|
No-code extras unite!
|
#
?
Mar 24, 2018 19:40
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 9, 2024 05:36 |
|
|
Pham Nuwen posted:Goddamn no-code extras! I think my favorite experience with this was when I was operating a special event station for Skywarn Appreciation Day at the local NWS office, and someone asked me my call (vs the event's), if I was an Extra, and proceeded to attempt to quiz me on the contents of the exam and went on a tirade against "paper Extras."
|
|
#
?
Mar 24, 2018 20:10
|
|
|
fordan posted:I think my favorite experience with this was when I was operating a special event station for Skywarn Appreciation Day at the local NWS office, and someone asked me my call (vs the event's), if I was an Extra, and proceeded to attempt to quiz me on the contents of the exam and went on a tirade against "paper Extras." No matter the activity, there will always be people who rave about others
|
|
#
?
Mar 24, 2018 20:18
|
|
|
blugu64 posted:No-code extras unite! Sponsored by hamstudy.org (legit good if anyone's studying btw)
|
|
#
?
Mar 25, 2018 02:16
|
|
|
fordan posted:I think my favorite experience with this was when I was operating a special event station for Skywarn Appreciation Day at the local NWS office, and someone asked me my call (vs the event's), if I was an Extra, and proceeded to attempt to quiz me on the contents of the exam and went on a tirade against "paper Extras." this is a nontrivial reason why im going to get my GROL this year.
|
|
#
?
Mar 26, 2018 01:39
|
|
|
fordan posted:I think my favorite experience with this was when I was operating a special event station for Skywarn Appreciation Day at the local NWS office, and someone asked me my call (vs the event's), if I was an Extra, and proceeded to attempt to quiz me on the contents of the exam and went on a tirade against "paper Extras." Tell them you’re going through a tunnel and lost reception
|
|
#
?
Mar 26, 2018 17:29
|
|
|
I recently got a NooElec NESDR Mini 2, with a small antenna (this one: https://www.amazon.com/NooElec-NESDR-Mini-RTL2832-Antenna/dp/B00P2UOU72) and I've been playing around with SDR# on my laptop. I understand the basics of how to use the software from playing around with websdr for a while now, but I'm far from an expert. The problem is that I dont hear much. Even in the designated HAM, CB and Amateur bands, where I'd think I'd hear something, the only things that show up in the waterfall that I can hear that arent static are constant tones. I can tune local radio, the local weather band, but I dont hear much else of interest, just hundreds and thousands of constant tones all over the spectrum. I'd think between the amateur bands and CB, I'd hear something. I'm in metro Milwaukee, so someone HAS to be broadcasting something I can hear that isn't a tone. I guess I have a couple questions: 1) Are those tones digital data that I somehow need to convert into listenable audio? 2) Why am I not hearing literally any listenable audio anywhere outside of local FM radio? There are tons of those tones I can tune in perfectly, so while I dont have a 50 foot aerial in my backyard, I can tune some things, I just thought there would be more. 3) Is there a good guide for what I should be able to hear locally and where it is on the spectrum?
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2018 14:50
|
|
|
Jim Silly-Balls posted:I recently got a NooElec NESDR Mini 2, with a small antenna (this one: https://www.amazon.com/NooElec-NESDR-Mini-RTL2832-Antenna/dp/B00P2UOU72) and I've been playing around with SDR# on my laptop. I understand the basics of how to use the software from playing around with websdr for a while now, but I'm far from an expert. That only goes down to 25MHz which is just barely low enough for CB and 10m amateur, which IIRC isn't very active these days. In either case, that antenna is far far too short to pick up much on either. You should be able to pick up 2m amateur frequencies. Look up 2m repeaters in your area and try sitting on those frequencies for a while. At least around here, the repeaters aren't very busy except during nets so you may have to listen for a while.
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2018 15:02
|
|
|
Can I do anything with the constant tones I find?
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2018 15:12
|
|
|
Those are probably just energy at that frequency given off by something . If you listen to them as SSB they sound like tones .
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2018 15:37
|
|
|
Solid lines may be RF interference, possibly from nearby electronics and things like power supplies. If you have a laptop or UPS you could simply cut power to your house/apt at the circuit breaker and see if the noise goes away, or alternatively take the kit with you outdoors/away from the building, and see if it goes away then. Taking your receiver outdoors will also help a lot with picking up other (desired) signals, by the way. If the noise doesn't go away from doing one of those things, it can also be from noise going up the USB cable from the PC, and/or the power cord to the receiver if it has a separate power cord. You can slap a ferrite bead on there (ideally wrapping the cord through a single bead multiple times) and see if that helps. You will likely find that you have multiple noise sources involved, each with its own harmonic set of lines. You can track many of them down by playing with the breakers as mentioned above, or by simply waving around the antenna (or a cheap portable shortwave receiver) and tracing noise sources that way. I've found just slapping ferrites on noise sources will fix or at least greatly reduce most of them. Ultimately its a game of decreasing returns to try and solve all of them.
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2018 15:41
|
|
|
Jim Silly-Balls posted:I recently got a NooElec NESDR Mini 2, with a small antenna (this one: https://www.amazon.com/NooElec-NESDR-Mini-RTL2832-Antenna/dp/B00P2UOU72) and I've been playing around with SDR# on my laptop. I understand the basics of how to use the software from playing around with websdr for a while now, but I'm far from an expert. As others have said, you can’t really hear much of the hot ham action with that sdr. But you can still listen to a bunch of other frequencies. Air traffic, local utilities, railroads, etc. This is a good site to start your search for things you can hear locally: http://www.radioreference.com
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2018 18:30
|
|
|
NOAA weather radio is a good place to check if your SDR works. It’s close enough to VHF that the same antennas work well, and it’s guaranteed to have an FM audio signal 100% of the time. http://weatherradios.com/stations-and-frequencies
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2018 19:14
|
|
|
note that the stock AGC/gain settings when you plug an SDR stick into a computer and fire up SDR# or whatever are hosed. Go in, turn off AGC and watch the spike at the exact center of the passband. Bring up the manual gain slider until that spike just disappears into the noise across the SDR passband. This may bring in a little bit more. e: also make sure you are in i/q mode and not only looking at the I or Q stream. Some apps and sticks use that for direct sampling for HF, but it doesnt work for higher freqs.
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2018 20:43
|
|
|
I set up a new miniwhip antenna and also an usb-hub with radio that i power via motorcycle battery and it STILL connects to PC(earth)-->Electrical Grid. I have ordered a usb isolator to fix it forever.
|
|
#
?
Apr 6, 2018 17:20
|
|
|
bad news, an 12 mbps isolator wont work with airspy or rtl sdr. I have decided to try out an raspberry pi powered by battery instead. If it still creates noise because hdmi grounds from screen to raspberry then i am going to be intel dead inside.
|
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2018 18:03
|
|
|
now i wonder what IS the problem really? what IS THE PROBLEM? AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
|
|
#
?
Apr 13, 2018 18:04
|
|
|
The Shortwave listening thread slipped into archives. I believe there's been a pretty significant overlap with this thread. That thread is probably more interested in this topic, but it's been archived: Art Bell passed away at 72 today. April 13, 2018. Cause unknown. He left behind 34 year old Airyn, his young Filipino fourth wife, and a bunch of children with dumb names.
|
|
#
?
Apr 14, 2018 08:19
|
|
|
I just got a radio that does D-star and am still wrapping my head around it. Anyone have advice?
|
|
#
?
Apr 22, 2018 03:36
|
|
|
notanarsonist posted:I just got a radio that does D-star and am still wrapping my head around it. Anyone have advice? I like D-Star, but the registration process is awful. Have you registered your callsign yet? Which radio did you get? Scope out this series of videos from Dayton 2012, it helped explain a lot to me when I was first getting into it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iqpgtq7ct8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTUuIQKdkJ0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e673BnPwnL8
|
|
#
?
Apr 22, 2018 16:31
|
|
|
MisterOblivious posted:The Shortwave listening thread slipped into archives. I believe there's been a pretty significant overlap with this thread. That thread is probably more interested in this topic, but it's been archived: Speaking of Art Bell, I turned on the AM radio earlier and found "The Conspiracy Show". In this episode the guest was talking about werewolves and wolfmen. I recorded the last 8 minutes or so, I'll try to remember to tune in again next week at 7:30 to get the whole thing: https://vocaroo.com/i/s1ueIy71zbeP
|
|
#
?
Apr 23, 2018 03:15
|
|
|
Yeah i'm registered and good to go. I've talked to a person or two, I'm just trying to get my head around the concepts of how everything ties together. We have 3 D-star repeaters in the valley, and i think they are all permanently linked, so you can talk on one of them and anyone on one of the 3 systems will hear you. I know about gateways, but haven't tried it yet. I think its similar to IRLP where you can tie different repeaters or repeater networks together. I noticed i can link to a specific individual callsign. How does that work? And does everyone on the repeater systems hear me if i link just to one user? This is just an entirely different level of complexity and what if's. I'm sure its not that difficult to pick up, i'm just in the first few hours of messing with all of it. I'm also posting this before watching the videos you linked, so forgive me if the answers are inside them. I treated myself to a Kenwood TH-D74A. Its a beast of a handheld and i'm sure i could talk about it enough to fill a 2AM infomercial. I upgraded from a Baofeng UV-5R, so its quite the jump. I already had a D710 so it makes a good pair. Between the two i'm turning out to be quite the Kenwood fan.
|
|
#
?
Apr 23, 2018 03:15
|
|
|
So i learned some stuff. Turns out trying to link to another user does a really neat thing. It's not a private channel between the two of you like i thought, but what it will do is chase down that user to the last system they were on and link you to that system with the push of a button. So if you were in Alaska, and i was traveling through Nevada somewhere on my way to Vegas, even though you don't know where i'm at, or what D-star system i'm on, you can CQ my call to work the network and worm your transmission out of the repeater i was last talking on. And assuming i'm still listening, or in range, i'll hear you and can talk back. I also learned what the letters mean after repeater callsigns, as well the method of linking and unlinking stuff. If you key up to link 2 systems together or link into a reflector, its important that you switch back to the regular local CQ command. Once its sent once, the systems will be linked, and if you don't switch back after they are tied together, your going to be sending the command to link every time you transmit. The repeater will also tell you that its already linked and remind you what an idiot your being after each of your transmissions. A lot of these videos was how to calculate and program memory channels and commands. It seems like a mess, but i get the idea. Thankfully, Kenwood has a list on their website for every D-star repeater to date readily available to be downloaded and programmed into the D74A. I had the list downloaded and programmed to memory in under 60 seconds. And i did it over bluetooth to boot. No cable needed.
|
|
#
?
Apr 23, 2018 15:27
|
|
|
Now that I've figured out cabling to get the radio plugged into the sound board I can share the amusingly amateurish local radio station. Highlights include the ad for the candy store that makes it sound like she wants to gently caress the candy, and the ad aired today April 23 that says you can meet Santa or hunt easter eggs. https://vocaroo.com/i/s0j9Ig4H2DAd You know, the nice thing about Christian radio stations is that they say Jesus or God every 20 seconds, making it easy to figure out the format Edit: I know this is a bit out of place but the radio listening thread is archived.
|
|
#
?
Apr 23, 2018 16:01
|
|
|
I took the exam yesterday. plz end this suffering.
|
|
#
?
May 6, 2018 20:23
|
|
|
Did you pass?
|
|
#
?
May 6, 2018 20:34
|
|
|
Are there any HTs with a UI that's intended for use by humans? I have an FT-60 and I gotta read the manual each time I use it.
|
|
#
?
May 6, 2018 20:50
|
|
|
Progressive JPEG posted:Are there any HTs with a UI that's intended for use by humans? I have an FT-60 and I gotta read the manual each time I use it. Gut gud
|
|
#
?
May 7, 2018 04:09
|
|
|
ft-60 isnt even as hard as they get, just learn the front panel buttons cuz a lot of the poo poo you're menu diving for is right on the dang panel
|
|
#
?
May 7, 2018 07:32
|
|
|
I've got my hands on an FT-60 before. Its not terribly challenging, just compact. I'm not sure how long you've had it, but i'd say just keep playing with it until your comfortable using it. It's how i've learned every radio ever.
|
|
#
?
May 8, 2018 20:53
|
|
|
Kenwood seems to be so straight forward with buttons or manuals, they are my preference for UI. Icom is consistent if not a bit annoying with the acronyms and submenus. Yaesu seems to be full blown amateur hour with terrible UI on their newer stuff (FTM-400DR interface is garbage). That reflects in the quality and decisions going into their System Fusion and I don’t buy their equipment at this point anymore because of it. Either their size now is so small that they can’t afford to do things reasonably or they don’t care and can call it “amateur” and get away with it.
|
|
#
?
May 9, 2018 09:52
|
|
|
my ft530 (vintage 97ish?) is even worse. literal secret menus. no legends on the keys, gotta do 2 and 3 modifier keys. it's bad, which sucks, because RF-wise it's a beautiful radio anyways  All time king of HT UI's imo, you can't beat this.
|
|
#
?
May 9, 2018 20:07
|
|
|
Partycat posted:Kenwood seems to be so straight forward with buttons or manuals, they are my preference for UI. Icom is consistent if not a bit annoying with the acronyms and submenus. Yaesu seems to be full blown amateur hour with terrible UI on their newer stuff (FTM-400DR interface is garbage). That reflects in the quality and decisions going into their System Fusion and I don’t buy their equipment at this point anymore because of it. Either their size now is so small that they can’t afford to do things reasonably or they don’t care and can call it “amateur” and get away with it. I gotta rant about this. I've had Kenwood rigs forever, I've got a TH-F6A, a D74, and a TS-590. Every time I use a Yaesu radio, I get upset at how clunky it is. I own a 7900R, and an FTM-100DR as well. I was curious about the FTM-400, and was surprised to see how slow and laggy the touch screen was. Maybe it's years of muscle memory from the Kenwood rigs, but I feel like once you pick up a Kenwood radio, they all tend to operate the same way. The Yaesu menus are organized weird, and I'm only so-so about the FTM-100DR. It's an OK radio, and APRS is nice, but I had to send it back twice for a screwed up VFO encoder knob. Fusion is all the rage here, but every time I listen to it, people's audio is overmodulated more often than not due to Yaesu majorly screwing up mic gain between analog/digital modes. I also wish I could set the backlight color to not "eye-scalding at night white", or at least have My main complaints with the TH-D74 are that it was loving expensive, and the battery life could be better. Each Yaesu radio seems to have some sort of weird design flaw, and they seem to change their industrial design every couple years, when they do manage to be consistent.
|
|
#
?
May 9, 2018 21:23
|
|
|
Icom ID-51 is probably the easiest radio I've used so far, it has actual menus for everything. Yaesus always seemed real confusing but I never owned one, glad it's not just me.
|
|
#
?
May 10, 2018 00:08
|
|
|
I've gone from cheapo chinese radios strait to Kenwood. For a long time i only had a Baofeng UV-5R. Not great but its what got me into radio. As i volunteered for events with my local radio club i realized the need for a proper mobile rig, and settled for a used TYT TH-9800. I had it for about 3 months until my brakes locked up in a local canyon. I tried Autopatching for help, but the radio had a stupid thing where it wouldn't let you transmit when it was receiving a signal. So my call for help was met with an awkward 3 minute silence on the local repeater. A firmware update was needed to get the setting to turn that feature off (Don't have any idea why) and the radio bricked itself in the update. I had enough, and decided to go big or go home. Over half the people i know have a Kenwood D710, so i jumped on the bandwagon and stopped pinching penny's. I've had it for a few years, and be it voice, APRS, or packet, it has never let me down no matter what i was doing. I am convinced it is to date the best all in one mobile rig currently available. I held on to my UV-5R until about 2 months ago, when i made the jump to a D74A. At this rate i'm probably going to be going Kenwood again for a HT rig.
|
|
#
?
May 10, 2018 01:25
|
|
|
manero posted:My main complaints with the TH-D74 are that it was loving expensive, and the battery life could be better. I can't help with the price, but i do have some advice for battery life. If you get yourself a DC charging cable, you can transmit on the radio even while its charging. It pulls from whatever power source you have it hooked up to instead of the battery, so it doesn't disrupt charging. This could be a power supply, a car battery, or a 12v vehicle outlet. This also means in theory you could use a D74 without a battery if you wanted. Just hook it up to a 12V source and use it as a packet TNC, for example. I'm still getting used to the lower battery life. But for how much the D74 does, can you blame it?
|
|
#
?
May 10, 2018 01:36
|
|
|
notanarsonist posted:I can't help with the price, but i do have some advice for battery life. Oh, definitely not. I love this thing, regardless. I bought a 2nd battery and the drop-in quick charger, so I feel like I'm good with power. I thought the built-in DC charger was only time-based, so running the HT off of DC while it charged wasn't optimal, since you wouldn't actually be giving it a full charge. Now Kenwood just needs to make a 50W mobile version 
|
|
#
?
May 10, 2018 01:46
|
|
|
Question, what's the highest wattage you can go up to without having to get a license. I want to make my own weather station in the future and want to transmit the data to a computer remotely.
|
|
#
?
May 11, 2018 19:09
|
|
|
iospace posted:Question, what's the highest wattage you can go up to without having to get a license. I want to make my own weather station in the future and want to transmit the data to a computer remotely. Here are the regulations that matter most regarding unlicensed transmitters: https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=eed706a2c49fd9271106c3228b0615f3&mc=true&node=pt47.1.15&rgn=div5 Highlights are 15.209 for general limits and 15.245 and .247 for the common ISM bands, but other parts may matter depending on the type of signal you're looking to transmit and the frequency. IANAL but as far as I'm aware the tl;dr version if you're in the ISM bands is 1 watt of power leaving the transmitter and 4 watts EIRP from the antenna. Directional point-to-point links in the 2.4 and 5.8 GHz bands get a bit more leeway on antenna gain with maxed out transmitters.
|
|
#
?
May 11, 2018 20:53
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 9, 2024 05:36 |
|
|
MURS might be viable too. It allows for data transmissions, just not store-and-forward messages. You get a maximum of 2 watts on a few VHF channels.
|
|
#
?
May 11, 2018 21:18
|
|
