Radios & Antennas For Technicians

Roger that.. It's discouraging to see new ops get 'stuck' in the VHF/UHF only world- of ham radio.

 

Used to be that you had to get an operator to make a phone call.

 

First got my tech ticket so I could talk with some Jeep buddies that only ran 2m radios out on the trails and that was great not have to deal with all that trash found on cbs these days. So anyway after running the trails with them for a week or so it was back home and where I found myself wishing I had a way to talk on the portion of 10m we were allowed to use as a tech.
Well having grown up during the cb peak I had a few of them around and even had a base antenna setup to I could talk with the truckers when the weather was bad and such. So I did some looking and came up with a crystal in my junk drawer that would take a Cobra 2000 GTL and turn it into a 10m tech band radio. Having been trained in electronics and working in the field most of my life I had the equipment and manuals I needed to do the alinement needed to get it up and running after the transplant. So I did the operation and finished the alinement. Hooked it up to the 11m antenna and made a contact with a station down under! Luckily it was near enough to the end of the last sunspot peak that 10m was still working.
Come spring and 10m was getting really quiet and we were having a hamfest, so I got my upgrade to General just in time to still be able to operate HF with no sunspots.
Moral of the story take what you know and what you have and do the best you can.

 

Shouldn't the title of the topic be specified (VHF/UHF only)?

 

In the US Techs have limited HF access (10m SSB and CW on lower bands). You wouldn't know it though because nobody talks about Techs doing anything but getting an FM HT or FM mobile and talking on repeaters. Then they wonder why Techs get bored and leave the hobby.

Chris

 

When I was a Tech , I considered it a entrance ramp onto Amateur Radio...not a destination.
I found an Alinco dualband HT and a used Kenwood TS430...guess which one got more use? The Alinco got me onto a few repeaters but it was the contacts on 10m that got me taking the General and in turn the Extra exams.
Too many Techs get stuck on repeaters and never expand their horizons.
Half the time it's the mindset on the various repeater qso's.
The other half is it's an added expense .
Amateur radio is not cheap.
When that 29 dollar Baofeng dies ...so does their hobby.
Buy decent gear your hobby will thank you.

 

Yes! http://www.arrl.org/files/file/Tech Band Chart/Tech Band Chart.pdf

More than enough for me...

 

Do not make me laugh. You can find a good used radio for under $ 500. Wire antenna costs practically nothing. How much is your iPhone worth?

 

Yup. An ambitious Tech could do and learn a lot within the Tech allocation, meaning their upgrade to General would be more meaningful. They would spend less time asking basic questions and probably have a greater appreciation for HF. No, they're not going to accumulate a bunch of DX contacts, but I bet they could develop some pretty strong knowledge and absolutely nail short-to-intermediate distance comms over various modes and conditions.

Farming contacts is boring anyway.

Chris

 

Yup. $500 would buy a good used all-band/all-mode radio, some coax, a spool of wire, and other misc supplies and get you on the air.

Depending on your aspirations and local market, you could do it even cheaper.

But, if your expectations is a $30 HT, and nothing more, for talking on repeaters, then yes, $500 is expensive. Quality aside, the cheap chinese radios, while making one aspect of amateur radio more accessible, have reset expectations on the cost of the hobby.

Chris

 

Sorry, I never considered HT as something self-sufficient in Hamradio. It's like a child in the garage sitting behind the wheel of his father's car, turning the wheel and sometimes honking, imagining himself to be a real driver ...

 

I view them more like a bicycle with training wheels. It gives a new amateur access to the hobby, but in a limited fashion that reduces the impact of mistakes. No, they're not going to make long distance contacts, but they do get to practice good operating practices in a local context and experiment with antennas and alternative power schemes. All of that carries over to other aspects of the hobby once they get more capable equipment.

I've been licensed for 15 years, most of that as a General, yet I've lately been enjoying using HTs and stretching their reach by experimenting with antennas and operating at higher elevations. So far my longest distance VHF QSO was 60-odd miles on 2m FM, I want to see if I can stretch that out to 100+. One of my HTs does 6m FM+AM and I want to see what I can do with that capability as well. I'm determined to do a successful (ie points awarded) SOTA activation on 6m. I came close in January by getting 2 on one summit, but had to resort to 2m to get the rest I needed.

Yet I have at most 5 minutes of transmitting through repeaters.

Chris

 

From my experience, only one in 10 who started with HT, at least tried later the HF. But he does not act there, because it is completely different than chatting with those whom they know personally, through a repeater. When they buy baofeng and talk through a repeater, this is what attracted them in the first place. No development. They just don't care. The only way to get interested in HF is to see / hear another on HF or read a book about it and get carried away.
The fundamental difference between close contacts on VHF is the expectation to hear someone you know, and HF is fishing when every time you don't know who you will hear and who will answer you. Most people are generally not ready to interact with strangers.

 

I didn't know other amateurs when I got licensed, so I had no expectations of talking to my friends in the area via radio. I got licensed and bought an HT to experiment with RF (which is why I bought the most expensive and feature-laden HT at the time, to have options).

When I get out on a summit (either for SOTA or just camping) and set up a higher gain antenna for my HT, I have no expectation or even desire to talk to people I know (that's what cellphones are for!). I want to see how far I can reach. On a camping trip in September, on Flagpole Knob in Virginia, I had a J-pole up in a tree (prob 20' above my head) and a 2m HT. Aside from the nearly two dozen contacts me and my buddy made in 20 minutes, we had several simplex QSOs with amateurs in the Shenandoah Valley. The last contact I made on my last SOTA activation was a guy who had no idea what I was doing, but heard me calling CQ on 146.52 and was curious. He was about 40 miles away. I was using an HT with a halfwave whip. It's not as sexy making a contact over a thousand miles, but it's still a thrill to make a contact over 5o or 60 miles and hear you are pegging their meter (folks are frequently surprised I'm using a mere HT, most think I'm running a mobile rig).

I know a lot of what I'm talking about is a result of my own technical curiosity and wouldn't be shared by most, but Techs using HTs for repeaters only is our own doing. That's all we talk about Techs doing, using HTs to chat with their friends on a repeater. There's no emphasis on trying other things within the context of their privileges. Build a yagi, get up on a balcony, summit, parking garage, etc, and see how far that signal goes. Try satellites, APRS, miliwatting, etc. Sure, the guy you talk to might only be across town, but maybe see if you can make that same contact on 1w or half a watt rather than the full 5w of the HT (I found out recently I can maintain conversation-quality comms on .05w upwards of a mile and a half away in rolling wooded terrain).

Chris

 

Unfortunately, they are not interested in this. They are not radio amateurs. They are consumers. They need a good strong signal. If there are three repeaters in the area, they select the loudest one. They like DMR or D-STAR because they don't hiss!