Just because you can not put an antenna up where you live does not mean you can't get on HF. You can still get on HF in your mobile. Remember CB antennas are for 11 meters and will work on 10 meters also. Or you can string up an antenna when your out camping. Or go somewhere up a hill, or in the bush for the day and put up an antenna. Or you could simply convince her to allow you to put up an antenna. There are many designs that will not be very noticeable anyways. Write out a list of all the reasons you need the antenna. Or there are even some antenna designs you could put up where you live just for a few hours or the weekend or something. I really think you will have a lot more fun tuning around there.
Conundrum
- Thread starter CommJunkie
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902
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N8IAA
Member
Well your right. I guess there is only so much we can do. If he doesn't want to then he doesn't want to.
rapidcharger
Member
That still doesn't solve CommJunkie's other problem.
He wants to get on the air and have an actual conversation with someone else, not just a "hi" & "bye" and quick exchange of weather, rigs, antennas and location. Imagine plunking down all that money for a mobile HF setup and then he spins the dial and has a hard time finding that. Regardless of what band you choose to work, finding someone who actually wants to say something is getting harder and harder it would seem. Lots of people checking in to nets around here (population ~6 million) but as soon as the net is over, nobody sticks around. There's only a couple repeaters in town that regularly have conversation someone would want to engage in.
He wants to get on the air and have an actual conversation with someone else, not just a "hi" & "bye" and quick exchange of weather, rigs, antennas and location. Imagine plunking down all that money for a mobile HF setup and then he spins the dial and has a hard time finding that. Regardless of what band you choose to work, finding someone who actually wants to say something is getting harder and harder it would seem. Lots of people checking in to nets around here (population ~6 million) but as soon as the net is over, nobody sticks around. There's only a couple repeaters in town that regularly have conversation someone would want to engage in.
902
Member
This issue is a lot like "interoperability." None of the technological solutions provides a solution to the social issue of finding someone to converse with.
Clearly with all the repeaters lying fallow, "build it and they will come" is a strategy that won't always work, unless you get your real-life friends to get their ham licenses and they hop on the system you've built. I did that a long time ago before we all got married, had kids, and for a few of us, moved away or died.
We had lots of fun making ham radio into what we wanted it to be for ourselves. We were also pretty entertaining to listen to. Wish I still had my old "crew."
Clearly with all the repeaters lying fallow, "build it and they will come" is a strategy that won't always work, unless you get your real-life friends to get their ham licenses and they hop on the system you've built. I did that a long time ago before we all got married, had kids, and for a few of us, moved away or died.
We had lots of fun making ham radio into what we wanted it to be for ourselves. We were also pretty entertaining to listen to. Wish I still had my old "crew."
CommJunkie
Member
I've got a friend with a GMRS repeater he uses for family who's going to add a separate PL to it and I can get a bunch of friends to get on that and see if I can spark their interest in ham. We'll see.
I guess my issue isn't with ham radio itself, it's the people on it. The 65+ crowd have their medical procedures to talk about, the women talk about dinner, and I'm sitting there scanning around thinking "why am I even here?". HF is something I would love to do, and maybe I can tool around the web and find ways of making indoor wire antennas and such, because I love talking to other countries and states via radio without a computer controller involved with a repeater. I'm just limited by my living situation and my own mind I guess.
I guess my issue isn't with ham radio itself, it's the people on it. The 65+ crowd have their medical procedures to talk about, the women talk about dinner, and I'm sitting there scanning around thinking "why am I even here?". HF is something I would love to do, and maybe I can tool around the web and find ways of making indoor wire antennas and such, because I love talking to other countries and states via radio without a computer controller involved with a repeater. I'm just limited by my living situation and my own mind I guess.
CommJunkie
Member
Echolink is all set up. Just waiting for the validation and I need to get a mic for the computer.
902
Member
A lot of my bunch were from GMRS. I had a repeater up in NJ for quite a while and I had some friends who also had repeaters and multiple tone panels. As it turns out, the transition from GMRS to amateur radio was really good for them and opened a lot of doors for using many systems and learning about stuff. Some of the other people were ones I worked with or were on the volunteer fire department with. They thought it would be nifty to have a radio, bought one, and then, once they had it, were like, "Okay, what do I do with it next?" Short answer was to get on the ham repeater and jackass around with each other, which is what we did in real life, anyway.
There's something about women and radio. Mind you, I live in a house with 3 women with amateur radio licenses. Two technicians and an extra. They will talk to each other just to coordinate who is doing what, but NONE OF THEM will get on the air just to talk to anyone. My older daughter has a friend (also female) who is a rocket scientist (actually a theoretical physicist, I think). If those two find each other on the radio at the same time, they will talk for hours about anything from shooting to Doctor Who to vampires. But it's always, "Get that microphone away from me!" all the other times. Go figure.
My older son, the general, is the one who stays up all night trying to work DX.
Good luck with Echolink.
There's something about women and radio. Mind you, I live in a house with 3 women with amateur radio licenses. Two technicians and an extra. They will talk to each other just to coordinate who is doing what, but NONE OF THEM will get on the air just to talk to anyone. My older daughter has a friend (also female) who is a rocket scientist (actually a theoretical physicist, I think). If those two find each other on the radio at the same time, they will talk for hours about anything from shooting to Doctor Who to vampires. But it's always, "Get that microphone away from me!" all the other times. Go figure.
My older son, the general, is the one who stays up all night trying to work DX.
Good luck with Echolink.
For the solution to the conundrum of finding someone to hold a conversation with that interests you, the ARRL used to publish a Net Directory book annually. It was primarily for HF nets and had them categorized by Section and subject. This net directory is not printed any longer but can be found at American Radio Relay League | ARRL - The national association for AMATEUR RADIO . There are numerous special interest nets as well as emergency and traffic nets. Have fun
Joe
Joe
PrimeNumber
Member
Having a conversation beyond "hi, 5x9, raining, thanks, 73!" can be a challenge. CommJunkie, I looked up your page on qrz.com, so you know about that. Lots of hams will access your page in the middle of a QSO, so very near the top put in a short paragraph saying something along the lines of "If you want to ragchew, ask me about: ..." I find that it helps to break the ice and get past the signal reports, weather, etc.
But even that doesn't help very much when operating PSK31 I'm finding. In, out, next QSO!
But even that doesn't help very much when operating PSK31 I'm finding. In, out, next QSO!
Please tell me you and all your friends have a GMRS license,if not you could loose your amateur license along with a $10,000 fine for unlicensed operation,since you are a ham already the FCC would likely come down on you hard since you should know the FCC rules.
I do not know if you have a license or not just a bit of friendly advise in case you decide to use someones repeater unlicensed,do not let anyone tell you his license will cover anyone on his repeater.
riverrat373
Member
Upgrade for what? Although I don't have my license yet (I'm working on it!) I listen to all the frequencies from HF to microwave and have not seen anything in those frequencies that are any different than what a technician license affords one. My suggestion is that you get a copy of the ARRL NET DIRECTORY if you don't already have one and see what kind of nets are out there. You might also do a web search of clubs in your area as they often list nets that are available on local repeaters.
riverrat373
Member
That's why I don't approve of contesting! Some hams seem to be more interested in how many CONTACTS they can make rather than CONTENT even when they are not contesting.
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kayn1n32008
ØÆSØ
See I believe there IS something for everybody! While you might not 'approve' of contesting (not that we need your 'approval') there are times where I just can not hold a conversation. I enjoy contesting, it is fun and challenging, even if it is call/serial/zone/report. It is fun to bust a contest pile up when the California kilowatts are S-9/60 over off the side or back of a beam hammering over each other for a DX/multiplier and I get through with 100w. Even better is finding 10m SSB wall to wall and moving up to 29.6 and creating a pile-up on FM and being heard on a scanner in a basement 2500miles away. Amateur radio is what you make it. I enjoy all parts of amateur radio, and try not to limit myself to only one aspect. For a long time it said I would never use DAtar, yet a few months ago I bought an IC-92ad, and I am enjoying DStar now.
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k3td
Member
I felt the same way for the first 15 years I was licensed, until a couple of guys I worked with invited me to participate in a contest with them. It is now one of my favorite parts of the hobby, and what I've learned about antennas and propagation from contesting has increased my amateur radio enjoyment outside of contesting.
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riverrat373
Member
radioinc.com still shows on their website that they have copies of the 2001-2002 ARRL NET DIRECTORY in stock for $5.00. I believe that was the last year it was published.
riverrat373
Member
Please don't misunderstand me when I say "I don't approve of contesting". I personally don't see the point of it. Everyone has their own thing that they like to do!
Contesting is one of those things that makes it possible to say that ham radio really does have something for everyone.
I'm a rabid UHF and up contester. It's an opportunity to concentrate activity on bands that don't get used often enough. The other thing to keep in mind is, on the upper frequency bands, there's little in the way of commercial equipment, so the guys who operate there are designer/builder types. The challenge, then, is not so much finding someone to rag chew with.
The challenge becomes throwing a signal out there, and see how far it goes. The goal becomes hearing and being heard over the maximum possible distance under conditions that commercial services would flat not work. Contest operations have discovered new propagation modes, and contributed to the science and state of the art, so that the rag chewers can come along later and enjoy it.
So, there you go.
AgentCOPP1
Member
- Joined
- Nov 16, 2011
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- 296
I've been bored before, so you're definitely not alone. Something that helped me when I was a tech was getting into satellites. Doing ham satellites is extremely fun because it's difficult yet rewarding. It's also completely bad *** to know that you can bounce your signal off of a moving satellite and communicate with people. You might want to try it before the last FM bird, SO-50, goes out on us. It's a really old satellite and I'm not sure how longer it can stay on the air. There are still lots of SSB linear and digital birds out there but those are more technically involved than SO-50 and generally require more equipment (meaning more money) to operate. I know that AMSAT (or someone) recently launched a bunch of ham satellites but unfortunately I don't think any of them were FM.
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