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Dijkstra posted:That is awesome! I've always been meaning to dabble in trying to receive WX satellite stuff but have never gotten around to it. I strongly suggest restraining your interest in WXsat signals to the APT feeds, preferably with a QFH. The alternatives tend to require massive helix antennas with motorized trackers, or even a 2m dish with a helical feed (for GOES and/or HRPT).
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May 21, 2012 03:43
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I've been giving some serious thought to changing my callsign, now that I've upgraded from General, and I've been in 8-land for 12 years now, barely active at all. Current callsign is N9VLS, but I haven't been in 9-land in 12 years, and I don't plan to return if I can help it, ever. Any thoughts?
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May 24, 2012 00:29
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Jose Pointero posted:I'm jelly, would like to go one of these days. Take some pics please, not particularly of the gear being presented but of the attendees Sorry I didn't see this sooner, most of my pictures are of gear of course. I will say there was a least a 30 to 1 scooter ratio. Antenna hats were frequent, BO was frequent, at least a dozen "I hate Obama" conversations overheard. Honestly outside the antenna hats what one would expect at a old white person crowd. I walked for 8 hours straight to see everything. I bought too much and spent too much money. Met some old radio pals I hadn't seen in years and overall bought some cool stuff so I'll do it again next year. Worth the road trip and time.
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May 24, 2012 02:29
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AntennaGeek posted:I've been giving some serious thought to changing my callsign, now that I've upgraded from General, and I've been in 8-land for 12 years now, barely active at all. I've lived in Arkansas for eighteen years and still carry my original 2x3 4-land callsign. Now that you can just vanity up whatever callsign is available, I consider an old sequential call to be a mark of distinction.
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May 24, 2012 09:00
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Totally Reasonable posted:Speaking of radio geek moments, I was just up in MT, and got my first readable APT RX with a homebrew QFH antenna on a stupidly-named radio called the FunCube Dongle Pro. I'm working on APT signals using an SDR as well. I'm learning some DSP, and am attempting to go from Is and Qs to bitmaps independently. I'm finding it really challenging.
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May 24, 2012 21:25
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 I passed! And I only studied for a week and a half. Now I'm /AG! Honestly it took me longer to drive to and from the exam than to actually take the thing.
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May 26, 2012 15:35
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NotHet posted:This is really cool! Is the WXtoImg? That is indeed WXtoImg. Good luck with the whole independent decoding thing. It sounds incredibly difficult.
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May 26, 2012 22:18
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Just scored a SGC SC-2020 and Icom V8000 for $300. Greybeard is liquidating some of his gear.
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May 28, 2012 22:23
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Jose Pointero fucked around with this message at 05:42 on Aug 28, 2019 |
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May 28, 2012 23:15
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The 2020 came in its original box with manuals and everything, it works and looks 100%. The V8000 looks 100% also. I went there to get a 2M mobile to use as a base and I got it, wasn't looking for HF gear! (Also an MFJ-945E manual tuner and a mag mount 5/8 2m antenna) So I have had my license since February and I now own 3 HF rigs and 3 VHF rigs, Am I doing this right?
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May 29, 2012 05:46
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SiB posted:Just scored a SGC SC-2020 and Icom V8000 for $300. Greybeard is liquidating some of his gear. Local? How did you find out about it? I'm eyeing an FT-450, but maybe I'll start scoping out the eham.net classifieds...
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May 29, 2012 07:53
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SiB posted:Dumb question from a new operator...... How can some HF verticals get away with ground radials that are only 3 or 4 feet long rather than 25 or so feet? Tuners usually or near-half-wave (coil) elements. They radiate more vertically than horizontally I would imagine, but, they do work. Anything works.
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May 29, 2012 15:31
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manero posted:Local? How did you find out about it? It was on Kijiji locally.
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May 30, 2012 03:59
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Partycat posted:Tuners usually or near-half-wave (coil) elements. They radiate more vertically than horizontally I would imagine, but, they do work. Anything works. Half waves are good. It's just that end-fed half waves have stupid high impedance and are tricky to feed. IIRC .64 wavelength or so is the longest Marconi antenna you can run and keep your main lobe low, hence the popularity of 5/8 wave antennas - they've got a bit of gain like a half wave but have an easier feedpoint impedance to deal with. E: Most AM broadcasters shoot for a .64 wave antenna. Doing the math on this is fun. Jonny 290 fucked around with this message at 11:35 on May 30, 2012 |
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May 30, 2012 07:43
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I'd just like to go on record as saying that the receiver in the Wilderness Radio SST kit ( 20M ) is freaking amazing, given the cost/complexity. Hopefully UPS delivers my key soon, and I can get back on the air, this time with new callsign... ( Yes, I decided I was tired of the N9 call, and landed AC8LX via a systematic upgrade ).
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Jun 1, 2012 01:19
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I'm curious about the ratio of people who use manual antenna tuners versus automatic tuners. When I was putting my HF station together I was gifted with 3 manual tuners from various Elmers, so I've been using the best of those to earn my bones. However, I've been hearing anecdotes about people hooking lawn chairs to automatic tuners and working contacts and I'm tempted to get one for myself. So I'm curious about who's doing it by hand/ear and who just presses button.
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Jun 1, 2012 06:25
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Auto tuners are okay but they usually have a narrower matching range and are pricey. I still like my old manual tuner, it has never failed me once and has let me load up some stupid poo poo before; I was out camping at a site that had an old long barbed wire fence nearby, and I fed it via single wire with a counterpoise for ground, tuned it on 5 bands well enough to get contacts.
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Jun 1, 2012 08:39
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The benefit of an automatic tuner is that it takes a seconds or two to change bands or change antennas; it's not like a manual tuner can't tune up that lawn chair as well as an automatic - it just takes more time as far as I know. Also a tuner isn't magic, it just matches the impedance of the radio with the antenna and feed line. It's not true that the tuner just dissipates the energy that would otherwise fry your radio - it truly does bounce the reflected power back to the antenna and gets it out on the air, but the more trips up and down the feedline the energy has to take, the more important it is to use good quality coax with low loss, or even better use open wire line/window line part of the way. (Fair warning: My expertise ends at the DA converter, so this might be completely wrong.)
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Jun 2, 2012 19:39
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I have a question about putting antenna 'back-to-back'. I live in a townhouse with a huge friggin attic. I'd like to pick up the following and mount it in there: http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3767303 Only problem is, I'm renting, so I don't really want to drill through two floors to get coax down to the tv. So what I was thinking was, getting a quarter wave ground plane antenna (or making one), connecting the two antenna back to back, and pointing the ground plane antenna downward. They would both have to be in the attic. Is this sane? Will they interfere enough to fail? Is there a better antenna than ground plane for having close-to-0 gain in one direction? Can I make a cheap uhf yagi with a pringles can or something?
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Jun 2, 2012 22:04
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What you're describing is called a "passive repeater" antenna, and it's a sound concept if the gain in the antenna system is greater than the loss, or it gets the signal around an obstacle without attenuating it too much. However I see a couple potential problems with using a ground plane antenna to re-radiate the signal collected by the Colorstar; one is that you could get feedback from the groundplane antenna to the Colorstar (because the groundplane antenna is omnidirectional); another is that the groundplane antenna might not have the same frequency range as the Colorstar. I'd say if you already know that you only need the UHF part, don't waste money on a log periodic dual band antenna like the Colorstar. Buy or make a couple of UHF yagis, point one at the TV tower, and point the other at the TV. A Pringles can is used for a waveguide in the microwave spectrum, but not for UHF. For homebrewing a UHF antenna one could use metal tape measure or welding rods. Vir fucked around with this message at 22:43 on Jun 3, 2012 |
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Jun 3, 2012 22:39
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SiB posted:It was on Kijiji locally. I'm realllllly tempted by a used IC-718 I see on Craigslist -- it's listed for $450. How do I not get ripped off when buying a used rig, beyond having the guy demo it to me?
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Jun 4, 2012 00:35
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Thanks Vir
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Jun 5, 2012 01:48
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manero posted:I'm realllllly tempted by a used IC-718 I see on Craigslist -- it's listed for $450. How do I not get ripped off when buying a used rig, beyond having the guy demo it to me? This is a reasonable price, it doesn't scream "hot" to me. It's not really a legal requirement, but if the guy's comfortable with showing you his license, he's probably on the up-and-up. If not, well, congrats seller, you put a lot of effort into making a fake FCC license.
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Jun 6, 2012 08:05
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Jonny 290 posted:This is a reasonable price, it doesn't scream "hot" to me. Thanks. Turns out, my Dad's got an IC-751 that he doesn't use that he's going to let me borrow for a while. That makes it way easier, and cheaper 
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Jun 6, 2012 15:17
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Oh hell yeah. The 751 had its gremlins but is regarded as being an excellent radio! Plus, the design of that series always had a great 80's/Cold War feel - I have a 271a which is the 2 meter version, love the feel.
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Jun 7, 2012 07:53
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So the ISS is passing directly overhead in an hour. Does a 5 watt handheld with an external antenna (half wave car antenna, if i recall) have any chance of reaching it? Edit: well, no luck, but it was quite a sight either way. Anyone here ever had luck talking to them? thegreatcodfish fucked around with this message at 03:15 on Jun 8, 2012 |
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Jun 8, 2012 01:55
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Sure, i've got several ISS contacts logged. LEO sats are kind of My Thing so I'm all set up for it though. An HT with a whip can do it, but you're gonna fight the guys with better antennas. Incidentally, if any of you want to chat about the satellites, please do. I haven't kept up with the scene in a few months and have heard some new ones are up, some old ones are down. IRL's been interfering with my hobbies a bit. =/
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Jun 8, 2012 10:05
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The ISS peple are usually pretty busy, so to be sure to talk to them you'd have to be representing a school class. They - at least used to - have an FM repeater and an APRS digipeater aboard which doesn't need human interaction so try hitting that maybe.
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Jun 8, 2012 16:59
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Vir posted:The ISS peple are usually pretty busy, so to be sure to talk to them you'd have to be representing a school class. They - at least used to - have an FM repeater and an APRS digipeater aboard which doesn't need human interaction so try hitting that maybe.
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Jun 8, 2012 21:05
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So, this is why I visit antique shops like I'm an old lady: This was sitting on a dusty shelf next to a couple of old CB radios and one of those vintage Altec microphones. Probably needs a new battery but works fine plugged into a wall cube. I've already had a couple of QSOs on the nearest repeater with it. Best part is, I paid $6.00 USD for it.
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Jun 17, 2012 00:16
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Dijkstra posted:So, this is why I visit antique shops like I'm an old lady: Bitching find! The $6 part makes me cry, nice luck!
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Jun 17, 2012 02:06
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Jose Pointero fucked around with this message at 05:44 on Aug 28, 2019 |
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Jun 18, 2012 02:55
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Anderson powerpole connectors. Who uses them? Any good deals on them? Recommended crimpers? I need to go through all of my gear and get rid of cigarette lighter plugs and all the proprietary connectors.
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Jun 19, 2012 04:22
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SiB posted:Anderson powerpole connectors. Don't worry about getting the little plastic dealies to hold them together; the hole in the connectors is just large enough to sneak a zip tie through. You'll also see some people say that they should be soldered as well as crimped; this isn't true. You won't hurt anything by soldering them, but they were designed to be crimped only (and all the ones I've ever done have needed a pretty good tug to pull the wire out) so I don't see the point. As far as crimpers, I've almost always used a cheap stamped stripper/crimper/cutter tool, which "works", but if I were to do more connections I would just go to [url= http://www.powerwerx.com/crimping-tools/]Powerwerx[/url] get the $40 ratcheting crimper that can do all three sizes. That's also where I bought my Power Poles. I don't know if the ratcheting crimper will take other dies (e.g. for coax connectors), but I would think they would. Tip: If you go hog wild like I did and convert all of your 12V equipment to Power Poles, instead of throwing away the proprietary connectors turn them into Power Pole adapters; you never know when they might come in handy. There is an "official" ARES configuration, but a little  should give you the diagram for that. (It's pretty easy.)
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Jun 19, 2012 06:02
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nmfree posted:I have and use them, they're OK. One thing to keep in mind is to go a size bigger than you might initially think you will need, since they like to get warm when running close to their maximum amperage rating and their crimping parts are a little picky about the size of the wire. Also be aware that the contact is a BITCH to get inserted after crimping to 10 gauge wire. Great thanks for all the info! I was going to start with a set of each size.. 15, 30, 45 and see where that gets me. I usually solder everything I touch but I would try crimp only. That's a good idea to build the pigtails with proprietary connectors. Ill check out the ARES config and maybe go with that since its kind of a standard.
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Jun 20, 2012 05:00
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Sooo.... anybody take part in field day? I made it out, ill post a few photos in a bit.
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Jun 25, 2012 03:35
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Yeah, I did for the first time in several years but I didn't take any photos. My group was 4A, we used a bunch of those old telco batteries for juice and had a couple of solar panels to try to keep some current flowing into them so they would last a bit longer. A couple of guys had those military surplus towers with the sections of tubing that you place into the base and then crank up. Those are really cool but guying them is a bitch. I was convinced to get on 220 over the weekend so I think I'm going to try out one of those little Woxun dual banders or maybe bite the bullet and get a Vx-8 series or a Kenwood TH-F6. I really wish someone made a 220/440 mobile rig because I already have three 2 meter radios.
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Jun 25, 2012 14:12
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Dijkstra posted:I really wish someone made a 220/440 mobile rig because I already have three 2 meter radios.
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Jun 26, 2012 00:33
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nmfree posted:There's a review of the new Alinco 220/900MHz HT in this month's QST; I wouldn't be surprised if they turned the RF portion of that into a mobile in the near future. It wouldn't have 440, obviously, but the vast majority of hams have dual banders in the car anyway. Yeah, I forgot about that one. There isn't any 900 activity around here (Central VA), but 220 is pretty big. Which is cool, because years ago 220 was dead. There is a linked 220 system which covers about half of the state. Hopefully the Chinese manufacturers will keep producing cool 220 stuff and it will force the Japanese ones to follow suit. I'm hoping after this Wouxun gets released they will make a 220/2m version. Or maybe even a tribander. I'll be all over that. There are still some of those Kenwood TM-741 tribanders floating around that let you mix and match VHF/UHF band units. People want like $700 for them though. I went ahead and ordered a TH-F6A from Universal, they have them for $299. Universal is notoriously slow so we'll see how long it takes.
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Jun 26, 2012 14:58
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Dijkstra posted:I went ahead and ordered a TH-F6A from Universal, they have them for $299. Universal is notoriously slow so we'll see how long it takes. I love my F6! I've had it for a number of years now. I'm amazed at how small HT's are these days -- my previous HT was a TH-27A, and the 78A was the HT I would always drool over as a kid. Do yourself a favor and pick up this antenna while you're at it. It's pricey, but the stock rubber duck is terrible: http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/4298
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Jun 26, 2012 15:39
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