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I have to quit going to local club gatherings. I just get reminded what the people I've been talking to on repeaters look like.
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Mar 25, 2012 03:28
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eddiewalker posted:I have to quit going to local club gatherings. I just get reminded what the people I've been talking to on repeaters look like. Or, have fun with it. One hamfest I went to locally there was a booth selling custom engraved (like, plastic milled) name badges. I had to, I mean I HAD to. So, I live in Colorado but have a 6 call from Cali, so I got this old school style cali license plate from the 80s looking badge, with my name and call, and it is so ugly it's painful. I wear it proudly any time i'm at any ham meetup.
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Mar 25, 2012 03:35
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I just got my first HF rig up and running, built almost entirely from donated parts. The radio is an IC-720A, tuner is an MFJ-949E, a gigantic non-switching 35A power supply, and I'm running a dipole tuned for 40m in an inverted V. This old radio works pretty well.Dijkstra posted:Has anyone built any large loop antennas? Any pointers? I'm moving to a house with a large lot soon and was thinking about putting up a window line-fed 40 meter loop. Probably either a vertical delta loop or a horizontal skywire. (leaning towards skywire) Edit: The contest this weekend makes this a crazy time to start operating on HF. I'm just listening to the contest folks and searching for quiet bands to practice tuning up. Curly Shuffle fucked around with this message at 00:19 on Mar 26, 2012 |
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Mar 25, 2012 21:27
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Curly Shuffle posted:
I'm pretty new also, but the contest can give you some ideas of what your equipment can do. I have made 17 contacts just playing around over the weekend. I am in alberta canada, I have talked to 8 US states, and Russia. Tried for Argentina but didnt have the power and propagation. This is all on 15m and 20m.
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Mar 26, 2012 01:43
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Sniep posted:Or, have fun with it. Oh, man, I had to get a hamhat at the last hamfest. It's bright blue with my call and has a mesh back and has an embroidery rope thingy along the edge of the bill. Pure, unadulterated hamclass. ^5 callsign-from-another-zone buddy. 2x3 4-land call in 5-land confuses the hicks. "When'd ya move here?" "Bout 19 years ago" Jonny 290 fucked around with this message at 09:21 on Mar 27, 2012 |
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Mar 27, 2012 09:18
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Jonny 290 posted:Oh, man, I had to get a hamhat at the last hamfest. I had a hamhat back when I was first licensed, I was the coolest 13-year-old.  On a related note, I just renewed my license, and holy poo poo, I've been licensed 20 years. I should maybe upgrade.
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Mar 27, 2012 19:06
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again, tomorrow at the timonium fairgrounds, starting at seven AM: greater baltimore hamboree!! in the cow palace. $9 to get in. I AM SELLING MY JEWELRY HERE. most pieces are $10!! and no shipping fees! please come visit. we'll be in the back right, I think. the third section of the building. dad is selling large train capacitors. DIY raiigun, anyone?
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Mar 30, 2012 23:06
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I'll be at Timonium, but drat the price went up again! Guess it's still worth it since it's the biggest hamfest in the region.
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Mar 31, 2012 00:03
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Radio Nowhere posted:I'll be at Timonium, but drat the price went up again! Guess it's still worth it since it's the biggest hamfest in the region. I know, it's kind of a drag. but attendance has been pretty poor in recent years, and they're not making $$$$$ like they used to. there's a picture of me in my profile we're in the way back of the cow palace, just ask me about the stairs.
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Mar 31, 2012 01:16
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I ordered one of these cheap chinese frequency counters a month ago. It just showed up. http://www.dealextreme.com/p/professional-1-4-lcd-50mhz-2-6ghz-handheld-radio-frequency-counter-3-aaa-41619 Works pretty decent. It's basically accurate to the second decimal place in the UHF and VHF ranges. I got an instant lock on a mall cops radio from 20 ft away. Other than that, I don't know what I'm gonna do with it, but I'm a sucker for cheap toys.
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Apr 2, 2012 19:35
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I may be relocating to Redmond, WA from Vancouver, BC later this summer. Judging by *these* links: * http://www.arrl.org/foreign-licenses-operating-in-u-s * http://www.rac.ca/en/amateur-radio/regulatory/operating-in-canada/canada-usa.php ... I should be ok to operate there once I get a place to live? Note, I am not becomming a citizen, and I am not becoming a permanent resident. I only have a Basic+ license, so I think I'll need to get a 5 WPM code endorsement if i want to play on HF when I get down there....
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Apr 3, 2012 06:13
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Passed my technician test last night! Now I need a radio, any suggestions? I'm a college student, so I'll be moving around a lot; I've been thinking of just getting a handheld radio so that I can use it in my car, is that a decent plan?
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Apr 3, 2012 18:19
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angrytech posted:Passed my technician test last night! A handheld in a car is going to be nothing but frustrating without an external antenna. Paired with a small magmount like the $20 MFJ-1722S might be OK. There's a guy around here who hits most of the local repeaters fine with an HT and external antenna, though scratchy at times. Kind of depends on your area and what you're looking to do.
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Apr 3, 2012 19:09
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angrytech posted:Passed my technician test last night! Whenever I go on a road trip, I toss my hand held onto the seat beside me. Never had a problem, always gets me into the repeaters a I care about.
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Apr 3, 2012 21:16
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Is there a way that I can like unscrew the handheld antenna and plug it into an external or something? That would rock.
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Apr 3, 2012 23:22
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eddiewalker posted:Kind of depends on your area and what you're looking to do. Yep, really depends. I haven't had any problems with my HT in a big metro area. $10 mag mount easily doubled my range, though. Who's going to Dayton this year? I might be giving a talk on high-altitude ballooning. Our particular program isn't too interesting (to hams) any more, though, since we've switched to commercial satellite radios for telemetry. angrytech posted:Is there a way that I can like unscrew the handheld antenna and plug it into an external or something? That would rock. Almost any radio can do this. Buy a $100 Chinese to start out, they're great.
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Apr 3, 2012 23:34
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Zuph posted:Buy a $100 Chinese to start out, they're great. Definitely. I bought a Wouxun to play around with but was blown away at the quality. Also, if you want to get into long distance stuff with your handheld look into working satellites. Easy enough with a handheld and a cheap antenna. work-sat.com has info on where to get a premade antenna and has plans on making a cheap antenna made from pvc and a tape measure that you can get you talking on the birds.
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Apr 4, 2012 03:36
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angrytech posted:Passed my technician test last night! Get a Yaesu FT-60R, a trunk mount magnetic antenna that has decent dual-band (440 & 2m) that can be stashed in the trunk when not operating, and a copy of the repeater guide latest release at the time Only problem is the battery restriction - and that radio can't TX while being charged - It's old, too. Best option though in my perspective is to do that and if you have fun and run out of battery doing that, throw in a FT-7900R when you commit to being active mobile, and just eat it, wire it to that same magmount, then enjoy some real power and sensitivity.
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Apr 4, 2012 03:49
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My next radio will be the Wouxun 2M/220 HT. Looks to be the cheapest way to get the 220 band I've been missing.
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Apr 4, 2012 15:37
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I'm buying a second Wouxun KG-UVD1P. Totally happy with it. I have the 2m/70cm version.
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Apr 4, 2012 23:22
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Why do dual band radios usually transmit less power UHF compared to VHF? I would think it would be the other way around; more power on a higher frequency would equal similar range on a lower frequency. What's the deal?
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Apr 7, 2012 02:22
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It's not a design decision, it's a technical limitation. Transistor gain goes down as the frequency goes up. It's called the 'gain-bandwidth product'. Also, in general it's harder to engineer a radio/circuit at a higher frequency than a low one. Go see the hoops that microwave hams have to go through to get a couple watts of RF at 10 GHz.
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Apr 7, 2012 04:46
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What's the status of SAARS?
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Apr 12, 2012 04:45
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Anybody have a recommendation for a decent, but not too expensive dual-band mobile rig? Something I can pop into my Mazda 3 for Skywarn season Otherwise it's off to eham.net to pour over reviews. Edit: Maybe something with a detachable faceplate so I can mount the rest of it in the trunk. manero fucked around with this message at 05:13 on Apr 14, 2012 |
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Apr 14, 2012 05:11
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I've had my Icom 208H for about four years now and still love it. Dual bands, wide receive, PC programmable, remote head. It doesn't do dual receive but you can always run a scanner or HT on the side for an additional RX. CAT5 extensions work fine for the microphone. I've got the head mounted in the sunglass holder of my 325i, and the radio itself in the trunk. It's nice to have a three foot antenna cable.  Plus my battery is trunk mount, so wiring it was a very simple matter.
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Apr 14, 2012 12:25
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manero posted:Anybody have a recommendation for a decent, but not too expensive dual-band mobile rig? Something I can pop into my Mazda 3 for Skywarn season Wow, you are exactly in the same situation as me! I have a Mazda 3 and I'm looking to get this, http://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-010079 Dual band, detachable faceplate and even has Noaa Weather alert. Most stores I've checked sell it with the faceplate kit. Just curious what are you doing for a antenna?
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Apr 14, 2012 21:36
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Radio Nowhere posted:Wow, you are exactly in the same situation as me! I have a Mazda 3 and I'm looking to get this, I had this page bookmarked from maybe a year or so ago: http://vesicular.livejournal.com/200067.html And now I'm looking at that IC-208H since it's the same rig in this setup  I have a Comet B-20NMO dual-band antenna that I've had laying around, and I just bought a Comet CP-5NMO mount that was discussed in the link above. It wasn't cheap 
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Apr 14, 2012 22:49
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I am building myself a "paint can dummy load". http://www.ai4ji.com/Projects/dummyload.htm Let's see how this turns out... (Also, I'm going to buy an IC-7000. Don't tell my wife.)
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Apr 15, 2012 01:07
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Not a 3, but I just put a Kenwood tm-v71 in my Mazda6. Body mounted on the trunk roof, face mounted above the rearview mirror with a "blend mount" made for a Scanguage, mic in the armrest cubby, everything extended with hidden ethernet cable, MFJ-1722 super-small antenna. I love it.
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Apr 15, 2012 02:30
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Does impedance matching matter when receiving only? The first result on google says it is, the second one claims it does not. I'm troubleshooting my just-completed SoftRock and impedance mismatch is the only obvious thing I'm doing wrong. The SDR wants a 50 Ohm antenna, and the junk one I got for free is reading about an ohm.
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Apr 16, 2012 03:54
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NotHet posted:Does impedance matching matter when receiving only? The first result on google says it is, the second one claims it does not. Of course not... ARRL Handbook posted:If the load is a pure resistance whose value equals the characteristic impedance of the line, the line is said to be matched. To current traveling along the line, such a load at the end of the line acts as though it were still more transmission line of the same characteristic impedance. In a matched transmission line, energy travels outward along the line from the source until it reaches the load, where it is completely absorbed (or radiated if the load is an antenna).
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Apr 20, 2012 03:29
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That makes sense, since I've noticed I can get in the ballpark tuning up with a manual antenna tuner "by ear" just hearing how the background noise gets stronger as I work the knobs.
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Apr 20, 2012 05:00
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Hey ya'll know what makes me enjoy life? Trying to program old kenwood radios with vista/win 7 computers.
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Apr 21, 2012 00:55
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invision posted:Hey ya'll know what makes me enjoy life? Guess that's why you see 486s for sale at the hamfests.... software only works on Win 95, you can get away charging $50 for a 20 year old PC
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Apr 21, 2012 02:12
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invision posted:Hey ya'll know what makes me enjoy life? What about something like virtualbox running Win95?
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Apr 21, 2012 23:34
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invision posted:Hey ya'll know what makes me enjoy life? XP Mode in Windows 7 worked for my VX-7R software until I found a tool that was more modern.
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Apr 22, 2012 01:00
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I just started studying for the technician level class. I need an excuse to get back into electronics as a hobby. 
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Apr 22, 2012 17:38
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I went out to the garage today to clear a space, and low and behold I stumbled upon some of my dad's old ham radio stuff. Could you guys tell me what I've got here? There might be more stashed in the garage that I need to look for. Click for freaking huge.  
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Apr 23, 2012 19:55
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That's a Kenwood TS-520S, a HF transceiver that works 160-10m. Looks like he also has the external VFO and digital display for it, along with an SWR antenna meter. Do you have a license to use it? If not you should get one and use it yourself.
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Apr 23, 2012 20:10
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Radnor posted:That's a Kenwood TS-520S, a HF transceiver that works 160-10m. Looks like he also has the external VFO and digital display for it, along with an SWR antenna meter. Unfortunately, I do not have a license, nor have I ever looked into getting one. But I know somewhere in here is everything I would need should I want to. I bet all this stuff still works to, even though it hasn't been used since the early 90s probably.
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Apr 23, 2012 22:35
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