Commuication, Information Technology and Automation > Radio/Comms
Why Every Real Man Should Include Amateur Radio (HAM) In Their Skillset
TexasRedNeck:
Bobby, I think you may be channeling your inner geek! Morse code can be very helpful as the tones with which it is transmitted are often easier to make out than voice communication. Some areas of the spectrum are dedicated only to morse code (albeit small). While not secure comms, the number of people that would readily understand your conversation is much smaller. It takes years of practice (so I've been told) to master code. It also requires some degree of dexterity as you dit dah. There are electronic readers and code generators, but most people use them as study aids and back ups. For the general user who wants better comms in an emergency or EOTWAWKI, it is not necessary, although the purists look down on those not knowing code. Soon I'll post up some pictures of my shack and set up.
KensAuto:
Great info Tex!
Drunksailor:
Hmmm thats intriguing!
OVERWATCH_09:
This is the kind of info that will make this forum great. Thanks for the writeup, I need to get it in gear already and just get a license.
TexasRedNeck:
I'd like to share my "shack" as it's called. At least the VHF/UHF portion. I wanted to be able to communicate simplex, or radio to radio anywhere in Houston should something happen. So I built my home base station with an antenna at the top of a 70 ft pine tree in my yard. It is a Diamond X300NA dual band VHF/UHF antenna. It is about 8ft tall and has 6.5db gain on 2m and 9db gan on 70cm (2 meter is VHF wavelength and 70cm is UHF wavelength) and will withstand 112 mph wind. I hired a professional tree service to come and install the antenna at the top of the tree making the total height about 80 ft. It was painted camo pattern to blend in. The longer the run of antenna wire, the better the cable you have to have to minimize the loss. I used a very high quality cable, an LMR-400 cable with very low loss but it is expensive and the connectors are in the range of $20 a piece. When you are using antennas especially that high in the air, you must use a sophisticated grounding system with lightning arrestors. Frying everything inyour house and burning it to the ground because of poor grounding is not ideal. Using an iCom 910H base station radio with 100W on 2M and 75W on 70cm I have been able to reach 40 miles away consistently, and depending on atmospheric conditions, some times much longer distances. My wife was trained to turn on the radio to a preset frequency should something occur and my car had a Yaesu FT7900 in my car which allowed me to communicate from anywhere in Houston even if every phone circuit was down or busy.
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