Ham radio fun!

[giza]

The last couple of days have been pretty exciting, so far as my ham radio stuff has been going. electropaw (K9RVN) is in town, so I QSLed with him yesterday and got to use my first repeater in the process. Today, I took my radio into work and discovered that I could also reach the repeater from the office, an added bonus! If anybody is interested in QSLing during lunchtime sometime, do let me know. The frequency is 442.500 Mhz, with a positive offset and a tone of 91.5 Hz.

I also found a few interesting ham radio sources that I thought I'd share:

http://www.arcc-inc.org/arc-dbas.html - This is a listing of repeaters in Eastern Pennsylvania and Southern New Jersey.0

http://www.arrl.org/news/enforcement_logs/ - A regularly updated history of enforcement letters that the FCC sends out to people who break the rules. That agency means business!

http://www.repeaterlink.org/result.php?repeater_sys=65 - A linked repeater system in the area where I live. One repeater is in Newtown Square while the other is in Paoli. What's also interesting is that they link at 8:30 PM on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday for hosting nets. I've never participated in a net before, so I think I'll check that one out.

http://www.artscipub.com/repeaters/states/Pennsylvania.asp - More amateur radio repeaters in Pennsylvania. This page isn't as cool as the previous one, because it breaks the list of cities across pages. That makes it much harder to search for "conshohocken" and then "newtown" because they are not on the same page.

http://offto.com/n3kz/policy.htm - Repeater etiquette. Probably the best page I've found so far, it discussed how to use repeaters, which is helpful for a ham radio n00b like me.

K3TCP, clear.

Comments

[alohawolf.livejournal.com]

I just applied for K6WLF, still waiting on the bloody FCC, welcome to the hobby, there is a large linked system in California, that covers the whole state, we also have an IRLP node, if your interested in having a QSO, just hit me up for the node address

73's, de KF6ECP/K6WLF

[nius.livejournal.com]

You mean QSOing during lunch. A QSO is a conversation, a QSL is acknowledgement of receipt.

[electropaw.livejournal.com]

Hello *waves blue paw*

When did you apply for the vanity call? Hopefully the FCC will still process it, because they just suspended the vanity callsign system.

http://www.vanityhq.com/wwwboard/messages64/13914.html

Maybe you'll make the cut? Good luck :-)

73,

ElectroPaw

[giza.livejournal.com]

F*cking TLAs!

[electropaw.livejournal.com]

It was great having a QSO with you Giza :-) I should get on the radio more often, but for me it usually comes down to what to talk about. We talked about a few different topics, so that was good.

Repeaters are nice, especially when used with HT's, it makes it soooo much easier to communicate. Other neat little things that you can do with some repeaters is to operate a telephone patch, leave voicemail, link up to other nodes on IRLP/Echolink, etc.

Anyfur, feel free to call me up through the radio. If I hear you, I'll respond *makes sure my radio is on*

73,

ElectroPaw (K9RVN)

[electropaw.livejournal.com]

*giggles* I get em confused at times

[alohawolf.livejournal.com]

QNB :-P

[ex-tjcoyote516.livejournal.com]

W2TJC, listening!

(by the way, that's what to say rather than CQ on a repeater)

Y'know, I'm in North Jersey, but there's a chance I could hit a repeater far enough south and west to reach Philadelphia. I know there's a repeater somewhere in Pennsylvania or western NJ that I can hit both at home and in Allentown, PA, so it may be possible....

[giza.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a cool idea, but I now live about 50 miles south of Allentown.

73

[ex-tjcoyote516.livejournal.com]

Ah, I was just using Allentown as an example of the distance. I'd have to find some other repeater that went in the direction of Philadelphia instead. I'll let 'ya know if I find anything.

[dibranchia.livejournal.com]

If you ever talk to or meet WA4DTE, it's my dad. He's near Harrisburg.

[furahi.livejournal.com]

Whoa, those letters are tough :P

[giza.livejournal.com]

The FCC is not to be f*cked with.

If you are a television station and you play too many commercials during "children's programming hours", they fine you $10,000 a second!

Oh, and as for us hams, not only can we not use obscene speech on the air, we can't even use "indecent speech".

[furahi.livejournal.com]

They limit the number of comercials?
That's interesting o.o Though it sounds like a good idea =P

[furahi.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I don't have a radio, but I'm ham too '-^oo^-

[murakozi.livejournal.com]

Next time you're down in the DC metro area, lemme know. There are a number of repeaters around here. I still haven't installed the mobile in the new vehicle, but often have the HT on and listening. I hadn't heard about the vanity callsign system being suspended. Makes me glad I snagged N3IGH when I did.