GraveYard Shift BS

Some violent storms rolling through last few hours. Taco made it in no problem taking out a few frogs along the way.

 

Same up here . Flood warnings everywhere

 

'Yello, Phil and the rest of the regular irregulars populating this thread.

someone post up a pic

 

Sup Bill

Sup Max

I got sucked into buying a HAM radio tonight. There's 3 other local guys and we're gonna all take the test together.

 

Welcome to the club.

KC1JXQ

 

I always thought HAM was really expensive. The radio was $50ish and the test will be $15. That's not too bad.
Was the test hard?

 

I find that some of he amateur guys in MA use their call signs for their license plate numbers and you can very easily look up the persons address through the FCC.
Moral of the story, don’t drive like a dick with your call sign as your plate number in a whacked out explorer or c/v with amber light bars.

 

Not at all. Are you phone savvy? There's a bare bones AP that is a study guide for the test. Just take the practice quiz over and over by section and memorize the answers. Once you start getting 80-85% you'd be good to take the test. The way they pull qustions from the pool makes it super simple

 

I'm pretty interested in HAM, just haven't pulled the trigger yet. I don't know how useful it would be for me, since I don't know anyone else that uses it. I would like to have a CB in my truck one of these days.

 

I can get by with a phone
Name of app?

This will be the first radio of any kind for me.

 

So the first class in Ham is the technician class. Your big privileges are on the 2 meter band and 70cm band (don't worry, someone can help you set your radio up in 2 minutes until you get comfortable with it). I drive around with my radio on 2 channels at the same time. The first one is the national channel for person to person talk. So if anyone is in the area, they'll probably have it on that channel and you can call out.

The next bit is with repeaters. They're towers that do exactly what their name implies. With your low power radio you send a signal to the tower and then it rebroadcasts your signal from a higher point with more power. I can get about 20 miles talking person to person. I have gotten up to 75 with a repeater. People are always on repeaters. There's tons of them. Great for no cell areas, traffic reports, or just morning coffee talk as you're driving.

And then there's digital, which is a whole nother pony. Basically say you have a camp 2 states over. No cell towers out there. But there's a radio tower. You can talk to a tower in your area at camp, that is hard lined into the internet, that sends a signal through the internet to a tower near your home, and you now have communication with your wife at home where your previously don't have cell service.

And that's just the surface. It's nothing crazy. A week of reading at breakfast and you could probably pass the test.

Shoot away with any questions you guys have

 

@gixxerphil Android or iPhone?

 

I'm an adult.....Android Just giving some shit. I had an iPhone 5

Would you mind linking both? I would like to put it in the Alabama thread so my buddies can get it too.

 

Haha you're not wrong .

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.delasystems.hamradioexamtech

 

And there's got to be at least a few questions after that knowledge bomb was dropped haha

 

Do you by chance have one for the iPhone guys? I know some in the Al thread have those.

 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ham-radio-exam-tech/id601991935?mt=8

The key with this app is to just take the practice quiz by section. It highlights the right answer. Do it 3-4 times until the answers become familiar. Then move on.

There's 35 sections with sub parts. They're grouped by type of info. Some is general info. Some is tech stuff .Some is math stuff. But they can only take one question from a section. So if you suck at math, guess what, there's only a couple questions you might see on the test math related.

I believe it's a 35 question test and you can get 7 wrong.

 

I appreciate the help. I tagged you in the Al thread to give you credit for the apps

 

No problem. Also, hand held have a hard time picking up waves in the car. And the stock antenna is crap. I got this for a the truck when I first got into it and it made a huge difference. It's got nice soft base for the paint and a strong magnet.

Authentic Genuine Nagoya UT-72 Super Loading Coil 19-Inch Magnetic Mount VHF/UHF (144/430Mhz) Antenna PL-259 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B016SIJX28/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_vG8ABb91B3174

 

Can you plug the handheld into an antenna that's mounted like a cb one? Kinda like the midland handheld cb?