FJ Cruisers of Northern California

HAM Class October 17, 2009

SO I want to get my HAM licens and RTF is offering a calss this month. Wanted to see if there was any other interest in this. SO far its just me going , The class should last all day with a test at the end to get the licens. I will get get costs for the class tonight but it will be pretty cheap and the price includes the book.

Just wondering if there is anyone that wanted to head up there and take the class??

Post up and let me know... More info to follow

UPDATE

Ok so I got my wires crossed and it turns out that the class is in Fremont on the 17th.
The class will be from 8-5, this includes time to take the test.. It looks like this wil;l be a cram session with the test after. They talk about have a 90% pass rate in the last class. There is alot infomation on site.

Here is the link to get signed up : http://www.baears.com/

Its pretty easy to get registered. The class wil cost $30.00. Go to the link and get signed up for the class on the oct 17th. There is much more info on the class at the site..

10/8/09
People signed up for the class

PBn'FJ
sonof40
DHeigher
Boss73

Attachments:

HAMclass.pdf, 122 KB

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by manoweb on October 20, 2009 at 9:27pm

Very solid rigs, the only problem I see is that they do not seem to allow the two bands to operate at the same time. Maybe it's not a big deal but I am used to that feature.

Where did you find the best deal for the two radios?

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Permalink Reply by DWH on October 20, 2009 at 9:32pm

I saw radios that would do that, but for my purpose, it was not important and they were more expensive.

I have been looking at Ham Radio Outlet.

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Permalink Reply by manoweb on October 20, 2009 at 9:37pm

By the way after the radio you will have to decide for an antenna. One that I loved, and evidently I was not alone because they stole it, was the Diamond NR-770H. Avoid the antennas that have... how can I describe... "plastified chokes" in the middle. They break easily if they hit a brench or similar.

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Permalink Reply by opg4759 on October 20, 2009 at 10:16pm

I'm a a fan of the Yeasu rigs myself, very easy to program with a PC or a even a Mac running VMware.

the 7900 is the update of the radio I currently run the 7800 which I love, but if I was to do it again I would spend a few extra bucks for the 8900 for the 10m and 6m bands as well, but I've also had my ham ticket for 15 years.

I'm not a huge fan of the UI of the ICOM VHF/UHF radios these days, the IC-206 is a solid radio I'm just not that enthralled by the UI.

The good thing about HRO is they have them setup so you can play with them in the store.

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Permalink Reply by DWH on October 20, 2009 at 11:18pm

I was looking at the 8900 as well, but it is about $150 more than the others I mentioned. What is the advantage of having the 6m and 10m bands as well, besides having more options. Do the signals travel farther? Or bounce around better to get to a repeater? I also noticed that it can receive aviation and emergency frequencies which would be interesting.

I am probably going to have to get a book to read up on all of this as well as get some more advice to make a good decision.

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Permalink Reply by manoweb on October 21, 2009 at 12:16am

A book is good, extremely good for the theory behind the radio communication: modulation, propagation, antenna theory, amplifier design. When it's about to choose a rig or learn how to operate... well, in order:
- join an active radio club, go to the field days they organize
- use the internet websites, chats
- read magazines

Anyway, as the FT-8900 only supports 6 and 10m in FM mode, and there are VERY few repeaters on those frequencies... well in my opinion it's not very useful, but check with OPG, he knows better what's popular in the area.

Different would be an all-mode radio that supports 6m and HF, in that case you can have a potential range of thousands of miles (depending on the antenna and the propagation)

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Permalink Reply by opg4759 on October 21, 2009 at 9:08am

There are a bunch of 6m repeaters around. That work great and are less populated then the 2m 440 systems, but you do need to know people on them to make it useful.

While I agree an all-mode radio is the best option like the FT-857 or the IC-7000 it's more money then you would want to spend just getting into the hobby.

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Permalink Reply by manoweb on October 21, 2009 at 10:07am

Do you know where to get a list?

Anyway, another "obstacle" for 6 and 10m communication is that you need the proper antenna

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Permalink Reply by opg4759 on October 21, 2009 at 11:27am

http://www.we6r.com/listknown.html

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Permalink Reply by manoweb on October 21, 2009 at 12:16pm

Very interesting.

Now a question: say I want to go back operative on APRS. Let's assume I get a Kenwood D710 or something similar, with GPS and all.

Let's also assume I want to go to the High Sierra, Death Valley, Mojave desert, Nevada, and I'd like people at home to keep track of me. Do you think those remote areas may be covered at all? AFAIK the only "standard" APRS freq is VHF (I think US uses 143.9 or similar, as opposed to 144.8 in EU). Is there a place where one can see geographically the APRS digipeaters and have an idea of the coverage?

This would be so cool!

PS the FT8900 allows to operate on the CB band?