Diving into Ham Radio... uh oh!

[dragoneggs]

Something that has always intrigued me since I was a little one. Ham radio and building custom electronics. My best friend Tommy, his dad was one of those guys. I helped build and Heathkit TV w/remote! Tommy's dad also had a huge tower antenna on top of his house and I didn't know what it was and was afraid to ask.

At one point I thought he worked for the CIA. My mind was made up when I was playing outside at another neighbor's yard when a couple of 'suits' came knocking on my other friends door. We sneaked close and listened to the conversation. Lots of questions... but I learned they weren't interested in my best friend's dad... they were asking about MY dad! :confused3:

After telling my dad at dinner what I heard... he assured me that it was just people doing their job. Part of the process of granting an elevated security clearance at his work (Boeing).

Well I didn't follow my dad's footsteps as an electrical engineer. In fact, after my second quarter in EE I changed to ME. Something I could more easily see and comprehend! :ashamed: Anyways... a long story I didn't keep short.

I just decided after turning 60, that I would pick up another hobby... maybe requiring a little less mobility just in case I can't physically keep up my other too many hobbies.

SO, the question is... How many here on TBN are Hams???

 

[oosik]

I've been a Ham Radio operator since 1968. It's a very enjoyable hobby and you can delve as deep as you want and there will still be areas remaining to explore. KC7SW

 

[check 6]

Been a ham since 1956 W5AKW.

 

[MikeInEburg]

I've been a ham operator since 2018 - so far, so good. Few people actually build their own radios these days, but there are many other components that can viably be home-made. With the advent of digital modes (C4FM is popular in my neighborhood), you can chat with folks around the globe with only a technician license.

Activities such as fox hunting (aka find the hidden transmitter) or Parks on the Air encourage ham operators to get out of the house. There are still emergency communications training programs and other community activities. Licensing is fairly easy - there are plenty of online study guides. FYI, It's not an inexpensive hobby - not horrible, but not cheap either. So, go get licensed and we'll see you on the airwaves. Cheers!

 

[Jstpssng]

I tried to take a class a few years ago. The only contact info the instructor gave was his email address. I tried and tried to sign up but the message kept coming back "undeliverable."
I assume that meant I had failed my first test.

 

[Frankenkubota]

Just a quick HAM story. I sold electronic components and black boxes, mostly to the defense programs, always high frequency radio stuff. That field, pun intended, is called RF and Microwave. My customers were design engineers, what I call real engineers. I'm not!

Many of these guys, yes ALWAYS guys, were hams. They all knew I represented a co that made very expensive transistors for the output stage of the radios. Seems to me they came as matched pairs and could run about $250 retail, in the 80s.

Part of my job was to get my products in the engineers hands. Generally speaking, they will use what's within reach. I would give away free samples, happens all day every day.

Here's the funny part. A guys working on a 35 Ghz transmitter or receiver for some huge defense program or something and would put in a sample request for a set of matched pair power transistors, at 30 Mhz. Or vhf, or uhf or what ever, very low frequencies in our world.

Hmmmmmmmm. Possibly a ham?

I've literally given away thousands and thousands of dollars worth of transistors to hams, not sure if it ever did any good.

One last thing, no more free anything!

 

[ChuckT]

I did the 3 meter class 30 some years ago. Never did much with it - at that time unless you got a skip or used a repeater maybe you reached out a few miles, more than CB but not enough to impress me. Licence has long since lapsed but I understand you can do a no-code license test and go right to a SW transceiver that'll reach out. If I were going into it that's what I'd do. Keep your checkbook handy tho.

 

[k0ua]

Getting into Amateur Radio does not HAVE to be expensive, there are plenty of places to pick up used gear, and you can make a lot of accessories and antennas yourself for low dollars. But it CAN be expensive too, if you buy everything and stick to top of the line stuff. I have been licensed for almost 50 years now, 49 years and some change. By the time I was 19, I had a pretty nice HF rig, that I saved up for, and had "scrounged" antennas and parts and built most station accessories myself. The learning how to do things was all a part of the journey. Having the "ticket" got me a couple of jobs for sure and started me down a technical/engineering road. 73 de K0UA

 

[k0ua]

Oh, and by the way, you will discover Many more hams here on this forum than you would think. I did an unscientific poll several years ago, and many came out of the "woodwork". There are about 768,000 still licensed in the US, However a fair percentage of those are likely dead because the license period is 10 years and it will take some time before they fall off of the rolls from no-renewal. But from unscientific counting, it seems there are more hams here than the percentage in the general population. Not all are active by any means, judging on their number of lookups on QRZ.com but at least they had some interest in it at some time, and put out the effort to get licensed. Since as of this morning I have 16,492 lookups, I would say I am fairly active.

Dragoneggs, tell them about your station under construction.

 

[B7510HSD]

Something that has always intrigued me since I was a little one. Ham radio and building custom electronics. My best friend Tommy, his dad was one of those guys. I helped build and Heathkit TV w/remote! Tommy's dad also had a huge tower antenna on top of his house and I didn't know what it was and was afraid to ask.

At one point I thought he worked for the CIA. My mind was made up when I was playing outside at another neighbor's yard when a couple of 'suits' came knocking on my other friends door. We sneaked close and listened to the conversation. Lots of questions... but I learned they weren't interested in my best friend's dad... they were asking about MY dad! :confused3:

After telling my dad at dinner what I heard... he assured me that it was just people doing their job. Part of the process of granting an elevated security clearance at his work (Boeing).

Well I didn't follow my dad's footsteps as an electrical engineer. In fact, after my second quarter in EE I changed to ME. Something I could more easily see and comprehend! :ashamed: Anyways... a long story I didn't keep short.

I just decided after turning 60, that I would pick up another hobby... maybe requiring a little less mobility just in case I can't physically keep up my other too many hobbies.

SO, the question is... How many here on TBN are Hams???

Let me know if I can be of any help and after you get your ticket I will talk to you about MARS!!