HAM Forum

[MichaelLAX]

15 hours ago, SUPERG900 said:

 

TGIF is an interesting network. There's not a lot of repeaters on that network - but many program TGIF into their personal hotspots.

9 minutes ago, Citizen said:

Thank Goodness It's Friday.

(JK; really it's: Toes Go In First)

: )

...

 

So @SUPERG900  is using the Toes Go In First Network?!? 

I think I will stick to BM! 

[n4gix]

5 hours ago, MichaelLAX said:

 

So @SUPERG900  is using the Toes Go In First Network?!? 

I think I will stick to BM! 

Bowel Movement? 

[AdmiralCochrane]

10 hours ago, MichaelLAX said:

I don't understand using Digital with such limitations; why not just use analog for those situations?

I do.  There is the clarity at distance - until it drops out.  The idea works for me.

[MichaelLAX]

2 hours ago, n4gix said:

Bowel Movement? 

Brandmeister!

[MichaelLAX]

1 hour ago, AdmiralCochrane said:

I do.  There is the clarity at distance - until it drops out.  The idea works for me.

At least with Brandmeister, you get that PLUS worldwide Talkgroup communications, too!

[SUPERG900]

58 minutes ago, MichaelLAX said:

At least with Brandmeister, you get that PLUS worldwide Talkgroup communications, too!

Heh.

With a pi-star, you get: One Hotspot To Rule Them All!  BM,DMR-MARC,DMR+,TGIF,YSF,XLX...  but you can't play unless you join the priesthood of DMRGateway freaks.

[n4gix]

21 hours ago, MichaelLAX said:

Brandmeister!

'twas only a joke! 

[MacJack]

On 11/27/2021 at 1:36 PM, Lscott said:

I’m trying to get a buddy at work to just try for his Tech Class license, he already has his GMRS license. Was also into scanning. He’s interested but seems to get hung up with other commitments to go for a VE test session. I did get him to switch from the CCR he had, UV-5R, to a better radio, a used Kenwood TK-3170. That’s just about all he uses now.

My boss said something a while ago about “maybe” getting a couple of radios to stay in contact with his 12 yo son at school. Hasn’t brought up the topic in a while however. I emailed him some info and radio brochures. At the time he said he was looking at a couple of the CCR’s you see on Amazon. He said if his kid wrecks the radio or looses it he’s not out of a lot of money. I guess that’s one point in favor of CCR’s. I think the best option for him is GMRS at the moment.

I have another buddy who I got interested in Ham Radio, he was already into scanners and CB. He got his Tech Class license and now is really getting into digital radio. He also just for fun got his GMRS license recently too. He still uses 11m CB with his “export” radio.

I’m trying to do my part. All of the people above are younger than I am.

Great...  on a personal note the Ham who own/operate not only a great GMRS repeater as well as regional DMR repeaters linked, said to me Kaylee and I show look into getting Ham ticket an more morse code needed.  I told him let us think about it and went to the local Ham lunch meeting and we like the folks and got a coach which was the repeater owner and asked him 3 or 4 question and we selfstudy for one half months.  

[MichaelLAX]

On 11/28/2021 at 6:15 PM, SUPERG900 said:

Heh.

With a pi-star, you get: One Hotspot To Rule Them All!  BM,DMR-MARC,DMR+,TGIF,YSF,XLX...  but you can't play unless you join the priesthood of DMRGateway freaks.

Perhaps, but I do not own a hotspot; I use the 3 DMR repeaters available to me on the PAPA System.

[Edmo01]

On 11/24/2021 at 12:14 PM, phottomatt said:

Just started with hamstudy.org, it's great. 

Checking back in 2 months later with an update…

I used hamstudy.org for my General test which was administered at my club’s December meeting…. 100% on the test!

Since I was in “study mode”, I began reviewing the Amateur Extra material.  I found the Extra test bank is definitely a more complicated group of questions.  So after a month of studying I took the Extra test at my club’s January meeting and passed it as well!  Of the 50 questions I did miss 2.  Those were missed because I rushed and didn’t fully read all of the answers and bit off on the wrong answer.  As a perfectionist, missing those 2 questions because I rushed is a bit aggravating! 

During all my years of flying airplanes in the USAF and all of the written test I was required to take I should have remembered the old adage of RTFQ!  

Anyway, good luck on your test…. I’m sure you will do well.

 

Edmo

K5KMY / WRMC916

[mbrun]

Checking back in 2 months later with an update…
I used hamstudy.org for my General test which was administered at my club’s December meeting…. 100% on the test!
Since I was in “study mode”, I began reviewing the Amateur Extra material.  I found the Extra test bank is definitely a more complicated group of questions.  So after a month of studying I took the Extra test at my club’s January meeting and passed it as well!  Of the 50 questions I did miss 2.  Those were missed because I rushed and didn’t fully read all of the answers and bit off on the wrong answer.  As a perfectionist, missing those 2 questions because I rushed is a bit aggravating! 

During all my years of flying airplanes in the USAF and all of the written test I was required to take I should have remembered the old adage of RTFQ!  
Anyway, good luck on your test…. I’m sure you will do well.
 
Edmo
K5KMY / WRMC916

Congratulations on passing your extra. That is a big deal.


Michael
WRHS965
KE8PLM

[axorlov]

Congrats on Extra! The King of Airwaves, the Ruler of 3.6 MHz, I bow before you.

[Lscott]

Also congratulations on passing your extra exam. When the Morse code requirement was dropped I went for the General and the Extra at the same test session and passed. I did get dirty looks from one of the VE's, must have been in his 80's, as I walked out. Oh well.

[Sshannon]

Edmo01

Congratulations!  Although I’ve been somewhat interested my whole life, I just finally did my ham exams this month (Jan 6).  I also used HamStudy, including buying the app for my phone and tablet.  It made studying really fun and enabled me to pass all three tests.  The older hams there were not much older than me and were very friendly.  I think I’ll enjoy the hobby and I wish you many years of enjoyment as well.

[PACNWComms]

Need to upgrade myself when time permits, thank you for sharing, will have to download HamStudy myself. Commercial radio is taking all of my time these days. Lots of sites going from P25 Phase 1 to Phase 2.

[wayoverthere]

4 hours ago, PACNWComms said:

Need to upgrade myself when time permits, thank you for sharing, will have to download HamStudy myself. Commercial radio is taking all of my time these days. Lots of sites going from P25 Phase 1 to Phase 2.

Good luck!

I have my eye on general as well, and started doing some of the practice tests ok the Hamstudy app last night. Also have the 'easy way ham book' for general to study, with an eye toward a VE session at the end of Feb in the next town over.

[MichaelLAX]

7 hours ago, Lscott said:

Also congratulations on passing your extra exam. When the Morse code requirement was dropped I went for the General and the Extra at the same test session and passed. I did get dirty looks from one of the VE's, must have been in his 80's, as I walked out. Oh well.

As long as you brought it up: I have always felt that legacy Hams, who were required to pass the Morse Code exam, such as myself, should, at least, have some differential on their Class of license, such as General Plus or Amateur Extra Plus, to at least acknowledge the historical fact that we satisfied those Code requirements.

I am comfortable with the elimination of the Code requirement and with the sharing of same privileges, but I do not like the fact that our past achievements have been lost to history.

[Lscott]

20 minutes ago, MichaelLAX said:

As long as you brought it up: I have always felt that legacy Hams, who were required to pass the Morse Code exam, such as myself, should, at least, have some differential on their Class of license, such as General Plus or Amateur Extra Plus, to at least acknowledge the historical fact that we satisfied those Code requirements.

I am comfortable with the elimination of the Code requirement and with the sharing of same privileges, but I do not like the fact that our past achievements have been lost to history.

That battle was argued to death years ago and lost in favor of dropping the requirement.

The reason why it was dropped, from what I read at the time, had to do with many of the Ham bands being shared with government stations which primarily used CW. The Hams were typically secondary users on the bands early on so when a government station need to use the frequency the Ham station had to better understand when told to get the "F" off. Now that almost, to maybe none, use CW exclusively there is little reason to know it. That's why it got dropped at the time by the world radio conference. It took the FCC time to catch up to other countries in dropping the requirement.

The old timers cooked up all matter of reasons why it should be kept. Everything from "I had to so you have too", emergency communications, CW will die out, bands will be overflowing with CB'ers, just plain bragging rights and as a filter so some can feel superior to other Hams being a member of an exclusive club just to name a few. None of the negatives have panned out. In fact at every swap I go to there is always a healthy number of young and old Hams hanging out by the guy selling CW keys. It's popularity I don't think will ever die out. The only difference is people learn it because they want to, not because it's a requirement.

[Sshannon]

I had to laugh when an acquaintance of mine said, “What’s next, being able to fog a mirror gets you an Extra Class?”

[MichaelLAX]

17 hours ago, Lscott said:

That battle was argued to death years ago and lost in favor of dropping the requirement...

You completely misunderstood my post: I congratulate the FCC for dropping the Morse Code requirement!

[Lscott]

Just now, MichaelLAX said:

You completely misunderstood my post: I congratulated the FCC for dropping the Morse Code requirement!

Ok.

I think dropping the CW requirement helped get a few more people to get interested enough to take the test and get licensed. The hobby can use a lot more young people in it.

[PACNWComms]

In my case, I used Morse Code long before actually getting an amateur license. This was due to the military and the need to send code via HF radio. HF is the backup to satellite communications, or at least it was in the 1980's-1990's, with the Pacer Bounce HF radio system being fielded with military TSC series satellite communications terminals. Had amateur radio continued to require a Morse Code word per minute test, I probably would never have taken to test to get my "ticket".....as I wanted to do something else, different from what I did in the military with radio. Military radio usage is to get on, say what you want and get off, after all the longer you talk the more likely you will have someone direction find your location and take you out, at least in a war zone, or during an exercise. 

Earlier in my military career, VLF and short wave was also used to send a letter or two to contact another site, provide new orders, or direct action at a remote site. It was necessary to understand Morse Code, but not necessarily required to know it, as it was mostly call signs coming over the airwaves. Even today, embassy personnel and others often have short wave radios and other receivers where they need to have information communicated to them, but they are not "radio" people and Morse Code means nothing to them. However, playing a certain song, or a specific line of speech may convey meaning to them. For people like this, Morse Code may be a turn off, and to get an educated or knowledgeable user base, voice only is easier, quicker, and still viable with consumer grade electronics proliferating society. Think about the radios you can buy now, versus what was available in the 1980's. In the past, Morse Code may have been the only thing a radio could do, and it was expensive to produce large quantities of voice transceivers. I still do use Morse Code a little now for work, as it is easier to send one letter, or key a analog radio for a letter, or command. While I do not condone kerchunking repeaters, at least they are ones that I am responsible for, and those channel grants (trunked mode) still convey information when I choose not to talk. Only those that know Morse Code know what I am "sending" via those presses.

[mbrun]

Ok.
I think dropping the CW requirement helped get a few more people to get interested enough to take the test and get licensed. The hobby can use a lot more young people in it.

The CW requirement was the dominant reason why I was delayed 40+ years getting my ticket. I had much of the other knowledge and skills. It was only after meeting and talking with a local ham that I met on my street and learning CW requirement as dropped that I final tested. If not for that chance encounter, I still would not have it.

Had CW been something you learned after becoming a ham, ARRL would have been receiving my membership dues for all those missing years.

I do appreciate CW and respect those with the skills to master it, I also know first hand that it serves as a barrier to entry. I imagine during my retirement years I will force myself to learn it to make more brain connections. An old dog learning new tricks.


Michael
WRHS965
KE8PLM

[MichaelLAX]

Just for the record, for those of you who do want to learn Morse Code, the Jerry Ziliak Morse Code cassettes, have been digitized to CD and are available at Amazon.

His system is brilliant and easy to learn.

He teaches each letter, number and punctuation mark by sending them in a series of 5 times at 21 Words Per Minute, but spacing between each letter, so that it is being sent at a true rate of only 5 WPM.

That way your brain becomes accustomed to hearing each character at a fast 21 WPM but the brain is given time to hear, learn and decode it.

Then as you practice, he reduces the spacing per character, so that your reception speed slowly increases, per your need, to higher speeds.

This is how I learned to be able to receive 20 WPM Morse Code back in 1995, obtain my Amateur Extra class license and qualify for the first ever round of Vanity callsigns back in that day.

And I enjoyed CW contacts all the way to the Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia through my old Drake TR4Cw and a G5RV antenna (good sunspot cycle back in those days, too)!

[MacJack]

On 11/27/2021 at 8:20 PM, SUPERG900 said:

DMR-MARC and BrandMeister are two completely separate DMR networks.  DMR-MARC is the older of the two and is generally based on MOTOTRBO equipment. BrandMeister is a newer and a bit more open network.

In general, DMR-MARC repeaters are more locked down and don't permit private calls. BrandMeister repeaters don't usually restrict private calls, they allow SMS messages and also support digital APRS.

Their are only a few talkgroups that are shared between these networks. Most folks program their codeplugs for one network or the other - BrandMeister being the most popular. 

TGIF is an interesting network. There's not a lot of repeaters on that network - but many program TGIF into their personal hotspots.

Sorry I missed your comment to me.  I'm glad you explain the above...  my comments asked me was just DMR which I took as DMRoIP.  I do hang around BrandMeister as I have a HT that does not need Cold Plug as it uses the RFinder Database for Ham repeaters near you. Very cool no hot spot needed.  It also is a cell phone and does VoIP and at this stage of development has BrandMeister and will soon have TGIF as in development now.  I have a B1 and a new model B1+ is out...  https://store10195853.ecwid.com/RFinder-B1-p153523799  

As for where I hang out on BrandMeister, I like to monitor the TG 91 just to make sure radio working, 3100 USA, 3137 NC and a TG 31770 for B1 owners.  O another new feature is I can see all RFinder radio and tablets on air and want to share their location and if open for contact...  I can do from the radio click tune radio and call them up..  The spec sheet on the website is not up to date with all the features.  

Again sorry for delay in my response.

MacJack