Amateur radio can be a lot of fun

[JacksinPA]

After getting my station mostly set up after weeks of $$$ & effort, I started to enjoy it today. This weekend was Field Day, which is an annual contest to exercise hams' ability to use radio communications under emergency conditions. My principle interest is focused on the 6 meter band (50-54 MHz) because the recent enhanced solar activity creates incredible 'band openings.' With little time & effort I yesterday & today logged the following contacts on 6 meter single sideband:

N0VBQ - Duluth, MN Grid EN36 Ron
KB0TOL - MO
N3FD NY FN20 Rick
N3IS NY? FN21 Bob
K4FUN - TN
VE1HF FN75 New Brunswick, CN Darryl - 2nd country & first Canadian province
NR9Q - Central IL Chris FN40

In one day that comes to 4 new states, one new country & one new Province. Not bad for not even trying. There was an incredible band opening that provided constant communications between the IL station & the NE U.S. for 20 minutes or so.

I found that my station is good enough to apply the rule that if I can hear them, they can hear me.

 

[MamboDervish]

After getting my station mostly set up after weeks of $$$ & effort, I started to enjoy it today. This weekend was Field Day, which is an annual contest to exercise hams' ability to use radio communications under emergency conditions. My principle interest is focused on the 6 meter band (50-54 MHz) because the recent enhanced solar activity creates incredible 'band openings.' With little time & effort I yesterday & today logged the following contacts on 6 meter single sideband:

In one day that comes to 4 new states, one new country & one new Province. Not bad for not even trying. There was an incredible band opening that provided constant communications between the IL station & the NE U.S. for 20 minutes or so.

I found that my station is good enough to apply the rule that if I can hear them, they can hear me.

Regarding the topic of "communications under emergency conditions", do you have your own electrical generator if the power goes out? And, how many ham operators do you suppose have one?

 

[JacksinPA]

Regarding the topic of "communications under emergency conditions", do you have your own electrical generator if the power goes out? And, how many ham operators do you suppose have one?

I do indeed. The seller's declaration with the house purchase said that the finished basement had flooded during Hurricane Sandy due to lack of electricity for a week or so. The existing sump pump was also totally inadequate. I spent a lot of money on putting in a heavy duty sump pump, a Bernoulli Principle backup sump pump that uses city water pressure to empty the sump, and a 14 kW propane-fueled whole-house generator. IOW, I have multiple backups to prevent the basement from flooding should everything else fail. The total was about what it would cost me to clean up & restore the basement should it flood. So now I don't have to worry about it. Every Saturday at noon the generator starts & runs through an 'exercise cycle' for 20 minutes. Very reassuring.

I don't have a % number but I would think that hams would be more likely to own generators than not.

 

[MamboDervish]

I do indeed. The seller's declaration with the house purchase said that the finished basement had flooded during Hurricane Sandy due to lack of electricity for a week or so. The existing sump pump was also totally inadequate. I spent a lot of money on putting in a heavy duty sump pump, a Bernoulli Principle backup sump pump that uses city water pressure to empty the sump, and a 14 kW propane-fueled whole-house generator. IOW, I have multiple backups to prevent the basement from flooding should everything else fail. The total was about what it would cost me to clean up & restore the basement should it flood. So now I don't have to worry about it. Every Saturday at noon the generator starts & runs through an 'exercise cycle' for 20 minutes. Very reassuring.

Yes - very reassuring. My niece's house has one. It calls her phone every Thursday when she's at work, and tells her it has turned on and going through its test cycle. Their power goes out quite often, but usually very briefly. Hers is hooked up to city gas.

I don't have a % number but I would think that hams would be more likely to own generators than not.

That's what I would have guessed. I wonder if major news organizations monitor ham traffic when disasters happen.

 

[JacksinPA]

Yes - very reassuring. My niece's house has one. It calls her phone every Thursday when she's at work, and tells her it has turned on and going through its test cycle. Their power goes out quite often, but usually very briefly. Hers is hooked up to city gas.

That's what I would have guessed. I wonder if major news organizations monitor ham traffic when disasters happen.

Could be. I wonder how MSNBC & other news outlets get the 911 radio traffic from the disasters they report.

 

[JacksinPA]

Today I spent 2 hours in the morning & worked my second MN & first WI & ON. All this on the 6 Meter band with my omnidirectional halo antenna.

Shortly after I turned on the radio I saw enhanced propagation. By the afternoon that was gone. But I was able to work another ham who lives only 20 miles away.

At the rate of 1+ new state by day, I will have no real problem working all 50 states. The only question is how long that will take. The ham who sold me the halo antenna I'm using said he had worked all 50 states 3 times with the same antenna he had sold me. Now I believe him.

 

[JacksinPA]

Today I spent 2 hours in the morning & worked my second MN & first WI & ON. All this on the 6 Meter band with my omnidirectional halo antenna.

Shortly after I turned on the radio I saw enhanced propagation. By the afternoon that was gone. But I was able to work another ham who lives only 20 miles away.

At the rate of 1+ new state by day, I will have no real problem working all 50 states. The only question is how long that will take. The ham who sold me the halo antenna I'm using said he had worked all 50 states 3 times with the same antenna he had sold me. Now I believe him.

The 6 Meter band where I spend most of my time is a VHF band with predictable propagation. Band openings happening at any time for varying lengths of time are common but when they do it is usually announced by someone calling for a contact. Ninety percent of the time when I hear them & I call them in return they come back to me. In less than a month I have 'worked' (exchanging callsigns, states, Maidenhead grid square, & signal reports) my 15th state (Alabama) this morning followed by a brief contact with a ham in IL. All this in less than a few minutes.

 

[JacksinPA]

After getting my station mostly set up after weeks of $$$ & effort, I started to enjoy it today. This weekend was Field Day, which is an annual contest to exercise hams' ability to use radio communications under emergency conditions. My principle interest is focused on the 6 meter band (50-54 MHz) because the recent enhanced solar activity creates incredible 'band openings.' With little time & effort I yesterday & today logged the following contacts on 6 meter single sideband:

N0VBQ - Duluth, MN Grid EN36 Ron
KB0TOL - MO
N3FD NY FN20 Rick
N3IS NY? FN21 Bob
K4FUN - TN
VE1HF FN75 New Brunswick, CN Darryl - 2nd country & first Canadian province
NR9Q - Central IL Chris FN40

In one day that comes to 4 new states, one new country & one new Province. Not bad for not even trying. There was an incredible band opening that provided constant communications between the IL station & the NE U.S. for 20 minutes or so.

I found that my station is good enough to apply the rule that if I can hear them, they can hear me.

In less than 3 weeks since getting licensed I have logged 17 states (some twice so they don't count in that total), Canada & 3 Canadian Provinces. All on 50 MHz single sideband voice comms.

Even with many more stations logged, I find that my rule as stated above still applies. Band openings are like someone opening a door & suddenly you can converse with the people who live on the other side of that door. And just as suddenly that door can close & you may never hear that station again. Almost purely random as a result of the atmosphere interacting with radio waves. Lot of fun.

 

[Checkerboard Strangler]

Yes - very reassuring. My niece's house has one. It calls her phone every Thursday when she's at work, and tells her it has turned on and going through its test cycle. Their power goes out quite often, but usually very briefly. Hers is hooked up to city gas.

That's what I would have guessed. I wonder if major news organizations monitor ham traffic when disasters happen.

You'd be surprised how many news people ARE hams.
I guarantee you that the overwhelming majority of station ENGINEERS and news photographers are.

 

[Checkerboard Strangler]

Could be. I wonder how MSNBC & other news outlets get the 911 radio traffic from the disasters they report.

Not from ham radio, they have multiple police, fire and public service scanners.
But yes, they DO ALSO listen in to hear what hams are talking about during disasters as well.
But to catch breaking news, police scanners.

 

[Checkerboard Strangler]

@JacksinPA when I finally get off my square ass and get back on the air, I'll DM you with my callsign.

 

[JacksinPA]

Not from ham radio, they have multiple police, fire and public service scanners.
But yes, they DO ALSO listen in to hear what hams are talking about during disasters as well.
But to catch breaking news, police scanners.

Mt local police force went to a 800 MHz trunked system but recently went secure (encrypted or scrambled). People in this area who spent $$$ for the modern scanners that can receive trunked 800 MHz signals now own expensive paper weights.

 

[Checkerboard Strangler]

Mt local police force went to a 800 MHz trunked system but recently went secure (encrypted or scrambled). People in this area who spent $$$ for the modern scanners that can receive trunked 800 MHz signals now own expensive paper weights.

Santa Monica PD encrypted their voice comm about four years ago too.
Yes, it is definitely problematic however news agencies were given access to Santa Monica's encryption so they are indeed able to monitor about a third of what happens with SMPD.
I don't have any issue with PD encrypting communications - - EXCEPT where their MAIN dispatch channel is concerned.
ALL police depts should be required to leave their main dispatch open.

 

[JacksinPA]

Santa Monica PD encrypted their voice comm about four years ago too.
Yes, it is definitely problematic however news agencies were given access to Santa Monica's encryption so they are indeed able to monitor about a third of what happens with SMPD.
I don't have any issue with PD encrypting communications - - EXCEPT where their MAIN dispatch channel is concerned.
ALL police depts should be required to leave their main dispatch open.

In your dreams.

 

[JacksinPA]

@JacksinPA when I finally get off my square ass and get back on the air, I'll DM you with my callsign.

Please. Get on 6 meters & we'll try to work a sched. Band opens up most mornings. Tried calling a Dominican Republic Special Events station but the big guns beat me out. C/s: HI95RCD grid FK58. He was in for several hours yesterday afternoon. Worked Quebec (VE2) today to log my #19 & 4th Province.

The Tech & General tests were much easier than I thought. Multiple choice. You can get up to 9 wrong out of 35. I passed both. I would not have passed them if I had not read the W5YI prep books for each license grade.

I know of several people who had no technical background passing these tests after reading those books. They give all the questions & answers to the pool from which the 35 on the test are drawn. Lot of fun.

 

[Checkerboard Strangler]

Please. Get on 6 meters & we'll try to work a sched. Band opens up most mornings. Tried calling a Dominican Republic Special Events station but the big guns beat me out. C/s: HI95RCD grid FK58. He was in for several hours yesterday afternoon. Worked Quebec (VE2) today to log my #19 & 4th Province.

The Tech & General tests were much easier than I thought. Multiple choice. You can get up to 9 wrong out of 35. I passed both. I would not have passed them if I had not read the W5YI prep books for each license grade.

I know of several people who had no technical background passing these tests after reading those books. They give all the questions & answers to the pool from which the 35 on the test are drawn. Lot of fun.

Well, hate to necro but it's relevant and timely...
I've decided to just stick with being an occasional listener thanks to what I am hearing ON ham radio.
It's not good....

I thought Parler users would just go to ham radio. And it looks like my guess was right.
At this point it looks like 90% of hams are all Qanoners and 1-6 lovers anyway...they apparently have managed to alienate everyone else, in the last three years.
Me? I thought I might just get my ham license and build the largest linear amp in the country and get some chuckles by throwing a blanket on them every time they key up.
Make em all use callsigns that start with "T" for Trump so we can pick them out easily.

But it appears the Qanon/Trump/Jan6 bunch have transformed ham radio into an extreme right wing wet dream and I get enough verbal garbage from that bunch right here and don't need or want
to hear it clogging my ears on top of what I get hammered with here.
Thus I see no point in investing my hard earned money in equipment that can transmit...I'll just wind up either getting FCC fines for cutting loose with streams of invective or
I'll wind up on the infamous 435 repeater, which is even worse.

 

[JacksinPA]

Well, hate to necro but it's relevant and timely...
I've decided to just stick with being an occasional listener thanks to what I am hearing ON ham radio.
It's not good....

I thought Parler users would just go to ham radio. And it looks like my guess was right.
At this point it looks like 90% of hams are all Qanoners and 1-6 lovers anyway...they apparently have managed to alienate everyone else, in the last three years.
Me? I thought I might just get my ham license and build the largest linear amp in the country and get some chuckles by throwing a blanket on them every time they key up.
Make em all use callsigns that start with "T" for Trump so we can pick them out easily.

But it appears the Qanon/Trump/Jan6 bunch have transformed ham radio into an extreme right wing wet dream and I get enough verbal garbage from that bunch right here and don't need or want
to hear it clogging my ears on top of what I get hammered with here.
Thus I see no point in investing my hard earned money in equipment that can transmit...I'll just wind up either getting FCC fines for cutting loose with streams of invective or
I'll wind up on the infamous 435 repeater, which is even worse.

A ham here, also. Strict progressive though.

My long-haul antenna is an end-fed inverted L that works on 10, 15 & 40 but is bad on 20 & 80. Worked 19 states via 6 SpE in June-July, 50 on 40 & one on 15 (TX) via grayline.

 

[JacksinPA]

FT8 is a computer-based data that is very effective at communicating below the noise level. An exchange is CQ W4TTT. K5VVV W4TTT. W4TTT 0-13. W5VVV RR73. In 3 days I 'worked' 13 new states (not worked before) & 23 countries including Canary I, S Africa & New Zealand. And on 6 meters (50 MHz) I worked a ham in N Ireland. Lot of fun. You can also use the contacts made to follow the westward travel of the sun.

 

[JacksinPA]

Santa Monica PD encrypted their voice comm about four years ago too.
Yes, it is definitely problematic however news agencies were given access to Santa Monica's encryption so they are indeed able to monitor about a third of what happens with SMPD.
I don't have any issue with PD encrypting communications - - EXCEPT where their MAIN dispatch channel is concerned.
ALL police depts should be required to leave their main dispatch open.

My county has 30+ remote transmitters on the 155 MHz emergency alert channels. This system was designed so that every agency or volunteer fireman or paramedic would receive the alert signal on his personal paging receivers like my Motorola Minitor VI. Since the cops always respond to such calls you can catch much of the action this way.

 

[JacksinPA]

FT8 is a computer-based data that is very effective at communicating below the noise level. An exchange is CQ W4TTT. K5VVV W4TTT. W4TTT 0-13. W5VVV RR73. In 3 days I 'worked' 13 new states (not worked before) & 23 countries including Canary I, S Africa & New Zealand. And on 6 meters (50 MHz) I worked a ham in N Ireland. Lot of fun. You can also use the contacts made to follow the westward travel of the sun.

Last night I worked Saudi Arabia. The ham was Ibrahim Saud. The Jews & the Arabs have a lot in common.

 

[Rexedgar]

Here’s your back-up radio generator!

 

[JacksinPA]

Had interesting contact (QSO) the other day: US2YW. The callsign prefix US2 is assigned to Ukraine from the days when it was part of the Soviet Union. There is a war going on there.

 

[Lisa]

You'd be surprised how many news people ARE hams.
I guarantee you that the overwhelming majority of station ENGINEERS and news photographers are.

Getting news scoops/leads via ham radio operators?

 

[Checkerboard Strangler]

Getting news scoops/leads via ham radio operators?

A lot of it is simply because of the engineering.
Not so much the on-camera talent although I do know a couple of reporters who are both hams AND pilots.
I'm talking about the behind the camera talent.

I USED to be a ham a long time ago but I traded all my ham gear so I could afford to buy my first broadcast grade television camera & VTR rig back in the 1980's.

 

[JacksinPA]

Getting news scoops/leads via ham radio operators?

No. Ham radio is both a challenge & a great hobby. In about a year & a half I've had contacts with 83 countries & 46 states.