On 2011-05-03 14:28, Joseph Apuzzo wrote:
Adding one more question on this pile that's about to fall over.
Say you had a General license, but lack and adequate "rig" is there a
method of remotely working a call?
Not "had"... "have". My license is current. One thing nice about
amateur radio licenses is that they're renewable without testing again.
Next time I need to renew is 2013.
You basically have two choices on how to talk over the air without
having a rig:
A) use someone else's rig in their presence (this is allowed even
if the person using the rig doesn't have a license, because they
are being monitored by someone who does)
B) If you have a current ham license, then it might be possible to
connect to a repeater via VoIP. These days repeaters are commonly
connected via VoIP over the internet; I keep hearing of a program
called "echolink" which apparently does this. These same internet
links are also used to remotely control the repeaters. I'm not
familiar with the software, but it should also be possible to
use the same method to be able to transmit over the air via VoIP,
but I think it's rare for someone outside of the repeater
organization to do that.
Likewise, even 10+ years ago it was common for repeaters to have
a "phone patch" available for members to be able to call home
from your car. Obviously this was before the days call phones
became the norm... and the downside is that your entire
conversation was broadcast over the repeater.
A) is likely, B) less so. One interesting side note with A) is that it
presumes the overseeing ham is in your presence -- so for instance a ham
can't let you use his callsign for APRS for that reason. This is where
the problem of APRS devices coming pre-programmed becomes a concern.
Now ( unlike back 20 years ago ) we have the Internet. So I'm wondering
with software and VoIP could remote CQ equipment be accessed?
The idea being I rather pay a monthly fee/dues and sign up for a slot to
get access to a well placed transmitter/receiver etc.
Rather blow my money on cool handled then install a tower at my house.
Depending on where you live you may not need a tower. A lot of people
do well with a small yagi antenna on their roof, or even just a portable
rig in your car with a car rooftop "whip" mag-mount antenna... which is
exactly what I've had on my car for the last oh, 10 years now. It's
just a simple 1/4-wave 2meter mag mount.
And a friend of mine that got his Technician license (but later let it
lapse) had a lot of fun on mountaintops simply using a portable handheld
rig with the normal small "rubber duck" antenna, and which had a 1 Watt
maximum transmit power.
So you don't *have* to have the expensive tower that your wife may not
like the sight of, or which your neighbors might be afraid of. [On the
other hand, if you *do* put up a tower, it will become the local
neighborhood lightning arrestor. ;-) ]
--
-- Chris
--
Chris Knadle
[email protected]
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