Why Are Hams So Thrilled with 10m?

[Bolster]

So I passed the test for my Technician's ham license last Sat. Now waiting for my call sign to appear in the FCC database. (This is a recommended step in the CERT training I'm taking, a California certification for citizen disaster response.) Taking the Ham course was interesting, but I was surprised about what a big deal the hams made over the 10 meter band, like we were super-special-lucky to get access to a sliver of the 10m (30mHz) band because of all the wonderful propagation, skip, & etc. And I sat there unimpressed, because you could argue our 11m band is even slightly better for skip, sporadic E, etc. Sitting in Los Angeles I've heard Florida clear as a bell. And that's receiving with no license whatsoever, and on a relatively inexpensive rig. So I don't understand why 10m is such a big deal to the Hams.

And mind you, your average Technician class Ham isn't likely to be broadcasting on 10m, even though it's allowed, because it's a spendy, specialized radio. The radio that virtually all new Technician hams get are line-of-sight, depend-on-repeater handy-talkies in the 144 & 440 mHz range.

Second question, is why are we all told we need a Ham license for emergency communications? Why not CB? I've asked this of our instructors but have gotten answers that are not terribly satisfying, such as:

- (1) nobody is monitoring CB frequencies in an emergency. Or, more accurately, no police, fire, or emergency services are monitoring CB freqs in emergencies. Is this true?? Whatever happened to channel 9?

- (2) no repeaters for 49 mHz (Are they really needed? In a disaster you don't need to call out that far...and if you did, your SSB will get you out there)

- (3) CB frequencies are uncontrolled, and will be chaotic in an emergency.

I dunno, those sound like weak arguments against CB. To my thinking, the 27 mHz bands are about ideal for community-response emergency communications. So I must be missing something.

The other oddity, was that our Technician class was filled with nurses, teachers, and other professionals who have NO interest in how radio works. They are just assigned to get a Ham license because their work requires it. (Every school here in So Calif must have two employees who get their Tech license.) So here they are, learning the difference between an inductor and a capacitor, and how to contest, and how to bounce RF off the moon...and they're getting more and more **Censored** off as the time goes by. All they want is an alternate to their cell phone.

So this makes me wonder...why aren't these people just getting decent CB radios (or heck, even FRS radios) and using them instead? I'm confused.

[dime196604]

I think CB would be better. if some thing big happened and there was no power to most of the country(no internet, no phone, no cell) CB would be a way better way to go. how many people even know where to find a HAM radio? let alone turn it on and transmit. Every state has many truck stops where CB's are sold. CB's are more user friendly and easy to operate. I am not knocking HAM's at all, i am planning on getting my license soon. I think some HAM's get lost in their mass allowance of frequencies, that they look down on us CBers and think were just a bunch of redneck with a radio. I think they underestimate the mass number of CBers out there, and that some of use have some knowledge on how radios work

[721HACKSAW]

First off lets not stereotype all HAMs or Cbers, they are all different people with different views. I am a Gen class HAM and almost never use 10m, in my opinion that band is very limited compared to others.
The Tech ticket is just an entrance level to HAM, there are very little voice privileges and band access is limited. I have urged many HAM test takers to try the Gen. class level test after passing the Tech, there are many more privileges.
The 11m band is just a small slice of the radio spectrum, don't limit yourself.

[TheCBDoctor]

So I passed the test for my Technician's ham license last Sat. Now waiting for my call sign to appear in the FCC database. (This is a recommended step in the CERT training I'm taking, a California certification for citizen disaster response.) Taking the Ham course was interesting, but I was surprised about what a big deal the hams made over the 10 meter band, like we were super-special-lucky to get access to a sliver of the 10m (30mHz) band because of all the wonderful propagation, skip, & etc. And I sat there unimpressed, because you could argue our 11m band is even slightly better for skip, sporadic E, etc. Sitting in Los Angeles I've heard Florida clear as a bell. And that's receiving with no license whatsoever, and on a relatively inexpensive rig. So I don't understand why 10m is such a big deal to the Hams.

And mind you, your average Technician class Ham isn't likely to be broadcasting on 10m, even though it's allowed, because it's a spendy, specialized radio. The radio that virtually all new Technician hams get are line-of-sight, depend-on-repeater handy-talkies in the 144 & 440 mHz range.

Second question, is why are we all told we need a Ham license for emergency communications? Why not CB? I've asked this of our instructors but have gotten answers that are not terribly satisfying, such as:

- (1) nobody is monitoring CB frequencies in an emergency. Or, more accurately, no police, fire, or emergency services are monitoring CB freqs in emergencies. Is this true?? Whatever happened to channel 9?

- (2) no repeaters for 49 mHz (Are they really needed? In a disaster you don't need to call out that far...and if you did, your SSB will get you out there)

- (3) CB frequencies are uncontrolled, and will be chaotic in an emergency.

I dunno, those sound like weak arguments against CB. To my thinking, the 27 mHz bands are about ideal for community-response emergency communications. So I must be missing something.

The other oddity, was that our Technician class was filled with nurses, teachers, and other professionals who have NO interest in how radio works. They are just assigned to get a Ham license because their work requires it. (Every school here in So Calif must have two employees who get their Tech license.) So here they are, learning the difference between an inductor and a capacitor, and how to contest, and how to bounce RF off the moon...and they're getting more and more **Censored** off as the time goes by. All they want is an alternate to their cell phone.

So this makes me wonder...why aren't these people just getting decent CB radios (or heck, even FRS radios) and using them instead? I'm confused.

In a nutshell. It allows you to legally use more power. The properties of 10 and 11 meters are very similar. As was posted 10 meters is just a portion of the radio spectrum and is a starting point.

Can you ever exceed the legal limits on the CB band? The answer is yes, but only in dire emergency. I say that with caution. The FCC determines on a case by case base what constitutes a dire emergency. You better be hanging upside down, in a flood, in your car, with only your PTT finger working while you are paralyzed.

You are better off with a Ham license and the equipment to go with it. Welcome to the world of Ham radio and congratulations.

Respectfully,

[Sheriff Bart]

My experience (when I passed the Tech exam) was great. I was able to barefoot make connections from the Keystone to the Hog Yard as well as through the Southlands w/o using a linear. No one is intentionally keying on you. I learned that what we consider dx on 11 mtrs. is referred to as a local call to amateurs. I'm studying for the General now and when I pass I'm looking forward to using the other frequencies and truly being worldwide.
Now on 11 mtrs. I have capabilities and have lots of fun but when broadcasting sometimes it feels like this
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[Night Crawler]

why are we all told we need a Ham license for emergency communications? Why not CB?

Because the Amateur Radio Service is recognized by FEMA and a license is required to operate using the frequencys in that service.
With the amount of frequency spectrum availible there is always a propagation path open to wherever an emergency might occur using whatever mode of operation that is needed to mantain communications such as AM FM CW RTTY SST FSTV DATA etc.which is why Amateur Radio is a better choice then the Citizens Band.
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To answer your first question I've been a ham operator for over 30yrs and 10 meters doesn't thrill me that much and never did.

[hilltop 439]

Congratulations on getting your Ham license.
I am a Ham holding a General class license and use the privilege everyday. I also enjoy the CB/11 meter band talking to my friends and family. I am not going to say that one is any better than the other because it is all Radio and they both have there place in my hobby. I just go and talk were the action is if there is nothing going on one band i go to another find the fun.
10 meters can be a great band to talk to some long distance DX but you have to catch it just right. I have made several contacts there from all over the world. One great thing is i can use my Imax 2000 ,Antron 99 and Maco 103c on 10 meter. This makes it nice i can use my Export radios that cover 10,11,12 meters on one antenna tune it in for CB/11 meters and use a tuner to touch up the SWR on 10 and 12 meters.
Please do yourself a favor and upgrade to General class or higher a whole new world of radio will open up for you like was said before why limit yourself don't settle for a small portion of the pie when you can have the whole thing.

[Sporty Mike]

IDK.......I'm still on the fence over getting my ticket. Alot of locals here have gotten their tickets and the same thing happens to 90% of 'em...they become overnight CB bashers. I know that not all Hams are that way , there are some good dual band operators around here , but they are in the minority. I listen to 2M all the time on my scanner , and honestly I must say , it dosen't sound like thay are having any fun I mean , we all have telephones to make a conversation if that's what we want , we CHOOSE radio as a hobby. To me hobby dictates fun , the 2M guys to me sound like alot of dudes who are either wanna be in control guys , or wanna be military/NASA control or something....IDK. If you can't just key the Mic. , give your call sign and chew the rag...then what's the point?? All this priority crap , and traffic this and that...and it's usually some guy telling you that the local this or that has a meeting for this or that...(seeing a pattern here?)...or something about T-shirts being made....and listen close , almost 98% of the Hams will request an XXL T-shirt.....I'm not making this up folks.....something to think about.



Mike

[BobCB]

Hey now, I represent that about the XXL shirts! Haha.

I'm going to get my ticket solely for the purpose of escaping anyone I find annoying. We have a few locals here that **Censored** me off to no end; with my ticket I'll just go to another band and talk until they're done with 11m and then I'll come back. Or if I have a hankering for talking on the radio, but 11m is covered up with Mexican skip I'll just go to another band to chat. On the flip side, there are some people that "get tired" of 11m and go on to get their ham ticket and abandon CB all together-I can honestly say I don't miss them at all.

As for emergencies, if you plan on getting in touch with fire, ems, ema, police, or whatever else; then the ham bands are where you will find that. If you are trying to coordinate some type of community response to an emergency in your town, or a "$hit hit the fan" kind of deal, then CB is the best way to go. I find it best to have access to both, if possible, so you're covered no matter who you need to get in contact with; and at the very least you'll always be entertained.

As for the whole CB vs. HAM mentality, I'm not a subscriber of that. If you want your ham license-fine, if you want to just use CB-fine, if you want to use both-fine; just keep your opinions of the other to yourself. I have no problem with ham operators. As is true with many things there's always a few a-holes that make hams look like a bunch of "son living in his mom's basement" type of people. There's also always a few CB'ers that succeed in making the rest of us look like a bunch of "sister-loving, inbred rednecks". Do this, find some people that are the opposite of the stereotype and associate yourself with them and you'll enjoy whatever you do, CB or HAM.

*Stepping off of my soapbox now.

[William]

I love Ham, especially smoked hickory ham !

[231]

Night Crawler pretty much summed it up. But I'd add it'd be a bad day for us all if the people behind the mic didn't even know some basic operating procedures in the event of a real crisis. They aren't likely to use the 11m band other than to direct 18 wheeler in/out of the area in crisis, being most already have CB's in the trucks. Most hospitals have multiple radios or all banders to use with at least a couple of antennas to pick from. Although I'm not one to like people being forced to get their amateur ticket, being they train and use the bands it only makes sense they get their ticket because a license is required to operate there. They knew going into their job that would be a requirement so if they don't like it perhaps they shouldn't have picked that career or service?

As far as the cost of equipment, if someday you operate a decent quality HF rig and compare it to your CB you'll see why they cost more. Granted some are ridiculously priced but a $1000-$2000 HF rig is about mid point for a great transceiver. If a guy looks around usually a good shape used HF rig can be had from $200-$500...about the same price as an new export which only covers 3 bands (at best). And even then they have nothing like the filtering in the HF rigs, not to mention transmit audio. So before you condemn the cost of them it might be wise to look at why they cost so much. Oh...and let's not forget that all of the HF rigs (solid state anyway) have general coverage as well. Meaning they receive the entire HF spectrum, not just a few bands. There has never been a CB radio made that'll come even close to that. Many of us started with a good old used radio. Heck, many love running the old tubers (referred to as 'boat anchors'). So one doesn't need to spend thousands just to do HF, nor VHF/UHF.

As mentioned the small sliver of 10m allowed technician class amateurs is designed to allow them to get their feet wet on HF, nothing more. By the way, if you wanted to do CW (code) you can in fact operate more HF bands...but most don't want to learn it. And let's not forget the digital modes. They are allot of fun and 20w will work the world with a wire antenna (no exaggeration either!).

Just a little info' for ya'.

[Don1962]

So I passed the test for my Technician's ham license last Sat. Now waiting for my call sign to appear in the FCC database. (This is a recommended step in the CERT training I'm taking, a California certification for citizen disaster response.) Taking the Ham course was interesting, but I was surprised about what a big deal the hams made over the 10 meter band, like we were super-special-lucky to get access to a sliver of the 10m (30mHz) band because of all the wonderful propagation, skip, & etc. And I sat there unimpressed, because you could argue our 11m band is even slightly better for skip, sporadic E, etc. Sitting in Los Angeles I've heard Florida clear as a bell. And that's receiving with no license whatsoever, and on a relatively inexpensive rig. So I don't understand why 10m is such a big deal to the Hams.

And mind you, your average Technician class Ham isn't likely to be broadcasting on 10m, even though it's allowed, because it's a spendy, specialized radio. The radio that virtually all new Technician hams get are line-of-sight, depend-on-repeater handy-talkies in the 144 & 440 mHz range.

Second question, is why are we all told we need a Ham license for emergency communications? Why not CB? I've asked this of our instructors but have gotten answers that are not terribly satisfying, such as:

- (1) nobody is monitoring CB frequencies in an emergency. Or, more accurately, no police, fire, or emergency services are monitoring CB freqs in emergencies. Is this true?? Whatever happened to channel 9?

- (2) no repeaters for 49 mHz (Are they really needed? In a disaster you don't need to call out that far...and if you did, your SSB will get you out there)

- (3) CB frequencies are uncontrolled, and will be chaotic in an emergency.

I dunno, those sound like weak arguments against CB. To my thinking, the 27 mHz bands are about ideal for community-response emergency communications. So I must be missing something.

The other oddity, was that our Technician class was filled with nurses, teachers, and other professionals who have NO interest in how radio works. They are just assigned to get a Ham license because their work requires it. (Every school here in So Calif must have two employees who get their Tech license.) So here they are, learning the difference between an inductor and a capacitor, and how to contest, and how to bounce RF off the moon...and they're getting more and more **Censored** off as the time goes by. All they want is an alternate to their cell phone.

So this makes me wonder...why aren't these people just getting decent CB radios (or heck, even FRS radios) and using them instead? I'm confused.

Yelp, I agree Bolster, I at one time took the Ham test, but because i was not into the emergency response thing and only wanted my ticket to talk skip, the ppl who gave me the test were very rude and made noise and were basicly having a party while i was tring to talk the test. I missed the test by two questions, how conveniat,(I did'nt have anyone to help me study (class).

But anyway I agree that in any emergency cb radio is the way to communicate, anyone and everyone can talk as needed! Not just a select few!!!!!!!

Oh, an by the way since that time over ten years ago, I see no need or reason to ever take the test again.

[Night Crawler]

Very enlightening I didn't know that about hams.

[dime196604]

I am not a HAM yet, but i do plan on getting my licence some time. If you talk none stop carp about ham's don't you think they would do the same in return? Yes there are some out there who are only looking to turn people in, but not all. There are many ham's on this site, now if they all hated CBers so bad why would they be members here?

[BobCB]

Another thing, if there is an emergency and you really need assistance or info you can(although its illegal) just BS a callsign for that one time. I wouldn't do it, but if you know your state's callsign prefixes(Google) you can easily come up with a fake callsign that is not in use but sounds legitimate. And, no, I don't speak from experience.

Semi off-topic, but ah well.

[Night Crawler]

Another thing, if there is an emergency and you really need assistance or info you can(although its illegal) just BS a callsign for that one time. I wouldn't do it, but if you know your state's callsign prefixes(Google) you can easily come up with a fake callsign that is not in use but sounds legitimate.

That wouldn't work if someone was to run that fake call through the FCC database they would see that's it's bogus.

But in a true emergency anyone licensed or not can use any frequency in the spectrum to call for assistance without prosecution.

[Sporty Mike]

Another thing, if there is an emergency and you really need assistance or info you can(although its illegal) just BS a callsign for that one time. I wouldn't do it, but if you know your state's callsign prefixes(Google) you can easily come up with a fake callsign that is not in use but sounds legitimate.

That wouldn't work if someone was to run that fake call through the FCC database they would see that's it's bogus.

But in a true emergency anyone licensed or not can use any frequency in the spectrum to call for assistance without prosecution.

Right , if it's a legitimate , Sh*t has hit the fan emergency situation , I'll talk on whatever , wherever I know I'll get the needed response. In a situation like that I don't think "the man" is gonna give a damn about who has a license or not.



Mike

[Night Crawler]

In a situation like that I don't think "the man" is gonna give a damn about who has a license or not.

It wouldn't matter if he gave a damn or not legally an emergency situation has priority and any frequency can be used to obtain assistance.

[hilltop 439]

OH BOY !!!!! the dreaded CB vs Ham thing . I think they both have the same purpose a means of comunication . It's just that one is more reliable and better suited than the other in a emergency situation being Ham radio. Yes there is a lot of hassle and time consuming effort that goes into get your Ham license but it has to be this way or the airwaves would be useless jammed full of disorganized and unrully chatter. Can you imagine being broke down or hurt in the middle of nowhere and trying to call for help on channel 6 or 19 when the DX is rolling in at full tilt . This is what it would be like on the Ham bands times ten. Your going to be in a mess simply because you would be jammed by million of people around the world talking at same time.
And yes in a real emergency use any means necessary to call for help i doen't think the FCC will lock anyone up for that.
Oh by the way the internet that your using to read this post was started by Ham radio . First by the use of the telegraph system and then by packet switching and the telex machines. Anyways that is my thought on the matter.

[Night Crawler]

in a real emergency use any means necessary to call for help i doen't think the FCC will lock anyone up for that.

That's a fact it was one of the subjects covered when I studied for my commercial or amateur radio exam I can't remember which.

Oh by the way the internet that your using to read this post was started by Ham radio . First by the use of the telegraph system and then by packet switching and the telex machines.

I remeber first experimenting with packet radio on 2 meters using a Vic 20 in the late 70's it was crude compared to today but it worked.

[cavemanmoron]

10m has a few bonuses over 11m CB, its legal to use 200 watts, with a Technician class License;
more if you have a higher Class License.


I have my Amateur Extra Class Operators License;
Not on 10m, but I did talk to Antarctica on 20m this past winter. Awesome, talked to the same guy twice,
at the South Pole, once with 10 watts of power, the other time with 350 watts.
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[Savoirfaire]

Do not get me wrong.

I love 10 meters when it opens.

However, the FCC definitely gave the better band to CB'ers. It opens sooner and closes later.

Fairly often, 10 meters does not even open when 11 is because it requires More sunspots and less solar eruptions.

That is my take on it.

I love all facets of radio though.

73 de Savoirfaire, (27.015 AM).
10 X-Ray 47 (27.385 USB and 27.375 LSB)

[Sniper X]

My question is why are so many HAMs in dire hatred of 11m?

[dirtyjob]

i'de have to answer the "older" hams are still sore that 11 meters was taken away from them and allocated for use to the citizens band, loosing 11 meters did not sit well with them at the time.
Many new hams or hams that were licensed after this went down i do not think have this complaint, in fact many hams got their start on citizens band in the 1st place, for the type of new ham that bashes cb i think its simply a snob thing, I presently hold my Tech License and am studying for my general but more often thatn not i am on the citizens band, hence why i frequent this website, Im still the same operator i was when i first picked up a microphone in the late 70's , ham operator or not, its all radio to me.

[Punkin Head]

I have to agree with dirtyjob. I hold a General class and in my experience the ones that have that attitude are the older Hams. Most of the newer guys dont have the mentality of hating CB. There are some but not as many. There are a group of CBers that have the same thoughts of Hams so the same thing can be said of both sides. I love both forms of radio and I have a CB, HF Ham rig, and VHF ham rig. I use them all. I like to see new people get involved in radio whether it be CB, Ham, or both. Its a fun hobby and can be educational should you want to take it that far.

Just my thoughts.