failed the general by 10 points without ever stdying for it.  It was free so what the hell.


Anyone know how long it takes to get your callsign these days?

Sorry guys, I grew up around this stuff with an old man who didnt give 2 sh*ts about teaching me anything, now that I'm at a point in my life where i can get started on this hobby that I was ALWAYS genuienly inerested in my thirst for knowledge is insatiable.  Unfornatly I am impatient by nature.

I'm also trying to make up for lost time in years and lost time with the old man.

Forgive me.

p.s. It also doesn't help that I have a fear of heights so bad I will have a panic attack if I try and force it, and scoliosis so bad that I'm not supposed to lift over 20 pounds.

So again forgive me.  

p.s.s. Not as a flame to them, but the Utah Ham club is really kind of mormon-cliqueish and I feel like an outsider not being mormon one of them.  They're all friendly as heck but it does feel insular so I'm not even sure if I'll be able to get help putting a tower up. So I feel kind of desperate.

Thats it.

Well here's the thing, I key the mic, depress the access codes and I don't hear any DTMF.  Now someone told me that it's not audible on my end but I'm not sure about that.

Hey, I'm thinking of putting up one of those 33ft MFJ fiberglass masts to hang a dipole on for an inverted V, is their a calculation or "rule of thumb" on how narrow or sharp the V ought to be?

I appriciate the advice guys, I think I'm going to invest in a couple good dipoles and tuner over the next couple months.

I'm not going to hang anything serious up until the bands open and I have my general ticket.

Now that said, if someone from the Utah Ham club suddenly offers up a used 40ft mast and I can get some help putting it up then yeah, I'm going to throw a VHF/UHF, 6M, 10M and up on it. A mix of verticls and beams.

Towers and antenna's are an odd commodity, somtimes your pay out the yin-yang for one and other times people are giving them away to anyone willing to drive it off!

MFJ hamtenna whip on a mag-mount ontop of a decommissioned swamp cooler to act as the counterpoise. Honestly speaking, does anyone reckon that I could use that during the sporadic E openings this spring?  

The beacon band is generally 28.100 to 28.300 am I correct?

"
Just wondering about your "mobile vertical". I trust its a little bit more than just coax to some kind of mount with the whip sticking up(?) That is, you have some radials on it? Right?
"

Uh, no radials, it's sitting ontop of a decommissioned swamp cooler.

How or where would I install radials?

"
You should "hear something", even if the band is dead. That is, when you connect the antenna to your radio, the background noise should very clearly rise. You should also hear some ignition noise and perhaps even appliance motors and maybe even light dimmers. Even on a 10M antenna, you should also be able to hear some solid activity on 27 MHz. The polarization of the antenna really doesn't matter when doing these tests.
"

I'm hearing alot of static and some very strong sources of interference that disappear if i disconnect the antenna. So yes it is alive.

 

I'm at my whits end, for the life of me I don't know how to make the HM-14 produce DTMF tones with the IC-48A.  

Usually you hit PTT and dial away, but i'm getting zilch.  Is there some trick on this rig?

The IC-48A was my Dad's but he's SK now so I cannot figure out how to make this produce DTMF, the manual doesn't even mention it.

HELP!

Does anyone think it'd  be worthwhile to install a 10M antenna (dipole or 16ft vertical on the roof) to take advantage of the this springs sporadic E?

Or am i just better off waiting a few years?

So when the season opens up a bit, anyone think a mobile whip, it's an MFJ for 10M setting on my roof will pick anything up?  I'm in Salt Lake and the antenna is at least 20 feet in the air.  

The HTX-100 does it have an auto-scan function anywhere in it? Read through the manual back and forth and can't find anything. Gettting tired of standing on the "up" key.


The IC-48A i have came with an Icom HM-14 Mic and I can't for the life of me figure out how you can use it to "dial in" DTMF codes.

"
Regarding the mobile whip in your roof - do you have radials connected
to the ground side of the coax at the feedpoint?
"

Nope, it's screwed into a mag mount just as if you would have it on a vehicle.  Mine is sitting on top of a  decommissioned swamp cooler.

I was able to get a home made dipole up at about the roof-line of my house and the high-pitched earsplitting interference i was getting before is much more subdued.  

Now I just get nice clean static all across the band!

Seriously with 10M being as bad as it is, what kind of antenna would I need ot hear ANYTHING? An A99 30 feet up?

Rob

how would I know when 10M propagation is good?  Sporadic E etc.

How does one check this out?

Does anyone make a standalone 40M rig?  Past or present?

I've been through the manual back and forth and I cant figure out to use the numeric keypad on the MIC for entering DTMF codes.

Most of the IRLP nodes around Salt Lake are UHF.