Amateur (Ham) Radio BS and Callsign Thread!

This was really helpful. The high SWR warning was not in the book. I tried it out and yes I need better physical adjustments. Thanks again!

 

I gotchu

 

Also, @Cudgel

I'm a fan of this tuner. Both for duty cycle and it leaves room to grow power wise if you find an amp in your future. It's $240. There's a 100w version for $40 less. Push the button, it makes some noise, you're tuned.


https://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-011217

 

Great! Best of luck. I spend most of my time on the Sinbad repeater system. Pretty quiet though.

There's a 2m net Sunday nights and Tuesday nights.

 

get a NanoVNA. $50 and do graphs, swr, Smith charts, etc.

 

I went the audiobook route and it was great. I used this one - I signed up for the audible 30-day trial and you get a number of audiobooks for free. I listened to it a few times while driving to work and back, talking to myself in the car, then poked around on hamstudy.org as others have mentioned and blazed the Tech exam the first time.

 

ok so I sold my roof rack. Ordered a new one but I don’t want to do center roof again. Anyone got a pic of the lip mount they used ? I don’t need one with a cable just a lip mount. Also would it be better since my cb is on passenger side to have the 1/4 wave on the driver or does it matter ?

 

Which way do you want the radiation pattern to be stronger?

While this is geared towards a transmitter with a bit more push, theoretically a CB will have similar lobes. In reality get your SWR clean and anything on the roof will be about the same as you’re governed by the frequency/mode/wattage limits.

 

One if the biggest issues with any mobile antenna is ground loss not ground plane but ground absorption so don't sweat the ground plane myth too much.

 

Installed this Saturday on my new 2020 Quicksand Off Road model. Used the rubber nipple coming in the cab for the coax only it comes out under the cowl kick plate. Once located it was easy to route to the radio. Used a Ground Strap from hood bolt to Engine Compartment ground. SWR same as it was on the other side on the 2008 Model.

 

Just did tech and general last weekend. I used an app called HRE for the technician exam before finding hamstudy.org HRE was great and I recommend it since it’s free for technician class. Ham study was actually a better study system, but it took more time.

the best advice was to read questions with the answers shown and eventually you start to remember the answers and avoid the wrong answers. Another nice thing about hamstudy.org is you can click on each answer and get an explanation. Some questions were simple memorization, while others it helped to read the explanation and understand it. Anyway, I aced the technician and the VEC was really impressed with how I did on the general (he didn’t tell me how many I missed). When I emailed them about taking the test they said I could take the general right after for now extra charge if I passed the technician...so I went nuts on hamstudy.org for a few hours.

 

It depends, does she really want to learn the material? Or just get a call sign so she can talk to you?

My wife had little / no interest in the hobby. Nevertheless, I convinced her to get a license. She used hamstudy.org. Started studying on a Sunday afternoon and passed the test on Tuesday. She couldn't program a radio and can't remember the band edges. I installed a part 90 radio in her car, so she can't get it messed up by pushing the wrong button. She enjoys talking with me on a particular local repeater, as she feels it's easier to talk and drive versus using a cell phone. Especially on snowy roads in the winter.

 

20m / 40m day
80m / 160m night

Dipole is where everyone should start

100w is where everyone should start

Keep your compression low and make sure you're peaking ALC

Bird 43 was my first piece of test equipment. NanoVNA works pretty well.

None in particular. The tuner is part of your antenna system. It depends upon the rest of the system.

 

Strive to built resonate antenas. That's where an antenna analyzer shines. Any antenna that's all in one will require a tuner the brouder the coverage the more likely it will need to be tuned. I use a fan dipole on 40 and 80 it's dead resonate but if you throw a 15 or 30 or even a 60 meter in the mix it will screw the 40 and 80 up and none of them will work well. There are endless books out there on antenna design.

 

Thank you everyone for study suggestions for my wife. There are too many responses to quote. I'll show her the options available and see what she thinks. I'm guessing she will choose to study the questions and correct answers to make it quick. Sheppard Air uses the same method it worked well for me studying for my commercial and instrument pilot tests. She's mostly interested in being able to communicate with me and the neighbors. I suspect she will not find any interest in building antennas, discussing propagation, or hopping on nets.

Thanks, all.

 

Yes I have several friends with wifes that are hams and every once in awhile I'll hear them on the radio but that's about it. Generally it's because he didn't answer the cell! Don't push it you'll have better luck.

 

Not pushing. I asked her two nights ago if she WANTED to learn. She said she does. I will give her the resources and let her be.

 

@Cudgel If you are transmitting for the first time, make sure that you are reflecting all the power back to your radio. Check that the SWR is reasonable, before you shove all the power into something that might bounce it right back to your brand new rig. Also, the real answer is "no more power than necessary", that being said, it's 100w.

 

Thanks, yes very important. I have 4 antennas (so far). Each is tuned with my Rig meter. I have been experimenting with power and radiation pattern and direction. I worked a station last night in CA (from Boston) well with a N/S Cobra broadside on 40M. Tonight I had a weak signal FL contact on end with an OCF on 80M. It is harder to get resonance on 80, I’ll have to try moving it away from the house more.

Antennas appear to be a personal choice to test what works best based on the whole shindig. But unlike suspension lifts or oil change intervals at least people are trying to be helpful and provide actual knowledge from the real world versus just opinions based on marketing fluff or cool looking things ha ha thanks.

 

Cool man! Once you get on the air, we can totally get a conversation going over the intermountain intertie. Basically a connected net of repeaters that goes from Vegas / Northern Arizona up to Montana. Hit one, and we can hear you on all of them.

Print the below PDF and stash it in the truck. Good for if you get stuck and need help a ways from anywhere.

http://rexburghams.org/assets/IntermountainIntertie.pdf