Expensive Hobbies

[StargazerParticipant 12505]

Okay fellas, here’s a thread to talk about the kind of expensive hobbies that we can only enjoy because we’re doing our own thing and answering to nobody.

Mine is astronomy. I’ve got a large and relatively expensive telescope, a Celestron CGEM-DX 1100, a case full of eyepieces and astrophotography gear and a jeep to carry it all around in. So yeah, I dropped some coin to pursue this interest, but even more importantly, I take this gear out to some deserted space a hour or so out of town three to five times a month where I set it up and then spend all night looking at the stars.

It’s quiet and peaceful and I’m usually all alone (except for the occasional wilderness camper or law officer) and I go when and where I want and stay gone for as long as I like.

So what are you guys doing with your time and energy?

[RoyDalParticipant]

Ham radio these days. I do lots of things, but ham is the cost leader.

Society asks MGTOWs: Why are you not making more tax-slaves?

[StargazerParticipant 12505]

Nice, Roy. I just bought a small mobile ham transceiver… gotta get my license. Have you found many MGTOW on the radio? I’d think it would be a ripe environment for men to communicate with each other about their interests.

[TheLurkerParticipant 269]

My interest is photography. I don’t own a camera of my own, but my father will sometimes let me use his. My dad likes taking pictures of scenery, but what I like taking pictures of is a little different. I will take pictures of scenery and architecture.

[Anonymous 23]

I haven’t got to that stage yet (went my own way on 11/12/2014) but my plan is to buy a sleek as hell Kayak and go up and down the river Thames on it.

[James HunterParticipant 26]

sword and knife collecting. I have 2 awesome knives, one Ranger ceremonial knife and one Bekizo tactical. 2 swords: one reversed edge katana (Sakabato) and one German long sword.

[– Deleted on Request –Spectator 936]

RoyDal & Docfenderson:

I got my callsign almost 10 years ago to the day. This past summer, I finally passed my Advanced exam, so I now have all my certifications.

I spend most of my time working amateur radio satellites. So far, I’ve confirmed 43 American states, 6 Canadian provinces, 2 Canadian territories, 5 countries, and 2 continents–all over the birds. That includes 290 grid squares and nearly 380 different stations as well as 8 different spacecraft.

I’ve got 7 radios and a variety of antennas with my favourite mode being SSB.

A number of hams like monitoring satellites that operate outside the ham bands and I might try my hand at that soon.

[StargazerParticipant 12505]

Dude, that’s cool. As an amateur astronomer I’m excited when I can locate and see a satellite but bouncing signals off them to talk to people in other parts of the world, that’s off the chart.

You know, I see this whole MGTOW deal as more than a “do my own thing and to hell with females” thing… just think, there’s all us dudes out here, each with our own domain specific knowledge… surrounded by females, simps and manginas who couldn’t give a s~~~ about us or what we can do… but we can share those things with each other. Like I”m sure there’s a number of HAM operators on this site, a few astronomers too, possibly at least one other Discordian… just because we’re not a hierarchical group doesn’t mean we can’t share our experiences and skills with each other.

It’s great to hear what other MGTOW are up to. Keep it coming.

[kagoshimachrisParticipant 32]

Nice topic,

Currently, learning animation and hoping to leap from teaching to that. Maybe a bit of a pipe dream but it’s a lot of hard work and it’ll change how you see the world.

[– Deleted on Request –Spectator 936]

Docfenderson:

Since you mentioned observing satellites, you might be interested in these URLs:

http://science.nasa.gov/iSat/iSAT-text-only/?failure=Webgl
https://celestrak.com/
http://satobs.org/
http://mailman.satobs.org/mailman/listinfo/seesat-l

I use Gpredict and Hamlib to control my IC-910H. Gpredict gives me the pass predictions and changes the radio’s frequencies to account for Doppler shift. Hamlib actually sends the commands to the transceiver.

By the way, I have *8* radios. I forgot to include my first ever rig, a Yaesu FT-2800M. It’s a nice 2 metre FM radio which I used to work many of the local repeaters.

[RoyDalParticipant]

Have you found many MGTOW on the radio?

I haven’t met MGTOW on the radio, not knowingly. The subject hasn’t come up. OTH, I have never met an angry feminist either. The ham bands are full of people who are kind, helpful, and who respect personal boundaries.

Hams with common interests will form nets where they ragchew a favorite topic or three. That is, they meet at a certain time and date on a certain frequency. (This is informal. No one is allowed to monopolize the ham bands, but most other hams don’t interfere.) So, a MGTOW ham “forum” might exist and I haven’t come across it.

It is possible to earn the most basic ham license (which means passing a written test) and get a handheld transceiver for under USD100. This will give you access to the repeaters Quarter Wave mentions. You do not need to learn Morse Code. And, there are ways to access repeaters over the internet, which means you can talk to other hams all over the world. All for less than a hundred bucks.

Society asks MGTOWs: Why are you not making more tax-slaves?

[RoyDalParticipant]

An expensive hobby I don’t have is collecting. I would love to collect chess sets, wrist~~~ches, cool cars and motorcycles, large dogs, and the list goes on. I have more than I really need, and it would take an aircraft hanger to hold what I want. (Gotta keep my desires in due bounds.)

Society asks MGTOWs: Why are you not making more tax-slaves?

[– Deleted on Request –Spectator 936]

RoyDal:

I can confirm that amateur radio equipment can be acquired quite cheaply. There are lots of swap and shop websites, many of which are operated by radio clubs. It was through one of those that I acquired my 2 full-duplex satellite radios: an FT-847 and my ‘910.

Also, flea markets are a good place to pick up good quality equipment at decent prices. Over the years, I got stuff like a test board, a vintage Fluke digital multimeter, and a cordless drill. The big one for us in our local area is coming up early next month. I can’t wait!

As far as frequencies are concerned, there is only one instance in which some can be reserved. Whenever there’s a major emergency, like a natural disaster, one often hears that a national radio agency wants to set aside certain parts of the bands solely for related traffic. Hams are requested to keep off them for the duration and I haven’t heard of anyone who didn’t comply.

Mind you, there are a few on the lower bands, particularly 20 metres, in which things can get wild and woolly. I remember hearing some rogue ham making an absolute jackass of himself on the air, insulting people and using profanity. Stations on both sides of the Canada-U. S. border would like a piece of him and Industry Canada (which is the governing body here) quite likely knows who he is. Unfortunately, they don’t have the manpower to deal with him since amateur radio isn’t considered important enough to warrant action.

Fortunately, incidents like that are rare on VHF/UHF, even on the satellites.

[TheNinjaUWannaH8Participant 386]

@Quarter Wave Vertical said: “I remember hearing some rogue ham making an absolute jackass of himself on the air, insulting people and using profanity”

Wow. I guess there’s always a trolling asshole in every form of media.

I really want to get involved in amateur radio.  Years ago, my stepfather would bring home these old school satellite radios.  I would stay up all night listening to all sorts of frequencies. Incredible education back then.

Any advice on what basic equipment I should start with and what licenses I need to get and associated costs?

I’m in the U.S. of A.

#PreparingToPumpN’DumpHamRadioHoesInMyOldAge

[– Deleted on Request –Spectator 936]

Ninja:

I’m in Canada, so I can’t give you a proper answer because we have a different certification system here. I suggest you look at:

http://www.arrl.org/

It should provide the information you’re looking for.

Once you have your callsign, I suggest you start listening to the birds first. It’ll give you an idea of how to hear the signals as well as what goes on during a pass. A good website for more information on that is:

http://www.amsat.org

As far as equipment is concerned, that’s a bit of a toughie. We’re now down to only one FM satellite right now, SO-50, and it’s a tricky bird to work as it’s hard to hear. You might be able to contact the astronauts on the ISS but amateur radio activities outside of school contacts are low in their list of priorities. It’s pretty much pot luck if someone’s on the radio unless there happens to be a crew member who’s a ham on the ground as well and interested in making contacts.

Assuming that you want to try for SO-50 or the ISS, an FT-817 is ideal for that. A good antenna is an Arrow dual-band yagi because most satellite operate with uplink on one band and downlink on the other. Brand new, an ‘817 could run you at least $700 US but I guarantee you, it’s a terrific multi-mode multi-band radio. An Arrow antenna should be around $100 US.

That takes care of FM.

For SSB, you’re well-advised to get a full-duplex rig with 2 VFOs. It’s important to hear both sides of a conversation as one needs to know that one is properly reaching the bird as well as the other station’s signal. One VFO is used for the uplink and the other for the downlink and both need to be tuned separately to allow for the respective Doppler shifts.

One could use 2 separate radios for that, but it can get tricky trying to tune them separately. However, several hams I know of do it successfully.

One could manually tune the transceiver manually, but it takes some practice to get it right. However, the drawback is that if one isn’t quick enough, one or the other signal will drift, making it hard for the other stations on frequency to hear someone transmitting.

That’s why most satellite hams use computers to adjust their radios. There are several programs available for that, depending on what operating system is used. I run Gpredict and Hamlib (the former is the interface and the latter controls the radio) under openSUSE for that.

There are several transceivers for that, though most have been discontinued by the manufacturers. I bought my FT-847 and IC-910H second-hand through a swap and shop website and they cost me around $850 US each.

Unless you’re operating from a home ham shack, I suggest getting a boom mike headset and separate PTT switch because one hand will be needed to hold the antenna and the other to adjust the radio or computer. Add a splitter to the headset output and connect an audio recorder to record the QSO, which can be reviewed later for noting details in the log or preparing QSLs. All that should be an extra $250 US brand new.

Of course, don’t forget either a regulated power supply or a good battery for your rig.

All told, you’re looking at under $1500 by the time you’ve got everything together.

[James HunterParticipant 26]

If we can list hobbies we’d like but don’t have (looking at you roy), I’d like to collect manga, scrolls, dabble in rocketry, learn a few more languages (I can currently speak 3, I know 4, but Latin can’t be “spoken”), I’d like to try kendo/kenjitsu and fencing (put my collection to use), and HAM radio has recently caught my interest, I wonder why though, hmmm……..

[RoyDalParticipant]

@james Hunter, I have some pals who do kenjitsu. I’m more of a jujutsu guy. I left off martial arts and weight lifting from my list because I didn’t think they were expensive.

Society asks MGTOWs: Why are you not making more tax-slaves?

[RoyDalParticipant]

So, you want to become a ham…

Learning the stuff you need to know to become licensed amateur radio operator.

The library should have books on how to become a ham. They may be a few years out of date. That’s not a problem — the only part that will be out of date is the FCC examination questions.

Start your quest with the Amateur Radio Relay League (ARRL for short). Hunt around in their site: http://www.arrl.org/ It has everything you need to become a ham except the actual hardware. You will see ads for ham gear in the sidebars. (A tip of the old fedora to Quarter Wave Vertical.)

Here is another good source of learning materials: http://www.gordonwestradioschool.com/

Do you know anybody with physical disabilities? Take a look at Handiham: http://www.handiham.org/drupal2/ They have lots of links to free and low-cost educational materials.

Freebies

The FCC publishes every question for every examination with the answers. It’s a free download. ARRL, and many other sites, posts links to it.

Search the web and YouTube. You will find tons of educational and informative material.

Cheap radios.

Hold off on buying gear until you get your license. There is always new stuff coming out, and top quality used gear coming up for sale.

Quarter Wave Vertical has posted excellent suggestions already.

I’ll add this to QWV’s, a new Pofung (they called themselves Baofeng up to 2014) handheld transceiver can be had for under $35. You will want some extras which will bump it over $50. (Free shipping from Amazon.) I know a few hams who have only an old Baofeng, nothing more, and they are on the air as often as can be.

When you do your shopping — before you buy — look up other ham’s evaluations of gear on the web and YouTube.

Society asks MGTOWs: Why are you not making more tax-slaves?

[SquatchParticipant 22]

Archery, hunting and fishing, and fine gin!

[– Deleted on Request –Spectator 936]

To add to RoyDal’s comments, try attending a ham flea market.  It’ll give one an opportunity to talk with hams as well as look at the type of hardware that’s available.  Sometimes, radio clubs are represented and there may be a chance to talk to them about classes.  One club in my area regularly runs sessions both for Basic and Advanced certification.  I’m sure that there are some in the U. S. that have some for the different ARRL licences.

 

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