Any other Amateur radio operators?

[Ad Astra]

Studying off and on for the technician's exam. Unsure I want another federal license, but certainly enjoy scanner, Baofeng (FRS/GMRS), marine radio and "11-meter radio" hijinks.

Local LEO just went to trunking, unfortunately. It was a useful heads-up for traffic and danger (BOLO calls).


AA

 

[dpm802]

Local LEO just went to trunking, unfortunately. It was a useful heads-up for traffic and danger (BOLO calls).

I used to work for Radio$hack, and our programmable scanners were popular with the local career criminal crowd. We would program them to listen in on LEO operations while they were out on the street peddling their goods and hawking their wares. For those scanners that were computer-aided, it was easy to dump in a pre-loaded list of local listening hot-spots.

When the city PD went to trunking, there was a near riot as we had hundreds of thugs trying to return scanners that no longer gave them the information and intelligence that their niche market demanded.

 

[Ad Astra]

After hearing a BOLO call of a drunk driver heading our way in the other lane, I was convinced that scanning and driving is a good idea ...

Thugzzz would have had a hard time understanding our LEOs; it was so 10-coded as to be another language.

"Subject came out of the 10-45 walking like he was 10-33," that kind of thing.


AA

 

[desmoface]

Woohoo! Amatuer Radio is a dying hobby, but it's still a lot of fun. I'm more into chasing Pirates and Numbers Stations anymore, although they are becoming more and more rare (the latter).

kb8viv

 

[HazMat Shaver]

I'm also big on CW ... usually that's my primary mode of Xmit, but I like to listen to everything.

Does the SKCC allow mechanical bugs? I have a generic code key that was made in Japan, probably Late '40s.
It belonged to my father (a radio op in the US Merchant Marine) and push it one way it does manual dashes and the other way gives mechanically generated dots.

Nice set up.
When I had a full station on the air,
It started off Kenwood 530,
but it wound up with Icom 735 that I used for many years.
Icom was my favorite brand of all the Big Jap OEMs that I actually owned,
but my real dream was to get either a Drake or a Ten-Tec station.

Yes Bugs are allowed. Straights (not the kind you shave with), Bugs and cooties are ok. Membership is free and its for life. Most folks run between 13wpm and 18wpm so its comfortable with a straight. The problem with the bug is trying to slow down the dits. When your sending dahs at 15 and dits at 25... You understand being a CW man. Check into it. Some short contests, awards, rag chewing in CW and some folks just try to work as many as they can. Trade RST, Name and SKCC number. Its fun and relaxing. Your not trying to send at 35wpm and copy the other guy at 45 to 50wpm, trading 599 TU. You know how it is.

I use a Vizkey Camel-back Straight when chasing SKCC members, A GHD Key made in Japan, single lever, dual paddle when chasing DX and I have a Scheunemann - Morsetasten Dual paddle connected to my 6meter rig.

But just like the shaving hobby, I have lots of razors and lots of keys. HI, HI.

 

[Rhody]

Thread cpr here.
Apparently I had some extra time and a spare $35 I could divert from buying soaps or aftershave to devote to passing the rigorous gmrs radio license process (*) such that I am a proud fcc license holder now and for the next 10 years.

Does anyone actually use these frequencies? If so I’d love to hear more.

* $35 = A passing grade. Guaranteed.

 

[desmoface]

I don't but I just looked at the Frequencies it covers and it looks like it's for local communications. I've never listened on those freq's, but if you have a GMRS radio, tune around and see what's doing. You need to get into the HF bands if you want to work any longer distances.