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Epicenter posted:Well, all I can seem to pick up is Japanese radio broadcasts (when I'm lucky), a lot of noise, horrible squealing all over the bands, and a data mode I can't identify. I think I need a better antenna if I'm going to be able to use this thing indoors. Does anyone have recommendations? The slinky works like absolute poo poo. I wish I hadn't spent $40 on it. A piece of wire works BETTER but even that gets me jack for signal.
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Jun 18, 2008 17:02
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Epicenter posted:This is the area I have to work with. Limiting, I know. I added some info to try and explain how things are set up. Forgive the MSpaint-ery. Ummm shrink that image... You could try one of these (PDF file) It's an HF antenna made for apartments... Conversely, if you could get away with attaching a wire to the building, you could run a wire antenna from your window to the roof or to the ground (not sure what kind of building you have). I've also heard of people getting a GOOD tuner, and just connecting a feedline to rain gutters and downspouts and tuning those (assuming they are metal and not plastic, of course). There's also this over on eham.net about antenna restrictions and apartment antennas.
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Jun 18, 2008 17:21
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Epicenter posted:This is the area I have to work with. Limiting, I know. I added some info to try and explain how things are set up. Forgive the MSpaint-ery. Seconding the request for shrinkage. The squealing you're hearing may be coming from your PC. PC's are notoriously nasty on HF and your antenna is probably picking up all that hash, fan whine and whatever else. Slinkys aren't bad antennas, they just need space, your mini inverted vee was not exactly optimum. Stretch it across your room at ceiling height. The antenna that's on the roof is probably a TV yagi. Dropping a wire out the window at night would solve a lot of your problems. Do you have an old copper radiator in the room? Load that up. People have talked all over the world on that.
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Jun 19, 2008 00:57
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Epicenter posted:I replaced the Slinky Antenna with a (Shielded!) coax TV cable and the reception is ten times better. If I spoke Japanese I could make out over a dozen different signals I'm receiving which all sound like broadcasts. It sounds (to me) like you were tuning around a AM broadcasters side band. I don't think that was a data mode, if it was it sounded kind of like PSK31. Certainly sounds like QRM to me. Does that 701 have a notching filter that maybe you left on? What frequency were you on, and what mode were you in? I'm not familiar with the 701, does it have any narrowband filters? DSP options? It could be local to the building. Can you set up anywhere else?
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Jun 19, 2008 01:08
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Replaced the image with a thumbnail. I think it should work; but can't check because at work, all image hosts are blocked. (yay) I tried stretching the slinky all around the room with little improvement. Squealing was worst near my PC (especially the LCD monitors), and the power strip. It interfered less with coherent signals, but is still audible all over the bands-- scanning across the frequencies I hear noise, noise, loud squeal, noise ... often the squeal is only audible in LSB/USB. I'd turn off the PC but it's what I'm using to decode data signals, or trying to, if I could find any/recognize what mode they are. So I'd like to keep it on if I can. There is a giant heating unit on my ceiling. No idea if it'd be usable at all as an antenna. I doubt it because it's in a big (probably grounded) enclosure. The building seems extremely poor for radio reception; it's mostly cinderblock/cement, I think with iron rebar.  Hellooooo faraday cage.This MFJ-1622 antenna looks promising, if I can just point it out my window and expect good performance. I've spoken to people on IRC in Germany picking up US signals with just a bare wire on their ceiling so that I can only hear very local (Japanese) transmissions and noise with the slinky antenna is.. well, nothing short of baffling. This antenna is probably expensive so I'd like to know it will do the job before I get it, if at all possible. Something else odd I noticed is every transmission I get, except for one signal around 7.16 MHz, sounds like a dedicated radio broadcast (probably high power) playing Japanese news interspersed with music. I heard 1-2 Japanese two way conversations, 1 clear and 1 faint but that's it. When it got dark out, they became inaudible under the noise. BTW; with RF gain at max on a freq with no recognizable signals, the S meter reads ~1 dB. Function-wise, I don't know of any notch filters the IC-701 has. It has a USB, LSB, CW, CW-N and TTY mode, a "noise blanker" and "VOX" setting that appear to do nothing, and no DSP I know of. It's a fairly old unit (1978?) so it is primarily analog. As far as relocating; I can't. I have a 2nd room I can put the antenna that is just 20 feet away but at least it doesn't have a PC and 2 LCD panels in it. But even with that stuff off it seems to help very little. I could put the IC-701 in my car and run it with my battery and laptop, and drive out to the middle of nowhere. But I'm not sure what I'd use as an antenna. I really don't want to buy another one that won't work. Maybe I can rig it up to my car's existing antenna, but that will probably work like poo poo.  Thanks again for all the help. 
Epicenter fucked around with this message at 01:40 on Jun 19, 2008 |
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Jun 19, 2008 01:38
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Epicenter posted:... often the squeal is only audible in LSB/USB. Are you sure you're not just hearing the carrier tone for an AM signal?
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Jun 19, 2008 02:30
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That's probably what the squeals are. It doesn't explain the signals that are 2 regular pulses spaced close together in the AF spectrum, like RTTY but less bandwidth, and it's always a regular tone. It never changes like a 2 way transmission. I just wish that wasn't 99% of what I can hear besides static.
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Jun 19, 2008 04:00
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Jose Pointero fucked around with this message at 03:02 on Aug 28, 2019 |
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Jun 19, 2008 08:17
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Epicenter posted:There is a giant heating unit on my ceiling. No idea if it'd be usable at all as an antenna. I doubt it because it's in a big (probably grounded) enclosure. The building seems extremely poor for radio reception; it's mostly cinderblock/cement, I think with iron rebar. Speaking of faraday cages, that wide-open computer chassis on your desk probably isn't doing you any favors with respect to RFI. If you can close it off, that might help you out some.
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Jun 19, 2008 09:30
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Jose Pointero posted:So just to clarify, do you hear the squeals when it's in AM mode? Sounds a lot like carriers to me. The pitch will be low and raise as you tune up through them. quote:Also, if you hear a POPPOPPOPPOPPOPPOPOPPOP really loud, that's most likely radar of some sort. quote:Another big issue is power lines and transformers. It'll be a 50 or 60 Hz constant buzz (not sure which Japan uses) and it's annoying as poo poo. Over at QRZ I was recommended these 'active antennas'. I'm note actually sure what that is; so I'm reading into it. Does anyone have opinions on such things? .. http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/sw_ant/2206.html http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/sw_ant/3676.html I also looked into the MFJ-1622 and the reviews on eHam either say it works excellently or terribly and rarely in between. Given my luck it'll probably be "Terribly"... I hope this Sony thing works better. At least it's not $100.Thanks. EDIT: In addition I was able to find an odd chirping noise I can't identify on a number of stations. It could be a digimode or .. well, something else. Can anyone help me figure it out? It's about all I hear except noise and very faint voices (rarely) http://www.epicgaming.us/forumjunk/radio/chirping.ogg Epicenter fucked around with this message at 17:27 on Jun 19, 2008 |
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Jun 19, 2008 16:52
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W1KAS in Haverhill, MA checking in! (no-code Extra) I see hamsexy.com has already been mentioned... good site. Amuses me greatly. I'm mostly active on two-meter and 70cm, though I have plans to start using 900MHz, six-meter, and HF bands soon. My real reason for becoming a ham was that hams are allowed to construct their own equipment so long as it meets certain requirements (strongest harmonics -40dBc, max deviation in FM mode, etc etc), while CB you aren't supposed to do anything to your gear and FRS/GMRS likewise. I've been an electronics hobbyist for fifteen years, so that was a big draw for me. Mostly I get cheap, old, broken radios and have fun repairing them and modifying them - currently my station consists of a two-meter Motorola Visar HT, a crappy Feidaxin 70cm HT I got off ebay, an old military forward scout radio on six-meter (AN/PRT-4A + AN/PRR-9), a Yaesu FT-2800M two-meter mobile, and two very old, all-tube Motorola Private Line base stations on two-meter and six-meter. The only things that work right now are the Feidaxin, the military radio, and the Yaesu. Anyone in the Boston area - should check out the MIT Swapfest, it runs the third sunday of every month during the spring/summer/fall, though radio gear is sadly in decline there. Lots of cool random electronic and non-electronic junk of all kinds though, usually cheap. NA1C and I made about 500 bucks in three hours at the May swapfest while selling off anything we didn't want to move out of our apartment at the end of the schoolyear. I'm also planning on attending the next NEARFest this October, up in Deerfield NH, if anyone I know is similarly considering going. Hamfests are always a blast, if only so you can see the crazy old people on mobility carts a.k.a. "hambulances" or "hamabouts". Also - for taking practice tests, I've found the AA9PW practice tests to be invaluable. They are available free of charge at https://www.aa9pw.com PS: hendersa, love the avatar. PPS: holy crap, Epicenter, I didn't realize you were a goon.
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Jun 20, 2008 18:32
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CompHobbyist posted:PPS: holy crap, Epicenter, I didn't realize you were a goon.
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Jun 21, 2008 08:28
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Jose Pointero fucked around with this message at 03:03 on Aug 28, 2019 |
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Jun 21, 2008 10:24
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Jose Pointero posted:Are you sure there's no AM mode on that radio? I haven't been in the hobby for long, but every radio I've seen thus far has had AM. And if it really doesn't; then you're gonna be missing out on a lot of the non-ham stuff that makes SWL so interesting Not necessarily. The sidebands of most AM transmissions (excluding weird poo poo like VSB) are mirror images of each other, so the proper-side SSB receiver should catch most AM activity without much of a problem, just with more fine-tuning required. I've listened to shortwave AM broadcasts in SSB more than a couple times, because i found them to be more noise-resistant than AM mode.
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Jun 21, 2008 10:29
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Jose Pointero fucked around with this message at 03:03 on Aug 28, 2019 |
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Jun 21, 2008 10:47
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Epicenter posted:This MFJ-1622 antenna looks promising, if I can just point it out my window and expect good performance.
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Jun 21, 2008 11:46
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Had a bit of a breakthrough today. Suspecting HFI, I replaced the PC PSU I was using with a cheap car battery (getting a charger shortly.) I also stretched out the sliny-tenna between the 2 track-lights on my ceiling and the center of the dipole at the top of the window. I'm not sure which did it, but I'm picking up tons of CW now. Japan seems to be batshit about the CW and not much else (so far) I've heard call signs from (but not limited to), Japan (specifically Hiroshima), China, Russia, Romania, England, Germany, Brazil, Nigeria, Belarus, Costa Rica and the US (not sure which state.) I'd call that some serious progress.  I also heard a long stream of data in what appeared to be the "Throb" mode but it was faint and MixW could not make sense of it. As for AM-- I really don't see any way to get AM capability on this rig, but I haven't read through the whole manual either. I do hear commercial Japanese broadcasts on SSB, but naturally I can't understand what they say. If I spoke Japanese I probably could; most of them are pretty clear.
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Jun 21, 2008 21:35
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So I for the first time, I attempted to work some DX stations thanks to my friend letting me use his HF gear! I tried to answer a Venezuelan station's CQ, but I guess he couldn't hear me. I couldn't find anything else that was in the General class bands. The bands were total poo poo today, I couldn't really pick up anything at all! When I get some cash, I totally want to get a Kenwood TS-2000 like my buddy has. That radio was sweet!
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Jun 22, 2008 06:49
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Dolemite posted:I couldn't find anything else that was in the General class bands.
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Jun 22, 2008 09:26
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Ah, so the Field Day exercises are usually done on the extra class frequencies? Or is it that Field Day tends to attract extra class licensees? The more I think about it, the more bummed I get. I really wanted that Venezuelan station to be my first contact. I was born there, so making that contact is kind of special for me. I'll have to take over my friend's shack again some time...
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Jun 22, 2008 15:39
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Dolemite posted:Ah, so the Field Day exercises are usually done on the extra class frequencies? Or is it that Field Day tends to attract extra class licensees? The bands will be jam-packed top to bottom. Don't worry about not getting any love in your segment. I just closed on my house Friday so Field Day is likely out for me; however I'm getting the chance to do my antenna masts RIGHT (concrete, guying, etc) and the plan is to get my 2m/70cm satellite antennas on top of 30 feet of chainlink top rail used as a mast - yay for no HOA's! It's an engineering project, for sure, and it has to wait on me buying some coax, but hopefully I'll get a breakthrough on the satellite work once I get my antennas above the trees. Question: We have chainlink fence surrounding our back yard. If I erect an HF vertical with buried radials, will the fence hurt? Do I want to investigate elevated radials?
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Jun 22, 2008 15:52
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Jonny 290 posted:The bands will be jam-packed top to bottom. Don't worry about not getting any love in your segment. Jonny 290 posted:Question: We have chainlink fence surrounding our back yard. If I erect an HF vertical with buried radials, will the fence hurt? Do I want to investigate elevated radials?
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Jun 22, 2008 19:14
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Jose Pointero fucked around with this message at 03:04 on Aug 28, 2019 |
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Jun 23, 2008 06:32
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Well, I'm now registered for this Saturday's US licensing test, one of 77 people testing in Taiwan's first ever such session, apparently. And I'm really amazed already at the ham community - I met a bunch of guys from the Chinese Taipei Amateur Radio League tonight, and they were awesome (hell, there was even a dude roughly my age there, which was a surprise), and I found out the the VE's handling Saturday's exam are all friends of the QSL manager (a Japanese guy) flying in from Japan on their own dime to help out. And so now that I'm set for this test, I have to ask - is the General exam much harder than Tech? I'm definitely sitting the Tech exam, but I figure since I don't know when the next session'll be, I might as well go for General at the same time, but since I've only got until Saturday and I haven't studied for that one, I don't really know.
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Jun 24, 2008 14:29
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TetsuoTW posted:Well, I'm now registered for this Saturday's US licensing test, one of 77 people testing in Taiwan's first ever such session, apparently. And I'm really amazed already at the ham community - I met a bunch of guys from the Chinese Taipei Amateur Radio League tonight, and they were awesome (hell, there was even a dude roughly my age there, which was a surprise), and I found out the the VE's handling Saturday's exam are all friends of the QSL manager (a Japanese guy) flying in from Japan on their own dime to help out. That is extremely awesome. Good luck on the tests! Given that it's going to be Field Day in the US, and because the session's so large, I wonder if they'll be bringing out some rigs to listen to the added activity on the bands... could be a fun time. quote:And so now that I'm set for this test, I have to ask - is the General exam much harder than Tech? I'm definitely sitting the Tech exam, but I figure since I don't know when the next session'll be, I might as well go for General at the same time, but since I've only got until Saturday and I haven't studied for that one, I don't really know. The General isn't a great deal harder than the Tech, and I know you've probably picked up a fair bit of knowledge about propagation and stuff from SWLing, so I would give it a shot. You might surprise yourself. Maybe look at a couple practice exams and see how you do, but not before you're confident that you can nail down the Tech exam, of course.
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Jun 24, 2008 14:54
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Dolemite posted:So I for the first time, I attempted to work some DX stations thanks to my friend letting me use his HF gear! I tried to answer a Venezuelan station's CQ, but I guess he couldn't hear me. The bands have been total poo poo for a couple days now. They weren't "terrible" on Saturday though, at least not from North Carolina. I worked several Kids Day stations across the country, got another Cuba call, a couple Italys and a couple Canadians... and I wasn't even on the air THAT much... A lot of it will depend on what kind of equipment you use, espeically given how lovely the bands are right now. The last two days, 20 meters has been noisy as gently caress all, and yesterday there were S9+ lightning crashes from a storm about 40 miles north of me, but I still got in some DX and a couple new states too... And other Ham Goons, what kind of stuff are you running? My meager shack consists of: Radios: FT-840, FT-817, IC-V8000 and an Alinco HT. Amps: cheapo 35W 2m FM/SSB amplifier (use it for 2m SSB) Antenna: Cushcraft 11e 2m beam, W5GI mystery Antenna at 40 feet, and a random piece of wire that is stapled along my fence (used for SWL mostly). No fancy stuff for me, though I do want to build a 2m loop for SSB and I want to get a decent vertical for 40/20/15.
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Jun 24, 2008 17:27
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Looks like the thread's been stagnant a bit lately, so I'll throw out a question. How many of you guys are into scanning VHF/UHF? Stuff like commercial and public safety frequencies. I've been toying with the notion of getting a scanner down the line, since they're a lot better suited to the purpose than an HT or a multimode ham rig. Anyway, for those of you in the scanning arena, what's the hot gear these days? It looks like you can't beat the Uniden Bearcat BCD396T for portable trunk-tracking scanners... and for $500, I would hope so!  What's the difference between the desktop units and the handheld ones, feature-wise? Is there a desktop unit similar to the feature set of the 396T?P.S. anyone participating in Field Day this weekend? I'll probably be monitoring on and off, but I don't have any plans to actually set up anywhere with a club, mostly because no one's around here for the summer.
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Jun 25, 2008 22:43
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McRib Sandwich posted:Looks like the thread's been stagnant a bit lately, so I'll throw out a question. How many of you guys are into scanning VHF/UHF? Stuff like commercial and public safety frequencies. I've been toying with the notion of getting a scanner down the line, since they're a lot better suited to the purpose than an HT or a multimode ham rig. I was planning on doing a field day, but not sure if that is going to work out now. As for scanning, I live close to a (large)church, and thus can find many babymonitors to listen to (  ). As for serious scanning my FT-7800R works rather well for that, as I can scan a band rather quickly. As far as the Uniden you linked to the reason it's so pricey is it's a 'APCO 25 Digital Scanner'. The hamsexy guys I chatted with had some good things to say about it, though they also mentioned that it couldn't hold a candle to their $2k Motorola radios  I personally own this as it was cheap, and fun to play with, doesn't do trunk tracking though.
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Jun 25, 2008 23:34
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Our club is doing Field Day this weekend. We're planning on having Digital, CW and Phone covered. I'll probably be taking a shift or two in the phone shack, so keep an ear out for N0GF, I'm pretty sure we'll be operating under the club call, as opposed to our individual calls.
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Jun 25, 2008 23:52
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blugu64 posted:The hamsexy guys I chatted with had some good things to say about it, though they also mentioned that it couldn't hold a candle to their $2k Motorola radios I'm sure you're just being facetious, but I seriously hope that someone wasn't actually suggesting that some sort of Motorola portable / land-mobile radio would make a better trunk-tracking scanner than, oh, I dunno, a TRUNK-TRACKING SCANNER? But then again I've never met the hamsexy crew.
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Jun 26, 2008 04:00
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McRib Sandwich posted:I'm sure you're just being facetious, but I seriously hope that someone wasn't actually suggesting that some sort of Motorola portable / land-mobile radio would make a better trunk-tracking scanner than, oh, I dunno, a TRUNK-TRACKING SCANNER?
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Jun 26, 2008 04:02
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McRib Sandwich posted:I'm sure you're just being facetious, but I seriously hope that someone wasn't actually suggesting that some sort of Motorola portable / land-mobile radio would make a better trunk-tracking scanner than, oh, I dunno, a TRUNK-TRACKING SCANNER? Yep, they basically run six radios in their car, one for each service. It can get a little ridiculous. It has its advantages but only if you are a serious public services nerd or are getting paid for it (which a lot of the hamsexy guys actually are). I have a Uniden 396 and it is great, and it drat well better be for $500. It picks it all up, and has pretty good sensitivity. The batteries lasted about a year of daily use, 6-8 hours a day, recharging overnight.
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Jun 26, 2008 04:04
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Jonny 290 posted:Yep, they basically run six radios in their car, one for each service. It can get a little ridiculous. $500  Can't justify that at all right now. How does the "close call" feature work for homing in on nearby signals? That sounds like one of the nicest upsells to the unit, being able to pick out transmissions as they're happening in front of you.
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Jun 26, 2008 05:13
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So me and my friend are stumped! The local Field Day weekend is holding something called "EMCOMM" testing and mentions in their e-mail that they are holding levels 1, 2, and 3 of the EMCOMM testing. Well, what exactly is EMCOMM? I've been Googling like mad, but nothing really turns up in the search. So, my two questions: 1.) What the hell is EMCOMM? 2.) I assume level one is the easiest exam. If I've never seen or heard of EMCOMM, is enough of the material similar enough to the material I've seen on the Tech and General radio exams to pass the level 1 EMCOMM exam?
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Jun 27, 2008 02:37
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Emergency Communications. And thats sweet if they are doing it there. I wish there was something like that going on here, as I'm sort of in line to be the Emergency Co-ordinator for my county, and having that training is something they either require, or are going to require in the near future, for the position. Are they charging the $45 per course at FD, or is that being waived? The only reason I haven't started those yet, is that I don't have the fees available at the moment. e: i missed this part, but the EMCOMM training/material is unrelated to Amateur licensing. Those three levels are ARRL courses, and unless you are going to get heavily involved with ARES/Skywarn or other emergency communications, I'm not sure the cost for the courses would be worth it. mwdan fucked around with this message at 03:20 on Jun 27, 2008 |
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Jun 27, 2008 03:18
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Dolemite posted:1.) What the hell is EMCOMM? 
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Jun 27, 2008 03:33
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Now theres a mobile rig 
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Jun 27, 2008 03:59
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mwdan posted:Emergency Communications. And thats sweet if they are doing it there. I wish there was something like that going on here, as I'm sort of in line to be the Emergency Co-ordinator for my county, and having that training is something they either require, or are going to require in the near future, for the position. Yep, they'll be holding all three levels of exams. I didn't see anything in the e-mail about actual courses, but it was a pretty brief e-mail. I don't know if they're charging, but if they're charging, then I don't think it would be worth it for me to take the exams. $45 is a lot for me to swing right now Plus, I don't know how much I could help out in an emergency. I've forgotten my First Aid training, I can't swim, and I've only been on the air for a good two weeks or so. Not to mention I technically don't have a radio. I'm borrowing my friend's 2-meter mobile radio and J-pole antenna. But I think that down the line, I might want to get involved in this. blugu64 posted:This is EMCOMM Ah, so EMCOMM is mainly setting up a giant make-shift amateur radio station manned by trained radio operators / rescuers I take it.
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Jun 27, 2008 04:07
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That van is taking it to the extreme. It's basically using whatever you have to get things out during an emergency. There's more to it than that, of course, but that's about it. And the thing about those courses, is that its $45 EACH LEVEL. So, it's $135 for all 3 Levels. And the $45 is if you are an ARRL member. I think its $75 a level if you aren't.
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Jun 27, 2008 04:41
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NeerWas fucked around with this message at 21:35 on Aug 9, 2023 |
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Jun 27, 2008 05:50
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