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

Good to hear, Ray.
I got WAS very quickly. Like in the first year of having my ticket. And DXCC Certificates in a few categories...

Phone 150
Digital 100
10m 100
15m 150
20m 150
CW 150
Mixed 200

Although LOTW shows me at over 250 Mixed if I wanted to apply for the sticker. And it looks like the rest of them go up a step or two also. I feel for ya with the antenna restrictions. When we were looking for a house the wife knew I needed room for a tower. I dabbled with FT8 a few months back, when I was dealing with shoulder surgery.

I haven't been on the air much with propagation being so bad but I hope to get back on soon. I did have to go through my Drake L-4B Amp a couple of months ago and clean up all the contacts as it wasn't working as it should. After a day of cleaning and putting it to use she warms up the shack nicely once again. I need to key it up more often to keep it working well. Those old tubes are from the 80s and still putting out 80 to 85% so I can't complain. But I do have a backup set of Used Tubes if I even need them. New ones are getting close to 400 bucks each nowadays.
 

Rosseforp

I think this fits, Gents
I just got done reading through the Technician questions at HamStudy.org, so forgive me if I'm a little lost with all the technical terms being tossed around here.

Been making a few local contacts (5 mile radius) on the 11 meter band with a mobile antenna on my roof, while waiting for my Tram-Browning 1498 18' CB base antenna to show up this weekend, and I already have a Tram 1480 waiting for when I get my Tech license. I can see the repeaters from my back yard.

Interesting how the CB chatter is much the same as it was 20-40 years ago, and there is lots of skip during the day, can't wait till I get a real antenna up in the air! It also appears there are a few local CB clubs in the area too that I need to check out.:cuppa:

~doug~
 
Once you get your General license, it will open up a lot more spectrum on the HF bands, including access to the 20 meter band and the WARC bands. There are still a few portions of these bands restricted to Advanced, and Amateur Extra licensees, but the General license opens up a lot of great opportunities. Getting your Technician is a great start, but do not stop there. There is an entire world (literally) open to you if you upgrade your current license.

ThaKim @RayClem! I actually just started a study course to upgrade to General. I am very interested in doing POTA (Parks on the Air) and SOTA (Summits on the Air), and most of the activity there is on HF bands. Looking forward to it!
 
ThaKim @RayClem! I actually just started a study course to upgrade to General. I am very interested in doing POTA (Parks on the Air) and SOTA (Summits on the Air), and most of the activity there is on HF bands. Looking forward to it!

I have a couple of friends who are active in SOTA. One lady has earned the right to be called a Mountain Goat. She has activated summits all over the country. Many of my other friends are active chasers to make sure she receives credit for activations. Unfortunately, I am not proficient in CW, so I am not one of the chasers.
 
Hi,

I did some Summits, putting them on the air, way back in the 70s. But not what folks do with SOTA these days. In the ham world, repeaters on the VHF bands, with 220 being my favorite. Summits like Mt Beacon, NY and Mount Greylock, MA. Also, not limited to the amateur service. That's what my 2nd Class (78), then later 1st Class (79) Commercial license was for. ;)

Not so much once I moved to NC. Not much by way of summits in the Raleigh area. Plenty to the West, though. A bit too far away for me to do anything with. So, we have a few repeaters on the high broadcast towers (1000+ foot) and a linked 440 repeater network which functions as if it were on a 3000 foot summit.

73

Stan - w2ck
 
Good to hear, Ray.
I got WAS very quickly. Like in the first year of having my ticket. And DXCC Certificates in a few categories...

Phone 150
Digital 100
10m 100
15m 150
20m 150
CW 150
Mixed 200

Although LOTW shows me at over 250 Mixed if I wanted to apply for the sticker. And it looks like the rest of them go up a step or two also. I feel for ya with the antenna restrictions. When we were looking for a house the wife knew I needed room for a tower. I dabbled with FT8 a few months back, when I was dealing with shoulder surgery.

I haven't been on the air much with propagation being so bad but I hope to get back on soon. I did have to go through my Drake L-4B Amp a couple of months ago and clean up all the contacts as it wasn't working as it should. After a day of cleaning and putting it to use she warms up the shack nicely once again. I need to key it up more often to keep it working well. Those old tubes are from the 80s and still putting out 80 to 85% so I can't complain. But I do have a backup set of Used Tubes if I even need them. New ones are getting close to 400 bucks each nowadays.
Hi,

I got my DXCC on CW during the Winter of 77-78 using both the 40m and 80m Novice bands. After making that, I rather lost interest in it. By then, I was working on getting into the commercial side of radio with the 2nd Class summer of 78 and then my 1st Class spring of 79.

I have only recently located the certificate and lapel pin I earned way back when. :)

73

Stan - w2ck
 
Yes. I have noticed that a lot of POTA and SOTA is CW! I’m hoping to get started phone.

While phone can be used, it is not really practical for SOTA where you often need to hike in with your equipment, including power supply. Thus, most SOTA is limited to QRP (5 watts or less) and lightweight batteries. Trying to make phone contacts using minimal antennas and minimal power is difficult. That is why CW is popular.

For POTA, you can usually drive up to the site and bring higher powered equipment and larger batteries or generators. That is usually not possible with SOTA. I used to be part of a local VHF net where some of the net control operators would setup at local parks. Of course, they were using repeaters and not trying to reach chasers many states away.

While some digital modes like FT8 require minimal power due to their low signal capability, they require a computer. Again, that is readily doable with POTA, but more difficult with SOTA.
 
Hi,

Yeah, my idea of portable is a Kenwood TS850s and two Group 1 tractor batteries. One a 6v (John Deere) and the other 8v (International Harvester) which are still in widespread use in small one-row farm tractors from the 1950s. This gives 14v for most of the discharge curve and keeps the power amplifier transistors happier than the 12.5v from a more modern car or truck battery.

And then antennas like a terminated folded wire dipole and up to three tripod push-up masts in case I don't have convenient trees to help out. But one of these works from the middle of 160m up thru 6m and doesn't even need a tuner. It is rather large. This, more for field day than POTA.

None of it good for hauling up the side of a mountain unless you have a Mercedes Unimog like I did back in the Northeast when I was hauling repeaters and cabinets up to the summits. My uncle was into collecting such vehicles. He even had a M29 Weasel which I used to run up runoff stream beds a couple of times. That is a tracked squad assault vehicle and great for hauling radio gear up the side of a mountain.

CW is a great option for SOTA. The key to all of this radio stuff is power vs bandwidth. Each watt goes further at any frequency the narrower the bandwidth is. So, SSB goes further than AM as we are talking 3 kHz v 6 kHz wide. But CW is 50 Hz wide. So now your 5 watts will go a whole lot further than with SSB.

73

Stan - w2ck
 
Hi,

Welcome from W2CK, ex-WA2KQY!

Yeah. I *finally* won a three letter callsign. Took a while and one from my native 2-land was easier to get than from my current 4-land.

73's!

Stan
 
Hi,

Welcome from W2CK, ex-WA2KQY!

Yeah. I *finally* won a three letter callsign. Took a while and one from my native 2-land was easier to get than from my current 4-land.

73's!

Stan
Congratulations on the 1 x 2 vanity call. No matter whether you use CW, or phone, your previous call was quite difficult to send and receive. A short call is a big advantage if you like DX or contesting.
 
Hi,

Oh, good lord, yes. WA2KQY was a tough one. CW took forever to send it. Phone was always seeing the Y mistaken for an I, so now I have to use phonetics which is even longer to say than on CW! :p

It was a recycled callsign in January 1977. Not bad at first on HF with CW in the Novice bands. But I went to NYC to take (and pass) my General in March of 77. I was among the first to be granted an Interim Permit and so could use my new privileges right away.

On my way home (dad driving and me yapping on the radio I had installed in anticipation) I was on our 'local' 2m repeater. I say 'local' as it covered from NYC to Albany. And immediately someone came on and called me out as a bootlegger. That ham knew the guy who had lost WA2KQY for whatever reason. My uncle was on and assured everyone that I was, indeed, the current holder of WA2KQY.

I never did know just what happened for the original holder to lose it. Got an Extra callsign? Didn't renew? Something worse? The FCC immediately recycled callsigns in those days. And we had 5-year renewal periods with no grace period. So, it might have been a tardy renewal, in which case the FCC would have issued him a new callsign and not yanked mine back for a replacement.

I kept it even after upgrading to Extra until one day I began applying for every 1x2 and 2x1 in 4-land because fees were known to be forthcoming. After a while, I figured I'd never win a 4-land one, competing with 50-60 others for each one. So, I began applying for 2-land ones.

And, now that I have this one, I can't see ever changing it. Well, maybe once my uncle, KJ2X becomes a Silent Key. But, probably not. It's taken the past two years for folks to become used to W2CK over WA2KQY. And, then there's all the ancillary stuff one has to change when they change callsigns. I'm not really wanting to do that again....

Stan
 
Hi,

About an hour's drive away. I am in Kipling, Harnett County. We are in UHF radio range on the Carolina 440 system, and 2m range via 147.27 - which I listen to almost all the time. I have a short range 220 repeater here on the farm with a link radio back to 147.27.

One day, once I actually retire, I'll build a Ham Pseudo-Trunked system on 900 MHz that will give me four link channels. I'd like to work on the farm while being able to link back to 6m, 2m, 220 and 440. I have all the radio bits already (bunch of old GE/Ericsson stuff), but I need to sit down and design and construct the controller.

73

Stan - w2ck
 
Hi,

About an hour's drive away. I am in Kipling, Harnett County. We are in UHF radio range on the Carolina 440 system, and 2m range via 147.27 - which I listen to almost all the time. I have a short range 220 repeater here on the farm with a link radio back to 147.27.

One day, once I actually retire, I'll build a Ham Pseudo-Trunked system on 900 MHz that will give me four link channels. I'd like to work on the farm while being able to link back to 6m, 2m, 220 and 440. I have all the radio bits already (bunch of old GE/Ericsson stuff), but I need to sit down and design and construct the controller.

73

Stan - w2ck
Do you know if you can reach the 145.210 repeater in south Raleigh? It is on top of the WRAL tower. I'm usually on there on my drive in to work every morning from about 6:30 - 7 am. I'll have to check out the Carolina 440 network as well. I am on there from time to time. Is the 147.270 repeater the JARS repeater? If so, I can reach it pretty good.
Boris - KO4QLT
 
Hi,

Yes, I can get to 145.210 using the link radio and 4 el beam I use on 147.27 as they are on the same tower. Yes, 27 is JARS. I hang out there having been a member for many years. I've never joined South Wake although I'm more in their area here in Harnett county. However, I used to live in Johnston, so that's why.

73

Stan - w2ck
 
I just finished up a drill with my ARES group today. It was a "Drill from home" winlink pajama party. :)

We had 58 checkins and 157 pieces of traffic. Only four of those were NTS voice traffic, the rest was Winlink digital traffic. And there was a surprise simulated repeater failure during the net and the operators were supposed to fall over to the backup repeater. We redid the checkin and discovered we'd lost 12 people LOL. You know, we train on this stuff, like, a lot.

Still. I had fun, the ARO's had fun and it wasn't a disaster. That's a huge win for us the drill writers.

I love HF, but these VHF events are a good time. It's always so teamwork based and community-ish.
 
Hi,

Well, here I am once again on the B&B Ham Radio Examiner's forum..... :p

Anyway, something interesting to report on last nite's exam session - we do a 4th Tuesday at 6 PM every even numbered month. So we had 11 candidates and two were youngsters, One was 11 and one was 8. The 11 year old earned a New General, by which I mean he had no license and passed the Tech followed by the General. The 8 year old is a New Tech.

So, also on the 4th Tuesday every month, the Raleigh NC club has a hands-on get-together at a church fellowship hall. The same location, just in case that isn't obvious. They had several stations on the air last night for the new license earners to get some practical side education. So we put one of the younglings on 20m and the other on 40m and caused two instant pile-ups. Better than rare DX that was.

And everyone went home with what they came for, including one Extra Upgrade. Plus three others are New Generals as well. It was an excellent evening all the way around. :)

73

Stan - w2ck
 
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