After a long hiatus from visiting Ham-Com, I made an appearance last year.

This year I am working Friday and a 1/2 day Saturday at the AMSAT booth just inside the front entrance. I'll also be doing satellite demos and perhaps speaking Friday afternoon at the AMSAT session.

If you are a ham an want an eyeball QSO, PM me.

For those wondering if "ham radio" is dead... Since the 2007 rule changes went into effect, there has been a significant spike in licensed amateur radio operators. No morse code is required to obtain a license.

http://www.hamcom.org/
Plano Centre
June 13-14

Will you be working with Keith or is he ill?

He's doing great. Been emailing with him the past few days.

It's funny. In all my travels around the state and region, people always ask me if I know Keith when satellites come up. My answer... "How could you NOT know Keith?"

Off to Plano today. If any of you are planning on visiting Ham-Com this weekend, come by the ARRL booth and we can visit.

John
AEB

So how many Am operators are there on here?
I have had a radio since last year but have put off getting the license ... on my list of things to do

Probably better to say "I'm going to get my license" as opposed to "I already have a radio"
Amateur radio operators aren't real pleased with folks who jump on frequencies set aside for licensed operators.

Marc

I'm not sure if you meant to say how many ham operators are on here or AM operators... Going to assume it was a typographical error and you were asking about the ham population on THF. I only know of AEB. Met him this weekend. I had seen him in passing last year at Ham-Com but didn't get a chance to visit. Nice fellow and his lovely wife, too.

Having a radio but no license is certainly no crime. I really would encourage you to get with a local club and or find someone who is a ham to get you started on your path to a license. Ham-Com would have been a good opportunity because some classes were being taught there by great people. Don't worry, there are plenty of training opportunities.

Many of my friends and family members have studied for periods of 1-2 days, weeks, and as long as a few months before obtaining their licenses. It just depends how quickly you can retain information. The real learning starts when you get your license.

I hold a First Phone with Microwave endorsement (now a general with radar). I have worked with many HAM operators to help them clear up intermod in their receiver's front end caused by my new transmitter at the same site. They always ran cheap equipment barefoot and brought problems on themselves due to lack of filtering. It sounds like you guys have upper the ante.

Morse code was why I didn't get a license or make Eagle Scout. I wonder how hard the test is now? I aced all the FCC tests when I got my licenses (on the third try!)

We are at an interesting time. There are lots of inexpensive Chinese radios flooding the market. They have terrible front ends. However, the Japanese stuff (still made in China) is very robust. Unless you live below a paging tower, most hams probably won't have much trouble.

If you have that license, you should be able to pass a Technician Class license with minimal study. Most of the rules will be commmon sense to you. There are some frequency bands you'd need to learn for our limits of operation.



No morse code today! Sorry you didn't make Eagle. Astonishingly many people get about 90% of the way and don't complete for a similar reason. Fortunately it wasn't required when I got my Eagle, but I did have my ham license and 5 words per minute code already.

Well that Eagle Scout thing was over 50 years ago and I still learned plenty being a scout. I can send and receive a SOS! I might just look into HAM again. I like the emergency com abilities. Do y'all actually bounce off sat's? I've done plenty of paging via down links. I remember when Galaxy 5 quit. That made for several long days and plenty of miles running across Texas.

Hmmm. Can't edit my post. I went to HamFest in Dayton 20 years ago. It was a geek fest but I bought a couple of handhelds.

Satellites are my thing. I drive all over the region for work. I made contact with a lot of fellow hams via our 5 operational two-way satellites. You really don't need a lot of expensive, specialized equipment.

I've tried to convince some serious hunters that ham radio is a nice option. I hunt with some guys who are hams. Our communications are 100% reliable, compared to crappy FRS and GMRS handhelds guys buy at Academy.

Amateur Radio
And because I do not have a license I am respectful and do not Transmit. I listen in on about a dozen freq, and there are some lively operators out there. I have one of the inexpensive Chinese transmitters. I have listened to several others that use them and did not hear any obvious issues. I'm in no hurry, but I will get my license. I found several sites that have a mock test and I usually score 80% or better.