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2003 Amateur Radio Field Day

Posted by michael on 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."

2 of 137 comments (clear)

  1. Ham Radio by brilinux · · 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 · · 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.