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Getting on the Air – an easy way David Pitty, M7DLP
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Moderator  Joined: Fri May 22, 2009 2:58 pm Posts: 8845 Location: PRESTON, LANCASHIRE, SD52, IO83QR Feedback: 65 (100%) 
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  Getting on the Air – an easy way David Pitty, M7DLPGetting on the Air – an easy way David Pitty, M7DLP
Introduction Passing the Foundation licence exam is great achievement for everyone who does it, particularly as many people won’t have studied for quite a few years, let alone sat down and done an exam under proper exam conditions! This article is intended to help get the newly licensed radio amateur up and running on air as simply as possible. With a few successful contacts under the belt, the new radio amateur can then go and explore all the other fascinating facets of being an amateur radio operator. A good place to start If you take a look at your licence schedule, you will see numerous frequency bands. A good place to start is the 144MHz band (aka 2 metre band). Let’s take a more detailed look at this in the RSGB Band Plan at https://rsgb.org/main/operating/band-plans/display/ Using the Viewer, scroll down to 2m (2 metres). With the ‘2m’ page displayed, you can see the band is sub-divided into frequency ranges that have an associated mode or modes assigned. What are modes? Amateur radio transmissions are made using many different types of transmission known as modes, which can be considered as different radio languages – the transmitter and receiver must be using the same language for a conversation to take place. Let’s look at FM (Frequency Modulation) – why this mode? To get on the air as simply as possible, FM is a good choice because it is very commonly used, easy to use, transceivers can be bought cheaply, and the signal quality is comparatively good although range is limited on the commonly used frequencies. The RSGB website also has a very good explanation of the band, which is a useful supplement to the Band Plan itself - see this link https://rsgb.org/main/operating/bandpla ... 4mhz-band/ Equipment Second-hand equipment is a good way of getting more ‘bangs for your buck’ and eBay and other auction sites have a great deal of well priced second-hand equipment available. Many mainstream dealers also sell secondhand equipment if the risk of online auctions isn’t your thing. Sticking to the major brand names is a good idea not just because the performance is likely to be better, but also because you are more likely to find someone on-air who has come across it before and will be able to explain any quirks or possibly identify if it is not working properly. Better still, maybe your local radio club can help you find some equipment. I have a Yaesu FT-100D that I bought on eBay and works well. This and many other portable transceivers use an external power supply rated at 13.8V, and again these are widely available new or second hand. Whatever radio you end up using, the performance of that radio is almost totally dependent on the antenna being used. Perhaps the most commonly debated and discussed area of amateur radio is the choice of antenna, and many operators spend a large part of their hobby building and testing antennas of different types. This can be quite confusing for the newly qualified operator and many hours of studying on the internet may not return an obvious antenna choice! So, again ask at your local club, someone may be able to help you with a simple vertical antenna that suits your location and requirements. In this case I bought a new Diamond X-200N that just about fits in my loft! Just make sure that the connectors are the right type to suit your transceiver. Using FM on the 2m Band The 2m band is often used by amateur radio clubs for a weekly ‘club net’ using FM. To find clubs in your area type your postcode into the RSGB club finder at https://rsgb.org/main/clubs/club-finder/ and follow the links to find times, dates and frequencies for their club net. You can also find this information in Club Calendar in RadCom or in the local GB2RS news for your area. Club nets usually operate in a roundrobin way hosted by a chairperson with each member passing the conversation to the next person on the call. Listening in to a few club nets will soon give you the urge to join in. The chairperson will periodically ask if there is anyone waiting to join, so be ready to press transmit and call the chairpersons callsign, followed by your own, with a comment such as “standing by”. The chairperson will then call you in at some point. The 2m band also has a calling frequency of 145.5000MHz, which makes it easier to make a contact without searching up and down the band. Transmitting “CQ CQ CQ CQ, this is [callsign] calling CQ CQ CQ on 2 metres” will often elicit a response quite quickly. Always listen for a while first before calling CQ in case one half of an existing conversation is out of range for you to hear. An advantage of using the 2m band with FM is that the band is “channelised” (by convention rather than regulation), meaning that operators work with set frequency spacings. This section of the band is channelised using 12.5kHz spacing, so once a contact is made at 145.5000MHz it is usual to change frequency up or down a few channels which could be 145.5125, 145.5250, 145.5375 etc or 145.4875MHz etc. By changing frequency once contact is made, the calling frequency is freed up for other users. Note that a number of the channels (numbered V16 to V47) are designated for specific purposes, so please try to avoid causing problems for other amateurs. Conversations Perhaps the most daunting part of getting on the air is making your first transmission and your first contact. The basics of making a call are covered in the Foundation licence practical tests but there are a few other things to remember that will help build confidence and form a good basis for an interesting contact. The most commonly exchanged bits of information during a conversation are: ● Your name ● Location ● Signal report – see below ● Equipment and antenna details Always make sure you have a pen and paper handy to jot things down. It is good practice to jot down the other person’s name, location and signal report. What is a signal report? For voice transmissions like FM, this consists of 2 numbers. The first represents readability (R) – this is a number between 1 and 5 where 1 is unreadable (it is not possible to make out what is being said) and 5 that is perfectly readable. The second number is the signal strength (S) that can be read directly from the S-meter on your radio, or estimated as a value between 1 (very faint signal) to 9 (very strong signal). S-meters often include +20dB above 9 and even +40dB above 9 for extremely strong signals. The readings will probably vary over the course of a conversation, so jot down your best estimate of an average while listening to the other person. It is usual to exchange reception reports quite early in a conversation and maybe expressed, for example, as “5 and 9” or “5 9”. This is an important piece of information so always give an honest assessment of the signal you are receiving. So, good luck with those first few contacts. Next time I’ll go into greater detail about antenna and feeder choices, along with simple checks to ensure your station is working correctly. |
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