"Ham" Radio Operators

[GaryS]

New to RV and Ham Radio. Got licensed in 2014 as a Tech and love it.
W9SGM
73

[Metalman]

Garys
Glad that you like the hobby. I've been licensed since 1992 and have been fairly active for all these years. Mostly HF voice now. It seems that the local repeaters are not used much nowadays. My particular clubs (KY and FL) are not much into offering emergency communications and they don't participate in many practice drills. But there are plenty of phases of the hobby to keep one interested and busy.

N1VE

[GaryS]

When I first started in 2014 the airways were wide open. I got over 2,000 contacts with 122+ counties. I was having a great time with QSL cards. But now with the propagation down I just support my club (K4BFT) in 2 meter support functions. My does field day each year and that's a big event they let me talk on 20/40 meter bands with supervision.
I have a 31W class C and need to figure out location for my 7100.
Thanks for the reply and looking forward to talking again.
73,
W9SGM

[Carol]

GaryS,
Welcome--always glad to see another ham/RVer on the forum. I think I got my advanced class license in 1971 (it's been so long that I sometimes question my memory!).

Carol
WA6DDB

[GaryS]

Advance, Wow, not sure I'll ever hit that level. Glad to meet you and look forward to talking down the road.
73'
W9SGM

[W9TR]

W9TR checking in. Ham since 1973. WoW - that's 47 years. Time flies. My wife and I are looking at a Thor Class B camper van. I've got an Icom IC 706 MKII ready to remote mount when we pull the trigger.
Tom

[The Portkey]

73 from Happy Tx

W0RZK

[hobbit]

Got a Technician’s license in 2002 for a tracking device in a different hobby - High-power Rocketry. I have hardly ever used the 2 meter or 70 cm handhelds that i have, and then pretty much just listened.
I thought my license had expired but came across it a few days ago while cleaning out a file cabinet - it’s good for 2 more years.
My wife and i retired in June so now have time to go back and fill in some of the blanks like RV’ing and Ham Radio.

73
-Mike

[AbdRahim]

Originally Posted by Metalman

I built an antenna mount that attaches to the lower driver side mirror mounting holes. I used 1/4" x 2" stainless steel lag bolts and SS washers in place of the Phillips screws that hold the mirror. The mounting bracket is 1/4" x 1.5" x 1.5" aluminum angle. The antenna is an old 2-meter GAM (manufactured in Manchester, NH). It's a half wave so it doesn't require a ground plane. SWR about 1.5 to 1. Excellent report from our local repeater.



The radio is an old Icom IC-2100, sitting on the doghouse. Power from one of the 12-volt power outlets on the dash. Eventually I will run a 12 power cable from the engine battery.

Great mount. Bet you could sell these.

[dlbeck27]

KH2BD here.
Ham since 1977. First call was KH6JUT in Hawaii.
Home base is Windsor, CA.
No HF since retiring from Navy in 1990, but many years since on 2M/440 for pleasure and emergency services groups.
I Travel with a Yaesu VX-7R in our 2016 Chateau 31L.

Safe travels.

73
-Dave

[raffaelli]

Originally Posted by AbdRahim

Great mount. Bet you could sell these.

Nice mount. Ground plane big enough?

[Metalman]

Originally Posted by raffaelli

Nice mount. Ground plane big enough?

Actually I modified the mount by adding twelve inches to get the antenna further from the corner post of the RV. It greatly improved the performance of the antenna. I also mounted a half-wave 2-meter/440 antenna. Since both antennas (the previous and new) are both half wave, a ground plane is not necessary.

N1VE

[halfprice]

So maybe a dumb question but what happens if you use a ham radio and you're not licensed. Who's going to come after you

In my teens, cb radio were big. We all got out license but the question of enforcement was always asked. We liked to amp up the power of our cb's.

I have a few friends that just got their ham license and use installed radios on their boats. They claim much better range than marine radio

Jerry

[Metalman]

Originally Posted by halfprice

So maybe a dumb question but what happens if you use a ham radio and you're not licensed. Who's going to come after you

In my teens, cb radio were big. We all got out license but the question of enforcement was always asked. We liked to amp up the power of our cb's.

I have a few friends that just got their ham license and use installed radios on their boats. They claim much better range than marine radio

Jerry

Theoretically the FCC will go after bootleggers. However, hams are pretty good at finding perpetrators and encouraging them to behave.

Marine VHF and the ham two-meter band are close in frequency. However, ham equipment is generally superior to marine equipment and hams can use repeaters that can increase their range to often hundreds of miles, depending on the location, power output, and the number of linked repeaters.

HF ham marine installation gives the user the ability to talk around the world. Some sailboats use a mainstay as an antenna. Grounding a boat radio system is easy to do and very effective.

[FloridaPhil]

Welcome to the club. I’ve been licensed since 1995 and my favorite mode is CW.

N7UX, Phil