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Wild M posted:As a tip for the U.S. technician test, you can also find a question pool somewhere online. It includes all the possible questions (around 650) so I suppose you could read over that if you want to make sure you pass the exam. It's a pay site, but they have free trial memberships that expire if you're not active for 30 days. They have all the question pools, and have practice exams that mimic the real exams in question frequency.
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Apr 17, 2008 00:46
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Dolemite posted:Interesting! I used to be a DJ at our University-run FM radio station (V89 at Florida State University) and the FCC rule for us was that we had to ID our station every 30 minutes. We had some interesting rules since we were a non-profit. Professional radio would be radio stations licensed for business use, like advertisement. Saying FM radio doesn't really cover it exactly, as that's just a modulation scheme. Transmissions in the 6m/2m/70cm bands are FM transmissions, but they're still amateur bands. Anyway some awesome Extra will probably come along and clear things up, but that's what I've taken away from my studying for the Technician exam (which you should take, its really easy!).
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Apr 17, 2008 02:38
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NYIslander posted:Just got my call sign from QRZ, it's KC2TFW. I don't have a rig yet (have to read thread first for ideas) but I'm interested in nmfree's idea for goon Echolink once I get the hang of this radio stuff but for now, what meters are good for listening in? I tried 120m but I could barely understand anything even with SSB on.  (uh oh internet detectives....)The HT I ebayed should be here early next week!
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Apr 18, 2008 00:27
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With the supervision of a friend and some beer (probably too much beer...), I built this neato twinlead jpole antenna: http://www.qsl.net/wb3gck/jpole.htm I don't have my HT yet so i can't tx, but it seems to work decently for receiving on 2 meters. It seems to perform about as well as my magmount antenna, but I haven't done a side by side comparison. Construction was fairly easy except for stripping both sides of the twinlead to solder the coax on. I just ended up cutting it in half and soldering it back together where i attached the coax, because stripping a wire in the middle is really hard. The joint that attached the coax shielding wasn't super great, and broke pretty quickly. I've since fixed it, and took it for a spin on my balcony.  Oh also I put some heatshrink over the notch it has you cut out of the 1/4 wave side to make that a little less crappy.For the amount of time, effort, and money I spent on it (maybe 1.5 hours and $free since I used leftover parts), it's pretty awesome. sklnd fucked around with this message at 04:02 on Apr 21, 2008 |
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Apr 21, 2008 03:56
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Jose Pointero posted:Cool, got any pics? I've read about those and have been wanting to build one. Dunno where I'd put it though.  As you can see its not all that big. As you can also see my camera has a dirty lens.  Close up. Nothing fancy. Ignore the giant hole i put in it tacking it to the wall with nails last night. I need to buy some push pins. There's also a pushpin hole for when my buddy and I were first testing it. He took the push pins home with him.
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Apr 22, 2008 03:42
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I just did a quick test with that j-pole versus the magmount. I was listening to N5MJQ and was able to catch two guys talking on the input frequency. On the magmount I can't get either of them on the input. I also had my first QSO on that repeater using my new HT (that came in today )
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Apr 22, 2008 04:44
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Jedi425 posted:Hmm. I'd have to install it so no wire showed at all (one of the reasons the HOA got called on me was apparently due to a loose wire hanging over the edge of the roof from a previous tenant's eff'd up satellite dish installation), and I'm not sure if I can manage that, but it's a start. Thanks for the tip, I'd heard of these things but never really gone looking. http://www.arrl.org/FandES/field/regulations/local/ccr.html#prb-1 This is one more reason to never buy a house that's deed restricted if possible. This HOA business really rubs me the wrong way, as people who have no investment in your property can dictate what you can and cannot do with it.  Also, this is kind of a fun read, if you like to read about neighbors being outright dicks to a guy because of his tower. http://www.qsl.net/k3qk/mine.html
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Apr 23, 2008 01:44
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SheriffHippo posted:terrible news That's terrible! I hope you and your family are doing okay. I'll be willing to take some of it off your hands. I'm in western Plano so local pickup isn't a problem. Edit: blugu's 2nd edit is the best suggestion sklnd fucked around with this message at 04:49 on Apr 24, 2008 |
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Apr 24, 2008 04:43
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mas posted:Might check out this guy's study guides he put together. http://kb6nu.com/tech-manual/ ^this (from the shortwave thread) The Tech guide is quite nice.
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Apr 25, 2008 01:58
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TetsuoTW posted:And so, I've got one question (for now) - I suspect it would be, but would an HT be sufficient a rig for a newbie? I'll be looking at a mobile rig before terribly long, though. The HT + mag mount antenna works pretty decently, but I'd like something a little more permanent. Also the mag mount came off my truck while driving down the interstate today  due to my speed (70MPH) and a very strong headwind. Luckily it fell into the bed and was undamaged.
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Apr 27, 2008 20:55
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I just got back from vacation in the Bahamas. I was disappointed that they don't reciprocate tech licenses with the US, so I was unable to operate. However, when I got there I found no activity on 2m or 70cm. Taking my HT to do some listening was a waste of pack space  However, everybody in the area I was in seemed to live on marine band radios. You could call *anybody* in various towns on channel 16, like grocery stores, the town clinic nurse (we had to do this at one point, as a fellow on our boat cut his toe badly hunting for some snails in some mangroves  ) , restaurants, etc. That was pretty neat. Listening to it wasn't as interesting as the local greybeards on the local repeaters, but it was still pretty cool. Boat names are often absurd so its pretty great listening to Papa Nasty calling Harbor View Grocery.
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May 15, 2008 23:20
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most of it was pretty short QSOs if they stayed on 16, and anything complicated seemed to move off onto another channel.
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May 15, 2008 23:59
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Jonny 290 posted:And yes, hams will spend 30 hours figuring out how to get 3.1 or 95 on a P200 laptop before they go spend $199 on a modern one, haha. Anyway, I've been meaning to look at the world of ham radio software on Linux beyond gMFSK. I've seen the options down in the kernel's menuconfig a bazillion times, but I've never had the desire to see that's there to be used until now. I think I just found what I'm going to do with my Sunday
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Jun 7, 2008 00:26
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All of the repeaters around here that I lurk on ID in a robot voice or cw One of them (can't remember which) occasionally has a female robot voice say "Good evening" though. I'm jealous of your wacky ID repeaters.
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Jun 11, 2008 23:52
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on 2m everyone sounds like a radio person  I'm not entirely joking by that. There's some weird effect the radio has on the way people talk. I noticed that I talk differently when keyed up. Also, if anybody here is in North Texas and is going to Hamcom, I hope to see you there! I'll be heading out to it here shortly once I shower up and round up some breakfast and my ham buddy.
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Jun 14, 2008 14:15
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We've (myself and blugu64) returned from Ham-Com. I tossed some pictures up on my hosting. Boat anchors and old men, now outdoors at Ham-Com!  Inside at Ham-Com. There were actually a few women in attendence...and a bunch of old men. It kinda smelled like old men. A lot. There were a lot of people on electric scooters.  The best electronics are from Japan. And made of wood.  I bought a new IC-208H for ~$270 from Texas Towers   Cool booth.  Terrible picture, but the FLEX-5000 is pretty awesome. Its a SDR  with no knobs.  Supposedly the softare to run it is open source. I chatted up one of the guys running the booth, and apparently they're looking at running on both Windows and Linux in the future. I'm tempted to send them my resume.  Otherwise, I'll never be able to afford this guy at $2,700. Eventually I was hungry. Yay Arbys!  I wasn't present to win  The new radio. Hot. Also: power <----> beer
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Jun 15, 2008 00:29
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The cable itself is a OPC-1132 I have no idea what the connector is, though.
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Jun 15, 2008 17:24
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Jose Pointero posted:Nice radio! I didn't know those had dropped in price, they were like $350 I think last time I checked. Gonna upgrade it to D-Star? My club is going D-Star crazy at the moment and they've been trying to get me to buy one. I keep telling them that if they drop the price of the drat chip, I'll sell my IC-2100 and get the 2200H.
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Jun 16, 2008 23:09
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McRib Sandwich posted:I'm sure you're just being facetious, but I seriously hope that someone wasn't actually suggesting that some sort of Motorola portable / land-mobile radio would make a better trunk-tracking scanner than, oh, I dunno, a TRUNK-TRACKING SCANNER?
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Jun 26, 2008 04:02
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McRib Sandwich posted:Wow, no posts in almost a week. Anyone been up to anything interesting in the world of ham radio lately? Maybe some public safety events over the holiday weekend? It's not terribly interesting, but I heard people on 2m simplex that isn't a friend of mine calling me for the first time recently!. One guy yesterday calling on simplex was really close. my buddy lives a mile away, and this guy was coming in clearer than he does most of the time. I was not in a position to answer, though.
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Jul 7, 2008 23:11
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Hartman posted:I got my tech license at the Last HOPE (failed the general with around a 50%). How long does it take the FCC to put a new license in their database? I have a friend who tested on a Saturday and had his issued on Wedsneday. So, in essence, faster than any other government function I've ever dealt with, ever.
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Jul 22, 2008 04:39
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Well, I just applied for the title to my truck today, and at the same time I filled out the paperwork to get Radio Operator plates. My temp tags have my call written on them  I had to sign a paper stating I am not entitled to a refund for my special plates in any circumstance. That's $2 I can never get back. 
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Jul 30, 2008 00:59
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Time for more mobile ham pictorals. I was putting my bike on my truck, and wanted to take a couple pictures for separate reasons, so I figured I'd get some shots of my crappy radio setup (mounting, power) out of the way.  I got my tags in last week! I want to get a better antenna, maybe 1/4 wave on 2m, and mounting it with something like this mount in the rear passenger-side stakehole on the side of the bed. I'd have done it already, but I've got some other things I'm saving my hobby funds for right now. The mag-mount is really annoying, because even the small one I have can't make it under my garage door. I always have to remember to pull it off before I park my truck at home.  Here's where I stuck that Icom IC-208H. I had less room under there than I thought I would have, and the dash presented some difficulties. There's a lip on the back edge of it pointing downward, which I had to file down to be able to mount the radio. Also this is kind of janky because it's held up there with one screw right now. It hasn't fallen down in the couple of months since I mounted it, though.  This shows the relative position compared to the wheel. Getting the mic is a bit of a stretch, as is hitting the power button. Aside from that, its pretty nice. I also wanted to showcase my rockin 1990 Ford Ranger dash and gear cluster.  This shows how I connected it to the battery. I just jammed the ends of the power cable into ring connectors, and got some vicegrips to mash them on with. Seems to work, though it trashed the plastic bit as you can see. My biggest concern with this was getting whine off the alternator, but the little I do get isn't terribly loud, and I'm not convinced that its audible when I tx. The last concern here is that I have to remember to power off the radio when I kill the truck, or it will drain my battery. So far I've left it on once, and only for an hour.  Here's how I routed the wire to a nice premade hole in the firewall. I just used the existing areas wires were running through after I put some of that wire shielding stuff on. I love my truck because there's a ton of room to do stuff like this.  I was so happy when I saw that grommet in the firewall and was able to easily remove it. I cut an X in it with a razor blade (just the blade, because I couldn't find a proper box cutter. I'm safe), ran the wire through it, and jammed it back in. I haven't noticed any leakage since, but I haven't exactly driven a whole lot in the rain since then. I'm considering sealing it up with some silicone.  And finally, here you can see power going behind the pedals and over the steering column to my radio. Note also the lip I had to file down to mount that guy. That was a couple hours worth of uncomfortable filing. One last interesting thing is how much spoogy crap is on the underside of the dash there. This truck was detailed not two months ago, so I think the guys that did it missed the underside by a fair margin.
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Aug 23, 2008 03:07
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That is pretty awesome. I will have to order one of those when I order antenna parts.
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Aug 26, 2008 00:11
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Jose Pointero posted:Sooo, anyone awake? Otherwise, awesome! I head through Abilene way more often than Waco (I make the I-20 drive out to West Texas 4 or 5 times a year minimum), so I'll have to hit you up on the local 2m repeater next time I'm down that way.
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Sep 9, 2008 04:20
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I hate to take pleasure in Galveston getting destroyed (its a great town), but I'm charging up the HT at the moment because there's going to be some good listening over the weekend.
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Sep 13, 2008 01:10
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cvisors posted:My callsign has come in, VK3FBSD reporting
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Oct 17, 2008 04:45
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Well yeah its windy there. Otherwise, those wind farms would be pretty silly. I'll be speeding through that area tomorrow night on my way out to Big Bend. Sadly, it'll be around midnight or I'd try and chat you up.
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Feb 12, 2009 06:38
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