Talk:Amateur Radio Network

Purpose of these pages is to help people get Amateur Radio equipment and learn how to use it to form a viable network of international communications to bring people closer together while they are far apart. To help form a FEMA Network that can be useful in good times or bad.

On Thu, Feb 20, 2014 at 11:34 AM, Charley S wrote:

nation wide amateur radio net

In order to set up a nation wide amateur radio net to support HHC, we need at least one licensed operator in each congregation as Gregory has said. These FCC licenses come in three classes or levels named Technician, General and Extra. Applicants must first pass the Technician class before progressing to General and General must be passed before Extra. A nation wide network would have to be composed of folks who'd at least acquired a General class license. Roughly speaking, a Technician license allows one to transmit on the VHF/UHF bands. General class allows limited HF band transmission and Extra class allows full HF band privileges.

40 and 80 m HF bands

A nation wide HHC would need to operate on the 40 and 80 m HF bands, which explains why operators would at least need to acquire HF privileges. The UHF/VHF band are usually only usable for shorter range local communications. Might be great for keeping in touch with the local congregation. A question that often comes up is, would I have to learn international Morse code and the answer to that is no. The code requirement was removed around 10 years ago. Another question I might foresee coming up in this group is what if you're unnumbered and I have to admit I have absolutely no idea how that works.
Licenses are currently issued free of charge by the FCC. They are valid for 10 years and renewal is also currently free, although the operator must apply for the renewal.

Licenses examinations

Licenses examinations are performed by volunteer examiners from either the ARRL or W5YI groups.
Website are:
http://www.arrl.org/
http://www.w5yi.org/
These volunteers often charge a small fee for administering examinations to cover their cost of complying with FCC requirements and testing materials. The most I've ever hear of anyone charging to take the test is $20 and there are a small number of folks that used to do it for free. These sites offer their own manuals one needs to study in order to pass the tests. I personally used the ARRL manuals, but have had folks tell me the W5YI manuals are better. These sites will also tell you where and when examinations are offered in your area. Usually this will be at a local Ham Radio club, but other organizations offer testing as well.

Once licenses are acquired, the next step is equipment. This would consist of the following:
HF Transceiver with microphone
HF antenna or antennas for the 40 and 80 m band
A 12VDC power supply capable of feeding the transceiver
An antenna tuner to match your transceiver to the antenna is often required

Although this brief summary is far from complete, I hope it gives you an idea what you'd need to do to get started. There is already an HHC group dedicated to the topic of communications we could use https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en#!forum/hhcbroadcasts I'd be glad to help Elmer anyone (Ham speak for mentor) who needs help getting going or has questions. I can be reached via Skype phone at 307-two-five-seven-6789 or email at charley dot AC7LU at gmail dot com.

Charley in Wyoming PS The phone does not work very good, but it does work.

Exams

Exams are given by three qualified volunteer examiners (VE). To become a VE you much poses an amateur radio license and complete either the ARRL or W5YI VE course and pass their test. At that point you're allowed to give exams for the next lower license than the one you hold. For example a General class could be one of the VE's for someone taking the Technician test. The exception to this rule is that Extra class VE's are also allowed to administer the Extra class test. For this reason, VE teams usually consist exclusively of Extra class examiners as they're the only one qualified to administer General and Extra class tests. Now if you think it's hard herding cats into the amateur radio license pen, just try herding them into the Extra class pen.

Amateur radio equipment

Amateur radio equipment sales has always been a low volume niche market and shops have virtually disappeared from the landscape unless you live in a population center. For example, the Dallas/Ft. Worth metropolitan area is served by Texas Towers. Most new equipment sales are done over the internet form these stores, although they do have a counter for walk in customers. If you have access to these stores they're a good source of info. Used equipment can sometimes be found at these stores as well. eBay is also a major source of used equipment, but as you might suspect there isn't usually a lot of Elmering that goes along with it so you better know what you need. Some ham radio clubs also have hamfests where amateurs get together to sell or trade mostly used equipment and can provide useful information. Local hams are a good source of info if you can find them and the most radio active of this group of folks often belong to the local club. For most folks needing face to face Elmering these individuals and clubs seem to be the best source of info. Clubs are usually involved in local emergency communication activities as well and are something most folks would want to get plugged into if they decide to get a license.

I wasn't sure exactly what the last sentence was getting at, but using amateur radio for commercial purposes in not legal. An example would be a business using it to coordinate it's operations. Not sure this is what you were getting at though.

Charley