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The UV-B5/UV-B6 has a much better receiver with way fewer annoying squelch openings. The screen isn't quit as pretty as the UV5R variants and saves one fewer character in memory labels, but whatever. It also lacks tone-scan, which is kind of a bummer. Otherwise, the B5/B6 is a better radio.
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Nov 6, 2014 23:55
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SoundMonkey posted:I knew I was holding onto those three WRT54Gs for a reason. Well, time for me to chuck those three bricked WRT54Gs in the garbage! 
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Nov 6, 2014 23:57
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eddiewalker posted:The UV-B5/UV-B6 has a much better receiver with way fewer annoying squelch openings. Tone scan is super handy, especially if you're TOTALLY NOT doing something shady with your friends using FRS radios to talk to/from your UV-5R and you need to work out what the hell tone "Privacy Channel 12" happens to be. As an aside this is really handy when you're NOT DOING IT and communicating with a bunch of other people who are only semi-reliable, since you can chat with them on 1 watt but if someone starts being a jerkoff, you can kick it up to 5 and nobody else gets to talk (unless you're really far away.)
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Nov 7, 2014 06:36
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Not 100% reliable for the reason he lists, but: http://henryranch.net/radio-communication/frs-radio-privacy-tone-list/
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Nov 7, 2014 09:18
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eddiewalker posted:The UV-B5/UV-B6 has a much better receiver with way fewer annoying squelch openings. The 5R is really bad about that, huh. I might have to get a B5/B6 and see if it helps.
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Nov 8, 2014 03:17
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Anyone using IRLP or ALLSTAR? I have Echolink too. We need a goon conference.
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Nov 9, 2014 03:42
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El Capo posted:Anyone using IRLP or ALLSTAR? I have Echolink too. We need a goon conference. I'd rather end myself than spend more time tinkering with all star. Very cool that its basically built on top of asterisk but drat if the documentation is poor and non existant. Maybe I'm just dum.  We used to have an echolink node but let it go dark as club officers considered it a hassle.
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Nov 11, 2014 01:32
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So I'm doing my damnedest to get involved in this hobby. I have the standard-issue Baofeng and I've been doing lots of monitoring with little to show for it -- sure, I've heard some local guys chatting on Saturday night and stumbled on one of the local club's nets, but beyond that and weather station it's been pretty quiet. I used to laugh about the "grey beards talking about ailments" stereotype until the literal first conversation I heard was one guy telling two others about his diabetes issues. Been studying for my Tech test and had planned to take it this month, but work-related stuff got in the way, so now I'm shooting for December. Hopefully I can get to General quickly enough and see what's out there beyond my local area.
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Nov 11, 2014 19:15
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toomanyninjas posted:So I'm doing my damnedest to get involved in this hobby. I have the standard-issue Baofeng and I've been doing lots of monitoring with little to show for it -- sure, I've heard some local guys chatting on Saturday night and stumbled on one of the local club's nets, but beyond that and weather station it's been pretty quiet. I used to laugh about the "grey beards talking about ailments" stereotype until the literal first conversation I heard was one guy telling two others about his diabetes issues. Study for general and just go directly for that! It really isn't a whole lot more to study. Honestly I read the question bank once, took a few practice tests, and passed general no problems. I gave up even trying to be interested in 2m repeaters when two greybeards were talking about their cats' physical ailments.... Now I use radio mostly for high altitude balloon stuff, playing with APRS and whatnot.
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Nov 11, 2014 19:22
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I also got my general at the same time I got my technician. It's not a lot more to learn and you're already studying similar stuff, if anything it gives more context to the tech exam. hamstudy.org was my best friend. It tells you how you do on each section, so if there's a part you're doing poorly on, it's easy to identify and spend more time working on the stuff you don't know.
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Nov 11, 2014 19:35
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El Capo posted:Anyone using IRLP or ALLSTAR? I have Echolink too. We need a goon conference. I run both for our club, though we're presently limited to our UHF repeater since we have installed one of those Yaesu system fusion repeaters on our VHF side. It will go back on to Allstar when I get arsed to build a link cable for it. IRLP was pinned to VHF, and doesn't really get used. It will probably get decommissioned since it is not easy to navigate the world of which service can run and from where or who so you don't piss off the respective networks.
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Nov 11, 2014 19:37
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Just passed my tech and general tonight. Took the extra exam for kicks and missed it by 3 questions. I should have paid more attention in college. And yeah, general and tech are largely the same exam. General just goes into some more detail.
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Nov 12, 2014 01:16
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Have been fascinated with SSTV ever since that Portal ARG a few years back. Thought I'd connect an online shortwave scanner with some PC decoding software to see what people are sending. I find the lo-fi quality and randomness of the images weird yet brilliant. Made a tumblr for some of the better ones and an almost nipple, gonna keep the PC running and see what what pops up whilst I'm away: http://slowscanvtv.tumblr.com/
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Nov 12, 2014 02:18
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This caught my attention, but I didn't see it posted here: A 30MHz and under portable SDR transceiver is in the finals for the Hackaday Prize.
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Nov 12, 2014 02:43
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Is anyone doing VHF Packet or have a need for a TNC thing? I have a PK232MBX that is a bit banged around and has a shoddy pot repair to the adjustment knob that I'd be willing to pass along for shipping.
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Nov 23, 2014 17:42
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Partycat posted:Is anyone doing VHF Packet or have a need for a TNC thing? I have a PK232MBX that is a bit banged around and has a shoddy pot repair to the adjustment knob that I'd be willing to pass along for shipping. I'm down on gear since we moved and will give it a good home here in Denver! I know these things had cold solder joints in some revisions, is it okay on that front?
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Nov 23, 2014 18:48
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It works fine as far as I can tell, it is annoying to use versus FLDigi or something but if you have a radio and want to deal with it then by all means. The only thing was my god awful repair to the adjustment pot - it's a 100k instead of a 10k so you just turn it 10x less now. But that's easily remedied. I think I have a couple of the MFJ "tnc switches" that can be used for this as well. Lemme get it all together and in a box.
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Dec 2, 2014 22:31
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Yeah, absolutely, I love knobs/buttons/boxes vs software and i've wanted one of these for 20 years. I'll keep her clankin' along.
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Dec 3, 2014 01:40
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We’re Giving Away 20 Free Software-Defined Radio (SDR) Receiver Sets!
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Dec 11, 2014 23:23
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Anyone have any idea what the "NESDR XTR" model they mention is and how it varies from the others? That page is literally the only place on the internet where "NESDR XTR" can be found according to Google. NooElec's site has nothing that resembles that naming. I'd love to win one of the bundles with the upconverter though, the RTL-SDR units are a bit too low on bandwidth to see the entire amateur allocation of any given band within their default range, but could cover any band lower than 10m with ease. I don't know why but I find listening to random radio chatter a lot more enjoyable when I have the whole band on screen and can just click around as I see signals.
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Dec 11, 2014 23:52
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wolrah posted:Anyone have any idea what the "NESDR XTR" model they mention is and how it varies from the others? That page is literally the only place on the internet where "NESDR XTR" can be found according to Google. NooElec's site has nothing that resembles that naming.
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Dec 12, 2014 00:15
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nmfree posted:That's a very good question, I can't find anything about it either. I posted that question in their comments and got this from the admin of that page: quote:XTR version is going to launch shortly according to NooElec. Will feature the E4000 chip. That's all I know -- they don't tell me nuthin! :-) Long story short the E4000 tuner is capable of tuning from around 50MHz-2.2GHz where the R820T and R820T2 can go a bit lower (down to 25-30MHz) but loses out at the high end (max around 1.7-1.8GHz). They draw less power too. Apparently the E4000 tuners had become really hard to find recently and a lot of the sellers claiming to have them on eBay and such were shipping whatever they had so it was a crapshoot at best for those who wanted to get one. My guess is that NooElec managed to get a good sized batch of E4000s and the "XTR" might stand for "eXtended Tuning Range". Not really sure what that extra range is useful for, that's mostly cellular territory (at least here in the States) where the signals are too wide to usefully do anything with on a RTL. I guess the reduced power consumption is probably good for anyone using one off an Android device or Raspberry Pi. wolrah fucked around with this message at 15:15 on Dec 12, 2014 |
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Dec 12, 2014 15:12
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Does it go high enough to cover the 13cm band?
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Dec 12, 2014 18:41
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Crankit posted:Does it go high enough to cover the 13cm band? Nah, 13cm is 2.3-2.45GHz with a gap in the middle for satellite radio. I'd imagine most of the traffic in that band is towards the top end from 2.4-2.45GHz since that's where the amateur allocation overlaps with ISM and thus a lot of retail unlicensed hardware is available that can be used for amateur purposes.
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Dec 12, 2014 19:34
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Also, i'm pretty sure that about 99.9% of 13cm activity is goofy mountaintopping point to point dish stuff. Dunno how much you're going to catch just sticking an omni on the roof.
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Dec 12, 2014 20:09
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I know in the UK some people do narrowband modes at the bottom of the microwave bands, sometimes with *planebounce* but I can never remember the specific microwave frequencies. If this thing goes up to 2.2 and the band starts at 2.3 then it's SO close. Although from what i recall those dongles have really crap weak signal performance so I guess it doesn't matter.
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Dec 12, 2014 20:38
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Yeah. If you want to goof with SHF/microwave stuff, get a downconverter and pump that into your SDR stick, using it as an IF radio. You'd see much, much better performance
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Dec 12, 2014 22:28
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I've asked before, but just checking in to see if there are any budget friendly entry HF rigs?
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Dec 14, 2014 18:08
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Macintosh HD posted:I've asked before, but just checking in to see if there are any budget friendly entry HF rigs? Used rigs like the Icom 706 or similar can be found around the $500 mark depending on model/features/age. 70's hybrid tube rigs like the Yaesu FT-101 can be found at or under the $300 mark, but are going to be very limiting depending on what you want to do (no WARC bands, no CAT control, generally pretty drifty - so basically poo poo for digital modes). The upside of those is you get to learn how to tune tube finals and align your VFO, etc. Moving to a newer rig later will feel like cheating.
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Dec 14, 2014 18:28
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Icom 735 is the Ford F150 of HF rigs. It's been 350-400 dollars on the used market for the past 15-20 years, if that helps any. If you can't nail down a signal with PBT and a notch, you need more antenna Watch out for any hybrid era or early transistor era HF radios as they have these ENORMOUS six pole nine position band switches and the entire radio's operation is routed through it and if it fucks up, well i hope you're good at restoring enormous, complicated rotary switches that you can't get replacement parts for. Icom 730 is a prime example.
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Dec 14, 2014 21:49
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Are those QRP CW kits like the Rockmite and the Chinese clones worth the time and $50-150 if you want to dabble in HF without spending hundreds of dollars? I know I'd have to learn Morse, although that sounds kind of fun to me. I'm coming to this hobby after messing around with electronics for a while, so I know how to do through hole soldering, and I think I could do some not-super-small surface mount soldering if I needed to. I also see there's a PSK31 transceiver kit called the Warbler, but it leads to SmallWonderLabs, which is no longer operating, and nobody seems to be making a new version of it. Is there anything at all like it for sending/receiving PSK31 cheaply? If all the HF stuff is too expensive for my budget, I'm okay with that. I can stick to VHF/UHF on a Chinese radio and fool around with Echolink.
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Dec 14, 2014 22:22
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TVarmy posted:Are those QRP CW kits like the Rockmite and the Chinese clones worth the time and $50-150 if you want to dabble in HF without spending hundreds of dollars? Sure, but you need to understand that starting out QRP is a hard way to go. A lot of people have ended up disappointed and just given up. Others love it. And building a kit like that as a new operator that doesn't likely know how things are "supposed to work" on the bands with no test equipment or other radio to sanity check your build is also a hard way to go. It's not impossible (I've used WebSDRs to make sure I was getting out in the past) but it is more difficult.
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Dec 14, 2014 23:30
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TVarmy posted:I also see there's a PSK31 transceiver kit called the Warbler, but it leads to SmallWonderLabs, which is no longer operating, and nobody seems to be making a new version of it. Is there anything at all like it for sending/receiving PSK31 cheaply? If you're interested in the Warbler you might be interested in the Softrock RXTX. I'm planning on picking one of these up (the 40/30/20 version) and building it after the holidays.
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Dec 14, 2014 23:41
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17 meters is the coolest band, by the way. Everybody get set up for 17. 30's cool if you're beep boopy. but 17 meters gives you the propagation of 20 minus the contesters and 1500w 6 element beam jerks. Sure there are some power dudes around but it's way easier to chat with a few watts. There's PSK31 below 18.1 too. I wish i could keep up on 40 meters but you need too much antenna and ground to get effective. I like 12 too but nobody's ever on it
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Dec 15, 2014 01:27
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Jonny 290 posted:17 meters is the coolest band, by the way. Everybody get set up for 17. How long is your RV and what is the roof made of? e: like an idiot I forgot to ask what your current antenna setup is for hf... so what's your current antenna setup? Crankit fucked around with this message at 02:37 on Dec 15, 2014 |
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Dec 15, 2014 02:28
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Jonny 290 posted:17 meters is the coolest band, by the way. Everybody get set up for 17. lol if you don't build a 32-mile-long antenna to chat to bored submariners on ULF at ~1 bit per second (edit: and have several megawatts lying around that you don't need, at least) that's probably hilariously illegal now that i think about it SoundMonkey fucked around with this message at 05:03 on Dec 15, 2014 |
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Dec 15, 2014 05:01
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Crankit posted:How long is your RV and what is the roof made of? It's a 37 foot class A (self propelled motorhome). they're built with an aluminum skeleton, fiberglass/styrofoam/plywood wall sandwich. Not that bad for RF honestly. Right now I am only set up for 20-10, I have an 18 foot Hy-gain vertical bolted to the right front fender, grounded to the frame rails. I just drive it direct with no coil through a 10 foot run of RG-8 into a Kenwood tuner. I want to get up on 40 meters even if it's a lovely NVIS antenna and the 18 footer is awful at 40, so I'm going to put up a 40 meter Windom and if it resonates on 20 meters, hey, free bonus band. I also have a 108" CB whip on a big chrome ball mount on the left front fender,I sometimes use it for 10 and 12 meters because the Hy-Gain's a little half-wavey and hard to tune around there. E: for completeness, I also have a Tram 1480 2m/440 vertical which I just put up and a Browning dual band mobile whip on a mount up above the driver door. I've got a Comet dual band that I just got a mount in for at HRO, need to go pick that up (it's really cool having a retail ham store in town). All those dual banders get put to use for sure, they make fair scanner antennas. Jonny 290 fucked around with this message at 05:58 on Dec 15, 2014 |
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Dec 15, 2014 05:53
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Here's a crosspost showing the rear end end of the RV. Tram 1480 is foreground; behind it is a Comet SR-2x4CA, wideband dual bander that covers PS bands pretty well, clamped to the luggage rack. on the right is my Wifi mast - a 12 foot extending paint pole - at the top is a Ubiquiti Nanostation loco m2 and a 40 meter dipole that I'm still in the process of tuning. You can pick out the top end of the 18 foot vertical mounted on the front passenger fender too, and over above the driver's door is the Browning mobile whip that blends in pretty well. The dipole is new, I picked up some of those center insulators from HRO today, and despite them being like 15 bucks, honestly they're worth it. Weatherproof and strong as hell. Wire is single pairs of CAT5 plenum; couldn't be arsed to chuck them in the drill and untwist. I think it's a few feet low and am going to raise the apex by 3-5 feet and try again. Has a good resonance at 7.225 or so, just doesnt get close enough in impedance. If I can't get it low enough I may go with my original windom plans as you can tweak their impedance over a wider range by wirecuttin'. 
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Dec 16, 2014 03:00
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I received my general class license a while back and after reading this thread I've finally started doing some exploring. I just pulled up a list of local repeaters and literally the first thing I've heard on-air is bitching about Windows and BSOD's. I'm waiting for the ailments to start trickling in now.
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Dec 19, 2014 05:38
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Just to add my own ham radio story... I got my license nearly a year ago (VA3EER), and it took me nearly the last year to get on the air. I taught myself CW to a level where I thought I could handle some easy QSO's and I thought I'd better get on the air to make better progress. So then I quickly home brewed a power supply and made/raised my dipole. I wanted to get into amateur radio in the hopes of eventually home brewing radios, so I choose to spend some time to build the easier parts of the station myself to get back into soldering. I've got a 40m dipole strung up from my 3rd story chimney (so maybe 20-25ft up), out to a tree at the end of my backyard. There's ~120 ft of 450 ohm windowline running right from my tuner in the basement to the dipole. I'm using the tuner to handle any mismatches, not bothering with a balun since I figure the losses in the balanced line are pretty low even with reflections. I did buy a QRP radio to start out with (it's only 5 watts), I figured that a low power one would push me to build an amplifier later on as a project, though I've heard starting with QRP is challenging. My very first QSO was nearly 800 miles, from Toronto down to Alabama. Not bad for 5 watts I thought. My 2nd QSO was a bit over 1050 miles, to Oklahoma, and I think at that point I was pretty hooked on this. QRP is a cheaper way to get into the hobby, and the signal reports I've received certainly aren't strong. But I think it's pretty fun so far. I've had 5 QSO's total, so I haven't been on the air long, but there really is something exciting about hearing someone come back to you, even if you're putting out a fairly weak signal. Anyways, I've really enjoyed reading this thread since I found it some time ago, so I thought I'd share my story in the hopes of enticing others to take the plunge. CW takes some work to get into, but since it's such an efficient mode spectrum-wise, you can get away with lower power. If you're interested in it, I used 'Just Learn Morse Code' to do most of my learning, and toyed with G4FON a bit later. 73 rosinskij fucked around with this message at 06:47 on Dec 19, 2014 |
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Dec 19, 2014 05:43
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