The Official 2nd Gen RAM Forum OT thread
Champion
Joined: Oct 2009
Posts: 4,717
Likes: 10
From: N/A
My mind is still young but the body is well not lol.
Veteran
Joined: May 2012
Posts: 267
Likes: 0
I am a amateur radio operator in my spare time my call is KA9VQF. I barely managed to pass the 5 word per minute code test to get my novice license back in '86. The first year I was licensed as a novice I was still required to make 100 confirmed contacts {with a QSL card from the other operator} in a years time or lose my license.
About a month before my license would have expired I got the last two cards I needed and was getting ready to send them all in hoping I would be able to keep my license when they changed the whole licensing structure. They did away with novice license and introduced the new at the time “no code” technician license class. A short while later they sent me a new license saying I was a technician class operator but that was changed to technician plus {to denote I had passed the code test} but that was changed back to just technician before I got around to taking the general class license.
I am currently a general class license holder. There is one more level of license that I could attain yet and that is extra class. It has become a lot easier to pass the tests in the last few years. There is no longer a code test at all. All the questions they use on the tests are available on line so all you have to do it study and take the test. If you are good at remembering things you could go in with no license at all pay one fee and come out with the top extra class license. Of course it would take a short while to get your call sign but once it is posted in the FCC data base online you can use the call and start operating. In the old days you were supposed to have the license in hand before operating.
With the “ no code technician” license I could operate phone {voice} on 10 meters and pretty much anything above 50 MHz in frequency. I could still operate using code on the lower bands in the novice sub bands but not phone. The general license allows me a lot more frequencies to use phone and of course I am pretty well unlimited on where I can operate using CW {contentious wave/code} so long as I am with in the frequencies allowed to my class of license, the only problem with that is I totally suck at code.
I do have a computer program that can read a lot of code that I can receive on my radios over the air, so long as the sender has a pretty decent 'fist'. The program will also send decent code that other computers can copy just fine most of the time. The old timers keep telling me that the best code reading software is between your ears, its just that mine is very badly glitched I guess.
In my minds eye I can see the paradigm ham radio operator, that dude is definitely not me because he can build a functioning radio out of scraps of other electronic devices and knows code.
At one time in the early 70's I had a small time CB shop. I bought, sold, traded, and fixed a lot of CB radios. In the early 60's I helped my neighbor who was an extra class ham build an 11 meter radio {11 meters is the CB band. To get the allowed 23 channels we had 46 crystals one for receive and one for transmit we used knife switches to bring the crystals into the circuit. I ground nearly all of those crystals to the frequencies required by hand.
I have been interested in amateur radio from a very early age just didn't get around to really doing anything about it until I was in my early 30's.
I was born in 1953 but I will still bet that I am not the oldest guy on this forum.
About a month before my license would have expired I got the last two cards I needed and was getting ready to send them all in hoping I would be able to keep my license when they changed the whole licensing structure. They did away with novice license and introduced the new at the time “no code” technician license class. A short while later they sent me a new license saying I was a technician class operator but that was changed to technician plus {to denote I had passed the code test} but that was changed back to just technician before I got around to taking the general class license.
I am currently a general class license holder. There is one more level of license that I could attain yet and that is extra class. It has become a lot easier to pass the tests in the last few years. There is no longer a code test at all. All the questions they use on the tests are available on line so all you have to do it study and take the test. If you are good at remembering things you could go in with no license at all pay one fee and come out with the top extra class license. Of course it would take a short while to get your call sign but once it is posted in the FCC data base online you can use the call and start operating. In the old days you were supposed to have the license in hand before operating.
With the “ no code technician” license I could operate phone {voice} on 10 meters and pretty much anything above 50 MHz in frequency. I could still operate using code on the lower bands in the novice sub bands but not phone. The general license allows me a lot more frequencies to use phone and of course I am pretty well unlimited on where I can operate using CW {contentious wave/code} so long as I am with in the frequencies allowed to my class of license, the only problem with that is I totally suck at code.
I do have a computer program that can read a lot of code that I can receive on my radios over the air, so long as the sender has a pretty decent 'fist'. The program will also send decent code that other computers can copy just fine most of the time. The old timers keep telling me that the best code reading software is between your ears, its just that mine is very badly glitched I guess.
In my minds eye I can see the paradigm ham radio operator, that dude is definitely not me because he can build a functioning radio out of scraps of other electronic devices and knows code.
At one time in the early 70's I had a small time CB shop. I bought, sold, traded, and fixed a lot of CB radios. In the early 60's I helped my neighbor who was an extra class ham build an 11 meter radio {11 meters is the CB band. To get the allowed 23 channels we had 46 crystals one for receive and one for transmit we used knife switches to bring the crystals into the circuit. I ground nearly all of those crystals to the frequencies required by hand.
I have been interested in amateur radio from a very early age just didn't get around to really doing anything about it until I was in my early 30's.
I was born in 1953 but I will still bet that I am not the oldest guy on this forum.
Legend
Joined: May 2005
Posts: 8,663
Likes: 8
From: Central Oklahoma
Champion
Joined: Jun 2012
Posts: 3,096
Likes: 2
From: Iowa
I've been subscribed to Google Play Music All Access. It's 9.99/mo for unlimited access to all music on Google play. So I can listen to a lot of different music
I am a amateur radio operator in my spare time my call is KA9VQF. I barely managed to pass the 5 word per minute code test to get my novice license back in '86. The first year I was licensed as a novice I was still required to make 100 confirmed contacts {with a QSL card from the other operator} in a years time or lose my license.
About a month before my license would have expired I got the last two cards I needed and was getting ready to send them all in hoping I would be able to keep my license when they changed the whole licensing structure. They did away with novice license and introduced the new at the time “no code” technician license class. A short while later they sent me a new license saying I was a technician class operator but that was changed to technician plus {to denote I had passed the code test} but that was changed back to just technician before I got around to taking the general class license.
I am currently a general class license holder. There is one more level of license that I could attain yet and that is extra class. It has become a lot easier to pass the tests in the last few years. There is no longer a code test at all. All the questions they use on the tests are available on line so all you have to do it study and take the test. If you are good at remembering things you could go in with no license at all pay one fee and come out with the top extra class license. Of course it would take a short while to get your call sign but once it is posted in the FCC data base online you can use the call and start operating. In the old days you were supposed to have the license in hand before operating.
With the “ no code technician” license I could operate phone {voice} on 10 meters and pretty much anything above 50 MHz in frequency. I could still operate using code on the lower bands in the novice sub bands but not phone. The general license allows me a lot more frequencies to use phone and of course I am pretty well unlimited on where I can operate using CW {contentious wave/code} so long as I am with in the frequencies allowed to my class of license, the only problem with that is I totally suck at code.
I do have a computer program that can read a lot of code that I can receive on my radios over the air, so long as the sender has a pretty decent 'fist'. The program will also send decent code that other computers can copy just fine most of the time. The old timers keep telling me that the best code reading software is between your ears, its just that mine is very badly glitched I guess.
In my minds eye I can see the paradigm ham radio operator, that dude is definitely not me because he can build a functioning radio out of scraps of other electronic devices and knows code.
At one time in the early 70's I had a small time CB shop. I bought, sold, traded, and fixed a lot of CB radios. In the early 60's I helped my neighbor who was an extra class ham build an 11 meter radio {11 meters is the CB band. To get the allowed 23 channels we had 46 crystals one for receive and one for transmit we used knife switches to bring the crystals into the circuit. I ground nearly all of those crystals to the frequencies required by hand.
I have been interested in amateur radio from a very early age just didn't get around to really doing anything about it until I was in my early 30's.
I was born in 1953 but I will still bet that I am not the oldest guy on this forum.
About a month before my license would have expired I got the last two cards I needed and was getting ready to send them all in hoping I would be able to keep my license when they changed the whole licensing structure. They did away with novice license and introduced the new at the time “no code” technician license class. A short while later they sent me a new license saying I was a technician class operator but that was changed to technician plus {to denote I had passed the code test} but that was changed back to just technician before I got around to taking the general class license.
I am currently a general class license holder. There is one more level of license that I could attain yet and that is extra class. It has become a lot easier to pass the tests in the last few years. There is no longer a code test at all. All the questions they use on the tests are available on line so all you have to do it study and take the test. If you are good at remembering things you could go in with no license at all pay one fee and come out with the top extra class license. Of course it would take a short while to get your call sign but once it is posted in the FCC data base online you can use the call and start operating. In the old days you were supposed to have the license in hand before operating.
With the “ no code technician” license I could operate phone {voice} on 10 meters and pretty much anything above 50 MHz in frequency. I could still operate using code on the lower bands in the novice sub bands but not phone. The general license allows me a lot more frequencies to use phone and of course I am pretty well unlimited on where I can operate using CW {contentious wave/code} so long as I am with in the frequencies allowed to my class of license, the only problem with that is I totally suck at code.
I do have a computer program that can read a lot of code that I can receive on my radios over the air, so long as the sender has a pretty decent 'fist'. The program will also send decent code that other computers can copy just fine most of the time. The old timers keep telling me that the best code reading software is between your ears, its just that mine is very badly glitched I guess.
In my minds eye I can see the paradigm ham radio operator, that dude is definitely not me because he can build a functioning radio out of scraps of other electronic devices and knows code.
At one time in the early 70's I had a small time CB shop. I bought, sold, traded, and fixed a lot of CB radios. In the early 60's I helped my neighbor who was an extra class ham build an 11 meter radio {11 meters is the CB band. To get the allowed 23 channels we had 46 crystals one for receive and one for transmit we used knife switches to bring the crystals into the circuit. I ground nearly all of those crystals to the frequencies required by hand.
I have been interested in amateur radio from a very early age just didn't get around to really doing anything about it until I was in my early 30's.
I was born in 1953 but I will still bet that I am not the oldest guy on this forum.
I haven't gotten my CB radio license yet... I use primarily high-powered GMRS radios when i need to. up to 25MI range, near a federal repeater tower I can get even more range lol.
Haha I was born in 95 too man! We're probably the youngest on here then. Glad I've been learning from these older folks though.
Captain
Joined: Nov 2013
Posts: 594
Likes: 0
From: Bluegrass State
I'd like to hear how your projector head lights turn out....if you know what I mean (sig photo). Just remember, Tired Old Man is the old guy on here (haha) K.
Last edited by tincan57; Jan 24, 2014 at 09:43 AM. Reason: comma