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Is there much point, all in all, in going for the higher level licenses, or should I just stick with the low-band entry level ones?

That all depends on what you plan to do on the air. If you're interested in mostly local communication with other hams in the area on VHF/UHF frequencies, the Technician license will allow you to do that. The local repeaters (and non-repeater simplex channels) are also most commonly used for local emergency communications, since most emergencies are of a local nature (severe weather is the most common). As a Technician you'd have no privileges on frequencies below 50 MHz unless you passed the code test, while it's still in effect, but even then you'd have limited privileges (mostly CW) on a few bands. You could still take part in HF emergency communications as a member of a team that had other operators with higher-class licenses as long as they are the control operators.

The Technician exam isn't difficult. You can learn all you need to know to pass the exam from books and other learning aids, or by taking classes from a local club. You can even take practice tests online using the actual FCC question pool.

The General Class license would give you at least some frequency privileges on every amateur band, including the MF and HF spectrum (ten frequency bands ranging from 1.8-29.7 MHz), where worldwide communication is commonplace. You could use voice, Morse Code, image (slow-scan television), data (PSK31, radioteletype, etc) and newer modes like digital voice. But as was mentioned earlier, most of the choice DX (stations in rare foreign countries) is found in the band segments reserved for Extra Class operators only. And a lot of hams in those countries are nowhere nearly as well-off as most of us are in the US, so their stations tend to be limited in capability and many only operate CW, so there's where knowing the code comes in handy. As an Extra, you don't have to remember which frequencies you can and can't use. And if you're interested in the thrilling aspect of radio known as "contesting", an Extra Class license is desirable.

Go for the Technician license as a starting point. Then, join a club (or just meet other local hams on the air) and get a taste of other areas of the hobby you'd like to explore. The club members can probably help you learn what you need to know to upgrade. 73 es hpe CU on the air soon!

Yes.

If he is a licenced ham radio operator, I doubt the amplifier is using is in any way "illegal".

I'm not sure what the maximum power output is in the United States, but here in Sweden, a licenced radio amateur operator can put out up to 1 kW or so without any additional license.

And, being a ham radio operator, you don't actually have to use equiment certified by anyone. Part of the reason you have to take an exam to become a ham radio operator, is to demonstrate they you know what you're doing. Amateur radio is the only service I'm aware of (other than possibly the military) that doesn't require its users to use type approved equiment.

Now CB radio however, that's a completely different story. Any idiot can go to his local electronics store and buy himself a CB rig capable of putting out 5 W of power with a microphone and jabber into it.

Now if he is a CB radio operator -- if he's using any amplifier at all, it's probably very illegal -- and usually of poor quality with lots of nice harmonics.

So how can you tell if your friendly neighbour with the amplifier is a licenced radio amateur running QRO on HF, or if he's an illegal CB operator?

Well. One way to tell is by the way he talks on the radio. You said that you have equipment capable of receiving his transmissions (your computer speakers :-)

According to regulations, all amateur radio stations must identify with their callsign and the callsign of the other party on a regular basis in their contacts. Listen for callsigns -- usually 5-6 characters long with one or more numbers in it -- my callsign is SM0YUF, somebody in the US would probably have a callsign starting with A, N or W, or maybe some other letter that escapes me at the moment. You can look up who owns a certain callsign on http://www.qrz.com/.

If the transmissions contain no callsigns whatsoever, chances are that he's in fact an illegal CB operator, in which case, in theory, you could contact the FCC using the magic word "CB" rather than "ham radio", and hopefully you might make some progress.

Hope this helps. Oh, and do look into those papers with toroids and ferrites. If he is in fact a licenced radio amateur, he is well within his rights, and your equiment is shoddy. Sorry.

73 de SM0YUF

Actually, this is not really media contrived or a matter of opportunity knocking. I am part of the University of central Florida Amateur Radio Club (The Moderator can verify this if desired, I do not feel like giving out my email address to thousands).

Dr. Harpole (K4VUD) was actually part of what they called a DXpedition. Where he had gone , there had never in history been an officially sanctioned amateur radio station before. It was mere coincidence that he had been there 2 weeks prior that special permission had been granted for the radio operators to operate there. The ARRL has more on the DXpedition gone into emergency mode

Also, It should be noted that Dr. Harpole was not the only radio operator there. We have been keeping a series of links on this, however, which are available on the UCF Amateur Radio Club's wiki.


I would like to point out that I do not typically reply to Slashdot posts, however, this is actually something of which I am somewhat a part, and figure I should set things straight. (despite the fact people will still continute to put up off the wall posts on the subject anyway)

Not licensed yet, hopefully soon.

Seriously, skimming over the test bank a few times, then taking a practice test, lather rinse repeat until you regularly score over 80% on that test is all it takes.

When there is lots of aurora, the ionospheric reflection of radio is also perturbed. Read this description of the week from the RF point of view. In summary, the High Frequencies (3-30MHz) lose out, but he Very High Frequencies (30-300Mhz) gain. In particular, the 6 meter (50MHz) ham band showed some interesting reflections. For reference, that's right around tv Channel 2 in the US. Imagine not only being able to see Aurora, but sense them with your own radio and talk to someone by bouncing radio waves off of the aurora!

VA2VYZ has some nice aurora pictures from Quebec.

Personally, I've ejoyed the following lately:

• PSK-31 -- a cheap soundcard-based text-to-text mode that uses only 31Hz of bandwidth and goes around the world on 5 watts
• XML for Ham Radio -- I've started a consortium to develop XML standards for ham radio, starting with an extensible logging format, and working with everyone from QRZ and eQSL.cc on the server side to xlog for Linux and Ham Radio Deluxe for Windows and others.
• RPSK -- a TCP/IP based protocol for remote operation of a PSK station with a Java applet client and a hiptop client. (The antenna is not hooked up right now so don't expect the applet to work.)
• HFPack -- portable and picnic table operation with HF radio; I talked to Estonia with an Elecraft KX1 and about 4.5 Watts
• An RSS feed for APRS -- working with APRSWorld I developed an APRS to RSS converter to help HFPackers let people know where and when they are operating, so people can listen for them.
• Kit building -- I have built an Elecraft K2, one of the most sensitive ham transceivers in the world, their KX1 (one of the smallest and most featureful), a Small Wonder Labs PSK-20 specific to PSK on 14.070 MHz, and a variety of American QRP Club and Four-State QRP Club kits. For more power, I built an 50 Watt HF Amplifier in a group project and am working on a 100W one.
• CW -- I learned Morse Code at 5 so it was easy to pick back up after a couple (ok, a few) decades of disuse, and it's been a blast as well.

Check it out and take a look at my Ham Web Log for more stuff.

Yesterday I talked to Paul Budanov at Akademik Vernadsky Station on Galindez Island in Antarctica. Paul is there for the year, and is an amateur radio operator in addition to his scientific duties. I was using 25 Watts from my house, but I heard a friend talk to to Paul from his bicycle in Redding, California.

Yesterday I talked to Paul Budanov at Akademik Vernadsky Station on Galindez Island in Antarctica. Paul is there for the year, and is an amateur radio operator in addition to his scientific duties. I was using 25 Watts from my house, but I heard a friend talk to to Paul from his bicycle in Redding, California.

Funny, but it's being done: Slow Scan TV software

you could have at least supplied the sources -_-

Source for the first comment

I wish them well but FWIW, it got a skeptical response on this popular ham site qrz.com

kb3hcg,
really poor idea to have your call sign in your sig...

even gota picture

W2EMF

Thanks! Now I can send him nasty letters now that I have his home address!

FCC CHAIRMAN ASSURES CONGRESSMAN ON BPL STUDIES
FCC Chairman Michael Powell has assured US Representative Greg Walden, WB7OCE, that the Commission will give "thorough consideration" to all Broadband over Power Line (BPL) studies before it takes final action on BPL. Powell responded February 3 to Walden's January 15 letter requesting that the FCC defer any further action in its BPL proceeding until the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) releases the results of its BPL study and the public has had a chance to comment. On February 12 the FCC took the proceeding to the next level, unanimously approving the issuance of a Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM). Among other provisions, the NPRM would require BPL providers to employ "adaptive interference-mitigation techniques."

FCC CHAIRMAN ASSURES CONGRESSMAN ON BPL STUDIES
FCC Chairman Michael Powell has assured US Representative Greg Walden, WB7OCE, that the Commission will give "thorough consideration" to all Broadband over Power Line (BPL) studies before it takes final action on BPL. Powell responded February 3 to Walden's January 15 letter requesting that the FCC defer any further action in its BPL proceeding until the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) releases the results of its BPL study and the public has had a chance to comment. On February 12 the FCC took the proceeding to the next level, unanimously approving the issuance of a Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM). Among other provisions, the NPRM would require BPL providers to employ "adaptive interference-mitigation techniques."

It should be noted that this isn't some arcane lore that nobody uses anymore, either. The Q-signals are required knowledge for ham radio operators (although only a few of the most common ones are actually on the test.) Nonetheless, several of them are so common as to have come into common use in voice communications (up to and including face-to-face meatworld chatting) by hams. These include:

QSL: "Please Confirm", or "I confirm", or, a card that a ham sends to another as a written acknowledgement of communications.

QTH: "What is your location", or "My location is", or just "location"

QRM: Interference

QRZ: "Who's calling me?" (see also qrz.com, a popular resource for looking up ham callsigns.)

YL: Young Lady (any female)
XYL: Wife
OM: Old man (any male)
DX: Long-distance (how far varies by frequency, but usually means another country)

73: Best regards

Ethidium

And don't let the test scare you off. Any self respecting geek ought to be able to learn the test material in a couple afternoons.

Basically, when I decided to upgrade from Advanced to Extra, I found about four different sites that supplied online practice tests. Here's one of them; here's another; and here's a third. Basically, about three times a day I took a practice test and made notes on the stuff I missed. Then, I went back and studied up on those topics. Did I memorize the answers? Well, yeah . . . but I also decided that, after thirty years as a ham, it might be a good idea if I actually figured out what a time constant was useful for, or how to read a Smith chart, or how to figure complex impedance. So, I did.

After about three weeks I was scoring 100% constantly, and aced the in-person test.

The technician test should be a complete snap. You just need to know as much about the FCC rules related to ham radio as you need to know about state motor vehicle laws in order to pass your written driver's test.

A few sites of interest:

American Relay Radio League
QRZ

Hams do lots of things. Most of the time it's general banter, contacting whoever you can contact. Often times it's used as a telephone replacement, since it's easy (and free) to talk to many people at once (aka conference calling). There's also contesting, if you check out the events calendar on the ARRL site I linked to you'll see a bunch of "try to contact as many people in the allotted time according to these rules" type events. While it may seem silly at times, it gives us practice.

Often times contests require us to run on our own power, give us a limited set of hardware, and the objective is to make contacts. Hmm.. sound like an emergency drill? Hams respond quickly because in all our non-emergency downtime we get practice so jumping on the air in a moment's notice is almost second nature.

It's mostly covered in the article, but the things that set hams apart are:

* We always have our own power
* We know how to conduct ourselves on the radio for maximum efficiency (everyone knows how to take turns reporting etc)
* We know how our radios work so when they break, we can fix them quickly
* We can make damn near anything from a coil of wire and a battery in the middle of nowhere

Yes, McGyver was definitely a ham radio op.

Ok, having watched the video and listen to the audio, the interference sounds like a bunch of clicks... does this corresponde to the data transfer occuring over the powerlines being a type of packet-burst communication?

The noise is a broadband hash of signals that cover tens of Mhz.

Here is a thread on qrz what has some answers by the guy that made the video, W1RFI.

http://www.qrz.com/p/testing.pl

Technically, yes. As a matter of regulatory policy, no. Right now encryption is prohibited unless the transmission involves authentication for control operations of another amateur radio station. Otherwise transmissions must not be obscured in an attempt to hide their meaning.

A spirited debate is ongoing at QRZ.com over this same topic.

The fact is that amateur radio is regulated not only by individual adminstrations i.e. FCC in the U.S.A., but also by ITU treaty regulations as well.

Commercial traffic that is a direct benefit to either of the parties conduction the contact are prohibited as is content of an obscene nature. In short, ham radio is not currently a legal way to provide "last mile" internet. You're still limited to 802.11A/B Part 15 devices for widespread unlicensed use.

Umm... I wouldn't count on that. Some big communication conglomerates have club stations at many of their offices.

Thanks to vanity callsigns in the US, Motorola, for example, has the club callsigns K9MOT, KE9MOT, KM0TO, W7MOT, 4Z4HX (Israel), VE7MDI (Canada), and others. Many of these sites have their own radios, repeaters, etc.

And no, I don't work for Motorola; I'm just using them as an example since they don't mind having such Amateur Radio clubs onsite. This information is not secret; anyone can search for it.

I agree though that in some areas the Amateur Radio bands may seem quite dead. However, I assure you that in certain areas (such as well around New York City), there is a lot of activity.

Comments need to be in to the FCC by 2002/12/05 at the lattest.

Its 73 DE N0NB. His callsigns N0NB. Yep, the websites match.

What kind of interference will this cause? If everyone with with 802.11 capabilities starts broadcasting, will it cause any problems? I've heard bluetooth and things like microwaves and 2.4 GHz cordless phones don't get along so well with this technology.

As a "Joe User" with an off the shelf, Part 15 device, you must accept any interference that comes your way. You must also not cause any interference. You are an unlicensed user of the spectrum.

As a ham on the other hand, you can modify the part 15 Device to your allocated freqs, amplify the power output and modify the antenna system. You will also have priority over the Part 15 Devices that coexist in your spectrum.

DE KE4PJW

If they turned it around a flew it the other way, then they wouldn't have all the instability problems you get with carard configuration aircraft... IMHO

Huh? Canard != unstable design. My VariEze (canard pusher designed by Burt Rutan) is the model of stability. As angle of attack increases (airspeed decreases), the canard will stall before the main wing, resulting in the nose pitching down. With the nose down, the angle of attack is reduced (airspeed increases) and the stall is broken. If you apply full aft elevator, the aircraft will "porpoise" but always under control without any wing drop or tendency to depart controlled flight.

OK, I'm not talking static or dynamic stability in the classic aero sense and I'll make no argument that the Wright Flyer was unstable. But it's not because it used a canard (and rear propulsion).

--
Joe

I worked KC4AAA the other night on 20 Meters (Around 14.238Mhz) The station operator's name is Skip. You can hear them on the air almost every night.

Be careful using these technologies. Some interfer with Amateur Radio oepration.

http://www.qrz.com/articles/01/11/25/1020238.shtml

Over and out...

I for one would love to give it a go, but every site I've looked at described hundreds of hours of studying and tests and tens of thousands of dollars in equipment. Is there any way to build a cheap but effective setup? Maybe in the $1000 range?

The tests are not that hard. If you know basic electronics, you can pass the Tech and General exams with a few hours of study. Here are practice tests It takes about 30 Hours to learn the Morse Code for Tech+ and General tickets, but you only need that for the HF bands.

You can pick up a Icom-706MKIIg rig for about $800 used and it should be all the radio you will ever need.

This assures no human will try and lift (and possibly drop) it, and that they will have to handle it with a palette lifter.

Also, have the UPS associate inspect your packaging before you send it off, so they can't complain about improper packing. There should be 6" between your cargo and the container wall packed with shock absorbing material.

As for the claims, yes they can take months. It's much better to prevent damage entirely and dummy proof your package by attaching it to a large object like a palette.

Hams should be prime sources of information for practical aspects antenna placement and more. There should be at least one amateur radio op in your area.

Although you did not say anything about where this school district is, you did make reference to Dollars Canadian so I will point you to Radio Amateurs of Canada (RAC) as a good starting point to locating a ham in your area.

Additionally, the ARRL in the USA and qrz.com would be other good starting points for information searches.

While what you are looking to accomplish is utterly forbidden to do within the amateur radio bands, the techniques used in those bands would be adaptable to other, more suitable frequencies.

Best of luck!

Regards, NN5KS

Check ARRL or QRZ or any other number of ham sites. I for one got activated here in Dallas to support the national call center that came up here in response to this crisis. Rest assured, we are out there and are doing what we can in support of our served agencies. I have trained for this as an amateur radio operator for years. I had sincerely hoped that I would never have to use it in a real situation.

1. Drill/Simulation of Emergency communications, running from power sources OTHER than on the commercial mains (such as generators, car batteries, solar, NiCD battery pacs, etc)
2. Contest, see how many stations you can contact within the 24h period
3. Demonstration to the public about what Ham radio is, and what it can do (public services, especially in emergency, but also for special events such as marathons & parades etc; as well as the technical aspect- all the cool goodies)

All you'd need to do is get your Amateur Radio License. It's much easier than you might think.

Then, look at this device from Kenwood. It's a neat little package that includes a camera, the display, and all the computing you need.

Hook this baby up to your radio, have a similar setup on the other end, hook it up to a computer on the net and you're all set!

This is called Slow Scan Television (SSTV).

Another cool thing about this setup.. throw in a cheap GPS reciever and you're ready to do APRS! (report your position, send messages, and lots of other fun stuff)

Good luck

I got it from here.

-A.P.
--

"One World, one Web, one Program" - Microsoft promotional ad

Home electronic equipment must accept any interference that it receives. While your neighbor might be able to help you, it is really the company that produced the products fault. If you don't know your neighbor and he is a Ham then look him up at QRZ.com. If you don't find him then he is probably a CB'er and you can complain to the FCC.