Amateur (Ham) Radio BS and Callsign Thread!

That would have been an old CB call sign.

 

I remember distinctly that it was his ham radio call sign. I remember sitting with him in front of his ham unit. He had a huge antenna located on the top of a 50 foot tower in his back yard. Had it all motorized and everything. It was cool listening to him talk skip to a bunch of different countries. I remember listening to him speak German, and Korean several times. It was pretty cool to me as a kid. But no, I am certain it was his ham radio call sign because he was always repeating it on the radio. He never did use a CB radio, except when he was in his truck (18 wheeler) and then his call sign started with something like Q2, or QU, Hell I forgot that one. Everyone just called him Bearcat.

 

It's a CB callsign. Also, Hams don't "Shoot skip".

You used to have to ID CB transmissions the same as amateur radio back when the FCC cared about CB.

 

I have a question about bonding. I have a dual band antenna using a k400 trunk mount near the hinge on the hood, next to the stock radio antenna (I know, not the best place).

When I strap up the hood/ cab/ bed to frame should I use a braiding cable to connect the mount to the truck? It has "set" screws, but I doubt they're making decent contact with the hood.

And would it be best to run the strap; mount to hood or mount to cab.

 

Explain? I can't quite get what you are saying. Sorry.

 

He is trying to state that based on the info you provided, it's the case that you're step father was a CB radio enthusiast and not a ham radio operator. That's all.

 

In the 60s and 70s the fcc required you to purchase a cb radio license. Those cb license call signs were 3 or 4 letters followed by 4 numbers. Such as kckt1234 or kck1234.

Ham radio call sign are:
2 letters,1 number, 3 letters such as KK6SDF or
1 letter, 1 number, 3 letters such as W6TRD or
1 letter, 1 number, 2 letters such as N7DD or
2 letters, 1 number, 1 letter such as WB3R
Etc.

So we can tell by the call sign KCY5856, that this was a fcc issued CB call sign, not a ham call sign.

 

www.k0bg.com is a great site for anything mobile related

 

^^^^ Yea.

 

My new 897 is still sitting in it's box above my bunk.. It's killing me not having time to play with it..

 

It would not hurt to add a strap you do not need to go overboard just from a bolt on the trunk side to a bolt on the hinge side some hinges use plastic bushings. The little allen screws usually have pointed ends and make fairly good contact test it with an ohm meter.

 

11 meters (CB band) at times can be very active and long distance contacts can be made with very little power. One of my favorite contacts was to Vancouver Island with one watt from my station here in Maine on the 6 meter band so I have no doubt that he made many overseas contacts with his gear. I once had a CB license can't remember the whole call but it was a K??2875. Hate to say it but if he had gear with a lot of tubes etc. he probably was running a linier amp with a bit more that the legal 4 watts! That was pretty common place years ago and hard to enforce lots of enthuses built their own stuff because it was not legal to sell amps designed for the CB bands.

 

Well I won't argue symantics, as you know more about this stuff than me, but I was not that young when he was doing this, and I am positive that when he was on his ham rig he was using the KCY5856, and when he was using the CB is his 18 wheeler he was using a call sign that started with either Q2 or QU. I don't remember that one as much, but I am 100% positive when he was on his ham rig, because he didn't even have a CB setup in the house. All he had in the house was his ham. Now I will conced that perhaps I am mis-remembering a few of the details of the call sign, and will concede that perhaps it may have been KC5856, instead of KCY5856? Perhaps that is the difference. I just thought it was KCY5856. With the Y and the 5 having similar sounds, then perhaps that is where my error may lay.

 

Fuck man...As with everything else here at TW, you can't just let something go when you are clearly wrong or made a simple mistake. You always argue otherwise or to the contrary. Even if it were KC5856 it's still not a proper HAM callsign. Perhaps you can look up his name in the ULS directory and find something.


Click on the following link and enter his info..
http://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/UlsSearch/searchAmateur.jsp

 

Wow, who ELSE seems to not let something go? I admitted already that I could have been wrong on some of the call sign, and offered a possible option as to what it might have been. Shesh. Forgive me oh mighty Ham God. I admitted I may have made a mistake, and you rip me. I say get over YOURSELF. Just to check though I did go to that website and entered his name, and the state (Which is all I know about him) and it said they have no records. Since this was back in the late 70s and early 80s, perhaps they don't have his records. I don't know. I just thought I would pop in here and add something to the conversation because I thought it was an interesting thread. I guess since I don't have a ham radio or a license I am not welcome here, so enjoy your thread sir.

 

You have just proven my point thank you very much...

 

Add back to actual ham radio constructive conversation...





I get to beat the heat and head to Flagstaff this weekend to work a 104 miles bicycle race in the mountains. Last year this was the first public service event I worked. I loved it. This year I will be escorting one of the ambulances. We only had a handful of minor injuries last year. They year before that they almost a dozen broken bones, etc. Hopefully it will be a boring event for me and the medics.

Three weeks from now I get to go deep into the mountains and camp for three days with my wife to work another event. Really isn't a bad gig and I get to help people do what they love (no matter how crazy it is).

 

For any of you using APRS, have you tried the Bluetooth KISS TNC made by Mobilinkd?

It seems like it's priced right. I've already got a Baofeng UV-B5, mag-mount antenna, a spare Galaxy S3, and APRS Droid App. With this hardware I can do APRS anywhere...

Here be some pics:

 

Lolz @ Ham fact. I've seen complaints from peeps about that in ham forums.

Have fun with the bike race, enjoy the cool weather. It's good to be of service.

 

What mag mount antenna are you using with the UV-B5?