Interest in Getting into Ham Radio

Were you a ham in 1913?

Because general class never gave full privileges, that was only extra. Even advanced had some limitations, but was just in between a general and an advanced.

 

Get yourself an icom 7000 or the yeasu equal and a screwdriver antenna like a scorpion. I used the scorpion for a year now and have had the best of luck.

 

Ridgeline where do you talk do you have any particular country or frequency you like

 

But there were portions of each band reserved for Advanced and Extra classes, and I think that's what he was referring to.

 

Yes it does.
The antenna tuner only works on HF if memory serves me. The nice thing about that setup is that the radio itself can be mounted in a good safe location and the interface can be mounted in the truck. I saw one of these with a SGC 500 smart power cube amp years ago and it was a fantastic. The amp, antenna and radio all followed each other around the bands. If you moved to 40 meters from 10 every piece would automatically switch bands and the antenna would move automatically to put itself in the right place on the new band.

 

On 10 through 20 meters its whatever or whoever I hear and want to talk to but there are 20 meter nets too. 14.300 is the maritime mobile service net for instance. During good conditions DX can be anywhere in the world on these bands. On the low bands, I rag chew with various groups on 40 and 75 meters as I travel through areas. The neat thing about ham radio is there are so many ways to communicate.
I've worked the world at home on PSK 31 with less than 100 watts. That's using 31 Hertz of band width to communicate. Put that into perspective. If an average AM signal was 5 Kc's wide you could fit approximately 160 psk 31 conversations in that single 5 Kc bandwidth used for an AM signal. It's all done with a computer. The sky is the limit. You can bounce a signal off the moon if you want to spend the money and time to do it. You can work satellites. The hobby is huge and there is something for everyone.

 

How do you run your equipment in the large car does your radio have a detacheble face plate

 

You don't need lots of power to talk on 10 metres

 

Definaetly a great hobby I used to speak to numerous operators up on 27:425 /27:475 lsb last year while I was OTR plenty of them where HRO and had the capability to talk a All over the world

 

No, very little power is needed for 10 meters when the band is open you can work the world.
Yes on the detachable face plate. The radio is mounted remotely. I'm a Kenwood guy and I like the 2000 because it covers just about any band you could possible want to work. It's a Ham radio station in a box. There i a link at the bottom of the page showing one being used.

The only place that power might be needed is on 40 meters in the day time and 75 meters at night. The reason you need power on 75 most of the time is because of static crashes. This is really bad during the summer months and not so bad of course during the winter. A big truck setup properly with 500 watts out a good antenna (not cheap) can work nearly anyone they can hear on 75 meters during the winter months. During quite months this would be from 1 to 500 miles or so. That's the beauty of 75. I used to drive a lot at night and I could listen to a group of guys out on the West Coast with no problem. Listening is a big part of the hobby too. I could talk to them but it was strained for them. I was probably 7 or 800 miles away from them in the winter. 75 meters only rarely has weird skip propagation that doesn't allow you to talk to anyone with in that range. Their is no skipping over someone. If you are trucking through Texas for instance you can talk to anyone in the state and La., Ar and Ok to boot for the most part. 160 meters of course propagates like the AM Radio band that's just below it. Completely dead during the daytime and good and long at night but very noisy in the summer and pretty nice during the winter. It's workable mobile but every I has to be dotted and every T crossed. I wouldn't recommend messing with 160 at all for a beginner.