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On Jun 11, 2014, at 9:14 PM, "Mohd Haizail bin Zainal Abidin haizail@... [FT-60]" < FT-60@...> wrote:
?
Congratulation Rick,
?
I just took my Technician test and got 100%. Then I took my General and just squeaked by and passed. They told me to expect my license in 10 days. On Saturday I should be picking up my FT-60. ? ‘Tis a good day! ? Rick
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Congratulation Rick,
On Thursday, 12 June 2014, 12:05, "'Rick - yahoo' rgsparber.ya@... [FT-60]" wrote:
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I just took my Technician test and got 100%. Then I took my General and just squeaked by and passed. They told me to expect my license in 10 days. On Saturday I should be picking up my FT-60. ? ‘Tis a good day! ? Rick
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WOW,? I'll bet that really bugs the CBers, taxi drivers, wrecker operators, animal control officers, firefighters, police, and anyone else who uses a handheld microphone.
Dave J --------------------------------------
From: "Phil Jenne pjenne@... [FT-60]"
To: FT-60@...
Sent: Wednesday, June 11, 2014 9:37 PM
Subject: Re: [FT-60] Re: External antennas
?
FYI Here in california we have to have hands free devices although the radio is legal to use in your car it can be construed as interfering with driving an ensuing ticket. ?I use a 1/4 wave mag mount and repeater range is about 30-35 miles with it.
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FT-60R:? $139.00 on "Hamcity.com" website... AG6E
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FYI Here in california we have to have hands free devices although the radio is legal to use in your car it can be construed as interfering with driving an ensuing ticket. ?I use a 1/4 wave mag mount and repeater range is about 30-35 miles with it.
On Wed, Jun 11, 2014 at 4:21 PM, rcochran@... [FT-60] <FT-60@...> wrote:
?
Any mag mount quarter-wave antenna should be a huge improvement over the rubber duck, especially the rubber duck inside a car's Faraday cage.? I don't have a specific brand recommendation, but I do recommend getting an external antenna.? If it's just for the FT-60, you don't need an antenna capable of handling high power, so consider that as you shop.
? Some anecdotal evidence: From my home, I can see the local repeater I most often use, on a hilltop about 2 miles away.? I'm in an?area with excellent coverage.? With a homemade?rooftop jpole?(copper cactus), 500mW is reliably full quieting, and I don't have equipment that I can turn down lower than that to see?just how little power it requires.? With the rubber duck antenna, standing outdoors, 5 watts is?reliably copyable, but not always full quieting.? Take the rubber duck inside the closed?car, and 5 watts won't always be copyable.? It's been a while since I played with a rooftop magmount, but if I recall correctly, it performed nearly as well as the jpole.
? While you're antenna shopping, consider getting a longer "rubber duck" style whip, about 19" long.? The diamond?SRH77CA is one popular model.? It's a little more cumbersome than the factory rubber duck, but offers a significant signal improvement while handheld.? It's my default antenna when using the?FT-60?handheld -- I only use the factory one when I really value portability over signal quality.
? 73 de AG6QR ---In FT-60@..., wrote : Even though I don't have my radio in hand yet (HRO $162 including tax), I'm already thinking about buying or making a 2m / 70 cm magnetic base antenna for my car. There are plenty of plans on line but I also see that Amazon has one for $16 including shipping.
I expect to mostly use my radio around Phoenix where the repeaters might let me operate with just the rubber duck inside my car. I will try that before buying an external antenna. On rare occasions I drive to Tucson and see value in an external antenna for that trip.
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I just took my Technician test and got 100%. Then I took my General and just squeaked by and passed. They told me to expect my license in 10 days. On Saturday I should be picking up my FT-60. ? ‘Tis a good day! ? Rick
|
Any mag mount quarter-wave antenna should be a huge improvement over the rubber duck, especially the rubber duck inside a car's Faraday cage.? I don't have a specific brand recommendation, but I do recommend getting an external antenna.? If it's just for the FT-60, you don't need an antenna capable of handling high power, so consider that as you shop. ? Some anecdotal evidence: From my home, I can see the local repeater I most often use, on a hilltop about 2 miles away.? I'm in an?area with excellent coverage.? With a homemade?rooftop jpole?(copper cactus), 500mW is reliably full quieting, and I don't have equipment that I can turn down lower than that to see?just how little power it requires.? With the rubber duck antenna, standing outdoors, 5 watts is?reliably copyable, but not always full quieting.? Take the rubber duck inside the closed?car, and 5 watts won't always be copyable.? It's been a while since I played with a rooftop magmount, but if I recall correctly, it performed nearly as well as the jpole. ? While you're antenna shopping, consider getting a longer "rubber duck" style whip, about 19" long.? The diamond?SRH77CA is one popular model.? It's a little more cumbersome than the factory rubber duck, but offers a significant signal improvement while handheld.? It's my default antenna when using the?FT-60?handheld -- I only use the factory one when I really value portability over signal quality. ? 73 de AG6QR ---In FT-60@..., <rgsparber.ya@...> wrote : Even though I don't have my radio in hand yet (HRO $162 including tax), I'm already thinking about buying or making a 2m / 70 cm magnetic base antenna for my car. There are plenty of plans on line but I also see that Amazon has one for $16 including shipping.
I expect to mostly use my radio around Phoenix where the repeaters might let me operate with just the rubber duck inside my car. I will try that before buying an external antenna. On rare occasions I drive to Tucson and see value in an external antenna for that trip.
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Take a look at
Hang in there
John AC8JW
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Even though I don't have my radio in hand yet (HRO $162 including tax), I'm already thinking about buying or making a 2m / 70 cm magnetic base antenna for my car. There are plenty of plans on line but I also see that Amazon has one for $16 including shipping.
I expect to mostly use my radio around Phoenix where the repeaters might let me operate with just the rubber duck inside my car. I will try that before buying an external antenna. On rare occasions I drive to Tucson and see value in an external antenna for that trip.
What is popular?
Rick
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Neil
Do you mean no handheld repeater coverage or none at all. I lived near Saskatoon and recently moved back to the Red Deer area and drove all kinds of side roads in the Lloyd area.... also I may have a yaesu FT-857D for sale if you are looking for something used but in good shape for HF.
Kevin
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And I would like to use my US model for AF MARS operations. ? ? That said, when I read the various reports on mods.dk ?I'm unsure if the mod will work. Has anyone on this group had experience in this area with this radio ?
And YES i'm well aware that neither this mod (nor any mod) will make this set legal for CAP. Indeed the term MARS/CAP mod is an obsolete term and inaccurate in all cases when applied to amateur radio gear. ? ?MARS, yes, ?in many cases. ? ? CAP, no longer. ?
N0GMP ?// ?AFA8CI Dave J ================================
From: "Jardy Dawson JARDY72@... [FT-60]"
To:
"FT-60@..."
Sent: Tuesday, June 10, 2014 2:22 PM
Subject: Re: [FT-60] UK FT60R to US Spec?
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Check for info. Jardy Dawson WA7JRD Ham Radio
Sent by underground messengers via the worm people.
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Has anyone worked out how to convert a UK FT60R to US spec, please?
All I can find on the internet are details to extend US spec. radio coverage. This may work on UK spec and do the job, has anyone tried that? (removing R1164)
I would like to use the radio on trips to the USA.
73 Brian G8OSN/W8OSN
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Check for info. Jardy Dawson WA7JRD Ham Radio
Sent by underground messengers via the worm people.
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On Jun 10, 2014, at 13:13, " g8osn@... [FT-60]" < FT-60@...> wrote:
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Has anyone worked out how to convert a UK FT60R to US spec, please?
All I can find on the internet are details to extend US spec. radio coverage. This may work on UK spec and do the job, has anyone tried that? (removing R1164)
I would like to use the radio on trips to the USA.
73 Brian G8OSN/W8OSN
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Has anyone worked out how to convert a UK FT60R to US spec, please?
All I can find on the internet are details to extend US spec. radio coverage. This may work on UK spec and do the job, has anyone tried that? (removing R1164)
I would like to use the radio on trips to the USA.
73 Brian G8OSN/W8OSN
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If you will note the callsign at the bottom of his post, he is in Canada where they have a Basic license and an Advanced licensed.
73, Jim K5JG
'Rick - yahoo' rgsparber.ya@... [FT-60] wrote:
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Neil,
You say you passed the “Basic” exam. Do you mean the Technician exam?
Do you have a CW rig in mind or are you just working on learning Morse Code right now? I find the Pixie 2 a rather interesting flea powered transceiver. I also see at least one web based company willing to teach me Morse Code in exchange for $$.
73,
Rick
*From:* FT-60@... [mailto:FT-60@...]
*Sent:* Sunday, June 08, 2014 9:22 PM
*To:* FT-60@...
*Subject:* [FT-60] Re: general question
Hi all:
I'll still a newbie; only 13 months at the radio. I have been aware of amateur radio for 40 years - a friend, and then an employer, were both hams, but I didn't have much to say, so never pursued it.
In January 2013, I heard of a local class, and decided to enrol to keep the little grey cells busy. I passed the exam, and bought an FT-60 as soon as I could. It's a sturdy, capable radio, and I love it. But it does get warm during extended conversations.
I wanted to use the radio for emergency communications at one particular location, but there are no repeaters that I can hit, so I'm now looking at HF to deal with emergencies there (it is 40km south of Lloydminster SK, about 3 km east of the middle of nowhere).
Since I passed the Basic exam, I have been using my new skill for public service and personal communication with friends, and I'm ready to help with emergencies; no emergencies yet, thank goodness, but new friends abound, and I have recanted made contact with a friend of the former employer. He used to come to the store on Saturdays to meet the boss and several other hams.
I'm also working on CW, as gain to keep the little grey cells working.
73,
Neil Slater
VA5SCA
SKCC 12198
Sent via Morse Code, assisted by slide rule and abacus.
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Rick:
I'm in Canada, and the terms are different. If we pass the Basic exam with 70-80%, we are allowed access to 50Mhz and up, and a maximum of, I think, 250 watts. At that level, we are allowed to build kit radios, but not modify them.
If we ge over 80% on the exam, we get the Basic with honours certificate, and are allowed to use all frequencies.
The second exam is the Advanced one; passing that lets us use higher power, home-built and modified rigs, club stations,and repeaters.
There's an optional 5wpm Morse Code exam but we are not required to take that exam to use CW.
I haven't heard of the Pixie 2; I'll have to check it out. I think I'm leaning toward one of the tuna tin QRP rigs.
For now, though, I am still trying to learn CW on the website www.lcwo.net. There are many sites that help one learn CW, but won't play nice with our Macs.
Cheers and 73,
Neil
VA5SCA
Sent via Morse Code, assisted by slide rule and abacus.
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On Jun 10, 2014, at 1:44 AM, FT-60@... wrote:
Posted by: "Rick - yahoo"
Date: Mon Jun 9, 2014 8:00 pm ((PDT))
Neil,
You say you passed the "Basic" exam. Do you mean the Technician exam?
Do you have a CW rig in mind or are you just working on learning Morse Code
right now? I find the Pixie 2 a rather interesting flea powered transceiver.
I also see at least one web based company willing to teach me Morse Code in
exchange for $$. 73,
Rick
|
Neil, ? You say you passed the “Basic” exam. Do you mean the Technician exam? ? Do you have a CW rig in mind or are you just working on learning Morse Code right now? I find the Pixie 2 a rather interesting flea powered transceiver. I also see at least one web based company willing to teach me Morse Code in exchange for $$. ? 73, ? Rick ?
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From: FT-60@... [mailto:FT-60@...]
Sent: Sunday, June 08, 2014 9:22 PM
To: FT-60@...
Subject: [FT-60] Re: general question? ? Hi all:
I'll still a newbie; only 13 months at the radio. I have been aware of amateur radio for 40 years - a friend, and then an employer, were both hams, but I didn't have much to say, so never pursued it.
In January 2013, I heard of a local class, and decided to enrol to keep the little grey cells busy. I passed the exam, and bought an FT-60 as soon as I could. It's a sturdy, capable radio, and I love it. But it does get warm during extended conversations.
I wanted to use the radio for emergency communications at one particular location, but there are no repeaters that I can hit, so I'm now looking at HF to deal with emergencies there (it is 40km south of Lloydminster SK, about 3 km east of the middle of nowhere).
Since I passed the Basic exam, I have been using my new skill for public service and personal communication with friends, and I'm ready to help with emergencies; no emergencies yet, thank goodness, but new friends abound, and I have recanted made contact with a friend of the former employer. He used to come to the store on Saturdays to meet the boss and several other hams.
I'm also working on CW, as gain to keep the little grey cells working.
73,
Neil Slater
VA5SCA
SKCC 12198
Sent via Morse Code, assisted by slide rule and abacus.
|
Hi all:
I'll still a newbie; only 13 months at the radio. I have been aware of amateur radio for 40 years - a friend, and then an employer, were both hams, but I didn't have much to say, so never pursued it.
In January 2013, I heard of a local class, and decided to enrol to keep the little grey cells busy. I passed the exam, and bought an FT-60 as soon as I could. It's a sturdy, capable radio, and I love it. But it does get warm during extended conversations.
I wanted to use the radio for emergency communications at one particular location, but there are no repeaters that I can hit, so I'm now looking at HF to deal with emergencies there (it is 40km south of Lloydminster SK, about 3 km east of the middle of nowhere).
Since I passed the Basic exam, I have been using my new skill for public service and personal communication with friends, and I'm ready to help with emergencies; no emergencies yet, thank goodness, but new friends abound, and I have recanted made contact with a friend of the former employer. He used to come to the store on Saturdays to meet the boss and several other hams.
I'm also working on CW, as gain to keep the little grey cells working.
73,
Neil Slater
VA5SCA
SKCC 12198
Sent via Morse Code, assisted by slide rule and abacus.
|
Gil,
It is great to hear about young students getting interested in science. Often they just need a little exposure and then we can stand back and let them discover on their own.?
Yes, I teach part time at South Mountain Community College and hitch a ride with Jack twice a year. On one of his weather balloons. ?It is a wonderful experience for both my students and me. For the last few semesters we have had a team of students flying a GPS payload with packet radio. They are all on a first name basis with "Murphy" :-). Obviously, the team has at least one ham. Jack runs a digipeater in his truck and the team picks it up from there.?
Thanks for the correction about CW bandwidth. Makes perfect sense. Zero bandwidth means zero information transfer. Going with slow transitions will reduce bandwidth.?
When I started working in 1973, TTYs were still being used in the telephone switching machines we designed. Although my degrees and profession is analog circuit design, my hobby is metal working as in making machine tools. After I buy my FT-60, I might get a Pixie 2 kit.
Rick
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On Jun 8, 2014, at 9:56 AM, "'Gil Smith' gil@... [FT-60]" < FT-60@...> wrote:
?
Hi Rick:?
Well, I became a ham last November, to go fly a high-altitude balloon for my daughter's high-school science fair (she took first in state in the Earth and Planetary Science category, and even got on TV).? BTW, I am also in the Phoenix area, and have been out with Jack's folks on one of their launches -- so you are with a school flying experiments on ansr periodically?? Which school?
I have also been around hams for years, but the code requirement kept me from getting motivated years back, and then life just got busy.? But I now plan to learn more and maybe try some HF stuff.? I am also helping my 14yo son to get his license this summer.
I have also collected teletype machines for years (M14/15/28/31/33/35...) and am moderator of a tty email list called greenkeys.? I have a horribly-ancient and incomplete site at , which desperately needs a wordpress makeover (on my to-do list).
Also, I would also like to try some rtty with a real tty machine and a couple of other tty guys around here.? I have an old HF transceiver and a dovetron TU (that needs to be fixed first, or I need to build a modern version).? Would also be interesting to try rtty on a 2m freq that allow data.
Anyway, that is my ham story so far.
BTW, your comment about CW having a theoretical bandwidth of zero is not correct.? True, a constant carrier has zero bandwidth, but once you key it on and off is is a form of AM.? If you watched on a spectrum analyzer you would not simply see the carrier line going up and down.? You would see sidebands splattering on both sides as you key, you would see the carrier-only line as you held it down, and sidebands briefly again as you release.? If you are keying at a fixed frequency, say 20 Hz, you have sidebands at carrier +/- 20 Hz (AM mod is just a mixer).? Since you are keying with varying pulse widths, your sidebands will have a range of components up to the highest freq.? You can suppress the carrier, since the information is in the sidebands, and since the upper and lower sb have the same data, you can filter one of those out as well (SSB suppressed carrier) -- this can reduce cw bw to a pretty low slice, but never down to zero.? Also, the keying waveform is usually configured in a real cw tx to shape the keying edges with an S-shaped transition and not a hard edge -- this produces more-pleasant receive cw I am told, but that keying transition further complicates the freq content of the sidebands.? That is how I understand it at least -- if anyone has corrections, please let me know.
gil, af7ez
----- >I have been around hams all of my life. Growing up, two houses down was a
>ham. My brother-in-law has been a ham since he was in high school so my wife
>actually picked up a lot of information from him. I studied analog circuit
>design and RF in college. So I understand some of the technical aspects of
>being a ham.
>...
>My immediate motivation is because some of my students are required to get
>their license in order to operate APRS during weather balloon flights
>(/ ). It was getting embarrassing to tell them that I
>didn't have my license.
>
>So what makes you guys "tick"? ? What got you interested in being a ham? ----------
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Hi Rick:?
Well, I became a ham last November, to go fly a high-altitude balloon for my daughter's high-school science fair (she took first in state in the Earth and Planetary Science category, and even got on TV).? BTW, I am also in the Phoenix area, and have been out with Jack's folks on one of their launches -- so you are with a school flying experiments on ansr periodically?? Which school?
I have also been around hams for years, but the code requirement kept me from getting motivated years back, and then life just got busy.? But I now plan to learn more and maybe try some HF stuff.? I am also helping my 14yo son to get his license this summer.
I have also collected teletype machines for years (M14/15/28/31/33/35...) and am moderator of a tty email list called greenkeys.? I have a horribly-ancient and incomplete site at , which desperately needs a wordpress makeover (on my to-do list).
Also, I would also like to try some rtty with a real tty machine and a couple of other tty guys around here.? I have an old HF transceiver and a dovetron TU (that needs to be fixed first, or I need to build a modern version).? Would also be interesting to try rtty on a 2m freq that allow data.
Anyway, that is my ham story so far.
BTW, your comment about CW having a theoretical bandwidth of zero is not correct.? True, a constant carrier has zero bandwidth, but once you key it on and off is is a form of AM.? If you watched on a spectrum analyzer you would not simply see the carrier line going up and down.? You would see sidebands splattering on both sides as you key, you would see the carrier-only line as you held it down, and sidebands briefly again as you release.? If you are keying at a fixed frequency, say 20 Hz, you have sidebands at carrier +/- 20 Hz (AM mod is just a mixer).? Since you are keying with varying pulse widths, your sidebands will have a range of components up to the highest freq.? You can suppress the carrier, since the information is in the sidebands, and since the upper and lower sb have the same data, you can filter one of those out as well (SSB suppressed carrier) -- this can reduce cw bw to a pretty low slice, but never down to zero.? Also, the keying waveform is usually configured in a real cw tx to shape the keying edges with an S-shaped transition and not a hard edge -- this produces more-pleasant receive cw I am told, but that keying transition further complicates the freq content of the sidebands.? That is how I understand it at least -- if anyone has corrections, please let me know.
gil, af7ez
----- >I have been around hams all of my life. Growing up, two houses down was a
>ham. My brother-in-law has been a ham since he was in high school so my wife
>actually picked up a lot of information from him. I studied analog circuit
>design and RF in college. So I understand some of the technical aspects of
>being a ham.
>...
>My immediate motivation is because some of my students are required to get
>their license in order to operate APRS during weather balloon flights
>(/ ). It was getting embarrassing to tell them that I
>didn't have my license.
>
>So what makes you guys "tick"? ? What got you interested in being a ham? ----------
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Dave Jeffries AF0DJ