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Introduction

Welcome to the amateur radio pages at Radio AH7E Hawaii.  Whether you're a new ham, old ham, or someone who is contemplating about getting licensed as an FCC amateur radio operator, here's your invitation to a friendly high-tech hobby that's got something fun for everyone.  You can become an amateur radio operator--no matter what age, gender, or physical ability.  People from all walks of life pass their entry-level exam and can earn their license.  They all share the diverse world of activities you can explore with ham radio.

You'll never know who you'll run into when communicating with amateur radio.  Young people, retirees, teachers and students, engineers, scientists, doctors, mechanics, technicians, even homemakers.

In Hawaii, there are over 3,200 licensed amateur radio operators who enjoy operating on various frequencies and modes while trying to make contact with other licensed operators locally or around the world.

Click the links to the left as they contain more information on classes, testing, KH6 QSL Buro, Repeaters, and amateur radio in Hawaii.

License Classes

There are three license classes available to US Amateurs: Technician, General, and Amateur Extra.  In addition, there are two additional classes of licenses that have been phased out by the Federal Communications Commission in recent years, and people are still licensed  in those classes: Novice and Advanced.  License exams cover basic radio theory and rules/regulations on the Technician license, to more technical items on the General and Amateur Extra exams.  Passing a 5 WPM Morse code test is required for additional privileges on the HF bands.

Amateur Radio Above 50 MHz

There is activity on 6 meters here in the islands.  When propagation is open, try calling on 50.110 MHz.  On the 2 meter (144-148 MHz) and 70-centimemter (420-450 MHz) bands, most activity is concentrated on various repeater frequency pairs.  The US Amateur Radio Band Plan has frequencies in the 900 MHz and 1296 MHz.  There is activity, but due to the cost of such radio equipment, only a few people have equipment that can access those frequencies.

Amateur Radio Below 50 MHz

Many operators also enjoy operating on HF frequencies to make contacts around the world.  Amateurs have access to frequencies in the 160, 80, 40, 30, 20, 17, 15, 12, and 10 meter bands, using voice and various digital modes like packet, PACTOR, PSK-31, etc.

Amateur Radio Voice-over-IP Operations

Using the Internet as a backbone, amateur radio operators can link repeater-to-repeater, computer-to-repeater, repeater-to-repeater, or in cases where a repeater is not used, from repeater-to-simplex system using one of several VoIP modes.  These modes allow distant stations to communicate with each other without the need for expensive HF radio equipment and avoids the need to wait for ideal band/atmospheric conditions to facilitate a long-distance contact.  Current voice-over-IP systems most commonly in use today are IRLP and Echo Link.

Emergency Communications

Amateur radio is available to assist the government with critical emergency communications when normal lines of communication such as landline phones, cell phones, and other two-way radio systems are down or overloaded.

There are a number of organizations that provide emergency communications in time of disaster.  Please contact the organization directly to see how you can help.

> National RACES
> Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service (Hawaii)
> Oahu Civil Defense Agency RACES

For More Information

Consult the amateur radio section in the links page.

Copyright © 2000-2006 by David J. Cabatu.  All Rights Reserved.