Radio on Major Hayden

W5WUT: My amateur radio station

major@mhtx.net (Major Hayden) — Wed, 20 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000

I’m an amateur radio operator licensed in the United States under the callsign W5WUT (formerly KG5VYL). The radio bug bit me back in 2017 after attending the Overland Expo in North Carolina.

Our society depends on communication to survive. Amateur radio fills critical gaps during emergencies and it’s a great hobby to learn more about radios, electronics, computers, and just communication in general.

There’s a ham radio FAQ on the blog already that I need to update. 😉

Equipment

Almost every conversation with a radio operator turns to “what equipment do you use?”:

Mobile
- Kenwood TM-D710GA
- Comet SBB-1 and SBB-5
Home
- Icom IC-746 (2m + HF)
- Icom IC-7300 (HF)
- Comet GP-3 2m/70cm
- RigExpert AA-55 ZOOM
Portable
- Buddipole
- 6m dipole
- 20m EFHW
Handheld
- Kenwood KH-20A
- Yaesu VX-8

Find me on the air

I enjoy SSB and FT8 on 20m on the weekends, but during the week, you can find me on 146.520 in the San Antonio area. I hop on the KE5HBB repeater in Live Oak, TX as well.

Ham Radio FAQ

major@mhtx.net (Major Hayden) — Thu, 06 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Welcome!

This page is a work in progress!

The world of amateur, or ham, radio is huge and it’s what you want to make of it. The itch struck me in the middle of 2017 and I learned a lot since then.

People often ask me questions about all kinds of amateur radio topics and I decided to compile all of the answers into a big page that I can update over time. If your questions isn’t answered here, please send me an email and I’ll get it answered!

Keep in mind that the vast majority of the topics presented here will be applicable to amateur radio all over the world, but much of the discussion around licensing and rules is very specific to the United States.

As with anything else, everyone has their own opinions about what makes a hobby special. As long as you enjoy your time working with a hobby, it does not matter what anyone else says, so long as you avoid getting in the way of their enjoyment. (More on that later.)

The very very basics
Getting a license
Choosing your first radio

The very very basics

This section covers the absolute basic questions around the hobby itself and why it can be interesting for many people.

Amateur radio is like Citizen’s Band (CB) radio, right?

This is entirely valid question, but be forewarned – it can cause some amateur radio operators to start fuming. It’s like going to Barcelona and asking: “So Catalan is basically just a Spanish dialect, right?” 😡

Author’s note: Please don’t try this in Barcelona. I do not recommend it.

Yes, CB radios are similar in some ways. The are restricted to certain bands and you have a variety of radios to choose from if you want to talk to people.

However, talking on a CB radio has very few restrictions and no licensing requirements. People often talk about topics that you wouldn’t want your children to hear and many people willfully disobey what few rules and restrictions actually exist. Also, CB is only one band. Amateur radio has tons of bands to choose from based on the size of the radio you want to carry, how far you want to communicate, and your license level.

Amateur radio offers tons of different operating modes, such as morse code, digital modes, meteor scatter, satellite operations, and plain old AM/FM/SSB voice communication. You can talk to someone on the other side of the Earth with amateur radio but CB radio range tops out at 20-25 miles.

Long story short: they are tremendously different.

I have a mobile phone. Why do I need amateur radio?

This might not be the hobby for you, and that’s okay!

Keep in mind that mobile phones are just small radios that transmit and receive digital data all day long. If that interests you and you want to tinker on similar technologies, amateur radio might be good for you. Using a radio to call long distances (say, across the USA) on a frequent basis can be frustrating if you just need something that works all the time.

However, consider those situations where mobile phones do not work, such as natural disasters. Communication falls back to radios during these difficult times and you may be able to assist with emergencies or get information for your family with some knowledge of amateur radio.

I thought amateur radio was just for old people.

That’s a common misconception, but there are many older people involved in amateur radio for a variety of reasons.

Many military veterans had to work with radios during their miltary career and they find that amateur radio is a fun way to keep their skills sharp. It can also be a fun way to talk to other veterans on the radio and at club meetings.

Amateur radio is something you can do even if you have physical limitations caused by injury, illness, or old age. Some hams have large towers with complex wiring and unique antennas. Others plop down a small vertical or magnetic loop on a desk and transmit from there.

There’s a great benefit to older folks being involved with amateur radio: they can teach you a lot. Often called elmers in ham radio vernacular, these are people who can prevent you from making costly mistakes in planning your station and they can show you some unique ways to fix radio problems. If you don’t mind taking a little direction, many of these experienced hams will overwhelm you with radio knowledge that you can put to use immediately.

With that said, there are plenty of younger people getting involved with ham radio. There are plenty of newer technologies, especially digital modes, that allow newer operators to mix over-the-air radio operations with functionality over the internet.

Can I just listen and see if it’s interesting?

Of course! In the United States, you can listen to any amateur radio transmission anytime with very inexpensive equipment. No licensing or expertise is required to listen.

You can pick up a shortwave radio and listen to long-distance transmissions, or you can buy a handheld transceiver (often called an HT) to listen to local discussions.

Your local hams might have a repeater set up to rebroadcast local radio transmissions over a long distance. Head over to RepeaterBook to find your local repeaters and listen! I wrote a lengthy post about repeaters in 2018.

If you want to go a bit further, find your local radio club online and go to one of their meetings! Tell them that you’re new to the hobby and I’m sure they will be happy to show you some of their uses for radio. You might even discover a use that you never considered.

Getting a license

Licensing is very specific to the country where you live. This section is specific to getting licensed in the United States.

I heard radio operators have license levels. What’s in each level?

There are three main licensing levels:

Technician
General
Extra

You must pass a test to move up to the next level.

Technician gives you access to lots of frequencies, but the amount of things you can do below the 10 meter band is very limited. General opens the door to many of the frequencies below 10 meters, but Extra class licensees have the most access to those bands.

To learn more about what access each level gets, consult the ARRL Band Plan or review the handy graphical band chart (which is good for printing).

What’s on the test?

At a very high level, each test consists of questions in these areas:

Procedures, rules, process
Electrical circuits
Safety
Inner workings of radios and antennas

The great thing is that every single test (and its answers) is available to you online! Review the question pools at any time!

How should I study for the test?

You have plenty of choices and hams will often argue which is best. 🤓

HamStudy is my go-to resource for studying and for reference after the exam. You can review content and take practice exams right on your computer for free. They also offer some mobile apps (for a fee, totally worth it) so you can study from wherever you are. Their site works well on Android devices right in the browser, so that may work for you as well.

Another option is to get a book! The ARRL offers study guides and reference material for each license level. Some people learn better from offline books than electronic screens, and this could be the right option for you. Just be sure that the book you order matches the license level and the test currently being used. The tests are rotated out about every four years, so make sure the book is up to date.

You could also get the question and answer pools (see the previous question above) and go over all of those. This requires some brute force memorization and you may not learn the theory behind the questions.

Keep in mind that rote memorization will get you past the test, but then you could make quite a few expensive or dangerous mistakes as you try to get on the air.

Don’t just try to beat the test. Learn the theory! You will thank me later when you’re trying to get your SWR in check on a dipole using the wrong feed line that has a high impedance. 🤦‍♂️

Where do I go to take the test?

Once again, ARRL has you covered. Fill in your location information and search for a test near you. In the San Antonio area, there are 3-4 testing locations that run tests on Saturdays. There’s a test almost every weekend.

Keep in mind that some groups will only test if someone sends them a note to say they are coming to take a test. It requires a minimum of three volunteer examiners (VEs) to be present and they are exactly that – volunteers! Most groups have an email address or phone number for you to contact if you want to take a test.

Be sure to note the fee for testing! It’s usually $15, but it may be different in some places.

If you’re in the San Antonio, Texas area, I highly recommend the ROOST. They are a friendly bunch of folks in a relaxed shack and they keep the examinees relaxed with plenty of jokes. You may spot a cat poke its head in the shack. I’m told that’s a good omen. 😺

It’s test day! What do I bring?

Before you leave the house, you will need a FCC Registration Number (FRN) if you want things to go as smoothly as possible. Test results are submitted by hand on paper that goes through the postal mail. Yes, I know.

Luckily, the FCC has good documentation on getting your FRN. By getting your FRN ahead of time, you will ensure that your test results are processed as quickly as humanly possible once they reach the FCC.

Now that you’re ready to go, grab these items:

Government-issued photo ID (driver’s license, passport, military ID, etc)
Good pencil
Small basic calculator (optional, but better be safe than sorry)
Testing fee (see previous section)
Your FRN (you did get your FRN, didn’t you?)

Good luck on your test!

What should I expect when I take the exam?

Most ham radio exams are extremely relaxed and the VEs are often very experienced radio operators who want more people to join the hobby. You are definitely with good people.

Once you get signed in and you complete some paperwork (which includes your FRN, which I’m sure you brought with you), you will pay the testing fee. There are various versions of the test and you’ll get one from the pile and sit down to take your test.

Here’s each test, its length, and required passing grade:

Technician: 35 questions; must get 26 or more correct
General: same as Technician
Extra: 50 questions; must get 37 or more correct

You’ll turn in your exam and get your grade right there! You have two options after that:

If you passed, you can take the General exam at no cost. There’s no harm in trying it. Some people are able to pass it if they studied some of the material!
If you failed, don’t worry. It happens to the best of us. You can take it one more time at no additional cost! You can do it!

When everything is over and you pass at least one of the exams, the VEs will complete a form called the Certificate of Successful Completion of Examination (or CSCE). Your CSCE is your record of passing the exam. Put your copy in a safe place! If it gets lost in the mail, you may need to provide that copy.

Your VEs will submit that CSCE along with other paperwork to the FCC. This can take 7-10 business days to complete, or longer if you didn’t create an FRN first. Log in at the License Manager (ULS) with your FRN and password. As soon as your license is available, you’ll see it there!

I got my license and my new callsign, but my callsign is terrible!

You can apply for a vanity callsign with the FCC for free so long as the callsign you want is available and it’s of the appropriate format for your license class. There is some great documentation on applying for a vanity callsign on ARRL’s site.

Choosing your first radio

Picking your first radio is an important first step towards learning the skills for your license or putting your new license to use! However, finding a new radio can be tricky.

Radios come in all shapes and sizes. How do I choose?

First things first, you need to consider how and where you want to use your radio. That determines the type of radio you want to look for. For example:

At home: any radio, including handheld (HT), mobile, or base, should work
In the car: go for a HT or a mobile radio
On you: HT for sure

There are benefits and drawbacks to each type of radio:

Base station radios. These are typically radios that are meant to stay in one place and they may often be quite heavy or bulky. They usually have the largest feature set, highest power (usually 100-200W), and most connections (for extra antennas and accessories). Lugging these to the car or on a hike will be frustrating for most units unless you purchase a small one.

Examples of base station radios I’ve used:

Icom 746: old and rock solid, but 19.6 lbs 😦 (I have this one)
Icom 7300: extremely popular right now with a great touch screen
Yaesu FT-991A: a base station radio that is pretty portable at 9.7 lbs!

Mobile radios. These are smaller than base station radios and they can be used at home or in the car. Many of these top out at 50W but they often have a good set of features. They often come with handy features like GPS (for APRS) or removable displays. Removable displays allow you to mount the radio in a hidden place (such as under your seat) and mount the display somewhere else in the car.

Examples of mobile radios I’ve used or love:

Kenwood TM-D710A: great mobile radio with detachable display, APRS, and a nice mic with buttons (I have this one)
Kenwood TM-281A: cheaper radio that is incredibly durable, but no removable display

Handheld radios. HTs are excellent for portable operations when you’re away from your home or car. They usually have a more limited feature set, lower power (usually 5-10W), and can operate on fewer radio bands. Most have great removable batteries that last all day.

Example of HTs I’ve used or love:

Kenwood TH-K20A: really durable, simple to operate, inexpensive (I have this one)
Yaesu VX-8: durable with tons of extra features, like APRS (I have this one)
Baofeng UV-5R: extremely cheap, almost disposable radio (I have this one)

🚨 Now that we’ve mentioned Baofeng here, I feel obliged to ask you read the following section:

I was told never to buy one of those Chinese clone radios. Why?

There is some truth and some myth here. Some of the manufacturers of really cheap radios, like Baofeng, are often ridiculed.

Sometimes it’s for valid reasons, such as Baeofeng’s roger beep. That’s a small tone made when you finish talking and let go of PTT. Amateur radio operators will often call you out for doing that and ask you to turn it off. You hear these beeps occasionally on commercial radios, especially trunked ones, but it has no place in amateur radio bands.

The FCC did recently publish FCC Enforcement Advisotry DA 18-980 and they are cracking down on some imported radios that don’t follow the most basic of FCC rules. Problems happen when unlicensed or licensed operators get one (really cheaply) and cause all kinds of problems on local radio repeaters during nets, emergencies, or other important events.

Baofengs will allow you to transmit on frequencies you shouldn’t such as Family Radio Service (FRS) or General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS) bands. It’s illegal to use a radio that is not approved for those bands, and GMRS requires its own license that is entirely exclusive of the amateur radio license. (There’s no test, but it costs $70 for 10 years of access.)

In summary, these imported radios can allow good people (and bad people) to do bad things more easily than most other radios. However, the radios do work quite well for their price range, but don’t expect too much. Some radios will transmit slightly off frequency from time to time and many of them overmodulate at times.

At $35 each for the Baofeng, it’s not a bad idea to buy a couple as emergency backups just in case.

Radios are expensive! How can I afford this hobby?

There are many ways to get a great radio at a price you can afford. You have two main options:

Get something brand new. There’s nothing wrong with that! You will get the latest and greatest features in the smallest size with that new electronics smell. If you love that feeling of pulling plastic from screens and you don’t want something anyone else has touched, this is a good option for you. However, there’s a steep cost associated with it!

I recommend shopping with Main Trading Company if you can. They’re a small shop in Paris, Texas (not France), and they have a great selection. They’ve been really helpful for me when dealing with out of stock items.

Get something used. This is my favorite plan. Buying new is good, but you might skip on features to save price. A used radio might have all of the features you want, but it might also have some scratches and dings. Also, if the radio is fairly old (maybe 10+ years), someone has probably taken good care of it and it’s a reliable rig.

No matter what or how you buy, I highly recommend doing the following ahead of time:

Carefully read the list of features, connections, radio bands, and power requirements to ensure it has what you need.
Read lots of review on eHam, including people who loved and hated the radio.
Talk to radio operators at your local radio club about what they’ve used and what might be for sale! Most clubs have swapmeets (sometimes they’re online, like classified ads), where you can go meet the ham, test the radio, and buy it!
Go to a store and play with the same or similar radio.
Read the radio documentation. You can find out a lot more about the features from there.

I want to buy a used radio. How do I do it?

My requirement is that I only buy radios from another radio operator. Most are trustworthy and they usually want you to understand the radio’s capabilities before you buy.

There are ham radio conventions of various sizes scattered around the USA each month and these usually have big swapmeets. Be prepared to see a lot of junk. This is stuff that won’t power on, could barely be used for parts, and looks like it barely survived a nuclear war. Keep your eye out for the more well-maintained items there.

If you have your license, be sure to check out the online swapmeet on QRZ! That’s where I got my Icom 746. The spouse of a silent keyer (a ham radio operator who passed away 😔) was trying to make ends meet by selling some equipment and I got a great deal on the radio.

eBay is okay for some things (especially ham-made gear, like antennas), but there some occasional scams there that can be painful.

Your local radio club meetings likely have a short section of the meeting dedicated to buy/sell/trade, so be sure to ask there. If you participate in a local radio net, perhaps on your local repeater, you can mention that you’re looking for a radio. You might get recommendations for something to look for or you may get a lead on a good radio to buy! (FCC Rule note: It’s okay to buy/sell/trade on the airwaves, but don’t turn it into an every day habit.)

What does it mean when some radios say all-mode and others say FM?

An all-mode radio typically means that it supports a lot of different radio modes. This is especially handy for long-range high frequency radio bands and low power (or QRP) VHF bands. Most radios will include a set like this:

AM
CW (morse code)
FM
SSB (single sideband)
RTTY

An all-mode radio is typically bigger, has higher power output, and is more expensive.

If you see an FM radio, that means it only supports frequency modulation for voice communication. That’s plain old voice transmissions. This is really handy for mobile operations since you’ll be using your voice most often there. However, this limits your fun on the high frequency bands.

Some FM radios have some fancy extra features, such as APRS or AX.25, but those come with an added expense.

FM radios are typically smaller, have low to medium power output, and are cheaper.

Some radios cover all of the bands. Why doesn’t everyone get those?

There are some great radios on the market, like the Yaesu FT-991A or the Icom 746 that pack tons of bands into one receiver. If you’re looking for a “shack-in-a-box”, then look no further! You can do everything with one radio.

There are some downsides to this, too. More electronics in the box increases weight and cost. It also increases the amount of things that can fail. In addition, a radio that tries to be good at many things sometimes can’t be great on all of them. Jamming a 144 MHz (2 meter) transceiver into a crowded HF radio means compromises must be made somewhere.

There are advantages to getting a radio that does a subset of HF, VHF and UHF bands. The manufacturer can specalize solely in those bands and make them perform really well. I haven’t heard it myself, but many hams swear that radios that are dedicated to a subset of bands have better sound, better noise reduction, and better range.

Dedicated radios requires more radios to cover the bands you care about, and that means more expense. Also consider that you’ll need more DC power for multiple radios and sharing antennas can be frustrating without additional equipment (and expense).

Everyone tells me digital modes are great. How do I get a radio for FT8?

Digital modes are great and they’re an excellent way to learn more about how your radio works. FT8 has two main requirements:

A radio that can transmit single sideband (SSB).
A radio with sound input and output.

Be sure to find an all-mode transceiver (discussion on that above) that has some type of audio or control interface. On my old Icom 746, there is a small remote connector on the back so the computer can control the radio itself. There is also an unusual 8-pin accessory plug that handles audio input and output. (I use an awesome sound card cable from xggcomms to transmit audio into my Icom.)

Newer radios have a USB port right there on the back with audio and radio control built in! The Icom 7300 has this feature and it works extremely well. All you need is a cheap USB cable that you can buy anywhere. The audio drivers show up just fine in Linux!

Be sure to connect your audio via USB or some kind of accessory port. Some radios have microphone ports on the front, but that doesn’t work well with FT8. Speech processing, auto gain control, and other fancy features that work wonders for voice transmissions can cause problems for FT8.

Getting started with ham radio repeaters

major@mhtx.net (Major Hayden) — Thu, 13 Dec 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Amateur radio is a fun way to mess around with technology, meet new people, and communicate off the grid. Talking directly to another radio on a single frequency (also called simplex) is the easiest way to get started. However, it can be difficult to communicate over longer distances without amplifiers, proper wiring, and antennas. This is where a radio repeater can help.

What’s in scope

This post is focused on fairly local communication on VHF/UHF bands. The most common frequencies for local communication in these bands are:

2 meters (~144-148MHz)*
70 centimeters (~420-450MHz)*

* NOTE: Always consult the band plan for your area to see which part of the frequency band you could and should use.

Of course, you can do some amazing things with weak signal VHF (which can be used to commuinicate over great distances), but we’re not talking about that here. The HAMSter Amateur Radio Group is a great place to get started with that.

We’re also not talking about radio bands longer than 2 meters (which includes high frequency (HF) bands). Some of those bands require advanced FCC licensing that takes additional studying and practice.

Keeping it simple(x)

Simplex radio involves communication where radios are tuned to a single frequency and only one radio can transmit at a time. This is like a simple walkie-talkie. If one person is transmitting, everyone else listens. If someone else tries to transmit at the same time, then the waves will be garbled and nobody will be able to hear either person. This is often called “doubling up”.

This method works well when radios are in range of each other without a bunch of objects in between. However, it’s difficult to talk via simplex over great distances or around big obstables, such as mountains or hills.

Repeaters

Repeaters are a little more complex to use, but they provide some great benefits. A repeater usually consists of one or two radios, one or two antennas, duplexers, and some other basic equipment. They receive a signel on one frequency and broadcast that same signal on another frequency. They often are mounted high on towers and this gives them a much better reach than antennas on your car or home.

I enjoy using a repeater here in San Antonio called KE5HBB. The repeater has this configuration:

Downlink: 145.370
Uplink: 144.770
Offset: -0.6 MHz
Uplink Tone: 114.8
Downlink Tone: 114.8

Let’s make sense of this data:

Downlink: This is the frequency that the repeater uses to transmit. In other words, when people talk on this repeater, this is the frequency you use to hear them.
Uplink: The receiver listens on this frequency. If you want to talk to people who are listening to this repeater, you need to transmit on this frequency.
Offset: This tells you how to calculate the uplink frequency if it is not shown. This repeater has a negative 0.6 offset, so we can calculate the uplink frequency if it was not provided:

145.370 - 0.600 = 144.770

Uplink/Downlink Tones: Your radio must transmit this tone to open the squelch on the repeater (more on this in a moment). The repeater will use the same tone to transmit, so we can configure our radio to listen for that tone and only open our squelch when it is detected.

Opening the squelch

Transmitting radio waves uses a lot of power and it creates a lot of heat. There are parts of a radio that will wear out much more quickly if a radio is transmitting constantly. This is why receivers have a squelch. This means that a radio must transmit something strong enough on the frequency (or use a tone) to let the repeater know that it needs to repeat something.

You may come across repeaters with no tones listed (sometimes shown as PL). This means that you can just transmit on the uplin frequency and the repeater will repeat your signal. These repeaters are easy to use, but they can create problems.

Imagine if you’re traveling through an area and you’re using a frequency to talk to a friend in another car. As you’re driving, you move in range of a repeater that is listening on that frequeny. Suddenly your conversation is now being broadcasted through the repeater and everyone listening to that repeater must listen to you. This isn’t what you expected and it could be annoying to other listeners.

Also, in crowded urban areas, there’s always a chance that signals might end up on the repeater’s listening frequency unintentionally. That would cause the repeater to start transmitting and it would increase wear.

Two repeaters might be relatively close (or just out of range) and the tone helps each repeater identify its own valid radio traffic.

Tuning the tones

Most repeaters have a tone squelch. That means you can blast them with 100 watts of radio waves and they won’t repeat a thing until you transmit an inaudible tone at the beginning of your transmission.

As an example, in the case of KE5HBB, this tone is 114.8. You must configure a CTCSS tone on your radio so that the tone is transmitted as soon as you begin transmitting. That signals the repeater that it’s time to repeat. These signals aren’t audible to humans.

If you know you’re tuned to the right frequency to transmit (the uplink frequency), but the repeater won’t repeat your traffic, then you are most likely missing a tone. There’s also a chance that you programmed the uplink and downlink tones into your radio in reverse, so check that, too.

Repeater transmit tone

Some receivers will transmit a tone when they broadcast back to you, but some won’t. If you can transmit but you can’t hear anyone else when they talk, double check your radio’s settings for a tone squelch on the receiving side. Your radio can also listen for these tones and only open its squelch when it hears them.

I usually disable receiver squelch for tones on my radio since the repeater operator could disable that feature at any time and I wouldn’t be able to hear any transmissions since my radio would be waiting for the tone.

Testing a repeater

First off, please don’t test a repeater unless you have a proper amateur radio license in your jurisdiction. In the United States, that’s the FCC. Don’t skip this step.

Once you get your repeater’s frequencies programmed into your radio properly and you’ve double checked the settings for sending tones, you can try “breaking the squelch.”

Press the transmit button on your radio briefly for about half second and release. You should hear something when you do this. For some repeaters, you may hear a KERRRCHUNK noise. That’s the sound of the repeater squelch closing the transmission now that you’re done with your transmission. On other repeaters, you may hear some audible tones or beeps as soon as you release the transmit button.

Once you have it working properly, stop breakng the squelch and introduce yourself! For example, when I’m in my car, I might say: “W5WUT mobile and monitoring.” That lets people on the repeater know that I’m there and that I’m moving (so I might not be on for a very long time).

Good luck on the radio waves! 73’s from W5WUT.

Takeaways from my foray into amateur radio

major@mhtx.net (Major Hayden) — Sat, 06 Jan 2018 19:26:53 +0000

The Overland Expo in Asheville last year was a great event, and one of my favorite sessions covered the basics about radio communications while overlanding. The instructors shared their radios with us and taught us some tips and tricks for how to save power and communicate effectively on the trail.

Back at the office, I was surprised to discover how many of my coworkers had an FCC license already. They gave me tips on getting started and how to learn the material for the exam. I took some of my questions to Twitter and had plenty of help pouring in quickly.

This post covers how I studied, what the exam was like, and what I’ve learned after getting on the air.

The basics

FCC licenses in the US for amateur radio operators have multiple levels. Everything starts with the Technician level and you get the most basic access to radio frequencies. From there, you can upgrade (with another exam) to General, and Extra. Each license upgrade opens up more frequencies and privileges.

Studying

A coworker recommended the official ARRL book for the Technician exam and I picked up a paper copy. The content is extremely dry. It was difficult to remain focused for long periods.

The entire exam is available in the public domain, so you can actually go straight to the questions that you’ll see on the exam and study those. I flipped to the question section in the ARRL book and found the questions I could answer easily (mostly about circuits and electrical parts). For each one that was new or difficult, I flipped back in the ARRL book to the discussion in each chapter and learned the material.

I also used HamStudy.org to quickly practice and keep track of my progress. The site has some handy graphs that show you how many questions you’ve seen and what your knowledge level of different topics really is. I kept working through questions on the site until I was regularly getting 90% or higher on the practice tests.

Testing

Before you test, be sure to get a FCC Registration Number (commonly called a FRN). They are free to get and it ensures that you get your license (often called your ’ticket’) as soon as possible. I was told that some examiners won’t offer you a test if you don’t have your FRN already.

The next step is to find an amateur radio exam in your area. Exams are available in the San Antonio area every weekend and they are held by different groups. I took mine with the Radio Operators of South Texas and the examiners were great! Some examiners require you to check in with them so they know you are coming to test, but it’s a good idea to do this anyway. Ask how they want to be paid (cash, check, etc), too.

Be sure to take a couple of pencils, a basic calculator, your government issued ID, your payment, and your FRN to the exam. I forgot the calculator but the examiners had a few extras. The examiners complete some paperwork before your exam, and you select one of the available test versions. Each test contains a randomly selected set of 35 questions from the pool of 350.

Go through the test, carefully read each question, and fill in the answer sheet. Three examiners will grade it when you turn it in, and they will fill out your Certificate of Successful Completion of Examination (CSCE). Hold onto this paper just in case something happens with your FCC paperwork.

The examiners will send your paperwork to the FCC and you should receive a license within two weeks. Mine took about 11-12 business days, but I took it just before Thanksgiving. The FCC will send you a generic email stating that there is a new license available and you can download it directly from the FCC’s website.

Lessons learned on the air

Once I passed the exam and keyed up for the first transmission, I feared a procedural misstep more than anything. What if I say my callsign incorrectly? What if I’m transmitting at a power level that is too high? What power level is too high? What am I doing?!

Everyone has to start somewhere and you’re going to make mistakes. Almost 99.9% of my radio contacts so far have been friendly, forgiving, and patient. I’ve learned a lot from listening to other people and from the feedback I get from radio contacts. Nobody will yell at you for using a repeater when simplex should work. Nobody will yell at you if you blast a repeater with 50 watts when 5 would be fine.

I’m on VHF most often and I’ve found many local repeaters on RepeaterBook. Most of the repeaters in the San Antonio area are busiest during commute times (morning and afternoon) as well as lunchtime. I’ve announced my callsign when the repeater has been quiet for a while and often another radio operator will call back. It’s a good idea to mention that you’re new to amateur radio since that will make it easier for others to accept your mistakes and provide feedback.

when I’m traveling long distances, I monitor the national simplex calling frequency (146.520). That’s the CB equivalent of channel 19 where you can announce yourself and have conversations. In busy urban areas, it’s best to work out another frequency with your contact to keep the calling frequency clear.

My equipment

My first purchase was a (cheap) BTECH UV-5X3. The price is fantastic, but the interface is rough to use. Editing saved channels is nearly impossible and navigating the menus requires a good manual to decipher the options. The manual that comes with it is surprisingly brief. There are some helpful how-to guides from other radio operators on various blogs that can help.

I picked up a Kenwood TM-D710G mobile radio from a coworker and mounted it in the car. I wired it up with Anderson Powerpole connectors and that makes things incredibly easy (and portable). The interface on the Kenwood is light years ahead of the BTECH, but the price is 10x more.

My car has the Comet SBB-5NMO antenna mounted with a Comet CP-5NMO lip mount. It fits well on the rear of the 4Runner.

Managing a lot of repeater frequencies is challenging with both radios (exponentially more so with the BTECH), but the open source CHIRP software works well. I installed it on my Fedora laptop and could manage both radios easily. The BTECH radio requires you to download the entire current configuration, edit it, and upload it to the radio. The Kenwood allows you to make adjustments to the radio in real time (which is excellent for testing).