Mark your calendars…
Flyer in PDF format
HamCon Colorado website

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Lately, I’ve encountered many people who apparently believe their radio is a Talisman. What is a Talisman, you say?

Talisman – An object marked with magical signs and believed to confer on its bearer supernatural powers or protection.

These people purchase some kind of two-way radio and have it stored away in their desk or closet, believing that having it will confer communication powers during an emergency. (Not to pick on Baofeng owners, but these radios are almost always a Baofeng UV-5R.)  In many cases, they have the radio programmed with a long list of radio frequencies that have been identified as being good to have during an emergency. These are usually a mix of amateur radio, Family Radio Service, General Mobile Radio Service, Multi-Use Radio Service, search and rescue, and local fire and police frequencies.

Usually, the owner of the Talisman Radio has no real idea of how these frequencies are used. Again, someone told them they are good frequencies to have in a SHTF scenario. They often don’t know how to operate the radio or know what to expect in terms of its communication capabilities. It is simply a magical device that will save them when bad stuff happens.

Sometimes these people take the basic step of getting their amateur radio Technician license. I applaud this decision as it is the first step towards learning about ham radio. It also provides the proper license for legally using the radio on the ham bands. Unfortunately, many of these people just memorize the questions long enough to pass the exam and don’t gain any useful knowledge. This is a fundamental error. A much better approach is to focus on acquiring skills, knowledge, and equipment as part of their emergency preparedness plans. (Serious preppers know and practice this.)

If you are the owner of a Talisman Radio, I urge you to build your skills and get your ham license (if you don’t already have it.) There are many good license books available and the Ham Radio School online course is an excellent approach to learning this material. If you encounter Talisman Radio owners, please encourage them to get some training and learn how to use the radio. Don’t offer to program their radio with a bunch of frequencies they are not licensed to use and that may cause considerable trouble in the frequency spectrum. Encourage and help them but don’t enable their dependence on a Talisman Radio that will only let them down.

Training, training, training.
That’s what I think. What’s your opinion?

73 Bob K0NR

The post The Talisman Radio appeared first on The KØNR Radio Site.

The Chaffee-Lake Amateur Radio Association is offering an introductory ham radio license class in June. We will make good use of the Ham Radio School online Technician course, supplemented with in-person instruction and mentoring.

The Amateur (Ham) Radio Technician license is your gateway to the worldwide fun and excitement of Amateur Radio

• Earn your ham radio Technician class license
• Pass your FCC amateur radio license exam in class
• Multiple-choice exam, No Morse Code Required
• Learn to operate on the ham bands, 10 meters and higher
• Learn to use the many VHF/UHF FM repeaters in Colorado

Schedule

Sat   June 1    1-3 pm In-Person Kickoff Session
Wed June 5    7-8 pm Online – Review session via Zoom
Wed June 12  7-8 pm Online – Review session via Zoom
Sat   June 15  1–3:30 pm In-Person Review and Exam Session

Most of the course content will be delivered via the Ham Radio School online system, requiring about 15 hours of independent study by the student. The content is delivered in bite-sized video lessons, followed by online quizzes to check your knowledge. Our instructors will provide additional instruction and coaching during in-person and online sessions. The in-person sessions will be at Casa Del Rio Clubhouse in Buena Vista, Colorado.

Register now

The fee for the class is $29.95.
(The FCC also charges a $35 license fee to issue your license, payable after you pass the exam.)

To register for the class or to get more information, contact:
Bob Witte KØNR
[email protected]

The post Technician License Class – Buena Vista, CO appeared first on The KØNR Radio Site.

The Technician license is your gateway to the worldwide excitement of Amateur Radio, and the very best emergency communications capability available! This is the entry-level class for people who do not currently have an amateur (ham) radio license.

The Tri-Lakes Monument Radio Association (Monument, CO) is introducing a new approach to teaching the Technician Level ham radio license class. We have completely overhauled the delivery format of our Tech Class to make good use of both in-person and online training methods. The biggest change is that most of the core material will be delivered to the student via bite-sized online videos, ebook sections, and additional content from Ham Radio School. This dramatically increases the flexibility on how and when the student views this material, eliminating long, all-day classroom sessions. We will have three live Zoom sessions along the way to review the material and answer any questions you might have.

We understand that in-person training is extremely valuable for certain types of activities. Accordingly, we will have an in-person kickoff session (Feb 17) for the instructors to meet the students and show them how ham radio equipment is used. The licensing exam session (Mar 9) is another in-person event. Finally, after you receive your new license, we will have an in-person Get On The Air event (Mar 16) where you will make your first radio contact. To help guide you through this process, an experienced radio ham will connect with you, monitor your progress, and help you through the class.

The cost of the class is $50 ($40 for anyone under 18 years old), which includes everything you need for the class. A non-expiring subscription to the Ham Radio School Technician resources is included. We used to require you to have a printed copy of the Ham Radio School Technician book, but that same material will be delivered to you online as an ebook. Proceeds from this class go to support the Tri-Lakes Monument Radio Association, a non-profit organization.

You still need to pay a $35 license fee directly to the FCC after passing the license exam.

More details are in the attached flyer.

To register, go here:
https://w0tlm.com/radio-classes/tech-registration

You can probably tell I am excited about the new format for this class. It will make it easier on the instructors to deliver the material AND easier for the students to learn it. If you have questions, let me know!

Bob K0NR
[email protected]

The post All New Technician License Class – Monument, CO appeared first on The KØNR Radio Site.

Ham Radio Extra License Class
Palmer Lake, Colorado

Sat Oct 21 through Sat Nov 4, 2023

• Two all-day in-person sessions Oct 21 and Nov 4 (8 AM to 5 PM)
  Palmer Lake Town Hall, 42 Valley Crescent Street, Palmer Lake, CO, 80133
• Additional 8 hours of Zoom & video sessions (scheduling TBD)
• Students are expected to attend all scheduled sessions.

The Extra License is the top amateur license, providing full access to the FCC Amateur Radio Service band allocations.

• Upgrade from General to Extra Class radio privileges
• Pass your FCC Extra Class amateur license exam
• Live equipment demonstrations and activities
• Expand your HF ops on 15-, 20-, 40-, & 80-meter bands
• Gain a deeper understanding of radio electronics and theory
• Take the next step with antennas, amplifiers, digital modes

Registration fee: $40

In addition, students must have the required study guide:
Ham Radio School Extra License Course
First Edition, effective 2020 – 2024, $29.95

A current FCC General License is required for registration.

For more information and to register, go here:
https://w0tlm.com/radio-classes/extra-registration
Questions, email: [email protected]

Sponsored by the
Tri-Lakes Monument Radio Association
www.w0tlm.com

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The post Announcing: Extra Class License book appeared first on The KØNR Radio Site.

Recently, I engaged in a discussion about a UHF (Ultra High Frequency) radio. It seems a ham was complaining that someone had advertised an 800 MHz radio, describing it as “UHF”. His issue was that in land mobile radio, UHF is commonly used to refer to radios in the 380 to 500-ish MHz range. I disagreed with him, saying that 800 MHz is in the UHF range I was using the ITU definition of UHF, which is any frequency between 300 MHz to 3 GHz. The disagreement was not a big deal but it did cause some confusion. (Of course, I was right and he was wrong, most definitely.)

This got me thinking about how we toss around these terms quite loosely, even though they have precise definitions. Let’s start with the basics, the ITU definitions of radio spectrum.

You can see that the basic scheme divides up the spectrum into decades (factors of ten), aligned with frequencies that start with 3 (e.g., 3 MHz, 30 MHz, 300 MHz). If we map the amateur bands onto this system, we see that the bands from 80m (3.5 to 4.0 MHz) through 10m (28-29.7 MHz) fall into the HF range, as expected. Note that 10m almost qualifies as a VHF band, coming in just shy of the 30 MHz limit. That band does have some VHF tendencies. The 160m band (1.8 to 2.0 MHz) actually falls into the MF range even though many of us just think of it as HF.

Let’s take a look at how the US amateur bands line up with this scheme.

There are three VHF bands: 6m (50 to 54 MHz), 2m (144 to 148 MHz) and 1.25m (222 to 225 MHz). The UHF range includes the 70 cm (420 to 450 MHz), 33 cm (902 to 928 MHz), 23 cm (1240 to 1300 MHz), and 13 cm (2300 to 2450 MHz) bands.

The two most commonly used bands in the VHF/UHF region are 2m and 70cm. These bands are home for many FM repeaters, FM simplex, SSB simplex, and plenty of other modes. Common dualband transceivers, both mobile and handheld, operate on the 2m and 70cm bands. These radios are so common that we often refer to them as VHF/UHF dualband radios. Accordingly, you will often hear hams refer to the 2m band as simply VHF and the 70cm band as UHF, as if VHF means 2 meters and UHF means 70 cm. I know I’ve been guilty of saying “let’s switch over to VHF” when I really mean “let’s go to the 2m band.” The 2m band is certainly VHF but VHF does not always mean 2 meters. Similarly, we might say “I’ll call you on the UHF repeater” when it would be more precise to say “I’ll call you on 440 MHz.”

Many times being loose with terminology doesn’t matter but there are times when using the right words can make a difference. Think about this the next time you are referring to a particular frequency band.

73 Bob K0NR

The post What Do VHF and UHF Mean? appeared first on The KØNR Radio Site.