as today's radios are completely different, black box, something breaks and you replace it, as opposed to the first radio that used tubes.
I’ve been licensed HAM radio operator since the mid-1980s and currently hold an Extra-class license.
Code is no longer required for a license, but it was when I got mine. Even so, FWIW, I still utilize code to this very day and rather enjoy it.
For any of you that may be interested in getting licensed etc., may I suggest visiting the Amateur Radio Relay League website: https://www.arrl.org
It has a great deal of information available for prospective licensees as well as for those already licensed that want to increase their knowledge and skills.
Some of it is free, some of it has to be paid for, but it’s definitely a great place to start.
Lately, I have been most interested in a variety of HF antennas. My primary radio is a Yaesu FT-991A. It gets used for a 2 meter net on Sunday nights. When I have time, I have my Linux system configure with WSJT-X driving a USB cable to the FT-991A where it controls frequency, power, mode and an internal sound card where digital audio is sent and received. All of the high powered DSP occurs back in the Linux system. I have 46 of 50 states worked via FT8 right now. Missing MT, KS, VT and CT. I've connected to South Korea, China, New Zealand, Australia, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Ecuador, Chile, Canada, Spain, Scotland, Germany, France and a few more. My antenna is a simple Off Center Fed Dipole. One leg is 55 feet. The other 11 feet. The 4:1 balun dangles off my rain gutter at 20 feet above ground. The 55 foot leg is connected to an insulator, then paracord into a very tall pine tree. The 11 foot leg goes to a nearby spruce.
In my earlier years, I did lots of packet radio around San Diego and participated in the monthly transmitter hunts. All participants met at a starting point. Odometers were recorded and the transmitter went live at 5 PM. The boundaries were the San Diego county line. When a hunter found the transmitter, the time was noted and odometer reading taken. The final score is time in minutes plus miles on the odometer. Like golf, the low score wins. Aside from the technical things, lots of service related work. Red flag patrols during fire season. Packet radio support of fire camps. Communications for charity fundraisers and the Miramar Airshow. Animal Rescue Reserve collecting livestock in danger of a fire, relocating and coordinating return to owners. Same for humans in the line of fire.
I had just started dating a very cute blond girl in the late ‘70s. Because of ‘Smokey and The Bandit’, CB radios were all the rage. I mentioned that I had owned a CB radio base station about 10 years back. I also said I though Ham Radio was interesting and I might get my Ham license.
She got this horrified look on her face and said “You can’t!, my dad and all my uncles own Ham radios, and they’re all a bunch of nerds!” At that point she didn’t know me very well, because I resembled that remark.
The hobby started as a bastion of experimenters and builders of radio equipment and antennas. As a teen in the 1960’s, I was fascinated by a neighbor who could talk to other hams in faraway places.
Early ham operators built a lot of their own equipment from scratch.
I built my first 5 watt transmitter from a simple schematic, using spare parts given by me by my neighbor. It worked for sending Morse Code. I learned to send and receive the Code. It is fun to use Morse Code and many hams still do.
You would be amazed at how fast some hams can send and receive Morse Code and there are still Code speed contests held at some “hamfests.”
I passed the written and Code tests for Novice and, later, General Class. I graduated to Advanced Class, now grandfathered, which license I still hold. There were 5 classes of license back then: Novice, Technician, General, Advanced and Extra.
Most people do not realize how important the design and construction of the antenna is to communicate by ham radio. There is great and complex science in antennas and some amazing accomplishments in communication by very low power transmitters combined with superior antenna designs.
Ham radio operators are of great help in natural disasters, helping with emergency communications when other normal communication options are not working.
It is fun to communicate with foreign operators in other countries. I have talked to operators in Europe, Japan and Antarctica and islands in the Pacific Ocean. Sometimes conditions are just right and a 10,000-mile conversation sounds as good as talking to your next-door neighbor on the telephone.
My dad has a Hallicrafters S40B and an S38C - I love dialing through lisrening to chatter.
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. :-)
bump for later
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.
Relearning Morse. Been a while, 66 or 68, somewhere in there. Had the technician, let it lapse.
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.
bookmark.
I still have mine from when I did college radio. I don’t remember it having an expiration date. I’ll have to get it from the ‘old stuff I still keep’ drawer and check.
— -— .-. ... . -.-. -— -.. . .-.. .. -... . ... !!!!
Baofeng handheld for local comms and a base station for long distance.
Smart enough to get it, but I have no idea how to use it.
Not that expensive.
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