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Xenpo posted:I'm not going the towers and amps road yet, I need land for that, which will have to come later in life ha ha. GPS at this point in time is not huge for me, and the size of the FT-817ND is great. The one thing that stands out for me between the ICOM and the Yaesu is the internal antenna tuner of the 703 plus. My research continues....thanks for all the good input! The Icom also has built in DSP and voice processing and outputs 20W instead of 5W and has a much more informative, bigger display and has better controls.
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Jun 14, 2010 17:37
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Catastrophe posted:The Icom also has built in DSP and voice processing and outputs 20W instead of 5W and has a much more informative, bigger display and has better controls. Looking at the product page for it, I only see 10W as the highest output on the Icom.. Where are you getting 20w?
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Jun 14, 2010 23:02
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TC the Giant posted:The 817 does 5w on internal batteries, chief. It does 2.5 when it's plugged in, and 5 again if you hook it up to a 13.8v power supply over 3A. It also has APRS support, though it lacks the GPS module of the vx8, due to its' larger nature. Ohhh what d'ya know? It just defaults to 2.5W. You can manually set it to 5W. Neat. I still don't see anything about APRS in the manual, though. Sniep posted:Looking at the product page for it, I only see 10W as the highest output on the Icom.. Where are you getting 20w? Look at me being wrong again. I was thinking of another radio. 10W is correct. Catastrophe fucked around with this message at 23:34 on Jun 14, 2010 |
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Jun 14, 2010 23:12
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Catastrophe posted:I still don't see anything about APRS in the manual, though. Turns out I was thinking of the range transponder system. Whoops! We all make mistakes.
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Jun 15, 2010 00:40
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Sunspots look to be making a return per NASA in 2013, after the crazy solar storms have thier way: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/7819201/Nasa-warns-solar-flares-from-huge-space-storm-will-cause-devastation.html Found via Slashdot.
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Jun 15, 2010 14:55
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Catastrophe posted:I still don't see anything about APRS in the manual, though. Well you can, but you'll need a TNC to do it.
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Jun 15, 2010 17:22
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xergm posted:Well you can, but you'll need a TNC to do it. Do elaborate!
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Jun 15, 2010 20:04
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APRS with VX-8R-mounted GPS: Radio -> APRS with 817ND: GPS-> Computer -> TNC -> Radio -> or GPS -> Computer -> Radio You can do what you can do with a VX-8R with almost any other radio that has inputs and outputs, only you need to hook up gear to it. Since the VX-8R has it all built in, you can just connect the GPS receiver and have all of that in one handheld unit. There is a version with built-in GPS too. Vir fucked around with this message at 20:19 on Jun 15, 2010 |
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Jun 15, 2010 20:13
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Dumb question but there's a local Philly SSTV net in the 2-meter band and I wanted to check it out....but I'm confused. If I wanted to try broadcasting images, what mode should I have my radio in for that? FM or its "Digital" mode? If it was an HF AM SSTV net (and I had a license that granted privileges on it), what mode? SSB or Digital or.. ? I set up a PSK beacon for hours last night on the little sliver of the 10m band I can access for data but got no replies. So yeah.. just testing the SSTV waters.
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Jun 15, 2010 21:37
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Catastrophe, how are you hooking your radio up for digimodes? I've slowly been discovering that despite my expensive sound card with front-panel outputs and all that jazz, I need an audio interface to produce sounds that are actually decodable. I haven't settled on a model yet, but I'll probably go with one of g4zlp's boxes with the integrated CAT controller as well. My advice would be to fire up another radio nearby and check to see if you can actually be heard, and furthermore compare what you're hearing against what you hear when you just let your digimode program pipe it through your speakers. I tried for a while last week to make OLIVIA contacts, and what I heard through my g6 sounded dreadful. It sort of sounded like it was overdriven, but also producing the wrong tones for the character. 
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Jun 15, 2010 23:09
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TC the Giant posted:Catastrophe, how are you hooking your radio up for digimodes? I've slowly been discovering that despite my expensive sound card with front-panel outputs and all that jazz, I need an audio interface to produce sounds that are actually decodable. I haven't settled on a model yet, but I'll probably go with one of g4zlp's boxes with the integrated CAT controller as well. I'm using a CAT cable which is just a direct USB to serial connection to the radio. There's no analog audio connection. I turned on the G3 and my VX-8R and they pick up the signals but I don't know if it sounds "right".
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Jun 16, 2010 16:03
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KC2YQF here . Got the tech license after using the condensed study guide from the OP , but found that doesn't really let you learn anything. Picked up an ICOM IC-T7H HT, which is nice and simple, but I need to get something going for better antennae instead of the cheapo mag mount , and rubber duck. I'm a bit away from some of the 2m repeaters and I'm not picking them up as well as I suspect I could.
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Jun 16, 2010 19:22
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Vir posted:APRS with VX-8R-mounted GPS: I don't know what TNCs support it but some have APRS support built in. My old rear end PK-12 from the mid-90s would let you configure it and then hook any NMEA GPS to its serial port and it would beacon without a computer. Of course, receiving is another story.
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Jun 16, 2010 20:35
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Catastrophe posted:Dumb question but there's a local Philly SSTV net in the 2-meter band and I wanted to check it out....but I'm confused. If I wanted to try broadcasting images, what mode should I have my radio in for that? FM or its "Digital" mode? If it was an HF AM SSTV net (and I had a license that granted privileges on it), what mode? SSB or Digital or.. ? Catastrophe posted:I set up a PSK beacon for hours last night on the little sliver of the 10m band I can access for data but got no replies. So yeah.. just testing the SSTV waters. TC the Giant posted:Catastrophe, how are you hooking your radio up for digimodes? I've slowly been discovering that despite my expensive sound card with front-panel outputs and all that jazz, I need an audio interface to produce sounds that are actually decodable. I haven't settled on a model yet, but I'll probably go with one of g4zlp's boxes with the integrated CAT controller as well. TC the Giant posted:My advice would be to fire up another radio nearby and check to see if you can actually be heard, and furthermore compare what you're hearing against what you hear when you just let your digimode program pipe it through your speakers. I tried for a while last week to make OLIVIA contacts, and what I heard through my g6 sounded dreadful. It sort of sounded like it was overdriven, but also producing the wrong tones for the character. Nullsmack posted:I don't know what TNCs support it but some have APRS support built in. My old rear end PK-12 from the mid-90s would let you configure it and then hook any NMEA GPS to its serial port and it would beacon without a computer. Of course, receiving is another story. nmfree fucked around with this message at 21:11 on Jun 16, 2010 |
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Jun 16, 2010 21:08
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nmfree posted:Before you invest $$$ in an interface I'd suggest you get a cable that can plug into the earphone/speaker jack on the radio and the line-in/mic jack on your computer; it will probably be a double-ended 1/8" male plug. Way less money to fool around with before committing the big bucks, plus the cable will be handy to have around. quote:As shown by K7AGE, the best way to get your stuff set up is to transmit into a dummy load and have another HF radio hooked up to a separate computer in the same room (although if you have two sound cards I guess you'd only need one) to monitor what you're actually putting on the air. I'm looking into this now. Hopefully I'll figure this nonsense out soonly.
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Jun 16, 2010 21:44
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TC the Giant posted:I've got one of those cables. When I listen to the audio through my G6, the sounds are way off. Also, it doesn't look like the G6 has separate LSB/USB controls, but all digimodes (save for RTTY) are in USB. Your problem might be that it's receiving on the wrong sideband, which would make the signal appear "upside down" to the computer. Try selecting "invert" or "reverse" in the software if it has that option.
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Jun 16, 2010 21:55
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Yeah, I hooked my G6 up to the other audio-in and let fldigi decode from it while I transmitted from Digital Master 780. I thought I was overdriving, but when I raised the DIG MIC on my 817, sure enough the signal became decodable. Fancy that. It still sounds awful through the g6, but it decodes, and that's what really counts.
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Jun 16, 2010 22:36
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There was a little discussion about this last night on IRC: Sig isn't talking on UHF, he's on one of the safety & distress channels on 4 MHz.
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Jun 17, 2010 01:39
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You know, when I first got my FT-817ND, I wasn't really impressed by it. The more I use it, the more I like it though. One thing I immediately noticed was that it suffers from NONE of the intermod problems that my VX-8R does. Now to just get a decent antenna up. This Miracle Whip antenna I have right now is totally balls.
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Jun 17, 2010 03:46
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nmfree posted:There was a little discussion about this last night on IRC: So he is! Would explain why none of them use callsigns. I wonder if any F/V captains are hams in their off-seasons, though. Catastrophe posted:You know, when I first got my FT-817ND, I wasn't really impressed by it. The more I use it, the more I like it though. One thing I immediately noticed was that it suffers from NONE of the intermod problems that my VX-8R does. Now to just get a decent antenna up. This Miracle Whip antenna I have right now is totally balls. The Miracle Whip works pretty well for receive at just about any frequency, but it's exceedingly sensitive to local qrm. It's also optimized for transmission on the higher bands, which can make tx on 40 and 80 meters a pain in the rear end. I've heard that a suitable counterpoise, say, 1/4th wavelength, can really improve the SWR ratio on the lower bands. The Muffinlord fucked around with this message at 03:55 on Jun 17, 2010 |
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Jun 17, 2010 03:50
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I went to go help some friends clean up some rural Ozark hilltops and in an old refrigerator on a mountaintop I found a Radio Shack Pro-94 scanner. No lie. It looked like it had been there less than a year; I stripped it, cleaned it out (the only corrosion was LOTS of rust around the LCD) and it works perfectly. LOL. Landowner said I could have it as payment for helping clean up.
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Jun 17, 2010 15:43
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Jonny 290 posted:I went to go help some friends clean up some rural Ozark hilltops and in an old refrigerator on a mountaintop I found a Radio Shack Pro-94 scanner. No lie. Nice find! Mountaintop dumpster/fridge diving. The new HAM sport ha ha.
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Jun 17, 2010 18:45
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Great, now if a ragtag band of survivors of a dystopian future nuclear holocaust won't have a radio which the otherwise useless nerd can make work, because you took it. Now the nerd is going to starve because he can't justify his presence, and humanity dies out because without his contribution the gene pool was too shallow to resist monoculture, even with the nuclear mutations. 
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Jun 17, 2010 22:05
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OK, now that I'm moved and have found the thread again... I'm getting settled in and have a spot to set up my shack in the basement. I've also set out on a gear hunting expedition and will be picking up a Yaesu FT-620 6 meter rig for harassing the AM fans on the local 6m repeater as well as a FT-301D so I can get my ancient technology fix AND have a built in digital display. I already roped my dad into helping me get an antenna or 4 on the roof and swiped about 400 feet of 16ga house wire from the neighbor's trash pile last week, so I'll be spending most of next week soldering and cursing the lovely ladder they have in the garage. Vir posted:Great, now if a ragtag band of survivors of a dystopian future nuclear holocaust won't have a radio which the otherwise useless nerd can make work, because you took it. Now the nerd is going to starve because he can't justify his presence, and humanity dies out because without his contribution the gene pool was too shallow to resist monoculture, even with the nuclear mutations. Tonight, however, I will be playing Fallout 3 in honor of this post.
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Jun 18, 2010 20:59
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EDIT: I'm retarded. The FT-817 needs an interface like a RigBlaster or Signalink USB to work properly with a PC, it seems. Lame-o!
Catastrophe fucked around with this message at 00:29 on Jun 19, 2010 |
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Jun 18, 2010 22:38
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Catastrophe posted:EDIT: I'm retarded. The FT-817 needs an interface like a RigBlaster or Signalink USB to work properly with a PC, it seems. Lame-o! You don't *NEED* one, but you need a cable that connects to the DATA port and takes audio input somehow. I've just got a G4ZLP data cable that connects to the microphone and headphone jacks on the front of my computer; it's probably not ideal, but I showed up in four different people's PSK Reporter data yesterday, and I confirmed with the line-in jack on the BACK of my computer, hooked up to my G6, that my OLIVIA broadcasts were decodable, even if they didn't sound quite right through its' wholly insufficient speakers.
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Jun 19, 2010 00:54
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I am scheduled to take my technician exam in about two weeks. I decided to do it independent of this thread, but I've been flipping through it as a resource and appreciate all of the feedback. I am looking for some suggestions on my first radio. I am strongly considering a Yaesu FT-60R. It seems like a reasonable popular dual-band. I realize my range will be limited, but the primary repeaters I would like to use are on top of tall buildings less than 4 miles away and my understanding is that I should have more than enough power to reach them. However, since I'm a newbie, I'm hoping someone can validate or correct my conclusion. I hope to get into HF and buy a more powerful rig down the road, but I'm trying to get started at a reasonable cost.
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Jun 20, 2010 05:17
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I have that radio and I can just hit the repeater that's 60 miles away - it's on a mountain a good 1200 ft higher than me, though. I can easily get the in-town repeater, which is about 15 miles away. Oh, and I'm using a homemade j-pole. I'm sure the little ducky that comes with it would work fine in town though.
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Jun 20, 2010 05:47
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The repeater's antenna is something like 200 feet off the ground, so I'm hopeful. I keep reading that I should be considering some kind of replacement antenna, so I'm considering that as my next purchase. How do you like the radio? Does it seem like a reasonable first-radio choice?
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Jun 20, 2010 05:50
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I bought it because it was the only cheapish HT I could find with separate knobs for volume, squelch, AND frequency. The downside is the complexity of the other operations - adding to memory, setting tones, etc are via inscrutable menus or odd combinations of button presses. It takes poring over the manual plus some practice to get facile with it. Overall I like it fine. It is my only radio though because I am also a novice. I built a portable j-pole out of twinlead, coax, and a crimp-on SMA. That's pretty easy, but you do need some sort of SWR meter to tune it.
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Jun 20, 2010 05:58
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KC2OWH checking in. I got my Technician license back in 2005 and got an IC-2100 to talk on some local repeaters, but I've been pretty inactive for the past few years. I'm hoping to get back into the hobby and have some fun with a local club on Field Day. I'm also thinking about upgrade to General at the next exam session in my area in July.
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Jun 20, 2010 17:03
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Jacob posted:I am scheduled to take my technician exam in about two weeks. I decided to do it independent of this thread, but I've been flipping through it as a resource and appreciate all of the feedback. I have an FT-60R. It's a great little handheld. Take my advice and get the data cable and download FT Commander in order to program in your repeaters and such. Trying to program that thing by hand is a very frustrating endeavor. To be completely honest with you though, I think that if you plan to get into HF you may be better off sticking to Echolink for local repeater poo poo and just save your cash for an HF rig. I went with the FT-60R for my first radio and after a week found myself wanting to do more. Talking to the same repeatards gets old after a while.
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Jun 20, 2010 17:39
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BigHustle posted:I have an FT-60R. It's a great little handheld. Take my advice and get the data cable and download FT Commander in order to program in your repeaters and such. Trying to program that thing by hand is a very frustrating endeavor. quote:To be completely honest with you though, I think that if you plan to get into HF you may be better off sticking to Echolink for local repeater poo poo
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Jun 20, 2010 20:58
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Jacob posted:Thanks for the tip. I'm glad to know there's a shortcut to programming. Is it something that I need to buy from the manufacturer or are third-party cables available? I recommend Kawa cables: USB or Serial. I used the serial version with my VX-5, and it worked great. Jacob posted:Can you access Echolink over the Internet?
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Jun 20, 2010 21:57
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Jacob posted:Thanks for the tip. I'm glad to know there's a shortcut to programming. Is it something that I need to buy from the manufacturer or are third-party cables available? I got my cable from Universal Radio when I ordered my FT-60R from them. I paid $30 for the RT Systems cable and programming software. If I had it to do over, I'd have bought one of the cables nmfree linked to. The software that came with the cable from RT Systems was utter poo poo compared to FT Commander, which is a free download. Jacob posted:Can you access Echolink over the Internet? I wasn't aware of that, although if I want to do any weather spotting, it seems like having the handheld might still be a good idea. Yeah, Echolink is the poo poo when it comes to accessing local repeaters via the internet. If there aren't any active linked repeaters in your local area, you can always branch out and check out repeater systems in other areas. I usually recommend checking out the W2NJR linked system. There's ususally a bunch of old angry Jerseyans on, and you can occasionally get some hilarious poo poo coming out your speakers from them.
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Jun 20, 2010 22:47
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Jacob posted:if I want to do any weather spotting, it seems like having the handheld might still be a good idea. Yeah if you're going to go mobile, then a VHF/UHF radio makes a lot of sense. I'm sort of dithering about what to get when I get my license: - Get a simple HT to use on the repeaters, and just use the local club HF gear, wait to buy my own HF gear when I get a grey neckbeard. - The above except with a VX-8R for APRS. - Go nuts wih a Yaesu FT-817 and do DX with a laptop and morse key on camping trips in the mountains. Since the latter radio can do VHF/UHF too, I could possibly lug it around in my laptop bag or briefcase when going to work as well.... Vir fucked around with this message at 22:57 on Jun 20, 2010 |
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Jun 20, 2010 22:53
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Well hey there friends, it's apparently been the better part of a year since I've checked into this thread... feelin kinda guilty about that. I'm updating the new checkins and new licenses for the OP as we speak, and then I've got about a dozen pages to catch up on. How's everyone doing? It's summer now, anyone finding that they can work sporadic E or tropo-ducting on the higher bands? I remember pulling in APRS beacons from several states away this time last year... it's pretty cool how APRS can double as a propagation beacon system like that, if you think about it!
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Jun 21, 2010 00:11
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Finally updated the OP with recent checkins. Man, you guys have been busy! It looks like the thread got some new life breathed into it when it moved to DIY, which is great. Anyway, at this point, we've officially had over 100 hams drop into the thread! There are definitely a few of you out there that sound like you're hams, but haven't mentioned it in your posts. If your name is missing from the OP, let me know!
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Jun 21, 2010 03:14
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BigHustle posted:I got my cable from Universal Radio when I ordered my FT-60R from them. I paid $30 for the RT Systems cable and programming software. If I had it to do over, I'd have bought one of the cables nmfree linked to. The software that came with the cable from RT Systems was utter poo poo compared to FT Commander, which is a free download. They all sound like Carl from Aqua Teen Hunger Force and it really is hilarious.
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Jun 21, 2010 04:57
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Vir posted:Yeah if you're going to go mobile, then a VHF/UHF radio makes a lot of sense. If you get the VX-8, make sure it's the VX-8DR revision that recently came out because it's specifically upgraded in the APRS functions over the VX-8R. Repeaters get boring. The FT-817ND is slowly growing on me. I didn't really like mine at first. The thing about the FT-817 is that its performance depends completely on the antenna you're using so be prepared to invest some time or money on either making or buying a decent antenna for it immediately after you buy it. The stock rubber duck antenna that comes with it is only good for the UHF FM bands. Won't work on the HF bands. Though it still seems to me that the amount of money you invest into an FT-817 to make it a "good" radio for DXing puts it above the price of an IC-703 Plus which is just a shame. Adding speech processing, a narrow filter for CW or PSK work, DSP, and an antenna tuner for the FT-817 is expensive and the IC-703 includes all of that. You lose the tiny size and portability of the FT-817 with that Icom radio, though. Anyway...
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Jun 21, 2010 05:36
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