American Red Cross Asks for Ham Radio Operators for Puerto Rico Relief Effort

Haiti was a far more difficult situation. The death toll was on the order of several hundred thousand people, and Haiti was a difficult place to work in even before that.

KekDemaga• 9 years ago

They spent 500 million to build 4 houses. That's inexcusable.

TallGuyShort3• 9 years ago

I'm a bit out of the loop on amateur radio these days, but if I remember correctly there was a mass exodus from volunteer radio operators from the American Red Cross to the Salvation Army over the background check issue. Volunteers that were bringing thousands of dollars of their own equipment to help saw it as very unnecessary and insulting. I'm a bit surprised to see they're still requiring the background checks...

edit: I'm also a bit surprised they're requiring a General Class license. That cuts out a huge number of potential volunteers. Are they really using the other frequencies that opens up enough that it's a requirement? Possibly that is a reasonable requirement, but I've helped with disaster recovery simulations, etc. and my Technican Class license was just fine.

mikestew• 9 years ago

I imagine they might want a General license because you won't transmit beyond the island on a Technician license. Just a guess.

EDIT: actually read the fine article, HF voice being one of the requirements. I assume they also want more than the tiny bit of HF that Technician licensees get to use. " Sorry, 10m isn't open, so I can't transmit, and I'm not allowed to use 40m."

vvanders• 9 years ago

Yeah, WinLink is also almost completely done on HF as well.

Most hams I know have their General even if they don't use HF regularly.

jcrawfordor3• 9 years ago

ARRL now conducts background checks on ARES volunteers, so the issue is rather moot (in fact ARC and ARRL have an MOU stating that ARRL is responsible for background checks on their volunteers assisting ARC, which presumably applies to this call as well). There have just been too many incidents of people with e.g. sexual assault on their rap sheets turning up working in shelters where there are all manner of vulnerable people. Terrible optics if nothing else.

I suspect the general class requirement is just to cut down the applicants to a pool of more dedicated people. A very real problem with disaster volunteers, if I might be a little harsh especially from the amateur radio side, is "fair-weather responders" who will go through all the training and then not actually deploy. I've also personally found that people with higher class licenses are more likely to be into digital modes which is what they're mostly looking for, but that's getting less true as the equipment gets cheaper (to be honest I've never even seen a packet TNC in person).

I happen to be both an ARC disaster worker and amateur radio operator, but I speak for myself.

TallGuyShort3• 9 years ago

Given the negative PR against shelters that threatened to do background checks on all the other people they let into the shelters in the lead up to the recent hurricanes, that's gotta be just a CYA move, no? Isn't there a check that you're not a felon already in the FCC licensing process?

dmoy• 9 years ago

What do all those acronyms mean?

ams6110• 9 years ago

There have just been too many incidents of people with e.g. sexual assault on their rap sheets turning up working in shelters where there are all manner of vulnerable people.

No chance such a person might be trying to help others as a sort of payback to society for his past transgressions, I guess. Or might have such a record because some girl at his school had a morning-after regret and now he has a record that prevents him from doing almost anything else with his time other than volunteer.

flachsechs• 9 years ago

serious q: isn't transmission unregulated during emergency situations?

uabstraction2• 9 years ago

You may break the rules in situations threatening life or property (there is an exemption for this), but why send potentally inexperienced technicians INTO a disaster area to drown out potential calls for help when you can send generals or extras who have more understanding and experience?

Communications isn't an all hands on deck problem in the same sense that providing resources and shelter is. Ham nets and repeaters can get traffic jams very easily in a situation like this, so it's better to send a dozen experts than 100 beginners.

KGIII6• 9 years ago

I once read that, during a declared emergency, you didn't need a license to operate the radio. I'm pretty sure it was on an official site, though it may have been on ARRL's site.

I am unable to find it, so I'm not sure if it is true any longer, or if it was ever true.

Assuming it is illegal, I wonder how mad the FCC would be - if one followed the rules and it was a real emergency?

jcrawfordor3• 9 years ago

My understanding is that this provision applies only to "life or death emergencies" which safe and well linking activities are certainly not. I'm having a very hard time finding the actual letter of the law anyway, only various third-hand retellings that such a rule exists. Certainly it is intended only for narrow situations.

dionian• 9 years ago

Or in life-threatening circumstances

rdiddly• 9 years ago

Yeah I remember looking into volunteering for them (not as radio op) and hitting a brick wall of bureaucracy. Must not need volunteers that bad.

kw713• 9 years ago

You need General to operate HF

lbrindze• 9 years ago

Specifically if you want to operate HF phone or in digital modes (CW is allowed in >15m band for techs along with some limited hf phone and digital modes in 10m). Also you can operate marine SSB (which is hf phone) outside of a HAM general license as long as you operate on designated marine SSB channels.

antihero2• 9 years ago

How actually likely is anyone going to be able to track down a weak handheld signal that only TXs once every so often, though?

curtis5• 9 years ago

I've seen steady reporting about Puerto Rico since Hurricane Maria but it's been exactly that -- "about Puerto Rico" rather than "from Puerto Rico". Everybody seems to think it's bad, but it's really hard to say how bad. I think the major contributing factor to how the situation is being reported is that most of the cell towers (90%?) are out of action, and presumably land lines have also been seriously affected.

maxerickson2• 9 years ago

CNN is doing live shots every hour.

Hard to say how much of the island they are covering, they are there.

curtis5• 9 years ago

It's also been nearly a week. In all fairness though, it seems like the airports are either shut down or operating at greatly reduced capacity, so it's hard for reporters to get in.

joezydeco• 9 years ago

Imagine a city the size of San Diego without power for five days straight, and no immediate prospects for repair.

https://twitter.com/NOAASatellites/status/912342036975669254...

txmx2000• 9 years ago

Do not donate or help the American Red Cross.

They do almost nothing to help those affected by natural disasters. All they do is setup shelters and feed people in those shelters. They do not help rebuild.

They do an exceptionally poor job at this. Everyone knows about Katrina. In Houston this year, food sat on loading docks downtown while people starved in local shelters. The American Red Cross ran the main shelter so poorly that the city had to build an entirely new shelter and move everyone there...in the middle of a hurricane.

They don’t need your donations. They have a deal with the federal government where they get reimbursed for whatever they spend during a national disaster. The local American Red Cross chapters do this. The national organization does not provide the resources for this.

If you donate to the American Red Cross, you’re throwing your money away. The money won’t go to the local chapters. It won’t go to rebuild. It won’t go to the victims of the natural disaster. Do not donate to the American Red Cross.

KGIII6• 9 years ago

Maybe a better statement would be, "If you donate to the Red Cross then know what your donation is going to support..." Then maybe you can enumerate the complaints and, if wanted, provide citations.

As it is, I think some folks may take offense with you telling them how to spend their money. I, for one, read it as you trying to tell me what I can or cannot do.

Edited to add: I see your dead reply. The difference between my suggestions and your post is that you demand, as opposed to ask. You may notice that I'm making a point of not saying you should do something, but that pointing out that you can choose to do something.

It's received much more gracefully and people are much more open to the ideas when they are asked, instead of when they are instructed. But, it's entirely up to you how you take it and what you decide to do with it.

I've spent years learning to say could instead of should. It has helped me immensely.

mbrookes2• 9 years ago

http://www.npr.org/2015/06/03/411524156/in-search-of-the-red...

To be clear, this article is about the American Red Cross (which is not to say that other branches and other NGOs aren't as bad), but if you want to know what your donation is going to support... good luck!

zeep• 9 years ago

This is true for most charities... you are probably better off helping someone you know personally even if it's not tax deductible...

jacalata• 9 years ago

I don't think this is intrinsically true - a lot of people just don't personally know anyone who desperately needs help. Is it really overall better to be 100% efficient at getting a rich private school a new telescope instead of being 50% efficient at getting people with no safe drinking water a means of access/production of safe drinking water?

skybrian• 9 years ago

If getting maximum impact is your main concern, I'd go with GiveWell's recommendations:

http://www.givewell.org/charities/top-charities

throwaway5752• 9 years ago

Might help if you noted an alternative.

syshum2• 9 years ago

Thank You....

I cringe when ever I see People posting links to donate to the Red Cross.

Dowwie2• 9 years ago

Donny, you're out of your element!

You are so wrong about the American Red Cross. The ARC is an non-profit organization supported by a movement of volunteers from all walks of life. It gives resources to volunteers willing to help those in need. Thank god it exists.

I'm not going to convince you by arguing on HN but would gladly talk, or at least chat online, about it with you.

I took a month leave of absence from a programmer position at Merrill Lynch when Hurricane Katrina ravaged the U.S.. I signed up for a disaster response role in the American Red Cross, who dispatched me relatively quickly to a major shelter in Alexandria, Louisiana.

I can confidently tell you and anyone reading this that great good came of what was donated, at least to the population served within the jurisdiction I was stationed.

FTA• 9 years ago

I've been a Technician for many years. I have worked numerous local responses: parades, athletic events, smaller scale weather disasters. It was really rewarding, especially when a family member was actually participating in the event, and you felt awesome knowing you're keeping watch and helping to direct and dispatch help where needed. I met a lot of folks who were much older and had amazing stories. One in particular drove his RV with his wife down to LA shortly after Katrina and, using a ham radio and bag phone, helped relay a lot of the communications flowing out of the area.

Unfortunately the bar to get a General license is much higher than Technician, even without the Morse Code. There are a ton of regulations and rules you need to be familiar with that are often not related to E&M. This unfortunately kept me from ever upgrading and being of use in large scale disasters like this. I can understand to an extent why the licensing is still required; otherwise you will have these spectra flooded with people probably using them for commercial purposes with no regulation to cut them off.

Basic ham communications are still absolutely critical in major disasters. A few others have touched on this, but bandwidth and throughout for communication is increased with the advent of digital interfaces to the radios to the point that you can essentially establish a data connection over the air. Godspeed to those who make the trek.

tzs2• 9 years ago

Unfortunately the bar to get a General license is much higher than Technician, even without the Morse Code. There are a ton of regulations and rules you need to be familiar with that are often not related to E&M.

I suspect you are underestimating your abilities and/or overestimating the difficulty of the test. The test is very structured and you can take advantage of that.

If you are good on the E&M stuff, you can blow a lot of the regulation questions. The tests consist of questions drawn from 10 categories. Here's the breakdown for Technician (T), General (G), and Extra (E):

  T   G   G   E
  6   5   5   6   Commission's Rules
  3   5   5   5   Operating Procedures
  3   3   3   3   Radio Wave Propagation
  2   5   5   5   Amateur Radio Practices
  4   3   3   4   Electrical Principles
  4   3   2   6   Circuit Components
  4   3   3   8   Practical Circuits
  4   2   3   4   Signals and Emissions
  2   4   4   8   Antennas and Feed Lines
  3   2   2   1   Electrical and RF Safety

(General is listed twice because I made that table just a couple months before the General test was due to be updated, and I now don't remember which column was for which revision. Extra was revised last year so the counts may be off for that too).

For Technician and General you have to get 26 out of 35 to pass. For Extra it is 37 out of 50.

So, for general, you get to blow 9 questions. Even if you miss everything in the rules questions, that's only 5 out of your budget of 9.

Furthermore, the questions in the pool for each category are further divided into several groups. You get exactly one question from each group. The 5 groups in the rules category on the General exam are:

• General Class control operator frequency privileges; primary and secondary allocations

• Antenna structure limitations; good engineering and good amateur practice; beacon operation; prohibited transmissions; retransmitting radio signals

• Transmitter power regulations; data emission standards

• Volunteer Examiners and Volunteer Examiner Coordinators; temporary identification

• Control categories; repeater regulations; harmful interference; third party rules; ITU regions; automatically controlled digital station

You can almost certainly pick one or two of those groups and learn enough to answer the questions for those groups without much trouble. For example if you can just memorize the lower and upper frequencies of the major HF bands you'll known enough to answer the majority of questions in the "General Class control operator frequency privileges; primary and secondary allocations" group.

If you haven't actually given General a try, I'd recommend going to hamexam.org and/or hamstudy.org, and doing some practice tests. You can also review the entire question pool. I bet you'll find that in a weekend or two of practice in your spare time you'll find you are passing with reasonable frequency, and with a little more time you'll get to the point where you pass enough to be confident in taking the actual test.

If you make an account at those sites they will keep track of stats, and at least one of them, I believe, will give you stats by category and group so you can figure out what areas to concentrate on.

lutorm• 9 years ago

I went to get my U.S. Technician license (I've had a Swedish CEPT2 license for a long time but never been very active) after studying a bit online, and after passing that they asked if I wanted to try the General test too, since I was already there. I did, and I passed. (Did the same with Extra, but didn't pass that one.)

I would certainly not be comfortable with actually operating a HF rig without doing some prep work, but it seems to me that an active ham would have a reasonable chance of squeezing by the General test if they gave it a chance.

mmaunder2• 9 years ago

I would say technician to general isn't such a big leap. Extra felt like it was a big leap - targeted at electrical engineers. I did all 3 in one day - was trying to prove something to myself I guess. If you're technical and are interested in the subject it'll just take you a few hours to get general and HF so so much fun!!

dlgeek• 9 years ago

They got rid of the morse requirement for General years ago.

t3h2mas• 9 years ago

What are people using to study for HAM licenses these days? Any modern resources to know about?

kw713• 9 years ago

There are lots of practice apps on websites and smartphone apps that give flashcards from the question pool. Some people memorize the answers, but you should look into why the ones you don't know are what they are.

elihu• 9 years ago

The test questions and answers are public, so the simplest/cheapest thing is to just read through them all. Aside from that, I think the ARRL puts out some study guides that are a bit easier to digest.

jlgaddis• 9 years ago

You can buy books on the ARRL web site that contain every question -- along with the answer! -- to every question you could possibly be asked on the tests.

If you just want to get the license as quickly/easily as possible, get a copy of the book (hell, the question pools are probably even online, I'm sure) and spend a weekend memorizing the answers before you go take the test.

If you want to actually understand the material (which I highly recommend), then spend the extra time to research the questions and answers.

I don't think it's ever been easier to get a ham radio license.

tzs2• 9 years ago

If you want to actually learn the relevant material, but tailored toward passing the exam, the ARRL books are very good [1] [2] [3].

The exam structure is quite conductive to just memorizing the answers [4], but it is really better if you try to have some understanding so I recommend the books.

You can take practice exams, or drill with flash cards, or review the entire question pools at hamexam.org or hamstudy.org. Make accounts at those sites and they will keep stats on how you do for each subsection of the test questions so you can figure out your strengths and weaknesses.

There are mobile apps for iOS and Android that provide functionality similar to hamexam.org and hamstudy.org.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/ARRL-Ham-Radio-License-Manual/dp/1625...

[2] https://www.amazon.com/General-Class-License-Manual-Spiral/d...

[3] https://www.amazon.com/Extra-Class-License-Manual-Spiral/dp/...

[3] See this comment for some more on the exam structure: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15353793

stannouskj4vwg• 9 years ago

I made these tech flash cards for a group of elementary school kids. I downloaded the questions and processed them with a small python program that generated latex (I can provide the source code if anyone needs it)... They're at http://www.employees.org/~stannous/tech.pdf

The first test is not hard... a couple of 9 year old kids passed it after studying a little.

krupan• 9 years ago

https://hamstudy.org is really nice

nickysielicki3• 9 years ago

For studying for the test, KB6NU's study guides and hamstudy.org, without any other resources even coming close.

For actual knowledge that you might find useful and interesting but don't have to really memorize, ARRL books.

westurner6• 9 years ago

Zello trended up during hurricane Harvey:

http://zello.com/

Push the button for instant, radio-style talk on any Wi-Fi or data plan.
Access public and private channels.
Choose button for push-to-talk.
[...] available for Android, BlackBerry, iPhone, Windows PC and Windows Phone 8

...

Connects to existing LMR radio systems
All Radio Technologies
Interconnect conventional and trunked analog FM, ETSI DMR, ETSI TETRA, MotoTRBO, APCO P25 FDMA, and NXDN.
https://zellowork.com/lmr

They probably need some batteries, turbines, and solar cell chargers to get WiFi online?

westurner6• 9 years ago

Probably also worth mentioning Shelterpods and Responsepods for disaster relief deployments to this crowd; they're designed to take a lot of wind and rain:

https://store.advancedsheltersystemsinc.com/?___store=shelte...

https://store.advancedsheltersystemsinc.com/responsepod/vip/...

westurner6• 9 years ago

A button on routers for emergency adhoc mode would be super useful?

westurner6• 9 years ago

There's also the Nearby Connections API (for Android only at this point AFAIU) which'll use any radio chips on a device.

https://developers.google.com/nearby/connections/overview

westurner6• 9 years ago

This phone needs no battery

http://www.techradar.com/news/this-phone-needs-no-battery

[...] “We’ve built what we believe is the first functioning cellphone that consumes almost zero power,” said Shyam Gollakota, an associate professor in the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering at the UW and co-author on a paper describing the technology.
Instead, the phone pulls power from its environment - either from ambient radio signals harvested by an antenna, or ambient light collected by a solar cell the size of a grain of rice. The device consumes just 3.5 microwatts of power during use.
[...] “And if every house has a Wi-Fi router in it, you could get battery-free cellphone coverage everywhere."

(Also trending on HackerNews right now: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15350799 )

atomicthumbs2• 9 years ago

That's not at all useful, nor is it relevant.

kaiwen1• 9 years ago

Why would there be a preference for ham radio over satellite phones?

LVB2• 9 years ago

I'd guess: 1. probably easier to manage, with a central net coordinator and many remotes. 2. there is lots of equipment 3. cheaper

justin662• 9 years ago

The satellites over the Caribbean are probably pretty swamped right now, too, and operating at or past their capacity. That's just a wild guess but if these past few weeks wouldn't put them past their capacity I don't know what would.

wepple3• 9 years ago

I addition to what LVD said, Broadcast: I can say something and a good number of people will likely hear, and can relay.

slr5556• 9 years ago

A few people have said that going from Technician to General or General to Extra is difficult. It is not totally easy but I did find a tool when I was studying for my Extra exam (passed). I don't post to much here so if I am out of bounds please let me know and I'll remove the comment. I used a tool called HamTestOnline, https://www.hamradiolicenseexam.com, and it was a huge help. I paid for the service and I am in no way associated with them except as a customer. I worked in technical training for 20 years and this guys system is as good as online training systems we shelled out well into six figures for.

Like I said if posting a link here is bad form tell me and I'll take it down lickety split. Only want to share something I found very useful.

slr5556• 9 years ago

One thing about HAM that I didn't see in perusing the comments is how many tools HAM operators have developed that integrate with the internet. There are a bunch of tools that let you start out on HF and hit a receiver or repeater that puts your traffic into the internet. In an environment with the right kind of repeaters you can hit the internet with a handheld (Puerto Rico likely has had it's repeaters decimated with all other towers). On HF you can go around the world to hit a link to the internet. I imagine the Red Cross and ARRL will be selecting an HF mode and band to take the shortest hop they can into more modern data systems.

The secret sauce in HF is that unlike the web, conditions matter to the operator. Things like sunspot activity, the position of the day/night line, if you are near water etc. can greatly affect your ability to successfully communicate.

DXpeditions, which are trips HAMs take with their gear to try to hit very distant stations are often based in island locations because HF tends to propagate significantly better with the antenna is near water as opposed to irregular ground.

I would just say to all of you who are into tech as I imagine HN readers to be, to give HAM a try. A lot of us are old and HAM sites regularly feature a list of "silent keys" because so many of the hardcore operators are dying off. Yes it's a bit antiquated but the younger generation will be able to marry all the amazing things you've invented to HAM to serve populations where the new tech either hasn't gone or gets knocked out as in the current crisis. For so many of you engineers it will be easy, like dusting off your first Circuits text. Yes, the regs are a drag to learn but I bet the average HN reader has done things that are way more challenging.

Have fun!

brians• 9 years ago

Ham.

slr5556• 9 years ago

Yep

atomicthumbs2• 9 years ago

DXpeditions aren't based in island locations because HF propagates better over water, they're based in island locations because those are the locations that people haven't tended to log, as they're entities that don't have any people (or have people, but no ham operators) living on them and thus need to be "activated" for someone to count them as contacted.

slr5556• 9 years ago

This a lift from a radio club slide on propagation:

Types of Propagation

●Ionospheric waves (sky waves): Main portion of the radiation that leaves the antenna at angles above the horizon

●Tropospheric waves: Radiation kept close to the earth’s surface due to bending in the lower atmosphere (higher HF or lower VHF)

●Ground waves (surface waves): Radiation directly affected by the earth’s surface

   - Earth-guided surface wave

   - Vertically polarized and absorbtion increases with freq

   - **Travels much further over water than over land**

So I agree it’s not the sole criteria for dxers. But they a better chance of hitting some distant stations for QSOs with propagation over water. I suspect it’s why the am stations in the Jersey swamps have their towers over water.

Cerium• 9 years ago

I have both a question and a comment. I got my license (Technician and General on the same day) about a year ago. I have not once pressed transmit on a radio. I guess I don't know where to start. If you have any advice I would like to hear it.

Anyone with an EE background should be able to study up on https://hamstudy.org/ for a few hours a night for a week and pass without trouble.

wepple3• 9 years ago

+1 got my ticket, bought a baofeng, unboxed it and put it in a draw. I'm not sure how to get involved?

Loraham.org does seem a cool use to tinker with.

slr5556• 9 years ago

Older hams willing to teach new hams to do what your asking are referred Robert as Elmer’s. It’s hard to teach throwing tennis ball over a branch to string a dipole in a book. It’s hard to know with big project if you’ve screwed it up without help. The value of an Elmer.

The other and perhaps more modern approach is that hams are prolific content producers. Almost any topic will have loads of good YouTube coverage. Since many hams build there stuff there are a lot of really good answers to questions out there.

Finally, if you have an HT go online and look up local repeaters and program your radio accordingly. Commuting is a good time to hear vhf/uhf folks. When the time is right call CQ and try a contact. It gets easier the more you do it.

fapjacks5• 9 years ago

Just buy a Baofeng UV-5R, find a local repeater, and start yakking on the radio. You should have a local repeater which holds semi-regular "nets" (meetings). You can start checking in on those nets if you don't want to start talking right away socially.

unoti• 9 years ago

Some ideas for getting going:

1. Find a local repeater and jump in! Before long you'll hear a topic you know about and can contribute to the discussion. I learned about #4 and #5 below like this.

2. Most areas have some kind of daily chat net organized at scheduled times, which is a great time to check in.

3. Keep your radio with you tuned to 146.520 and turned on when you're driving around. Many hams monitor this frequency. Listen in and periodically transmit your call sign and ask for another station to come back. It's exciting to make your first contact without a repeater.

4. Give yourself a reason to use the radio. Look for activities you might enjoy. I got into SOTA. It's an activity where you climb onto nearby mountains and make contacts to score points. If you tune into 146.520 on weekends in the mountains you're likely to hear and participate in some activity there.

5. Consider blending ham with other hobbies, such as radio controlled aircraft or modifying routers to do long range broadband communications.

6. Learn how to use your radio as a scanner. Then learn how to scan the repeater tone frequency so you can chat back when you do find an active repeater. This is a good emergency skill if you're traveling and don't know the repeater frequencies where you're at. (It's important to know the ham frequency ranges on 2m when you do this because there are active and forbidden frequencies right at the edges of what is legal for Hams.)

[4] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summits_on_the_Air

[5] http://www.broadband-hamnet.org/

SomeStupidPoint• 9 years ago

How do I get started in this?

I've always been fascinated, but it's not clear -- I believe there's some kind of license required (to be a good citizen), but I've never been sure how to go about getting that.

jeffwass• 9 years ago

If you're in the USA start with ARRL. Find a local HAM club and go to some meetings.

http://www.arrl.org/getting-licensed

Find a club : http://www.arrl.org/find-a-club

wdfx• 9 years ago

I bought an RTL SDR just a few weeks ago off the back of getting interested in listening in on various web SDRs (furthermore, the first of which I visited was linked to a HN thread about a Russian numbers station).

Now I can pick up local signals and listen/decode them and get a sense of what the spectrum (in my case between about 60MHz and 2.1GHz for the range of my receiver) is used for.

Running the software on Linux is super simple, a graphical receiver programme such as gqrx is quite nice to play with, and versions exist in most distros package managers.

Further to all of the above, I looked at the RSGB site about UK licensing, and they have example exams for all license levels. The first exam I looked at I self-scored at about 85% without even doing any reading at all - though I have some basic knowledge of electronics (and a tiny bit about radio) already. In the UK there is also OFCOM which manages the local legalities of radio reception and transmission.

beala• 9 years ago

There are 3 classes of license, and each consecutive class gives you more privileges than the last. From least privileged to most:

1. Technician: Access to frequencies that let you contact people in your city.

2. General: Access to frequencies that bounce off the ionosphere and let you contact people all around the world.

3. Amateur extra: Access to more frequencies yet, but none of these frequencies give you abilities past what General can do (worldwide contacts).

I recommend going straight to general. It strikes a good test-difficulty to privileges-granted ratio.

The easiest way to study is to just memorize the answers to all the questions. Yes, that's right: the licensing test question bank is published and it's not hard to memorize the entire thing. This site has flashcards and practice exams: https://hamstudy.org/ If you practice for 15 to 30 minutes a day, you can be ready for your general test in less than a week.

Once you're ready, find a testing site in your area and go: http://www.arrl.org/find-an-amateur-radio-license-exam-sessi...

Then buy (maybe even build) a radio and have fun!

What can do you once you have your license? Off the top of my head:

- Talk with people in distant countries.

- Build radios and test them out.

- Build antennas and test them out.

- Make contacts through satellites that have ham radio repeaters.

- Join an emergency communications org like ARES (http://www.arrl.org/ares).

- Talk with people in different countries using digital modes (like a very early chat room i guess?)

- Make your friends get licenses and use it for comms when backpacking, rafting, whatever.

- Make contacts by bouncing signals off the moon (ok this one is hard).

alex_hitchins• 9 years ago

I've taken the foundation course and am starting my intermediate training this weekend. For me, amateur radio gets very interesting when you start listening out for satellite transmissions, including reaching the ISS.

It's such a fun subject and as you say, lots of aspects to it that would interest most people with a technical bent.

tlrobinson2• 9 years ago

Small pet peeve, but it's "ham", not "HAM".

aidos• 9 years ago

My business partner's father (ZL2AL) passed last year and I know he'd be chuffed to see all this HAM talk on HN :-)

He demoed the process to me last time I saw him (back in New Zealand). It was amazing to see the speed with which the he (and the other operators) could relay messages around the world.

He wrote a bit about his many adventures on his blog (http://www.zl2al.com/). I guess there may even be other HAM operators on here that knew him.

ejcx• 9 years ago

If you don't get your technicians license and have the opportunity to, I think you're crazy. It's something in tech that doesn't get enough love anymore. It's immensely valuable and actually a fun change of pace from SaaS.

It takes about 2-3 hours of studying and you can pretty much keep it for life. KK4PPF. QSL?

mmaunder2• 9 years ago

I'd love to help but 3 weeks is a huge commitment and I can't leave my job that long. I think they may get a tremendous response from the retired folks in the ham community. Anyone have data on HF frequencies being used and if remote relay assistance is helpful? Or any other technical data on the effort?

WT1J

grandalf• 9 years ago

I've been a ham since I was a kid. There are so many different, interesting things to explore.

These days I find high speed telegraphy pretty relaxing and meditative, and I have a few ongoing RF projects that keep me going even when everything else seems trend-driven and silly.

And let's face it, radio wave propagation still feels magical. I could go on and on. Glad to see some PR even though it's for a sad reason.

brian-armstrong• 9 years ago

Being a Ham radio operator sounds kind of romantic on paper, but then you try it and realize that 90% of the other operators are curmudgeonly old Trump supporter types. Not really any fun chances for discourse when the person on the other side is pining for the return of Jim Crow laws

uabstraction2• 9 years ago

The great thing about ham radio is that if you don't like what you're hearing, you can just keep spinning the dial. In my experience (NYC metro area), I hear very little politics on the ham bands. There are also CW and digital modes which tend to draw people with more than five brain cells. I know there are a couple infamous HF frequencies where some reality-challenged folks tend to congregate, but there is much more to the hobby than that QRM.

cjsuk• 9 years ago

Perhaps annoyingly you’re spot on. The “local net” near me in London is full of Brexit breathing Farage supporters whining about their XYL. The clubs aren’t any better. It took forever to get my license sorted because of this as well. I was new blood that didn’t want to drink beer, play with black box rigs or bitch about the wife.

So I stick to 40m CW. People just want a QSO or two and then go back to playing with their oscilloscopes and soldering irons. It’s too hard to rag chew on CW.

Animats3• 9 years ago

This indicates how bad things are in Puerto Rico. None of this is necessary for Texas or Florida. But Puerto Rico has lost most of its infrastructure, and it's an island. They have to get the ports cleared of debris and functioning before stuff can be brought in. They need basic communications just to organize the early stages of recovery.

It's going to be slow. In the domestic US, within three days after a disaster, the Interstates usually have been cleared and trucks are bringing in supplies. Fairly quickly, the big-box retailers like Wal-Mart will be back up and restocked with necessities. Puerto Rico isn't going to be like that. They need what amounts to a military invasion. The military brings its own infrastructure and can cold-start on bare ground if they have to.

Another big problem - the money system is down. No credit card processing. Few ATMs working, and those are mostly out of cash by now. This is the downside of the cashless economy.

Animats3• 9 years ago

Update: Port of San Juan is open, 3000 containers of relief supplies have been unloaded by Crowley Marine alone, but there's too much debris on the roads to get semitrailers out of the port yet. Diesel fuel is in stock at tank farms but not getting distributed because roads are blocked.

Bulldozers and front end loaders will deal with that, but not instantly.

[1] https://www.wsj.com/articles/puerto-rico-port-reopens-but-re...

Animats3• 9 years ago

Update 2: Crowley has 10,000 containers stuck at the port, but only 20% of the truck drivers have been located. With cell service down, nobody can call them. Getting Diesel to fuel stations is a problem. 11 tankers are inbound, and 100 fuel trucks have been sent out from San Juan. But damaged gas stations without power can't use the fuel.

The further from San Juan, the worse it gets.

jabl• 9 years ago

Semi-offtopic, any city-dwelling HAM's out there? I've been thinking it would be cool hobby to get into, but I live in a condo. My father is a ham, and he has this long antenna up in the trees across his yard (must be close to 50m long), for HF I guess (he mostly does CW, AFAIK).

So it seems a bit pointless if all I can do is operate some VHF band equipment with an indoor antenna, or maybe sticking a short-ish antenna out of the window, with a range of maybe of few tens of km's?

What am I missing? If there are city-dwelling hams out there, what do they do?

tinco• 9 years ago

First time I saw a HAM installation was when I bought a lab power supply on Craigslist. I went to pick it up and the guy lived on the third floor of a 5 story building with his family. One room was entirely filled with radio equipment. Some big cables went through his window and up the building. He told me his landlord was OK with him putting antennae on the roof of the building.

TeMPOraL2• 9 years ago

There are.

One thing you need to do is to check out if you have roof access and rights to put something on it. Depending on the situation you have with your flat, you could already have all that's needed to be able to put antennas on the roof! For instance, in my country (Poland), being an owner of a flat gives you rights to access the roof and put some small stuff on it.

If you happen to be renting, or otherwise can't use the roof, then you still probably can put a smaller antenna on your window or balcony.

The general principle is this: the higher you can put your antennas, the better.

Dowwie2• 9 years ago

The ARC is an non-profit organization supported by a movement of volunteers from all walks of life. It gives resources to volunteers willing to help those in need. Thank god it exists.

I took a month leave of absence from a programmer position at Merrill Lynch when Hurricane Katrina ravaged the U.S. I signed up for a disaster response role in the American Red Cross, who dispatched me relatively quickly to a major shelter in Alexandria, Louisiana.

Gandhi said, "You have to be the change you wish to see in the world.". This could not be more true than as a volunteer. A mass response to a disaster of Puerto Rican proportions will be loosely coordinated. Supply chains will operate far from optimal. Volunteers who recognize an inefficiency will either do nothing about it or assume the leadership role required to reduce the inefficiency. A volunteer experience like this is largely what you make of it. Unlike other entrepreneurial endeavors, the ARC gives you the resources to do something great.

jimhefferon• 9 years ago

Please folks. It is not spelled HAM. It is spelled ham.

American Red Cross Asks for Ham Radio Operators for Puerto Rico Relief Effort

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