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Overview
Despite its old-school reputation, amateur radio is on the rise, and the airwaves are busier than ever. That’s no surprise: being a ham is a lot of fun, providing an independent way to keep in touch with friends, family, and new acquaintances around the world—and even beyond with its ability to connect with the International Space Station! Hams are also good in a crisis, keeping communications alive and crackling during extreme weather events and loss of communications until regular systems like cell phones and the internet are restored. Additionally, it’s enjoyable for good, old-fashioned tech geek reasons—fiddling with circuits and bouncing signals off the ionosphere just happens to give a lot of us a buzz!
If one or more of these benefits is of interest to you, then good news: the new edition of Ham Radio For Dummies covers them all! In his signature friendly style, longtime ham Ward Silver (Call Sign NØAX)—contributing editor with the American Radio Relay League—patches you in on everything from getting the right equipment and building your station (it doesn’t have to be expensive) to the intricacies of Morse code and Ohm’s law. In addition, he coaches you on how to prepare for the FCC-mandated licensing exam and tunes you up for ultimate glory in the ham radio hall of fame as a Radiosport competitor! With this book, you’ll learn to:
- Set up and organize your station
- Communicate with people around the world
- Prep for and pass the FCC exam
- Tune into the latest tech, such as digital mode operating
Whether you’re looking to join a public service club or want the latest tips on the cutting edge of ham technology, this is the perfect reference for newbies and experts alike—and will keep you happily hamming it up for years!
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781119695608 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Wiley |
| Publication date: | 04/20/2021 |
| Edition description: | 4th ed. |
| Pages: | 448 |
| Sales rank: | 151,028 |
| Product dimensions: | 7.30(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.10(d) |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
Ham Radio For Dummies
By Ward Silver
John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0-7645-5987-7Chapter One
Getting Acquainted with Ham RadioIn This Chapter
* Becoming a part of ham radio
* Traversing the world of ham radio
* Making a contact with ham radio
* Constructing a ham radio shack
Ham radio invokes a wide range of visions. Maybe you have a mental image of a ham radio operator (or ham) from a movie or newspaper article. But hams are a varied lot - from go-getter emergency communicators to casual chatters to workshop tinkerers. Everyone has a place, and you do, too.
Hams use all sorts of radios and antennas on a wide variety of frequencies to communicate with other hams across town and around the world. They use ham radio for personal enjoyment, for keeping in touch with friends and family, for emergency communications, and for experimenting with radios and radio equipment. They communicate using microphones, telegraph or Morse keys, computers, cameras, lasers, and even their own satellites.
Hams meet on the air and in person. Ham radio clubs and organizations are devoted to every conceivable purpose. They have special ham radio flea markets and host conventions, large and small. Hams as young as six years old and centenarians have been hams since before ham radio licenses. Some have a technical background, but most do not. One thing all these diverse individuals do have, however, is an interest in radio that can express itself in many different ways.
Tuning In Ham Radio Today
Hams enjoy three different aspects of ham radio - the technology, operating, and social points of view. Your interest in the hobby may be technical; you may want to use ham radio for a specific purpose; or you may just want to join the fun. All are perfectly valid reasons for getting a ham radio license.
Using electronics and technology
Ham radio is full of electronics and technology (see Chapter 2). To start with, transmitting and receiving radio signals is a very electronics-intensive endeavor. After you open the hood on ham radio, you're exposed to everything from basic direct-current electronics to cutting-edge radio-frequency techniques. Everything from analog electronics to the very latest in digital signal processing and computing is available in ham radio. I've been in the hobby for more than 30 years and I've never met anyone who is an expert on it all.
You may choose to design and build your own equipment or assemble a station from factory-built components, just like an audiophile might do. All that you need for either path is widely available in stores and on the Web. Hams delight in a do-it-yourself ethic known as homebrewing and help each other out to build and maintain their stations.
TECHNICAL STUFF
Hams also develop their own software and use the Internet along with radios to create novel hybrid systems. Hams developed packet radio by adapting data transmission protocols used over computer networks to amateur radio links. Packet radio is now widely used in many commercial applications. By combining GPS radiolocation technology with the Web and amateur mobile radios, the Automatic Position Reporting System (APRS) was developed and is now widely used. More information about these neat systems is contained in Parts III and IV.
Voice and Morse code communications are still the most popular technologies by which hams talk to each other, but computer-based digital operation is gaining fast. The most common home station configuration today is a hybrid of the computer and radio. Some of the newer radios are exploring software-defined radio (SDR) technology that allows reconfiguration of the circuitry that processes radio signals under software control.
Along with the equipment and computers, hams are students of antennas and propagation, which is the means by which radio signals bounce around from place to place. Hams take an interest in solar cycles, sunspots, and how they affect the Earth's ionosphere. For hams, weather takes on a whole new importance, generating static or fronts along which radio signals can sometimes travel long distances. Antennas, with which signals are launched to take advantage of all this propagation, provide a fertile universe for the station builder and experimenter.
Antenna experimentation is a hotbed of activity for hams. New designs are created every day and hams have contributed many advances and refinements to the antenna designer's art. Antenna systems range from small patches of printed circuit board material to multiple towers festooned with large rotating arrays. All you need is some wire, a feedline, and a soldering iron.
Hams also use radio technology in support of hobbies such as radio control (R/C), model rocketry, and meteorology. Hams have special frequencies for R/C operation in the 6-meter band, away from the crowded unlicensed R/C frequencies. Miniature ham radio video transmitters are frequently flown in model aircraft, rockets, and balloons, beaming back pictures from heights of hundreds and thousands of feet. Ham radio data links are also used in support of astronomy, aviation, auto racing and rallies, and many other pastimes.
Whatever part of electronic and computing technology you most enjoy, it's all used in ham radio somewhere ... and sometimes all at once!
Operating a ham radio: Making contacts
If you were to tune a radio across the ham bands, what would you hear hams doing? Contacts run the range from simple conversation to on-the-air meetings to contesting (recording the highest number of contacts).
Ragchews
By far the most common type of activity for hams is just engaging in conversation, which is called chewing the rag; such contacts are called ragchews. Ragchews take place between continents or across town. You don't have to know another ham to have a great ragchew - ham radio is a very friendly hobby with little class snobbery or distinctions. Just make contact and start talking! Find out more about ragchews in Chapter 9.
Nets
Nets (an abbreviation for networks) are organized on-the-air meetings scheduled for hams with a similar interest or purpose. Some of the nets you can find are
DX-ing, contests, and awards
DX stands for distance and the lure of making contacts ever-farther from home has always been a part of ham radio. Hams compete to contact faraway stations and to log contacts with every country. They enjoy contacting islands and making personal friends in a foreign country. When conditions are right and the band is full of foreign accents, succumbing to the lure of DX is easy!
Ham radio's version of rugby, contests are events in which the point is to make as many contacts as possible, sometimes thousands, during the contest time period, by sending and receiving short messages. These exchanges are related to the purpose of the contest - to contact a specific area, use a certain band, find a special station, or just contact everybody.
Along with contests, thousands of special-event stations and awards are available for various operating accomplishments, such as contacting different countries or states. For example, in December 2003, the station W4B was set up at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, and operated during the centennial of the Wright Brothers' first flight.
DX-ing, contests, and awards are closely related, and if you enjoy the thrill of the chase, go to Chapter 11 to find out more about all of these activities.
Joining the ham radio community
Because of their numbers and reliance on uncomplicated infrastructure, hams are able to bounce back quickly when a natural disaster or other emergency makes communications over normal channels impossible. Hams organize themselves into local and regional teams that practice responding to a variety of emergency needs, working to support public safety agencies such as police and fire departments.
Is it hurricane season? Every fall in North America, ham emergency teams gear up for these potentially devastating storms. Hams staff an amateur station at the National Hurricane Center in Florida (fiu.edu/orgs/w4ehw/) and keep the Hurricane Watch Net busy on 14.325 MHz (hwn.org/). After the storm, hams are the first voices heard from the affected areas with many more standing by to relay their messages and information.
After the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, hams manned an emergency operations center around the clock for weeks. Government agencies had to focus on coordinating recovery and rescue efforts. The hams were able to handle "health-and-welfare" messages to support the emergency workers in their efforts.
Every June, on the last full weekend, hams across the United States engage in an emergency operations exercise called Field Day. It's an opportunity for hams to operate under emergency conditions. An amateur emergency team or station probably is operating in your town or county.
Hams provide assistance for more than emergencies. Wherever there is a parade, festival, marathon, or other opportunity to provide communications services, you may find ham radio operators helping out. In fact, this is great training for emergencies!
TIP
A particularly beneficial relationship exists between ham radio and philately, or stamp collecting. Hams routinely exchange postcards called QSLs with their call signs, information about their stations, and often colorful graphics or photos. Stamp collecting hams combine the exchange of QSLs with collecting by sending the cards around the world with local colorful stamps or special postmarks. Foreign hams return the favor with a stamp of their own. The cheerful greeting of those red-and-blue airmail envelopes from an exotic location is a special treat!
Hams like to meet in person as well as on the radio. Membership in at least one radio club is a part of nearly every ham's life. In fact, in some countries, you're required to be a member of a club before you can even get a license. Chapter 3 shows you how to find and join clubs - they're great sources of information and assistance for new hams.
The two other popular ham gatherings are hamfests and conventions. A hamfest is a ham radio flea market where hams bring their electronic treasures for sale or trade. Some are small, parking-lot-size get-togethers on a Saturday morning while others attract thousands of hams from all over the world and last for days. These are more like the conventions hams hold with a variety of themes from public service to DX and low-power operating. Hams travel all over the world to attend conventions and meet friends known only as a voice and a call sign over the crackling radio waves.
Roaming the World of Ham Radio
Although the United States has a large population of hams, it by no means represents the majority. The amateur population in Europe is growing by leaps and bounds, and Japan has an even larger amateur population. With more than 3 million hams worldwide, very few countries are without an amateur.
Hams are required to have a license, no matter where they operate. The international agency that manages radio activity is the International Telecommunication Union, or ITU (itu.int/home/). Each member country is required to have its own government agency that controls licensing inside its borders. In the United States, hams are part of the Amateur Radio Service, which is regulated and licensed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Outside the United States, Amateur Radio is governed by similar rules and regulations.
Amateur Radio licenses in America are granted by the FCC, but the tests are administered by other hams acting as volunteer examiners, or VEs. I discuss VEs in detail in Chapter 4. Classes and testing programs are often available through local clubs.
Since the adoption of international licensing regulations, hams operate from many different countries with a minimum of paperwork. For example, a ham from a country that is a party to the international license recognition agreement known as CEPT can use his or her home license to operate from within any other CEPT country. The ARRL has gathered a lot of useful material about international operating on its Web site at arrl.org/FandES/field/ regulations/io.
Because radio signals know no boundaries, hams have always been in touch across the political borders. Even during the Cold War, U.S. and Soviet hams made regular contact, fostering long personal friendships and international goodwill. While the Internet makes global communications easy, chatting by voice or Morse code over the airwaves to someone in another country is exciting.
Communicating with Ham Radio
Though you make contacts for different purposes - chatting, emergencies, a net, or to win a contest - most contacts follow the same structure.
After you get a response from your call or respond to someone else calling, you exchange names, information about who you are, and the quality of your signal to gauge conditions.
Continues...
Excerpted from Ham Radio For Dummies by Ward Silver Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Introduction 1
About This Book 1
My Assumptions about You 2
Icons Used in This Book 3
Beyond the Book 3
Where to Go from Here 4
Part 1 Getting Started with Ham Radio 5
Chapter 1 Getting Acquainted with Ham Radio 7
Exploring Ham Radio around the World 8
Tuning into Ham Radio 9
Using electronics and technology 10
Joining the ham radio community 12
Radiosport - Competing with Ham Radio 15
Communicating through Ham Radio Contacts 16
Ragchews 17
Nets 17
Citizen Science and HamSCI 18
Chapter 2 Getting a Handle on Ham Radio Technology 21
Getting to Know Basic Ham Radio Gear 21
Building a Basic Ham Radio Station 23
Basic stations 23
Communication Technologies 26
Understanding the Fundamentals of Radio Waves 28
Frequency and wavelength 29
The radio spectrum 30
Dealing with Mother Nature 32
Experiencing nature affecting radio waves 32
Overcoming radio noise 33
Chapter 3 Finding Other Hams: Your Support Group 35
Finding and Being a Mentor 36
Interacting in Online Communities 37
Social media and blogs 37
Videos, podcasts, and webinars 38
Email reflectors 39
Online training and instruction 40
Web portals 41
Joining Radio Clubs 41
Finding and choosing a dub 42
Participating in meetings 44
Getting more involved 45
Exploring the ARRL 46
ARRL benefits to you 47
ARRL benefits to the hobby 48
ARRL benefits to the public 49
Taking Part in Specialty Groups 50
On the Air - IOTA, SOTA, and POTA 50
Young Hams - YOTA 51
Competitive clubs 51
Handiham 52
AMSAT 53
TAPR 54
YLRL 55
QRP clubs 56
Attending Hamfests and Conventions 57
Finding and preparing for hamfests 57
Buying equipment at hamfests 58
Finding conventions and conferences 59
Part 2 Wading Through the Licensing Process 63
Chapter 4 Understanding the Licensing System 65
Getting Acquainted with the Amateur Service 66
FCC rules 66
Ham radio frequency allocations 67
Learning about Types of Licenses 69
Technician class 70
General class 70
Amateur Extra class 70
Grandfathered classes 71
Getting Licensed 72
Studying the exam questions 72
Taking your license exam 72
Volunteer examiner coordinators 73
Volunteer examiners 73
Receiving Your New Call Sign 74
Call-sign prefixes and suffixes 74
Class and call sign 75
Chapter 5 Preparing for Your License Exam 77
Getting a Grip on the Technician Exam 77
Finding Study Resources 78
Licensing classes 79
Books, websites, and videos 80
Online practice exams 82
Locating Your Mentor 82
Chapter 6 Taking the Exam 85
Types of Exams 86
Public in-person exams 86
Remote exams 86
Exams at events 87
Exam sessions in homes and online 87
Finding an Exam Session 88
Registering with the Universal Licensing System (ULS) 88
Getting to Exam Day 90
What to have with you 91
What to expect 91
What to do after the exam 93
Chapter 7 Obtaining Your License and Call Sign 95
Completing Your Licensing Paperwork 95
Finding Your Call Sign 98
Searching the ULS database 98
Searching other websites for call signs 99
Printing your license 100
Identifying with your new privileges 101
Picking Your Own Call Sign 101
Searching for available call signs 102
Applying for a vanity call sign 103
Maintaining Your License 104
Part 3 Hamming It Up 105
Chapter 8 Receiving Signals 107
Learning by Listening 107
Finding out where to listen 108
Understanding how bands are organized 109
Using Your Receiver 110
Tuning and scanning with channels 112
Continuous tuning with a knob 113
Software-controlled tuning 114
Listening on VHF and UHF 115
Listening on HF 116
Using beacon networks and contact maps 118
Receiving Signals 121
Receiving FM voice 121
Receiving SSB voice 125
Receiving digital voice 127
Receiving digital or data modes 128
Receiving Morse code 131
Chapter 9 Basic Operating 133
Understanding Contacts (QSOs) 134
Common parts of contacts 135
Casual contacts 139
Nets and talk groups - On-the-air meetings 139
Contests and DXing - Radiosport 141
How contacts get started 142
Joining a contact 144
Failing to make contact 145
During a contact 147
Calling CQ 150
Casual Conversation - Ragchewing 152
Knowing where to chew 152
Identifying a ragchewer 154
Calling CQ for a ragchew 155
Making Repeater and Simplex Contacts 156
Understanding repeater basics 156
Making a repeater contact 160
Using access control 161
Miscellaneous repeater features 163
Maximizing your signal 164
Setting up your radio 164
Making a simplex contact 168
Digital Voice Systems 169
HF digital voice 170
VHF/UHF digital voice 170
Digital repeater networks 172
The DMR system 176
Casual Operating on HF 178
HF bands 178
Picking good times to operate 179
Contacts on CW and digital modes 181
Chapter 10 Public Service Operating 185
Joining a Public Service Group 186
Finding a public service group 186
Volunteering for ARES 188
Preparing for Emergencies and Disasters 189
Knowing who 189
Knowing where 190
Knowing what 190
Knowing how 192
Operating in Emergencies and Disasters 193
Reporting an accident or other incident 194
Making and responding to distress calls 195
Providing Public Service 197
Weather monitoring and SKYWARN 197
Parades and chanty events 198
Participating in Nets 199
Checking in and out 200
Exchanging information 200
Tactical call signs 202
Radio discipline 202
Digital Message Networks 203
Winlink - email by radio 204
AREDN 206
NBEMS 207
Chapter 11 Operating Specialties 209
Getting Digital 210
Digital definitions 211
WSJT modes - fast and slow 212
FT8 and FT4 213
PSK31 and PSK63 216
Radioteletype (RTTY) 216
Non-WSJT MFSK modes 218
PACTOR, ARDOP, and VARA 219
Packet radio 220
APRS and tracking 220
DXing - Chasing Distant Stations 223
VHF/UHF DXing with a Technician license 223
HF DXing with a General license 227
Taking Part in Radio Contests 235
Choosing a contest 237
Operating in a contest 238
Chasing Awards 245
Finding awards and special events 245
Logging contacts for awards 246
Applying for awards 247
Mastering Morse Code (CW) 247
Learning Morse correctly 248
Copying the code 249
Pounding brass - sending Morse 250
Making code contacts 251
QRP (Low Power) and Portable Operating 251
Getting started with QRP 252
Portable operating 253
Direction-finding (ARDF) 256
Operating via Satellites 257
Getting grounded in satellite basics 257
Accessing satellites 258
Seeing Things: Image Communication 259
Slow-scan television 259
Fast-scan television 261
Part 4 Building and Operating a Station That Works 263
Chapter 12 Getting on the Air 265
What Is a Station? 265
Planning Your Station 266
Deciding what you want to do 266
Deciding how to operate 267
Choosing a Radio 270
Allocating your resources 271
Software defined radios 272
Radios for VHF and UHF operating 273
Radios for HF operating 278
Filtering and noise 281
Choosing an Antenna 282
Beam antennas 283
VHF/UHF antennas 284
HF antennas 285
Feed line and connectors 289
Supporting Your Antenna 293
Antennas and trees 293
Masts and tripods 294
Towers 295
Rotators 296
Station Accessories 298
Mikes, keys, and keyers 298
Antenna system gadgets 299
Digital mode interfaces 301
Remote Control Stations 302
Remote control rules 302
Accessing a remote control station 303
Upgrading Your Station 304
Chapter 13 Organizing a Home Station 307
Designing Your Station 307
Keeping a station notebook 308
Building in ergonomics 309
Viewing some example ham stations 312
Building in RF and Electrical Safety 316
Electrical safety 316
RF exposure 317
First aid 318
Groundingand Bonding 319
AC and DC power 320
Lightning 320
RF management 321
Chapter 14 Computers in Your Ham Station 323
What Type of Computers Do Hams Use? 323
Windows 324
Linux 324
Macintosh 324
Android and iOS 324
Microcontrollers 325
What Do Ham Computers Do? 325
Software-defined radio 326
WSJT-X and fldigi 327
Radio and remote control 327
Hardware considerations 328
Keeping a Log of Your Contacts 329
Paper logging 329
Computer logging 330
Submitting a contest log 333
Confirming Your Contacts 335
QSL cards 335
QSLing electronically 336
Direct QSLing 337
Using QSL managers 337
Bureaus and QSL services 338
Applying for awards 339
Chapter 15 Operating Away from Home 341
Mobile Stations 341
HF mobile radios 342
Mobile installations 343
Mobile antennas 347
Portable Operating 349
Portable antennas 353
Portable power 354
Field Day 355
Field Day "gotchas" 357
Chapter 16 Hands-On Radio 359
Acquiring Tools and Components 360
Maintenance tools 360
Repair and building tools 366
Components for repairs and building 368
Maintaining Your Station 370
Overall Troubleshooting 372
Troubleshooting Your Station 372
Power problems 373
RF problems 374
Operational problems 375
Troubleshooting RF Interference 377
Dealing with interference to other equipment 378
Dealing with interference to your equipment 380
Building Equipment from a Kit 383
Building Equipment from Scratch 384
Part 5 The Part of Tens 385
Chapter 17 Ham Radio Jargon - Say What? 387
Spoken Q-signals 387
Contesting or Radiosport 388
Antenna Varieties 388
Feed Lines 389
Antenna Tuners 389
Repeater Operating 390
Grid Squares 391
Interference and Noise 391
Connector Parts 392
Solar and Geomagnetic Activity 393
Chapter 18 Technical Fundamentals 395
Electrical Units and Symbols 395
Ohm's Law 396
Power 397
Decibels 397
Attenuation, Loss, and Gain 398
Bandwidth 398
Filters 399
Antenna Patterns 400
Standing Wave Ratio (SWR) 401
Battery Characteristics 402
Satellite Tracking 402
Chapter 19 Tips for Masters 405
Listening to Everything 405
Learning How It Works 406
Following the Protocol 406
Keeping Your Axe Sharp 406
Practice to Make Perfect 406
Paying Attention to Detail 407
Knowing What You Don't Know 407
Maintaining Radio Discipline 407
Make Small Improvements Continuously 408
Help Others and Accept Help from Others 408
Index 409
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