Our Ham Shack

HAM RADIO

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HAM RADIO

Our Ham Shack

We both became HAM RADIO OPERATORS in 2021 and both reached the Amateur Extra status the same year, the highest level for ham operators.  We’ve been hamming on the radio, adding to our collection of ham radio equipment, adding to our collection of amateur radio operator friends, adding to our collection of amateur radio knowledge & licenses, and adding to our collection of websites.  All this, along with all of our other projects including increasing our solar power, has kept us busy!

If you’re reading this and you’re not a Ham Radio Operator, you might consider giving it a whirl! You’ll need to take a test for an FCC license, but it’s a fun hobby and service to others.

TIM -- KØCKR (Click for more info)

Tim enjoys chatting (QSO's) with a lot of folks nearby on the local repeaters, exchanging info about ham radio: getting questions answered or offering help when needed. He really likes the challenge of creating and building homebrew antenna systems. He's made some great antennas for us to use both at home and elsewhere. He has been teaching other hams how to build their own antennas as well as hams wishing to upgrade their licenses.

LAURIE -- KØLTH (Click for more info)

Laurie has been having fun trying different frequencies & methods, responding to other hams calling “CQ” from all over the world. Most of these types of conversations (QSO’s) are quick hello’s and an exchange of name, location & a signal report, but Laurie prefers chatting a bit more than the quick hello. She finds that she’s able to get people talking more if she just starts asking questions, and many are quite talkative if given the chance. Hams are mostly men (OM’s), and even though there is an increasing number of female hams (YL’s), there aren’t many on the radio! Laurie finds that her female voice really gets the guys to answer her CQ calls!

WE BOTH have enjoyed combining our ham activities with camping. Tim has upgraded our camper with better batteries for ham radio, and has created a special antenna design that’s easy to put up quickly and has great performance. Laurie was able to get her first South Africa contact on a camping trip out in the boonies at around 10,000 feet. Hams are often amazed at what a great signal they’re getting from a portable setup.

WE BOTH plan to be ready to aid with emergency communications if our community should ever find itself without power or phones for an extended period of time. With our off-grid power and radios, we should be able to communicate beyond and within our local area when others cannot.

FOR AMATEUR RADIO OPERATORS

Tim’s portable antenna for use when camping (shown in the above photo) is what he calls the “Pyramid Doublet System” (PDS). With a good balanced-line tuner, we’re able to use this antenna for 6M-80M. For you hams out there, you can click on the link for more info about that. It’s designed for easy installation when portable, or can be used as a home HF antenna in a small backyard. 

Our “shack” is designed in a box (see above) for easy removal to operate portable. We call it our “Shack in the Box”. We pick up the whole thing to take out in our camper or car, along with the PDS. It includes a SDRPlay which connects the radio to the panadaptor program we use, SDRUno. This shows the waterfall you see in the photo above.

Ham Radio Shack

HAMMING IT UP

by with No Comment Ham RadioUncategorized
House with Solar & Antenna

To say we’ve been “hamming it up” doesn’t mean we’ve just been goofy. We’ve been hamming on the radio, adding to our collection of ham radio equipment, adding to our collection of amateur radio operator friends, adding to our collection of amateur radio knowledge & licenses, and adding to our collection of websites.  All this, along with all of our other projects including increasing our solar power, has kept us busy!

HAMMING ON THE RADIO

Laurie (KØLTH) has been having fun trying different frequencies & methods, responding to other hams calling “CQ” from all over the world: US & Canada, South America, Central America & the Caribbean, Europe, Japan & even Indonesia. Most of these types of conversations (QSO’s) are quick hello’s and an exchange of name, location & a signal report. Most of the hams outside the U.S. are contesters, trying to get as many contacts as they can from as many different locations as they can. They are typically nice, but not chatty. Some are a bit more relaxed and like to talk, but they seem to be few and far between. From within the U.S. & Canada, there’s a mix of contesters and folks who like to chat (“rag chew”). It’s hit-&-miss when answering these CQ’s. I (Laurie) prefer chatting and talking a bit more than the quick hello, but finding out how far this wire antenna will send out the waves is a fun challenge as well.

It took a while for me to get up the nerve to send out a CQ, looking for anyone to respond. Finally, after getting more confidence in talking on the radio, I’ve been doing that more now, and I find that folks are much more interesting & chatty when I’m not just asking for the signal and moving on. It’s a lot of fun, and I’ve “met” a lot of interesting folks. Hams are mostly men (OM’s), and even though there is an increasing number of female hams (YL’s), there aren’t many on the radio! I’d like to help change that.

Tim (KØCKR) doesn’t do much of the distance radio (DXing), but chats with a lot of folks nearby on the local repeaters, exchanging info about ham radio: getting questions answered or offering help when needed. 

RADIO EQUIPMENT
We have added a second radio to the shack inside the house, so we can scan the local repeaters on one while using the other for other radio projects. We’ve also added a 40′ radio tower for one of our antennas (and perhaps more in the future), which puts the top of the antenna about 50′ above ground. This has really helped with our reception. 

For the Christmas season, Tim thought it would be fun to put a Christmas star on the antenna, high above the house. He found a lot of the materials at thrift stores and put it together. The first couple of nights we had it up, we noticed cars slowing down & even stopping in front of our house, presumably to look at the star. Tim got to thinking that since it’s powered by our solar system, it’s a “solar-powered star”–think about that….. 
It’s a small thing, but we hope it will help neighbors remember that it was a star that pointed out the birth of God’s son!

We’ve also added a radio & antenna to the car, so we can listen in and call out when needed and we’re on the road. This may come in handy if there’s an emergency situation and no cell phone coverage. This radio can also be taken out and used in the workshop when Tim is building & experimenting with new antennas.

RADIO FRIENDS
We’ve become quite active in a local radio club, MARC (Mountain Amateur Radio Club). Most of these folks are in Teller County (next county to the east of us). Because of the topography & distance, these folks are closer to us than most of the hams in our own county. We’ve also gotten to know several people from the Fremont County area, and it’s been a lot of fun getting to know these people and sharing experiences.

There are a lot of radio “nets” where people get on the radio together and talk mostly about radio activities, but also some personal stuff. Hams are quite friendly with each other, and even when we haven’t met face-to-face, its easy to call some of these folks “friends”. We look forward to meeting more in person.

KNOWLEDGE & LICENSES
Laurie got ambitious over the summer and studied for the highest amateur radio license “Amateur Extra.” She took the exam in September and passed, so she’s now able to use more of the amateur radio frequencies. She also decided to become a VE (Volunteer Examiner), so she is now credentialed to do that. She’ll do that with the MARC group.

Tim put off taking the “Extra” exam due to so many other projects on his plate, but has studied to take that exam at the end of this week. Certainly he will whiz through that test.

In addition to what we have to study for the exams, we’ve been learning a lot and applying new skills. One is a digital mode called JS8Call. I won’t go into any detail on that here, but that mode along with many others may be used with weak signals, which some folks are limited to particularly when power is out and they are using batteries.

HAM2HAM WEBSITE
We decided it would be helpful to ourselves & others to work on some projects together & learn some new things, so we started a website to organize that effort. Ham2ham.net is where we communicate what we’re doing or would like to do in the future.

STAYING SHARP
As we grow older we don’t want our minds to turn to mush! We both believe that by learning new things and exercising our brains we will stay sharp as long as possible. We’re certainly accomplishing that with all the ham radio adventures & projects. Stay tuned for more…

LaurieInShack

A COUPLE OF HAMS

by with One Comment GuffeyProjects

We have recently become Ham Radio Operators, working from our shack here at home. Now that we are off-grid, Tim got to thinking that hams can be very helpful with communications during emergency situations such as wildfires or winter storms. When there is no cell or landline phone capability, no internet and no power, hams can still operate with radio waves as long as they have power. WE’VE GOT POWER when all else fails, and now that we are hams we can communicate with the outside during these emergency situations. To see how hams can help in this way, here’s a video of Walter Cronkite speaking of ham radio’s contributions in a wildfire that was not far from here several years ago. 

TIM (KØCKR) was a ham starting in 1979 when he first took the test & got his license. He maintained the license until he let it expire in 2009, when he had no radio and wasn’t interested in sticking with it at that time. He recently decided to renew his license (which required taking a test) and get a radio. 

LAURIE (KØLTH) became interested in the hobby as Tim was studying for his test. When I (Laurie) told Tim I was interested, he was quite surprised. He just hadn’t thought I might want to learn all the electronics & radio wave information necessary to operate as a ham. I’ve never done anything like this before, and it was quite a challenge to do the studying in preparation and then take the exams. 

For those who don’t know, there are different levels of ham operators. TECHNICIAN is the beginner class: Technicians are only allowed to operate on a small number of very high frequencies. The GENERAL class is the next step up. Generals can operate on many more frequencies, considered “high frequency” radio bands.

Tim and I are both “Generals”. Since Tim had previously been in the 2nd level, he only had to take the Technician exam and was then “grandfathered” in to the General classification. As a new licensee, I had to take both the Technician and General exams. I studied hard and took both tests on the same day. I was very pleased to pass both tests!

Shortly after Tim got his renewed license, we got a radio (transceiver) and antenna and began listening to and transmitting out to some local repeaters. These repeaters are put up by local clubs to help transmit locally. With all the mountains around, line-of-sight transmission is difficult. These repeaters take ham signals and retransmit them all around the local area. It’s kind of like a “party” line. Everyone on the repeater hears what everyone else is saying. We’ve joined one of the local ham radio clubs and have begun meeting a few of the people we are hearing over the repeater. The main topics of discussion for most of these hams are antennas, radios, how strong their signal is, and so on. Some of them do various contests to see how many people they can contact and how far away they are. Some of them participate in climbing to mountain tops and seeing how many people they can reach using line-of-sight, and how far these people can receive their signal.

In addition to local communication, we are now able to receive & transmit all around the world. It’s amazing how these radio waves work! One thing that’s great about our location is that we have plenty of room on our 40 acres for antennas, and no homeowner restrictions to keep us from putting them up. A couple of weeks ago a friend came to help us put up a temporary “dipole” antenna (just a couple of wires strung between two trees and hooked together. This allowed us to hear and communicate with people all over the states, and even Italy and Slovenia!

Horizontal Loop antenna follows these lines through the trees.

In the past couple of days Tim and I put up a “horizontal loop” antenna, which is a loop of wire about 300 feet long attached to six of our pine trees. The loop is about 35-40 feet high. This will now allow us to transmit on many more bands, all around the world. It was rather challenging to get it up into the trees that high, but we did it (well, mostly Tim–I helped). 

Ladder Line connects horizontal loop to radio
Loop of wire extends over the garden

Perhaps in the future there will be more updates on our ham experiences. We look forward to meeting more people and becoming available to help with communications in emergency situations.

**UPDATE!** 
In the past few days I (Laurie) have been able to contact six different countries (including U.S.)! I’ve spoken with other hams in Canada, Russia, Spain, Slovak Republic, and Indonesia. Usually they are short conversations with people trying to make several contacts, but some speak at more length than others. Most hams are men, and they are very interested to hear any woman making contact. Women are called “YL” (Young Lady). A common good-bye said by hams is “73”, meaning “best wishes” or “best regards” or something like that. But many will tell me “88”, which means “hugs & kisses” or something along those lines. It’s a kick.

There has also been a contest going on over the 4th of July weekend by the original 13 Colonies. Each of those states tries to make as many contacts as possible, and they are on the air often. They also are glad to hear a “YL” respond!