2010-03-12 16:35:56.992409+00 by Dan Lyke 4 comments
A few years ago, Charlene and I got our amateur radio licenses. I've tried to use mine once, driving SAG for the Wine Country Century, but the radio they lent me wasn't working right. And we've never bought radios of our own and taken this thing to the next level.
Today MarkV mentioned the Alinco DJ-G7T tri-band (2M, 440MHz and 1.2GHz) full-duplex transceiver. Looks cool.
[ related topics: Radio ]
comments in descending chronological order (reverse):
#Comment Re: made: 2010-03-15 00:33:32.420415+00 by: Dan Lyke
Yeah, the only reason I have for it is driving SAG (which I haven't done in nearly two years), though there may be some tie-in to emergency response (I just signed up for the Petaluma NERT class).
But even there I'm betting that the only thing HAM has going for it is that who you can communicate with is limited.
#Comment Re: made: 2010-03-14 22:55:32.170142+00 by: andylyke [edit history]
A fellow faculty member (ECET) once commented that he couldn't see the point to ham radio. On rflection, I pretty much agree. When I was a kid, one had to learn Morse(5 wpm for novice, 13 for general and, if I recall corectly 25 for amateur extra.
Now it's kind of an expensive CB. More later. they're closing the coffee shop.
The next day: We also had to build our own gear, but could. (Yes, Colllins, Halicrafters, etc existed, but who could afford them?) The options were limited - CW,voice, AM, SSB (and TTY and a few others) and the technology was basic. No 5 mil pitch surface mount yada yada -- Just manly, hot vacuum tubes, huge (physically) R,L,C. (You could even tell, with the naked eye, whether you were looking at mouse shit or a capacitor!!)Ah nostalgia!!
#Comment Re: made: 2010-03-14 15:03:19.618737+00 by: Dan Lyke
For some reason the radio for its own sake has never appealed. I think mostly because at this point anything electronics I do I generally want to see some path through to profitability.
#Comment Re: made: 2010-03-13 17:15:14.157194+00 by: DaveP
I'd figure you for the type who'd buy a bunch of tubes from Russia and build your own.
You know, in your copious free time.