THIS IS HAM RADIO

[Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] to our h XE to our H this is wb6 KP on the handle is met w base x KN calling XE to RH and standing by w6k peon I'm Matt Futterman wb6 KP n my name is Anne freaking everyone you've seen so far as a friend of mine I haven't met them in person but we all have something in common AM radio Enrique has his amateur license from the Mexican government I have a license from the US government in this country the Federal Communications Commission regulates the hobby I got started when I was 13 it's really great fun and one of the reasons is that what the half-million hams around the world you never know who's listening in waiting to join the conversation many of them by tuning around on their mobile rates would be hams listenin to but they can't transmit until they get a lie site when you first get on the air all your conversations all your contacts are QSOs are carried on by Morse code and a lot of beginners build up their code speed by listening in on these CW conversations I'm wondering if possibly you'll be on a thinner time go ahead but also myself have to go to work right now I'm also in a hurry and belt-fed to the after 6:30 or 7:00 o'clock after my work I'll see if I can make a contact with you so 73 the hasta manana wv6 KP annex e to our age 73 and we'll see you later XE to our H this is WB 6 k PM normally my QSOs are longer but I wanted to get to my clubs field a practice meeting on time we schedule these in order to test all our portable equipment to make sure it's ready in case of an emergency it's also a good way to improve your operating skills under less than ideal conditions and besides it's a lot of fun many of us build our own equipment which gives you a good practical knowledge of how it works or in some cases why it doesn't the FCC requirements are set up so that it's easy to get on the air with the beginners or novice licensed I get here w n6 q TQ there's nothing like being on the air to build up your code speak IDI really works at it in the way he's going he'll be able to pass his general class test any time now quite a few of us in this club already have the highest class licence the amateur extra which gives us full operating privileges on any other dozen or so ham bands our antenna for the 15 metre ban is a homemade cubicle quad ok there is quite a bit of interference on your signal [Music] you're about Q 4 and s 7 here Q 4 and s 7 the location is Woodland Hills about 25 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles on the west end of the San Fernando Valley my name is Matt Mexico alpha tango tango Matt we're operating saw a field day type setup here portable set up with West Valley amateur radio club we have about four stations set up we're using Aswan 352 a 15 meter portable quad up about 20 feet two element quad Saudi copy kHz LS and Livonia Michigan this is w a 6 LX and portable six cpt to the cpt mobile during a real emergency the hours of preparation pay off in a mature organizations like races radio amateurs civil emergency service really do a job clear the right side or get your unit so I'll set up the evacuation command right bill send Baker easy six six [Music] but bigger the emergency the more important amateur radio becomes a few years ago a tremendous earthquake up in Alaska sand a tidal wave crashing into the coast near Anchorage among other things wiping out just about every normal means of communication you may have seen some of the TV reports the most awesome force to hit North America in the 20th century hitting Anchorage at 5:36 p.m. just after the close of business at 5:47 the first mobile units of the radio amateur civil emergency service swing into action ready to provide immediate communications this is downtown Anchorage the airport control tower the story is repeated in Seward and Kodiak all over Alaska ham radio volunteers provide vital links in rescue communication portable equipment is gathered into makeshift message centers to find the missing and speed help to where it's needed in the aftermath of the worst disaster in Alaskan history this is Bill Leonard reporting hey Charlene what are you doing this summer I've been doing a little island to work at the be honest attempt but aside from that I've been looking around for a job that pays a little bit have you been doing yeah I guess Charlene it's really the paying job that counts and well I've got a nine-to-five workday here I want to get as much as I can in this summer so I'll have enough throughout the school year there go ahead break who's the breaker a lot of young hams helped out during the Alaskan earthquake as they do during every emergency but most of the time we just enjoy hemming getting together on the air keeping up with old friends and meeting new ones talking about your new rig the latest DX station you talk to halfway around the world Bates jobs whatever comes to mind X is that located in central Los Angeles and the headless gene great easy Nancy energize wondering if one of you could give me a signal report yeah hi Jane my cause wb6 ff8 and my name is Charlene and I'm here in Hollywood some of the conversations get pretty casual but we do keep a written log of every contact it's one of the FCC requirements and it's also a valuable diary of all your ham activities how do you count them you down there gee I know s meter on the receiver yes 20 are but you must be pretty strong because you're giving in a here's the breaker XR I said the name here is Roy J Charlene I heard you in there and I was just wondering if you're down at that west car picnic oh yeah that was me I was down there with John I'm Dave they're also in here right chewing is great fun but hams have lots of different ways of enjoying the hobby some of them are pretty wild M's don't build rockets at least not this big but they did build this satellite Oscar short for orbiting satellites carrying amateur radio mainly to see if they could do it Pam's all over the world got the message okay should be coming in on you there no try and zoom in on this thing and here's another way to do your thing ham TV actually it's not as unusual as you might think there are several hundred eight TV operators in this country it's only natural amateurs were pioneers in the development of television as they have been in many other areas transistors and I think it'll put out a good picture in the sheriff's helicopter for us there are new years so that I gotta get back to it Rudy I gotta swing some more solder on this thing and nicey and get on there Rudy and we'll check with you later waa 60px Tobias 600g Tom didn't go out and buy all this gear either he scrounged around for the parts a lot of them surplus and put everything together himself there's a special kick you get from home brewing your own equipment and seeing it work what is the maximum input power permitted to the final stage of the transmitter in a station licensed to the holder of a novice class license we're operated by such an operator 75 watts besides learning the Morse code five words a minute you'll have to know some basic radio theory and a few operating rules to get ready for the novice test with a little help you can learn it all at the same time you're building your transmitter everything you need is in the license manual and other publications put out by the American radio relay League control by crystals once you get your license you're on your way and for no more than the cost of a couple record albums you can build a transmitter like this one tube made from a junk be set in a few other parts total investment about $10 including the key for sending Co here's the receiver about 20 years old still working fine bought used from a ham radio store for about $30 Patty's talking to W a 6m am a station she's worked before there's his QSL card cams everywhere exchanged these personalized cards and keep them as a reminder in a record of contacts some veteran hams have literally thousands of aids from stations throughout the world it's very possible Pattie both upper code speed by tuning in W one aw the American radio relay laid zone station in Newington Connecticut world headquarters for the hams official organization another way to sharpen up your code speed and learn your theory is to get into a novice license class like this one schools and ham clubs run these regularly John's using an electronic here it makes perfect dots and dashes that's a funny thing trying to send three words a minute is quite a trick when you're used to being up around 30 it takes skill and a lot of practice to get that good at Morse code you can see why hams take such pride in having CW as sort of a second language oh when the current goes once one way then turns around comes back the other way and starts to go again the first direction the original direction then we call that one cycle John is typical of young hams everywhere willing and anxious to give us time to help beginners get started he want to find out what being a ham radio operator is all about it's plenty of help available all you really need is to want to become one stick with it and almost anyone can pass the novice test after just a month or two all the frequency almost any one [Music] M radio has a lot going for it it's fun rewarding and challenging it doesn't have to cost a lot and you really feel you're doing something it's a terrific copy I recommend it so 73 and I'll see you on the air is this frequency nu xe2 our age [Music] [Music]