|
Irish Thunder posted:I'll be honest, I had no idea about any of this stuff, but I'm going to school for Electrical Engineering. My professor told us earlier this week that the EE department is holding free classes over the next few weeks for amateur radio certification. He's mainly looking to boost membership for the Amateur Radio Club, but when would I realistically use these skills? Speaking as a fellow EE student: If you want to specialize in wireless systems, communications, or even DSP, you can use amateur radio as an excellent conduit to learn and practice these skills. That said, it isn't a very good resume booster in 90% of all instances. Take the class because you're interested, not because you're just going to toss it on your CV, or make token appearances at the local club. If you end up taking the course, the class section would probably be a waste of time. As a second year EE, I was almost able to pass the test without ever cracking open a study book. You'll have absolutely no problems with self-study.
|
#
?
Aug 28, 2008 13:29
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 10, 2024 10:12 |
|
|
TetsuoTW posted:Speaking of Echolink, I can't seem to find a straight answer anywhere for this, so hopefully one of you will know, if only from the US perspective - where does Echolink, when used from a PC, fall in terms of regulations etc.? Basically since Taiwan isn't in the ITU and there's no reciprocal agreement between the US and Taiwan, I'm stuck with a US call and no way to get on HF and use it legitimately, and Echolink sounds like a good option, but I don't know whether using my US call on Echolink from what would normally be an invalid location would be negated by the fact I'd be using VoIP rather than RF. Well I'd argue that since you're not actually emitting anything in Taiwan that so long as you used transmitters in locations where we do have reciprocal agreements or in the US, that you'd be fine as Part 97 doesn't care about the internet.
|
|
#
?
Aug 28, 2008 17:51
|
|
|
Irish Thunder posted:He's mainly looking to boost membership for the Amateur Radio Club, but when would I realistically use these skills? As often as you'd like. It's a fun hobby, and depending on what you're into, especially as an EE, there are all sorts of sub groups dedicated to things like circuit design, RF design, radio building, etc, etc... That doesn't even start on actually USING the radio to communicate. But more on the Realistically Using Skills part, I don't know where you live, but I have actually used mine many times for emergency comms. We get the occasional Hurricaine here, plus snow or ice storm, thunderstorms that knock power out, etc. I've used mine a bit to contact family members during weather events, and for public service: reporting outages, storm damage, stranded motorists, calls for EMS, etc. Plus it's useful too if you travel and end up in a new city. Hams on the local repeaters are usually a good place to get directions, recommendations on restaurants, hotels, activities, etc too. Besides, if you're an EE, you need to keep up the Neckbeard image 
|
|
#
?
Aug 28, 2008 18:26
|
|
|
KD8HSR checking in. I'm not really very active at all. Mostly just monitoring/occasionally checking-in on one of the local repeater nets on 2 meter. I do have a question though: Has anyone ever looked into or actually tried to contact the ISS on 2 meter? I've read on the internet only enough to know that the International Space Station has and monitors a 2-M radio and I know that most of the astronauts are hams. I don't know how to go about such a thing, but I think it would be pretty drat cool to have a short chat with somebody in space.
|
|
#
?
Aug 29, 2008 02:48
|
|
|
They very rarely listen to the airwaves because they are so busy. Any contacts are usually prearranged through NASA PAO. I haven't received the amateur stations, but I have received space-to-ground comms from the Russian Segment on something like 130 MHz.
|
|
#
?
Aug 29, 2008 02:51
|
|
|
NeerWas fucked around with this message at 21:38 on Aug 9, 2023 |
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2008 22:39
|
|
|
.
Jose Pointero fucked around with this message at 03:10 on Aug 28, 2019 |
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2008 01:36
|
|
|
I'm temporarily off the air.  The way I had everything set up before, I used one of the two bedrooms in my apartment as the shack. The "shack" room had this sliding glass door leading out to the patio, so I just put my antennas on the patio and ran the cabling through the sliding door. Well, I needed monies so I took on a room mate who took that room. This means I gotta relocate my antennas from the patio to the attic. Luckily, I can get to the attic from my closet in my room. Problem is that I don't have a ladder tall enough to get up there and I won't have time to meet with a friend who does have such a ladder for at least another two weeks. It kinda sucks, but I'm sort of not in the biggest of hurries to get back on the air. I only say this because it really seems like the old rednecks on 2m around here aren't much fun. I'd like to play on other bands, but I'm borrowing my friend's 2m rig, so that's a no-go. Maybe us Goons can organize a 2-meter net via Echolink? That would be a fun thing to do after I get my gear set up again. 
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2008 02:19
|
|
|
Jose Pointero posted:Sooo, anyone awake? Otherwise, awesome! I head through Abilene way more often than Waco (I make the I-20 drive out to West Texas 4 or 5 times a year minimum), so I'll have to hit you up on the local 2m repeater next time I'm down that way.
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2008 04:20
|
|
|
sklnd posted:I've always wondered why people live in Abilene, so perhaps you'll be able to fill me in on that. Abilene is awesome, step off. As far as HF; that's half the reason I haven't done much with the radios. No sunspots for like a month sucks. Hopefully it'll pickup.
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2008 04:26
|
|
|
Jose Pointero posted:And all summer I've been hearing activity on 10 meter in my car and occasionally joining in; but this past couple weeks I've been listening for beacons and CQ'ing almost every day and there's just nothing there. Get off your rear end, freakin' Sun!
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2008 04:43
|
|
|
.
Jose Pointero fucked around with this message at 03:11 on Aug 28, 2019 |
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2008 17:09
|
|
|
Jose Pointero posted:Hah, well it seems like I'm the only one bummed right now. First no-sunspot month in a century, huh? Man, did I pick a good time to get into HF or what? I figure that it can only get better from here. Jose Pointero posted:Why am I moving to Abilene? To build windmills, lots and lots of windmills. Actually, I'll just be watching other people build them while I do paperwork. Is the city any fun at all? I've been looking and it just seems like Waco except slightly larger. At least I'll be closer to DFW. Awesome, I remember driving out west late at night and seeing half the countryside light up from the red lighting on top of those windmill. Pretty cool wind farms they've got out there.
|
|
#
?
Sep 9, 2008 17:31
|
|
|
NeerWas fucked around with this message at 21:38 on Aug 9, 2023 |
|
#
?
Sep 12, 2008 05:49
|
|
|
.
Jose Pointero fucked around with this message at 03:12 on Aug 28, 2019 |
|
|
#
?
Sep 12, 2008 06:23
|
|
|
Jose Pointero posted:That's cool. What kinda equipment does he have? I bet you could make a killer drinking game out of ARES/RACES nets.
|
|
#
?
Sep 12, 2008 06:43
|
|
|
NeerWas fucked around with this message at 21:38 on Aug 9, 2023 |
|
#
?
Sep 12, 2008 06:52
|
|
|
I finally got my antenna tuned up pretty decently last night fro 10, 20 and 40 meters, could still use some tweaking to get it down to 1:1 on the SWR, it's running about 1.6:1 right now. Of course with zero solar activity for the last month and the weather being drizzly rain here the bands were almost completely dead. 10 meters was a graveyard. I really need to go sit for my General ticket so I can play with the lower freqs. I did also discover that my FT-101 has an antenna pass through jack on the back so I can daisy chain my FRG-7 shortwave to it and use the same inverted L antenna to listen with. It gets waaay better reception with the big antenna than the 28 guage speaker wire strung up inside the house.
|
|
#
?
Sep 12, 2008 14:28
|
|
|
Those of you with Echolink setup, there is a net at "WX_Talk". Might be interesting to listen to.
|
|
#
?
Sep 12, 2008 23:28
|
|
|
I hate to take pleasure in Galveston getting destroyed (its a great town), but I'm charging up the HT at the moment because there's going to be some good listening over the weekend.
|
|
#
?
Sep 13, 2008 01:10
|
|
|
I just found the WX_Talk net being rebroadcast on 145.270mhz in Dallas so you might scan around if you don't have Echolink already setup and see if you guys can catch it. EDIT: I also really need to play with IRLP more. blugu64 fucked around with this message at 06:23 on Sep 13, 2008 |
|
#
?
Sep 13, 2008 06:20
|
|
|
Ten days without a post? drat...  I DXed a tropo-ducted canadian FM station with a car stereo today, gave me a bit of hope that the bands are turning around. How about you guys? Any good QSOs lately? License upgrades?
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2008 01:09
|
|
|
Someone on the local repeater (NE Wiscosnin) reported talking to somewhere in Pennsylvania the other day
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2008 02:11
|
|
|
When I was out at national weather for Skywarn last night, the gal I was working with mentioned she talked to a guy in Superior, WI off of a skip from here in Grand Forks, ND on her 2m rig Saturday morning.
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2008 03:32
|
|
|
Still need to get up with my friend so we can get my antennas set up in my apartment's roof crawlspace area. Hopefully he's free this weekend...
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2008 04:01
|
|
|
Dolemite posted:Still need to get up with my friend so we can get my antennas set up in my apartment's roof crawlspace area. Hopefully he's free this weekend... Do antennas work fairly well in attics? I'm looking into getting a Diamond D-130J Discone soon since I can't reach any 2m repeaters in my house, and I don't feel like mounting anything out on the roof and attracting the ire of the HoA. I signed up for EchoLink back in 2006 but never really used it until a few days ago. Does anyone use it regularly? I'd also love to listen or join in on any nets.
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2008 05:12
|
|
|
NeerWas fucked around with this message at 21:50 on Aug 9, 2023 |
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2008 06:52
|
|
|
.
Jose Pointero fucked around with this message at 03:13 on Aug 28, 2019 |
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2008 09:13
|
|
|
well my partner and i got a qrp radio this week, a second hand ic-703 (yeah i'm an icom fan girl) so looking forward to the weekend, when we go out in the country and operate. It's hard to operate at home, due to living in a rental property so getting antennas set up is a pain in the backside. but so far lots of fun.
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2008 11:35
|
|
|
Jose Pointero posted:I have had several conversations with truck drivers who have those jacked-up 10 meter radios though. They tell me "usually the hams get pissed off when they hear us up here" and I say "well they're not loving listening anyway, so who gives a poo poo".
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2008 20:58
|
|
|
Radnor posted:Do antennas work fairly well in attics? I'm looking into getting a Diamond D-130J Discone soon since I can't reach any 2m repeaters in my house, and I don't feel like mounting anything out on the roof and attracting the ire of the HoA. I'm not quite sure how well antennas work in attics to be honest. I've heard of shortwave listeners having success with running a long wire around their attics and getting good reception. I'm lucky in that my attic is actually sort of open air. If I look inside, I can actually see outside sky and everything. So I plan to just place the antennas as close to the exposed air as I can. I'm going to be doing this with both a 2-meter J-pole and a (what I think is) a 20-meter dipole.
|
|
#
?
Sep 24, 2008 21:44
|
|
|
.
Jose Pointero fucked around with this message at 03:14 on Aug 28, 2019 |
|
|
#
?
Sep 25, 2008 15:07
|
|
|
Well the IC-703 was a success, using just ten watts, we managed to work Japan from south eastern Australia, using PSK31 on 20 metres. Also got our 40/20 fan dipole up permanently which was good, as I got a number of contacts on 80 and 40 metres.
|
|
#
?
Sep 28, 2008 10:06
|
|
|
cvisors posted:Well the IC-703 was a success, using just ten watts, we managed to work Japan from south eastern Australia, using PSK31 on 20 metres. Nice job! I'm glad someone's able to get around the world in the midst of all this crappy propagation recently...
|
|
#
?
Sep 29, 2008 19:10
|
|
|
 I bought a Kenwood TM-D710 yesterday. It's my first mobile/base station, having owned only HTs in the past. It's a super nice radio with a metric ton of options and menus to navigate -- I find that sort of thing fun to play with. The APRS abilities are fun to play around with. I tried sending myself an email through APRS but it never arrived. The plan is to stick this in my car within the next few weeks and grab a true HF base station to play around with. A TS-2000 would be ideal so I could control it with Kenwood's Skycommand technology. Maybe I can sell a kidney or two to afford one. I also installed an Arrow J Pole in the attic. Trying to do anything in a small, 110˚F+ room is not my idea of fun, but the results were worth it. I also managed to find a surprise nestled in the yellow insulation batting. It was a pair of men's underwear. Soiled underwear. Sitting there, undisturbed in my attic, since being built five years ago.  Of all the things I expected to find up there, dirty underwear was not one of them.
|
|
#
?
Sep 30, 2008 05:25
|
|
|
McRib Sandwich posted:Nice job! I'm glad someone's able to get around the world in the midst of all this crappy propagation recently... Thanks, we've also been able to get into Russia from south east Australia too, on 40 metres, which seems to be getting some decent propagation. 20 metres does open up mid afternoon in .au land, so there is some propagation. Though the running joke is that solar cycle 24 has been canceled. In other news, i'm about to get licensed, no more using my partners call sign and running as second operator. cvisors fucked around with this message at 11:03 on Sep 30, 2008 |
|
#
?
Sep 30, 2008 08:59
|
|
|
cvisors posted:In other news, i'm about to get licensed, no more using my partners call sign and running as second operator. Awesome! I'm going for my General level license on Saturday, and maybe Extra too if I can find time to I agree with Dolemite and think we should organize an Echolink net. There are even a couple of Echolink'ed repeaters in the central florida area that I can reach, and although I haven't done it personally I've read you can connect repeaters pretty easily. Anyone else game?
|
|
#
?
Oct 2, 2008 14:44
|
|
|
Update - been moved into the new house for about 4 months now. Here is what I've got up so far. Pride and joy is a 20m vertical with elevated feed. Right now it's only 10 feet off the ground but I'm going tomorrow to get another piece of top rail to bring it up to 20. The guy wires are 1/8" wire rope cut to 1/4 wavelength, and I'm using 1/8" poly rope from then on - when I go to 20 feet I'm replacing those ropes with 1/4" lines. It works really well, PSK is awesome with just a few watts.  Kind of a cool picture.  Also have a 40m wire vertical with 3 horizontal radials. I like this one a lot, but it needs some polishing. Not much to look at - total cost, $9.99 for a 100 foot roll of speaker wire I split.  The center of my not-buried radial system. It's just a shitload of electric fence wire. 12 radials right now, 4x 30meters, 4x 20meters, 4x 10meters. It's where my vertical used to live. I'm going to keep it and probably use it as the feed point for an 80 meter inverted L wire.  For 2 meters, off the back of the house I have two lengths of top rail holding a Diamond vertical. Adding another section and guy lines tomorrow, taking it to 30 feet. Later I'll put my rotator up there and build a new 2m beam - my current one would be way too heavy to put on top of 30 feet of top rail, it's PVC and solid 1/4" aluminum. Sorry for the poo poo pic on this one =/  I still have about 3000 feet of fence wire, so I'm thinking about splurging for a balun and some ladder line and putting up a full wave 80 meter loop around my back yard. I have trees to string it from and can probably get it about 30 feet up which won't be too bad. Shack looks the same as my old pics, same desk and rigs. Nothing new in that department - I'm broke as poo poo and the only indulgence in radio I can have right now is a few bucks here and there for masts and antenna materials. Can't even buy more coax right now
|
|
#
?
Oct 4, 2008 23:18
|
|
|
Jonny 290 posted:I still have about 3000 feet of fence wire, so I'm thinking about splurging for a balun and some ladder line and putting up a full wave 80 meter loop around my back yard. I have trees to string it from and can probably get it about 30 feet up which won't be too bad.
|
|
#
?
Oct 5, 2008 21:49
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 10, 2024 10:12 |
|
|
nmfree posted:Loop as in vertical loop or as in rhombic? More rhombic style I guess. Horizontal loop, about 60 feet on a side, 30 feet off the ground. Feed it at the middle of one side. Mainly it'll be to scratch my 75 meter itch - I don't have a 135 foot run for a dipole, and I can't deploy a 75m vert in my back yard - enough back there as it is.
|
|
#
?
Oct 6, 2008 14:29
|
|