KF6WIA Amateur Radio Links

• This page is generously hosted by QSL.net (www.qsl.net). Check them out to sign up for your free email and web-hosting service. For hams only.

• For a comprehensive listing of amateur radio callsigns and operators from the FCC’s database, plus online equipment swaps, shareware, and a whole mess of other great stuff, QRZ (www.qrz.com) is the place to go. If you’re interested in getting into amateur radio, make this your fist stop on the net.

• Recommended to me by George Hart (KF6VBP), the AC6V website (www.ac6v.com) has one of the most comprehensive collections of amateur radio listings I’ve seen anywhere. This is simply a huge index.

• If you like going to the source, the FCC’s website (www.fcc.gov) includes tons of documents relating to the amateur service, including a fully searchable callsign database. Amateur radio represents only a small portion of what the FCC does, so you’ll be wading through a lot of extraneous stuff to find the information you want. I recommend going here only if you must.

• The Amateur Radio Relay League (www.arrl.org) is about the most formidable ham organization around. They publish some excellent study materials for all levels of licensing, including Now You’re Talking!, which was the text I used to study for my Technician class exam. This site also has a listing of upcoming license exams throughout the country.

• I bought my equipment from Ham Radio Outlet (www.hamradio.com) in Oakland, California. They’ve got 11 other locations around the country. Check them out for some good deals.

• I took the Novice/Technician theory course from the Mt. Diablo Amateur Radio Club (www.mdarc.org). While most people can easily pass the exam without the aid of a class, I found it reassuring to have the guidance of an experienced ham. I’ll say it was a good investment of five dollars and six Tuesday evenings.

• My radio is a Yaesu VX-5R tri-band handheld transceiver. Their website (www.yaesu.com) sucks, but their radios kick ass. I’ve heard about a mod for this radio that involves unsoldering the fifth bridge to the left under the battery pack, but haven’t heard anything reliable about how well this works. If you have this model and want to risk wrecking your radio to open up your transmit range, give it a try. If it works, let me know.

Quick callsign lookup:  

Callsign lookups provided by qrz.com

Shortwave

• The Shortwave/Radio Catalog (http://itre.ncsu.edu/radio/) has a pretty comprehensive collection of listening information for enthusiasts around the world.

This page last updated by [email protected] 5/23/1999