|
iostream.h posted:Seventeen THOUSAND Well, it would be seventeen hundred  , if you were to do the math...The point is, I want that microphone.
|
#
?
Feb 2, 2012 06:07
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 25, 2024 19:04 |
|
|
iostream.h posted:What's the general consensus on an HF vertical these days? I'm leaninig towards a Butternut HF9V, but dealing with the counterpoise and it's overall ungainliness seems to be a bit of an issue. Anything simple I'm overlooking? A good place to start learning about radials underneath a ground-mounted vertical are in N6LF's series of QEX articles.
|
|
#
?
Feb 2, 2012 06:15
|
|
|
*sigh* verticals. I have a couple and have probably done a half-dozen over the years. The grounding/radial thing is almost a deal breaker. I got a hot deal on electric fence wire once, so I had radial wire out the wazoo, but it did take a long time to lay the radials. I can't say that I've ever been impressed with any ground mounted verticals I've done. However, I have never really gone the full nine yards and done a 120 radial setup or anything crazy like the OF's recommend. That being said, I really like my 20 meter vertical. It's a Hy Gain AV-18VS with the coil off; basically it's just seventeen feet of pipe at this point. I have it on a 22' mast, and have three guys holding it up. They're made of 1/8" steel cable and are 1/4 wave long. From the ends of those we have strong insulators, then guy ropes to the actual anchors. It works pretty well and this year I'm adding another chunk of fence rail to take it to 33' elevation, assuming that I can still get the radial angle right. I would absolutely try goofing with verts for the higher HF bands right now, though - sunspots are up, verticals have low angles of radiation, these two factors combine to deliver DX. Oh, and iostream.h posted:You can laugh, but I've always wanted one of those based strictly on how it looks. Like something out of my childhood in the '80's that I'd use to reach some Spielberg aliens or something. I am now at 20 years of lusting after an ic-781, even though I know it's not that good of a radio. Jonny 290 fucked around with this message at 09:41 on Feb 2, 2012 |
|
#
?
Feb 2, 2012 09:38
|
|
|
iostream.h posted:What's the general consensus on an HF vertical these days? I'm leaninig towards a Butternut HF9V, but dealing with the counterpoise and it's overall ungainliness seems to be a bit of an issue. Anything simple I'm overlooking? This is just my opinion and will sound OF-ish, but if you're going to spend that much money on a (ground-mounted) vertical you should really lay a whole lot of radials unless you live in a salt marsh or very near the ocean. Most of your energy will be absorbed into the ground otherwise. If you don't want to/can't deal with ground radials you could try making something on your own or buying something cheaper and mounting it up high with a few radials like Jonny 290 did. You'll have far less ground losses that way. Theoretically, the higher you get a vertical up the less radials you need. Most guys I know that have had fancy ground verticals like that haven't been happy with them unless they took a couple of weekends to measure out and lay a bunch of radials down so that the turf eventually absorbs them and the grass grows up around them. I help one guy lay 40 or so radials about 15 years ago, and it turned out to be a great antenna.
|
|
#
?
Feb 2, 2012 14:52
|
|
|
Additionally, can anyone explain why the new Dstar HT from Icom the IC-ID31 is so much cheaper than the IC-92AD while having apparently better specs? Am I missing something?j Edit: Additionally, anyone actually interested in a 92AD? I was looking at some accessories locally and it might be better to pick up the package and sell the radio separately, if one of you were interested. I definitely don't need 2 of them. I wouldn't mind trading for something else, either. iostream.h fucked around with this message at 20:40 on Feb 3, 2012 |
|
#
?
Feb 3, 2012 20:35
|
|
|
.
Jose Pointero fucked around with this message at 05:26 on Aug 28, 2019 |
|
|
#
?
Feb 3, 2012 20:50
|
|
|
Jose Pointero posted:The ID31 is UHF only, no 2-meter analog or digi. 92AD is a great radio, used to have one and I kinda miss it (but can't afford another one). And I'm confused, why are you getting two of them? I'm not necessarily getting two of them, I'm looking at a package deal from a local ham for the GPS mic, battery and a couple of other things and his 'split it up' price is pretty high, but his 'buy everything including the 92AD' is pretty reasonable. If someone here was interested, I wouldn't mind picking it up and unloading it (fairly cheaply). You interested? I'm pretty sure I bought an FT-857d off of you last year or so, incidentally.
|
|
#
?
Feb 3, 2012 21:36
|
|
|
.
Jose Pointero fucked around with this message at 05:26 on Aug 28, 2019 |
|
|
#
?
Feb 3, 2012 22:27
|
|
|
Why, oh why, do I have it in my head to build an ultrasonic communication device that uses a PSK31 audio carrier at like 30 KHz? Whatcha think? It's just phase reversals, right? I think that might be decodable over a speaker -> mic path. You could just diode mix it with an x-1 KHz carrier and get a nice 1000hz in and out, so you don't have to actually work with ultrasonic frequencies. poo poo, I didn't just invent a new way for kids to text each other in class, did i....
|
|
#
?
Feb 4, 2012 11:49
|
|
|
.
Jose Pointero fucked around with this message at 05:26 on Aug 28, 2019 |
|
|
#
?
Feb 6, 2012 06:13
|
|
|
Yeah, that's basically what it would be. I may goof off with audio PSK, see if it works through air at least.
|
|
#
?
Feb 6, 2012 10:15
|
|
|
I just realized that my tech license is going to expire in a few months and despite never owning more than an HT (which hasn't been turned on in years) I suddenly feel compelled to get my general class. I've been poking around on 2m and 70cm all morning and haven't heard a peep --just like every time before. eddiewalker fucked around with this message at 00:15 on Feb 17, 2012 |
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2012 17:51
|
|
|
Well, I built Baby's First 2m Antenna for $20. I don't have an SWR meter or anything, so I just used the estimated adjustments in the instructions I found I'm sure the little 75 ohm video BNC I had lying around isn't the best feed line, but hey, I'm finally on the air. 
|
|
#
?
Feb 7, 2012 22:47
|
|
|
The Copper Cactus is legendary. Got one bouncing around the backyard myself. And yeah, tuning is rough if you don't have a VHF SWR meter. I got the little MFJ cross needle one and it seems to work well enough.
|
|
#
?
Feb 8, 2012 09:57
|
|
|
Technician class here. I bought a Kenwood 241a 2m radio for $60 at the same hamfest where I passed my test and have been fooling with it on and off. Last night I managed to call in to a net on a repeater about 80 miles away and behind a range of hills, which was pretty fun. I also got on the Livermore (my town) ARC net, but only in time for the last call for checkins; hopefully there are some more young hams in the area instead of just greybeards with ailments. I'm also idly looking around for a HF rig... I've got nothing against boat anchors, so I'd be willing to try one; any goon opinions on the Kenwood TS-520S? Buy it for under $200, avoid it, watch out for XYZ, anything? Edit: I'm a computer engineer, so I'm not unfamiliar with electronics, soldering, etc... I have a multimeter and an oscilloscope, although an already-working system would be best 
Pham Nuwen fucked around with this message at 04:34 on Feb 10, 2012 |
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2012 04:26
|
|
|
.
Jose Pointero fucked around with this message at 05:27 on Aug 28, 2019 |
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2012 14:38
|
|
|
New to all this amateur radio, seems really interesting. I'd like to start with an SDR; they seem really capable. Does anyone have a recommendation for a SDR frontend? Sub $200 would be nice. The "Softrock" line seems to be the 'goto' for this soft of stuff. Seems to have a lot of capability for hobby grade stuff, and is real cheap. Problem is, I can't find any. I also found the FUNCube Dongle. Its way more expensive than the SoftRock and can only be used with a Mac/PC. It seems a bunch of people just homebrew their own, but I'd rather not. I have no problem assembling something; I have soldering tools, a dual channel 50mhz scope, and a multimeter.
|
|
#
?
Feb 10, 2012 22:34
|
|
|
I've been trying to get active in a local club before I take my general next week, but I've been having the worst time using the club repeater with my VX-7R. I can hit the repeater just fine with a rubberduck antenna, and I've had a few good chats, but I keep hearing this awful data noise on top of the repeater output that no one else on the machine can hear. If I turn off my CTCSS, the data comes precisely every 5 minutes, and on the top of the hour it seems to begin with some CW, but unfortunately, the repeater also IDs at the top of every hour, so I've never been able to get the code cleanly. If I turn my CTCSS on, I only hear the data when the repeater is transmitting at the same time as the strange data (since the repeaters tone is opening my squelch) Any ideas? Can anyone make out this CW so I can figure out where its coming from? 
|
|
#
?
Feb 11, 2012 03:31
|
|
|
Jose Pointero posted:The old-school Kenwood "hybrids" are the best HF deals around, doubly so if you can work on them. I've had a 520 and loved it, but you should also keep an eye out for an 820. It has a digital display and doesn't have the price premium that the 830's go for (but do grab an 830 if you find a good deal). They're old rigs so things like bad pots, bad caps, hack wiring jobs, tube abuse, etc are common issues. But there's tons of documentation and info out there pertaining to repairing them. The tubes they use aren't very expensive either. Only gotcha's are broken components such as the shaft couplers, digital display driver circuits, and the electromechanical portion of the bandswitch. Ken's website has tons of info about maintaining these radios and he's even selling reproductions of some of the hard-to-find parts. Well, good news! I met my old work mentor (he's since left for Google) today to talk and do some work. He's a long-time ham who has been out of it lately. We got to talking about radio and he offered to give me his old Kenwood HF rig, a TS-5XX (can't remember the exact number, just know that it has a DSP and built-in SWR meter apparently). Really a wild coincidence, since I was just looking at Kenwood hybrid rigs on ebay. He says he's got a mic and a code key to go with it, but already sold the antenna. So now I guess I only need to find myself an antenna! I'll probably try to make one myself, since I've got a soldering iron and a penchant for self-abuse. Recommendations on an appropriate HF antenna design for apartment use? I have a balcony, but I'm thinking I might just put together a basic dipole out of some wire and tack it to the wall/ceiling.
|
|
#
?
Feb 11, 2012 04:23
|
|
|
eddiewalker posted:I've been trying to get active in a local club before I take my general next week, but I've been having the worst time using the club repeater with my VX-7R. I can hit the repeater just fine with a rubberduck antenna, and I've had a few good chats, but I keep hearing this awful data noise on top of the repeater output that no one else on the machine can hear. The morse ID is cut off by the data but it begins with KAA2... but it's hard to tell if that's the end of it or not. You can search all FCC IDs by wildcards here: http://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/General_Menu_Reports/callsign.cfm That sounds like a paging transmitter. Do you live near one? If so this could be intermod from it. Putting "KAA2" into the query page above returns a list of 42 records. Where do you live? I would go through the results of that query until you see something near you. Dijkstra fucked around with this message at 16:24 on Feb 11, 2012 |
|
#
?
Feb 11, 2012 16:22
|
|
|
This article seems to explain my problem pretty well. Thanks for pointing me in a direction. http://www.arrl.org/files/file/Technology/Intermod/Intermod_Urban_Problem.pdf
|
|
#
?
Feb 11, 2012 18:47
|
|
|
Dijkstra posted:The morse ID is cut off by the data but it begins with KAA2... but it's hard to tell if that's the end of it or not. You can search all FCC IDs by wildcards here: The only match close to me is kaa202, a highway patrol unit registered about 15 miles away, much further than the 145 repeater I'm trying to use. I'd expect it to be a lot closer since my little HT antenna is getting hit so hard and no one else on the repeater seems to hear it. That license has some 154 and a bunch of 42s. Fixed location 2 is maybe 8 miles away with just 42 activity. Can I alleviate this in any way? edit: Somehow I posted these two posts out of order.
|
|
#
?
Feb 11, 2012 21:49
|
|
|
Yeah it's definitely intermod... The trick is finding the source. If you can isolate the frequency of the interfering signal, you could build or buy an attenuator or low-pass filter from Ramsey or something. The 42 mhz transmitter a few miles away is interesting, because most public safety low-band VHF transmitters are pretty old. If so, the finals in it could be going bad and putting out a non-linear signal, causing all kind of harmonics and what not. I would ask some of the guys in your club to help you out with it.. Maybe you could borrow a scanner and try programming the possible offending frequencies into it, and checking it for hits at the top of the hour. You could also use the search or sweeper function to try to isolate the signal. In any case, since your club has a repeater it undoubtedly has a couple of guys who manage it, and are experienced with isolating problems like this and dealing with intermod on VHF. If you don't get any further try hitting up one of them. Hope you get it figured out, let us know how it goes.
|
|
#
?
Feb 11, 2012 22:28
|
|
|
.
Jose Pointero fucked around with this message at 05:27 on Aug 28, 2019 |
|
|
#
?
Feb 12, 2012 00:53
|
|
|
Jose Pointero posted:Oh cool. If it's got a DSP and is a 5xx, it's most likely the TS-570. I've never used one myself but I've heard good things about them! So what band do you recommend I aim for? Given my space constraints, a higher frequency seems like a good idea.... and since I'm only tech right now, I guess I can only do phone in a few bands.
|
|
#
?
Feb 12, 2012 02:53
|
|
|
.
Jose Pointero fucked around with this message at 05:27 on Aug 28, 2019 |
|
|
#
?
Feb 12, 2012 08:28
|
|
|
Jose Pointero posted:I recommend you aim for...a general lol. I kid, I kid. As a tech you do have voice privileges on 10 meter, and now that the sun woke up 10 meter has been pretty active. You could even use a vertical whip on the balcony for 10 meter, a Wilson 1000 mag-mount stuck to a piece of sheet metal perhaps? If you have metal balcony rails, you might even be able to mount a 102" whip to them or something. I'm studying General and Extra right now, and so far I have gotten as far as m, k, and r on the Koch method It looks like I can get what I need to build a dipole at the local Radio Shack for $30 or so; I'm thinking maybe make a dipole for 10m and hopefully it'll work ok on some other bands too? I figure I can pin a dipole to the ceiling of my apartment or maybe out on the balcony.
|
|
#
?
Feb 12, 2012 08:37
|
|
|
.
Jose Pointero fucked around with this message at 05:28 on Aug 28, 2019 |
|
|
#
?
Feb 12, 2012 08:49
|
|
|
I write my test in 3 hours.  EDIT: 97%!! Wife got 88%! Canadian Basic with Honors, so that means HF right off the bat, limited to 100w all around. SiB fucked around with this message at 01:41 on Feb 13, 2012 |
|
#
?
Feb 12, 2012 17:29
|
|
|
.
Jose Pointero fucked around with this message at 05:28 on Aug 28, 2019 |
|
|
#
?
Feb 13, 2012 03:52
|
|
|
Ya we will be using it on a sailboat in the middle of the ocean so she needed it too. Now we play the waiting game for the callsigns.....
|
|
#
?
Feb 14, 2012 19:21
|
|
|
It's a lifelong goal for me to go open-water maritime mobile at least once. I'm very, very jealous.
|
|
#
?
Feb 15, 2012 14:04
|
|
|
I'm trying to plot out a good antenna for my first foray into HF. Since I don't know what bands or modes I'll really end up using, I'm trying to find something thatwill be flexible, even if it has some compromises. An off-center-fed dipole seems like best fit for my property that I've found. If I lay it out like this, the legs will be stretching north/south, making the antenna mostly radiate E/W, correct?  Green is feed line, blue is non-conductive rope. The feed line looks like it takes a longer route than it has too, but the room next to the chimney as vaulted ceilings, and thus no attic. I know that uninsulated wire is ideal, but I think an insulated wire would be safer, especially once the trees have leaves. Is that a smart choice? I'm hoping the performance would be minimally impacted. Is the pulley on the long leg a wise move? I want to avoid loading my chimney too bad in the wind, as well as breaking the wire since it's gonna be a pain to hang. My house has ridge vents, so the left leg can be attached through there and possible tensioned with a weight hanging in the attic. Some of the commercially available OCF dipoles claim to cover the 80 or 40 through 6m bands. Are those just sales claims? Will I need an antenna tuner?
|
|
#
?
Feb 17, 2012 21:30
|
|
|
Off center fed dipoles are the biggest pile of snake oil, I swear. Many of them just use the feedline as an additional radiator, which means all kinds of RF in the shack unless you run chokes or baluns. Insulated wire is fine but has slightly lower velocity factor so you will need to cut the antenna about 2-3% shorter. Don't worry too much about factoring this in till you do final tuning/trimming. Keep in mind that unless you get any sort of dipole or long wire at least 1/2 wavelength off the ground, you're going to be pretty much burning sky (have a high angle of radiation) - this will make most low dipoles roughly omnidirectional. So don't worry about directionality. --- I know you're kind of starting out, and don't want to lose you here, but I pulled off a great trick at my last rent house. I had a setup that was not dissimilar to your yard there. If I were to copy and paste my setup to your yard, here's what we'd have: --Put a bunch of ground radials down around where the base of the chimney, snaking along edge of house and concrete pad where needed. -Put up 40+30 meter inverted V antenna by throwing a rope up that tree you have the pulley on, use that to support the apex of the inverted V. Dual band is given just by cutting a 40m and 30m element for each side, and trimming to tune. Investigate "fan dipoles" to get the idea. This V would be parallel to that fence there, with the apex around 35 feet and the ends about 15-20. -Run RG-58 coax cable to the inverted V. String this coax perpendicular to the antenna and parallel to the ground, then straight down the chimney. At the bottom of the chimney, where the ground radials meet, I installed a switch:  What does this do? In one position, it passes the signal through to the dipole untouched. In the other position, it shorts the antenna hot and ground connectors together, disconnects the antenna ground from the radio ground, and connects the radio side coax ground to the radials. What was just a second ago a coax-fed balanced dipole for a high HF band is now an inverted-L long wire antenna for a low HF band! Not only that, but your inverted V is now acting as a capacitance hat, making your longwire more efficient. beware when investing too much in 75 meter setups, though. Listen to the band for a month and then decide if it's something you want to be associated with. I consider it one step up the foodchain from FreeRepublic, personally, and no longer waste my time trying to get 130 foot dipoles up just so I can get drowned out by retirees with 1500 watts and curtain arrays yelling about Nobama. 30 meters is by far the coolest band anyways. Jonny 290 fucked around with this message at 10:00 on Feb 18, 2012 |
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2012 09:58
|
|
|
If orientation isn't as big a deal as the graybeards make it out to be, that opens up a lot more possibilities between my three tall, identically spaced old trees along the fence. I could just put up a simple fan dipole and be good to go, I think. I don't completely follow your ground radial idea, since I thought radial just went along with vertical, flagpole-style antennas, but it seems like something I could easily try later if I just left a foot of extra feedline by the chimney. I really don't know the character or flavor of any of the bands, so that makes planning anything antenna-wise feel more intimidating. I don't even have a radio yet. It kind of surprises me that you say 30m since the general class question pool only seemed to stress the restrictions on that band. Is it just the power limit leveling the playing field, or the lack of voice modes keeping out the 2m repeater types?
|
|
#
?
Feb 18, 2012 18:23
|
|
|
Grr. Went to a local swapmeet this morning, grabbed a 20amp power supply after asking if there were any issues with it. Tested it and read 12v, got it back in and it won't power my radio, just relay clicking as if there's not enough amperage to actually power it up. Damnit.
|
|
#
?
Feb 19, 2012 01:35
|
|
|
Just snagged our first HF radio... old Kenwood TS-530S with AT-230 tuner for $150. It should be a good learning tool. Works 100% and looks great, but it does have a lovely Uniden mic. Random wire antennas, anyone want to comment on this article? http://www.hamuniverse.com/randomwireantennalengths.html
|
|
#
?
Feb 19, 2012 02:11
|
|
|
iostream.h posted:Grr. On the psychotic end, this 1300w power supply has 12 volts at 105 amps. Edit: at a more reasonable price point, 12v@40a for ~32 bucks. EvilMoFo fucked around with this message at 04:25 on Feb 19, 2012 |
|
#
?
Feb 19, 2012 04:14
|
|
|
eddiewalker posted:If orientation isn't as big a deal as the graybeards make it out to be, that opens up a lot more possibilities between my three tall, identically spaced old trees along the fence. I could just put up a simple fan dipole and be good to go, I think. Yeah skip all my mumbo jumbo about the radials, that was more of a blogpost than direct answers, sorry about that. A fan dipole above the fence on the trees will be great. 30 meters is great because it's digital only, a WARC band (so there's no power) and it's at the perfect spot in my opinion on the HF band - high enough frequencies that the antennas aren't HUGE, but low enough frequencies that you can get some really good propagation going. That being said, if you want to /talk/ to guys, 30m is obviously out. what i'm really getting at is, if you can only put up a 66 foot dipole for 40 meters and higher, don't weep, in my opinion you are not missing much 'fun' on 80. But a 40 dipole will let you listen enough on 80 meters to decide if you want to put up a proper antenna and try to make some contacts on there.
|
|
#
?
Feb 19, 2012 07:25
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 25, 2024 19:04 |
|
|
Picked up my new HF rig (a Kenwood TS-570S) and have been fiddling with it this afternoon. I built a ghetto 10m dipole out of 12ga insulated wire and hung it from the ceiling of my 2nd story apartment. Since then, I've been scanning around on 10m but have not managed to pick up much. I heard some Morse on USB at 28.035 when I just had my 2m whip plugged in prior to building the dipole, but have not heard anything lately. I'm located in the San Francisco area. I'd have expected a bit more activity, I guess... is my antenna just really crap?
|
|
#
?
Feb 20, 2012 04:05
|
|