1. Getting on the Air: HT “I just got my license, now what?” By The Salvation Army & MDARC

2. Presented by: Jim Siemons CCRA

3. Congratulations, You’re a Ham! * 738,000+ New Friends in the US alone * Remember – THIS IS A HOBBY! (have fun!) * You get to decide what you want to do. So, what can I do?

5. Where is the playground? Did you know in the US amateurs have access to approximately: 3.75 MHz of HF (160m-10m) spectrum 67 MHz of VHF/UHF (6m-33cm) spectrum 24.095 GHz of microwave (23cm-300GHz) spectrum

6. A few of my favorite things… PSK31 waterfall

7. How do we communicate? We communicate Point-to-Point We communicate over Repeaters We communicate over the Internet (VoIP) And combinations of the above!

8. Can you find the repeater?

9. VHF / UHF 6 Meters (50 MHz) 2 Meters (144 MHz) 1-1/4 Meters (222 MHz) {220} 70 cm (420 MHz) {440} 33 cm (902 MHz) {900} 23 cm (1240 MHz) {1200}

10. What’s on a ham radio?

11. HT Keypad

12. Using Your HT What mode is the radio in? What is the radio frequency? What is the status of the battery? On and Off switch and volume Dial knob (VFO knob) Squelch Control PTT

13. Using Your HT Number Keys – Set a Freq & Setup a Function V/M Key F W Key Power Level – low/medium/high (.5, 2, 5w) Select VFO Mode Select 2 meters Turn Off WIRES – Yaesu, this means you!

14. Simplex Operating Listen, Listen, Listen Say you call sign + “monitoring” Call another station Answer another station

15. Repeater Operating Listen, Listen, Listen Lots more folks are listening to you! If joining a net – listen and follow the instructions of the “Net Control” “Clear” when you are done

16. Equipment

17. “Top Shelf” Gear ICOM 92AD Kenwood TH-F6A Yaesu VX-7R Yaesu VX-8R

18. Best Value Gear Yaesu FT-60R Icom IC-80AD Yaesu VX-6R

19. Time to go out and operate?!

20. The Camp Shack

21. “Honey, it’s just a clock radio…”

22. Phonetic Alphabet It is a fine business to use the international phonetic alphabet! Don’t let other operators think of you as a lid!

23. RST Signal Report T = TONE 1 -- Sixty cycle a.c. or less, very rough and broad 2 -- Very rough a.c., very harsh and broad 3 -- Rough a.c. tone, rectified but not filtered 4 -- Rough note, some trace of filtering 5 -- Filtered rectified a.c. but strongly ripple-modulated 6 -- Filtered tone, definite trace of ripple modulation 7 -- Near pure tone, trace of ripple modulation 8 -- Near perfect tone, slight trace of modulation 9 -- Perfect tone, no trace of ripple or modulation of any kind R = READABILITY 1 -- Unreadable 2 -- Barely readable, occasional words distinguishable 3 -- Readable with considerable difficulty 4 -- Readable with practically no difficulty 5 -- Perfectly readable S = SIGNAL STRENGTH 1 -- Faint signals, barely perceptible 2 -- Very weak signals 3 -- Weak signals 4 -- Fair signals 5 -- Fairly good signals 6 -- Good signals 7 -- Moderately strong signals 8 -- Strong signals 9 -- Extremely strong signals

24. Keeping a Log Hams are no longer required to keep a log book – but it is a really good idea to do so! Three main ways to keep a station log: paper, using computer software or keep it in the “cloud” such as LoTW or QRZ.com

25. Keeping a Log

26. Battery Management Use it or lose it! Secondary vs. Primary Do not charge Alkaline Cells! Do no overcharge batteries! Periodically check condition of batteries on standby Power save mode/low TX pwr/Auto Off

27. Other Topics… Crossband Repeaters – Awesome! APRS EchoLink and IRLP SSTV Fastscan TV – ATV Rules! Apps for your phone!

28. Thanks for Coming!!!