- Today on Ham Radio Q&A: I dip into the mail bag,
and answer your questions.
Please keep watching for more.
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Hi I'm Michael, KB9VBR, your host for Ham Radio Q&A.
I'm on a mission to inspire and educate
the armature radio community, so if this is your first
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Well, February has certainly been a challenging month.
Up here in Northern Wisconsin,
We received over 53 inches of snow last month alone,
and over 70 inches for the season.
This is a fire cry from what we are usually accustomed to,
especially for a community that doesn't live within
the great lakes snow belt.
But we're all dug out and hopefully it will melt soon enough
and well, we'll get outside to do some portable operations,
Maybe in April, who knows May or June.
Bad enough of that, let's dig into the questions.
I receive plenty of great discussion resulting
from the five Easy Steps to your Ham Radio license video.
Thank you to everyone that shared their experiences.
We do have a common experience with taking the license exam,
but it's fascinating to hear the slightly different paths
we took to get there.
First off, Conner shares:
"Being a 15 year old ham, only a tech,
I feel that the test is pretty easy.
I studied the question pool with a group of people
I took the test with, and we all passed,
some of them even leaving with their general licenses."
Well, study groups are a great idea.
Being young, you still have good study habits.
It's always better to do it with a friend,
as you have a level of accountability.
I did the same thing for my extra license.
Three of us formed a group and worked together,
studying for the test,
and all three passed on the first try.
Thanks Conner, study groups really do work.
1finger reminded me of a very helpful Ham Radio app.
"If you wanna get a Tech license, spend $25
on a two year subscription to hamtestonline.com,
and don't worry about the math questions,
unless you like higher math.
You pass, or you get your money back.
I hate math and I aced it."
You know what, I heard some really good things
about hamtestonline, I'm glad it worked for you.
Thanks for the reminder.
photolabguy has a little different experience.
"It's disappointing that a technician class test
is not within 50 miles from where I live.
That has been the turn off for me.
There are general and extra examinations,
just nothing close for a technician.
This is all according to the AARL website."
Well, that can be an obstacle.
I'd contact the people running the test,
because they can just as easily administer a Technician exam
as they can the higher level ones.
Also, the ARRL and W5YI groups,
aren't the only people that offer exams.
There are also several regional Volunteer Exam Coordinators.
You may wanna check if one of those are located
close to you, that can offer an exam.
The link to a list of VECs,
can be found in the video description below.
After you pass the test,
you gonna wanna get a station up and running.
M N asks, "Hi, I'm a Technician
and will upgrade my license eventually.
Getting a base station, not a mobile radio soon,
just not sure if I should get an HF, multiband capable of HF
or not worry about HF until I'm a general."
He goes on to say, "I like the idea
of being able to communicate long distances with HF,
but don't wanna get the radio if there aren't technicians
on the allowed HF frequencies.
Are there techs, many technicians on HF?"
Well, that's a difficult question,
but techs have voice privileges on 10 meters
and also CW privileges on 10, 15, 40, and 80 meters.
When the band is open, there is quite a bit of technician
activity on the 10 meter band.
But since we are at the bottom of the solar cycle,
10 meter band conditions have not been very good.
So 10 meter activity has been sporadic at best.
I think investing in an HF rig,
might be a good incentive to upgrade.
Otherwise, maybe consider an HF rig
that also has 6 meter capabilities.
There are a few budget minded HF radios out there,
with 6 meters, and as a technician,
you have full access to the 6 meters band,
plus 6 can be a lot of fun when the band opens up.
May be give that a shot.
Moving along, Richard commented on my video
about receiving Slow Scan Television images
from the International Space Station.
"Great video Michael, thanks for putting it out there!
There is another package called RX-SSTV,
that I've found works wonders!
It gives a much clearer image.
Just do a Google search for it, 73 from KF5RHI."
Hey, thanks for the recommendation.
I looked at RX-SSTV quickly and noticed its receive only.
But that makes it perfect
for International Space Station transmissions.
Just a couple quick things about RX-SSTV.
First, it uses the same engine at MMSSTV,
created by JE3HHT.
It's receive only, so there is no worry
of accidental transmissions, and it has adjustable
Digital Signal Processing settings,
so you should be able to get a clearer or picture.
I did a side by side comparison of the two applications,
and I'd say the processing was marginally better,
with RX-SSTV, but I didn't do a lot of tweaking
with the DSP settings,
so there probably is room for improvement.
If you don't need the ability to send SSTV images,
then certainly give RX-SSTV a shot.
Last question, this one relates to Winlink,
or sending and emails via HF.
David writes:
"So, if I wanna do this but don't want the rest of the world
to read my email and therefore use crypto such as SSL,
what license would I need,
and what band would I need to be set up in?"
Well, putting messages out on the air like this,
opens up them up for interception and a casual viewing.
So, my first recommendation would be not to use this method
for sending sensitive information.
Also, using any type of cryptography,
to obscure your message on the amateur radio bands,
is not permitted in any way, shape or form.
Perhaps a commercial or Marine Radio license
would allow that purpose.
But otherwise, it's palin text only.
Well, that's it is this month.
Hopefully the snow will melt soon,
and we can get back outdoors.
In the meantime, stay tuned for the next episode,
we gonna build one of these.
And if you have any questions,
please leave them in the comments below.
I'll pick out the best one for our next
"Your questions answered video".
For more articles and information,
be sure to check out my blog at www.jpole-antenna.com.
If you enjoyed this video, give me that big thumbs up,
May be check some of the others that are recommended
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Well, that's it for this time,
I'm Michael, KB9VBR, have a great day and 73.