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Oh, I'd also eventually like to get into vintage radios. Old analog stuff that looks like it came out of a cold war bunker.
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Feb 8, 2021 19:12
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Pennywise the Frown posted:Nothing yet. I'm studying for my tech and if I keep this up maybe I can have it by next week. I'm not sure what I want to or what I'm able to do. I want to be able to pick up transmissions from a distance. Mostly listen in on other people's conversations. Be able to find weird poo poo. Bounce stuff off the moon or communicate with a satellite. I mostly like the technology and doing weird stuff as opposed to talking to people. Which is strange because I'd imagine talking is probably a very important aspect of.... radio. Excluding the goon DMR group, I have talked on my radios all of 3 times over the past year. I have over 400 contacts all over the world using FT8, which is just short messages sent by a computer program. With just a tech license, I would suggest sticking to a handheld, aka HT. If you want to start getting into satellite work, you need a good antenna. This is what I have: http://arrowantennas.com/arrowii/146-437.html I have really only listened, or done APRS (digital messages) when the ISS had a repeater. I might play with that more once the weather gets nice again. EME takes an even bigger antenna, since you need a pretty focused beam. Others can help you with that probably. As far as finding stuff to listen to, find which local repeaters are active. If you are just trying to listen to random frequencies, you probably won't hear anything. Even in Seattle, you mostly just hear people on the repeaters. You can almost certainly hit the repeaters with an HT.
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Feb 8, 2021 19:33
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Pennywise the Frown posted:Oh, I'd also eventually like to get into vintage radios. Old analog stuff that looks like it came out of a cold war bunker. Boat Anchors own. It's a great incentive to earn a General ticket.
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Feb 8, 2021 19:36
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What’s the DMR TG again? Is it a proper SA one? Still don’t know how groups get made or whether people can just get one made. May try this tomorrow through our local UHF repeater. Need to get more used to dialling in and disconnecting from groups.
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Feb 9, 2021 00:01
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thehustler posted:What’s the DMR TG again? Is it a proper SA one? Still don’t know how groups get made or whether people can just get one made. The TG ID is 3163563, make sure you set the contact to group and not private. Your personal DMR ID can be treated as a group, but I forget what all is required (if anything) to use it that route. As far as any other TG, basically you can dial in to any ID on the BM network and use it as a TG; but getting it reserved requires submitting a ticket with BM after proving the group maintains traffic. This is the sole reason I'll run through the script while no one else is even there, so the club can eventually go through the steps to do the poo poo we need to do and eventually get a proper TG ID reserved.
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Feb 9, 2021 00:15
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drunk mutt posted:The TG ID is 3163563, make sure you set the contact to group and not private. Thanks for this - presume I can't just do this on the radio? I've just tried and it added it as a private and not group (TYT-380). Edit: Apparently I can on a test menu and it does say on the page for the repeater that I've dialled it in (expires two mins from now) but it didn't seem to work, I am still talking to somebody else on the regular talk groups. thehustler fucked around with this message at 12:54 on Feb 9, 2021 |
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Feb 9, 2021 12:39
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Ok so if the first thing I need is an antenna, what would be a very very simple starting antenna, where would I mount it, and how does one get a connection from outside your house into your house? Is drilling required? I mentioned before I have an old TV antenna tower next to my chimney. I've never thought of climbing that thing before but I'm sure it's possible. Can I just hook that antenna right into my UV-82? It's only 5 watts but wattage doesn't have to do with receiving right? I'm not worried about transmitting right now. I just found a repeater list for a city nearby and am picking up some of those. It's fun listening to these old guys talk. One guy blamed democrats for the ice shrinking on Lake Michigan lol. Out of like 5 guys talking it got dead silent for a while after he said that and then apologized lol. In my mind I assume most HAM radio guys are republicans.
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Feb 9, 2021 13:47
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Pennywise the Frown posted:Nothing yet. I'm studying for my tech and if I keep this up maybe I can have it by next week. I'm not sure what I want to or what I'm able to do. I want to be able to pick up transmissions from a distance. Mostly listen in on other people's conversations. Be able to find weird poo poo. Bounce stuff off the moon or communicate with a satellite. I mostly like the technology and doing weird stuff as opposed to talking to people. Which is strange because I'd imagine talking is probably a very important aspect of.... radio. HT is short for handheld transceiver, aka a what you have right now. Baofeng radios are notorious for being cheaply made, so you well may have a bad one. That included antenna should be enough to work locals on 2 m and 70 cm, but simplex isn't very hot in most places. Look up repeaters in your area, these are bigger radios with quality antennas that act as RxTx nodes. Local operators tend to favor those repeaters for the reasons you are having, plus your local amateur radio group will frequently have a net (collection of operators listening in on a repeater at the same time) so you can get an idea how many old nerds there are in your area.
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Feb 9, 2021 14:16
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That antenna will be fine into a HT as you thought - receiving is indeed different
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Feb 9, 2021 17:46
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I'll second getting an SDR. I've had a handful of them over the years and my current budget favorite is the RTL-SDR.com V3 along with the antenna kit for $35 (which Amazon is out of stock on currently). This is a device to allow you to listen to people and things on virtually any frequency 500 kHz to 1.7 GHz, and more importantly, *see* the signal and ~2.4Mhz of adjacent bandwidth. This is a lot easier than scanning the entire band looking for people talking and you can just click on their line in the SDR software on your computer to start listening to them. The antenna set is nice because it lets you pick up stuff your Baofeng will (local conversations on 2m ~144MHz and 70cm ~440MHz). You can pick up aircraft positions with ADSB (1090MHz) and hear them talking with air traffic control if that's nearby too (108-137MHz) . You can see wireless devices like weather stations and smart meters talking computer-talk (not wifi devices) on 915MHz and 433MHz. You can uhhhh listen to FM radio too. There's all sorts of data in the air around you at all times and an SDR lets you see it all. You can also attach a giant wire to it and listen to 20m, 40m, 80m people as well as AM radio and shortwave. I've just got a 40ft length of 20AWG wire hung up in the tree outside and I hear people from over a thousand miles away and have picked up FT8 digital messages from as far away as Japan and Slovakia from central Florida. The only downside is you can't transmit, but it at least lets you see almost all of what is out there, and then you can get the equipment that lets you talk to who you want.
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Feb 9, 2021 19:44
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CapnBry posted:I'll second getting an SDR. I've had a handful of them over the years and my current budget favorite is the RTL-SDR.com V3 along with the antenna kit for $35 (which Amazon is out of stock on currently). This is a device to allow you to listen to people and things on virtually any frequency 500 kHz to 1.7 GHz, and more importantly, *see* the signal and ~2.4Mhz of adjacent bandwidth. This is a lot easier than scanning the entire band looking for people talking and you can just click on their line in the SDR software on your computer to start listening to them. I'll second getting an SDR. My caveat is that I spent almost as much on a Nooelec SDR and Ham-It-Up upconverter as the RSP1A from SDRplay costs, and the latter is far less hassle. I got an SDRduo when it was on sale on HRO a while back and I'm very impressed with it, though they're kinda spendy. If you want a free taste of what you can do with an SDR, check out websdr.org .
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Feb 9, 2021 20:50
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Yeah that sounds pretty cool. Sucks that it's out of stock. Are there any other complete kits available out there?
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Feb 9, 2021 20:58
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Pennywise the Frown posted:Oh, I'd also eventually like to get into vintage radios. Old analog stuff that looks like it came out of a cold war bunker. lol turn left
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Feb 10, 2021 08:01
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Pennywise the Frown posted:Yeah that sounds pretty cool. Sucks that it's out of stock. Are there any other complete kits available out there? Like poeticoddity said, you can really start racking up the price if you add on an upconverter, but I don't think that's necessary. I had an RSP1A ($120 sdr) and it had cleaner reception but it didn't blow my socks off in comparison with the cheaper dongle. It also didn't work remotely with most software without degrading its performance down to almost the same level as the cheapie. I have a Raspberry Pi Model A+ that I put outside connected to my antennas when I want to listen from my desktop PC. That solves the "drilling a hole in my house" problem you mentioned earlier, by just streaming the data to SDRSharp or SDR Console applications on my desktop but hardware compatibility is very basic. When you start looking at high end SDRs, you might be in the $200 ballpark and while I'm sure their HF reception is top notch, I'd rather be looking at like an $999 ICOM IC-7300 which is a full 100W transceiver for HF.
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Feb 10, 2021 15:08
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Pennywise the Frown posted:Oh, I'd also eventually like to get into vintage radios. Old analog stuff that looks like it came out of a cold war bunker. Pay shipping and I've got a Heathkit HW-101, SB-110a, the power supply for either, and/or a Kenwood 520 for you. I started to dabble in tube rigs but then realized I didn't have the desk space. This is an honest offer btw, i'm moving in 1-3 months and just need to give them a good home. I know for a fact the SB110a works and got a shitload of points on a 6 meter contest with it, but any and all rigs may need some capacitor love at this point. I've got a 7300, a 9700 and an FT1000MP at this point, so I don't need them.
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Feb 11, 2021 03:54
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yo jonny, i've been trawling goodwill for old HF rigs without success for a while now; if you're down to hook it up i'd be forever grateful! i got a shortwave receiver today and it turns out i can rx from my patio, so i might not have to be strictly mobile after all
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Feb 11, 2021 05:47
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would a hf vertical be as good as a end-fed long wire? i want my antenna to be omnidirectional so i can qso the entire world. or do the pros of longwire outweigh the nulls/db reduction in the radiation pattern?
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Feb 11, 2021 15:54
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Big Mackson posted:would a hf vertical be as good as a end-fed long wire? i want my antenna to be omnidirectional so i can qso the entire world. or do the pros of longwire outweigh the nulls/db reduction in the radiation pattern? Everything’s a compromise. I put up a Hustler 4BTV on advice of this group and it works pretty well on 10/15/20/40 for the small footprint. (I added 80m, but the Q is very narrow, it’s almost not worth it. Basically you have to choose whether you want digital or ssb when you trim it. You can’t have both. )
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Feb 11, 2021 17:52
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Achmed Jones posted:yo jonny, i've been trawling goodwill for old HF rigs without success for a while now; if you're down to hook it up i'd be forever grateful! i got a shortwave receiver today and it turns out i can rx from my patio, so i might not have to be strictly mobile after all Yeah lemme see what i got. awhile back I was prodding at a yaesu 757gx i got free off CL and seemed to get power output from it, but it needs an alignment (which i can do). i'll ping ye 
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Feb 11, 2021 21:44
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holy poo poo <3
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Feb 11, 2021 22:36
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Jonny 290 posted:Pay shipping and I've got a Heathkit HW-101, SB-110a, the power supply for either, and/or a Kenwood 520 for you. I started to dabble in tube rigs but then realized I didn't have the desk space. This is an honest offer btw, i'm moving in 1-3 months and just need to give them a good home. I know for a fact the SB110a works and got a shitload of points on a 6 meter contest with it, but any and all rigs may need some capacitor love at this point. I've got a 7300, a 9700 and an FT1000MP at this point, so I don't need them. Oh wow. Those look really cool. Those are exactly what I'd be looking at but I'd be afraid that I wouldn't be able to give them the love they need. I know absolutely nothing about electronics or radios atm. edit: maybe I should just grab one from you anyway. No better way to learn. I feel I'd be passing up on a great bit of history. Pennywise the Frown fucked around with this message at 19:09 on Feb 12, 2021 |
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Feb 12, 2021 19:06
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alright give me a week or so to pull some poo poo out of sheds after this cold snap and i'll weigh and give shipping estimates. The fun part about old tube rigs is they weighed next to nothing; it's the power supply that's the chonk boi.
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Feb 12, 2021 20:23
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Pennywise I think we're pretty close (I'm just north of Chicago) so we can try and chat on 2m with your Baofeng once you get your license.
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Feb 12, 2021 21:56
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I've found when using SDRSharp the application will crash sometimes when moving around frequencies. Is this because I'm overloaded the receiver or because the application is kind of it janky?
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Feb 13, 2021 00:46
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net work error posted:I've found when using SDRSharp the application will crash sometimes when moving around frequencies. Is this because I'm overloaded the receiver or because the application is kind of it janky? I think it's just janky, especially when you're connecting to your SDR over a network via Spyserver. One thing I noticed that makes it crash a lot is when I select a frequency from my favorites it switches in the spectrum and waterfall view, but the dial still has the old frequency in there which causes something to go out of sync and bad things happen if I start changing frequencies in either. Double-clicking the favorite a second time gets the dial to line up with what's in the rest of the program which has cut down the amount of crashes that happen considerably.
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Feb 13, 2021 03:14
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sdrsharp is the worst SDR application, except for all of the other ones.
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Feb 13, 2021 04:40
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Has anybody run into a Xiegu G90? Looks pretty competitive for a basic HF rig. https://swling.com/blog/2020/09/a-review-of-the-xiegu-g90-general-coverage-transceiver/
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Feb 13, 2021 04:55
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Twerk from Home posted:Has anybody run into a Xiegu G90? Looks pretty competitive for a basic HF rig. I have one. It’s a great semi portable radio.
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Feb 13, 2021 04:58
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Same. I keep a g90 and a wolfriver thing in my trunk. Back when the weather was nice, I was doing impromptu ‘Parks On The Air’ activations a couple times a week. Always get good reports.
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Feb 13, 2021 05:21
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I also agree, I run the g90 with a linked dipole for SOTA activations and it works great.
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Feb 13, 2021 05:30
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it's the first chinese HF rig that has remotely interested me; my 703 still scratches that itch but if i were buyin' new i'd be buyin' that probably, if i wasnt a 705 nerd
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Feb 13, 2021 07:28
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charliebravo77 posted:Pennywise I think we're pretty close (I'm just north of Chicago) so we can try and chat on 2m with your Baofeng once you get your license. Yeah I'm in Kenosha. Probably not too far from you.
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Feb 13, 2021 07:44
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Is this Uniden a good beginner HT over something like a baofeng? https://electronics.woot.com/offers/uniden-2-way-radio-pair-6?ref=cnt_wp_0_0
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Feb 13, 2021 08:55
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net work error posted:Is this Uniden a good beginner HT over something like a baofeng? Those are FRS/GRMS radios, and will not TX (and probably won't RX) in the amateur bands. If you want something that's a step up from a Baofeng, take a look at Yaesu's HT offerings. They've got a few that are under $100.
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Feb 13, 2021 09:44
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Pennywise the Frown posted:Yeah I'm in Kenosha. Probably not too far from you. Straight line about 35 miles. Maybe not simplex without some antenna upgrades but for sure we can chat over repeaters.
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Feb 13, 2021 22:34
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charliebravo77 posted:Straight line about 35 miles. Maybe not simplex without some antenna upgrades but for sure we can chat over repeaters. I can hit N9OZB easily from my house with my FT-60 and stock antenna, even better with a roll up jpole - you should be able to hit it as well. https://www.repeaterbook.com/repeaters/details.php?state_id=17&ID=78
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Feb 14, 2021 21:57
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Yay I passed my Technician test! 35 out of 35. I've only done that once on a practice test and that was today.
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Feb 15, 2021 01:13
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Pennywise the Frown posted:Yay I passed my Technician test! 35 out of 35. I've only done that once on a practice test and that was today. Congrats!
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Feb 15, 2021 02:12
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poeticoddity posted:Congrats! Welcome, fellow hypernerd.
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Feb 15, 2021 02:50
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Pennywise the Frown posted:Yay I passed my Technician test! 35 out of 35. I've only done that once on a practice test and that was today. Woop 
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Feb 15, 2021 03:52
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