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Pham Nuwen posted:Plaintext authentication sucks. .....and? Why do you need to auth for those things to be created? It sounds like you are interested in turning the amateur radio bands into a personal internet-like system, where the bands are filled with people talking to or through machines asyncronously. I don't see the point, and it appears that most other hams don't either (including the younger ones). The FCC also made it clear they won't be having any of it after their latest denial of the WinLid's encryption petition.
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Sep 27, 2013 16:15
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Motronic posted:.....and? Why do you need to auth for those things to be created? I'm not talking about "filling the bands" with network traffic. I think such a thing would be best on a small portion of VHF, where you can't spam the whole world. But you could have a BBS-type system for your local club where your password is actually secure, for instance. Actually, on deeper reflection, you could probably do a lot of cool stuff using just cryptographic signatures. Now, anyone can read a signed message, but if you're using ASCII-armored PGP for instance, it probably looks pretty unintelligible to the random greybeards who like to call the FCC. Is there any precedent of people using PGP signatures on the radio bands? One really interesting thing you could do is make a store-and-forward network on VHF that would let you propagate messages far beyond the range of 2m. Something like UUCP would do the trick, and VHF is sufficiently high-bandwidth that you could transfer a bunch of text pretty fast. The problem is that if you're passing messages along on behalf of others, some people will be tempted to forge messages; signed messages and a keyserver could help alleviate this problem. The whole encryption thing stems from my frustration that people don't seem to actually utilize the bands very well. There are enthusiasts doing awesome things with new antenna designs, extremely low-power transmission; there's satellites and moon bounces and whatnot, but once you get your $2000 rig set up and bouncing off the moon to Guam, it's just "Yep howdy, I can hear you. 72." Sorry, I'm being just as grumpy as the greybeards I whine about. Edit: I'm going to stop making GBS threads up this thread. Also I'm going to go look at Winlink more now, because they make it sound secure and I just don't see how that works. Pham Nuwen fucked around with this message at 17:06 on Sep 27, 2013 |
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Sep 27, 2013 16:52
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You mean a store and forward system like... some kind of amateur packet radio system? You could even make it connect nodes over the internet!
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Sep 27, 2013 17:09
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Pham Nuwen posted:The whole encryption thing stems from my frustration that people don't seem to actually utilize the bands very well. There are enthusiasts doing awesome things with new antenna designs, extremely low-power transmission; there's satellites and moon bounces and whatnot, but once you get your $2000 rig set up and bouncing off the moon to Guam, it's just "Yep howdy, I can hear you. 72." You seem to not have a VFO on your rig or something. Yes, there is plenty of what you describe, but I find it quite easy to tune away from it and find interesting people to talk to.
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Sep 27, 2013 17:17
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longview posted:You mean a store and forward system like... some kind of amateur packet radio system? You could even make it connect nodes over the internet! If you get an HF rig you may even be able to utilize 30m to send data over long distances... Someone should look into this!
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Sep 27, 2013 17:45
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Dijkstra posted:If you get an HF rig you may even be able to utilize 30m to send data over long distances... Someone should look into this! Have you heard a bunch of weird noises on 14.070? I was trying to talk about my dialysis appointment and was having trouble understanding what was happening.
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Sep 27, 2013 17:49
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Pham Nuwen posted:Plaintext authentication sucks. One Time Passwords work fine for ham radio and don't run afoul of encryption rules. Either a printed list where the system tells you which password to use off the list (and never asks for that one again) or more automated systems like SecurID (which cost money and thus would never be used by a ham willingly). edit: I understand what you're saying, but the people who get attracted to ham radio are attracted because they want to play with radio, not because you could use it as a replacement for a cell phone and a data plan. fordan fucked around with this message at 18:21 on Sep 27, 2013 |
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Sep 27, 2013 18:19
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Motronic posted:Have you heard a bunch of weird noises on 14.070? I was trying to talk about my dialysis appointment and was having trouble understanding what was happening. All right you smug bastards, I was given some sort of packet device (don't know if it's a TNC or what) with my HF system. If I figure out some way to get it on the HF or 2m rigs, what do you recommend checking out? It looks like I can get winlink and read everyone's emails. The packet BBS stuff looks interesting; now that I'm reading more about it, I see that they're actually capable of the long-distance multiple-hop routing I was talking about earlier. What about UUCP over radio? Does anyone do that any more?
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Sep 27, 2013 18:27
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Pham Nuwen posted:All right you smug bastards, I was given some sort of packet device (don't know if it's a TNC or what) with my HF system. If I figure out some way to get it on the HF or 2m rigs, what do you recommend checking out? It looks like I can get winlink and read everyone's emails. The packet BBS stuff looks interesting; now that I'm reading more about it, I see that they're actually capable of the long-distance multiple-hop routing I was talking about earlier. Ham Radio Deluxe DM780 or FLDigi. You don't need the packet modem, just interface to your sound card. CAT control for PTT is a plus. While you can cable directly, I'm using this which also can handle PTT keying via serial port if you need it. I'm also using a cheap USB sound card exclusively for the purpose because it generally makes things easier. WinLink 2000 will use your sound card for WinMail.
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Sep 27, 2013 19:10
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Motronic posted:Ham Radio Deluxe DM780 or FLDigi. You don't need the packet modem, just interface to your sound card. CAT control for PTT is a plus. While you can cable directly, I'm using this which also can handle PTT keying via serial port if you need it. I'm also using a cheap USB sound card exclusively for the purpose because it generally makes things easier. I'll check those out, thanks! We'll see what I can do with my current 2m, a Kenwood TM-241a; I can't even remember what it has for audio out. Now, I guess this is contrary to my earlier whining, I did recently find out that there are some hams at work and that personally-owned handheld transceivers are allowed almost everywhere on site. With that in mind, I've considered getting a handheld just to mess around with the other guys at work. Are there any especially good deals out right now? Nothing fancy needed, just cheap and functional, preferably 2m although 2m+70cm would also be interesting. I remember there was a lot of talk about Chinese handhelds a few months back but I don't remember if people had any luck with them. Edit: Holy gently caress this is only $32 with Prime: http://www.amazon.com/BaoFeng-UV-5R-136-174-400-480-Dual-Band/dp/B007H4VT7A/ref=pd_sim_e_7 Pham Nuwen fucked around with this message at 20:42 on Sep 27, 2013 |
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Sep 27, 2013 20:36
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Plenty of people have luck with them. Just get a 5w Baofeng from Amazon for $40. I like it uv5ra. The b5-something has a rotary encoder, which is nice for tuning around.
eddiewalker fucked around with this message at 20:50 on Sep 27, 2013 |
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Sep 27, 2013 20:45
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eddiewalker posted:Plenty of people have luck with them. Just get a 5w Baofeng from Amazon for $40. I like it uv5ra. The b5-something has a rotary encoder, which is nice for tuning around. Yep, I ordered a UV5-R and the programming cable. I can't help myself, even if I'm all cynical sometimes, I loving love shiny new toys.
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Sep 27, 2013 21:02
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Pham Nuwen posted:I'll check those out, thanks! We'll see what I can do with my current 2m, a Kenwood TM-241a; I can't even remember what it has for audio out. Order an antenna. The one that it comes with is just a plastic dummy load. I've got this. It took about a week and a half to show up. You can find them on eBay for like $15 shipped from the US if you don't want to wait. Also, reception is greatly improved with a rat tail.  Yes, that is just a (about 19" long) piece of 14 wire and a ring terminal large enough to jam the antenna over. These are FAR from "nice" HTs, but they will get the job done nearly as well at a fraction of the cost of a big name unit with comparable sparse features. Scan sucks, and it doesn't have true dual receive (it just scans between A and B) but like I said....they work. Edit: Wait....with all this VHF talk.....are you a tech? Without meaningful HF privileges I can almost understand why you are so pissed off with amateur radio. If that's the case, you need to go get you a general ticket. Motronic fucked around with this message at 22:23 on Sep 27, 2013 |
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Sep 27, 2013 22:02
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Motronic posted:Order an antenna. The one that it comes with is just a plastic dummy load. I'm a tech. I have an all-band HF rig someone gave me, but I live in a house with an absolutely tiny yard in the city, and the layout of the house doesn't help with installing an HF antenna, so I haven't really had a lot of drive to get my general. I should be able to pass the test easily enough, but getting up early on a Saturday for the test... ehhhh. I'm in the SF bay area, so there are people on VHF, I guess I just need to scan more and check out digital to find people who aren't talking about ailments. I've just ordered one of those antennas, thanks. Edit: Now, if someone can help me pick out a suitable HF antenna, I'm down. My lot is very narrow and deep; the width is pretty much fully taken up by the house and the driveway. The back yard is quite small and is mostly overshadowed by a single tree. The front yard is also extremely small... maybe 20'x40'? I don't know what I can get away with vertically, but I don't have much area to put down wires for a grounding plane on a vertical antenna. Dipole I could *maybe* hang under the east or west eaves of the house. Pham Nuwen fucked around with this message at 22:41 on Sep 27, 2013 |
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Sep 27, 2013 22:31
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Pham Nuwen posted:I'm a tech. Well then, this isn't nice but I have to say it: you have no idea what you're talking about. I went inactive for the better part of 8 years after I moved from a place where all my friends were on repeaters to someplace where the repeaters were more typical: filled with a bunch of bitchy old men and/or superwhackers who live for skywarn and maybe getting the chance to do traffic control for a parade. So I got my general, and everything is good again. HF is a whole world different. Lame pun intended. Pham Nuwen posted:but I live in a house with an absolutely tiny yard in the city While that's a challenge, it's not something that you can't overcome. I know a guy who worked Cuba from his apartment in Texas with his RAIN GUTTER at 10 watts. On SSB. You can run hamsticks out of a window. You can put a dipole inside somewhere (temporary when you want to use the radio or in an attic if you have one). You can work a chain link fence with the right antenna tuner. Many, many people are making that kind of situation work and work well.
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Sep 27, 2013 22:42
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Motronic posted:While that's a challenge, it's not something that you can't overcome. I know a guy who worked Cuba from his apartment in Texas with his RAIN GUTTER at 10 watts. On SSB. You can run hamsticks out of a window. You can put a dipole inside somewhere (temporary when you want to use the radio or in an attic if you have one). You can work a chain link fence with the right antenna tuner. What about the "wire running a couple loops around your ceiling" antenna? Is that only suitable for RX, or can you TX with it too? No chain link fences, no attic. Like I said, the east and west sides of the house could possibly support a dipole under the eaves, but IIRC that'll be too close to the ground for pretty much any HF band, right? Maybe a hamstick style antenna would work best. If I owned the house, I'd just get up on the roof and run a dipole from one end to the other between two posts, but it's not my house and I doubt the landlady wants me nailing poo poo to her roof. Edit: What's the story with slinky antennas? I've heard about using those for space-limited environments.
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Sep 27, 2013 23:02
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Pham Nuwen posted:What about the "wire running a couple loops around your ceiling" antenna? Is that only suitable for RX, or can you TX with it too? You can absolutely use an end fed random wire antenna or many other types of folded dipoles or orthogonal loop antennas. You're just not likely to be able to tune them with the tuner in your rig (if any). I bought an MRJ tuner off of eBay for under $120 that can tune a 100 foot piece of coax (and I know this because I did it by accident when I forgot to hook the antenna back up). Pham Nuwen posted:Like I said, the east and west sides of the house could possibly support a dipole under the eaves, but IIRC that'll be too close to the ground for pretty much any HF band, right? While it's not optimal, you don't have the space for optimal. You can make it work with some experimentation. It may be the best solution for your property, or a different one may be a better solution. What solution you use may even depend on the band or what part of the world you're trying to reach. Pham Nuwen posted:Maybe a hamstick style antenna would work best. Obviously that's a more expensive way to go, but it should work right out of the box. Pham Nuwen posted:Edit: What's the story with slinky antennas? I've heard about using those for space-limited environments. As far as I've seen they are garbage. Nothing like trying to tune an antenna that keeps changing it's length every time the wind blows.
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Sep 28, 2013 03:27
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Motronic posted:While it's not optimal, you don't have the space for optimal. You can make it work with some experimentation. It may be the best solution for your property, or a different one may be a better solution. What solution you use may even depend on the band or what part of the world you're trying to reach. What band would you recommend for starting off on HF? I hear a lot of people talk about 10m and 20m. I'm interested in digital modes but you're right, I haven't spent much time even listening to voice modes on the HF bands so voice is interesting too.
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Sep 28, 2013 03:36
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Pham Nuwen posted:What band would you recommend for starting off on HF? I hear a lot of people talk about 10m and 20m. I'm interested in digital modes but you're right, I haven't spent much time even listening to voice modes on the HF bands so voice is interesting too. 10 is dead right now. 30, 40, and 80 are going to take much larger antennas to be optimal. I'd say 20 is your best bet to start. You'll have plenty of phone, digital and CW.
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Sep 28, 2013 03:52
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Motronic posted:I'd say 20 is your best bet to start. You'll have plenty of phone, digital and CW. Don't say that kinda stuff to me, man, especially when I have a two-storey house and gigantic back yard. What's the generally-accepted "entry level" 20m transciever, by the way?
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Sep 29, 2013 12:49
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SoundMonkey posted:What's the generally-accepted "entry level" 20m transciever, by the way? I don't know that there's a generally accepted one, but you can get a lot of nice stuff in the $500-700 range (used) like an FT-450 (all mode 160-6m). If the budget needs to be lower you can pick up a TS-440s (all mode 160-10m) in the $300-400 range. While you can go lower, it would have to be a hybrid rig and something without CAT control, and it would likely not be stable enough or have 30 meters and the rest of the WARC bands. In my opinion, that's a deal breaker for digital. If you have a gigantic back yard, you can get away with a $100 pre-made ZS6BKW or G5RV wire antenna and be able to cover 80,40,30,20 and kinda 10 with that singe antenna and either of those radios with an external antenna tuner (I picked one up on eBay for $120 or so). Or go even cheaper by making one yourself, although I'm hesitant to suggest that because it's a LOT to try to get together if you're also dealing with a new (especially used) rig, new/used antenna tuner, etc.....it's nice to have SOMETHING that you know should work in the mix. Motronic fucked around with this message at 13:34 on Sep 29, 2013 |
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Sep 29, 2013 13:31
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Since an antenna is affected by its environment, I wouldn't spend money on a pre-cut wire dipole. I might buy stuff like baluns, but then just use the local hardware/electrical supplier for the wire. To check that the antenna is resonant, beyond just getting a good VSWR reading on your rig, ask some local greybeard if he'll come over with his antenna analyzer. An auto-tuner is a good idea too, especially if you're going to do frequent band changes or computer rig control. The ARRL has some articles here on HF antennas for limited space: http://www.arrl.org/limited-space-and-indoor-antennas If you want more of that, go to the library and borrow the "ARRL Antenna Book" or "Small Antennas for Small Spaces". One piece of advice I'll give is that if you have limited space, don't opt for a low power radio to save money. I love QRP, but I can put up big antennas if solar conditions don't favor my attic dipole. On the other hand, perhaps you'll want the extra portability afforded by a QRP radio if you want to do park bench or backpacking style operation. Perhaps the best thing to do now is to get a used shortwave radio receiver with SSB capability and do a bit of listening to the bands from your location. An uncertainty you're dealing with now is how radio quiet your location is. You'll also know more about what bands you can hear activity on. If you get some software running like flDigi and VOACAP, you can decode some digital traffic and compare the activity with the ionospheric conditions. Vir fucked around with this message at 23:11 on Sep 30, 2013 |
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Sep 30, 2013 22:58
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Vir posted:Since an antenna is affected by its environment, I wouldn't spend money on a pre-cut dipole. I might buy stuff like baluns, but then just use the local hardware/electrical supplier for the wire. To check that the antenna is resonant, beyond just getting a good VSWR reading on your rig, ask some local greybeard if he'll come over with his antenna analyzer. I may have seen that ARRL page before but I'll take another look to be sure. I built a ghetto dipole for IIRC 10m, but heard hardly any activity so I'm not sure what was up. It was mounted pretty low, though. I had spoken with a local greybeard on 2m who offered to bring over his antenna analyzer, but he never showed. Ah well. I'm not sure if it's directed at me or not, but I already have a HF radio. It's a Kenwood TS-570S. I basically just need an antenna and a tuner, since I'm sure the built in tuner won't be so great.
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Sep 30, 2013 23:11
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Sorry, I forgot you had a radio already. Do some more listening then. Resonance isn't really that important for a receive-only antenna, once you get above the sensitivity treshold; something to do with signal and noise being equally attenuated. 10 meters isn't open that often. 20 and 40 meters are more likely to be active bands. Check the HF prediction charts and space weather conditions. Compare with some websdr streams too. As for the built-in tuner in the TS-570S, you might well find that it matches most bands on a coax connected dipole. If you've built a ZS6BKW for example, it might match on bands like 40, 20, 10 and 15, but not on 17 and 80 meters. This might be wasting some energy in the coax, since coax losses rise quite a lot when SWR increases, so in that case you might benefit from a balanced line tuner right where the 450 ohm window line meets the coax. If you're using an end-fed antenna, you might want a special tuner and something like a 9-to-1 un-un for that too. You might get away with a cheap and cheerful transmatch or manual tuner though, and let the built-in auto tuner in your radio take care of the fine-tuning. So don't shell out for an external auto-tuner first thing. Vir fucked around with this message at 23:31 on Sep 30, 2013 |
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Sep 30, 2013 23:29
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Vir posted:Sorry, I forgot you had a radio already. Do some more listening then. Resonance isn't really that important for a receive-only antenna, once you get above the sensitivity treshold; something to do with signal and noise being equally attenuated. The ZS6BKW antenna looks pretty good. Does the ladder line need to be vertical as in the diagrams, or can it be run along the side of the house to get it to my posting station? I'm thinking I may be able to stick it up along the side of the house if the ladder line's orientation doesn't matter. The hardware store in town should have everything I need to build it, including insulators for mounting. Edit: drat, I've surveyed the house and the longest line I could get was about 20 yards even. And that runs right alongside what I assume is the line from Comcast. Maybe a vertical? Or a hamstick out the window. Pham Nuwen fucked around with this message at 02:01 on Oct 1, 2013 |
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Sep 30, 2013 23:48
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Pham Nuwen posted:The ZS6BKW antenna looks pretty good. Does the ladder line need to be vertical as in the diagrams, or can it be run along the side of the house to get it to my posting station? I'm thinking I may be able to stick it up along the side of the house if the ladder line's orientation doesn't matter. The hardware store in town should have everything I need to build it, including insulators for mounting. You could also try a G5RV jr. I've got a long skinny yard and not a ton of room, and I managed to get one up -- I think you need maybe 51 feet or so. It won't tune up on 80, but I've managed to land some awesome dx out in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The antenna isn't even up that high, and the legs are definitely not straight. It's by no means the best antenna, but it will definitely get you in the air, and a prebuilt one won't run you that much. Edit to fix screwy formatting manero fucked around with this message at 01:44 on Oct 2, 2013 |
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Oct 1, 2013 05:10
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Pham Nuwen posted:The ZS6BKW antenna looks pretty good. Does the ladder line need to be vertical as in the diagrams, or can it be run along the side of the house to get it to my posting station? It's important to run the ladder line into the antenna at a right angle. It doesn't have to hang straight down, it can hang out to the side as long as it's 90 degrees out from the antenna. Also you shouldn't coil a balanced feed or have ends hanging off it. (Coiling coax is OK, and coiling coax is a common way to make baluns and phasing networks.) Pham Nuwen posted:Edit: drat, I've surveyed the house and the longest line I could get was about 20 yards even. And that runs right alongside what I assume is the line from Comcast. Or if you don't want to go that route, simply get a balanced wire tuner, in which case the length of the feed doesn't really matter and it will get a low-loss match on all bands. If you can't run balanced wire all the way to the shack, you could place the remote controlled tuner anywhere between the antenna and the shack. Radio <- coax and remote control cable -> balanced tuner <- open wire line/window line -> doublet antenna Or you could go with the G5RVjr approach. You'll take a bit more feed line loss and lose a bit of multiband capability, but it's what many people use. If your balcony and siding are metal, you might be able to feed a sort of vertical against it too. Some tuners can tune up the strangest things. Edit: By the way: Are you going to hang your doublet/dipole under the eaves, or in the air? Vir fucked around with this message at 11:14 on Oct 1, 2013 |
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Oct 1, 2013 11:00
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Vir posted:If the house has non-conductive siding and you keep it away from metal objects and pipes (perpendicular crossing might work), and keep the bends wide enough (no kinks or sharp corners), one can indeed run balanced feed line along walls and roofs, on spacers. I may be able to hang one end from a tree, but the other ends would have to be under the eaves. Which have a metal gutter the whole length; would that be a problem? I'm also wondering about the MFJ-2220 (http://www.mfjenterprises.com/Product.php?productid=MFJ-2220) hamstick dipole as a sort of compromise. I could probably dig a hole alongside the house, sink a 15' or so pole, and mount that on top. Since it's apparently only 16' overall it shouldn't even interfere with trees and poo poo. Guy wires could be a challenge, since there's only about 2 feet of my property between the house and the edge of the lot, but I could probably get something reasonably secure? Or just sink a short tube into the ground, and raise/lower the antenna pole if there is strong wind. Edit: the Baofeng arrived! Pretty sweet hardware and CHIRP works fine. I've already talked to some random dude on the local repeater, he said I sound decent on both repeater and input freq. Should be even better once the replacement antenna gets here from China. Pham Nuwen fucked around with this message at 05:12 on Oct 2, 2013 |
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Oct 1, 2013 23:25
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Pham Nuwen posted:I may be able to hang one end from a tree, but the other ends would have to be under the eaves. Which have a metal gutter the whole length; would that be a problem? It would be especially useful to "A-B"-test between a known performer like say a mag loop antenna and your wire antenna. Or if you're doing single band tests you might try a resonant feedline dipole. A ferrite choke is crucial to this antenna, working as a sort of 1:1 balun to prevent radiation the non-resonating part of the feedline. So while you won't need an un-un for this as you would for an unresonant end-fed antenna, you'll still need ferrites. Antenna planning gets easier if you measure and draw a diagram of your space. Pham Nuwen posted:I'm also wondering about the MFJ-2220 (http://www.mfjenterprises.com/Product.php?productid=MFJ-2220) hamstick dipole as a sort of compromise. Pham Nuwen posted:I could probably dig a hole alongside the house, sink a 15' or so pole, and mount that on top. Since it's apparently only 16' overall it shouldn't even interfere with trees and poo poo. Guy wires could be a challenge, since there's only about 2 feet of my property between the house and the edge of the lot, but I could probably get something reasonably secure? Or just sink a short tube into the ground, and raise/lower the antenna pole if there is strong wind.
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Oct 3, 2013 08:53
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Vir posted:Worst case it will cause low signal, crazy patterns and terrorise your neighborhood with intermodulation products; best case it would just detune it a bit - meaning that it will change the resonant frequency of the antenna from what it would have been a half wavelenght over average ground in free air. This means you can't just buy an expensive miracle multiband dipole on eBay and expect it to be perfect without adjustment. Since your radio has an internal tuner, however, it might be that you could just experiment a bit and find something that tunes well. Not "perfect resonance" but in the ballpark. Just be aware of what was mentioned earlier about low SWR not only signifying resonance, but also loss. Hmm, magnetic loops seem interesting too, http://www.kr1st.com/magloop.htm seems really easy to build. I'm thinking either a stick dipole or a magloop might be a good place to start, simply because they're compact and easy to set up. If I had good trees, I'd just hang a dipole, but I don't, so these antennas that are supported by one pole seem nice. Edit: Ok, I enjoyed tonight's 2m net for new operators, although the net controller said my Baofeng wasn't coming through very clearly so I switched to the mobile unit. Turns out when someone actually grows enough balls to say they do in fact have traffic for the net, we can all have an interesting discussion about antennas and what equipment is useful to have around when you're going mobile. And not a word about ailments! I ordered a Nagoya NA-701 antenna for the Baofeng but it doesn't seem to have done much. In fact, I think I can key up more repeaters with the stock rubber duck than I can with the new Nagoya. Oh well, at least it was kind of cheap. Pham Nuwen fucked around with this message at 07:21 on Oct 4, 2013 |
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Oct 3, 2013 17:36
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Pham Nuwen posted:Edit: Ok, I enjoyed tonight's 2m net for new operators, although the net controller said my Baofeng wasn't coming through very clearly so I switched to the mobile unit. Turns out when someone actually grows enough balls to say they do in fact have traffic for the net, we can all have an interesting discussion about antennas and what equipment is useful to have around when you're going mobile. And not a word about ailments! It seems to vary a bit between units with Baofeng - most of the reactions I hear are "holy poo poo that's a $35 radio? hearing you perfectly."
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Oct 4, 2013 07:45
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SoundMonkey posted:It seems to vary a bit between units with Baofeng - most of the reactions I hear are "holy poo poo that's a $35 radio? hearing you perfectly." The night I got it, I had a pretty good signal report from someone else on the repeater, just using the rubber duck. I have no idea how far away the repeater is, but I don't think it's too far. It may be that the replacement antenna is just hosed, I guess we'll see when I get the other antenna from China. I don't want to send the Baofeng back because it's behaved quite nicely and received pretty well, but if it turns out to be poo poo at transmitting I may have to do it. Edit: Met up with a friend of mine for lunch, brought the radio to show him. He's an ex-ham, the guy who gave me my HF rig, and literally has a grey beard; one of the first things out of his mouth when we started talking about the Baofeng was, "so does everybody still just talk about their hemorrhoids?" He was really impressed with what you can get for $32 these days, though. Pham Nuwen fucked around with this message at 04:21 on Oct 5, 2013 |
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Oct 4, 2013 07:49
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Passed my Extra! I was the only upgrade at the exam today, there were 3 or 4 other guys sitting for their techs. Pretty sure they all passed... unfortunately with the shutdown, they'll probably be waiting a while for their calls  In other news, I sunk a proper ground rod and that managed to clear up my ground loop problems.. time to hook up the Signalink!
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Oct 5, 2013 18:24
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If there's anyone else in the Bay Area, I think some  type got his hands on a 2m transceiver and is messing around on the 145.410 (- offset, PL 107.2) WA6HAM repeater. Ranting to himself about... I guess local government officials he doesn't like? Something about federal IDs? He doesn't come in too clearly. No callsign given, I'm a bit surprised angry hams aren't complaining and trying to jam him or something.
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Oct 5, 2013 20:44
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This weekend was my UK foundation course, I've done my practical and sat the paper test, the club checked over the paper and said I got 25/26 questions correct (drat second guessed myself on one and changed from the right to wrong answer) so within the week I should get a callsign and start making GBS threads up the bands.
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Oct 6, 2013 18:55
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I just got a good USB mic and set up echolink on my PC, so if there are any goons who want to shoot the poo poo on the air, I'm KF7JKA and I'm on node 616843. Might be hopping on some repeaters here in a bit.
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Oct 7, 2013 00:02
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Motronic posted:Order an antenna. The one that it comes with is just a plastic dummy load. Would you recommend these for someone who's looking to get into ham mostly to keep in touch with family and friends in case of an emergency? I'm thinking something like this would be nice in order to stay in touch since we're out of FRS range. Does the Baofeng work on FRS freq's too?
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Oct 7, 2013 04:19
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Pham Nuwen posted:If there's anyone else in the Bay Area, I think some I'm a day late, but I can't pick up that repeater where I'm at to check it out, anyway. Generally if something like that's going on, you want to get on one of the more active repeaters (for me, that's W6ASH at 145.270 MHz) and ask if any Official Observers are listening. They're the ones that do a lot of work tracking down jammers and unlicensed users.
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Oct 7, 2013 04:28
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DrakeriderCa posted:Would you recommend these for someone who's looking to get into ham mostly to keep in touch with family and friends in case of an emergency? I'm thinking something like this would be nice in order to stay in touch since we're out of FRS range. Does the Baofeng work on FRS freq's too? Well, yeah, you can receive and illegally transmit on FRS frequencies with them. But if you're "out of FRS range", just how far out are you? Terrain, etc matters a lot. These are hardly powerful radios. FRS is .5 watt if I recall, these are an optimistic 4.
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Oct 7, 2013 04:37
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| # ? May 10, 2024 00:42 |
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DrakeriderCa posted:Would you recommend these for someone who's looking to get into ham mostly to keep in touch with family and friends in case of an emergency? I'm thinking something like this would be nice in order to stay in touch since we're out of FRS range. Does the Baofeng work on FRS freq's too? The Baofeng will work on FRS frequencies, but it's illegal to use it on them. Among other things, FRS radios are limited to 0.5 W, GMRS radios (most are dual FRS/GMRS) are limited to 5 W, and neither can have detachable antennas. Will you get caught? Probably not, but who knows if the FCC will start cracking down in the future. Right now, the FCC doesn't even care that there's something like 10 times as many dual FRS/GMRS radios sold as GMRS licenses, but things can change. How far away are your friends and family? If they're nearby, like within 5 miles, then handheld units like the Baofeng will work okay in simplex mode. If they're farther, like within 20 miles, you'd have to talk to them one of your local repeaters. It's not so much the power of the units as the curvature of the earth, so repeaters are built higher up to cover more area. Again, the Baofeng will hit those fine (though in an actual emergency, you'll probably be discouraged from using the repeaters for non-emergency traffic). If they're in another state, then you'd need an HF setup, which the BaoFeng can't do at all.
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Oct 7, 2013 04:47
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