Listening to HAM with a scanner

[majoco]

...and it's 'ham', not 'HAM'.

 

[cmdrwill]

...and it's 'ham', not 'HAM'.

Picky picky, "ham' is short for Amateur Radio..........

And Ham is a noun so It CAN be capitalized...

 

[gonefishn1]

So what does the "h" stand for in "ham" ?

 

[bharvey2]

Hobbyists Amateur Radio

 

[Delta33]

Ham = Have amateur radio.

 

[TheSpaceMann]

That happens a lot. I gave up on 2 meters and repeaters because someone is always complaining. For example, a 13 year old recently got his license in the area and some hams did nothing but complain. First they chewed him out for talking to long. Then gave him grief for calling CQ on the repeater. So he started saying "his call" monitoring. That lasted a day or too until some old codger gave him a lecture on the definition of monitoring. Told him unless he was being paid to monitor something he should just say his call and listening. Then some newer ham started complaining about his audio. Told him to junk his Baofeng and get a real radio. Haven't heard him for while after all that, and the repeater use has declined considerably over the last year. Seems like the jerks run off all the good people, then they leave as well. 2 meters is like 80 meters, not worth the time.

That's really a shame. If anything, hams need to be welcoming to young people who just got their start in the hobby.

 

[KE0GXN]

That's really a shame. If anything, hams need to be welcoming to young people who just got their start in the hobby.

Couldn't agree more. We are fortunate in my area most new HAMs are welcomed, (once they are answered), which can take some time if no one knows your call yet or you. I heard nothing but crickets for a long time till I finally started attending meetings, etc...

Unfortunately, I eventually lost interest once I got bit by the HF bug and now rarely drop my call on the repeaters. What has helped me get on them more recently was the accusation of a 2 meter rig for my truck, now I'll put my call out while I am driving just to have something to do in-between destinations.

Have run my club net a couple of times as net control and still check-in to various nets from time to time,otherwise, if I am in the shack I am on HF.

Got on the other day and I had a good friend comment, that he rarely hears me on it anymore..... Hopefully the mobile will keep me motivated.

 

[Sporrt]

Got on the other day and I had a good friend comment, that he rarely hears me on it anymore..... Hopefully the mobile will keep me motivated.

Or you could put a call out on 146.52, I never got into repeaters. I remember feeling psyched after my first simplex contact, after my first repeater contact, was thinking meh..

Repeaters are a great resource for extending range when you need it. But there's something about doing it under your own power.

 

[Delta33]

Or you could put a call out on 146.52, I never got into repeaters. I remember feeling psyched after my first simplex contact, after my first repeater contact, was thinking meh..

Repeaters are a great resource for extending range when you need it. But there's something about doing it under your own power.

Sure, as long as someoñes within range. You use what's available to you.

 

[dlwtrunked]

... So he started saying "his call" monitoring. That lasted a day or too until some old codger gave him a lecture on the definition of monitoring. Told him unless he was being paid to monitor something he should just say his call and listening. ...

One of the things not understood by many is that in some situations, what is the accepted procedure in one part of the country is considered wrong procedure in another. In my local area, giving your call and saying "monitoring" is the norm. Saying "listening" is rare and some hams believe in reserving using that only for a case of someone needing help--commonly by someone lost.

And then there are those who invent their own "FCC rules". When in another state, I wanted to contact a ham friend on a repeater. I had forgotten his call. So I called him by his name and I identified by my call sign. This got a response from someone claiming it was against FCC rules to call a ham on the air by anything other than his call sign--of course that is not true. You are of course required to ID yourself by your call sign at the specified intervals.

In other cases, a repeater can be extraordinarily friendly. When the above happened, I moved to a different repeater and a local helpful ham brought up the auto-patch so that I could call my friend to come up on that repeater. So even in the same location, different repeaters can have different personalities.

"52" (146.52 simplex) is a good frequency to use when traveling and should be in everyone's programmed mobile. I cannot count the times I have gone to that frequency when seeing a hand signal of 5 the 2 fingers or heard 5 honks followed by 2 honks of the horn. And I have initiated contact in the same way.

 

[KE0GXN]

Or you could put a call out on 146.52, I never got into repeaters. I remember feeling psyched after my first simplex contact, after my first repeater contact, was thinking meh..

Repeaters are a great resource for extending range when you need it. But there's something about doing it under your own power.

Other than my one and only aeronautical contact on 52, I have not had much success on 52. The farthest I have got on 52 otherwise was a contact a couple of counties away.

Now the aero contact was super cool indeed and luckily I was scanning in the shack when he called CQ.

I do scan 52 when I am mobile, but no honks or calls yet.

Back to repeaters, I did get on a few while traveling to FL this summer on my HT and mag mount configuration at the time...had a nice QSO with a guy in MS on a local repeater while I was driving down the Interstate and once I got to FL had a few in Orlando on the various repeaters there. Coolest one being a QSO in which I talked to a guy in two different countries during the same QSO via a local IRLP repeater. He was a truck driver traveling north in NY and we continued our QSO while he crossed the border into Canada.

 

[TheSpaceMann]

I travel a lot on business, and I find that in many areas it's difficult to make contacts on 2 meters. It's usually a lot easier via Echolink! I also find that when I'm in hotel rooms, I can hit a lot more repeaters if I use a portable 2m/440 beam indoors!