Posted: 8/16/2011 1:08:17 PM EDT
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Who here is a ham?
Active or no? Is there an Iowa Ham thread? Wonder if we should try to get a net sometime just for grins and giggles. Right now, I'd have to do it on VHF/UHF as I do not have any HF equipment. The Skywarn net covers a large portion of Iowa, but not all. Just passed my General last Saturday so haven't dived in yet. Thoughts? Greg |
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I know that HF would work better, but betting that I am not the only one not on HF.
The Skywarn does a "pretty" good job of covering, but still is lots of uncovered areas, especially since DMX really only covers the middle swath of the state. A guy in our club has offered to let me use a rig for a while and I might take him up on it. Will have to just use a temp antenna when I want to do any comms. Anyone ever do EchoLink? I got it installed and running on my laptop... right before I had a bit of a dropping incident and HDD failure. Have it installed on new drive but not getting it to work. *Note to self, take notes this time about what it took to get it going and start using that backup you promised yourself you would when you go the machine back up and running. |
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I know that HF would work better, but betting that I am not the only one not on HF. The Skywarn does a "pretty" good job of covering, but still is lots of uncovered areas, especially since DMX really only covers the middle swath of the state. A guy in our club has offered to let me use a rig for a while and I might take him up on it. Will have to just use a temp antenna when I want to do any comms. Anyone ever do EchoLink? I got it installed and running on my laptop... right before I had a bit of a dropping incident and HDD failure. Have it installed on new drive but not getting it to work. *Note to self, take notes this time about what it took to get it going and start using that backup you promised yourself you would when you go the machine back up and running. I played with Echolink briefly when it first came out and quickly lost interest in it. Part of that reason was because of constant technical problems, sort of like you're experiencing right now, but the biggest reason was I don't really see the point of it. |
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It's always run fine once I got it running.
It's figuring out what the initial settings need to be for some reason, and that may be related to the laptop as it installed and ran fine on my no longer used server. Do you need any aluminum antenna poles like those used by the military? Guy on ebay has a 30 pack of them that would work out to $6-ish each but I only want 12 or 13. |
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What are you doing to study? I first tried doing the cram test method which I was told to try but I didn't get anything out of getting my answers wrong over and over again. So now I'm reading "The Ham Whisperer's Technician Class License Course" and I like how it's setup because I'm actually understanding what it's trying to convey. |
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[I really would like to get into ham, but I'm completely stupid about it. Any forums you guys recommend? http://www.qrz.com/ http://www.eham.net/ http://www.arrl.org/ |
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No Ham for me , against my religon. 
R Asalaam Alaikum http://i835.photobucket.com/albums/zz277/cavscouty/DSCI0680.jpg Romper Room, what kind of peoples have you been hanging out with? I really would like to get into ham, but I'm completely stupid about it. Any forums you guys recommend? We have a very good one here,look in the outdoor section for the ham forum 
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No Ham for me , against my religon.
R Asalaam Alaikum http://i835.photobucket.com/albums/zz277/cavscouty/DSCI0680.jpg Romper Room, what kind of peoples have you been hanging out with? I really would like to get into ham, but I'm completely stupid about it. Any forums you guys recommend? We have a very good one here,look in the outdoor section for the ham forum I'll be damned your right, I didn't even know that existed. That pretty well shows that about the only place I ever go on ARFCOM is right here in th HTF. |
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No Ham for me , against my religon.
R Asalaam Alaikum http://i835.photobucket.com/albums/zz277/cavscouty/DSCI0680.jpg Romper Room, what kind of peoples have you been hanging out with? I really would like to get into ham, but I'm completely stupid about it. Any forums you guys recommend? Sorry all, inside joke at CCA.....and I couldn't resist. R |
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No Ham for me , against my religon.
R Asalaam Alaikum http://i835.photobucket.com/albums/zz277/cavscouty/DSCI0680.jpg Romper Room, what kind of peoples have you been hanging out with? I really would like to get into ham, but I'm completely stupid about it. Any forums you guys recommend? Sorry all, inside joke at CCA.....and I couldn't resist. R "A pig is a filthy animal." I don't dig on swine. |
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No Ham for me , against my religon.
R Asalaam Alaikum http://i835.photobucket.com/albums/zz277/cavscouty/DSCI0680.jpg Romper Room, what kind of peoples have you been hanging out with? I really would like to get into ham, but I'm completely stupid about it. Any forums you guys recommend? Sorry all, inside joke at CCA.....and I couldn't resist. R "A pig is a filthy animal." I don't dig on swine. English motherf***er,do you speak it!
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Long post, sorry.
I'm good at them. Quoted:
I really would like to get into ham, but I'm completely stupid about it. Any forums you guys recommend? Take a look at www.hamtestonline.com. Sign up for it and take a practice exam to see where you are. Then spend most of your time in Study mode. It'll show you your progress; when you get to about 80%, try some practice exams. When you get consistently above 90%, go take the test. There are a couple of lines of thought on the tests. #1 are the purists. They believe that you need to have a good working understanding of stuff before you get each level of license. You take the exam as a way to demonstrate you have a handle on things. I guess if you think this way, you'd study all of the material until you've got it and then test without ever taking a practice exam. There is A LOT of stuff to learn and most of it you will not have any more interest in than maybe reading something over and thinking "that's cool". You will run into these guys just like some gun guys. If you don't know every little thing or cannot do the calculations in your head without looking something up, you're polluting their hobby. #2 I don't know what to call, but I belong to them. The test is just a written test; it really does nothing more than test your ability to remember answers to questions that are easily available for you to use and rememberize. Taking and passing the test is your ticket in to explore and discover what you are interested in and want to learn more about. Preparing for the exam you will learn the basics of what you can and cannot do as far as power levels, how to make contacts, what bands you can use, and whatnot. I got into ham simply to use APRS to track rockets and balloons; I could not have cared less for any voice comms. But..., you know how it is, I tried it... I learnt a bit more about it... Now it's as big a money pit as rockets and guns. Be warned about that. 
Test prices vary; the FCC sets the maximum amount that groups can charge and most charge the max amount, which is $15 right now. Some charge less or even not at all. When you take a test, if you pass, you can take the next level for no additional cost at the same test session. For instance, if you go in to take the Tech and pass, you can take the General for no more money. If you were to pass that, you could take the Extra. When I took the General and passed I tried the Extra and FLA-UNKED! 
The other guy that was there took and passed his Tech then took and passed his General. He opted to not try the Extra. There are actually quite a few people that go from nothing to General or even Extra in one session. Not knowing many people here personally, I would say that what I've learned about you guys online, most of you could easily pass the Tech with not a whole lot of work. I prepared this a couple of years ago for a friend. http://www.grburnett.us/ham/techniciantesttips.pdf <<== This is out of date. The answer suggestions are mostly correct but not completely. Since I did it, the question pool has changed so the last five may not be correct anymore. The rest is still usable. IIRC, I figured at the time that if you knew nothing else about it, the tips would get you 7-10 correct answers by itself. You need 26 out of 35. Good luck to anyone that tries and keep us up to date. WØGRB These test tips are updated as of today. Updated Tech Test Tips Not as many "answer this and you'll get it right"s in the new version. |
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Another one here!
I used to be really active on the Arfcom HF nets. We even had an Echolink net for a while too. I'm on the North side of DM and have a station that will do HF, 2M, and 440. Don't get on much lately and enjoy working on radios more than using them. |
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UPDATED TECH TEST TIPS
http://www.grburnett.us/ham/techtesttips2010_2014.pdf |
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Considering all the info is a matter public record at the FCC site, I guess I'm not too worried about it.
Go to www.city-data.com and enter "Rockford, IA" in to the search box, then scroll to just above the bottom and my info is there. Works for every city I've tried; you just have to enter the name of the city, not the zip code. As long as the ham has updated their info with the FCC, it's there. Right ST13?
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Ham: yes Active: no And I don't think it is a good idea to post callsigns. Too easy to find out where you live from it. I was in a discussion about the subject of call signs on the internet with another ham on a different gun forum. In about 10 minutes flat with very few clues I had figured out his call sign which obviously led me directly to his full name, address, GPS coordinates and a nice view of his home on Google Earth. If you're a ham and you think you have anonymity you're fooling yourself. |
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And I don't think it is a good idea to post callsigns. Too easy to find out where you live from it. can't the white pages or google do the same thing? You won't get very far trying to look up The_Reaper in the white pages. you're right. i just tried. ...nothing. but what i did find where a half million other addresses with names. so why the tinfoil hat? |
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Michael, I mean Septic, we all have different comfort levels when it comes to giving out personal info.
I only post your first name because you have already done so many times. I would not post someones real name or call sign unless they freely do so already. I've met many people from here on the air and would gladly do so again. They know my personal info and it's associated with my screen name. So will anyone else following the "Who's On The Air" thread and listing on the air. I'm not worried about any of those things. What I don't want is my screen name and call sign (personal info) permanently stored for search engines to dig up for someone years down the road. There are many bad reasons that might be handy for someone. Sure, most are unlikely, but I'm just not comfortable with that. I'm pretty good at looking up things about people online and honestly wish I'd separated even more things over the years. So if anyone wants my call sign, feel free to PM me and I'll give it to you. I just don't want it available for others I don't know, tied to this screen name. I also wish I'd picked a different screen name. I never even intended to post when I signed on here. 
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And I don't think it is a good idea to post callsigns. Too easy to find out where you live from it. can't the white pages or google do the same thing? You won't get very far trying to look up The_Reaper in the white pages. you're right. i just tried. ...nothing. but what i did find where a half million other addresses with names. so why the tinfoil hat? In a different thread I might have posted about all the gold coins, cash, and guns have laying around, that I don't have a security system, I'm never home after dark, and I live in a secluded neighborhood. Some people go out of their way to maintain some anonymity and privacy while posting here. Some people might not have been aware that their home address is easily found from their ham call sign. If you or anyone else want to tell the world where you live, I'm not standing in your way. |
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no, no, no... i DO understand exactly what you're saying and why. agree 100%... but everyone here has a license plate on their car, and you can track a guy down with the same effort. none of you are spraying flat black paint over your tin plate, so what is the difference? maybe there is some small comfort for us individually, but you aren't stopping anyone who wants to know about you from doing so. we, correctly i might add, argue all the time that guns don't kill people, people do. we argue with the antis that people who really want to do harm will do so unless we are there to stop them from doing it to us. so if a guy wants to find out where you live, then it will happen.
i don't suppose i'd give out my cc information, address, and the cvw on the back of my card, but having access to somebody's address is elementary... i'm sure you guys don't actually think there is a layer of intact safety as a result of your 'no call sign' policy do you? Quoted:
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And I don't think it is a good idea to post callsigns. Too easy to find out where you live from it. can't the white pages or google do the same thing? You won't get very far trying to look up The_Reaper in the white pages. you're right. i just tried. ...nothing. but what i did find where a half million other addresses with names. so why the tinfoil hat? In a different thread I might have posted about all the gold coins, cash, and guns have laying around, that I don't have a security system, I'm never home after dark, and I live in a secluded neighborhood. Some people go out of their way to maintain some anonymity and privacy while posting here. Some people might not have been aware that their home address is easily found from their ham call sign. If you or anyone else want to tell the world where you live, I'm not standing in your way. |
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It's just what I'm comfortable with, that's all.
LEO usually have unlisted phone numbers to help protect them from the criminals they catch, but if they own a home you can find it on the county assessor's site just by their name which they must give to the criminal. Sometimes with a picture of the house and their police cruiser sitting outside. I've met you a couple times and you're a great guy, Septic. Very outgoing and personable. I'm more private and introverted. Perhaps naively cautious or paranoid, who knows. We're all different. |
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I don't attach photos of firearms or other valuable property on the side of my car.
I won't even apply my NRA logo to my car. It is primarily so I'm not harassed by police, but also because the general public doesn't need to believe there might be a gun in my car, or my home, to steal. Plus, to my knowledge, obtaining a home address from a ham call sign is easy and doesn't cost anything. Getting a home address from a license plate is considerably more complicated. Besides, photos of my vehicles I have posted here have the license plates blurred out. The difference is in the degrees of separation. Would you print a list of firearms you own with your home address in your local newspaper? Most people here won't even do a face to face Craigslist sale at their home to maintain anonymity. Quoted:
no, no, no... i DO understand exactly what you're saying and why. agree 100%... but everyone here has a license plate on their car, and you can track a guy down with the same effort. none of you are spraying flat black paint over your tin plate, so what is the difference? maybe there is some small comfort for us individually, but you aren't stopping anyone who wants to know about you from doing so. we, correctly i might add, argue all the time that guns don't kill people, people do. we argue with the antis that people who really want to do harm will do so unless we are there to stop them from doing it to us. so if a guy wants to find out where you live, then it will happen. i don't suppose i'd give out my cc information, address, and the cvw on the back of my card, but having access to somebody's address is elementary... i'm sure you guys don't actually think there is a layer of intact safety as a result of your 'no call sign' policy do you? Quoted:
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And I don't think it is a good idea to post callsigns. Too easy to find out where you live from it. can't the white pages or google do the same thing? You won't get very far trying to look up The_Reaper in the white pages. you're right. i just tried. ...nothing. but what i did find where a half million other addresses with names. so why the tinfoil hat? In a different thread I might have posted about all the gold coins, cash, and guns have laying around, that I don't have a security system, I'm never home after dark, and I live in a secluded neighborhood. Some people go out of their way to maintain some anonymity and privacy while posting here. Some people might not have been aware that their home address is easily found from their ham call sign. If you or anyone else want to tell the world where you live, I'm not standing in your way. |
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Quoted: Considering all the info is a matter public record at the FCC site, I guess I'm not too worried about it. Go to www.city-data.com and enter "Rockford, IA" in to the search box, then scroll to just above the bottom and my info is there. Works for every city I've tried; you just have to enter the name of the city, not the zip code. As long as the ham has updated their info with the FCC, it's there. Right ST13? I see that my uncle still has his call sign. |
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fair enough...
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I don't attach photos of firearms or other valuable property on the side of my car. I won't even apply my NRA logo to my car. It is primarily so I'm not harassed by police, but also because the general public doesn't need to believe there might be a gun in my car, or my home, to steal. Plus, to my knowledge, obtaining a home address from a ham call sign is easy and doesn't cost anything. Getting a home address from a license plate is considerably more complicated. Besides, photos of my vehicles I have posted here have the license plates blurred out. The difference is in the degrees of separation. Would you print a list of firearms you own with your home address in your local newspaper? Most people here won't even do a face to face Craigslist sale at their home to maintain anonymity. Quoted:
no, no, no... i DO understand exactly what you're saying and why. agree 100%... but everyone here has a license plate on their car, and you can track a guy down with the same effort. none of you are spraying flat black paint over your tin plate, so what is the difference? maybe there is some small comfort for us individually, but you aren't stopping anyone who wants to know about you from doing so. we, correctly i might add, argue all the time that guns don't kill people, people do. we argue with the antis that people who really want to do harm will do so unless we are there to stop them from doing it to us. so if a guy wants to find out where you live, then it will happen. i don't suppose i'd give out my cc information, address, and the cvw on the back of my card, but having access to somebody's address is elementary... i'm sure you guys don't actually think there is a layer of intact safety as a result of your 'no call sign' policy do you? Quoted:
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And I don't think it is a good idea to post callsigns. Too easy to find out where you live from it. can't the white pages or google do the same thing? You won't get very far trying to look up The_Reaper in the white pages. you're right. i just tried. ...nothing. but what i did find where a half million other addresses with names. so why the tinfoil hat? In a different thread I might have posted about all the gold coins, cash, and guns have laying around, that I don't have a security system, I'm never home after dark, and I live in a secluded neighborhood. Some people go out of their way to maintain some anonymity and privacy while posting here. Some people might not have been aware that their home address is easily found from their ham call sign. If you or anyone else want to tell the world where you live, I'm not standing in your way. |