any particular recommendations for resources beginners to get in to ham radio these days? specific radios or web resources. i hear that the radios have improved dramatically in the past few years.
my dad was really in to ham radio when I was a kid and was always setting up huge antennas in our backyard and had lots of big mysterious black metal boxes with vu meters and nice big knobs of them. i remember him making a phone call to my mom via ham radio during the 80s and it blew my mind.
What's very interesting is the licensing requirements for Ham Radio, while being dumb, are very good entry points. [1] and [2] essentially give you flash cards and tell you when you have enough of the questions memorized to pass the exam. Once you do that you can use [3] to find an exam session. These are usually hosted by radio clubs so you can immediately find a club of people who like radio and live by you. If you live in Tucson, Arizona or Dayton, Ohio you're in a lot of luck since they are the biggest clubs I know of.
There's mainly a few "areas" people like:
- Digital (PSK, etc)
- CW (Morse Code usually over long distances)
- Repeaters (VHF, a small local community, essentially TeamSpeak)
If I had enough money I'd buy a FT-100D [4] since it lets you do "everything" (poorly) in a single package which is important for me since I live in a small apartment.
When you get your license, go to your local radio club, tell people you're new, and ask them to participate in something called "Field Day". It's a disaster preparedness "drill" done yearly and works like a contest: talk to a bunch of people regardless of method and get points for it. You'll see everyone doing everything. There's people doing QRP (very low power transmissions usually off batter/solar) and QRO (people using very high power radios). Digital/analog, etc.
Each country's member association of the International Amateur Radio Union[0] likely provides information on ways to get your ham radio license in the specific country.
go wild using SDRs and just start researching what everything does. the kiwisdr network is really impressive and amazing - http://ve3sun.com/KiwiSDR/
if you live in the US, i've found that 90% of ham action is bordering on c-span call-in line territory and really off-putting and demoralizing.
it's much more exciting and encouraging at first to listen in faraway locales online (and then you can eventually get some equipment that can catch those signals physically at your house too). the old tech guy factor is alive and well with the subculture which is honestly really endearing imo, especially the people that review equipment on youtube. it is a level of humble and noble pedantry - what some might call dorkiness - that seems like it barely even exists in my generation's youtube
There are workarounds for the annoying ranting if you can keep a basic plan, log, and schedule. Find nets, special event stations, and contests that interest you, on your favorite band or mode or both. Or multiples of each. You will never run out of interesting stuff.
(The same is kinda true with anything you can mindlessly browse, be it OTA TV or even Twitter or YouTube. Once you put a framework into motion it's easier to cut out stuff you don't like, by finding things you do like)
I don't want to put words in the above poster's mouth, but I think they're just saying that it isn't fun to listen to incoherent rambling and the occasional racist rant. Based off of a few hours listening to the infamous .435 in Los Angeles [1], I'm inclined to agree
I guess c-span got a lot more interesting since I stopped watching tv, not only allowing racist rants on air - but doing it to a degree that develops a level notoriety supporting cultural shorthand. Like Emily Post. Either that or... nah, I don't wanna put words in your mouth.
Yeah, I think things escalated around ~2010. It's definitely not an everyday thing, but I think every year or two someone manages to scream the N word on Washington Journal. Around 2012 they added a short delay to calls and every once in a while they make the delay even longer. There was also a period around the 2012 election when people kept calling in and asking about the size of Mitt Romney's penis.
Sounds like classic trolling fare, as in: Mitt Romney's penis is only discussed in places where mention of his penis is frowned on. Given how many Americans think "hate speech" is a legally defined thing, I'd expect offensive language in any environment where there is a chance to remotely provoke a reaction. That is, unless Romney's penis is commonly discussed on amateur radio - in that case there is something much more interesting happening.
/r/amateurradio isn't bad. Alternately find a sub-niche that uses radios for something, and dig in from there (SOTA if you like hiking, wspr stuff if low power digital is interesting, etc)
websdr is a gateway drug. It's still an amazing resource but I just want to also give props to kiwisdr just because of one amazing feature: TDOA localization.
click the 'extensions' dropdown at the bottom right and select 'TDoA'
give the extension a bit to load at the bottom left
pick a set of radios from the map (blue boxes) that are close enough to likely hear the station you're tuned to until you get 4-5 radios filled in the form on the bottom left.
click 'Submit'
if you get any red 'X' indicators click the scissors and try again. you should see a little circle clock while it collects samples, then the extension will attempt to plot likely locations for the transmitter.
really cool i think
(just tried it on a shortwave station transmitting out of Okeechobee, FL and got this result
https://i.imgur.com/k2brLAk.png)
I know nothing. I went to several sites and the display looks functional, but all I am hearing is white noise. Is there a tutorial somewhere? It has sounded cool for years, but I need to bootstrap somehow.
I am so old school that 95% of my listening is college radio stations (WREK, KFJC, WKCR...) and noncommercial stations KSDS, WFMU, WWOZ, ...). I would love to branch out.
my dad was really in to ham radio when I was a kid and was always setting up huge antennas in our backyard and had lots of big mysterious black metal boxes with vu meters and nice big knobs of them. i remember him making a phone call to my mom via ham radio during the 80s and it blew my mind.