HAM Radio Wattage Question?

Question

I am thinking about getting a HAM radio. How do you commonly change how many watts your transceiver is putting out, so that you stay within your licensed limit?

As well, If you buy an HF transceiver, must you buy an antenna for better performance? If so, does it have to be HF compatible, or is any ok?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

All of these questions are answered in the study material that you must learn and understand before you can get your license.

Answers in here comes from the international community ,,and as ham radio operating frequency allocations and power levels vary depending upon the country you are in , you must treat any answers from here as unofficial.

But I will try and answer your questions in a generic way.

The lowest class license available , which most people get first , doesn't allow much (if any) operating in the HF (high frequency ) bands.

Often they are only VHF and up.(11 meterband = 28 mhz is also available in some places on the lowest class license)

With this license users will often use handy talkies , in which the power and antenna is pretty well fixed.

Some will use car rigs in the car or set up at home , where they can use better antennas for increased range.

With the lowest class license , the power output of these car radios is often the maximum allowed , so external amplifiers are not allowed.

The next step up in license (General) requires a lot more learning., but with that comes greater privileges , and with this comes more frequencies which can be used  , more power output allowed and with that greater responsibility.

General class operators in many countries have full use of the HF ham bands allowing worldwide communication even without the use of linears.

One saying is , 'use the least amount of output power to get the message through' , and this is a good rule to follow.

By using normal power (100watts) and a good antenna system you can make lots of contacts.

More so than using a lot of power into a bad antenna.

This illustrates the importance of the antenna in a ham radio set up---it is MUCH more important than an external amplifier.

External (linears) amplifiers set up into a bad antenna is much more likely to get you interference complaints from your neighbors.

Ham operators MUST address interference complaints and ensure that their station is 100% by the book.

This is part of the responsibility that I mentioned.

Many ham operators prefer to use better antenna with 100watts output and in this way limit possible interference complaints.

Most HF rigs are adjustable in power output , and for local contacts you are likely to use a frequency that is more suitable and drop your power down to a more appropriate level.

On the page that you quoted regarding bandwidth this figure is the maximum allowed space (or spectrum) that your transmitted signal is allowed to use.

These bandwidth figures have been agreed upon by the spectrum management authorities for ham use.

It is not a user adjustable feature on the radio and it will vary depending upon the mode of transmission.

For example , transmissions using the FM mode will use a lot more spectrum space (bandwidth) than  AM mode , and AM in turn uses more space that SSB (sideband) mode , and even still , Morse code and data modes use even less space on the ham bands.

For all intents and purposes you do not need to concern yourself with this , it is fixed in the radio transceiver.

Meters.

In the old days the frequency of a transmission was often referred to in the scale of Meters ...or meter-band.

Now days this is still used for general band identification , but the specific frequency will be referred to in a measurement of Hertz....kilohertz , megahertz etc..

Meters and Hertz are mathematically related to each other.

For example . 10Mhz = 30 Meters

1Mhz = 300 Meters

30Mhz = 10 Meters

Ham bands are often (as shown in that link you provided) quickly identified using the Meter-band number.

My favorite operating range is between 14.100Mhz and 14.250Mhz , but in ham talk this is easier said as simply '20 meters'.

So when you see written , 160meters , 80 , 40 20 etc , these are just identifying the various ham bands without specifiying the exact frequency.

For more radio information that will be a good primer into ham learning is my page at http://www.swdxer.co.nr

It covers a lot of hard topics in an easy to understand way.

Answer 2

The way you change things is with k***s and buttons on the front of the radio (if they are changeable).  Most HF transceivers output the maximum power of the most limited license...or at least 100 or 200 watts, which is plenty.  You do not need a linear amplifier.

A simple wire antenna will also be enough to communicate around the world on HF when the sun spots numbers go up a bit.

A better antenna is always better.

What ever antenna you use has to be "compatible" with what ever frequency you are using.