[NA] GMRS or HAM enthusiasts?

Daleandee said:
I stopped at General Class. I did pass a code test but it was a struggle and I don't even try it now. I really respect the guys that can though and found this video extremely entertaining ...
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Advanced was a written test only over General.

I did Tech+ and General written same day. Just under 1 year later, I passed 13 WPM code test and about 45 minutes later, the Advanced written.
 
jrhillma said:
5WPM Extra here. Don't think I've made a CW contact in 20+ years. Was away from playing radio for maybe 15 years, returned a month ago. Thought for sure PSK31 would be dead, so tried out FT8. What a miserable experience. Sure, lots of "QSOs" in the logbook, but there's no interaction. Switched back to PSK31 and was surprised it's still alive. Olivia is interesting, too. Just received an FTDX-10 today, so figure I'll mess about with other digital modes and maybe an SSB QSO while I'm at it.
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I have been inactive for years now. Glad to hear PSK31 is still alive, I always enjoyed that. Been toying with the idea of running a wire through the trees in the back yard and getting back on the air after I kiss work goodbye. CW and maybe PSK for me, I used to work SSB but never really enjoyed it.
 
DaleB said:
I have been inactive for years now. Glad to hear PSK31 is still alive, I always enjoyed that. Been toying with the idea of running a wire through the trees in the back yard and getting back on the air after I kiss work goodbye. CW and maybe PSK for me, I used to work SSB but never really enjoyed it.
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I preferred SSB most of the time when conditions were good, but I'd switch to PSK whenever propogation dropped off. Never have learned CW. One of these days I really do need to throw up some wire and get on the air again.
 
I did the 20 WPM extra. A had 13 WPM solid when I got my advanced. Spent another few months getting up close enough to 20WPM to pass the test.
I then ended up being the VE liaison for the Vienna Wireless Society for a bunch of years. We hosted the first license session after the no-code tech was passed, had over 100 people taking exams that day. I continued to do that as they progressively dropped the code test to 5WPM (that's about when I stopped doing VE stuff).

Did my tech exam back at the old FCC in Baltimore with Annie Woodlawn. Did it one day and came back the next and took my second class phone.
 
I served as a VE for a while, too, but let it lapse. Also was part of our county ARES group for a few years. One of these days I’ll get back into it.
 
R

Another vote for amateur radio.

So there I was… running aeronautical AND maritime mobile one day in the S-3. Some chucklehead blessed me out one day… “you can’t possibly be both… you’re just using this big story to justify using crappy old equipment that sounds bad blah blah blah….”

I replied that I was in a jet that just took off a carrier. And that funny background noise that’s coming and going is me jockeying the throttles.

He shut up…

Another time I was talking to dad (WI0V) whilst airborne heading his way on a cross country, San Diego to Kansas City.

Heard a “break”, and acknowledged him.

N0KKJ, did you say you’re mobile?
Yep.

Where yat? Got a whopping signal here in Mesa AZ…

I rolled the plane, looked down, did some math and said “4 miles away”

Which way?
Straight up!!

Vy 73
De n0kkj
 
I passed the 13 WPM test for General. Never could quite hit 20, so I got my Extra ticket after they dropped the code requirement from 20 to 5, I think it was. I could copy 15-18 WPM depending on the day, and occasionally found myself copying while carrying on a conversation with one of my kids at the same time, but never could quite get over that little hump at 18-ish.

Never have had the urge to put a ham rig in the plane. I thought about APRS briefly, but decided there was really no reason I wanted it. I never have used APRS, even though I was pretty active on 2M packet back in the 90s.

Wonder if the hamsats are still an option. I made a few satellite contacts from my car in the parking lot at work around ‘99-2001 or so. That was a hoot.
 
I didn't plan to get my general, but when I took the tech plus (I think) written I did well enough that the guy behind the desk suggested I might as well take the general written since I was already there. My ride was still taking his test, so I took it and passed. Then I had to study to barely pass the 5 WPM code test at the time. I've never made a code contact.

HF didn't interest me, but when I listened to a ham named Ernie Mills talk about this new thing called "PSK31" it caught my attention. I ended up joining RACES up here, and we spent some time playing around with both SSB and digital, mostly PSK, with 80m and 40m NVIS for short range communications to get into what otherwise would be dead zones for a lot of radio coverage because of the terrain. It was a lot of fun.
 
For the OP, I'd go with GMRS. It is simply more common in that niche and the point is to be able to talk to other people stuck in the same niche with you. You can also talk with non-licensed FRS people, and if you wanted to you could pick up a 4-pack of FRS radios for about $30 and equip everyone in your vehicle with a way to keep in touch if they wander off. I mostly use my GMRS handhelds at the boat ramp or when working on the roof. I've never found a GMRS repeater in the wild, but I also haven't been looking for them much. I mostly like that there is basically zero barrier to entry for other people to use FRS and not much more of a barrier to use GMRS. The biggest downside is that your GMRS call sign will be long and hard to remember.

I also have my amateur general license, which I got a few months ago after a couple years as a technician. I'm stuck in radio shopping hell, though, because I can't define my mission well enough to pull the trigger on an HF rig. I do have a VHF/UHF HT (FT-60R) and I've thought about keying up the nearest net (it's a linked set of VHF repeaters, the nearest of which is 30 nautical miles from my house but line of sight due to terrain) but I haven't really pushed the PTT button much on it. I think I'd get more mileage out of a mobile dual-band in the car. Even more so in the plane but only if it could interface to the intercom, which is enough of a hassle to not do.

What I want to do: Learn Morse Code, get an Elecraft KX2, and have a rig I can easily put in a suitcase or backpack and use to make DX contacts on voice and HF when I'm traveling or hiking in the boonies. What I have time to do: Carry the FT-60R in my car and think about turning it on.
 
DaleB said:
I passed the 13 WPM test for General. Never could quite hit 20, so I got my Extra ticket after they dropped the code requirement from 20 to 5, I think it was. I could copy 15-18 WPM depending on the day, and occasionally found myself copying while carrying on a conversation with one of my kids at the same time, but never could quite get over that little hump at 18-ish.

Never have had the urge to put a ham rig in the plane. I thought about APRS briefly, but decided there was really no reason I wanted it. I never have used APRS, even though I was pretty active on 2M packet back in the 90s.

Wonder if the hamsats are still an option. I made a few satellite contacts from my car in the parking lot at work around ‘99-2001 or so. That was a hoot.
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I BARELY got up to 13 WPM for the General. On the code test, I barely had the required one minute of consecutive copy of random characters. While reviewing my copy before handing it in, there was one character in the middle of that minute for which I couldn't tell whether I had written a "5" or an "S". Rather than taking a chance on guessing wrong and clarifying it incorrectly, I left it alone in the hope that the person grading the test would give me the benefit of the doubt. It worked.

My CW skills deteriorated from that point forward, to the point that when I became a student pilot, I relearned the International Morse alphabet because I wanted to be able to decode navaid identifiers without looking at a cheat sheet.
 
Palmpilot said:
I BARELY got up to 13 WPM for the General. On the code test, I barely had the required one minute of consecutive copy of random characters. While reviewing my copy before handing it in, there was one character in the middle of that minute for which I couldn't tell whether I had written a "5" or an "S". Rather than taking a chance on guessing wrong and clarifying it incorrectly, I left it alone in the hope that the person grading the test would give me the benefit of the doubt. It worked.

My CW skills deteriorated from that point forward, to the point that when I became a student pilot, I relearned the International Morse alphabet because I wanted to be able to decode navaid identifiers without looking at a cheat sheet.
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I wouldn't say Morse is like riding a bicycle, but I've found that I can still copy fairly low speed stuff - maybe 8-10 WPM without getting lost. It only takes a few hours of practice to get back up to a pretty reasonable 13-15 or so.

One of the several reasons I got out of HF was a confluence of other hobbies, the failure of a flagpole antenna into which I had invested a considerable amount of time, effort and money in an effort to get a workable solution for our restricted neighborhood, the HOA extending the covenants that were supposed to expire in 2015 (the only reason I agreed to move here) for another 60 years, and the low spot in what was a crappy solar cycle to begin with. Now that it looks like I'll have more free time on my hands before long and we're going into a more active period, I'm feeling a bit more encouraged. There's an old Radio Shack DX-440 out in the garage with just the original telescoping antenna, and it's receiving CW on 40 and 20 meters quite well these days.
 
When I first started to get my private license, my instructor asked me why I wasn't looking at the chart while IDing the VOR. I told him I didn't need the little dot and dash pictures. After tuning in several different stations and me telling him what they were, he decided I was telling him the truth.

Years later my wife (also an Advanced Class ham) was flying with her instructor and I was in the back seat of the 172 for some reason (probably going to lunch, her instructor loved to get a free lunch out of us). They were attempting to track the EMI VOR and having problems. They even had the audio turned up on the IDENT. After a few minutes I relented and pointed out that the thing was sending TEST not EMI.
 
kshaw said:
Never heard of MURS. Does it require a license? Wattage? Range?
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The Multi-Use Radio Service (MURS) are 5 VHF frequencies that don't require a license to operate on. Power output is limited to 2 watts (the same as most FRS frequencies) BUT you can legally use an external antenna. An external antenna on a vehicle can greatly extend the usable range of your radio.
External antennas aren't allowed on FRS.
Also, in many areas the FRS channels are clogged with kids screaming at each other which can make them difficult to use for real communication.
 
iamtheari said:
For the OP, I'd go with GMRS. It is simply more common in that niche and the point is to be able to talk to other people stuck in the same niche with you. You can also talk with non-licensed FRS people, and if you wanted to you could pick up a 4-pack of FRS radios for about $30 and equip everyone in your vehicle with a way to keep in touch if they wander off. I mostly use my GMRS handhelds at the boat ramp or when working on the roof. I've never found a GMRS repeater in the wild, but I also haven't been looking for them much. I mostly like that there is basically zero barrier to entry for other people to use FRS and not much more of a barrier to use GMRS. The biggest downside is that your GMRS call sign will be long and hard to remember.

I also have my amateur general license, which I got a few months ago after a couple years as a technician. I'm stuck in radio shopping hell, though, because I can't define my mission well enough to pull the trigger on an HF rig. I do have a VHF/UHF HT (FT-60R) and I've thought about keying up the nearest net (it's a linked set of VHF repeaters, the nearest of which is 30 nautical miles from my house but line of sight due to terrain) but I haven't really pushed the PTT button much on it. I think I'd get more mileage out of a mobile dual-band in the car. Even more so in the plane but only if it could interface to the intercom, which is enough of a hassle to not do.

What I want to do: Learn Morse Code, get an Elecraft KX2, and have a rig I can easily put in a suitcase or backpack and use to make DX contacts on voice and HF when I'm traveling or hiking in the boonies. What I have time to do: Carry the FT-60R in my car and think about turning it on.
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Thanks to whoever revived this one - I forgot to follow up on it.

I ended up mounting a 20W GMRS radio in my truck with a Midland Ghost antenna to use if we get stranded while we're out in the woods camping or hunting. There is a fairly extensive repeater network in the area (spanning from north of Chattanooga to about 70 miles south of ATL) that I throw a few bucks at to help them out and have 'legit' access to use the network if necessary, though when I turn on the radio to listen in as I'm driving to/from the airport sometimes it seems that most people are on there asking how their radio sounds. Kind of feels like a perpetual motion machine type thing - I need to get a better radio so I can talk to the folks about what kind of better radio I should get. ha.
 
CJones said:
Thanks to whoever revived this one - I forgot to follow up on it.

I ended up mounting a 20W GMRS radio in my truck with a Midland Ghost antenna to use if we get stranded while we're out in the woods camping or hunting. There is a fairly extensive repeater network in the area (spanning from north of Chattanooga to about 70 miles south of ATL) that I throw a few bucks at to help them out and have 'legit' access to use the network if necessary, though when I turn on the radio to listen in as I'm driving to/from the airport sometimes it seems that most people are on there asking how their radio sounds. Kind of feels like a perpetual motion machine type thing - I need to get a better radio so I can talk to the folks about what kind of better radio I should get. ha.
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It looks like @Palmpilot is the necroposter deserving of your thanks. How do you like the Ghost antenna?
 
iamtheari said:
It looks like @Palmpilot is the necroposter deserving of your thanks. How do you like the Ghost antenna?
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As far as I can tell, it works well. Nothing to really compare it to other than the old CB setup I used to have in the Jeep. It seems to pick up well through less than ideal situations (in the hills and 'hollers of the N GA mountains) where we were picking up repeater traffic about 30 miles away from the antenna enough that I got annoyed and turned it off due to the endless chatter. I've only transmitted a couple of times just to make sure it worked and the response was that it was good ~10 miles from a repeater. Lots of trees in our area, though, so it can be spotty and does picket fence quite a bit when driving down the really tight roads.
 
I hold an Amateur Extra class license. i started out as a Techician in November 1988, upgraded to Advanced in 1992 and sat there for years. 20 wpm code just wasn't worth the pain for an extra 75 kHz of spectrum for SSB. When the FCC did away with the code requirement I retook the written just before they did away with Advanced and sat on the piece of paper until the rule change when into effect and then paid the test fee a second time, turned in the paper and walked out with an Extra class ticket. So I passed a 13 wpm code test back in 1992 and haven't worked CW since. I'm an ARRL Technical Advisor and a member of their EMC Committee. It's been fun.
 
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