I've been interested in radio since i was little and saw truckers on the cb, even today if i go past a satellite dish or some other radio tower i want to know what it's there for, what it does and what it transmits. and have been wanting to get licensed for a while, i just cant help but feel its a dying hobby i think i need kelsokid to come over and curb stomp some sense into me.

Now i live in Australia, and i know there are people out there, but im just wondering what is the state of the hobby in the states, or where ever you live?

i guess im just a indecisive little prick :(

Oh halvy Oh halvy where art thou oh halvy?

Just get into it then by playing with old radios... using a meter.

Reading the book: 'Understanding Radio Waves', by Peter Bubb (a pomy ;) will help ALLOT because it is one of the best ones I've ever read, which puts electricity and radio waves in some sort of clear perspective, that can be grasped (somewhat).

Plus the author is funny.

Dunno about licenses.. there are pros and cons.. I'm getting mine soon.. but you can be pirate also at the same time.

Wireless is just beginning to emerge as a 'two way' thing.. after all the years of one way.. sooo there will be a boon for people working in the field.

Lettuce know..

Congratulatons for your interest in Amateur Radio.

I would first suggest you check out this site:

http://vkfaq.ampr.org/

It will give some insight into the world of HAM issues and activities in the world down under, as you all seem to call yourselves.

since you seem to be a newcomer here, there are a few things you should know and understand:

1) Halvy is a very caring and compasionate individual, dedicated to his beliefs.

2) Halvy used to be a Moderator on this particular forum

3) Halvy is an idiot

Please disregard his previous post in this thread advocating pirate radio transmissons and just 'checking stuff out' with or without a meter. Operating a radio station is something that all (reasonable) radio operators, whether commercial or amateur take seriously. I do hope that you will follow in that tradition.

Congratulatons for your interest in Amateur Radio.

I would first suggest you check out this site:

http://vkfaq.ampr.org/

It will give some insight into the world of HAM issues and activities in the world down under, as you all seem to call yourselves.

since you seem to be a newcomer here, there are a few things you should know and understand:

1) Halvy is a very caring and compasionate individual, dedicated to his beliefs.

2) Halvy used to be a Moderator on this particular forum

3) Halvy is an idiot

Please disregard his previous post in this thread advocating pirate radio transmissons and just 'checking stuff out' with or without a meter. Operating a radio station is something that all (reasonable) radio operators, whether commercial or amateur take seriously. I do hope that you will follow in that tradition.

Just who in the hell do you think YOU are?

Just who in the hell do you think YOU are?

Just who in the hell wants to know?

Just who in the hell wants to know?

The difference between this thread staying open, and getting closed

Go ahead and close it. It seems to have stopped being productive after the first few posts.

A shame..

And a sham.

A shame..

And a sham.

Please share... how so?


The following is directed to Halvy101:

If I have offended you (as I suppose I have) I do sincerely apologize to you.

I have my good days, and my bad days. Either way, I sometimes have something of a hair trigger... most particularly on my bad days.

I have been an Amateur Radio operator for over 30 years. I also hold several other FCC licenses, all of which I worked very hard for and am very proud of. And I tend to be rather sensitive to suggestions that anyone would themselves engage in 'pirate' activities on the Amateur Radio spectrum or who would encourage others to partake in such activities.

As far as technical background is concerned (not that you are intersted) I am an electronics engineer and have spent the better part of my life designing and manufacturing equipment for Amateur Radio operators and SWL enthusiasts, as well as a good bit of 'stuff' for government and military operations.

That does NOT make me some kind of 'lockstep' nazi who marches to the beat of the government drum. I am a HAM, but no... I do not belong the the ARRL. I also am a strong advocate of the 2nd amendment (I have a CCW license as well) but I do not belong to the NRA either. I know that this may seem like I am going off on some sort of ranting tangent, but I have lurked this forum and read your posts for a good long while now, and I think I have a pretty good idea as to where you are coming from.

You are entitled to your opinions, as ensured by the 1st amendment, as so should I be afforded my own. If you would care to engage in a 'civil' discussion over what may be our differences, I would certainly oblige you in that endevor... whether it be here in this thread, elsewhere on this forum (I am confident that the mod here would acquiesce to your requst much more than mine) or any place at all you would prefer.

Or we can just go our separate ways. It surely would not kill me to never post here in RFA again, but I think I have at least as much as you to offer the few people who choose to come here and ask for advice.

The way I see it, the ball is in your court.

Best Regards. . . .

phmeworp,

No worries :)

This forum is and has always been (since I remember) quite slow most of the time.

This is good.. because it makes its soo laid back.

It is also bad tho, because any bump in the road (flame wars, misunderstandings), seem to all but close it down as far as traffic is concerned, for months at a time.

I have always thought of this particular forum, regardless of traffic, as one of the under pins of Totse... right up there with T&T and SG.

I hope that it continues to try and encompass anything vaguely related to radio, in all factions, including technical, social and eccentric (ie. the unusual, peculiar, or odd).

After all, Radio technology will only increase in importance, as wireless networks and projects start to mesh around the globe.

I respect Amateur Operators.. and feel they should be called something much more appropriate.. like 'professional' Operators.. since they ARE, by & by, much more technically astute, than the average Rush Bimbough.

As far as broadcasting 'illegally', on OUR airwaves..

I think there is a little Amateur in all Pirates, and visa versa.

well, I'm glad I found this, (thats one good thing about slow boards, you find all the useful stuff once, but beyond that its always the same)I just visited a friend of mine who's been into radios for about 10 years. After showing me his ham radio(? I'm pretty sure it was Ham) i was looking at it and the whole retro-ness:p of it was badass(it was a old 1970's vacuum tube) well it got me interested(I've always wanted to know how radio's work) so now I'm looking to buy a cheap first time ham radio. any info would be great thanks :)

Ham Radio is an interesting, if not fascinating hobby. There are many different facets to it: many frequency bands from HF through UHF and even more different types of signals, from CW (morse code), AM, FM, SSB, all the way through ATV (ameteur televeision).

Just to get a little taste, google ARRL. A great place to start is to find a local radio club. I do not beleive there is a town in the world with a population over 500 that does not have one. While HAMs may disagree on everything from best band, worst mode, greatest rig (equipment)... they are almost universally united in bringing another member into the fold.

Getting a license is extremely easy, but you do need to be licensed to operate a transmitter. You can listen all you like without any requirements, other than some equipment. And there is a HUGE community of people who do just that (SWL's or shortwave listeners).

Halvy is probably not coming back.

For those of you who don't know, here's the clear story.

Halvy was a very caring Mod that I encountered on this forum in mid '06 when I first started getting into radio technology and pirate stuff. I used to spend very late nights talking with him about Art Bell (Radio host of the show Coast To Coast) and he helped me get into Shortwave, CB, and Number stations.

He was a very knowledgeable individual.

A short time later a man named "MomentaryLapseOfReason" started showing up and eventually became a mod. I remember it was about this time halvy started referring to his beliefs...

I don't quite know all of what Halvy believes...I'm a Christian and personally believe he's a true brother in the faith. Yet his ideas, from what I recall, could be easily labeled "radical." If my memory serves me right (which it may not) he had a real hate for the government for reasons undisclosed. I also don't recall him liking minorities too much.

It all came down to a big thread where he finally came out with what he believed and encouraged people to rise up and take action against the United States Government.

I talked to him a few times briefly since, but his whereabouts and business is left basically unknown.

"Mother! I'm communicating with my fellow HAMS!"

I think now that I have moved out of mom and dads house, and I have some empty space in my new house, I'll finally get my license and go buy some HAM equipment, and start keying up.

I'm really considering getting a $100-$150 mobile single band HAM radio. And licensed and all of course.

I think its kind of weird that they took off morse code as a requirement on some of the classes... But I think I'm going to learn it anyways. Learning the individual letters and numbers seems pretty easy as you just need to associate a short series of di's and dah's with them... Though I'm using the "G4FON Koch Trainer" (free software) that seems to be working pretty well... and the method makes alot of sense to learning morse quick.

I prefer honeybaked hams but to each his own.

Back... Went through with it. The 35 question multiple choice test was cake. Even as I "crammed" for about an hour before hand by doing free online practice exams here:
http://www.qrz.com/ham/
and jamming out... and getting distracted with tv and such... so I probably only crammed for about 25min.

Then I went to take the test and passed... They offer you the chance to take the next level higher test at no extra charge (charge for first test was like $14)... The next level up was a good deal beyond my level... BUT if I had spent a solid hour or so practicing online I might have been able to get it.

So yeah. I'm technician class amateur radio operator now. Havn't got my callsign and such in the mail yet... give it a few days.

Looking at Yaesu mobile rigs for my car. Might get the FT-2800M... though the mic plug is cheap and the buttons seem crappy. Considering getting a solar panel and a decent sized SLA battery and keeping the radio completely off the normal car battery power so that it doesn't run the main battery down.

I, ve recently aquired a motorola desktrac base /repeater unit and some telephone modems. what cool things can i do with these?

^^^^ Your question has been answered in the general thread.


I've been a Ham for 5+ years and have met some REALLY cool people over the air. I wouldn't be a commercial 2-way radio tech/installer and programmer if I hadn't gotten my ham license.


The Technician class license is even easier to get now than it was before (man, do I sound like an OF).

It's worth it. If you only plan on doing VHF (2m) and UHF (70cm), then Tech is the way to go. If you like HF, try going for the General and Advanced.

It's an awesome hobby to get in to.

Just ordered my first radio... Decided to go with the Yaesu FT-8900R 10m/6m/2m/70cm. Came with the remote face separation package too, so I'll probably mount the actual radio under a seat and have the face on a flexible mount of some kind. Got a antenna for 6m, similar to a hamstick, and a basic antenna for 2m/70cm. Will probably get a better 2m/70cm antenna later on and use this one for scanning. If I don't end up selling the scanner that is. APCO-25 is nice, but IMO listening to cops isn't as interesting as its cracked up to be. And since the FT-8900 has 2 VFOs and some decent non-ham radio bands its kinda like a scanner too. Not much to do as a tech on 10m except data and SSB phone. So I'll wait until I upgrade my license to get an antenna for that. For some retarded reason the ft-8900 doesn't do SSB... Anywho, can't wait till it all gets here and I can set it up.

I got my technicians a few years ago. I bought a vertex 2 meter handheld and never really talked on it much. I usually look on Bad Ideas and Half Baked and if the rest of totse is similar then most of the members probably shouldn't get into it. Compared to Bad Ideas everyone with a liscense i have talked to seems straight laced. Like singing fresh prince or some meme trolling thing wouldn't be funny to anyone. Not saying your some asshole thats gonna make other hams mad. Good luck to you though. I know they keep making it easier and easier to get your ticket. I think no morse is required for General any longer.

Lol I'm pretty non-meme-ish as far as totseans go... and I really pretty much look down on bad ideas...

Got it somewhat as an emergency communication line, somewhat as a catalyst to get me learning more about electronics.

I got my technicians a few years ago. I bought a vertex 2 meter handheld and never really talked on it much. I usually look on Bad Ideas and Half Baked and if the rest of totse is similar then most of the members probably shouldn't get into it. Compared to Bad Ideas everyone with a liscense i have talked to seems straight laced. Like singing fresh prince or some meme trolling thing wouldn't be funny to anyone. Not saying your some asshole thats gonna make other hams mad. Good luck to you though. I know they keep making it easier and easier to get your ticket. I think no morse is required for General any longer.

I'm from HB and enjoy bel airing people, but I don't do it on the air.

PS: I'm a tech too, with a vx150 :)

Registered for Echolink and tryed a bit of it out using my computer microphone and the voip the echolink service uses to reach echolink enabled repeaters in other counties/states/countrys/continents... Neat shit. Verified it was working by accessing a local echolink enabled repeater and calling my callsign and testing and hearing myself echoed via my BC396T radio scanner. Fucking awesome shit. When I have the time I've got to learn how to access it via the radio itself when I'm driving around.

How cool is that? Drive around town and dial up the antarctica repeater just for the hell of it? (assuming there is one thats echolink enabled in antarctica.)

I got my technicians a few years ago. I bought a vertex 2 meter handheld and never really talked on it much. I usually look on Bad Ideas and Half Baked and if the rest of totse is similar then most of the members probably shouldn't get into it. Compared to Bad Ideas everyone with a liscense i have talked to seems straight laced. Like singing fresh prince or some meme trolling thing wouldn't be funny to anyone. Not saying your some asshole thats gonna make other hams mad. Good luck to you though. I know they keep making it easier and easier to get your ticket. I think no morse is required for General any longer.

No code is required for anything any longer.

Well the thought of much longer range communication without repeaters... and many more frequencies to use... has pushed me to start studying for the General class exam... Been using an old outdated book I found in a used book store and the practice tests at QRZ.com. Still have a bit of studying to do, should be pretty solid in another week or so. Its mostly the math formulas that I didn't bother to memorize and the damn frequency allocation questions. So hard to memorize the ranges.

Thinking I might sell back my FT-8900 and BCD396T and get some sort of 160-6m + 2/440 mobile rig and antenna(s)...

Ok, so the exam is Saturday. I now know that I have taken so many practice tests that its pretty much immpossible for me to not pass. That being said, I'm not proud of having alot of stuff memorized that I don't have a clue about. Then again this is not my main hobby, so should I become a master of electronics and able to design/build my own transceivers and amps if I never will actually use the information? Dunno man, dunno.

Might start going over the amateur extra class questions a bit in the slim chance that I'll somehow guess enough correctly to get that at the same time too...

Looking at the Yaesu FT-857D. Seems a pretty good choice.