INGO HAM Radio Club

[tv1217]

I've been playing with APRS-IS. South Porter county is kind of a dead zone for digipeaters. I'm usually hitting St John or Culver which are 30 miles in either direction of where I live and it's not always reliable especially during the day when more people are active sending APRS beacons.

I put an N9TAX Slim Jim antenna up on my roof hooked to my old Galaxy Note 20something in the attic running the "iGate2 Pro" App. My packets were getting read pretty reliably within a 6 mile radius of my house with 8.1 being my furthest transmission. Nothing stellar but it patches up the dead zone pretty good. Most of that red line is like the last 6 hours of my tracks.





The ghetto antenna setup

 

[Cameramonkey]

I'm dipping my toes in to inexpensive gmrs, picked up a combo pack of Baofung Gm-15 pros for a whopping $50 and pairing them with a 25w radioddity to start learning. I'm so inexperienced that I'm not sure if what I said means anything. But I'm excited to start learning.

Will probably get the FCC license after tinkering around for a while when ready to start transmitting. Would like to eventually get in to ham.

Seriously, you dont need to wait to transmit. There are people everyday that do it. Unless you are causing a problem, nobody will know or care. I'd only get the GMRS license when you are ready to hit the repeaters. Nobody will notice you if all you are doing is taking to family and friends on a hike or around the neighborhood or at the zoo.

Simplex traffic is only good for a mile or two, so that means big brother or someone who is looking for somebody to bust has to be up close and personal to you. Its not like 100 watts and a wire on HF bands where you can be heard worldwide. Even a lot of those clowns never get caught. And they are well known and have been doing it for years.

Hell, even jerks that intentionally cause interference are seldom caught. It takes a LOT to get the FCCs attention.

 

[XDdreams]

Seriously, you dont need to wait to transmit. There are people everyday that do it. Unless you are causing a problem, nobody will know or care. I'd only get the GMRS license when you are ready to hit the repeaters. Nobody will notice you if all you are doing is taking to family and friends on a hike or around the neighborhood or at the zoo.

Simplex traffic is only good for a mile or two, so that means big brother or someone who is looking for somebody to bust has to be up close and personal to you. Its not like 100 watts and a wire on HF bands where you can be heard worldwide. Even a lot of those clowns never get caught. And they are well known and have been doing it for years.

Hell, even jerks that intentionally cause interference are seldom caught. It takes a LOT to get the FCCs attention.

I'm mostly interested in learning for emergency use, meaning 10-15 miles around home base. Don't want to cause any unnecessary problems.

 

[Cameramonkey]

You won’t cause any problems at al by using them normally. Trust me. Just don’t try to use any repeaters.

Understand that FRS radios share many of the exact same channels. (Power is the only difference) and there are little kids goofing off with those all the time.

 

[tv1217]

144.390MHz (APRS frequency) had constant traffic this morning. Lots of HAMs moving

 

[ACR]

Passed my technicians and generals tests last night 92% on the technician and 100% on the general. Now just to wait for stuff to go thru FCC so I can pay the fee and get my call sign.

 

[Cameramonkey]

Passed my technicians and generals tests last night 92% on the technician and 100% on the general. Now just to wait for stuff to go thru FCC so I can pay the fee and get my call sign.

Great job!

 

[Backpacker]

Passed my technicians and generals tests last night 92% on the technician and 100% on the general. Now just to wait for stuff to go thru FCC so I can pay the fee and get my call sign.

Congratulations

 

[Tradesylver]

73 de Kilo Seven Quebec Bravo

 

[Emerson Dambiggins]

Passed my technicians and generals tests last night 92% on the technician and 100% on the general. Now just to wait for stuff to go thru FCC so I can pay the fee and get my call sign.

Great job!
Now dig in and get your Extra ticket.
The test ain't that hard.

 

[Cameramonkey]

Great job!
Now dig in and get your Extra ticket.
The test ain't that hard.

But take it fast. new questions in July.

 

[ACR]

I wasn't necessarily thinking of doing the extra not sure I am going to go that hard core on HF, I just did the general so I have the options other then 10 meter. But if I do end up doing HF more I will probably do the extra at that time.

 

[Cameramonkey]

I wasn't necessarily thinking of doing the extra not sure I am going to go that hard core on HF, I just did the general so I have the options other then 10 meter. But if I do end up doing HF more I will probably do the extra at that time.

I used to think that way. I'm waiting for the new test pool to kick in. I keep finding traffic in the extra part of the bands.

 

[Emerson Dambiggins]

I used to think that way. I'm waiting for the new test pool to kick in. I keep finding traffic in the extra part of the bands.

I think it's fear of the math involved that keeps some folks from trying the Extra exam.
Trust me, it isn't that hard. You can use a (non programmable) calculator. So if you can punch F10 and a few others you will pass.
Once they get their ticket and begin to play on all the extra bandwidth they wonder why it took them so long.

 

[ACR]

Got my license now it was pretty quick took the test on the 11th received the email to pay on the 18th and got the license today the 19th
So now I have a call sign KE9AKD

 

[Tradesylver]

Got my license now it was pretty quick took the test on the 11th received the email to pay on the 18th and got the license today the 19th
So now I have a call sign KE9AKD

Congrats and just check QRZ.com and the call is so new its not even listed yet. What's station going to be?

 

[phatgemi]

Congrats and just check QRZ.com and the call is so new its not even listed yet. What's station going to be?

Its on FCC ULS data base. QRZ will upload tomorrow (or maybe later today) Usually a day behind.

 

[Tradesylver]

Its on FCC ULS data base. QRZ will upload tomorrow (or maybe later today) Usually a day behind.

I'm aware of that, just commenting on how brandy new the call was.

 

[ACR]

Congrats and just check QRZ.com and the call is so new its not even listed yet. What's station going to be?

Thanks! I am guessing by station you mean the equipment. So far I have 2 Baofeng UV-5Rs with longer foldable antenna's and larger batteries, I was waiting to get my license before looking into HF stuff, I am thinking of probably doing a truck set-up because I don't really have a good place in my house right now. Not sure I want to spend the money on a tower yet either, every hobby has its expenses haha.

 

[Backpacker]

Got my license now it was pretty quick took the test on the 11th received the email to pay on the 18th and got the license today the 19th
So now I have a call sign KE9AKD

Congratulations de N9ZYE