Passed my Technician exam last week
 

And I've been given the call sign KD9IVO.

I'm kinda surprised/proud I passed given I really did not study. I am an electrical engineer, and have been listening to Hams below 30MHz for a while, but much of the procedural questions I did based on commonsense rather than knowledge. I sorta took the test on a whim at Antique radio swapmeet/hamfest in my old home county in Ill.

I'd love to read up on procedure and get things straight before I start buying/installing/building TX hardware....Though I do have an old Heath DX-60, and IIRC a tranciever intended for automotive installation, though god only knows if either presently work.

Congratulations, Tom, and welcome to the hobby. You have a Technician license which, these days, conveys privileges on all VHF bands and CW on most if not all HF Novice band segments (80, 40, 15 and 10 meters). You also have voice privileges on ten meters, though I'm not sure at the moment what the Novice/Tech voice segment is. When I got my Technician ticket in 1975 (I have had a General class license since 1985), there were no voice privileges for that license class on "10", but a few years later the FCC granted Tech licensees voice privileges from 28.3 to 28.5 MHz (IIRC).

Your DX-60 should work well on today's Novice/Tech amateur bands. However, I would suggest you load the transmitter into a dummy load first, such as a 60-watt light bulb, before trying it on a real antenna. Of course, before turning on the rig, I would also suggest going through the circuits in the transmitter and replacing, at a minimum, the power supply filter caps, just as you would before firing up an antique or vintage radio or TV.

Your mobile transceiver sounds like a 2-meter rig. Your Tech license allows 2-meter operation, so you can hook up a microphone and antenna to the rig and try it out immediately. I don't want to make this post too long, so you can look up information on 2m and HF operating procedures, antennas, etc. online. The ARRL has an excellent website at http://www.arrl.org, which has just about all the info you could want about getting into amateur radio, and even a few hints as to the things you should know before going on the air for the first time.

Again, congrats and good luck. You have entered a grand hobby, one which will give you many years of enjoyment--especially after you make your first DX (long distance) radio contact via CW (Morse code) or voice. I've been in the hobby myself almost 45 years (will be exactly 45 years on the last day of June), and would not dream of letting my license expire or of leaving the hobby for good--I like it too much. I am a member of a local radio club and use their 2m repeater from time to time, although it's been months (!) since I've checked in to their weekly roundtable net; for HF I am presently using Echolink (an amateur radio linking application developed by a New England amateur; more info on this app is available at www.echolink.org) on my computer.

73 (best of regards),

Wish I were you! I need to break down, study and pass.

Congrats, Tom.

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Congrats and welcome!

Lets us know if we can help ya get set up in any way. Have you found a local group of hams for some hands on Elmering? Nothing better than that for getting up to speed quick.

Get on the air and start learning the General ticket material. Then maybe we can chat on the air!

Congratulations! There's plenty of options for you. The first thing I would recommend doing is to get a dual band FM rig (2 meters and 440). This will get you on the local repeaters where you should find some activity. Throw out your call sign when you're driving to and from work, and you'll probably find somebody wanting to talk. Google search for your local amateur radio club, and start checking in on their nets.

Most HF rigs today include 6 meters, and with that you will not only be able to communicate locally, but DX when the bands open. This is a great time of the year for 6 meter DX (I've worked Canada, Iowa, Wisconsin, and several New England states just this weekend). Tech licensees also get voice use on the 10 meter band (28.300 to 28.500 MHz).

If I can ever help you in any way, please just let me know. Ham radio is a great hobby, and there's so many options available there's bound to be something that pushes your buttons.

Congrats! Time for a :beer:

Thanks everyone.

I managed to find the mobile rig. It is a 2 Meter only Midland 13-510. ISTR the ham that gave it to me told me the power regulators or supply was dead. This was ~1 decade ago, and I think the conversation went 'here take this, and start studying for the ham exam, by the time you pass you should be able to fix it'. :D If I get a chance (next week or two will be very busy for me), I'll try powering it up and see if there is life.

I'm probably never going to use CW mode as I don't know or honestly care to learn morse code.

Besides voice, packet radio and some of the other data formats, as well as some of the TV modes interest me.
I have some VHDL programmer boards and programming experience (getting rusty though) so it could be fun to try and build my own gear for the data modes.

The DX-60 probably is not going to be on the air (unless I can mod it for 6m). From what I saw on the ARRL's map of the ham bands it seems that the Technician segment of 10m is SSB only and the DX-60 is a AM/CW rig....It might be possible to use it as a TX amp for a weaker SSB 10m rig, but I'd probably be better off just modding an OLD motorola police/fire base station* I have that uses the same output tube type.

*That thing IIRC is FM mode just above the broadcast band, and probably not built to work on any current legal mode so it would be a great candidate for invasive modification/redesign/cannibalization.

I still need to look into local clubs. I know some exist. A few months ago I was chatting with a local ham at a thrift store, and he was telling me about IIRC a regular friday or saturday night chat about how to get started in ham radio that occurs in a frequency range that IIRC corresponds to the 2m band. If the Midland is a hard fix I think I have an RX (old regency scanner) that can tune that to listen in.

Congratulations and welcome to the hobby. :thmbsp:

For a quick start, you might consider a inexpensive Baofeng hand held 2 meter/440 transceiver (as cheap as $25 on Amazon). A bit tricky to manually program, but for about 1/10 the price of a name brand unit, it makes for a decent starter/spare rig. Should be good enough to hit local repeaters.

Repeater list : https://www.repeaterbook.com/repeate...hp?state_id=55

jr

Agree about the Baofeng. Works very well for the price. And if you drop it into the toilet you won't cry. Don't get sucked into the fancier models, get a UV5R. Also order a SMA to SO239 adapter for it at the same time so you can hook it up to an antenna, say a mag mount on your car or J-Pole at the QTH. Buy the programming cable too, it is indeed a PITA to program. If all you need is a few local repeaters it's OK but if you are one of those must have every repeater in the state guys you need it for sure.

And then you can start looking for a real radio. While the Baofeng is a good starter rig the front end is loose and in rf noisy environments you can have to crank the squelch. And the squelch is only accessible through the menu, which sucks. Any radio I was going to pay real money for needs to have a squelch knob.

Where do you live? Urban, suburban or rural? Do you have room for antennas?

I probably will pick one of those up for a starter set. Thanks.

I guess you could call it rural suburban*...The land is full of big rolling hills out here. I'm about 1 block up (on top of) hill from a lake. There are farms and neighborhoods around me.
*Out here you can go from skyscrapers to cow pasture/farm land in 10-20 miles.

I sort of have room for antennas....I live with my parents so I have to negotiate where and how to put anything outdoors long term. Last house I had an ~80' long-wire that would have been re-installed ~2-3 years ago save for a tree that broke at the base and is still alive somehow and leaning against/blocking the best tree to tie the other end to...:( The attic is fair game and accessible though (roof is asphalt shingles). If I want I can run cable from the basement clean up into the attic (and have for cable TV before), or from one of my rooms on the second floor.

I have a Baofeng UV-5R transceiver that works rather well (at least on simplex [direct, not using a repeater]); however, as others have mentioned, programming the thing isn't easy. (I performed a hard reset on mine which reset the language to Chinese (!), among other things; still haven't gotten to the setting that will change the language to English.) I downloaded the user manual as a .pdf file, so that should be a big help in resetting everything to my own preferences.

I would suggest getting the SMA-to-BNC or SMA-to-PL259 antenna adapter so you will be able to use most rubber duck HT antennas having BNC connectors (or an external mobile or base antenna) with the Baofeng (I have several rubber ducks here). I am amazed this HT uses an SMA antenna input/output connector, which of course is non-standard with most such radios (all HTs made by Yaesu, Kenwood and Icom have BNC female antenna connectors), but I guess since the Baofeng HTs are made in China, they are either breaking with tradition or...who knows? :scratch2:

BTW, don't try to use the stock rubber duck to hit your area's local repeaters unless you are very close (read within a mile or less) to one or more of them. The SWR these antennas present to the output of most HTs is quite high, which means much if not most of the transmitter's output power is being wasted as heat; very little power is radiated from the antenna under these conditions. I personally have had good results with telescoping 5/8-wavelength antennas, such as the one I use with my Icom IC-T22A 1.5-watt HT. I can hit the local 2m repeater (147.81-21, 110.9 Hz CTCSS or PL tone), which is about a mile and a half to two miles away, just fine using this antenna and the Icom HT on high power. I am expecting I will be able to hit the same repeater just as well with the Baofeng UV-5R once I get the antenna adapter, which will allow me to use any of my rubber duck antennas with that HT. The UV-5R puts out five watts when set to the high TXP (transmit power) setting; this should be more than enough power to hit the local repeater, located in the next town south of me.

I will post my test results when the adapter arrives here, and I've had a day or two to experiment with it. I am a member of a local ham club which holds a weekly roundtable on the local repeater (147.81/21 with 110.9 CTCSS/PL), so I may try to check in there with the UV-5R and my best rubber duck, which is a Larsen "Kulduckie" I purchased from Amateur Electronic Supply in Milwaukee several years ago.

For less than $30, you can buy a J-pole antenna that works well on 2 meters and 440. If you're feeling industrious, you can find all sorts of plans on the internet for building your own out of stainless steel (they are easy to do). You can also use a piece of 300 ohm television twin-lead to make your own (a quick google search will show up several plans). With a Baofeng and a J-pole somewhere outside, you should be able to hit some local repeaters. I have one on the roof, and with my Yaesu FTM-400DR I can reliably use repeaters 60 miles away full quieting.

If you want a better rubber duck antenna for portable use with a Baofeng, the Nagoya NA771 from Amazon is $15 and will perform much better than the short, factory antenna.

"programming the thing isn't easy. (I performed a hard reset on mine which reset the language to Chinese (!), among other things; still haven't gotten to the setting that will change the language to English.) I downloaded the user manual as a .pdf file, so that should be a big help in resetting everything to my own preferences."

The manual may not tell you how (at least mine does not). The change can be made in "menu 14". My manual says that menu 14 is used to turn the voice on or off, but there are actually three choices ; off, English and Chinese.

jr

I purchased the Nagoya NA771 antenna shortly after I received my UV5R. The Nagoya whip certainly is better than the stock antenna on 2 meters, and also works great for FM broadcast reception. I haven't tried the NA771 on UHF, however, since there are few such repeaters in this area; besides, I think the NA771 is far too long for that band and even for 2 meters. What were they (Nagoya) thinking when they designed this antenna? :scratch2: It might be long enough (and then some) for FM broadcast, but I would and do wonder about 2m; after all, a quarter wavelength at 144 MHz is somewhere in the neighborhood of 19 inches. I have a difficult time figuring out how the 3/8-wave telescoping antenna I'm using with my Icom HT works as well as it does, as that antenna is far longer than 19 inches when fully extended. :scratch2:

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the stock antenna that comes with the UV5R isn't much good unless you are almost literally within spitting distance of a local repeater, and it doesn't work worth a hill of beans on FM broadcast unless you are in a very strong signal area. That lets me out, since I live about 1.5 to 2 miles from the so-called "local" machine in the next town south of here, and am about 45 miles (!) from most FM radio stations serving Cleveland.

I cannot seem to hit the local repeater with my UV5R, although I can with my 1.5-watt Icom IC-T22A. There are some settings on my UV5R HT which I know aren't right yet, such as the transmit offset (currently set at 0.000 [simplex] rather than 0.600, IIRC) and the CTCSS tone, which is presently set to off. The HT's transmitter appears to be working, however, as I have tried it on 146.52 simplex and can hear myself in the Icom HT as nicely as you please. Therefore, the problem with transmitting to and hitting repeaters with the UV-5R must be caused by one of two things: that I don't have the CTCSS (PL) tone set properly, that the transmit offset is incorrect, or possibly both settings are set to 0 or off. The programming procedure for this HT isn't exactly straightforward (far from it, in fact), so I must be missing or skipping a step or two somewhere.

Jeff, with the UV5R you need to set three things:

Menu 13 - T-CTCS = set to local repeater tone
Menu 25 - SFT-D = Set to + or - offset, depending on repeater frequency.
Menu 26 - Offset = Set to .600 for 2 meters.

When you key up, the display should show the correct input frequency.

I have the same NA771 antenna. Works pretty well but boy does it make the radio top heavy.

For a QTH 2 meter antenna, do the JPOLE if you want to build and save some bucks. A Diamond X50 is good for $100. Get your general class ticket and it sounds like you have the room for a dipole. Can't beat the old dipole for cost and performance and ease of installation.

Have fun making contacts!

This is the programming guide that I used when I got started with the UV5R makes more sense to me than the instructions in the manual.

http://www.hamuniverse.com/w7dtguv5rprogramming.html

jr

I just bought an Alinco DJ-500 2 meter HT last weekend. I looked at the Baofengs, but I'm a knob and meter guy and I ended up hating the Alinco less for some reason :) . Played with it a few times and checked into an ARES net on Sunday. Don't really like it, but only because it's too small and too loaded with useless features and menus. Welcome to being a ham in 2017.....

First time back on the bands in a decade (call N2LCJ), and I hooked up my old Clegg FM-28 and tried to kerchunk the repeaters. Nothing. Drove myself crazy trying different antenna setups, etc and nothing. But dammit I could hear everyone!!

Then I found out about CTCSS. Well, hm. We didn't have that a decade ago. And since I abhor the thought of buying a new rig, I'm going to either adapt a board to add PL tones to it or abandon 2 meters entirely.

Currently, I'm studying for the General upgrade. Even though I was one of the last 5 WPM "technican plus" class licenses in 1990 (they did away with the code requirement in '91), you're only grandfathered to a General if you've held your license since '87. Got my Gonset GSB-100 tube transmitter ready to test out too :)

I'd try these steps before giving up on 2m.

1. Check your FM-28's settings to be sure you are on the correct offset (+/- 600) for the repeater you are trying to use. If your transceiver is set for an incorrect offset you will not get into the repeater.

2. If the repeater you are trying to access uses CTCSS (also known as PL or subaudible) tones, your transceiver must generate that tone along with your transmitted signal. Without the tone, you absolutely cannot access the repeater. The local repeater in my area, for example, requires a 110.9 Hz subaudible tone for access so that its signals do not interfere with two nearby repeaters on the same frequency pair (147.81/21), one in Detroit and the other in Wooster, Ohio.

I'm thinking the reason you can't access the local machines (ham slang for repeaters) in the Buffalo area is because those machines are set up for tone access (see my notes above). You are in the metropolitan Buffalo area, so you should be able to hit the city's local repeaters with no problems.

Put up a good antenna and you should be able to hear and use most repeaters in the area. When I lived in an eastern suburb of Cleveland, I had a Cush-Craft "Ringo Ranger" 2-meter antenna mounted on the chimney of my home; the antenna was fed by a Midland 13-510a FM rig (25 watts). This allowed me to access every major repeater in the Cleveland area with no trouble at all.

BTW, I have two 2m HTs (handheld radios), an Icom IC-T22a (1.5 watts transmit power input) and my newest acquisition, a Baofeng UV-5R (1 to 5 watts TX power input). The Icom HT allows me to access the local repeater in my area with no trouble, although I can do it only from one location in my apartment. This is one drawback of using a handheld radio to access a repeater; there can be areas where your HT will get into the machine better than in others, like digital TV. My Icom HT, for example, only works reliably for repeater access in my bedroom, at one spot in front of my dresser; the signal will not reach the repeater solidly, or in some cases at all, anywhere else in the apartment.

Ham radio has changed quite a bit since 2007, so you will find some differences between what you were accustomed to when you first received your amateur license and now. For instance, tone access for repeaters isn't new, but as more and more repeaters go on the air the need for such has increased to prevent interference between two or more repeaters on the same frequency pairs in the same general areas; this is why the local repeater near here had to go to 110.9 Hz tone access (it was an "open" repeater for many years, not requiring access tones), as I described above.

I hope this helps, Tim. Good luck.

73,

I've explored all of that stuff and as I mentioned, I discovered that the CTCSS is why I couldn't hit the repeaters. My Alinco HT hits the repeaters fine with the programmed PL tones. I bought a used J pole at a hamfest, so that's going in the trash once I get a new antenna.

I guess when it boils down to it I'm somewhat discouraged that technology has woven its way into the 2 meter band to the degree that it's a requirement.

I wonder if you could add a tube audio generator to your rig to make the PL tone to get in to the repeater?

Too little ROI for me on engineering that......I'm gonna adapt my Clegg with one of these:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/CTCSS-encode...53.m1438.l2649

Thanks much for the info. I saved the entire page with the programming instructions to my hard drive for future reference. I could not, for whatever reason, copy just the text; it was either the entire web page or nothing. :scratch2:

I am somewhat limited as to antennas, since I live in an apartment building on the first floor. Not the best location for ham radio, I am aware, but when I moved here 17 years ago I wasn't concerned about anything other than getting settled (I had moved here from a three-bedroom house in a Cleveland suburb). That and I don't want to get into trouble with the landlord. I am on very good terms with him, and I'd like to keep it that way. Yet another reason I don't want to use outdoor antennas is the risk of lightning strikes.

BTW, I can get into a repeater about 1.5 to two miles away with no problems, using my 1.5-watt Icom IC-T22a 2m handheld rig and a 3/8-wave telescoping 2m antenna (not to mention having a fully-charged battery in the HT). I am a member of the radio club (the Lake County, Ohio Amateur Radio Association in Painesville, Ohio, 30 miles east of Cleveland) which owns and operates that repeater, and have been since 1987, which reminds me. I haven't checked in to their weekly 2m net for the longest time; I probably should do so this Thursday (the net meets every Thursday evening at seven p.m., except the first week of each month).

I have had a General class amateur license since 1985. Upgraded from Technician class, which I held from 1975-85, and began my ham career in 1972 with Novice license WN8NHV.

73,

Well the Midland is not stone dead. Powering it up with a 12V battery, and 27MHz antenna (which happened to be on hand), revealed correct looking display behavior, and faint static unaffected by Volume or Squelch. No stations were recieved tuning across the band so I don't know for sure if it is receiving or not.

Congrats, Tom!

Well, it's a double edged sword. While the endless menus and silly features are annoying (who cares what color the back light is on receive or transmit!!) there are very useful features too, like dual watch or tone squelch. I have a great antenna in an awesome spot and without tone squelch my radio would be squawking all day. Same for modern HF radios.

Overall though, it's a good time to be a ham. Lots of great kits, new modes, all sorts of stuff to get up to.

Well yesterday I decided to do a "process of elimination" on my antenna....I disconnected the coax and hooked it up to my mag mount antenna stuck on a second story a/c window shaker, and everything's good....it was the used J-pole just like I thought.

Gonna order up a Tram 1481 antenna to put atop of the mast and get rid of the useless directional DTV antenna. Instead, I'm gonna get one of these for DTV:

https://www.amazon.com/Lava-HD-8000-.../dp/B00EPP1CNU

The only thing I'm not sure of is if I mount it just below the ground plane of the 2m antenna, if there's a such thing as TVI with a DTV signal.....

While it costs twice as much, I would consider the GP-9 antenna by Comet. The Tram gets up and down reviews on eham, water ingress is the main complaint. I have only known one person with a Tram and they had problems with it.

I maintain several of our local repeaters and we run the GP-9. I have one at home as well. Never had one fail yet. The one GP-9 that I do know of failing locally was at a location where ice loading and high winds breaks even station masters.

Mine has not only survived all the storms around here but even survived the ride when my mast dropped. It was at 72' at the tip so quite a ride. Just one opinion and YMMV.

That might actually work better. How far are you able to reach on simplex?

On the Tram antennas, make sure you seal the connections well where it screws together, like someone else said, they're notorious for water getting in. However, they do perform well for low cost if you just seal everything up. You might want to consider one of the smaller "one piece" models. They don't have quite as much gain, but they are no seams for water to enter. Tram, Comet, and Diamond all have about the same selection.

On 2 meters, I've done simplex as far as 85 miles (to a mountain-top station) with my roof mounted J-Pole. On 6 meter FM, I've done even better with my Cushcraft Ringo.

Yes, there is. I have a fifth wheel camper I leave on a permanent site in the mountains. I've got a big VHF/UHF antenna and a 4-bay UHF bowtie array at 35' on one end of the camper, and a 5/8 wave ground plane at 20' on the other end of the camper. When I key up my 2 meter radio with anything more than 5 watts, the TV blanks out.

However, you might not have the problem I do if you have a strong HDTV signal. The TV signals at my camper are very weak across the board and is reflected from many angles due to the terrain.

Well, there is a repeater almost 90-100 miles from me that I can hit with 15 watts quite nicely. But it is at 7200 feet. If you have line of sight the high gain antenna doesn't matter as much because your signal wants to make it there and has only atmospheric attenuation to deal with.

Where I find the high gain antenna shines is when you don't have a direct line of sight and are relying on scatter. Then the gain and radiation pattern seem to really help. If you are really bored, look up Albion, Fort Bragg and Willits in CA. My QTH is in Albion. A quick glance at google earth shows that I have no line of sight with either of those towns. The GP-9 gets me into those towns when the J-POLE wouldn't. I'm sure the Tram would too. Mind you, the stations I can hit are also good stations with good gear or in good locations. It's not like I can talk to anyone on a HT in those areas, but still.

So the measure of a good 2M antenna isn't really about how far away you can hit a line of sight repeater but how good your overall penetration power is, IMHO. I get great coverage of my area.

As to weatherproofing I am a belt and suspenders kinda guy. While the GP-9 needs no weather proofing I do anyway. Most folks don't and they don't run into any problems. I just can't help myself.

As to your jpole it probably just needs to be re-tuned or has a short in the coax or something. They pretty much have to work if correctly connected and tuned. Always good to have back up antennas so don't throw it out.

Hopefully, you're going to be at the July 9, meet.
I have some kind of a ham-type transceiver that I got from the family of a silent key. I looks like a 10m unit. Yours FOC. :thmbsp:

I plan to be there Sunday.
I just got home from a week in the north woods this evening....It is hard to get internet up there for long enough to open the new posts here in tabs (especially with McDonalds blocking VK).

Thanks for digging it out for me, Dave! That sounds like it would be fun to get working.



I think I've found a way to test the TX function on the Midland (still need to get to it though). I remembered I have a Regency Z30 scanner that will receive 6, 10, and 2meters (plus some other stuff) in FM mode. I should be able to tune the midland on the Regency and confirm operation.

Congrats buddy!!!!!!! :)