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Few
suggestions and HOW TO... - mostly for beginners and also for those who
come to VHF bands from CB bands
written by OK1VPZ for OK2KKW website
The trend in recent years has been the arrival of new "semi-amateurs"
from the CB bands. I have written a few times about the reasons and I am
not going to repeat myself. But I think it is quite appropriate not to
underestimate them and to help them, because the existing amateur radio
community is getting older - and this is especially true for radio
amateurs on VHF and GHz bands. First of all, I would like to emphasize
that everyone who has a hobby of transmitting and establishing contacts on
VHF bands is welcome among us, even if they may not know how to do it yet
and from the point of view of "seasoned" operators may behave somewhat
bizarrely on the band. Above all, it is necessary to observe politeness in
radio communication, we are human beings and even if some amateurs "may
not" each other, it is appropriate to suppress hostility during radio
operation, not to refuse to make a contact in a contest with some people
and to thank for each contact and wish the opposite station good luck.
However, I would continue to focus on the practicalities. From the so
called "hamspirit", which is a kind of rules of amateur radio decency, or
if you want, the general ethics that decent people should follow, I would
like to emphasize that: a decent amateur radio operator does not lie, does
not cheat, does not cheat, fulfills what he promises, does not promise
what he cannot fulfill, educates himself in amateur radio matters, is
polite to others, does not mock, is helpful and helps other radio
operators as much as his possibilities allow. He does not look down on any
radio amateur who is interested in something else, such as shortwave
operation, technology, GHz bands, contests, EME or other activities. He
considers every radio amateur as his friend, even if he looks different,
speaks a different language and even if he comes from another country,
against which politicians may be waging a hate campaign. Hate should be
alien to real radio amateurs. Unfortunately, there are other versions of "hamspirit"
circulating on the Internet, mostly corresponding to the interests of some
ruling group, who take other radio amateurs hostage and through the
organizations they have founded (mainly paramilitary in nature) draw
benefits and funds themselves - often from the pockets of fellow citizens.
We know of such... But on individual matters: I will try to deal only with
individual matters that often cause embarrassment in newcomers:
(a) Rules
Although anyone can become an amateur radio operator with a license to
broadcast on the amateur bands, in principle, obtaining a paper license is
just the beginning. First of all, a new amateur radio operator should take
the hamspirit rules at face value. The newcomer should listen to the
traffic on the amateur radio bands, get acquainted with the principles of
electromagnetic wave propagation and do at least a little bit of design
work. You should know the call sign prefixes of the countries with which
it communicates or can communicate. Knowledge of what an amateur radio
operator must not do is taken for granted. It is in the interest of every
state to keep its citizens in peace and order so that it can control them,
and it would be naive to assume that this interest does not apply to radio
amateurs. Keep in mind that radio communication and its content is public
and therefore the radio bands cannot be used to transmit non-public
information that is not in the nature of amateur radio
(b) Knowledge of telegraph operation
As much as it is said that a radio amateur without
knowledge of telegraph operation is a radio invalid, this statement should
be taken with a grain of salt. Knowledge of telegraph traffic (I
deliberately don't say CW because it actually means something else -
permanent carrier wave) is of course a necessary, though not sufficient,
condition for some types of traffic. However, radio amateurs have a wide
range of interests and therefore, for example, for technical activities,
or digital types of operation on EME, knowledge of telegraphy is an
activity that is not essential. And those who are engaged in activities
where telegraphy is a prerequisite - for example DXing on HF, VHF, or GHz
bands - are happy to learn telegraphy themselves if they don't know it,
because after the first steps in their amateur radio interests, they
usually understand that without this knowledge they would be just awkward
outsiders among others. On the other hand - a good knowledge of the
telegraph alone, which is not supported by knowledge of propagation
conditions, technical matters, specific types of operation - for example,
the use of reflections from aircraft - does not make the amateur radio
operator concerned. Therefore, humility before people experienced in the
whole range of amateur radio activities and the will to fill in the
missing information and experience as soon as possible is always in order.
This applies especially to the ability to communicate in English - or
other world languages - such as the widely spoken Spanish - either
telegraphically or in open speech (phonically).
(c) Phone operation
It is still sort of held in contempt by die-hard telegraphists - but
wrongly so. The bad reputation has one historical and one more recent root.
Once upon a time, phonic traffic was predominantly by complete amplitude
modulation - and yet this is not very efficient in communication compared
to telegraph. The end of AM in amateur radio operation (especially on HF)
came in the second half of the 1950s and during the 1960s, when it was
replaced by suppressed-carrier SSB operation, which is much more efficient
and almost unmatched in operation by the telegraph. It is also the period
when transceivers outnumbered separate transmitters and receivers in
operation. SSB operation has since been used mainly in DX operation and in
contests (contests). Of course on HF, where there is a high density of
stations, it has a disadvantage over telegraph in requiring more bandwidth
for good intelligibility, but on VHF this disadvantage is not significant.
Rather, there is a distortion problem arising from some types of VHF
propagation, where SSB modulation, unlike telegraph, becomes poorly
intelligible and it can be quite challenging to correctly "pick up" the
transmitted text and requires good operator experience and practice. So
each type of operation has its place - for example, SSB is better where
speed of information exchange is important - for example, in bouncing
communications from fast moving objects, in races with heavy interference,
etc. On the other hand, telegraph is clearly better in crowded CW and in
links where the useful signal is at the noise floor (or even below it) or
is somehow significantly distorted (e.g. in links bouncing off the aurora
borealis, etc. ) Radio amateurs then exchange reports for telegraph
traffic, demonstrating the effect of the distortion (and the practical
impossibility of establishing a phonic link) by the addition of the letter
A, F, S (depending on the type of propagation). Contest SSB traffic is
considerably more tiring and more challenging for the operator than
telegraph traffic. Especially with 48-hour contests on HF, this is really
an operation only for first-class operators. Thus, SSB, which is very
tiring, is especially useful for young operators who have better abilities
to overcome mental fatigue. Those who can do this and at the same time do
not make reception mistakes can become widely respected operators, even
though telegraphy may not be one of their strengths (although telegraph
can of course). Amateur radio operation using narrowband FM modulation is
a separate chapter. Although this is of very high quality (some refer to
it as amateur radio "hifi"), it is not very energy efficient (it loads the
transmitter to 100%) and at the same time weak FM signals have a rather
high so-called reception threshold, where the reception of weak signals
breaks down into unintelligible "grunts". Another reason for the
unpopularity of FM amateur radio operation is its use on transceivers,
which are considered by "rock radio amateurs" as an awkward substitute for
mobile phones and a kind of communication crutch for bad and inexperienced
designers who are unable to make their own equipment and corresponding
antennas. Various manufacturers are also pushing so-called "digital voice"
modulations (these are mostly proprietary systems) and they have
disadvantages rather than any significant advantage over SSB and FM. One
more note: did you know that in the 10GHz band, when "Rain scatter"
propagation makes SSB modulation unusable, the damned amateur FM works
great? Understandably, it requires higher signal strengths at the receiver
input than the telegraph.
d) Digital operations
I have already touched on the matter of "digital voice", which (fortunately)
is not yet a typical type of digital amateur radio communication.
Communication theory - that is, the mathematical description of nature -
suggests that if you want to transmit a weak signal from point A to point
B, you can improve the signal-to-noise ratio by narrowing the transmission
bandwidth. That is, by using a narrower filter at the receiving end. But
when you use a narrower filter, you have to reduce the transmission rate.
I'm sure you're familiar with this from the WIFI bands. If you go to the
limit with the bit rate, bandwidth and signal-to-noise ratio, the
transmission error rate will go up significantly. That's nature. Nothing
comes for free. But we're not at the end of that yet - there are other
fundamental problem parameters - like signal/interference spacing - except
that when there is interference on the radio bands, it's usually not
continuous interference (unless it's interference from some WIFI or LAN on
VHF+). And the question is how long are those gaps in the interference. Is
there any useful information that can be transmitted in them? Usually yes
- you just need some synchronization with the transmitted signal. Just
nature. You can grumble, get angry or protest, but that's about all you
can do about it. Is there any other way to get by with receiving weak
signals? Oddly enough, yes. You have a great computer between your ears
with amazing software that allows you to receive signals well below the
noise level (but not interference). This is particularly useful on the VHF
bands where the dominant problem is signal to noise ratio and not
interference. OTOH, we know, a broadcast signal can be transmitted with
some data redundancy in the digital signal - that is, some "extra few
data" to help the computer on the receiving end to construct a complete
broadcast message. Data engineers know the Reed-Solomon code, or the more
economical LDPC (and others), and each has its advantages and
disadvantages. But there's another self-correcting code, and we should own
it - it's a self-correcting mechanism based on human speech recognition.
As we know, you are able to decode even an incomplete message received in
a language you know, if certain primary assumptions are met. First of all,
you need to know (that's the synchronization) in which language the
message is transmitted. The content of the message should be (at least
mostly) decodable - that is, it should have sufficient signal/noise and
signal/interference separation. The transmitted bandwidth must be
sufficient to make the signal intelligible. Then the brain itself will
fill in the lost bits (pieces) of information and the letters will fit
into the right places in the desired order. The telegraph is a very
typical and proven digital transmission. It meets all the attributes of a
digital signal. Single bits of information are transmitted (carrier is=1.
carrier is not=0), it has excellent intelligibility in environments where
the signal is at the noise floor (even up to 15dB below white noise), and
if the transmission speed is not high (about 30 to 45 WPM), it is possible
to transmit even previously completely unknown texts. Fortunately, there
are not many of these previously unknown texts - the Morse-coded telegraph
has a clear and well-known synchronization because it uses English, which
is a human language and thus contains an implicit self-correcting code. It
is a brilliant combination of the simplest yet very efficient digital
transmission that has been used for 150 years. It is not surprising,
therefore, that when signals are very weak (e.g. in EME) or in heavy
interference (crowding on HF), the inclusion of a narrow filter can
improve reception so much that the "computer" between our ears can take it...(But
not right away - you have to train it).
But they wouldn't be radio amateurs if they didn't also try to improve
this effective communication tool, or invent something that can be used
better, or even abused. We are human...
Probably the first amateur radio type of communication that was digitized
was Meteor scatter. In this kind of propagation, the signal-to-noise ratio
is usually in the positive, and the only problem is that the length of the
reflection is measured (typically) in fractions of seconds (rarely units
of seconds). So first radio amateurs used a telegraph and a modified
cassette recorder that sped up their session to about 300WPM and an SSB
filter - and the same on the receiving side. This succeeded in documenting
en masse another fascinating natural phenomenon - radio communication via
reflections from the ionized meteor trail that a meteor creates when it
enters the atmosphere and burns up. The radio horizon of such a
communication is about 2000km and no brutal power or antennas are needed.
Won't you try it? Several types of digital communications have been
developed for this purpose, probably the best of which are the latest
versions of WSJT (Weak signal "software by" Joe Taylor), followed by a
whole family of versions of "MSK" software. But the "MSK" programs don't
have "online" transmission synchronization and so are a little less
sensitive in boundary conditions and usually don't decode really short
reflections.Besides MS, the main focus of digital amateur radio operation
has always been and still is EME on VHF bands - i.e. establishing contacts
by reflection from the lunar surface. For a successful connection it is
necessary to overcome the attenuation of about 250 to 260dB. So if the
minimum level of received signals is around -150dBm and both the
transmitting and receiving antennas have a gain of around 20dB, this means
that the transmitter power must be at least 210dB higher, i.e. 60dBm, or
1kW. Transmitter power - should it be available at the antenna terminals
and the required antenna gain (on GHz bands it is multiples more) are
design challenges even today. Therefore, K1JT has designed a digital
operating mode, using digital phase shift keying of the transmitter (it is
always transmitting at full power) and digital processing of the received
signal, where the received signal is contained, which can be up to 25dB
below the noise floor. This is a real improvement, and using digital
operations for moon bounce links is no disgrace.
The FT8 mode of operation is different - this "enriches" the operation on
the shortwave bands in particular - it is a mutation of the digital
operating procedures originally developed for EME and MS and differs from
them in that the higher data rate and self-correcting coding procedures
are able to overcome the considerable interference on the CW bands and
establish a link at a noise level that tends to be lower than the
interference. Up to this point, it could be quite a good tool.
Unfortunately, the authors of the program gave it the ability to operate
automatically without an operator. The good servant has become a bad
master. Operators with no operating experience - on HF and nowadays also
on lower VHF bands up to 23cm - people who often don't know telegraph or
speak English - nowadays turn on their computer and transceiver when they
go to work and after their return check what their computer "did" for new
countries and DX contacts today. Technically, it can be shown that the
vast majority of such contacts were "doable" even by conventional modes of
operation (telegraph and SSB) and that FT8 is the way to the demise of
amateur radio. However, the radio authorities do not mind this traffic, it
takes place in the permitted amateur bands and with permitted powers - the
amateur radio regulations do not allow unattended transmitters to operate
unchecked, but on the other hand FT8 has caused such an outflow of traffic
on the amateur bands (in terms of quality) that radio amateurs are
dwindling and commercial users are already looking forward to further
allocations of originally amateur radio frequencies. FT8 is therefore
digital traffic that is detrimental to radio amateurs, and decent people
who share the principles of hamspirit should reject it on principle.
e) English
You may love or hate some nations, but the language these people use to
speak to each other cannot account for your feelings. In general, as
members of a small nation or nations, we dislike those who consider
themselves to be special, or superior above others. This is logical, but in the
case of English, please forget these stereotypes. English is spoken by so
many people and nations on the Earth that it would make your head spin (BTW:
including Russians) Some are quite close to us in mentality (e.g. East
Anglians), others are not. But English has become - whether you like it or
not - the worldwide "Esperanto" atoday nd you can speak English de facto
everywhere. Even more so among radio amateurs - because, as mentioned
above - English is linked to the telegraph and Morse code, it is the
language of telegraph abbreviations - i.e. the so-called Q codes, which
every amateur has to learn anyway, and the language of computer
communication. If you don't know at least the basics of English, learn it.
It's definitely not wasted time, and not just from an amateur radio point
of view. I won't go into teaching methods here - one was once suggested by
OK1JX, who was such a renaissance man (namely that English is best learned
in bed from a girl who has English as her first language), other people
find it useful to download English lyrics of their favourite songs from
the internet and sing them, for example, while driving, but even an
English-only representative at work is usually a good motivator. A radio
amateur without English is a radio invalid.Oh,
and when I wrote the word "radioinvalid" on ignorance of English, I was
thinking of ignorance of English to at least 500 words
knowledge,
that
would allow the radio amateur to communicate at least as part of normal
contest communication, on4kst
chat
and
make a sked
on a higher frequency
bandone.
English at Shakespeare's Sonet level is not necessary.
Just be able to advise English speaking people where to go and where they
find
what they are
asking for.
My English is not much better off.
f) DXing
It is one of the most widespread amateur radio
activities. Goals are individual - e.g. to establish contacts with as many
DXCC countries as possible. A DXCC country is one that is (mostly)
recognised by the international community and is a member of the United
Nations. This process is handled by the US ARRL and it is therefore not
surprising that territories that are not recognized as UN member countries
(Kosovo) are also recognized as DXCC countries. Conversely, territories
that are part of another state but have the attribute of "special country"
are recognized as separate countries - for example, some islands. I won't
list examples, just look at the ARRL list. Of course, it is much easier to
make valid QSOs on HF, radio amateurs organize various DXpeditions to
these countries and provide QSL tickets for a financial compensation. For
some HF operators it can even be an interesting possibility to spend their
free time in exotic areas, when the counter stations de facto finance such
a trip. Of course, it is different on VHF. HF operators speak derisively
about DX operation on VHF, it takes some getting used to. These are people
who don't understand VHF at all. DX operation on VHF is of course
different - on some rock in the sea, barely protruding above the surface,
hardly anyone will build an EME antenna system - but there are exceptions.
Rather, VHF DXing is concentrated on making QSOs with various DXCC
countries (and so-called "bantustans") in Africa, or countries in South
America where the standard of living is so low that there is no amateur
radio activity, let alone more technically demanding activity on the VHF
bands. It may be strange that VHF amateurs engaged in DX-ing used to have
documented QSOs with over 100 DXCC countries, but it is quite common. If
the number of DXCCs is significantly higher, it requires active EME
operation and years of effort and experience - however, that is exactly
the bias for VHF - we are able to do similar results as on HF, only it is
much, much more difficult and therefore achieving such a goal is also much
more appealing where it is - on HF - (for example, making contacts with
100 DXCC countries) disproportionately easier. However, also to confirm
such achievements amateur radio organizations issue flashy certificates
with which you can decorate your hamshack.
Hand in hand with the pursuit of new DXCCs, the goal of DX-ing on VHF is
to achieve QSOs with as many locators as possible - this is a network of
squares that cover the whole planet - for example Prague lies in locator
JO70 - and so top VHF operators have registered QSOs to more than 700
different locators on 2 meters and several dozen on GHz bands, for example.
This is the result of years of dedication, deep propagation knowledge and
countless hours spent at the station. Along with this there are various
other goals - like confirming contacts with 100 OK radio amateurs on VHF,
or more difficult to achieve - with all US states, etc. It's up to you to
decide if such activities are among the things that are a real challenge
for you. Again, reaching the top with just an axe and a rope is always a
more worthwhile outcome than going up that hill by cable car, if you want
a figurative comparison of VHF and CW. But no arguing against taste -
choose what is interesting to you! Some HF operators achieve good DX
results even with QRP transmitters - i.e. with power up to 5W HF. This is
also valuable entertainment and the effort involved is similar to VHF.
g) Contesting
It is the second most widespread amateur radio activity, especially on VHF.
This kind of contesting has a long history in OK - practically since the
Second World War - and once the VHF radio equipment was able to be
transported to some elevated site where antennas could be erected on the
appropriate band - and the radio amateurs were at it. And so OK VHF radio
amateurs became one of the most successful teams in VHF contests worldwide
(or, if you prefer, Europe-wide), as evidenced by the tables of
international results maintained for many decades. Naturally, it has
always been not only the events of individuals, but of whole teams of
friends who are dedicated to this sport together, experience a lot of fun,
successes and disappointments, and always bring something new and improved
to the contest, whether it is antennas, masts, rotators, transceivers, or
power amplifiers, preamplifiers and other vehements. It's not just about
making a certain number of connections, it's a real effort to outdo the
competition. The equipment, the competitive QTH and the experience of the
operators are thus continuously improving, and in terms of development it
is an ever active and never-ending process that does not end with the
achievement of a goal. If this activity is what interests you most about
amateur radio, come to a station that does this kind of activity,
experience the whole contest with them, sit next to the operator, take a
second headset and listen to his contest operation. It's the best way to
learn something or make new friends. There are few newcomers to amateur
radio operation, you won't get kicked out anywhere. And don't believe the
bad prophets that the XYZ bunch are scoundrels who don't care about you.
Maybe those people will be the ones you will "humanly sit down" with and
pull together for one operation. Or maybe not. I'd definitely recommend
more visits like that. It's the best way to learn something, by the way.
Of course, in addition to VHF contesting, there are also (and there are a
plethora of them) HF contests. They are very different - from simple
operational activities of stations in certain areas (this kind of contests
naturally exist also on VHF) to big worldwide contests, which involve
stations with really top operators, big antenna systems and many kW
transmitters. Check them out too, maybe there you will gain new
experiences that will enrich you. But don't believe that exceeding the
power limits is the only way to success. It is not. Driving 200 on the
highway in a 5 litre Ford Mustang won't teach you how to drive a car in
the city, let alone in the mountains in winter...
(h) Community discussion, FM repeaters, ATVs
Amateur radio is meant to please, entertain, assist and
develop knowledge and thinking. Did you know that there is a clear
correlation between the number of amateur radio licenses issued and
patents issued in each state? Thus, although those whose bias is directed
at, say, HF, usually condemn narrowband FM operation - on converters,
among other things - as something inferior, it is not correct. It's part
of amateur radio operation, and if friends want to chat, there's no reason
to mock them for it. Of course, it is a fact that especially on FM we find
those bad examples of communication that we all condemn, but it is not the
fault of narrowband FM, nor of the converters. On the contrary, we can see
that FM is mostly the starting point of amateur broadcasting - the devices
are simple in circuitry and cheap, and if the amateur radio operator is
not a moron, he is able to build such a device himself. That's the tipping
point when a kid becomes an amateur radio operator! Contests organised by
FM operations should also be viewed in this light. That kind of ATV (amateur
"fast" television) is in a different league. At the same time, it is proof
of how effective and useful digital technology can be. While analogue TV
(PAL) requires a bandwidth of at least 4MHz and a signal-to-noise ratio of
over 40dB (and is therefore unsuitable for amateur radio broadcasting),
analogue TV (PAL) requires a bandwidth of at least 4MHz and a signal-to-noise
ratio of over 40dB (and is therefore unsuitable for amateur radio
broadcasting), and is therefore usually broadcast as analogue TV by FM
operation (this is how satellite TV broadcasting started). Then the signal-to-noise
requirements drop to only about 8dB, but the occupied bandwidth is 14 MHz
or more. Clearly, there is no room for such fiddling on the amateur radio
bands, which is why radio amateurs created (back in the 1960s) the SSTV
"standard" for slow TV, which was also used by NASA for TV transmissions
from the Moon, when they needed to ensure transmission even with low
bandwidth and low signal/noise separation. These analogue experiments (with
"wide" analogue FMTV) have so far been carried out on ATV converters in
the 23cm band, but are now (or soon will be) a thing of the past due to a
clash with the Galileo navigation system. But in the meantime, with the
help of digital technology, a new amateur radio "standard" ADTV has
already emerged, where it is possible to transmit a relatively high
quality TV picture at a bandwidth of only 300kHz! Maybe that technology is
what will interest you most about amateur radio. There are no limits to
amateur radio creativity! Nobody is working in the field of ADTV in our
country yet, maybe it is waiting for you! IARU also organizes
international contests in this type of broadcasting and you have a good
chance to represent radio amateurs from the Czech Republic.
i) Packet radio and other information support
At the turn of the 80's and 90's, when the Internet was still in its
infancy, amateurs created a new kind of digital traffic - packet radio -
it was an effort to get ahead of the Internet age and put it in amateur
radio shoes. There was even a more or less worldwide network of data lines,
and once again the professionals learned from the amateurs. But the fast
data links of commercial connections - mainly due to the development of
long-distance fibre optic cables - overwhelmed amateur packet radio in
transmission speed and bandwidth - so that quality photos, movies and even
online TV broadcasts can be transmitted over the Internet - a benchmark
that amateur radio data lines (especially in the 23cm band) could not
reach because of both bandwidth and transmission reliability - indeed,
WIFI network operators still struggle with this today, for whom physics
applies just as much as it does for us. The extensive packet radio network
has thus slowly died out, leaving amateurs with BBS servers, now connected
to the Internet and packed with useful amateur radio information - and
supplemented by a number of amateur radio websites, mostly (depending on
the operator's interest) focused on particular fields of amateur radio
activity. Amateur radio websites are - by definition - written in English,
or are at least bilingual - they contain international content in addition
to the national context. If we wanted to give just a few examples, this
page would not be enough. But I'll make one exception and mention the
ON4KST server: this server was primarily set up to replace the sked
arranging for DX QSOs - these were arranged for MS and EME contacts in the
pre-internet era on 14.345MHz, i.e. in the HF band. However, since radio
amateurs focused on VHF bands often did not even have shortwave
transceivers, let alone at least decent HF antennas, these contacts were
once arranged by sending letters or even telegrams. That all ended with
the internet and email. The DX Cluster was born as one of the basic
amateur radio services on the packet radio network, but because the DX
Cluster is limited in the number of characters and doesn't allow targeted
addressing of messages, one day ON4KST chat was born, which allows all
this and in addition - and this is one of its basic advantages - also
allows to replace the arranging of contacts on microwave bands by FM
contacts with the help of handheld radios. Newcomers to ham radio bands
who don't have experience from the pre-KST era usually don't have
experience with this tool and therefore in just five sentences a few
recommendations - ON4KST chat is not for arranging individual skeds in
contests using common propagation types - tropo up to and including 70cm,
But for arranging contacts (contest contacts) using unusual types of
propagation (meteor reflections, aircraft reflections, Es, F2, EME QSOs
and contacts on frequencies higher than 1GHz). In the ON4KST chat login
select the appropriate band, enter your own tag and the locator you are
transmitting from. You can also connect only in tracking mode - other
stations will not see you and will not call you. Do not repeat your own
locator in the message you send when you invite others to call you If you
are transmitting with vertical polarization (you should not - you are
losing out on this yourself), indicate this in the message - similar to
having your antenna fixed). Primarily you should communicate in English on
KST to give foreign stations the opportunity to make QSOs with you. As
usual, humility is in order - if you are unsure how to behave, watch
others, translate their communications. No scholar falls from the sky...
I hope this short "how to" recommendation will not be
taken as something it is not. So I hope that at least someone will read
this text and at least in some radio amateurs it will create a feeling
that newcomers (to amateur radio bands) should be helped, advised not to
make mistakes and not to turn up their noses at them. Everybody started
sometime...
73 ok1vpz
8/2022 |