Awesome! I am glad it was well received!

Like I mentioned to some of you... I am working on building a website/side business/hobby business on making ham radio more easily accessible to the public. And especially anyone that ventures off into the woods and gets outside of cell reception range (PCT hikers, backpackers, trail runners, mountain bikes, dirtbikes, side by sides, wheelers, overlanders, etc etc...). The major component I am going to build everything around, is online classes specifically targeted and designed for the outdoor enthusiast. So everything in the class will relate to going on adventures and making sure you are safe and can be found or reached if things go bad. I will also be incorporating over-internet radio programming so that you don't have to figure out how to work csv sheets, programming software, or manual programming through nested menus on radios. I will also be including a bunch of other things as time goes on.... but the big emphasis is on the classes and making the classes easily understood for outdoorsie people that may be a little less technically or electronically inclined. So, it will be easy, all on your own time, from a computer or mobile device, so you can study anywhere, any time.

Plus, I will be making options for a certain amount of the proceeds to go back into a special interest group of your choice... i.e. Cal4Wheel, CORVA, Pacific Crest Trail Assocation, Rubicon Trail Foundation, Friends of Fordyce, even your local offroading club. I want more trails open for everyone to enjoy, and it seems like the common theme is lack of funding in one way or another... whether it is Cal4Wheel fighting litigation, or clubs needing funds to buy more food and drinks to entice more trail maintenance days out of their members... it all comes down to funding. So this will be a big fund raising path as well.

Once I get everything up and running, I would still love to use Gold Hills Posse members as a test bed for everything. I'll offer the class free to members, so long as you are willing to give some constructive feedback after taking it 🙂

 Tyler, I was also unable to stay for your presentation.  i'm excited that the club my transition to ham radio! I've been interested in ham radios for a while. Do you have any suggestions  on a particular ham radio that would be best for us to get?

davesjk said
 Tyler, I was also unable to stay for your presentation.  i'm excited that the club my transition to ham radio! I've been interested in ham radios for a while. Do you have any suggestions  on a particular ham radio that would be best for us to get?  

I would recommend starting off with just a cheap Baofeng UV5R hand held. They are 25$ on amazon (35$ if you buy an awesome kit... which I HIGHLY recommend... I just gotta find the correct link again). That way, if you mess up the radio, break it, or whatever, its just 25$ out of your pocket. Plus they are pretty damn capable radios for only 25$. Honestly, you wont find a better value in a handheld on the market right now.

When you buy your cheapo, make sure to get an external mag mount antenna that works with it. Having the antenna on the outside of the rig will increase your range close to double. If you are ready to get a ham radio now... PM me on here and I will send you some links to radios and antennae that work together plug n play.

Use the cheapo, get used to using repeaters and how they work. Get used to talking on simplex with other rigs. Get used to talking on both repeaters, and simplex, at the same time while on a run. Get used to monitoring two frequencies simultaeneously. Once you get used to HOW ham radio communications work, and you start figuring out about things like APRS, and auto repeater tuners... then you can start looking for a hard wire mobile radio that pumps out more power, and may or may not have more functionalities depending on what you really want out of your mobile hard wired radio. Then, you will also have a handheld to go hiking with, give to a spotter, etc.

davesjk said

thank you Tyler!  Sounds like there is a lot more to Ham radios than i thought.  I will wait to buy anything until I start your classes.  but i will probably buy in the order as you have suggested.  I'm excited!  

Haha it is a whole huge hobby in and of itself. Definitely in the top 10 list of nerdiest hobbies known to man. You can do way too many fun things over public airwaves if you just understand that you can literally transmit almost any kind of information just by modulating electricity. Cray cray!!

One fun thing that I have yet to do, but I have been wanting to try it some day, is receive the NOAA Satellite Broadcast signals. NOAA Satellites are always broadcasting the information that they are picking up from atmospheric tests. When one of them orbits over you, you can receive its broadcast signals and decrypt the signal. One of the results is NOAA Satellite pictures of the earth... some amazing pictures of storm clouds, horizons, etc.

Another fun thing that I have been wanting to do, is create a drone hi jacking device. Once you realize that most drones operate in the 2.4ghz spectrum, and that your average wifi router runs 2.4ghz, then you can just modify a home wifi router with a raspberri pi or arduino, add an amplifier, and you can take over any drone in the sky. This is unfortunately illegal and considered a federal offense haha. It would make a great project for firefighting teams in california though... can you imagine remotely taking over a drone that is disrupting firefighting efforts in forests? That would be huge.

Tyler - K6TLR said

Exactly... bring down the drone unharmed. You could even set a pre-set screen shot image to show up on the drone owner's video screen that says "Your Drone has been brought down safely by the __ fire department. If you wish to have it back, please come by the station."

If the operator wants his/her drone back, they can pay the fine and get it back completely unscathed.  

i think if you actually pull that off, you will be filthy rich!