| By Rick Mitchell
I slipped into my radio shack in Wirt County and flipped on the power supply to my amateur radio. I tuned to the 40-meter band 7.208 Mhz and immediately heard Dave, call sign KE5PTO. He was located on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
I had talked to Dave many times, so I sent my call sign his way. He received my 125-watt signal with no problem and we chatted for some time about the weather and work. I told him I would catch him tomorrow night, so we signed clear.
Then I went to the 20 meter band at 14.332Mhz, where I heard another ham radio operator. It was Debbie, KL7OU, in Big Lake, Alaska.
I had not talked to Debbie before, but she was a delight and had a big signal from Alaska.
We signed clear.
Then I went to 14.300Mhz. This is a frequency used for maritime mobiles (ships at sea) and emergency ham nets. What's this? A ship at sea is in trouble.
David, KF7GWI, on board the sailing vessel, Wind Child, had put out a call for help on 14.300Mhz. Bill, KI4MMZ, in Flagler Beach, Florida, picked up the call. Someone on the vessel had met with an accident 1400 miles off the west coast of Mexico.
The Coast Guard had been notified and a rescue was in progress. This made for some very interesting listening for a few days.
Ham radio is not at all like CB Radio. You must have a license issued by the FCC. All ham operators use their call signs that are issued by the government.
The ham bands are policed by the FCC and by ham operators who have the right to use these frequencies.
If you have a short wave radio receiver with upper and lower side band, you can listen to all the good stuff. If not, and you have a computer, you can listen to the Maritime Mobile Service Net, Intercon Net and the Pacific Seafarers Net.
All these networks operate on 14.300 Mhz upper side band. Simply go to Google, type in 'maritime mobile service net' and once you bring up the web page, there will be a yellow box that says "listen live!"
These nets operate about 16 hours a day, 7 days a week, assisting ships at sea and taking general ham radio check-ins.
Listen to it and see if you are interested.
How do I go about getting a ham ticket?
If you are on the Internet, you can type in "ham test on line" and this will take you to a web site that will assist you.
There no longer is a Morse Code requirement and the entry-level test is not that hard.
A couple days of study and you can pass it. The test is given in Parkersburg every couple of months.
For more information, you can send your phone number to me at ka8fuf@yahoo.com and I will try to get you started in the right direction.
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