Category: Crafts and Hobbies
Hi yall.
So, I would have posted to the thread from a couple of years ago but it has been locked.
I'm happy to report that I am back on the air! Woohoo! Tonight, I prarticipated in my first weather net in over 21 years. My Ham lisence could buy me a drink. Gawd! That makes me feel old.
Anyway, I've gotten connected with a local club and have made a few new friends. There are more women in the hobby now which is good.
I need to get a PO box so I can use that as my address with the FCC. Once I've done that, I'll post my call sign here. Then, I'll be interested in knowing who out there would be interested in receiving traffic from the National Traffic System. I want to improve my message handling skills and would love to have some willing recipiants.
Hey DG.
You have way more experience as a ham radio operator than I do, I bet.
I've had my ticket since 2011, and I have a question plus some info you might find helpful.
How does one become part of the weather nets? Is this being a spotter?
Ok, for the info: I don't know when you last had your ticket, but the community, particularly ARES RACES now uses ICS forms for NTS traffic. If you're familiar with the ICS courses from FEMA. They're accessible, ARES RACES is going to want you to take those, as any emergency response people are these days.
Annie and Hoo, I have opted for CERT - Community Emergency Response teams, which is mor physical. But I didn't go through the ARES RACES NTS traffic courses because the end result now is that you're supposed to be able to take an ICS form from somebody, penciled in, and convert it to an NTS traffic form. I've seen that, the Coast Guard has a similar messaging system they probably borrowed from ARRL / ARES people.
Anyhow not sure if you're doing this from behind the proverbial big guns, or if you're like me and do it running around outside, or what. Both groups are really important, the ARES people have a ton of redundancy and at least out here have a very sexy cool command post. And yes, women are everywhere in the radio community out here at least. At least among the higher-ups and net controllers it's a veritable chicks ahoy, so I'd never known there was anything related to genders and this stuff. So to that end, sorry if you'd been kept out of it or not allowed for some reason. They don't even ask for that on the forms. Anyhow, hopefully you can salvage that, you're pretty independent so you'll nail it.
Anyhow, I'm not saying we blind bats can't do NTS or anything, I've not been in long after all. And I'm mainly involved as what they call a rover out here. Basically an outdoors, running around, mobile / handheld unit.
Anyhow, sorry they popped you for being a woman, again I'm too new so I'd never heard of that. Even in the Coast Guard doing marine traffic, there were women higher-ups officers running the rest of us boots on the ground. So looks like they might have fixed whatever it was keeping you out.
Anyhow, maybe you can fix NTS too; admittedly my interests in this stuff have always been more boots on the ground and less institutional or net controllers or all that. Net controller looks like a tough job, I really admire the people that keep track of everything while we're out at an event, exercise or parade or something. If you want to do that, hats off from me buddy.
What rig did you get, by the way? There are a couple that talk: the Baofeng and the Wouxun.
HI. No, I wasn't kept out because I'm a woman, lol. I chose to sit out during my marriage because it was a male dominated hobby and my X wasn't interested. I just didn't feel comfortable. I needed a bit of sighted assistance so I just didn't pursue it. After my divorce, I got back in touch with some old friends, one very kind and generous friend, well ok, a dear friend with benefits, the friend that got me into the hobby in the first place, bought me a handhelt for my birthday last May. I couldn't hit much with it though as I didn't have much of an antenna set up. I met another ham through Church and he got me hooked up with a club. They installed an antenna in my attic - take that HOA - so now I'm back in business.
I have a TYT (T Y T) UVF1. It's a duel band 440/2 meter. It does have the speech feature but sadly, not for the important stuff, ya know like setting the PL tones. I can't imagine why they went so far as to build a radio with speech functionality but didn't make all the features talk. lol
I know there are a ton of blind hams but I really don't know how they are able to do very much from the technical stand point independently. I'm not a technically minded person so am at a double disadvantage. lol I bring a lot of on-air confidence to the nets though so they love me. lol
I had taken the FEMA courses several years ago but I also saw those of which you spoke on the ARRL website. I want to get better at basic traffic handing first and then I plan on taking the ARRL emergency communications course. It's $50 and is offered online.
I live on the county line so have my pick between RACES and ARES. The county in which I actually live is RACES. RACES requires members have the ability to drive, at least we have to have a drivers' lisence (no state ID) so I'm ineligible to participate with that group. It's a real shame too because during the Dec 26 tornados that hit Dallas, the ARES nets were actively tracking the storms but when the stromsstorms crossed into Dallas County which is also RACES based, they weren't tracked as actively. I understand the need for high standards and requirements
but I still think they exclude valuable members needlessly.
Johnson County is about a mile south of my location so I participate in their ARES nets. Last night I mainly just listened and updated my friends and family via facebook. I was able to check into the net to confirm a report of quarter inch hail at and near my location but that was the extent of my onair participation. I love net control though. I think that's what I do best.
I need to get creative and make a tactile map of this area so I'll be able to manage spotters in all areas of the county.
I'm thinking about trying to create an NTS form using Numbers on the Mac. That might work, don't you think?
Hopefully I answered all your questions. *smile*
Yes, Numbers would do it.
Hmm, the radios I speak of are tiny little Handy units and you can enter all the parameters in yourself, I do.
I've not had anyone help me with technical but you're right I've more of a technical background Probably don't have the kind of air confidence you're talking about though, and to me that is the hardest part lol. I can do the short messages, Ops positions, the kinds f stuff the Coast Guard drilled into us.
Interesting stuff, everyone finds a way to get involved, and the hobby is flexible enough that everyone seems to figure something out that's different. Lol I'm one of a few people I know who didn't really have an elmer per se, just learned what I had to from other areas, the Coast Guard and marine traffic being a requirement with them out here, well that's actually the main reason I've even got a ticket.
Anyhow I'm mainly with the Neighborhood Emergency Teams -- Portland's CERT program -- so my radio bag is only part of my go kit.
Lots of operators go more towards ARES RACES but some of us radio is just part of the gig. Don't know if that makes sense or what. But yes I have a lot of respect for people who have a good on-air presence, if you will. Me, I'm mainly comfortable with position stuff, emergency stuff, things like that since they really drilled that into us when I was with the Coast Guard Auxiliary. I've not got any longtime friends who had radios or any of that, just the emergency services people I volunteer with now and have for the past few years.
You'll figure something out, because the hobby is so flexible. Not everyone's got a mast or the big guns / radio tower and stuff like the coast guard pilots out here do. Anyway the Baofeng on Amazon will run you $30 or so and you can get an extended ducky for it that's about 18 inches long or so. I throw all that gear in my old Coast Guard bag, batteries, extra pocket generator, extran antenna, etc. so I've got that plus my deployment backpack with what we use for prying doors open and stuff. That much I can say, if it's physical you can do it without eyes. At least I do. The administrative, I kinda stay away from all that.
Hi DG.
I'm not active in fema or any of that any longer, but still am somewhat active in the hobby. Are you using Echolink? Maybe we could have a chat on there at some point. I agree with you that the hobby isn't quite as male dominated as it once was, but club meetings and such are still sausage fests most of the time.
Hi. I haven't used in it a very long time.
hi Domestic Goddess. welcome back to the habby. i'm a ham here in the philippines too.
Hi,
Glad to see this topic. I as of June 25th of this year, successfully passed my tech exam while visiting my Mom out on the west coast of the U.S. I am just waiting for my call sign to get through to the FCC, and I'll be able to be on the air once that hits their universal licensing system.
Sadly I don't have a P.O. box, but I figure that since addresses are public record and can be found by a simple search on google with the right info, I'm not all that concerned as I thought I would be. You can even find them on Geniology web sites, to, which I've done before.
Anyway, I can't wait for my call sign to come in, and once it does, I'll begin to start studying for my General license. Considering I live in a condowith my Dad and his girlfriend, operating portably is a must for me for the present. Still, it's good to know that there is an echolink repeater very close to me, so I can use that to make quite a few contacts, hopefully.
73,
Shaun A.K.A. The Crashing Machine
Very cool. Congratulations on getting your ticket.
I need to start studying for my genral. I'm hoping to have time to do that once school starts and things get a bit less busy around here.
Since posting this, I've moved into a different home where there's no HOA. My club is going to build and install an antenna for me. I'm super excited!