Joel Dare
KI7PGR
I started writing this guide when I got my ham radio license in August of 2017. I'm a new operator and I'm joining this party later than many of you. I'm keeping a record of interesting things that I learn and I plan to continue to write and edit for as long as I remain in the hobby. Hopefully you'll find something useful in my ramblings.
In order to decide what equipment to buy or build you should lay down your goals. Here are my goals for ham radio.
Back country contact, including emergenciesI'm interested in making contacts from areas that have no cell coverage. For example I drove my motorcycle through the Tetons and Yellowstone and had no cell phone coverage and no way to contact my wife to let her know that I arrived. Someone I know was hiking and someone in their party collapsed on the trail. They were 2 miles from the trail head and one of them had to run to get help. Help took 4 hours to arrive. I'd like to decrease the response time for my family and anyone else I might meet on the trail under similar circumstances.
Vehicle mobile communicationsI'm in my vehicle 1.5 hours per day and making commute time contacts on the radio might be interesting some of the time.
DX via QRPI'm also interested in DX (long range contact) specifically at QRP (low power) because of my current equipment limitations and my want to do mobile communication sometimes from a small motorcycle or on foot. QRP is typically done at HF but I'm interested in QRP in the 2 meter and 70 centemeter bands supported by small handheld transcievers.
Digital OperationsBecause I'm a computer programmer, I'm also interested in possiblities of mixing computers and amateur radio. My current radio, however, a simple Baofeng UV-5R, does not support SSB or CW.
I wanted an external antenna. Here are my criteria.
I was listening to the Ham 360 podcast and they were talking about remote control. The guy being interviewed had setup a computer at a vacation home and would control it via the internet from his primary residence.
Many radio's support VOX. This is typically a menu setting where the radio will transmit whenever it hears sound.
A simple solution would be to set a handheld radio on a laptop with it's sound card turned up. You would need to be careful that you didn't play system sounds this way so that your notification dings and such would not be transmitted accidentally (which would be illegal if the system didn't also say your call sign). Finally, run something like Skype on the computer and call into it remotely and let the radio automatically transmit using VOX.
You could transmit your call by simply playing it every 10 minutes on the computer automatically.
This is a simple dipole antenna made out of house electrical wire. In it's simplest form it's constructed of two pieces of wire, two bolts, and a piece of coax cable.
It's designed for the 2 meter and 70 centemeter bands. Mine is centered on 146.52 MHz and 446 MHz. I designed it to be portable, for use with my handheld transciever, but it would work just as well mounted in an attic or on a roof. Mine is enclosed in PVC pipe to make it more robust for travel. It can be oriented horizontally or vertically and it is just over 3 feet long.
I said it was a "simple dipole" but it is actually a set of dipoles (one wire for each frequency range). House electrical wire has three copper wires. I removed the middle wire leaving some of the original insulation and the two outer wires. One of those I cut to 6" for the 70 cm band and the other I cut at 19" for the 2 meter band.
The longer wire is 19" long to start and then is cut down later.
The shorter wire is 8" to start and then it's cut down.
This is a dipole made out of a used gift card, a piece of solid core wire, and two bolts. It's designed for the 70cm band and mine is tuned to 446 MHz.
I've been able to hit the following repeaters from my home on the West side of Roy City, Utah using a handheld Baofeng UV-5R. First, I list the ones I've successfully worked with the stock antenna, often from inside my house. Next, I list the ones I've been able to listen to but have not yet transmitted on. Finally, I list the ones I can reach with an external antenna.
This list was first created on August 17th, 2017 and should be current as of then.
145.250
145.490
146.820
147.040
147.260 (20.6mi)
146.700, Salt Lake City, Ensign Peak 27 mi - Dipole Only
447.050, Layton, IRLP, Star (Busy)
448.575, Little Mountain, Ogden ARC, Auto Patch*
448.600, Mount Ogden, Ogden ARC
147.040, Antelope Island, DC ARC
147.260, Promentory Point, BARC
146.820, Little Mountain, Ogden ARC
The 448.575 (Little Mountain) repeater's autopatch responds but only the 100 code (Time and Temp). The old calling codes published on OgdenARC.org (*901), at the bottom of the repeater page, do not work. The codes listed on the home page (AB0) do work, but the system simply says "Auto patch down" in response.
This is a list of some of the questions I've had about ham radio.
What is a doodad?
Nothing. This is just a draft placeholder question!
Ham Radio Areas to Explore: DX and QRP
This is a great article talking about doing DX (contacting far away stations) using QRP (low power) transmitters.