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WARNING:  UNTIL SHIT HITS THE FAN, THE FCC REQUIRES THAT YOU OWN A HAM RADIO LICENSE (Technician minimum) BEFORE OPERATING A WIDE BAND RADIO SUCH AS THE BAOFENG UV-5RA.  THE FCC HATES THIS RADIO, BECAUSE IT DOESN'T MEET THEIR "GOOD GOY TECH STANDARD".  SO EVEN IF YOU HAVE A TECHNICIAN'S LICENSE, IT'S STILL ILLEGAL TO USE.  IF YOU GET YOUR ASS HANDED TO YOU BY THE FCC BECAUSE YOU WERE CARELESS AND STARTED BROADCASTING FART NOISES THROUGH YOUR LOCAL REPEATERS, THAT'S ON YOU.  JUST REMEMBER, EVERY TIME YOU KEY THE MIC WITHOUT A LICENSE, YOU'RE PLAYING RUSSIAN ROULETTE WITH A SWAT TEAM AND A 5 FIGURE FINE!!!  ALSO, THIS GUIDE IS ONLY TO HELP SPARK YOUR INTEREST IN RADIO TECH.  MUCH OF WHAT IS SAID HERE IS THE OPINION OF THE WRITER, AND SHOULD BE TREATED AS SUCH.  I EXPECT YOU ALL TO DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH AND TO GET LICENSED.  BECAUSE SHTF OR NOT, HAM RADIO IS JUST FUCKING FUN.  IF DRAGON DILDO HUMPING FURRIES CAN DO IT, SO CAN YOU!!!

 

The Strelok's Beginner's Guide to Ham Radio and Antenna Theory.  

 

Okay faggot.  You wanna learn how to shoot skip on a sunny day to get the latest QSOs?  Well too bad, cause Shit just hit the fan and you're out innawoods with a shitty Baofeng and a slavshit SKS!!!  Better make the best of what you got!  Hope you memorized your phonetic alphabet and Morse Code...  You'll need them...

 

UNDERSTANDING YOUR RADIO

 

Radios don't run on magic you moron!  They rely on an invisible force called the ELECTROMAGNETIC SPECTRUM!  Or radio for short.  Radio waves are a form of radiation.  Relax silly, It's not "Hiroshima" radiation.  Electromagnetic Radiation, is a non ionizing radiation that doesn't fuck with your DNA.  So no grand dad, cell phones don't give you cancer!  But if you're close enough to an exposed antenna that has a 1.5 kilowatt transmitter going, you're gonna get real toasty real fast.  Remember, it's the same shit you warm your breakfast burritos with every morning.  So be careful regardless.

 

HOW RADIOWAVES TRAVEL

 

Well, chances are you bought yourself a 30 dollar ching chong radio called a Baofeng UV-5R/A  This is a Frequency Modulated (FM), VHF/UHF (Very High Frequency/Ultra High Frequency), dual band, Hand Transceiver radio.  VHF and UHF are very good for basic "Line of sight" field communications.  Line of sight, means exactly that.  These radios operate best when the users are within eye shot of each other, thus "Line Of Sight".  HOWEVER!!  There are ways of extending the range of these radios by way of better propagation and MORE radios.

 

REPEATERS

 

Repeaters are essentially two radios.  One that receives and one that transmits.  They are connected together and once the receiver picks up your signal, the transmitter will re-transmit (or Repeat) your signal on a different frequency.  Most if not all, repeaters are usually set up on mountain tops, overlooking a town or city so that anyone within range of the repeater may communicate freely.

 

METHODS OF PROPOGATOIN

 

Another way of getting a signal out, is by either;

 

A.  Climbing a damn mountain to get better Line of Sight Propagation.

 

B.  Finding a clearing in the dense woods so that the signal carries farther. (Usually this isn't a problem as VHF/UHF is known for cutting through dense objects and foliage better than High Frequency signals.)

 

C.  Moving your antenna to a horizontal or vertical position.  (This is known as Changing the Polarization)

 

D.  Pray to god that the Ionosphere is giving off Sporadic E.  (See Below)

 

E.  Making a better antenna. (more on this later)

 

THE IONOSPHERE AND YOU

 

Did you pay attention in earth science while you were in 5th grade?  I hope so.  Because there's this thing that surrounds the earth in a nice warm glow that makes radio waves horny as fuck!  It's called the Ionosphere.  Think of it as a giant trampoline that bounces radio signals around the earth.  Now, VHF/UHF signals are special in that they can pass through the Ionosphere and into outer space.  In fact, if you have a Technician's license, you can talk to the crew aboard the International Space Station.  YOU HEARD RIGHT STRELOK!  YOU CAN TALK TO ASTRONAUGHTS!!  But only if you have a Technicians license or higher.

 

Where was I...

 

Oh yeah, so Sporadic E!  This is a phenomena that happens every so often to the ionosphere.  In simple terms, it gets a huge lady boner for VHF signals during this time.  She starts to squirt sporadic E all over the place, and you'll be able to get signals WAY beyond Line of Sight.  How this works is that when Sporadic E happens, the ionosphere refracts the radio waves coming off your radio and scatters it like a beam of light through a prism.  But it only works a short time, as the layer likes to move around.  Kind of like clouds on a windy day.

 

 

ANTENNAS:  THE EYES AND MOUTH OF YOUR TRANSCEIVER!

 

One thing about your radio is that in order for this fucker to work, it has to have a decent way to "see" the signals you want it to.  Like your eyes, the antenna is designed to "see" a specific part of the Electromagnetic spectrum.  Human Eyes are essentially antennas that can see the 390 to 700 Nano Meter band.  (yeah that's right, visible light IS electromagnetic radiation!  HUMANS ARE RADIOS!  Did I just blow your fucking mind or what!)  Anyway, the antenna is a very important part of your radio.

 

Now I know what you're thinking.  "But Strelok, I just clipped a mile long piece of wire I found in my garage to my car radio plug and that worked out great!"  Well shut your diarrhoea spewing sewer, and listen here you little shit...  You clip any length of wire to a radio and there's no doubt that it's going to "work".  But the big question is, is it going to work PROPERLY?!  You might be receiving well, but once you key the mic, and you get no reply from your comrades, because they couldn't make out heads or tails of what the hell you just said.  They're gonna be the ones who find your brutally raped and shot up corpse in a wheat field because you had the bright idea of putting a shitty antenna on your radio, with no knowledge of how antennas work.

 

So what was the problem?  His antenna wasn't tuned to the right frequency!  Now don't get confused when I say tuned, I don't mean the radio.  I mean the antenna.  The antenna of your radio has to match the wavelength of the frequency you're using to talk to your fellow comrades.  In the case of your hand held transceiver, the antenna it came with is what we hams call a, "Rubber Duck".  It's neither the best, nor the worst kind of antenna to use.  But if you want better performance out of your hand held, then you better invest in a nice after market 1/4 wave or full wave VHF/UHF antenna.

 

You see, when you have an antenna that's out of tune, your transmitting effectiveness will suffer horribly, unless you either cut or lengthen your antenna to the proper wavelength.

 

Antennas need to be AT LEAST a 1/4 wavelength in size to be moderately effective in the field.  Bonus points if you can make a full wavelength antenna. In fact, here is a SUPER EASY mathematical formula that YOU can use to find the proper length of wire IN FEET, for the frequency that you and your buddies will be operating on, so that you can build your own antennas!  keep in mind, an antenna can be so much more than just a length of copper wire.  (More on this later.)

 

Full wave = 936 / frequency you want to use

 

BURN THIS FUCKER IN YOUR HEAD!!!  IT WILL FUCKING SAVE YOUR LIFE ONE DAY!

 

I will also include the formulas for making shorter antennas.  They are as follows:

 

1/2 wave = 468 / frequency

 

1/4 wave = 234 / frequency

 

1/8 wave = 117 / frequency

 

 

Now, so far I've only shared with you information on building a simple a VERTICAL antenna.  Which is as simple as an antenna can get.  But did you know that there are different kinds of antennas that can do different kinds of jobs?  It's true!  There's the Dipole Antenna, the Yagi Antenna, The J-Pole Antenna, The Ground Plane Antenna, and for you all you true OPERATORS out there, The NVIS or Near Vertical Incidence Skywave Antenna.

 

I wont lie, the cool sounding antenna (NVIS) can only be used with an HF transceiver.  So if you want to experiment with that, you'll need to earn a General License (that's one above a Technician).  Anywho...  Let's talk about the different kinds of antennas!

 

DIPOLE

 

The dipole antenna is quite simply a "balanced" antenna that is probably the most easy to make antenna, right next to the Vertical Antenna.  Except this one is usually hung up high in the trees, horizontally polarized, so that it can pick up what ever it's tuned to pick up. It's uglier than your mom's cottage cheese ass, but it's simplicity make it one of a kind for quick deployment.

 

YAGI

 

If you've lived anywhere near a house with a TV, you already know what a Yagi antenna looks like.  A Yagi antenna is simply a dipole with reflectors mounted in line on a stick.  It was invented by a Japanese man by the name of Yagi Uda, who said one day that his dipole didn't have enough shit on it, so he put a bunch of metal rods in ascending order from largest to smallest on the sides of this dipole (because autism) and discovered that by doing that, he just increased the gain of his antenna!  You see, the Yagi antenna is known for being kind of the "Sniper Scope" of radio antennas.  A "High Gain antenna" means that it both receives and transmits in a narrow beam that can be directed toward where ever you want.  In fact, this is what you want to use if you ever want to talk to Cosmonaut Ivan on the ISS.

 

J-POLE

 

You like J-Pop right?  Well just you wait until you've heard J-Pole!  (shut up, I thought it was funny...)  Whatever, a J-Pole is just a Dipole that's been vertically polarized.  Meaning that the long end is pointed up, and so is the short end.  So it kinda looks like a letter J.  Simple and effective.

 

 

GROUND PLANE

 

Okay, this is really just a normal vertical antenna that has 4 or so reflectors connected to the ground on the radio.  It's a little more involved than a J-Pole, but it's worth it.

 

NVIS

 

I'll get to this antenna when I get into HF propagation and the like.  Trust me though, it's a fun antenna to build!

 

Okay that should do it for a basic introduction to antenna theory.  I expect you to google around and do more research on these antennas, as each antenna will suit a different need.  Now that that's over with, we can finally get into some way more cooler stuff!  That's right!  I'm talking...

 

OPERATING MODES:  THE MANY LAUNGUAGES OF THE HAM

 

Okay.  So after talking about your hand set and your antenna, now we can talk about how your radio can communicate with MORE than just your voice.  But for the sake of starting simple, lets talk about Voice Modes!

 

FM

 

Frequency modulation.  As you may or may not know, when you key the mic on your radio, you start transmitting a "Carrier Wave".  Simply put, the carrier wave does exactly what the name implies.  It carries your voice on an electromagnetic wave.  With Frequency Modulation, your voice is converted into a varying frequency inside the wave when transmitted out by your transceiver.

 

AM

 

AM is much simpler compared to FM.  AM is Amplitude Modulation.  In this mode, you're literally imprinting your voice onto the carrier wave.  Not much else to say really.  

 

SIDEBAND

 

Okay, now we're gonna have some fun!  Sideband is like AM's dirty little secret.  (yeah you though AM was a plain and simple girl, well buy her a drink and let the fun begin!)  I would like you to meet AM's sexy sisters LSB (Lower Side Band) and USB (Upper Side Band).

 

Think of them as sub frequencies that are almost entirely their own thing.  A neat thing about sideband is that they dont use nearly as much bandwidth as AM or FM, so not only are you going to have more room for communication, but you can also transmit farther without overdoing the power of your radio.  HOWEVER!  If you use a sideband frequency and some jackass transmits on AM near your sideband Frequency, you're gonna get jammed.

 

Okay, that just about does it for voice modes.  Now on to the Computer stuff!

 

DIGTAL MODES:  HEY KID, I'M A COMPUTER!  STOP ALL THE DOWNLOADING!!!

 

Okay I'm only going to say this once!  So listen closely...

 

Download a piece of software called; "FLDIGI".

 

It has almost everything you need for operating digital "Packet" radio.

 

CW

 

Or Continuous Wave, is a mode for transmitting morse code.  It's known for having the absolute least amount of bandwidth for transmission.  

 

RTTY

 

Or Radio Teletype.  Yes, THAT Teletype.  Yes, from the 60's show Dragnet.  No, it's not obsolete.  Yes, it's still useful even today.  

 

PSK31

 

Or Phase Shift Keying 31bps.  Think of it as a remote terminal for radios, except you can communicate with other people with it.

 

HELLSHREIBER

 

One of my favourites, because it reminds me of a 40's Enigma machine for some reason.  Think of it as RTTY, but with ticker tape instead.

 

AX.25

 

Okay, remember how you would sit in your living room or basement, and stare into your TV screen with your Atari ST or your Commodore Amiga, and just tack away at your keyboard, hooked into your parents phone line with an 11 baud modem hanging off the side of your PC, plugged into Fidonet, and logging into the local BBS servers, and reading old 2600 magazine articles the SysOp sends you?  That's the feeling I get every time I search for AX.25 TNCs.

 

APRS

 

Okay, now this is where things get particularly OPERATOR!  APRS or Automatic Packet Reporting System, is a TACTICAL real time information exchange system, that was developed by a Navy Academy Engineer that wanted to share his glorious GPS reporting system with the world!  Long story short, it's a mode where your position is transmitted to other APRS ready radios, and everyone can keep an eye on each other.