Amateur (Ham) Radio BS and Callsign Thread!

Call kenwood directly, they should have a parts department. For my yeasu, the mounting bracket for the head unit was $3, and I made the cables myself. They want way to much for the whole kit.

 

Kenwood thinks their POS brackets are worth $30, even from Kenwood East.

 

where can I get more info on this? I just got an iPhone 6+

 

Don't know about iPhone but I didn't have to for an Android. You do for a PC it would seem to me that the app would request it up front. The echolink software people are the ones that police that so I'm thinking that an app. pretty much can do what they want not saying it's right but that is perhaps how they do it. The legality is a gray area because you really are not transmitting on an armature band with a cell phone the radio on the other side needs to be licensed though.

 

Just go tot he app store and search "Echolink" I use the one with a blue icon with a radio tower on it called.... "Echolink". I did email them a copy of my license to complete the registration process.

I don't think there is anything grey about this. By using the app on your phone or PC, you are taking the role of a remote operator, you are transmitting on a radio somewhere. There for you need to have a license.

 

Chipskip,


thanks brother. Got to try it tonight for the first time. Made two contacts. The farthest one was South Korea.

I am hooked!

Merry Xmas!

 

Well not entirely true if you contact another device like a computer there is no RF involved except from the phone. It is nothing more than VoIP just like Skype until there is a ham radio in the mix. Do I think its right that there should not be a license check in there somewhere? No but as long as there is no RF it's not a ham radio. Now you may have remembered from testing that as an amateur operator it is illegal for you to carry on a conversation with a non-licensed person on the ham bands that is one way to police the bands no call signs disconnect. I don’t not think the abuse is really there because unless you are a ham any way you really would have no use for the service it’s much simpler to just call someone on the phone.

 

There is another point if I am in range of a repeater with echolink I am more likely to use echolink via the radio than a phone because that is what ham radio is all about. In my case I think I have used the phone maybe twice to me it was more of a curiosity than a viable tool. W1MWV ARC repeater via KB1EZJ-R try us on C4FM if you have it.

 

Anyone get anything ham related for Christmas?

 

My dad got me a baseball cap with my callsign embroidered on it. Amusing watching people trying to pronounce it.

 

what is your call sign? For me, it is Xmas everyday as the UPS and FedEx are almost daily stops at my house. Between RC 1/5th scale, photography, motorcycles, cycling, mtn bikes, skiing, guns, kites, archery, aquariums and a lot more plus the new venture in HAM radios; life is too short!

Go to go!

 

Hey! Sorry, I just saw this. It works great!! Ive had this antenna on my Tacoma and my H3 Hummer I had before the Taco. It worked great on both trucks. Only thing is you have to unscrew the whip if youre going to park in a parking garage..it will make a lot of noise haha. I found out the hard way.

 

Damn! For an 89 year old you're busy as a mofo and hella rich!

LOL

No. But I did get to go to Death Valley for 3 days and nights, where I logged almost 200 miles off road and made my furthest radio contact. 141.5 miles!

I made contact with the radio operator of W6RO (189 miles), operating on the Queen Mary in Long Beach, CA, through the Keller Peak Repeater (141 miles) in San Bernardino. Total distance was about 214 miles.

 

Wow, 141 miles? Were you on 2m? Looks like you were around Dante's View?

 

It's nice to have a very tall tower we have a nice tall one over in NH and very long distance is certainly doable. We have done over 200 miles on 10 GHZ from the top of Mt. Washington (6288') even with an HT I have contacts in ME,VT,NH,NY and Canada. From my house I can see Mt. Washington and I talk to hikers up there frequently with my HT and a 1/2 watt it's about 30 air miles. Tropo on 2 meters is a lot of fun too every so often we get a lift and one of our repeaters is on the same frequency as one in Nova Scotia it's about 300 miles away and when you key up you bring both repeaters up at the same time.

 

Any one SOTA?

There seems to be an increase in SOTA activities around my area.

 

CQ CQ CQ calling CQ
This is KC8EFM...standing by

 

Haven't... but real keen to start come springtime. We'll see how that pans out, as any "fun" summits are a 6 hour drive away -- but very few SD summits have been worked at all so that could provide incentive.

 

N1gym extra (20 word per min) yaesu 7800 mobile ft 60 ht
kenwood hf

 

Yes on all accounts.

They were operating through the Keller Peak Repeater, 141 miles from where I was. Two-meters, 146.385 MHz.

Dante's View. I had just wheeled through Greenwater Valley, and hoofed a left when I finally hit pavement.

On this day I set one side of my radio to 146.520, and the other side I had it on scan 144-148. When I backed into a space at the parking lot at the summit of Dante's view, that's when I heard them loud and clear on 146.385.

I was slightly confused at first because I've been to the Queen Marry and seen their (W6RO) radio room, there is no repeater there. I thought it was simplex, but I could hear the repeater tones. I immediately set my radio to tone decode the PL, Offset was already set to +600 KHz. While I waited to key up and make contact, I looked up the repeater on my phone (Repeater Book) and confirmed all settings and it was indeed, Keller Peak 141 miles away.

I know we recently discussed stickers on our vehicles. I had some made before this trip.