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RoyGBiv wrote: ↑Fri Jan 11, 2019 8:49 am

Flightmare wrote: ↑Fri Jan 11, 2019 1:42 am https://w5wx.net/2018/12/28/texas-legislature-sb43/

Couldn't find a better post to put this under. Looks like Senator Zaffirini has filed a bill that would change the "texting while driving" law to outlaw ham radio operation while the vehicle is in motion. This would definitely affect Skywarn storm spotters/chasers.

Thanks for the heads up. I'll share with our local teams as well as the folks at National Weather Service in FTW.

ETA: I wonder whether Skywarn/RACES would fall under the "authorized emergency... vehicle" exemption.

Hey Roy. I'm a member of the NWS radio desk team. I have a meeting with them tomorrow and can also bring this up with the team.

Thanks

Since there are getting to be so many new hams on here, I thought I would repost this info. It's a good list to get started with if you are in the DFW Metromess. Also, if you are up in the DFW area, we can always use more storm spotters. Check at this link toward the end of the year for the updated spotter schedule for North Texas. http://www.weather.gov/fwd/skywarnsch?sptrsch.

There is also info at http://www.wx5fwd.org. This is the site for the radio operators that work at the National Weather Service office in Fort Worth during severe weather events.

MustangGlocker wrote:If you radio isn't programmed, probably the best frequencies/repeaters to program initially is the area Skywarn frequencies that are used for severe weather reporting. They are the main frequencies for the particular county/city so they are always being used.
Dallas- 146.880(https://w5fc.org/)
Irving- 146.720(http://irvingarc.org/)
Tarrant 146.940
Arlington-147.140(http://www.k5sld.com)
Denton-146.920(http://dcara.net/index.php)
Collin-147.180(http://www.k5prk.net)
Ellis-145.410(http://www.wd5ddh.org/)

There is also a wide area network of repeaters, http://www.nctc.info. This group covers west to Abilene/Eastland and east to Sulphur Springs. It also can be linked to another group and covers portion of Arkansas and Louisiana. These are on a different frequency band, but I believe your radio is a dual band so these should work. They have several frequencies but since they are all linked together, you don't need all programmed. Here are 2 closest to you. Arlington is likely your best bet. It's a very wide coverage repeater.

Arlington-443.850
Plano-444.175

Good resource for all things radio is www.radioreference.com. It's a huge frequency database and has it's own forum and has a ham radio section.

One big word of advice for anyone wanting to study and receive a license, make sure you are obtaining the current question pool. If you buy direct from W5YI or ARRL, you are getting the most current one. I know W5YI destroys outdated stuff when new pools come out. I assume ARRL does also. If you buy from a retailer or online(Amazon, Ebay, etc), triple check you are getting the current questions. There are some ham radio retailers that will sell outdated material.

If you radio isn't programmed, probably the best frequencies/repeaters to program initially is the area Skywarn frequencies that are used for severe weather reporting. They are the main frequencies for the particular county/city so they are always being used.
Dallas- 146.880(https://w5fc.org/)
Irving- 146.720(http://irvingarc.org/)
Tarrant 146.940
Arlington-147.140(http://www.k5sld.com)
Denton-146.920(http://dcara.net/index.php)
Collin-147.180(http://www.k5prk.net)
Ellis-145.410(http://www.wd5ddh.org/)

There is also a wide area network of repeaters, http://www.nctc.info. This group covers west to Abilene/Eastland and east to Sulphur Springs. It also can be linked to another group and covers portion of Arkansas and Louisiana. These are on a different frequency band, but I believe your radio is a dual band so these should work. They have several frequencies but since they are all linked together, you don't need all programmed. Here are 2 closest to you. Arlington is likely your best bet. It's a very wide coverage repeater.

Arlington-443.850
Plano-444.175

You can also attend Ham-Com(http://www.hamcom.org) which is held at the Irving Convention Center on June 9-10. There will be booths for 2 of the major training material providers, W5YI Group, Inc which is based in Arlington by the Ballpark(http://www.w5yi.org) and the American Radio Relay League(http://www.arrl.org). They both have great study guides and can steer you in the right direction. Also, http://www.qrz.com has sample tests you can take for free. They are multiple choice and the exams are required to have the questions and answers exactly as written in the question pool, only thing the examiners can change is the order of the answers but when I worked in the industry, none of our examiners changed the order. Everything was identical to the question pool books. Makes it easy to study. Not sure if anyone else said this but there are 3 classes of licenses. Technician, General and Extra. Technician is the first level. Can take all 3 in one sitting but can't skip any. No morse code requirements either for any class of license.

73,
N5AFD