Anyone on here a HAM?

***Jackpine*** · #1 Wed, July 31st, 2024, 06:51 PM

Congrats Bill -

I had no idea you were interested in HAM radio. Back in the old days, you had to learn Morse Code to get a license. Is that still a requirement? I had to learn it to be an Air Force pilot, since navigation radios at that time only identified themselves with a 3-letter Morse Code sequence. The one at Laughlin AFB in Texas, where I went through pilot training was "DLF" (Dah-dit-dit, Dit-dah-dit-dit, Dit-dit-dah-dit).

Weird how I remember that now - 59 years ago!

- Jack

***Power Hungry*** · #2 Thu, August 1st, 2024, 03:37 PM

In 2006, the FCC dropped the Morse Code requirements for an amateur radio license. If I'd had know that earlier, I probably would have gotten my license sooner. Ah well, it's not a big deal. I did it and I'm really enjoying it now.

I have several radios, inluding a variety of handhelds, mobile, and base station radios. I stick mostly to the voice (phone) bands, but occasionally will take a peek at the digital stuff. Just not really my thing.

Over the last year, it's been great fun meeting and talking to people all over the world. Like forums, there are cool people and there are also knuckleheads, or lids as they're called. Overall the experience has been positive, but I'm really quite surprised at the lack of FCC regulation over the amateur bands in regards to some of these individuals. Not that I'm in favor of more regulations.

If you have any interest, this my ham radio page on our website. It has some really good pictures of the equipment.

https://thecohrons.com/billcohron/ham.shtml

Enjoy!

***cleatus12r*** · #3 Mon, August 5th, 2024, 12:48 AM

Eric and his wife are big into it. KE7NLU is his handle and he builds some interesting stuff.

https://hamradiostuff.com is his website for it.

***Power Hungry*** · #4 Mon, August 5th, 2024, 07:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cleatus12r

Eric and his wife are big into it. KE7NLU is his handle and he builds some interesting stuff.

https://hamradiostuff.com is his website for it.

Very interesting! I'll have to see if I can reach him sometime. Montana is not unusual for me, although the solar activity right now is being a bit of a bugger.

I need to take a little time and re-tune my antenna. Now that I've got it better mounted, I'm getting a little SWR issue on the shorter wavelengths. Multi-band antennas are funny like that.