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Dijkstra posted: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.
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Jun 26, 2012 23:04
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Any of you Northeast Ohio hamgoons interested in doing some soldering for beer or something like that? My mobile setup has been basically on hold for a year as I keep failing to get comfortable enough with soldering to think I could actually install a RF connector properly. This will be three PL-259s to install on on what I'm pretty sure is RG59. I'm tired of not having a usable radio in the car, so if anyone can do it or can direct me to a local shop which can do it at a reasonable price, I'd greatly appreciate it. I'm in Medina still, but I find myself all over the metro area for work regularly so I don't really care where I need to go.
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Jun 29, 2012 21:10
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manero posted: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. Thanks for the recommendation, I have had other people recommend that antenna to me as well. I picked one up the theantennafarm.com for $35. I also built a 220 jpole out of window line and stuck it in the attic with my 2 meter window line jpole. So I'm getting out pretty well. nmfree posted:I think with the proliferation of radios like the VX-7 and VX-8 where 220 was a "bonus" band and the congestion (and coordinators allowing so many paper repeaters) on 2 meters in a lot of areas (you're starting to see this in more rural parts of Wisconsin, so I would imagine it's pretty bad in places like the coasts) that 220 is going to become more popular over the next 5 years. I sure hope so. 2 meters is getting retarded in the larger cities like DC. Mostly club machines with unfriendly people and paper repeaters. wolrah posted:Any of you Northeast Ohio hamgoons interested in doing some soldering for beer or something like that? My mobile setup has been basically on hold for a year as I keep failing to get comfortable enough with soldering to think I could actually install a RF connector properly. Just remember you don't heat the solder, you heat the parts you are soldering, wait for them to get hot enough, then touch solder to them so it flows. Be sure to test the cable for continuity and shorting.
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Jun 30, 2012 02:39
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I'm not a fan of the powerpole connector type. The 45 amp ones already being indicated as a pain in the rear end to assemble with the stamped crimpers, although not impossible. I bought the powerwerx crimper, and it exploded 4 crimps in. Basically, for a fixed system, there are a number of accessories you can get, and everything's nice and easy to use and assemble. I like bullet connectors and stuff instead but hey. I don't find them very interoperable, and that people have problems with them occasionally and have to futz with them. I think any sort of kit needs to have bare-wire capabilities, meaning a basic set of dikes, electrical tape, and the nearest car battery will get you on the air if you need to. So, we did field day. I constructed some sort of terrible vertical, with my hustler mobile mast, 4 resonators, with a speaker wire ground radial system, velcroed to a set of PAR loops, on 20' of mast. Basically that just detuned everythign and worked terribly. 6 meters was closed this time around so I had a bunch of beer and steak instead of making contacts. Oh well.
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Jun 30, 2012 02:51
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Dijkstra posted:Seriously man, you can solder coax cable connectors. Just watch any of the 100 youtube videos on how it's done. It may take you a couple of tries to get the hang of it but you should be able to accomplish it. You haven't seen my attempts. I haven't successfully soldered anything more advanced than an entry-level Radio Shack kit. If I had test equipment, at least a SWR meter so I could see more possible fuckups than just a straight short, I'd probably try. I'm just stupidly paranoid about it. Also I've read in a few places that a high-power iron is important, I only have a 10w electric and a small butane-powered portable. wolrah fucked around with this message at 03:24 on Jun 30, 2012 |
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Jun 30, 2012 03:22
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I'm going to chime in here with another thumbs up for the TH-F6A and Diamond SRH320A combo. I traded a ham in the area my Yaesu FT-60r and Diamond dual-band antenna and some cash for a TH-F6A/SRH320A, a speaker mic, AA emergency battery pack, two batteries, and a car adapter. I haven't had an ounce of trouble with it and it programs much easier than the Yaesu. The only complaint I have is that the programming cable I got with it is a serial connection, not a USB. Fortunately I have an old laptop with a serial port, so all is good. I actually got back on the air tonight for the first time in about 6 months. The local club still remembers me, and the club trustee asked me to drop by his house in a week or so. He's the guy who took my FT-101 into his shop, and once I get over there we're going to work on it together.
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Jul 9, 2012 08:47
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Yeah I like the TH-F6A + Diamond so far. The only other handheld I have ever had (besides that old Kenwood I happened across) is an Alinco DJ-180T. I still have that thing but it is 20 years old now and is ancient compared to this TH-F6A. Everyone I know locally has one of these it seems like- and they are all happy with it. The dual watch is a nice feature and I like being able to listen to broadcast. On an unrelated question, is anyone into backup station power at all? (Like sealed AGM batteries, etc?) I'm wondering what types/brands/capacity batteries and chargers people are using. Eventually I'd like to run my shack "off-grid" on 100% battery and solar power, and I figure the best place to start is with a battery and charging setup.
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Jul 11, 2012 20:19
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Dijkstra posted:I'm wondering what types/brands/capacity batteries and chargers people are using. Eventually I'd like to run my shack "off-grid" on 100% battery and solar power, and I figure the best place to start is with a battery and charging setup. Obviously, you'll have to do some usage calculations based on radio draw/duty cycle/average length of operation during a 24 hour period so that you know about how much power you'll have to replace during the day and size your panels accordingly. If you're a League member there have been several articles in the last few years of QST on this topic.
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Jul 11, 2012 23:45
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Are any of you Missouri area Hamgoons going to the Zero Beaters Hamfest tomorrow in Washington, MO? I'll most likely be there looking for a decent SWR meter.
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Jul 14, 2012 20:32
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I started listening to the LA Amateur Radio Repeater formerly known as W9NUT again and it makes me want to fire a repeater up locally just to watch the old heads poo poo their Hoverounds. Also, for anyone debating a call change, NO1CUR is available.
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Jul 16, 2012 04:55
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BigHustle posted:I started listening to the LA Amateur Radio Repeater formerly known as W9NUT again and it makes me want to fire a repeater up locally just to watch the old heads poo poo their Hoverounds. I envy LA for having some entertaiment, such as it is, on 2M. Half the time my radio is scanning the local repeaters with no activity, when it does stop it's for conversations like this thread's title. Only time things get interesting is bad weather with skywarn.
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Jul 16, 2012 16:44
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BigHustle posted:I started listening to the LA Amateur Radio Repeater formerly known as W9NUT again and it makes me want to fire a repeater up locally just to watch the old heads poo poo their Hoverounds. Uh .... 
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Jul 17, 2012 17:03
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Dijkstra posted:Hey I'm bored so I think I'll listen in to this for a few minutes... The repeater owner actually shut it down the night I posted that link due to someone playing the Johnny Rebel tune "Alabama friend of the family" over and over. Right now someone is playing an old recording of two now deceased hams that used to chat on the NUT. The regulars are up in arms over it and the rest are calling each others gossiping whores and piling up on each other. That and someone is apparently using one of the others' call sign and that is causing some issues too.
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Jul 18, 2012 01:43
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BigHustle posted:The repeater owner actually shut it down the night I posted that link due to someone playing the Johnny Rebel tune "Alabama friend of the family" over and over. Hahah holy poo poo what the gently caress. I thought the edit: yay acronyms! angrytech fucked around with this message at 05:09 on Jul 18, 2012 |
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Jul 18, 2012 03:34
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angrytech posted:Hahah holy poo poo what the gently caress. I thought the FTC came down hard on that poo poo? Keep it contained in one place and it won't spoil the rest. (it's the FCC)
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Jul 18, 2012 04:04
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I have heard folklore from old timers about the repeater wars in southern California but never bothered to find out much else about the matter. This blog post gives a good history. Apparently there is a defacto "truce" between the repeater coordination council types and the "renegades." The jammers and weirdos stay on this particular machine and the foxhunters and old farts leave them alone.
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Jul 18, 2012 18:11
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Dijkstra posted:I have heard folklore from old timers about the repeater wars in southern California but never bothered to find out much else about the matter. This blog post gives a good history. Apparently there is a defacto "truce" between the repeater coordination council types and the "renegades." The jammers and weirdos stay on this particular machine and the foxhunters and old farts leave them alone. That's a pretty good read. I find it hilarious how much that old recording of the NUT sounds the same as the poo poo going on today.
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Jul 19, 2012 03:37
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Jose Pointero fucked around with this message at 05:46 on Aug 28, 2019 |
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Jul 19, 2012 06:24
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Jose Pointero posted:Wait, what? I've heard a lot of graybeard stories about the early days of VHF/UHF but never any mention of this. There's a little bit of this about 23cm and 33cm bands now in populated areas, though not to the extreme where ham stores(few as there are) won't sell you equipment. I mostly see grumpy old men on Yahoo Groups anger posting when a capable radio comes out. Dem commoners are going to ruin our band!
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Jul 19, 2012 15:05
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Yeah, plenty of people bitching about the new alinco 900mhz dual bander.
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Jul 20, 2012 03:16
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Jose Pointero posted:Wait, what? I've heard a lot of graybeard stories about the early days of VHF/UHF but never any mention of this. It's not exactly the early days, but back in 1997 I was working at RadioShack and we had a couple of hams come in and threaten to turn us in to the FCC for selling 2m/440 rigs to people without requiring them to have a license. They 'busted' us in a 'sting operation' where they sent someone in to buy a radio that didn't have a license. They got highly upset when the store manager pointed out that it is not illegal to sell a non-ham a radio and asked them to kindly get the gently caress out of the store. We also had a lot of REACT nut-jobs trying to tell us that we couldn't sell 'commoners' CB radios because they should only go to REACT members. When I pointed out that REACT gets calls for assistance via CB and that the 'commoners' need them for that very reason, I was usually either cussed out or ignored.
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Jul 20, 2012 13:15
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I've been reading a bit and looking around for a decent <$300 radio, desktop or portable. What I want is something that I can listen to HAM as well as shortwave, with the ability to broadcast if I choose to go that route in the future. Being in the mountains of Utah, I am uncertain how good a reception might be. Clear air, low humidity, but a few rather large mountains blocking things in some directions. Would the Grundig Satellit 750 be a decent choice? It really looks like some of the very best reviewed radios are discontinued.
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Jul 23, 2012 17:02
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Fog Tripper posted:I've been reading a bit and looking around for a decent <$300 radio, desktop or portable. What I want is something that I can listen to HAM as well as shortwave, with the ability to broadcast if I choose to go that route in the future. That's my shortwave set! It's a pretty great little (very large) shortwave radio, with a great mono speaker, and decently functional internal antennas. It's not exactly the most portable thing in the world (about the size of a large shoebox) but the D batteries last effectively forever. I ran it for 8ish days out in the boonies, and the battery indicator never wavered from full. The set is also a great match for an LNR/Par End-Fedz EF-SWL antenna, which more than adequately covers the SW range assuming you have the space to put it up. That said, the BFO approach to fine tuning on this set is kinda poo poo, though that really only comes into play when you're trying to tune narrow USB/LSB stuff. This is easy enough to overcome by using some kind of software panadapter, though at that point you should probably look into an SDR like the softrock ensemble, funcube, or RTL2832-based USB dongle. Still, it's a great radio for what it's designed for, and one of the best consumer SW sets left after Eaton cancelled the rest of the Satellit line.
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Jul 23, 2012 19:37
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I've been interested in HAM for a while, and picked up an Icom IC-745 for a $250 and have had a great time listening to stuff. I set up a cheapy dipole in my yard and have heard people talking in Europe, Australia and all over the US like they were a mile away! I've done a little studying for the Technician exam but haven't quite built up enough confidence to take it yet. I discovered shortwave recently and enjoy leaving it on while I tinker with my RC cars.
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Jul 23, 2012 21:28
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I haven't posted in this thread in ages, but I'm trying to sell the following things locally and having little success: Yaesu FT-2900 2M transceiver Astron RS-20A power supply Diamond mobile antenna I'd like to keep them all as a package, and I'd be willing to ship it anywhere in the continental 48 for $250. I'll eventually probably put it up on the SA Mart, but I wanted the ham Goons to have first pick. Count Thrashula fucked around with this message at 18:13 on Jul 25, 2012 |
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Jul 25, 2012 16:08
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Ham is not an acronym.
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Jul 25, 2012 17:18
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Pham Nuwen posted:Ham is not an acronym. Technically it is. It's the initials of the original amateur radio operators Albert Hyman, Bob Alvy, and Poogie Murray. A little history at the bottom of this page.
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Jul 26, 2012 03:10
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I always thought it was short for "Hobbyist/Amateur" or something along those lines. I still feel like I've committed a grave error, though. Sorry. 
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Jul 26, 2012 07:00
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BigHustle posted:Technically it is. It's the initials of the original amateur radio operators Albert Hyman, Bob Alvy, and Poogie Murray. A little history at the bottom of this page.
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Jul 26, 2012 08:25
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I always thought it was taken from "Ham Actor" and refuse to believe otherwise 
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Jul 26, 2012 16:52
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The no-nonsense guide in the OP is awesome! I've been going through it and I'm consistently hitting 90% on the Technician exam. I'm supposed to take it on the 11th! I can't wait to get on the air and complain about stiff joints and diabetes!
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Jul 26, 2012 22:26
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TremorX posted:I can't wait to get on the air and complain about stiff joints and diabetes!
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Jul 26, 2012 23:12
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Hey you know all those DVB-T USB dongles that are so popular now? Think they could be used to put together an APRS Igate?
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Jul 29, 2012 06:14
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SiB posted:Hey you know all those DVB-T USB dongles that are so popular now? Think they could be used to put together an APRS Igate?
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Jul 29, 2012 20:35
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SiB posted:Hey you know all those DVB-T USB dongles that are so popular now? Think they could be used to put together an APRS Igate? This guy is using one to monitor local repeaters so I would think that it would be possible.
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Jul 29, 2012 22:50
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Do those dongles have a discrete sound card? If they do it's probably just a matter of using AGWPE (in Windows) or soundmodem (in linux) to decode and then passing packets into your igate software.
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Jul 30, 2012 02:51
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I have one on the way, I'll see what its all about in a week.
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Jul 30, 2012 16:06
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Dijkstra posted:Do those dongles have a discrete sound card? If they do it's probably just a matter of using AGWPE (in Windows) or soundmodem (in linux) to decode and then passing packets into your igate software. It's direct sampling from the ADC, no virtual sound card or anything like that, so to my knowledge anything dealing with it needs to be explicitly aware of it. I'm still trying to find a domestic seller with reasonable prices, but might give up and just order from DealExtreme so I have a surprise present in the mail whenever it actually ships a month or so from now. edit: http://www.reddit.com/r/RTLSDR/ and http://sdr.osmocom.org/trac/wiki/rtl-sdr are the two main sources of information for anyone interested in these.
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Jul 30, 2012 20:28
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wolrah posted:It's direct sampling from the ADC, no virtual sound card or anything like that, so to my knowledge anything dealing with it needs to be explicitly aware of it. Don't order from DealExtreme... they are shipping a different SKU now that doesn't have the right chipset in it. I ordered mine from eBay user "NooElec". I bought this one and it works great. NooElec has several tuners listed that works and they ship from the US. I paid $27.75 shipped for mine. There are several listed on eBay, just make sure they have the RTL2838U and E4000 tuner.
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Jul 30, 2012 20:52
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I am going to grab one of those, that looks like it could be interesting for contesting as a receive device , versus search and pounce. Probably will be destroyed immediately being near a transmitter. Any leads on where to get the antenna adapter?
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Jul 30, 2012 21:16
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