NEW 10 Meter Radio

No we have hella traffic this time of year, still have 100s of belly dumps running around this area of the country along with Grain, sugar beet and potato harvest. LOTS and lots of trucks running our roads and everyone is looking for a channel. I have to keep reminding dump companies that no one owns ANY channel on CB as they are always crying about their company channel.

 

Correct. Even if you have a license, if you use a 10 meter radio on the 11 meter band, you're in violation. If you "convert" said 10 meter radio to 11 meters, you're in violation.

If you don't convert said 10 meter to 11 meters and as long as you use it on the 10 meter band only, then you're ok. But even then most of the time those 10 meter radios don't have things like SSB and such for real 10 meter use. There are exceptions though.

As much as we don't like Gadfly's postings, he does post some truthful info, that really the 10 meter radios are not marketed at the ham audience at all, but rather the CB audience, who wants more power, echo and such in one radio, and requires skirting past the FCC to do so, by labeling it as a 10 meter radio/setting it up to work on 10 meters out of the box.

The only real reason for one wanting to get his ham ticket, is if he just wants to have a general friendly chat with another (or more) and wants to get away from some of the negative aspects of CB radio.

Ham radio = friendly hobby. Can be expensive. Business is not supposed to be conducted on ham radio.

CB radio = inexpensive business radio....though some people do use it also as their hobby.

So if one wanted to become a ham, he could have one CB in his truck for business use on 19, loading docks, etc., and the other(s) ham radios for chats to other trucks with ham radios via simplex, or even a chat from truck to a repeater and then back to whoever else far off had a ham radio tuned to his frequency.

I concur. Truth is if skip is rolling and I happen to catch a guy more than 155 miles from me on CB, I'm not just going to say "sorry I can't talk to you because you're too far". That's stupid. At the bare minimum I'll keep it short, say hello to him and "give him my 20" and keep it at that.

Now if someone says "I'm gonna get me one of them there exports and get on them there bands outside of CB", I kindly "inform" them that they're owned and used by other agencies (even if their quiet) so they don't get tracked down and fined for illegal radio use. Sadly some people get all riled up over it and think I'm being some "holier than thou" snob about it....hey go ahead and use them and get fined for it if you wish. I just figured I'd be nice about it and take the liberty of telling the unknowing.

 

REMEMBER my comment about the need for a trucking band ......

sadly the FCC is so bull headed ...

 

Mike, and everyone else here's free Ham Test learning tools. These are the questions and answers that are on the test. There's levels on License Technician, General, and Amateur Extra. You must pass the Technician test first. If I could do it anyone can. Good Luck!

http://www.qrz.com/site.html

http://aa9pw.com/radio/

http://www.shenware.com/dlamateurradio.html

 

Hey thanks!.........Now if I can find the time....may be a retirement project.

 

oops! double post.

 

"ChickenMan":
One of the things that you're likely to find if you do get the ham "ticket" is that on 10 Meters, there are not a lot of hams that use that band for "local traffic", mostly just the "free-banders" and the "lids" do that, this is because the [ARRL] "band plan" calls for the entire 10 Meter band to be used for "DX" ("Skip" in C.B. parlance). The other thing that kind of keeps the use of 10 Meters "low" is that the Technician Class License limits it's holders to CW/RTTY/Beacons from 28.1 to 28.3 and SSB Voice from 28.3 to 28.5, the General Class License on the other hand allows operation, in the authorized "modes" for each segment, across the entire band!! The [ARRL] 10 Meter Band Plan: 10 Meters (28-29.7 MHz): 28.000-28.070 CW; 28.070-28.150 RTTY; 28.150-28.190 CW; 28.200-28.300 Beacons; 28.300-29.300 Phone, General class and higher; 28.300-28.500 Technician class phone; 28.680 SSTV 29.000-29.200 AM 29.300-29.510 Satellite Downlinks 29.520-29.590 Repeater Inputs 29.600 FM Simplex 29.610-29.700 Repeater Outputs As you may have noticed those who are General class licensees get to "play with" some really interesting "modes", including "satellites", and "slow scan television" in this band!!!
As for "What happened to the 'good ol' days' " they have been determined to be just the 'ol' days', and have been forgotten, except by "O.T.'s" like you and I!!!

 

Mike,
You have to "make" the time if you want something and when you want it enough you'll make the time to do it!

You may just be surprised at how little, (or by how much) time you have to spend studying for the exams!!!
It mostly depends on how determined you are to pass the test(s), and how well you are able to retain the information.

 

Your right, it's a matter of priorities.

 

intresting tell that to the guys on 28.450 every Tuesday at 8 PM