Ham Radios and Fox News

[yellerdawg]

Originally Posted by Caneman

thanks again dawg, i did some reasearch...

seems like most of the SW action is between 1.8 and 30 MHZ...

short wave radios will receive up to 30 MHZ, but there is some Ham activity beyond the 30 MHZ...

scanners would allow you to listen to frequencies 25MHz or more...

so to get it all, you would need a SW Radio and a Scanner... looks like a really good SW radio is $100-$200, and a decent scanner (SW, Weather, Police, Fire, etc.) is $100-$300...

looks like a really intersting hobby...

10-4 Well, you can acquire and set up as elaborate as you want...I
"was" trying at least to stay withing OP query of a solar or other
emergency power example as requested...etc...and a crank to charge
a nicad battery is best...

But if you move forward as to "emergency" planning...there are lots
of options....one good set up is 1 or 2 good 12 volt automotive batteries
charged daily by strong solar cell charging set up...then these batteries
will operate "several" things when needed for long periods.....

I have been contemplating doing an urban survival basics or minimum
to have handy if you "really" believe in 3 to 4 days minimum of
"self serve" survival"..(and you should maybe?)

Things like solar cell charging...and "inverters" and converters etc.....to let battery voltage
(automotive 12 vdc) become 110 vac for "emergency" things etc..

Lots of points to cover and get input on..what one needs, another may
consider unimportant etc...but certain "basics" need to be addressed
as for most anyway....

[Caneman]

i am in the middle of installing a 1KW 24v off grid solar power system... panels, charge controller, battery bank, inverter... solar is a fun hobby as well!

[raven818]

OK, after reading this thread all over again, I've spent the last hour-plus looking at SW radios, hand crank option, and bought this one.

Pleaze.. I'm sure I could have bought something else but I got tired of looking and this one does the trick..thanks for all the in-put.

Kaito Voyager Pro KA600 Digital Solar/Dynamo AM/FM/LW/SW & NOAA Weather Emergency Radio with Alert & RDS, Black

I also bought a AC adapter and Antenna. Spent a hundred and change.

[Caneman]

right on, raven... i decided to take the plunge as well, figured I would try it for a few weeks and if it doesn't work out send it back:

[whirley]

Antenna towers are good but some neighborhood building codes might be a problem. I've been using two rhombic antennas and they work very well. However they require some real estate. Look into antenna design for your location.

[raven818]

Originally Posted by Caneman

right on, raven... i decided to take the plunge as well, figured I would try it for a few weeks and if it doesn't work out send it back:

Living in Florida, I figured I can't go wrong having it. I'll use it one way or the other. And we're way over due for another hurricane...fingers crossed.

Gonna try out the extra antenna I bought. Probably will get something that will reach out. I have a dish on top of my house, so I know I can go at least that far up w/o issues.

[Caneman]

Raven, this Ham thing gets even better... ran across this idea for some simple shtf communication, all can be had for < $100

a mini 2-way handheld Ham radio that operates on the 2m emergency bands, plus antenna:

http://www.amazon.com/NEW-BAOFENG-UV.../dp/B007H4VT7A



http://www.jetstream-usa.com/jtm2s.shtml

[raven818]

Went there. The one issue that prevents me from purchasing it is:

1 x Desktop Charger ( 100V ~ 240V )

No electricity to charge would mean it's dead in the water once the batteries are gone.

The reason I bought the unit above is, after ' vigorously ' turning the charging handle for 1 1/2 minutes, it good to go from 40minutes to one hour.

Thanks for the look-see. Nice radio.

[Caneman]

what you can do for situational backup power is get some 6v golf cart batteries from Sam's Club (about $80 each) and make a 12v battery bank out of it... you will also need a "battery maintainer" to keep the batteries from dying out and charged up... doing this with 4 of these batteris (series/parallel setup) will give you 220 amp hours of power, at 12v, which is about 2600w of power and can keep a 12v system going for several days (can even get a smallish 120v inverter and run the tv and computer)... the batteries hooked up to the maintainer will keep them good for at least 5 years and probably more...

[raven818]

Originally Posted by Caneman

what you can do for situational backup power is get some 6v golf cart batteries from Sam's Club (about $80 each) and make a 12v battery bank out of it... you will also need a "battery maintainer" to keep the batteries from dying out and charged up... doing this with 4 of these batteris (series/parallel setup) will give you 220 amp hours of power, at 12v, which is about 2600w of power and can keep a 12v system going for several days (can even get a smallish 120v inverter and run the tv and computer)... the batteries hooked up to the maintainer will keep them good for at least 5 years and probably more...

Thanks for that.
As my luck goes, I ordered the stuff Thursday last week, and it's going to be here this coming Friday. Perfect.

The Tropical Storm hit here last night, gonna be here, they say, for three days ( gone Wed? ). The power went off at 10pm last nite, and came back on at 5am today. Seriously bad timing.

Phone dead in the water, cell phone couldn't get a signal.

[Bill DeShivs]

You can also use power from your car.

[raven818]

Originally Posted by Bill DeShivs

You can also use power from your car.

Always forward thinking, I didn't 'think' to buy a car charger with the phone.

[raven818]

Got here at 2pm today...right.

I got everything set up and ready, just in case. Real nice, works as advertised. I'm pleased. Solar charging is a nice feature.

[soundguy]

de ke4rrd

if you want to get into amature radio.. now's the easies time to do so..

get a book.. study it.. join a club.. take the test.. get your ticket.. get a rig and go.

you can get crank up towers or make your own.. most hobbiest make their own ariels..

while you are waiting, and as a good accompianment to a ham radio.. get a shortwave radio.. and do shortwave listen. you can get a cheap multi band radio for under 30$ i have an old radioshack dx397 on my desk at work.. fm, mw, sw1-10.. that's 13 to 60m am fm.. etc.. can get some tv.. or used to.. and plenty of units have noaa weather radio

i keep mine at work just for the emergency aspect... ( weather..e tc.. )


73's

[raven818]

Originally Posted by soundguy

you can get crank up towers or make your own.. most hobbiest make their own ariels..

73's

Don't you have to know the exact height in order to get the SW signals correctly?
Also, I've already looked around for a hand cranked, and the cheapest I've seen is $350. That's a bit much for a SW, it seems. \

Better idea? BTW, I'm not the builder type person.

[north tex]

Originally Posted by raven818

Don't you have to know the exact height in order to get the SW signals correctly?

For reception the antenna height and length is not all that important. Yes the correct length antenna and height does help to get a little better signal, but a simple long wire is okay. Many of the older radios would have an antenna trimmer to fool the radio into the right impedance for the specific frequency. I don't know if modern ones have that feature.

If you do put a wire out suspended between trees etc. beware of static build up on windy days. It can knock you on your butt.

[soundguy]

radio shack used to sell a shhortwave long antenna for sw listeners. was pretty much a bag with a long roll of wire in it, and a bunch of insulators and you hung it up like a clothesline

depending on what freq/band you are listening to, antenna length can make some difference. I like to play around with dipoles and folded dipoles.. tuned length can really draw in a signla.. mind you they are directional in a line. take a dipole and soup it up with some reflectors and directors and the main element and poof.. you have a yaggie

xmit will be the most important time for proper antenna tuning.. that way swr is correct..

[raven818]

I bought a 24ft antenna as an accessory. It came with the radio. It rolls up kinda like a chalk line. I've been giving some thought to just running it through a window and clipping to the side of the house, when needed.

[north tex]

If you have metal rain gutters or metal flashing around the edge of the roof you have a built in receiver antenna. The height might not be optimal but it's a hidden antenna.

[raven818]

Originally Posted by north tex

If you have metal rain gutters or metal flashing around the edge of the roof you have a built in receiver antenna. The height might not be optimal but it's a hidden antenna.

Thx..that'll work out.

[Caneman]

my radio has not come in yet... I do have an old Grundig 2000 that my dad gave me several years ago and I have been playing around with it and was unable to pull in a single SW station- not one... but today i did throw up a 50' or so #14 THHN wire on the roof, attached it to an existing ground rod and some RG6 tv cable and fed it to the house... attached the cable to the antenna with an alligator clip and I was pulling in all kinds of stations!

i think what I learned is that the antenna is as important as the receiver... i did some research on shortwave radio antennas and it is pretty interesting stuff... they talk about baluns, counterpoises, impedance matching, swr, and all kinds of crazy technical terms that I don't yet understand but will have fun learning and tinkering with...

[soundguy]

a balun is just an impeadance matching transformer.

remember the old tv's that just had 2 screws on back.. and you had to buy that lil tube thing that let you screw the coax cable to it, then you hooked the 2 screw terminals to the tv? that was a balun of sorts. it matched the 75 ohm coax to the 300 ohm twin lead...

[raven818]

So pretty much, any kind of light, coated wire would work as an antenna?

[soundguy]

i've used 24awg speaker wire and pvc to make a dipole..

i have an icom 2m rig.. as well as a couple 2m/70cm/aircraft handhelds. neat toys... think I have an old johnson crystal set in the closet that's chipped somewhere like 2m

[Caneman]

Originally Posted by soundguy

a balun is just an impeadance matching transformer.

remember the old tv's that just had 2 screws on back.. and you had to buy that lil tube thing that let you screw the coax cable to it, then you hooked the 2 screw terminals to the tv? that was a balun of sorts. it matched the 75 ohm coax to the 300 ohm twin lead...

ya, i remember dat! this hobby is pretty cool, lots of stuff you can make yourself and experiment with... maybe i should make a simple balun to match my 75 ohm tv cable that is attached to my antenna to the 50 ohm shortwave receiver?

73