what ham radio sys would you need

[R_Bert]

I know this thread is about a year old, but I am about to start studying for the Tech, and I found this thread to be informative. I would like to take the test mid September.

Besides a fun and useful hobby, I would like to have a means of communicating with my brother in Florida should the traditional methods fail. He is getting started in it too, so it's a learning experience for both of us. I want a moble unit in my truck that I can also use as a base unit if desired. I have been looking at the Yaesu FT-857D and the FT-7900R. Just wondering if the HF and increased wattage of the FT-857D are really worth the extra $$. I assume I will need to go further than Tech to use HF.

Do I understand it right that with VHF/UHF I will need repeaters to reach Florida and HF can do it without repeaters under the right conditions?

For decent wireless communications in the Southeast US, 40M in the day time, and 80M at night work fairly well.

For all intents and purposes, in the Southeast, a typical repeater range is 50-100 miles (with a few specific exceptions).

You will not be able to communicate from TN to FL solely via repeater.

There are some internet-to-repeater regimes, that allow local use of vhf/uhf radios on one end or the other. Skype works better nowadays.

There are a few select high-power VHF stations the Chattanooga area that can make it to the FL state line under decent conditions, but they have big arrays, high power, and live on SIgnal Mtn, etc. These stations use SSB or CW on VHF to make that haul. Long distance VHF/UHF communications is done (I have 42 states confirmed on 144 Mhz for example), just not with normal equipment and conditions.

[Guest Lester Weevils]

What would be the most common local emergency band hams would use nowadays? 2 or 6 meters, or something else?

[TGO David]

What would be the most common local emergency band hams would use nowadays? 2 or 6 meters, or something else?

2M for local. 40M for regional / national I'd imagine.

[Guest Lester Weevils]

2M for local. 40M for regional / national I'd imagine.

Thanks, David

[DaveTN]

What would be the most common local emergency band hams would use nowadays? 2 or 6 meters, or something else?

If I wanted to buy a ham radio for emergency use I would look at 10 meters. The largest group by far in an emergency is going to be the CB band (11 meters). 10 meter radios can legally monitor the 11 meter band if they aren’t transmitting.

[DaveTN]

Matter of fact, since this is about survival and preparedness; let’s be real about emergency radio and wanting to get your ham license. You can start in the CB (HF 11 meters) bands and have a nice legal station, many hams started this way. Many people look simply at the cost of the radio, but to have a base station set-up you are going to have almost, if not more money in a tower set-up and antennas. This allows you to get set-up with a station that will allow you to communicate with a large number of people, both locally and long distance. You can communicate between your home and your own vehicles locally. Due to cell phones this isn’t as popular as it once was, but would allow communications should cell service be disrupted or power was lost.

As you build your station you can get your ham license and expand your capabilities. But I would bet most ham operators still maintain the ability to communicate on the CB bands.

When Nashville was flooded I was returning from Illinois and knew nothing about it. My mother called me and asked if my wife in Murfreesboro was okay. I didn’t know what was going on and asked “Why wouldn’t she be?†This was the first I heard about it. She said she was watching the flood on TV and thought she better call. As I got closer I was switching around the news stations and could not get definitive information about getting through Nashville. The Mayor was on the radio saying that all Interstates were passable except for some areas on I-40. I found out later that wasn’t true. The city in was in chaos and bad information was being given out. They kept talking about “parts†of I-40 being impassable but gave no spefic areas.

I had a CB radio and mag mount antenna in my trunk. I pulled over and sat it up. The truckers were giving good info on what was passable. They gave me info that took me down to Franklin and over across 840 to Murfreesboro. When I got I saw the news video of parts of I-40 and I-24 that were under water. I would have been in those long lines of backed up traffic it wasn’t for the CB.

I’m not suggesting that anyone not their HAM license; but don’t overlook CB to get you started.

[Wingshooter]

Matter of fact, since this is about survival and preparedness; let’s be real about emergency radio and wanting to get your ham license. You can start in the CB (HF 11 meters) bands and have a nice legal station, many hams started this way. Many people look simply at the cost of the radio, but to have a base station set-up you are going to have almost, if not more money in a tower set-up and antennas. This allows you to get set-up with a station that will allow you to communicate with a large number of people, both locally and long distance. You can communicate between your home and your own vehicles locally. Due to cell phones this isn’t as popular as it once was, but would allow communications should cell service be disrupted or power was lost.

As you build your station you can get your ham license and expand your capabilities. But I would bet most ham operators still maintain the ability to communicate on the CB bands.

When Nashville was flooded I was returning from Illinois and knew nothing about it. My mother called me and asked if my wife in Murfreesboro was okay. I didn’t know what was going on and asked “Why wouldn’t she be?†This was the first I heard about it. She said she was watching the flood on TV and thought she better call. As I got closer I was switching around the news stations and could not get definitive information about getting through Nashville. The Mayor was on the radio saying that all Interstates were passable except for some areas on I-40. I found out later that wasn’t true. The city in was in chaos and bad information was being given out. They kept talking about “parts†of I-40 being impassable but gave no spefic areas.

I had a CB radio and mag mount antenna in my trunk. I pulled over and sat it up. The truckers were giving good info on what was passable. They gave me info that took me down to Franklin and over across 840 to Murfreesboro. When I got I saw the news video of parts of I-40 and I-24 that were under water. I would have been in those long lines of backed up traffic it wasn’t for the CB.

I’m not suggesting that anyone not their HAM license; but don’t overlook CB to get you started.

Good points. Thanks

[Wingshooter]

For decent wireless communications in the Southeast US, 40M in the day time, and 80M at night work fairly well.

For all intents and purposes, in the Southeast, a typical repeater range is 50-100 miles (with a few specific exceptions).

You will not be able to communicate from TN to FL solely via repeater.

There are some internet-to-repeater regimes, that allow local use of vhf/uhf radios on one end or the other. Skype works better nowadays.

There are a few select high-power VHF stations the Chattanooga area that can make it to the FL state line under decent conditions, but they have big arrays, high power, and live on SIgnal Mtn, etc. These stations use SSB or CW on VHF to make that haul. Long distance VHF/UHF communications is done (I have 42 states confirmed on 144 Mhz for example), just not with normal equipment and conditions.

Great info

[tnhawk]

Truckers may be the most frequent users of CB now. Recently I've seen several truckers taking tests to get licenses for ham radio.

A Technician license usually only takes a few hours of class and practice exams. There are many amateur radio clubs that offer the classes to prepare for the exams.

AK4SZ

Edited August 5, 2012 by tnhawk

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Matter of fact, since this is about survival and preparedness; let’s be real about emergency radio and wanting to get your ham license. You can start in the CB (HF 11 meters) bands and have a nice legal station, many hams started this way. Many people look simply at the cost of the radio, but to have a base station set-up you are going to have almost, if not more money in a tower set-up and antennas. This allows you to get set-up with a station that will allow you to communicate with a large number of people, both locally and long distance. You can communicate between your home and your own vehicles locally. Due to cell phones this isn’t as popular as it once was, but would allow communications should cell service be disrupted or power was lost.

As you build your station you can get your ham license and expand your capabilities. But I would bet most ham operators still maintain the ability to communicate on the CB bands.

When Nashville was flooded I was returning from Illinois and knew nothing about it. My mother called me and asked if my wife in Murfreesboro was okay. I didn’t know what was going on and asked “Why wouldn’t she be?†This was the first I heard about it. She said she was watching the flood on TV and thought she better call. As I got closer I was switching around the news stations and could not get definitive information about getting through Nashville. The Mayor was on the radio saying that all Interstates were passable except for some areas on I-40. I found out later that wasn’t true. The city in was in chaos and bad information was being given out. They kept talking about “parts†of I-40 being impassable but gave no spefic areas.

I had a CB radio and mag mount antenna in my trunk. I pulled over and sat it up. The truckers were giving good info on what was passable. They gave me info that took me down to Franklin and over across 840 to Murfreesboro. When I got I saw the news video of parts of I-40 and I-24 that were under water. I would have been in those long lines of backed up traffic it wasn’t for the CB.

Thanks Dave

Hadn't thought about CB for a long time. Had one in the 1970's playing music on the road. Nowadays except maybe emergencies and hiways, is 11 meters mostly deserted? This afternoon I tried briefly scanning the CB channels with a Grundig YB400 receiver. I had got one of those guys long ago because it is about as selective an am fm broadcast band portable I've seen for weak stations, so when they discontinued the model bought a couple of spares to keep one in the kitchen, bedroom and bathroom. Liked it pretty good for a receiver and wanted a spare. In addition to being a very selective am/fm, its not the most fabulous shortwave receiver but its not chopped liver either.

So anyway looked up the frequencies of the CB bands and spent awhile listening for signal. Heard a few occasional weak unintelligible buried in noise transmissions on ch19, 27.185 MHz, and might have heard a couple of weak unintelligible signals on ch11, 27.085 MHz. There was a strong (according to the meter) un-modulated carrier on ch5, 27.015 MHz. Listened to ch 5 a few minutes, nothing but a strong unmodulated carrier as best could tell, Maybe somebody nearby had accidentally sat on his transmitter key or something. Maybe it would do better with a decent antenna. Was just curious if one would expect CB bands to ordinarily be dead nowadays except near a hiway or in an emergency?

As far as non-ham emergency/survival radio, wonder it it would also be useful to have a radio capable of working FRS/GMRS bands? Would you be more or less likely nowadays to talk to somebody in an emergency on a GMRS band?

Old ancient dad was a communications engineer and a general license ham since the 1950's. He can barely walk but still into it and works his radio daily. The last decade or so he just had a tower and a nice little 200W transceiver that will work about any band, but he recently got a 1000 watt amp and some other new toys to play with. I was into radio long ago but lost interest in electronics and then when regained interest was into audio and digital rather than radio. Dunno hardly anything about it.

Well, Dad has the tower, but also lives in slightly flatter land and picks up pretty good signals. I live on the side of a ridge and signal is so bad here, its a question whether it would get much better with a tower. Might get into it one of these days.

[partypilot1]

deleted

Edited August 6, 2012 by partypilot1

[Guest dmarcin]

Ok. First tell me what would happen to me if I bought ham radio equipment and started using it with out any liscience at all. Second if this was an emergency situation and I used this equipment, what would happen to me? In a SHTF situation and I used this equipment what would happen to me. Not being smart but just wondering.

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Ok. First tell me what would happen to me if I bought ham radio equipment and started using it with out any liscience at all. Second if this was an emergency situation and I used this equipment, what would happen to me? In a SHTF situation and I used this equipment what would happen to me. Not being smart but just wondering.

I'm not a ham but suspect that operating hams would not talk to you if you didn't have valid call sign and did not know the customs of the culture. After the EOTWAWKI they might talk to you. I also suspect if you were to transmit much without a license, not only would they turn you in to the FCC, but they would probably get a real good fix on your location and tell the FCC where you live.

[R_Bert]

Ok. First tell me what would happen to me if I bought ham radio equipment and started using it with out any liscience at all. Second if this was an emergency situation and I used this equipment, what would happen to me? In a SHTF situation and I used this equipment what would happen to me. Not being smart but just wondering.

I'm not a ham but suspect that operating hams would not talk to you if you didn't have valid call sign and did not know the customs of the culture. After the EOTWAWKI they might talk to you. I also suspect if you were to transmit much without a license, not only would they turn you in to the FCC, but they would probably get a real good fix on your location and tell the FCC where you live.

pretty accurate assumptions.

It is illegal for ham operators to communicate with non-licensed operators in the ham bands.

Most of them expect you to play by the rules, and they are self-policing.

You would stick out like a turd in a swimming pool.

[enfield]

I'd turn you in to the FCC and smile while doing it.

What's your objection to getting a license? They cost $10 and pre-teens pass the test all of the time. PM me and I'll help you get started on the path to a license.

Edited August 10, 2012 by enfield

[Guest dmarcin]

More or less playing the devils advocate. Really don't have any objections to getting my ticket but in looking back to the beginning of the cb craze it required a license to use the cb bands. That lasted about 5 years untill everyone bought a radio then there were a million with out a government supplied license. By the way Enfield what happened to the person you turned in to the FCC?

In an emergency or SHTF occurance who could fault someone using the ham bands to communnicate. Looks to me like another option to explore.

[enfield]

How are you going to learn how to use your ham equipment before the SHTF emergency without using it illegally?

Ham radio in the US is about 100 years old, and the government still hasn't started giving away licenses (international treaties forbid that), and it's still self-policing. Don't expect to get a free license, or expect to see the opening of the ham bands to unlicensed operators any time soon.

[BrokeEnthusiast]

Anyone have photos of their comm system at home? I have a CB in my truck and some Motorola walkies but that's it. I'd like to pick up a handheld HAM and get my licensce but as its been said here before you shouldnt rely just on the handheld unit. I'd like to get an antenna and CB for the house and start working on the HAM stuff to add to it. Any suggestions there?

[R_Bert]

Anyone have photos of their comm system at home? I have a CB in my truck and some Motorola walkies but that's it. I'd like to pick up a handheld HAM and get my licensce but as its been said here before you shouldnt rely just on the handheld unit. I'd like to get an antenna and CB for the house and start working on the HAM stuff to add to it. Any suggestions there?

Check out some Youtube videos such as this one (first one I came to) - [media=]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=MlBIC3E1Pes[/media]

Search on Youtube for "Ham Radio Station" or Ham Shack"

You will find tons of stuff to look at.

BTW, bonus SHTF points if you can copy the Morse Code Conversation (which is ~10 WPM)

B.

Edited August 10, 2012 by R_Bert

[Guest uofmeet]

Well, I don't have a picture of my shack, but I can at least post a pic of the radios i have.

TS-2000 HF/VHF/UHF all mode with built in antenna tuner. This radio is sometimes called a shack in a box.

Also, I have a Yaesu FT-857d another HF/VHF/UHF all mode. But much smaller and only a single VFO. I wanted this for mobile/portable operation.

Now, me and the wife both have mobiles in our vehicles. They do 2m/440 FM and single VFO.

hers

mine, same thing, except a slightly older model

One good thing about the Yaesu's i have show so far, are the detachable face plates. You can mount the radio somewhere else, and just put the control head where you need it. For example, my battery is in the trunk of my car. So is the radio. And i have the antenna on the trunk. So the only wires I had to run was the one for the control head(6 conductor telephone type cord) and a cord for the external speaker so I can here it.

Then, we have a couple of handhelds.

vx-6r transmits on 2m/220/440 and listens on almost anything else. Very wide band receive on this guy.

and this one well, looks like this one except it does 2m/220

Edited August 10, 2012 by uofmeet

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Another option that isn't noticeably cheaper, just a different option, are software radios that are just little boxes with an on-off switch, which operate in conjunction with a PC. The good ones tend to be fairly pricey. Folks who actually know something about it can further explain, but those kinds of boxes meet some folks needs. For instance I think they can be used as "super scanners" searching for traffic. Monitor lots of channels simultaneously.

More or less playing the devils advocate. Really don't have any objections to getting my ticket but in looking back to the beginning of the cb craze it required a license to use the cb bands. That lasted about 5 years untill everyone bought a radio then there were a million with out a government supplied license. By the way Enfield what happened to the person you turned in to the FCC?

A little explanation-- Radio bandwidth became a precious commodity early on. Various for-profit communications interest with deep pockets would love to have more frequencies. If bandwidth goes too long under-utilized or abused, the FCC will re-assign the frequencies to commercial purposes. It has happened many times in the past.

With the advent of many other interesting things for electronic nerds to do, for a long time ham radio interest was falling but maybe it is coming back some lately. For instance a high school near old ancient dad has a ham radio club and we are going to donate some money so they can get proper antennas to talk to the space station. There are numerous amateur-operated communication satellites. Lots of interesting things they can do. I just don't currently have time to get into it.

At some times the ham bands were "too crowded" and unlicensed ignoramuses would ruin bandwidth for the hams. But the bands need enough hams to properly utilize the frequencies or FCC might decide to take em away.

One of the worst things for reputation of hams is improperly-operated equipment that causes interference in neightbor's stereos and TVs. Most licensed folk presumably know enough to operate the equipment properly. Often ignoramus CB operators create interference and get mistaken for hams. There was some CB dude in my neighborhood who apparently was real inexpertly operating a high power linear amp. My music studio is real well shielded but that guy would key in and come thru the mixer like it was a radio receiver. Loud ignoramus with poor grammar at 1000 percent distortion. It was too intermittent to track him down and so distorted I couldn't even understand a word he would say. Haven't heard him lately so maybe he finally fried his rig.

Real good idea to join a ham club to learn how things are done. I'd do that if I had time to mess with it. You need the knowledge for the license, and more. If you mess up the antenna loading you can fry your radio. They ain't cheap.

[Guest 6.8 AR]

Since you don't have to learn

code anymore, I think I'll join

the club. I used to listen on

an old HW-101, years ago.

I wish I still had that radio.

That CB stuff got old fast in the

70's.

This is one thread I've learned a

bunch from. Thanks, guys.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[enfield]

I wish I still had my HW-101 too.

[tnhawk]

Anyone have photos of their comm system at home? I have a CB in my truck and some Motorola walkies but that's it. I'd like to pick up a handheld HAM and get my licensce but as its been said here before you shouldnt rely just on the handheld unit. I'd like to get an antenna and CB for the house and start working on the HAM stuff to add to it. Any suggestions there?

Find an amateur radio club near you and they will be glad to introduce you to HF and VHF communications.

[JPS]

Just got my Tech license - KK4LNX. My 12 year old son and I took a free class offered through the Nashville Amateur Radio Club, and passed the test easily. With a little prep and practice, anyone can get a basic ticket - no reason not to do it right and be able to learn and enjoy all the things you can do with a radio.

I'm planning to listen for a couple of weeks before I start chiming in, but I hope I get the chance to talk to a few of you guys.