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Getting Ready To Setup and Operate
This article is in no way intended to be all inclusive and would be impossible, but is intended to make you ask yourself questions so you can be a better than average ham radio operator! If you ask yourself a question that you can't answer, then to get the answer....is up to you! Do your research! Introduction We get many emails from "Newbies" to
ham radio who don't have the slightest idea of where to start building
their station so they can get on the air and start having fun with ham
radio. People with little or no related ham
radio background must rely on the instructions that come with ham
equipment and the advice other experienced hams to help them get
their station on the air. Some study manuals do not help very
much in this respect when it comes to setting up a new ham radio station
because they are designed to help you pass the exam and do not to teach
you thousands of other things you need to know that won't be on the exam
questions. These "other" things you need to know will come with time and
much help from either your research on the internet, books, (yes, you will
have to do lots of reading and more study now that you have your license),
ham friends, and many other sources. "Any
knowledge gained by extra study on your part will make you a much better
and respected operator and will help you advance in ham radio. We all were
not born knowing everything, so it will take time and lots of effort on
your part along with the help of others. Don't expect to learn it all from
the internet....you will need to buy....yes...buy reference books that are
great teaching tools for all the information you may need. Check out some
of the reference books and ads on this page....get them...and start
learning more!" If you don't see the highly recommended "ARRL
Operating Manual" listed in the ad below...just click on the ad and use
the Amazon search...you will find it! Let's Get Started! Equipment, tools, space, the "shack"
and safety precautions basics. All of the
information below will apply to either set up, HF or VHF. You may already have figured out to hook everything up to the radio including the antenna...but....DON'T transmit...yet!...Is your antenna tuned properly according the the instructions that came with it???. Have you checked the swr? If you know the answers to these questions....still...you need to wait until your station is completely set up. Do you even have an swr
meter? If not, buy or borrow one and get that antenna tuned after your
station is ready to go. If you need help, use it's manual. If you still
need help, get a local ham to help you. You will also need to install a good station ground just outside the entry point of the coax. Get a good copper ground rod, 8 feet long and drive it into the ground just outside the entry point of a window or where it enters your shack. Keep in mind that the distance from the ground rod should be as short as possible from it to the equipment inside. It is never a good idea to have a long distance from the equipment to the ground rod...remember..as short as possible. Now run very heavy (large conductor like # 8 size) if you can get it or as large as you can afford. The idea here is to have
the least resistance to current flow as possible. The larger the wire
the less resistance. Connect all of your equipment using whatever
connectors needed to this single ground wire using short lengths if
possible. Use the largest size wire that will fit the ground
connections of your equipment. Install a switch in the antenna coax that switches the
antenna to ground if at all possible. This helps with lightning
protection. Try to plan the layout of your station equipment on the desk, counter top, etc for future expansion...believe me...you will later need some more space if you start out with too small a working area. Again, plan, plan and more planning. Now that all of your equipment is set up, refer back to those operating instructions on the radio, power supply and the antenna to refresh your memory. Assuming that you have your antenna connected to the swr meter and it to the radio, you are ready to tune the antenna for best performance. Use the instructions that came with the antenna for this...and use LOW POWER, when adjusting it. Get help from a local ham if needed. After you have adjusted the antenna, then you can mount it in it's final position. Recheck the swr again using low power and if all is OK, mount it in it's final location. Your ready to get on the air! Suggested tools and simple test equipment and accessories you may need for your ham station. A good swr/power meter rated for your station frequencies and power level. A good volt, ohm
milliamp meter or digital meter that can measure continuity,
resistance, voltage and current. Your choice. Get help from a local
ham to help you decide what you may need. This is not a must have piece of
station equipment but certainly comes in handy when troubleshooting coax
problems, power, etc. ON
THE AIR! During your first contact on the air, you get the question from the other operator....."How is my modulation?".......You would not know how to answer him if you did not know the meaning of the word "modulation"! Look it up...you will hear that word often....learn all you can about "modulation". Here is another example: He asks....."What polarity is your antenna?" So you can see, if you had not learned some very basic things about ham radio in the past...then you would not be able to answer him correctly...you would have to ask him to define those strange words to you. At least, now you are asking the questions and hopefully.....learning! Don't get me wrong, your first few contacts on the air most likely will be with total strangers who know nothing about you other than the call sign you gave them and maybe your first name. They are not there to TEST you! They do not know if you have a Phd in Physics or whether you are a electronics engineer, a school kid, a teacher, a burger flipper, janitor or whatever! Most of them don't care one way or the other...they just want to meet and make new contacts and friends on the air. The only way they have of finding out more about you and your technical ability is by asking YOU questions. Details about your personal background and theirs can be learned in later contacts BUT....be careful with giving very personal information over the air....the ham bands are open to all ears! If you are not of legal age...be even more careful! It might even be wise that you have a parent present when you are actually on the air if you are very young. The first few contacts that you make
may not be aware that you are a "newbie" to the ham bands until they start
asking questions like in the above examples. When they get good answers
from you, then they will know that you are well informed! So before we go further...an
important thing you need to do in setting up your first ham radio
station is learn all you can FIRST! Knowing some very basic, basic
electronics is a great help. No that was not a mistake...the word basic
was repeated twice on purpose! What is a PL259? What is an
SO239....What is coax? Why all the different antennas? Where should I
start and how? Questions, questions, questions...they all have answers
that you will need to know. Since you are a Technician class ham, you now have privileges on portions of some HF bands plus ALL privileges on all ham bands from 50mhz and higher. You need to decide if you want to operate on just the "upper" vhf bands and above (50mhz and above), or also use your new privileges on HF also or get the best of all worlds using all of your privileges on all of your allowed bands. This is your decision and will be based on many variables in your lifestyle, property layout, budget, equipment needs, etc and really can't be answered by anyone but you. If you decide to operate HF only, then you will have 10 meter voice and CW, plus CW only on the lower HF bands of 80, 40, 15 and 10 meters. So your transceiver will have to be
capable of operation from at least 80 meters thru 10 meters using voice
modes (ssb) AND CW. NO...CW IS NOT A
REQUIREMENT....but if you use it....you will have to know it....so
learn it! Reading between the lines you may ask, "Well, If I have
privileges on the HF bands, then why can't I use ssb (voice) on the other
bands besides 10 meters? You are required
by the FCC as a licensed Amateur Radio Operator to have access to Part
97...do you have a copy or do you know how to get access to
one? Let's pretend for a moment that you have decided to operate only on 2 meters and/or the 440 ham bands from a base station (your home) for a start, like most new hams do until you can get some experience under your belt and intend to study more to get your General class license as soon as you can. You will need a transceiver, that covers the 2 meter ham band or a dual band radio that covers also the 440 ham band plus they should be capable of working thru repeaters using PL tones. The cheapest way out would be a single band radio for say...2 meters only, if money is an object. They can be had in either small low powered handheld (ht) units operated from internal batteries (rechargeable), or small external power supplies for base station use or the more standard and more powerful mobile mount size. The larger and more powerful type radios for mobile use have to be powered by the vehicle battery (DC) or used as a base station with an external power supply that converts standard AC power to DC to supply the radio. Most of these more powerful radios were designed for mobile use and do not come with an external power supply so it will have to be purchased also. So what should
you buy for a power supply to use the radio in a base
station? Hopefully you will have the instructions, operating manual, etc that came with the radio....it should tell you in it's specifications section. If you don't have the "specs", then do a search on the internet using the brand and model number of the radio and the word "operating manual", "manual", "users manual", "specifications", etc. Look for voltage requirements and transmitter current, etc. Most standard sized mobile radios
require 12 to 15 volts DC. If the transmitter
"pulls" 10 amps on full output transmit, then look for an external power
supply that will handle AT LEAST that amount as a continuous rating....AT
12 TO 15 VOLTS DC. It is worth mentioning that if you buy an older HF radio from the used market that many of them come with built in power supplies. Do your research. Antennas for the New Ham Station! The ham station
antenna is the MOST important part of the station! Most of the very inexpensive
homebrew or commercial antennas, if mounted outside up as high as you can
get them, will fill your needs. Even the simple ground plane type antenna
works well for most local communications. Here is your chance to experiment with simple homebrew antennas! Many hams are very restricted do to several reasons when it comes to antennas and their locations. If you are within a few miles of a 2 meter repeater, then it should be able to "hear" your signal even with a simple antenna mounted inside your "shack". Check out the simple 2 meter antennas on the antenna project page on this web site and don't forget about RF exposure limits for your safety. Never run power levels that are beyond these limits. Your body can, and will be damaged. Check your exposure levels here. > Amateur Radio RF Safety Calculator Antennas with no gain like the ground plane type will do a remarkable job over flat terrain or even from inside the shack but you may want to "spare no expense" (up to a point), by buying or building an antenna that has several db of gain for extended range and better coverage. Your antenna decision will depend on your terrain, location of nearby buildings, etc. Higher above ground is always better on VHF and as a general rule also on HF. Always look for dbd rather than dbi in the specs of the ads. The "d" in dbd stands for dipole. Some antenna makers use the dbi gain figures (free space), to make the antenna "appear" to have more gain than it actually does when compared to the standard "reference" dipole. So an antenna rated as 5 dbd would have more "gain" than the same antenna rated as 5dbi when compared to the standard.....the dipole. Building your own 2 meter antenna
can be lots of fun, and easier than you think and usually will OUT PERFORM
the same type of antenna on the commercial market. It will be MUCH cheaper
than a commercial made equal. You will need very little "test equipment"
for building one that you will be proud to say, "I built it myself".
Basically all you would need would be a good swr/power meter usable on 2
meters and a few hand tools and materials plus your ham station
transceiver. See the antenna projects on
this web site and look under "50mhz and up" for several homebrew antenna
plans and projects. Here is a simple way of looking at polarity as related to antennas: Imagine you have a "beam" of light energy (the transmitted signal), coming from a source and the "beam" is perfectly straight up and down (vertical polarity), in the form of this > | This energy is being transmitted over some distance and does not spread...sort of like a laser beam. Now place a solid object that is much larger than the "source beam" between it and a receiver that is trying to see it, (the receive antenna), that looks like this > ___ Now imagine the horizontal ___ has a slit cut into it from one end to the other so as to allow energy (rf) to pass thru it. The two lines represented here are now at opposite "polarity" to each other. There would only be a very tiny area where the two intersect if they were in the form of a plus sign (+) that would pass energy thru the hole. You can see that only a very tiny amount of the energy (rf) would get thru where the two lines intersect! So using this analogy, if both the transmitter antenna and the receive antenna are the same "polarity" either vertical or horizontal, then the maximum amount of energy (rf) is passed to the antennas thru the imaginary "slit". Both antennas are in the same plane relative to the earth. If you plan on strictly using repeaters and talking to mobiles and simplex (station to station), locally using FM, then build or buy an antenna that is vertically polarized. This is due to the difficulty of mounting horizontally polarized antennas on vehicles so vertical polarity is almost always used on FM. If you want more range, then go with a vertically polarized Yagi (beam) or a high gain vertical. If you plan on using SSB on the lower portion of 2 meters, then horizontal polarity is the way to go. Most SSB operators on 2 meters use horizontal polarization. Remember that due to "cross polarization", like the + sign example above, both the receive and transmit station must use the same polarity antenna. If you really want to increase your
usable range, then look into the Yagi types (beams). They can be built or
bought with gains exceeding 10 to 15 times or more over standard ground
planes or "no gain" type antennas and depending on their polarity relative
to the ground, can be used with much fun. An antenna with a gain of 10dBd
will give you an erp (effective radiated power), of about 500 watts using
a 50 watt signal to the antenna input! As a general rule, horizontal type
Yagi's are used on the lower ssb portions of the band and vertical types
are used in most other portions including repeater use. A rotor that will
handle the weight of the Yagi will also be required to "aim" the antenna
toward the other station. NO...you don't need those rotors costing
hundreds of dollars...just a plain simple "Radio Shack" TV rotor
should work well for most Yagi's. Always do your research on antenna
weights, wind loads, etc before buying a rotor. A
warning worth remembering! What kind of coaxial cable do I need for operation on 2 meters or higher frequencies? The output stage of your radio and most modern transceivers will require that you attach 50 ohm type coaxial cable (also shortened to the word "coax"), between the radio "antenna" connector and the antenna. This is the main and only "pipeline" for getting the rf energy that your radio produces to the antenna where it is radiated over the air. This "link" in your total antenna system is probably second in importance of station equipment. Remember that your antenna should be considered the first most important, then the coax. If these two combined parts of your station are poor, so will be your signal over the air and received signals will be weaker or not heard at all compared to a good antenna system. All of the components and devices between the antenna connector on the radio up to and including the antenna is called your antenna system. The idea of having a good low loss antenna system which consists of the antenna and it's feedline (the coax), and an efficient antenna, will certainly enhance your station's performance, so try to pick coax types that have the least loss in db per foot you can afford at your operating frequency relative to the required length you need to get the signal to the antenna. This means that you should not be afraid to try a higher loss per foot type coax if you have very short runs to the antenna. There is a happy medium when it comes to station expense....don't over do it unless you have money to burn! Just because you have a brand new roll of ultra low loss coax in a 100 foot roll connected to an antenna 10 feet away from the transceiver would not only be wasteful and expensive...but it would make no difference in your signal on the other end compared to a regular length of less expensive higher loss coax. It's your money....burn it if you want to. If you can make at least a 3 to 6db or more change for the better by reducing the loss incurred in the feedline using the more expensive coax, then by all means consider it...otherwise...don't bother. See this article for more on
Coaxial Cable Characteristics and Data
then come back here when you are done. It will help
you compare different coax types and the amount of loss each type has for
a specified number of feet at a particular
frequency. This gives valuable time in between transmissions for an emergency call to get into the repeater. If the emergency call can not be heard because everyone using the repeater is "Quick Keying", then lives may be lost.....seconds sometimes count! Dialing
911 using a repeater! This gives the ham operator reporting the emergency from his car or where ever he may be mobile or portable, direct access to the needed emergency people via a direct phone patch to them using the repeater to access the 911 number directly. Several seconds or even minutes can be shaved from the process of breaking into an ongoing conversation and getting the other station/s to relay the emergency over their telephone.....if they have one....... by using the direct entry 911 function of the repeater system! If you have ever had to get vital life saving information to emergency responders, you know that seconds count and the more people between the source of the emergency and the emergency responders can make for confusion with the much needed details of the emergency. Check with your repeater trustee or owner to see if it has this function and learn how to operate it.....it may save someone's life in the future...maybe even yours! It is imperative that the 911 operator knows that you and he/she are using radio as part of the connection. Make them understand that both people talking at the same time will not work like on a regular telephone conversation. Each party must say "over" when they want to hear the other party. It is the responsibility of the ham radio operator to key and unkey his mic to accomplish the transmission of both sides of the emergency contact. The 911 operator has no control over your radio...only you. Remember, you are the control operator of your station. If you hear an EMERGENCY in progress on the radio, listen carefully first and listen some more. Take notes if possible...and do not interrupt the station if he has already made a confirmed contact that will relay the emergency information. Only contact the sender of the emergency IF and ONLY IF you can assist him with the emergency. If 10 stations try to talk all at once to him....no one will hear anything! If he is having difficulty in being heard attempting to get anyone's ATTENTION to report the emergency, then assist him in any way you can to relay his emergency message to the proper people. Of great importance is the exact location of the emergency, and then the exact nature of it, how many people involved, is there a fire, address, etc. An emergency dispatcher getting a
location of " There's a car wreck on highway 59, and
people are hurt badly" is NOT enough
information! In short, don't make the emergency dispatcher guess who, what, where, when, etc. Give them as much exact information as you can to help speed up rescue operations. Saving time.....saves life! Which direction from what or
where on highway 59. Is there a highway mile marker, billboard, cross
street, landmarks, bridge, overpass, railroad tracks, guesstimate as to
mileage from last town you passed thru, on which side of the road, North,
South, East, West, etc that can be used to find the location with faster
accuracy? Give the 911 operator the information as if you were on the
receiving end of the conversation. Normal Amateur
Radio Repeater Operations and suggestions for use. Then around the time of "rush hour"
when all of those poor working guys an gals who are attempting to get
ahead of those credit card bills have either started or ended their
day driving to or from their work "QTH", and all of a sudden, the
repeater gets very busy with idle chit chat. I suppose this could be
considered "Normal Use" by most hams. In cases of "open" nets, roundtables, etc that are scheduled on repeater systems that you may join in, then feel free to use them. There are many "scheduled" drive time roundtables or nets on repeaters scattered over the entire country and by joining into the conversations as your turn comes, or just listening, can really make the drive time fly and be very enjoyable. You may even get to meet one of your close friends whom you have never seen in person, over a cup of coffee on the way. Many repeater systems have practice
nets for passing emergency traffic and are "Directed Nets", meaning that
you listen to ALL of the instructions of the net control operator before
you key the microphone. He will inform everyone within range of the
repeater on it's proper use and procedures during the net. Listen up!
Users are allowed to "post" their
wants, needs, for sale items, trades, etc over the air and sometimes
hundreds of people are listing...kind of like fishing...you never know
what will bite that hook! Some of the larger repeater systems maintain a
web page of postings on the internet and you can always go to it to see if
that "whiz bang thing a ma jig" you are "needing" is for sale by anyone
and where to get it. Setting up your station for HF use: As a Technician class license holder you now have portions of 80, 40, 15 and 10 meters as operating bands on HF. Not only do you have to decide on a "rig", (your radio), but you have to decide on a good antenna, build it or buy it, where to put it, how high above ground, what bands you want to operate on, etc. If you want to operate only on 10 meters for the time being using your new voice privileges on ssb, then of course you will need space OUTSIDE. HF antennas as a general rule do not function well inside, due to surrounding metals of all kinds within the home and they are much larger. A standard 10 meter dipole put up in the horizontal fashion or even the inverted V fashion, will take up about 16 feet or so in the horizontal length and needs to be at least 2 times that length above ground for best performance. This type of antenna can be homebrewed with very little expense. (see HF antenna projects here) Assuming that you have decided to build your own HF antenna for 10 meters, you will need a good swr/power meter for tuning the antenna for best performance on 10 meters or possibly you have decided to also use CW on the other bands like 80, 40, and 15 meters. Either way, most antennas will require some tuning for best performance....even those right out of the box! The swr/power meter will give you the needed readings for physically tuning the antenna length for best performance. One good choice of an "all band" standard size antenna for HF (80 thru 10 meters) would be what is called a multiband doublet. This is a multiband antenna. You can see plans for it on the antenna projects page. There are many other also. You will need a "tuner" to go along with it and it needs to be fed with twinlead or ladder line and then you will have an "all band" antenna that will be very easy to build with little investment other than a good "antenna tuner". If you're not familiar with how antenna tuners operate, then just read this article on how to use antenna tuners. Of course you also have the option of buying commercial wire type antennas, Yagis, and verticals that can be used very effectively on HF. You have many decisions to make when attempting to get on HF due to the lengths of the antennas at HF frequencies and your space limitations! You can't get 10 gallons of water into a 5 gallon bucket, however, there are many limited space type antennas like the TAK-tenna that can really help you get a good signal out. See the TAK-tenna review on this web site....it works great and is only about 30 inches by 30 inches! It will give you all the bands from 40 meters thru 10 meters in one small antenna used with a tuner. Many hams who have tried it....love it for it's small size! Keep in mind though that it is designed for restricted or limited space operation and is not a physically stretched out antenna as would be required using the standard dipole formula that you should have learned. Electrically, it is the same, but physically it is not. It fits it's design purpose to a "T"! Get one if you are restricted with antenna space on HF. Coaxial cable for HF: The technical requirements for coax
at HF frequencies is not nearly as stringent as on the upper VHF and bands
higher frequencies, so the RG58 and RG8 "types" will work well for you.
These are the 50 to 52 ohm types that your radio will require. If your are
a perfectionist, then money should be no object and you can get the most
expensive coax with the lowest rf loss per foot, but you will be wasting
lots of money in most ham antenna installations! Consider your family (if you have one), when setting up and using your ham station equipment! If you are fortunate enough to have very understanding people in your home, then you don't really have to worry too much about how the station is set up to make it pleasing to the eye or how or when to use it. But just consider that if you are not that fortunate, then you may have to compromise a bit to make everyone happy including yourself. Most ham radio equipment (modern) is
very small and and easily placed in a very small area. This author's
"station" including computer equipment fits on top of a desk with about 4
X 3 feet dimensions or less. The actual station covering 160 thru 2
meters fits in an area of about the size of a 2 foot cube on that
desk! Of course my station may not be typical, it could be larger or
smaller than yours. I have no doubt that you will change your station
layout many times before you are pleased with it. Most computer desks make
for nice setups for a modest ham station....so does an old wooden door
across a couple of saw horses...it's your station. Turn that
"noise" down! One of the most annoying "sounds"
coming from the speaker of a ham radio to lots of family members is that
"Morse code stuff"! Enter headphones...problem gone! Data modes can also
be very "noisy" to other members of the family....headphones
again. Where can I
get more personal help if I need it with my ham station
setup? When you start out making contacts over the air, you will soon learn that there are other operators out there that have much more experience than you do. You will not only be talking to other new Technician class operators, but you will have contacts with Tech Plus, Generals, Advanced and Extra class operators and don't forget some of the Novice class ops. Many of them will have half a
century or more experience with ham radio! Get to know your
contacts. Ask the more experienced hams to help you with your
questions. Some may even help you with your antenna installations and all
they expect is a nice thank you, cool drink in the summer, warm one in the
winter and maybe a nice meal or a snack. You can make some great lasting
friendships by having an "antenna raising party" using some of your new
ham friends. Get the OK from the wife before hand.....just a word of
warning! One thing I have learned in all my
years in ham radio is the fact that when I do a simple favor for ham
friends, it is most often returned to me by them many times over. The
sharing of information and ideas and friendship among ham radio
operators worldwide has existed from the beginning of ham radio. Continue with the tradition by attempting to help another
ham whenever possible. You will be glad you did. Many great
friendships have been brought about by contacts on the air. To find ham radio clubs in your area just do a search on the ARRL web site at www.arrl.org Look for the "Clubs" section at top of their home page. I hope this article has helped you
in some small way in setting up or planning your first ham radio station.
Just try to think everything out...planning and more planning and you will
have a station you will be proud of that will put your hard earned call
sign ON THE AIR! 73 Don, N4UJW
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