How Many

[SKIPRAT]

Hi Gang

just been looking at who was on line and saw a new member "yet another Radio Ham " i was just wondering how many of us follow the radio ham hobby as well .The reason i asked this is because some of the projects i have in mind are to do with bits and pieces for this hobby and certainly in my case it looks like hobby engineering and ham radio are at the point of being entwined with each other.

73 DE G6FOW -.-

[andyf]

I am, but haven't been on the air for two or three years. I don't disclose too much on forums open for anyone to view, and I'm QTHR, so G1Bxx will have to suffice.

Andy

[John Hill]

ZL2AYQ,  have also been ZK1AS  and ZK2AS.

I still have the Kenwood TS520 plugged in and the sticks in the air but I have not turned it on for about 10 years.  My main ham radio activity nowadays is going on expeditions in the JSAV  (junk sale assault vehicle!).  Hihi

I wish I had the workshop I have now when I was really active on  HF trying to make balanced HF tuning units etc.

[Radioham]

Hi All
I love making things, and learn new skills, Amateur radio & Amateur engineering,  Give me great pleasure in life but at a cost (The wife asks how much) hobby's are expensive.
Amateur radio
Amateur engineering
Fishing
Shooting
photography
If it can be made i will  make it that's my view its better then watching the telly and while the sun spots are down i am in the shed
73  to our Amateur radio friends G7KHF
Great site Steve

[75Plus]

    Been a Ham for a little over 25 years but haven't been active for the last five or so. Just an occasional VHF contact. I was an active mobile HF'er. One of my fondest memories was the time I visited the site where  Marconi's first trans Atlantic contact was made in 1902. Not actually a contact as it was only the reception of the letter "S". It took four 250 ft. towers and a ton or more copper wire to capture that one letter! There is a small museum on the site.
    The site is in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada. A fellow Ham and I were able to make contact with a Ham in the UK on 15 meters from my mobile. I was using an Icom 735 at the time.
    Making and mounting mobile antennas was my specialty. I will post an example when I find time to take some pictures. The number one consideration was to install the antenna (as well as the transceiver) in such a way that it could be removed and leave no outward sign that they had ever been there.
    I am located in the tenth call area of the US which makes my call sign confusing when it is written (N0FNF). Most people take the second character as a letter not a number.

Joe

[John Hill]

Joe, visiting Glace Bay would have been something to remember, is there any trace of the original installations left? Maybe just big concrete blocks from the tower anchors?


Here is my friend Mike, ZL2BCW, looking very pleased that we had at last found the stone marking the place where a farmer in New Zealand made a number of contacts with a school boy in England in 1924.  Of course they were on HF (80 metres maybe?) and their achievement plus that of amateurs in other parts of the world turned the science of long distance radio communications on its ear.  No more huge towers, steam driven synchronous alternators and spark gaps!

[75Plus]

John, If I can find it I have a video that I made on that "DXpedition". If I find the video I will look into converting it to a DVD and make copies available.

The museum there has some original artifacts, including spark gap transmitters, and lots of pictures. I enjoyed it so much I went back a couple more times.

BTW the site was only at Glace Bay for a couple of years. It was disassembled and moved to the town of Port Morien, if memory serves. I think the elevation was better and it was not quite as exposed to the awful coastal weather in the winter.

 This site has a good write up of this subject.

http://ns1763.ca/marconi100/marconi1.html

Joe

[Weston Bye]

KB8UKS here - though I haven't been active in the last few years - just the very occasional Skywarn activity on 2 meters.  Machining and writing have taken its place.  Even back then, I was building and writing - I did a series of articles on a simple radio direction finder for my club newsletter.  If there is enough intrest, I could post the gist of it here, even though no machining was involved in the original design.

[Bernd]

Wes,

Who says it needs to be machineable related. Remember the term  If it fits do it.

Bernd

[Darren]

I became interested in this scene some years ago. But shortly after software became available to "talk" to anyone anywhere over the internet.

Now we have Skype which is very clear.  


I wonder how much damage this caused to the radio scene. A lot I'd imagine, they even relaxed the rules quite a bit to try to coax in new members if I remember rightly?

[75Plus]

Darren, I believe most hams, even the inactive ones, will agree that using POI communications, while more reliable, is not quite the same as pulling a conversation out of the ether. As I mentioned in my previous post, the thrill of communicating with a ham in the UK from the actual site that Marconi used in Nova Scotia in 1902, while sitting in my automobile, could never be matched with Skype.

Joe

[Darren]

No of course not Joe, it must have been a great thrill....

Something like firing up your first model steam engine ...

But all the same, the internet must have done a lot of damage...........

[SKIPRAT]

Hi All
 In answer to Darrens post about the damage the internet has done to ham radio! it also has done it quite a bit of good as there is a system called "Echolink" and another system called "IRLP" by using a repeater that is enabled you can talk to the world via the internet .I will try and describe the system imagine you are a handheld or mobile station if you are within range of a repeater you can talk through it and access any other repeater in the world as each repeater has its own node number and is called up by sending a DTMF code which is unique to that repeater so your signal goes through a repeater over the internet and is sent by the repeater at the other end i have talked to somone on a handheld in New Jersy USA through my local repeater using a handheld myself so you see as well as doing some damage to Ham Radio it has also done it some good if you require further information of this system just put Echolink In your search engine and you will get the information.

Cheers Paul

[GrahamC]

   Been a Ham for a little over 25 years but haven't been active for the last five or so. Just an occasional VHF contact. I was an active mobile HF'er. One of my fondest memories was the time I visited the site where  Marconi's first trans Atlantic contact was made in 1902. Not actually a contact as it was only the reception of the letter "S". It took four 250 ft. towers and a ton or more copper wire to capture that one letter! There is a small museum on the site.
    The site is in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada. A fellow Ham and I were able to make contact with a Ham in the UK on 15 meters from my mobile. I was using an Icom 735 at the time.
    Making and mounting mobile antennas was my specialty. I will post an example when I find time to take some pictures. The number one consideration was to install the antenna (as well as the transceiver) in such a way that it could be removed and leave no outward sign that they had ever been there.
    I am located in the tenth call area of the US which makes my call sign confusing when it is written (N0FNF). Most people take the second character as a letter not a number.

Joe

Actually, the first transatlantic message was recieved on Signal Hill in St. John's Newfoundland on Dec 12, 1901. It was only after this that Marconi moved to Glace Bay, built a new facility and the first trans Atlantic communicatons were established in 1902.

http://www.ucs.mun.ca/~jcraig/marconi.html

and http://ns1763.ca/marconi100/marconi1.html

Incidentally, Newfoundland at the time was not a part of Canada and became Canada's 10th province in 1949.

cheers, Graham  in Ottawa Canada  ex VO1QC (late 1970's)

[SKIPRAT]

Hi All
About 5 Years ago i visited the Marconi site on this side of the pond at Poldhu cove Cornwall and took this picture of the Marconi memorial up on the clifftop over looking the cove.




Cheers Paul