Ham Radio

[Gypsyjoe#1]

Just wondering are there any Ham Radio operators in this forum and what your experience is if you are a Full timer, I am about to take the Tech test, and already own a 10 meter radio. :huh:

 

[chucktate]

Just wondering are there any Ham Radio operators in this forum and what your experience is if you are a Full timer, I am about to take the Tech test, and already own a 10 meter radio. :huh:

I am a ham but not full time. I get out as often as I can. Once my kids are in college, that will ramp up quickly. I own a couple mobile 2m/70cm rigs. I am a tech. I would love to upgrade to general, but I have a brain injury preventing me from studying and taking the test. I have some HT's. All Boefang. I used them while hiking. I cannot hike any longer   The areas of Oregon I travel, camp etc. There are many repeaters. If I go to an area, I become familiar with repeaters and print out the codes needed to access them. I plan on exploring more of the Northwest as I travel with my ham radios. I enjoy having the ability to access repeaters throughout the mountains when my cell phone does not work. It isn't always the case, but mobile radios are far more powerful than a cell phone. Let me know what you would like to know.

 

[Elbear1]

I have a baofeng if that counts lol ;D

 

[ZoNiE]

I have an Icom 706 MKIIg all band and a couple of Baofengs. The B's are good 5 watt walkie talkies, perfect for cruise ships.
73

 

[Oberneldon]

Not full time and have my general. I carry 2 portables and a moble. I’m off cell service many times but have ham radio access off of repeaters most times. Quartzfest has been in Quartzsite after the RTR. Bi went last year. Worth the visit.
https://quartzfest.org/2020-quartzfest-schedule

 

[Elbear1]

I have an Icom 706 MKIIg all band and a couple of Baofengs. The B's are good 5 watt walkie talkies, perfect for cruise ships.
73

Mine aint no GRMS. Theyre 8w. Mine have non-line of sight range of like 5 miles before degradation. We been using them up here in the uinta mountains. Pretty awesome for $25.

 

[highdesertranger]

seeing as how RTR might not be around Q I might drop in for a few classes. highdesertranger

 

[Gr8ful]

I'm a Tech also but not active in a while. Live within 25 miles of where Heath was.

 

[66788]

I carry a Yaesu FT-817ND, Yaesu VX6, a few VX170s, and a Beofeng HT.

My rig is one giant RFI generator and I end up outside just to use the radios. I'd love a solution to my RFI problem.

 

[tx2sturgis]

My rig is one giant RFI generator and I end up outside just to use the radios.  I'd love a solution to my RFI problem.

Laptop chargers, smpartphone chargers, 12v to 120v inverters, inverter generators, LED dimmers, and solar controllers are especially RF noisy...and if you have a fantastic or maxx fan that uses the electronic speed control, that thing is noisy too.

For RFI filtering I've had good luck with DX engineering snap-ons and torroids:


https://www.dxengineering.com/searc...s&sortby=BestKeywordMatch&sortorder=Ascending

 

[Elbear1]

Thats another reason i dont care for native 12v, i get a ton of interference from it.

 

[highdesertranger]

yeah but you get it from 120v too maybe to a lesser extent. and where are you going to get 120v in the boonies? highdesertranger

 

[tx2sturgis]

Yep as far as I know the only source of heat, light, and power that doesn't bother the radio airwaves is a candle.

:dodgy:

 

[Elbear1]

No...little 12v clip fan is utterly impossible to use with wifi, cell, etc. 120v fan no affect at all. Nothing detectable.

 

[highdesertranger]

yeah but the inverter or generator reeks havoc. with my old inverter I could not even listen to any radio hopefully my new inverter will be better. highdesertranger

 

[Elbear1]

Im dead serious my harbor freight cen-tech really doesn't seem to mess with anything. Sitting here in town 30 miles SE of slc with 30+ channels of dtv even with fan on high.

 

[tx2sturgis]

Cell phones, digital TV, wifi, bluetooth...none of those are on the ham radio frequencies. (placing asterisk here*)
 
Most of the devices that do make a lot of nearfield RF noise tend to spit all that out on VHF and HF frequencies...you know...ham radio (the topic).

I can take one of my radios and do a casual noise survey near or in your rig and you would see which devices are making noise.



(* There are SOME shared frequencies but I dont want to list all of those. That's what wikipedia and google are for.)

 

[Elbear1]

I thought ham operated on vhf/uhf?

 

[highdesertranger]

I could be wrong but isn't that what Texas said? highdesertranger

 

[tx2sturgis]

Ham radio operators have allocations on just about ALL radio bands: VLF, HF, VHF, UHF, SHF, microwave, etc etc, and often the equipment has a wide open receiver front end....not always, but some of them function that way.

But those devices you listed (cell phones, wifi, bluetooth etc) are on small, tight spectrum allocations (mostly UHF and SHF) and are digital, and often tend to be immune to near field RF...until they arent. 

Try using a bluetooth headset near an operating microwave oven sometime. They are BOTH emitting signals on 2.4 ghz (ISM band).... and yes, a bluetooth headset IS a very tiny, very low power, microwave emitter...

Usually, the bluetooth headset will cut out badly, and become un-usable, ..until the microwave shuts off.