piper Posted October 19, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 19, 2008 I hope you join us too Seeker. :) Ham radio is indeed very rewarding. It really helps if you have an active group you can join as well. Lot's of help and expertise there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dalepres Posted October 19, 2008 Report Share Posted October 19, 2008 (edited) I agree about the CW and antenna building. Those, along with QRP operations, have always been my favorite parts of the hobby. There are a lot of disaster situations I can imagine where CW will become important again. It's a good skill to have. But I always liked building my own rigs. But I also, because of my military and professional training, was able to design and build my own from scratch including processor controlled synthesized rigs. Since I got into computers, just like that End-of-Heathkit article described, I just haven't done much electronics. Sad, huh? Emergency operations have always been a great benefit from the ham community. On the other hand, I do get tired of seeing ham clubs doing parking control for every commercial or community event that comes up. Many repeaters become unavailable on weekends and parking control is not the same thing as emergency operations. That one always bothers me. I remember the day that when someone cursed or otherwise showed bad manners on the ham bands they didn't stick around long. No one would talk to them. There were no flame wars, there was simply a few polite warnings and shunning. It was just not an issue. Then came the CB craze after the movie Convoy. Of course I also remember when you had to specify a "business purpose" to get a CB license. Yes, for the others because you know this, it used to be required to have a license for a CB radio. Just shows what too much deregulation in government leads to. As for your father, why not make him legal? He might enjoy it a lot more. I remember when I was in the service, living in base housing, I had a small 2-meter vertical antenna on my house. Two houses down was a CBer with a 11-meter beam (for the non-technical: my antenna was very small, his was very large) and he had an illegal KW linear amp. Every time he'd key up, all the TV's in the neighborhood would mess up. In fact, my wife had this very expensive Singer sewing machine that was microprocessor controlled with 100+ built-in stitches - something rare and expensive in 1978. If she was sewing when he keyed his mike, her sewing machine would change stitches. Yet every time someone's TV got interference, they came to my house; even the base police came to my house. After all, I was the ham, he was just a CBer; it had to be my fault. A nail through the coax finally put an end to it. Funny thing, the guy thought he and I should be great friends because we were both into radio. Edited October 19, 2008 by dalepres Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wy0mn Posted November 1, 2008 Report Share Posted November 1, 2008 I'd like to get my Dad into HAM, but he's shown no interest at all, sigh... he's 75 and still chasing the "ol' gray mares" around the pasture! KCQ2979, lol. I wonder if there is still a registry for old licensed CB'ers somewhere. 73-wy0mn aka Lex Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.