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Paul MaudDib posted:Be careful with the QRZ exams. On my general I got to the point where I could pass with an 90-95% (I do not know why they expect you to memorize the frequency charts; just print them off) and on the real thing I saw a bunch of questions I hadn't seen on QRZ. I ended up passing at about 80% but it was scary for a bit. Could just be random luck, but make sure you're studying off the questions directly too, occasionally. YIKES! Thanks for the heads-up on the QRZ exams! I've been using the QRZ exams exclusively as a gauge for whether or not I'm ready for the technician exam. I'll definitely have to check out the other resources in this thread for practice exams.
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# ? Apr 25, 2008 23:29 |
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# ? May 11, 2024 11:55 |
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Paul MaudDib posted:Be careful with the QRZ exams. On my general I got to the point where I could pass with an 90-95% (I do not know why they expect you to memorize the frequency charts; just print them off) and on the real thing I saw a bunch of questions I hadn't seen on QRZ. I ended up passing at about 80% but it was scary for a bit. Could just be random luck, but make sure you're studying off the questions directly too, occasionally. I'm gonna bet that either the question pool changed from the time you used QRZ to the time you took your exam, or (perhaps more likely) that the question pool had already changed, but QRZ did not have the updated set in their practice tests. In either case, it just sounds like you had poor timing on that one. As far as I know, the only question pool slated to change soon is the Amateur Extra one, so anyone studying for their General on QRZ is probably going to be just fine.
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# ? Apr 26, 2008 01:53 |
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Jose Pointero fucked around with this message at 02:42 on Aug 28, 2019 |
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# ? Apr 26, 2008 02:14 |
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http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/ This is so loving cool! This link almost deserves its own thread.
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# ? Apr 26, 2008 02:33 |
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Sennheiser posted:http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/ This is cool! Russian guy on 7074 KHz saying stuff that I don't understand. Awesome - this is gonna make the last 30 minutes of work go by a lot faster. EDIT: I don't know the theory behind it, but you can almost make music with this thing. Tune it to CW narrow mode, then run the yellow tuning thing back and forth over 3595 KHz. As you tune over 3595, the tone ramps up and carries off into different notes. I want one of these radios just so I can make ambient/experimental music. Dolemite fucked around with this message at 03:25 on Apr 26, 2008 |
# ? Apr 26, 2008 03:21 |
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Dolemite posted:This is cool! Russian guy on 7074 KHz saying stuff that I don't understand. Awesome - this is gonna make the last 30 minutes of work go by a lot faster. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/softrock40/ These are 30$ kit SDR radios that work with a sound card. Not quite as cool but they can do nearly as much. These don't have amps or anything so they do take some work to have a full transceiver.
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# ? Apr 26, 2008 06:58 |
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Dolemite posted:EDIT: I don't know the theory behind it, but you can almost make music with this thing. Tune it to CW narrow mode, then run the yellow tuning thing back and forth over 3595 KHz. As you tune over 3595, the tone ramps up and carries off into different notes. I want one of these radios just so I can make ambient/experimental music. The principle that makes this happen is called heterodyning. Generally speaking, when you electronically mix two signals of different frequencies, you get four products from that mix: each of the original frequencies, plus two others; these remaining two frequencies are at the sum and the difference of the original frequencies. In fact, almost all modern receivers use this principle to downconvert the radio frequencies you pick out of the air into the audio range. In each intermediate stage of the receiver, an "intermediate frequency" (IF) is mixed with the frequency you are tuned to, and the lower heterodyne frequency is extracted. This happens a couple times to bring the signal down into the baseband audio range, where it comes out as intelligible audio (assuming voice operation). The reason this specifically works on that web app, though, is because the receiver is in SSB/CW modes. Without getting into the details, SSB is different from regular AM in that in SSB, the carrier wave is suppressed (in other words, not transmitted), and the receiver has to provide the correct reference wave to demodulate the signal. Full-fledged AM operation does not suppress the carrier wave, so the receiver has an accurate reference that it can pull from the transmission. By tuning around the band on SSB, you are effectively changing the frequency with which the signal is demodulated, and due to the principles of heterodyning, you are changing the audio frequency of the tone being put out. CW is just a carrier wave itself, so obviously tuning around it will produce the same fluctuations as the SSB example. Science. edit: don't worry, you need to know maybe 10% of this for the Technician ticket. McRib Sandwich fucked around with this message at 07:06 on Apr 26, 2008 |
# ? Apr 26, 2008 07:00 |
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McRib Sandwich posted:edit: don't worry, you need to know maybe 10% of this for the Technician ticket. That is so good to hear, given how my enthusiasm for getting into this hobby crashed after reading your post EDIT: I'm getting some weird stuff at 3610.64 kHz Bandwidth: 1.28 kHz @ -6dB; 1.74 kHz @ -60dB. It's that 'Peanuts' SSB stuff mentioned earlier. Moist von Lipwig fucked around with this message at 08:09 on Apr 26, 2008 |
# ? Apr 26, 2008 07:52 |
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nmfree posted:conference chat TBA?
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# ? Apr 26, 2008 09:02 |
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So, drat you all, I'm looking to get into ham radio now. I'm reading through Ham Radio for Dummies, looking through the linked study guides, doing practice tests on QRZ, and soon to try and get in touch with the VE running the Taipei Tech exam in June. And so, I've got one question (for now) - I suspect it would be, but would an HT be sufficient a rig for a newbie?
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# ? Apr 27, 2008 19:19 |
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TetsuoTW posted:And so, I've got one question (for now) - I suspect it would be, but would an HT be sufficient a rig for a newbie? I'll be looking at a mobile rig before terribly long, though. The HT + mag mount antenna works pretty decently, but I'd like something a little more permanent. Also the mag mount came off my truck while driving down the interstate today due to my speed (70MPH) and a very strong headwind. Luckily it fell into the bed and was undamaged.
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# ? Apr 27, 2008 20:55 |
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TetsuoTW posted:So, drat you all, I'm looking to get into ham radio now. I'm reading through Ham Radio for Dummies, looking through the linked study guides, doing practice tests on QRZ, and soon to try and get in touch with the VE running the Taipei Tech exam in June. And so, I've got one question (for now) - I suspect it would be, but would an HT be sufficient a rig for a newbie? So I actually think that everyone should start with an HT. They're super easy to pick up and use, and they have an appropriate feature set for beginner licensees without getting into the crazy filtering options on HF rigs and whatnot. Just remember that for transmitting, HTs are going to be VHF / UHF FM, no worldwide coverage here. Most beginner licenses don't allow HF anyway though, so it's not a big deal. My HT was my only rig until very recently, but it's served me very well (and still does). I'm a bit of a gadget whore, so when I got mine, I wanted features like dual receive and a lot of other crazy stuff that comes on some of the higher-end HTs. Because it was my only rig, I also wanted one that was capable of wideband receive, so I could hear as much stuff as possible (within the limits of my antenna). I know you're already into SWL, so you probably have other equipment that can listen to HF already. Probably anything that will let you listen to the airband and commercial/public safety frequencies is a good bet. Anyway, I don't want to clog up the thread with long posts, but if you have more questions about HTs, just post them here. I'd be happy to do a feature comparison on some of the models out there. P.S. PROTIP: With an HT + mag-mount on your car, you can listen to fast food drive-thru window conversations while you're in the line. Drunk/stoned people at 2am = unlimited entertainment. McRib Sandwich fucked around with this message at 03:01 on Apr 28, 2008 |
# ? Apr 28, 2008 02:58 |
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NeerWas fucked around with this message at 21:32 on Aug 9, 2023 |
# ? Apr 28, 2008 10:11 |
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McRib Sandwich posted:P.S. PROTIP: With an HT + mag-mount on your car, you can listen to fast food drive-thru window conversations while you're in the line. Drunk/stoned people at 2am = unlimited entertainment. You probably won't even need the mag-mount, a rubber duck antenna that came with the HT is more than sufficient.
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# ? Apr 28, 2008 16:25 |
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thehustler posted:You probably won't even need the mag-mount, a rubber duck antenna that came with the HT is more than sufficient. Not when the drive-thru speakerbox transmits on 30 MHz. Why there are 10-meter channels set aside for business use is completely beyond me.
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# ? Apr 29, 2008 01:08 |
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McRib Sandwich posted:Anyway, I don't want to clog up the thread with long posts, but if you have more questions about HTs, just post them here. I'd be happy to do a feature comparison on some of the models out there. If I could take you up on this it'd be much appreciated. I'm off to Hong Kong on Thursday, and I plan to check out a couple of ham specialists while I'm there with the thought of perhaps buying an HT. Any suggestions what I should be looking at, like particular features or recommended models? I'm not looking to drop a huge bag of cash, but I don't want to end up buying some cheap pile of poo poo either. I'd especially like to know if there's anything to watch out for as far as getting in on IRLP or Echolink or anything like that, since I don't hold out much hope for significant English-language conversation with local hams. On a vaguely related note, I finally managed to check out the 40m band on one of my radios this past weekend, and holy god is there a lot of activity. Considering how damned hard it seems to be to get ham equipment here, I'm bloody amazed. Sure, it's basically all in Mandarin, but it's a start.
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# ? Apr 29, 2008 08:32 |
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TetsuoTW posted:I'd especially like to know if there's anything to watch out for as far as getting in on IRLP or Echolink or anything like that, since I don't hold out much hope for significant English-language conversation with local hams. Well, on the technical side of things, you need to be authenticated to be on Echolink. It take a couple of minutes to do the verification if you have your documentation and a digital camera handy. The people who run echolink will need a day or two to turn it around. You may also need to get an EchoLink Proxy server, if you are behind a firewall at wherever you're staying. I have no clue what the operating restrictions for your station might be there though.
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# ? Apr 29, 2008 11:43 |
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McRib Sandwich posted:Not when the drive-thru speakerbox transmits on 30 MHz. Why there are 10-meter channels set aside for business use is completely beyond me. Oh, yeah, that is kind of stupid. Although, that's range dependent. If you're really close to it it wouldn't be that much of a problem.
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# ? Apr 29, 2008 13:25 |
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McRib Sandwich posted:Not when the drive-thru speakerbox transmits on 30 MHz. Why there are 10-meter channels set aside for business use is completely beyond me. Are they actually set aside for business use, or is this just a case of the manufacturer using 30MHz frequencies at very low power? Having used business bands before for work, there's a requirement just like in Ham radio that you have to ID every so many minutes. More of a curiosity point. Of course, if they ARE just sitting on 30MHz without having a licensed allocation, there's nothing to say you can't sit nearby a McDs with a 10 Meter rig and an amp and just talk all day over their headsets... But I certainly don't endorse that kind of behaviour. The point being, if they are sitting on the Ham bands or even close to the ham 10m band segment and are not licensed/allocated, they have to suck up any interference that may come from said Ham transmitters without complaint. I thought those things were all in the UHF or higher range anyway... I can see using 30mhz or so for business purposes, some state police agencies still use frequencies between 10 and 6 meters for statewide communications. I can not, however, really see using those frequencies to talk 20 - 50 feet away... Then again, it's probably something very similar to when you used to be able to buy those cheap old Walkie-Talkie toys that operated around 27MHz or so... low frequency (I know that's technically HF or low VHF) and low power = cheap to make... errr... at least that's how it seemed to me. I seem to recall something I read a few years ago about people buying toy walkie talkies then messing with fast food restaurants because the toys happened to be on the same frequency as the restaurant transceivers... this was also in a movie I saw once too... And for better content: HF goons - 20m was alive last night until nearly 11 PM EDT... I got in to Dallas from near Raleigh on 20m 59+ and then the band just dropped out from under me. One moment I was talking to a guy and we were both loud and strong, then the next instant, I could barely hear him through the noise... heh...
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# ? Apr 29, 2008 20:00 |
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bladernr posted:Are they actually set aside for business use, or is this just a case of the manufacturer using 30MHz frequencies at very low power? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_band Fun frequencies to keep plugged in a bank or two on your scanner. bladernr posted:Then again, it's probably something very similar to when you used to be able to buy those cheap old Walkie-Talkie toys that operated around 27MHz or so. I believe most of these were actually CB radios, but I could be mistaken.
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# ? Apr 29, 2008 21:32 |
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This is a wild stab in the dark, but if anyone was, or knows anyone who was involved in San Francisco Bay Packet Radio or San Francisco Bay Packet Radio Net (PRNET) since the 70s please get in touch with me.
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# ? Apr 29, 2008 21:47 |
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blugu64 posted:I believe most of these were actually CB radios, but I could be mistaken.
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# ? Apr 30, 2008 00:14 |
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bladernr posted:Blugu nailed it on the HF business band frequencies, but here's a little secret: pretty much every drive-thru in the country seems to operate on some very specific channels. In fact, if you peruse the FCC database for enough drive thru business allocations, this becomes obvious very quickly. Generally speaking, the headsets are almost always VHF/UHF for obvious reasons like antenna consideration, but sometimes the speakerbox operates near 10 meters. The system is pretty interesting, actually. The last time I remember listening to one of these, I was surprised to find that the speakerbox is constantly transmitting, even if there are no cars there. When a car drives over the loop, a CTCSS tone is engaged and the system transmits a loud audio *bong* to let the staff know a car is there, then it opens the mic up so they can hear the guy in the car. So clearly the headsets have tone squelch set for the speakerbox, so they hear the box audio only when a car is present. What surprised me though is when I found out that the headsets themselves are capable of two different tone outputs -- apparently one tone is used to key the speakerbox as you would expect, but the other is used as a talkaround so the other workers with headsets on can communicate with each other, without talking to the customers. The system is also full-duplex; the entire time your car is over the loop, they can hear everything happening in your car... and I mean *everything* -- those mics are wide open. I'm 99% sure the attendant can still hear the conversation while they are talking, which is different from most ham equipment, which usually cuts the speaker when transmitting. Anyway drive thrus are loving sweet to listen to so clearly you should all go out and do it now. It's actually really fun to try to reverse-engineer how the system works purely by listening to the exchanges on both frequencies. I'm sure it's even more fun if your HT is freebanded, but of course as a responsible ham you would never do that.
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# ? Apr 30, 2008 15:50 |
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nmfree posted:They were all CBs, and most of them came with crystals for channel 14. Actually, I was under the impression that the toy walkie-talkies operated on those wacky ISM frequencies reserved for low-power unlicensed stuff, maybe not though. You know those cheapo R/C cars? They always operate on 27.something and 49.something MHz; each of those is a small ISM allocation if I remember correctly. I figured the cheapo walkie-talkies where the same way. Either way, those were some fun times.
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# ? Apr 30, 2008 15:54 |
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In a similar vein, old cordless telephones operating on 31MHz or so are lots of fun Might be UK only, though.
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# ? Apr 30, 2008 15:56 |
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McRib Sandwich posted:Actually, I was under the impression that the toy walkie-talkies operated on those wacky ISM frequencies reserved for low-power unlicensed stuff, maybe not though. You know those cheapo R/C cars? They always operate on 27.something and 49.something MHz; each of those is a small ISM allocation if I remember correctly. I figured the cheapo walkie-talkies where the same way. Either way, those were some fun times. 49MHz is a fully-duplex personal communications band; some of the walkie talkies do use these, that is true (and I forgot about those), as well as old cordless phones and baby monitors.
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# ? Apr 30, 2008 20:35 |
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nmfree posted:Those remote controls? Yeah, they use CB channels, usually between channel 30 and 40. (At least, all the ones I've ever seen.) 49 MHz was an extremely popular band but got clogged with baby monitors....and during solar cycle peaks, propagation will get active on 50 MHz. People were getting sick of their baby monitor in the next room being blown away by somebody's 200 miles away in just the right spot.
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# ? Apr 30, 2008 20:49 |
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Aha, found it... the unlicensed 27/49 RC devices (and I think all modern toy walkie-talkies, too) are technically Part 15 devices, and while the 27 MHz one operates in the CB service range, it doesn't occupy a CB voice channel. Some of the old walkie-talkies did occupy CB space, but apparently those were phased out of that band some time ago. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CB_usage_in_the_United_States#Part_15_and_ISM_Devices
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# ? Apr 30, 2008 23:45 |
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Just in case anyone hasn't seen this, Gigaparts runs a drawing for a new transceiver pretty much continually, this month it's for a Yaesu FT-950.McRib Sandwich posted:Aha, found it... the unlicensed 27/49 RC devices (and I think all modern toy walkie-talkies, too) are technically Part 15 devices, and while the 27 MHz one operates in the CB service range, it doesn't occupy a CB voice channel. Some of the old walkie-talkies did occupy CB space, but apparently those were phased out of that band some time ago.
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# ? May 1, 2008 21:23 |
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Argh! I wish gas wasn't so expensive now a days! I've gotten to the point where I can consistently score ~95% percent on exams. Only problem is I live in a podunk town. So my options are burn valuable gas driving to neighboring podunk towns and take the exam in a week or two, or waiting until June to take the technician exam in town. Heh, my buddy at work is really trying to get me to take the exam as soon as possible since he wants to test his online radio setups with me. nmfree posted:Just in case anyone hasn't seen this, Gigaparts runs a drawing for a new transceiver pretty much continually, this month it's for a Yaesu FT-950. Aww nuts, they require you already be licensed and have a verifiable call sign to enter.
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# ? May 1, 2008 23:23 |
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TetsuoTW posted:If I could take you up on this it'd be much appreciated. I'm off to Hong Kong on Thursday, and I plan to check out a couple of ham specialists while I'm there with the thought of perhaps buying an HT. Any suggestions what I should be looking at, like particular features or recommended models? I'm not looking to drop a huge bag of cash, but I don't want to end up buying some cheap pile of poo poo either. I'd especially like to know if there's anything to watch out for as far as getting in on IRLP or Echolink or anything like that, since I don't hold out much hope for significant English-language conversation with local hams. Crap, I totally missed this post, sorry for the delay. I'll do my best to compare the features on the different types of HTs out there. First, if you're buying new, the big three manufacturers to look at are Yaesu, Icom, and Kenwood. eham.net has reviews of all the current models, and that is a great starting point to get info about the different models. Pay a little more attention to the more recent reviews, as low reviews from when the product first came out may not reflect any firmware changes, etc. that have happened in later runs of the radio. With HTs, you'll probably want to get at least a dual-band capable rig. I can't speak for your part of the world, but in the US, 2-meter and 70cm are both pretty active bands, and having a radio capable of TX both bands is often useful. Single-band radios are often more intermod resistant, since they are concerned with smaller slices of spectrum, but they are often limited units in terms of RX frequency range, too. Realistically, almost any dual-band HT will serve you well if money is a factor. Most HTs at that price point have a minimum expected level of features and are a good buy. In particular, I'm a big fan of Yaesu HTs, and specifically, the FT-60R is an absolutely wonderful rig for the money. I own a VX-7R that has a lot more bells and whistles, but there are times where I still wish I had the 60R. It's basically a ham rig in a business-class chassis. Great price point, nearly indestructible, and Yaesu got all the basics right with that rig. If you do want to go nuts on the features, the higher end rigs will let you do things like dual simultaneous receive, wider RX coverage including broadcast radio and lower bands, and more crazy stuff - the 7R has a frequency counter function, so you can hold up a radio of unknown TX frequency next to it, and the 7R will tell you what it's frequency is. The Yaesu 6R and 7R are designed to be submersible as well. Kenwood's high-end rig is the TH-F6, which also does dual receive and is also all-mode receive, including SSB. Whether or not this is actually useful in an HT is another story, though. My personal opinion is that for the money, you can't beat the FT-60R. I think it's also internet-repeater ready, but you should double-check this before putting down any cash. What I did when buying was I first read all the eham reviews for the various models, then I went and read through the rig manuals online, so I knew exactly how the features compared across rigs, and just how they were actually used on the radio itself. If you do all that, you won't be disappointed when it comes time to make a purchase. Do let us know what you end up getting!
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# ? May 2, 2008 07:05 |
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So I thought that the thread title was an exaggeration and that surely not every HAM person is a greybeard. Well, I'm listening to a bunch of guys on a local 2 meter repeater talk about their favorite places they liked to get beer from while they were in college - in the mid 1950s!!
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# ? May 2, 2008 21:56 |
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McRib Sandwich posted:Do let us know what you end up getting! Thanks for the advice! Even though I ended up seeing it too late, it's good to see my instincts paid off, 'cause I did basically what you suggested and checked eham reviews for a couple of HTs I was looking at on Thursday once I got into Hong Kong. I ended up with a couple of models in mind, and on Friday I went to CQ Shop in Sham Shui Po and told the guy there I was looking for a good HT for a newbie to see what he suggested. With his help and a memory of the reviews, I settled on a Yaesu VX-6R. It seems pretty nice, although even for someone who's generally reasonably tech minded holy crap are there a lot of options and abbreviations on this thing! Luckily I've still got until late June before my tech exam to get used to most of the settings. sub supau fucked around with this message at 04:37 on May 3, 2008 |
# ? May 3, 2008 04:15 |
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Does anybody make a 2M ONLY antenna with an SMA mount? It seems silly to use a dual/tri band antenna on a mono-band HT. The Kulduckie antennas look like exactly what I'm looking for, but they only come with BNC mounts
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# ? May 3, 2008 05:31 |
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Dog Case posted:Does anybody make a 2M ONLY antenna with an SMA mount? It seems silly to use a dual/tri band antenna on a mono-band HT. From what I remember 70cm is right around the third harmonic of 2meters. That said wouldn't most 2m only antennas at least work somewhat on 70cm? TetsuoTW posted:I settled on a Yaesu VX-6R. drat nice HT, I dig the wideband recieve on it.
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# ? May 3, 2008 05:43 |
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Jose Pointero fucked around with this message at 02:43 on Aug 28, 2019 |
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# ? May 3, 2008 05:44 |
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Dog Case posted:Does anybody make a 2M ONLY antenna with an SMA mount? It seems silly to use a dual/tri band antenna on a mono-band HT. There is no such thing as "only 2 meters". The poster a few above me is right, it will also be resonant on 70 cm.
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# ? May 3, 2008 05:59 |
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NeerWas fucked around with this message at 21:33 on Aug 9, 2023 |
# ? May 3, 2008 09:30 |
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happy purring catfish posted:There is no such thing as "only 2 meters". The poster a few above me is right, it will also be resonant on 70 cm.
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# ? May 3, 2008 09:45 |
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# ? May 11, 2024 11:55 |
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Mah Lttle Ponyta posted:What is the best way to RFI-proof your car(Honda Accord)? I have some RadioShack CB radio hooked up to my car currently with a magnet mount antenna and whenever the engine is running there's a whole bunch of static and then I can't hear poo poo. I think I've had something get through the squelch once ever. That being said, some things you can do to help yourself: * Run large gauge wire directly from the battery to the radio (I'd use at least #10, assuming a stock radio) * Inspect your body panels (especially) and make sure they're bonded solidly to each other and to the unibody. Often times a person will have to use braid (such as the outer braid stripped from coax) to bond body panels to each other and to the unibody/frame to lower the resistance to ground. * Place beads on power leads to certain components, most often those associated with the fuel system. The fuel pump and fuel injectors are notorious for generating tons of hash in any car (I suffer from this, too, you can hear the fuel pump kick in and pressurize the fuel system in my pickup on my CB) * Make sure your radio is properly grounded, at the very least, and make sure the coax connection (not really practical with a mag mount, I know) is as short as possible. If you're interested in doing some reading, this guy really knows what's going on. (yeah, he's an rear end in a top hat on eHam, but his site is great for learning about mobile installations.) Mah Lttle Ponyta posted:If I tried to operate a handheld in my car in its current state would I get this same interference since the power isn't coming from the car's battery? Mah Lttle Ponyta posted:Also, why are CB radios so common in Jeeps, do they emit less RFI just because they're Jeeps? As for the popularity of CBs, most offroading groups use CB because A) it's free to use and B) has much better range in the forest, mountains, etc. than VHF radios (FRS, GMRS, etc.). Also, a lot of the guys have been using CBs for 20+ years, and they're hesitant to change. If I offroaded (and hopefully some time I will get into that hobby) I'd definitely have both a 2M HT and a CB in my rig.
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# ? May 3, 2008 10:03 |