Many new hams have passed the
Technician Class test by simply memorizing the answers to the questions
and not really learning very much. Along with that, there’s
nothing in any of the test questions that involves programming your
radios, installing antennas, and how to properly speak into the mic, as
well as what to say on the radio when initializing a call or desiring
to know if your signal is reaching its destination.
These pages are to educate new hams on these basics as well as
the
normally accepted terminology & jargon that has been used by hams
since the inception of telephony (voice communication) via radio. And
some history as to where some of the terminology originated.
Contents: (Click on a link in this table of contents to advance to the corresponding page.)
Page 1.
Should I use an HT or mobile / base radio.
Page 2.
Programming your radio.
Page 3.
Choosing and installing an antenna system.
Page 4.
Powering your transceiver.
Page 5.
Operating your transceiver.
Page 6.
Etiquette and terminology (jargon).
Page 7.
Common termsinology used by hams & some history as to where they come from.
Page 8.
Emergencies Pertaining to Life and Property.
Pages with full text:
Page 1.
Should I use an HT or mobile / base radio.
An HT (Motorola trade name "Handi Talkie") a.k.a. walkie talkie, hand held are one in the same.
They are a popular choice for new hams, much of the reason is the cost
as several models of low end HTs can be purchased for under $30. While
they are portable and convenient, they have significant limitations.
They typically produce fairly low power - usually around 5 watts, and
being battery operated, they have limited talk time on a charge.
Walkie Talkies were never meant to REPLACE a mobile or base radio,
they're made to SUPPLEMENT a mobile or base radio when you're unable to
be near one. And they're meant for use in close in areas such as events
at a venue or small area where communications will most likely be in
the simplex mode, or through a local repater that covers the venue or
area very well. This repeater may be a temporary "porta-peater" set up
for that event.
For those who want to stretch their walkie talkie to its limits and try to use it as a mobile or fixed station......
While 5 watts is more than enough to hit your "local" repeater system,
this is only true if you are in a good location and using a decent
antenna. From inside a building, the materials around you will easily
block a very high percentage of your signal, both receive and transmit.
And it can be worse if your location is blocked by other structures.
Not only does the building reduce the transmitted signal, one often
finds themselves surrounded by electronic devices (computers, LED light
fixtures, various appliances that use micro-processors) further
submerging an already weak signal making it even more difficult to hear
the other station or repeater.
When operating from inside a vehicle an HT can work well from locations
fairly close to the station that is line of sight, but with their
limited power and the fact that the structure of a typical vehicle is
too small to permit the relatively large wavelength of a 2-meter signal
to escape effectively means that they are marginal for more distant,
weaker stations particularly as terrain and local clutter (buildings,
vegetation, mountains) get in the way.
When using an HT in a building or vehicle, a worthwhile investment is
an outside antenna; Even a mediocre outside antenna with a poor
feedline will almost always out-perform a "good" antenna indoors or in
a vehicle. If you are using an HT portable such as a "walkie-talkie",
replacing the OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer)
antenna with a better quality, lower loss and usually larger one will
also provide a dramatic improvement in both "talk power" and reception
- especially when you are outdoors.
A large, higher end antenna does have a downside. Many HTs -
particularly inexpensive Chinese models can't handle strong signals,
often resulting in "intermod" - a situation where off-frequency signals
combine inside the radio to produce signals on yet other frequencies.
Another problem is simple overload where sensitivity can be degraded by
the mere presence of another unheard, off-frequency signal (perhaps
another ham using their radio on a near-by frequency in a near-by
physical location to you.. This "deafens" your receiver making a
perfectly usable signal suddenly disappear into the noise.
A Mobile / Base radio:
A "Mobile" radio is typically capable of much more transmit power than
an HT - typically 50 watts, making it a better choice when
trying to communicate with more distant stations either simplex or
through a distant repeater.
Coupled with an outdoor antenna it really boosts performance many times
fold at the home location or in a vehicle when compared to an HT.
A high performance receiver (one that doesn't overload easily like most HTs do) is another proposition.
While most radios sold by the mainstream companies (Yaesu, Kenwood,
Icom, Alinco, etc.) are fairly robust, many of the in-expensive Chinese
mobile radios are merely an HT with a higher-powered transmitter which
many don't even meet their advertised specs. They are easily overloaded
- just like in-expensive HTs, especially when one tries to use it with
a good antenna system on a vehicle, in a building or in the vicinity of
other transmitters.
What should I choose?
While an HT is nice to have, you should know its limitations. If your
main interest is very local communications, particularly if you need a
very portable radio - it will serve you well. But if you are planning
to frequent distant stations or repeaters - or frequently operate in
rural areas, it may not be the best choice. Don't forget, if you are on
the edge of coverage using a low-power radio, your signal can be
difficult for others to copy - and this can be important as you travel
through different or remote terrain and especially if you need to pass
emergency traffic.
A good quality mobile radio coupled with a decent antenna will greatly
expand your capabilities both at home and in the car in that it will
not only be able to cast a signal over longer distance, but its
receiver will better withstand the assaults of other nearby
transmitters. For the majority of uses, even an older radio will serve
you well at a much lower cost, as long as it has the ability to
transmit subaudible tones (CTCSS) it will work with the vast majority
of repeaters and on all simplex frequencies.
And for the absolute best performance, a higher end commercial radio
(Motorola, Kenwood, Vertex, etc.) will have the best receiver
selectivity and a transmitter of up to 100 watts. The downfalls of
commercial radios are that the purchase price can be very expensive
(even for used equipment), they're mono band (VHF or UHF only), they're
not front panel or keypad programmable, special programming software
from the manufacturer must be purchased and may be expensive, plus
additional software add-ons may be needed in order to program the
radio for wide band operation which all simplex frequencies and most
repeaters are wide band.
Let's define a Base (Fixed), Mobile and Portable station.
It doesn't matter what make and model the transceiver is, let's use the Yaesu FTM300 as an example:
- If it's permanently installed in a fixed structure and connected to
an outdoor antenna mounted on the roof or on a mast or tower, it's a
BASE or FIXED station.
- If it's permanently installed in a motor vehicle and connected to an
outside antenna mounted on the roof, trunk, etc. of the vehicle, it's a
MOBILE station.
- IF it's rigged into a box or case of some sort that can be easily
carried and transported such as a "go-box", it's a PORTABLE station.
Supplement to Page l.
OEM HT Antennas:
A "rubber duck" is the type of flexible portable antenna that is most
often
provided with a Handheld radio when purchased. Rubber Duck antennas
were
invented back in 1958 consisting of a helical coil of wire covered with
heat
shrink material with a removable connector. These antennas are very
inefficient
radiators as well as reception devices, most of the transmitted RF goes
up in the coil in the form of heat. They have negative gain compared to
a
standard ¼ wave vertical. In other words they do not provide
very good range.
However, they are very convenient and useful when you are in
line-of-sight
range of the repeater. How much attenuation? You can look up testing
that has
been done a variety of rubber duck antennas but in general the loss is
around
6-8 dB compared to a 1/4 wave vertical. That is a lot of loss. For
example, if
you set your handheld to transmit 5W and your antenna loss is 8 dB,
only about
1.6 watts is actually being radiated.
We live in a mountainous state and it is likely that you will not have a
line-of-sight view of the antenna you're talking to most times. Also many tower sites often
struggle with high background noise issues meaning their receive sensitivity is
likely lower than your handheld radio's sensitivity. Also keep in mind that a
repeater transmitter is running much more power than your handheld radio, so
you will hear the repeater long before you can get into it. Thus while handheld
radios are convenient and relatively cheap they may be frustrating to use
mainly due to the poor antenna attached to the radio.
There some things you can do to improve your ability to get a better signal
into a repeater.
1. Put a better antenna on your handheld radio such as a Signal Stick or
other similar longer antenna. You can make a 1/4 wave antenna out of stiff wire
which will work better than your rubber duck. Check YouTube.
2. Wait to transmit until you are at a location where you can see the
repeater site location without any obstructions.
3. Do you operate your handheld radio while it is attached to your belt or
in contact with your body. This detunes the antenna and really attenuates your transmitted and received
signal.
4. Make sure you are holding the handheld vertically with the radio up in
the air. Do not transmit with your hand over the antenna. I see this often in
commercial businesses that use handheld radios by employees who do not
understand radios.
5. When in a building, all of these rules of holding the radio vertical
become null and void, as the signal will bounce off of walls, and
objects in the room causing the pattern to change with each bounce and
will be unknown as to how to hold the radio. The best way to tell is if
you're talking into a repeater that uses a single antenna (most
repeater stations are built this way), move the walkie talkie around until you
receive the best signal and hold it in that position when you transmit.
END PAGE 1
Page 2.
Programming your radio.
A. By simply following the instructions in your owner’s manual will get you 90% of the way there.
B. Program your TRANSMITTER TIME OUT TIMER!!!
During the course of each year, there are numerous incidents of
“stuck mics”. Stuck mics a/k/a “someone sitting on
their mic” are normally caused by someone leaving a mobile radio
mic on the seat of a vehicle and literally sitting on it, or the
mic’s in a hangar and another object inadvertently presses the
PTT switch a/k/a “pickle”, keying the transmitter to the
radio operators unawareness and transmit until one of the following
happens; the button is released, the final amp burns out, or the
battery runs down.
A frayed mic cord can possibly short the PTT wire and also in the case
of a desk mic w/ PTT bar, a book or other object can inadvertently be
set on it causing the transmitter to key.
Not only can a stuck mic cause harmful interference to a system,
especially during an emergency event, but when your transmitter is
keyed, the mic is “HOT” (transmitting the audio it hears).
More than once a very private conversation, phone call (both parties if
speaker phone is used) going on in the ham shack or vehicle was
broadcast over a busy system with dozens monitoring, causing extreme
embarrassment and even worse…. financial or other personal
damage to someone due to the private conversation being inadvertently
overheard!
Every frequency agile VHF / UHF transceiver manufactured since the
1980s includes a programmable “Transmitter Time Out Timer”.
The purpose of these timers is to prevent a “stuck mic”
from tying up a repeater system or simplex frequency and minimize the
amount of time a private conversation will be heard.
When the timer times out, the operator will hear an audible tone from
the transceiver’s speaker and the transmitter will un-key. The
factory default setting on most transmitter time out timers is set at
“0”.
It is highly recommended that everyone activate the time out timers on
all of your rigs and set them to time out (un-key the transmitter) at
no more than 2 minutes. 1 minute is optimal.
C. Make certain that you program all FM channels to “WIDE BAND”. This pertains to ALL OPEN FM systems in Utah as well as most other states.
D. Program CTSCSS
tones into your ENCODER ONLY, unless you know for certain that the
repeater’s transmitter on that system encodes tone. Most repeater
systems do not encode CTCSS.
The common term used for CTCSS is "PL". PL stands for Private Line, which is a Motorola term used for their commercial
radios when they invented the technology around 70 years ago. It has ever since been the "household name" for CTCSS.
A slang term for a repeater that encodes CTCSS is that "it hums".
E. Beware of
PRIVATE CLOSED SYSTEMS especially in the 440MHz band. The standard
CTCSS tone for open systems in Utah is 100.0 Hz. Thus, if the tone is
anything other than 100.0, consider the system closed, unless you have
been informed differently from a bonafide source. DO NOT TRANSMIT on a
closed system without authorization from the owner of the system.
If you inadvertently ID or make a call on a closed system and someone
answers you and brings that to your attention, your best response is to
apologize, legal ID and QSY. If they come back to you and invite you to
stay on and chat for a while, that's their prerogative and you can feel
free to take them up on it for the one time.
END PAGE 2
Page 3.
Choosing and installing an antenna system.
There are numerous mobile and fixed station antennas out there to
choose from, thus this is what needs to be considered when purchasing a
system: Purchase price depending on your budget. Aesthetics depending
on your vehicle style, house, neighborhood antenna covenants etc. Below
is based on Performance being the bottom-line priority.
A. Mobile.
If performance is your bottom line, you want a mobile antenna that has
maximum gain to the horizon. Keep in mind that most require a decent
counterpoise (flat metal roof or trunk) to be mounted on. Should your
vehicle not have a good flat metal surface such as a convertible, roll
bar, hood or trunk cowling etc. you will want to purchase an antenna
that is a ½ wavelength at VHF and a 5/8 over 5/8 wavelength at
UHF. The Comet SBB5 is an example of this.
Feedline is of minimal
importance since the run of cable from transceiver to antenna is
usually 10 feet or less, thus even fairly high-loss cable will work
just fine. RG-58AU is most commonly used. RG-58U IS NOT RECOMMENDED because it
has a solid center conductor that can easily fail with flexing that it
will receive in a mobile environment. RG58-AU or CU has a stranded
center conductor which can much better handle the flexing. Should your
install be in an RV where the run can be much longer, then LMR190
Ultra-Flex would be your best choice. Make certain that you specify
“Ultra-Flex” as that is LMR190 with a stranded center
conductor.
B. Fixed Station.
For a fixed station, you want an antenna that has maximum gain to the
horizon. The Diamond X-510 is an example of this. You will need an
antenna support structure (roof mounted tripod, mast, tower or other
hardware) that can handle the weight and lateral thrust (wind loading)
of the antenna.
If the feedline run between the transceiver and antenna is
25’ or less, RG-8X will work fine. For the 25’ to 50’ ballpark, LMR
240 will be a good choice. For well, over 50’, LMR400 or 9913 will be the cable of
choice.
Ground your feedline prior to it entering the structure. There are
countless opinions on grounding, so we won't go into any of them here
other than to say follow the NEC (National Electrical Code)
requirements as a minimum.
Keep in mind that with the higher gain and antenna, depending
on your location with respect to RF noise generators you may hear a lot
of signals that you don’t want to hear and may not hear weaker
signals that you do want to hear depending on the receiver selectivity
and general quality of your receiver. Ideally you want to purchase a
higher end Japanese made transceiver, not a low-end Chinese transceiver
and you even may wish to purchase an additional “window
filter” that is inserted in the feedline between the transceiver
and antenna to better filter incoming signals.
END PAGE 3
Page 4.
Powering your transceiver.
Power consumption on a typical 50-watt dual band transceiver is in
the ballpark of 6 to 10 amps at the 50 watt level depending on make,
model and variables.
For installation in a motor vehicle:
With older vehicles (prior to the 1990s), it was
always necessary to connect the power cable directly to the battery,
starter relay or other lug near the main distribution box.
This was due
to minimizing alternator whine and voltage drop to the transceiver.
This
is still the recommended location, but with the construction of many
newer vehicles it is very difficult at best to nearly impossible to penetrate the firewall
and gain access to this location.
Most newer vehicles have several
distribution panels (fuse boxes) under that dash, kick panels, rear panels etc. that are fed by a 10 gauge or larger feed
line.
These locations are also just as good as going directly to the
battery as long as you connect to a terminal that is not switched (hot all the time) and you know for
certain that it is fed by that larger gauge wire.
These locations are
not recommended should you install an amplifier or a 100-watt HF radio.
Go directly lug next to the battery for this.
NEVER BYPASS OR REMOVE
ANY FUSES!!! The main purpose of the fuse is to protect your vehicle
from fire should there be a dead short in the wiring between the power
source and transceiver. The secondary purpose of the fuse is to protect
your transceiver. ALWAYS MAKE CERTAIN THAT YOU HAVE A FUSE AS CLOSE TO
THE POWER SOURCE AS POSSIBLE to protect the wiring between the source
and the transceiver.
Ideal fuse size is 15 amp for a 50 watt transceiver.
For installation at a fixed location:
For a Fixed Station
you will need a power source,
which can be a battery on float (continuous) charge, solar &
battery power or a power supply also known as a power converter.
Here we'll focus on power supplies (power converters). A
power supply (converter) takes 120 or 240 Volts AC (commercial grid power or
generator power) and converts it to 12 to 14 Volts DC.
There are two basic types of power supplies; switch mode and linear.
Switch mode is the more common type used today, as they are
much lighter in weight, smaller in size and they're very efficient (consume about
1/2 the power) when compared to linear supply.
The only real dis-advantage of switch mode power supplies is
that some makes and models can produce "birdies" (RF signals) across
some bands, especially the HF bands. And the power factor is often much worse, should that be
an issue if you're powering it with a small generator.
Prior to purchasing a power supply, the most important specs you need to know is the power
consumption of your radio or all of the radios in your ham shack that you
plan on powering with this power supply.
Plan on 10 amps for each VHF / UHF
50 watt dual band transceiver and 20 amps for each 100 watt HF transceiver
when transmitting at the highest power level, should there be a chance that you may be transmitting on more than one at a
given time. And this can happen should there be more than one operator
in the shack or should you be simulcasting which some hams do occasionally especially during
some emergency situations.
And figure stand-by / receive currant giving a fudge factor, plan
on 500 milliamps for each dual band VHF / UHF and 1500 milliamps (1.5 amps) for
each HF station. Plus any other appliances you may be powering with this power
supply, such as lighting, antenna tuning units, computers for digital modes,
etc.
If the only transceiver in your shack is a 50 watt VHF / UHF dual band, a 12 amp power supply will be perfectly adequate.
For a 100 watt HF transceiver, a 25 amp power supply will be perfectly adiquate.
A 30 amp power supply
or larger will run a typical 100 watt HF and 50 watt VHF / UHF
dual band transmitting at full power simultaneously with no issues.
30 amp power supplies are the most common power supplies found in most
ham shacks that contain multiple transceivers. The Samlex SEC-12-35M is
an example of a 30 amp switch mode power supply.
END PAGE 4
Page 5.
Operating your transceiver.
A. MAKE CERTAIN THAT THERE
ARE NO LIVING BEINGS WITHIN TWO FEET OF YOUR ANTENNA! This is to
protect people and animals from RF burn and exposure.
B. Make certain
that your antenna is clear from overhanging metal or vegetation. This
is to protect your transmitter from high SWR and to maximize antenna
performance.
C. Prior to making
a call, make certain that your receiver volume control is turned up!
There are many instances every day where someone is calling and calling
and someone else is answering and answering. The caller thinks that he
is not transmitting, but in reality, he is transmitting, but with his
volume turned down he can’t hear the station answering him.
D. THIS IS A HUGE
ONE…….. Make certain that you are speaking into the mic
with your LIPS NO MORE THAN A FRACTION OF AN INCH FROM THE GRILL AND
YOUR MOUTH RIGHT OVER THE LITTLE HOLE IN THE GRILL WHERE THE MIC
ELEMENT ACTUALLY IS!!!
The number one cause of stations transmitting with low deviation
(modulation level, transmit volume) is that they’re talking too
far away from the mic. ALL two-way radio hand mics and handheld radios
are made to be spoken into with your lips virtually touching the grill
and with your mouth right over the mic element.
The reason for this is in
many mobile and hand-held environments, there is a lot of audio noise
(people talking, road and engine noise, rushing air noise, etc, etc,
etc.) Thus, the mic gain is set fairly low. And for that reason you really need to “eat the mic”. And if
you’re a soft spoken person you need to make a concentrated
effort of “speaking up”.
E.
ANOTHER BIG ONE.... Set your TRANSMIT POWER at its HIGHEST LEVEL.
In the interest of
safety should you suddenly have an emergency and need to call for help,
you want as much power as you can muster to initiate your call and the
last thing that will be on your mind will be to raise your transmitter
power. In a mobile environment, signal levels are always changing due to
multi-path reflections, along with natural and man made objects between
you and the station you're talking to. Plus you never know when the
receiver you're talking to will experience interference or have a
technical failure that will lessen its sensitivity.
If you're talking into a repeater
that is in very close proximity to you or a fixed station on simplex or
if you're mobile in a caravan talking simplex to other mobiles in close
proximity to you, you can always lower your power once a conversation
has commenced if you feel that you can work with less power. ALWAYS
REMEMBER TO SET YOUR POWER BACK TO FULL ONCE YOUR QSO HAS ENDED, so
you'll have it if you suddenly need it.
F. With FM radio,
increasing transmit power DOES NOT increase the deviation level
(transmitted audio volume). If someone tells you that your transmitted
audio level is low, increasing your transmitting power or changing your
antenna will NOT make your audio louder. Should your signal be noisy
into the receiver that’s listening to you, then increasing power
can quiet your signal and better improve the audio signal to noise ratio,
but it DOES NOT increase the actual level.
What DOES increase deviation level (transmitted audio volume) is
properly speaking into the mic (see "Page 5 D" above) and have your
tranceiver programmed for Wide Band (see "Page 3 C" above).
G. Must you use a repeater?
The answer to this is, "it depends".
Many new hams are under the impression that the only way that VHF and UHF FM works is through repeaters.
This is far from correct, depending on the distance between the
stations trying to communicate, the type of equipment being used,
obstacles in-between the stations, RF noise at the receiving antennas.
In a large percentage of cases where stations are communicating through
a repeater, they are actually in SIMPLEX range of each other. Simplex
can be a lot of fun and can be somewhat challenging to add to the fun.
Simplex is a real test of your equipment and teaches you many skills
that can be a life saver should the repeater you need to use fail.
Nation wide there are 20 designated simplex frequencies in the 2 meter VHF spectrum
146.400 - 146.580 and 147.400 - 147.580. Most of these simplex
frequencies are rarely ever used. And in Utah 446.000 and 446.500 are
for simplex use. Other states may have different simplex freqs for UHF.
Repeaters are great for making a contact, but once you learn where the
station you're talking with is and what his equipment is (especially
the antenna) you may want try to QSY to a simplex frequency. Many
repeater owners really appreciate this, as "why should you use a
repeater if you don't need one"!
Likewise when using a linked repeater system, should you find out
that you both or all stations in the QSO are using the same repeater,
it's a good act of courteously to QSY to a standalone repeater that
everyone can access to free up the linked system, and of course if
everyone is in simplex range, go to a simplex frequency.
And you can use "Talkaround" (scroll down to
page 7) should the repeater fail or you travel out of range of it while
talking to someone within simplex range.
END PAGE 5
Page 6.
Etiquette and terminology (jargon).
None of the information below is an FCC rule or UVHFS policy.
This is all the standardized practices and terminology used
by hams over the past many decades.
If you want to get on a repeater system or simplex frequency wondering
if you’re being heard and how you sound, you want to state your
legal ID (your callsign) and say “looking for a signal
report”.
It's preferable and more proper that we ask for
"Signal Report" rather than "Radio Check", when we are indeed looking for just that -- a report on the quality of our signal. Even though
there’s no law against saying "Radio Check", the standard terminology in the amateur
community is “Signal Report”.
To give a proper signal report on FM, a responder should say that you
are “full quieting” if you signal has no noise on it, or
say “you have some noise on your signal and your modulation level
is normal, low, too loud etc.” Many use the word
“steam” in lieu of noise and this is a perfectly acceptable term.
It's also recommended that on FM, we not use the terminology like
“You're Five By Nine" and instead use something like "You are
full quieting into the repeater." What Five By Nine really means,
is that on AM or SSB modes, there is
what’s called RST. That’s a signal report giving the
quality of tone or voice, 1 being not readable to 5 being very loud and
clear and then 1 through 9 representing the level read on the receivers
S meter. Over the years, many hams mainly because they were never
educated on a proper RST signal report have come to use “five by
nine” as a general acknowledgement regardless of the accrual
signal quality. This, along with using the term “radio
check” is a good way to rub long time seasoned hams very wrong.
You’re looking to make a contact and have a good chat (QSO).
Monitor the frequency to make certain that no one else is using it for
15 seconds or so. Then legal ID and say “looking for a contact
(or QSO), anyone out there want to chat, etc. If you just want to make
your presence known in case someone wants to talk to you. Simply legal
ID and nothing else.
It is not a general practice to call "CQ" on repeater systems like it
is the common practice for HF and VHF / UHF simplex operations. Even
though there's nothing wrong with calling CQ on repeater systems, it's
not commonly practiced there.
If you’re looking for a particular station. Simply state their
callsign followed by yours.
Always call the station that you are calling first, and then state your callsign.
Keep in mind that they may hear you but not be near their radio or busy
and can’t drop what they’re doing, so wait 15 seconds or so
and then give a second call, wait again before giving up. And when you
give up, state that you’re standing by, QRT or QSY to where
you’re going to. This is so that if they are listening and can't
get to their radio in time, they will know where to find you when they
do get to their radio.
You hear a conversation (QSO) going on that you wish to join in on;
If it’s a serious, detailed technical discussion on a topic that
you are not directly involved with in that group, then don’t break in…. wait
until they’re done. If you have an emergency, then state it by saying "Emergency" and
they’ll let you in. If you simply want to contact another station
and move them to another frequency or system, then key your transmitter
and say your callsign (legal ID). When someone answers, make your call and
move them off as quickly as possible and thank them for letting you in.
Make certain that you legal ID before moving.
If you hear non-technical
“rag chewing” (general chit chat), then simply wait until
one of the stations un-keys and then transmit your callsign (Legal ID) and
wait for someone to say “go ahead”.
END PAGE 6
Page 7.
Common termsinology used by hams & some history as to where they come from.
SEVEN THREE
dah dah dit dit dit dit dit dit dah dah
Many
standard abbreviations arose in the early days of telegraphy, which was
used almost exclusively before telephony communication became
practical. The two numeric abbreviations that are
still in most common use (73 and 88) originated naturally and were formalized for the first time in the "92 Code", a list of 92 numeric abbreviations defined by Western Union in 1857. . Many of these codes stuck even when radio communication switched mainly to voice.
73
and 88 are used in amateur radio to sign off a QSO [see below for
abbreviations]. Normally an OM would use 73, a YL or XYL
would use 88. Depending on circumstances, an OM could sometimes
use 88 when signing off with a YL or XYL.
Standard telegraphic and ham (amateur radio) abbreviations:
73 Best regards
88 Love and kisses / hugs - depending on the relationship with the opposite gender
QSO A contact (what computer geeks would now call a session)
OM Old man -- any male
YL Young lady (un-married)
XYL Ex-young lady (married)
The original "92 Code" has evolved over time. An example of recent evolution is adoption of 161, (73 + 88) to mean, "Best regards to you and your wife".
73 and 88 should NEVER be used in the plural form!
Each digit should be pronounced SEPARATELY!!
Example:
You should NEVER say "Seventy Three" or "Seventy Threes".
You should ALWAYS say "Seven Three".
This goes for all other abbreviations listed above.
SQUELCH TAIL
A Squelch Tail is the short burst of white noise heard on an FM receiver between the time
a signal ceases to be received and the squelch circuit silences the audio output.
This term is often confused with "Hang Time" or "Drop Out Delay" with respect to a repeater.
When you're monitoring a repeater and the person talking into the repeater un-keys his transmitter,
the short burst of white noise (rushing sound) you hear is the squelch tail from the repeater's receiver.
Then, the repeater's transmitter remains keyed anywhere between 1/2 second and 5 seconds,
in other words it's transmitter <hangs> on before it <drops out>, this is what's known as the hang time or drop out delay.
Some repeaters insert a beep or other type of tone or multiple tones during the hang time.
This tone or tones can be a "courtesy tone" or it can be telemetry signaling that certain links or other devices are connected.
At the end of this time when the repeater's transmitter un-keys, you will hear a squelch tail from your radio's receiver.
When operating simplex with another station, every time the station(s) transmitting to you un-keys,
you will hear a squelch tail from your receiver.
The purpose of the hang time or drop out delay on a repeater is to eliminate the repeater's transmitter
from chattering on & off when the repeater's receiver is receiving a noisy, choppy signal.
In the early days of tube type repeaters that used mechanical relays, this saved much wear and tear
on those relays.
Today's solid state repeaters do not have this issue, but a chattering transmitter combined with an already
choppy fluttering signal into a repeater is even more difficult to hear.
Another purpose is for testing purposes.
You can "kerchunk" (key your radio into a repeater) & monitor it's signal level coming back to you.
Always LEGAL ID your station with your callsign when you kerchunk a repeater for testing purposes.
TALKAROUND
The term "Talkaround" has been used for decades in commercial Land Mobile Radio.
And it is becomming more widespread in the amateur community.
It simply means= Simplex operation on the output frequency of a repeater.
Hence you are "talking around" the repeater.
It's also commonly known as "Direct".
Hence you are direct from your antenna to the antenna(s) you're talking to.
Saying "Go to simplex on the output frequency" uses alot of words and air time.
Saying "To to talkaround" takes a fraction of that time.
You should NEVER operate simplex on the input frequency of a repeater.
It's always a good idea to be able to operate talkaround on the repeaters that you regularly use if not all of them.
And especially if you're involved with EMCOM operations!
If
your tranciever does not have a "Direct" or "Talkaround" button and the
process of disabling the offset is not easy, then when programming
momory channels in your radio, program the repeater pair "duplex" or
"with offset" into a channel and then program the same frequency
without the offset in the next channel up. Thus it's as simple as
switching to the next memory channel to go between repeater use and
talkaround.
Having talkaround programmed on your repeater channels can be a life saver during an emergency!
Low Band / High Band / UHF
Many hams who operate on 6 Meters FM (Low VHF), 2 Meters FM (High VHF)
and 70 Centimeters (UHF) are commercial two way industry professionals
or public safety volunteers & professionals who use two way FM radio on the same
bands and very close to the frequencies that hams do. Many of these
pros who are also hams who have been licensed hams for decades. Many of these folks
call the commercial Low VHF spectrum of 40 - 50 MHz "Low Band", the
High VHF spectrum of 150 - 170 MHz "High Band" and the 450 - 470 MHz
band "UHF" and thus this terminology has been commonly used in the
amateur commumity ever since the inception of amateur FM operations.
"Push the Pickle"
Some
models of hand mics made from the 1950s into the 1980s were made with
an elongated PTT (Push To Talk) switch on the left hand side of the mic
housing. It ran the whole length of the left side of the mic and it
somewhat resembled a pickle.
Hence "Pushing the Pickle" or "Push the Pickle" over the many years is a slang way to say "Key your Transmitter".
The term "Key" goes back to the days of telegraphy and simply means
"a
manually operated lever for opening and closing an electric circuit,
used to produce signals in telegraphy." (copied from Dictionary.com)
Q Codes
The International Q Codes were invented
in the early 20th century to simplify radio telegraph (CW)
communication. Every code begins with the letter "Q" because there are
no callsigns anywhere in the world the begin with Q. There are dozens
of these Q codes used by hams, mostly on CW and some on phone on the HF
bands. There are a few that are used in VHF / UHF FM systems. Here are
these Q codes along with examples:
QSO= A conversation via ham radio. > I had a good QSO
with someone traveling on I-15 from Arizona to Idaho earlier today.
QTH= Location. > My QTH is the Provo Airport.
QSY= Change frequencies. > QSY to 146.520.
QST= A one way announcement to all hams. > QST QST QST The VHF Soceity net will commence in five minutes.
QSL= Message received. Although Roger is more commonly used. > QSL Sue, I'll QSY to 146.520.
QRT= Signing off. Although "Out" and "Clear" are more commonly used.
> I just arrived at my home QTH, 73 Joe WZ7XYZ QRT.
Who is Roger?
Roger's roots date back to the days of wireline telegraphy. When a
telegrapher received a message and had no questions to ask, he simply
send the letter R
(dit dah dit) meaning RECEIVED. In the early days
of telephony the ITU phonetic alphabet was created. It was made from
letters that didn't sound like any other letter in the alphabet so as
to eliminate confusion. For the letter R the name Roger was picked and
thus when a message was received via phone (voice) the acknowledgment
for received was "Roger".
In 1954 the ITU changed some of these
phonetics and R was changed to "Romeo", but "Roger" has remained the
response for Message Received.
END PAGE 7
Page 8.
Emergencies Pertaining to Life and Property.
This item is FCC regulations:
97.403 Safety of life and protection of property. No provision of these
rules prevents the use by an amateur station of any means of
radiocommunication at its disposal to provide essential communication
needs in connection with the immediate safety of human life and
immediate protection of property when normal communication systems are
not available.
§ 97.405 Station in distress. (a) No provision of these
rules prevents the use by an amateur station in distress of any means
at its disposal to attract attention, make known its condition and
location, and obtain assistance. (b) No provision of these rules
prevents the use by a station, in the exceptional circumstances
described in paragraph (a) of this section, of any means of
radiocommunications at its disposal to assist a station in distress
Simplified:
Anyone can use (transmit with) your amateur transceiver to summon help to an emergency that pertains to "The immediate danger of life and or property".
This DOES NOT mean that non-licensed people can
transmit during an extended emergency situation to report on status or
transmit any other type of information.
Anyone can transmit on any radio in any radio service to report "The immediate danger of life and or property
with no questions asked. But for no other purpose than that unless
they're a licensed amateur for the amateur frequencies or authorized by
the licensee of another service such as business or public safety.
An example of this would be the spouse or child of a licensed ham is
driving their car with the licensee not present and they are involved
in or come across an accident. They may use the mobile radio to summon
help to that scene.
Another example would be to come across a policeman, electric utility
worker, etc who is down from an injury or medical episode, you may use
their radio to summon help for them.
An example of authorization from a public safety licensee would be; A
local city government has a CERT team and wishes the CERT members to be
able to communicate with each other and or communicate with other
public safey officials. This local govenment would give written
authorization to the CERT group to use certain public safety
frequencies that the local government is licensed to use. Typically
there would be special training, tactical callsign assignments, rules & procedures
etc for the use of these radios on these frequencies.
It is a good idea to teach your un-licensed family members the use of
your radio and which frequencies to use in order to have the best
chances of contacting another ham to summon help to their emergency.
They should be taught to key the transmitter and state "I have an
emergency and need immediate help" or something to that effect and
state the location of and type of emergency. There's no need to say
anything else other than to keep repeating the same until someone
answers them.
The reason to state the location and type of emergency and to keep
repeating is in the event of a ham may be listening and can't get to
his radio for a few minutes. And also remember that anyone may be
monitoring with an SDR or police scanner and they could phone for help
without you knowing it.
All hams should give thought to what they would say and how they would
handle a call for help from anyone on the radio should they hear one
and be the only one to answer them.
END PAGE 8