TheRadioBoard

Hams use different HF frequencies during the day/night depending on propagation.

You will find HAMS talking on 80 meters mostly at night (3.6-4.0 MHz) While during the day a lot will operate on 20 meters (14.150-14.350)

Unless operating one of the digital modes (almost always Upper Sideband regardless) Below 20 meters, Lower Sideband. 20 meters and up Upper Sideband. There are small segments where the AM'ers hang out with their classic Boat Anchors...

2 Meters/ 70 Cm Bands are a completely different world compared to HF (unless you are one of the few that can operate SSB).

Then of course you have all the digital modes on the lower section of each band (Most can be decoded with free software and a cable between the radio and Sound card).

Using digital modes you can hold conversations thousands of miles apart with power levels so low (30-40watts) that you cant even hear the transmission through your speaker (but your computer can).

There is so much to do in amateur radio that anybody can find something to get into. A good club can help you on the technical side or If you just want to get social with a bunch of folks sharing similar interests. There is just too many aspects of Amateur Radio to cover them all on a board.

And as mentioned you no longer need CW as a requirement.

http://www.arrl.org/files/file/Hambands_color.pdf

_________________
This Message was posted using 100% Recycled electrons
73 De KD8DEY

Dan, seconding qrp-gaijin's recommendation to try building a small transistorized regenerative radio. They are reasonably easy to build, and the results can be amazing. Many circuits are out there; google "kitchin regenerative" to find several, including this one.

Note that most of these cover most or all of the HF region, and may be touchy to tune for just ham band listening, but they can be modified in various ways to better tune the specific ham bands, once you decide which ones to concentrate on. There are also many simple circuits for just the ham bands; google "qrp receiver" or "amateur regenerative receiver" to find ones like this.

Thanks for the replies guys ! I am enjoying the links on the regenerative radios ! I'm a little weak on reading prints, so far all I have built is kits. (one tube broadcaster Kits & Mike Peebles kits )
Is there any regenerative kits out there ? I guess I check out Mikes website as he treated me pretty good on the crystal radio kits.

Thanks for your support and advice, you guys are keeping my interests up, in fact your peaking my excitement again on radios !

I hate to say it, but the other forum I mentioned was knocking the wind out of my sails ! You guys have me wanting to go full steam ahead I just needed to hear what direction ahead was thanks for all the positive replies !

Dan

I have spent the last few hours looking at kits lots of cool stuff out there !

I like the wording on this one: http://www.qrpkits.com/scoutregen.html
The Scout Regen is a simple 2 band regenerative radio receiver that is capable of receiving signals from 3.5 to 11 MHz. This covers the 75/80 Meter, 60 Meter, 40 Meter, and 30 Meter ham bands plus the SWL bands around 6 and 9 MHz. WWV on 5 and 10 Mhz. are also a bonus.

But I don't like the looks of it, I like the ones with some nostalgia to them. I know I could easily handle building that one. I also saw some real cool ones that I wanted until I saw the $400 price tag Lol

Back to looking & dreaming, advice is always appreciated
Dan

Edit: half my problem is a lot of them don't tell me what signals they receive that's the biggest reason I like the one I posted, it's black & white what signals it gets.

From "The French Atlantic Affair", by Ernest Lehman

Quote:

Yes, Dr. Berlin, but what do you hams talk about? Is what they usually said to him, and he’d realize then that they’d never understand, and he’d change the subject. But sometimes, though rarely, he’d come across someone who really dug his hobby, and then you couldn’t get him off. He’d go on and on about the feeling it gave him of being able to move himself through time and space, annihilating time and distance, his mind, his body, his consciousness out there roaming the planet like some cosmic spirit, and the sense of power, benign power, not the evil kind, knowing that his voice was rattling a loudspeaker in a far-off room in Bombay, or going out through an open window in Johannesburg to someone walking by on the street outside, or filling a room carved out of ice below the frozen wastes at the South Pole.

...And while it was his night in California, it was tomorrow morning in Oslo and Hil was getting ready to shovel the snow from in front of the garage so he could go to work, and in Brisbane it was late tomorrow afternoon and Tommy had just gotten home from a rainy day at the lab, and Toshi in Kyoto had just finished tomorrow’s dinner, and then later, Phil was talking to him from his car speeding through the Malaysian jungles to pick up Margaret at her French lesson in Penang, and Phil would lower the car window and let him hear the street noises of Penang even as he sat in his den in the house in Bel Air while the guy right next door was listening to the eleven o’clock news on Channel 2, for God’s sake, and you ask me what do we talk about? We don’t talk about a damned thing and it’s terrific.

End Quote

The regen rcvr kit is a great idea. Look at Ten Tec kits as well.

As mentioned multiple times, amateur radio is quite varied and offers all kind of activities . You might find one or more that really grab you. Then again, you might not.

My 7 year old granddaughter has a mild fascination with Grandpa's radios. The other day she came in the shack to visit and said, "Ham radio is kind of like traveling, except you don't leave home." BTW, she also thinks CW is "cool" and has been learning to send and talk a little to Grandpa with the keys.

That is a very good receiver. The same circuit (essentially), by the same author, can be found here, with excellent descriptions of its construction and operation:
http://www.electronics-tutorials.com/re ... ceiver.htm

Later, you can easily swap out the coil on that kit to cover higher frequencies as well.

Beware that there is apparently a so-called "Scout Beginner's Receiver" which is a different circuit and not as high-performance as the normal "Scout" receiver. See this article for one author's experience with both the "Scout Beginner's'" and the "Scout" designs:
http://www.geojohn.org/Radios/MyRadios/ ... Radio.html

The good thing about starting with a kit is that you will have some idea of what frequency you are listening to (since the kit comes with a pre-defined coil former and a calibrated dial), and that will help you find the ham bands easily. In my location (Japan), tuning around 7 MHz between late afternoon and early evening easily yields a wealth of amateur CW and SSB signals, making it easy to find the 40m band. Another good thing about the kit is that the PC board will ensure you avoid some of the "weird effects" that can plague a poorly-physically-arranged regenerative circuit (the first article I linked to contains good descriptions of some regenerative receiver pitfalls).

Dan, what city or town do you live in, in Michigan? You really need an Elmer to help you. Someone to take you into his ham shack and show you first hand all the fun you can have with amateur radio. There are lots of clubs that have lists of people willing to Elmer new guys, the SKCC is one of them. Many times, I've seen Elmers loan or even gift radio gear to their students to help them get started. I've done it myself. Look here, I saw one from MI that says he is willing to help you setup your first station:
http://www.skccgroup.com/elmers.htm

I've been trying to think of other ways to try and help you get an idea what people talk about on the air. Instead of dropping a bunch of money on something you may not ever use or even get built if it's a kit. There are lots of online live and recorded ham radio receivers. If you google listen to live ham radio and variations of that, you will find lots of links. Here's one to get you started. This page has a few and they seem to try to stay on top of the dead links.
http://www.hamradiosecrets.com/listen-to-ham-radio-online.html

I hope this helps you. At least it will let you get started listening quicker! Good luck..

_________________
73, Bill NT9K
http://www.nt9k.com

If you’re the smartest one in your group, your group is too small..

Thanks for the links NT9K ! I live in a very rural part of Mi. I live in what they call the tip of the thumb. I have been googling and finding clubs, there is a small one in Sandusky Mi. About an hour & a half away. I sent an email to the president & V.P. , only one responded saying they would get back with me, that was a week ago. From what I can read on their website, they are a small group and their meetings are social gatherings. The bigger club is in Saginaw Mi. They are 2 hours away, I have not contacted them yet, but they have there meeting dates online and I will probably go to the next one. I will try the link you posted, but Saginaw is the closest town of any size and I imagine that's where I will need to find Elmer

I am going to check out live recordings online that you mentioned, that sounds interesting ! I have no problem building that $50 regen radio I posted above, i enjoy that stuff & it helps me learn. Now to spend hundreds to find out it's not my thing is a whole different story, did that before
Now to check out them links you posted, Thanks to all the posters on my question !

Dan

Thanks for the information, guys, excellent stuff.

I've been following the discussion and learning quite a bit.

Is there a list of hams that could be sorted by addresses?
dan d might have one (a ham) just down the road.

...............................................

you can go to the ARRL website which has links to find nearby clubs and can help find local test sessions.

http://www.arrl.org/find-a-club

Or go to the FCC uls license search page and search for licensees by zip code and perhaps contact somebody nearby.

http://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/UlsSear ... 1249607785

_________________
This Message was posted using 100% Recycled electrons
73 De KD8DEY

You can also get a map of were the nearest hams are:

http://www.vanityhq.com/

I'll bet if you call just about any nearby ham, they'll talk your ear off about amateur radio.

73, Dan (wb3kbw)

Thanks a lot, I did a search using my zip code and found 40 matches a lot of them were local businesses & our county 911 had about 5 matches. 1 match was a church that i know a few members of, A couple of the names are people my Mom would know and they would of known my dad, my mom is well into her 80's and so would these guys, but I'm going to ask her how good she knows them. I'm not the type to get there name & call them, I wouldn't do that unless I know them, but I will pursue this !

Thank you !
Dan

A short explanation of how the tuning works would be nice. I fiddled around for about 45 minutes and the best I could do was get some morse code (not sure when I'll learn that) and some very distorted (unintelligible) voice comms.

Which receiver were you using? I checked the top link under "Classic Receivers" in Reston, VA and it has a pretty good control page. I think the real problem is you don't know which frequencies to enter and which modes to enter like USB, LSB or AM. I found a pretty good page that breaks the ham bands down and lists the SSB/Phone frequencies. However, it doesn't go so far as to say if it's USB or LSB (upper sideband or lower sideband). LSB is traditionally used below 10 MHz and USB is used above 10 MHz. I'll do that for you below:
http://www.csgnetwork.com/hamfreqtable.html

The receiver tuning control page also has a link to the last 25 frequencies used, try that and pick some with USB or LSB listed. AM isn't near as poplular on the ham bands as SSB is.

Other tips, knowing when to try listening on which bands.

80m LSB is generally a night time band and you will find more action during dark hours.
40m LSB is always open to some place, but it also favors night time. During the dark hours 40m will give much longer range than during daylight hours.
20m USB is better during daylight hours.

I hope that helps you better! 73 Bill..

_________________
73, Bill NT9K
http://www.nt9k.com

If you’re the smartest one in your group, your group is too small..