Welcome to Ham Radio 101 New Tech Session Sponsored by
Agenda New Technician / New Licensee 8:00 Kickoff 8:40 VHF/UHF Gear 9:20 VHF/UHF Operating New General / Extra 10:00 HF Gear 10:40 HF Operating 11:20 HF Digital
Virtual Amateur Radio Club > 290 members groups.io 6 repeaters @ 2 sites Analog FM, D-Star & C4FM Dig IRLP / EchoLink VOIP Events Field Day Antenna Shootout BayCon Urban Shield Supports American Red Cross FEMA USAR TF 3 Radio Mala - Nepal 501(C)3 Non-profit Field Day!!!
Great Resources HamRadio 360 Podcast www.hamradio 360.com TX Factor www.tx factor.co.uk The Doctor Is In www.arrl.org QSO Today podcast www.qsotoday.com website
Speakers Jason K6DGN Beric K6BEZ George KJ6VU David W6DTW
New Tech Gear Jason K6DGN Sponsored by
Terms Station - Your transceiver not specifically a place Shack Your home station Rig Your radio (even a hand held) Go Bag or Go Kit Organized set of accessories you can grab and go and be fully operational
Assumptions You Want To Operate Portable/Handheld HT In your hand Mobile radio - In your car Base station - In your shack
Choosing Your First HT Baofeng UV82~ $30 Upgrade later Basic VHF/UHF Kenwood TH-F6A $315 DISCONTINUED Great radio Wide Rx, Air Rx, VHF/UHF Tx Yaesu FT1D $309 DISCONTINUED Great radio ++ Digital, APRS, etc.
Choosing Your First HT Baofeng UV82~ $30 Upgrade later Basic VHF/UHF ICOM IC-T70A - $199 Yaesu FT-60 - $154 Solid Analog VHF/UHF http://tinyurl.com/y7u8s8ty Yaesu FT2D $419 $369 Great radio ++ Digital, APRS, etc.
Choosing Your First HT After you buy your $500 IcKenYa Do-All HT Your $30 cheapie radio makes a great knock around radio - Camping / Hiking - On roof - Loaner Baofeng UV82 $30 Upgrade later - Buy 3 more as spares
HT Accessories Drop-in charger External speaker / mic Programming SW & cable Bigger antenna Ed Fong roll up J-Pole antenna Turn your HT into a mobile radio? Mobile DC power cord Mobile antenna Power amplifier External microphone External speaker Pro: Cost effective Cons: Mess of wires. Lower performance than a real mobile radio.
Mobile Radio Radio Good: Single band (2m) Better: Dual band 2m / UHF More better: Dual band / dual VFO (V/V, V/U, U/U) Best: Dual band / dual VFO ++ APRS / D-Star digital / C4FM digital Antenna For repeaters small is fine For simplex bigger is better Mounts are equally good: Magmount, bracket, hole
Base Station 50 RG-8X $40 Kenwood TM-V71A Dual band / Dual VFO Easy to use APRS capable. $335 ~ Comet X-50A Powerwerx $89 ~ 30A Switching power supply $110 ~
Standardize on Power Pole Connectors Anderson Power Pole THE standard for ARES / RACES interoperability Buy them at any amateur radio store Easy to use Buy the crimper if you plan to make a lot of connections CQCQCQ!
Feed Line & Connectors Cable Type Attenuation @ 144 MHz Attenuation @ 440 MHz Advice LMR-400 1.5 2.6 Best RG-213 2.3 4.5 Good RG-8X 4.6 8.5 OK RG-58 5.1 12 Bad RG-174 10.1 20 Dummy load Connectors N (Best) BNC (Good) UHF PL-259 (OK)
Learn to Program Your Radio Set frequency, offset, tone, power Save into a memory Advanced features Program your memories in banks Favorite repeaters More repeaters Simplex Public safety, weather, etc Program multiple radios (HT, mobile) with the same channel / frequency assignments
More Programming Options RT Systems radio specific software & cables Icom/Kenwood/Yaesu/Wouxun make software for their radios KG-UV Commander free software for Wouxun Radio Reference web site Public service frequency lists http://www.radioreference.com Repeater Book is a great web site for finding local and remote repeaters iphone & Android apps Also has API Chirp can access http://www.repeaterbook.com
Programming Your Radio Chirp software is a way to program many radios with the appropriate cable Choosing your first radio.
Go Kit Be Prepared 2M/UHF HT Radio Battery (rechargeable) Battery (AA) Charger & Power cord External mic & earphone First aid kit Notebook and pen Flashlight & headlamp Batteries & FM Radio Kleenex Personal items Frequency directory SUN BLOCK!!!!11!1oneone Detailed Go-Kit Info at
Radio Advice Get a cheap HT. Good to start, useful later. Upgrade to a better HT when you know what you want Add a mobile radio for better performance Outside antennas make a big difference Program your local favorite frequencies (like!!!) Standardize on Anderson Power Pole connectors
10 Things to do in your first year Get a radio Learn how to use it Find a friendly repeater Listen to the repeater Join a club or find an Elmer Get on the air, simplex & repeater Go to a ham radio convention (CHECK!) Show your friends Go to a Field Day or other contesting event Try not to get TOO addicted.
One More thing Emergency Comms North Bay fire tragedy: A harsh reminder So many people missing because they couldn t reach their family on a damaged and saturated cell phone network. Setup the Hamily with friends, family and other loved ones. Do drills at least once a month to start, when you have it down, do it once a quarter. Take good care of and distribute emergency radios. Preprogram radios & procedures.
One More thing Emergency Comms Any radio will do. But these can charge via USB. Cons: UHF only, no DTMF keypad, small antenna Baofeng BF-T1 MINI
New Tech - Operating George KJ6VU Sponsored by
Repeater Operation Rx 448.225 -> Tx 443.225 Tx 448.225 PL 100.0 Rx 443.225 Frequency Set the Rx frequency (443.225) Offset (shift) 2m: 600 khz, UHF: 5 MHz PL tone (CTCSS) Sub-audible tone access
Repeater
South Bay Site
Popular Freqs Northern California 2 Meter Band Plan CW SSB SAT DIG PKT EXP DIG SAT Repeater Repeater Repeater SMPX Repeater Repeater SMPX Repeater 20 Ch khz Spacing 15 Ch khz Spacing 144.200 SSB Calling (USB) 144.390 APRS Digital data 145.390 repeater 146.460 Remote bases 146.520 Calling frequency 147.420 Red Cross. d Coordinators FM/Repeaters www.narcc.org Packet www.n0ary.org/ncpa Satellite www.amsat.org Every region has some differences Go by the regional coordinators band plan first Then ARRL band plan.
Repeater Inputs UHF Band Plan 25 Ch khz Spacing Repeater Outputs Links Satellite Experimental Popular Freqs 432.000 SSB (USB) 443.225 443.975 444.075 D-Star 444.425 C4FM 446.000 Simplex CW / SSB ATV Links
Transmit Offset or Shift The transmitter s offset from the Rx frequency Where the repeater listens Standard offsets 10m 100 khz 6m 1.2 MHz 2m 600 khz 220 1.6 MHz UHF 5.0 MHz 900 25 MHz 1.2 20 MHz
69.3 71.9 74.4 77.0 79.7 82.5 85.4 88.5 91.5 94.8 97.4 100.0 103.5 107.2 110.9 114.8 118.8 123.0 127.3 131.8 136.5 141.3 146.2 151.4 156.7 162.2 167.9 173.8 179.9 186.2 192.8 203.5 210.7 218.1 225.7 229.1 233.6 241.8 250.3 254.1 CTCSS - PL - Channel Guard Names for the same thing Continuous Tone Coded Squelch System Private Line (Motorola) Channel Guard (GE) What is it 32 standard sub-audible tones between 67-230 Hz Deviation < 600 Hz (Voice peaks at +/- 5 khz) Allows multiple repeaters to co-exist on the same frequency PL Tone 5 khz Adding voice modulation
CTCSS Decode Rx 448.225 -> Tx 443.225 PL 100.0 Tx 448.225 PL 100.0 Bob Rx 443.225 PL 100.0 Joe Rx 443.225 PL 127.3 Only hear stations that transmit the same PL Useful for areas of high interference Listen only for members of my group
Digital Coded Squelch (DCS) - DPL Same application as CTCSS Sub-audible tone 134.4 bits per second 104 Digital Codes Less likely to false than PL 9 data bits + 11 check bits + framing bits 3 digit octal value
Narrow vs Wide FM +5.0+5 +2.5+5 0-2.5+5-5.0+5 In 1975 Wide = 15 khz Narrow = 5 khz Today Normal (wide) = 5 khz Narrow = 2.5 khz FM Deviation
Narrow vs Normal (Wide) FM +/- 5 Khz -0 db -10 db -20 db -30 db -40 db -50 db 440.000 440.025 440.050
Narrow vs Normal (Wide) FM on UHF +/- 5 Khz -0 db -10 db -20 db -30 db Narrow -40 db vs Normal (Wide) FM -50 db 440.000 440.025 440.050
Narrow vs Normal (Wide) FM on 2 Meters +/- 5 Khz -0 db -10 db -20 db -30 db -40 db -50 db 146.610 146.625 146.640
Narrow vs Normal (Wide) FM Normal (Wide) 20/25 khz channels Amateur radio GMRS MURS Old public safety & land mobile radio Narrow 6.25/12.5 khz channels 900 MHz amateur radio repeaters FRS Part 90 public safety & land mobile radio
Frequency Guides NARCC Web site & repeater guide ARRL Repeater Directory IOS & Android Apps
Digital Voice & VOIP Modes Digital Voice D-Star - Yaesu C4FM - DMR - P25 Growing interest Highly fragmented, incompatible systems Don t wait for a single standard Really fun new modes Jump in! VOIP Systems Connect radio systems through the internet IRLP: >1,600 connected repeaters world wide Echolink: >200k people and repeaters world wide
Try The Other Bands and Modes 3.525-3.600 MHz CW 7.025-7.125 MHz CW 21.025-21.200 MHz CW 28.000-28.300 MHz CW, RTTY/Data 28.300-28.500 MHz CW, Phone CW can be really fun and great for DX and QRP. Use your computer/phone to decode if needed. Work the world when the band is open! 6 Meters 6 meters opens up for long distances 222 MHz 900 MHz 1.2 GHz Lots of repeaters on the other bands as well.
Getting On The Air - Repeaters Pick a repeater and program your radio Listen for a few minutes No traffic? Announce your presence KJ6VU Listening, Anyone on frequency? Not: CQ CQ CQ This is KJ6VU Round table QSO in process Wait for a pause in the action KJ6VU
What Do I Talk About? Basic (boring) QSO Call, Name, Location, Radio, Weather, Traffic More interesting QSO What are your areas of interest in amateur radio? What motivated you to get your ticket? What projects are you working on? What other hobbies or interests do you have? Why did you choose that radio? I need some advice on Did you attend Pacificon / Hamvention / Etc.?
QSO Lingo CQ CQ CQ - General call to any station Q-Signals Can be statements or questions. QTH Location QRZ Who is calling me? QRM Interference from another station QRP Low power QSO Two way radio contact QSL Verification of contact QRT Going off the air Signal reports RST You have a solid 59 signal here Readability 1-5 Signal Strength 1-9 Tone (CW Only) 1-9 73 Best regards
Getting On The Air FM Simplex 146.520 National FM calling frequency Establish a connection and move (QSY) to another working frequency Controversy Using 52 as a chat channel 146.43 146.46 146.49 146.52 146.55 146.58 147.42 147.45 147.48 147.51 147.54 147.57 Calling Channel
Getting On The Air SSB Operation just like HF SSB but local Use USB (Upper Side Band) Antennas horizontally polarized? Not really Popular during contests 144.00-144.05 EME (CW) 144.05-144.10 General CW and weak sig 144.10-144.20 EME and weak-signal SSB 144.200 National SSB calling frequency 144.200-144.275 General SSB operation 144.275-144.300 Propagation beacons
Getting On The Air Easy Satellite ISS Digipeater Handheld APRS radio Homebrew Yagi Smartphone app
Media Resoures Podcasts Fo Time ICQ Podcast Solder Smoke Amateur Radio Newsline ARRL Audio News Video Tx Factor Amateur Logic TV EEV Blog
Structured Fun Contests Field Day CQ VHF Nets ARES, RACES, Red Cross, American Legion Summits on the Air (SOTA www.sota.org.uk) Hiking + operating Vacation mini-dxpedition - Take your radio with you! Fine print: Subject to spousal consent. May lead to significant financial hardship do to divorce or physical injury. Use only with pre-negotiated approval. Not recommended for newlyweds. May cause significant credit card cramping. If you need a good lawyer I know a guy.
10 Things You Should Do In your 1 st year 1. Program your radio 2. Join a local club and! 3. Attend a Field Day event 4. Attend the Maker Faire - or Hamvention 5. Operate on a net 6. Make a simplex contact 7. Try IRLP and/or EchoLink 8. Put together your go kit 9. Study for your license upgrade 10. Get on the air 50% of new tickets don t