Amateur radio

Hi, i set a system up a few months ago, i am just in the process of getting my licence, other hobbies is metal detecting and i do a little tv feedhunting.

 

What is the most exciting thing you uncovered with your metal detector?

What coverage will your amateur radio have (once you have your licence) and which genre of music will it be?

 

Nice one Martin

I got a marine VHF licence, but that means I can only talk to you from a boat

 

Hi M, this is my rarest find.
http://www.thestar.co.uk/what-s-on/...tection-fan-nets-find-of-a-lifetime-1-6491544

I wont be listening to music much, I will be talking to other operators around the world there are strict band plans we have to stick to, this is the radio ive bought it covers a fir bit.
http://www.hamradio.co.uk/amateur-r...e-station-radio/icom/icom-ic-7600-pd-2292.php

Yes learning about this Zigs, if I was on a walki talki going over certain bridges I would have to stop transmitting.

 

They didn't teach us that. Did have a question in the exam that we hadn't been taught about, so I guessed it and got 100%

Tutor was very suspicious

Nice penny

 

What a great find!!!

That looks like a nifty piece of kit Far more high tech than the CB radio my friend let me have a play with

 

Yes there is fair amount of study FC, three exams for the full licence, i am studying the first part at the moment foundation licence,
http://rsgb.org/main/clubs-training/for-students/foundation/

Its not as hard as it appears to be honest some of the tests are practical's the Morse part is easy and these are done before the final exam,

A few mock exams here as you will see some of it is common sense.
http://rsgb.org/main/clubs-training/training-resources/foundation-mock-exams/

 

I have been a licensed ham for three decades and have worked all bands and almost all modes: UHF, VHF, HF, Packet, Amtor, RITTY, and satellites. Yes, it takes some effort to get a license, however, it is well worth the effort. Over the years I have had many memorable contacts with fellow hams around the world and have enjoyed every one of them.

 

Had my class A since the early 1990s. Yes it does take a bit of an effort to get a license though I think it's perhaps a bit too easy and quick now. Though having had a shufftie at some of the exam questions for the full license they are pretty much on a par with when I sat the old C&G paper for my class B. Personally I think dropping the morse require to get on the HF bands was a retrograde step as the effort required tended to separate those who were really keen from those who saw it as a glorified CB but with much more power.
I got fed up with the poor operating standards on HF about four years ago and changed my operating to QRP (very low power) and more or less morse only and have been having a ball with it. Getting great kicks from 1000 miles (and much more) per Watt.
Just back from Greece where running 5 Watts into a very small antenna I managed 5 contacts with Japan as well as most countries in Europe. Next week I'll be on a small Scottish island and the radio will go with me.

For the hams on here, that's an Elecraft KX3 radio and the antenna is a Buddistick. More info on QRZ.com (GM0LVI)
Photo from a couple of weeks ago in Greece -

 

Totally agree with most of what you said, dropping code in particular. QRP is my favorite also, as is building my own QRP rigs and antennas. I had a one watt beacon on ten meters for more than a decade. And during its operation I received QSL cards from all over the world. Imagine, one watt from New York to Japan. Great hobby.
73

 

What a coincidence, I found 10m open this evening - quite rare now! One Watt NY to JA is pretty good going. My best recently was 200 mW to VE.
Among my 'most memorable QSOs' was one with VP8CMR/M, Nigel, who was dog-sled/mobile from Rothera Base in Antarctica on the last year dogs were allowed down there. He was running 5W or 10W into a dipole held up with ski sticks.

 

My beacon was N2JNT/BCN and very reliable into Europe. It is still listed on Google. Memorable QSOs with one of the Christians on Pitcairn Island and the MIR space station. I fondly recall my first QSO with an Australian. It was obvious I was totally excited about the contact and requested a QSL card. The poor guy had just lost his job and was wondering where in the world his next dollar would come from. A few weeks later I received a card in an envelope from Australia. The guy had spent a few of his last dollars to send me a card. That is the kind of people that were in the hobby then.

 

Got em! VR6TC (Tom Christian) on 10/9/98 on 20m SSB and R0MIR on 22/2/97 on 144 MHz. The latter took a couple of days of trying, but I managed with a very long 22 element yagi to catch the space station just as it came above the western horizon and before the hordes in EU could hear it. Back in 1997 I was still a class B and restricted to VHF but used to use one of the RS satellites with up-link on 2m and down on 10m to work a bit of DX, was a bit of a fiddle working out and tracking the doppler shift.

 

I had a ten element two meter AZ/EL yagi for working MIR. I put a message on their BBS and got a reply from an Australian on the next pass. Also got a QSL from a SWL in Spain who copied my beacon message off MIR. Lots of fun, but kept me up late. Ah, the good old days.
73