Any one into Ham Radio?

[brayski]

we have the same problem, i live in an apartment building and also have those restrictions, my antenna farm is at the fire escape and i have to color them flat red red so it wont be easily seen from the ground, still can be seen if you look carefully but if your just passing by and at night time, it virtually invisible.
satellite and moon bouncing is on the hobby part of ham radio, just another way to propagate that signal. for disaster coordinating purposes, you just need a good transceiver and a good antenna.
to cover distances like Manila and Samar, HF is the way to go, VHF will be a bit more of a challenge unless your in a high location with not much obstruction to line of sight, stacked antennas and high power outputs. satellite and moon bouncing can help with that.
Theres a motto here in New York/New Jersey area, “when the phones are down, the Hams are up”.
Most of the Hams here (not all) are volunteers for ARES, Amateur Radio Emergency Response, in case of emergency, it can easily be tapped to help and coordinate.
SDR is becoming popular as well, small and light, programmable by computer, its the next generation, but it kinda still rely on computer and internet. internet needs phone service, if the phone service is down, it will be very limited (i think) (what do i know) (i’m an old dog that can’t really learn new tricks)
Just be careful on acquiring those vintage sets, it’s like buying a second hand car, try to know the history and what that particular rig have thru.

[girder]

Know any good resources for learning phraseology?

It's by far the part that I've struggled to learn, particularly since I don't really have anyone to practice with.

[brayski]

phraseology as in linguistics?
as far as amateur radio is concerned, english is the required language.
although there are those who doesn't really follow this.
there are computer software that you can get to practice a particular language (e.g. rosetta stone)
start with simple words, then later on simple sentences, then more words, then complex sentences.
finding someone to practice this with will be a challenge, but there are language forums that you can check out, i’m pretty sure there is one for a particular language you wanna learn

[Talibong]

@Brayski, I don't use antenna tuner and as much as possible I trim at frequency. My newer rigs has internal SWR meter for older ones i use the Heathkit HM-102 that can handle up to 2000 watts and the Diamond SX-20 rated at 300 watts.

[Talibong]

we have the same problem, i live in an apartment building and also have those restrictions, my antenna farm is at the fire escape and i have to color them flat red red so it wont be easily seen from the ground, still can be seen if you look carefully but if your just passing by and at night time, it virtually invisible.
satellite and moon bouncing is on the hobby part of ham radio, just another way to propagate that signal. for disaster coordinating purposes, you just need a good transceiver and a good antenna.
to cover distances like Manila and Samar, HF is the way to go, VHF will be a bit more of a challenge unless your in a high location with not much obstruction to line of sight, stacked antennas and high power outputs. satellite and moon bouncing can help with that.
Theres a motto here in New York/New Jersey area, “when the phones are down, the Hams are up”.
Most of the Hams here (not all) are volunteers for ARES, Amateur Radio Emergency Response, in case of emergency, it can easily be tapped to help and coordinate.
SDR is becoming popular as well, small and light, programmable by computer, its the next generation, but it kinda still rely on computer and internet. internet needs phone service, if the phone service is down, it will be very limited (i think) (what do i know) (i’m an old dog that can’t really learn new tricks)
Just be careful on acquiring those vintage sets, it’s like buying a second hand car, try to know the history and what that particular rig have thru.

You should explore 6m band (50Mhz) shorter antenna but can do regional contact like Manila to Samar and the HF PSK31 capable of global communication with just 5 watts.

[salbahis]

I have been reading about software-defined radio (SDR), though. Might make for an interesting option since I'm usually next a computer trying to ID broadcasts I pick up.

im into SDR though using those el-cheapo TV dongle... though been planning to get hackRF

[salbahis]

My recent award from ISS event

[girder]

When I say 'phraseology' (which is actually the term they use in aviation with regard to these things) I mean proper voice procedure.

As I said, I don't really know anyone else in real life who's into ham radio or such with whom I can practice with. And it's probably the biggest hurdle I have getting into ham radio (well besides having to get a license). I'm not really confident enough in my ability to communicate properly on the radio.

[Talibong]

In Ham radio you speak like your talking to somebody face to face

[brayski]

@girder
ah, it's not phraseology when it comes to HAM Radio or mostly radio communication on that matter, "Radiotelephony procedures" is the more appropriate term
anyways, just like what Talibong said, speak like as if your speaking to the person face to face,
nothing really special about it, the most hurdle about it (i think) is knowing the Q-codes, barely used anymore but still used by some to maximize transmission time and clarity when it comes to traffic handling.
here in my area, we need to say our call sign every 10 minutes in the conversation, whenever we end conversation/sign off or QSY

@ tailbong
definitely will try 6meters, sunspot are opening, and the "magic band" is becoming alive again
given the location where i live in (a studio in an apartment building) i have very limited options on my antennas, putting my antenna farm by the fire escape is already pushing it. that's why all of my antennas are somewhat "compromised" already, i use an antenna analyzer to bring the antenna as close as possible to the target frequency and use the manual tuner to bring it more down to the 1:2 ratio at least, but that's HF, VHF and UHF antennas are easier to tune to freq.

@ salbahis
nice one on the ISS
theres this app on iPhone (I'm sure there's also for android), it's called "Satsat" the avatar is red satellite with white "SAT" letters on a blue background. it kinda gives Amateur Radio Satellites that are passing by near your location, that includes the ISS. in case you wanna do some satellite signal hunting.
do tell more about your el-cheapo tv dongle SDR

[brayski]

my shack:

i live in a studio in an apartment building,
my space is very limited, so my radio shack is not solely for Ham Radio purposes.
it's an all around work desk.
the Philippine Fleet on top, i haven't made any progress on those 
the power supply i have is dual purposed to supplying power to the Ham stuff and Audio equipment (car audio stuff actually). i have my Bass amp head (the red one, for the bass guitar squeezed on the cabinet as well)
the notebook is generally used for Ham Radio deluxe, and other HAM related software. it runs on windows XP hehehe

[Talibong]

Hi Brayski, Nice shack you got...plenty of 28H and 38A 

[brayski]

they look alike but they are actually different models, from top to bottom, IC-28H (144Mhz), IC-48A (440Mhz), IC-38A (220Mhz), IC-1200 (1200Mhz). different frequency bands each

[Talibong]

all you need is an antenna switch at radios and the Discone 130j antenna and you can now save space 

[brayski]

thats not a bad idea, at first i thought there were only switches for multiple antennas to one radio, turns out there’s one for the opposite, multiple radios to one antenna. but will the power loss be negligible enough to give justice to the space saving achieved? money saving is a plus for sure when it comes to coax. so i can get the best coax and get just one coax line for all of it.