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alnilam posted:Yeah this looks rad, thanks TS-450SAT is the model with the factory installed tuner.
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May 17, 2018 21:59
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Been absent from the ham radio hobby for a few years. Do I want a DMR or DStar digital radio? I’ve got two clubs local, and one has DStar repeaters and the other DMR repeaters. Edit:and with DStar, if I use a repeater reflector, am I linking the entire repeater, or just my connection to the remote repeater? It would be pretty cool to just link the remote repeater to your radio via the local repeater (so that you don’t bother a bunch of folks on your local repeater). blugu64 fucked around with this message at 22:32 on May 17, 2018 |
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May 17, 2018 22:28
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blugu64 posted:Been absent from the ham radio hobby for a few years. Do I want a DMR or DStar digital radio? I’ve got two clubs local, and one has DStar repeaters and the other DMR repeaters. I'm pretty sure it's the repeater itself being connected to the reflector. AFAIK you can't generate any "private" links to repeaters and the like.
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May 17, 2018 22:34
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Sounds like the old irlp setups then. That’s too bad, I’d take advantage of that if DStar supported it. Don’t really care about the privacy so much as being courteous about the traffic.
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May 17, 2018 22:44
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blugu64 posted:Sounds like the old irlp setups then. That’s too bad, I’d take advantage of that if DStar supported it. Don’t really care about the privacy so much as being courteous about the traffic. I really wouldn't worry about it, most repeaters are dead most of the time, so grab yourself a chunk of time when the repeater is quiet and go hog wild.
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May 17, 2018 22:57
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a goonham blew up his nest with 40 meter RF, i seent it
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May 18, 2018 04:08
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Jonny 290 posted:a goonham blew up his nest with 40 meter RF, i seent it they replaced it too, unable to explain why it blew after full honest explanation of the situation and 2+ hours on the phone with engineers on their side "smart-handsing" me thru multimeter readings and diag codes and poo poo
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May 18, 2018 07:04
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Please tell this story or at least what happened lol
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May 18, 2018 07:06
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Oh, sorry -- that's pretty much it though. I bought a house in the armpit of denver for "cheap" and had a semblance of a yard and threw up a pole for 2m/6m... but for HF my first attempt was a doublet style dipole and i strung it across the long edge of my roof, towards my back "yard". (no real ability to put up a tower or anything for HF) Apparantly, the HVAC control wires traverse half the house parallel to how I had the doublet mounted to the house. I think Jonny290 broke skin helping me build it out Anyway, I was super low power transmitting for testing on 40m (like 10 watts) and every other time i TX'd the air conditioning would cut off and restart I'm very smart so I tried again at like 40 watts, I can only suppose to "test the theory" and I was the winner. Then I called support and spent 2 hours diagnosing while telling them verbatim what I did, and they sent a replacement out overnight delivery.
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May 18, 2018 07:14
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Sniep posted:Oh, sorry -- that's pretty much it though. Hi there fellow Front Range hamgoon. Longmont resident here. I've been off the 2m/70cm bands since this repeater troll has popped up in the area, do you know if they got that guy stomped out yet?
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May 18, 2018 16:13
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mycomancy posted:Hi there fellow Front Range hamgoon. Longmont resident here. I've been off the 2m/70cm bands since this repeater troll has popped up in the area, do you know if they got that guy stomped out yet? Haha, we get them now and then but this one sounds thirsty. Details? (i think sniep and i are pretty much QRT right now because RL busy-ness and also...yeah, politics)
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May 19, 2018 00:45
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Jonny 290 posted:Haha, we get them now and then but this one sounds thirsty. Details? Well I tuned into the Longmont ARC Thursday and the guy would either make these "waka waka waka waka" noises or play songs using the keypad on his radio. He's apparently in the know enough to track down multiple different nets and destroy them. Like who has the time to do that?
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May 19, 2018 00:56
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Ugh, that's an unfortunate thing. Digital protocols like DMR/Dstar/etc can deal with that, but you're cutting with the back side of a double-edged sword in that situation. I won't do most digital networks because they have a centralized gatekeeping/registration system; it'd help in this situation, but it could also allow some old fart to shut my radio down if I don't say I love america enough.
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May 19, 2018 01:57
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I thought you could do dstar simplex?
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May 19, 2018 02:52
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All digital modes work in simplex, even DMR (assuming everyone follows the agreed upon talkgroup and CC). A local repeater also doesn't normally require any registration, but you need to register to operate the repeater linking stuff, Brandmeister or MARC won't allow someone using an invalid DMR radio ID to talk through the network. Since most repeaters are internet linked you need a valid ID to do much of anything on them except talk locally. There's no security in these networks currently and not really any way to add it, so if you want to be a shithead on a digital network you'd clone a DMR ID/D-Star callsign into your radio. This has happened a couple of times here, not sure if they ever caught whoever was doing it but I think the problem disappeared on its own in any case. Brandmeister recently added an API key system to prevent unauthorized hotspots from connecting to the network. DMR could possibly authenticate radios using the crypto features but that would a) be illegal most places and b) probably cause more problems than it solves. I don't think DMR has any provisions for authenticating users other than the DMR ID and possibly a pre-shared crypto key when crypto is used, you'd need something like a public/private key system to authenticate users for this to work. As long as the user is allowed full programming rights to the radio then it's pretty difficult to solve this problem technologically with the current DMR standard. Requiring new and advanced features will also likely require everyone to buy expensive Motorola/Hytera radios and possibly extra licenses to use those features.
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May 19, 2018 10:28
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Trying to figure out a good way to hang an antenna other than directly on the side of the house. Here's a diagram of my yard with dimensions in meters roughly measured by pacing: where the house is the box on the bottom left, the circles are metal clothesline poles about 6 ft tall, and the fence is 4 ft chainlink all around. I'm thinking of maybe strapping some kind of mast onto one of the clothesline poles and maybe stringing up a half-square like this?  Or instead of a mast, maybe suspending the closer-to-the-house end of it with a rope from the second story. Or maybe it would be simpler to just run an end-fed vertical straight up the tree. For some reason I just naturally shy away from verticals for HF (DXing is my main interest) but maybe they're better than I think. Any thoughts? The power line certainly complicates things. It hangs about 5 m off the ground.
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May 19, 2018 16:54
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if you want good DX you want a vertical, unless your horizontal wire can get up 1/2 wave or higher. I run half squares a lot now, clever and easy to use antennas. don't mess with end fed half waves. they're so finicky
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May 21, 2018 09:53
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Technically not amateur radio related, but I figure if anyone in this forum's going to know, they're probably in this thread: I know you can pick up audio broadcasts from NOAA with local weather information, and that there's some minimal data transmission at the beginning and end to trigger weather radios. I know the audio is computer-generated from text which is available online (assuming you have internet access). Is the text version transmitted somewhere? I've been thinking that it'd be neat to have an e-ink display attached to something which periodically checks for NOAA updates and displays them on screen. I know the online version has an API, but if it's broadcast it could work without an internet/data connection, and I wouldn't have to sit through 5 minutes to audio to get what would take 15 seconds to read. (And I know you can pick up NOAA sat images but I'm looking for something more timely and granular.)
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May 23, 2018 02:54
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poeticoddity posted:Is the text version transmitted somewhere?
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May 23, 2018 03:52
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nmfree posted:As far as I know, no. Bummer. Thanks.
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May 23, 2018 04:31
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I think the only non-voice weather products you'll get via radio are the coast guard's SITOR and HF FAX services, which aren't particularly useful unless you're on a ship.
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May 23, 2018 04:51
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poeticoddity posted:Technically not amateur radio related, but I figure if anyone in this forum's going to know, they're probably in this thread: it's available here: https://www.weather.gov  Though trolling aside, I do want to build my own weather radio someday.
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May 23, 2018 13:41
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poeticoddity posted:Is the text version transmitted somewhere? Are you just interested in the weather alerts, or the whole forecast that continuously repeats? For the weather alerts, it's possible to make something in GNU Radio and feed it with an RTLSDR dongle. Wikipedia has an excellent article on the encoding format of the alert messages. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specific_Area_Message_Encoding I coded something a few years ago from the info on that page which can generate those alert tones.
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May 23, 2018 13:55
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longview posted:All digital modes work in simplex, even DMR (assuming everyone follows the agreed upon talkgroup and CC). Encryption is illegal for ham radio here.
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May 23, 2018 14:11
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I turned my radio on for the first time in two years last night. By hand, though, because my Rigblaster Plug & Play is no longer sending commands to my ft-817. It will pull audio so i know the cabling, radio, and the Rigblaster aren't at fault, but I have no earthly idea what's not configured. Anyone else have any experience setting one of these bastards up in Windows 10? Is there something extra I have to do to get the COM port working right? If I toggle on RTS, I get a beep from the radio but it still doesn't control or read properly. I shut my computer down after I finished for the night. I'll try it again this evening and see if maybe a restart just fixes it.
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May 23, 2018 16:10
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poeticoddity posted:Technically not amateur radio related, but I figure if anyone in this forum's going to know, they're probably in this thread: If you happen to be close enough to the transmitter site you could work with the FIS-B part of the FAAs ADS-B system.
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May 23, 2018 17:00
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SEKCobra posted:Encryption is illegal for ham radio here. However signed messages are just fine 
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May 23, 2018 17:55
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xergm posted:I coded something a few years ago from the info on that page which can generate those alert tones. With how many readily available 2 meter radios are capable of being "unlocked" where they could then in the weather band I'm legitimately surprised that there aren't more cases of people loving around and broadcasting nonsensical alerts, or worse broadcasting plausible but false information during real weather events.
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May 23, 2018 18:06
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wolrah posted:With how many readily available 2 meter radios are capable of being "unlocked" where they could then in the weather band I'm legitimately surprised that there aren't more cases of people loving around and broadcasting nonsensical alerts, or worse broadcasting plausible but false information during real weather events. Definitely surprised by this as well, especially with the advent of SDRs. While the ones that are TX capable are still a few hundred bucks, that's really not that high of a barrier for someone intent on using a HackRF to gently caress with just about anything with a radio. Then again, some people grow out of it. I only discovered ham radio after watching a video of some guys loving with a Taco Bell drive-thru using a TX-expanded Yaesu VX-7R. I asked, "what kind of radio are they using to do that," and down the rabbit hole I went. TONS of licensed frequencies are listed in RadioReference. It's pretty trivial to take a Wouxun or Baefeng and punch in the frequency and CTCSS to gently caress with your local school maintenance channel or even the police if they're still running an unencrypted setup. xergm fucked around with this message at 18:32 on May 23, 2018 |
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May 23, 2018 18:30
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xergm posted:Are you just interested in the weather alerts, or the whole forecast that continuously repeats? The SAME info, while useful, is quite sparse. Basically, the idea was to have something that would receive, cache, and display forecast info without requiring a wifi or cellular connection. I live in a somewhat rural area that is prone to both tornadoes and hurricanes, so a prolonged period of neither cellular service nor internet access is feasible, and something that doesn't require listening to audio for 5 minutes would be nice. jaxercracks posted:If you happen to be close enough to the transmitter site you could work with the FIS-B part of the FAAs ADS-B system. I'll have to look into those. I live near some military airfields so there may be some aviation-focused options which I hadn't considered. Thanks!
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May 23, 2018 23:34
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So I fixed half the problem, by changing the microphone privacy settings in Windows. Turns out that the latest major update locks most applications out of getting full access to audio devices, presumably to stop people from snooping on your conversations, but it also means PortAudio just straight up doesn't work in fldigi unless you turn it off. I still can't control the drat radio from my desk. I've emailed West Mountain Radio but at this point I'm not terribly hopeful. I wonder if two years in a box caused something to shift inside the unit and now one of the connections is loose or something.
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May 24, 2018 14:52
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Have you checked that the baud rate on the serial connection matches between the radio on the PC? It's buried in the menus, but it should be labeled as "CAT RATE". If they don't match, you won't get any radio control. Default is 4800, but I've turned up the baud rate my FT-450D without any issue. Some serial adapters don't like the higher rates, so you may have to play around with it. Another issue, does the Rigblaster require any special settings for the serial port? The interface cable for my FT-817 requires that I set the DTR line to high to power the interface. poeticoddity posted:The SAME info, while useful, is quite sparse. Basically, the idea was to have something that would receive, cache, and display forecast info without requiring a wifi or cellular connection. I think I understand now. Decoding the SAME alerts won't do anything besides give you critical weather alerts. It doesn't contain any forecast data. It's how those weather radios give you alerts whenever there's a tornado warning in your area. You'd still have to listen to the audio for the full details of the alert. I'd disagree with your assessment that the article is sparse. That page gives you every detail of the message format for those alerts. As someone pointed out, you could possibly use FIS-B weather data, but I haven't had any luck picking it up with my Stratux (DIY ADS-B receiver) while on the ground. xergm fucked around with this message at 15:33 on May 24, 2018 |
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May 24, 2018 15:16
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xergm posted:Have you checked that the baud rate on the serial connection matches between the radio on the PC? I've toggled drat near every setting but I do have the baud set to 38400 everywhere. I think I might try setting it to 4800 or 9600 and seeing if that resolves the issue. I'll try the DTR line again, I know when it sends down the RTL(i think? I'm not in front of the radio and my memory is spotty but whatever the other line is) line, I get a beep from the radio.
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May 24, 2018 17:49
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poeticoddity posted:The SAME info, while useful, is quite sparse. Basically, the idea was to have something that would receive, cache, and display forecast info without requiring a wifi or cellular connection. Stupid thought, and probably a lot more effort than it's worth, but given the standardized computer generated voices I'd bet it'd be possible for a speech recognition engine to do a pretty good job with weather radio messages. The occasional human-recorded bulletin might cause an issue of course, but we have a hilarious amount of computing power available to us tinkerers these days so this might actually be practical.
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May 24, 2018 17:52
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There's a second cable. Of course there's a second cable. It's probably in a bag in my basement somewhere. I just hope it's long enough to reach. Guess that's my objective for tonight, then.
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May 24, 2018 20:12
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That would've been my next question. The audio goes in the DATA jack and the CAT control is the ACC jack. Glad you finally figured out what was missing. Serious question, why do radio manufacturers always use these dumb DIN connectors that you have to make a custom cable for? Why can't they just put a couple TRS or RCA connections for audio in/out on the back like every other audio device in existence uses? I'm thankful they at least changed the CAT port to a regular DB-9 connector on the FT-450D, but the audio still uses a 6-pin DIN. USB with an internal soundcard within the radio seems to becoming more ubiquitous, so maybe this won't be an issue for much longer.
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May 24, 2018 21:26
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xergm posted:Serious question, why do radio manufacturers always use these dumb DIN connectors that you have to make a custom cable for? Why can't they just put a couple TRS or RCA connections for audio in/out on the back like every other audio device in existence uses? This has always annoyed me too. I bet some pedant at the radio design lab long ago could tell you why the DIN cable delivers superior performance and it's not their fault that those drat RCA connectors are so ubiquitous.
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May 24, 2018 21:40
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xergm posted:Have you checked that the baud rate on the serial connection matches between the radio on the PC? To clarify, I was suggesting that information encoded within SAME is sparse, not the article explaining the formatting. SAME is intended to encode a very small amount of information around an audio or video message, so it's intentionally sparse, and thus not what I was looking for. I probably should have phrased that differently. wolrah posted:Stupid thought, and probably a lot more effort than it's worth, but given the standardized computer generated voices I'd bet it'd be possible for a speech recognition engine to do a pretty good job with weather radio messages. I had considered that, but I live near the border of two NOAA broadcast zones so I've always gotten significant static with all 3 radios I've tried (a Baofeng and two Yaesus). I think I'm going to just shelve this idea and find something else worth doing with an SDR at some point.
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May 24, 2018 23:20
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poeticoddity posted:I had considered that, but I live near the border of two NOAA broadcast zones so I've always gotten significant static with all 3 radios I've tried (a Baofeng and two Yaesus).
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May 24, 2018 23:27
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I got the radio up and running, sure enough, with that second cable. Now here's the next hurdle: how do I properly dial in my settings for digital modes? Despite everything I only have the most basic idea of how to get an SWR meter to work (low numbers are good but not TOO low?? Also too high and you'll melt your hardware?), but I have a small handheld shortwave I can use to test with. Am I correct in thinking that I should just set my rig to tuning mode and maybe go to the far side of the house with my shortwave and see if it's clear and not blown completely out?
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May 25, 2018 14:37
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