Ham Radio For Dummies

H. Ward Silver earned his Novice radio license in 1972, and his ham radio experiences led to a 20-year engineering career designing microprocessor-based products and medical devices. He is the lead editor of two amateur radio technical guides from the American Radio Relay League and author of Two-Way Radios and Scanners For Dummies, published by Wiley.

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


Tuning into Ham Radio Today 8


Using electronics and technology 8


Joining the ham radio community 10


Making contacts 12


Roaming the World of Ham Radio 14


Communicating with Ham Radio 15


Participating in Citizen Science 16


Building a Ham Radio Station 17


Chapter 2: Getting a Handle on Ham Radio Technology 21


Getting to Know Basic Ham Radio Gear 21


Basic station 22


Miscellaneous gadgets 24


Communication technologies 26


Exploring the Fundamentals of Radio Waves 27


Frequency and wavelength 27


The radio spectrum 29


Dealing with Mother Nature 31


Seeing how nature affects radio waves 31


Dealing with noise 32


Chapter 3: Finding Other Hams: Your Support Group 35


Finding and Being a Mentor 35


Interacting in Online Communities 37


Social media and blogs 37


Videos, podcasts, and webinars 38


Email reflectors 39


Web portals 39


Joining Radio Clubs 40


Finding and choosing a club 41


Participating in meetings 42


Getting more involved 43


Exploring ARRL 45


ARRL’s benefits to you 46


ARRL’s benefits to the hobby 47


ARRL’s benefits to the public 48


Taking Part in Specialty Groups 48


Competitive clubs 49


Handiham 50


AMSAT 51


TAPR 52


YLRL 52


QRP clubs 53


IOTA, SOTA, and NPOTA 54


Attending Hamfests and Conventions 55


Finding and preparing for hamfests 55


Buying equipment at hamfests 56


Finding conventions and conferences 57


Part 2: Wading Through the Licensing Process 59


Chapter 4: Figuring Out the Licensing System 61


Getting Acquainted with the Amateur Service 62


FCC rules 62


Frequency allocations 63


Learning about Types of Licenses 65


Technician class 65


General class 66


Amateur Extra class 66


Grandfathered classes 66


Getting Licensed 67


Studying the exam questions 67


Taking your license exam 68


Receiving Your New Call Sign 69


Call-sign prefixes and suffixes 70


Class and call sign 70


Chapter 5: Studying for Your License 71


Demystifying the Exam 71


Finding Study Resources 72


Licensing classes 73


Books and websites 74


Online practice exams 75


Locating Your Mentor 75


Chapter 6: Taking the Exam 77


Finding an Exam Session 77


Signing Up for a Session 78


Public exams 78


Exams at events 79


Exam sessions in homes and online 79


Getting to Exam Day 79


What to bring with you 80


What to expect 81


What to do after the exam 81


Chapter 7: Obtaining Your License and Call Sign 83


Completing Your Licensing Paperwork 83


Finding Your Call Sign 85


Searching the ULS database 86


Searching other call sign databases 88


Identifying with your new privileges 89


Registering with the FCC Online 90


Registering in CORES 90


Associating your call sign with your ID 91


Picking Your Own Call Sign 92


Searching for available call signs 92


Finding call signs available to you 92


Applying for a vanity call sign 93


Maintaining Your License 94


Part 3: Hamming It Up 95


Chapter 8: Making Contact 97


Listen, Listen, Listen! 97


Finding out where to listen 98


Understanding how bands are organized 99


Listening on VHF and UHF 100


Listening on HF 101


Receiving Signals 105


Receiving FM 106


Receiving SSB 108


Receiving digital voice 111


Receiving digital or data modes 112


Receiving Morse code 114


Understanding Contacts (QSOs) 115


Chewing the rag 116


Meeting other hams on nets 117


Contesting and DXing 117


Making Your Own Contacts 120


Starting a repeater contact 120


Starting an HF contact 121


Starting or CW digital mode contacts 122


Failing to make contact 123


Breaking into an ongoing contact 125


Conducting your QSO 126


Learning the FM style 128


Calling CQ on HF 130


The long goodbye 131


Chapter 9: Casual Operating 133


Operating FM — Repeaters and Simplex 134


Understanding repeater basics 134


Using access control tones 138


Miscellaneous repeater features 140


Setting up your radio 141


Using simplex 144


Digital Voice Systems 145


HF digital voice 146


VHF/UHF digital voice 147


Digital repeater networks 148


Chewing the Rag 154


Knowing where to chew 154


Knowing when to chew 157


Identifying a ragchewer 159


Ragchewing by keyboard and Morse 160


Chapter 10: Public Service Operating 165


Joining a Public Service Organization 166


Finding a public service group 166


Volunteering your services 168


Preparing for Emergencies and Disasters 170


Knowing who 170


Knowing where 171


Knowing what 171


Knowing how 173


Operating in Emergencies and Disasters 174


Reporting an accident or other incident 174


Making and responding to distress calls 175


Public service communications outside your area 177


Providing Public Service 178


Weather monitoring and SKYWARN 178


Parades and charity events 179


Participating in Nets 180


Checking in and out 180


Exchanging information 181


Tactical call signs 183


Radio discipline 183


Digital Message Networks 184


Winlink — email by radio 184


AREDN 186


Chapter 11: Operating Specialties 189


Getting Digital 190


Digital definitions 192


PSK31 192


Radioteletype (RTTY) and FSK 194


MFSK modes 196


Automatic link establishment (ALE) 197


PACTOR and WINMOR 197


WSJT modes — fast and slow 198


Packet radio, APRS, and tracking 199


APRS and tracking 200


Broadband-Hamnet and spread spectrum 202


DXing — Chasing Distant Stations 203


DXing on the shortwave (HF) bands 204


DXing on the VHF and UHF bands 211


Taking Part in Radio Contests 216


Choosing a contest 217


Operating in a contest 218


Taking tips from winners 221


Chasing Awards 224


Finding awards and special events 225


Recording (logging) contacts 226


Applying for awards 227


Mastering Morse Code (CW) 227


Starting with Farnsworth 228


Sharpening your skills 228


Copying the code 230


Pounding Brass — Sending Morse 230


Making code contacts 232


Operating with Low Power (QRP) and Portable 234


Getting started with QRP 235


Getting deeper into QRP 235


Portable QRP operating 236


Direction-finding (ARDF) 237


Operating via Satellites 238


Getting grounded in satellite basics 239


Accessing satellites 240


Seeing Things: Image Communication 240


Slow-scan television and facsimile 241


Fast-scan television 242


Part 4: Building and Operating A Station That Works 243


Chapter 12: Getting on the Air 245


What Is a Station? 245


Setting Goals for Your Station 246


Deciding what you want to do 246


Deciding how to operate 247


Allocating your resources 249


Choosing a Radio 250


Radios for the HF bands 251


VHF and UHF radios 253


Software-defined radio 258


Filtering and noise 259


Choosing an Antenna 260


VHF/UHF antennas 260


HF antennas 262


Feed line and connectors 267


Supporting Your Antenna 271


Antennas and trees 271


Masts and tripods 272


Towers 273


Rotators 275


Radio accessories 276


Choosing a Computer for the Station 279


PC or Mac or .? 279


Digital modes 280


Radio control 280


Hardware considerations 280


Remote Control Stations 281


Remote control rules 281


Accessing a remote control station 282


Buying New or Used Equipment 283


Upgrading Your Station 284


Chapter 13: Organizing Your Station 285


Designing Your Ham Station 285


Keeping a station notebook 285


Building in ergonomics 286


Viewing some examples 290


Building in RF and Electrical Safety 293


Electrical safety 293


Lightning 294


RF exposure 294


First aid 294


Grounding and Bonding 295


AC and DC power 295


RF management 296


Keeping a Log of Your Contacts 298


Logging by computer 299


Submitting a contest log 301


Understanding QSL Cards 303


Sending and Receiving QSLs 304


QSLing electronically 304


Direct QSLing 305


Using QSL managers 305


Bureaus and QSL services 306


Applying for awards 307


Chapter 14: Operating Away from Home 309


Mobile Stations 309


HF mobile radios 309


Mobile antennas 314


Portable Operating 317


Portable Antennas 319


Portable Power 321


Field Day 322


Chapter 15: Hands-On Radio 325


Acquiring Tools and Components 326


Maintenance tools 326


Repair and building tools 331


Components for repairs and building 333


Maintaining Your Station 334


Overall Troubleshooting 336


Troubleshooting Your Station 337


Power problems 337


RF problems 338


Operational problems 339


Troubleshooting Your Home and Neighborhood 341


Dealing with interference to other equipment 342


Dealing with interference to your equipment 344


Building Equipment from a Kit 347


Building Equipment from Scratch 348


Part 5: The Part of Tens 349


Chapter 16: Ham Radio Jargon — Say What? 351


Spoken Q-signals 351


Contesting or Radiosport 352


Antenna Varieties 352


Feed Lines 353


Antenna Tuners 353


Repeater Operating 354


Grid Squares 355


Interference and Noise 355


Connector Parts 356


Solar and Geomagnetic Activity 357


Chapter 17: Station Equipment Tips 359


Be Flexible 359


Study Other Stations 360


Learn about Those Extra Functions 360


Shop for Used-Equipment Bargains 361


Build Something Yourself 361


Optimize Your Signal 361


Save Cash by Building Your Own Cables 362


Build Step by Step 362


Find the Weakest Link 362


Make Yourself Comfortable 362


Chapter 18: Technical Fundamentals 363


Electrical Units and Symbols 363


Ohm’s Law 364


Power 364


Attenuation, Loss, and Gain 365


Bandwidth 365


Filters 366


Antenna Patterns 367


Standing Wave Ratio (SWR) 368


Battery Characteristics 369


Satellite Tracking 369


Chapter 19: Tips for Masters 371


Listening to Everything 371


Learning How It Works 372


Following the Protocol 372


Keeping Your Axe Sharp 372


Practice to Make Perfect 372


Paying Attention to Detail 373


Knowing What You Don’t Know 373


Maintaining Radio Discipline 373


Make Small Improvements Continuously 374


Help Others and Accept Help from Others 374


Part 6: Appendixes 375


Appendix A: Glossary 377


Appendix B: Radio Math 387


The Metric System 387


Scientific Notation 389


Decibels (dB) 389


Decibels and percentage 391


Miscellaneous Tutorials 392


Basic numbers and formulas 392


Metric system and conversion of units 392


Fractions 392


Graphs 393


Algebra and trigonometry 393


Complex numbers 393


Handy Items 394


Values of e and pi 394


Frequency-wavelength conversion 394


Length conversion 394


Trigonometry and angles 394


Index 397