AC6ZZ

MY STORY

I have had an interest in Amateur Radio since I first found out about the hobby in High School. I was first licensed during my last quarter of college in September 1970. I married Karen and Ben was born during the next year. My license lapsed. I was one of the first No-code Tech's, once my children moved out of the house. I was WN6DVV in 1970, KC6ZKD in 1991, AC6TW for a short time and will probably end my career as AC6ZZ.

In February, 2000 I acquired a Kenwood TS 430S, the HF antenna Hustler 5-BTV trap Vertical on HF and a "J pole" on VHF. In May, 2000. Karen and I purchased twin ICOM T81A quad-band VHF-UHF rigs in 2001 when she became KG6FPX, but they were stolen in January, 2004. I purchased a Yaesu FT-50R from a friend in March of 2005. So I am back on 2 and 440.I replaced my two meter monoband, Radio Shack HTX242 with a Yaesu 1802M/e in May of 2006. In the summer of 2006, I rebuilt my HAM shack seen above and now all radios and antennas are working well.

Editorial: Almost everyone likes to use cars. No one likes smog. There is new technology called BPI (Broandband over Power Lines) that allows Broadband Internet over traditional power lines. The idea seems like a wonderful bonding of technology. Everyone has electricity and the Internet from any convenience outlet sounds like "broadband Nirvana." But every technology has a down side. Street lights cause light pollution and limit our view of the stars. Driving cars produces smog. BPI will pollute the airwaves with a hideous amount of electromagnetic spectrum pollution. These will go through every human on earth near power lines. Right now the power lines transmit a steady 60 cycles into the air. Your ears can hear this hum and it appears to be harmless except when we are very close to these lines for a very long time. But those same lines, with BPI will put out 2 to 80 MHz radio signal with enough wattage to run a major city and may have the ability to over power shortwave altogether. The medical horrors are unknown.

Further, if pushed to the limit, George Orwell's vision of 1984 may seem like child's play compared to what could be implemented. With current and future technology, Big Brother may be as close as everypower socket in your home, work or eating establishment and may hear every whisper in your bedroom in 2008. Hey, who would have thought they strangers would be looking at the most intimate things in your purse in 2000. BPI brings snooping technology to each convinience outlet in your home.

Don't take my word
.

I am looking for a power supply (and receiver) for a Collins TCS-13 (NAVY surplus). It is a 12-volt to tube voltages. Any help would be appreciated.

I am cleaning out my HAM shack of the following:
YAESU FT 77 hf RIG. Sounded good the last time I used it. It has been sitting for several years on the floor of my study. I want to see it disapear. Needs power supply and serious cleaning up.
Several hundred old TV tubes
various old tube repair pieces like capacitor checker, VOM, Color TV de-gausser, and several other pieces, taking up room in my shack.

Ok, so I am a HAM.

What makes me different from say Citizen's Band or CB? CB a narrow band, About 500 KHz (0.4600 MHz) wide on 11 metres, around 27 MHz on your radio dial. They are limited, legally, to 40 narrow frequencies. In the United States of America CBers can use a transceiver of less than Five (5) watts output without a license of any kind. While there are many very nice CBers, the Band is known for profanity and crudeness. Amateur's are required by both law and are self-regulated so we talk as ladies and gentlemen. The CB band itself is quirky. One day the band can talk around the country with no problem, an hour later, it is hard to talk a block away. The band just "goes away".

Amateurs are licensed by the Federal Communications Commission or FCC.

On April 15, 2000 the United States went from Six classes to Three classes of licenses. All Morse Code Requirements were removed in the last days of 2006. Code is no longer a requirement for any FCC Amateur Radio license in the USA.Test.

1. The Technician License requires no code passing Element 2 (a 35 question theory test)
2. The General Class License requires passing Elements 1,2 and 3. Test Three is a 35-question theory test. This license grants privileges for all modes on most HF and all VHF bands
3. The Extra Class requires passing Elements 1, 2, 3 and 4. Element four is a 50 question test. This license grants all privileges in all modes on all Amateur bands. It allows all frequencies and modes available in the USA.

AA9PW's Amateur Test Site
eham Test Site
QRZ Test Site
SPAR

Amateurs in the USA can use up to 1500 watts and can use U.S. Amateur Radio HF Bands from 160 metres to microwave. I am currently working on getting a transceiver in my car to work on 80, 40, 20, 17, 15, 12, and 10 metres using 100 watts. I also monitor a dozen repeaters on two metres each day as I do my 50-km (35 mile) commute. I wrote this before my car accident. I am now live on 20 meters and 2 meters at home, and 2 meters.

Here is a quick list of legal frequencies here in the United States:
Amateur (HAM) Frequencies

You will quickly notice there is a relationship between frequency and length of the wave.
One way to express this is Meter Length = 300/MHz

HF BAND (High Frequency)
HF BAND	LOW END OF BAND	HIGH END OF BAND
160 meters	01.800 MHz	02.000 MHz
* 80 meters	03.500 MHz	04.000 MHz
* 60 meters	05.332 MHz	Center of Ch 1
* 60 meters	05.348 MHz	Center of Ch 2
* 60 meters	05.368 MHz	Center of Ch 3
* 60 meters	05.373 MHz	Center of Ch 4
* 60 meters	05.405 MHz	Center of Ch 5
* 40 meters	07.000 MHz	07.300 MHz
* 30 meters	10.100 MHz	10.150 MHz
* 20 meters	14.000 MHz	14.350 MHz
* 17 meters	18.068 MHz	18.168 MHz
* 15 meters	21.000 MHz	21.450 MHz
* 10 meters	28.000 MHz	29.700 MHz

VHF BAND (Very High Frequency)
VHF BAND	LOW END OF BAND	HIGH END OF BAND
006 meters	050.000 MHz	054.000 MHz
*002 meters	144.000 MHz	148.000 MHz
1.25 meters	222.000 MHz	225.000 MHz

UHF BAND (Ultra High Frequency)
UHF BAND	LOW END OF BAND	HIGH END OF BAND
*070 centimeters	0420.000 MHz	0450.000 MHz
033 centimeters	0902.000 MHz	0928.000 MHz
023 centimeters	1240.000 MHz	1300.000 MHz
013 centimeters	2300.000 MHz	2450.000 MHz
009 centimeters	3300.000 MHz	3500.000 MHz
005 centimeters	5650.000 MHz	5925.000 MHz
003 centimeters	10,000.00 MHz	10,500.00 MHz
01.2 centimeters	24,000.00 MHz	24,2500.00 MHz

EHF BAND (Extremely High Frequency)
006 millimeters	47.000 GHz	47.200 GHz
004 millimeters	75.500 GHz	81.000 GHz
02.5 millimeters	119.980 GHz	120.020 GHz
002 millimeters	142 GHz	149 GHz
001 millimeters	241. GHz	250 GHz
All Frequencies	300 GHz	Infinity and beyond

* bands I have equipment and antennas to receive and transmit
60 Meters. 50 watts max. and it is suggested you transmit 1.5 Khz below stated frequency on USB.
For the most accurate US frequencies. FCC: Subpart D: 97.301

Many Amateurs are members of the American Radio Relay League or ARRL.

What is the purpose of Amateur Radio?

Amateur Radio provides the following:
1) Emergency communication, somewhere in my junk is a certificate from the American Red Cross indicating I worked in the Oakland, California fire of 1991.
2) Advancement of the radio art, improved circuits;
3) Communications and technical phases of the art, special-training exercises, field days;
4) Trained operators and technicians, self-education in intercommunication and fixing radios. We help on Jog-a-thons, 50-mile horse trips, parades, and other once-in-a-while community events that need communication.
5) International good-will, radio waves don't stop at borders, they travel the world and solar system.
*) Anthony Stanton, AC6GM suggested I add a sixth purpose for Amateur Radio. It is fun, and it is fun talking down the street or around the world. Unlike ladies that stitch in their homes alone, Amateur's can sit at home (or be on the road) and talk to others about the hobby or anything else we wish. I regularly listen and occasionally talk to the BFO/Missionary Net which is my favorite topic on 14.319 or 14.327 most nights 1:00 UT.

Why do people get involved in Amateur Radio?

It is said that there are as many reason for getting into amateur radio as there are Amateurs. Some do it to while away the long hours of driving trucks. Several Amateur's I have come to really appreciate drive all night from Reno, Nevada to Hayward, CA and home each evening. They can stay on the same repeater most of the way. For 10 years I had a paper route and would listen and talk on the same repeater while I drove my route. Another Amateur got his license to augment his cell phone while skiing the Sierras. Recently, a gentleman became a HAM to work on the Iditarod. I got my license just to prove to myself that I could do it, and to have intelligent conversation with someone other than a sixth grader. I love my Sixth grade class, but was looking for intelligent adult conversation. My wife, Karen, took her test and got into Radio just to talk to me.

So what are they types of things "we" do in Amateur Radio?

The following short paragraphs describe some of what a Licensed Radio Amateur can do in the United States.

I like to listen to two Metre on my way to work. This is a VHF frequency (144-148 MHz) that only requires a 19 1/4 inch wave antenna. I listen to Dean W7LIG, in Nevada most mornings (140 miles) and when I have something to add I can talk to him. I can listen to most transmissions over at least 100 mile radius on the repeater and there is almost no static. On rainy days, it is not uncommon to know far more about the weather than even my weatherman as everyone reports in, where it is raining and where the accidents are on the freeway. You can't do this on the Internet.

With my ICOM T81A I can scan for police reports, business bands and at work I am only about a mile from a major USA amusement park, I scan for Bugs Bunny and the other characters singing. The other night, I heard several friends talking simplex on a legal, but non-authorized place on the band.

Emergency Communication. I am a member of the Contra Costa ARES group. I have a chit that tells me I worked the Oakland fire of '89. and recently passed the FEMA RADO course and IS-700.
Documents

Buy and sell and play with different radios, transmitters, equipment and antennas.
ARRL buy and sell pages
Ham Trader

Remote Control Model Airplanes. While there are a number of frequencies model airplanes can fly on, most are very limited. Some amateurs use the six-meter band which will allow some of these huge planes to travel fifty and more miles from where the control pilot stands with this controls.

I enjoy listening to the Space Shuttle and have a patch that indicates I talked to them while in orbit. With the new International Space Station and the Phase/// satellite in orbit, I expect Amateurs will be talking on a regular basis into space, I hope to be one of them.
Phase /// renamed Oscar 40

Using Repeaters is another form of Amateur Radio. Repeaters are "machines" on the top of mountains that make communication of short, shortwave possible over long distances. Some repeaters allow an Amateur to connect with the phone grid. About once a week, I have a reason to call my wife. I can do that almost anywhere within 100 miles of home at no cost to me.
CCRA, Contra Costa Repeater Association Page!
Mt. Diablo ARC, Pacificon
Pretty good listing of US Repeaters
Every Repeater in the US

NETs. A Net is a convention where Amateurs meet at a certain time on a certain frequency. We never leave our shack (home.) I like to visit the following:

BFO Missionary Net
http://blessingsforobedience.homestead.com/RadioNetSchedule.html
Tuesday and Thursday:
14.319 MHz: 0100-0400 UTC (7-10 pm CST) Saturday:
21.365 MHz: 2100-0000 UTC (3-6 pm CST) Sunday:
28.395 MHz: 1900-2100 UTC (1-3 pm CST)
21.330 MHz: 2100-0000 UTC (3-6 pm CST)

ARES-RACES Simplex Net
Thurs 7:00 PM local time
146.535 MHz

CCRA
Monday 7:35 PM
147.735 MHz. -107.2

Have someone to talk to on sleepless nights. One night I helped a fellow XYL (Previous Young Lady or married woman) who was having trouble with her medication. She is blind and she didn't know if she had taken too much or too little medication. We talked as I did my paper route for about half-an-hour until the possible crisis passed. I could have used my autopatch to call for emergency help half a state away.

IRLP: Internet Radio Linking Project. This is a brand new, form of HAM radio that is 1/2 over the air and 1/2 over the Internet. Using frequencies all Amateurs can use, they send a code and it turns on a repeater anywhere in the world an IRLP repeater is located. It is not unlike Alice stepping in a hole and finding herself in Wonderland. Going to work one morning I heard a gentleman sign on from Brussels and talk about the snow and rain outside his home, while we were wishing for some of his rain here in California. I talk through AD6SJ, Danny's Machine [#5040] in Oakley, CA or K6BIV, Tim's Machine [ 8420] when I use this mode.

There is now a second and even newer set of links.
Listening to Beacon's Unlike standard AM and FM, shortwave people come and go on the radio. Sometimes we tune down a band with our knob and hear nothing. We do not know if there is nothing on, or the band is dead. A quick way is to turn to a distant beacon and if we hear it, we are free to send a signal with a fair amont of certanty that someone will respond. There are times when the band is dead and no amount of CQ, will bring a station from around the corner much less around the world.

CW or Continuous Wave, sometimes called Morse code is another area of Amateur Radio. CW needs very little in the way of equipment and can be heard when no other information is coming through. While one should never say "Never", I doubt I will ever use CW for entertainment purposes.

A footnote on CW. Some very hearty folk prefer what is known as QRP. These are transmitters with a maximum power of 5 watts. In a world of big radios and transmitters, they go small. I have a friend, AB6MB that rarely uses more than 2 watts and in a 1998 contest, "talked" to 12 states in 24 hours. By the way, he did this in the back of an old VW bus in a state park not far from our home. I heard of a contact between different countries using only 12 milliwatts and was powered by an AA battery!

Amateur's can use frequencies from very low and long, to very high and short. My interest tends to be with the shorter wavelengths. I can't get enough of the microwave frequencies. Look up the following for more information:
Down East Microwave
SSB Electronics
ARRL 50 MHz +
Microwave Journal

Checking into Nets. I try to check into the CCRA net on Monday evening at 7:35 pm on 147.735 MHz. I do my best to check into an Emergency simplex net on Thursday evening at 7:00 p.m. on 146.535 MHz. I also check in occasionally on the BFO net between 1:00 and 4:00 UT on 14:319 MHz. BFO Net There guys become friends as we check into the net and talk afterward.

For the Science of it! Covers of Amateur Radio magazines I am currently using for a seminar include Counting Sun Spots in the January, 1998 QST magazine. Transmitting over 100 miles with a 5 mw laser pen between mountaintops in CQ/VHF, March, 1999. Many to most of the items on a radio like automatic volume control, Digital tuning. Repeaters if you live in smaller US towns for FM reception and much more come from Amateur's experiments.

Model Airplane and car enthusiasts can be found on six meters. It takes a license to use this band, so some of these ladies and gentlemen choose to become HAM's so they can use this and other bands to run their remote controlled vehicles.

Earth-Moon-Earth bounce. One of the facets of Amateur Communication I am trying to learn everything about is EME. Bouncing a beam from my back yard to the moon and back, or to another station in Europe or South America. This usually takes some knowledge of Astronomy, excellent equipment, good ears and is usually done in CW mode.
G0RUZ EME page
K6QXY Array
W6/PA0ZN's page
K2AH's dish and page
K7XQ's page
K2UYH's Newsletter
EME Conference in NJ

Making friends is another facet of Amateur Radio. I have friends all over Northern California and Nevada I have never seen and have only talked to while driving my Green, '99 Hyundai with my eight foot 20 meter antenna. It broadens my world-view of life. Senator Berry Goldwater was an active Amateur as was King Hussein of Jordan. Ericka Dunlop, Miss America 2004 is K2BR and an active HAM. I have talked to mechanics, tow truck drivers, engineers, other teachers and professors, truckers, medical doctors, if you can think of a job, there is probably someone in that profession communicating right now. These two sites help me find friends on the radio and talk to them on the Internet.
QRZ, One of my favorite places to find my HAM friends!
The University of Arkansas FCC files

Another way of making friends is to join a club. There are repeater clubs, specifically designed to pay for the expenses of a repeater and to have fellowship once in a while. Another is to have specific interests. When I first became interested in 70 cm, there was a once a week net that talked about trains. They knew the angstroms of the paint on some of the locomotives. Another club I just became aware of is the Quarter Century Wireless Association. This club is specifically for HAM's that have been licensed for 35 years. I have been licensed since 1970.

Helping others become HAM's, this is also called an "Elmer". My elmer in HF is Dave, N6YYM. He is a retired painter by trade, and as good a HF man as I know. I have been an elmer to several people getting into Amateur radio at the VHF level.

Some Amateurs enjoy giving tests and upgrading their licenses. The FCC allows HAM's in a very carefully controlled environment to give tests to other Amateurs and those that wish to be Amateurs.
ARRL Test Sites
Sunnyvale Test Sites

Some Amateurs enjoy Contests. Contesting Online Is one of three places I can get info on Contests. A second location, would be QST magazine put out by the ARRL.. A third would be listening to other Amateurs talking about upcoming contests. In most contests the Amateur is trying to get as many other Amateurs on a certain frequency during a certain time frame. There us usually very little chit-chat. It is mostly pulling their call sign out of the static along with trading information on location and how clear they can be heard.

Some Amateur's enjoy collecting QSL cards from other Amateur's they have talked to on-air. The ARRL has a plaque for amateurs that document a QSL card from 100 countries, All states; All countries; and several other accomplishments.

Internet Amateur Radio. There are over 600,000 Amateurs in the USA. It is now estimated that around 100,000 of them have email. The newest area of Amateur radio is chat rooms on the Internet. You don't need a call or a license to be in these chat rooms, but some guys like to hit keys wired to a wall instead of let it float across the sky. I enjoy talking to other Amateurs on email, so I guess that isn't all that different. You might check other Repeater sites for additional chat rooms.

Transmitter hunts. Some are walking; some are driving while they look for a hidden transmitter. Some are as easy as turning your antenna one way and the other, others have computers and several antennas but all are looking for the elusive beep of the hidden transceiver.

Most classes of Licenses can talk to and from satellites legally. Many of the Astronauts and Cosmonauts have Amateur Licenses and talk back to earth. I have a patch that says I talked to one of the earlier space shuttles. You can also download satellite weather pictures.
LogSat Professional for Windows
New Phase 3D (AO-40) Satellite
AMSAT
Other HAM Satellites

There are four kinds of video that Amateurs can try their hand at...

Slow Scan Television is like a snap shot, it takes several seconds for a picture to "develop" on the screen. Apparently it is going the way of the stagecoach, one of the few pages on this topic went south.

Fast Scan Television has a look not unlike a standard TV station and is another ways to watch as well as listen to Amateur "Radio".

Still digital images (JPEG files) transmitted over packet networks. Also called facsimile, it can be received by either computer or fax machines.

One of the newest technologies virtually invented by Amateurs, is digital video images. Two Amateurs on November 25, 1998 using PCMIA wireless LAN computer boards, have transmitted digital images up to 1600 feet @ 28.8k.

Digital Communication Sometimes called Packet for short. This is an item not unlike a modem in a computer. The TNC goes between the Transmitter/Receiver and the computer. One of the Amateurs I communicate with via the Internet has his packet station connected to the Internet. Packet is free, once you have the equipment and is not hardwired to a wall, like most of us on the Internet. With a battery, many packet stations are quite mobile.

Tucson Amateur Packet Radio (TAPR)
PACKET RADIO
MIXW Software
..

Want to look at my mug shot on the Internet?

*Spread Spectrum* Spread Spectrum is not new, but is just trying to come into it's own. If we are to ever have scanners like they use on Star Trek, it will probably come with this technology. Unlike standard radio, which uses a very narrow band of to transmit, Spread Spectrum uses a very wide band to transmit and receive.

On 4/17/99 I ran across one of the newest forms of Amateur Radio on email. Called PSK31 It is a keyboard to keyboard simplex not all that unlike RTTY
Another page for PSK31 information

RTTY: Radio teletype. Once upon a time, it was the old Newspaper hard print, stand alone printers. In times that are more recent, RTTY is usually one of several forms of computer to computer networking over the air.

Amateur Clubs, meteor scatter and satellites Short, shortwave to microwave travel in straight lines, much like light. Light needs a reflector to make it "bounce" around a corner. There are many ways to reflect a radio wave. Some of these include, repeaters, using meteor ion trails, bouncing it off the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights), the side of a mountain...Many of these repeaters are run by clubs, one or two mentioned at the top of this page.

Build radios, antennas, and learn electronics and radio theory. Much of what I needed to know, I learned on the 70-cm band driving to and from work. 6L6 Scrounger in English

As mentioned at the beginning of this section, there are almost as many ways to use an Amateur License, as there are Amateurs. Come join us in this hobby that got its boost in the Titanic Disaster and is as current as satellites. Listed below are some some links I think are worth checking out and places to buy Amateur equipment.

A.W. Tozer's Rules of Self-Discovery:

1. What we want most?

2. What we think about most?

3. How we use our money?

4. What we do with our leisure time?

5. The company we enjoy?

6. Whom and what we enjoy?

7. What we laugh at?

Listen to Jesus talk

How can I help you?

Since April 11, 1996

Last Modified August 21, 2006