Ham on the bone

Great idea Ray
Regards Ronnie
VK7FRON

I must be a bit slow tonight Mike, what is REC

VK3REC .... at Olinda 147.175 out 147.775 in..

EMDRC club repeater ( I think thats correct)

I was amazed at how much work the club members put into helping us pass !!

They are the ones who deserve the thanks!

Next stop the standard licence I did the sample papers on line yesterday and managed a pass so will sign up for the course and test when they offer the next one.
But am more than happy to the an F call the foundation licence should be good for the hobby, bringing in more people... with a bit of luck..
73s
john

hahaha what a dill, think I had too much turps today. Thanks John and good luck with upgrading ...73

Atropos. Well done. You may want to look at what used to be the Novice Fast track Course from the Radio and Electronics School in Brisbane for the standard class licence.
Up until recently I was the education officer at the MDRC - Still the WIA examination team leader & invigilator (hate that tittle) and we were running with the Radio and Electronics School courses. Over a 4 year period, probably close to 50 examinations with a pass rate close to 99% with Radio & Electronics School students.
Last year (as with this year) I was on the BBQ at the MDRC Hamfest I Bought 5Kg of left over (over catered) bacon! Quite fitting I thought.
For an HF net, due to the limited output power of the Foundation Licence, 40 metres in the evenings may be better than 80 metres at night?
Cheers, Tony
Monitoring 146.550 & 52.525 Simplex whilst in the shack plus most Melbourne 2 & 70 repeaters via the scanner.
www.qsl.net/vk3cat

Hi

Many thanks for the advice, a couple of poeople have suggested to get the "fast track" cd so that sounds like the way to fly,

I've been working on setting things up for when the license comes through, will have a Yaesu FT-7899R for 2mtrs and 70cm in the shack with a diamond x-2000 6db gain antenna, will have this at about 30 feet when I can get one of my lads to bring the laddders :-) and I've gone for the Yaesu 2800M just a straight 2mtr rig for in the car...

As for HF I'm not quite sure of what I will do yet, firstly I have to get some more pennies to spend but I have a hearing issue minus 120db loss in both ears so I'm not quite sure how I will handle the "noiser" hf bands, I think perhaps I'll ask to have a play with some of the gear at EMDRC and see how I go.. I think I will be fine if I use a good quality headphone.. Listening around the repeaters is fine with my hearing aids but I also use headphones at times but have installed a decent extention speaker in the shack and an external speaker in the car near right ear which is the better one.

I'm hoping to be allocated Vk3 FJNF so keep an ear open for that..those in the know tell me that the call should be on the database as of thurdsay week , so a frustrating time untill then , but plenty to do programing memories and the suchlike, the Yaesu's have heaps of memories so I can enter all the repeaters that i am likely to find on our travels with the camper trailer.. just waiting for the weather to improve a little..

Oh well thats enough I suppose on an rather off-topic subject, but I suppose when you think about it the Foundation licence should attract heaps of Gray Nomads like the XYL and I ....

73s
John

That's the one Ray - EMDRC, good coverage across Melbourne.

VK3FJNF is not on the database at 8.15pm Mon but the ACA are prety useless - I wouldn't wait too long before putting out a call John - you have passed the exam and paid the licence fee, no reason why you shouldn't go on air.

Mike Harding

John, I have used the X200 & now use the comet 6/2/70 triband vertical. Both work well. In the Cruiser just have HF & 2 metres & UHF CB - dont find much activity on 70 outside of Melbourne. Made up a 2 metre 5/8th whip using an old 1/2" CB whip & spring base. Use it with an extension as a sand flag - all up about 3 metres tall.
With HF, headphones are nearly mandatory, often so that others don't have to put up with the noise. May also want to look at the clear speach - DSP- extension speakers.
Cheers Tony.