HAM Radio exam

Originally Posted by Don Rotolo

Time is relative. Bring a study book with you, if you're on your way to a shot and not driving, read instead. After setup, waiting for control to give you the go, read. Or, put the ENG mast into some power lines, and while waiting for the fire department and ambulances, read.

Actually, I have the one study book and that's what I've been doing and it really helps keep me awake when it's slow as well, some evenings not much happening on the scanners and we just sit there waiting for an active incident and it's easy to fall asleep but reading this book has really kept me awake, I learn better in a classroom/lecture setting though and with five radios going all the time and having to listen it's not the best scenario but not too bad.

Originally Posted by Al Skierkiewicz

That I can't help you with.

Some of those ham radios are complicated to program! I remember looking at one a few years ago and it makes programming other radios feel so easy, with the scanners I use software from Butlel.nl and once you know the systems it's not hard at all.

Back when I worked one summer as a summer student at a Motorola dealer even that stuff wasn't as involved as the ham radio.

The trick there was programming everything so it would be as simple and direct as possible for the end user, whereas the little ham radio I looked at seemed to require a degree in rocket science to program, then again that's part of the hobby, makes it all interesting.

Now if they only made a radio that read MotoTRBO....I'd be a very happy camper right now.

I guess D-star is becoming popular with Ham radio now as well.

[ECarlson]

Do any of your local ham clubs have licensing classes? That's how I got re-involved in radio communications about a year and a half ago, after being away from it for a couple decades.

I attended a weekend Technician-class licensing class at a local amateur radio club (the class was free). Since I had a couple weeks to study before the licensing exam, and I only needed to do a tiny bit of additional studying for the Technician-class license, I did some extra studying for the General-class and the Extra-class licenses, and when exam day came, I took the tests for all 3 levels and got my Extra-class license.

The online license test sites were very helpful (at least in the US), and there are some online licensing guides, though there is a brand new set of questions for the Technician-class license in the US, so make sure you study the right questions.

There is a lot more to amateur radio than just Morse code and voice communication. There are dozens of digital modes, both data modes and voice modes, and all you need to use many of them, in addition to your radio, is a computer with a sound card.

The digital modes are fun to explore even if you only have a short-wave receiver. All you have to do is connect the radio's audio output into your sound card's input, then use any of dozens of programs (many free) to decode the digital modes.

Another very interesting area of Amateur Radio is Software Defined Radio (Google it for info), where much of the radio's functionality is provided by your computer (www.flex-radio.com is one good example, though there are others, and kits are available too).

And there are many other aspects of amateur radio that I haven't mentioned (and probably many aspects I haven't even learned about yet).

[Stephi Rae]

We now have 15 members of Team 190 with their amateur licenses. Two weeks ago, 9 of us took an hour to study questions from the test pool, after a day or two taking practice exams online and all passed the exam. Our radios arrived yesterday. Many of us are involved in, or looking into joining the WPI Wireless club on campus. Additionally, a few more students are looking at taking the licensing exam in a few weeks. It has been great fun (10 radios arrived on campus today. There are now 11 of the same radio floating around in the lab tuned in to the WPI repeater...)

-KF7HTJ

[ECarlson]

Originally Posted by Stephi Rae

There are now 11 of the same radio floating around in the lab

Cool. Which radios did you all get? And, why did you all get the same radios?

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Mark,
As an avid HF person, the radios I use do not require a lot of programming. As a matter of fact two Heathkits that I have don't have any digital anything on them. (HW8 and HW101) Some of the programmable radios you see are actually setup memories and memory for your favorite operating modes. Used radios are available through ham fests and club members looking to move into new equipment. It is not as expensive as it first looks. My little Yaseu FT 817 is a great QRP (low power) radio that also covers the 2 meter and 450 ham bands. What it gives up in ease of use it returns in it's small size, low power and just plain old fun.

[Stephi Rae]

Originally Posted by ECarlson

Cool. Which radios did you all get? And, why did you all get the same radios?

We got the Wouxun KG-UVD1P. It's a dual bad, dual frequency, dual display, and dual standby radio. We all got the same one because it was pretty cheap (around $100) new, and it was over $30 in shipping, so it was easy to split the shipping cost. It's not a name brand radio, but it has a lot of features, and the price was right for us poor college and high school kids. So far, they've been great! Really convenient for communicating when we have kids working on robot stuff in multiple buildings.

[ECarlson]

Originally Posted by Stephi Rae

We got the Wouxun KG-UVD1P.

I suspected it was either that radio or the Puxing PX-777, which is a popular inexpensive single-band radio. I was considering both of those, but ended up with an ICOM IC-T7H dual band handheld, which is still pretty inexpensive. I almost went with the YAESU VX-3R, because it is so cool and tiny (you have to see one in person), but I wanted a little more output power, prefer the BNC antenna connector, and can use my own inexpensive AA NiMh rechargeable batteries, or even alkaline or lithium AA's in an emergency.

Yes we do and I am going to check out a few of them, they start courses at various times of the year, just wan to find one with a good instructor as that can make all the difference.

Originally Posted by ECarlson

Do any of your local ham clubs have licensing classes? That's how I got re-involved in radio communications about a year and a half ago, after being away from it for a couple decades.

I attended a weekend Technician-class licensing class at a local amateur radio club (the class was free). Since I had a couple weeks to study before the licensing exam, and I only needed to do a tiny bit of additional studying for the Technician-class license, I did some extra studying for the General-class and the Extra-class licenses, and when exam day came, I took the tests for all 3 levels and got my Extra-class license.

The online license test sites were very helpful (at least in the US), and there are some online licensing guides, though there is a brand new set of questions for the Technician-class license in the US, so make sure you study the right questions.

There is a lot more to amateur radio than just Morse code and voice communication. There are dozens of digital modes, both data modes and voice modes, and all you need to use many of them, in addition to your radio, is a computer with a sound card.

The digital modes are fun to explore even if you only have a short-wave receiver. All you have to do is connect the radio's audio output into your sound card's input, then use any of dozens of programs (many free) to decode the digital modes.

Another very interesting area of Amateur Radio is Software Defined Radio (Google it for info), where much of the radio's functionality is provided by your computer (www.flex-radio.com is one good example, though there are others, and kits are available too).

And there are many other aspects of amateur radio that I haven't mentioned (and probably many aspects I haven't even learned about yet).

Originally Posted by Stephi Rae

We now have 15 members of Team 190 with their amateur licenses. Two weeks ago, 9 of us took an hour to study questions from the test pool, after a day or two taking practice exams online and all passed the exam. Our radios arrived yesterday. Many of us are involved in, or looking into joining the WPI Wireless club on campus. Additionally, a few more students are looking at taking the licensing exam in a few weeks. It has been great fun (10 radios arrived on campus today. There are now 11 of the same radio floating around in the lab tuned in to the WPI repeater...)

-KF7HTJ

1 hour of study and two days of practice, that's not bad but then if you did that after build season you probably know half of it anyways, at least the theory and electronics engineering part of it, still that's pretty good.

I'm probably going to go for it soon before severe weather season starts as I am in canwarn up here as well as working in news so it would be nice to have.

[Mike9966]

Hi all, I just wanted to throw a plug in for SDRs, or Software defined radios. The Flex was mentioned, but it's pretty pricy at this time.

A cool, you get to build it yourself, setup is a little guy called a Softrock. Google it. There is a Yahoo group dedicated to just that.

Basically, you put together the $65 kit and connect it to a stereo mic input on your computer, load the software, connect the antenna and you are ready to go with a low power HF rig.

It is really cool and I think it's the way much of the hobby will be going in the future.

Good luck, and join the club, we are friendly.

Mike
KB0ozn

Go Firebears!