Tribe.net. Local Connections missadventure http://hamradio.tribe.net/thread/90b389e8-052e-4e44-9a3d-ae217fe55655#1e411e49-a5e9-4326-90ca-780f890691c3 2008-04-27T16:40:02Z 2008-04-27T16:40:02Z

thanks for all the info y'all :)

missadventure 2008-04-27T16:40:02Z Super http://hamradio.tribe.net/thread/90b389e8-052e-4e44-9a3d-ae217fe55655#449529db-abef-4149-aa79-92758d441248 2008-04-26T16:43:39Z 2008-04-26T16:43:39Z

The ARRL has this page which lets you search for classes in your area. The classes can go from a one day cram to pass course to many weeks long in the evening really learn something courses. Classes are listed here http://www.arrl.org/FandES/courses/ Practice tests are at http://www.qrz.com/xtest2.html? When you are ready for testing again use the ARRL site and look up test locations at http://www.arrl.org/arrlvec/examsearch.phtml Dave KE7NGX

Super 2008-04-26T16:43:39Z missadventure http://hamradio.tribe.net/thread/90b389e8-052e-4e44-9a3d-ae217fe55655#c13877f0-0a5e-4c3a-b364-9f285fc36335 2008-04-26T16:29:06Z 2008-04-26T16:29:06Z

thanks for the info y'all, i had the same question. where is the best place to take a class?

missadventure 2008-04-26T16:29:06Z Glenn http://hamradio.tribe.net/thread/90b389e8-052e-4e44-9a3d-ae217fe55655#82bc1699-c455-4b19-ad98-ac8a4dcedeea 2007-06-11T19:14:25Z 2007-06-11T19:14:25Z

Actually, that reminds me of one I missed. There is a ham radio club affiliated with the Albany, NY office of the National Weather Service, which is located at, and also affiliated with the State University of New York at Albany. Their callsign is WX2ALY -- WX (for DaBomb's benefit) is a Morse Code abbreviation for "weather" and ALY is the code that the NWS uses to refer to Albany, NY. (BTW, I am KC2IDF, not a vanity call. Nice to meet you, Jody).

Glenn 2007-06-11T19:14:25Z jody http://hamradio.tribe.net/thread/90b389e8-052e-4e44-9a3d-ae217fe55655#ba66ef16-72bd-444b-9108-18e01109cc0c 2007-06-11T18:46:05Z 2007-06-11T18:46:05Z

I'm WX1NMU. That's weather chaser 1, New Mexico updraft, my blog. --jody radzik. --nmupdraft.org

jody 2007-06-11T18:46:05Z Glenn http://hamradio.tribe.net/thread/90b389e8-052e-4e44-9a3d-ae217fe55655#e7aa77c6-0963-410f-bf46-ac4d14f280c3 2007-06-11T10:33:00Z 2007-06-11T10:33:00Z

Yes, you can get a vanity ham licence, with some restrictions. If you are going to re-use your grandfather's licence, then these restrictions will probably not bother you, unless your grandfather had an Extra class licence (there are some sequences of characters that are reserved to Extras). Some interesting ones in my area.... Barry Leet has WA2CW, a reference to Morse Code. Bob Rivenburgh has W2RCR, the tail of which is his initials. Pat Huba has N2WWW, the tail of which is his passion (he is a web designer). etc. These three are all vanity callsigns. The restrictions are: A US callsign always begins with W, K, N or AA-AM. It will always have exactly one numerical character, which cannot be first or last. It will be between 3 and 6 characters long. A- series callsigns and callsigns shorter than 5 characters are reserved to Extras. Your grandfather's callsign *could* have been re-issued, but it probably has not unless he was an Extra. You can look up the callsign at www.qrz.com to see if it is currently active and who has it if it is.

Glenn 2007-06-11T10:33:00Z ↁªɮºɱɮ http://hamradio.tribe.net/thread/90b389e8-052e-4e44-9a3d-ae217fe55655#ef45e255-74a6-48d9-9c70-bb604c377725 2007-06-10T22:50:51Z 2007-06-10T22:50:51Z

Neat response. Thanks for the information. Well here's a question: my grandfather always had a vanity license plate way before these were popular in California. In fact, I saw one the other day on new car and could tell it was a ham plate because it was black and yellow. The state hasn't made that color plate since I was a kid. A friend told me that I could probably use my grandfather's call letters to identify myself in the ham community? Is that right? What happened to his license when he passed? Does it get sold to another ham? I mean, how does that all work? Thanks for the recommended links. I started googling this last night and realized I wanted a more personal channel of information, so that's when it struck me that there might be a tribe for this and "voila", here I am! I would prefer to follow recommended links and chat here on Tribe than strike off on a search engine on my own. I mean, isn't ham about connecting? Or am I wrong? Love to hear what others think!

ↁªɮºɱɮ 2007-06-10T22:50:51Z Glenn http://hamradio.tribe.net/thread/90b389e8-052e-4e44-9a3d-ae217fe55655#ca14ea6b-4bf8-49ed-b0ce-8e619c125be4 2007-06-10T22:00:01Z 2007-06-10T22:00:01Z

Well, hey, welcome, and thanks for taking the interest. First off, it is not a single technology, but rather a pretty broad spectrum of them (no pun intended). AM and FM are both represented, along with some other analogue technologies that most of the general public never hears about (single sideband, for instance), as well as a wide variety of digital technologies, some carrying only text at bitrates as low as 31.5 bits/sec (that's bits, not kilobits) and some carrying audio, video and data at as much as 54Mbit/sec. Three are over 30 different bands of operation, with the lower ones being good for really long-haul communications, and the higher ones being able to be focused into really tight beams. Personally, I am an FM lover. I operate in FM on the 2m and 10m bands. A good way to start learning is to go to the ARRL web site, www.arrl.org . You may also want to see if there is an active ham radio club in your area. Let me also put in a plug for a website owned by a friend of mine, www.popularwireless.com . The owner has a set of forums there that are dedicated to just about any radio-related topic. I log in there as Critter. You also mention you are a podcaster. You might like to get involved with This Week in Amateur Radio at www.twiar.org . This is a podcast, and is also broadcast on shortwave radio and as an amateur bulletin service on numerous ham radio repeaters throughout the country. The take-away point I would give you is this: There is a lot to this hobby, certainly something for everyone. Tell us a little more about what interests you, and we can probably more readily suggest what you might like in ham radio.

Glenn 2007-06-10T22:00:01Z ↁªɮºɱɮ http://hamradio.tribe.net/thread/90b389e8-052e-4e44-9a3d-ae217fe55655#d7aca6dc-9aea-4fd2-9b38-ffb781a0ae4e 2007-06-10T08:28:02Z 2007-06-10T08:28:02Z

I'm not a hammy, but my grandfather was. He passed away a few years ago and now that I'm doing podcasts, I feel like I'm carrying on in his spirit, but with different tools. I don't know jack about ham radio. Can anybody on this thread politely school me? I'm here to learn more about this technology.

ↁªɮºɱɮ 2007-06-10T08:28:02Z