Ham Radio - With no gear????

[Simmo]

Hi Crew,
I am going to attempt a separate Ham Radio section.

There are methods nowadays, with the advent of Digital Mobile Radio, Brandmiester and similar to still participate on the Ham Bands, even if you don't have the flash transceiver and wire in the air...
If you have moved to a place that wont allow big antenna's or simply don't want to fork out the big bucks.... I aim to show you how you can get on the air, on the ham bands, talk to friends, talk to a group, or meet new friends around the world, with as little as your mobile phone.....

Controversial, yup... possible, yessir!

Could we help you getting your very first foundation Ham license and get on the air for real? Yup, we can try that!

I'm going to play around and try to show any existing hams and anyone else that would like to learn, and get perhaps their Foundation license...

I do not know it all, and I will appreciate any help (@Gold) (@makka) (@BigL)but a couple of mods thought that this might be a nice quiet way to introduce another form of communication... not just within the forum and what we do, but world wide.

Stay tuned as they say!
If you think this is a good idea, or a bad one, I would appreciate a thumbs up or down so I can guage interest.
Transmission should commence shortly!
BTU!

 

[Simmo]

https://www.wia.org.au/licenses/foundation/about/

 

[Nanjim]

Yes I am interested…

 

[Gold]

This sounds like an interesting concept. I'll hang around more to see what I can throw into the discussion.

 

[user 12139]

I think Simmo there's 2 types of Hams.

1) those who are interested in the regular chat with long time buddies, there not so phased around the tech side, they'd use a phone if funds permitted
2) then those that enjoy the challenge of building something, something useful or simple that yields gob smacking results - transceiver and antenna's only

For me personally, 2 was what kept my interest up in the hobby more than anything else. I was particularly interested in antenna building, mostly phased arrays. I have a cattle property so space is my friend whereas before owning the property I was always space restricted. I went to town and had a ball, but slowly over time I became bored with it all.

I think for the large majority of hams any new tech needs to be able to throw in some sort of challenge, otherwise is becomes run of the street or just a spin off from some other form of tech already out there. For me, unless it had an output stage and antenna it didnt cut the mustard, may as well just use the damn phone. Anyone who builds an antenna and uses it to contact people all over the world, particularly when others cant make the contact will understand my style of buzz whereas picking up a phone is most not my cup of tea - I hate the bloody things.. I blame my past work roles for that!

Dont mean to sound negative, its just anything that resembles a phone device... pass me a sledge hammer please then go get my car keys, I wanna make sure

 

[LostNTired]

I'm keen to see what comes of it. Like BigL has eluded to though, I first started playing due to the nature of the challenge, and it was a big part of my military trade. Learning not only about the physical gear, but how the environment, altitude, atmosphere etc play a huge part in this hobby.
Even if people would start with something like a simple RTL-SDR device to listen to OS radio and comms, or the ISS.

Troy

 

[Simmo]

Good comments mate and I agree! This is not for everybody, and some parts of it are just lazy!!
But it is out there so those that want to can explore it.
I found it quite a challenge getting vocoders to work and things like setting up a hot spot and programming raspberry pi, so there is a learning curve involved, albiet not cutting wire to tuned lengths!

 

[Simmo]

As Troy mentioned, first off today I am going to link to the SDR map.
An SDR is a Software Defined Radio receiver.
Only limited numbers can listen in but you can tune the radio to any frequency you want, anywhere in the world.
Just click on a pin and enter the radio and have a play!
You will find me on 14071 usb during daylight and 7071 usb at night on digital modes.
http://rx.linkfanel.net/

 

[Gold]

@BigL that fence reminds me of a good family friend that loaded his family's barbed wire fence to use as antenna when he was a young ham.

Now, the title of this thread is really intriguing as the "no gear" fascinates me. Do we go back to building crystal radios? and then a long piece of copper wire? And using a potato as a battery? We can think up all kinds of projects.

@BigL Did you have Heathkit kits in the old days of ham radio down there?

 

[user 12139]

no we didnt have Heathkit gear, mostly Kenwood valve in the earlier days then Icom solid state before finally an Elecraft K3 towards the end before I let my license lapse. In his day Dad knocked up some radio's, myself I was more interested in antenna's and DX, in particular phased arrays as its the best way to ring a antennas neck, a tad more involved than simply cutting wire or alloy to tuned lengths. I used Eznec for prelim modelling, highly recommend!
Still today I use a fence for the sheds FM radio, would be close to 2 km long, it works very well. I did once load it up for 40m, could never get it to outperform a 80ft high delta so scrapped it. Played with ground planes too, real ones where the feed point is 0ft, they performed surprisingly well on DX, ideal for portable if thats ya thing. Rhombics where always on my radar too but never came to fruition, one day maybe. Quads and Yagi's,.. yep played with them too but from my experience give me a phased multi element beam any day. Why am I so fixed around antenna's... cheapest way to get some real horsepower and it opens DX way up, more than a radio ever can or will
73's

 

[Simmo]

Radio moved into the digital world following somewhat the commercial type radio's that can easily be encrypted, trunked and numerous channels occupy the same space without interfering with each other.
These are known as DMR or Digital Mobile Radio.
Brandmeister have about 50 servers all around the globe that host 'Talk Groups'. A talk group is exactly that, its a group or 'room' that people can visit and have a chat.
There are hundreds of TG's, some for simply a local chat, some for a purpose like say Parks On The Air or for emergency use, even the ISS
So still without a Ham Licence, you can tune in and listen to these talk Groups.
Top right of the page you will see a 'player' button, click that and add the TG's you would like to monitor.TG 91 is thw worldwide TG and generally very busy with Ham Chat.
The list of all the talkgroups is here:
https://wiki.brandmeister.network/index.php/TalkGroups
The 'hoseline' is here:
https://hose.brandmeister.network/

 

[Simmo]

OK, so interested folks have taken a look at SDR receivers and listened to Ham Talk Groups on the Brandmeister network with 'Hoseline'?!.
Listening is licence free, but for the next step, we need to do something that got me into trouble so often as a kid.......... talking back!

To transmit and talk/operate on a radio you will need to be accredited or licenced.
(unless the frequency you are using is licenced or subject to a class licence. [like CB radio])

So for a start, here is a link to explain the 'what's involved' in getting a Ham Licence.

https://vea.org.au/obtaining-your-licence
If we get any takers that want help with getting a licence, please sing out and we can try to do that.

Otherwise, tomorrow, I will move on assuming people are licenced!

 

[Moneybox]

I'm not likely to get into this because I don't have as many hours in my day as guys seem to have but it I'd be interested to see the meaning of the acronyms you are using listed here.

 

[Mackka]

I'm not likely to get into this because I don't have as many hours in my day as guys seem to have but it I'd be interested to see the meaning of the acronyms you are using listed here.

Phil, just google Q Codes for Ham Radio. Mackka

 

[Simmo]

I'm not likely to get into this because I don't have as many hours in my day as guys seem to have but it I'd be interested to see the meaning of the acronyms you are using listed here.

Did I miss explaining any Phil? Which ones?

 

[Simmo]

OK getting close now to be able to chat to other amateur radio operators anywhere in the world, with no ham gear!
First up you will need to get your self a RadioID for DMR, you get that HERE.
Then you will need a Brandmiester account which you can get HERE.
Note that it is free to sign up to these but you will need a valid email address and Amateur call sign.

 

[user 22230]

Pretty fascinated with all this and as soon as time permits going to give it a fair crack. Thanks Simmo have saved all the links.

 

[Moneybox]

Did I miss explaining any Phil? Which ones?

You probably didn't miss anything but you easily lost me

Is this system able to be mobile or fixed to a physical address?

 

[Simmo]

You probably didn't miss anything but you easily lost me

Is this system able to be mobile or fixed to a physical address?

Absolutely mobile mate, anywhere any time! (when you have internet coverage)
I'm going to finish this little section off and then move to a short section on DMR radio's, Hotspots and raspberry Pi!

 

[Simmo]

Whilst I am compiling tomorrows post, here is the Foundation Licence Practice exam.
It really is not that hard. I got some foundation regulatory questions wrong, but still passed!
Give it a go and if you need to ask a question, ask away! I'm sure one of the Hams here will be able to help? (@Gold @BigL etc!)
If we have some interest, I will buy the Foundation handbook and we can go through the learning together??

https://www.wia.org.au/licenses/foundation/onlineexams/foundation.php