Do you have a Question about CB or HAM or you want to answer someone's
question?  Post it here!!!  I will try to get an expert to help.  I you want
to help Email me at mark1.  See ya!!!

108 responses total.

  Since most of the people who are interested in this conference are already
hams, we can answer just about any query put forth. That is, except "What is
the meaning of Life".

  BTW, the answer to that last question would be "Chocolate"

I thought it was "45" - or was that the answer to everything, not just life?

  It is chocolate.  Do not listen to imposters.

Well i have a question,  Where can i get info and Equiptment?
?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

 Info about what? If you want ham info, check http://www.cyberspace.org/~ar
row
Equipment: Amateur Electronic Supply. I don't have the address, but
if you call 1-800-555-1212 you can get the number. They have everything
the modern ham needs. Ask for a catalog.

  Another site you might want to check out is 
  http://www.arrl.org

Or, try a ham radio equipment store, where you can get both the gear
and info.

Can someone name the classes of Amatuer licences, and the requirements
of such?  i.e. where does one start, and where can one get to?

  Sure.

  Novice-  Pass Element 2 and morse code element 1(a)
  Technician- Elements 2, and 3(a)
  Tech Plus- Elements 2, 3(a) and element 1(a)
  General- Tech Plus reqs plus code element 1b (13 wpm)
  Advanced- General reqs plus writtem element 4a
  Extra- Advanced plus element 4b (20 wpm)

  You should start with the Tech. Since it is codeless, it will only
be 2 short written exams which can be done in about 30 minutes. You
will have your license in less than 10 days, so if you're in a hurry to
get on the air this is the path to go. 
  After your new license comes, start with the 5 wpm code. With concerted
effort, you can probably learn the code and pass the test in about 45 days.
The General takes a bit more effort, and you can spend anywhere from 
6 months to 20 years on it. 13 word code is not tough, but it's not a cake
walk either. But sticking with it will produce results.
   The Advanced is the bitch. 55 questions on tough theory, plus the 
13 word code. That is, if you don't already hold the General. Pass the
Advanced and people will bow and scrape at your feet. Ace the Advanced and
you'll be diety material. 
   The Extra is the top of the heap. 20 wpm code plus a 45 question test. It's
not as bad as the Advanced, but there is prestige. It can be done in as little
as 2 yrs, or like me, 2 yrs, 10 months, or like my dad's friend, 22 yrs.
It all depends on how bad you want it.

   The classes all convey priveliges. The codeless tech will give you
access to all bands allocated to the amatuer service above 50 mhz.
   Pass a code test and you'll get access to the bands below 30 Mhz.
   As license class goes up, so do privs.

   You can buy a book from Radio Shack, or Purchase radio. I recommend the
ARRL books available from Purchase. They take you the hows and whys of
the theory without a lot of bull. There are several good code practice 
tapes out there, but off the air copying is probably the best practice you
can get.
   Chris, I will be glad to answer any other questions you have and I
will even help you find an exam, and allay any fear you might have. Just send
me e-mail, or ask here, and I'll do my best.

Didn't you leave out 3(b) for General?

  I did, but I think I covered what I missed.


   I should add that you have a year's credit on each element. That is, if
you pass a written element, you have one year to pass the code test or you
get to do it all over again. The best way to avoid this pressure is to
pass both elements at the same time.

Thanks Jim.  I'll probably go for Tech as you suggested, I'll be visiting
Purchase very soon. :-)   It looks as if that would do me to get involved
with the local SkyWarn net (plus the SkyWarn training of course)

Is there any software available that I can download (as in for free), to
enable me to learn Morse. I have a 486 dx Win 3.1 and the PC speaker.
Thanks

  There is tons of it, although there is very little on the net.

  I have 3 or 4 programs lying about that I could knock off onto
5 1/4" floppies for you, or perhaps a 3.5". I don't tn't think that
there would be too much hassle in sending a floppy to India. I would
be happy to give you a program which will teach you the code from
nothing. It was written by a guy in New Zealand and is very good.

  Send me some e-mail and we'll try to work the kinks out. My address is
omni18@juno.com

I'm finding I would really like more antenna on my scanner (living in a 
steel house does have drawbacks).  Rather than buy a dedicated antenna 
and then have to mount the sucker outside, is there any reason I 
couldn't tap into my existing TV antenna on the roof?  It has the usual 
protection against lightning, plus an inline amp.  I'm thinking I could 
just put a little splitter and connector adapter right there by the VCR, 
and plumb the audio into my stereo.  I know the TV antenna wouldn't be 
the most efficient, esp. at certain frequencies, but would there be any 
risk of scanner damage, etc?

THe antenna is just more metal in the air and should not damage your
scanner (unless truck by lightning). I don't know whether an in-line
amp is a band-pass filter or not: if it is, your reception off TV
channels won't be so good. Try connecting just one side or the other
of the TV leads to the scanner antenna. 

(It's all coax inside the house; the amplifier is in a little metal tube right
on the antenna)

I (foolishly) tried to view cable TV on a hand-held TV by just putting
the cable to the antenna input. I got greatly improved receiption - but
what I was doing was using the cable TV *shield* as a long-wire antenna.
I am thinking that is how you can use your outside TV antenna - just connect
the *shield* to your scanner input. 

That's a possibility.  It would turn my whole house into an antenna, since
the cable is grounded to the metal walls.  But then I can't use an audio
connection to my stereo, due to the backwards grounding.  Unless I use an
audio matching transformer for isolation...

I don't understand. I presume the audio connection comes out of your scanner
and plugs into your stereo. It has its own ground (shield). Having a wire
from the scanner antenna to even the walls of your house just provides an
input to the scanner. I presume the house and your electronics have a common
ground somewhere. Actually, I did not realize your antenna cable shield
is grounded to the house - my house is wood so that can't be done (but
should have a separate ground for lightning protection). You still have
a big loop, though, so should get reception from it. Try it.

Well, if the scanner has a common ground for both audio and antenna, then
using a house ground for the antenna signal means that the scanner ground
cannot be grounded without shorting antenna input to ground.  OK, it does form
a loop, which might be worth a try.

We are getting pretty good reception in a house with a steel roof and aluminum
vapor barrier.
A neighbor who is unable to watch one of her two televisions (with indoor
antenna) at many hours of the day (just gets snow then) wonders if a ham radio
operator might be the cause of this problem.  I think it is the downstairs
one that had the problems.  Rest of the time it works fine.  She says 3 am
is one of the bad times.

Ham radio operation would be intermittant, during transmission. This
sounds like a steady EMI source.

A real possibility is "dirty" computer equipment - a lot of devices are
only class A interference-compliant, which is for commerical use and not
guaranteed not to cause interference with radio or TV if used in a
residential area.  Home computers must be Class B compliant. Such things
as (inexpensive) off-the-shelf Ethernet hubs are mostly only class A.
Someone may have a home network nearby. On the other hand, ZIP drives
are class B.

The users of class A equipment are responsible for correcting any
interference by adding extra shiielding and filtering.

(Sindi asked me this question on e-mail and the above was my response.)

If it only happens during night hours, a bad streetlamp bulb or starter
might do it too.

We need more data....

Okay here's a question that I think I should know the answer to but I can't
come up with it:  I have an 11M radio...er...CB radio in my car and I'm
getting a lot of RFI when the engine is running, but the noise doesn't really
change with the RPM of the vehicle.  What can I try to reduce the noise?  I
don't have a noise problem with my FM 2M rig or FM broadcast radio, but the
same problem obliterates my AM broadcast reception (and yes I know CB is AM,
so I'm seeing some sort of connection)

It should be the alternator noise. Are you *sure* the frequency doesn't
change when you rev the engine? 

Is it a fuel injected car?  My Crown Victoria had a whining type noise that
didn't change with engine speed, and I think it was the electric fuel pump. 
Filtering the fuel pump leads may help.  You'd want to do it at the pump
(outside pump) or close to where the leads disappear into the gas tank
(in-tank pump).  I suspect a parallel capacitor would do the trick, but
before I got around to trying it I discovered the frame on that car was
rusted out and got rid of it.

Good point! I tend to think fuel pumps run off the engine.... What
other motors are there? Wipers, squirters, windows, ?????

I do run my CB off the lighter jack (with no noise), but have wired
my 2m rig directly to the battery, which helps a lot to cut out power
circuit noise.

Incidentally, any radio that's wired directly to the battery should have
*both* wires (positive and ground) fused.  The reason for this is to protect
the radio should the ground strap that connects your battery to the frame
fall off.  I heard about someone whose radio was destroyed when this
happened and their radio (ground connected to battery, case grounded to the
frame) became the ground return for the entire car -- most devestatingly,
the huge starter current.

Both of my wires are fused (this is well known to radio amateurs, but
I would presume not to the general public, so it is worth mentioning
when suggesting such a connection for CB).

Yeah...it's a type of failure that hadn't even occurred to me until I saw it
described.  Even then, I almost had to draw out the schematic before I
realized how it would happen.  (Ground strap problems can do weird stuff. 
On VW vans, the starter is bolted to the transmission.  I've heard of a
failed transmission ground strap causing the *clutch cable* to be heated
red-hot when the starter was cranked.)

Yep, I'm sure it doesn't change with the engine RPM.  I bought a condensor
to put on the alternator anyway and it didn't help at all.  I'm going
to try removing fuses for the fuel pumps to see if that makes a difference
(temporarily of course)

On a happy, unrelated note, I built a discone antenna for my scanner and it
works great.  $60 for a Radio Shack, nyet!  $10 and an hours work for mine.

Discones are neat antenna designs.  I've thought about building one before,
though it's easy enough to build a 5/8 wave folded J-pole instead that I
probably never will.  I believe a J-pole has more gain.  (How does a
vertical antenna get gain?  Easy -- it has a null pointing straight up, and
another pointing straight down, giving it a donut-shaped pattern.  I believe
the gain over a 1/4 wave antenna [which is truely omnidirectional, at least
to a first approximation] is about 1.5 db.)

A 1/4L: antenna is not omnidirectional. It must have a ground plane, so it
is really a 1/2L antenna driven at the center (which is at the ground
plane). So a 1/4L antenna has exactly the same pattern as a 1/2 wave
antenna, since it is one. This consists of the usual toroidal peak at
right angles to the antenna. 

  Discones are typically zero gain antennae. I've been mening to build a
discone from plans I got from a friend of mine back in 1989. I've been putting
it off and I think I might get around to it sometime this year. If I think
about it. So many projects- So little time.

It's a tradeoff.  Bandwidth for gain.

Yeah...because of the bandwidth, discones make great scanner antennas, it's
true.

My next antenna project will probably be a 2M j-pole for home use, maybe
a 3 element Yagi though since that will take about an hour to build.

Anyone got a spare 853006 comm chip (40 pin) they have no use for?  The one
in my TNC seems to have suffered a stroke and now only receives commands
from my terminal but does not send anything back.  The 1488 and 1489 RS-232
to TTL level translator chips are fine and the TNC seems to work okay too.
I just don't get anything sent back to my terminal.

- Backtalk version 1.3.30 - Copyright 1996-2006, Jan Wolter and Steve Weiss