Ham Radio Basics

by Erik Bayer AF6EF

What is a Radio Amateur or "Ham"?

 

Radio amateurs are volunteers who develop equipment, experience, and skill in two-way radio communications on their own time, at their own expense, are licensed by the United States government to provide communications in times of disaster when existing government and commercial communications are down or simply overwhelmed by the demand. Before they operate transmitters on the amateur radio frequency allocations, they must pass written examinations to demonstrate knowledge of FCC rules, radio systems, and modes of operation corresponding to privileges granted to each class of license. They are called amateurs because they are not paid for their services, not because they are any less capable than those who are paid professionals....but the really cool thing is that when the ham frequencies are not involved in public service they are available for radio hams to have fun communicating with others in this country and abroad, trying new antennas, ways of hooking computers to the radio, staying in touch with friends and relatives while on a trip or sailing the oceans! ...and it's free... as in you don't have to pay by the minute to use the airwaves. You just have to have the radio equipment, be properly licensed, and continue to abide by the Part 97 FCC rules.

Advantages of the Amateur Radio Service for Disaster Communications

  • We have stations and operators almost everywhere and can deploy mobile/portable stations within minutes. It may take hours or days before government com units or contract services to be set up and working.

  • We have extreme band and frequency flexibility for local to worldwide coverage, as well as many repeater locations and the ability to network repeaters. We don't have the problem of "This com group can't talk to that com group because they are on different frequencies" as our radios are operator programmable...they don't have to be brought to a radio shop to be cloned.

  • We have special modes available to provide data links for lists of supplies for instance, image transmission, live video, and modes to secure transmissions so that the average scanner listener cannot intercept.

  • We have people continually developing, testing radio communication systems, and more importantly have built a human network of operators worldwide that is working 24-7, 365 days a year. This network is not based on heavy infrastructure or high technology and can overcome the breakdown of common systems very quickly. For instance: I knew about the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989 seconds before the shocks hit me 150 miles away because I happened to be listening to a station in Hawaii who suddenly asked "Where did the stations in San Francisco go?" and someone else jumped in and said there was an earthquake. I switched on my 2 meter VHF radio, hit the memory for the Mt. Diablo repeater and listened to the local amateur radio emergency groups as they mobilized within minutes to assist Bay Area police and fire agencies, OES, and Red Cross. There was also a network set up to pass health and welfare messages so that the loved ones of people in evacuation shelters could know they were OK and where they were. At the time the telephone systems were almost totally useless.

Get Involved with the Oroville Amateur Radio Society!

 

The Oars group has a unique opportunity to advance the radio art because of the diverse interests and abilities of it's members. We have voice people, CW people, HF people, VHF people, digital modes, packet, kit builders, antenna systems designers, emergency communicators, contesters, young, old, new hams, experienced hams. OARS is a place for people with similar interests to connect, to develop those interests further, and come back with the willingness and ability to help others who want to learn new skills.

If we cooperate this way, over a period of time you have a club that has fun together, grows, and when called upon in an emergency is ready to provide all kinds of communication....voice, text, pictures, even video! So don't just come to the meetings for an entertaining program and check in to a couple of nets each month....get busy doing something to learn and help out! Connect with people on the air, by e-mail, by phone, or in person. Find others with similar interests. Need help with getting equipment? Need help setting up a station? Antennas? Packet radio? Put the word out! What you get out of OARS membership depends on YOU!

What Can You Do With Your New Technician License?

 

So, you joined OARS, got your Technician License and have tried out all the repeaters you can reach with your new handy-talkie. Is that all there is to ham radio? What now... back to the Internet and the cell phone? Or what else can you do with that dual-band mobile transceiver you just spent $$$ on and will have to save up for another year to afford an additional radio? What about those new HF privileges you just got without having to test on Morse code? Say you can't go on those HF frequencies without sky-high antennas and multiple thousands of $ worth of radios? We'll see about that.

 

First, we've had a presentation about IRLP internet linking of repeaters and Echolink internet ham radio ... what else can you do ...say on 2 meter FM? What about simplex voice? Go to the NARCC website and get the simplex frequencies you can use in Northern California without bringing up a repeater. Count 'em ...there's a bunch. Get them programmed into memory channels so you're ready to QSY when someone asks you to go simplex. Put up a beam. Build a Quad, or take your handheld to a mountain top to see how far you can get! Next, buy or build a sound card-radio interface, download some programs off the internet, and try sending and receiving text, APRS locations, send pictures fom your computer with SSTV, use RTTY or packet for keyboard chat. Have fun, get others involved, get proficient as a multi-mode operator so we have valuable capability for emergency communications! You don't really need to have an HF set up to apply digital modes... in fact it is so much easier to operate on FM locally because you don't have to tune... you are locked on the tone frequency already within the channel. Get a multi-mode transceiver and try out 6 meter and 2 meter SSB and digital modes.

 

OK, so what about those new HF privileges? As a technician class, you have 80, 40, and 15 meter band CW privileges that now equal what the generals have. That means you can build a QRP kit and get on with the other QRPers. That means if you are careful of your input sound level, you can use Hamscope in CW mode to send and receive CW without having to learn Morse code. You have all-mode privileges on 10 meters now. At the present bottom of the sunspot cycle, 10 meters is a great local experimental band. Within 25 miles you can be heard over rough terrain with just a few watts on SSB, and it's just crying for someone to work weak signal psk-31! Once in a while E skip brings you 1000 mile DX too, usually around mid-day or evening hours.

 

What do the HF bands do for you that you can't already do on VHF FM? The big one is much greater range even with a simple, low cost, low profile station... we're talking 500 miles at mid day on 40m, 500 miles evening and morning on 80m, 1000 miles+ on 15m when skip permits. The 10m band is great for local communications and E-skip now at sunspot minimum. It is a good place to learn and practice HF technique ...try out CW, SSB, PSK, and packet with local friends to get proficient and adjust sound card levels etc. To get started on 10m you can pick up rigs on E-Bay inexpensively like Uniden HR 2510, 2600, RCI 2950, 2970 and can either make wire antennas or shorten CB 11m antennas to work on 10m.

 

What's so great about 80 and 40 meters... all I can hear is a lot of noise and static on my new $ 500.00 vertical antenna? Well you should use NVIS techniques to get the best communication from 0-300 mile range. Put up a low horizontal antenna rather than a vertical or inverted V at 40-60 feet. It's called Near Vertical Incidence Skywave, and the Army has used it since the Vietnam war. The most practical and effective antennas for this are either simple dipoles stretched horizontally at about 15 feet high or a horizontal loop 66 feet on a side fed with coax and a tuner. Horizontal makes it pick up a lot less local electrical noise, and keeping it low to the ground filters out a lot of far away thunderstorm static as well as long distance skip. And it does not take much power, either. I did a test between my home in Oroville and my brother in Elk Grove about 70 miles away on 80 and 40 with low wire antennas. My antenna is a ho-loop square 66 ft on a side at 25 feet and we had a fan dipole of insulated THHN stranded AWG 12 or 14 building wire stapled to a board fence at my brother's place. We ran coax through a conduit straight out from the house to the middle of the back yard fence, came up, put on a bead balun, and put up dipoles cut for 160, 80, 40, and 20 just stapled around the wood fence at 3-5 feet high. When we got to a corner, we just went right around at the same level. On the 160, we ran out of fence before we ran out of wire, so just dropped down 12 inches and started to double back. This antenna is fed with a tuner, so we didn't do any pruning. Results were that 1 watt CW and 3-4 watts SSB gave perfectly readable signals... on 40 meters in mid-day, and 80 meters in evening.

For skip on 15 meters you could put up a half-square antenna. It would only have to be about 20-25 feet high. You don't want to go higher as it will lose it's natural pattern filtering of high angle noise and QRM. Basically it is fed with coax and a balun, braid connects to a quarter wave that drops down from the feed point, center of coax to wave horizontal then drop a Quarter wave toward ground. It is a 50 ohm antenna and you can prune the ends or fold back to tune to resonance. Just be sure to trim exactly the same on each vertical, remember you have high voltage on the ends hanging down when transmitting, and keep your verticals out of proximity to trees...no closer than 4 feet from branches or the thing just won't work well.

Link to Half Square Diagram

 

If this article gives you any ideas you'd like to try, just contact some of us in the club who have been operating on HF and we'll help you get started.