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Hah. the 'two-jack' spacing was really standardized. You could do worse than buying a cheap knockoff speaker mic and lopping it off to get at the wires. Just study wiring diagrams carefully as sometimes you need to do weird poo poo to trigger PTT.
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Nov 2, 2021 02:02
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Jonny 290 posted:Hah. the 'two-jack' spacing was really standardized. You could do worse than buying a cheap knockoff speaker mic and lopping it off to get at the wires. Just study wiring diagrams carefully as sometimes you need to do weird poo poo to trigger PTT. After digging through some boxes I found a lovely Baofeng headset that fits. I forgot that this thing doesn't have VOX, so I'll have to wire up some sort of PTT thing. It just wants one of the lines on the mic pulled low... to do it "right" I ought to get an optoisolator, but a transistor switch is easy and I have the parts on hand. It's kind of a shame it doesn't do VOX because then I could also plug it into my phone and do APRSdroid.
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Nov 2, 2021 04:29
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yeah, for my APRS rig that uses a soundcard Pi hat i literally just picked off an unused gpio line and soldered a 2n3904 to the pins for a quick way to pull the PTT line low. Incidentally i'm using another one of those kenwood tm-201's for my APRS setup  god i miss hamfests and $15 80s mobile rigs
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Nov 2, 2021 04:33
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Pham Nuwen posted:I want to fool around with APRS using my IC-W32A. How standard are the speaker/mic ports across radio manufacturers and, more importantly, how uniform is the spacing between those two? It seems like I should be able to get something which joins the speaker & mic ports into a single TRRS 1/8" connector I can plug into my laptop, but it's hard to figure out what to get when I'm just looking at stuff on the Internet. Google tells me that you want a "k1 to 3.5mm adapter". Good luck!
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Nov 2, 2021 12:43
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edit: never mind, probably not helpful
silence_kit fucked around with this message at 13:30 on Nov 3, 2021 |
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Nov 3, 2021 13:16
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I was gonna reply that it was above my skill level for now, still thanks for trying. Gonna focus on getting the FM aerial up for now and spend some time reading up on antenna design and principles. With some help and researching the FM transmitters around me and finding they are both vertically and horizontally polarized I was recommended this kind of omnidirectional antenna that can receive both polarizations:  I found some instructive reading on old style wire antennas from a swedish radio amateur magazine from 1924. Just buying an MLA-30+ antenna from ebay is also looking attractive as a starting point. I will probably just lead it in separately to the radio at first via the window. Looks like loop antennas work better near the ground anyway.
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Nov 3, 2021 14:43
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I sat my foundation exam a week ago, apparently results may take another two weeks. Australia is very slow about this stuff.
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Nov 11, 2021 09:16
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I'm ashamed to admit my license lapsed in August of 2020 without even noticing. I submitted my renewal request to the FCC last night around 10 PM, and got the approval email at 12:30 AM! I was expecting it to take a couple of weeks or something, not a couple of hours.
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Nov 12, 2021 09:59
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Yeah, they're pretty quick on it. i realized i was a week out for expiration this summer and it went super quick. Glad you snuck in during the grace period!
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Nov 12, 2021 14:20
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Obviously since I let my license lapse, it has been a long time since I have actually keyed up a transmitter. PSK was all the rage the last time I was messing around, but I don't see nearly as much of it now. FT8 seems to be the new hotness and I am here for it, since I'm using a KX3 I can get a lot of mileage out of the lower transmit power and I don't have to hear the graybeards go on about their ailments or terrible political opinions. Just acknowledging receipt and signal strength, then move on to the next one. The real fun for me on HF has always been to see how far away I can hear, then how far away I can be heard, and this tickles the itch perfectly. I ordered one of the Airspy HF+ Discovery dongles that I am going to plug in to an openwebrx setup at my workplace, which is about 5 miles away. The plan is to build out a nice RX setup there with remote access, and I can keep doing TX from home while messing around with lovely compromise antennas off my apartment balcony. Next up is loving around with SSTV.
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Nov 14, 2021 06:57
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ickna posted:
Brace yourself for Norm.
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Nov 14, 2021 12:29
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haha Yeah. (on the upside you get to see my sstv farts too)
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Nov 14, 2021 18:54
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Jonny 290 posted:Yeah, they're pretty quick on it. i realized i was a week out for expiration this summer and it went super quick. Glad you snuck in during the grace period! I was a year out but still in the grace period somehow. Glad they're forgiving.
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Nov 14, 2021 22:41
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Maybe they changed something recently?quote:Renew your license through the Universal Licensing System (ULS) at any time within 90 days of the expiration date for the license and up to two years after the license expires. From here I'd still renew in that window before expiration, just in case. Got the reminder calendar events already set up
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Nov 16, 2021 21:24
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Youtube randomly recommended this video to me, a neat vintage ARRL promotional film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6-ydrdTPhM
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Nov 17, 2021 00:51
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Saw this coming out from Xeigu which seems like a cheaper version of icom's 705 (excepting the 705's support of VHF and UHF) which includes a tuner as well. Has anyone seen any reviews on this yet? https://www.radioddity.com/products/xiegu-x6100
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Nov 17, 2021 17:23
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Nitrousoxide posted:Saw this coming out from Xeigu which seems like a cheaper version of icom's 705 (excepting the 705's support of VHF and UHF) which includes a tuner as well. Has anyone seen any reviews on this yet? That thing looks rad. I think K4SWL (the qrper.com/swling post guy) basically gave a "do not recommend" for the GSOC thing Xeigu made, hopefully they can work out whatever issues they had with it. Laughing at Elecraft getting lapped on a theoretical KX4.
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Nov 17, 2021 18:01
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How does it stack up Vs a G90?
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Nov 17, 2021 19:03
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I normally kinda poo poo on the chinarigs, but 650 for a 705 competitor that trades 2m/70cm for internal battery and tuner is pretty juicy. Not bad.
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Nov 17, 2021 19:36
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Passed my U.K. intermediate hot drat 
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Nov 20, 2021 13:11
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We’ll do a net today at 7pm U.K. time, which is also UTC at the moment.
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Nov 21, 2021 15:41
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Cross posting this from the tech relics thread because I did get this fired up, and on VHF Channel 6, it picks up a definite Beep-static-beep-static signal (not TV static, dial-up modem static) that makes me think its picking up some sort of repeating data beacon? Have other services started using the UHF and VHF TV bands?Jim Silly-Balls posted:Speaking of ancient tech, I picked this up today at goodwill, based on its aesthetics alone. Initially, based on the screen I thought it was a small portable oscilloscope, which still would have been cool. What it actually is, is a Sony TV-511 black and white CRT TV from the late 70's. I really like its faux military aesthetic, and while it does work, its RF input only and black and white, so there isn't a ton I can do with it.
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Nov 23, 2021 22:11
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VHF 6 is 82-88 MHz, not commonly used other than butting up against the low end of broadcast FM. I don't think there's anything that should be dumping a data carrier (the static you describe) on that frequency unless something really lovely is happening. Could you record the sound? A few of us can identify data by ear.
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Nov 23, 2021 22:45
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Neito posted:VHF 6 is 82-88 MHz, not commonly used other than butting up against the low end of broadcast FM. I don't think there's anything that should be dumping a data carrier (the static you describe) on that frequency unless something really lovely is happening. Could you record the sound? A few of us can identify data by ear. Well this is weird, today the beeping is faster, and doesn't seem to have the dial-up sound, which stood out yesterday against the TV static.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6WvkAnwQ30
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Nov 24, 2021 20:30
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wooo i got my licence upgrade through, goodbye mm3iig, hello 2m0iig!
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Nov 25, 2021 17:19
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thehustler posted:wooo i got my licence upgrade through, goodbye mm3iig, hello 2m0iig! Congrats, but that's gonna take me a while to remember.
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Nov 25, 2021 17:55
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i can only apologise for our ridiculous regional identifier situation
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Nov 25, 2021 21:20
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I've gotten the results from my exam, I passed! It took three weeks for them to get me the results. Now the regulator in my country (Australia) has emailed me saying they'll "try" to get an invoice issued for my license in the next couple of weeks. Once they accept payment then they'll try to get around to issuing the license! But once that's all done I'll have VK6HAX.
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Nov 27, 2021 04:16
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sick call, and also, lmao what the gently caress is this invoice and billing crap? Regardless - super excited for you!
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Nov 27, 2021 04:27
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Jonny 290 posted:lmao what the gently caress is this invoice and billing crap? Right?
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Nov 28, 2021 04:25
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yoloer420 posted:Right? For comparison's sake in NZ it's around NZ$100 (~US$60-70) all in for the exam/registration, but then there's no expiration nor renewals after that e: also for better or worse there's only one license class, so no fees to be had from upgrades Progressive JPEG fucked around with this message at 10:32 on Nov 28, 2021 |
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Nov 28, 2021 08:54
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U.K. exam fees: • Foundation £27.50 • Intermediate £32.50 • Full Licence £37.50 Then your licence is a lifetime one you just have to update the details on every five years.
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Nov 28, 2021 09:19
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drat Australia sucks for this. I'm going to skip standard and go straight to advanced I think. That way I'll only need to pay for two exams and license issuances instead of three.
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Nov 28, 2021 13:07
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yoloer420 posted:drat Australia sucks for this. I'm going to skip standard and go straight to advanced I think. That way I'll only need to pay for two exams and license issuances instead of three. Gotta do them in sequence here - there has been a lot of chatter about whether they should change that to let you shoot straight for full, including a consultation this year: https://www.essexham.co.uk/direct-to-full.html
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Nov 28, 2021 13:57
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i think it's $15 to sit for a test here, but if you do multiple tests at the same sitting there's no extra charge
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Nov 28, 2021 17:13
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When I took my Technician test the VE said that the FCC had announced that it could up the test-taking cost to $35 in 2022, so if twenty bucks mattered to me I should take the tests I want to take this year. Twenty bucks doesn't really matter to me but for some reason that did spur me to get General not too long after. And after a few weekends worth of work here I am with my first HF antenna, a 40' by 20' saggy rectangle loop for 40m. I definitely didn't think that digging a 90' trench was going to be something I did for this hobby, but again, here I am. Still waiting on the power supply for the new Xiegu G90, but I did hook the antenna up to an SDR with a HF LNA and picked up FT8 from as far away as eastern Spain, Japan, and Chile (I'm in the US southwest). We'll see what's possible with 20W.
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Nov 29, 2021 00:07
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America posted:I definitely didn't think that digging a 90' trench was going to be something I did for this hobby, but again, here I am. Welcome to HF and congrats on the new ticket.
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Nov 29, 2021 00:22
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the amateur radio hobby can be distilled down to folks that buy 99% refined copper wire and re-bury it in the earth
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Nov 29, 2021 02:12
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Jonny 290 posted:the amateur radio hobby can be distilled down to folks that buy 99% refined copper wire and re-bury it in the earth That's it's home, that's where it wants to go!
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Nov 29, 2021 12:26
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Jim Silly-Balls posted:Cross posting this from the tech relics thread because I did get this fired up, and on VHF Channel 6, it picks up a definite Beep-static-beep-static signal (not TV static, dial-up modem static) that makes me think its picking up some sort of repeating data beacon? Have other services started using the UHF and VHF TV bands? Weird old portable Sony CRT hype! Yours is a lot cooler than mine though, I'm pretty jealous. I got mine because I wanted to experiment with creating analog TV broadcast signals and it's super convenient for that. I guess what I'm saying is, this find necessitates a new hobby for you, congrats! Does that thing have a magnifier in front of the screen too? Like something out of Brazil/12 Monkeys? I did a quick search around channel 6 on mine and I can get an audio signal too. Mine is just awful Christmas music and ramblings about Jesus though, so you win again there 
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Nov 29, 2021 14:31
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