I was fairly active in Ham Radio, until about 8 years ago, when I kind of lost interest. I was just clearing out some old electronics and discovered a 2 meter rig, a Yaesu Vx 5, a lot of cables and several antennas. The tower is long gone, but I could do a treetop mount and get to 80-90' AGL with little trouble (thanks to the buddies at the fire company one district over and their 100' ladder truck!)

I'm kind of interested in creating a local, moderate speed data network of sorts, I've read up on Winlink, and perhaps getting into voice modes again. I have a Technician class license that is still active (I kept it active because it allows you to have a mobile scanner in most states and in some other countries).

Assuming a minimal budget what would you suggest I start with these days? Seems like all the equipment is very different than when I stopped.

i'll watch this post with interest--i use an old Hallicrafter to listen in on shortwave and would like to get a license now that you don't have to learn morse code. a few times a year they offer classes at the Vets hospital just down the street and someone left the test book in the give-away book shelf in one of the clinics.it looks easy--but Martin's gear question will be really helpful..

+1. Made popcorn, watching closely.

My first recommendation for returning hams is ARRL:

http://www.arrl.org/

http://www.hello-radio.org/

Where you can start to get a feel for what is current and recent.

As for where to start again. Well, 2 meter is always a good break in point. You keep it local, keep it live, and you already have most all you need to get going. 2 meter voice is still in good use. In the meantime, you can research packet and winlink and such and get yourself up to speed on what is being done and what equipment is being used.

I've always been an HF geek, and would like to get back into code keying again. That's where all the old rag-chewers hang out at 30-45 wpm. You are in thin air with that crowd, but it is a good place to be.

A good compromise is the 28 Mhz/10 meter crowd. You can keep it local or pump it OTH, so you get the best of both worlds.

I don't mess much with the exotics anymore. After playing around with telemetry and microwave and such for a living, it's fun but not as much as just jabbering. I suppose I wouldn't mind doing some spread spectrum stuff again. It's always fun to be able to communicate without the feds being able to eavesdrop.

That VX 5 is a sweet little unit. Run it into a tri-band mast and at that AGL you should have pretty darned good coverage. Is that a TNC or an SMA female as the antenna jack? I always preferred TNC. I would recommend nothing less than RG-214 for antenna cable for 5/2 Meter ops, and LM 400 flex if you can afford it for the 440 Mhz ops. N connectors seem to be the rage these days, but I remember when everything was terminated with PL-259s, and BNCs at the bench.

Still a lot of grumpy old men there, it seems.




Not here.




ACK! Code! Run away!



That's exactly the space I'm interested in - ad-hc digital networking.



TNC. I've always been frustrated with the VX 5 interface. What I want is a device the looks like and is as easy to use as a smart phone. All the Yeasu's have these 10-layer meta functions on the keys..."HOLD down the FN and the 8 Key While Standing on one foot, jump up twice and power on the unit whilst still airborne to change the Narrow Band Squelch level. Hold down the FN SHIFT and Power Button for 4.567 seconds and then press the "2" key to change from Narrow band Squelch to Wideband Squelch"



That's what I've got - two runs of 300' each N connectors at both ends. Also have a lot of quad shield RG-8 in various lengths from 50' to 200'.


TO be honest, since I posted the message, I've been kind of discouraged by what I've seen. It's like the whole of all digital communications is commercial now and the stuff that used to be leading edge experimental is nowhere to be seen on the ham radio sites. I guess my 8 years off, like so many other people, left little incentive to really innovate.

If you really want to use a digital system, look into the Icom DStar radios.

Frankly, I think it's more hype than it is useful but it might suit your needs.

JohnE

P.S. If you'd be interested in selling that Yaesu radio, let me know.

Some good ideas. I've also found 2M active most areas of the country, along with some 70cm. (In our area, unfortunately, the Air Force had to have all of the area 440mhz repeaters shut down because they apparently interfeared with the Pave Paws Radar on Cape Cod. That's primarily designed to detect ICBM's and SLBM's fired at the east coast...) Recently, we've had some very wide area coverage added to the region with 6M repeaters on mountain tops. Nice.

In addition to ARRL, you might check to see if there is a local amateur club. I found quite a few folks in our local club that were very skilled in the digital comm's modes. I'd also suggest you see if there is an ARES or RACES group in the area. The people involved in Skywarn are also usually tied into the local Ham community. Here are a couple things to try:

ARES (Amateur Radio Emergency Service) for Eastern Mass: http://ares.ema.arrl.org/index.php

Skywarn national home:
http://www.skywarn.org/

US Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service:
http://www.usraces.org/


Even if you're not into getting involved with emergency comm's as a volunteer, you'll be in touch with folks that are pretty up to date on currently technology, and will know the local infrastructure that you can connect with.

73 N1GFS

yeah ARRL do have their share of grumps. I suggest the site only as a place to start; a point of reference. They do have a fairly decent archive to help you catch up on.

What a shame to hear 2 meters is not active there. It was always a great band for finding out what was happening around the area.

I always felt code kept the hobby respectable. When all you could do was key the xmitter, you could still hold a conversation if you knew the code. Even jury rigging a spark gap xmitter was doable.

Digital xmissions were novel, but it always seemed that the digital stuff caused me the most trouble at work, and required continuous study trying to keep up with the myriad signal processing specs etc.

Yes, they do squeeze a bit too much into the unit functions now. Admittedly the old "Ron Popeil - Set it and forget it" units were better, even if quite limited comparably.

Well, at least we both like 214.

Cheers Martin.

Also try www.qrz.com
for used and (new) equipment, callsign database, tips hints and other things

Mike

http://www.nofars.org/sedan.html

This is used extensively in Florida to connect EOC's and the National Hurricane Center.

I do not know if this system is capable of connecting to other digital systems. You should contact the coordinator listed on the page for more info.