Gwinnett Amateur Radio Society

  “I can hear him.  How come he can’t hear me?”   This is a common question among new hams.  Most new hams start out operating on VHF or UHF frequencies.  This means line-of sight in most cases.  Assuming a majorities of new hams have a “handy-talkie”, a little radio of usually 5 watts, let’s […]

Give Your Radio’s Signal Some Air Part 2   Last time we talked about some indoor and vehicle antennas for your HT (handy talkie).  We discussed the magnet mount antenna for your vehicle.  The metal rood of your vehicle is what makes magnetic (mag) mount antennas so effective.  Effectively, the roof in your vehicle becomes […]

Give Your Radio’s Signal Some Air Part 1   Most new hams will buy a small handheld portable radio as their first radio.  This type of radio is better known as a Handy Talkie or HT. When a new ham gets that radio programmed, he or she will hopefully try to make contacts.   Living in […]

Come to Field Day       Field Day is the biggest event in the ham radio calendar, and it is a perfect venue for new hams.      Here are several reasons why every new ham (and old hams, too) should come to the GARS Field Day. It is the perfect time for new hams to […]

Streaming Amateur Radio Programs Part 2       Let’s continue where we left off last month.  At that time, we mentioned the Amateur Radio Round Table and Ham Radio Now. Amateurlogic. (www.amateurlogic.tv)  George Thomas, W5JDX, Tommy and Peter host a monthly program about amateur radio. They are doing their monthly program live, usually on a […]

Streaming Amateur Radio Programs Part 1 This month’s column is relevant for both new and veteran hams We are very fortunate in the Internet age that we are able to watch programs about amateur radio on streaming video.  Here are the ones I know of: Amateur Radio Round Table.  This is a new streaming video […]

Some final comments on the Baofeng HTs.   Baofeng is now Pofung. From what I understand they have changed their name in order to come closer to pronouncing the name in Chinese. Chinese words do not translate well into English. Batteries America had the Pofung for sale at the Stone Mountain Ham Fest. This is […]

Beginners Corner January 2015 The Dog Show: A chance for Beginning Hams to Shine GARS and Gwinnett ARES helps do parking for the dog show twice a year. In return, the dog show hosts make a generous contribution to both organizations. We set up positions at several strategic points around the building and coordinate parking. […]

Beginner’s Corner December 2014 More on downloading the information to the Baofeng UV-5R (?) This is a continuation of last month’s column. There is just so much information on the Baofeng radios that needs to be gotten out. Try as I did, I could not get the CSV file I had created to my radio. […]

Beginner’s Corner November 2014     When I began this column, I thought there were just so many columns I could write, but I keep discovering items that might be of interest to new hams.     I recently received a Baofeng UV-5R as a birthday gift and have been recording my impressions of it. Programming the […]

Beginner’s Corner October 2014  For the past several months, I have been writing about the Baofeng radios. I have made quite a bit of progress on getting mine up and running, but I felt it might be nice to change the subject for a bit.  When you get your license and set up your first […]

Beginner’s Corner September 2014 A Birthday Gift! I recently received a nice birthday gift, a Baofeng UV-5R two meter/440 HT (handy-talkie). Thank you KK4VLR! Well, I was elated to receive it, and decided to give it a first hand review. Up until now, I had to rely on the thoughts from others on this radio. […]