Stan Gibilisco - Ham and Shortwave Radio for the Electronics Hobbyist

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In memory of Jack,
mentor and friend

Stan Gibilisco, an electronics engineer and mathematician, has authored multiple titles for the McGraw-Hill Demystified and Know-It-All series, along with numerous other technical books and dozens of magazine articles. His work appears in several languages. Stan has been an active Amateur Radio operator since 1966, and operates from his station W1GV in the Black Hills of South Dakota, USA.

This book will help electronics enthusiasts learn about two hobbies that escape the attention of most of todays technophiles: shortwave listening and Amateur (or ham) Radio. If you have no experience with shortwave listening and want to explore that hobby without getting a ham radio license, this book offers tips and advice. But ultimately, Id like to see you join the Amateur Radio fraternity. To that end, the book breaks down into eight chapters and four appendixes.

explains what radio waves are and how they travel. Youll learn how any sort of data can be imprinted on radio waves so that information, and not merely electromagnetic fields, can propagate over great distances.

In , youll learn the basics of shortwave listening (which I extend to allwave listening because modern radio receivers cover frequencies that range far above and below the traditional shortwave radio frequencies).

defines and explains the communications methods that ham radio operators use. I discuss the assets of the Internet, but emphasize that ham radio will work even when the Internet, and all other utilities, fail.

covers the assigned frequency ranges, called bands, that licensed hams use in the United States. Wave-propagation characteristics are discussed, comparing the various bands and offering advice as to those bands best suited for use at different times of the day, year, and sunspot cycle.

goes into some detail concerning the selection and installation of equipment for fixed ham radio stations.

offers information on how to set up mobile and portable ham radio stations, and relates my own experience operating these station types.

describes popular ham radio antennas and transmission lines for various frequencies and station types.

details how (and how not) to operate a ham radio station, once its up and running, using popular voice and digital modes.

The appendixes show the schematic symbols that electronics hobbyists, radio hams, and engineers use in circuit diagrams, Q signals for ham radio operators, and ten-code signals used by CB, law-enforcement, and emergency personnel.

The idea of communicating with other people over long distances without any artificial infrastructure to carry the signals has mesmerized me ever since I, five years old in the late 1950s, sat at the kitchen table in front of a tube-driven radio and said Calling! Calling! into the speaker. No one answered my calls into the ether then, of course, but they did after I got my first ham radio license in 1966. With a little study, a good deal of practice, and a few years of time, the dream morphed into reality! And people answer my signals now when I send CQ, the equivalent of Calling! Calling!, with a Morse code key or the digital interface of my microprocessor-controlled ham rig in my basement ham shack.

The fact that a few watts worth of energy waves can squirt from my deck-mounted or vehicle-mounted antenna into the atmosphere, that a minuscule bit of that energy can land in someone elses antenna on the other side of the world, and that we can communicate this way and can keep in contact by means of that energy even if every Internet server on the planet went downwell, the whole business fascinates me to this day. If you know what I mean, if radio holds some magic for you too, then youll get the most out of this book. But even if you only want to listen to broadcasts on a part of the radio spectrum largely forgotten in the fury of latter-day digital madness, this book has something to offer you.