Amateur Radio

[Wheeler]

I'm going to throw this question out there and then go to work. If a person lived behind a ridge that separated them from civilization by about 300' of altitude, would there be any point to trying to have a base station at their location? Let's say the ridge was nearly vertical and the base of it was about 200 yards from their house, traveling in one direction without end and the other direction about 1/4 mile before abruptly ending in a narrow notch which allowed traffic in and out of the area before another mountain rose and continued on.

Hopefully that made sense.

Yes. Using HF and a NVIS, Near Vertical Incidence Skywave antenna you can reach out to 400 miles max and 200 miles typically. The only downside is the first bounce off the ionosphere is around 20 miles from your station.

You could cover that gap with a VHF repeater on the ridge or look to see if there are already repeaters in your area, but that will make you dependent on someone else’s gear.

[mtnbkr]

It wouldn't even need to be NVIS unless you are primarily concerned with talking to locals. I've worked DX from within a valley on 40m and made long-haul contacts within the US on 40, 20, and 15 from similar conditions. BTW, coast-to-coast contacts in the US are much longer than contacts considered "DX" in Europe. Their DX is like our state-to-state work. From a summit in VA, I worked France in one direction and California in the other. France was about 3000ish miles, while California was 2000ish.

But, if you want to do VHF work, especially on repeaters, you're going to have a tough time in the direction of that summit.

You *might* use a directional antenna pointed at that notch in the mountain. With enough power, you could get enough RF through the notch to hit users on the other side (users being simplex Ops or repeaters), but their signals may not make it back to you unless they're doing something similar.

What exactly are your goals?

Chris

[mtnbkr]

Speaking of radio plans, A buddy gave me an open-ended loan of his spare Icom 746Pro. I've been gathering parts so I can build an EFHW autotransformer for 20m/10m (and later 40m once I build a coil for that band since I don't have enough linear space for a 65' wire). I'm going with something in the range of 1:64 using an FT240-43 toroid and solid copper wire for the windings. The transformer will be at the top of the mast just behind my townhouse and slope down to the opposite corner of the yard. That's a 40' shot, but the radiator will only be about 32'-35' until I add the coil later on.

Chris

[rkittine]

6m and 10m might make it using ground wave. You would have to test higher frequencies (unless you can put a remote base on the ridge top, which I do in Sag Harbor as I am on the water at Sea level My Yaesu FT8900 has cross band mode.

With much of HF, you might not even get over the ridge. Have seen plenty of times when HF through Bounce may allow communications thousands of miles away, but not a few miles due to lack of adequate ground wave performance.

Find a local ham club, have come people come to your location and try some things.

Bob WA2YDV

[mtnbkr]

6m and 10m might make it using ground wave. You would have to test higher frequencies (unless you can put a remote base on the ridge top, which I do in Sag Harbor as I am on the water at Sea level My Yaesu FT8900 has cross band mode.

With much of HF, you might not even get over the ridge. Have seen plenty of times when HF through Bounce may allow communications thousands of miles away, but not a few miles due to lack of adequate ground wave performance.

Find a local ham club, have come people come to your location and try some things.

Bob WA2YDV

The problem with 6m and 10m is that nobody may be listening. I've been playing with 6m a lot this year (I have an HT that does 6m FM and AM). Except during the VHF contest back in January, I've not heard a peep on 6m. Even then, I had to coordinate on 2m, then move to 6m. I went camping back in Febuary and had a 6m j-pole up in a tree the entire time (the base of the antenna was at 10'). I called CQ periodically the entire trip and heard nothing in response.

It all comes back to what @Welder wants to do. If he's looking to communicate with folks on the other side of that mountain, he has his work cut out for him. If he just wants to get on the air and make contacts with *anyone*, then HF will do just fine.

Actually, just had a thought...
Depending on paths and such, amateur satellite comms may be an option. It's not a 24x7 mode of operation, but it would get you over that hump. A person could get started in that with a relatively minor outlay of cash. But, the operator would be at the mercy of the satellite schedules.

Chris

[rkittine]

Set up your 6 meter and 10 meter receivers on the Beacon Frequencies. CW is best followed by SSB, but FM can work. As soon as you hear a beacon get on. I have worked a lot oof DX on 6 and 10, just monitoring for the bands being open and skip being in. Ground wave is for sure more problematic, but worth looking into.

I have worked Europe many times on a converted SSB CB Radio. In the old days, we used to watch Channel 2 on TV for band openings based on reception, but how many people are using TV antennas these days?

Bob

[Welder]

As far as what I want to do, heck I don't know! But I think it'd be nice to talk locally. The closest I've had to ham radios have been CB's in various trucks over the years, and a scanner I used to keep in my Mustang in my college days, thinking it made me cool.

It's pretty much just a thought exercise at the moment.

[rkittine]

Find a local HAM Radio club and make some local friends that will for sure help you out.

Bob WA2YDV

[Clusterfrack]

I get that the amateur radio market is small, but ham radio technology seems like it's at least 10 years behind modern standards. I don't think it's too much to ask for:

-Bluetooth interface with an iPhone/Android app that gives full control of the device
-Cloud service for storing device information
-High quality displays appropriate for the cost of the devices
-Standard user interface across the entire product line
-Regular and easy firmware updates
-Ability to search for and automatically enter info for nearby repeaters using GPS (using the app).
-Automatic RepeaterBook frequency entry, with automatic offset & code

And that's just what I though up in 5 minutes after a cup of coffee. What other modern features would you like in your transceivers?

[Wheeler]

I get that the amateur radio market is small, but ham radio technology seems like it's at least 10 years behind modern standards. I don't think it's too much to ask for:

-Bluetooth interface with an iPhone/Android app that gives full control of the device
-Cloud service for storing device information
-High quality displays appropriate for the cost of the devices
-Standard user interface across the entire product line
-Regular and easy firmware updates
-Ability to search for and automatically enter info for nearby repeaters using GPS (using the app).
-Automatic RepeaterBook frequency entry, with automatic offset & code

And that's just what I though up in 5 minutes after a cup of coffee. What other modern features would you like in your transceivers?

There’s a couple of videos floating around about completely wireless control of an Icom 705. There’s also dongles you can buy for the CAT ports that allow Bluetooth interface with radios. I mention those only because the industry is slowly turning in that direction.

There are more curmudgeons in amateur radio bragging about their ability to code and make contacts using a bent coat hanger and an antenna than 1911 toting advocates of the Weaver stance at a Gunsite convention.

None of the companies are willing to acknowledge a standard that has been branded by a competitor. It’s worse than the ammo names between S&W, Colt, Remington, Winchester, and Savage 115 years ago. Products are made for a very short time and then disappear from the market. Finding any support for my Yaesu FT-897 is either extremely expensive or non existent.

Most of the products seem to be geared towards the various forms of congestion or separating dollars from new hams that don’t know any better. Finding gear that is actually capable of sustained field use without some form of climate control is very expensive or there’s a a robust marketing campaign with no product.

I’m almost positive KelTec based their business model off of the amateur radio industry.