Ham radio folks?

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Gunkie

Trad climber

Valles Marineris

Topic Author's Original Post - Oct 23, 2016 - 03:41pm PT

Any ham radio folks out there? 20m is lit tonight.

W3GHZ

WBraun

climber

Oct 23, 2016 - 04:46pm PT

Skip conditions or tropospheric ducting?

KF6ATK but I only do data 5 ghz....

Batrock

Trad climber

Burbank

Oct 23, 2016 - 04:54pm PT

KI6KZA. Juan de Fuca gave me his mobile rig years ago and am still using it.

Batrock

Trad climber

Burbank

Oct 23, 2016 - 05:01pm PT

http://youtu.be/IRsPheErBj8

Spiny Norman

Social climber

Boring, Oregon

Oct 23, 2016 - 05:08pm PT

My dad was into it. I really have to get off my tail and get my license and a rig.

hooblie

climber

from out where the anecdotes roam

Oct 23, 2016 - 05:41pm PT

WN6SDL novice licence 1963.
limited to 75 watts continuous wave (morse code)
frequency control by crystal oscillator, expired in 12 months.

just a phase i went through as a junior high kid in what wasn't yet called the silicon valley.

i was busy skateboarding on steel wheels (later clay) past bill shockley's house ... the year he arrived at stanford.

i did recently pick up a nice world band receiver at a pawn shop and have identified a couple treetops to adorn with a long dipole cuz the night is long.

my dad K6TV went ALL the way into ham world and to his grave bitter about my comm failure. every time i came home for a visit
he had his most recently superseded rig packaged up ready for takeaway. he'd follow me to the curb with study materials.

hell, i don't have so much as a cell phone acc't let alone a mailbox.
my sister has a message # for me and i told her my ST handle

Moof

Big Wall climber

Orygun

Oct 23, 2016 - 06:59pm PT

Nope, not a HAM. Tested too high for social skills, and I hate rainbow suspenders.

guido

Trad climber

Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific

Oct 23, 2016 - 07:23pm PT

N6HXA-

Add the MM3 for Marine Mobile South Pacific. N6HXA MM3

My YL and we used is extensively for many many years on the boat. Era of phone patches and weather related Nets were a godsend. Thousands of hours listening to world wide news stations and a whole list of relevant and fantastic stations with a different pulse on the news dribbled out from the US.

Loved BBC Radio Africa.

Sat phone and shortwave modems killed most of this as they are more reliable and quicker if you are trying to download weather Grib files and all while at sea.

Me, I don't have the dicipline to learn Morse Code but I believe that is not a requirement any longer for a General license?

neebee

Social climber

calif/texas

Oct 23, 2016 - 08:35pm PT

hey there say, ... my friends' dad used to, or still does, :)

nature

climber

Boulder, CO

Oct 23, 2016 - 08:41pm PT

KE0EOR

It is no longer a requirement to learn Morse Code.

Never in my lift did I think I'd ever use it. Until I was required to ident a VOR

I got my HAM to be able to operate VHF radios for drones. Lots and lots of range LOS.

It's also nice to tune the walkabouts to a GMS frequency for spotters, etc.

Ferretlegger

Trad climber

san Jose, CA

Oct 24, 2016 - 07:34am PT

Presently WD6EHQ. Was first licensed in around 1965 as WD6SOR. I mostly do Maritime Mobile stuff, both digital with SCS Pactor III modem and also SSB with an ICOM IC7000 while on long offshore trips. For those with an interest, the Pacific Seafarers net on 14.300 MHz at 0330 UTC is a fun thing to listen to, as a dedicated group of hams spread across the entire Pacific region check in boats making passages.

Michael

Chugach

Trad climber

Vermont

Oct 25, 2016 - 05:31am PT

Non-Ham operator here. Serious question; it seems to me that Ham was attractive when the world was so small and you could talk to people around the world - but now with the internet ... what's the advantage or the continuing attraction of Ham?

Gunkie

Trad climber

Valles Marineris

Topic Author's Reply - Oct 25, 2016 - 03:07pm PT

Well, for me, it tickles my electrical engineering background with antenna design, propagation and low power (QPR) operations. I'm fascinated with atmospheric anomalies that allow relatively low power (<10W) to communicate with some of the most remote areas in the world. Plus I like to participate in Summits On The Air (SOTA, http://na-sota.org/);. There is also National Parks On The Air (NPOTA, https://npota.arrl.org/);.

And WHY don't those idiots on "The Walking Dead" ever use a ham rig to see if there are other people out there? You can listen around the world on all bands with a rudimentary receiver and a random length of wire.

So it's good to have knowledge of ham radio operations when zombies have taken over the world. Ya know, just in case.

Moof

Big Wall climber

Orygun

Oct 25, 2016 - 03:18pm PT

And WHY don't those idiots on "The Walking Dead" ever use a ham rig to see if there are other people out there? You can listen around the world on all bands with a rudimentary receiver and a random length of wire.

Rule #1: Cardio.

HAM's mostly failed rule #1, and were eaten in the first wave. Old, out of shape people were the easiest pickings. The few that remained drove adopted band of survivors nuts, and were kicked out pretty quickly.

thebravecowboy

climber

The Good Places

Aug 20, 2018 - 04:56pm PT

you guys ever get into handheld HAM rigs for backcountry coms/SAR stuff?

I am looking at the Baofeng UV-5f as supplement to other sat-PLB stuff....any thoughts?

ShawnInPaso

climber

Paso Robles, CA

Aug 21, 2018 - 01:18am PT

I used to carry one in the back country, mostly just to discover what I could hear. Once above 10k, usually there's a repeater or two to be heard.

With the advent of SOTA stations, I routinely hear people on 2 meters from Sierra summits from my humble abode in Paso Robles.

There is some long lost protocol about emergency comms when one goes missing and a search is anticipated. For example, listen and/or transmit on a specified frequency at the top of the hour for 15 minutes (in order to save batteries, etc.). I suppose this kind of thing could be added to an itinerary; any CHP helicopter and probably most military birds could dial in ham freqs as needed.

Klimmer2.0

Mountain climber

San Diego, CA

Aug 21, 2018 - 01:28am PT

KF6AH*

2m mostly on a handitalky. I’m a paraglider pilot within the free-flight world. Best way to communicate with one another while flying and also communicating with your chase vehicle. Important for landing out remotely too where cellular coverage doesn’t really work for emergency purposes.

Seems to me plenty of climbing and BC skiing applications and better than a cell phone.

Gunkie

Trad climber

Valles Marineris

Topic Author's Reply - Aug 21, 2018 - 06:12am PT

I am looking at the Baofeng UV-5f as supplement to other sat-PLB stuff....any thoughts?

Nice radio. I use a Yaesu FT-60 with a Diamond Antenna, SRH77CA. However, with my purchase of a Garmin Explorer+ SAT communicator, I'm not really taking the handheld out anymore.

Tom Patterson

Trad climber

Seattle

Aug 21, 2018 - 07:10am PT

My dad did ham radio for decades. He was WB6VIE, but hasn't picked up his mic for a few years now. His best friend, a fellow ham in Roswell, NM (W5MDG) died several years back, and he's never had quite the same level of passion since.

But I grew up listening to him keying: _ . _ . / _ _ . _ every night down the hall, till he got his general license. I took after him till I could send 13 words a minute, and receive 6. Never got my novice license, but I was pretty enamored with it for a long time.