Thread: Gun owners and Ham Radio operators

Don’t know how many NRA members / Ham Radio operators there are on the forum, I’m a Life member of the NRA and a Ham, but found this in the latest issue of American Rifleman. Gonna have to get that antenna up ASAP.

Tomorrow morning after I shave with my straight razor, I am headed out to breakfast with about 50 of my ham radio friends at the local Golden Coral. I will have to let them know about the special event station. I am not a NRA member, but I know some of my friends are.

I can understand the game of seeing how far my radio will transmit but I have a desire to talk and learn something about the station/person I have reached.

That has been the biggest disappointment since getting my license.

My radio can reach farther than yours!

But all that is said is our call signs.

Have you tried some of the hf nets? Usually they give the check-ins a chance to ask questions or make comments. I used to be a night owl and would check in with the Transcontinental Early Bird Net. If y’all recall correctly there’s also a breakfast club net as well.

I have done little on HF. Mostly VHF.

I did hear the end of a conversation on making a balun yesterday during a 3 hour drive.

Im a DX Chaser. I dont care to chat much as it can be a pian when your on the key. I do phone communicatiins too but not as much. Im not a gun nut so not part of the nra. CW will get you farther. Plus folks that use a key are much more friendly if you do strike up a conversation. HF is the only bands i use really. I can do vhf and uhf but unless you want to use repeaters, your not going to get very far.

Get your Extra Class Lic. In those special parts of the bands for Extra's they are more friendly and have got to the point that they dont feel they need to run more power than needed.

Aloha!

I'm on the opposite end. I've been an avid QRP operator for decades. I have built about 20 QRP Transmitters/Receivers/Transceivers over the years and have even operated CW/QRP/M. Amazing what you can do with 5 watts or under. But I'm not opposed to QRO operation. Do what you like. It's a wide-spectrum hobby.

I've also been into digital modes. RTTY, G-Tor, AMTOR, Packet and the QRP digital modes like PSK-31.

If it's not Digital, I'm 100 percent CW. I really do not enjoy phone (except for special event stations), but that's me.

Did not know about this SPECIAL EVENT STATION, OP, so THANKS for posting. I'll be sure to check it out. It would be great to work him.

73
Zip

That’s what is great about Ham Radio, there’s a niche for everyone. From building antennas to qrp to rag chewing to special event stations, dx chasers it’s a wide ranging hobby.

I was watching an old rerun of Last Man Standing during the summer and caught a different call sign than the one Tim Allen uses (he’s a ham in real life too) so I looked it up and emailed the guy. Turns out it was one controlled by someone else. After emailing back and forth it turns out it was an executive producer for the show. I inquired about the process to acquire a Last Man Standing QSL and he told me to send him one (not for email lol) and he will send me a Last Man Standing QSL.

That is cool. I've been collecting QSL cards. One from each entity and state. Got all the states easy enough, but as far as the entity's go, I'm at 221 cards. ARRL keeps bothering me with donations as with the conditions, I bet they are having a hard time keeping the Rag alive.

I know this is going out of the range of the NRA, but what logging program do you all use? I use Logger32.

I mainly use the old fashioned pen & paper logbook lol. I do have one program that was donated several years ago, but I forget what the name is. It was some guy that wrote his own program and was distributing it himself. I’ll look and see what it is. I’ve not been on the air since it was donated.

What antennas do you fellows use? I’m looking at going to a ground mounted vertical, more than likely a Hustler 5BTV. My old system was a home brew tri-band dipole (20-40-80 meters) that a friend made out of solid 12 gauge copper wire.