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I want to build a ammo can emergency radio, so today I decided to check out the Army surplus store right next to my new house.. place is freakin' huge and was packed when I went earlier today. So huge that I was in the wrong building at first which explains why it was all clothing, I had to go to the 2nd building to get the actual milsurp stuff... (Note the sign that says Surplus 2 ==>)  Biggest surplus store i've ever been in. Anyway, got my ammo can:  Batteries fit amazingly perfect, 12Ah at 12vDC  Now I just need to figure out radio, antenna and what external access is needed and possibly a solar charge solution. (Roll-up panel?)
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Oct 11, 2015 01:12
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I decided to get back into this hobby again before realizing the next item on my list is fishing coax from the J-pole in my attic to down into my office. God dammit.Sniep posted:I want to build a ammo can emergency radio, so today I decided to check out the Army surplus store right next to my new house.. place is freakin' huge and was packed when I went earlier today. This looks like a fun rear end project. How will you dissipate heat? Sniep posted:Skip that unless you are absolutely certain you only want 2M. Iridium posted:cool, thanks. Think I'll go that way then. My FT-60R has been chugging along well, I just reprogrammed in last night using Chirp. It can only push out at 5 watts, but as a newbie that's all you should be playing with. Unless you live nowhere near a repeater, this should be any Technician's default first transceiver.
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Oct 11, 2015 23:38
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grilldos posted:This looks like a fun rear end project. How will you dissipate heat? Ideally that won't be an issue, i mean, if i can find a radio that will fit that configuration  Everything's a half inch too big in one dimension to fit that dual 6v battery config in series. But yes, i mean, the heat sinks against the metal of the ammo tin, it's pretty conductive, and the goal isn't long rag chewin but just an emergency backup radio can that is one thing to pick up with all the parts needed for at least a few hours of combined radio use.Alternate idea is just a single UB12180 in there, which will fill half of 2/3rds of it, and let me put in what i am planning on using, the Kenwood TM-281A as the radio. Just a 2m can with batteries, radio, solar charger (working this part out, again, everything's an inch too big for this can) and antenna (wire j-pole)
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Oct 12, 2015 03:34
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Radio fits perfectly to mount, though im going to have it on the top as the heat sink's exposed on the bottom, let it get some ventilation despite the fact that much will just get wicked away by the metal ammo can. Now to make a couple cables to do hookups... and get a 90° coax angle connector to have the antenna feed come out into the tin. Plenty of room for one notched out -  I can't wait to paint the ammo can. (Not paint over the ammo can-ness of it, just 2" stencil RADIO on either side in white) It's going to be prepper bait as hell EMP PROOF EMERGENCY RADIO style and I love it lol
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Oct 14, 2015 00:26
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My FT-60 arrived. Nifty little bastard. Some of the features are buried under unknowable, eldritch menus, but it's easy enough to find instructions online. A few early thoughts on it all
Anyway thanks for the recommendation, sniep.
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Oct 14, 2015 14:06
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Iridium posted:
That's how you know it's real. Serious - that's 100% authentic ham web design right there, they are all like that.
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Oct 14, 2015 14:30
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Iridium posted:My FT-60 arrived. Nifty little bastard. Some of the features are buried under unknowable, eldritch menus, but it's easy enough to find instructions online. It doesn't have the keyboard shortcuts, but what you can do is highlight whatever rows you want to play with, then use the top menu bar to issue Cut/Copy/Paste. It's super finicky, I learned to save my poo poo after every change I made. Notwithstanding, Chirp is still so much better than the world of "hope and pray your specific radio has a custom software tool some poor fool made from scratch" I was faced with three years ago.
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Oct 14, 2015 18:18
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grilldos posted:It doesn't have the keyboard shortcuts, but what you can do is highlight whatever rows you want to play with, then use the top menu bar to issue Cut/Copy/Paste. It's super finicky, I learned to save my poo poo after every change I made. yeah, and that's what i've been doing, but the longstanding habit of the keyboard shortcuts have caught me up a great deal. edit- and i know it's not hard, adding those were a part of a first-semester computer science programming course I did in college.
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Oct 15, 2015 00:59
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We're all immensely lucky that Chirp is even as good as it is, really. What a world.
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Oct 16, 2015 15:29
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So I've had my technician license for like 2 years now, and never really even used my UV5R for anything other than listening to a few net check-ins. Are there any Chicagoland HAMs here? All this talk of the Yaesu FT-60R has me hovering over the checkout button on Amazon since I sort of hate the Baofeng for being so cheap (all the button markings are almost completely worn off, case is chipped, power output is wildly varied according to the internet) and I'm trying to convince myself that I'm going to get active with Skywarn, SAR (probably difficult around here) or volunteer for some events that need operators, etc. Knowing there were a few people in the area to chat with would probably send me over the edge. -edit: gently caress it, I ordered the FT-60R, still interested in meeting/chatting with any other Chicagoland HAMs here though. charliebravo77 fucked around with this message at 17:28 on Oct 16, 2015 |
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Oct 16, 2015 15:51
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charliebravo77 posted:So I've had my technician license for like 2 years now, and never really even used my UV5R for anything other than listening to a few net check-ins. Are there any Chicagoland HAMs here? All this talk of the Yaesu FT-60R has me hovering over the checkout button on Amazon since I sort of hate the Baofeng for being so cheap (all the button markings are almost completely worn off, case is chipped, power output is wildly varied according to the internet) and I'm trying to convince myself that I'm going to get active with Skywarn, SAR (probably difficult around here) or volunteer for some events that need operators, etc. Knowing there were a few people in the area to chat with would probably send me over the edge. I don't know anyone who has upgraded from a baofeng and regretted it, for what it's worth.
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Oct 16, 2015 16:35
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PuTTY riot posted:I don't know anyone who has upgraded from a baofeng and regretted it, for what it's worth. Speaking of Baofeng...  Apparently the ARRL had spectrum analyzers at Dayton for the last few years and the results aren't good for the Chinese radios. Baofengs have apparently been getting worse year after year.
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Oct 16, 2015 17:56
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wolrah posted:Speaking of Baofeng... Also note that 2014 Baofeng compliant is mis-aligned, and is actually 10%.
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Oct 16, 2015 18:19
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charliebravo77 posted:All this talk of the Yaesu FT-60R has me hovering over the checkout button on Amazon a little late here, but if anyone else is thinking of the same, hamradio.com has them for $15 less, free shipping. Granted, not 2-day like us Prime-havers are spoiled with
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Oct 16, 2015 21:44
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Deleted
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Oct 17, 2015 21:53
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Gave my radio can a stencil paint job over the army green after mounting the radio fixed inside. So fuckin' tacticlol prepper bullshit... my god, i love it....
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Oct 18, 2015 02:32
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It's regularly spaced, and aligned with the can. It looks nothing like military equipment. 
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Oct 18, 2015 14:01
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I guess this hasn't made its way to the forums yet cause I let my local club know first, but there's a $30 rotator on radio shack's website: http://www.radioshack.com/outdoor-antenna-rotator/1501245.html. This thing rebadged as the antennacraft tdp2 sells for $100 on ebay all day. You have to call the store and have them order it for you. they also have 100' of rotator cable for like $8. It took about a week for mine to come in. I ordered the cable when I picked up the rotator.
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Oct 18, 2015 16:12
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PuTTY riot posted:I guess this hasn't made its way to the forums yet cause I let my local club know first, but there's a $30 rotator on radio shack's website: http://www.radioshack.com/outdoor-antenna-rotator/1501245.html. This thing rebadged as the antennacraft tdp2 sells for $100 on ebay all day. Hmm, if I buy this, then I definitely have to buy the Hexbeam to go with it 
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Oct 18, 2015 23:36
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I've seen more Harbor Freight boxes than ammo cans when it comes to portable radio equipment. I use a marine battery box with 4x7Ah batteries in it. There's enough room for a separator to store the radio inside, and then I have a Velcro strip on it so I can stick it on top of the batteries. I use it for portable ops for various events from time to time. Granted it is not metal so it offers no pretense of shielding against an EMP, but neither does an ammo can once you drill and run a stub cable for an antenna. The larger HF boxes are popular as there is enough room there for batteries, lighting, radios, TNC, signaling, small HF radio, tuner, etc. One guy runs his in a wheeled toolbox with rigrunner and larger batteries. Unless you plan on getting some sort of VHF whip antenna attached to the box to run around with it like a war simulator, being transportable in general is probably more important than wedging all the poo poo into one box. 8/10 times I've brought out my portable VHF I'm sharing little/no table space to set it on, or it is in a vehicle with little/no space to put it.
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Oct 19, 2015 00:31
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quote:Ham Op 3rd Most Popular Costume this Halloween Season
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Oct 20, 2015 01:35
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So I just got my Yaesu FT-60R and it's already apparent just how lovely the Baofengs are in comparison. I've used Motorola handhelds and Uniden and GRE scanners before so I should have known better, but still. The one thing that is really bugging me so far is that there's no quick way I can find to switch the memory display from alpha to freq, the display is only 6 characters, and it doesn't scroll. Lots of the repeaters in the area here have UHF and VHF frequencies, so simply tagging them as the call sign isn't enough. I guess I can truncate the call sign and add a 2 or 7 or something to the end so I know it's 2m or 70cm, but it'd be really nice if there was a button press to switch the display temporarily. I guess I could also just print off a channel listing so I know which is which rather than scrolling through the menu to switch between alpha and freq.
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Oct 21, 2015 17:48
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I really don't understand how the alpha displays on Yaesu handhelds are still so terrible. I already expect the menus to be terrible, but come on......put in a better display already.
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Oct 21, 2015 17:56
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I'm just considering getting into the hobby and I'm just curious... How common is HAM trolling? It seems like an rear end in a top hat could get a radio and just use it for whatever and it would be really difficult to really stop them unless they were transmitting all the time in order for someone to use a directional antenna and actually find them? People seem to act like if you broadcast without a license even once lightning will strike and your radio will explode in your hands?
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Oct 21, 2015 21:45
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soy posted:People seem to act like if you broadcast without a license even once lightning will strike and your radio will explode in your hands? This is a fact, which is why lightning protection and proper grounding are so important. There aren't that many trolls, fortunately. It's largely self-policed and most operators are pretty civil unless you're deliberately interfering with someone else's transmissions or flat out dog cussing someone on the air. Most of the dramas is off-air in clubs or on the occasional repeater.
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Oct 21, 2015 22:07
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soy posted:I'm just considering getting into the hobby and I'm just curious... How common is HAM trolling? It seems like an rear end in a top hat could get a radio and just use it for whatever and it would be really difficult to really stop them unless they were transmitting all the time in order for someone to use a directional antenna and actually find them? I've had my Tech for a few years and I haven't ever heard anyone acting like an idiot on 2m repeaters or IRLP. I've seen youtube videos showing people abusing repeaters and so on, but I'd imagine it is fairly rare.
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Oct 21, 2015 22:08
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soy posted:it would be really difficult to really stop them unless they were transmitting all the time in order for someone to use a directional antenna and actually find them? That's the thing though, there isn't really much they could do to be particularly annoying without transmitting a lot so anyone with interest in doing so could probably track them down fairly easily while they're doing it. Someone who's randomly using the airwaves without identifying, yea they're basically impossible to find.
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Oct 21, 2015 22:26
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14.313 At least they keep to themselves.
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Oct 22, 2015 01:45
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Also this repeater: https://www.broadcastify.com/listen/feed/14747
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Oct 22, 2015 03:27
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PuTTY riot posted:Also this repeater: I'm pretty sure I caught this on a set of cheap radios I bought at an REI garage sale when I lived in LA, it was a bunch of weird rear end dudes. The most memorable being some guy who said he was gonna go down to hollywood and vine wearing a bunch of cheap chinese radios and yell at mexicans or something along those lines, I think he really hated immigrants?
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Oct 22, 2015 04:58
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Prickly Pete posted:I've had my Tech for a few years and I haven't ever heard anyone acting like an idiot on 2m repeaters or IRLP. I've seen youtube videos showing people abusing repeaters and so on, but I'd imagine it is fairly rare. I joke around often on the radio just to drum people up who are not talking. I've gotten on the repeater and told people that I'm tuning my noise bridge and would appreciate their continued silence.
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Oct 22, 2015 13:13
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Motronic posted:14.313 Should I be able to tune to 14.313 on a VX-6? It seems like I can only tune to 14.310 or 14.315? Short wave seems weird. Anyways, I guess I'll RTFM on radios in general and get my license now. soy fucked around with this message at 16:25 on Oct 22, 2015 |
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Oct 22, 2015 16:22
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Holy poo poo is 2m boring as hell. Haven't even been able to make my first contact as it's mostly non-stop streams of old man babble. I thought the old guys complaining about their ailments was a little overblown, but nooooope. Their lungs do seem to be just fine though, cause they can yap for 5 solid minutes without seemingly taking a breath. Guess I need to get General and a HF transceiver now 
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Oct 22, 2015 22:07
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soy posted:Should I be able to tune to 14.313 on a VX-6? It seems like I can only tune to 14.310 or 14.315? Short wave seems weird. Isn't a VX-6 a 2m/70cm handheld? If so, you aren't anywhere close to tuning 14.313 and you also don't have sideband.
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Oct 22, 2015 22:26
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charliebravo77 posted:Holy poo poo is 2m boring as hell. Haven't even been able to make my first contact as it's mostly non-stop streams of old man babble. I thought the old guys complaining about their ailments was a little overblown, but nooooope. Their lungs do seem to be just fine though, cause they can yap for 5 solid minutes without seemingly taking a breath. Guess I need to get General and a HF transceiver now Naw that doesn't help that problem. Just say 'break' in between keys if you can't get your call in and join the conversation. They may not want to talk to anyone else but you can try.
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Oct 22, 2015 22:37
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charliebravo77 posted:Holy poo poo is 2m boring as hell. Haven't even been able to make my first contact as it's mostly non-stop streams of old man babble. I thought the old guys complaining about their ailments was a little overblown, but nooooope. Their lungs do seem to be just fine though, cause they can yap for 5 solid minutes without seemingly taking a breath. Guess I need to get General and a HF transceiver now I still use 2m for tracking high altitude balloons and communicating with other cars on the chase, but yea.... Repeaters. Dear god no. I gave it an honest try, but when two old dudes were talking about their cats' urinary tract issues I was done.
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Oct 23, 2015 03:16
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charliebravo77 posted:Holy poo poo is 2m boring as hell. Haven't even been able to make my first contact as it's mostly non-stop streams of old man babble. I thought the old guys complaining about their ailments was a little overblown, but nooooope. Their lungs do seem to be just fine though, cause they can yap for 5 solid minutes without seemingly taking a breath. Guess I need to get General and a HF transceiver now I'm sure there are lesser used repeaters in your area, but yeah, repeaters are heavy on ailment chat. If you up the difficulty, say go to D-STAR or another digital mode, or go simplex or non-FM, you get a younger (didn't say young) crowd, or at least ones who are less likely to talk about their recent gall bladder surgery. Or you could do some 2m DX: work some satellites. Build or buy a pair or circularly polarized yagis for 2m/70cm and some satellite tracking software/websites. AMSAT just launched their FOX-1A satellite that'll use a 70cm uplink and 2m downlink and it's undergoing testing now I believe. http://www.amsat.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/FoxOperatingGuide_May2015_Hi.pdf
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Oct 23, 2015 04:52
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fordan posted:Or you could do some 2m DX: work some satellites. Build or buy a pair or circularly polarized yagis for 2m/70cm and some satellite tracking software/websites. AMSAT just launched their FOX-1A satellite that'll use a 70cm uplink and 2m downlink and it's undergoing testing now I believe. Yeah this actually interests me quite a bit. I've already got Fox-1A, SO-50, and the ISS freqs programmed in and ISS tracker on my FT-60R and have been monitoring during their passes overhead but have only ever heard static occasionally. Maybe I'll pick up one of these: http://www.arrowantennas.com/arrowii/146-437.html
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Oct 23, 2015 18:02
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soy posted:I'm just considering getting into the hobby and I'm just curious... How common is HAM trolling? It seems like an rear end in a top hat could get a radio and just use it for whatever and it would be really difficult to really stop them unless they were transmitting all the time in order for someone to use a directional antenna and actually find them? man, drama is everywhere. This is one of the first non-SA discussions I stumbled across looking for info. in short, complaining of a couple cocks trying to gently caress with new hams. http://www.eham.net/articles/27555 but in the couple weeks I've had a radio, i haven't heard anything but pleasantness.
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Oct 24, 2015 03:00
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soy posted:Should I be able to tune to 14.313 on a VX-6? It seems like I can only tune to 14.310 or 14.315? Short wave seems weird. Yeah it has wide receive but as posted: Motronic posted:Isn't a VX-6 a 2m/70cm handheld? You don't have any modes other than AM, NFM, WFM... no sideband modes to actually tune USB/LSB with. Anyway, for me, tomorrow is Antenna Day! For I have bought a Station for my house since I can actually operate as I please now since I own a home.  Love it so far, got to get some poo poo up in the air and I'm excited to actually explore above 2m for once.
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Oct 24, 2015 04:20
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