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xergm posted:have no doubt it would be fun, but it seems like it would be a mixture of old farts, the spergity emcomms people, and guys like this lovely fellow.. Seriously, how did you pass your license exam without realizing the makeup of the ham radio population? Have you never spoken to anyone on the air yet? Besides, Field Day is cool and fun. You're outdoors and playing with radios in a semi-competitive environment. What more could you want?
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Jun 22, 2011 13:52
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I'll admit, I'm pretty sheltered to most of the ham universe. Most of the guys at the local club are actually pretty cool. They do a lot more activities with kids and do a class at the local elementary schools. I think they test 10-15 4th graders each year. I think this year they did some contacts with the ISS with the kids. I guess all their work with inviting new, younger hams into the hobby has made them significantly more accepting of people who don't have ailments and haven't ever seen a machine running Windows 95. Probably helps that I'm a little ways off from St. Louis, so the most emcomm we get are storm chasing and a little public aid to local hospitals, nothing like the tacticool guy with the gun holsters like bighustle gets. Also probably helps that I don't spend any time on voice if I am on the air.
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Jun 22, 2011 16:57
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Vir posted:Cool color. Did you put some velcro on the tuner? Velcro? No, that's attached to the mounting bracket, which is screwed to the underside of the dash. The gain values for the antenna were given dBi, so that's over isotropic (i.e. perfect conditions) but, it seems to be performing quite well. As for being off center, I was making sure I didn't drill through the spot where my dome light is.
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Jun 22, 2011 19:17
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Vir posted:Haha. So it's not programmable through BT then? Feels a bit like those new netbooks - OK it has wireless and BT, but how do I install this OS DVD? I wonder if there's a software application that takes advantage of the bluetooth cloning in order to wirelessly program the radio yet. It's cool that it has bluetooth apparently. I've never heard of that radio having that. I know the point you're trying to make about the netbooks but anyone can get a usb cd drive or if they are smart enough they can put the OS install on a flash drive.
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Jun 23, 2011 05:00
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Yeah I know. Oh and US/Canada field day starts soon.
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Jun 25, 2011 17:51
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Started Been rollin 6 and 15 for W2SO
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Jun 26, 2011 15:49
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Worked on 6 for a little while on Saturday and managed to get Georgia and South Florida. Fun stuff, I'll probably be more active for next year's field day.
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Jun 27, 2011 02:51
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I fully intended to show up to field day... as a newbie operator. Unfortunately, this weekend my fiance decided it was Paint The Bedroom weekend instead. I was hoping to talk to some older operators who could clue me in on stealth antenna operations. Renting in a dense area sucks.
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Jun 27, 2011 08:38
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I totally meant to stop by field day here, but got suckered into helping out with a photoshoot.  Oh well. Next time!
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Jun 27, 2011 15:42
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Hey look, a thread full of ham goons! I've been reading through the thread for the past week. A month ago I reawakened my interest in amateur radio after a nearly five year absence; I got my Tech ticket in 2000 when I was twelve and lost interest sometime in '06. However, recently I found my old Kenwood TH-F6A tri-band HT and was able to score a (lightly) used 65' Miracle Mixed Mode Dipole. With this combo, with how much success can I expect to listen to HF while backpacking?
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Jun 27, 2011 22:24
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Just from looking at the manual, not experience: Since it has SSB and HF coverage, I think you'll receive pretty well; the sensitivity isn't as good as a dedicated HF radio, but should be as good as a normal shortwave receiver, I think. Actually I think one of my offline ham buddies has one of those and he seems happy with it. Edit: Actually, it is a TH-F7E. Field Day has its drawbacks. There's been reported a heart attack (which might have happened anyway), and two hams got electrocuted when the antenna they were taking down blew into high voltage power lines. http://www.timesrecordnews.com/news/2011/jun/27/2-hurt-near-gordon-lake/ They'll live. But I wonder if that operation was violating basic safety rules. I'll admit that raising field day towers with big beams on top felt a bit flaky on my first time, but if things went bad we'd just run out of the way and sacrifice the tower. It's not worth getting injured. Vir fucked around with this message at 15:54 on Jun 28, 2011 |
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Jun 27, 2011 23:11
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Of course it was violating safety rules. IIRC the technician test covers this rule stating something along the lines of "if you tower were to fall, make sure it is placed such that no part of it will come within 10 feet of any electrical lines." Not to mention, who would pick a field day spot under some electrical wires? You're asking for some interference.
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Jun 28, 2011 04:42
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The best way to raise a yagi for field day is to rent a cherry picker.
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Jun 28, 2011 12:24
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fordan posted:Seriously, how did you pass your license exam without realizing the makeup of the ham radio population? Have you never spoken to anyone on the air yet? Yes there were some old guys , but the really old ones don't stay out late at night. We got the Red Bull and the grill out and were up operating. The one guy doing PSK/RTTY though... two laptops, beer in one hand on a lounge chair, just clicking away. Sooooo drat lazy. We basically went with the mil-surp poles and put up a couple of G5RV's, a triband dipole, a... some sort of HF vertical thing, an outbacker. I parked my car on the field, and ran my Hustler 15m resonator which worked really well. I also put up some temporary 6m square loop and was jammin' all over the place with that thing. Check out my portable digs:
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Jun 28, 2011 16:39
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Sorry I haven't been around much lately. I've been up to all sorts of stuff. Got a new HF antenna up in the air, have been very involved with D-Star, and had a blast at field day (Made 53 contacts). I'm currently in the process of building a GMSK hotspot board which will create a D-Star hotspot in my house, and provide me good mobile D-Star coverage in my county. I have a ham who will be donating me a duplexer, and possibly another one who will donate a second radio, so I may be able to turn it into a non-Icom D-Star repeater sooner then I expected! In any event, I recieved a donation of tons of older computer hardware, so be looking for the AG0ON echolink node to come back online shortly. I'm going to try and stay more involved with the forums, but if I disapear, send me a PM and I'll get an email informing me it's there, and will come in to check it! Also... I'm about to get some QSL cards printed up, thanks to Dawnsicle for the artwork! 
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Jun 28, 2011 20:57
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rant/ I helped out with our digital station at Field Day this year. I hadn't planned on being able to spend as much time as I did this year, so I opted out of supplying the station this year, and between the guy who supplied the radio and computer not knowing how to set the thing up right, some antenna issues (mostly related to the type of 'tuner' used vs. the coax run to the antenna), and not knowing how the antenna/tuning system we had planned on having as primary worked, we only made around 65 contacts on psk31. Last year we did over 200, and it's been noted that we should really try RTTY next year. The very little bit that I've seen of it, it is a faster mode to use; I.e. it decodes at a higher rate than the PSK does. I know field day isn't a contest, but when you know that a mode of communication can perform 3-4 times better than what you end up with is very frustrating. It's made more frustrating by the fact that the said supplier of equipment, who brought very well-maintained and higher end stuff, really has no idea how it is supposed to work together, and ignored a few of us with more experience in the settings and such, basically just cranked up the output power of the radio, got nowhere with it, and left the rest of us to do it. On the plus side, once he left us to our own devices, and we figured out what on his interface controlled various things, we got our signals and power outputs where the were efficient and clean, and finally started making contacts. Unfortunately, that took us nearly five hours, and then a thunderstorm rolled in, shutting things down for the night, and we didn't fire the station back up until nearly 14:00 UTC on sunday. I think we also learned a good lesson: The ham with all the expensive, shiny equipment doesn't mean he has the brains to use it. We made 4 times as many contacts last year using my 25 year old rig, a 6 year old laptop , and a RigBlaster Nomic than we did this year with an IC-706mkIIg, a fairly new netbook, and a US Interface Navigator. /rant For the most part It was a fun weekend as usual, but it gets tiresome listening to the excuses for why poo poo isn't working the way it could or should, and having your suggestions ignored. The phone station made over 600 contacts, and the main op was bitching that 'the bands were lovely' most of saturday, yet when I was listening in my truck several times going back and forth to the FD site, I barely found a frequency without a QSO, and the ones that were clear had a noise floor of no greater than S1, and mostly S0. I might have to do FD on my own, or find a few other people to do it with and go somewhere else. The last few years have been getting more and more tiresome due to the urgency some people have been placing on it, and it's not supposed to be a contest, yet some in our group treat it like its sweepstakes or a QSO party.
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Jun 29, 2011 05:22
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Well it has become the biggest event of the year. I recognize your frustration, trying to find the various settings of an Icom 7000 without the manual. It wasn't as critical for us though, because we couldn't use that radio anyway due to RFI issues, and I was just playing around with it while the owner was running QSOs in the truck. If I go this year (ours is in September), I'll make sure we're bringing PDF manuals for all the radios, as well as printouts of the command quick reference.
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Jun 29, 2011 15:42
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Hah, if we'd been using a 7000, I don't think we'd have had as many problems. We were using a 706, and the menus are completely different to get into between the two.
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Jun 29, 2011 18:03
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I've got a piece of hardware that I honestly don't know a thing about. It's a TDK/Kepco RMX 15-C. A friend of my father gave it to me a few years ago since I "liked computers and radio and poo poo". He said it was an amplifier, I think it's a power supply. Google doesn't tell me a lot, and since I'm not really familiar with things like this I can't make a lot of sense of it. What is it? What is it good for? Is it worth anything?
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Jun 30, 2011 20:45
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Google tells me that it's a variable regulated power supply. 240 V or 120 V AC nominal input (selectable) OR 300 V nominal DC input to 10.5-16.5 V DC output, 13.3 A. It looks like it can be used as a ham radio power supply, and run other 12/13.5 V gear, if it's not too noisy. Specs : http://www.kepcopower.com/support/rmk-specs.pdf (The RMX is basically an RMK with selectable AC input voltage for the international market) Vir fucked around with this message at 21:24 on Jun 30, 2011 |
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Jun 30, 2011 20:57
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While the power supply is integral, it is often the least of your worries when assembling a station. The majority of cheap PSUs that you find floating around are either poorly regulated, or only good for a couple of amps. Given a typical 100W HF radio pulling about 22 on full swing, you want to not hook it up to the 3A supply. Those things can be useful though, powering standalone devices, TNCs and other things that take 12V. I recently picked up some unknown block power supply and an Alinco 30A. Neither of those make any difference at all without a reasonable antenna.
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Jul 4, 2011 02:58
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FT-817ND inboundquote:Package has been loaded for delivery 2011-07-06 08:17 Edit: This thing's pretty small. 
Vir fucked around with this message at 08:55 on Jul 6, 2011 |
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Jul 6, 2011 08:01
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I want one of those badly. That or an 897D with a battery and charger. I find myself mostly listening to shortwave and chatter on 80m, though, so I can't really justify buying one. But goddamn do I want one.
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Jul 7, 2011 07:59
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Did you guys read about the poo poo volcano at Dayton this year? I just heard about it and am laughing my rear end off.
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Jul 7, 2011 11:56
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PROTIP: Expect some backlash from your local OFs if you call one of the 'elected club officials' a lid and an EMCOMMunist over the air.
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Jul 7, 2011 22:27
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BigHustle posted:PROTIP: Expect some backlash from your local OFs if you call one of the 'elected club officials' a lid and an EMCOMMunist over the air. Please explain. That sounds too good to leave it that short.
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Jul 8, 2011 01:04
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BigHustle posted:PROTIP: Expect some backlash from your local OFs if you call one of the 'elected club officials' a lid and an EMCOMMunist over the air. Come on, do your best Paul Harvey, and give us "The Rest of the Story".
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Jul 8, 2011 01:48
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mwdan posted:Come on, do your best Paul Harvey, and give us "The Rest of the Story". Long story short, a club I belong to has a repeater that occasionally interferes with the repeater that Skywarn uses for it's emergency nets, mostly because the Skywarn repeater has no PL assigned to it. Last bad storm that came through found the usual interference happening. I was monitoring the Skywarn repeater and recognized a call, so I hopped over and let them know they were interfering with the net. They moved to the other repeater and the 925 went silent. Five minutes later, this dude keys up the 925 and keeps his key down for almost 5 solid minutes screaming that EMCOMM is SERIOUS BUSINESS and hams have a responsibility to keep the air clear, etc. All this time his lecture is causing MORE interference than the QSO he was railing against. As soon as he dropped his mic, I called into the net to let them know that it wasn't a club member causing that interference, it was a lid who wasn't a club member. That lid happened to be a member of one of the bigger clubs in the area, and an 'elected club official.' That last line comes in later. So I shoot a message to the net control letting her know that we are aware of the interference and are taking steps to keep the channel clear in severe weather events. She sent it to the Lid, who started off by saying that since I'm 'not an elected club official, My comments aren't necessary' and proceeds to launch into this wall of text about EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS IS HAM RADIO'S TOP PRIORITY and IT IS OUR RESPONSIBILITY TO KEEP THE AIR CLEAR SO HAMS CAN FORM VOLTRON AND STOP THE HURRICANE-FIRE-TORNADO-EARTHQUAKE THAT ZOLTAR MAY UNLEASH ON THE AREA' and other happy horseshit like that. He copied the club president, who asked me to be more careful when discussing things that could be club related. While sharing this tale with another ham on the 925 the following day, I didn't use any names or call signs, but I did say that I'm glad I didn't join the other group since I wanted to belong to a hobby group and not the EMCOMMunist Party. Apparently he was listening or someone who was told him what I said, because he is all up in arms and screaming to the club pres that I should be 'sanctioned' by the club because I was violating the 'spirit of ham radio' and other assorted nonsense. So now my club's pres is pissed at me because he's been trying to get them to help fix the repeater interference issue and now they're being dicks even though my 'opinions don't count because I'm not an elected club official.' I thought this was a hobby, not GI Joe.
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Jul 8, 2011 04:53
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Typical of the "I'm the frequency police" people - causing more interference than the original transmission. Thankfully most people just politely tell you to change frequency. I've only been yelled at once - and that time I listened and did the "is this frequency in use" thing several times without any replies. PS: I'm hereby nominating BigHustle as the emergency coordinator for the Something Awful Amateur Radio Society. AG0ON-L is the place for alien invasion related emergencies. Vir fucked around with this message at 13:51 on Jul 8, 2011 |
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Jul 8, 2011 13:48
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Did anyone record that guy? You should submit him to N0UN's lidlist.com. Also, if you're not on 6 meters right now you should be: code:Dijkstra fucked around with this message at 14:09 on Jul 8, 2011 |
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Jul 8, 2011 13:56
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Vir posted:Typical of the "I'm the frequency police" people - causing more interference than the original transmission. Thankfully most people just politely tell you to change frequency. I've only been yelled at once - and that time I listened and did the "is this frequency in use" thing several times without any replies. Now I understand why people kerchunk repeaters and otherwise harass other hams. Before all this poo poo started I didn't get it. Now that I'm dealing with one of these assholes, I have to fight the urge to key up and play some Kurt Schwitters over their system any time I hear someone talking. quote:PS: I'm hereby nominating BigHustle as the emergency coordinator for the Something Awful Amateur Radio Society. AG0ON-L is the place for alien invasion related emergencies. I'll only accept this ELECTED CLUB OFFICIAL position if my title can me EMCOMMandant.
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Jul 8, 2011 20:27
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BigHustle posted:I'll only accept this ELECTED CLUB OFFICIAL position if my title can me EMCOMMandant.
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Jul 8, 2011 21:52
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BigHustle posted:I'll only accept this ELECTED CLUB OFFICIAL position if my title can me EMCOMMandant. I'd suggest EMCOMMissar. Line the lids and whackers up against the wall and have them shot.
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Jul 8, 2011 22:38
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Snapshot posted:I'd suggest EMCOMMissar. Line the lids and whackers up against the wall and have them shot. Don't turn around (uh oh) Der EMCOMMissar's in town (whuh ah oh)
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Jul 8, 2011 23:34
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BigHustle, asshats like the guy you're involved in battle with are the reason I stick to digital voice modes (or even encrypted digital voice  ).There are a number of ways you could handle it. Might I suggest the goon route of continuing to troll the poo poo out of him? Obviously, you would be obligated to record these events and post them here for posterity.
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Jul 9, 2011 12:34
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TNLTRPB posted:BigHustle, asshats like the guy you're involved in battle with are the reason I stick to digital voice modes This is yet one more reason why D-Star is awesome. BTW, you can find me on 20a and 20b most of the time.
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Jul 9, 2011 14:33
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Well, you could make a polite complaint to the other club about his interference. If he keeps causing interference, you could record him and send it to the FCC enforcement bureau. Otherwise, just ignore him.
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Jul 9, 2011 15:14
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TNLTRPB posted:BigHustle, asshats like the guy you're involved in battle with are the reason I stick to digital voice modes (or even encrypted digital voice I don't know, trolling is a very bad way to handle this situaHAHAHAHAHAHAH Honestly though, I don't really need to do anything. I sit an monitor the weather repeater on occasion since they use it for regular use all day. They've had an open carrier on the repeater for a while now, and every day someone will hop on and start screaming over the air 'SOMEONE HAS AN OPEN MIC! OFFENDING STATION, UNKEY YOUR MIC!' as if the offending station was going to hear him if they did indeed have their mic keyed. These guys troll themselves constantly.
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Jul 9, 2011 17:46
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Well you know, who uses those newfangled transceiver gizmos? Separate transmitter and receiver is how real men do amateur radio. 
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Jul 9, 2011 23:15
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TNLTRPB posted:BigHustle, asshats like the guy you're involved in battle with are the reason I stick to digital voice modes (or even encrypted digital voice It's the reason I stick to bleeps and bloops. I still need to pull the trigger on that antenna. And another length of cable. And a door pass-through.
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Jul 10, 2011 03:39
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