One of the really neat things about having a ham radio is that many of these radios also will do wide band scanning. What is that? As I understand it, it will scan a wide array of different bands of frequencies. I own a Yeasue FT-857d… Nice radio - does all bands and I think all modes. Or at least enough to keep my busy for a long long time. But it also does wide band scanning. I use that to scan the police, ambulance, rescue chopper and air traffic control towers. This week begins EAA in Oshkosh, WI. What is EAA and were is Oshkosh? EAA is the Experimental Aircraft Association. And they have their annual fly-in each summer. 10,000 planes. One airport. 500,000 visitors. We’ll go and see the F-22 Raptors do an air show. And see tons of planes. And get too much sun and have too much fun. For a couple of hours. But both BEFORE and AFTER the fun will continue. Because I will be scanning the air control towers. And THAT will be fun!

If you have a wide band scanning capable radio, I strongly encourage you to go down to Radio Shack and get their scanner frequency book. And it is a book. I think it’s in the hudreds of pages for one region of the country. And it has more frequencies than you could ever imagine! I would buy one just to see what’s out there. Then get updates from the internet. But, without seeing the contents of the book you probably won’t understand everything that you can scan.

Then go to Google and just do some searches. Try things like “scanner frequencies”, etc.. (without the qoutes). Be prepared to bookmark some good sites and spend maybe a 1/2 day digging through stuff.

I was kind of suprised just how good reception I got from using my mobile ham antenna. I get police and airport frequency reception from a three county area in Wisconsin. Pretty nice!

OK - if you can enjoy this part of the hobby - think of local events that might be in your area and tune in for some fun!

Jon Kreski, AB9NN
www.HamRadioResources.com

An elmer of mine uses the term “Stay Radio Active!” when ending our local ARES / RACES net. Recently, I became somewhat bored with my new hobby. Same old contacts. Same old frequencies. So I decided to try a few new things. Most of my radio work was daytime while on the way to / from work or on lunch break. Never at night. So I decided to try some night time HF. MAN! What a fun night! It put a whole new twinkle in my eye and got the geek juices flowing! I have had a few other contacts that did the same thing.

The point being - instead of doing LESS ham radio because I was bored - I did more or the same amount in new way. I strongly encourage you to try new techniques. Try adjusting your radio’s settings. Try new modes. Try new frequencies. Try different times of the day or night. I think you will receive a nice reward!

Thanks for taking your valuable time to read this blog!

Jon Kreski, AB9NN www.HamRadioResources.com

Have you heard good mike technique? Have you heard really BAD mike technique? I have heard both. The thing that amazes me the most is the number of people that listen to bad mike technique and say nothing about it - even when asked for feedback! I was taught, righly so, that proper mike technique is important in getting your message over the airwaves. You can have the highest power transmitter and the best antenna… but if your mike technique is either so quiet or so distrorted that you can’t understand the message - it doesn’t matter!

I am a relatively new ham. And I have a TON of repect for those that have been in the hobby a long time. But I have noticed one thing. Many of those “old elmers” have really bad mike technique. I can think of one guy that runs a net and constantly over-drives his mike. Nice guy - bad ham. Another guy has a huge antenna farm. And his mobile antenna was measured as highest effective radiated power. But I sat and watched his mike technique on field day as he worked with another ham’s HT. Great guy - took a chunk of his time to program the HT for the other ham. But when he went to communicate - the HT was at arm’s length and he was just about wispering. Great guy. BAD HAM!

Another common problem is wind noises from breathing into the mike while holding it too close to your mouth. Should be talking ACROSS the mike - not into it.

Other problems are clearing your throat with a gut wrenching deep cough - right in to the mike - when getting started on a new rant… without being polite enough to at least say “Oh - excuse me…”.

Speaking of rants - enough of mine! I hope that I have given you something to think about. Please speak in a clear, deep, loud voice. Hold your mike about an inch from your mouth and speak across the mike. Ask for feedback from other hams. And if you give feedback - be honest and be critical. If you just say it sounds fine because it’s “OK”, you aren’t doing anyone a favor.

Please be really careful with mike technique and modulation levels during emergency communications like SkyWarn and the various em comm nets out there. Lives could depend on it.

Another trick is to key the IRLP code that allows you to have your audio replayed for you over the air so you can listen to what you sound like. You will have to get the codes from the people that grant you access or from www.IRLP.org I think should have them.

OK - thanks for taking your valuable time to read this. 73’s!

Jon Kreski, AB9NN
www.HamRadioResources.com