Ham radio

Thread Starter

strantor

Joined Oct 3, 2010
6,782
I just had a look at lightfire's recent post about HAM radio. It got me thinking; how many people here on AAC have HAM radios that are able to reach other countries? If there are a few, have you tried to contact eachother? How would you go about finding someone on the HAM? I have no idea how it works.... is it directional? Would you need to know the general direction of the person you are trying to contact? or if you wanted to contact someone would you just both get on the radio at an agreed upon time, date, and channel, and start shouting eachother's handles?

how much money & hassle is it to get into HAM radio? what do you need?
 

MrChips

Joined Oct 2, 2009
30,714
Sounds like duplication. I suggest you merge into one thread since you are both asking the same questions. There are HAMs on the site, including myself. I'm sure one of us will provide the answers.
 

Thread Starter

strantor

Joined Oct 3, 2010
6,782
well I made another thread because lightfire was asking some technical questions about HAM, and some operator questions specific to his location, and I did not want to hijack it with discussions about "who has talked to who on HAM".
I don't know if it should be merged or not... mods?

so, MrChips, have you communicated with anybody here on AAC on your HAM?
 

MrChips

Joined Oct 2, 2009
30,714
To be honest, no, because I am a shy person, don't like idle chat, and became a HAM for the technical aspects. However, I have met HAMs here on AAC and we connect via PM.:)
 

Thread Starter

strantor

Joined Oct 3, 2010
6,782
To be honest, no, because I am a shy person, don't like idle chat, and became a HAM for the technical aspects. However, I have met HAMs here on AAC and we connect via PM.:)
well that's fine. But you did want to make idle chat with someone on the forum, what would you need to do? would you need to know their location first?
 

MrChips

Joined Oct 2, 2009
30,714
If you mean chatting on the radio, no, direction is not important. Ham radio can be directional but it does not have to be. In North America the RF signal can reach quite a distance. For overseas, hams, and others as well, rely on an atmospheric phenomena called "skip".

Ham Radio is a fraternity and they have chat forums call nets, with moderators to control the flow. These are held at given times and radio frequencies. Hams have their own frequency bands internationally allocated specifically for Ham Radio.

There is a certain degree of discipline, etiquette and politeness. You do not just jump in into other's conversation. You announce your presence and wait for the mods to let you in. You announce your presence using your callsign. Every registered ham is assigned a unique callsign that has letter and number prefixes that identify their country.

Here is an example for the US:

http://www.radioing.com/hamradio/callareas.html
 

MrChips

Joined Oct 2, 2009
30,714
The Ham Radio fraternity also involves local club meetings, meetups, contests and QRP - the ability to communicate with the lowest possible radiated power.

And last but not least, is the annual pilgrimage to the Ham Convention & Flea Markets.
I used to make the pilgrimage each year to the Dayton Hamvention, perhaps the World's largest flea market of any kind in the world. If you are into electronics and computers this is Electronics Heaven!

http://www.arrl.org/2011-dayton-hamvention

(I wish the mods will merge the two threads)
 

Wendy

Joined Mar 24, 2008
23,415
Actually Standor made the right decision. It is rare that the same topic has come up simultaneously, but hijacking is not allowed at AAC. The thread goes the way the owner (the OP) wants it to, with no confusion between the two. It is a given they will feed off each other, but the OP owns and controls their own thread.

You will find cases all the time where one of the mods splits off a new thread when it is hijacked. Usually there is some separation in time.

Now if I thought I had to do something I would move both threads to the Radio and Communications forum, but I see no harm in it being discussed here.

I used to have a ticket, but I let it laps. Last HAM con (convention) in the Dallas area I bought a study book to get it back.
 
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