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Main => Everything Else => Topic started by: Santoro on January 02, 2013, 11:04:40 pm

Title: Any Amateur Radio Operators here?
Post by: Santoro on January 02, 2013, 11:04:40 pm
There is a thread on this every few years - any Hams among us?

Dave, W2DHS.

(http://www.mustbeart.com/kb5mu/antfarm.jpg)

(not my antenna farm)
Title: Re: Any Amateur Radio Operators here?
Post by: AtomSmasher on January 02, 2013, 11:44:38 pm
Got my license last year, but haven't used it much.  I have a few friends who are really into it, so I have helped them build an awesome mobile setup.  It's a crank up tower which is permanently attached to the back of an old truck.  It's around 40' tall when fully extended.  We've used it a couple of times, one of which was on top of a mountain in Santa Barbara last field day (first picture in the ARRL article: http://www.arrl.org/files/file/ContestResults/2012/2012-FD-QST-V3.pdf (http://www.arrl.org/files/file/ContestResults/2012/2012-FD-QST-V3.pdf)), and another time was at Wasteland Weekend (pictured below)
We also recently purchased a similar 70' tower which we plan on using in an event in April.

Adam, KJ6TAH although I'll usually be using my groups name since I rarely use Ham outside of an event: K6WCC

edit*  Here's my groups facebook page with several better pictures and descriptions than what I posted:  http://www.facebook.com/WCCorp (http://www.facebook.com/WCCorp)
Title: Re: Any Amateur Radio Operators here?
Post by: Santoro on January 03, 2013, 12:30:26 am
That tower is crank-up?  Cool! 

I have been licensed since '93 but not active on the air.  I am getting back into it now, setting up a shack and getting my car set up with APRS.  Since Sandy I am also interested in Emergency Comms so will probably join ARES/RACES.
Title: Re: Any Amateur Radio Operators here?
Post by: BadMouth on January 03, 2013, 10:48:10 am
Not into it, but you guys might find this project on the Makaron emulator author's blog interesting:
http://dknute.livejournal.com/40730.html (http://dknute.livejournal.com/40730.html)
The frequency of the radio is software defined, so it can pick up a crazy range of things.

If I didn't have so many other unfinished projects, I'd be trying to build one.
Title: Re: Any Amateur Radio Operators here?
Post by: TopJimmyCooks on January 03, 2013, 01:13:09 pm
my grandparents were big into it.  they did missionary work where they connected specialists in the US with missionary doctors in Honduras and Nicaragua via HAM and autopatch.  They've passed on but my grandfathers's call sign was w4dcw. 
Title: Re: Any Amateur Radio Operators here?
Post by: MonMotha on January 04, 2013, 11:20:41 pm
Yup.  Extra class operator here.  I haven't been on the air save for occasionally chatting somebody up on a local 2m repeater from my HT in years due to lack of a decent antenna infrastructure, but I was relatively active from 2003-2007 operating W9NAA on HF and VHF.  I'm hoping to get some decent antennas up within the next year or so once I move.  Should be fun...

I mostly got into it out of interest in building my own stuff rather than ragchewing.  You can do some neat things with off-the-shelf consumer oriented parts these days up on 900MHz and 2.4GHz.  SDR stuff is of course also cool but not cheap to get into seriously, especially up above 1GHz.
Title: Re: Any Amateur Radio Operators here?
Post by: BobA on January 05, 2013, 07:21:21 pm
Been a ham since 1981.  One of the first Digital Class licenses in Alberta, Canada.  Before computers were cool.

Bob VE6SN

Title: Re: Any Amateur Radio Operators here?
Post by: Ed_McCarron on January 05, 2013, 09:16:11 pm
N3KPR.  One of the first batches of no-code techs, back in '91 or so.  Me and code never got along, or I'd have been licensed years sooner.

I guess technically I'm also WQKQ684 on GMRS, but I don't think that counts for anything...