Any HAM radio operator here?

[alaskabushman]

I've been curious about HAM radio for a while now. Living in an area with no cell coverage and large swaths of area with no way to communicate, HAM radio has been sticking in the back of my mind.

I've been doing some looking into it and it seems like that you can get into HAM for pretty much any amount you are willing to spend.

I am curious if there are any HAM operators on this forum, so that I can discuss directly with a knowledgeable person.

I just have some questions regarding getting licensed and what kind of radio that would suit my area.

[madmax]

Following.

[WolfVanZandt]

I'm not a ham operator, but I play one on TV....oops, I mean, I've heard several acquaintances lately talking about it. Evidently, it's coming back. Long ago, I was an electronics hobbyist and I remember Heathkits having some great HAM kits and several of the mail tech colleges had courses. It would be a blast to take up HAM from scratch! It looks like there's still a lot of it on the Internet.

[1stimestar]

My boyfriend is but he has a very limited internet presence. I'll tell him about this thread and see if I can get him on here next time I see him.

[kyratshooter]

The single biggest problem with trying to get information from HAM operators is that most of then do not have the ability to point out a simple basic setup that will not break the bank.

Most of them want to start puking alphabet soup at you as soon as they open their mouths. "You need a UHF/VHF 7000m squanto 19483-5277 345watt 780cycle B2unit with a greaser6527-300m4 antenna and if that does not work for you you can sell it for 1/10 its value and get a Walmart transistor radio reverse the battery terminals and talk into the speaker."

It is one of those things that you are going to spend a lot of money on the first run of equipment before learning what you really needed that cost half as much and no one would tell you about.

[hunter63]

Had a novice Licence years ago and belonged to the Radio Club in High school.....Radio nerd was one of my many identities .

You needed to have a Tech. or General License to use voice on certain bands.
This meant learning morse code.....5 wpm for novice...much faster morse code for the higher rating.

Seems like you were forced to do this to "get into the club" before you could use voice

Like anything else did need to put in a lot of time....
Most folks didn't want to make the effort, so held the novice license for a year...then let it slide,
Seems I heard that the procedure has changed to not require hours of practice any longer.

Kryat is right....Hams are even more "helpful" then gun owners when choosing reloading equipment, ballistics, calibers, so a novice get overwhelmed quick.
There should be a "I'm in Alaska, and need a rig to talk to the outside world...for $500 bucks'....Rig out there.

Many also tend to want to talk on the radio for the reason of talking on the radio...and have "gone over the air"...and BS endlessly....(kinda like a forum...LOL)
The other side is long range communication in the boonies....which can be a wonderful thing.

In 1963 there was a flurry of sunspots so signals were super weird....good conditions for "shooting skip"

On my home brew 5 watt key rig...I could not get the high schools base station (we had a good set up) ...10 blocks away.
But had a guy in Israel come in wall to wall.

My advice is to get ahold of a Ham in the outback and see what they use....I sure they are more practical in it's use.

[alaskabushman]

Yeah, I am getting a bit of that feeling that I had when I started reloading. Lots of terms and jargon that I have no idea what it means.

After visiting Youtube and watching some introductory video's I have a somewhat better grasp on the subject. I found a HAM forum and browsed around on some of the threads, many of which had some good affordable options.

I am very familiar with VHF Marine band (I have a base radio in my house and truck, as well as in the boat of course), which is much simpler than HAM, but there is some crossover. At least I'm not totally radio ignorant.

Just something I'm curious about, it sounds like it can be a lot of fun if one sticks with it and learns the ins and outs.

[hunter63]

Biggest advantage of ham radio is range.....all over the world.
It's more of a hobby than a necessarily for a lot of people.

Let us know what you come up with.....

[alaskabushman]

I'm trying to track down some locals HAM's, I know there are some in the area.

What I am hoping to get out of it is to be able to set up a communication system that will work in my remote locale. Since there is no cell service here, and I have some extended trips planned to very remote locations, I'd like to figure out a way to set up long range communication with home so that my wife will not worry as much. Or if I get into trouble I can radio for assistance. I'll probably end up buying a SPOT locator as they are much simpler and the newer models have a "check in" feature.

Still, I'd like to see if what I want and HAM radio are compatible. I'm less interested in "talking to the world" as I am looking for (essentially) a cell phone substitute.

[Rick]

Rent a satellite phone. That would probably be a lot cheaper than HAM. Or dried ham at $99.99 a slice. :O)

[kyratshooter]

ham is still a line of sight system and depends on the monitoring of the volunteers that run the system.

And unless your wife gets her license too there will not be any direct comms. She can not even legally answer your contact efforts if you have a home base station.

I think I would go with sat-phones too. They work almost anywhere on Earth and do not require a license, just a phone plan.

I got several calls by Sat-phone from remote locations around Baghdad and one ring up from the deck of a carrier somewhere in the middle of the Suez canal back when the war was on. Every call sounded like they were calling me from the mall down the road and needed a ride home.

[alaskabushman]

From my understanding you can listen in on HAM transmissions without a certification, but you are right in saying that there would be no 2-way communications.

The more portable systems, i.e. handhelds are more line of sight unless you have a repeater in the area. The systems that talk globally are much more bulky and not really portable.

As far as SAT phones go that is a good option, I've used them (they were not mine) on a few occasions and they worked just fine. I could not find any place near me that had a rental option however. Purchasing them gets expensive quick, and then you still have to pay for minutes.

The SPOT plb is basically the same thing, but at around $145 for the device and another $15 monthly for the service, its much cheaper. You cannot talk on it of course but you can use the "check in" feature to let people back home know you are okay. There is also an "assistance needed" button if you need help in a non life threatening situation. Then the "SOS" button calls in the emergency service in your area. For me that's the Coast Guard.

I'm still curious about HAM, it seems like a really fun hobby once you understand it. Its old technology that still has a lot of merits. When it comes to internet and cell phones there is massive infrastructure set up to handle the communication. If that infrastructure is lost, so is the communication. With HAM, the only infrastructure is the equipment at each end of the transmission.

I've discovered a few local HAMs I can talk to and see if this is something I want to delve into more.

[Rick]

They don't have to be near you. You can rent them off the net.

http://www.roadpost.com/how_it_works...aspx#gsc.tab=0

[hunter63]

I will say it was fun....
Our instructor in HS was a math /shop teacher.

He scrounged WWII surplus for amp's and other components.

Heathkit Transceivers were purchased and built by our "Radio Club" over the years....as well as antenna arrays...like on per class.
The HS roof had several different antennas for different things...

Bought a used receiver thru the school...and home built a 2 tube 5 watt crystal transmitter from plans and schematics.
This actually helped me later in life when working as a HVAC service tech.


I'm thinking a transceiver (send/receive) would be the way to go.

i moved on to girls, cars, jobs....so kinda left radio behind.