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Amateur radio can be a lot of fun

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.
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Thank you for the explanation.
 
Thank you for the explanation.

I mean, they spend all day tweaking transmitters and all that other stuff, right?
Makes perfect sense that they usually fool around with amateur radio as a hobby, plus the whole thing about how ham radio still works when ALL other systems fail.
As long as I have a rig, a length of wire and electric power of some kind, I guarantee you I can talk across the country and around the world.
 
I mean, they spend all day tweaking transmitters and all that other stuff, right?
Makes perfect sense that they usually fool around with amateur radio as a hobby, plus the whole thing about how ham radio still works when ALL other systems fail.
As long as I have a rig, a length of wire and electric power of some kind, I guarantee you I can talk across the country and around the world.
Electronics has always been a little bit of a black art to me. I love my electrical appliances and what a computer can do for me but I never really understood them.
 
Electronics has always been a little bit of a black art to me. I love my electrical appliances and what a computer can do for me but I never really understood them.
Karen as you knew, was a diesel mechanic in the Navy and she's famous for saying "Sparky and I don't get along"
So she's "Wrenchy" and I'm "Sparky" and between the two of us we have all the bases covered.
 
Karen as you knew, was a diesel mechanic in the Navy and she's famous for saying "Sparky and I don't get along"
So she's "Wrenchy" and I'm "Sparky" and between the two of us we have all the bases covered.
I'm far more comfortable with what I can see, such as fluids and physical forces. I don't like doing much more than changing bulbs or a fuse. I have a $20.00 multimeter but I still don't trust it.

I was proud of myself when I added a hard drive to both my computers, RAM, and a video card without incident.
 
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.
I did ham radio as a teen in the late 1960s to early 70s, including one of the Field Days. Then went into the military and never got back into it.
 
I'm far more comfortable with what I can see, such as fluids and physical forces. I don't like doing much more than changing bulbs or a fuse. I have a $20.00 multimeter but I still don't trust it.
Electricity has a couple of common characteristics with water.
The "pressure" in the pipe is analogous to VOLTAGE whereas the diameter of the pipe is AMPERAGE. (current)

Volts times amps equals watts.
 
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 have a 14kW Kohler propane-fed automatic generator. It starts 20 secs after power fails. It runs all in the house except the A/C.
 
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 almost bought a natgas gennie but the gas company just shut off our gas because they said our gas pipe from the meter to the house is completely corroded and unsafe.
Our driveway is between 175 and 200 feet long so it's too expensive, even if we HAD pipeline insurance, to be worth fixing.
So any gennie we DO get will have to be gasoline or propane powered.
That said, being in the camera dept for forty years, you can easily guess how much battery power I currently have...it's a lot, and I have four different size inverters at the moment, two of them
being 2500 and 3000 watts.
The other two are smaller, 400 and 600 watts.
 
My antenna for the high frequency ham bands is a 45 foot long length of copper wire mounted outdoors in an E/W direction. The radiation 'lobes' are at right angles, or N/S.

A demonstration of this was yesterday morning I made 2 random contacts: Nova Scotia (N) & FL (S).
 
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.
Had another contact with Ukraine last night with a different amateur operator, callsign UT5ZC. So there at least 2 hams still operating in a war zone. Amateur radio will prevail!
 
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