my hobby

[LDB]

My hobby, one at least, is amateur radio. I am licensed as a tech now and will upgrade to general sometime in the next few weeks. Once I have general privileges and get my equipment set up in my truck I'll be able to talk with other hams pretty much anywhere in the world. I also like reading mysteries and historical things.

[WILDBILL]

Hey LDB!

Welcome to our Forum and keep everyone informed in regards to your hobby because it sounds darn interesting!
I believe you joined our forum this February if I'm not mistakin?

I am positive that you are going to keep us on the edge of our seats reading about your communications with people all over the world!
Fasinating stuff LDB!

Oh! and once you get set up there is this guy in Morroco I would like to send a message to, do you think you can get that far?

Let me know and welcome again to Truckme.com


Wildbill

[Dreamer]

From the little I know about Ham, I know they can talk all around the world, ya just have to make sure the other person is expecting to be on the same frequency. A friend of mine used go to a Bible College in Cincinnati, OH, and they had a Ham Radio station set up to communicate with missionaries around the world. Still today, there are many places there are no land lines, or cell phones, and satellite phones are just to expensive. The alternative is Ham Radio, as it's world wide.

I'm thinking about getting a license myself. I'll be bending Leo's ear then for advice on equipment!

[TCT]

Being a Ham operator sounds really interesting and I'm sure it's a lot of fun. I've always wanted to get my operators license (is that the correct term), maybe one day I'll hook up with the right people and do it.

[LDB]

Ham radio is an interesting hobby. ARRLWeb: ARRL Home Page is a great place to start for information. Most hams call their license their ticket. I'm not sure where that came from. There is basically nowhere that isn't reachable by radio at some point during a 24 hour cycle. Where one can talk depends on the level of license. In the U.S. we have 3 levels, technician, general and extra. The tech license is the most basic. It allows full privileges on vhf/uhf and very limited privileges on hf. The hf bands are the ones that reach worldwide. A tech is allowed one very small segment of one hf band for voice and small segments of 3 other hf bands for CW (Morse code) only. On CW one could work worldwide easily with just a tech license. The general license allows voice and CW on all the hf bands. The extra allows more frequencies than the general.

Equipment can be bought used to set up an hf station for just a few hundred dollars. Equipment for v/u can be had for just a couple hundred dollars. Lots of guys like to build their own antennas and some even build their own radios. That's far more skilled than I am. I have 10 thumbs when it comes to that stuff. There is even an American company in the radio business still. They supply much of the equipment for the troops as well as ham stuff. Ten-Tec, Inc., Sevierville, TN., U.S.A. is their website. Ham Radio Home Page - QTH.COM by KA9FOX! Classified swap ads for amateur radio, ham radio and more is an online marketplace for used equipment. eHam.net Home - Amateur Radio (Ham Radio) Community Site and QRZ Ham Radio are two great websites for lots of information as well as practice tests.

I'll be glad to try to answer any questions but I'm nowhere near an Elmer yet. Elmer is the ham term for a mentor so being an Elmer is a good thing... well, unless maybe your last name is Fudd and you are foiled all the time. hi hi (hi hi is the ham version of ha ha).