Jay Brooks - Member - The Prepared

Discussions

Reply to: Ham radio recommendations? Posted September 30, 2020

I just took the dive and bought my first serious rig, an Icom 7100. I really wanted one that could do it all and thought this was a good place to start. Now the question is – antennas. Does anyone have a recommendation for a good HF antenna? Sure, I could build my one, and I probably will someday. But right now I’d rather get up and running and learn my radio vs. playing with window line and co-ax. The plus side of the 7100 is that it has an SWR meter built-in for the future when I do want to build my own antenna.

Reply to: Ham radio recommendations? Posted September 9, 2020

Thanks Joe. This whole world of Winlink is fascinating to me. In addition to the use of HF, I’m looking at the use of VHF packet repeaters in case they could be used in an emergency. I fell into a website for a device called PiGate, which acts as an email-only hotspot by connecting to a VHF Winlink repeater with a Raspberry Pi. And I can build my own, since I already have a Raspberry Pi! Very cool!

Reply to: Not Sure What to Do Next Posted September 7, 2020

Thanks everyone for your replies. I really do like the idea of practicing with my gear. In fact, that’s what motivated me to finally take the ham radio exam – so that I would know how to use my radio if the time ever came. But I also need to practice with the other gear, too. I’ve never used the ZipBoil stove to make a meal, for example. I’ll also look into adding some more water here for my family. Good advice on making sure my rural family members are onboard with my bug out plans, and luckily they are! Thanks again.

Reply to: Ham radio recommendations? Posted September 6, 2020

Joe, thank you for your detailed response. I’m annoyed with myself that I didn’t ask this question earlier. I would have studied for the General class license at the same time! Oh well. There’s always next month. I did order a Mobilinkd TNC for connecting to my Baofeng. I figured that this was a cheap way to explore APRS. I definitely didn’t consider what you mentioned about the digipeaters also being knocked out during the same storm. But yeah, that totally makes sense now. It was absolutely crazy, as you’ve seen the videos. The whole city was knocked out. Sounds like my short term plan is to play around with my HT, get used to the lingo and maybe connect to some local Nets, while studying for my General exam and then eventually getting on higher power HF. I guess the attractive feature of the HT was that it seemed to fit well into a go-bag due to it’s size, but that size does come with a trade-off. I’d rather have a system that’s actually useful than a system that’s smaller but useless due to power/frequency limitations.

Not Sure What to Do Next

Advice 15

22

Posted September 6, 2020

Reply to: Ham radio recommendations? Posted September 6, 2020

I just got my Technician’s license yesterday and I’d also like to ping the forum of recommendations. Right now I have two Baofeng UV-5X3s in my go-bags. Honestly, I don’t know where to go next. Recently I was affected with the derecho rolled through the midwest and knocked out all cellular traffic. That’s what really motiviated me to study and get my license. One of the things that was attractive to me about getting my license was APRS. Let’s say that cell networks were down where I was, but I still wanted to send a text message to my family who lived in another state to let them know that I was safe. APRS seems like it should work for this purpose, right? Wondering what people think about buying an add-on TNC for my Baofeng, spending more money to get an HT with APRS built-in (Yaesu/Kenwood), or if it’s dumb to rely on an HT and I should buy a mobile system for the car.

Not Sure What to Do Next

Advice 15

22

Posted September 6, 2020

Reply to: Ham radio recommendations? Posted September 30, 2020

I just took the dive and bought my first serious rig, an Icom 7100. I really wanted one that could do it all and thought this was a good place to start. Now the question is – antennas. Does anyone have a recommendation for a good HF antenna? Sure, I could build my one, and I probably will someday. But right now I’d rather get up and running and learn my radio vs. playing with window line and co-ax. The plus side of the 7100 is that it has an SWR meter built-in for the future when I do want to build my own antenna.

Reply to: Ham radio recommendations? Posted September 9, 2020

Thanks Joe. This whole world of Winlink is fascinating to me. In addition to the use of HF, I’m looking at the use of VHF packet repeaters in case they could be used in an emergency. I fell into a website for a device called PiGate, which acts as an email-only hotspot by connecting to a VHF Winlink repeater with a Raspberry Pi. And I can build my own, since I already have a Raspberry Pi! Very cool!

Reply to: Not Sure What to Do Next Posted September 7, 2020

Thanks everyone for your replies. I really do like the idea of practicing with my gear. In fact, that’s what motivated me to finally take the ham radio exam – so that I would know how to use my radio if the time ever came. But I also need to practice with the other gear, too. I’ve never used the ZipBoil stove to make a meal, for example. I’ll also look into adding some more water here for my family. Good advice on making sure my rural family members are onboard with my bug out plans, and luckily they are! Thanks again.

Reply to: Ham radio recommendations? Posted September 6, 2020

Joe, thank you for your detailed response. I’m annoyed with myself that I didn’t ask this question earlier. I would have studied for the General class license at the same time! Oh well. There’s always next month. I did order a Mobilinkd TNC for connecting to my Baofeng. I figured that this was a cheap way to explore APRS. I definitely didn’t consider what you mentioned about the digipeaters also being knocked out during the same storm. But yeah, that totally makes sense now. It was absolutely crazy, as you’ve seen the videos. The whole city was knocked out. Sounds like my short term plan is to play around with my HT, get used to the lingo and maybe connect to some local Nets, while studying for my General exam and then eventually getting on higher power HF. I guess the attractive feature of the HT was that it seemed to fit well into a go-bag due to it’s size, but that size does come with a trade-off. I’d rather have a system that’s actually useful than a system that’s smaller but useless due to power/frequency limitations.

Reply to: Ham radio recommendations? Posted September 6, 2020

I just got my Technician’s license yesterday and I’d also like to ping the forum of recommendations. Right now I have two Baofeng UV-5X3s in my go-bags. Honestly, I don’t know where to go next. Recently I was affected with the derecho rolled through the midwest and knocked out all cellular traffic. That’s what really motiviated me to study and get my license. One of the things that was attractive to me about getting my license was APRS. Let’s say that cell networks were down where I was, but I still wanted to send a text message to my family who lived in another state to let them know that I was safe. APRS seems like it should work for this purpose, right? Wondering what people think about buying an add-on TNC for my Baofeng, spending more money to get an HT with APRS built-in (Yaesu/Kenwood), or if it’s dumb to rely on an HT and I should buy a mobile system for the car.