Mmmm, HAM

[Paul Hittie]

No I am not planning the breakfast menu for our next trip - I just scheduled my amateur radio Technician level license exam for next Monday in Davison.  They have a local amateur radio club that offers a class through the adult education program to get you ready for the Technician exam, they are doing their testing Monday so I am going to head there instead of Baker College on 11/13.  

Why HAM?  Ever try to call for help on the CB in the woods?  Maybe you can reach out a mile or so, but generally the distance is measured in yards, not miles.  A number of offroaders choose 2m radios - if you have enough power to hit a repeater, you can communicate with another user as much as 40 miles away from the repeater tower.  Talk about reach out and touch someone.  If the repeater has the option available, you can also place a telephone call through the repeater, which gives you unlimited reach.  

I used a site called hamtestonline.com to prep for the exam.  $20 gives you access to their training system, which uses the actual Technician exam questions as part of the training.  There is a bit of math and some physics involved in all of this, but if you can memorize the answers that counts as good as being able to actually do the math.  For those that don't know, as a bright-eyed teenager I left home to study engineering only to discover that physics and I didn't see eye to eye...especially Electricity and Magnetism.  Radio waves = Electricity & Magnetism, and even I could get through it, so anyone can do it!

The equipment is not cheap - looks like a decent 2m radio will run about $200, and almost $100 more for coax and antenna.

[TechJeeper]

Sweet! This is something I have wanted to do for a while.  The Davison crowd are suposed to be a great group of people, one of my instructors was/is involved with them, and was telling me about the testing program they offer.

[Paul Hittie]

I passed - KD8PAV

[TechJeeper]

Congrats!! Cant wait to see your setup!

[naypalm]

Glad to hear it Paul!

[Paul Hittie]

Getting ready to head out for my first trip with the HAM - I think I finally understand all the dials, settings and switches.  In the process of getting it set up, I also redid the cable for my CB, grounded the CB antenna mount, and eliminated my crusty spring.  Brought my 3+ SWR reading down to right around 2 - not perfect but miles better than before.  But the 4' antenna was the only one I could get to tune that low, and it wacked several things in and out of the garage one day until...I broke the mount.  So I ordered a new spring, bought a new connector at Radio Shack, set it all up yesterday, fearful of what the new 3-4" of effective antenna length would do when "POOF" the new setup score a 1.5 SWR!!  It still hits the garage door, door frame, you name it, so I will be removing it when not in use.

The 2m radio has pretty amazing distance both inbound and out - I was able to listen to the Oak Park repeater at I96 and US23 as well as key it up; the other day I was listening to the Clarkston repeater - I was near downtown Flint, the guy on the other end was on I696 at Woodward which has to be about 50+ miles total.  I am anxious to see what it will do in the woods.

[NewRide]

Nice !!! But will it be able to reach the rest of the group in Atlanta lol

[Paul Hittie]

On simplex (without using a repeater) I should be able to talk to any of our groups doing trail maintenance from one end of Atlanta to the other - assuming they have a 2m radio to hear me!

[jeepfan1974]

damit you got me all excited i love pig  (dont get excited mitch) lol

[naypalm]

I want HAM

What model/brand of radio are you sporting?

[Paul Hittie]

I had plans for a dual band 2m/70cm from Yaesu, but stepped down to a simple 2m radio after looking at the prices.  There is a local dealer in Flushing, after talking to him about how I was going to use it he suggested an Alinco 135.  Not as much power as some (50w vs 65-75) but less heat, durable and rugged.  

http://www.alinco.com/Products/DR-135/

[LPM606]

Davsion Community Enrichment & Recreation's Spring/Summer programs directory that came this week has the following:

"Get Your Ham Radio technician's License - This six week study course will feature live amatuer radio equipment for everyon to learn how to operate.  You'll learn everything to pass the FCC license exam...  ...Our class includes a final exam to obtain your amatuer radio license."

Six weeks of class
Mondays 4/25-6/6 (no clas 5/30)
6:30pm-8:30pm
Davison Alternative Ed, Rm 102

Cost is $30 (plus cost of book)

I am thinking of signing up for this.  anyone else want t go?

[Paul Hittie]

I'll have top tell Jonathon - he wants to become a member of "SkyWarn", the amateur weather watcher association, and they use HAM to report the weather so he needs a license.

http://skywarn.org/about/

[LPM606]

Dang it! Class was cancelled as not enough people signed up...

 :x

[Paul Hittie]

I used hamtestonline.com - it was about $20 and I spent maybe 12 hours preparing for the test?  Maybe more like 10.  The only thing I didn't like about the online study was the same thing I liked.  If you missed a question they hit you almost every session with that same question to drill in the answer.  However, if you guess successfully you don't see the question again until you start taking the practice exams.  So with 2 days to go before my test date, I started missing questions on practice tests that I felt like I had never seen before.

As a side note - I passed despite successfully flunking Physics 219 (Electricity and Magnetism) twice before dropping out of the engineering program I started.