Ham / Amateur Radio Ops?

My brother's brother in law is into that. I saw him camping up in Chenango State Park in New York State two seasons ago. The family all rents cabins for a couple weeks every year. He had a big long wire strung across the trees and his equipment set up in the cabin porch! This guy is a genuine eccentric genius, holds dozens and dozens of patents. He worked as an engineer for IBM for many years. In the days of tube tv's he would fix everybody's tv. He recently restored a cell phone that had been dropped in water. I think I'm clever, this guy is over the top.

stoker-man wrote:

the "phone patch'. He would talk to the ham radio operator on navy ships and relay calls to their families via our home phone. This was in the days before our current communications technology and was pretty amazing. I think it was also illegal

I don't remember how it was done because the chief used to set everything up, but that was the only way to communicate with family in 1971 when at sea. Phone patches were done maybe once or twice during the 45 days that we were out and only a few guys were able to make calls. I don't know if it was illegal or not.

Nothing illegal about ham radio phone patches. From the Amateur Radio site,
**Broken Link(s) Removed**:

Begin quote:

Phone Patch, Autopatch and HF/VHF/UHF Operating Guidelines

"Radio amateurs in the US enjoy a great privilege: The ability to interconnect their stations and repeaters with the public telephone system. The wisdom of the federal government in permitting, and even in defending, this freedom has been demonstrated time and again. There is no way to calculate the value of the lives and property that have been saved by the intelligent use of phone patch and autopatch facilities in emergency situations. The public interest has been well served by amateurs with interconnect capabilities."

End quote.

There are no government rules on it's use only the self regulation by hams so they don't compete with the common carriers. In many counties ham radio telephone patches are not permitted. See the referenced link for more info.

I have a ham radio license but have never used it. I was at a local Hamfest (flea market) a few years ago where they were having license examination sessions. Took the test on a bet with a friend and passed.

Machinist wrote:

coalkirk wrote:I don't think there was anything illegal on the Navy end, just the ham radio operators end.

They were probably using MARS - Military Affiliate Radio System.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_Affiliate_ ... dio_System

AV8R
I Have a Technician license. I use Icom IC-746Pro, it works on all common amateur bands except 60 meters.

Mike:

That's one hell of a rig! I've been looking at all makes and models. Do you use it much?

Used to push a little power on the CB bands, Cobra 148 gtl and a Uniden hr2510, still have them. Talked to a guy in France on 27.555usb 148gtl with about 100 watts of help. He sent me a postcard in the mail. Was mobile in a 1978 cadillac coupe deville with a trunk mount antenna and talked to a guy on the island of Bora Bora, he sent me a card, went out and got my ham license N3UVT. Was into packet on 2 meters for a while, don't even know if anybody does that anymore. Have a Icom 2mtr mobile, RS 2mtr handheld ht101?, and a 440 tiny handheld, some packet equipment, enough mobile and base antennas(none currently up) to make me look like one of those crazy ham operators. Tower I picked up last year, may install this year. What I really like to do was listen to shortwave ssb and data comms, JRC525, JRC535D, ICOM 71A, half dozen Infotech decoders for rtty, arc, feq, ascii, fax, morse, numbers stations, etc.etc. Anything out there from below AM broadcast VLF, up to 30mhz. 1/2 dozen scanners, Piles of dust on it all. Test equipment? Lots at one time, now only basic HP8640b, 3586C, meters, power supplies, Booton? modulation meters,stuff I can't even remember anymore! Probably about 10,000 tubes, maybe twice that I don't know. Last time I was into it, I bought about 100 pieces of HP 606B signal generators at an auction at the depot, sold as many as I could and scrapped the rest for the Aluminum and tubes, Good deals on 6dj8 amperex bugle boys if anybody needs them. (audio tube talk). One more room to get painted upstairs and carpeted, then maybe I will string a long wire and see whats on HF these days, since the code was dropped I can talk ssb on 10 meters, may do that and want to upgrade to general.

73'

KB1KLN

Kl2bx

I run a mariad of equipment from a yeasue handheld to a 4k dollar hf kenwood.

KB1GNI here.

Amateur Extra, and VE accredited which means that I can help administer exams.

Great hobby, and one I wish that I had discovered earlier in life. Hams are the friendliest group of people I know.

I don't have a HF radio (expensive!) and I spend most of my time on 2M & 440. Public service events and emergency communications are my main areas of interest. My wife is licensed, too, but the only thing she does with it is course communications for the Boston Marathon, which we do together.

Happy New Year! I know this is an old thread, but I thought it was a good time to revive it and share what I have been doing with amateur radio.

A few years ago I started reading about amateur radio, mainly because I was interested in a backup communication system in the event of a natural disaster. I decided to take the test for my technician license, and after about a month of studying I passed the exam in October 2018. The local club members that administered the exam encouraged me to keep studying and take the General exam, so I could make use of the HF bands. At the time I was not sure I wanted to get that serious, but passing the exam seemed like a good personal goal. In March 2019 I passed the General exam, and the same thing happened - I thought I was done with testing, but the club members encouraged me to go for the Amateur Extra license and I passed that exam a few months later.

While I was studying for my General license I installed a Kenwood VHF mobile radio in my SUV, so I could access the local repeaters. On my 50 minute commute I can use several local repeaters that cover a big area in Northern NY, Vermont, and Quebec. There is also a repeater about 20 miles from me that is connected to the East Cost Reflector. This system is a network of repeaters that are connected via the internet. It is pretty impressive that you can key the microphone and activate nearly 100 transmitters across the country. I have talked to people all over the US on this system, and enjoy it quite a bit.

I have not yet made the leap to HF, mainly due to the cost of the equipment and complexity of setting up a good antenna. Recently I was talking to some guys in Quebec, who gave me some great information on an antenna setup that will work on my property without breaking the bank - and also a lead on a nice HF transceiver that was deeply discounted for a year-end sale. Yesterday I pulled the trigger and ordered the radio, and plan to get started on the antenna in a few weeks.

Stay tuned for updates.

73
AC2ZD

Sounds like a plan Rob!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Welcome to your new addiction!!

Well I'll be Damned! Nice Job,Shortwave!!

Nice job Rob!

There is a guy down the road a few miles from me with a setup that looks like he is able to chat with aliens Alpha Centauri

Occasionally before a trip across the pacific with one of the aircraft at work, we push the jet outside and fire up the HF’s (2) just to make sure the crew has last ditch comms

scalabro wrote: ↑

Wed. Jan. 01, 2020 7:09 pm

Nice job Rob!

There is a guy down the road a few miles from me with a setup that looks like he is able to chat with aliens Alpha Centauri

Occasionally before a trip across the pacific with one of the aircraft at work, we push the jet outside and fire up the HF’s (2) just to make sure the crew has last ditch comms

I have told more than one person that my vertical antenna is for communicating with my home planet.

My new radio arrived today. That was the easy part - now I need a couple hundred feet of rope and wire for my HF antenna.

good for you!

One of the benefits of being stuck at home during this COVID-19 scare is that I finally had time to my new radio setup with an antenna. As I had planned, I ran a 135' wire antenna from the house to one of the trees out by the shop. This is not an ideal setup by any means, but it is fairly inexpensive and something one person can get running. I am running an aftermarket tuner with it that allows me to use the end fed antenna for multiple frequencies.

So far so good! I talked have talked to about a dozen people so far. Quite a few in Quebec, and a few from New Brunswick. I plan to check in with the Vermont guys this afternoon. Seems to be great bunch of folks on the air.

That is cool Rob. I have an uncle that has a radio and license. He has urged me towards getting into it