Frequently Asked Questions
The Southeastern Repeater Association, an organization which was founded in 1971 by a group of North Carolina repeater owners. The SERA is the largest Amateur Radio Repeater Coordinating organization in the United States. The States of Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and the majority of Virginia and West Virginia, are coordinated by the SouthEastern Repeater Association, Inc. (SERA). -by KC4GZX
Riley Hollingsworth, K4ZDH, is the FCC Special Counsel for Amateur Radio Enforcement (SCARE). He's a Ham and lawyer who works for the FCC as the watchdog of and ambassador to the Amateur Radio Service. -by KC4GZX
A loose-knit, semi-organized group of often forgetful hams, who all hangout on the same repeater, when they can remember to turn on the rig or the Braves aren't playing. -by KC4GZX
It is a long, difficult procedure, requireing much experience and many years of jolts of 110 Volts. Therefore, this will be left as an exercise for the Geezer Trainee. -by KC4GZX
The Ol'Geezer Motto: "Three heads are better than none" or is it "Three heads are as good as one?" -by KC4GZX
You could keep a tape recorder, primed and ready, by the radio. You would want to experiment with volume settings and equipment speaker placement before hand. Use an audio patch cable to connect the radio speaker to the recorder. This would improve audio quality.
Another possible method would be to use the "Windows Audio Recorder" to record directly from the radio. This would put a WAV file on the computer that could easily be E-Mailed. Of course, this requires that the equipment be pre-setup and ready to go.
Don't forget, jot down the date and time and what you heard for the interference Log. -by KC4GZX
If you have a program to make ZIP files just drag the WAV file to it, name it, and save it. If you need a Zip program, download this shareware WinZip. -by KC4GZX
Radio Direction Finding, is the process of finding the source of an electromagnetic signal using radio. -by KC4GZX
"Radio direction finding is used to find sources of interference to any form of wireless electronic communications, including broadcast and two-way radio, television, and telephones. It is also used to track missing or stolen cars and other property. Search and rescue workers use it to find persons in distress. Emergency Locator Transmitters in downed aircraft are tracked with RDF techniques." -by KØOV
Foxhunting is a map-and-compass sport similar to orienteering. Individuals on foot try to find a half-dozen "fox" transmitters in a period of two hours, while wandering around in the woods or a park. There is talk of making this an Olympic Sport.
T-hunting is using antennas on vehicles to find a hidden transmitter. This became popular in California and spread all over the world from there. -by KC4GZX
Check out some of the Links in the next FAQ. -by KC4GZX
Ask 10 people and you'll get 15 answers. It really depends on what your hunting, personal preference, and skill and experience using the equipment. Here are some links to get you started. -by KC4GZX
RDF2 - 2 Element Sniffer Beam with Tape Measure Elements
Tape Measure 3 Element Yagi - RDF Optimized Beam
VK3ZPF PROJECTS INDEX
An HT is very useful for RDF. At a range of a couple of feet, use it like an airport handheld metal-detector. Sweep the antenna back and forth over objects to see if they are radiating RF.
At a range of several hundred feet, hold the antenna vertical right in front of your chest. Slowly turn your body until it acts like an RF shield and the signal is minimum or blocked. The "Fox" is then directly behind you, 180° degrees from the direction you are facing.
It's also useful to connect the HT to a handheld yagi antenna via a short piece of coax. This is very portable and allows you to walk around in areas that would be inaccessable otherwise. -by KC4GZX
Here are two methods.
1) Bring up the Ol'Geezer Map page. Now, right-click on the map. A menu will pop-up, select "Save Picture As" and left-click. When the File Menu appears select the "Desktop" or "My Documents", (be sure to give it a filename and select the filetype, either JPG or BMP), left-click the "Save" button. When you want to see the map, just double-click on its filename.
2) If you would like to have a map to peruse offline, click here to download a larger map. This file covers a larger area around Brevard than the one on the Web Page. It extends from Waynesville down to Brevard. Download it and un-ZIP it to your Desktop. This is a regular Web Page(OGGLargeMap.mht) that self-contains all of its graphics. When you want to see the map, double-click and your browser will display the larger map. It's a 1.5 megabyte file, so it'll take a while to download. If you like maps this one is neat. -by KC4GZX