Stan Merrill - Ham Radio for the New Ham: What to Do the Minute You Get Your Amateur Radio License

Ham Radio for the New Ham

What to Do the Minute You Get Your Amateur Radio License

Stan W. Merrill, AI7E

Ham Radio for the New Ham

Copyright 2019 by Stan W. Merrill

All rights reserved.

ISBN-13: 9781091402171

DEDICATION

To my wife, Helena (KI7UQD), and the other amateur radio operators who endeavor to make the world a better place through radio.

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Preface

Why You Need This Book 1

Section 1. Make Being a Ham Part of Yourself 8

Project 1. Print Out Your License 11

Project 2. Frame Your License and Make a Wallet Card

Project 3. Memorize Your Call Sign

roject 4. Buy a Cheap Ham Radio and Programming Cable 20

Project 5. Brush Up Your ITU Phonetic Alphabet 24

Project 6. Expect a Phone Call that Welcomes You 27

Project 7. Get a Ham License Plate (Optional) 30

Section 2. Prepare Your Radio 32

Project 8. Find Your Local Repeaters 34

Project 9. Unpack and Assemble Your Radio 40

Project 10. Get Acquainted with Your Radio 43

Project 11. Use VFO to Tune to a Frequency and Listen 46

Project 12. Program a Simplex Channel into Your Radio 50

Project 13. Program a Repeater Channel into Your Radio 57

Project 14. Gather Your Most-Used Frequencies 63

Project 15. Organize Your Most-Used Frequencies 71

Project 16. Get CHIRP 74

Project 17. Use CHIRP to Configure Memory Channels 78

Project 18. Scan Your Memory Channels to Find Conversations 84

Project 19. Learn the Most-Used Q-Signals 87

Section 3. Get on the Air! 91

Project 20. Find a Ham Net 93

Project 21. Listen In on a Net 98

Project 22. Ask for a Radio Test 101

Project 23. Check Out Reverse

Project 24. Find Other Peoples Experiences Online 109

Project 25. Review Cables 112

Project 26. Review Antenna Connectors 116

Project 27. Buy a Mobile Antenna 121

Project 28. Try Out Your Mobile Antenna 128

Project 29. Know How to Announce an Emergency 133

Project 30. Host a Third-Party Conversation

Section 4. Involve Yourself with Others

Project 31. Find a Radio Club 141

Project 32. Enjoy Other Group Activities 145

Project 33. Join ARRL 148

Project 34. CQ CQ CQ 151

About the Author 154

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thank you for reading this book. Im so glad youve become part of the amateur radio family. May you continue to learn and participate and help others with your communication knowledge and talents. Im excited for you. Just think how many experiences youve got ahead of you with radio.

Thanks, also, to the great people who made this book possible. My amazing wife, Helena, got her Technicians license and showed me that I wasnt the only one who needed a book like this. She also cheered me on as I wrote it. Gail Seymour made dozens of suggestions and corrections to improve the book while chipping in with asides about flea markets and antennas on boats that kept me laughing. Alan Moran is a real radio aficionado. He tried all the projects in the book, discovered some mean bugs along the way, and helped me see some of the places that needed more work. Gabby Browne edited the manuscript and made it read more smoothly. Finally, thanks to Les at GermanCreative for the terrific book cover.

Good luck to you, and best regards, or as Hams say, 73. I hope to catch you on the air.

AI7E Stan

Preface

This is the amateur radio book you want on the very day you get your new ham radio license. (Of course, you can use it after that, too.)

Youve studied. Youve passed the test. Youve received your call sign. But what do you do next?

This book will provide the answer. It contains the things they dont tell you when youre studying for your license, but that you need to know as soon as youve got it. It includes 34 easy projects to help you grow your identity as a Ham, buy and set up your first radio, overcome the obstacles to getting on the air, and become part of the amateur radio community around you.

With this book youll avoid some of the mistakes beginners often make. Youll never have to flail around, wondering what to do or how to do it. When you complete these projects youll not only have your amateur radio ticket, youll know how to use it.

Written by Amateur Extra class ham radio operator, Stan W. Merrill, call sign AI7E, it picks out the key things youll use daily from among the many you had to study to get your license. It guides you through the experiences you need in order to operate your radio as a new Ham in the United States.

Why you need this book

I drove down a steep mountain on a rutted dirt road that had more curves than a sidewinder snake. Or maybe I should say more curves than a twenty megahertz radio wave.

My foot pushed down on the gas pedal.

My father sat next to me in our familys old Ford station wagon, a yellow one with brown trim. I could see through the corner of my eye that he was tense. Every second he grew more agitated, and I felt he was trying hard not to grab the steering wheel.

What are you doing? he asked at last, his voice tight and anxious. Why is your foot on the gas?

The drivers license manual said you should accelerate on a curve to keep the car under control, I said.

I had aced the driver license written test that morning. I knew the theory.

Unfortunately, I had failed the actual driving test. My father had brought me, a fifteen-year-old boy, to a spot he loved so that I could practice driving a car and do better next time. That way, I wouldnt have to tell my friends I had flunked.

Gravity is already making you accelerate, he said. Put your foot on the brake when youre going downhill on sharp curves in case gravity accelerates you too fast.

I wasnt sure I believed him since the manual said something else, but I was driving his car, so I obeyed. His advice did make it easier to handle the turns. It was more like being in control and less like careening around a roller coaster. We made it down the mountain, but he kept me on city streets for the rest of the day.

When it came time, years later, to take my amateur radio test, I knew the theory and passed just fine. They had given me the questions and the answers, so how could I miss? I studied for a week and passed the Technician and General license test at the same time. Two weeks later, having studied intensely, I sat for the Amateur Extra exam. After the three examiners checked my answers, one of them laughed kiddingly, Congratulations, but Im sorry. This is the last amateur radio test you can take. Youve run out of licenses to get.

I had gotten the top amateur radio license in the United States. I had studied legal issues, electronics, mathematics, safety, solar flares and space weather, radio frequency propagation, and miscellaneous other issues. I also found out that, just like with driving, the theory had left me with a lot of information, but no idea how to apply it. It didnt matter whether I was a Technician, a General or an Extra. After passing all those tests I still had no idea how to use a radio.

To make up for my ignorance I read articles on the internet and watched YouTube videos. There was so much out there that I felt like I was drowning in a sea of information. It was frustrating. Barely two or three weeks passed before I wondered if my fleeting career in amateur radio was over.

One night, a local Ham named Scotty (K7NAL) phoned and welcomed me to amateur radio. He invited me to sign in to a net each Thursday night. After hed hung up, I realized that I had no idea how to set up frequencies and CTCSS tones (Continuous Tone Coded Squelch System) to reach the local repeater. But Scotty had given me the incentive to try. It took months for me to get a reliable transmission. I figured it out, of course, but at turtle speed.