Radio people

avdrummerboy

avdrummerboy

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Just curious, any ham radio operators on here, or even just radio enthusiasts, scanner listeners, the like. Chime in

KD7WNJ
 
I'm most certainly a Ham. I'm a General Class. I don't give my call out openly because anyone that knows my call can easily look me up and find out exactly where I live. There's no sense in making it any easier for people.
 
Eh, whatever, there's a million ways that someone can find me, I can only imagine the NSA and CIA lists that I'm on lol.
 
I've wanted to get into Ham for better understanding of the technical side of things. Unfortunately it's hard to find the time to meet up with the local club, and ridiculously hard to find someone to administer the certification tests here.
 
The no code technician test is incredibly simple. There are free study guides you can download. Then, just look at ARRL.org to find a volunteer examiner nearby.

N7LXI.
 
I've had my license since 2000, and the only reason I renewed it a couple years ago is in case it becomes the only way to communicate. It's basically a backup to the backup to the backup.

As mentioned above, the no code technician test is simple. I passed it without ever opening the book.

Back home in Indiana, the radio repeater network was great. They had several repeaters linked and you can talk to anyone in a hundred mile radius with only a handheld. Down here in Florida they have some decent repeaters, but there is so much politics and hatred between the "clubs" that it makes me sick. I never joined one and never will.
 
I like to mess around with microwave stuff. Point-to-point links, that sort of thing. I'm not the typical ham radio guy. I have a radio in my truck, but I never turn it on. It's only there in case I need one. Hurricane, flood, some other sort of disaster.

We have a guy in our department who's the typical ham radio geek. Carries a ham radio with them at work, very involved in the local clubs. He gets his chops busted quite a bit. There's a bit of a stigma attached to being a ham radio guy. But, when everything has gone tango uniform and you can still communicate… Well, I guess I'll deal with the ham radio stigma. :)

Edit: I also used him radio quite a bit when I was off roading and going on expedition type runs with some friends in Washington. The quality and range is way better then a CB radio.
 
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Since all of the exams are now "no code" they're a lot simpler than they were. Just a few years ago, there was the no-code tech (basically VHF and above), Novice (HF only, 5 WPM code) Tech+ (Tech +5 WPM code), General (13 WPM code), Advanced, and Extra (20 WPM code). These aren't exactly presented "in order" of privileges, but rather code speed and exam level.

Then they dropped the code requirement to just 5 WPM, and somewhere along the way, they dropped Novice and Advanced. Now we just have Tech, General, Extra licenses. I found General fairly easy. Maybe now that I've got my RN license and don't have much studying to do right now, I might just start studying for the Extra...

Just in case someone starts wondering, yes, my license hails from the land of 6, and I got my license before some people on this forum were even born.
 
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I used to be a Tech class (KD5QHI) but I let it lapse. I might test to get it back
 
General class, W0KLG, but haven't been active in a couple years. I was initially very excited and then discovered it was made up of contest participants and good ole' boy "do you remember when.." rag chews I had no hope of contributing to.
 
I have my ham license, but more of a scanner listener. I have portable and mobile radios and scanners. Like the P25 gear more. I'm mostly on 2M or 440.
 
I'm not a Ham operator. I used to be a sports radio announcer
 
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