HAM General Flashcards
Signal Separation
CW
SSB
RTTY
PSK 31
150-500 Hz
2.5-3 kHz (2500-300 Hz)
250-500 Hz
150-500 Hz
Split Frequency
Used with busy stations. Transmit on one; receive on the other.
Step Size or Step Rate
Minimum frequency change a tuner can manage.
Short Range Freqs vs Long Range Freqs
80 or 40 M for short (regional) range; use 10 - 30 M for long range.
Calling Codes
DE—From
DX—Distant; usually outside your country
BK—Break, as in, breaking in
DX Window
Band plans designate windows for long-distance contacts, for instance, 50.1-50.125 is for long distance contacts
60 M FCC Operating Requirements
FCC Requires a Log if you DONT use a dipole to track gain calculations; be below 100 W ERP
CW
Always on the low end of the HAM bands
SSB
3 kHz wide (AM is 6 kHZ)
USB above 9 MHz (20 - 10 M)
LSB on all others but 60 M
Free DV and AOR Equipment
Most common digital voice on HF. DV suffers less fading and less noise. Same size as SSB.
Digital Modes
FT8, PSK31 and PSK63, RTTY. PACTOR/WINMOR semi-auto transmission and small files. Transmit via SSB.
Selectivity vs Sensitivity
Discrimination (more important) vs Detection.
Preamps are not needed unless you’re on 10-15M
RST
Readability (1-5), Stength and Tone (1-5)
Tone on CW only
C = Chirp
Voice = use 5x5
Filters, RIT, XIT, recommended gain
Minimum one for SSB, one for CW, one for FM—necessary bc HF isn’t channelized.
RIT—changereceive not xmit
XIT—change xmit freq, not receive
Set min gain bc of preamps and filters
Vox
Vox gain— sensitivity to respond (no cw)
Vox delay-—how long keyed up
Anti vox—protects against speakers (no cw)
FAA Rules for antennas
-200 and more than 4 mi from airport
 HF bands in megahertz and wavelength
1.8-3.5-7-14-21-28 MHz
300/f
160-80-40-20-15-10
Third-party notes
Any message, written, spoken, relayed or, done by anyone for any duration who is not a licensed ham is third-party. Check the list in your phone. You may never be third party for someone whose license is revoked
One Way transmissions
Code practice, weather, or propagation predictions occasionally
Crossband be on your licensure
Only if the repeating station has a general class or better
Maximum transmitter output power
1500 Watts Peak envelope power, called a full gallon.
Operating without an amplifier is called barefoot
30 m – – 200 W peak; 60 m dash – 100 W effective radiated power on a half dipole, and Max signal band width of 2.8 kHz
Maximum spread spectrum signal power is 10 W
Linear amplifiers
Are used in single sideband AM operations to linearly amplifier signal
Effective radiated power.
Transmitter power ( including amplifier) times antenna gain. 
Symbol rate and bandwidth
Baud— How many symbols can be transmitted in a second; it is a lower on HF (300)
Bandwidth Dash how many kilohertz wide a data carrying symbol may be. It is around 1 kHz on the low bands; 20 on VHF; 100 on UHF; and no limit on microwave
Frequency and harmonics
AC flowing, stopping, reversing, & stopping again.
Harmonics are the frequency at an integer multiple of the fundamental frequency.
Series and parallel
Series circuits—amps are the same at each (all have same power), while voltage drops after each component
Parallel circuits—volts are the same across each component, but current is divided
AC voltages are Vrms so…
Calculate components and the peak voltage is from that.
PEP in FM and CW
Just use an averaging wattmeter. This is also true for an unmodulated AM signal
Permeability
An inductor’s core’s ability to store magnetic energy
Coupling
what happens when two in doctors share energy. The ability to do this is called mutual inductance. 
Toroidal Winding
Contains the magnetic field to eliminate mutual inductance
Increasing capacitance
Use larger surfaces, bring the services closer, or change the dielectric material
Polarized capacitors
Tantalum and electrolytic capacitors
Blocking, bypass, filter, suppressor, and tuning capacitors
Pass AC and block DC
Provide low impedance path for AC
Smooth voltage pulses of rectified AC voltage
Vary the frequency of resident circuits or adjust impedance
Transformers
Use mutual inductance between different windings to change voltage characteristics
Reactance
Resistance to AC flow caused by capacitance or inductance
Capacitive reactance
Blocks DC current, resists low frequency AC, and passes high frequency AC
