You Want To Become A Ham Operator? Well Come On In! - Part #1
I’ve recently been asked to write some instructional posts about how to become a Ham Radio or Amateur Radio Operator so let’s start off with what a Ham Operator is:
According to Wikipedia:
An amateur radio operator is someone who uses equipment at an amateur radio station to engage in two-way personal communications with other amateur operators on radio frequencies assigned to the amateur radio service. Amateur radio operators have been granted an amateur radio license by a governmental regulatory authority after passing an examination on applicable regulations, electronics, radio theory, and radio operation. As a component of their license, amateur radio operators are assigned a call sign that they use to identify themselves during communication. There are about three million amateur radio operators worldwide.[1]
Well, that sounds quite boring. Snore. Becoming a Ham was an exciting time in my life. My husband and I had opened an electronics repair shop which catered to Truckers. We fixed pretty much any electronic devices they had in their cabs but we focused mainly on two-way radio repair. I knew only basic electronics when we opened the shop, such as reading schematics, using a multi-meter and being able to fix simple electronics problems in my home.
My husband and I worked in close quarters, an 11’ by 24’ job site trailer, and I’m telling you that man is patient. He is also an excellent teacher! He taught me more than I thought myself capable of and it was amazing. Before long I was a very capable radio technician and the drivers began to trust my work. My focus was mainly on C.B. or Citizen’s Band radios… or “children’s band” or “Sesame Street band”. C.B. radios require no licensing and it shows. Some operators’ behavior could be pretty outlandish but it could also be a lot of fun
C.B. radios run on the 11-meter band or 26.965 M to 27.405 M. (M = megahertz) What the heck does that mean? Radio is all about the length of the distance from the peak of one wave to the peak of the next wave, or wave tip to wave tip. The waves being electromagnetic waves, that range from radio waves all the way up through microwaves, x-rays and all the way up to light waves, infra-red and ultraviolet.
So C.B. radio is 11 meters from peak to peak hence it’s the 11 meter band. If you take the speed of light and divide that by 11 meters you get 27 M roughly, the speed of light being 299792458mps (meters per second).
We had quite a radio set-up. I was running an RCI 2970 at my bench which was connected to an Antron 99 antenna on a 40-foot T.V. tower. You could hear me for miles. It was a nice clean signal. (At this point I could get lost down a rabbit hole explaining why a clean signal is important but I’ll cover that in another post.) It was part of our marketing ploy to have me “man” the radio when drivers called in. I loved it!
When we bought this old girl she wasn't working very well so I fixed her! Yup!! It was just some cold solder joints, which means the solder had broken and just needed to be redone. The hardest trick was finding it. After re-aligning the whole radio she worked beautifully.
Also on my bench was a sweet little rig, a Yaseau FT-90R, VHF/UHF Dual Band FM Transceiver. It was a conspiracy to entice me into getting my Ham license. I came into the shop one day to find this awesome little rig all installed and glowing blue on my bench. My husband had his similar rig installed in our car and I enjoyed listening to him talking on it. He sounded so official using his call sign and QR codes and stuff. LOL!
One of our regular customers traded my husband’s tech work for the radio. It was a done deal and I was quite excited. I called our supplier, asked him to add an ARRL Handbook to our order and began studying for my exam.
Here in Canada, we have a national association called R.A.C., Radio Amateurs of Canada which is an excellent source of information. You can enroll in an online class or purchase your study guides. If you prefer a classroom setting find out if there is a Ham Radio Club in your area and join it. They almost always offer classes.
Even though I'm Canadian I highly recommend getting your hands on a copy of the A.R.R.L Handbook. It really doesn't matter if it's the most recent one. You can find them on E-bay or Amazon or maybe through a local Ham Club. A.R.R.L. or American Radio Relay League is the American equivalent of R.A.C and their website is another valuable source of information.
I refer to my copy of the A.R.R.L. Handbook as my "Ham Bible" because it is the definitive guide to almost every topic regarding Ham Radio that a newbie would need. I'll never forget building my first antenna using this book for reference. It was my first major accomplishment.
Don't go rushing out to buy a radio because you need to understand the equipment and how it works before you purchase it unless of course, you find an excellent deal then grab it. A word of caution: if you do have Ham equipment please ignore the impulse to key-up without a license. Airlines, emergency services and the military use these radios and the last thing you want to do is accidentally interfere with their operations. You will be heavily fined and possibly imprisoned.
Everyone has their own motivation for becoming a licensed Ham but when it comes down to it when the SHTF Ham Radio Operators are our first line of defense.
Over the years through our local radio club, L.A.R.C. (London and Area Radio Club) I've been involved in a search for a missing child (this turned out positive and the child was found safe and sound.), I've been part of the CANWARN team which monitors crazy weather and reports in and various other activities like patroling London on Devil's Night. Being a member of a Ham Community is never dull and I'm always learning new things.
Watch for Part #2:
73's Until next time friends...
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : http://artemisnorth.com/1956-2/
cool!
Loved my time in the cab of a truck, and the CB kept me awake.
Great post very informative, I started my career as a radio tech and in then transitioned into Operations and management roles, by I have always planned to setup a HAM rafio system when I retire and will be somewhat settled and have free time
That sounds like fun! We still have our equipment sitting sadly waiting for us to use it again. Thanks for stopping by!
A pleasure to visit ;)
this is a super cool post and i just love it. so glad you wrote it and a great start into the amazing world of HAM!! what a beautiful skilll to have, especially for a prepper like me who wants to get into this but not sure how. TYSM
Thanks @eaglespririt. I think I have a good plan of attack to help you guys understand Ham and pass your exam. Stay tuned!
@artemisnorth woo hooo i can'ttt waitt ! like so excited
I remember when I was a kid a friend of mine's father was a HAM radio operator and they had a good size tower at the back of their house. His dad used the little key thing like a telegraph operator from the old west days days would have in railroad station to send out his messages to people all around the world. "... - - - ..." was the SOS single, I do remember that, it amazed me because it was having braille for the ears instead of the fingers for a blind person.
He also had the voice radios as well and it was just so neat.
When TSHTF and it will ;people like you will be most valuable to the people in your area for getting information out and in.
Just remember, no fake news please.
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Nice read and well put together article. I loved my RCI-2970 and have had the whole series and still have the rare first of them RCI-2900 also sold as Galaxy Uranus. I ran a 2970 and Antron 99 for years 30ft up on Tempe Arizona and worked skip all over in 2008-2012. I used to live in Black Diamond , Washington with an RCI 2990 and I had my A99 up 60ft and I was literally on top of the hill nothing but tree's between me and Mt. Rainer for miles ( actually the mt. rainer windows desktop image was taken from the street infront of my house on poplar street ) and I had an operator I have known since I was 15 whom I just really upset. He ran AM channel 6 the superbowl and I worked skip on 38 LSB ( 27.385 ) and triple nickel 27.555 USB ( yes freeband ) and we would go back and forth. Thus apparently ended his radio days , my neighbor was Prime Minister and I knew him from the past as Anthony Ray or Big Mike away from CH 6 and some know him as Sir Mix Alot. He ended up going with a Henry 7k to mate with his Cobra 2000. Not many people know he is a CB operator , look at Tim Allen too whom is a ham. I am much older now with a Yeasu FT-897 and Uniden 2020 with that RCI-2900 and a plethora of CB's and I spend most of my time on 20 meter listening to CW with the help of a laptop or android device along with RTTY typically RTTY 45. We need to get radio as popular here on steemit as crypto currency as its more important. I constantly am telling my medical drivers as I am 40 and disabled stuck in bed unless going to the doctor and if i can sit up I try to use the radio for an hour or so if possible with tubes coming out my body. If it wasn't for my love of radio I may have given up on life already , it gives me something to push to get up and enjoy and it sometimes takes me 2-3 days to be well enough and I watch the DX live map's wishing I could get up when its really active but usually miss the really fun times so honestly don't take DX and opportunities for radio and skip and DX and working on components and mods and repair etc for granted. I thought I would get on SSDI and relax and then with my lupus kicking my butt and botched surgeries and mal practice law suites along with shingles in my eyes and going blind I cherish every static burst and every dot and dash and chasing those signals in the back of the radio at my static line...