Links from Dave K7DAA for Hams

Last updated: March 29, 2021

Interesting Antennas You Can Build

2 meter base dipole antenna that is easily made from CPVC pipe and aluminum duct tape--no soldering needed!

A Simple Copper Pipe "J" Antenna with good directions on building this out of a single 10 foot length of 3/4" copper pipe

An Easy Dual-Band J Pole Antenna made from 300 ohm TV twinlead. This is a classic and simple way to boost your HT coverage indoors

Easy 3 element 2 meter Yagi beam antenna you can build for about $7 (in 1993 dollars), made with PVC pipe and stiff wire or welding rod

Interesting 2 meter phased vertical antennas for gain and directionality similar to a Yagi beam antenna. Take 2 vertical antennas, mix with some interesting lengths of coax!

Cheap Yagi Antennas for 144-1300 MHz using a very simple "J" feed. I've built four of these for my satellite work and am very pleased with them. Ask me for details if you're interested

Very Cheap Tape Measure Antenna for 2 meters. Should cost less than $10. Has 3 elements made with an old metal tape measure. Click here for the original article.

Design guide for VHF & UHF Quad antennas. Also explains how to build a good quality Bazooka balun. I really love quads, but they are mechanically a bit of a challenge!

A 40 through 10 meter offset dipole Shows what SWR to expect on each band, especially when not at the ideal height or orientation. You'll need to add a 4:1 balun, too.


Ham Gear for Sale--New, Used, Swapmeets

Unversal Radio (mail order from Ohio) has good listings of equipment and accessories, and very competitive prices. Also handles used and older gear

Ham Radio Outlet does mail order and has local stores in Sunnyvale and Oakland. Very knowledgeable sales staff. Also handles some used and consignment gear

Associated Radio is another mail order outfit in Kansas

Texas Towers a mail order outfit from guess where?

QRZ.com Online swapmeet is a good place to start. If you create an account and log in, you can see pictures of the equipment as well

eHam.net classifieds will not display postings that are less than 24 hrs old unless you are registered

QTH.com swapmeet is a very large ham gear site with all types of gear wanted, for sale, trades, etc.

eBay has lots of gear for sale. Start here to create an account

This eBay search will start you out in the ham radio section. On the left, you can narrow down the search


Places with Lots of Answers to Your Questions--some of them are even accurate!

QRZ.com forums have lots of forums to browse. Click "search" to enter a search term for a subject you're curious about. Someone has doubtless already asked about it before you!

eHam.net has similar forums for you to explore

Hawaiian Ham with good info on using a Mac with various radio modes, and an intro to ham radio and emergency comms also. OK to wear a Hawaiian shirt and go barefoot while reading this!


Fun and Interesting Stuff, Ham Blogs, Podcasts, etc.

WebSDR.org has links to web-based shortwave receivers all over the world that you can listen to using just your web browser. Listen to hams all over the world without using a radio!

MyAmateurRadio.com also has a podcast called "Practical Amateur Radio."

Randy K7AGE has some good how-to and introductory ham videos on YouTube

73s.org is a great site by Chris, N7ICE, with a very entertaining video blog called Hambrief.tv, as well as some other good stuff for new hams

AmateurLogic.tv is another great site with ham-oriented, professionally-done videos on a wide range of interesting subjects

W2LJ's blog

KB6NU's blog

This Week in Amateur Radio news site also includes a audio podcast which is heard on some local repeaters

The QRZ.com database allows you to seach for any ham call. This is my little page! Don't like mine? Enter your own call in the seach box at the upper left, and make your own page!

RadioQTH is the place to go if you'd like to change your ham call sign to something shorter or more interesting. Lists available calls. Feeling under the weather? K6ILL is available!


Listings of Ham and Public Service Repeaters and Frequencies

RadioReference.com listing of police/fire/etc radio frequencies in Santa Clara County

RadioReference.com listing of police/fire/etc radio frequencies in San Benito County

NARCC database allows you to search for ham repeaters by frequency, city, etc. Back up to the home page for other interesting info

Another Dave's page listing open ham repeaters in Santa Clara County

BayNet's California Public Safety frequency guide has a very complete listing of frequencies used by police, fire and state emergency services


Radio Programming, Memories, Cheatsheets, Etc.

Excel spreadsheet for the Yaesu FT-60R memory using a mix of Stake, general ham, and public service frequencies. You can use Excel to edit, then export this file to .csv or .tab formats

PDF copy of the above for printing or viewing if you don't have Excel

Simple single-page FT-60R programming and memory instructions

Instructions on how to turn off the annoying transmitted DTMF tone called WIRES on Yaesu radios. This sometimes causes us not to be heard correctly on repeaters. TYPO ALERT: Note that what he calls the "F/M" key should really be your "F/W" key!

PDF file containing memories in the FT-1900R radios used in the chapels (old)

Excel spreadsheet file containing memories in the FT-1900R radios used in the chapels (same as above, but editable)


Emergency Communications

Santa Clara County ARES/RACES "Official" emergency communications for hams

San Benito County ARES

USGS map of recent Northern California earthquake activity

Link to Morgan Hill CERT website showing the CERT and ham opertors responding to the 4/9/09 "cable cut" day when all of our normal communications died for 30 hours in the South County


Organizations

The ARRL is THE organization that represents hams. Dues are $39/year and includes nice "QST" magazine each month. "ARRL" stands for "American Radio Relay League", a reference to Ham Radio's earliest days


Photos

Pictures of our repeater site above Anderson Dam

Pictures of our IRLP/Echolink node in my garage


Dave's Advice and Instructions for New Hams (see also "Stake Handouts" below)

Overcoming Mike Fright, or How to Get Started on a Repeater will hopefully give you a few pointers on how to "exercise" your new ham license!

Common Repeater Expressions to help you understand what the repeater's inhabitants are telling you!

List of the Internationally-Used Phonetics. You should at least know what your call is phonetically--guaranteed that someone will ask you for this some time!

A short list of commonly used "Q" signals by hams. These are a form of shorthand used by CW operators dating back into the 1800's. You'll hear some of these, such as "QSL" and "QTH" used frequently, even on repeaters.

List of Ham Slang and common abbreviations

Buying Used Ham Radios: what to look for, and what to avoid. This was discussed at our 10/28/10 meeting with examples.


Past Handouts from our LDS Church Emergency Preparedness for Hams Meetings

Notes from 3/31/11 Stake Ham Meeting

"Links and Lists" handout from 3/31/11 meeting

"You Can Control the Repeater!" handout from 3/31/11 meeting

(NEW) Recommended Frequencies for Stake hams to have programmed into their own radios. Note that this has new changes/additions as of 3/12/12!

What Stake Hams should do in case of emergency (or a drill).

Suggested use of tactical calls in Stake emergencies or drills

What Can I Do With My New Radio? has some suggestions for interesting listening (11/09)


Emergency Information, Brochures, Manuals, Handouts

Business card-sized "Mike-Mike" earthquake intensity and damage reporting scale to be used in CERT and ARES. We should all have a copy of this, and use it!

Same as above, but 10 cards on a sheet ready for printing on Avery card stock. Remember to turn off any scaling or "fit to page" option when you print.

The complete "Are You Ready?" manual from FEMA. Has good general info on how to prepare yourself and your family for emergencies (Note: large 22 MB .pdf file)