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HAM radio thread

dwygrsshpr said:
KC3OEC - license is exactly a year old. I legitimately studied (with a little memorization) and aced the Tech; test admins thought I was a whizkid and then I promptly flunked General in the same session (I'm a MechE, not a sparky!). I decided to test after I purchased a BaoFeng BF-F8HP and realized it would be stupid to not get licensed. Pretty sure it was Sceep that started a thread at the old place about the CCRs and it piqued my interest.

My uncle, W3WJM, gave me a spare IC-28H and a IC-7000 to pair with an X-50A antenna. We were never able to pick up the local repeaters (the manual for the IC-7000 is a phonebook) but we could set up a local chat with him driving around the country block broadcasting from a handheld and me listening on the IC-28H.

I need to get back into it this winter while I am sitting around. Any advice on how to use the IC-7000, or where to go would be great - youtube is more about reviews vs newbie help. Maybe I can check the ARRL directory for some local Elmer help; Uncle is too far away to make it practical.
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Call sign isn't in the data base , what up ?

ETA , Billy from DE. is though.
 
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Yota Up said:
Still a HAM. Soon to get my kids on, too. Good to see so many of you keeping it going. Never know when you may need it.
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A guy I knew in Junior high had Ham station in his house, but he never wanted to talk about it. They tried to teach us code in Boy scouts, it didn't take, had a friend who was a ham in the 80s, but I never got into it, he did give me and old chrystal controlled scanner. I was working as the swing shift dispatcher for Pinkertons in Denver and one of my guys took it and added chrystals for local police fire and something called the "Severe Weather Net" Well the SWN turned out to be a 2 meter ham channel on Tuesday nights they had a meet where they would talk aned one of the things they had was a market place, one guy advertised an old tube type SW reciever at a price I could afford, so I copied his phone number and bought it. Talk about an eye opener I worked Swing shift so when I got home I would turn on the radio to get the tubes to warm up. I would then change out of my uniform, go through the kitchen turn on the fire under my kettle then take a shower. Timed right the water was just starting to boil I would make a cup of sleepy tea, and go sit down in front of the radio and set the tea cup on top to keep it warm, and start tuning in the world. It was amazzing the stuff going on our news didn't carry like the time the Swedes I think it was caught a Russian Sub in one of thier fiords and were threatening to bomb it if they did leave, the Russians were saying if you do we'll go to war and the American govt was saying if you invade you have to fight us too! Nothing on local news.

The incident that persuaded, to get my licence was a fishing trip, I took my Captain's 10 year old daughter for a day fishing trip we were supposed to be home by 18:00. The place I normally went was at the top of a pass and when we got there the wind was blowing so hard the little lake had white caps on it, so we headed back down to a lower level. My watchband broke, I dropped my watch in the ash tray of my Samuri. It was till the sun started down I realized how late it was getting, so we headed home, no pay phones to be found, and cell phones were just coming on the market. Mom and stepdad were in a semi panic when we pulled up. Mom had already contacted a buddy who knew where I liked to go, he was kitting up his Ram charger for a high country retrival and was only waiting for his son to get home from work to head out. Called him to let him know not to send the cavalry we were home. That got me to thinking, the same guy I bought the radio from was offering to teach people in his home, now my arraigment with her mom was I would take care of Jen on Friday night in return for the use of the washer and dryer. We both went to class my license is KB0HXA her's was KBOHXB when I used to pick her up on from school on Fridays all the old guys wanted to talk to her on the way home.
I moved on started working construction, Peggy died of a heart attack, and Jennifer went to Calfornia to live with her dad, she has since let her license lapse.
 
bigun said:
Tell you what you search, then come on by. I know where lots of abandoned mines are
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Woah there internet tough guy. Do you often threaten to murder people or should I feel flattered?

But anyway, Chuckie, it might be a bit lonely waiting for you to show up and dead me at your PO box.

bgaidan said:
What's your point? Not everyone runs around trolling and is afraid of people knowing who they are.
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The point is some people may not be aware of that.
 
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VA6DSL with advanced certification. I have half a bunch of yaesu radios including a vx-6r handheld, 8800 dual channel, 857d and a Kenwood mobile unit with GPS and ARPS.

I only have the 857d installed right now and haven't used it in ages. Every here illegally operates marine radios in their rigs or CB.
 
RunningProblem said:
I played with my baofeng uv8 today. I was told I sounded faint. Clear, just under powered. It’s an 8 watt unit. I was at my house. Any explanation as to why it would sound faint with a clear signal? I know baofengs get a bad reputation, but I assumed I could do a lunch time chat on a local repeater.
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You know, it is interesting that you said that. I had a QSO just yesterday with a gentleman locally who was using a Yaesu HT to hit the repeater and his audio was like listening to a captain come over an airplane loudspeaker. Then he switched over to his Baofeng and was quiet. I own one and know you pretty much have to swallow the microphone. I told him this bit and when he choked up on the radio, his audio was more clear and better than his Yaesu.

When using your Baofeng, you need to be right up on the mic. That is the way mine is, that is how my buddy's is and that is pretty much how every single one I have seen is.

They are cheap and disposable radios but they work fairly decent as a HT.
 
kf4zht said:
It takes 2-3 nights of taking practice tests online and a few bucks for the test. If someone isn't even willing to do that they should probably still to cell phones
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There are a couple of flashcard apps that are very good.
Got my Technician license a few years back, need to get around to going for my General one of these days.

Aaron Z
 
aczlan said:
There are a couple of flashcard apps that are very good.
Got my Technician license a few years back, need to get around to going for my General one of these days.

Aaron Z
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hamstudy.org has been my go-to
 
TheFlyingDildocupine said:
Woah there internet tough guy. Do you often threaten to murder people or should I feel flattered?

But anyway, Chuckie, it might be a bit lonely waiting for you to show up and dead me at your PO box.



The point is some people may not be aware of that.
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What threat,
Besides you threatened everyone by coming on a telling everybody you now know where they live.
My location is right under my name, where are you?
What are you hiding from I notice you don't even list a state, embarrassed ?
 
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D_JEEPER said:
You know, it is interesting that you said that. I had a QSO just yesterday with a gentleman locally who was using a Yaesu HT to hit the repeater and his audio was like listening to a captain come over an airplane loudspeaker. Then he switched over to his Baofeng and was quiet. I own one and know you pretty much have to swallow the microphone. I told him this bit and when he choked up on the radio, his audio was more clear and better than his Yaesu.

When using your Baofeng, you need to be right up on the mic. That is the way mine is, that is how my buddy's is and that is pretty much how every single one I have seen is.

They are cheap and disposable radios but they work fairly decent as a HT.
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good to know. I'll talk like I'm trying to spit on the guy. I DIDN'T want to be extremely loud, then I reprogrammed it 18 times thinking it was a programming error.

Any good instructions on programming the 805Tahoe repeater frequencies into a cheap-oh unit? I think it's a different R-CTCSS and T-CTCSS with just one using the PL....but I'm not sure. It isn't included on the radioreference.com list from what I saw. The other Rubicon frequencies are on there. I just remember figuring out how a ham radio could be programed while sitting at Rubicon Springs with nothing to do, and the manual. No clue what the PL tones were and EVERYONE there said "I had mine programmed at his house." so knowing how to do it in the field is kinda important to me.
 
bigun said:
What threat,
Besides you threatened everyone by coming on a telling everybody you now know where they live.
My location is right under my name, where are you?
What are you hiding from I notice you don't even list a state, embarrassed ?
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LOL, nice backpedal on the tough guy routine. Anyway I was pointing out that people were giving out their addresses much like people do in threads where posters forget to cover addresses on shipping labels. Some people don't know that it's something you can just look up.
 
RunningProblem said:
good to know. I'll talk like I'm trying to spit on the guy. I DIDN'T want to be extremely loud, then I reprogrammed it 18 times thinking it was a programming error.

Any good instructions on programming the 805Tahoe repeater frequencies into a cheap-oh unit? I think it's a different R-CTCSS and T-CTCSS with just one using the PL....but I'm not sure. It isn't included on the radioreference.com list from what I saw. The other Rubicon frequencies are on there. I just remember figuring out how a ham radio could be programed while sitting at Rubicon Springs with nothing to do, and the manual. No clue what the PL tones were and EVERYONE there said "I had mine programmed at his house." so knowing how to do it in the field is kinda important to me.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPyYh3nlpUg
Looks like you need to set the transmit tone to 123.0
 
TheFlyingDildocupine said:
LOL, nice backpedal on the tough guy routine. Anyway I was pointing out that people were giving out their addresses much like people do in threads where posters forget to cover addresses on shipping labels. Some people don't know that it's something you can just look up.
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You know I would tell you to fuck a blender full of rusty razor blades, but I don't want to give you the satisfaction, besides the thought of you getting off because of something I say is disgusting
 
Licensed here too. So much better than CB! I have a IC-208H in the 4runner and a FTM-400 in the RV. I just run it for APRS mostly, so family can see where we are. Which reminds me I need to reinstall it... The mount broke...
 
RunningProblem said:
good to know. I'll talk like I'm trying to spit on the guy. I DIDN'T want to be extremely loud, then I reprogrammed it 18 times thinking it was a programming error.

Any good instructions on programming the 805Tahoe repeater frequencies into a cheap-oh unit? I think it's a different R-CTCSS and T-CTCSS with just one using the PL....but I'm not sure. It isn't included on the radioreference.com list from what I saw. The other Rubicon frequencies are on there. I just remember figuring out how a ham radio could be programed while sitting at Rubicon Springs with nothing to do, and the manual. No clue what the PL tones were and EVERYONE there said "I had mine programmed at his house." so knowing how to do it in the field is kinda important to me.
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Get a legit programming cable for the baofeng and use Chirp. :)

Manual programming is a pain, but doable. You have to save/overwrite the channel you are editing before leaving the menu.
 
RunningProblem said:
good to know. I'll talk like I'm trying to spit on the guy. I DIDN'T want to be extremely loud, then I reprogrammed it 18 times thinking it was a programming error.

Any good instructions on programming the 805Tahoe repeater frequencies into a cheap-oh unit? I think it's a different R-CTCSS and T-CTCSS with just one using the PL....but I'm not sure. It isn't included on the radioreference.com list from what I saw. The other Rubicon frequencies are on there. I just remember figuring out how a ham radio could be programed while sitting at Rubicon Springs with nothing to do, and the manual. No clue what the PL tones were and EVERYONE there said "I had mine programmed at his house." so knowing how to do it in the field is kinda important to me.
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Found this on PBB

Many folks taking part on the June 26th work weekend were operating on the 146.805 linked repeater (RUBI +). In other words, while in the Rubicon, your traffic was heard all through El Dorado County. I tried to help by getting on the 146.805 to let you know that you should be operating on the Rubicon repeater (RUBI), while in the Rubicon, UNLESS you need to get out of the Rubicon with your traffic.

In your radios you have five alphanumeric tagged frequencies.

1) "805ELD" (or KA6GWY, aka "the 805") which is to be used if you are in the county but outside of the Rubicon. This can get your transmission into the Rubicon.

2) "RUBI +" which is a repeater at Spider that will link your traffic to the outside 805 (KA6GWY) repeater. This should be used if you are IN the Rubicon and need to be heard elsewhere in the county.

3) "RUBI" which is the Rubicon repeater at Spider that is to be used for Rubicon to Rubicon traffic. This repeater will keep your transmissions (traffic) inside the Rubicon so no one in the rest of the county can hear you. When doing work projects, THIS is the repeater you should use, NOT the 805 linked (RUBI +).

4) "RUBSIM" or "RUBDIR" which is a simplex frequency that can be heard if you are within line of sight. This is a great frequency to be used for such areas in the Rubicon where people are relatively close by you. It doesn't involve the RUBI repeater, though it is the same frequency.

5) "805TAH" which is the KA6GWY repeater that should be used if you are in Tahoe and want your transmission heard in El Dorado County.

Frank is quite pleased to have us use his repeater BUT there is no need to be linked to the 805 while transmitting from the Rubicon to the Rubicon. Please keep in mind that this is a EDCo SAR repeater and should be kept open if possible.
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805ELD - (KA6GWY in Pollock Pines) 146.805, PL of 123, - offset
805TAH - (KA6GWY in Tahoe Basin) 145.605, PL of 123, + offset
RUBI - (Coverage wthin trail only) 444.9875, PL 156.7, + offset
RUBI+ - (Linked to 805's) 444.9875, PL 107.2, + offset
RUBISIM - (Simplex) 444.9875, No pl, No offset
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Also:
Rubicon Trail:
RUBI (Coverage within trail only) 444.987(5) PL 156.7 +5 offset
RUBI+ (Linked to 805's) 444.987(5) PL 107.2 +5 offset
RUBISIM (Simplex) 444.987(5)
805ELD (KA6GWY in Pollock Pines) 146.805 PL 123 -6 offset (echolink)
805TAH (KA6GWY in Tahoe Basin) 145.350 (repeater transmitter), odd split to 146.205 (repeater receiver), PL 123.0

Niagara Rim Trail
Twain Harte 146.115 PL 100 +6 offset (echolink N6EA-R)
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South Lake Tahoe, CA

KA6GWY
Repeater ID: 06-14095
Those don't match what's in repeater book though...
Downlink:145.35000
Uplink:144.75000
Offset:-0.6 MHz
Uplink Tone:110.9



Someone make's quick reference cards for the baofengs, but I refuse to pay $12 for them. I have some bigger versions that i've been meaning to consolidate and get printed on waterproof paper to hand out to my newly licensed friends. I need to make them for the baofengs as well as my yaesus and TYT. I sometimes don't use them for months and then completely forget how to save a entry when I go wheeling.

https://www.amazon.com/Baofeng-UV-5...uide&qid=1607008232&sr=8-3&tag=91812054244-20
 
D_JEEPER said:
Get a legit programming cable for the baofeng and use Chirp. :)

Manual programming is a pain, but doable. You have to save/overwrite the channel you are editing before leaving the menu.
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This is the way to go. I try to load all the repeaters for an area where I know I'll be going, but sometimes that doesn't work out and you really need to know how to manually enter them. I bought a "universal" programming cable that has interchangable ends that workwith most radios and I'll usually have that and an old laptop with me to help other people get their stuff programmed. Ideally I need to pick up a dirt cheap basic win10 tablet that i can use to run chirp. (I really wish they'd come out with a chirp-like program that runs on android with an OTG cable.)
 
I've had the app from https://www.repeaterbook.com/ for a while now.

Stores the data on your phone, so no connection required (seems to have a update every couple months or so). Filterable by bands, services, nets and distance. Geo-locates to your current location. Good resource for traveling being outside your normal area.
 
4x4mechanic said:
https://www.niftyaccessories.com/IC-7000.php

Best $25 you'll spend, basicly CliffNotes for that radio...
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Thanks!

FJC11 - try using Capital O instead of a zero.

Today I downloaded all the local HAM licenses in my zipcode and plotted them on a google map (about seven square miles of rural properties). Going to drive-by/stalk and see if I see any aerials. I will radiogram or send a note before I cold-call anyone (no reason to get shot at!)
 
D_JEEPER said:
Get a legit programming cable for the baofeng and use Chirp. :)

Manual programming is a pain, but doable. You have to save/overwrite the channel you are editing before leaving the menu.
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I have it. The problem is the 805TAH repeater frequency doesn't seem to match anything online.

I figured out how to have split channels in CHIRP (i think, no way to test it right now) and the 805TAH is a + offset of 0.855 to get the two channels (split in CHIRP) with 145.350 being the listen frequency. This SHOULD get the 146.205 transmit frequency, but I could have it all backwards too. I think it will work as long as you push the Push To Talk button and see 146.205 displayed. I see nothing about a specific PL required for transmit frequency.


I've been trying to 2M call frequency 146.520 with no one coming back saying my radio works.
 
RunningProblem said:
I have it. The problem is the 805TAH repeater frequency doesn't seem to match anything online.

I figured out how to have split channels in CHIRP (i think, no way to test it right now) and the 805TAH is a + offset of 0.855 to get the two channels (split in CHIRP) with 145.350 being the listen frequency. This SHOULD get the 146.205 transmit frequency, but I could have it all backwards too. I think it will work as long as you push the Push To Talk button and see 146.205 displayed. I see nothing about a specific PL required for transmit frequency.


I've been trying to 2M call frequency 146.520 with no one coming back saying my radio works.
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Your method is correct. If you do not get a chirp back from the repeater, you might try going through the PL tone list. It is painstaking but there are only so many haha
 
Well a second option is the lunch net chat. It was POPPIN on Monday. Might have to jump in and hold the walkie talkie up to my non-existent mustache so they can hear me spit on them.
 
RunningProblem said:
Well a second option is the lunch net chat. It was POPPIN on Monday. Might have to jump in and hold the walkie talkie up to my non-existent mustache so they can hear me spit on them.
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Try it this way... Hold the radio (or hand mic) at 90° to your mouth, so your finger on the PTT button is almost touching your lips, or if the button is on the other side so that the side of the radio (or mic) is almost touching your lips. Speak clearly and loud, but don't yell. You won't fill the electronics with spit, you don't cause whistles, but you'll modulate the mic enough for a clear signal. You want to speak >across< the mic, not into it. :flipoff2:
 
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That’s pretty much what I did and it sounded like it was all good today. I was thinking I’d overpower it, but I guess it works a little more like a phone and less like a micro/megaphone.
 
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