Amateur Ham Radio

[harrygunner]

Ran across this amateur's shack: http://www.qrz.com/db/w9evt

So many of the rigs I wanted as a kid, but couldn't afford. Great that he is able to enjoy electronics to this extent. He made contacts as of yesterday, so even in the second half of being 80+ years old, he's still active.

I have a Technician license for emergency communications when I'm out in the forests. But I'm considering upgrading to General. No real reason to, since I enjoy the equipment more than talking. But it would bring back some of my childhood when I made my own ham equipment from schematics in the Handbook.

I'm sure there are hams on this site. Any stories?

[harrygunner]

I have a handheld 2m transceiver in my backpack, but there have been times when I was so remote that relays were too far to reach. So I decided to make a portable station I can use in emergencies at home or in remote areas.

Figured a water tight ammo can would be ideal. Fits easily in the back of the Jeep. This transceiver has transmission power settings up to 75 watts. The DC plug and cord handle up to 15 amps at 13.8 volts for powering the unit from my Jeep and the DC power supply converts 110 volt AC to 13.8 volts at 30 amps.

Cooling has not been a problem. The can opening is large enough for the transceiver's extensive heat sink to work.

Away from home, the antenna goes on top of the Jeep but, in an emergency, the dimensions of the ammo can are close enough to act as a ground plane.

When not in use, everything fits into the can, even the quarter wave antenna. In an emergency at home, I can grab it from the closet and get on the air. The switch on the right of the photo of the assembled unit lets me switch sources of DC to the transceiver. My call sign is on the plaque on the lid of the can. The clip to hold the microphone in on the left side, upper surface.

The ammo can is for 30 25mm cartridges with dimensions of D 5 x W 13 x H 13.5, the Jeep power plug is a Powerwerx TMCG-72, the transceiver is a Yaesu FT-2900R. Bought the DC power supply from Amazon for under $25. The switch, AC plug were fitted into a Radio Shack project box.

** Need to know about properly wiring ground and neutral circuits to make sure the can and power supply are grounded. **

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[tommac919]

I have a small yaesu I carry in the pack.... but most of the time I don't use it.

What i do use is a small  cw rig under the name of DSW from Dave Benson. 

I carry the 40m or 20 meter as they are very light, a battery pack will run them for the weekend ( draws about 20ma on RX )...and use a 28g wire antenna that is easy to throw up in a tree. Each one with all gear needed are about 1+ lb.... No tuner needed as wire is cut to length.

Info here; http://www.w0ch.net/dsw/dsw.htm

[gandog56]

Ham radio has almost died out after the Internet became into common use. But if the SHTF does happen, we would all be scrambling to ham radio again.

[The_Shadow]

Wow that was a bunch of gear!  I was fairly active up until Hurricane Katrina knocked down my antennas for 11m, 10m, 2m, 1.25m, 70cm.  My 220mhz repeater sits in my shop...Cellular phones & internet have replaced most communications for me...
Back a few years though, our 223.94 repeater was great coverage, could hit it with 1/3 watt HT from 40 miles away on most days!

Many of my radios need some tuning up, no one to tune them properly locally...some are worn out and no replacement parts available, especially the HT's, like my Standard 2m / 220 dual band HT.  Many Mobile rigs sit boxed up and need new memory batteries. single band, dual band and triple band units.  Amps are all sitting gathering dust...

I will say I had my most fun with CB's in the 70's & 80's.

[my_old_glock]

...

I will say I had my most fun with CB's in the 70's & 80's.

I had a nice General Electric CB in the 1970's when I was a kid. The only thing bad about it was the limited range with 4 watts and a cheapo antenna.

I made the mistake of selling it on eBay a few years ago. I bought another one (Midland 75-822) that is made in China. It is a POS compared to the one made in Japan. The Midland only put out 1 watt on both the portable antenna and the external antenna. I returned it to Midland and they just gave me a new one. The new one gets to 3 watts, but not the 4 watts stated in their item's description.



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[harrygunner]

Yes, that is a lot of gear. Nice how he was able to set up an antenna farm near his house. When I was a kid, I stung antennas on the roof of my parent's house. My mother had a fear of lightening, but let me do it anyway. I showed her how they were grounded, didn't diminish the fear. I thanked her decades later for letting me do that.

'gandog56' Internet has had an effect. The bands can be quiet. But you're right, Amateur Radio would be critical if infrastructure fails catastrophically.

'tommac919' Nice little rig.

'The_Shadow' I still have some rigs I made as a kid. Afraid to plug them in. Will need to check for dried capacitors and such. One has a resistor 110V cord. I'd have to figure out how to replace that.