Faq Ham Radio

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LOL...Is this a joke?

No you don't. But good try.

Aa

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100 watts is definately possible and it has been done successfully by many hams in your situation. You could make invisible antenna by using a very thin wire, such as 24 guage magnet wire. Construct a dipole and find a creative way to hang it outside. Trust me... It can't be seen. Don't use any insulators but use very thin fishing wire. They are insulators themselves. One caution is, at the end of the dipole, high voltage will develop. Make sure to keep it out of reach for people.

There are too many ways to do what you want - your best bet is to go to ham radio outlet and purchase antenna books. I believe there are books available for ARRL that specifically talks about compromise antenna.

As far as RFI is concerned, it is definately possible. If you do not want to deal with it, you could do QRP. 10 watts maybe.

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Here is the FCC site for amateur radio operators:

http://wireless.fcc.gov/services/index.htm?job=service_home&id=amateur

Here is the information on license renewal. It does not sound like they automatically renew, you will get a notice and then it's up to you to do the proper work for the renewal:

http://wireless.fcc.gov/services/index.htm?job=cft&id=amateur&page=cft_renew_amateur

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Yes, copperweld is GREAT. Nobody carries it locally to me, but you can often find it at hamfests. Mail order is a good bet - that's where I got mine from for a T2FD that I built.

For most of my other stuff, I use #12 Solid copper wire. I just get black THHN (or just whatever single conductor black you can get ahold of.) The black seems to not stand out too bad. I've never tried white, but it probably blends into the sky a lot better and isn't as noticeable.

Try not to use Stranded wire. It will "stretch." It doesn't really stretch so much as untwist, lengthening in the process. Both solid and stranded copper WILL stretch, as stated above, but I've had good luck even with 100 foot lengths. There will be a bit of sag, but if you wanted to put that much tension that you would need copperweld, then you probably have some strong dedicated supports to begin with.

You can leave the black insulation on without a significant change in the radiation efficiency. You will need to add about 3% length to compensate for the change in velocity factor.

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They don't care.

They will tell you they're looking into it and then get back to you in 10 years time and tell you there was no evidence.