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The Ham Shack - B&B's Amateur Radio Club

Hello fellow HAMs! This club is for B&B's amateur radio operators to discuss equipment, operating, or any other aspect of the hobby.

Welcome as well is anyone else interested in getting into the hobby, or just that want to follow along. You don't need a license to buy ham radio equipment or listen in (at least in most countries). You only need a license if you plan to transmit.

Some useful links:

Amateur Radio Relay League - the primary associate/advocacy group for HAMs in the US.
http://www.arrl.org/

The US FCC page for Amateur Radio
http://wireless.fcc.gov/services/index.htm?job=service_home&id=amateur
 
I'm KB9NUJ. I've been an operator since the mid 90's, but have not been too active of late. I'm a Tech at the moment, but have no idea why I haven't gone for my General or Extra class. I'm an EE, so can pretty much pass the tests without studying, sans frequency bands, etc :). I just never got around to it, and my focus has been mostly VHF anyway (including a bit of APRS while doing climbing/hiking). Shame on me! I'll see if I can get those done some time this year.
 
Anyone get to Dayton Hamvention? I'm been a bit sporadic in the last ten years or so...making maybe 3 or 4 times. It's not as crowded now as it was in the 90's and early 2000's, in part due to the huge reduction in the number of generic computer vendors attending. Before the Internet got the web and online sales, Hamvention was a great place to buy computer stuff. These were the days of Computer Shopper magazine, etc. Of course that's not a draw anymore. It's always a hoot attending though and still quite well attended overall.
 
K1ING.
Also checking in. Thanks for setting this up. Hopefully it gets enough posts to keep going. Ill check daily and try to post up evan if it dont have much to do with radio.
By the way, did an alignment on one of my IC706MK2G rigs today. Wasnt having any issues. I just hadnt been into this one and wanted to do the fan mod to it. Touched up some low voltages in the pll curciut.

Anyway, great to have this new place and hope we can get more folks into Ham radio with it. Turning in my VE test this eve to the ARRL. Should take a week before they put me on the VE list.

Plus we have a hamfest this saturday. Im going to take a couple items from my Ham closet and try to make a little more room in the closet. Well, ill just buy something else and fill the space but the wife will be happier for a little while. Ha.

Welcome to any who are enterested in Ham radio or just have a question. Remember, you dont have to learn morse code any longer so its not real difficult to get your lic.
 
K1ING.
Also checking in. Thanks for setting this up. Hopefully it gets enough posts to keep going.

Thanks for checking in. This is just a regular post, so it won't get removed, regardless of the post volume. Now if we go getting too rowdy in here.... :lol: .
 

oc_in_fw

Fridays are Fishtastic!
Has any one assisted in disaster relief? In this day and age, do relief groups still use Ham operators from time to time? Heck, I should ask my father- since retiring he does a lot of stuff for the Red Cross.
 
Several years ago I chaired the Omaha Red Cross Disaster Action Team. Had many hams on it. I haven't been active with the Red Cross in years. I know here in Colorado there is very little involvement in the Red Cross by hams. ARES (Amateur Radio Emergency Service) involvement is very large and active, lots of activity with floods, wild land fires, storm spotting, and such. FEMA plays a large role in managing ARES now.
 

oc_in_fw

Fridays are Fishtastic!
Several years ago I chaired the Omaha Red Cross Disaster Action Team. Had many hams on it. I haven't been active with the Red Cross in years. I know here in Colorado there is very little involvement in the Red Cross by hams. ARES (Amateur Radio Emergency Service) involvement is very large and active, lots of activity with floods, wild land fires, storm spotting, and such. FEMA plays a large role in managing ARES now.

Ah, so ARES head these things up. Thanks
 
Ah, so ARES head these things up. Thanks

Yep, and as said quite active. I've not been involved myself with ARES, but my dad has. I've been out on some storm spotting/observing missions with him. Honestly, disaster relief is one of the main reasons I stay licensed, and have HF equipment and antennas, even though I very rarely use it. It's just something I keep in reserve to activate when/if the fit ever hit the shan. When that happens, cells phones won't be working, but ham shacks on generators will. This would allow for local, regional, national and international communications. I think in cases of major disasters the FCC can also open up the bands for broader use, so that all license levels could operate on a broader range of frequencies than normal.
 
Boy the bands suck. But 6meters open the other night. Worked a few state side contacts. Some ssb and some cw. It was nice the band open this late in the 6meter season.
 
Boy the bands suck. But 6meters open the other night. Worked a few state side contacts. Some ssb and some cw. It was nice the band open this late in the 6meter season.

I haven't caught any 6-meter, other than local afternoon ragchew, in months. And only getting minimal 20 & 40 JT-65 & PSK, nothing else ever seems to be working the last couple months.
 
I have pretty significant hearing loss. I run a Yaesu FT-450D and make lots of use of the DSP capabilities. Also have a MFJ-616 Speech Intelligibility Enhancer. Between the two I can pretty much pull out the weak ones, unless there is background noise in the house, then it's hopeless. I've used cheap cans and they helped a lot, so much in fact I've been wanting a good set. I splurged a few weeks ago and got a set of Radiosport RS20S-DDE cans from HRO Denver. Wow. First off, they are the most comfortable cans I've ever worn. They are huge, but made of carbon fiber so they are light weight. Ear pads have washable cotton covers greatly reducing the sweat of plastic against the skin. Second they work, and work extremely well. Tone curve is for SSB/CW use, not music. Soundproofing almost totally kills outside sounds. Weak signals come in booming, especially running the MFJ-616 to tweak the tonal response. Should have bought good cans years ago, major improvement.

This model has no mic, they do make the same cans with a mic for those looking for such. Cord has 3.5mm stereo plugs on both ends so you are not stuck with using their cord. 3.5 - 1/4" adapter included.

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I haven't caught any 6-meter, other than local afternoon ragchew, in months. And only getting minimal 20 & 40 JT-65 & PSK, nothing else ever seems to be working the last couple months.

Sunspot activity is really low right now. There was just a 16 day run with no spots that ended last week - longest since around 2010. It's picked up a bit the last few days.

It's only going to get worse from here. Sunspot cycle 25 is shaping up to be even lower than 24, and that was the lowest in a quite a long time.
 
Sunspot activity is really low right now. There was just a 16 day run with no spots that ended last week - longest since around 2010. It's picked up a bit the last few days.

It's only going to get worse from here. Sunspot cycle 25 is shaping up to be even lower than 24, and that was the lowest in a quite a long time.

Astronomy is one of my hobbies, and I do a fair bit of solar astronomy with Mylar filters, Herschel Wedge and Hydrogen Alpha. Been mostly notta for a couple weeks now and your right, the solar gear will get stored away except for rare use the next several years.

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Astronomy is one of my hobbies, and I do a fair bit of solar astronomy with Mylar filters, Herschel Wedge and Hydrogen Alpha. Been mostly notta for a couple weeks now and your right, the solar gear will get stored away except for rare use the next several years.

Neat! I do quite a bit of astronomy but have never ventured much into solar observing (sans the occasional big event like the transit of Mercury, etc).
 
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