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Ham radio operators are saving Puerto Rico (2017)

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Re: Ham radio operators are saving Puerto Rico (2017)

#31

Post by friesen »

kawfey wrote: post #30
godelski wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suggest taking a bunch of these tests. You might be able to schedule one test and get both technician and general. I did two tests in one day (and missed like 2 or 3 from getting my general). But the technician is fairly easy, but there is some memorization that you need to do. http://aa9pw.com/radio/

I recommend https://hamstudy.org/

Seconded. I spent about two weeks studying with the mobile version of this site in my free time and managed to pass the technician, general, and amateur extra exams in one sitting.

Re: Ham radio operators are saving Puerto Rico (2017)

#32

Post by chrissnell »

Tunecrew wrote: post #23

Apparently this exercise was not quite what it was made out to be: http://adam.curry.com/html/PleasecancelyourARRL-1508324966.h... http://www.kb6nu.com/weighing-puerto-rico/ (FCC Amateur Extra class here)

That story on Adam Curry's blog was not written by Curry himself, but by a Richard Dougherty (NS0S) of Kansas City. The Reddit story it linked to was deleted, so take this all with a grain of salt.

That said, it doesn't surprise me in the least. There are a lot of wannabe-cop wannabe-military whackers in the amateur radio community, unfortunately.

(NW5W here)

Re: Ham radio operators are saving Puerto Rico (2017)

#33

Post by friesen »

vorpalhex wrote: post #24
AmVess wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Baofeng radios are only marginally useful on the receive end, and generally terrible on the transmit end. A decent Yaesu is $165+, but will last for many years and actually fulfill its role if you need it to. Look up tests of Baofeng radios and you'll see how poorly they carry out their intended function.

Baofengs are terrible but they're cheap and extremely accessible. Also they provide enough room for experimentation with antennas and basic theory. Not all equipment has to be the best equipment. Sometimes "OK" is enough.

Exactly. I picked up a slightly more expensive baofeng (UV-5X3) for my fist radio. Sured it's far from the greatest radio in the world (although it's leaps and bounds ahead of the UV-5R), but it gave me an inexpensive path forward. My only real complaint is that the included antenna is garbage for transmitting. So I built a cheap roll-up j-pole out of some old twinlead. The radio works quite well with that. I have since bought a signalstick antenna (j-poles aren't exactly portable), but that early experience building an antenna made me comfortable with doing more DIY radio projects.

Re: Ham radio operators are saving Puerto Rico (2017)

#34

Post by wwkeyboard »

friesen wrote: post #31
kawfey wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recommend https://hamstudy.org/

Seconded. I spent about two weeks studying with the mobile version of this site in my free time and managed to pass the technician, general, and amateur extra exams in one sitting.

Thirded, I used hamstudy to pass all of the tests and after a few years on the air I finally know enough to understand the ARRL manuals. I'm reading the extra manual and it's pretty incredible, they walk you through the theory of building a transceiver starting at doping silicone to make semiconductors.

Re: Ham radio operators are saving Puerto Rico (2017)

#35

Post by BenjiWiebe »

jpmattia wrote: post #29
Ao7bei3s wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look, a decent Yaesu costs 5x as much, and the Baofeng fully fulfills the role I recommended it for - which is to get a beginner started quickly. The entire point was that you don't need to take part in the pay to win game. Noone said Baofengs are high-quality devices. But that's kind of the point, and it is easily good enough to get onto a local relay to get some easy satisfaction and practice the non-technical aspe…

> Look, a decent Yaesu costs 5x as much Old timer says: My Kenwood (3 tube final amp) cost about $700 in 1978, so I'm a little amazed at modern pricing. -- KA1BKM

Not an old timer says: at that price point I would never have bothered with the hobby. At the current price point I still buy very little. I have multiple hobbies all of which could take all my spare income if I let them. - K0COW

Re: Ham radio operators are saving Puerto Rico (2017)

#36

Post by BenjiWiebe »

Another thing I want to point out to all those talking about the expense - buy an SDR. The RTL-SDR is cheap, and with direct sampling and a length of wire can receive HF. Monitor stuff, find out how it works, and when you are bitten with the bug, you can get licensed and start shopping for transceivers.

Re: Ham radio operators are saving Puerto Rico (2017)

#37

Post by wwkeyboard »

Ao7bei3s wrote: post #10
giancarlostoro wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After an article about the judge who did the case for Oracle vs Google and how he was a ham I got more and more interested in ham radios. The only downside is the cost of some of the equipment, but if you can reach a main city there's usually repeaters up on those buildings from what I've been told. There's so much to learn I feel and I don't know where to start truly, I've just watched a couple of videos and read a…

Ham radio does not necessarily mean expensive equipment. It tends to get expensive, but with some knowledge about electronics, you can build transceivers and antennas very cheaply too - and after all, being allowed to do that is the main, unique perk of a ham radio license. And yes, you can still do long-distance connections that's your goal. Yes, while using repeaters is one of the less interesting aspects of the ho…

If you are in anyway maker-inclined there are a bunch of QRP kits that are not expensive. You won't be immediately spending all evening rag chewing with the old farts on your local repeater, but to take a bag of semiconductors and turn it into a radio that can actually talk with other people is amazing!

Re: Ham radio operators are saving Puerto Rico (2017)

#38

Post by slr555 »

If I remember the original request from ARRL one of the things they were looking for was HF operators who could use the data modes that exist in the ham world to allow communication to insurance company internet resources based in the mainland.

I thought this request was intriguing but wondered why they weren't able to deploy BGAN for this purpose. A surgeon friend of mine said that after Katrina sat phones were of minimal utility because the broadcast networks had contracts that were consuming virtually all of the bandwidth. I'd be interested to hear from anyone who can comment on this.

Some of the most interesting amateur radio technologies today are hybrid modes like DMR that leverage the internet along with traditional amateur radio technologies. With DMR it I have been able to speak from NYC to Malta with crystal clear signal from an HT. While this is fun and I like DMR, in some ways it is like a worldwide cellular party line. It would not be a go to solution for a situation like Puerto Rico.

Re: Ham radio operators are saving Puerto Rico (2017)

#39

Post by friesen »

AmVess wrote: post #15
Ao7bei3s wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ham radio does not necessarily mean expensive equipment. It tends to get expensive, but with some knowledge about electronics, you can build transceivers and antennas very cheaply too - and after all, being allowed to do that is the main, unique perk of a ham radio license. And yes, you can still do long-distance connections that's your goal. Yes, while using repeaters is one of the less interesting aspects of the ho…

Baofeng radios are only marginally useful on the receive end, and generally terrible on the transmit end. A decent Yaesu is $165+, but will last for many years and actually fulfill its role if you need it to. Look up tests of Baofeng radios and you'll see how poorly they carry out their intended function.

Check out some of their newer hardware. The UV-5X3 doesn't have the spurious emissions problem common in previous models.

Granted, the included antenna is garbage. I ended up building a j-pole and picking up a signalstick for mine. It works quite well with both.

Re: Ham radio operators are saving Puerto Rico (2017)

#40

Post by mtgx »

jgrahamc wrote: post #4

The importance of ham radio is that it's infrastructure-less. People are completely used to the Internet and mobile telephones working without thinking about the infrastructure and its maintenance. With my radios I can talk to people all over the place point to point without any infrastructure at all.

I wish the Wi-Fi Alliance would develop a (really) long-range unlicensed wireless standard, too, and then have it built into all Wi-Fi chips. That's what would finally enable the meshnet.
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