Quote:
Originally Posted by Ken CO
Welcome Ken CO and what a heckuva first post! I am building a pelican go-box and will probably be picking your brain if I run into a brick wall!
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ken CO
Welcome Ken CO and what a heckuva first post! I am building a pelican go-box and will probably be picking your brain if I run into a brick wall!
Anyone else laugh at the way this was phrased? LOL, welcome to the board.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ken CO
Hello, I just discovered this thread and was surprised that there are so many Hams here. I have been a Ham since 1997 and hold a General class license. I have seen so many changes to the hobby and am really glad that it is still around today, I still enjoy it. The biggest changes have been in the digital modes, it seems like a new digital protocol was being invented or released every 6 months to a year since 2000. Some of the modes are better then others and some are fantastic at compressing data and using spectrum very efficiently.
If you have questions please ask me and I will tell you what I know about it.
Okay, I'm not sure if we should start a new thread about this, but ... I hang out on these two repeaters:
145.400- 100.0 PL and
145.145- 107.2 PL
I do not transmit at all usually.. but if you want to know my call, PM me
Morning commute around 0800-0830
Evening commute around 1700-1800
PS:
I GOT A VANITY CALL SIGN! LOL
I looked up my own call sign today and saw it was CANCELLED! Then I looked up one of the vanities that I requested... awesome!
You're 2FNCY right?
LOL!Quote:
Originally Posted by Irving
Finally got a real 2m/70cm antenna installed at my house this weekend. Big improvement from the 19" HT antenna or a borrowed 5/8 wave mag mount 2m antenna I use from my place in the basement. I had planned to put it on a mast 28 feet up on the side of the roof. Bought 10' PVC pipe sections for this, glued them solidly, but the pipe was way too whippy to get vertical and clear the eave of the roof. So plan B was putting it in the attic - which would actually be about 3 feet higher than with the mast. Bought 60 feet of LMR-400 good cable - which was the perfect length. Had to get on the roof to feed the coax to the side of the house (a bit scary since the roof is really narrow where I had to go). Both rcv and xmit much better than before. I can pick up 4 of the 10 NOAA weather channels now and hear much more than before. FYI the antenna is a Diamond X-50NA, which was highly recommended and I would recommend as well. Installation was a breeze!
That is awesome!
I have some stuff I need to install in the attic, but the last week was way to hot to go up there. I was up there for a little while wondering how the heck I was going to run some wires (the ceiling is pretty low, and half of the house has vaulted ceilings.) So I chickened out. I might attempt it again this weekend, but my motivation is nil.
I already have coax running to the attic, so It should be pretty easy to get an antenna up there, I just don't have room for a dedicated ham shack.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Singlestack
I hear ya on the heat. In the 1 hr I was up there last weekend I downed 2 bottles of H2o. Most of the time was laying the boards to get to end the end of the attic.
Today I drilled thru about 12.5" of stone, concrete, plastic, particle board and wood to get the cable into the room. Very slow going thru the concrete, and couldn't have done it without a 12" 5/8" concrete bit from home depot. Backfilled the holes with backer rod and weatherproofed with external Silicone RTV.
I love Silicone - my dad worked out of the GE Silicone plant in Waterford NY and sold the industrial glues for them. One of his biggest customers many years ago was Rockwell. They had this new space contraption they called the space shuttle. Rockwell bought a 5-part silicone glue from GE to put the tiles on. Remember the problems they were having with the tiles falling off? The first time it was not following the directions to cure each layer of glue in-place. The second time it was a bad batch of the binder (layer 2, I think). Man was it crazy at our house for a month or two. My dad was practically living in Palmdale CA until they got it right. That glue at the time cost about $1500/oz., but could withstand extreme heat, cold, and pressure.
RBeau - great that you already have coax to the attic - that was one of the headaches for me.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Singlestack
Unfortunately I think it is just the TV cable coax. the HoA frowns on aerial TV antennas and I think this was pre-positioned (with a run of Cat 5 as well.... weird) to mount an antenna in the attic. Not sure if I can put a HAM stick or something in the attic, but I suppose it is a possibility.
I need to run some A/V cable back down, and the chase I want to use is little bit inaccesible along with the ret of the ttic, Like you I think I am going to run some boards up there so I can crawl around easier.
Just started studing for the Tech & General, figured I would get them both out of the way at the same time. Using the Books from W0STU (Hamradioschool.com), so far they seem pretty strat forward and pretty easy to read.
Anyone have a decent format for a log book, maybe a spreadsheet?
I have Technician flashcards from the old version test. I would be happy to donate.
I appriciate it but I have the flashcards covered. I was looking for an idea on a decent transmission log book maybe in a spreadsheet format.
ahhh okay.. I don't do any long distance stuff, and the short distance stuff became monotonous to keep up with contacts so I gave up.
Well I'm just getting through the Tech Book about ready to start the General. I'm thinking I might go ahead and get the extra book and see if I can get all 3 done in the same testing session. I'm planing on the 10th of next m onth so I might run out of time after I get through the general book but we will see.
I didn't take the General right after my Tech exam, which I should have. I got so much going on right now I have no time to study, but I should. my divorce 6 years ago, just got super ugly and I got so much on my plate. I would really like to see what the other bands are like, and get into HF a little.
I got my mount installed for a 10Meter antenna on my truck, just have to tune it and get a radio, I heard on the radio this mornign that 10 meter and 20 meter were good this past week.
I just put a comet SMA24 on my FT-60R giving me full strength receive from most of the front range repeaters. I was typically getting about a 4 or 5 signal with the stock antenna. I don't really transmit so I'm not sure how much that has improved. It would be cool to jump in on a net with you folks. Anymore progress towards this?
Quote:
Originally Posted by bogie
I don't think this ever got off the ground. We would have to find a repeater that most of us can get to that would host us.
I listen to the 145.400- 100.00 tone and the 145.145 and 107.2 tone on both of my commutes. In the morning between 0645 and 0830 and then evening from 1700 to 1745 ish if you want to test.
Sounds like your To work commute time is twice as long as your From work commute time. Similar to mine.
I can be on the air to test about any evening. Just let me know via pm and which repeater, I have most programmed on multiple radios.
Well. My commute is really only 15 minutes, but I go to work on a as needed basis. If I want to get anything done before folks show up I leave early. I have a P-8 school just to the north of me and an elementary school just southwest of me. Mornings can be very dangerous dodging the minivans full of soccer mom's who have more concern over texting/cellphone conversations and dropping kids off at the school than actual traffic laws.Quote:
Originally Posted by Irving
Perhaps we should start by polling the folks who live in harder to reach areas, what repeaters they can get to. Then we know what repeater would work best for most of us.
Then we can informally meet there at certain times, and get a feel for when the most of us might be free.
Then we can ask the repeater owner/radio club to allow us to conduct a short formal net at set times.
We could also perhaps get a frequency plan set up for folks here. (If emergency arises, go to: ____ repeater, _____ freq simplex, ___ Channel GMRS (cobra/motorola/etc radios), or ___channel CB)
If we have a lot of folks in a certain area, we will probably have to break up the regions of colorado in separate groups. (Eastern/Western Colorado, etc)
Just a thought. This would be a valuable skill to practice for the folks who have recently gotten their ticket and have not actually talked much.
I fall in that category of being new and not talking much. I listen a lot and most of the radio talk is out of my league and beyond my current scope of interest. I'll chime in if general talk is interesting but I would do so more if I knew some like minded folks from this forum were on a net. I would also join a repeater club if we found one that would host us. I'm up for simplex too but my transmit range is not so hot unless I'm hitting one of those high up repeaters. I'm thinking about buying a 50 watt radio for my loading bench and an outdoor antenna. Need to do a lot more research before I get that far.Quote:
Originally Posted by rbeau30
I suppose we could pencil in a time where we just show up on a repeater that seems central to most of us and just chat.
I would however like to keep mention of "COAR15" away as much as possible... perhaps refer to here as just "the board" or something like that. Our Callsigns are publishe and so is our addresses. Last think we need is for someone listening with a scanner to put together our addresses with "ohh they are into expensive hobbies".
What I have heard that works well with three or more people is one person talks and names the next person to talk and so on. round-robin through the attendees.
Agreed.
Does anyone know if the repeater in Breckenridge is operational? I drove through there today and couldn't key it up. I've never tried to access it before, so I may have my radio programmed incorrectly.
These ones? I'll try them on my way home from work in about an hour I think I have them programmed. Although I might not be able to either not sure they can see the metro area.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tim K
http://www.repeaterbook.com/repeater....THP3WEUd.dpbs
one of them has a split tone... fyi
I was able to get to the 146.700 repeater and got a good signal report. That was from I225 and 6th avenue. The other two I couldn't even get a repeater CW Identification reply.
I bought a FT-60R a few weeks ago. Also bought an extra battery pack, a 12VDC car charger, a programming cable, and a Diamond SRH320A antenna for it. I'm about to start reading this thread from the beginning and start studying. I took a practice technician's test without knowing anything about Ham and scored a 28/35. A few of them were lucky guesses, and quite a few were caught up in the cobwebs from several years ago. I didn't think there would be so many questions on simple electronics diagrams and principles. I definitely don't know any of the Ham protocol. I looked up some local repeaters and was able to listen in easy enough, but that's not very useful for me yet.
When you listen you will get how others talk. plus if you flubb up usually people are cool about it.
Us folks really need to nail down a weekly time to meet on the radio, and a repeater that most of us can get to.
I ran through the questions at hamstudy.org for a few hours before taking the technician test. It has the entire test bank and will keep giving you the questions you miss more frequently so that you improve quickly. Spend a few hours there and you'll probably score perfectly on the test.Quote:
Originally Posted by HoneyBadger
Get the AA battery adaptor for your radio if you don't already have it. You'll have added utility in SHTF or emergencies.Quote:
Originally Posted by HoneyBadger
I'd very much like that. I need practice not sounding like an idiot.Quote:
Originally Posted by rbeau30
OK, I just read through this entire thread and I'm interested. I have ZERO knowledge of this stuff beyond what I've read here.
Since I live in the mountains, is it even worth getting into this? I've read some comments about "line of sight". I have about 50 yards from my house to thick trees, and I spend 90% of my driving time up here. I don't want to spend a bunch of time/$$ for nothing.
I think amateur radio is even more important in mountainous areas. How is your cell coverage? With repeaters, you can communicate in an emergency even when there is no cell coverage.
I don't use my HT often, but take it with me on every trip, no matter where I go. If bad things happen, I only need to get a msg to another HAM and I trust the msg will be relayed. From anywhere, to anywhere, any time of day.
Can you see the top of any mountains that have a repeater up there? I think Lookout Mountain and Pikes Peak?Quote:
Originally Posted by GilpinGuy
http://www.repeaterbook.com/repeater....w6ZzrnXj.dpbs
Gilpin Repeaters. I think I was successful at contacting the two on Thorodin Mountain with my Baofeng before.
He should be able to hit Pikes Peak, but it really depends on the immediate terrain. If you live in a valley and can't see pikes peak, then you probably won't be able to hit it.
Thorodin Mountain is pretty close. Sweet - thanks!Quote:
Originally Posted by rbeau30