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Started by crash54, September 22, 2013, 07:40:40 PM

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crash54

Nice wool Ray!
I think she is still around New Meadows, that critter, not your ex.
Does anyone on here work 60 Meters by chance?
When I was out hunting tonight, I could hear stations from the 3 call area. They were not real loud, but workable.
As for CW, if I put my mind to it, I can do it.
I just need practice is all.

KK0G

#16
Quote from: crash54 on September 23, 2013, 11:37:19 PM
Nice wool Ray!
I think she is still around New Meadows, that critter, not your ex.
Does anyone on here work 60 Meters by chance?
When I was out hunting tonight, I could hear stations from the 3 call area. They were not real loud, but workable.
As for CW, if I put my mind to it, I can do it.
I just need practice is all.


I've worked every single HF band from 10 meters to 160 meters.................. other than 60 meters 8) . There's just something about being restricted to a channel that doesn't sit well with me. I should probably just get over it but I'm stubborn sometimes.


Yes, you most definitely can learn code. You have the right attitude, if you put your mind to it you can do it. I was in your shoes less than 2 years ago, I was amazed at how quickly I learned code once I made my mind up to do it,  now I can zip along at 15 WPM. If I can do it anybody can.


Here's a couple of links that motivated me to learn code:
http://theoriginalpreppernetworks.com/APRN/APRN_blog/?p=4530
http://theoriginalpreppernetworks.com/APRN/APRN_blog/?p=4533
"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety" - Benjamin Franklin

KK0G

RadioRay

FYI for the group, when I was back in Idaho, Crash and I and a few others used 60 meters SSB as an HF phone line.  The rugger terrain back there means that even the best 2 meter repeater sites have many, many valleys they simply do not reach. HF NVIS is why the 5 MHz allocations were given to us - to fill the gap between 7 MHz which becomes unusable for NVIS during low sun numbers and 80m which might have too high of absorption during the daylight hours to be effective.  5MHz is great for NVIS during daylight hours, yet can reach internationally late at night. We used to run 60m mobile as daily comms.  When stopped, a wire run from the base of the mobile whip , strung horizontally greatly enhanced the high take-off angle for NVIS.

I am with Chris - I wish that it was not channelized.  However, it's done on 60 meters so that there is instant liaison capability with government communicators who think 'CHANNELS' rather than frequencies, two side bands, and various modes.  Also, this is a heavily shared band, and they had to corral the hams a bit to ensure the main users were not interfered with.  I've worked some CW on that band and it's also a lot of fun - though limited.

de RadioRay ..._ ._


Ps. Glad you like the picture of my gal.  Ahhhh, you'd be surprised at 'the magic' of a little moonlight, soft music and a fine, aged bottle of Woolite!
"When we cannot do the good we would, we must be ready to do the good we can."  ~ Matthew Henry

gil

What is confusing with 60m is which frequency to display depending on the mode.. I would probably listen to it more often and maybe even make an antenna if I wasn't so concerned about transmitting on the wrong frequency.. I haven't found a simple table that shows displayed frequencies with modes and channel numbers.. Time to look into KX3 memories maybe.. I know you can program them, but never tried..

Gil.

KC9TNH

#19
Confusion exists about 60m "channels" because they wrote the guidance in the band chart using wayyyyyyyyyy more words than needed.

Whether USB SSB (where they tell you what the VFO should look like) or CW (also USB) where they make you do the math, your display should be reading one of the following:

5332
5348
5358.5  (used to be 5368)*
5373
5405

If you're running SSB -AND- have selectable transmit bandwidth keep it at or below 2.8kHz.

* lots of modern radios had a firmware mod available for download that could be applied back when that one was changed. I understand the same person who drafted the guidance on the ARRL band chart drafted the original version of the Affordable Care Act....
::)

gil

It is that very image that got me confused.. Never made any sense to me. So, those frequencies you listed are what's on your LCD display, right? Is that true for USB as well as CW?

Gil.

KC9TNH

Yep. In fact the original set were hard-coded into mem locations in my D model FT-450.

USB:  "Centered on" the freqs in the fine print.

CW: "1.5kHz above" the channels listed.  Add 1.5 to the channels listed in the graphic and you get, et voila'.  All same-same GI.  ARRL description is "Numba Hucking Ten!"


crash54

My first FT-857D and the FT-897D had the memories "coded" into the memory.
Mt newer 857D did not.
The FT-950 did not either.
The TS-2000 kenwood was MARS modded when I got it.
I was using channel 3 last night out hunting while I was driving out just about dark and I was talking "down" the road about 20 miles and out about 500 miles. The signals were identical at S-9 from both stations.

When the band first was granted to amateurs, the government was still using them, I believe quite a bit.
After 911 I heard several times, an unknown govt station come on and ask the amateurs on frequency to please vacate for whatever reason they had. Only one guy did I ever hear argue or ask "why" to many times. The response was very simple and direct, "This is Guardian, please vacate the frequency" repeated several times. It was very, very obvious that the Guardian station was running a tremendous amount of power as the air fairly crackled with it. I got a chuckle about that. It was kinda like the mouse and the lion, right before the end.
I really like the band and how it reacts.
There was some talk, probably rumors only, that the band was such a success that the feds were going to give up more of it to the amateurs, but it would remain channelized. That was last year, but I have heard nothing of it since.

KC9TNH

Quote from: crash54 on September 25, 2013, 01:15:57 AM
I was using channel 3 last night out hunting while I was driving out just about dark and I was talking "down" the road about 20 miles and out about 500 miles. The signals were identical at S-9 from both stations.
Yep, I believe you. This particular frequency area along with 18mHz are real players atmospherically, which is why we remain secondary users on 60m. The G's frequency allocations move at the speed of glacial melt, and they like 5mHz in general, still.

Reminder: 100w ERP limit (vs PEP).
:)