Ham Radio?

[MISph1t]

I have my general as well. Mostly use it helping with the memorial marathon and parades. I’ve played around with the digital modes a bit and done a fair amount of Parks On The Air hunting. Working on setting up a portable station to do some POTA activations this summer.

ETA: callsign is K5RAG

 

[Trung Si Ma]

AC5D, Extra Class. Mostly VHF (EME, Grids, Counties)

 

[Haukehaien]

Technician, KC5VMN. Been thinking about getting General, although I haven't operated as much as I used to.

 

[CST]

Been in the hobby since the early 90s....Active here in Logan County and also a member of the Edmond club. N6CST

 

[Fr Mulcahy]

Got anyone into ham radio around? Bought a Baofeng years ago just to listen to emergency weather but been kicking around the idea of getting my license and stepping up to a better radio.

Extra class here. I mostly listen. When I transmit, it's FT8 or WSPR.

Although I did have a Morse code buddy for a while...

 

[KOPBET]

Formerly extra class since it expired, but I don't like to post a call sign because it gives away too much information like name and address.

 

[p238shooter]

Extra Class here also.

 

[SiGArmed]

So I'm def interested in, but what do yall do to enjoy it? Just look for "pen pals" to chat with? Listen in to cool stuff? (space station), I'm thinking about going for a 50w I can put in my 4Runner and mess around with.

 

[OKCHunter]

So I'm def interested in, but what do yall do to enjoy it? Just look for "pen pals" to chat with? Listen in to cool stuff? (space station), I'm thinking about going for a 50w I can put in my 4Runner and mess around with.

There are a lot of things to do with Ham radio. As mentioned above, the local clubs support community activities like the memorial run, etc. with radio communication. I work the Edmond 4th of July parade and Cycle 66 events. The events typical use the repeater systems which a handheld transmitter or a mobile radio like you want can easily hit the repeaters at 5 or 10 watts. The real fun I have is chasing DX stations worldwide for various certificates / awards on the HF bands. I do this with a base station, antenna tuner, amplifier, and multi-band vertical antenna in the backyard or a G5RV wire antenna in my attic. Voice communication on the HF bands is also fun. I’ve met a lot of people around the country with interesting life stories and learned things about thier local area that I had not heard. Worldwide voice communication on HF is mostly just trading signal reports but occasionally there will be a Ham that wants a short communication regarding the equipment being used. Digital voice communication opens up the ability to have conversations worldwide and Hams do have conversations in that mode. I did hear about a Japanese node / room a few days ago where Japanese Hams and English Speaking Hams meet to help Japanese Hams practice speaking english. Ham radio really is the original form of social media / forums.

 

[kingfish]

I have my extra class. I was very active in a local ham club many years ago, but not any more. I also have my FCC radiotelephone license as well so I was mostly interested in working on repeater systems and tinkering with all types of data modes and antenna systems. Haven't done any of that for several years now. The local club repeaters are pretty dead now days. Used to do some storm chasing until I started running into traffic jams from all the other chasers and tornado tourists. I had a lot of fun doing amateur TV. We had a 900mhz. ATV repeater and would have a weekly net. We even did a live broadcast of a disaster simulation at the old Rockwell building at the Tulsa airport. The people in the EOC downtown were able to watch in real time what was happening on the ground. They were blown away.
I was never much of a rag chewer. My main interest was dxing in the 10m, 6m, and 2m bands. That is only good during solar maxim cycles so it has been pretty dead for the last several years. We are headed for another peak in 2024 so I may get active again. When conditions are right you don't need a big fancy antenna system or high wattage to talk to the other side of the world. I would look for a local ham club and just start talking with members and see which way your interests turn.