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Prickly Pete posted:drat, I hadn't gotten up early and listened to any nets in a long time. I got up today at 7am PST, tune into the local IRLP repeater, and immediately hear a guy talking about his cortisone shots. It really is all about ailments sometimes. Lets be honest, at 7 am on a Saturday, only the greybeards are even awake.
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Jul 14, 2013 08:06
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Pham Nuwen posted:Lets be honest, at 7 am on a Saturday, only the greybeards are even awake. I have a new kitten which apparently loves to get me up in time for the greybeard meet and greet.
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Jul 14, 2013 14:53
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There's a few things I've been thinking about such as, I've seen different baluns mentioned in the form 1:1, 4:1, 9:1 is that the ratio of windings on them? How do people know which they want to use for their antenna? In the foundation licence book there's a graph of SWR to antenna length and it's an inverse parabola (a bit like an x^2 graph) but I was wondering when antenna length gets longer does the SWR just keep getting higher and higher? If I have a fairly big garden and want to operate on all the HF bands, would I be best off by having a seperate antenna for bands that I'm more interested in? I know there's the G5RV and variants but I understand they're kind of a compromise for each band they work on and aren't good for new WARC bands, I don't know anything about things like the fan dipole. If you have multiple antennae, what's the best way to switch between them? Any recommendations for a book I should read to find out more about ham stuff?
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Jul 28, 2013 23:01
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SWR would approach infinity in theory as the antenna impedance at the test frequency drops towards 0 or increases to infinity. In practice the losses incurred in the feedline mean that infinite SWR isn't really possible (since it would mean that the return power is exactly equal to the transmitted power with no transmission line loss). Some antennas (most?) may have SWR dips in different bands, like the popular G5RV which is sort of close to resonant on a few ham bands, but needs a tuner for bands outside of this. AFAIK the balun ratio is the ratio of windings, this corresponds directly with the change in impedance (so a 1:2 balun to go from 50 ohms to a 100 ohm antenna, for example). In general a long-wire antenna is very high impedance, so a 9:1 balun is used with a tuner to match very high impedances (a few hundred ohms at least). I think the easiest way to get a ballpark impedance figure is to look it up for the antenna type you want, but simulation software is available (never tried any myself) or an antenna analyzer can give a measurement of the actual impedance which would help in designing a matching network (for example a quarter wave match using 75 ohm coax for a loop antenna roughly matches a 120 ohm loop). I've been fascinated by log-periodic antennas, they're pretty clever IMO. Some people I know use Windomes with auto-tuners, others prefer trap-dipoles (a set of filters on each end makes the antenna seem different lengths at different frequencies).
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Jul 28, 2013 23:46
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Crankit posted:If I have a fairly big garden and want to operate on all the HF bands, would I be best off by having a seperate antenna for bands that I'm more interested in? Do you have 30 meters you can stretch a dipole across and have a feed line hanging down from the the center? If so you can use a ZS6BKW, which is an optimized version of a G5RV. I can tune mine very acceptable with an external tuner from 80 to 20m. I think it might tune on 10m as well, but I never bother with that. In fact, it does: http://www.nc4fb.org/wordpress/zs6bkw-multi-band-antenna/ And the performance they are showing on 80m is really not at all what I'm experiencing......mine tunes much better than that. It's served me as a good "go to" antenna as I play around with building other types of antennas. Crankit posted:If you have multiple antennae, what's the best way to switch between them? The easiest way by far is to bring them all back to your radio and use a simple coax switch. The antenna tuner I use even has a built in antenna a/b selector, so until I'm using more than 2 regularly I don't even need to worry about that.
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Jul 29, 2013 00:29
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If anyone's interested in a stupidly good deal on an FT-1000D let me know and I'll post more details.
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Aug 2, 2013 01:47
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iostream.h posted:If anyone's interested in a stupidly good deal on an FT-1000D let me know and I'll post more details. Is this a deal that's going to make me angry about buying a new FT-450d 2 months ago?
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Aug 2, 2013 03:21
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Motronic posted:Is this a deal that's going to make me angry about buying a new FT-450d 2 months ago?
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Aug 2, 2013 03:22
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Just last night we finally got our first real duplex D-Star repeater QRV for testing. It turns out on the DV-RPTR 2 board, if you mount the included mini-DIN plug, it will short out a capacitor+transistor drain right behind it. Additionally, the pinout will in fact be so completely wrong there's no real chance of making it work without reverse engineering what the connections actually are. Presumably someone hosed up choosing that part, since the traces on the PCB are where the docs say, but those traces then go to the wrong pin on the connector causing all sorts of headaches. The capacitor was sorted by some electrical tape strategically sandwiched in there. In the hopes that this might be google-able, here's the correct mini-DIN pinout for the DV-RPTR 2: 1 - RX Audio (to radio 9600 RX output) 2 - PTT (open collector to TX radio PTT) 3,4 - NC/other 5 - GND 6 - TX Audio (to radio 9600 TX input) We have two FT-7900s for the repeater system, using a custom made Y-cable for the control interfaces. Once we had found the real pinout the system worked perfectly and when we get the repeater set up in its final location (basically a mountaintop) it should cover a massive area providing true regional D-Star.
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Aug 2, 2013 10:31
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I went to the club on Friday, pretty interesting, I'm going to receive a tour of an old radio broadcasting facility, I'll try to get some photos for the thread. Some of the guys said they'd set up a Treasure Hunt instead of a club meeting in the future, at first I was thinking of a fox hunt but I realized it's probably a different thing, what's a treasure hunt?
Crankit fucked around with this message at 18:36 on Aug 3, 2013 |
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Aug 3, 2013 18:23
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A fox hunt with treasure.
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Aug 3, 2013 19:42
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I've been reading through the thread (slowly) for quite some time and have wanted to become a ham for several years. I was just at DEFCON and took the test there, so I am now a newly minted tech. I don't have a call yet, so I'll be DOSing the ULS for the next week or so, and I'll update this poast when it comes through. As soon as the call comes through I'll hop on echolink to talk to some of you schlubs. When I can scrape the money together I'll probably buy one of the Yaesu handhelds, until then I'll borrow something from my uni's ham club. Edit: Got my call today, I am KD0WJT. CBJamo fucked around with this message at 04:44 on Aug 15, 2013 |
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Aug 6, 2013 04:53
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Get one of these in the meantime. If you get a better radio down the road, a cheap throw around is still nice to have. http://www.amazon.com/Dual-Band-Improved-Stronger-Enhanced-Features/dp/B00C83AU9S/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1375762282&sr=8-7&keywords=uv5r
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Aug 6, 2013 05:13
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Earlier in the thread I'd commented that the UV-5R has really crappy audio, one of our newer members has a 2013 version and the audio, while not great is definitely improved now, and not worth complaining about anymore. The UV-5R also works well as a APRS tracker radio etc. since it can support a massive battery, what I'm saying is the UV-5R is a pretty good radio and not a bad buy. Then later you can join the big boys on D-Star 
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Aug 6, 2013 09:57
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eddiewalker posted:Get one of these in the meantime. If you get a better radio down the road, a cheap throw around is still nice to have. I got one of those a few days ago. The "antenna" it comes with is little more than a dummy load so I've got a replacement on it's way. In the mean time a ring terminal and 19.5" of 18 wire makes it about 100% better.
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Aug 6, 2013 14:44
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Still studying for the general. Does anyone have any suggestions for a good used HF rig to look for that can be found for around 300? Ideally something that can do 6-meter as well. I see a ton of old ic-735 type transceivers and old kenwoods but I was wondering if there is a goon favorite. Or one for sale here.
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Aug 6, 2013 15:10
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Prickly Pete posted:I see a ton of old ic-735 type transceivers and old kenwoods but I was wondering if there is a goon favorite. Or one for sale here. Tired of all the old fucks on QRZ offering me $300 because 'it'll take another $500 to make it look like new'. So use it and don't worry about restoring it, assholes.
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Aug 6, 2013 15:15
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Prickly Pete posted:Still studying for the general. Does anyone have any suggestions for a good used HF rig to look for that can be found for around 300? Ideally something that can do 6-meter as well. IC-735 is a great first rig, I used to have one. I'd sell you mine but I unloaded it at a hamfest a few months ago. Finding an HF rig that does 6 for $300 is probably a stretch. Most all of the rigs that incorporate 6 are newer and have DSPs in them. Keep an eye out for an Icom 725/735, or a Kenwood 430S/440S. Or a Kenwood TS-50. These can be had pretty cheap. Something like one of these will turn up on swap.qth.com regularly. iostream.h posted:It's a little out of your states budget, but I'm unloading a Yaesu FT-1000D with some cosmetic issues well under their going price, if you or anyone else is interested.
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Aug 6, 2013 15:23
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Thanks for the info. I can do without 6 for a while if that will keep the price down. I'll keep an eye on that site you mentioned.
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Aug 6, 2013 15:33
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Dijkstra posted:Have you listed it on swap.qth.com? far less nonsense on there.
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Aug 6, 2013 15:51
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Can anyone tell me what this sample it sounds to me like the repeater is sharting, but I guess it's a data mode? How do I decode it on my PC?
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Aug 9, 2013 23:17
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Crankit posted:Can anyone tell me what this sample it sounds to me like the repeater is sharting, but I guess it's a data mode? How do I decode it on my PC? Just sounds like intermod to me
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Aug 9, 2013 23:26
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Crankit posted:Can anyone tell me what this sample it sounds to me like the repeater is sharting, but I guess it's a data mode? How do I decode it on my PC? Sounds pretty much like some kind of commercial telemetry interference, we have this problem on one of our test repeaters, usually opening it will keep it open for 4-5 minutes while it spits out noise from the input frequency. Most likely culprit here is the power company or railways data links combined with some poorly installed antennas on their end.
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Aug 9, 2013 23:41
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Why is it some frequencies don't work for NVIS but they do work for normal skywave propagation? Do you guys have HF setups in your cars? HF/nvis in car is something that sounds interesting to me. Thanks to everyone so far for answering all my questions.
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Aug 15, 2013 04:37
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Partycat posted:This is what the comms 'drills' with local events often end up being. We try and let the people who are running an event or have some function be able to do that without monitoring the radio or passing along unnecessary communications. Time and time again we prove that this doesn't work as well as people would imagine when you don't do it on a very regular basis, but we can figure it out and get by. Uncle Grandpa and his two meter are perhaps best left to delivering warm blankets to shelters and not somewhere where he'll get in trouble when his radio doesn't work or he hits the wrong button somehow. What I don't understand, however, is how volunteers are ever supposed to rise to the level of being useful. If you don't provide the opportunity, they'll never learn. What effective programs have people created to turn volunteers into a useful portion of their operations?
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Aug 16, 2013 03:56
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As part of the radio club we occasionally run our own drills, and over time while volunteering you glean enough or figure it out enough to be more effective. It's just very very slow. We do other things as drills which don't make any sense in some regard: we drill at a 10k race by standing at various corners and announcing when first/last runners pass the point. However, there are also police, fire, and fire police that are doing that. As the local leadership doesn't really care for volunteer operators (and we are the town's OEM) they were not even told we'd be there and we got some hassle. What you did learn was that the role you are serving may not be the front lines type but can still help, and that you need to be patient and do only what you're told. There are not enough people as hams in this area for the larger events that they would be able to accept only the veterans or trained people, nor is it worth it to them to put on a training program, apparently, since we get by. I just understand the government's view on the RACES and ARES groups given the population. Anyways, this weekend is ILLW weekend! I don't really have much interest in light houses or light ships, but we'll be at US0016 in Dunkirk, NY again hamming it up and having some fun. Call@W2SO and try to reach us. If I can cobble together some sort of reasonable 40m antenna maybe we can get some HF SAARS action going.
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Aug 16, 2013 17:47
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Despite all the federal oversight, the Incident Command System, etc., emergency reponse comes down to local personalitites in the end. I think I've mentioned how the police in different areas of Norway, pre-22 July, had different attitudes towards assistance from NGOs and the military in emergency situations. Personally, I'm also very happy to see the head of the police union having been replaced with a new guy with apparently better attitudes than the old guy. Crankit posted:Why is it some frequencies don't work for NVIS but they do work for normal skywave propagation? Also, the lower the frequency, the higher your horizontal antenna has to be to get much skywave propagation - so most of the people using 80 and 160 meter dipoles are using mainly NVIS just because they can't get the antenna up to a half wavelength. Most hams don't have 40 meter tall towers or trees around. If you like to work 80 or 40 meters, it might be a good idea to have both a dipole/doublet for NVIS and a vertical for takeoff angles suitable for DX'ing. And beverages for listening. And loops for local noise cancelling. I have at times worked NVIS on the higher bands, by a local station answering my CQ calls, but then a local station which would have been loud and clear on 80 or 40 sounds super weak.
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Aug 25, 2013 16:22
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Vir posted:On HF, the lower the frequency, the more it gets reflected/refracted by the ionosphere. Bands like 80 meters have both NVIS and skywave propagation, but on bands like 15 and 10 meters the would-be NVIS rays just go out into outer space like UHF and microwave rays do - though with more bend to them. When you get further out - closer to the horizon - the 10 and 15 rays enter the ionosphere on a shallower angle, and have time to get bent back to earth far away and even bounce off the surface of the earth for multi-skip propagation. Ah, so it's a bit like shining light through a prism? The different bands get refracted by differing amounts according to their wavelength, a bit like when white light shines into a prism, and then each colour is bent by different amounts and you can see them seperated? Well, one of my hopes is that I will be able to work 160m/80m (other bands too?) NVIS from my car, so if I ever get stuck in my car in bad weather at least I can talk to someone, unlike last year where I was stuck for 3+ hours in stationary traffic because there was a quarter-inch of snow. If anyone has links to documentation that explains loop antennae and resonant circuits to me like I'm 5 that would be helpful. On the good news front, there's finally a fixed date for my foundation licence course/exam. ninja edit: Since I understand small loop antennae are pretty inefficient, is it OK to feed them with more power than my licence allows? If I'm limited to 10W and instead used 25W would anyone ever know or care?
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Aug 25, 2013 19:19
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Crankit: depends how the power restriction's worded, I think most licenses specify transmitter power output, in which case it's not ok to exceed your power limitations despite a bad antenna. In practice nobody would know as long as your EIRP was still around the legal limit since you wouldn't reach any further than your license allows, however, knowing how much power is acceptable to reach a "normal" EIRP of 10W with your specific antenna is very hard to tell. The same wording means you can't compensate for feedline or tuner loss either (I suppose you could argue a tuner is part of the PA though), a 2.5x increase in power isn't actually all that much though, a little over 3 dB won't let you reach that much farther anyway (I'd say around 50% longer). -- Anyway, what I wanted to tell you about today was on Friday we drove up into the mountains and installed LD8NA, the newest D-Star duplex 70cm repeater (at least in the country)! Running at 10W with a two cavity duplexer and a simple rugged dipole antenna we have measured a range of about 50 km from mobile stations which is a lot in the very mountany terrain we're operating in (the 2m repeater doesn't reach much further actually, check Google Earth). The repeater is controlled with a DV-RPTRv2 board and is remotely fed from a simplex gateway in the city since we don't have an internet solution at the QTH currently. I was involved in the later stages of the project, putting things together, making various cables for the controller board and soldering connectors etc. Over all work has been going on for about a year to pull this together, so we're all very excited to get it installed and especially at an altitude of about 800 meters! I won't go into boring details but I uploaded pictures on my tumblr page: http://rholm.tumblr.com/post/59137250293/today-we-installed-ld8na-narviks-new-d-star Happy to answer any D-Star repeater related questions to the best of my ability  - LA2YUA
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Aug 25, 2013 20:53
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Crankit posted:Ah, so it's a bit like shining light through a prism? The different bands get refracted by differing amounts according to their wavelength, a bit like when white light shines into a prism, and then each colour is bent by different amounts and you can see them seperated? Yeah, a prism made of dirty snow and ice. An actual physicist should feel free to correct that analogy. The ionization tends to concentrate in layers - the densest tend to absorb HF radio waves, while others give more useful refraction. Also, these layers hang about a different amount of time after sunset, which is why some bands work better at night than during the day.
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Aug 26, 2013 14:03
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If I wanted to work DX+QRP and there's a lake near me, is it a good idea to take a radio on a rowing boat? In general for DX QRP operation is a vertical antenna better than a horizontal dipole, or are there other directional antennae that are practical? Any other DX and/or QRP tips, tricks, suggestions or links?
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Aug 27, 2013 23:24
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Crankit posted:If I wanted to work DX+QRP and there's a lake near me, is it a good idea to take a radio on a rowing boat? In general for DX QRP operation is a vertical antenna better than a horizontal dipole, or are there other directional antennae that are practical? Any other DX and/or QRP tips, tricks, suggestions or links? Don't bother putting a vertical in or near a lake, unless its a salt lake. If you ARE near salt water your best bet is to erect a vertical on the shoreline (or better yet mounted over the water) with one or two radials in the water. If you aren't near salt water, get a dipole up in some trees as high as you can. With a portable QRP operation you probably won't be able to lay down enough radials to make a vertical effective. (Unless you want to lay down say 30+ radials each time you move, or you have a really good conductive ground like in a salt marsh or something and can get by with a few radials) For DX QRP, your best bet will be to use CW. SSB DXing QRP will likely be an exercise in frustration unless the SF and SSN are very very high.
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Aug 28, 2013 20:34
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Is starting off my HF adventures in QRP a terrible idea? I'm going to be testing for my general soon and I'm looking at rigs. My main concern is finding something small and portable that I can take backpacking. I do a lot of overnight backpacking trips in the mountains in Oregon, and the idea of setting up something like a buddistick and a small HF rig on some peak is really appealing to me. I was looking at the FT-817 which tops out at 5 watts and looks perfect for this kind of thing. I was also looking at the IC-703 which goes up to 10w I believe. Is this just going to be frustrating at such low power? Will the elevation help significantly? I'll be up around 6.5k feet on some of these trips.
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Aug 28, 2013 21:15
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Prickly Pete posted:Is starting off my HF adventures in QRP a terrible idea? I'm going to be testing for my general soon and I'm looking at rigs. No, quite the contrary. You will make contacts... I was only referring to DXing as being hard using 5 watts SSB and temporary antennas. CW is much more suited to 5 watts and some wire than SSB. You will be able to work some SSB DX that high up... it will require patience though. But the vast majority of your contacts will be with stateside hams who hang around the QRP frequencies. I don't mean to dissuade anyone... far from it. As long as your equipment is operating properly and you have enough battery storage you should have a blast. QRP is a lot of fun because you can throw everything in a bag and go. It's just a different style of operating and requires patience and skill. If you don't get frustrated and stick with it you will build up your listening/operating skills much more quickly than someone else due to its challenging nature. A lot of people worry about new hams jumping into QRP right off and getting frustrated and leaving the hobby. However if you already like camping and hiking QRP is a perfect way to start. If you do a lot of mountain hiking, (or anyone interested in QRP/battery operation) you should check out Summits on the Air (SOTA). They are a good bunch of guys and are mostly all avid hikers/QRPers. They have message boards, and their own award system for activating mountain summits.
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Aug 28, 2013 21:48
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Dijkstra posted:
Thanks for the info. SOTA is perfect! This is exactly the kind of thing I'm into.
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Aug 28, 2013 22:49
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A couple of notes concerning portable radios for stuff like SOTA or backpacking. I own the FT-817, and I'm happy with it. With a full size antenna, you can hear and work most of the stations that you can work with a 100 watt radio, and it's great for its small size. You might want to carry something like a LiFePo4 battery, AGM battery, or an Energizer XP 8000 LiPo pack with you to get longer operating times. Depending on what kind of operating you would like to do, you might want to consider the Elecraft KX3 or a mobile 100W radio like the FT-857 instead of the FT-817. If I was going to go on multi-day hiking trips, or for long activations, I would consider a KX3. Elecraft KX3 advantages compared to the FT-817: - Less current draw, due to more modern design. - Better receiver out of the box (DSP/SDR based design) without having to add filters (a "fully pimped" FT-817 costs almost as much as a KX3). - 10 watts max. - Room for internal tuner. - Better user interface. Disadvantages: - More expensive. - No built-in VHF/UHF For handling pileups on the highest summits, short activations, during contest weekends, I might want to bring a 100 watt radio instead of a QRP radio. Even though using more power will deplete the battery faster, if you're just going to spend a half hour on the harsh summit anyway, you might as well get a few dB more of power out. On the most remote summits, you might just get a short while up there before you have to go back down in good time before dark/your tracks snow over. FT-857 advantages compared to the FT-817: - 100 watts Disadvantages: - A bit heavier - No internal batteries - Will draw more current even when power is turned down Vir fucked around with this message at 14:42 on Aug 29, 2013 |
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Aug 29, 2013 14:36
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Crossposting from the SW thread as I'm also looking at getting my ticket in HAM aswell: So I'm down in little old NZ and am pretty keen to pick up some DX RTTY/PSK and maybe the odd SSB Voice, I dont have a lot of cash to invest in antennas and whatnot so I was wondering if there is a band I should be aiming for to pick up digital modes like RTTY? Instinct tells me something like 80m would reach me better in the upper north island. I have a decent outside are to string an antenna up so size isn't much of an issue
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Sep 4, 2013 12:11
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I've been lurking for a while, but I finally have questions someone here might have some insight on. I'm getting the hang of the Technician class material and have enjoyed studying it (it's nice to have something not related to my research). The nearest location to take the licensing exam does tests at a time I can't fit into my schedule, but I'll hopefully be able to take it in December when the semester's over at a testing location near my folks' place. Would it be a bad idea to grab the Extra class ARRL manual and try for Extra if I've got several months to study the material before I can take the exam? I bought a Baofeng UV-5R on the recommendation of the only ham I know from outside of SA. I know it's bottom of the barrel and quite limited in power, but I've been trying to listen to the local repeater. I missed the last net time slot, but will be listening in this weekend. I can hear the automated hourly announcement the repeater does just fine, but I've never heard anything else except static, clicks, and pops...which leads me to think I'm missing something. I have this info from a list of local nets: "146.745- T 123.0", which I've gathered means it's 146.745MHz, negative offset, and it uses a 123.0 Hz PL tone. I know the PL tone and offset are necessary for transmitting, which I'm not doing, but is anything other than the repeater frequency required to listen in? I'd really like to get the hang of listening to call signs and get an idea for the kind of conversation that goes on locally, but so far I've just heard noise that sporadically breaks through any squelch setting I've tried. Hopefully once I'm not longer a broke doctoral student living in a tiny apartment I'll be able to get started with some proper equipment, but I'd still like to learn as much as I can in the interim. Learning about this so far has been interesting because I'm completely comfortable with most of the electronics and the more generic portions of the physics, but I realized I knew nothing about antennas or anything specific to radio.
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Sep 4, 2013 22:55
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poeticoddity posted:I've been lurking for a while, but I finally have questions someone here might have some insight on. I have the UV-5RA for the next few days... I was able to use it and it seemed clear to me, but the guy I was talking to said I pretty much had to have my mouth up against it for them to hear me. Since the price difference wasn't much at all I'm swapping for the UV-B6 instead (I think the "flashlight" is more useful than the scrolling knob). I've read that the UV-5RA is REALLY bad/difficult to program, I'm not sure if it's the same for the 5R or not. To make it easy, Amazon has a USB data cable for about $7/$8 that I got. And then there's this program that can actually get a repeater list for the area with all the information programmed in automatically to transfer to it: http://chirp.danplanet.com/projects/chirp/wiki/Home I usually keep my SQL at about 1, and it's rare for it to pick up only static. For the exams, it depends on your area. When I took mine, it was free to take with admission to a HAMFest, and they said go ahead and take one, or all of them if you wanted since it was no extra cost. Now it costs extra to take one at the same event, and they charge for the additional ones. I'd say if there's no price difference, go ahead and do it and you may get lucky. With that timeframe you might have enough time to prep too.
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Sep 4, 2013 23:21
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Keep in mind, there's a step between Tech and Extra, the general class. I think it's much more realistic to get tech and general together than to go whole-hog for extra. There's just a lot of material on the extra that wont make much sense without some context gained from operating. Of course there's no harm in trying all three. For the other question: if you're hearing the repeater ID, you'll hear the repeater traffic. There just might not be much going on. Getting the offset and tone right won't matter until your transmitting. Just dial the radio to the published frequency and listen. Don't be completely discouraged by a lack of activity. A lot of repeaters are full of guys listening, too bored of the other old regulars to say anything. A new guy with questions they can answer will sometimes bring a crowd out of the woodwork.
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Sep 4, 2013 23:36
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