Dan Starker
Newbie to the forum but not the chasing
Names Dan pleasure to meet you all. Anyway im in USA from Wisconsin and belong to a non profit storm tracking group. We plan to cover several states around wisconsin and in the future even the nation, but we are starting with our own state first as we are a new group. Heres the link in case your interested:
http://www.midwestsstrc.org/Index.htm
Anyway I am using ham radio and have been for about 5 yrs or so it works great for skywarn activities and the ham testing wasnt hard at all as i took a new thing they have been trying out here with great success called video testing.
I went in for technician license bought the book just in case.
But the whole test is covered on these videos they show ya. It lasts about a good 8hrs,most of the day, so plan to take one day out of your weekend. It started saturday and then i came back and took the test sunday morning. But i paid attention to the videos and found i didnt need the book at all. passed easily with flying colors.
Heard alot of other places are adopting this concept cause as you know visual learning is alot faster and easier then reading.
As far as communication equipment:
-2M Radio Shack Ham Radio
-Business Band Radio that our tracking group uses to talk to each other.
-Ranger RCI 2950 CB/10m Ham Radio so i can use for CB or 10/12 Meter general class license communication once I upgrade my license.
-Radio Shack 1000 ch. Base Scanner for home (Police/Wx)
-Radio Shack 100ch. Handheld Scanner for the mobile (Police/Wx)
-Motorola Analog Bag Phone that i use in case of emrgencies and yes my friends analog phones still work. if i use a credit card i pay a roaming fee of $1/min or i can call collect but can only call landline numbers not cell phones for other end to accept charges. BUT that bag phone which has better range then todays cells came in very handy when a tornadic outbreak in our state came and i informed my loved ones of impending danger when i was out chasing.
Future upgrades:
-2M/440 Dual Band Ham Radio (440 band has weather nets as well as 2M)
-Multiband Cell Phone (soon to be)
-APRS which is using packets of data from a GPS hooked to laptop and with a data node box it transmit my exact location &/or weather data if i have a mobile mesonet using the ham radio airwaves. works great for a group situation.
Hope this was helpful for my first post lol
Names Dan pleasure to meet you all. Anyway im in USA from Wisconsin and belong to a non profit storm tracking group. We plan to cover several states around wisconsin and in the future even the nation, but we are starting with our own state first as we are a new group. Heres the link in case your interested:
http://www.midwestsstrc.org/Index.htm
Anyway I am using ham radio and have been for about 5 yrs or so it works great for skywarn activities and the ham testing wasnt hard at all as i took a new thing they have been trying out here with great success called video testing.
I went in for technician license bought the book just in case.
But the whole test is covered on these videos they show ya. It lasts about a good 8hrs,most of the day, so plan to take one day out of your weekend. It started saturday and then i came back and took the test sunday morning. But i paid attention to the videos and found i didnt need the book at all. passed easily with flying colors.
Heard alot of other places are adopting this concept cause as you know visual learning is alot faster and easier then reading.
As far as communication equipment:
-2M Radio Shack Ham Radio
-Business Band Radio that our tracking group uses to talk to each other.
-Ranger RCI 2950 CB/10m Ham Radio so i can use for CB or 10/12 Meter general class license communication once I upgrade my license.
-Radio Shack 1000 ch. Base Scanner for home (Police/Wx)
-Radio Shack 100ch. Handheld Scanner for the mobile (Police/Wx)
-Motorola Analog Bag Phone that i use in case of emrgencies and yes my friends analog phones still work. if i use a credit card i pay a roaming fee of $1/min or i can call collect but can only call landline numbers not cell phones for other end to accept charges. BUT that bag phone which has better range then todays cells came in very handy when a tornadic outbreak in our state came and i informed my loved ones of impending danger when i was out chasing.
Future upgrades:
-2M/440 Dual Band Ham Radio (440 band has weather nets as well as 2M)
-Multiband Cell Phone (soon to be)
-APRS which is using packets of data from a GPS hooked to laptop and with a data node box it transmit my exact location &/or weather data if i have a mobile mesonet using the ham radio airwaves. works great for a group situation.
Hope this was helpful for my first post lol
