VK3APC
VK3RMC

Moorabbin and  District Radio Club Inc.  Beginners and FAQ

Links

• Contact Us details.
• Committee
• Officers of the Association.
• Access to the large pictorial section of the website.
• Want to get an Amateur Licence? Find out how in this section.
• QSL cards
• Clubs nets with times and frequencies.
• The annual Hamfest the Club runs.
• AGM
• Awards
• The Library
• APC News
• Membership fees and application form

2  Meetings - Gives details of the meetings times and purpose.

3  Facilities - This area is more technical and gives access to the details about Club facilities. 

4  Beginners and FAQ (this page) to assist the new comer to get started.

5  The Home page carries news and timely information about things that are happening around the club.

From the WIA website. (with some changed)

What is Amateur Radio?

It is many different things to the individual two million plus people throughout the world who enjoy this multi-faceted communications hobby. Below is a summary of how it began and has kept with the times to remain an enjoyable leisure time activity.

  Who are radio amateurs?

They are ordinary citizens, including some of your neighbours or work colleagues, and people in more than 100 countries. They are radio amateurs - also known as ham operators, or amateur radio operators. Many years ago it was common to hear the description "From newspaper boys to Kings" in reference to Amateur Radio - and it simply meant that radio amateurs range from newspaper boys (street sellers of daily newspapers) to Kings, with royalty being among the ranks of ham operators. In today's terms we can say that Amateur Radio is enjoyed by people from all walks of life, the young and not so young, and the abled and disabled, who meet on the airwaves for a chat or engage in other interesting activities.

  International friendships!

One of the marvellous things about the hobby is that because radio signals don't stop at country borders - being a radio amateur is like having an international passport. You can visit the world on the airwaves, make casual acquaintances or life-long friendships, without even leaving home. Many long-time radio amateurs will tell you that some of their best friends are people they have never met in person.

Around the world radio amateurs have set up their own transmitting and receiving stations at home, in their cars, and even use hand-held radios to keep in touch while on foot. The friends they make could be someone across town, in a far-flung exotic country, or even a cosmonaut on the orbiting Russian space station MIR. Yes, they and their US astronaut counterparts on the Space Shuttle missions are radio amateurs too!

  How do radio amateurs contact each other?

• Amateur Operators arrange scheduals (scheds). They agree to meet on a particular frequency and particular time and date.
• Amateur Operators join in Nets arranged by Clubs and other organisations.   These are like scheds by are with a number of stations, usually with a control station who controls procedings in a number of ways. Also see Young HAMS net.
• Calling CQ on HF frequencies, or announcing your presence on VHF and UHF repeaters.

When the hobby began 100 years ago the only form of communication radio amateurs (they were then known as amateur wireless experimenters) was Morse code, the same method used by the telegraph. This form of communication has survived to still be in use today.

Up until the 1920's wireless telegraphy was the only way to transmit and receive information on the airwaves. But radio amateurs pioneered voice communications in the mid-1920s at the time when broadcast stations began.

Although the transmission and reception techniques have changed over the years with technical developments, voice communication remains the major method of communicating on the amateur bands.

  Emergency Communications

In times of natural disasters, radio amateurs throughout the world provide support communications, and sometimes the only communications immediately after a disaster. When cyclone Tracey hit Darwin in 1974 the only communication out of the area was by a radio amateur who hooked his transceiver up to a car battery, and let the world know that Darwin needed help.

Also in Australia, emergency communications have been provided after numerous bush fires including Black Friday 1939, and Ash Wednesday 1983. Another occasion was after the Newcastle Earthquake in 1989.

Often after a disaster normal telephone systems are damaged or jammed as anxious relatives try and call an area. The radio systems of emergency services are also extremely busy, and additional or supplementary communication can be readily provided by radio amateurs using their own equipment, and skills.

The role of the Wireless Institute Civil Emergency Network (WICEN) to supply communications in times of emergency is recognised in the State Disaster Plan. WICEN is an organised group of radio amateurs who regularly engage in training exercises, and provide communication for public events such as car rallies, the great Victorian Bike Ride, and the Red Cross Murray River Canoe Marathons.   OxFam Trailwalker event.

 Packet Radio

In more recent times radio amateurs experimented and pioneered the use of computer signals on the radio frequencies spectrum. Long before the Internet was born, they used a special modem between their radio transceivers (combination transmitter/receiver) and computer. This type of signal is called Packet Radio, and enables users to contact other stations, locally or overseas, and even access special bulletin boards. Packet Radio is extremely popular.

 Television

The sending of pictures via radio was being done by radio amateurs long before television began in Australia in 1956. This interesting aspect of Amateur Radio has several variations, from single-frame pictures through to full-color real-time video that can be received on a domestic television receiver with UHF capabilities. There is also software available that permits fax to be sent over the radio.

 Satellites

Soon after the launch by the former Soviet Union of Sputnik 1, the world's first man-made orbiting satellite, radio amateurs entered the space age with the OSCAR (Orbiting Spacecraft Carrying Amateur Radio) series of satellites. The tradition of designing and building amateur satellites continues today. They are being launched as a piggyback load when major communications satellites are put into orbit. International contacts are possible by sending a signal to a satellite and having it relayed back to earth providing communications over many thousands of kilometres.

  The Fox, the Hounds, and Amateur Radio

The methods used to determine, at a distance, the source of a transmitted signal, are broadly as direction finding (DF), and have application in navigation systems. But radio amateurs also effectively use DF when they take part in a popular activity called Foxhunting. This involves locating within a time limit a small hidden transmitter.

In some countries DFing is called Radio Sport, and involves a lot of footwork over reasonably lengthy courses, and is likened to a mix of DFing and another sport - orienteering. However Foxhunting in Australia often includes travel in a car, and DFing a hidden transmitter while on the move. Then the Foxhunters, or Hounds as they're known, become pedestrians to discover the hiding spot of the transmitter, and you guessed it is called the Fox. Foxhunts can also be held over relatively short courses requiring Hounds to do all of their DFing while on foot.

 How is it done?

Foxhunting basically uses a directional beam antenna, both vehicle mounted or out-the-window, and receiver to DF the general hiding spot of the Fox. Then most Hounds use a special receiver called a "Sniffer" with variably sensitivity, to virtually sniff out the Fox. Numerous cunning tricks are played by those hiding a Fox as they seek to elude the Hounds.

Regular Foxhunting Championship series are held all over Australia during the Foxhunting season. A dozen or teams join in. Enthusiastic newcomers are often able to find the Fox ahead of some of the more experienced competitors.

 QRP is a real personal Challenge

Would you expect the light from a small torch (equal to the energy radiated by five candles, or about 50 with the use of a reflector) which is switched on in Melbourne, to be seen in Sydney, Brisbane, or America? Of course not! Yet in radio terms such a thing is possible and happens as one of the many facets of Amateur Radio.

This is the world of "QRP" or Low Power Operation, where the goal is to reach as far as you can with as little transmitter power as possible.

Why? Yes, it seems strange when 100 watts is the norm, to want to transmit with five watts or much less - milliwatts. But it is the challenge of making your antenna as efficient a radiator as possible. You may also like the challenge of making your own radios. QRP is a challenge to succeed with limited resources, and for many of its devotees it satisfies their desire to experiment, learn, and have fun.

If part or all of this sounds like it's something that might interest you. Contact the WIA or you nearest radio club. A full list of Australian Radio clubs can be found by following the "radio Clubs" link at this WebSite.   

In Australia the Government agency responsible for managing the Radio Spectrum and the Amateur Radio Service in the Australian Communication and Media Authority.  ACMA