@Blacky I have a cheap crossman pellet/bb pump gun. Bought it to take care of a gofer problem in my wife’s garden. Nothing fancy with simple iron sights but can easily hit soda cans at 15 yards (furthest I’ve tried). Using it now to teach my 6 year old son to shoot.
@Fizbin I played paintball in thick woods in high school. Definitely an adrenaline rush and sure hurts to get hit at close range. I only had a 10 shot pistol that I borrowed while everyone else had rifles. Learned a lot about cover, tactics and shooting on the move! Would love to try some simunition training some day.
Got a couple break barrel pellet rifles, .177 and .22. 7x and 9x scopes, and a great substitute for range day, shooting 50-70 yards at home.
Had too many squirrels for awhile…not any more. The one’s that remain are well behaved.
I was cutting trees one year by a woodland paintball area. Looked awesome using our natural terrain around here, same terrain the Whigs used against the Brits and Tories 250 years ago.
How far a signal goes depends on what frequency and propagation mode you use. For example, on VHF, 144MHz, I can bounce a signal off the moon. On HF (3MHz - 29MHz), signals “bounce” off the ionosphere and keep bouncing until someone hears it, or it dissipates. I’ve heard my OWN SIGNAL wrap around the world and come back to my own receiver.
I haven’t done a fox hunt in years - I know they can be tons of fun.
The FCC no longer issues CB radio licenses. CB radio frequencies do not overlap with amateur radio frequencies and operating practices are generally quite different.
Yes, we speak with operators in foreign countries quite often. There one guy over in Slovenia I can regularly talk with using the radio in my car with a 7 foot whip antenna. Pretty amazing.
So, you still do the old school photography? I used to have a darkroom in my house. I was able to play around with a Hassleblad 500 something? and I used to carry an old Rolleiflex TLR… good times.
Switched to digital, but still miss darkroom stuff.
Wow >> I had a Nikon 35 mm ( S.L.R. ) with a few lenses. I never developed. I did slides and if I had a good pic I’d have prints made. I have thousands of slides and a projector. Other than a few special effects the the old S.L.R can do, even the smart phones take incredible pics automatically.
As a 10 year ish old boy, I did talking to my friends and use the call sign.
I had it all setup in my room with a DC power supply and my antenna out the window.
We lived in Cincinnati and I had a little girlfriend across the river in Kentucky I had never met.
She had that KY accent went she talked, I thought it was dreamy… puppy love.
I remember my first love, I was 8 years old. Her name was Sandy, she had red hair in pigtails and freckles. She looks like the little girl on the
Waltons show. From then on “ Forget about it “
Well, that’s just a receiver, and a very expensive one at that. If you’re going to spend that much, you could add a couple hundred bucks and get a complete transceiver, like this one:
Not only is it a much better receiver than the Eton, it’s also a transceiver so you can get on the air once you get your license.
Or this:
Or you can go the “used” route like lots of us did when we first got on the air and buy something like this:
Those are radios that will facilitate worldwide communications. If you’re just looking for local (5-100 miles) communications, you can get a handheld radio for under $100 that will get you on the air.
Another suggestion is to look for an amateur radio club in your area and find an “Elmer”. And Elmer is a ham who helps people who want to get into the hobby in figuring it out. Right now, I’m being an “Elmer” of sorts as I help you get started down the path. A local group can provide you with knowledge and resources on radio selection, antenna choices, mobile installations, and the like.
Visit this page to find a local club:
Just put in your zip code, and it will find the nearest clubs to you.
And I’m always available to help you out with other questions.
It’s a fun hobby with never-ending chances of exploring and trying new stuff.
Help me out with the HAM stuff, if you get a base station to maximize it’s potential don’t you need a big donkey antenna? That seems like more of a challenge then unboxing a radio. Do you need multiple antennas for different wave lengths?
Do you mean on the ham frequencies? If so, the answer is YES! There are plenty of special interest groups that meet on the air throughout the week.
And on certain frequencies, if you put out a call for other folks to join a discussion, you can quickly get a “round table” discussion started with people all over the U.S…
I get on the air from my car regularly with a 7 foot whip antenna and talk around the world.
At home in our condo, I have a single antenna hidden in the nearby woods that works on every single frequency I’m licensed to operate. It’s a wire antenna about 130’ long strung between a few trees.
Some people use TABLETOP antennas like this one:
I once used a 24” piece of wire hanging from a ceiling lamp to talk with people.
AND….there are certain digital modes that are designed for weak signal operation. So you can talk digitally around the world using very small antennas.
Now, to be sure, you CAN invest in an antenna system like this to put out a commanding signal all around the world:
But it’s not absolutely necessary. I have all the fun I want with very minimal antennas.
This has got to be the simplest explanation I’ve ever heard on the antennas! Awesome. I thought the only way to get any sort of distance was to put the gi-normouse array up like your DX - E link.
Talk about communicating long distances, I use an 18’ long antenna when I bounce signals off the moon, round-trip distance of just under 500,000 miles! How’s that for distance???
