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#16
07-31-2005, 11:40 AM
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I'm licensed as M0NNT but hardly use it. Passed my 12wpm in '91 and have yet to use it in anger. Did it just for the sheer hell of it.
Was big into ham radio back in the mid 90s but like garry, I got fed up of the back tabbing, shit slinging, and pure snobbishness between license grades. I guess the old boys network got what they wanted - The bands to themselves. Pity most of the old buggers are dead now. IMHO, the internet killed off most of the hobby.
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If you don't like what you're doing, you can always pick up your needle and move to another groove. - Timothy Leary 
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#17
07-31-2005, 01:48 PM
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Quote:
I've had an amateur license since 1972 (33 years) and was quite active from then until 1999. I moved to an apartment late that year and am now forced to use an indoor antenna for my HF rig and 2 meters. I am a member of the ARRL and a local ham club; I use the latter's 2-meter repeater a lot since my HF rig doesn't seem to work very well (the best I can do on 40-meter SSB at this point is 20 miles directly across the county in which I live). I worked a lot of CW where I lived before moving to where I am now; however, if I try to use my rig on CW here it trips the ground fault interrupters in my apartment, even if I transmit on very low power (20 watts). That puts me pretty much right back where I started 33 years ago (except I didn't have the GFCI problem back then). I don't intend to give up, but the problems I'm having frustrate me quite a bit, to the point where I don't use my HF rig much anymore. No TVI problems (everyone in my apartment building, myself included, has cable--outdoor TV antennas aren't allowed here, and rabbit ears don't work well because of the sheer distance from here to the seven TV stations in Cleveland--40+ miles), but as I said, I can't get a signal past the county line, let alone out of the state of Ohio where I live. Maybe if I tried other bands, like 30, 20, 17, 15, 12 meters (I worked CW quite a bit on 30 meters from my former residence) I'll have better luck with making contacts. I may not stay out of the GFCIs on CW, but SSB doesn't seem to bother them at all, so perhaps I'll try the latter on 20 thru 12 meters one of these days (SSB is not allowed on 30 meters in the United States, and my antenna is not designed for use on 80 or 75 meters). As to your opinion that the Internet is "killing" ham radio, I agree with you one hundred percent, although I really shouldn't talk about that as I use my computer on the Internet much, much more these days than I am on 2 meters with the local radio club (though I do participate in a weekly ragchew net our club has on their 2-meter repeater at 7:00 p. m. U. S. Eastern Standard Time or 14:00 UTC). The Internet is more appealing to young people, especially, since many youngsters are computer whizzes in this day and age (many children today know more about the Internet at the age of nine--no kidding--than do their parents). This may be exactly why we don't see more young people getting amateur licenses. Perhaps now that the FCC is proposing to abolish the code requirement for all U.S. ham tickets, that situation may change eventually, but in my heart I doubt it. The written test will still be as tough as ever (55 questions, with a 74 percent score being passing). Most youngsters hate the idea of studying their schoolwork, let alone for something like a radio license test. Amateur radio in this country is changing for the worse, like it or not. (I don't blame you for not using your license, or Gary for letting his expire.) I don't know what the situation is on the amateur bands where you are, but here in the United States the Amateur Radio Service, as our FCC refers to it, is, IMHO, in trouble and may be in shambles before we know it. No code test eventually, with the written test the only thing distinguishing the amateur service from Citizens Band--this is definitely not the same Amateur Radio Service I knew when I started in the hobby. What's next, for crying out loud? I can only hope the FCC won't abolish amateur licenses as they did CB permits (the agency has not issued the latter for over twenty years); if they do decide to stop issuing ham radio licenses as well, turning all our ham bands into kilowatt Citizens Band clones, we will know for sure that the hobby has gone to the dogs--permanently. Witness the mess the 11-meter U.S. Citizens Band is today after the FCC ceased issuing licenses for the service. Now everyone and his/her brother (or so it seems) is on 11 meters (as I've heard on the general-coverage receiver in my Icom IC725 ham rig), clobbering each others' signals, talking about anything and everything under the sun (including stuff I don't wish to mention here), and making a general shambles of what was once a very orderly communications service. I can only hope amateur radio doesn't follow the same road to utter ruin. 73, Jeff Strieble, WB8NHV (mailto: [email protected]) Fairport Harbor, Ohio USA (33 miles east of Cleveland, Ohio) Facsimile: 216-274-9513
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Jeff, WB8NHV Collecting, restoring and enjoying vintage Zenith radios since 2002 Zenith. Gone, but not forgotten.
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#18
07-31-2005, 06:11 PM
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The reason I never got my license is simply I'm too damn stupid to do code...And I never had a kindly old Elmer to help me along. The hams we have around here are generally 144MhZ guys, not into HF, & you start talkin' Hammarlund, Hallicrafters, Collins they just sorta look at you- "Oh, no-another one of THOSE old radio freaks...ignore him, & maybe he'll go away..."-Sandy G.
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Benevolent Despot
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#19
07-31-2005, 07:25 PM
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I have a tech license, but I'm mostly inactive. Never took the General exam, as I lost interest in code when I discovered rock n roll, a long time ago.
The last time I was on the air was on 2m, on a cross country trip- had to ask where to get some good eats in faraway locales.
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gas anyone?
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#20
07-31-2005, 10:19 PM
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Quote:
The reason most of the hams in your area look at you strangely when you talk about your old Collins, Hallicrafters, etc. rigs may well be because they never heard of them and/or don't know much (or anything) about them. Most hams today have been trained on solid-state gear and may never have seen a vacuum tube in their lives, let alone know how one works. Most of the people I know outside AudioKarma and the ham radio club I belong to know absolutely nothing about radio, electronics, or anything technical (even computers). It's just the way people are; we all have different and varying interests. You and I, and everyone here at AK, are exceptions, as we all have been around electronics a long time. The hams in your area may well have been just recently licensed and could know just enough about electronics to have passed the written test, possibly just barely. I saw some of the boatanchor receivers you have in your collection when you posted some pictures of them here awhile ago. Every one of those receivers should tune to 3.58, 7.08, 14.08 MHz--the 80, 40 and 20-meter frequencies of ARRL headquarters amateur station W1AW at Newington, Connecticut, near Hartford. This station transmits code practice on a definite schedule seven days a week. I don't know what frequency you'd hear W1AW best on in Rogersville, but I'd try all three I mentioned above. Every issue of QST magazine, the official journal of the American Radio Relay League, carries a W1AW code practice schedule for every frequency the station transmits on. If you have a public library in your town (most do), they likely have a file of QST dating back at least a few months. Look in the index under the heading "W1AW schedule" to find where the schedule is posted in the magazine. Copy the 5-wpm practice transmissions each night for a month or so, and you'll have that speed down cold. I know this works, as I used the same method to get my own code speed up to 17 WPM so I could pass the General exam. (It's always best to be sure you can copy at least two or three wpm above the speed you will be tested on, just to be safe.) There is no such thing as being "too stupid" to learn the code, as you put it. Many people have done it in the past, some of them as young as eight or nine years old (I once read of a four-year-old in Vincennes, Indiana--get it, four--who passed the entire set of license exams--code, written, everything--and is now, I think, a 30-odd-year-old Extra licensee; the man got quite a writeup in QST at the time, when he passed his Novice exam and got the license, call sign WN9VPG). Another example: Former CBS-TV newscaster Walter Cronkite got his Novice class ham license (callsign KB2GSD) a few years back; he got the license when he was perhaps in his mid-seventies and is now well over 80. I had to take my General code test twice before I passed; same with my Novice code and written tests. The important thing is not how many times you have to take the exams or by how many questions you passed them; rather, the idea is to have passed the exams and to get the license you are after. No one cares (or should care) what your score was on the written and/or code tests, as long as you passed them and have the license to prove it. I'm not saying you should or shouldn't take the exams, Sandy, but I would suggest you at least try a few sessions in front of one of your old boatanchors, listening to W1AW. You might be surprised how quickly you can learn 5 wpm. As I said, if a four-year-old in Indiana can do it, so can you. 73 (best regards) and good luck, Jeff, WB8NHV (mailto: [email protected] or [email protected]) Fax: 216-274-9513 Fairport Harbor, Ohio USA
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Jeff, WB8NHV Collecting, restoring and enjoying vintage Zenith radios since 2002 Zenith. Gone, but not forgotten. Last edited by Jeffhs; 07-31-2005 at 10:26 PM.
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#21
07-31-2005, 10:48 PM
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Dah dit dah dit - dah dah dit dah ......
 sorry...... 
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 Gary in Texas
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#22
08-01-2005, 01:09 PM
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I will upgrade as soon as all code requirements are dropped. I have nothing against code, but it is just one mode of communication and as such has no place in the testing. I have no desire to learn or use code, not even at 5 wpm. You do not have to pass an english test for voice, or a computer test for packet, or a television test to do atv. Why require a code test for a license with todays technology? I have listened to some of the HF bands and hve heard things that should have never ben on a ham band and were just as bad as cb and all by hams that passed the code test, at the higher speed I might add. It does not keep the undesireables out it just keeps the younger and some of us older people who would make good operators and know the electonics out.
By the way I could do the code, I just refused to take the test. When I was licensed the only difference was a certificate of completion. We were all classified as technician class wheither you did the code or not. The Tech plus classification just didn't exist at that time. If you did use one of the appropriate HF bands,say 10 meters, and you behaved yourself the FCC had no way to know, at that time if you had HF privleges or not unless they busted you. So I'm looking forward to the death of all code requirements so I can continue to explore a hobby that I still find fascinating. Bill R
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#23
08-01-2005, 05:09 PM
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Got my "old" tech plus back in 1976, and did mostly 2m repeaters, off and on over the years. In 1999 the FCC changed the code speed test to 5WPM for General and Extra, so I went and took the extra writtens, got the CSCEs (Jan 2000) and with the old tech plus cashed them in for an "Extra Lite"
Been on mostly HF SSB and enjoying it much. Soon the code test will be dropped. Then all you need pass are multiple choice writtens. Ham radio callsigns make great unique usernames on forums and newsgroups.
Last edited by wa2ise; 08-01-2005 at 05:13 PM.
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#24
08-01-2005, 05:29 PM
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Don't get me wrong. I love ham radio and without it Imay never have gotten into hifi as much as I have.
I had an 'elmer' as you call them that I met once I had gotten my licence and he taught me a great deal about tubes and diy techniques and I almost certainly got my love of olde worlde equipment from him. Unfortunately, because of work commitments and ghost complaints about RFI I gave it up. It wasn't worth the hassle to me to get thumped in the street on my return from a 14hr night shift. I did intend getting back into in 2001 and studied hard to pass the morse test. It was actually more fun second time around and less like having teeth pulled.  As far as radio goes these days in the UK. I guess it's pretty much the same as the rest of the world. We have a novice licence that only requires the licence holder to sit an extremely rudimentary test. Grade school stuff where they make a circuit with a light bulb, a battery, assorted lengths of wire and drawing pins on a board.... etc, you know the drill. Even for the HF, all of the licence grades have access to it now and there is no requirement for a morse test. You can sit one if you want but it doesn't make you anymore proficient and you don't gain anything by it other than a sense of pride. I used to love 2m and 70cm but they are almost dead these days (my 2m set is now tuned to the Marine band) - i just had a tune around and there wasn't a signgle carrier anywhere. One thing I have noticed, with the relaxation of the licensing a lot of ex-CBers (who could never pass the RAE before) are now on the bands and it's degenerating into the free-for-all that CB was with bad language now commonplace. At least when it used by people who studied for their licences it was a very gentlemanly place and was self policing. The Radiocommunications Agency now class Amateur Radio as 'Hobby Radio' along with CB. With that in mind, they are seriously considering deregulating the bands and making a licence available to all without any examinations etc. for a five year period that can be purchased at the local post office. If that happens then any credibility that Ham Radio had/still has will go straight down the pan. I'm glad that I got my licence when it was still worth something. Over the years I've worked 150+ countries on HF, worked multiple satellites, had a packet radio BBS, worked SSTV, FSTV on the u-wave bands, DIY'd some amazing amplifiers and antennas and generallyt had a blast but i've moved on now.
__________________
If you don't like what you're doing, you can always pick up your needle and move to another groove. - Timothy Leary
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#25
08-09-2005, 01:33 AM
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I have the Technician class license.
NH7XJ I'll probbably never use the thing but it was part of my first year of electronics technician training to get the license. I believe this coming year we are supposed to take a GROL test or something like that. And we will be able to upgrade our license priveleges but i doubt i will. I dont know any morse code  well unless you consider dit dit dit -dot dot dot- dit dit dit heck, thats all id ever need!
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#26
08-09-2005, 01:57 PM
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Quote:
I just looked up your call on the Buckmaster callsign server. Your license is valid for quite a while yet; you may change your mind about getting back on the air before it is time to renew. I have a General class license, but don't use it much anymore except for 2 meter FM since I moved into an apartment over five years ago (no outside antennas allowed). I bought a Barker and Williamson AP-10 apartment portable antenna about two years ago; it works, but I can't operate CW (which was my favorite mode for some 20 years when I lived at my previous residence, a three-bedroom house in a Cleveland suburb) because my signals trip the GFCI (ground fault circuit interrupter) in my kitchen. The rig doesn't seem to bother the kitchen GFCI or the one in my bathroom much on sideband, but I haven't had much luck with SSB since I've been here (never had much luck with it at the other house either, and I had a much better antenna there). The best I've been able to do with sideband here has been 20 miles, directly across Lake County, Ohio, but I think that's because I've been on the wrong band (40 meters). Perhaps I should try 12, 17, or 15 meters in the daytime. I think you mentioned in one of your posts quite a while ago that you were off the air anyway, because your antenna was down and your transceiver wasn't working at the time. However, if you have 2 meter FM, you can still operate through the local repeaters in your area. I believe you are in a suburb of Honolulu, so it is likely you should be able to use the city's repeaters (or there may be one or more local repeaters right there in Kailua Kona) without much trouble. I am a member of a local radio club here and use their repeater often, as they have a 2-meter ragchew net every Thursday at seven p. m. Eastern time; there is also an NTS traffic net which meets three times each week on another repeater near here. Just because you operate only 2 meters or any other VHF/UHF ham band doesn't make you any less an amateur than if you had an Extra class license and worked the world with a kilowatt on HF. Some hams with General or higher licenses will look down on or even scorn Technician or Tech-plus licensees (this kind of snobbery has been going on in ham radio for years), but that isn't right. Technician class amateurs are just as much a part of the hobby as are hams with General and higher tickets. (I had a Technician, later Technician plus, license for ten years before upgrading to General in 1985.) As to your comments about the GROL exam, I never heard of any radio amateur ever being required to take that test simply to upgrade, and I've been a ham over 30 years. Hawaii is a State of the U. S. and is under the FCC's jurisdiction (the other 49 states don't require a GROL as a prerequisite to an upgrade to a higher grade of amateur license). You don't have to know much Morse code to get an amateur license these days. In fact, the FCC has reduced the code requirement to 5 words per minute for every class of license and is going to drop the code test altogether before long. I personally think this will be a huge mistake if it happens, as the code tests have traditionally separated hams from users of that other band (eleven meters). If the code requirement for ham licenses is in fact abolished eventually, our amateur bands may well become kilowatt clones of the Citizens Band. The latter went to the dogs when the FCC ceased issuing licenses for it over 20 years ago. I can only hope the same thing doesn't happen to ham radio, although the elimination of the code test seems to me to be a step in that direction. The written exam for amateur licenses is still 55 questions and requires a 74 percent grade to pass (41 questions correct). However, since many hams today memorize license manuals to pass these tests, even the written exam is the proverbial piece of cake. I am all for progress; goodness knows we need more people to become involved in amateur radio  but, IMHO, this is going too far. Time was when getting an amateur license was a challenge; not anymore. I am not about to give up my license or my equipment just because the hobby seems to be going all to pieces, but I am extremely disappointed at what it has become (and where it is headed), with licenses being as easy to get (almost) as falling off a log, broadband no-tune HF and VHF gear, etc. The FCC still regulates the hobby and enforces its rules, however (fining and/or suspending or revoking licenses of scofflaws when necessary), so I guess it isn't in too bad shape--yet, anyway, IMHO. But it may be in awful shape before we know it; I'm not looking forward to it if or when it happens. The much-relaxed licensing requirements (including the eventual abolition of the code test) and the instant-memorization license guides (time was when people really studied for these tests) may well make an utter shambles of what was once a very orderly and worthwhile hobby. Hams still perform public service (the NTS traffic nets, communications for community events, etc.), so there is some hope the hobby won't go to pot, but as far as the ease of getting the license goes, well, that is too much. 73 (best regards),
__________________
Jeff, WB8NHV Collecting, restoring and enjoying vintage Zenith radios since 2002 Zenith. Gone, but not forgotten.
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#27
08-09-2005, 05:26 PM
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Hey Jeffhs, you must have me mistaken with someone else because i have never been on the air before. Never even used a peice of ham equipment really. I had just taken the test because my college electronics instructor wanted us to get the training and to pass the test to get our licenses. He is very into ham radio and i believe takes care of the repeaters and stuff around his side of the island.
I didnt mean that we had to take the GROL exam to upgrade our license, just that it was another certification that we are supposed to attain. But we will have the chance to upgrade our ham license's if we so choose. But personally i doubt i would ever get into the hobby since its just so much easier to communicate with the internet and i dont have any of the equipment i would need. Although a transciever would be cool to just listen in on police/fire bands and air traffic control.
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#28
08-09-2005, 06:44 PM
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Way back in the day, around 1990, when I got my ham licence, I too was but a green horn, with only about two or three years of experience running the airwaves.
Eleven meters. ... The grey band above the regular 40 channels Lower sideband is where I spent almost all my time. There were some good operators in there, and they policed it as best as they could givin' the circumstances... But I wanted more. I wanted to move up the line where the good stuff was....the 'HF bands'. So I got the operatunity to study with a local operator, and he taught us (there were 5 of us) the basic rules and regulations...and the code @5 wpm to start. After that I bought the books and tapes from the Radio Shack..and began studying on my own. I read the books in my easy chair, while listening to the chatter on the radio, and on the most important seat in the house as well. I studied while at work, and I would quiz myself to make damn shure I had it right...In the back of the book were the question pools. So I would go through and test myself, and learn the whole question pool itself, with the answers. If I didn't understand 'why' the answer was , I would go through the book, or any other means, till I found the answers and how to achieve them. For the electronics questions, and most of all, the bands I was allowed on, and the procedures I had to abide by, for my licence level I would have, and the other levels as well, I had them memorised.... What did I learn by memorising the question pool??..... I learned How to be a good operator, and what I could, and couldn't do, on the air.....and it was good!.... I may not have been able to tear apart a HF rig and put it back together, but how does that information make you a better operator? Shure it may help somebody else who is having radio trouble, but there are many others out there who can help also. I also learned what algebra is about. Before studing I had absolutly no idea, but while studying and looking for the reason behind the answers, I had an epiphony. It was wonderful. 'Capacitive' ..and 'inductave reactance'...I had no idea what they were. Just a garble of letters and numbers in a formula. I was lost!. But I kept at it for a long time. Till it happened!! I finally understood what it meant! And the whole world opened up to me at that moment. It was cool. A natural high!.... After that I understood how to read sine waves, and how to figure things out using formulas. Then I was ready for the test. I could answer just about any question that was on the test. So I signed up to take it. I got one wrong on the general test. It was a stupid mistake. Like mixing up your left and right....and aced the advanced test. I didnt take the extra test...but then it came time for the code.......well thats where I blew it. I only hit the 10 wpm plateau and couldn't get my general licence...but I did get my 'Tech +' ticket!...... What good was that? Well, it gave me acess to all the high tech bands where you need the most education to operate the equipment. ie... 'sstc hstv...repeter operation...ritty. Which I thought wasn't right. And still no voice on the 'HF bands', where you didnt need to be so proficent with the equipment. Just run a basic rig...like eleven meters. I made a few 10 meters contacts. That was the only place in the HF band I could do voice. It was a small portion at that! But eventually let it go because propagation wasn't that good there. Sunspots and all. So I went back to the sideband above channel 40. Where there were people to talk to. They were friendly, and you could carry on decent conversations.... Eventually I just stopped doing it at all. Living in the city made it worse. Transformers buzzing all around me. And always had 7-9 s-units of buzz, it was hard to get anything through. My 10 meter rig sits out in my pole barn on a shelf collecting dust.....a Uniden TS-5010, fully dressed ..with a 200 watt amp..and an 'Antron 99' with a ground plane kit...antenna... last time I hooked it up it still worked, but that was two years ago. formerly N8NBF.....for ID!
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Gary in Texas
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#29
08-09-2005, 07:15 PM
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Oooops!
Quote:
Brandon (Haoleb), NH7XJ, Oooops! My sincere apologies. I thought about that (that I might have mistaken you for someone else in this forum); ah, now I think I know who I was thinking of when I made the comment about you being on the air. There is a member of AK using the member name Millerdog (I don't think he frequents this particular forum, though) who is also a ham and also lives in Hawaii; I must have been thinking of him, as his transceiver was out of order and his antenna was down (at least that was my understanding the last time I saw one of his posts in AK, in one of the audio forums). Communicating via the Internet is good if you don't want to (or cannot) use the radio for any reason. With the Internet there is no interference, fading or other problems associated with radio, shortwave or any other kind. No FCC rules to be concerned with either. BTW, you don't need a full-fledged transceiver simply to listen in on police, fire, CAP (Civil Air Patrol) or the aircraft band. A synthesized all-band scanner will do the job just as well, and it won't cost you an arm and a leg. Amateur Electronic Supply in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (www.aesham.com; if you have access to toll-free 800 numbers in Hawaii, theirs is 1-800-558-0411) has these receivers; if you have any electronics stores in your area, they will probably have them as well. Again, Brandon, I apologize for the mixup. In the back of my mind I thought I had goofed, but by the time I realized the mistake I had already posted the message. 73,
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Jeff, WB8NHV Collecting, restoring and enjoying vintage Zenith radios since 2002 Zenith. Gone, but not forgotten.
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