A few links to get you started:
International
Phonetic Alphabet - ever wonder why Amateur Radio sounds a bit
strange from time to time?
Morse
Code - ever wondered what all those strange beeps were about?
American
Radio Relay League - An organization dedicated to Amateur Radio.
This link is a good starting point for more information.
eHam.net
- An additional resource for Amateur Radio
QRZ
- More good information for Amateur Radio
Part
97 - a list of the rules governing Amateur Radio Operation
Amateur
Radio Emergency Service Page
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Amateur Callsigns:
How do They Work?
Every amateur
station must have a callsign, which is issued along with its license. No
two stations can hold the same callsign at the same time. In the US, the
callsigns begin with A, K, N or W, followed by a number, or two letters
followed by a number. The first part is known as the prefix and looks
like W4, KG4, N4, etc. This prefix is then followed by a
combination of 1-3 letters, so that the whole callsign looks like W4FWD,
KG4XXX, or N4DYR.
Other countries use
other letters or combinations of letters and numbers in their prefixes.
Examples of foreign callsigns are G4YYW (England,) DL3ABC (Germany,) 5B4AB
(Cyprus) or 4X4AB (Israel.) To see how this works, look at the full countries
list on the ARRL web site.
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Listening in on
Hams
Maybe you like the
idea of becoming a ham operator, but never really heard any hams on the
air. Well, if you have a scanning receiver, or a short- wave receiver with
a single-sideband (SSB) mode, then you're already on your way.
While hams can use
many different modes and frequencies, here are the two most common:
-
Frequency
modulation (FM) in the 144-148 megahertz (MHz) band . This is also
known as the two-meter band because of the wavelength of the
transmissions.
-
Single-sideband
(SSB) voice on several short-wave (usually called HF or high
frequency) bands.
If you have a
scanner, you'll find that most of the activity is on the repeaters. A
repeater is a shared station that picks up and relays the signals from
hams all over a local area, to give them improved coverage. Repeaters can
be found between 145.000 and 148.000 MHz on your scanner. An outdoor
antenna is best, but you should be able to hear local repeaters on the
antenna that came with the scanner. The WGARS repeater, W4FWD, can be
found on 146.640 MHz on your scanner.
If you have a
shortwave (HF) receiver capable of receiving single-sideband (SSB)
transmissions, then the frequencies where you're most likely to hear hams
are these:
-
3.750-4.000 MHz
-
7.150-7.300 MHz
-
14.150-14.300
MHz
There are many other
frequencies, but these will get you started. One thing you should know is
that not all of these frequencies have activity on them all the time.
Radio reception on these bands depends on the time of day, the season, and
even varies from year to year according to how active sunspots are that
year.
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