HAM’S LIFE

One of the fun parts of operating this blog is being able to answer emails from readers who have questions.  Two areas of questions that frequently come up are, “Should I get a ham radio or a CB radio?” and, “Can my teenager get a ham license?”  Frequently these questions come together.

The first question is impossible for me to answer but I try to give some guideline that will hopefully help.  Reading my post on the difference between ham radio and CB radio (http://hamslife.com/?p=24) might help in making the decision.  One big consideration is are you willing to study and take a test to get on the air?  If not then ham radio is out but that does not necessarily mean CB is in for you. 

The second question is easy to answer.  There is no age limit in the United States on who may hold an amateur radio license.  Some countries do have limits and if you are not in the United States of America and do have age restrictions please leave a comment so if others in your country reads this they can know about the restriction.  Children 8 years old and younger have passed the test and received their ham radio license. 

Now let me bring the two questions together and ask, should a child or teen be on the amateur or the CB radio frequencies?

Some young children who obtain their ham radio license do not yet have the social skills or interest that is needed to effectively use their acquisition.  If they are pushed by a ham parent to get the license it could have a negative result as they get older.  My wife and I raised six children; three of them got their ham license before leaving home and one got her license after she was married.  None of my children currently have valid amateur radio licenses.  Maybe I was guilty of pushing.

While my children were allowed to listen to and, when licensed, operate on the ham bands they were not allowed to listen to nor operate on the CB band. 

Citizen Band radio was authorized to provide an inexpensive short range business radio communications service for the general public.  A license, though no test was involved, was required.  From the beginning there were people who abused the system and in the early 1970 the whole CB operation got so out of hand that the FCC could not enforce the regulations so for the most part if the operators were not bothering anyone outside the CB frequencies the FCC just ignored it.  Obscene language became the norm.  Drug dealers and prostitutes found they could use CB to their advantage in selling their illegal traffic. 

Ham radio operators have a history of trying to keep illegal operations off the ham bands.  So while I can not say it does not happen I can say it is rare. 

It is my personal opinion that children and teens should not be subjected to the Citizen Band service.  When it comes to children and teens acquiring their ham license and using the ham bands it needs to be remembered that each one is an individual and thus different.  I know hams who have been hams for many years who got their license as teens and some even younger. 

Every ham knows about field day sponsored by the ARRL held on the last weekend of June.  Very few hams know about the winter field day on the last weekend of January sponsored by Society for the Preservation of Amateur Radio (SPAR). 

One of the purposes of field day is to test readiness for emergency operation.  Emergencies and disasters are not limited to the summer months. Winter disasters can many times be more devastating then summer disasters.

To learn more about the Winter Field Day event go to http://www.spar-hams.org/ and click on Winter Field Day under Activities/Contests.   

I delete about 100 comments for each one I accept because most of the comments are just to advertise their site and has nothing to do with ham radio.  If you read through the comments you will see that many of the comments I have accepted are probably for the purpose of drawing people to a site unrelated to ham radio but at least the comment had some substance.  There are also a lot of good comments.

Today as I was monitoring the comments I found one by Mike G which really attracted my attention.  The comment can be found on my post “THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HAM RADIO AND CB” (http://hamslife.com/?p=24).  Mike’s comment or actually questions were: “Were HAM radios used by the French resistance during WWII? Have they been successfully used in modern times, in countries where tyrannical gov’ts have taken over? How can a HAM radio be utilized successfully today if the USA were to collapse?”

The subject Mike brings up deserves, in my estimation, a lot more then just a simple response in the comment section.  Actually the area of ham radio and government subversion could fill a book but I won’t be writing a book here. 

During WWII there were commercially built ham radios on the market but nothing like the great number of units available today.  Many of the ham radios were home brew.  While I am sure many of these radios were converted to underground use by the French and other resistance groups and operated by licensed ham radio operators it needs to be understood that a radio station is only a ham radio when it is operated by a legally licensed amateur radio operator on an amateur radio frequency using amateur radio call signs.  If a licensed amateur radio operator uses his ham station under an encrypted call sign (call sign to reveal station identity to the station being called while concealing the station identity from others) to pass subversive information it technically is not a ham radio station at that time.  It may sound like I am splitting hairs but that is a hair that I believe needs to be split.

Radio transmitters and receivers which were constructed for amateur radio use have been used by many for good and bad.  Resistance groups such as the French Resistance have used them to combat tyranny and rebel armies have used them to provide communications.  Drug and other smugglers have used them to pass information.  Ham radios and ham operators have provided the world with instantly available operators and equipment to meet specific communications needs outside the normal amateur operations. 

The potential use of ham radio in event of a government collapse whether USA or another is certainly a difficult question to answer.  There was a television program series that illustrated this at least to some extent.  The program was “Jericho” and it can now be found on U Tube.  Jericho gave the title of that week’s program in Morse code. 

If the government collapse is do to an overthrow where nuclear weapons are used, such as in Jericho, most modern ham radios will become worthless.  Nuclear explosions produce huge EMF (Electro Magnetic Force) fields which will destroy all solid state devices.  Only those hams with vacuum tube equipment would still have working radios in event of a high level nuclear explosion.  Finding power to run these radios might prove to be interesting because most power plants use solid state devices in their monitoring equipment and the loss of these devices would cause a shutdown. 

I do believe that EMF is a serious threat to our world today. Thus we need to organize a group of ham radio operators with vacuum tube radios and means of providing power (generators must not have solid state devices necessary for operation) for those radios.  Transportation and communications are so dependant of the use of solid state equipment that in event of such an attack we would have our life line cut off and the organization I just described could be the saving force.  

It is a scary thought when you realize our very existence has become dependant on a very fragile silicone thread. With the right equipment  and organization we, ham radio operators, could become the safety line to catch our society incase someone should cut that thread with a nuclear weapon.

On October 20, 2008 the ARRL petitioned the FCC to modify or cancel the authorization it gave Digital Aurora Radio Technologies (DART) to operate on the frequencies of 7.10 to 7.60 MHz with its experimental station WE2XRH.

DART requested the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) grant them a two year authorization to transmit on the 5, 7, and 9 MHz shortwave bands using Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM), a digital technology that can give near FM broadcast quality on bands below 30 MHz.  The transmitter to be used has an output power of 100 KW and with the gain antenna system the Effective Radiated Power (ERP) adds up to 660 KW to be operated within a 1500 KM (937.5 Miles) radius of Delta Junction, Alaska.  The request was honored by the FCC and they were allocated the frequency bands of 4.4 to 5.1 MHz, 7.1 to 7.6 MHz, and 9.25 to 9.95 MHz.

7.10 to 7.6 MHz includes 200 KHz of the 40 meter amateur radio band.  The DART DRM transmission is 20 KHz wide.  The interference potential to the 40 meter amateur radio band is obvious thus prompting the quick action by the ARRL to petition the FCC.  

On October 24, 2008, just 4 days after the ARRL submitted the petition, the FCC acted and modify DART’s 7 MHz band to 7.3 to 7.6 MHz.  This would amount to an extremely fast response to the petition if indeed it was a response to the petition.  The word is that the FCC caught the clerical error, made the change and the ARRL petition had nothing to do with their action.  The accuracy that it was an error correction may possible be indicated by the 4.4 to 5.1 MHz band change which had nothing to do with the ARRL petition.  The new frequency band is 4.5 to 5.1 MHz. 

There are some who say the petition was a moot point to begin with because DART has stated they will not transmit on any amateur radio frequency. 

There does not need to be any finger pointing or criticism given for the actions of any the three parties.

The ARRL is to be commended for their quick and decisive action.  If a wait and see attitude had been taken it could have created more difficulty for all concerned.  The action also set a precedence that could help prevent future encroachments on our bands by some who may not have a friendly attitude towards ham radio. 

The FCC deserves our appreciation for their quick action no matter what the reason is for their action. 

Finally DART should also be thanked for their attitude and promise not to interfere with amateur radio communications by not operating in any ham band.  Hopefully DART will not take the petition as an insult but will recognize it as just good stewardship of the frequencies we have been allocated.  There is a saying, “good fences make good neighbors” and in this case the fence between the 40 meter ham band and the 7 MHz DART band has a very good fence by not having any overlapping frequencies.

Hopefully DART will have great success in their endeavor to improve the quality of broadcast radio and to provide a reliable state wide broadcast communication system for the state of Alaska. 

Sunspot cycle 24 is here and from what I hear it is suppose to be a very active cycle. Everybody seems so excited about having high sunspot activity there seems to be a lack of recognition that 160 and 80 meters become very noisy during those times and thus they are close to useless. ]

Many hams are excited about the great DX 20, 15, and 10 meters can give and how bad the conditions have been on these bands the past few years have been. 160 and 80 meters are most active when the sunspot cycle is low and at those times DX can be worked on them. One of the big differences in working those two bands as opposed to the higher band mentioned is the lower frequencies work better at night while the higher frequencies work best during the day. That is where 40 meters, my favorite band, comes in because it will usually be open on a short skip during the daylight house when the sunspot cycle is low.

So the days of great DX on the higher HF bands is coming soon but for now if you have room to string an antenna why not enjoy some DX on the lower HF frequencies?