quote:

Originally posted by nhtagmember:
JAllen was a good friend of mine and we talked a lot about radios and investing.

After he passed away his wife called me and asked if I would like all of his radio gear. I considered it an honor to put it back in service.

A few months ago she wrote me and asked if I wanted a book - it was the one he co-authored. He never told me he wrote a book.

Amateur radio is going to become more important as more and more of our communications systems become corrupted or taken over by a hostile entity.

When cell service and internet is down you can count on ham radio.

That, sir, is a hell of an honor. I’m glad to know his stuff found a good home!

I'm a VE - volunteer examiner for AR licenses. Technician and General class are 35 questions each and you need to have 26 questions correct to pass, each. Extra class in 50 questions and you need 37 correct.

Morse code requirement was dropped by the ITU in 2002/2003. FCC dropped the requirement in 2007/2008. It was only 5 words per minute which is very slow, after 2000 when the code speed class requirements dropped to 5 WPM for all classes. General Class required 13 WPM and Extra was 20 WPM.

Tech and General questions are not that hard. You do need to study. Use QRZ.com, there are a couple other too, testing to prep online - once seem to get 80+ pct correct constantly you're ready for the real test.

Test costs 15 dollars per test session, but if you study for all 3 licenses classes at once you can take all 3 tests at once for just 15 dollars in a single session. You must pass Tech to take General and pass General to take Extra test.

I recommend you get the Tech and General class license, at the same test session if you can.

General gives you access to most of the AR HF band frequencies. Tech is mainly VHF/UHF, with some extremely limited HF access.

Note that the FCC is going to now impose a 35 dollar per 10 year license fee for Amateur Radio. They also upped the fees for all other Radio Services too - AR got off easy when compared to what the other services are getting nailed with in fee increases.

Remember, AR transmissions must be in the 'clear' - no encryption or obfuscation of any kind allowed. Exception is Satellite control commands limiting to AR SAT comm control operator - a very minute number of hams.

Radios. Handheld 5-7 watt VHF/UHF radios ok, but very limited in distance. At least get a car mount antenna or portable 2 meter / 70 cm beam (yagi) antenna's.

Advise a VHF (and UHF if you have the funds - usually a dual-band VHF/UHF FM mobile/base station radio and power supply, at least.

HF radios cost a bit more. There are a few HF/VHF radios out there, like the ICOM 7100 or Yeasu 991A - dc to daylight radios are they are also called. I stated out with an IC 706MK2G as my shack in a box and it served me well for HF/VHF/UHF all mode/all band radio for 6 years.

So, take a peek to see what is there and see what you have for funds to allocate.

AR is not a panacea, but in a true emergency it's a great back up. Have spare batteries for both handheld and base stations (12V for base stations).

I got in to AR for many other reasons than prepping for the day after. But, it can be a very natural extension in to prepare world.

I've made some great friendships via AR.

Note many hams are in to Firearms, Photography so you'll meet lots of like minded people, although there are anti-gunners too.

After JALLAN's passing, I paid tribute in using his name in the following NAQP SSB QSO party. It's a common for hams to do this. When a very well known ham passed, I think 50+ pct of the stations I worked in such a contest, used his name.....

BTW - US military is rediscovering HF comms instead of just SAT comms and VHF comms. HF can be long distant short waves, or NVIS (near vertical incidence skywave). German military used NVIS on HF for tactical commands on the run in battle. They did not invent it but effectively were first to apply it successfully in battle.

dit dit and 73.

The data only updates ONCE a day. Your VE team has to send the paperwork (by mail) to their VEC. That organization reviews, then enters the data into a portal that feeds to the FCC. There won't be any updates during a holiday weekend. I'd start checking again in a few days - remember, there are other VE teams reporting test results over the same weekend. It will probably be the end of the week at the earliest for the update to post.

BTW, VE here (with ARRL) since 2003.

quote:

Originally posted by Sock Eating Golden:
Passed my Technician and General exams Friday night. Weekend and Monday holiday means waiting an excruciatingly long time for my callsign to be posted. Still I'm checking.... hourly.

For the record, ARRL VE examiner here since the program started which IIRC was around 1985.

I haven't been active in it for a while though, but I'm still a VE.

IMO, it's not as good as bacon radio.

flashguy