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oohrah wrote: ↑Fri Jan 11, 2019 11:04 am As I read the proposed bill, it is a defense to prosecution if one used a hands free device, and in the bill it defines a hands free device as including a push-to-talk function. Since almost all mobile vhf/uhf ham radios art PTT, we are not really affected.

However, this is an onerous bill which could have far-reaching unintended consequences. I am writing my Senator.

.. a handsfree PTT foot switch fits that description ...

some radios now have the tnc built right into the radio

Do any bands allow for DX (for me, over 100 miles) regardless of the solar cycle?

Well. it may be considered cheating (probably don't do it contesting), but Echolink uses VOIP voice over Internet Protocol (using a cell phone, tablet, laptop or any computer on the Internet) and connects with 2 meter 70cm repeaters worldwide.

The other bands allowing DX via radio waves depend on propagation weather, sun, temperature inversions etc.
time of day affects it too.
Early morning I aim my TV antenna at San Antonio and Houston from Austin area, and I can tell by that whether I'll be hearing California or talking on the Brownwood Texas repeater on 2 meter via ducting... (which is rare because of hills in the way)

2farnorth wrote: ↑Mon Jun 18, 2018 6:27 am
Ours will be mostly 40 and 20 meters, maybe 80 at night. 17, 15, 12, and 10 will be used if activity is heard.
I had some 10 meter FM DX last week, so it can happen. I do like SSB better though. Have fun.

As a reference .. to old CB radio people who worked "skip" that old CB was 11 meters if I recall correctly

2farnorth wrote:Depending on where you live you may need a permit to put up a 50 footer. If there is any chance it could fall onto neighboring properties they will have code requirements. You are going to have to guy it every 10 feet of height no mater what mount you use. The base is your choice or what ever the code requires for your area. Also need to consider grounding for lightning dissipation. Code requirements say all ground rods will have to be bonded together with the service entrance ground to keep them at the same potential.

Unless you have dense, tall trees surrounding your house I would start with roof mount with a 10 foot mast on VHF/UHF. Ground that directly to your service entrance ground rod. Use good quality coax to minimize power losses. Do not use rg-58 on those bands (too lossy) My vhf/uhf antenna is about 25 ag and can work repeaters from Richardson to Denison and Lewisville to Paris with 15 or less watts. Save the 50 footer for when you get on hf and need the height for ground reflection. Yes, additional height on uhf/vhf bands can help but you start losing ground when your coax run gets too long. Try it and go from there.

Local Tower Regulations http://www.ctdxcc.org/localregs/
just to get back to you on the height/zoning etc I checked our Municode in addition to above guys (link above) , and unless I'm close to the city airport or place a mast/tower in the street right-of-way (landscaping ordinances) or utility right-of-way ... my city doesn't regulate height. (BUT I learned they passed a reg against any satellite dish over the KU can normal diameter, so my ten foot C-Band satellite dish next to the street in the front yard by my mailbox ... I am supposed to screen it with a privacy fence or shrubbery (I painted it camo, and unscreweed the coax and actuater's power , so it is current "modern artwork sculpture" piece instead of a satellite dish, (landscaping ordinances) except when I use it ...Something I learned from mom draping a vine over a prohibited "front yard privacy fence" in Bellaire to call it a "Trellis") My little KU band dish next to it gives me added 600 TV channels FTA Free To Air and I rarely use the C band dish lately since digital TV stations added most of what I watch on digital subchannels now.

Anyway, yeah for now I'll just take down 1 of two TV antenna mounted rooftop on the 5' tripod that uses two overlapping ten foot EMT sections that gets me roughly 30' off the ground (roof peak is 15') .. I mostly use my other rooftop TV antenna anyway (one EMT section for 10 foot over roof peak of 15' = 25' off ground)

So I don't need to buy masts. tripods or anything yet.... but I still have the "wants" for a 40/50/64' telescopic mast .. LOL (and more guns,,, and radios ... and ...

Thanks for the lightning reminder too
This is a picture of the same antenna I have comet cx333 that was hit by lightning, more at the link

Might be good to "go lower" with fiberglass? (I read that they possibly are more likely to build up a static charge?)

https://shearmadness72.com/2011/08/26/d ... gust-2011/

Thanks for the reply, I had Short Electronics owner crawl on my roof twice so I'm already grounded 2 rooftop TV antennas bonded together with the service entrance ground, I also have an old Dish network or cable TV ground rod next to a metal fencepost on the opposite side of the house I was going to tie into the whole grousing system he set up, but not going to do it without asking him

(One TV antenna is 15' above my 15' rooftop peak (6 guy wires at 2 levels), I may just mount the triband base antenna on it, I need to replace the thrust bearings and rotor on it anyway as it's unused right now because I'm using the other OTA antenna that's only 8 foot above the 15' roof peak (3 guy wires on 1 level)) I get roughly 100 channels from Waco/Austin Fredericksburg, San Antonio, Temple, Killeen ad when a cold front is arriving Houston and Victoria ... Summer mornings with high pressure I get Shreveport.

I use LMR400 for 50 ohm Wireless Access point 802.11 G/Scanner/CB/ham base antennas because I have bunches of it (and RG11 for 75 ohm, with a preamp for TV antennas)

There's no HOmeowner Association where i am, and a city code does say a permit is needed for antenna towers, but pretty sure they mean like for cell towers or the five 1,000 footers we have within 1.5 miles of me

Code violations here are not enforced, my bathtub had no trap under it, just a melted piece of PVC, melted so it could angle between the sewer main and the tub drain, I fixed that ... On my street the manhole covers saying "Sewer" are to access the water main, and the ones saying "Water" cover the city's sewer cleanouts ,,,but it's a nice place to retire as no one bothers you lol

I put a mobile triband antenna on a mount with radials under it on a fencepost today... (Nagoya GPK-01 (21" Radials) NMO Mount Ground Plane Kit for Base or Field Use, SO-239 Connector, Mounts to 2" Pole, Mast, Pipe https://www.amazon.com/Nagoya-GPK-01-Ra ... N6JYFS7S8P) listening to local repeater (only 1 in our 2-mile wide city, out near Longhorn Caverns/Inks Lake State Park ...several others in nearby cities) I picked up digital repeater in Waco, so yeah I may not need 50'feet anyway. people can hit the local repeater (on 100 foot tower) nearly to Austin so I can probably save some money right now on masts and get started on installing a metal roof instead
Guy out by the lake farther from me and lower elevation than me hits the repeater with his small antenna ten foot off the ground, but couldn't hit Lampasas 25 miles
I have tons of lightning arrestors with NM connectors but had to buy more for PL239/SO239


using gas discharge polyphaser type protectors
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B073H ... UTF8&psc=1

as well as A28 sp[ark gap lightning protectors
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LY ... UTF8&psc=1

I intend to have breakfast with these people tomorrow (Met some of them in CERT class last week)
http://hlarc.org/
ARES SkyWarn NETWORK (Weather NET) will be activated as needed on 147.020 MHz with a PL of 88.5
Weekly ARES Net on the 147.020+ 88.5hz Repeater
When: Sunday night 8:30 pm

Dear Elmer, (lol)

Help please?

Ground Mount Antenna question:

I'm getting a couple Easy Up EZ TM-50 Telescoping mast - 528" (44') Pushup Poles to guy in the back yard (maybe using ten foot tripods) (and 1 for a guyed roof tripod maybe)

Five galvanized pieces of tubing; bottom piece 2-1/4" OD- 18 gauge; 2nd piece 2-1/4" -18 gauge OD; third piece 1-3/4" OD- 18 gauge; fourth piece 1-1/2"- 18 gauge; fifth / top piece 1-1/4" - 16 gauge.)

Which 2-1/4" Ground mount should I get?

Easy Up EZ 32A Heavy-Duty Ground Mount
Heavy-duty, with welded guide pipe accepts 2-1/4" 11 gauge 9" x 9" plate. Zinc plated. Accepts masts up to 2.25" OD. https://www.cableandwireshop.com/ez32a- ... ing=ez+32A
or
Easy Up EZ TS-50 Free-standing Ground Mount - fits masts up to 2-1/4"
Free-standing Ground Mount - fits masts up to 2-1/4"
18" 3/4" rod welded on 9 x 9" 11 gauge plate; with an 18" tube welded above; includes 2 set screws to hold mast.
https://www.ispsupplies.com/Easy-Up-EZ- ... 1515854932

(I may or may not use the 10' tripod, along with the ground mount and guy wires on the poles, but don't know which ground mount to use?)
http://www.easyupinc.com/easyupinc/ez-40w
( I may or may not use a ten foot tripod on the roof with a third guyed pushup pole, to replace a tripod with 20' EMT conduit I have up there now on a 5' tripod... depends as I'm looking to metal roof the house next year)



Antenna farm I own now: (Not including C band and KU band FTA/Free to Air satellite dishes for Digital Satellites)
Antennas are simple
for Monitoring:
two LARGE TV antennas
One Discone Scanner antenna, (with hustler SuperResonator antennas attached for 10m,11m,12m,15m,17m,20m,30,40,75m,80m and 160m .. I used to have these in an attic for monitoring on some old Icom radios I have)
Also a small 800MHz Discone

new HAM antenna for my 2 new triband radios (May go on roof later)
one Comet Tri-Band VHF/UHF Base Vertical Antennas CX-333
Fiberglass, Tri-Band, 2M / 1.25M / 70cm 10.40 ft. Height

https://www.dxengineering.com/parts/cma-cx-333


I Attended my first CERT meeting last Thursday, the President of Highland Lakes Amateur Radio Club was there along with several other HAMS, looks like I'm committed (to both CERT, and the local Amateur club) now ... no backing out lol

I have an empty concrete hole where a wood pole was (termites ate it) The wooden poles only held the old mercury lights which I no longer use, not telephone/utility wires and I can fill that hold with cement for the ground mount about 3' from another wooden 20' pole I can tie to a tripod...
but still ...

Which Ground Mount ?

I'm near a hill top, we had 45mph wind last week, not too bad, but I have 1 TV antenna rated to 70mph that got bent a couple years ago during a storm that blew many brick / rock walls over in town my 5' rooftripod and 20' EMT 1-1/2" guyed mast were fine, I guy wire and anchor everything to excess

RSX11 wrote:

My old book said part of 10 meters is ok for CW AND VOICE for Tech Plus Code if a Tech takes the 5 wpm code test along with the Tech test, but someone told me that's only for general class now ... I need a new book

I just had a look and there is still space reserved on the 10 meter band for Technicians (and even Novices) to use SSB voice and CW. See http://www.arrl.org/images/view//Charts ... RL_Web.jpg

This applies to Technician and Tech Plus license holders. There's no difference now that morse code has been eliminated from all license classes. This is moot in any case since the last Tech Plus license expired June 12, 2010. If someone had a Tech Plus license and renewed, it turned into a Technician license.

Yes I was browsing radios, found some 2m/70cm that had 10 meters too but not SSB 10 meter, so until I get General, that part of the radio is useless, (and no 1.25meter/220 band, and there's a couple repeaters near here in 1.25m/220) The problem was finding a tri or quad band radio with SSB on 10 meters since Techs are restricted to SSB in 10 meters ... I found none but ...(I know, I'll probably take General soon after Tech, but instead ... I went shopping down the route of first, let's see >>What repeaters are close? ... I found 1.25 meter, 2 meter and 70cm ... so


I searched all the repeaters in my town (there are only 2 repeaters-small town, you can walk across town in 2 minutes) and nearby cities... and came up with repeaters for 1.25m(220) and 2 meter and 70cm so ... I researched radios and found several tri- or quad- band radios that cover those most were 25 watts on all bands, a couple were 50 watts on 2m and 75cm but only 5 watts on 220(1.25m) but one stood out ...
AT-5888UV-III tri-band ( not the AT-5888UV-DualBand)
Grapevine has 3 radios left after I bought two http://www.grapevineamateurradio.com/st ... -5888UVIII ... (I have no affiliation with anyone yet, Was invited to and will be attending the local CERT classes/Meetings, looking into ARES and RACES & joining HLARC, ARRL, & some other stuff. I can monitor till I pass and my name gets in the FCC database)
http://www.wouxun.us/item.php?item_id=343
136-174 MHz, 200-260 MHz, 400-490 MHz
can do crossband repeater
*Cross-band Repeat Mode:
144 <-----> 220 No
220 <-----> 440 Yes
144 <-----> 440 Yes
Functions:
Working Mode Full Duplex - UU, UV, VV
Repeater Mode* - UV, VU
Dual Receive Side A & Side B
Dual Scan Scan Both Sides - at the same time
Output Power 50 Watts VHF, 40 Watts UHF, 25 Watts 220
Low Power Steps, 5/10/20w (5/10/15w on 220MHz)
758 Memory Channels / 10 Memory Groups
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOrvsTH0_Tw

I can turn the watts down, but there are lots of hills etc here. We used to get only 1 TV channel ... so better to have extra if needed I think, then turn it down to run cooler
I need to shop for good triband antennas for base/Mobile on those bands all I have now is hustlers for each individual band now for scanner reception and a discone for radials monitoring HAM repeaters with a uniden BCD536HP with wifi and GPS which I upgraded with Provoice and dmr to get the digital police etc ec that no one can hear with old scanners ,,, https://www.uniden.com/scanner/id-BCD53 ... with_Wi-Fi

mojohn wrote:73's, John here. KF5ZMD
My successful methods to passing each test was to take the practice tests at http://aa9pw.com/radio/ until I felt confident I could pass in a classroom setting. It was several months. I believe highland lakes ARC hosts test sometimes? I'm on Lake Travis, looking forward to hearing you on the air.

yeah they do usually in June I think.. I think a Marble Falls Volunteer Fire Dept guy is connected with HLARC as well as C.E.R.T. under FEMA for Burnet County, so I may do that too.

Looks like Williamson County ARC, I think in Georgetown will do exams if you email them & set it up, HLARC, I saw in a few old newspapers,once a year (in 2010 or 2015 papers) offered a day long or weekend class, followed by a test, not unlike the CHL class/test I guess.
I retook the practice test, passed Tech one second time too ...

My old book said part of 10 meters is ok for CW AND VOICE for Tech Plus Code if a Tech takes the 5 wpm code test along with the Tech test, but someone told me that's only for general class now ... I need a new book I'll keep doing the practice tests too for Tech and and when I get it down, the General in case I decide to try to sit for both. The electrical/electronics stuff I haven't thought of since the 1960s is coming back, mom was a columnist in the Bellaire newspaper and once wrote about her putting tape over electrical sockets so nothing leaked out but she thought I may break Ohms law if I wasn't careful...
Weird that I can't remember why I went in the kitchen minutes ago, but beginning to remember formulas, schematics, & some circuit stuff from back then.

ok, I'm a procrastinator
For example: I got the CHL application in 1995, filled it out in 2007, got licensed in 2008

So ...

oldCannon got me re-interested in taking the Ham exams so I dug out my old books I bought and last night started reading...

starting with " Allied Radio Operators Handbook-copyright 1965" I think I bought it when I got my Citizens Band license ,,... Glanced through it ... ok this goes in the paper recycling bin ...

Next, "Gordon West ... New ... Novice Voice class .... cassette tapes" Well, I guess could go to WalMart and buy a cassette player for $29.00 ...

Next ... Gordon West Technician class (Effective through 2002) I read half the book last night, i got half way through and things popped into my head from Junior high school/ Middle school I hadn't thought of in years, like "coulomb is 6.241 times 10 to the 18th power of electrons in one second is an Amp .. or something ... so I thought I'd take the practice test at link you guys provided here... http://aa9pw.com/cgi-bin/exam2011.cgi

Results:
You scored 27 correct answers and 8 incorrect answers from a total of 35.

You would have passed the exam! Congratulations!

I need to get updated info because the technician class book i read halfway through talks about code test for General class is required and I have General and Extra class books (good through 2002)

So I need to get updated on stuff so I don't miss those 8 questions :)

Wish I could get a vanity call sign as my old cb call sign since I still know it, but I don't know if they do that (KXJ7011- Kilo Xray Juliette 7011)

My second job was Parts Dept manager at Johns Electronic Parts C (Jepco electronics and Teleradio In the 1970s in Bellaire/Houston off Bellaire and Bissonnett area. Jepco did warranty repairs on cbs/ham radios TVs video recorders clock radios etc etc etc Teleradio was sales
I got into computer building & design through modding Radio shack scanner radios & programming them etc (used to chat with Bill Cheek of Scanner Modification handbook fame in California before he passed on)
anyway

I'm way out of touch with what good radios are out there I own several icom receivers several AOR receivers, a digital data thingy that takes cw and the screen shows it in English & it used to connect to a computer serial port, but has a small LED screen ...

I'm thinking as a first radio maybe Yaesu FT-60R & doing the mars/cap mod ... unless something better is suggested by locals here in the hill country local club I need to get in touch with is HLARC Highland Lakes Amateur Radio Club http://hlarc.org/

RoyGBiv wrote:

locke_n_load wrote:Ordered a UV-5R with data cable for $33 from amazon yesterday, will be here tomorrow. First jump into ham. Look forward to listening to the police/fire department frequencies until I get my technician's license.

Around here (Fort Worth area) the police use a digital trunked system, not compatible with that radio. I'd need an expensive scanner to listen to the PoPo here, or you can download a phone app called "Scanner Radio" and listen via a smartphone, assuming your local area is being rebroadcast.

One can monitor through Broadcastify too if someone with a scanner capable of receiving the broadcasts in your area (such as I mentioned above) rebroadcasts through the Internet https://www.broadcastify.com/

I had the Smartphone "Scanner Radio" app, Broadcastify has I-Phone and Android Apps which worked better for me than the Scanner Radio App in my area

I am apparently the only guy in my county with the equipment to monitor all such frequencies in my county, and I don't broadcastify (not yet anyway), so police etc aren't easy to get through an App in my County. Others who used to broadcastify in my county stopped when they went digital a couple years ago.

locke_n_load wrote:

XDgal wrote:Sorry locke_n_load, looks like most all of Harris county police, including Houston PD and Texas DPS, operate on the Texas wide area radio network ( Txwarn), this an APCO P25 phase II trunked system and not accessible on your radio.

Dang.
Looks like there are few groups I could listen to according to the frequencies on this page:
https://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?ctid=2623

To monitor APCO P25 phase II trunked systems on a scanner you'd need BCD536HP base/mobile or BCD436HP handheld,
https://www.uniden.com/radio-scanners/digital-trunked
APCO Project 25 Phase I and II plus Motorola, EDACS, LTR....
and would need to upgrade firmware
and buy/download/install the software/firmware upgrades for ProVoice and/or DMR reception upgrade for EDACS etc used in some areas by Police etc
On these pages are also maps types of digital systems by County in the Continental USA (scroll down either page to Map of Digital Use in CONUS )
http://info.uniden.com/twiki/bin/view/U ... 4/BCD536HP
or
http://info.uniden.com/twiki/bin/view/U ... 4/BCD436HP
The downloadable frequency database is updated weekly (Mondays) Downloaded through a USB cable to a Windows computer and installed to the radio by a free "Sentinel" software program which you also use to check for and install firmware updates etc

Those radios also will monitor Ham frequencies etc. They are of course "receive only" scanners, not transmitters.


Disclosure: I have no affiliation with uniden other than owning a radio and some accessories they made, as well as many radios, and other "stuff" made by many other companies