Jim wrote:
Me and my Dad have been thinking about a ham certificate for quite some
time. After trying cb and murs for use around the city we pretty much
gave up on the radio hobby due to unreliability.

You might want to define reliability. If I remember correctly, it was
Ham Radio that kept lines of communications open during many disasters
that took other modes out of service. If that's unreliable then you may
want to consider lowering your standards.

2m repeaters sound like a lot of fun and have coverage all around our
town. I really don't have much to talk about with strangers but enjoy
listening occasionaly.

For me, part of the fun of local chatter on 2M is that I am talking to
people who might be stranger, or they might be my next-door neighbor.
If you're looking for something private between you and your father, you
should consider a private system and get a scanner to listen into Ham
chatter.

What we were wondering if theres any way to use a repeater and only have
our squelch open up when we call each other.

Repeaters can be configured to respond to sub-audible tones that your
radio emits when transmitting. Only those tones will open up the
repeater, and then the repeater either passes the same tone or
regenerates it so that radios configured like yours will open squelch.
As others have mentioned, repeaters can be configured to listen for a
certain touch-tone sequence and then begin transmitting.

Both of these would be private repeaters using frequency space allocated
by the regional coordinator.

Alternatively, a commercial system, maintained by a vendor, would give
you the private communications you seem to desire, and could also offer
wide-range access.

of course once I am on the
air I want to hear everything.

Ham radios can be set to only emit a squelch-releasing tone or both emit
and expect the tone. The former means you will hear all traffic on the
frequency, which should be none because the repeater only opens on
hearing the tone and no one uses a repeater frequency for simplex -
direct - communications.

I dont really want to hear chattering all
day long just waiting for a contact. I hope this makes sense what I'm
asking.

Not really. You started by saying that 2m sounds like fun, but now you
say you don't want to enjoy it.

From a practical point of view home and cell phones are much better but
thought the radio hobby could be fun.

Half the fun is contacting other Hams, locating them, exchanging cards,
working toward several awards based upon contact numbers or locations.
And then there's the service aspect, that of providing emergency
communications and other services during a disaster. Depending on your
area, there may be varying degrees of activity in the emergency service,
which trains by providing communications services for any variety of
public events.

One can't forget the joy of building a rig, or antenna, or a complete
radio shack. The first time you wire up a bunch of parts, give it some
juice and start talking to someone halfway around the world is
satisfaction not easily topped.

Many locations have clubs at which nearby Hams gather for regular
meetings to exchange ideas, help each other building something or to
advance in their license class.

We also dont like the idea of our names being public. is there any way
that you can keep your name and address away from nosey people?

Ham Radio is a public system, and being licensed means that your name
and address of record can be viewed. It's how we help each other.
There was a time many decades ago when I accidentally left my mobile rig
transmitting while I was inside a shopping center. Those who found my
car saw my license, looked up my name and then paged me. I was grateful
and embarrassed, but without my call sign they could not have located me.

There is nothing preventing you from using a P.O. box as your mailing
address.

Before you consider Ham Radio, since it sounds like its hobby aspect is
more of an added bonus than the primary cause for consideration, figure
out what you want to do and why.

Regards,
Larry
N1POP/7