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Phuzion posted:I'm also confirmed to be going to Dayton. Who's going? Let's get a role call. GOONS CONFIRMED TO BE GOING TO DAYTON: Phuzion - KD8LCV wolrah - KD8JQS
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Apr 24, 2010 17:55
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slap me silly posted:Is the Yaesu 817 really that good? I loving hate menus and I am a big fan of purpose-specific knobs (hence the FT60-R with separate knobs for freq, volume, and squelch). I'm interested in the USRP and GNU Radio, but don't see having the time for programming on that in the foreseeable future. slap me silly posted:...aaand we may be having tornadoes today.
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Apr 24, 2010 19:56
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Regarding menus... as I said I have an FT-60R, and I would prefer that things be easier to figure out than that without recourse to the manual. As it is, if I pick it up after not using it for 2 months I've completely forgotten how to do basic stuff like set tones, edit the memory, etc. and it's not at all apparent from the button markings. Hell, it took me five minutes of trying things to find the options menu just now. I realize that stops being an issue with practice, but I also have a lot of respect for good interface design and this ain't it. Can anybody relate that experience to the 817 or IC-703? The worst of the weather is staying out of my area so far. The storm nets aren't even activated right now.
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Apr 24, 2010 20:15
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Jose Pointero fucked around with this message at 03:59 on Aug 28, 2019 |
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Apr 25, 2010 04:34
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Jose Pointero posted:Holy crap that was fast. Actually mine showed up just as fast, but it took quite a bit longer for mine to say Extra in the database. My VE filed my application as a Tech and then sent a modification to make it say Extra. I have no idea why he did it that way because I'm pretty sure you can just mark Extra on the original application.
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Apr 25, 2010 06:53
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xergm posted:Actually mine showed up just as fast, but it took quite a bit longer for mine to say Extra in the database. My VE filed my application as a Tech and then sent a modification to make it say Extra. I have no idea why he did it that way because I'm pretty sure you can just mark Extra on the original application. Because saying "Slash Alpha Echo" is the epitome of smugness.
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Apr 25, 2010 06:56
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xergm posted:Actually mine showed up just as fast, but it took quite a bit longer for mine to say Extra in the database. My VE filed my application as a Tech and then sent a modification to make it say Extra. I have no idea why he did it that way because I'm pretty sure you can just mark Extra on the original application. When your Extra came in, did you get a new call? I went from nothing to General in one session and ended up getting a random Tech call when all was said and done. If I'd been given the option, I'd have waited a few more days/weeks and gotten a shorter call so I don't have to hear 'You transmitting out of band? You got a Tech call.' I don't know that this is an actual issue, I've just been hearing it from randoms on the repeater every time I mention getting on HF.
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Apr 25, 2010 14:45
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I plan to solve that problem by applying for a vanity callsign pretty quickly. Also, testing today! Wish me luck! Hoping to shoot straight up to General.
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Apr 25, 2010 15:03
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BigHustle posted:When your Extra came in, did you get a new call? I went from nothing to General in one session and ended up getting a random Tech call when all was said and done. If I'd been given the option, I'd have waited a few more days/weeks and gotten a shorter call so I don't have to hear 'You transmitting out of band? You got a Tech call.' I don't know that this is an actual issue, I've just been hearing it from randoms on the repeater every time I mention getting on HF. No, I didn't. I don't mind my call at the moment. I mean really, what is 6 characters when I haven't even learned code yet? I haven't even touched a real radio yet! I think I'll hold off getting a new call-sign until I actually see a need for it or I see a vanity pop up that I really like. blugu64 posted:Because saying "Slash Alpha Echo" is the epitome of smugness. BigHustle posted:'You transmitting out of band? You got a Tech call.' I may just keep my call for the 
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Apr 25, 2010 19:04
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Passed the Technician and General class exams today! Alas, I didn't pass Extra, but then again, I hadn't studied, so I figure 26 of 50 questions is probably ahead of the curve in that case.  In a few days, I should have a call to post; in the meantime I'm looking to pick up an FT-817ND, as everyone in the IRC channel knows(and is probably sick of hearing); if anyone knows a guy who knows a guy who has one for cheap, point him my way, would you?
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Apr 25, 2010 22:01
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^^^^^^^^ Reading the post above reminded me to ask about rigs. Does anyone know a do-it-all rig that I could probably find used for a reasonable price? As long as it can do digital modes, it should be perfect for me. I've mostly decided on either the FT-857 or an FT-897 if I can scrounge up enough money over the summer, but if I get some good suggestions I will likely go the used route and pick up something just as satisfying for a bit less.
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Apr 25, 2010 23:02
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Either of those two or the 817 will do pretty much anything you set out to do, especially as a starter rig. I'm settled on the 817 because I plan on using it for portable operations every so often, but I want something I can hook up and do maddeningly obscure digimodes with every so often just to challenge people to figure out what the hell I'm sending. Also, as I'm living in my parents' house, I don't really want to make too much of an impact on my surroundings with my setup at the moment. When I move out and have a job again and all that I'll get something with more power behind it.
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Apr 25, 2010 23:16
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I am also taking a long, hard look at the FT-817ND. Its the size of 4 stacked CD jewel cases, has coverage on all of the bands I'm interested in. I'm also primarily interested in QRP operation, so I think it would make a good all-in-one beginner radio. Not only that, but HRO sells it for only $570, and there's an HRO store in my city. This homebrew antenna looks like it would be a good project for pairing with an FT-817ND. I built one of the guy's SWL magnetic loops this morning and it works like an absolute champ. My boss also told me that he's going to show me all the ins and outs of building old school homebrew antenna tuners, so that should be pretty schweet. Edit: of course a used older model FT-817 without the 60 meter band might be a good option too, not to mention a hell of a lot cheaper. AstroZamboni fucked around with this message at 00:15 on Apr 26, 2010 |
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Apr 25, 2010 23:20
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I have a need tonight for some walkie-talkies for a pair of telecom jobs I'm doing. I have one FRS/GMRS hybrid and my VX-7R, so I'm thinking about flipping the freeband bit on the Yaesu and using it on the FRS band. Obviously the FCC says I shouldn't do this, but I'm dead broke and it's either this or running around with cell phones between the few areas with signal and the actual work areas. Are there any technical reasons I shouldn't do this, like causing damage to my radio or anything of that sort? I'm running the OEM tri-band (6m/2m/70cm) rubber duck for what it's worth. wolrah fucked around with this message at 17:14 on Apr 26, 2010 |
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Apr 26, 2010 17:12
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TC the Giant posted:... do maddeningly obscure digimodes with every so often just to challenge people to figure out what the hell I'm sending. Use RSID you jerkbag <  >
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Apr 26, 2010 17:20
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Ew, my new callsign is a 2x3. Wonder how long it would take for a vanity to process. Well, until I can get a 1xMWR to process(my initials), my call is going to be KB3UJR.
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Apr 26, 2010 17:31
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TC the Giant posted:Ew, my new callsign is a 2x3. Wonder how long it would take for a vanity to process. It took mine roughly a month to go through.
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Apr 26, 2010 17:37
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AtomicMonsters posted:It took mine roughly a month to go through. Well, I just signed up on the FCC's website, so hopefully I'll be able to get them to process it fairly soon. Not as big a concern until I have a radio, though.
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Apr 26, 2010 17:41
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wolrah posted:Are there any technical reasons I shouldn't do this, like causing damage to my radio or anything of that sort?
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Apr 26, 2010 19:45
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nmfree posted:This information is provided at your own risk: It should work just fine, although high power will be less than 5 watts. Considering FRS radios are limited to 500mw, the FRS/GMRS radio is going to be the limiting factor.
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Apr 26, 2010 20:30
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Welp... lurking around the shortwave thread made me finally pick up a shortwave radio (Grundig G3). Playing with radios again made me miss my old Yaesu FT-11R 2m HT I used to have so I started looking around at current HTs to see what's available. I sold my old Yaesu because I picked it up with the idea I'd study for my license and actually USE the thing. Never happened. I ended up doing the MARS/CAP mod to it and sold it to a local police officer who had been eyeballing it since I bought it. Fast forward 12 years to today and I just placed an order for a Yaesu VX-8R. It looks like it has a healthy list of both pros and cons but it seems like a nice little HT to have, overall. Quad band radio with 0.5-999MHz RX, GPS and Bluetooth modules available, APRS data ability built in, spectrum analyzer, submersible to 3ft, can monitor two signals at once, etc.. NOW I need to cram for my license and just go do it. I already know most of it, anyway. I just need to brush up and head out to the burbs to take the test.  EDIT: I'm told the thing is horrifyingly user-unfriendly and its operation requires heavy and constant references to the manual. Steep learning curve to its menu system. Lame.
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Apr 26, 2010 20:30
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Phuzion posted:Considering FRS radios are limited to 500mw, the FRS/GMRS radio is going to be the limiting factor. Catastrophe posted:EDIT: I'm told the thing is horrifyingly user-unfriendly and its operation requires heavy and constant references to the manual. Steep learning curve to its menu system. Lame. Step 2: Buy programming cable ($25 on eBay for the USB one, I'd recommend the serial one) Step 3: Buy FTBVX8 Step 4: Profit by setting all the menu items on your PC
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Apr 26, 2010 21:14
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Catastrophe posted:Welp... lurking around the shortwave thread made me finally pick up a shortwave radio (Grundig G3). Playing with radios again made me miss my old Yaesu FT-11R 2m HT I used to have so I started looking around at current HTs to see what's available. I sold my old Yaesu because I picked it up with the idea I'd study for my license and actually USE the thing. Never happened. I ended up doing the MARS/CAP mod to it and sold it to a local police officer who had been eyeballing it since I bought it. There were a few guys on the repeater this morning talking about the VX radios. If you don't plan on using the GPS stuff, you might want to save the extra ~$100 and go with the VX-7R. Yeah, pretty much all the Yaesu HTs are heavily menu driven. You may want to head over to universal-radio.com and pick up their 'cheat sheet' card to carry with you. I also recommend getting the programming cable and VX Commander software. It makes programming all your repeaters and such a breeze.
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Apr 26, 2010 21:18
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nmfree posted:The combo radios will do the full 5 on GMRS, however, and since channel 1 on all these radios is GMRS (and therefore the most-used channel) it probably won't be the limiting factor. BigHustle posted:Yeah, pretty much all the Yaesu HTs are heavily menu driven. You may want to head over to universal-radio.com and pick up their 'cheat sheet' card to carry with you. I also recommend getting the programming cable and VX Commander software. It makes programming all your repeaters and such a breeze. Thanks for the suggestions, guys. I'll research different software I can use for this. BigHustle posted:If you don't plan on using the GPS stuff, you might want to save the extra ~$100 and go with the VX-7R. Ah too late. It was already shipped out on its way to me by the time I posted in the thread.
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Apr 26, 2010 22:38
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Whacker revealed in GBS! K8JSM has been arrested for having too many lights and guns near the President. I knew it was going to be a ham as soon as I read the summary. http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3296903
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Apr 26, 2010 22:51
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Catastrophe posted:Thanks for the suggestions, guys. I'll research different software I can use for this. ADMS: this is the "official" software that Yaesu to which will point you; if you go this route I strongly recommend getting the package deal from Universal Radio that has the cable included. Otherwise, it's $65 from their website if you get the software separately. FTBVX8: at $15 it's the more economical choice, and that's why it's the one I use. Its .csv importation feature isn't all that great, but otherwise it's pretty powerful software. Also, if you get a USB programming cable off of eBay, look for a post of mine earlier in the thread for USB drivers that actually work; the retailer doesn't include squat with the cable or on their website.
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Apr 27, 2010 01:10
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slap me silly posted:Whacker revealed in GBS! K8JSM has been arrested for having too many lights and guns near the President. I knew it was going to be a ham as soon as I read the summary. From another article quote:McVey was arrested after an airport police officer noticed large antennas on McVey's vehicle as he sat near an airport runway. Just the other day a cop pulled me over and asked what all that crap was on my car 
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Apr 27, 2010 03:54
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blugu64 posted:Just the other day a cop pulled me over and asked what all that crap was on my car  "
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Apr 27, 2010 04:57
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Phuzion posted:Considering FRS radios are limited to 500mw, the FRS/GMRS radio is going to be the limiting factor. This did end up being the case. Even with my power limited my coworker in the basement could hear me loud and clear from 16 floors up, but I couldn't hear him worth anything from the Uniden FRS/GMRS he was using unless I was in the freight elevator. We ended up having to communicate by having him plug and unplug one of my T1s to blink lights at my end. Got great reception listening on the KB8WLW repeater though. I'm pretty sure I heard your call during a discussion about messing with antennas.
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Apr 27, 2010 16:13
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wolrah posted:This did end up being the case. Even with my power limited my coworker in the basement could hear me loud and clear from 16 floors up, but I couldn't hear him worth anything from the Uniden FRS/GMRS he was using unless I was in the freight elevator. We ended up having to communicate by having him plug and unplug one of my T1s to blink lights at my end. Got great reception listening on the KB8WLW repeater though. I'm pretty sure I heard your call during a discussion about messing with antennas. Haha, I probably did call in at least once or twice last night. I was playing around with the VX-7R last night, getting frequencies programmed in and whatnot, so I was going through and keying up repeaters left and right. Jump on the WLW box this afternoon, and maybe I'll hear you. Either that, or Fred (KB8JCV) will talk during my entire drive home and I'll want to throw my mobile out the window.
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Apr 27, 2010 18:22
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Here's a LEGOCAD rendering of the final design revision of the morse key, minus the wiring and contacts. The parts from bricklink should be arriving in the next day or two. Click here for the full 794x579 image.
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Apr 28, 2010 02:53
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I just ordered the Yaesu software and cable from Universal, I don't know why I waited 2 months to do it. Programming that by hand is just not what I want to do. By the way, I'm having trouble with the battery on the 8R shifting just enough to cause the radio to reset itself? If I hold the radio a certain way and squeeze lightly, (I'm assuming) the contacts get shifted and it blinks the power off then back on again--anyone else had this happen to them?
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Apr 28, 2010 02:54
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Phuzion posted:Haha, I probably did call in at least once or twice last night. I was playing around with the VX-7R last night, getting frequencies programmed in and whatnot, so I was going through and keying up repeaters left and right. Fred literally talked until I was outside of the range of the repeater today.
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Apr 28, 2010 04:21
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My shipment of LEGO parts came in, and I finally finished the morse key 100% (applause)! All of the wiring/soldering is finished, and this thing might just be my LEGO masterpiece. Click here for the full 783x549 image.  Click here for the full 903x378 image.  Click here for the full 1001x721 image.  Click here for the full 933x467 image.  Click here for the full 851x549 image. When your LEGO models start to require a certain amount of proficiency with soldering, you begin to realize that you have reached a potentially dangerous level of geekdom and think that it may be time to take inventory of your life.
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Apr 29, 2010 01:02
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AstroZamboni posted:My shipment of LEGO parts came in, and I finally finished the morse key 100% (applause)! All of the wiring/soldering is finished, and this thing might just be my LEGO masterpiece. This would make a great cover article for QST. You should write it up and send in the pictures.
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Apr 29, 2010 01:16
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So what exactly is the closing contacts on this? The threaded portions of the screws underneath the arm? Also, you'll have to do some speed tests for us; it looks to me that the throw might be too long to comfortably get fast with (but I'm genuinely curious to see what the real-world performance would be like).
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Apr 29, 2010 01:25
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nmfree posted:So what exactly is the closing contacts on this? The threaded portions of the screws underneath the arm? Those are, indeed, the closing contacts. As for speed, I'm not too concerned with speed at the moment. I'm just barely beginning to learn code, so accuracy is what I'm trying to be concerned with at the moment. As it is now, I don't have any equipment apart from my SWL stuff, so I'm just connecting this to a practice oscillator my boss loaned me. IonClash posted:This would make a great cover article for QST. You should write it up and send in the pictures. I might just give that a shot!
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Apr 29, 2010 01:30
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AstroZamboni posted:I might just give that a shot!
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Apr 29, 2010 01:37
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So, uh, I went and took my General test today. gently caress YEAH I AM NOW [REDACTED] TEMPORARY AG. I tried Extra, got 24/50. lol Anyways, yeah, super excited about being General. Hopefully I can snag a rig at Dayton this year and get on HF sooner than later. So, if McRib Sandwich ever shows back up, put me up as a general. Phuzion fucked around with this message at 17:05 on Jul 2, 2018 |
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Apr 29, 2010 01:44
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I'm going for Extra on the 17th.
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Apr 29, 2010 01:51
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