G-2
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SUBELEMENT G2 – OPERATING PROCEDURES
[5 Exam Questions – 5 Groups]
G2A – Phone operating procedures; USB/LSB conventions; procedural signals; breaking into a contact; VOX operation
Saying your call sign during a break between transmissions by the other stations is the recommended way to break into a contact when using phone
Current amateur practice is to use lower sideband on the 160-meter, 75-meter and 40-meter bands. Lower sideband is most commonly used for voice communications on the 160-meter, 75-meter, and 40-meter bands
Upper sideband is most commonly used for voice communications on frequencies of 14 MHz or higher. Upper sideband is most commonly used for SSB voice communications in the VHF and UHF bands. Upper sideband is most commonly used for voice communications on the 17-meter and 12-meter bands
Single sideband is most commonly used on the HF amateur bands. Less bandwidth used and greater power efficiency is an advantage when using single sideband as compared to other analog voice modes on the HF amateur bands. Only one sideband is transmitted; the other sideband and carrier are suppressed in the single sideband voice mode.
Voice VOX operation versus PTT operation allows “hands free” operation. The expression “CQ DX” usually indicates, the caller is looking for any station outside their own country
G2B – Operating courtesy; band plans; emergencies, including drills and emergency communications
Except during FCC declared emergencies, no one has priority access to frequencies. If propagation changes during your contact and you notice increasing interference from other activity on the same frequency, as a common courtesy, move your contact to another frequency. A good amateur practice when choosing a frequency on which to initiate a call is to follow the voluntary band plan for the operating mode you intend to use. Send “QRL?” on CW, followed by your call sign; or, if using phone, ask if the frequency is in use, followed by your call sign is a practical way to avoid harmful interference on an apparently clear frequency before calling CQ on CW or phone.
If you are communicating with another amateur station and hear a station in distress break in, acknowledge the station in distress and determine what assistance may be needed. Whichever frequency has the best chance of communicating the distress message should be used to send a distress call. At any time during an actual emergency an amateur station is allowed to use any means at its disposal to assist another station in distress. When the President’s War Emergency Powers have been invoked the FCC may restrict normal frequency operations of amateur stations participating in RACES. Only a person holding an FCC issued amateur operator license may be the control operator of an amateur station transmitting in RACES to assist relief operations during a disaster
150 to 500 Hz is the minimum separation used to minimize interference to stations on adjacent frequencies on CW. Approximately 3 kHz is the customary minimum frequency separation between SSB signals under normal conditions
“DX window” in a voluntary band plan is a portion of the band that should not be used for contacts between stations within the 48 contiguous United States.
G2C – CW operating procedures and procedural signals; Q signals and common abbreviations: full break in
The speed at which the CQ was sent is the best speed to use when answering a CQ in Morse code
Send slower if a CW station sends “QRS”
Q signal “QRL?” means “Are you busy?” or “Is this frequency in use?”
Q signal “QRN” means troubled by static
Q signal “QRV” means ready to receive messages
“C” is added to the RST to report a chirpy or unstable signal
A CW operator sends “KN” at the end of a transmission it means listening only for a specific station or stations
AR prosign is sent to indicate the end of a formal message when using CW
Transmitting stations can receive between code characters and elements when in full break-in telegraphy (QSK). “Zero Beat” means matching your transmit frequency to the frequency of a received signal
G2D – Amateur Auxiliary; minimizing interference; HF operations
It is permissible to communicate with amateur stations in countries outside the areas administered by the Federal Communications Commission, when the contact is with amateurs in that country except those whose administrations have notified the ITU that they object to such communications.
Amateur volunteers who are formally enlisted to monitor the airwaves for rules violations are the Amateur Auxiliary in the FCC. To encourage self-regulation and compliance with the rules by radio amateur operators are objectives of the Amateur Auxiliary.
Direction finding used to locate stations violating FCC Rules are skills learned during hidden transmitter hunts. HF antenna that would be the best to use for minimizing interference is a directional antenna. A directional antenna is pointed 180 degrees from its short-path heading when making a “long-path” contact with another station. An azimuthal projection map that shows true bearings and distances from a particular location
If you are using other than a dipole antenna, you must keep a record of the gain of your antenna when operating in the 60-meter band. Many amateurs keep a station log to help with a reply if the FCC requests information. Date and time of contact, band and/or frequency of the contact and call sign of station contacted and the signal report given are traditionally contained in a station log. QRP operation is low power transmit operation.
G2E – Digital operating: procedures, procedural signals and common abbreviations
14.070 – 14.100 MHz is the segment of the 20-meter band is most often used for digital transmissions. 3570 – 3600 kHz is the segment of the 80-meter band is most commonly used for digital transmissions. Below the RTTY segment, near 14.070 MHz is the segment of the 20-meter band where most PSK31 operations are commonly found. Overmodulation is indicated on a waterfall display by one or more vertical lines adjacent to a PSK31 signal. In a waterfall display, frequency is horizontal, signal strength is intensity, time is vertical
LSB is normally used when sending an RTTY signal via AFSK with an SSB transmitter. 170 Hz is the most common frequency shift for RTTY emissions in the amateur HF bands. USB is the standard sideband used to generate a JT65 or JT9 digital signal when using AFSK in any amateur band. If you cannot decode an RTTY or other FSK signal even though it is apparently tuned in properly, the mark and space frequencies may be reversed, you may have selected the wrong baud rate or you may be listening on the wrong sideband
PACTOR modem or controller is to be used to determine if the channel is in use by other PACTOR stations by putting the modem or controller in a mode which allows monitoring communications without a connection. Frequent retries or timeouts, long pauses in message transmission and failure to establish a connection between stations are the result from other signals interfering with a PACTOR or WINMOR transmission. Joining an existing contact is not possible, because PACTOR connections are limited to two stations. Winlink communication system sometimes uses the Internet to transfer messages. Transmit a connect message on the station’s published frequency is a way to establish contact with a digital messaging system gateway station.
Overmodulation is indicated on a waterfall display by one or more vertical lines adjacent to a PSK31 signal. In a waterfall display, frequency is horizontal, signal strength is intensity, time is vertical
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