Should I get an HF transceiver as a first radio?

[SunTzuNephew]

I did end up getting the 857D with a dual band 144/440 antenna. That should at least get me started with plenty of room to expand and experiment.

The Buddie Pole was appealing to me because it looks like it's fairly quick to deploy and packs away relatively small.

I like the idea of the NVIS and I could easily build it myself. I understand that I will be able to get a message out to people that would otherwise be in the skip zone of a conventional antenna but will I be able to receive a signal from them? If they aren't using the same kind of antenna their signal would basically skip over me right? In an emergency it's comforting to know that help is on the way but if there were no other options at least I could get the mayday out and hope that I was heard.

I have some more reading material in the mail as well so hopefully I can learn a few things and figure out what I want to do.

I can't wait for the guy in the little brown shorts to show up at my house.

NVIS results in vertically polarized signals - ideally, you would want the people you're talking to to have a vertically polarized antenna also: For those who have trapped vertical antennas, thats not an issue - for those who have horizontal beams, it could be. At worst, you might be talking to someone a bit further away than you'd prefer, so they would have to relay. NVIS covers (depending on frequency, time of day, etc) out to a max of 300-1000 miles, so someone out there will be able to call back .

For the life of me I can't recall the typical radio install in AK for the 5-mhz emergency channel... But I think it wasn't much more than a long wire of indifferent orientation. Should work OK, or you can build 2 NVIS antennas and give one to someone back home to use to wait for your call.

 

[gary in ohio]

NVIS results in vertically polarized signals - ideally, you would want the people you're talking to to have a vertically polarized antenna also:

The Vertical part of the NVIS antenna isnt the polarity of the signal but the direction of the radio waves goes, Straight up, vertical. The signal is horizontal in nature. Think of it as spraying a garden hose straight, It goes up and kind of "blooms" out and comes back down. Since most HF antennas are horizontal the NVIS is a good option.The RF signal does off the top of the wire antennas due to the low elevation instead of off the sides. NVIS is seldom good out past 300 miles, but you can extend the range a little with a reflector wire beneath the fed antenna. An NVIS antenna can be a simple dipole, long wire or other antennas laying horizontal and low to the ground. A lot of hams, just take a tilt over mount and take the mobile whip and lay it back when not mobile.

 

[bc_fjc]

Well I have gone throw several HF antenna configurations, Hustler and Ham Sticks antennas tuned to my primary frequencies work well but having to stop and switch antennas gets old... I've now installed a screwdriver antenna with an automatic controller on the truck for mobile operations and it has been working great. I also pack OCF dipole for when I'm at camp and really need to get out. It took me almost 2 years to figure out what I wonted. Get out there and have some fun...

73,
VA7DRW

 

[AKRover]

I just got my radio and antenna in today. I managed to get the main unit mounted in a safe spot with power run to it and the face plate mounted to the dash. Time permitting tomorrow I'll have the cord run to the face plate and the mic. I also didn't think about needing an external speaker but since the speaker is in the top of the main unit which in in the back of the truck I guess I'll be picking one of those up.

Also after reading the directions that came with the Diamond antenna it sounds like I can pretty much mount it anywhere. I kind of wish I had ordered one of the Diamond mounting brackets now.

I can't wait to get this thing running. Still waiting on my call sign but I plan on just listening for a little while anyway.

 

[gary in ohio]

Also after reading the directions that came with the Diamond antenna it sounds like I can pretty much mount it anywhere. I kind of wish I had ordered one of the Diamond mounting brackets now.

An antenna can be mounted anywhere. The antenna pattern produced will however vary based on where its mounted. A top of the root is best you can do on a vehicle. Anything else will skew the pattern of the antenna. Not a big issue you need need to be aware of it.

You may find you can talk further in one direction than another.

 

[AKRover]

Just checked the ULS database and my call sign finally showed up.

KL2UD

I thought the prefix for ALaska was KL7? Now I just need to finish getting this radio installed.

 

[gary in ohio]

AL, KL, NL, or WL except for KL9Kxx is for Alaska. The number can be any number. The number of characters after the number point twards class, or at least initial class your were licensed as. 3 letters is the old novice stations, 2 is general or advanced class and 1 is extra. At least until the run out then anything is game.


CONGRATS on the license.

 

[AKRover]

Just a little update. I got the antenna installed last night and started listening to the radio a little bit. I thought it was a little odd that the screen was set on a blue color instead of the Yaesu orange when I first turned it on. Then I started to adjust some of the custom functions and noticed that some were already different than what the factory settings should be but I figured it wasn't that big of a deal. Then today I went to program a repeater into the memory and when I pushed the button to find the next avalible memory it jumped to 109. :Wow1: Apparently I am not the first owner of this radio since there are 108 memory slots taken up, most of which have custom alpha-numeric names programed in. Then I thought back to when I was taking it out of the box and remembered thinking that it sure wasn't packaged very well. It all makes sense now.

So I called Hamcity and explained my situation. The salesman was very surprised to find that they sold me a used radio, as he should be. He said that they received the radio new from Yaesu the week before it shipped to me and he was going to call Yaesu and find out what is going on with my radio. I was hoping that they would get a new one in the mail right away with a return shipping label in the box. Hopefully they handle this well otherwise they are going to have a very unhappy customer.

Edit:
Got a call back and they gave me two options. They could send me a shipping label to exchange it for a new on or give me a $40 gift certificate. At first I wanted to exchange it but who knows how long that would take. Living in Alaska it could be 3 - 4 weeks. They assured me that there was nothing wrong with the radio and that it had been owned by someone that they knew for 3 days and returned in new condition. So I asked if he could do better than $40 and got him to give me a $60 gift certificate. I went ahead and took that. Hopefully I made the right choice.

 

[gary in ohio]

Edit:
Got a call back and they gave me two options. They could send me a shipping label to exchange it for a new on or give me a $40 gift certificate. At first I wanted to exchange it but who knows how long that would take. Living in Alaska it could be 3 - 4 weeks. They assured me that there was nothing wrong with the radio and that it had been owned by someone that they knew for 3 days and returned in new condition. So I asked if he could do better than $40 and got him to give me a $60 gift certificate. I went ahead and took that. Hopefully I made the right choice.

It think $60 off an almost new radio is pretty good. Your $60 can be used to get that NMO antenna mount we talked about overall your going to speed $60 more on ham radio sometime soon anyway. -

 

[matt s]

AK Rover, how did you get involved with all of this. i.e. where does one begin? The radio club was out at the museum last weekend and I talked with someone there for a bit. Very intriguing and cool stuff. I would like to learn more, but am unsure where to begin. It seems there is far more to it than I realized.

Congrats on passing and the new radio.

 

[AKRover]

AK Rover, how did you get involved with all of this. i.e. where does one begin? The radio club was out at the museum last weekend and I talked with someone there for a bit. Very intriguing and cool stuff. I would like to learn more, but am unsure where to begin. It seems there is far more to it than I realized.

Congrats on passing and the new radio.

There is more to it than I first realized too, I have just scratched the surface. This morning during my drive to work I was listening to a net and there were people from all over the place on there talking, even a few guys in the UK. I'm not sure if they were talking through an internet linked repeater or a satellite or what. Like I said, I still have a lot to learn.

What got me started was installing a business band radio to operate on a frequency licensed to a local off-roader who got it with the intention of letting anyone in the area use it for communicating during trail runs and such. After discovering how much better FM communications on VHF are than the other options, CB FRS and the like, I got curious and started doing some research only to find out that I knew absolutely nothing about radio. The single business band channel worked great but it left me wanting more since there is hardly any activity on it. Also in an emergency situation it is rather useless to call for help since all of the radios are pre-programed and the frequency can't be changed in the field.

I think I have seen you a few times on alaska4x4network. I go by my real name Noah on that board. Send me a PM or something one of these days and if your interested I can loan you one of my books to study for the test with.

 

[matt s]

Your not by chance the Noah that I knew growing up in Anchorage? Used to have a heavily modded up jeep, and a pony tail....

Either way, yeah I will send you a PM, I would love to check out a book sometime. And yes that is me over on the the other board.

 

[AKRover]

That's me.

 

[matt s]

Ha ha, small world.

Run into brooks lately?

 

[taugust]

This morning during my drive to work I was listening to a net and there were people from all over the place on there talking, even a few guys in the UK. I'm not sure if they were talking through an internet linked repeater or a satellite or what. Like I said, I still have a lot to learn.

You may have been listening to the WinSystem. It is a network of 71 repeaters linked directly and through the interenet. Find out more at www.winsystem.org. There are repeaters in AK, All over CA, TX, NC, UK, South Africa, Australia and others. It's pretty cool to listen to.

Good choice on the 857D. I bought one about a year and a half ago for off road comms. I was recently able to add a mount and ham stick style single band antennas from MFJ. They are much cheaper than the Ham Sticks. You will also need an analyzer from MFJ or others and an impedence matching box, or better yet, antenna tuner. I have listened on 20M to New Zeland talking to the US east coast the other night but it was a pileup. The lower bands don't work so well with my matcher box; I need to get a tuner.

In trying to get HF to work, I learned that proper grounding and bonding of the vehicle is critical to getting SWR down to a usable range. I can point you to web sites if you want some light reading