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MullardEL34 posted:Is that a Motorola ht220? I've got a box of at least twenty of those, alll decommissioned police units with the TX crystals clipped. I need to get my ham ticket. Well, he said that it was a Yaesu. Though that's cool, I wonder how hard it'd be to mod ht220 into ham band, I'll have to look it up.
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Jan 5, 2009 07:05
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Jonny 290 posted:That's pretty awesome for Alaska. Don't get disheartened. What time of day were you listening? Mid to late afternoon, as soon as the sun went down the band went silent....niot even getting JA land coming through. I'm more a fan of loop antennas-before the wind blew it down I had very nice 20M loop set up broadside to north/south, great for over the pole and down into the Pacific area. When the band was in Europe was my plaything. Occasionally if I hit condx just right I was able to worth South Africa, Antartica a few times. My main demotivator to getting something decent back up has been daylight and temperature. We've been in this nasty cold snap for the last week or so. And it's a bit dark when I get home in the PM.
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Jan 5, 2009 07:22
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This thread hasn't been touched in over 2 weeks now! I figured that I'd update it and post about the new toys that I bought today for my FT-60R which I still am absolutely in love with by the way. My friend got a VX-7R for Christmas and while it's nice that it has dual VFOs and a nice display I find it much more difficult to use, especially for my wife who can just barely use the FT-60R. So on to my toys. Today I picked up a Diamond SRH77CA antenna that works on 2m/7cm and it's about 16" tall. It seems to pick up a lot more repeaters from my house than the rubberduck on my FT-60R did. I also got a MFJ-310 to get the antenna outside of my car while I am mobile. I figured it'd be a good $20 to spend to keep me occupied on the road when we take road trips or car rides over an hour or so. While I was at HRO Burbank today the guy saw me buying these two things and asked if I intended to use the SRH77CA with the window mount and I said yup. He then let me know that it wouldn't be too wise as the antenna will whip around too much while driving around and that the rubber duck would work better since it's not as flexible. I tested out this idea and he sure was right, I'm glad that he said something. The last thing I got was the 6xAA batter sled for our FT-60R's so that we can keep some AA's and the radios in our bug out bags. Lets hear what's new in your neck of the woods!
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Jan 20, 2009 03:39
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I just got a SignaLink USB to work digital modes with my IC-751. Anyone want to give some digital a shot with me?
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Jan 20, 2009 17:44
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I'm wondering, does anyone else here use the IBP beacons to see what propagation is like on the 20, 17, 15, 12 and 10 metre bands? It seems like propagation is not so good this weekend so far.. very little on 20m or on the other bands, and the only beacons I can hear well at the moment are ZL6B & VK6RBP (I'm in vk3 land aka victoria) I really hope cycle 24 picks up at some stage.
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Jan 24, 2009 08:35
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Jose Pointero fucked around with this message at 03:26 on Aug 28, 2019 |
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Jan 24, 2009 10:33
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I figured you'd have moved by now. At any rate, I think you'll enjoy it in the city to which you're headed. Anyway, I'm trying to get back into the hobby, and actually talked to a couple of other hams who are students at the same university as me, and we're talking about starting a student organization (amazingly, there isn't one at my school) for it. To the OP: Can you update the OP with our IRC channel information? It's on SynIRC, channel #hamradio.
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Jan 24, 2009 11:44
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TNLTRPB posted:I figured you'd have moved by now. At any rate, I think you'll enjoy it in the city to which you're headed. Hey, good idea about the IRC channel, I'll go ahead and add that in now. As for ham radio, propagation seems to be pretty bad, and no one wants to do a drat thing related to roofs or antennas while winter's going on, so I haven't been up to much at all. Just looking forward to warmer weather for now...
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Jan 25, 2009 05:19
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McRib Sandwich posted:Hey, good idea about the IRC channel, I'll go ahead and add that in now. I'm currently reading the ARRL study guide for Technician. Why does winter mess things up?
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Jan 25, 2009 16:33
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McRib Sandwich posted:Hey, good idea about the IRC channel, I'll go ahead and add that in now. We have about 5 regulars in the channel, but can certainly use more. I hate winter. I need to put up an antenna on top of the chimney so I can actually reliably receive the fire dept. frequency, and I was thinking of putting another one up there for the 2m band...but it's been too cold/too windy every time I've tried. I'm sort of in between coverage areas from the 2m side, but I can do ok into one machine from the pickup, so I ought to be able to hit it from the house.
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Jan 25, 2009 20:30
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Well after much waiting my advanced call has come through I am now the owner of the call sign vk3ivy. Since getting licensed in october last year (as vk3fbsd) then a quick upgrade to standard (vk3lnx) now I have the full call. yey is all i can say. Looking forward to working some of the warc bands, and 160 metres, which will be a lot of fun.
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Jan 30, 2009 07:48
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Jose Pointero fucked around with this message at 03:27 on Aug 28, 2019 |
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Jan 30, 2009 08:11
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I'll definitely holler at you next time I'm going home, plus if you're there over the summer you might just hear me on 155.34 (Texas Med 1, formerly "Statewide EMS") if we're bringing in a transfer to one of the hospitals there. I was thinking earlier, would anyone be interested in coming up with a Goon simplex frequency? One for 2m and one for 70cm perhaps?
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Jan 30, 2009 09:37
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As a check-in, I've finally gotten my wife willing to study along with me and take the exams, so I'll be studying up with her fairly quickly and will hopefully be testing in the near future. Ham TV is of interest to me for various reasons, but I'm getting mixed information. Amateurs are apparently not allowed to broadcast, only issue 2-way communications -- so how exactly does broadcasting amateur TV work around this?
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Jan 31, 2009 06:31
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Grilldos posted:As a check-in, I've finally gotten my wife willing to study along with me and take the exams, so I'll be studying up with her fairly quickly and will hopefully be testing in the near future. Well, I'm not sure on the specifics of slowscan/fastscan tv amateur broadcast, but, the hobby in general is definitely not 2-way only. Anything from a rare DX causing a pileup, up to a net operating with sometimes dozens of participants, there are definitely many people listening, and one person at a time transmitting. I assume the "2-way" clause means that anyone can transmit, and that it's not just one solitary station broadcasting full time. People just take turns.
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Jan 31, 2009 06:47
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TNLTRPB posted:I was thinking earlier, would anyone be interested in coming up with a Goon simplex frequency? One for 2m and one for 70cm perhaps? Well, I can tell you that this would work if goons were say, on a campus or something, but internationally? This would be quite boring. Not to knock your idea, but, there's an awful lot of area to cover, and the national / regional simplex calling frequencies are usually pretty empty as it is in my experience. Might be best to just use the standard calling simplex frequencies and maybe have a subtle goon code involved, in the rare case any goons are monitoring? Edit: This pertains specifically to the VHF and UHF (2meter, 70cm) frequencies. Maybe an HF simplex calling frequency for goons, or a small net scheduled for an HF freq would be good? I however do not have any HF gear, yet. Sniep fucked around with this message at 07:10 on Jan 31, 2009 |
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Jan 31, 2009 06:53
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I'm interested in mobile (as in in a backpack or on a bike) rigs and mobile repeaters. What kind of equipment and antennas should I be looking at for a setup that would be set up for only a few hours at a time, broken back down, and rucked or biked out?
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Feb 7, 2009 04:10
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Hummer Driving human being posted:I'm interested in mobile (as in in a backpack or on a bike) rigs and mobile repeaters. What kind of equipment and antennas should I be looking at for a setup that would be set up for only a few hours at a time, broken back down, and rucked or biked out? If the somewhat larger size / weight doesn't bother you, the Yaesu FT-897D is pretty much ideal for that purpose. It's capable of having two 4500mAh battery packs installed and can transmit with up to 20 watts off the battery power. (Full power out 100 watts on HF-6m, 50 watts 2meter.) It is a HF radio with both 2m and 70cm bands, so very versatile. As far as an antenna to pair with it, maybe someone else could recommend something.
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Feb 7, 2009 05:37
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A friend of mine has one of these for mobile QRP type operations. It works pretty well for its intended purpose.
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Feb 7, 2009 10:34
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Thought I'd give my callsign for you guys who aren't in IRC. KD5TFR.
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Feb 8, 2009 19:55
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I'm not sure how much harmonisation there is between countries, with regards to bandplans, so it might not be an idea to try and pick a frequency. Besides, it's not really good operating practice, is it? I would suggest using the standard calling frequencies and just using CQ GOON.
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Feb 8, 2009 23:04
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well a crazy weekend, and a day i'm so happy i had all my radio gear. As some of you may know i'm in the state of victoria, australia, and the fires we had over the weekend were the worst on record. started saturday morning, joining my normal weekend 80 metre net, and the weather was getting hotter and hotter, and the wind was building up more and more, thankfully one of my friends on the net, was able to give me all of the correct frequencies for the DSE and CFA fire teams. Been able to listen into these guys as they fought the fires near us, gave us the ability to work out when we needed to evacuate the house. It's all a bit crazy but we got out. Lucky for us, the change in the weather didn't blow the fire our way, but away from us, so we were safe. but yea, a scary and frightening day.
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Feb 8, 2009 23:26
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thehustler posted:I'm not sure how much harmonisation there is between countries, with regards to bandplans, so it might not be an idea to try and pick a frequency. GOON net, of course you'd have to pick a time, a band, a frequency, hah! Better off picking an IRLP channel and giving out a CQ Goog.... -. -. --.- --. --- --- -. -. -. --.- --. --- --- -. -. -. --.- --. --- --- -. -.. . -.- .-.. ..... .- -.- -.-
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Feb 9, 2009 00:00
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cvisors posted:Ham radio to the rescue again... We had a forest fire 10 years back, it was a large nasty one but nowhere near the scale of what you guys are enduring now. Seriously, large walls of flame are nothing to scoff at, 108 dead so far last time I heard. Anyway-the local EMS folks were offered the assistance of ham radio. No thanks, we don't need you, we have cell phones! Or did until the system crashed completely and utterly. Te local club set up an command center in the local hiugh school and the EMS guys came around pretty quick. In Alaska, we get our ham radio plates for free, as a thank you for the work done by ham radio ops after the 64 Earthquake.
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Feb 9, 2009 00:06
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Grilldos posted:As a check-in, I've finally gotten my wife willing to study along with me and take the exams, so I'll be studying up with her fairly quickly and will hopefully be testing in the near future. If you listen at the beginning of a session, you'll hear that one station is calling another station, although everyone can tune in and recieve it is still one station working another. It wouldn't be legal to say "KL5A sending Robot 80" without having a particular station on the other end. That would be broadcasting. You still have to CQ if there isn't a net already or call a break if you want to join in and send.
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Feb 9, 2009 00:10
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cvisors posted:well a crazy weekend, and a day i'm so happy i had all my radio gear. Wow, that's terrible. Glad to hear that you and yours are safe, that's obviously the most important thing by far. Events like this, where being able to hear public safety frequency chatter can advise and potentially save lives, is why I wish there weren't more municipalities (in the US at least) going to trunked, or even trunked + encrypted radio. Trunking I can sort of understand, since it at least makes more efficient use of existing spectrum, but encrypted traffic seems totally unnecessary except for maybe special tactical police units. Gnomad posted:If you listen at the beginning of a session, you'll hear that one station is calling another station, although everyone can tune in and recieve it is still one station working another. It wouldn't be legal to say "KL5A sending Robot 80" without having a particular station on the other end. That would be broadcasting. You still have to CQ if there isn't a net already or call a break if you want to join in and send. I feel like there may be a little more leniency for FSTV than that, if one of the largest local repeater clubs around here can get away with a straight-up broadcast of the Amateur Radio Newsline every week with utter impunity. Has anyone else ever heard that aired on their local repeaters before? It boggles the mind that people are cool with tying up a repeater with ham radio "news" for several tens of minutes... there's no way it qualifies as anything other than broadcasting to my mind, it's a pre-recorded program and it's certainly not intended to be two-way communications. Yet all the repeater jockeys around here seem to love it. I guess that's what happens when you're running Windows 95 and have no way to actually download and play a podcast... /rant
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Feb 9, 2009 11:45
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McRib Sandwich posted:I feel like there may be a little more leniency for FSTV than that, if one of the largest local repeater clubs around here can get away with a straight-up broadcast of the Amateur Radio Newsline every week with utter impunity. Has anyone else ever heard that aired on their local repeaters before? It boggles the mind that people are cool with tying up a repeater with ham radio "news" for several tens of minutes... there's no way it qualifies as anything other than broadcasting to my mind, it's a pre-recorded program and it's certainly not intended to be two-way communications. Yet all the repeater jockeys around here seem to love it. I guess that's what happens when you're running Windows 95 and have no way to actually download and play a podcast... The local amateur radio / repeater club in my area does the exact same thing with Amateur Radio Newsline. The "program" is usually about 30 minutes long and they break in every 8 minutes or so to identify. Quite a few people in my local club know Bill Pasternak the guy that co-founded Newsline, so I always figured that was one of the reasons we broadcast it each week. But it seems like it's much more widespread. It is strange though that such blatant broadcasting is allowed on a weekly basis. It's not even like we really have a round table about what we just heard after each show.
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Feb 9, 2009 15:56
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I am glad our local repeaters don't have that going on. However, I will listen to those as podcast.
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Feb 9, 2009 20:39
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They do the same thing in the UK with the RSGB news.
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Feb 9, 2009 22:11
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thehustler posted:They do the same thing in the UK with the RSGB news. They do know you can get an hour of shortwave broadcast time for ~$30 right on a pretty powerful transmitter right? I mean I think most of us have some kind of equipment to hit commercial shortwave bands.
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Feb 9, 2009 22:56
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McRib Sandwich posted:I feel like there may be a little more leniency for FSTV than that, if one of the largest local repeater clubs around here can get away with a straight-up broadcast of the Amateur Radio Newsline every week with utter impunity. Has anyone else ever heard that aired on their local repeaters before? It boggles the mind that people are cool with tying up a repeater with ham radio "news" for several tens of minutes... there's no way it qualifies as anything other than broadcasting to my mind, it's a pre-recorded program and it's certainly not intended to be two-way communications. Yet all the repeater jockeys around here seem to love it. I guess that's what happens when you're running Windows 95 and have no way to actually download and play a podcast... angrytaxman posted:It is strange though that such blatant broadcasting is allowed on a weekly basis. It's not even like we really have a round table about what we just heard after each show. quote:§97.111 Authorized transmissions.
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Feb 10, 2009 00:36
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I posted this in ask/tell but it was suggested that I might be better off asking in this thread. I need a handheld, very durable and wateresistant radio that receives and transmits between 150-156mHz. At least I think I do. The only ones I've found are all in the 500$ range, I'd like to find something more reasonable. I'm in Canada and the 150-156 mHz frequencies are what is used for communications in logging operations (tree fallers talking to each other and helicopter pilots, etc). A commonly used radio is the Kenwood TK 2170 which needs to have the channels programmed in, I was hoping to find one that could be tuned easily (if that makes sense.) Thanks for any help, I've been reading what I can online to figure it out myself but it seems that this isn't a really common thing to look for. I found a few that could receive on these frequencies but not transmit.
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Feb 10, 2009 02:23
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preetree posted:I posted this in ask/tell but it was suggested that I might be better off asking in this thread. Hey, I replied to your thread in Ask/Tell in the original post. You probably are looking for something with a VFO, which will allow you to specify any frequency as displayed on the radio, but unfortunately I don't think any radios made today that are designed to operate in that band will use that. Some ham HT's, which are the ones you were probably looking at that can receive in that band, can be easily modified to transmit in that band. The catch is that it may be technically illegal to use the radio on that band depending on the laws regarding type acceptance in Canada (In the US, to legally use a radio on a business/public safety band, the radio has to be tested and evaluated by the FCC in order to be used on the band). But that's not to say that people don't do it already, hell I have EMT friends that use ham HT's because they don't want to carry two radios, and they don't seem to care. (I personally don't) Failing that I would still recommend the Motorola HT1000 that I mentioned in the earlier thread in A/T, I've seen a few on e-bay going for under 200, and programming them isn't supposed to be too difficult.
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Feb 10, 2009 02:53
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preetree posted:I'm in Canada and the 150-156 mHz frequencies are what is used for communications in logging operations (tree fallers talking to each other and helicopter pilots, etc). Are the frequencies you need to use a set number of channels like the "dot" radios (or MURS/FRS/GMRS I suppose) here in the US? You won't really need VFO if there are only a few pre-set channels to use. The HT1000 is a good radio for business use. You can also look at the Jedi series, MTS 2000, or even a Saber (all from Motorola). They'll vary in price, but the VHF version of each will certainly cover 150-156 without a problem.
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Feb 10, 2009 03:19
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I'm not 100% sure on the number of different channels in use but it would definitely be an asset to be able to punch in a new channel in the field. I seem to remember that one pilot that I worked with had a handheld that he could just punch in different frequencies but maybe I'm not remembering right. Even if I got one that I could get software to program myself at home (if that's feasible for someone somewhat tech-savvy) it would be super-convenient. Thanks for the help.
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Feb 10, 2009 04:09
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preetree posted:I'm not 100% sure on the number of different channels in use but it would definitely be an asset to be able to punch in a new channel in the field. I seem to remember that one pilot that I worked with had a handheld that he could just punch in different frequencies but maybe I'm not remembering right. Even if I got one that I could get software to program myself at home (if that's feasible for someone somewhat tech-savvy) it would be super-convenient. Well, this radio would give you that range that you want if you modified it (A simple removal of a resistor.) Yes, it wouldn't be type-accepted by the FCC, but I don't know how strict the Canadian equivalent is, and if you don't care about being super 100% following rules and regulations, you'll probably be able to get away with it without so much as a question. It's a very heavy duty, well built radio, and while not waterproof/submersible, is fairly well shielded against the elements. Also it's only $130. Edit: The VX-170 is ultra rugged and submersible to IPX7 specifications (3 feet for 3 minutes) So it is water resistant, I was wrong.
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Feb 10, 2009 04:13
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Keep in mind that you can run into problems when you try to get a ham radio to transmit too far out of its intended range. Eventually you'll get to a point where the VCO won't lock appropriately, and it can damage the radio. Edit: Also, the stock antennas on ham radios aren't tuned to be transmitting 10 MHz outside the intended band(s), so the SWR is insanely high (so high that it, too, can damage the radio) if you don't get a properly tuned antenna. TNLTRPB fucked around with this message at 04:56 on Feb 10, 2009 |
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Feb 10, 2009 04:50
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TNLTRPB posted:Keep in mind that you can run into problems when you try to get a ham radio to transmit too far out of its intended range. Eventually you'll get to a point where the VCO won't lock appropriately, and it can damage the radio. This is true, though, you aren't THAT far off from the HAM bands. I would imagine that it would not be a problem. However, separately buying an antenna that is tuned for that different frequency range would be important to keep your SWR low. Like: http://www.wpsantennas.com/browseproducts/EXB150SM---Antenex-(Centurion)-150-162MHz-SMA-Male-Tuf-Duck-Antenna.HTML Sniep fucked around with this message at 04:59 on Feb 10, 2009 |
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Feb 10, 2009 04:55
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Well, /\/\ gear is always expensive, but historically it's been a superior product (as far as commercial gear goes). You might try looking at some of Icom's land mobile portables. If you're not needing P25 digital or trunking, they're really not that expensive (and several are submersible). In my experience, the programming software and cable from Icom is around $100, as compared to $250 each for the cable and software from Motorola.
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Feb 10, 2009 05:04
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So if I take this resistor out will it transmit on all the same frequencies that it receives, ie 136-174 mHz? And it all functions correctly, the display and all? Sorry to pester, it's like a different language trying to decipher what all these specs mean. I guess it's kind of the way of it, abbreviated whatever possible? 
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Feb 10, 2009 05:48
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