COMM Handheld Ham Radio
- Thread starter sjhenderson
- Start date
Thank you HFcomms for the most convincing argument about the subject. If I had received the same advice from any other forum, I'd have just blown it off. I live in very rural north central WV, have looked on ARRL for ham clubs near me and there are none within 100 miles. So I'd have to literally drive to Pennsylvania to sit for a test. Sigh...
Old Gray Mare
TB Fanatic
As far as I know it is not illegal in the US for someone without a Ham License to own a Ham radio. It is not illegal in the US for unlicensed individuals to listen to Ham radio transmissions. It becomes illegal when the mike is keyed or transmission is made from the transceiver by an unlicensed individual.
Making an emergency call on a ham radio is not illegal, but it had better be a real emergency. No one needs a license to make an emergency call on a ham radio. That's the exception to the rule.
More knowledgeable Hams please correct me if I'm wrong or if my information is dated.
Last edited:
Hfcomms
EN66iq
It is possible to do it remotely with a few caveats however;
Can you take the ham radio license test online? – Ham Radio Prep
YES! The FCC released a public notice confirming that ham radio license tests may be held remotely. Here are the top VECs that offer online testing.
hamradioprep.com
Bullet point #4 is the New England Amateur Radio
New England Amateur Radio (NEAR) recently showed up on a radar – and some students are raving about their experience testing with NEAR. They do not require a proctor and follow a process similar to GLAARG. Before getting started, make sure to check out their rules and protocols.
Click here to sign up for an exam with NEAR
Hfcomms
EN66iq
Yes, for a licensed operator. As a licensed operator if I have no other timely alternative to get or call for emergency help I can get on the police/fire/ems repeater and phone it in but it better be an emergency and this is for someone with a valid amateur ticket. And even with that you might have to do a dance with the local prosecutor and police if they get a bug up their rear end about it.
In my particular case I work a security detail for a local business and we do have the police and fire repeaters programmed into our radios in case the phone system is down and I can use that call identifier to central dispatch and it won't be questioned.
§97.403 Safety of life and protection of property.
No provision of these rules prevents the use by an amateur station of any means of radiocommunication at its disposal to provide essential communication needs in connection with the immediate safety of human life and immediate protection of property when normal communication systems are not available.
§97.405 Station in distress.
(a) No provision of these rules prevents the use by an amateur station in distress of any means at its disposal to attract attention, make known its condition and location, and obtain assistance.
(b) No provision of these rules prevents the use by a station, in the exceptional circumstances described in paragraph (a) of this section, of any means of radiocommunications at its disposal to assist a station in distress.
Old Gray Mare
TB Fanatic
Years ago I remember hearing of a case involving bodily injury, (at least one broken bone). A ham radio was the nearest feasible communication devise. The unlicensed victim was able to use the radio to obtain assistance. The local PTB, as Hfcomms suggested, got prissy and seized the radio, blah, blah. blah. On appeal the equipment and settlement was returned to the victim.
Bob the Builder
Contributing Member
Free........If you wish to study the ham testing questions and protocol for free:
hamstudy.org is the best site I found in 10 years of looking (for me)
Never intended to take the Extra level test as the math was more involved than I had patience for. Even though being an avid math student in schools.
Took and passed the test after a week with hamstudy.org and finished the test in 11 minutes. Missed two.
They have several methods of testing for all three levels.
Can't recommend it enough.
Did I mention Free?
Only took me seven minutes for the entry level Technician test, missed one.
We teach second and third grade students with 100% success rate on the Tech and General levels, it's easy.
hamstudy.org is the best site I found in 10 years of looking (for me)
Never intended to take the Extra level test as the math was more involved than I had patience for. Even though being an avid math student in schools.
Took and passed the test after a week with hamstudy.org and finished the test in 11 minutes. Missed two.
They have several methods of testing for all three levels.
Can't recommend it enough.
Did I mention Free?
Only took me seven minutes for the entry level Technician test, missed one.
We teach second and third grade students with 100% success rate on the Tech and General levels, it's easy.
Even if one buys a scanner to listen to ham radio you need to know what mode you are trying to listen to. Most vhf and uhf is FM, but some use the sidebands. Same ham radio is upper side band, like the portion of ten meters used for long distance, some is FM for the few repeaters. CB ( 11 meters) is mostly AM.
Then there are the directional antennas to boost reception, tuning the antenna to resonate on the band you are using and don't forget polarization.
All the above is learned with a license so it it still a worthwhile thing to get v
Then there are the directional antennas to boost reception, tuning the antenna to resonate on the band you are using and don't forget polarization.
All the above is learned with a license so it it still a worthwhile thing to get v
Years ago, on one of the local repeaters, we had bear hunters using 2M for comms. They did not have a license and the repeater owner told them time after time to stay off his repeater. They didn't and the FCC enforcement came in and caught the hunters. Not only did they get fined $25,000 each, but they also lost their truck, guns, radios. After that, we never hear any hunters on the repeaters.
I second most of the comments made here! I've been a ham operator for more than 20 years now and recommend that if you're new to radio to go ahead and get an amateur license. There are many nuances to radio that you will learn by going through the process to get knowledgeable enough to pass the license exam (which for the amateur Technician class is really very basic).
It's really important to get some basic knowledge in how radio works before you start using it. For instance, do you know what sideband is? Do you know what frequency and wavelength are and how they are related? Do you know what standing wave ratio is (this one is very important to successful operation)? Do you know the difference between monopoles, dipoles, verticals, deltas, Yagis and quads? Do you know what a superheterodyne receiver is? Do you know what AM, FM, SSB, CW, FSK, PSK, RTTY mean? Do you know what volts, amps, ohms and watts mean? Do you know the difference between the prefixes micro, milli, centi, kilo and mega? All of those terms and more besides are vital to understanding how radio works (and these terms are not particular to just amateur "ham" radio, but all radio services) and how to use it. If you want to be serious about using radio communications technology when the proverbial scheisser hits the fan, you need to BOTH understand some of the theory AND (just as importantly) have plenty of experience using it on the air. No, you don't have to have a degree in electrical/electronics engineering, but you do need to know the basics in order to operate on the air properly without causing interference to yourself or others so that the goal of orderly communication can be met. The current licensing process, if followed, actually does a fairly good job of giving you the basic knowledge you need to be able to get good experience using radio waves as a form of communication. Listen to how other licensed hams operate on the air; most of them do a pretty good job and set a good example (yeah, I know there are exceptions).
There are lots of resources on the Internet to help you get started. Just type in "amateur radio" on YouTube and plenty of videos will come up for you to choose.
As for starter hand held radios, I second the Baofengs. Yes, they are Chinese made, but they are fairly decent quality and it's hard to beat their prices ($20 to $30 shipped on Amazon). Mine have worked well for me for quite some time. If you want something better, more durable and easier to use, there are many good offerings from Yaesu, Icom and Kenwood.
For scanners, I strongly recommend the Uniden BC125AT for a basic scanner and the Uniden Home Patrol 2 for a more advanced scanner. The Home Patrol is quite expensive but it will pick up trunking services (used by most police, fire and ambulance departments today) that the BC125AT will not pick up. If you just want to listen to local ham repeaters along with Family Radio Service , GMRS or MURS, the BC125AT will do just fine.
It's really important to get some basic knowledge in how radio works before you start using it. For instance, do you know what sideband is? Do you know what frequency and wavelength are and how they are related? Do you know what standing wave ratio is (this one is very important to successful operation)? Do you know the difference between monopoles, dipoles, verticals, deltas, Yagis and quads? Do you know what a superheterodyne receiver is? Do you know what AM, FM, SSB, CW, FSK, PSK, RTTY mean? Do you know what volts, amps, ohms and watts mean? Do you know the difference between the prefixes micro, milli, centi, kilo and mega? All of those terms and more besides are vital to understanding how radio works (and these terms are not particular to just amateur "ham" radio, but all radio services) and how to use it. If you want to be serious about using radio communications technology when the proverbial scheisser hits the fan, you need to BOTH understand some of the theory AND (just as importantly) have plenty of experience using it on the air. No, you don't have to have a degree in electrical/electronics engineering, but you do need to know the basics in order to operate on the air properly without causing interference to yourself or others so that the goal of orderly communication can be met. The current licensing process, if followed, actually does a fairly good job of giving you the basic knowledge you need to be able to get good experience using radio waves as a form of communication. Listen to how other licensed hams operate on the air; most of them do a pretty good job and set a good example (yeah, I know there are exceptions).
There are lots of resources on the Internet to help you get started. Just type in "amateur radio" on YouTube and plenty of videos will come up for you to choose.
As for starter hand held radios, I second the Baofengs. Yes, they are Chinese made, but they are fairly decent quality and it's hard to beat their prices ($20 to $30 shipped on Amazon). Mine have worked well for me for quite some time. If you want something better, more durable and easier to use, there are many good offerings from Yaesu, Icom and Kenwood.
For scanners, I strongly recommend the Uniden BC125AT for a basic scanner and the Uniden Home Patrol 2 for a more advanced scanner. The Home Patrol is quite expensive but it will pick up trunking services (used by most police, fire and ambulance departments today) that the BC125AT will not pick up. If you just want to listen to local ham repeaters along with Family Radio Service , GMRS or MURS, the BC125AT will do just fine.
Hfcomms
EN66iq
Expensive lesson and if you illegally use someone’s repeater they will triangulate you and hunt you down.
Old Gray Mare
TB Fanatic
Note: Knowing Morse Code is not required to get a license. Morse Code is still used by some Hams.
Old Gray Mare
TB Fanatic
Repeaters allow transmissions to have a greater range and depending on their location broadcast a transmission to areas that could not be reached due to terrain.
Raggedyman
Res ipsa loquitur
people have no clue that there is significant cost to purchase, power and maintain a repeater - even down to renting space for it in many instances
kyrsyan
Has No Life - Lives on TB
That was the reason us kids never tested. Morse code just toasted all of our brains. But, yeah, it is no longer required.
I remember that it was a very expensive hobby. And that Dad has sunk some serious money into his personal stuff. And the club paid some serious money to regularly use a very large radio dish. One of the building size ones. So I can get people being pissed that others are abusing and using things that are not their own.
Another part to getting a license and learning is also how to not screw up signals for everyone around you. Which people still manage to do. Newspaper carriers figured problem areas out pretty quickly. Our phones would suddenly start sounding like aliens were coming to visit. I'm pretty sure that if we wanted to, we could have narrowed it down to the house/building/tower. But at 3 am, you're just annoyed that the weird tone is back.
That has changed somewhat. You can take two of the cheap $25 Baofeng radios and use one as the "Receive" and the other as the "Transmit", joined with a cable plugged into one on the mic, the other to the earpiece and used on the vox setting. You can set the feq split to VHF/VHF (600 up or down), VHF/UHF or UHF/UHF.
A small solar panel or solar phone charger could keep them charged and the entire assembly mounted in plastic ammo can, sealed up with an antenna sticking out of each side of the top.
Height would be best, but in an attic of a house or even hoisted up in a tree with fishing line would work for a temporary set up for a ground operation/post shtf.
I have worked with the FCC in one of their surveillance/DF vehicles. It was most impressive. It had a hidden antenna array in the roof, spectrum analyzers and computerized direction finding of any signal. If you keyed up with them around, they would get a direction toward you, and any repeater instantly. Once they move a few miles and you key up again, they know almost exactly where you are.
You could watch a short line go up showing power when a hand held keyed up, then a larger line beside it when the repeater transmitted.
They have no arrest powers, I did at the time and we were hunting a stolen police radio. I was the only HAM operator at my department so I was volentold to go with them.
Raggedyman
Res ipsa loquitur
Roger that thin - when the bear hunters were using our repeaters here we (the local clubs) wondered why they didn’t simply take a radio and set it up as a temporary repeater of their own. Kenwood’s TMV-71A was a very popular rig back in that time frame, was well known and in fact being used by more than a few of them. it could be purchased from several locations on line with the surgery already done so that the radio was opened up to talk outside of the ham bands.
WFK
Senior Something
Old Gray Mare
TB Fanatic
I'm partial to Yaesu hand held transceivers. My first visit to a radio store after I passed the test, I asked for a hand held that could stand up to abuse. The salesman took off the antennae and tossed the demo transceiver across the shop, hit the floor and bounced, picked it up, reattached the athenea and handed it to me. Sold!
Knighttemplar
Veteran Member
I’m seeing a few older hf radios with general coverage receivers on market place for $200.
Teeja
On the Beach
Hfcomms, you're incorrect if you're saying that only licensed operators can transmit on ham frequencies in true emergency situations.
The regs in §97.403 and §97.405 say nothing about "licensed operators". They instead intentionally use the term "an amateur station". A "licensed operator" is different than an "amateur station". The first refers to a person, the latter refers to the equipment. In fact, when creating these rules, it was the clear intention of the regulators to provide for emergency use of an "amateur station" by ANYONE regardless of licensing status, as long as it was a true emergency and no other communications methods were available.
One can legally purchase & set up an "amateur station" without being a "licensed operator". It's only when a non-emergency transmission is made that one must be a "licensed operator".
Please again note the difference in terms. "Licensed Operators" are not the same as an "Amateur Station".
In a true emergency, it is completely LEGAL for a non-licensed person to operate (transmit from) ham radio equipment (an "amateur station"). I do agree that in order to get the FCC off your back, it had better be a true "emergency" in such cases.
Teeja
On the Beach
Not exactly correct:
The FCC rules don't state that you must give your call sign at the beginning of a call. It's every 10 minutes and at the end of the communication. You can carry on a communication for up to 10 minutes without giving out your call sign. Just make sure you do it at the 10 minute mark (or sooner), and at each 10 minute interval (or sooner) and at the end of the QSO.
From §97.119:
(a) Each amateur station, except a space station or telecommand station, must transmit its assigned call sign on its transmitting channel at the end of each communication, and at least every 10 minutes during a communication ...
Not everything you read on the internet is true. In this case, it's probably "good practice" to give out your call sign at the beginning of a QSO, and that is indeed what most hams do, but it's not a legal requirement.
Last edited:
In an emergency anyone call use any frequency to call for help, period.
#1 oldskool
"You finally really did it. You maniacs!
Ahhh...true grasshoppa! But what frequency and what band ? A 12 year old can/ could drive an 18 wheeler in an emergency...but would want to ride shotgun ?! 
Barry Natchitoches
Has No Life - Lives on TB
I have taught ham radio classes at my church for kids, where kids as young as 11 years old successfully passed the technician class test, and got their entry level license. The license that will make you legal with the radio you are interested in.
If eleven year old kids can study up and pass the test, why can’t you?
Barry Natchitoches
Has No Life - Lives on TB
As for not wanting your equipment seized by the gumment, it would be very unfortunate if your equipment was lost in a tragic boating accident before they arrived to take it away.
I have been reading up on mesh " Meshtastic" networks that allow cell phone texting with no towers or Internet involved. They can got some fairly long ranges and you can add dozens of them as needed to cover larger areas. They will work with encryption and can even be hung under a drone for large coverage, like an entire county, during an operation.
You can even use a burner phone that has never been activated, just use Wi-Fi to download the app and the Internet is not required again. They operate in the lower 1/3 of the 900 mhz band so they are in a bunch of other noise making them extremely hard to find. They send out short transmissions of data when needed then sit silent. Good luck finding that.
For those who will ask, they are legal in the USA and Europe. The UK has great coverage with them.
The powers that be have already started making noise about the potential for terrorism and criminal use because they can't be found easily, can't be monitored if the encryption is active and they can't be turned off by a .gov order.
I have a couple on order now ...
You can even use a burner phone that has never been activated, just use Wi-Fi to download the app and the Internet is not required again. They operate in the lower 1/3 of the 900 mhz band so they are in a bunch of other noise making them extremely hard to find. They send out short transmissions of data when needed then sit silent. Good luck finding that.
For those who will ask, they are legal in the USA and Europe. The UK has great coverage with them.
The powers that be have already started making noise about the potential for terrorism and criminal use because they can't be found easily, can't be monitored if the encryption is active and they can't be turned off by a .gov order.
I have a couple on order now ...
Go over to ARRL and look up nearby ham radio clubs, hamfests, and Volunteer Examiner (VE) testing. Just about everywhere has a ham radio club nearby, especially if there is an active repeater around. Hamfests are electronic swapmeets and information exchanges that will usually have VE testing as one of the attractions.
Old Gray Mare
TB Fanatic
Once a year there is a "Field Day" for Ham radio enthusiast. There are contests where individuals and clubs attempt to make as many radio contacts as possible. There was a list of clubs at the ARRL website with contact info. On Field Day some clubs offer to give the tests. When I took the test it was like $20 a test. Now? I don't know the current cost.
Field Day (amateur radio)
4 languagesTools
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other uses, see Field day (disambiguation).
Solar-powered Amateur Radio Station in tents with portable VHF/UHF satellite andHF antennas in the background
HF transceiver for voice communicationsField Day is an annual amateur radio contest, widely sponsored by IARU regions and member organizations, encouraging emergency communications preparedness[1] among amateur radio operators. In the United States, it is typically the largest single emergency preparedness exercise in the country, with over 30,000 operators participating each year. Field Day is always the fourth full weekend of June, beginning at 18:00 UTC Saturday and running through 20:59 UTC Sunday.
Since the first ARRL Field Day in 1933, radio amateurs throughout North America have practiced the rapid deployment of radio communications equipment in environments ranging from operations under tents in remote areas to operations inside Emergency Operations Centers (EOCs). Operations using emergency and alternative power sources are highly encouraged, since electricity and other public infrastructures are often among the first to fail during a natural disaster or severe weather.
To determine the effectiveness of the exercise and of each participant's operations, there is an integrated competitive component, and many clubs also engage in concurrent leisure activities (e.g., camping, cookouts). Operations typically last a continuous twenty-four hours, requiring scheduled relief operators to keep stations on the air. Additional contest points are awarded for experimenting with unusual modes, making contacts via satellite, and involving youth in the activity.
link to source:
Field Day (amateur radio) - Wikipedia
Last edited:
We have a class going on now. Go to the comms forum and check out the Technician class on Zoom. Several members are taking the class as we speak. It's not too late to join in if you want.
Wolfcreek Farm
Wolfcreek
Golly....I knew some people who had some old linear amplifiers hooked up to their CBs.....they were able to talk to some folks who were 35 miles away...........................................this was about 30 years ago.,just saying