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Fixed my old Kenwood 2m mobile today. The memory never worked, so I had always assumed the backup battery was dead. Replaced that, nope memory still didn't work. I pulled it apart again today, located the portion of the circuit responsible for enabling backup (a few caps, a diode, a transistor) and scrubbed the fuckers with a toothbrush and hot water because I saw old flux all over them. After drying and reassembling, memory now persists! I'll give it to Kenwood, at least in their old products they gave you full schematics and board layouts in the service manual. Very helpful. Now I'm contemplating a car mount. My car is old so the top of the dash has a 1" thick lip sticking out along that seems very clampable... Is there anything that sort of uses a vise-type thingy to hold the mount on top of the dash? I also have space on top of the transmission hump but that's really down out of line of sight. Edit: considering this, since I have an unobstructed transmission hump and also could use some cupholders. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00JKOONSM/ Pham Nuwen fucked around with this message at 00:32 on Sep 8, 2014 |
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Sep 6, 2014 04:32
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| # ? May 28, 2024 12:56 |
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Took me long enough to finally buy one of these cheap Chinese handhelds, but I now have a Baofeng UV-B5. One of the few models with an actual rotary knob for channel/frequency tuning! It's also missing the ubiquitous led torch, but the circuitry for it is still there, so one popular mod for this is to rewire the led-light button on the side to work as an backlight off/on switch.
JointHorse fucked around with this message at 05:14 on Sep 9, 2014 |
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Sep 9, 2014 05:08
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I got me a UV-5RA and knock-off programming cable from Amazon. The little HT seems nice enough and it's not as bad to hand-peck as everyone makes it out to be, but I'm having software problems. Any time I try to download the radio, the radio actually resets and then I get a failure to communicate popup in the software. I tried CHIRP and Baofeng's VIP software. I tried using the supplied driver CD with the chinese installer as well as a slightly different driver that was supposed to work for Windows 7 64-bit. I tried about 50 combinations of serial settings. I pulled up a Kenwood pinout and wired the cable up for a loopback, but don't see anything looped back opening the port in PuTTY. I guess I'll return it and order another. Chinese Radios and Chinese Radio Accessories, I tell you what
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Sep 10, 2014 03:34
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I had a similar problem a while back, it got fixed when I went into device manager, found the programming cable, and then disabled the option to turn off that device to save power. Try that and see how it goes.
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Sep 10, 2014 09:26
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enziarro posted:Chinese Radios and Chinese Radio Accessories, I tell you what ...and here we find our new thread title.
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Sep 11, 2014 00:16
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SoundMonkey posted:...and here we find our new thread title. I loved greybeards and their ailments but this is as good if not better
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Sep 11, 2014 00:18
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Now that my D-Star repeater project is almost finished I'm curious about what homebrew solutions exist for DMR, having a DMR-MARC linked repeater would be pretty nice. Is it possible to rebuild analog repeater stacks for DMR, and are there afforable modems that can handle the internet-linking and control the repeater? Turns out there's a few Chinese companies making DMR radios, http://en.kirisun.com/detail.aspx?id=11 Kirisun has the DP770 which isn't too expensive and looks like it's built to last. I might buy that regardless since it seems like a very nice radio for analog use as well, it has CTCSS, DCS, DTMF and 5-tone support which means it can interface with typical ham radio control systems (5-tone is useful for generating a 1750 Hz signal, and adding some cool beeps to the end of transmissions). There's also the obvious CS-700 choice, but it seems silly to buy the CS-700 if the CS-7000 will have D-Star as well. One thing to watch out for is there's a lot of dPMR radios that won't talk to DMR repeaters, though they might work well for simplex communications, license free or on ham bands.
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Sep 13, 2014 10:38
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DMR-MARC won't link your repeater unless it's TRBO. I don't know about re-building analog repeater stacks but it sounds like a cool idea. The CS7000 will theoretically have DMR but it won't ship with it, it's going to be up to the open source community to develop it I think. One issue in the US (and possibly EMEA) is the licensing issue with Motorola, they have patents on portions of DMR technology and basically every radio sold now is now paying a royalty to Moto.
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Sep 13, 2014 13:03
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SoundMonkey posted:...and here we find our new thread title. Where can I go for help with windows95 now???
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Sep 13, 2014 13:46
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Dijkstra posted:DMR-MARC won't link your repeater unless it's TRBO. Funny how people talking up DMR as an open standard all fail to mention that part... I'm having a hard time finding any detailed information on how the RF interface works for DMR, so I guess I'll drop my DMR plan for now, until there's an option for repeaters that won't cost thousands of dollars.
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Sep 13, 2014 15:21
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Well the licensing isn't that much, it's there but it's not prohibitive or anything. Otherwise the CS700 would be a lot more expensive. Motorola is surprisingly agreeable in their licensing arrangements for DMR. The problem with DMR is that linking isn't standardized, so each manufacturer has it's own methodology. Since many hams are Moto whores TRBO is way ahead as far as being adapted for amateur stuff. Hytera is probably second but it's not very close. In the US you can find a TRBO XPR 8300 repeater for less than $1000 if you look for awhile or have decent contacts. You could probably ebay one for $1000. All you need to add are cans, feedline and antenna. If you already have a little-used UHF system up you can convert it to DMR with little overall (relative) expense.
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Sep 13, 2014 15:41
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Wow, what an honor! I still haven't gotten around to sending back my cable. I think I'm just going to pick up 2.5mm & 3.5mm stereo plugs and roll my own; I have DE9 breakout, a ton of legit USB<->RS232 adapters, and my work laptop has a native serial port on it anyhow. Still seems too much like work for me to do in my time off, we'll see if it happens this week.
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Sep 14, 2014 16:49
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I'm interested in DMR myself, but, I clearly haven't done enough research on the interoperability. Assuming you're not linked, the radios are voice interoperable, right ? I know TBRO is the way to go as far as the Amateur groups go, fortunately, or unfortunately. My club has demoed the Yaesu "system digital" and it's pointless IMO. The radios are expensive, there's 1 portable and 1 mobile to choose from, and the digital communications features didn't seem to work at all no matter which buttons we pushed, other than digital voice. DMR, I figured, had more available radios, even if they weren't the usual top ham brands, to encourage further adoption.
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Sep 15, 2014 12:37
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All radios are inter-operable, and they are also inter-operable with any brand linked or unlinked repeater. (The air interface, I guess) Basically, from repeater to radio or radio to radio is open standard. (However Moto has patents on some of the TDMA technology and vocoder/decoder stuff.) So theoretically you can use any radio with any repeater, even if it is another brand linked system. The repeater linking is proprietary, so if you want to put up a MotoTRBO repeater you're going to have to link to a MotoTRBO system (if you want to link it.) But you could use a Hytera or Moto or Vertex or CS etc. radio to use that system once it was up and going. Edit: This is a good primer on DMR for Ham Radio: http://tinyurl.com/dmr-guide Dijkstra fucked around with this message at 13:37 on Sep 15, 2014 |
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Sep 15, 2014 13:29
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Soooo, I'm up in Canada and I'm ready to operate HF. Except not! It appears that the US/Canada licensing agreement is a mess. http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/smt-gst.nsf/eng/sf01701.html quote:Those who are qualified to send and receive Morse code at a speed of at least 5 w.p.m. may operate in accordance with privileges accorded to holders of the Amateur Radio Operator Certificate with Basic, Morse code and Advanced Qualifications. Here's the current Canadian Band Plan: http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/smt-gst.nsf/eng/sf01226.html#t1 For background, I have an Amateur Extra license, and I was originally licensed as a no-code Technician back in the 90's. A few years ago I upgraded to General and then Extra, well after the code requirement was removed. By this wording, it appears newer hams licensed under existing rules can't operate HF in Canada  I'm having a hard time interpreting the band plan.. does "B and 5" mean Basic *with* 5 wpm morse? Or does it actually also mean "Basic"?
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Sep 16, 2014 00:55
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manero posted:
Unfortunately, it sounds like you're right. But I think it's likely not the intent. In that link with the Canadian band plans, the 'B/H' entry means bachelors with honors. Meaning if you pass the most basic test with an 80% score, you get HF privileges. It's ludicrous to me that with a US extra ticket you wouldn't at least have the equivalent rights as a non-advanced license holder. But reading the regulations, that's certainly how it sounds. Maybe you could write to Industry Canada and ask them about it.
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Sep 16, 2014 04:17
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rosinskij posted:Unfortunately, it sounds like you're right. But I think it's likely not the intent. In that link with the Canadian band plans, the 'B/H' entry means bachelors with honors. Meaning if you pass the most basic test with an 80% score, you get HF privileges. It's ludicrous to me that with a US extra ticket you wouldn't at least have the equivalent rights as a non-advanced license holder. But reading the regulations, that's certainly how it sounds. Maybe you could write to Industry Canada and ask them about it. Canada also does CEPT so that might cover you.
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Sep 16, 2014 05:14
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fordan posted:Canada also does CEPT so that might cover you. It seems the US-Canada Reciprocal Licensing agreement overrides CEPT. It appears that the law is simply flawed.. maybe this will make a good article for QST  I got one reply from a member of the RAC, who said something to the effect of "code isn't a requirement for licensing, so you're good," which seemed like a not very rigorous answer. I also got a reply back from my ARRL division manager, and he seemed to agree with my assessment, and said to bump it up the chain a bit, so I've got an email to a guy at the ARRL that deals with regulatory issues. Meanwhile, I'll see if 6m is open  Edit: I just found this: http://www.openroadsradio.net/forums/showthread.php?t=1113 quote:Due to the recent abolishment of the Morse Code requirement from all American Amateur Radio certificates, the Department will be removing this requirement in the next issue of RBR-4. Which seems good enough for me! manero fucked around with this message at 16:46 on Sep 16, 2014 |
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Sep 16, 2014 16:36
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PuTTY riot posted:ok here is the plan (for my 2001 suburban and uv-5rax+): PuTTY riot posted:so what dumb thing am i forgetting? am i gonna have to tune this antenna or determine a proper cable length? im just gonna put my uv-5r in and get a speakermic and batt eliminator or smth Thanks
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Sep 16, 2014 17:37
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PuTTY riot posted:Thanks The only thing I can think of is that I think the car adapter for the UV-5R is strictly a charger and won't actually run the radio with a dead battery / no battery. I mean it's still better than nothing but it's sorta weak.
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Sep 16, 2014 19:50
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SoundMonkey posted:The only thing I can think of is that I think the car adapter for the UV-5R is strictly a charger and won't actually run the radio with a dead battery / no battery. I mean it's still better than nothing but it's sorta weak.  I thought this just ran the radio but didn't charge it? Also, I think I'm just gonna pay $10 and get the sma connector installed by 'theantennafarm.com' since my compression tool only does BNC. If I change my mind later I can just cut it or get another adapter I guess? Or do I want the quick-release BNC offers? PuTTY riot fucked around with this message at 20:37 on Sep 16, 2014 |
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Sep 16, 2014 20:35
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PuTTY riot posted:
Well I will be god-damned. I was referring to the one that comes packaged with some of them, but the thing you have there looks like it'd do the job.
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Sep 16, 2014 20:42
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SoundMonkey posted:Well I will be god-damned. I think you're talking about the extended battery that can be charged by the dock or with a plug in the side of it. It won't fit my uv-5rax++++++ without some hacking with a dremel. I want one but I need another excuse to buy a dremel first. e: this 
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Sep 16, 2014 20:49
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PuTTY riot posted:I think you're talking about the extended battery that can be charged by the dock or with a plug in the side of it. It won't fit my uv-5rax++++++ without some hacking with a dremel. I want one but I need another excuse to buy a dremel first. Ah, I think I have the knockoff of this (lol knockoffs of chinese radio batteries), but without the charging port. I got it to fit on my UV-5R via "forcing it".
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Sep 16, 2014 20:56
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I have that battery, but it didn't come with anything to put in that hole to charge it. What are the charger specs?
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Sep 18, 2014 02:03
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Partycat posted:I have that battery, but it didn't come with anything to put in that hole to charge it. What are the charger specs? Can't you take the barrel plug out of the back of the charge cradle and stick it in? Charge circuitry is in the battery if I'm remembering right.
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Sep 18, 2014 03:13
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The port on the 3600/3800mAh extended capacity battery wired directly to the battery terminals, and all of the eBay '12V charging cables for the XL battery' will destroy the radio and likely ruin the battery. The only way you could use that battery port correctly is to connect the battery charger terminals to it. This link explains it fully. There isn't a native 12V car charger for the UV5R family that I've seen, the OEM cradle operates on 10VDC with no regulation. The above link mentions using a 7810 regulator to buck the voltage down to 10VDC regardless of input (up to 35V as I remember). Another interesting thing about the UV5R charger is that it doesn't utilize the battery temperature terminal (despite the cradle being populated for it), while some of the batteries do have an internal thermistor signal available on that pin. Even more odd is that the entire control mechanism for the charger cradle is handled by a single chip. eddiewalker posted:Can't you take the barrel plug out of the back of the charge cradle and stick it in? Charge circuitry is in the battery if I'm remembering right. It is not internal in the battery. The cradle handles all of the charging control. DJ Commie fucked around with this message at 21:12 on Sep 18, 2014 |
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Sep 18, 2014 21:09
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DJ Commie posted:The port on the 3600/3800mAh extended capacity battery wired directly to the battery terminals, and all of the eBay '12V charging cables for the XL battery' will destroy the radio and likely ruin the battery. The only way you could use that battery port correctly is to connect the battery charger terminals to it. This link explains it fully. If you're using this in an automotive application, note that 78xx regulators will likely be entirely unable to deal with the horrific voltage swings and other nonsense that you get from a car's 12V source, but luckily TI has the LM2940 series (specifically LM2940-10 for 10V) which is designed to handle all that funky poo poo while not exploding. I'm not sure if they're pin-for-pin drop-in replacements for the 78xx series, but probably pretty close, if you want some more safety for both your car and your radio.
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Sep 18, 2014 22:28
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SoundMonkey posted:If you're using this in an automotive application, note that 78xx regulators will likely be entirely unable to deal with the horrific voltage swings and other nonsense that you get from a car's 12V source, but luckily TI has the LM2940 series (specifically LM2940-10 for 10V) which is designed to handle all that funky poo poo while not exploding. I'm not sure if they're pin-for-pin drop-in replacements for the 78xx series, but probably pretty close, if you want some more safety for both your car and your radio. Definitely agreed, the 78xx definitely needs a zener and filtering to safely use, and I do think the 2940 range are drop-in replacements.
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Sep 19, 2014 00:50
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I have already had one Baofeng cradle poo poo out on me, go red permanently, and attempt to overcharge a radio. The port on the battery ... accessories? Sounds like the best course of action is to shitcan the thing before I have a lithium fire.
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Sep 19, 2014 04:05
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DJ Commie posted:Definitely agreed, the 78xx definitely needs a zener and filtering to safely use, and I do think the 2940 range are drop-in replacements. If they're drop-in replacements, the bonus here is that you can just retrofit existing lovely chargers with a better regulator, without having to work out how to add additional parts. The 2940s can't be more than a buck or two each in a SMD or TO220 package, depending what the original design used.
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Sep 19, 2014 04:22
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I'm no electrical pro, but IIRC lithium charging was CC/CV, so you needed to current limit what the pack can suck in, and bring the voltage up to full/storage and then let it sit. So, it's doesn't charge just like letting it equalize. It is probably best to assume that the battery is just a plastic rectangle with a couple of prismatic cells in it, and the charger is constructed as poorly as possible. Again regarding Li batteries, if it's heating up it's already too late, the thermal sensor is probably useless at that point if it doesn't accomplish anything. It would make more sense for nickel type batteries that can get into this thermal runaway situation. That pin was probably just on what ever charger mold/schematic they borrowed from somewhere else. Anyways, I read over that DMR PDF and it's not bad. It doesn't take any time really to compare with some of the other digital systems either in technology or usage/adoption, but doesn't over-evangelize DMR. It talks about it being the future, and well, for local "emcomm" repeater ops that are coordinated it may be. For the all-hands-on-deck interop it's probably not yet unless clubs can get grants to grab cases of radios to have available. Since, as amateurs, we're not really pioneering anything in the repeater world there, I would tend to be inclined to go towards commercially used equipment and standards, which are moving towards reliability, data, and spectral efficiency, over some of the antiques we have been running if at all possible.
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Sep 19, 2014 13:35
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Partycat posted:I'm no electrical pro, but IIRC lithium charging was CC/CV, so you needed to current limit what the pack can suck in, and bring the voltage up to full/storage and then let it sit. So, it's doesn't charge just like letting it equalize. It is probably best to assume that the battery is just a plastic rectangle with a couple of prismatic cells in it, and the charger is constructed as poorly as possible. Oh I certainly didn't mean it in a "make your own charger" sense, more in a "you could be able to make your charger less lovely" sense.
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Sep 19, 2014 23:40
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Hey guys, I just took my exams this morning and ending up earning my Technician and General license in one sitting! Now that I've got a couple of weeks before my call sign becomes active I am starting to look into radios. I've got a Baofeng UV-5R with a Nagoya antenna that I have been listening to for the last few weeks, nothing major mainly just NOAA broadcasts. What I am hunting for is a radio I could use at home now that would allow me to take part in SkyWARN, do APRS, have SSB, be able to utilize all the bands I'm licensed for but also something I might load up in a sailboat one day. Does such a magical radio exist? Should I find something more basic and eventually trade/sell it for a marine HF radio when the time comes?
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Sep 21, 2014 00:54
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johnnyonetime posted:What I am hunting for is a radio I could use at home now that would allow me to take part in SkyWARN, do APRS, have SSB, be able to utilize all the bands I'm licensed for but also something I might load up in a sailboat one day. Does such a magical radio exist? Any of the all-in-one mobiles should suffice like the FT-857d. http://www.yaesu.com/indexVS.cfm?cmd=DisplayProducts&ProdCatID=102&encProdID=8CBB7C4BDBAF40129AD4253A4987523C You'll need to roll your APRS for any of them that I'm aware of (easy enough with a tinytrak or similar). Understand these are compromise radios. You get hellish stacked menus for rather commonly used functions as well as heat issues as a trade off for the small packaging size. If I were you I'd buy what you need now and worry about something that you might need later later. The good thing about HF radios is that they tend to hold their value pretty well. If you buy a used one and sell it a couple years down the road you very well may end up recovering just about everything you paid for it.
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Sep 21, 2014 02:02
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johnnyonetime posted:What I am hunting for is a radio I could use at home now that would allow me to take part in SkyWARN, do APRS, have SSB, be able to utilize all the bands I'm licensed for but also something I might load up in a sailboat one day. Does such a magical radio exist? Moneyhat answer: Elecraft KX3 You might be able to get a deal on a Kenwood TS-2000, I've heard some good things about them. They're an older generation of HF rig, but they'll also do 2m/70cm. They're not super portable, though. If Skywarn is active and I'm at home, I probably won't have my rig turned on and connected to my base station antenna. Most of my Skywarn activity is either in my car, or with my HT. You're probably better off getting a decently priced all-mode HF rig, and a separate mobile rig if you want to do either do high-power VHF/UHF from home, or your car.
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Sep 21, 2014 03:25
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Motronic posted:Any of the all-in-one mobiles should suffice like the FT-857d. Sweet, thanks for pointing me this direction. I've seen the 857 and 897's mentioned before but it didn't occur to me that they were all-in-one units. I figured they were hiding a huge power supply or something under the desk. After researching it I found a lot of guys drop those Yaesu's into Pelican cases with a 12v battery and they have a mobile rig too. I'm digging this idea, I'll start looking around for a good used 857D. Nothing on Ebay or Craigslist in my area and it looks like you need your callsign to register on QTH.com before I can browse the classified ads. 
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Sep 21, 2014 20:58
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johnnyonetime posted:I figured they were hiding a huge power supply or something under the desk. They are. The radios run on 12 volts, so typically in a home setup you're gonna have a 120v to 12v power supply. On a car or most larger boats it's no big deal to just wire them straight to the battery/batteries. But unless you have a hell of a portable battery (think expensive, heavy or both) you aren't going to be transmitting at 100 watts for very long. It's workable, but you need to understand the realities of how it's gonna actually happen and that most of those guys are working reduced power compared to what the rig can actually put out.
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Sep 22, 2014 16:15
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johnnyonetime posted:I've got a Baofeng UV-5R with a Nagoya antenna that I have been listening to for the last few weeks, nothing major mainly just NOAA broadcasts. I recommend putting the rubber ducky back on if you notice the back of your radio getting hot. It will eventually blow. I ruined a GT-3 that way. It's okay if the antenna gets hot, but scrap the Nagoya if you notice the belt clip area warming up. It shouldn't.
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Sep 24, 2014 15:03
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| # ? May 28, 2024 12:56 |
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 Where did the af gain slider go in the newer version of sdr#? edit 
PuTTY riot fucked around with this message at 18:32 on Sep 24, 2014 |
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Sep 24, 2014 15:18
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