HamRadioResources.com Blog

Ham Radio’s Perfect Woman!

Administrator — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 20:00:13 +0000

Ham radio. Girlfriends. Somehow I figured they wouldn’t go together. And Gordon West’s presentation didn’t help that perception much either! He says that you’re not a REAL ham radio operator unless your neighbors look at your antenna - roll their eyes and say, “What the HECK is THAT?”. Well – I had a brand new extra class license that was itching to be used. So I put a big ‘ole HF antenna on my car. Not exactly a babe magnet I figured…

Fast forward a year or two. I met a really nice lady via e-Harmony.com. First glimmer of hope was that we both used technology to find each other. But ham radio? She’s gonna think I’m a geek I thought. Well – she kind of did. But she said she found it interesting because it was different. We went out on dates and I gently showed her my radio and what I listened to and why. We did some sight seeing and on some trips I kept the radio on. Even made a contact on 2 meters across Lake Michigan that sort of caught her attention. She asked a few questions and it didn’t seem to bother her.

We became more serious and she asked me at one point what the tests were like and if I expected her to some day pass them. I said no, and sent a link to www.qrz.com ‘s practice exams so she could see what sort of material there was. Well, she sort of thought that was a hint and was curious, so she started taking some of the practice exams. And guess what? On the second time around she was doing quite well!

Now this person is a 4th grade teacher with basically no radio experience except for the stereo in the home and car. Well, being a teacher she wanted to get GOOD grades. So she studied. I sent her my audio CD’s from Gordon West and she bought his license exam prep book. She even told me at one point to stop bugging her because she had to study! I thought it was all in good fun until she said she had registered for the exam.

She passed her technician license exam. The first time. With 100%! Smoked me! I was so proud of her – not that she had to pass it – but that I knew she put the time and effort in to it and was not disappointed. So with pride I introduce to the ham radio community Ham Radio’s Perfect Woman – Jane – KD8JPW. Jane is currently active on EchoLink working both PC to PC and on the airwaves via PC to Repeater. We are working out the details on a HT for later in the year. Seeing an 8 in her license, you would find her in Area 8 of the listings in EchoLink in Explorer View. She is currently thinking about an upgrade to at least general class so she can work HF. For those wanting more information on what EchoLink is and how you can use your PC and an inexpensive regular PC mike to connect to ham radio repeaters and computers around the world with digital sound quality better than cell phones, go to http://www.echolink.org/ . For those purists that say that this is not “real” ham radio – welcome to the year 2000 and thanks for helping to make your hobby a stale old dying hobby! Sorry if that offends – but someone needs to say it.

Jon Kreski, AB9NN
Owner http://www.HamRadioResources.com

Ham Radio SkyWarn Recognition Day!

Administrator — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 02:49:40 +0000

Ham radio’s SkyWarn recognition day is December 6, 2008. This is a day when the National Weather Service takes their valuable time and resources and says “thanks” to those of us that help out with SkyWarn operations. It’s pretty cool. I attended last year’s event and got a nice guided tour of the forecast office. I had the chance to talk with a forecaster and ask any questions I wanted. I wanted to know if Wisconsin did actually have a minor “tornado alley”. He confirmed that it did. I was able to take a few pictures and got to meet the net control operator that worked the station there. I also got to see the station and could have worked it if I had wanted. On the way there, I made a mobile contact with the station and got a confirming certificate later in the mail.

Now, if you haven’t worked a SkyWarn operation but wondered what was involved, etc., this might be a good way to get some information. If you have, then thanks for what you do! Here is a link to an ARRL article about the day… http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2008/10/30/10417/

For more information on SkyWarn, check out this link: http://www.skywarn.org/

For some really nice weather tools, use the ones on www.HamRadioResources.com which are the ones I use for our SkyWarn operations!

If you have never listened to SkyWarn operations in your area, then I suggest you find a “Wx” repeater (weather) in your area. Use http://www.artscipub.com/repeaters/

Well - enough for a Friday night after a long day of auditing at work. Have a great weekend and stay weather safe!

Jon Kreski, AB9NN
Owner
www.HamRadioResources.com

Ham Radio Equipment – How and Where To Buy It – A Few Thoughts

Administrator — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 01:44:15 +0000

Ham radio equipment can be really fun to buy – or – it can be a huge waste of time and money. It all depends on the research you do before you buy it. Now, I don’t mean that you have to be some penny pinching equipment expert. That’s OK if you are. BUT – you really should do the following for each purchase:
• Find at least three good places to buy ham radio equipment. Use resources like the internet, phone book, conversations with other hams, listening to ham conversations on your shortwave radio, etc..
• Research the DEALERS before you research the equipment you are thinking of buying. Get a comfort level with what they bring to the ham radio table. Do they repair what they sell? Any guarantees? Do they sell the brands you might like? Do they offer advice? Are they easy to browse on the web? Do they offer a nice catalog? Toll free phone? Will they accept your form of payment (credit card, debit card, PayPal, etc.)? Do they finance? If so, are their rates substantially higher than through a bank for a home improvement loan? Do they have great prices? How about shipping costs? How about speed of processing? How long have they been in business? Do you know anyone that has worked with these people before? If you don’t – is there a reason for that? Are they close enough so that you could drive down and visit them and shop or ask questions if you need to?
• BROWSE! Order a catalog from each place. Browse their websites. Whatever you are looking for – look through a wide range of similar items from various manufacturers. Use this time to get an idea of what features you want, and what prices you can afford. Be realistic. I hear lots of guys that have had to sell their ham gear and I suspect that many bought top of the line gear only to have to sell it later. Take your time on this part. It’s important. Think about features that you might not have considered to be important that you might wish you had after you bought that new gear. Consider why each piece of equipment includes what it does – and does not include. There are probably good reasons for that.
• Talk to others about their experiences first. You can do this at ham radio clubs, on news groups on the internet (groups.google.com for example) and through posts in places like QRZ.com and eHam.com. Find product reviews and read lots of opinions about many different products – not just your favorite. Still stay open to the idea that your favorite product might not be the best for what you really want to do.
• Double check your budget. Remember to include taxes, insurance, postage, operating costs, installation costs, etc..
• Consider new vs used. E-bay, ham swaps, etc.. Now – this is purely a matter of budget and opinion. I’m not here to judge one way or the other. Just be sure to remember that you may not get a warranty and may not be able to return it as easily as you think.
• Place your order. But first, plan on how your item will arrive. Will you have to sign for it? Will you have to pick it up from UPS? Can it be delivered to your address? Get all the details worked out first.
• When item arrives – resist the urge to just start playing with it!!! Read the instructions first. I know – that is tough! But why fry a new radio, etc. when you just paid that much for it? I do a quick cruise through the manual first. I locate the sections I know I will need to read in detail. Then I read the warnings up front. And then I dive in.
• Keep talking to people about their experiences. I have a hand held radio (HT for handy-talky) and if I charge it wrong an internal fuse will blow and I have to send it in. Fortunately I read about this in a news group BEFORE I blew mine. The instructions did not explicitly warn me about that little quirk.
• Have an elmer when you install / program / customize the gear. That can be SO helpful. I have gotten lots of little bits of advice that I guess I knew, but probably didn’t consider at the time of the install. I can’t thank Keith, KS9WI enough for his help with my antenna installs. People are glad to help because we all have been there… And we all want everyone else to have a good experience. It’s a good way to make new friends and enjoy an afternoon!
• Use your new gear in a low power mode first, being careful to consider all the little things like proper grounds, good connections, SWR match, etc.. Again – don’t play at full power until you are SURE you know what you are doing.
• Explore the features of your equipment. Get to know all the menus of the radio, etc.. Know what they are intended to do and how YOU will use them and when.
• Customize your gear. Get it all set up and mounted, etc.. Don’t forget my favorite product – LockTite to keep set screws SET!
• ENJOY – you deserve it after all of the above!

Jon Kreski, AB9NN
Owner
www.HamRadioResources.com

How To Pass The Ham (Amateur) Radio License Exam(s)

Administrator — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 02:48:20 +0000

Ham radio license exams are not really hard. I know. I passed them all. With flying colors. The first time. One right after the other. After studying for only a few weeks for each one. And I am no ham radio expert, engineer, electrician, etc.. I am an Auditor (accountant). Have been all my professional live.
The key word is that I STUDIED to pass the ham radio license exams. But probably not the way you think. I didn’t go to a long series of ham radio classes. I didn’t go to a ham cram session. I didn’t even know anyone in ham radio. Sad, but true. I also used this same method to pass my Stock Broker license exam (OK – I heard that about Stock Brokers!), my insurance license exam, and my Certified Information Systems Auditor exam. None of them were really tough – AFTER I studied. Each one seemed to be a daunting task before I started though…
For each exam, I did have some practical experience before I took the exam. I had a shortwave radio for years and (yes – I am one of THOSE) I had some CB radio experiences. I had an elmer in my CB radio days, and I had a few friends that had CB’s as well. So I knew the concepts of grounding, electrical noise, SWR , effective radiated power, antenna length and cutting antennas, ground planes, etc.. And yet, I was surprised what I did not know about the ham radio world – CB radios on steroids!
The first thing I did was to get a set of audio CD’s to listen to. They were recorded by Gordon West, and I would recommend any of his materials. At the time, I wasn’t sure I even wanted to try and take the license exam. But I found out that Morse code was no longer required. And I had a nearly two hour (2 way) commute to work. So I got them to listen to and see how hard it would be. Well – a lot of the material made sense from my CB radio days. I knew the concepts, but not the theory or math behind the concepts. The audio explained that.
Then I decided to see if I could find out something about the exams. How many questions, how long they took, etc.. So I went to google and typed in “ham radio license exam” without the quotes. Lo and behold I found practice exams. And better yet – they said that the practice exams used questions from the actual question pool that would be used on the actual exam! Too good to be true? Nope…
I tried several sites with practice exams. What worked for me was www.QRZ.com. They had exams in two formats. One was 30 questions chosen at random from (not sure on this) around 600 questions in the question pool. I thought that was a weak approach. What if you got a certain set of questions in the practice part and then got different questions in the actual exam? I wanted to be REALLY prepared.
Then I found a series of 30 questions – I think there were like 16 of them if memory served. They covered EVERY POSSIBLE question from the question pool. So I took one exam each day. I took it on my lunch hour and didn’t do so well. At night I would brush up on what I failed. Then I would re-take the same questions that night. I always got at least a 90%. I did that each night for 16 nights. Then I took the actual license exam. By that time I had seen EVERY possible question. I aced it!
I took the technician, then the general, then the extra class exams using the same method. I decided not to get a radio until all the exams were done. FOCUS!
Now, the tech license exam I thought was really easy. The general class exam was a bit tougher but about what I thought it would be. And when I started to study for the extra class exam I didn’t think I would ever pass it. But I used the same method and the testers were impressed with my grade and asked me how I prepared. Don’t be ashamed if you don’t pass any of them on the first try. Everyone absorbs material at different rates and in different ways. I probably just found what worked for me.
I hope that this explanation helps someone that wants to pass one or more of the license exams. And thanks to the guys at www.QRZ.com for letting me use their practice tests FOR FREE!
Good luck and 73’s,
Jon Kreski, AB9NN
Owner
www.HamRadioResources.com

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HamRadioResources.com - Big Changes Underway

Administrator — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 13:39:46 +0000

HamRadioResources.com/blog has been down recently for a few days. Sorry about that. I have been upgrading WordPress, which is the software on the Yahoo! Small Business hosting server that runs the blog. I needed to do that so that I could customize the blog look and feel. NOW we have that installed and are working on some other changes that should not require down-time. Sorry if this caused any confusion.

Change is a two edged swords. Those of us that like the way things are can feel frustrated by having to adapt to a new way. Like going from the older versions of Windows to Windows Vista. Or going from the old versions of Word or Excel to the new versions. We are used to the way things are - any changes seemingly make things harder. Things are not automatic any more!

But change has a positive side as well. I know when I went from the 2003 version of Microsoft Excel to the 2007 version I was lost at first. I was frustrated and almost angry. They moved the menu options around and I could not find them as quickly… AT FIRST… but as I used the new product I adapted to it. Now I understand why it is set-up the way it is. And now it is easier to use than the old version. The only frustration is that I have to use both versions in my work…

So I hope that we don’t cause too much confusion as we go through this process. The changes that we will be making will try to make the website and the blog easier to use, quicker in the long run and provide more and better content.

I work full time as an Auditor for an international paper company, so these changes will take time. we hope that these will benefit you in the long run. Feel free to post comments about your experiences. They are important to me!

Jon Kreski, AB9NN
Owner
www.HamRadioResources.com

Ham Radio Hurricane Season

Administrator — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 01:48:11 +0000

Recent events remind us that hurricane season starts as the midwest’s tornadoe season winds down. And those that are trained in emergency communications can play a vital role when traditional communications networks go down in heavy wether. One problem, just on the news tonight, is that so many people try to use the phone systems that they get brown outs and blackouts from too many users at one time. A ham radio network with trained communicators can be very effective. And a network can be very formal or very informal.

Some good resources for those that are interested in how to help include:
* Skywarn.org
* ARES
* RACES

These are mainline ham radio related org’s. One of the best ways to find information on resources close to you is to use Google and just enter the names given above. Perhaps add your city or state to the search string with a space or a +. You will find a ton of information on these groups and how to get involved.

For those interested, here is a good resource:

http://www.hamradioresources.com/hurricane

Please stay tuned to the National Weather Service and your local news, weather stations. Take warnings seriously. It always amazes me how macho people can be in the face of danger when they do not understand what they are in for…

OK - enough for this evening.

Stay radio acrive!

Jon Kreski, AB9NN
Owner
www.HamRadioResources.com

Severe Weather Resource For SkyWarn Types

Administrator — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 02:41:01 +0000

I am planning a trip and have been checking some of my weather resources that I provide links to on www.HamRadioResources.com . One that I start with gives me a really nice three day overview of severe weather threats. You probably get this information from your local TV weather. But here is probably where THEY get their information from! Click here to view the site. It’s from the Severe Storms Forecast Center in Norman, Oklahoma. The upper portion of the website gives you plenty of information on current happenings. But scroll down a screen or so. You will see three maps. One for today. One for tomorrow. And one for the next day. Double click the day’s map you are interested in. Then mouse-over the hot links to show the % probabilities for each type of severe weather threat for that time period.

Forecasts generally are not all that accurate more than three days out. I start here to see what is comming a few days ahead of time. Then as the threats get closer I use other tools. I will cover them later.

Enjoy this one and stay safe! You can use these resources for ham radio SkyWarn operations…

Jon Kreski, AB9NN
Owner
www.HamRadioResources.com

My Humble Photo On www.HamRadioResources.com

Administrator — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 21:43:25 +0000

My girlfriend recently took a picture of me and then told me that she thought it would look nice on my website at www.HamRadioResources.com , so I uploaded it. Thought you might want to have a look. In the non-ham world I am an Auditor for SCA Tissue in Neenah, WI. It’s a fun job with great people and it lets me afford my ham radio equipment. And - I get to do some ham listening and talking on my commute and on my lunch break.

Getting the photo to show up on the website was a bit or an adventure. I use a table on the index page and in the section that the photo is in it has three columns. The photo was sized larger than the column it was in, so the browser refused to show the photo. I would have thought that it would have shown the portion that would fit, but I guess now.

OK - I hope the photo shows up well for you!

Jon Kreski, AB9NN
Owner
www.HamRadioResources.com

Ham Radio Balloon Contact!

Administrator — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 01:26:43 +0000

Last weekend I was driving up to WalMart to pick some things up and had the FT-857d mobile in scan mode as I drove. I heard the usual police band chatter, somone on a repeater, so ariline traffic, and then it stopped on 164.520 - the National Calling Frequency in the 2 meter band. Hmmm…. someone passing by on the local freeway I thought. Or maybe a base station looking for DX contacts? Wasn’t sure what it was. Both sides of the conversation were nice and clear.

I took the radio out of scan mode to listen a bit. I had put this frequency in the memory bank some time ago and had only heard one other conversation on it. Most mobiles use the repeaters if they know the tones, etc.. So what was this? I heard something about 31,000 feet over Madison, WI. Not a bad trip - good clean signal into my mobile in Appleton, WI. Must be mayb 150 miles… SWEET! There was a net going on. So I checked in and got a confirmation of my signal.

Turns out that this was a project of the University of Wisconsin Near Earth Space program. They said it was their 46th launch. This one with a good ham radio repeater on board. And it was in memory of a slient Key (deceased ham). I thought that was quite nice.

Ham radio is an interesting hobby. If you listen long enough you will surely find things of interest. I like the hobby because there are many different modes to explore and tons of different frequencies to use - all with their own propagation characteristics. If you have been a ham and maybe are not active as much as you have been - give a listen. You’ll be suprised what you run across. If you are not a ham, then contact the www.ARRL.org for information on how to get started.

Until next time,

73’s!

Jon Kreski, AB9NN
www.HamRadioResources.com

Wide Band Scanning or SWL (Short Wave Listening)

Administrator — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 23:51:25 +0000

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