Do a Song and video about Ham Radio! I think you guys could really make it very exciting.

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Permalink Reply by Link on June 22, 2009 at 9:10pm

tell me Mark-- it's basically like talking on a phone to anyone who'll listen...kinda like an audio chat room full of...who? truckers and grandpas? school me man. what am I missing?

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Permalink Reply by Mark Perkins on June 22, 2009 at 10:36pm

I will try to give a good brief description of what ham radio is all about. Yes there are plenty of grandpas a few truckers (but not like cb though) a bunch of old guys and young guys alike with I will say very ample midsections! (Myself included on that one) Several lovely ladies also are hams as well, most the wives of hams.

The thing that is exciting about ham radio is the different people that you meet, they come from all walks of life doctors,lawyers, cops, factory workers, truck drivers, salesman of all sorts, and it just goes on and on. They all are equal and become very good friends help each other out with different aspects of the hobby like antenna projects, working on radios, tower work...just whatever they are into at the time.

We have several ways of communicating like we use repeaters which is for local talking. For example there is a repeater we use on the WRAL TV tower that we use and I am in Pikeville just north of Goldsboro and I can talk to guys in Raleigh, Coats, Angier,Fuquay Varina and around a vast local area. After doing this for some time you get to know these guys and girls very well and you join a club and get together and have meeting go to hamfests (basically a fleamarket for ham gear and social get together) and do field day (field day you operate for a 24 hour period under emergency power (generators) and make a many contacts as you can) a couple of times a year.

Then we also communicate on HF (high frequency) and talk all around the world! Doing voice, CW (morse code), Digital communication, satellites and several more.

Ok, now I know i have just gone on too much but hard to explain sometimes when people do not really know about it. The reason that I think it would be great for you guys to do a video and song on ham radio is because of the people who are in the hobby they are quite the characters and i really think you would understand if exposed to it. Plus I think you guys would really spice things up a bit and that would be so cool.

We are having the summer Field day coming up this weekend if you would like to come out and see it first hand. We are having ours for the club I'm in at Fuquay Varina I know that isnt too far from you I dont think.
So, if you could drop by and see it first hand you could make a decision yeah of neah! No problem if you dont come totally understand. But, if you do decide to come it is on June 27th and 28th we will be there for 24 hours! There will be good food, CORNHOLE, catch and release fish pond and of course pleanty of operating on HAM RADIO! The address is 8514 Purfoy Rd. Fuquay Varina. You can go to our website and look at the map for it with any info you might need www.southwakearc.com . If you go ask for me Mark Perkins my callsign is NC4MP everyone will know who i am.

Also if you have a scanner pop this frequency in it 147.105 and just listen to the different people and conversations that happen during the course of the day and night. That too will give you a good feel for what Ham Radio is all about.


Thanks for the reply and hope you guys decide to do this i think it would be awesome!


Mark Perkins
NC4MP

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Permalink Reply by Breanna C (the Asrai) on July 7, 2009 at 11:56pm

This would be an awesome idea! Maybe even make it a kind of funny, educational song or like, a spoof about amateur radio. It wouldn't be hard to get props with Mark around, I'm sure. :p

If you look it up on Wikipedia it pretty much covers it. Along with it being like a public phone line, it's also a great tool for emergency communications and if you can get higher frequencies, you can make contacts with people around the world. Hams like to contact people and exchange contact (QSL) cards. There are also "contests" where hams try to make as many contacts as possible in a span of time and receive recognition and sometimes prizes for it.

Unfortunately, most hams are of the elderly type, but that's why it would be great if you guys could raise awareness for our generation. (I'm 16 and both of my parents are hams, amateur extra class. My little brother will study for his test as soon as he learns how to read better.) It's basically like CB radio, except you get a lot more frequencies and you have to take a test to be licensed by the FCC.

Breanna
AE7BG

P.S. Mark, I know what you mean about it being hard to explain. =/

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