Ham-Shack.com : Operating On A Repeater Near You!

For a national list of repeaters with listings for each state, check the following:

Ham-Shack.com : Operating On A Repeater Near You!

IRLP Nodes in Salt Lake City

The following IRLP nodes are listed for Salt Lake City.

433.600 with 100.00 Hz Tone
448.400 with 88.500 Hz Tone
449.250 with 100.00 Hz Tone <== Very popular!
449.550 with 131.80 Hz Tone
449.750 with 100.00 Hz Tone

Some cities only have one node. We are lucky to have so many.

If you haven't tried IRLP, program in one of the above frequencies (I use 449.250) and the correct PL tone, then just wait for a time when the repeater is not busy, key up and say your call sign and the word "Listening". That's it!

You could get a reply from Australia, Japan, China, South America, or wherever. Keep a record of your contacts by call sign, time and location. One of these days you will find that you have worked all continents with nothing more than an HT radio and five watts! That's amazing. That sort of thing used to require a big antenna on the roof and a minimum of 100 watts of SSB HF power. PLUS good luck with the sunspot cycles and the weather. Oh, one more thing, you would have to do most of your contacts just before sunrise, just after sunset or at midnight.

By the way, log your calls using GMT or Zulu time. All ham radio contacts are logged in GMT by every ham all over the world. That way you do not have to convert from your time zone to some weird place somewhere on another continent. You only have to convert GMT to your local time zone.

Salt Lake City is always either 6 or 7 hours earlier than GMT, depending on daylight savings time. We are currently -7 hours from GMT. Therefore 2:25 PM in Salt Lake City is 9:25 PM GMT. Of course, in April we will switch to GMT -6 hours.

-N7OZH-

PC Programming Of YOUR Radio! (NEW TRICK)

Here is a neat trick. I recently found this note about how to use a pc (or tape recorder) to "trick" your radio into thinking its being cloned from another radio. This only works with radios that have a cloning feature built in.

Those radios have a cloning cable which is really just an audio cable. You connect the cable from the master radio's speaker jack to the slave radio's microphone jack and then begin the cloning procedure. Read on for how this can be done with only ONE radio!

This is a NEAT way to save your frequencies and settings in case they are ever lost out of the radio. I welcome your comments. N7OZH

*** Article follows ***

Hi there, recently I discovered a way to program the TH-79 from Kenwood by computer (or anything else that can do the following).

This is what you have to do: program the radio by hand. For example, program all your repeaters and local frequencies in it.

Then, set up a receiver at the same frequency as the radio and connect it to your PC. When you start cloning from the TH-79, simply record the file and store it.

Now, program the radio with other frequencies (i.e. from another country, police, ship-frequencies etc.) and do the same.

Anytime you want to program your radio with another set of channels, play the file in front of a mike or connected to another radio and "clone" the portable with its own files!
Works great!
73,
Thijs, PE1RLN
The Netherlands

General Class License Class

I've been getting lots of requests to know when we are going to do our General class for those that want to upgrade.

Here is the situation. I am busy rebuilding the basement as a result of a flood. We were to have started the class in February, but the basement is not finished. Further complicating things, the FCC has decided to change the General Class question pool this year instead of next year. There is no point in studying one set of questions and then being tested on another set.

The basement may not be finished until April. Then comes May when school lets out and families head out for summer vacations.

As you can see, there are lots of variables and until some of them get nailed down, it is not feasable to schedule a class for upgrading to General.

As things smooth out, I will post updates here.

O. D. Williams
N7OZH

Vanity Callsigns and Ham Radio Links

Here is the single most useful ham radio web site there is. Learn all about vanity call signs, how to apply, how to avoid the "land mines" and much more.

Links to other sites. Get a free email account and/or web page at qsl.net. Learn about "electronic" QSL cards. The list goes on and on. Here is the link, just click the logo below.




N7OZH -73s-

Lost Your Manual?

We all misplace our equipment operating manuals from time to time. With the internet, this is not as big a problem as it used to be.

Using a search engine like Google, you can search for the manufacturer's site where many of them post current and past manuals.

Alternatively, you can use a search engine to look for a term such as "Yeasu 5200 Manual" to find non-manufacturer sites that provide copies of current and past manuals. Most of them are out there somewhere.

Some web sites have huge repositories of equipment manuals at no charge. Seek and ye shall find.

N7OZH

Keeping Information Accurate

01/08/2005

The recent mine disaster where 12 were reported to be alive and only one dead was a double tragedy. First the cave in was a disaster, and then reporting the numbers backwards (there were actually 1 alive and 12 dead), added tragedy on top of tragedy.

In ham radio emergency communications, we often are asked to receive and send information that is crucial to disaster cleanup and rescue operations. Here is one rule to live by above all others: WRITE IT DOWN! If you aren't sure of what was said, ask them to repeat it or read it back to them and request verification.

If you do not write it down, you may get confused and report incorrect information. Worse yet, what happens when your relief shows up and you leave that post? If the information is not written down, you may forget to pass it along at all!

People depend on us for accurate information, the key to that accuracy is a written record.

-73 de N7OZH-