Good news for Hams who want to celebrate the Royal Wedding..

[Russ]

In my experience of being CB user there was always an air of superiority from Hams. Granted there were a lot more muppets on 27/81 but I never spoke to a Ham who failed to tell me how much better Amateur Radio was etc.

Originally Posted by Jon T

Not to my knowledge

Certain preconceptions exist on the CB, Ham, and the totally radio disinterested side of things. Most of the time it's pure ignorance, or perhaps a bad experience/encounter with one of the other groups.

Live and let live, if it floats you boat, then do it, just don't shove it down other's throats, or frown on a similar activity because you think yours is better.

True for so many things in life....

[Kymmy]

Ham radio is more restricted than CB in what you can and can not say.. I the 90's there was also a habit of hams being snobs towards CB users because they had to pass a test.

Personally I started on CB in the mid 80's and passed my ham test in '91.. Never though left CB behind and used to enjoy both.. CB for the social side and ham for the technical side including packet radio.

Russ as for extreme snobbery you should have heard it on ham radio when the novice licence came out.. The full licence holders (especially the then A class) were extremely disgusting to listen to when talking down to some novice licence holders

[Halcyon]

Just jumping in if you don't mind a quick question...

How do you HAM radio people use your radios? I mean do you just scan the airwaves and wait to hear someone and then talk to them or is there another way?
Is the point of it to meet new people and talk to them?

Thanks.

[Jon T]

Originally Posted by Halcyon

Just jumping in if you don't mind a quick question...

How do you HAM radio people use your radios? I mean do you just scan the airwaves and wait to hear someone and then talk to them or is there another way?
Is the point of it to meet new people and talk to them?

Thanks.

That's one area of the hobby, yes.

Although it's a whole plethora of different things to different poeple. Hams can legally use home built transmitters/amplifiers etc. Some "stations" don't have a single piece of commercially made kit in them. Some are into "DX Chasing", contacting distant places. Some transmit TV pictures, others use their PC's to transmit digitally......and so much more that to mention it all would take all night.

[techguyone]

Interesting.

are there any good urls that you'd recommend for further research.

[Jon T]

Originally Posted by techguyone

Interesting.

are there any good urls that you'd recommend for further research.

www.rsgb.org.uk

Pehaps the best place to go from the above link is http://www.rsgb.org/newcomers/, although to be honest it doesn't even scratch the surface.

[Russ]

I remember one local Ham who spent thousands on kit and never managed to get any good dx-ing but with my Cobra 148, Antron 99, 50w burner and Astatic Teardrop Mic I could regularly get over to Europe as I simply knew how to ride the skip better than he could. He didn't like me very much

[Uncle Peter]

Originally Posted by Jon T

I should think so, probably only HF, I can do PSK, SSTV or voice, anywhere from 40M up. I can do VHF/UHF as well but only FM.

Ah mainly 50/144ssb here although it's become very quiet over the past few years certainly on 144 other than when the UK activity contest nights are on which is a shame really because you can still have a good UK-wide net even on a flat band. Still speak to the big guns over in Ireland quite regularly and Bryn over in the Lincolnshire Wolds..then again if you can't hear him it means your radio isn't switched on!

Will probably head down into Shropshire on Friday and do Stiperstones and the Clee Hills, time permitting that is. Might pop onto 2 FM for a little while so have a listen out for the pile-up

[Kymmy]

Originally Posted by Russ

I remember one local Ham who spent thousands on kit and never managed to get any good dx-ing but with my Cobra 148, Antron 99, 50w burner and Astatic Teardrop Mic I could regularly get over to Europe as I simply knew how to ride the skip better than he could. He didn't like me very much

Where my HF kit and antenna set me back a grand total of £150 : FT80c (commencial version of the FT747GX) going through a half size G5RV and a MFJ versa tuner II. That's got me contacts in Australia, Japan, South America and South Africa.

You don't need to spend a lot to enjoy the hobby.

Russ it might be of interest to you that there is also a QRP side to ham radio which followers use minimal power to get all over the world.. The limits can be 5w for morse and 10w for SSB and equipment is more often than not little home made kits capable of a only a single band.

http://www.gqrp.com/about.htm

[Jon T]

Originally Posted by Kymmy

Where my HF kit and antenna set me back a grand total of £150 : FT80c (commencial version of the FT747GX) going through a half size G5RV and a MFJ versa tuner II. That's got me contacts in Australia, Japan, South America and South Africa.

You don't need to spend a lot to enjoy the hobby.

Russ it might be of interest to you that there is also a QRP side to ham radio which followers use minimal power to get all over the world.. The limits can be 5w for morse and 10w for SSB and equipment is more often than not little home made kits capable of a only a single band.

http://www.gqrp.com/about.htm

500mW WSJT/WSPR into Australia - Sandpiper MV10 short vertical at the end of the garden.

[Russ]

Originally Posted by Kymmy

Where my HF kit and antenna set me back a grand total of £150 : FT80c (commencial version of the FT747GX) going through a half size G5RV and a MFJ versa tuner II. That's got me contacts in Australia, Japan, South America and South Africa.

You don't need to spend a lot to enjoy the hobby.

Russ it might be of interest to you that there is also a QRP side to ham radio which followers use minimal power to get all over the world.. The limits can be 5w for morse and 10w for SSB and equipment is more often than not little home made kits capable of a only a single band.

http://www.gqrp.com/about.htm

My entire set-up cost me £90 back in 1992.

That's where Ham Radio doesn't interest me - I only used CB as a cheap and easy way of staying in touch with my mates pre-mobile phones. When the skip was active I'd chat to whoever was passing by but speaking to people in other countries was a novelty that quickly wore off. If I feel the need to speak to people around the world I'll use the internet. If I want to stay in touch with mates I'll use my phone. The whole CB/Ham Radio thing just does nothing for me anymore. I still have my set-up in my parents' attic, I wanted to keep it there incase an emergency hits the country and all mobile communication goes down - yeah I'm ready for the Apocalypse - but past that.....I've long since moved on.

[Uncle Peter]

You can do what you want to do and spend as little or as much as you're willing to pay on shiny, black boxes, whatever floats your boat. Ultimately you get out what you put in and take whatever satisfaction from what you've achieved whether it's bashing the contacts flat on your key to break a pile-up with one watt or scaling Croagh Padraig with a bergen full of batteries and radio gear just to say you're up there

[Kymmy]

Last time I was camping in North Anglesey I was chatting to friends in Manchester, some people on the Isle of Man and some people in Ireland.. It's not all about worldwide communication but also about other things..

Packet radio was a great tool before the internet became popular a few years later being able to send emails to other hams all over the world in the early '90's. Today I like messing around with APRS and real time tracking via a GPS attached to the radio which sends bursts of telemetry at the end of speech. People still use forms of data communications long since dead to the outside world as they do work great on HF. Others do slow scan or fast scan TV.. They might point an antenna array to the moon and use that to bounce a signal off (or even one of the many ham radio satellites in orbit) and will speak using VHF/UHF (normally restricted to 20-60 miles) to talk to peopple all over the planet. There's even a ham radio set on the ISS that's regularly in use.

It's not just about how far you can get.. Instead its all the different things you can do with a radio

[ErnieBean]

I live up north, not really interested in the royal's.