Future Club HAMster's, unite! HAM Test Challenge Date, APR22. (1 Viewer)

[Saddletramp]

After talking with a few club members about HAM Radio Licensing, there's a group of us that want to go for the 'Technician' license in order to lawfully use 146.460Mhz (and other frequencies in the HAM spectrum) for communications on the trail. After getting jaded on the uncontrolled traffic and noise on pretty much every CB channel, scanning HAM frequencies gives much clearer communications and little interruption, combined with the low cost of entry ($20 BAEOUFANG or YAESEOUI radio's on Amazon...), everybody seems to be migrating to the newer technology.

If you're a future HAMster, keep reading!

There are over 3 Million HAM radio operators in the world today, with about 700,000 of those here in the United States. For those unfamiliar with the licensing process, the FCC allows for frequency use within certain bands for amateur radio operators within the United States (*the UN controls the band 'plans' around much of the rest of the world) for holders of a 10-year license. In order to use these frequencies legally, individuals need to pass a 35 question, multiple choice test from a bank of 350 total test questions. Don't let that scare you, though - the ACTUAL test questions are available from many different sources, so you can study the exact material you need to pass the test with flying colors. You'll only need to take the test ONCE, and then renewal is simple process every 10 years.

This thread will consolidate some useful informational links, forum member questions (*and maybe some answers from existing HAMs?), and possible study group dates leading up to our Target Test day - Saturday, April 22 @ 7p. On that day, the Arizona Red Cross and an associated local Amateur Radio group hosts Volunteer Examiners who will administer the test (all 3 levels if you're looking to upgrade your license from Technician to General, or Amateur Extra) for anybody that signs up ahead of time. This test date was chosen based on schedule availability of club members, and the tests are administered monthly on the 4th Saturday of every month in case you want to test sooner or later.

As a starting point, the most common and complete study guide is the "ARRL HAM Radio License Manual" which you can get through Amazon (for $23.86) here: The ARRL Ham Radio License Manual: ARRL Inc.: 9781625950130: Amazon.com: Books , and provides an online study and practice test capability with purchase of the printed manual. This may be convenient for 'book-learners' (like me), and there's a series of YouTube videos which explain the content in an instructor-led forum for 'listen/see learners', too. Here's the book;

This book provides a lot of useful information beyond just passing the test, so I can recommend it already even though I've not read the whole thing cover-to-cover, just yet.

Over the next several days, I'll update this thread with more specific information on the test location, expectations, and how we can work out study groups if people want to do so. Please vote in the poll above, or catch me at this Friday's CSC Monthly Meeting if you're interested, and I hope we get a bunch of us licensed and up to speed on the latest technology to make our Club Runs that much more entertaining!

AZ Amateur Radio Club (testing): www.w7io.org
Location: 4747 N 22nd Street @7p on 4th Saturday of each month

Online Study Guide & Flash Cards (study & practice testing): www.hamstudy.org

@tls3601

Tom here is where the inks are for studying and prep tests.
good luck to you and Mom

 

[tls3601]

@tls3601

Tom here is where the inks are for studying and prep tests.
good luck to you and Mom

Thanks for this Steve. Much appreciated brother

 

[tls3601]

@LongDuck I am studying for Technician HAM license. Steve says you are go to guy for repeater locations, specifically looking at what is in the Bradshaw Mtns. Ultimately would like to communicate with others HAMS in Prescott Valley from home, Surprise. Possible with 5W handheld or Mobile? Thanks

 

[LongDuck]

Replied to you via PM about the other thing, and covering the communications question here;

In short, YES! you can probably talk to HAMs in Prescott if you have a 5w Handheld Transceiver (HT) from here in Phoenix. The trick will be finding the right network of repeaters which will allow you and your requisite HAM friend in Prescott to talk and hear one another. There's a thing around the valley called the Southwest Intertie which links (*cross-repeats) various repeaters around the valley so that when you talk on one repeater, it receives and sends that signal to another repeater in the direction you're trying to talk, which receives and sends your signal to ANOTHER repeater in the direction you want to talk until your friend can hear you on his local repeater (*or one close enough that he can use).

For example, I had a conversation on the "Calzona" Intertie network from my house in N. PHX to the Sun City repeater, to the White Tanks repeater, to one in Blythe and then a few others that I didn't even know were linked, and talked to a guy on his boat at some lake outside of San Diego. We were both pretty amazed that each of us were using 2m radios and hearing each other clearly. In fact, it was a random listener that told us the send / receive path using the Intertie. Point being, it can be done, planned or unplanned.

Have a look at this page which identifies some of the stations and repeaters which you may need to use. There's a bit of trial and error needed here, as part of the fun of amateur radio is scientific testing until you accomplish your goal.

https://www.repeaterbook.com/repeaters/location_search.php?state_id=04&type=city&loc=Phoenix

Also, these frequencies might come in handy to define where you need to connect, but first, you'll need to know who you can hear and who you can talk to on your HT.

Repeaters By Frequency

www.qsl.net

 

[tls3601]

Replied to you via PM about the other thing, and covering the communications question here;

In short, YES! you can probably talk to HAMs in Prescott if you have a 5w Handheld Transceiver (HT) from here in Phoenix. The trick will be finding the right network of repeaters which will allow you and your requisite HAM friend in Prescott to talk and hear one another. There's a thing around the valley called the Southwest Intertie which links (*cross-repeats) various repeaters around the valley so that when you talk on one repeater, it receives and sends that signal to another repeater in the direction you're trying to talk, which receives and sends your signal to ANOTHER repeater in the direction you want to talk until your friend can hear you on his local repeater (*or one close enough that he can use).

For example, I had a conversation on the "Calzona" Intertie network from my house in N. PHX to the Sun City repeater, to the White Tanks repeater, to one in Blythe and then a few others that I didn't even know were linked, and talked to a guy on his boat at some lake outside of San Diego. We were both pretty amazed that each of us were using 2m radios and hearing each other clearly. In fact, it was a random listener that told us the send / receive path using the Intertie. Point being, it can be done, planned or unplanned.

Have a look at this page which identifies some of the stations and repeaters which you may need to use. There's a bit of trial and error needed here, as part of the fun of amateur radio is scientific testing until you accomplish your goal.

https://www.repeaterbook.com/repeaters/location_search.php?state_id=04&type=city&loc=Phoenix

Also, these frequencies might come in handy to define where you need to connect, but first, you'll need to know who you can hear and who you can talk to on your HT.

Repeaters By Frequency

www.qsl.net

Thanks for this. Tons to learn in the actual use of a HAM radio. My online study guide seems quite good and studying is going well. Looking at taking test on the 18th. Way more repeaters out there than I would have imagined. Are some off limits to frequencies available for those with a Technicians license. Seems a bit unclear what frequencies a beginner can use when licensed. Generally the online tutorials and tests are helpful though.

 

[LongDuck]

With a Technician level license, you should be able to talk on most of the 2m and 70cm repeaters listed. Note that these are all either club-, personal- or commercially- owned stations and may or may not appreciate your traffic. That said, the vast majority are available that you can listen to and talk on, and the easiest way to find out is to key-up and make a call for contacts. If the repeater is club owned, they're happy to have any HAMs work their repeater so long as you follow protocol (*your station ID, honoring their use of their equipment for their nets, not interrupting QST, etc.), and they're happy to hear new voices and make new contacts.

When you expand your license, you open up more frequencies to use - which may or may not be important to you for what you want to accomplish. Longer wave bands (6m, 10m, 20m, etc) allow you to both talk to people further away due to better environmental propagation, as well as use higher powered equipment - within the concept of QRP (*using the minimum power to get your signal out). I like to think of this as expanding your license expands your reach. Once you're in General class, you can talk around the world. I'm a Technician class, and have no interest in upgrading at the moment.

With the entry level ticket, you can do a lot. With the digital modes, IRLP (internet propagation, which is always excellent!), and local repeaters, I've talked to a guy in Belfast, Ireland for about 30min on an unplanned contact which was one of the highlights of my radio experimentation - all on 2m, 50w with a mobile station. I've also talked to people in Scottsdale over 40mi away on less than 1w output power (QRP-milliwatt) on a handheld from the top of a local mountain. You're getting a great start, so good luck on your test,