Ham radio licensees listen up! (1 Viewer)

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Year-end update...

Greetings all...

As the year comes to a close and I look back at this thread, I am impressed with the number of licensed hams that have turned up in the Cruiser community. The count has more than tripled, and those are just the individuals that I know about. There are many more I am sure, not counting those I know will be testing in the next couple of months.

My simpleton system of keeping stats needs to be redesigned to keep up with the numbers: We are now at well over 100 licensees, and growing. My personal congratulations once again to all of you who were licensed this past year. :cool:

Best wishes to all for the New Year, and I hope to start hearing some of you on the radio. ;)

Cheers, Ron - K6RG
 
KE7DJK. I currently own a couple Yaesu handhelds but now I am in the market for a multi-band VHF rig with seperation kit for my wagon. Prefer one with green background light. Any suggestions?
 
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Kg6gan

Hi All,
I live in Austin, Tx with a second residents in San Francisco. I -try- to stay active with the local emergency volounteer organizations in both cities (San Francisco ACS and Austin OEM).

My interest in Ham Radio started mostly through four wheeling in the Sierras and in the Panamint Range near Death Valley and from back packing. C.B. had proved to be totally inadequate for the great distances our vehicles spread while on the move.
I used to read 'Climbing Accidents In North America' and became convinced that many of the fatalities described could have been prevented if the expeditions had amateur radio.

We all promptly got our ham tickets before a week long 4x4 run to Death Valley and have never looked back. I now carry a D700, a couple of Motorola MaxTracs and few H.T.'s I use mostly 2m and 440. We try to have a 'Repeater Plan' documented before major trips because simplex will not cut it in steep, narrow canyons.

APRS has proved to be an incredible resource to track members of our party and make sure everyone was still 'moving along the trail' It is also a sign of comfort for familly members back at home when we are far beyond cell phone range.

I am sure we could probably start a whole additional thread of how Amateur Radio has help save our bacon while on the trail (or elsewhere). I would love to hear those stories BTW and I will be glad to contribute to them!

Eric
KG6GAN
 
Well I got myself a radio and I'm studying for the exam so hopefully I can add my name to the list in a month or so!
I picked up an Icom 706MkIIG because it is a multibander, has a remoteable face and I don't want to encounter dead bands when I absolutely need help in Central America or other places. I figure with the multibander there needs to be at least one band open most of the time.
I'll be needing advice on antennas and tuners for the HF bands. My requirements are that the mast be easily removed so the truck doesn't look like an antenna farm when parked to all those who might be inclined to swipe the radio or whatever. The radio will be mounted remotely, no I won't tell where in the truck, so I can take the face with me!
 
Who's this guy?

Dunno Alvaro but he's hit every old and new "ham" thread here on 'Mud. I think he is an asshat spammer by looking at his sig line. He even posted a similar "one-liner" on our local club board.

-B-
 
That's what I thought too.

Alvaro
 
N4XYC here. Licensed since 78'. Been running a big VHF Sideband Contest camp-out in Tellico for years. Will be there the second weekend in June for the big arrl june vhf sideband contest. Please join us! n4xyc@arrl.net.
i'm good on all bands. run a IC706mkIIG with a Hustler on our 76fj40.
when in Tellico call me on the 147.180 / pl 118.8 pl , this is a wide coverage repeater.
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Here is my sweet little baby with 32,000 miles on her. :)
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KE7KUL licensed for two weeks and I still haven't transmitted. No excuse either, other than the fear of screwing up. The radio has been in the truck for 2 months and works great.
 
I don't know if it's worth the trouble on 2 m or not. I did it and a local radio guy said it was well done, but it might have been just as good without. I bought the braided grounding strap from AES, and made my own connectors with copper sheet, and soldered the strap to the copper. FOr the lip mount, I grounded the antenna mount to the hatch, the hatch to the hinge and a strap that crosses the hatch to body interface. If I get ambitious, or run out of projects, I'm going to apply the same treatment and ground the body to the frame and the body and frame to the engine. Then if I ever pass the General exam (book = BORING), I'll be ready to do a fancy HF install.

I do know, that for lower frequencies above 10 meters, it becomes progressively important to have better grounding.
Good grounding is essential to having an exceptional noise free signal. I have seen your installation and it looks top shelf to me. A ground is an excellent method of shielding the desired signal from the undesired signal. And your radiated signal will have a pattern that resembles the pattern in the ARRL manual for your particular antenna.

Strictly physics.

JB
 
Very Cool-What does that mean in terms of the General exam? I'm slowly plowing through the material, but if I could challenge the test, and forget the code, I could put that effort in overdrive.

Thanks for the update, Ron.
So my wife and you are in a race?

She is studying for her CEN at this very moment, then on to gen class
 
Well, took the tech test with my son (9) this morning and both of us passed. Of course my other son (7) is now learning the material and can pass the first 6 (out of 12) tests. So, next test date at the local exam location and he'll be going for it (along with my wife).

The tech test is easy, no excuse not to at least get the tech license. Took more time to fill out the app form and get the test graded etc than the test itself.

Next is picking some equip and waiting for the call sign to become active. More toys to play with :)

cheers,
george.
 
Congratulations George and son!
-B-
 
George,

Very cool.
We'd love to have you on one of our runs.

Alvaro
 
Next is picking some equip and waiting for the call sign to become active. More toys to play with :)

cheers,
george.

George,

It goes very quick. I took the test Sat. AM by Wed. PM I was in the database. I can't remember how to do it but if you check the Fed database rather than qrz etc... it gets posted quicker. I kept checking qrz over and over and over and nothing. Then a fellow Cruiserhead emailed me a link to my name in the Fed. database already. The next day I was in qrz. My dad said it took him like 3 months to get his initial license in the 60s.
 
Just found you...

Hello,

I’m Jerry, WA6QFC, licensed about 1975. Have Advanced class license.

Currently live in Florida, and I’m the District Emergency Coordinator for the West Central District here in the North Florida Section of the ARES.

Have ran mobile VHF, UHF and HF for years in my '68 FJ40 starting with the HW 101 (many years back). Now only have VHF in the 40 along with CB. Kept the HF in the Dodge pickup truck I use for towing the 40.

Anyone thinking of putting together some sore of HF net for the “Cruiser” folks???

If you get to the Ocala or Crystal River area of Florida, give me a call on 146.775 with a 146.l2hz tone, I should be listening.

Hope to see some or you at either the Lone Star Cruiser Roundup in Texas in March or in Tellico in May.

73,
Jerry D.
 

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