2003 Amateur Radio Field Day

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Posted by michael on Friday June 27, 2003 @02:29PM from the dit-dah-dit dept.

plcurechax writes "The 2003 ARRL Field Day is this weekend, June 28-29. Beginning 1800 UTC Saturday and ending at 2100 UTC Sunday. Originally started in 1933 as a test of portable amateur radio operating, it has become an annual event that is a mix of contest, emergency prepareness, and a public relations activity. Any geeks interested in learning more about amateur (ham) radio, should find out if there is a local club (in Canada)that will be particulating. Most clubs in USA and Canada will have a station on the air. Visitors welcome."

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Ham Radio by brilinux · 2003-06-27 14:46 · Score: 5, Interesting

Ham Radio is actually one of the origional
forms of electronics hacking. It is a great
way for geeks to get involved in the community
and use some of their own expertice in a great
service. All you have to do to get a license
is pass a 35 question test, and you will get a
callsign from the FCC. If you are not already
involved, take a look!

73, DE KG4QXK
1. Re:Ham Radio by Ramadog · 2003-06-27 15:59 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  I just hasn't been the same since they started selling pre-made capacitors. Hell, you can hardly find galena and cat's whiskers anymore! Why, in my day we didn't even have coaxial cable; you licked your fingers and stuck'em in the spark gap to make an antenna, and that's the way we liked it!
  Maybe I missed something but how did this rate interesting? That sound more like a good way of getting rf burns. Even the low power used in 27MHz cb can be enough to give a painfull burn.
  Though in some cases making your own capacitors and inductors is not as silly as it sounds. When building matching circuits for antennas or in some cases high voltage stuff building your own components can be an easy way of getting suitable component values with a high enough voltage rating. For the capacitors I use 2 double sided circuit board that has not been etched yet or short sections of coax. With the coax just keep in mind it has inductance as well as capacitance. For inductors and transformers a suitable guage wire for the application.
Re:If there is... by Anonymous Coward · 2003-06-27 14:48 · Score: 1, Interesting

Not only that. They are notorious to have bad attitudes. Have ever tried to have a dialog with a ham operator? They will talk, talk, and talk and will never listen to anything you say.
It is what you make of it by Anonymous Coward · 2003-06-27 16:11 · Score: 2, Interesting

... a chance to learn how to push more buttons and operate more neat-looking equipment full of blinkenlights. A chance to learn how a lot of electronic circuits work. A chance to digitally communicate over thousands of miles with just 4 watts (which you're aware you could do with wires, but that would require the use of a lot more than 4 watts on a complex, expensive carrier network to accomplish the same result). Oh, and you also meet a lot of nice people (and the occaisional troll), and assist others, when you're not talking to people in the space station, sending television signals, or whatever it is you end up doing with ham radio.

I'm a 26-year-old Extra, which I'll admit is somewhat young for the hobby, but the older folks like me (despite the nose ring) because I posess two very important traits: When I do not know, I say so, and shut up and observe. When I do know, I help. If this sounds like you, you'll make a brilliant amateur radio operator, and you should pursue this license, because after only 35 multiple-choice questions, you are rewarded with a federal license to screw with more stuff.

For the interested, those 35 questions are divided into 10 objectives, only a few questions on each. And those questions come completely from this question pool (July, 2003 edition), which if you look at for a second, probably doesn't strike you as particularly difficult. The resulting Technician-class license lets you use up to 1500 watts on all amateur bands (VHF, UHF, and beyond) over 50MHz, or more simply, everything but shortwave (HF). That includes talking to astronauts, long-distance 802.11b, packet radio, and a bunch of other things I don't know about, aside from the usual voice communications.

So, come see us tomorrow, ask a lot of questions, and bring your own station next year instead of just watching.