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The FT5DR is IPX7 rated too, which just screams SOTA or hiking radio to me. At first glance it doesn't look like it has a built in sound card that you can use with the Bluetooth to connect it to your phone or computer and do all that cool stuff you can do though, which is absolutely something that a high end HT should have in 2021.
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Aug 17, 2021 22:42
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I looked up SOTA having never heard of it before. gently caress, I really need to stop procrastinating and go get my license, that sounds awesome.
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Aug 17, 2021 22:58
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Forseti posted:I looked up SOTA having never heard of it before. gently caress, I really need to stop procrastinating and go get my license, that sounds awesome. sota is huge here in denver. I generally can give out between 3 and 10 sota contacts (they need five to qualify as an activation so it's always cool if you pipe up) on 146.52 here every weekend.
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Aug 17, 2021 23:08
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Jonny 290 posted:sota is huge here in denver. I generally can give out between 3 and 10 sota contacts (they need five to qualify as an activation so it's always cool if you pipe up) on 146.52 here every weekend. I'm in the Shenandoah Valley in VA so lots of summits around here but no idea how big/old the amateur radio crowd is around here. Lots of friends in Denver though and I've thought about joining them!
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Aug 17, 2021 23:19
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sota and pota feel like the Pokémon Go of radio. none of it matters, but dang if I don’t love chasing spots.
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Aug 17, 2021 23:25
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eddiewalker posted:sota and pota feel like the Pokémon Go of radio. I like to go up there without a radio anyway, so it's like bonus fun  Edit: What's the current status of online testing? I had been signed up to take the exam before the pandemic really kicked off last year when I still lived in Houston, but they cancelled that one (would have been cool to take the test at Johnson Space Center... drat). Then there were like limited online pilot programs or something? A quick look over at ARRL it looks like there are a number of options for online now, any gotchas like I should find one from the nearest group or something? This one that claims always available seems like a good one: quote:PARC Online Testing - KJ4PJE VE Team - *TEST SLOTS ALWAYS AVAILABLE* Forseti fucked around with this message at 23:41 on Aug 17, 2021 |
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Aug 17, 2021 23:33
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SOTA/POTA is a fun angle to the hobby. It deff taps into things that are both outdoors and high tech. There a number of phone apps that makes chasing activators easier. I use SotaGoat on my phone for notifications for when someone activates nearby and then I try and jump on the radio and make a contact with them. daytime 20 meters has lots of pota people on it and its pretty easy to stumble upon them when tuning around the band.
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Aug 18, 2021 00:14
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Forseti posted:I looked up SOTA having never heard of it before. gently caress, I really need to stop procrastinating and go get my license, that sounds awesome. It's neat, and accessible to someone with a much lower investment than a big HF rig would be. You can do both VHF/UHF SOTA and HF too, though obviously you have to very carefully consider the weight and power of an HF setup with it having to be lugged up on foot.
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Aug 18, 2021 00:39
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I returned my FT3DR immediately once I heard the audio quality. How did they make such a fancy radio sound so poor?
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Aug 18, 2021 07:05
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I must have really bad taste in audio, because I think my ft3dr sounds fine. Everyone online seems to hate it.
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Aug 18, 2021 17:03
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Walrusmaster posted:I must have really bad taste in audio, because I think my ft3dr sounds fine. Everyone online seems to hate it. No real complaints about mine, either. I think my FT-60 sounds better on analog but it's also not as water resistant which I think impacts the quality a fair bit.
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Aug 18, 2021 18:41
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IMO every radio should have great audio both ways, this is a solved problem by now There is no excuse for not running the microphone and speaker audio through a DSP with appropriate frequency response correction these days, doubly so for any radio that does digital voice. Even before digital processing it's not that hard to make an analog bass/treble correction network for the internal mic, and it literally adds no cost to the end product. For example: the ID-51A/E has terrible transmit audio compared to the far cheaper IC-T70, AFAIK the main reason is the waterproof microphone in the ID-51 + little to no attempt at correcting for the degraded audio caused by that waterproofing film. IIRC the ID-51 despite having a D-Star modem basically uses standard FM transceiver circuitry with analog processing in FM mode, the only digital circuitry in the audio chain is the volume control DAC. But we're talking about the industry that considers transmit audio AGC and audio equalizers to be high end specialty features and not bare minimum.
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Aug 18, 2021 19:29
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So many people kept repeating the "it's a $25 baofeng, if i drop it in the lake im not out a lot of money" line that everybody's now just incredibly obsessed with making their radios ip65 or whatever the designator is. it drives me nuts and i can't stand it when people make a "suggest me a radio i can disrespect" post. Get a case if you're going to be wallowing around in mud holes with a ham radio.
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Aug 18, 2021 20:23
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Walrusmaster posted:I must have really bad taste in audio, because I think my ft3dr sounds fine. Everyone online seems to hate it. Pop open the headphone and charging ports and you'll see the difference. If you really want your mind blown, listen to the headphone and charging ports. My ft-60 and ft-70 are both miles better for audio quality.
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Aug 18, 2021 22:51
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Jonny 290 posted:So many people kept repeating the "it's a $25 baofeng, if i drop it in the lake im not out a lot of money" line that everybody's now just incredibly obsessed with making their radios ip65 or whatever the designator is. it drives me nuts and i can't stand it when people make a "suggest me a radio i can disrespect" post. Get a case if you're going to be wallowing around in mud holes with a ham radio. Weird angry post about better waterproofing for people operating outdoors.
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Aug 18, 2021 22:57
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i think some of it is also that the elmers with big towers are dying and being replaced by apartment dwelling POTA and SOTA folks that plan on actually taking their radios on hikes and stuff
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Aug 19, 2021 06:10
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haha that was a little salty, but i really am tired of having to go in and pull out tiny rubber membranes so tx audio is decent on new rigs
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Aug 19, 2021 07:50
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Forseti posted:I looked up SOTA having never heard of it before. gently caress, I really need to stop procrastinating and go get my license, that sounds awesome.
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Aug 29, 2021 22:55
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Vir posted:I got kinda sour at SOTA when the English owners of the program decided to retroactively disqualify a bunch of German mountain tops which are taller than any mountain in England. But yeah, mountain topping is great fun and it gets you out and about. There's been a lot of thunderstorms this summer, but I'm trying for a few activations this fall. Don’t SOTA AMs in each country define the summits?
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Aug 29, 2021 23:12
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thehustler posted:Don’t SOTA AMs in each country define the summits? The summits also have to meet requirements for a topographic "primary factor" of prominence, not just height. Several of the managers quit over the drama, and some of the activators started using the Global Mountain Activity award system instead (QCGMA) - but they still use SOTA references to avoid creating confusion for chasers. Amateur radio - Old men angry about maps. (As an aside, some walkers in my area were caught cheating on a non-radio summit competition - the kind where there's a log book in a box on the top of the summit where you write your name and time of visit to be crowned the most active mountain top walker. So being mad about summits isn't limited to hams.) Vir fucked around with this message at 14:58 on Aug 31, 2021 |
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Aug 31, 2021 14:50
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Just make your own list of interesting summits and "activate" them by making contacts from there and don't care about the rules, unless you're competing. There isn't even any sort of "official" sota activity in my country, yet that doesn't stop me from lugging my PRC-320 up the mountain.
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Aug 31, 2021 16:17
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Oh I meant “define the summits by using the rules” to be fair. Scotland does quite well for summits with the definitions, which annoys people.
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Aug 31, 2021 17:48
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 European Goons We're having the second SAARS DMR net at a reasonable time for Europeans this Saturday 4th September at 6pm UK time, 7pm CEST. People from elsewhere are also welcome, and we encourage you to join. Hopefully we'll make this a semi-regular thing. TG 3163563
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Sep 2, 2021 10:30
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Finally, FINALLY, almost four years after I got my general license, I'm going to have a dedicated HF setup. Stage 1 is gonna be a desk in the walkout basement and a wire dipole antenna. Stage 2 is the same but in a dedicated free-standing building. Stage 3 is erecting a 40 foot tower.
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Sep 4, 2021 16:14
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T-50 mins for any European goons who wish to join the net tonight
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Sep 4, 2021 17:11
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* excellent EU DMR net tonight, sadly didn't hear more checkins from that side of the pond but it was still great and i'm excited to see it continue. * speaking of HF, some of us are poking at JS8call as it has the balance we need of "works well with our garbage compromise stations" and "want to actually chat a bit instead of just sending SNR and grid". yall check it out, i can give tips if needed. 40 meters seems to be the big JS8 watering hole.
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Sep 4, 2021 18:59
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I’ll need someone to op next week and if that was someone from Europe I’d be so happy
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Sep 5, 2021 00:31
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Hah, sorry guys. As one of the people who said they’d be down for a more UK friendly time I feel a little guilty. I’ve now moved to the other side of the world. Speaking of which, any kiwis here? Never got beyond my UK foundation license, but would like to get into radios more.
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Sep 5, 2021 08:52
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Horse Clocks posted:Hah, sorry guys. As one of the people who said they’d be down for a more UK friendly time I feel a little guilty. Hahahah, christ, that’s a great coda to the net. Hope NZ is good, I’m very jealous! We barely get any other Americans in so the chances of anyone from NZ are nil.
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Sep 5, 2021 12:24
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i was about to suggest that it'd be cool if we did an asia/pacific net too so we have full world coverage.
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Sep 5, 2021 17:41
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I asked this in the electronics thread, but I'll also post it hereHis Divine Shadow posted:I dunno where to ask this, but I got questions about radio. I like radio but my reception is kinda poo poo, even got this flat cable antenna but it's still not that good. I am thinking of buying an antenna and mounting it on the roof of my house. Something like this is what I am thinking of:
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Sep 22, 2021 13:09
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I don't know about especially good AM reception, all I've ever used is the little integrated loop stick antennas that are inside my portable radios. I would guess that a very good outdoor AM antenna would be huge because the frequency is so low. As far as what to do with an outdoor antenna, could you use something like an RTL-SDR + a Pi or other small computer to access over wifi/network? Basically you'd have the whole radio part outside, but you'd use it via software on your PC or phone. Not sure if that would work for you, I guess it depends on if you are after the radio programs themselves or you actually want to use radios to listen. You could rebroadcast from the SDR though I think, as long as a slight delay isn't an issue for whatever your use case is.
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Sep 22, 2021 14:01
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His Divine Shadow posted:I asked this in the electronics thread, but I'll also post it here since you say you are in europe, should be lots of shortwave stations to listen to as well! and DRM stations too? someone else can comment on the antenna, but my understanding is that anything will do, when it comes to receiving strong AM radio signals -- but the problem is noise! i suspect your flat cable antenna might be picking up a lot of RF noise from around the house. ideally, the radio would be inside the house, and the antenna would be outside the house. maybe you can use something like this to avoid putting holes in the walls? https://www.diamondantenna.net/mgc50.html Forseti posted:I don't know about especially good AM reception, all I've ever used is the little integrated loop stick antennas that are inside my portable radios. I would guess that a very good outdoor AM antenna would be huge because the frequency is so low. i dont think thats going to work! the RTL-SDR won't receive at those low frequencies without an upconverter, and the upconverter will cause a shitload of signal loss! i use this SDR to receive AM radio signals, but its more expensive https://www.sdrplay.com/rspdx/ but i agree with the suggestion to hook the SDR up to a streaming server and use your wifi to broadcast the signal to your smartphone while you are around the house and in the yard. EDIT: one more suggestion: if RF noise is an issue, and you are trying to receive distant AM radio signals, maybe you would have better luck with a directional antenna, so you can null out noise sources by orienting the antenna away from them? maybe a magloop antenna would work well for this? Helianthus Annuus fucked around with this message at 16:20 on Sep 22, 2021 |
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Sep 22, 2021 16:10
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All my stuff here is vintage analog so I was kinda hoping to keep it that way. But you know I found this outlet. I might have a hookup to a central antenna somewhere, I remember we used to watch TV via this.... And I can't find a suitable coax cable to test it out...
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Sep 22, 2021 16:26
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i have one of those little FM antennas. they work very well and are unobtrusive for the cost. But yeah if you want it outside you're gonna have to sort a feed in somewhere. AM/medium wave broadcast is another story. Without diving into a bunch of active loop type stuff, best thing to do is a hunk of wire to the input of your AM receiver. Longer the better. 8-10 meters at least. Helianthus Annuus posted:i dont think thats going to work! the RTL-SDR won't receive at those low frequencies without an upconverter, and the upconverter will cause a shitload of signal loss! No longer accurate. Most of the popular RTL SDR sticks can be put in direct sampling mode to tune AM/shortwave. The problem is that now the RF gain adjustments no longer work, and because AM signals are so strong, you're going to get overload and will basically hear the loudest AM broadcast station in your area every 10 khz. Some attenuation is actually good here.
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Sep 22, 2021 18:19
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Couldn't find a suitable coax cable to plug in so I can't test it, but I hope I got acess to some sweet central antenna via it, otherwise I am gonna have to aim bigger. I have an FM ribbon cable antenna put up on my wall now and it's not doing that good a job. AM yeah I don't even have an internal antenna there at the moment, seems like i am gonna have to buy one, or build one (loop antenna). Then I read you can further improve it with a small loop and wire you put near the antenna and then you drag itout 8-10 meters and ground the other side. Backside of my receiver:  What the hell is 3000 FM? His Divine Shadow fucked around with this message at 04:40 on Sep 23, 2021 |
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Sep 23, 2021 04:31
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Looks like a connection point for a 300 ohm antenna. Here's how to make one if you have some scrap wire lying around. https://www.electronics-notes.com/articles/antennas-propagation/dipole-antenna/fm-dipole-antenna.php
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Sep 23, 2021 04:55
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Description of that sounds like the antenna I got hooked up to the regular coax port now:
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Sep 23, 2021 05:17
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Nice wallpaper, grandma
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Sep 23, 2021 05:27
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Gettin' some strong UK vibes from these photos
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Sep 23, 2021 05:30
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