So if I wanted to get into the hobby, what would be the cheap and easy
way to do so?

Thankds!

--

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(Artifact Rare)
Mindless Automaton comes into play with two +1/+1 counters on it. 1,
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Re: Cheap and easy HAM?
By: Mindless Automaton to DOVE-Net.HAM_Radio on Wed Jun 20 2012 11:45 pm

So if I wanted to get into the hobby, what would be the cheap and easy
way to do so?

VHF/UHF with a tech license is the cheapest and easiest way in, but it's only one facet of the hobby.

What interests you about amateur radio? If you answer that question, I could give a better answer.

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Re: Cheap and easy HAM?
By: Mindless Automaton to DOVE-Net.HAM_Radio on Wed Jun 20 2012 11:45 pm

So if I wanted to get into the hobby, what would be the cheap and easy
way to do so?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Quansheng-TG-UV2-Dual-Band-radio-Earpiece-USB-Cable-/13
0553112656?pt=US_Ham_Radio_Transceivers&hash=item1e65926850

You can get your license usually for $10 or less and a few hours of studying (taking practice exams).

digital man

Synchronet "Real Fact" #9:
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So if I wanted to get into the hobby, what would be the cheap and easy way to do so?

If you get your license. You can use your computer at first or however long you want with Echolink.

That's free..







PhantomRage Studios BBS!

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■ Synchronet ■ PhantomRage Studios: Telnet://phantomrage.org

Re: Cheap and easy HAM?
By: Mindless Automaton to DOVE-Net.HAM_Radio on Wed Jun 20 2012 11:45 pm

So if I wanted to get into the hobby, what would be the cheap and easy
way to do so?

Thanks to Phantom Rage for showing me this one:

EchoLink! Your cheapest solution! The next best depends on where you live. Where I live, 2 meters is the big thing, so every ham has a 2 meter handy talkie, and most have a 2 meter in their vehichle. Few hams have a
HF in their vehichles, most have a really expensive All-bander in their house. In Westlake, where I used to live, everyone uses 10 meters the way we use 2 meters, though I'm tending to believe they pretty much go with import radios modified for CB use to illegally transmit on CB band with more power. Echo Link requires you to be licensed to download the software, but once you do,
you use your sound card and microphone to act as your radio connected to repeaters all over the world. Great for starting a rag chewing session, collecting QSO cards, just checking on the weather, etc. Another thing you might try is getting with Phantom Rage and checking out his door for his
TNC to his radio.

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■ Synchronet ■ Roach Guts -- kingcoder.net

Re: Cheap and easy HAM?
By: Deuce to Mindless Automaton on Wed Jun 20 2012 11:43 pm

VHF/UHF with a tech license is the cheapest and easiest way in, but it's only one facet of the hobby.
What interests you about amateur radio? If you answer that question, I could give a better answer.

Good point, but then again, I'm not sure most folks wanting to get into
HAM really realize the full potential. Also, Tech's are (yes as you
pointed out) really limited on many HF bands, and a really good reason
for becoming General or better yet Extra is it becomes really easy to
make you a small cheat sheet with the phone ranges for all the bands and
another for any other modes you use, though they still make it difficult,
by limiting certain ranges on certain bands to certain modes.... They showed
me in one band, you could use AM in this range, USB in this range, CW in
this range, etc. ... I want to be able to just scan from range A to range B
and talk anywhere I find someone to talk to... When it gets to where I'm
doing more research to find how I can talk to them than actually making
contacts, I'd rather learn to send SMOKE SIGNALS! The big thing about
Field Day was suppose to be to demonstrate how well we could survive without
any other forms of communications... Well, if we have to bring a big stack
of books to discover what modes we can talk on during a hurricane, I'm afraid we might be limited in communication... I don't really expect to see
a ham shack filled with books in an air conditioned building right after
a hurricane!

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■ Synchronet ■ Roach Guts -- kingcoder.net

Re: Cheap and easy HAM?
By: Digital Man to Mindless Automaton on Thu Jun 21 2012 03:38 pm

You can get your license usually for $10 or less and a few hours of
studying (taking practice exams).

Hmmph! Mine cost me $14 for my Tech, and $14 for the General Upgrade....
No Cost for Echo Link, my pathetic UV-3R that I really don't recommend
unless it will really take you 3 years to save up for a $150 radio,
cost me around $45-$50. Cheap Price, Cheap Quality....

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■ Synchronet ■ Roach Guts -- kingcoder.net

Re: Cheap and easy HAM?
By: John Guillory to Mindless Automaton on Mon Jun 25 2012 08:53 pm

Re: Cheap and easy HAM?
By: Mindless Automaton to DOVE-Net.HAM_Radio on Wed Jun 20 2012 11:45 pm

So if I wanted to get into the hobby, what would be the cheap and easy way to do so?

Thanks to Phantom Rage for showing me this one:

EchoLink! Your cheapest solution! The next best depends on where you live. Where I live, 2 meters is the big thing, so every ham has a 2 meter handy talkie, and most have a 2 meter in their vehichle. Few hams have a
HF in their vehichles, most have a really expensive All-bander in their hous In Westlake, where I used to live, everyone uses 10 meters the way we use 2 meters, though I'm tending to believe they pretty much go with import radios modified for CB use to illegally transmit on CB band with more power. Echo Link requires you to be licensed to download the software, but once you do, you use your sound card and microphone to act as your radio connected to repeaters all over the world. Great for starting a rag chewing session, collecting QSO cards, just checking on the weather, etc. Another thing you might try is getting with Phantom Rage and checking out his door for his
TNC to his radio.

err, spam is a cheap and easy ham... lol

"Practise safe Lunch, Use a Condiment"


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■ Synchronet ■ Three Stooges Gentlemens Club - Las Vegas, Nv - tsgc.dyndns.org

err, spam is a cheap and easy ham... lol

"Practise safe Lunch, Use a Condiment"

Kill's me every time you come up with this stuff...

Spit soda on that one.. Yeah, I am easy to amuse.






PhantomRage Studios BBS!

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■ Synchronet ■ PhantomRage Studios: Telnet://phantomrage.org

Re: Re: Cheap and easy HAM?
By: Phantomrage to Corey on Wed Jun 27 2012 12:12 pm

err, spam is a cheap and easy ham... lol

"Practise safe Lunch, Use a Condiment"

Kill's me every time you come up with this stuff...

Spit soda on that one.. Yeah, I am easy to amuse.

PhantomRage Studios BBS!

Is a pig farmer a ham operator?

"Practise safe Lunch, Use a Condiment"


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■ Synchronet ■ Three Stooges Gentlemens Club - Las Vegas, Nv - tsgc.dyndns.org

Re: Re: Cheap and easy HAM?
By: Phantomrage to Corey on Wed Jun 27 2012 12:12 pm

Kill's me every time you come up with this stuff...

yup, so what's "CB's" Chopped Beef? ;-)

Phantom, you'll be happy and said probably... I just bought a Ranger RTI 9550 10 meter / 12 meter radio. Will be in around the 3-10 of July. I understand fully why most hams are 200% against getting one, and I understand sorta why my ham club keeps saying you won't be satisfied with 10 meters... Sure, the bands closed a lot, but I understand from one guy he's actually been getting a lot of DX lately. I know I have an app called HF Propigation on my phone, I've been watching it and a few weeks back, seems like every 2-3 days 10-12 meters had "Fair" on both days and nights. It's been "Poor" the last couple of days, but... Either way, I wasn't wanting it for what most people call DX, just longer distance than 2 meters.... I can personally tell you, looking at the videos on Youtube irratates me to death! So many people buy this radio and talk about how good of a "CB" it is.... Granted, it is easier to make it into a CB than some of the other exports, but it doesn't make it Legal... I also am understanding what some mean by your never satisfied... ;-) So like this radio supports AM, FM, USB, LSB, and CW. With that in mind... I just have to try again and learn CW, so I can pick up a cheap pair of paddles or that computer interface thingy that types for you, and use the CW mode. I have to admit, the bandwidth of CW is darn small! It'd be cool to setup a BBS interface to do like a chat mode with CW.... Tell you what though, this radio has some really nice features on it... I was wanting 10 meters, and I ended up getting 10 and 12 for just a little more than I was going to pay for 10! And 12 meters has no dedicated modes, you can use the entire (but limited compared to 10!) segment for whatever you want, FM, AM, USB, LSB, etc... Except the data portion.... It's also a continous tuning (think that's what they call it...) If you do the Mod to expand the channels, you can go from the edge of 12 meters on up to 35mHz without having to change bands! 12->10+ free band and never switch bands! They had a clown modify his 2950 for CB use, then on the bottom added like 10-15 switches, had so much junk on there, he just trashed off the radio. one switch plays some siren like noise, another 3-tone rodger beep, another 5-tone rodger beep, and then he said you can leave them all on and the built-in rodger beep, and they'll play in sequence.... He demonstrated... I thought "I hope like heck I never hear him on the air!" Now some of the mods you can do are pretty cool. I'm not into all the "Noise toys", but unlike most radios, you can use your rodger beep button on the radio, and squelch, and a another one to enable certain mods... Like if you have a pre-amp, talkback, or echo and need to turn it on, find the right pin on the CPU and use it to enable the feature, then basically it disables the original function and that function becomes the new function... No drilling holes in the radio and it still looks original... I wouldn't mind having the frequencies expanded out, and adding the option to show CB Channels, to monitor the CB frequencies, but as someone put it, not going to risk my General Class License transmitting on CB radio with a non type certified radio! As far as the 35mHz, I see that like this... Someone said free-banding is supposed to be perfectly legal... But the FCC sets up what frequencies we can use by what is allready in use.... I'm not walking around with 10 feet of books constantly checking if someone else is using 30-35mHz.... There's a reason they didn't allocate those frequencies to hams... If I decided to try to use them, I may cause harmfull interference to someone, or worse talk on a law enforcement frequency.... That's the Primary concern... Second, my whole point of getting the 10-12 meter radio is to talk to someone.... If these frequencies are not "Common", then that means not many people will be able to use them, so I'll have a handfull of people who can use them and most will most likely not be near me! So why bother risking in violation when you most likely won't have anyone who can hear you to begin with.

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■ Synchronet ■ Roach Guts -- kingcoder.net

Re: Re: Cheap and easy HAM?
By: Corey to Phantomrage on Wed Jun 27 2012 04:10 pm

Is a pig farmer a ham operator?

Now that's sick, no pig farm needs to be operating his pig! It's o.k. for
a doctor to play doctor with a pig, but there's laws against that kind of
stuff! ;-)

So why do they call it rag chewing? I mean, did some old men go around talking and when one said something about the other's wife, he'd just grab a rag and stick it in his mouth and start bighting it? Hmmm, gotta find the answer to this and other questions bugging me... And how did "Amateur Radio Operators" become known as hams?

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■ Synchronet ■ Roach Guts -- kingcoder.net

Re: Cheap and easy HAM?
By: Digital Man to Mindless Automaton on Thu Jun 21 2012 15:38:37

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Quansheng-TG-UV2-Dual-Band-radio-Earpiece-USB-Cable- 0553112656?pt=US_Ham_Radio_Transceivers&hash=item1e65926850

Hahaha, just about everyone I know has those or the Baofeung or whatever radios... piles of crap.. .but actually work. :) Good for short range
chatter or to get on a nearby repeater. And super cheap. :)

--Chris

---------------------------------
Chris Trainor - FleetHQ BBS
telnet://bbs.fleethq.org

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■ Synchronet ■ FleetHQ BBS - Greenville, RI

Digital Man wrote to Mindless Automaton <=-

You can get your license usually for $10 or less and a few hours of studying (taking practice exams).

Actually, our local VE team fee is $15. I believe the ARRL has a miminum of
$14 USD

73 de Ray W6RAY
Visalia, CA DM06ih


... When all else fails, Ham Radio WORKS!!
--- blueMail/Linux 1.4
■ Synchronet ■ US 99 BBS - Visalia, CA - bbs.quinnnet.org

Re: Cheap and easy HAM?
By: Chris Trainor to Digital Man on Sun Jul 01 2012 12:07 am

Hahaha, just about everyone I know has those or the Baofeung or whatever radios... piles of crap.. .but actually work. :) Good for short range chatter or to get on a nearby repeater. And super cheap. :)

Just don't let your battery get low... I found on field day, once the battery reached the 50% mark, I couldn't reach the repeater. A Quick re-charge got me back on the repeater.... Building a home brew 2m ground plane got me REALLY KICKING! If you want to make your 2w baofeng sound like a 5w I-comm, just put a real antenna on it! Wouldn't mind having the wire and necessary stuf to jack that bad boy up to 200' off the ground and be legal limit!

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■ Synchronet ■ Roach Guts -- kingcoder.net

Re: Cheap and easy HAM?
By: John Guillory to Chris Trainor on Mon Jul 02 2012 08:52 am

Re: Cheap and easy HAM?
By: Chris Trainor to Digital Man on Sun Jul 01 2012 12:07 am

Hahaha, just about everyone I know has those or the Baofeung or whatever radios... piles of crap.. .but actually work. :) Good for short range chatter or to get on a nearby repeater. And super cheap. :)

Just don't let your battery get low... I found on field day, once the battery reached the 50% mark, I couldn't reach the repeater. A Quick re-cha got me back on the repeater.... Building a home brew 2m ground plane got me REALLY KICKING! If you want to make your 2w baofeng sound like a 5w I-comm, just put a real antenna on it! Wouldn't mind having the wire and necessary stuf to jack that bad boy up to 200' off the ground and be legal limit!

I once had a icon hand radio. after 50% battery is went into save mode and only had a short range.

"Practise safe Lunch, Use a Condiment"


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■ Synchronet ■ Three Stooges Gentlemens Club - Las Vegas, Nv - tsgc.dyndns.org

Re: Cheap and easy HAM?
By: John Guillory to Chris Trainor on Mon Jul 02 2012 08:52:00

like a 5w I-comm, just put a real antenna on it! Wouldn't mind having the wire and necessary stuf to jack that bad boy up to 200' off the ground and be legal limit!

I'd hate to see what gets transmitted... I expect there's lots of spurs that are only 10-20dB down, so running them through an amp would bring them up to interference level.

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■ Synchronet ■ Whiskey Lover's Amateur Radio BBS

On 6/20/2012 11:45 PM, Mindless Automaton wrote:

So if I wanted to get into the hobby, what would be the cheap and easy
way to do so?

Thankds!

Well this is a little dated of a post, but I would suggest contacting a
local ham group, checking the internet or chatting around with people
will usually point you in the right direction. They usually have classes
to get you ready for the exam and even testing.

As for a radio, ebay and craigslist have been my friend... Ironically I
got my Yaesu 2m radio from a guy I met on the CB bands, he wanted a
cobra 148GTL really bad to play with for copnverting and such.
So it's not too hard to get even a 2m rig to chat on.

73's

kd8ncv

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■ Synchronet ■ DX Station - xblade.mooo.com

I would like to test out your TNC door if you could send me the
information and if it's open to me also ;P
I'm a licenced ham, one with no packet activity, and just a 2 meter in
the truck.... I need to get another radio ;P

KD8NCV

73's

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■ Synchronet ■ DX Station - xblade.mooo.com

I would like to test out your TNC door if you could send me the information and if it's open to me also ;P
I'm a licenced ham, one with no packet activity, and just a 2 meter in
the truck.... I need to get another radio ;P

KD8NCV

woah late response. Sorry, I have been super busy..

If you made a account on the BBS I will get your access setup.







PhantomRage Studios BBS!

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■ Synchronet ■ PhantomRage Studios: Telnet://phantomrage.org

Re: Re: Phantomrage
By: Phantomrage to Kd8ncv on Tue Jul 17 2012 21:41:22

I just tried today to telnet in, but kept getting a Connection Timed Out.

73's

I would like to test out your TNC door if you could send me the information and if it's open to me also ;P
I'm a licenced ham, one with no packet activity, and just a 2 meter in the truck.... I need to get another radio ;P

KD8NCV

woah late response. Sorry, I have been super busy..

If you made a account on the BBS I will get your access setup.

PhantomRage Studios BBS!

---
■ Synchronet ■ DX Station - xblade.mooo.com

Re: Re: Phantomrage
By: Phantomrage to Kd8ncv on Tue Jul 17 2012 21:41:22

I just tried today to telnet in, but kept getting a Connection Timed Out.

73's

The server is on its last leg. I have a lockup issue. If I am allowed to
play computer someday I will move it to the new IBM server...

Thanks for the heads up, should be up now, since I am on it. ;)






PhantomRage Studios BBS!

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■ Synchronet ■ PhantomRage Studios: Telnet://phantomrage.org

Re: Re: Phantomrage
By: Phantomrage to Kd8ncv on Wed Sep 12 2012 04:54 pm

Re: Re: Phantomrage
By: Phantomrage to Kd8ncv on Tue Jul 17 2012 21:41:22

I just tried today to telnet in, but kept getting a Connection Timed Out.

73's

The server is on its last leg. I have a lockup issue. If I am allowed to play computer someday I will move it to the new IBM server...

Thanks for the heads up, should be up now, since I am on it. ;)

PhantomRage Studios BBS!

time to put ol' yeller down paw?

"Practise safe Lunch, Use a Condiment"


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■ Synchronet ■ Three Stooges Gentlemens Club - Las Vegas, Nv - tsgc.dyndns.org

Re: Re: Phantomrage
By: Phantomrage to Kd8ncv on Wed Sep 12 2012 04:54 pm

The server is on its last leg. I have a lockup issue. If I am allowed to play computer someday I will move it to the new IBM server...

If you can spare a little time, power down the server, remove the RAM, blow out the dust with a can of air, and reseat the RAM and all of the cables. Sometimes that does wonders to a system that locks up for no reason.

--pF

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■ Synchronet ■ realitycheckBBS -- http://realitycheckBBS.org

Re: Re: Phantomrage
By: Phantomrage to Kd8ncv on Wed Sep 12 2012 04:54 pm

The server is on its last leg. I have a lockup issue. If I am allowed to play computer someday I will move it to the new IBM server...

If you can spare a little time, power down the server, remove the RAM, blow out the dust with a can of air, and reseat the RAM and all of the cables. Sometimes that does wonders to a system that locks up for no reason.

Gave that a try.. Still a no go. So it is on the IBM now. Meh, more
storage.






PhantomRage Studios BBS!

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■ Synchronet ■ PhantomRage Studios: Telnet://phantomrage.org

time to put ol' yeller down paw?

Yup.. She was a good old server.






PhantomRage Studios BBS!

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