Ham Radio

by Jun 22, 2018

 

 

We get so sophisticated and we have gotten so used to the reliability and resilience in our wireless and wired and our broadcast industry and all of our public safety communications, that we can never fathom that they’ll fail. They do. They have. They will. I think a strong Amateur Radio community [needs to be] plugged into these plans.

—Craig Fugate, FEMA Administrator (2009-2017), 3 May 2011

 

The Role of Amateur Radio

Ham radio operators by the hundreds volunteered for service to the devastated areas of the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina and her sisters, Rita and Wilma, pounded a five-state area and destroyed other communications systems. For their life-saving work, the hams received commendations from the President and Congress, as well as international praise. It truly proved the saying, “When all else fails, ham radio works!”

Within minutes of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, ham operators were busy communicating from emergency operations systems. The ham operators continued for weeks, as the amateurs handled emergency and other important messages for disaster and government agencies, as well as for displaced families.

Hams use all sorts of radios and antennas on a wide variety of frequencies to communicate with other hams across town, or around the world. They use ham radio for personal enjoyment, for keeping in touch with friends and family, for public service communications and to experiment with radio technology.

You Can Have This Capability for Yourself and Your Family

If you’d like to become an amateur radio operator, the first step is to study for the FCC licensing test. There are three levels of licensing: Technician, General, and Extra. Technicians operate on a more limited range of frequencies than those with the General or Extra license, but it’s the most common type and sufficient for most people’s needs.

Some people can pass the test just by studying online materials or books, but the rest of us need to take a class.

Study Materials

Nearby Test Preparation Classes

NET FCC Technician and General classes are typically offered two or more times a year.

  • Technician Exam Cram
    This free online intensive course is designed for those interested in participating as amateur radio operators in the Portland NET program but is open to anyone in the counties surrounding Portland, Oregon. It prepares those that do not currently hold an Amateur Radio license to take the exam for the first-level license called Technician.  It assumes students have studied on their own in advance of taking the course.  It walks them through the entire question pool for the Technician license, providing background information and explaining the correct answer to each question.
  • General License Exam Course
    This free online intensive General Class Amateur Radio licensing review course is designed for Portland NET members, but is also open to the public for ages 12+. The course is based on the 2019 edition of Gordon West’s General Class book.

For details and to register for these classes, see the NET Radio Workshop Portal.

FCC Examination Sites

Online FCC Exams offered by NET amateur radio operators led by Herb Weiner, AA7HW, are offered several times a week.  See his website for more information.

The Amateur Radio Relay League (ARRL) is the national host organization for the hobby.  Among its many roles, it serves as a major Volunteer Examination Coordinators, training and certifying Volunteer Examiners (VEs) who administer the amateur radio licensing tests for the Federal Communication Commission (FCC).  It publishes a list of testing options by location

The Portland NET Program also has in-person license exams.  Upcoming NET FCC licensing events are coordinated with the classes listed above. For details and to register for these exams, see the NET Radio Workshop Portal.

Listen into Amateur Radio Nets without a License

A lot of the learning opportunities exist “on the air” in amateur radio nets.  The weekly Portland NET Net has a curriculum that covers topics direct interest to both new hams and folks thinking about becoming hams.  For example, they talk about how to pick out a first amateur radio hand-held radio for emergency communications that would also be suitable for search and rescue operations.

To listen to these nets, however, you have to be able to listen in on amateur radio frequencies.  That would seem to be an expensive undertaking, even if you could figure out how to do it.  Wrong.  There are several inexpensive ways to start listening to ham radio forums and nets without a ham license, and we explain all that on the PortlandPrepares.org web page entitled “Listen In!”.

 

Now What?

Henry the Ham

Henry the Ham

Getting the license is only the first step on the road to becoming an amateur radio operator.  Many who pass the license regrettably never buy a radio, much less learn to use one.  The links below take you to the next levels.

We’re looking for net control operators!

Are you looking to get more experience acting as a net control or satisfy your net control training requirements? Consider signing up for one of many available net control slots for the coming year. To request more information e-mail the NET net management team at pdxnet.net@gmail.com.

Portland NET Amateur Radio Calendar

We have created a calendar that show meetings held by radio (“nets”) as well as in-person and Internet events. The first section shows recurring that happen every week.  It is followed by a section sorted chronologically that shows events that don’t occur every week.

Keep up to Date with the PDX ARO Resource Page

Another great list of up-to-date events, courses, and resources is a Google Doc maintained by fellow NET amateur radio operators. The PDX NET ARO Sources document is described by its authors as a list of sources of training, learning, supplies and equipment.  Among the topics listed are:

  • Upcoming Events
  • Opportunities
  • Training
  • Clubs
  • Forums
  • Etc

That gives you a rough idea, but by all means check it out.

 

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