The plan of record here is to start with the Professor Messer videos on YouTube. There are 63 videos. Wow! Audio has never been a great learning strategy for me, it’s too easy to get distracted. So as a backup, the local library has some books as well that I will borrow, in particular I am looking into getting some practice question books if I can. I’ll post those once I actually know what I’ll be able to get.
]]>I haven’t really done any research on HF gear at this point. There’s a lot of reddit discussions on the topic with the general consensus being that $2-3k is the right number to get a reasonable first shack up and running from scratch. Ouch. That’s a big step up from some $20 Baofengs! Given that there’s no urgency I will likely see if I can find some stuff on estate sales or through the local Ham group.
What I really want to do is to get into some of the SDR (software-defined radio) world with some of the Raspberry Pis that I have around. I’d much rather do that level of work than install some software that does all the magic behind the scenes. But that’s another project for another day.
]]>I also submitted to teach the Scouting America Radio merit badge. Should have approval of that this week. My hope is to teach some of my Scouts the MB but, more importantly, get them to pass their Technician test.
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]]>The ARRL book is a slog though. It is exceptionally dry and the only breaks are the little boxes where they will sometimes talk about something more interesting. Gone is the humor and first person stories of HamStudy, unfortunately. The other thing I dislike is that ARRL puts the questions and answers at the start of each section rather than the end. I personally prefer to read the content then test myself. This approach leads to lots of page flipping.
On the practical front I have listened to a lot of chatter. The FM repeaters in this area are pretty good in both coverage as well as a handful of Hams being on throughout the day. I still haven’t pressed the Tx button on my handset, but I’ve gotten close a couple times. I listen to these guys (and one or two women) chat and it’s amazing how they can talk about, frankly, nothing, for such a long time. I think me not knowing what to talk about is probably the biggest hangup at this point. But we’ll get there.
]]>The content has been pretty interesting honestly. The electronics/physics sections were a great refresher of my college Circuits 2 class. Thankfully we don’t have to do any of the equations for transistors/op-amps as I remember having a hard time keeping all of those straight. But the frequency based LRC stuff has been fun. I also enjoyed learning more about the ioniosphere properties and how they reflect/refract(?) RF.
The only place I’m getting frustrated is by the perpetual shifting from frequency to approximate wavelength. I feel like I’m constantly having to convert “band” to frequency to make sense of things. At least the equation is straightforward enough that it can be approximated in your head.
I broke down and bought a pair of Baofeng UV-5R minis the other day. Plus a CHIRP cable and a Diamond antenna. Total cost was about $80. But it has let me actually program my radio with the local repeaters and start listening to folks chatting. I caught a net this morning that somehow spanned the entire east coast. I’m not sure how that works with an FM channel. Maybe the folks down in Florida were using an internet connected gateway? I dunno.
Tonight the local messaging service is having their net. I’m going to listen in and if I’m brave enough will report in.
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]]>Now I just need to wait for FCC to send me info about paying my $35 fee and then wait to get my callsign!
Kudos to PARC for running a smooth and easy remote exam session.
Next up, the General license! I was told that I shouldn’t take any other tests for 30 or so days to not confuse the FCC. So that will give me plenty of time to study and prepare.
]]>None of the content is particularly difficult, the challenge lies in simple memorization of facts. Thankfully I am pretty good at that!
To help with motivation, I’ve been reading reviews and watching videos about good beginner Ham handsets (HTs). It actually is a really interesting market. Apparently the US and then Japan were the big players in the space until 5-10 years ago when some companies from China got into the game. They basically made the cheapest possible handsets undercutting the previous “low-end” by over 75%! The problem is that the sets had awful quality, would fail FCC certification, and had the cheapest possible RF hardware. But the price point was so good that people bought them in massive quantity. Now there are versions that are much better quality (and are even FCC certified!) so the traditional companies are all starting to build devices centered around these “radios-on-a-chip”.
Since I want to get into emergency response/management with my system, I’ve narrowed it down to two devices, both from Yaesu (one of those traditional Japanese companies). The VX-6R (approx $250) and the FT-60R (approx $150). They have the same basic guts (a 20 year old RF design) but the VX-6R is a higher quality enclosure with an IP rating as well as Li-ion batteries as opposed to a NiMH battery. I’m not convinced that deserves a $100 markup, but who knows, maybe it will be a gift at some point!
]]>To get your FRN (as a US Citizen) you need to register using the FCC CORES system. All it takes is create an account using an email address, then verify the address, then you will “Register a new FRN”. I registered as an individual (not a company) and after entering a bunch of personal data - including my SSN…sigh - I got my FRN pretty much immediately. It is a 10 digit number that I then saved in my password manager.
With this administrative work complete, I moved on to the fun stuff - learning!
Within about five minutes, I decided to use hamstudy.org and their associated free, online, book: hambook.org. They even provide a cheap ($3.99) app for practice flash cards and practice tests on your phone without an internet connection.
My plan was to read a chapter a day then do the flash cards associated with that chapter. I accidentally made it through the first three chapters of the book! Since I got my degree in electrical engineering much of the first couple chapters was review. The book is written in a very approchable manner and they do a great job of highlighting the important items that you will need to know for the test.
As I completed each chapter, I updated the filter on the hamstudy app to include questions from that chapter’s material. This way I keep seeing the earlier questions as well for continued reinforcement.
I anticipate that I will move at about a chapter each day now that the book is moving into territory I am more unfamiliar with (antennas is next!). Once I have completed all the content (Jan 8) I will begin taking practice tests on the hamstudy app. They recommend that you consistently get 85% on the practice tests before you take the real test.
There is an in-person test near me on Jan 11 and there are remote tests pretty much everyday, so we will see where things stand in a week!
]]>Hmm, well it has been a year since I’ve posted here. Bah. I was hoping to do better at this, but now that I have a more concrete goal hopefully that will help. Plus I’ve started a number of other projects this year that have kept me quite busy.
Regardless, my goal is to be working on Antartica once my kids graduate HS. Yeah, I’m probably crazy, but that place has gotten into my blood and I need to see what it is like and if I can handle it. I’ve done lots of difficult winter experiences in my life, so I have high confidence.
So, how to get from here to there? I’ve been working out a five year plan. The timining of that isn’t perfect, but frankly will be close enough. So let’s say my goal is to be on the ice for the summer 2031/2032 season and eventually work up to an Austral Winter (March to October) stationed at the Pole!
I’ve reviewed a bunch of job descriptions and compared them to my resume/skills. The big gaps are all the RF experience and having the Comptia A+ paper. I certainly have the requiste computer/network skills, so I’m not overly worried about that piece. But RF, ugh. I was never good at high frequency stuff in school and can easily say that I have not done any work in the area in the interviening 20+ years.
To prove to the recruiters (and myself) that I can handle RF, I’m going to get my Ham license. And since I have the time, I’m going to be crazy and shoot for the Extra License level. I’m then going to build some kind of radio device (WSPR node maybe?).
The plan is broken down into five year long segments that this point. I will then expand on each point as the time comes.
I’ll work to keep this blog updated with my status and how I am doing towards the Plan!
]]>Every year our Scout troop participates in a Klondike event where they have to carry all their gear on a dog sled (yes, they are the dogs). For years now they’ve used these old, heavy, rotting sleds that are difficult for the girls to pull and steer. This year our SM decided to do something different and build the sled used by some Canadian troops. This sled has minimal structural wood and everywhere else rope is used.
The build was relatively straight forward using the plans and documents provided. The only changes I made were to drill 1” holes in the bindings instead of doing the more complex notching the plans use.
Assembly went well with the only real challenge being the flooring hitch. Part of me was hoping the hitches were all easy and fast enough that we’d be able to assemble the sled on-site, but the flooring hitch took a solid hour to complete.
The sled design page was from 2002, so their quoted $30 cost seemed infeasible in 2024 dollars. I got the wood from Home Depot, total cost was $28. The rope we already had but likley would be less than $10. I did go through four cans of spray paint, and frankly it still needs another coat or two, which added $32. Skis we were able to find locally on Facebook Marketplace for free! So total cost for the sled as designed is about $60.
One big change that we have to do is to account for the fact that most years we do not have enough snow for the skis to actually work. This means we have to have wheels. In the past they’ve had a wheel on each corner with fixed axles, but as you can imagine that is near impossible to steer. So I decided on a fixed axle on the rear with a rotating caster on the front middle. Part of me wonders if it would be better to have the caster in the rear, but for a first time out we are going to leave it on the front.
I got the wheels and caster from Harbor Freight, a 5/8” steel rod for the axle from Home Depot as well as some 3/4” SCH40 PVC to act as bushings. I cut the rod to XX” long and the bushings to 2-1/4” long. A 1/8” hole was drilled in each end of the axle to host a cotter pin to prevent the wheels from coming off.
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