HAM Radio

[Ruffnek]

Anyone have any advice on getting me back into amateur radioing?I've had my Technician class license since March 2007 but,except for talking to my uncle and maybe two weather check-ins, I haven't used it.I mainly kept it to allow me to listen to emergency stations on my two way and in my vehicles.I would also be interested in an online or Bloomington area storm spotting course to get back into chasing and a NIMS course to help in emergency management situations.

 

[Grizhicks]

Ruffnek -- Welcome to INGO and HAM radio !!! Most of the radio stuff here is over on the Survival & Disaster Preparedness sub-forum. Browse thru there and you should find tons of stuff. If not, start a new thread with you question(s), or feel free to PM me.

Check the National Weather Service site for storm spotter training, and the FEMA site for NIMS classes.

Best of luck..... Greg/Grizhicks, de K9TLA

 

[patricktjms]

Bedford has a 146.730 repeater that is pretty active too. As said before, check NWS for a litst of Skywarn classes. PM me for any help also.

KC9KSK

 

[canav844]

Weather Training info:
Spotter Training Information
You're a little late for this year's round, but the information basics are there and anyone can report the weather, it's just the accuracy for desired format and what is sought in reports and the degree to which it's verified.

Here's the link to the FEMA training:
Emergency Management Institute - FEMA Independent Study Program
Officially most places seek 100, 200, 700, 800 as a minimum, if you get that far I'd also recommend rounding out the PDS ( Emergency Management Institute | Independent Study (IS) - Search Results Course List Professional Development Series (PDS) Courses )

Far as radio goes, scanning tends to keep my technical knowledge current (I do some MOTOTRBO and NXDN monitoring in my spare time, with a conventional scanner). I'm also current discussion wise by being interconnected with my local ARES group, there's a mix of social and business that see to the radios getting used at least for the weekly nets (and they'll also likely have people that know who the other groups are in the area with a net, if you try for it you can usually hit one every night of the week with a decent home station. Much of the same goes for RACES, but those tend to be fewer in Indiana in my experience. Googling your county and ARES or RACES usually turns up a website.

Red Cross, and CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) groups tend to seek out ham radio operators sign up as a general volunteer then share your abilities and knowledge, if you're into HF there's SATURN (Salvation Army), and still MARS programs out there. The Civil Air Patrol often seeks out hams, they can't use the ham bands with their events, but the skills involved are highly valuable for parts of their mission and objectives. Also calling your counties EMA office and asking about volunteer opportunities can turn up outlets that may involve ham radio.

If you really want to be active and involved it may take a bit of work to find a group that is regularly doing things, but the option is there.