Larry’s List

If you’re a ham in the Kansas City metro area, I highly recommend subscribing to Larry’s List. I haven’t been a subscriber for all that long, but it’s already proven to be a valuable resource.

Think of Larry’s List as a channel for all of the amateur radio-related news in the metro area. You’ll find commentary, opinion, and event announcements all flowing through the list. At the very least, it’s a great source of information, but it can also be a forum for discussing ideas or getting in touch with others that share your same interests.

Software! (again)

I just added and updated my Software, so head over and take a look. The offerings are a little meager at the moment, but I’ll be adding more in the future!

Software!

I’ve been browsing around at all of the great radio-related software out there the last couple of days. I can’t necessarily use much of it at the moment since all I have is my little handheld, but it’s interesting to look at the possibilities.

One of the more interesting finds is something I’m sure many of the old-timers are familiar with, but it’s new to me: Ham Radio Deluxe.

I’m primarily a Mac guy, but I’m not so tied to the platform that I can’t see the value in a good piece of non-Mac software. In fact, I have Windows 7 installed as dual boot on my MacBook, and I have a dedicated XP machine at home (which is actually sharing a partitioned disk with Ubuntu, but since this isn’t a computer blog, I won’t bore you with too many details). There are some really nice things about HRD: it’s mature, it’s got a ton of capabilities, version 5 has a web-based logging tool that’s available, and best of all—it’s free!

I’d encourage anyone to take a look at all of the radio-related software out there. There are loggers, antenna design apps, radio controllers… you name it! I’ll see if I can start building a list of interesting stuff here on my site. It’s been done before, but it seems to me that a lot of the software lists out there are fairly out of date.

The Xtal Set Society

My son is in the Cub Scouts, and I thought it would be fun to build a crystal radio for credit toward one of his badges. (I think the whole Cub Scout badge thing has gotten way out of hand since I was in the scouts, but that’s a post for another day and another blog.)

At first I thought it would be easy to find plans on the internet for a crystal radio we could build from household materials and a couple of components from Radio Shack. As I was surfing around, however, I discovered a local group called The Xtal Set Society out of Lawrence, KS, that produces several crystal radio kits that are very reasonably priced.

While I’m sure I could have put something together myself, I decided to purchase the XS 500 Basic Crystal Radio set. I just received it today and am reviewing the instructions so my son and I can take a crack at it soon.

Electronics have always been an enigma for me, and I’m not sure why. I get the basics… Ohm’s law and all that. I completely understand how the various components function. But then there’s a point where actual circuits come into play, and there’s nothing “circuitous” about them. There are wires and grounds and pieces going every which way!

My hope is that by starting out with this nice little radio set, I can gain more familiarity, and my son can start to learn, too.

Weather!

One of the fun things about amateur radio is listening to the weather nets that activate during severe weather. A net is basically a semi-official way of handling traffic for a specific event, such as a content, some kind of public service, or during a storm. We’re under a tornado watch tonight until 11:30 pm, and I’ve been having fun listening to all of the chatter on our local emergency communication service repeater (K0ECS at 145.470).

Getting Licensed

If you’re like me, you may not have had much exposure to amateur radio before deciding to get licensed. I actually had known only one other person to hold a license, and he was simply an acquaintance in high school. This guy was, however, the inspiration to get licensed. I figured that if he could do it, I could too. It took me a while, but I finally got it done.

Before I was able to test, I had a few things I had to figure out. First, I wasn’t sure what to study or how to study it. Would I need to know how to work a radio? Would there be some kind of practical exam? Once I was ready, where would I take the test? I knew that this was an FCC thing, and I’d have enough dealings with government-related stuff via the military that I had envisioned some Men In Black-looking facility where people go to obtain their license.

I started by heading down to the book store. One could just as easily go to the library to scope out the resources that may be kept there. I decided to go with Gordon West’s study guide on the Technician class license.

I should probably explain a little bit about the various licenses at this point. After all, why did I decide to study for the Technician class license? For one, it’s currently the entry-level license, and at the time, it was the only license that did not require one to pass a Morse code test (this has since changed—a Morse code test is no longer required to test to any level). There are currently two other classes that can be obtained: General, and Amateur Extra. Each one builds on the previous, and each license grants more privileges.

Privileges for what? Without getting too in-depth, the FCC has granted the use of certain frequencies to amateur operators. These are often referred to as bands. For example, when you get in the car to drive to work, you may flip on over to 96.5 The Buzz, or Q104 at 104.3. These are FM radio stations that fall within the 87.5–108.0 band designated for commercial broadcast use. Amateurs have band assignments as well, and there are subsets granted to each license. By the time you reach Amateur Extra, you can use all bands available to amateurs.

Now that I’ve cleared that up, let’s get back to studying for the test.

I spent quite a bit of time reviewing the rules, regulations, and common sense guidelines laid out in the book, until I had a decent familiarity with the kinds of things I needed to know. The interesting thing about the tests is that you’re only given a few questions from each group, or pool, of available questions on each topic. For example, there might be 30 questions in the basic electronics pool, but only 5 or so will be asked in the actual exam.

Before I went to take the exam, I spent a few days going through practice exams. There are positives and negatives to this approach. On the positive side, one can learn the material for the test very easily via a trial and error method. On the negative side, it ends up being more about memorizing the correct answers than really learning the material. In my case, I just wanted to get the test done, since I knew I’d re-learn a lot of the material as I gained practical experience (e.g. I haven’t had to calculate the resitance of a circuit since I received my license over six months ago, even though basic Ohm’s law calculations are required to answer some of the questions correctly).

My favorite practice tests were at QRZ.com. This site is a nice resource, and is commonly used for looking up call signs and information on other licensed hams. You can find their practice tests on their Ham Radio Practice Tests page. Even if you’ve never looked at the material, I recommend anyone to go there and try the tests out. You’ll be surprised how many of the FCC rules are fairly common sense, and you’ll probably pick up a few things along the way in preparation for taking your own test.

Taking the actual test was much simpler than I realized. I looked up a local amateur radio club who offered tests at a local library, and then I showed up at designated time and date for the test. There was a $15 testing fee, and after about 15 minutes, my test was complete and I was official. If you’re having trouble locating a testing location in your area, contact the ARRL on their exam session search page. The ARRL is also a good resource for all kinds of information pertaining to amateur radio, so take some time to browse around if you visit their site.

Once you have completed the test, your name will be registered with the FCC, and you’ll receive your call sign within a few business days via the good ole US Postal Service. Just keep in mind that you can’t transmit until your name appears in the FCC ULS database.

That’s a brief overview of my experience when obtaining my license. I’d be glad to answer any questions that others may have!

Why Radio?

I don’t know if I’m the best person to answer this question, being new to the hobby. An elmer that’s been doing this for years might better explain all of the various facets of radio. The best I can do is give you a few of the reasons I decided to take the time to study and get licensed:

Electronics

What better way to get acquainted with electronics than to do something practical like radio? Not only do you get to play with various electronic equipment, but there’s still a strong homebrew mentality in the ham radio community.

Morse Code

It’s no longer required to get into the hobby, but I’m still interested in learning it. When was the last time you met someone that knew Morse code? You never know when that might come in handy

Emergency Response

There are several local organizations that one can be involved with to help out with emergency management, such as ARES and RACES.

Weather Spotting

On a related note, there are organizations like SkyWarn, which is part of NOAA, where ham radio operators can help keep an eye on the skies and report on inclement weather.

Socializing

I’ve been on the internet since it became available to the average man (ca. 1993-ish), and a huge part of it is just keeping in touch with other people. Radio, however, was around way before anything like instant messaging, e-mail, or even IRC was available.

These are just a few reasons, and I’m excited to discover more!