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thehustler posted:That’s really helpful, thanks. I intend to get into this and maybe even CW activate as well Sometimes it's in the CQ, frequently people will know it from the online spotting posts. I don't typically hear activators sending it every qso, usually every few. When I activate I usually send it every 10 min or so as long as there's an online spot or if I've scheduled it.
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Feb 6, 2022 02:09
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I put up an end fed random wire antenna, it's probably 15 meters. As you can see the current weather prevents me from getting a good ground connection however. I am getting pretty good SW reception but the long (150-250khz) and medium wave (520-1600khz) reception wasn't anywhere as good. I am just using mig wire for antenna and zip ties for insulators. I want to get a slingshot so I can get the antenna higher up in the trees. I was also thinking of making the antenna longer by soldering the mig wire together where it currently stops and running maybe another 20 meters or more along the tree line. It would then be L-shaped which is less than ideal, at least for transmitting, but I tihnk it will help since I only care about reception. I would have like 50 meters then which I think would get me better reception at lower frequencies.     I've been told I should use a 9:1 unun with coax as well as a choke to get less noise, but my vintage receivers don't use coax. I've asked if I should use two ununs then since the receiver probably wants high impedance input, but I've not gotten a straight answer. I think that's the way go however. A 9:1 unun at the end of the antenna, and another in reverse at the recevier. Choke between the two ununs.
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Mar 7, 2022 12:20
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I use somewhat the same setup except i have 18 meters and only one unun. Grounding made it MUCH better after i drove a copper stake into the ground. Always Ground Your Antenna AGYA.
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Mar 7, 2022 13:34
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I'd love to but the ground is frozen. I wonder how summertime will affect reception, I'll turn on my robot mower then and my whole yard is surrounded by boundary wire, almost 400 meters of the stuff is buried. I wonder if it'll generate noise...
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Mar 7, 2022 13:53
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His Divine Shadow posted:I'd love to but the ground is frozen. Lmao
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Mar 7, 2022 13:55
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I was wondering if it would make a decent antenna actually.
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Mar 7, 2022 14:13
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*me with an ATU looking at society* dang thats a lot of antennas
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Mar 7, 2022 16:28
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Big Mackson posted:*me with an ATU looking at society* dang thats a lot of antennas we got a 30 foot dumpster in our driveway for a month back at the old house, i found a bolt and attached coax hot to it, hammered some scrap copper into the ground next to it for coax shield, and made several hilarious contacts one day on 20m and 40m ssb. tuners rule.
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Mar 7, 2022 17:19
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Jonny 290 posted:we got a 30 foot dumpster in our driveway for a month back at the old house, i found a bolt and attached coax hot to it, hammered some scrap copper into the ground next to it for coax shield, and made several hilarious contacts one day on 20m and 40m ssb. tuners rule. It occurred to me that your end-fed dumpster antenna is more sophisticated than any setup currently deployed by the Russians in the Ukranian invasion.
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Mar 8, 2022 13:19
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I need an antenna launcher. Been looking at slingshots and I am wondering, is it better to build your own, or should I just get any el-cheap slingshot from a store? I think a slingshot is the easiest way to get height. A propane spudgun might be fun though. Also my SW receiver arrived (top one): 
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Mar 9, 2022 11:27
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Yeah i use a $3.99 harbor freight slingshot, some 10mm sockets I stole from the guys in AI, and a spinning rod. I just use the bottom half of the latter, and have this little tube I jam in the ground and put the base of the rod in, pointed right towards where I wanna launch. You can yeet it _high_. I suggest putting a little flag of tape or ribbon on the socket end of the line so you can see it after the launch better. And prepare to practice and fail a couple of times. Your shelf is beauty, by the way!
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Mar 9, 2022 19:46
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Greetings fellow hams. KF7USV (General) here. Been great reading this thread thus far. Been working digital modes lately on HF. FT8, usually on 17,15,12 and 10M. Hope to see some of you in my logbook in the future. 73s
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Mar 29, 2022 14:08
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https://nediv.arrl.org/2022/03/26/haarp-on-the-air/  HAARP is active overnight US time for a NASA aurora rocket launch
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Mar 29, 2022 15:43
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmUzAZHBPBo People keep bringing up LA8PV when i say i am a radio amateur.
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Mar 30, 2022 14:34
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Jonny 290 posted:we got a 30 foot dumpster in our driveway for a month back at the old house, i found a bolt and attached coax hot to it, hammered some scrap copper into the ground next to it for coax shield, and made several hilarious contacts one day on 20m and 40m ssb. tuners rule. My building's exterior is going to be undergoing an overhaul over the next six months which made me think of this post. I'm going to have ten stories x fifty meters of scaffolding adjacent to my balcony, is there any way I can leverage this into a stupid antenna?
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Apr 12, 2022 19:46
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Coxswain Balls posted:My building's exterior is going to be undergoing an overhaul over the next six months which made me think of this post. I'm going to have ten stories x fifty meters of scaffolding adjacent to my balcony, is there any way I can leverage this into a stupid antenna? If KI6NAZ has taught me anything, it's that all you need for an antenna is a balun, a matching network, an unpainted surface, and a dream.
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Apr 12, 2022 19:51
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Coxswain Balls posted:My building's exterior is going to be undergoing an overhaul over the next six months which made me think of this post. I'm going to have ten stories x fifty meters of scaffolding adjacent to my balcony, is there any way I can leverage this into a stupid antenna? absolutely. even if it's grounded at the base it'll be vaguely loadable by a tuner and a counterpoise
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Apr 12, 2022 22:16
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Awesome, I'm gonna try starting with that Hallicrafters radio and if that goes well then I'll look into picking something up that's newer and can do SSB. I was never able to find my dad's DX400 so hopefully I can find something for cheap. My SDR line can be hooked up easily enough but I don't think there's much point? I can always give it a shot and compare it to the ADS-B cantenna that's been working really well for me. Here's where it's at today, still a couple more floors to go. 
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Apr 13, 2022 01:23
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QST QST QST Just a heads up to you ham nerds that AG0ON has an upcoming meeting on April 24th, 2022 at 1900 UTC (1500 Eastern). More details will follow regarding where the meeting will be held and all that jazz. If you have any topics that you'd like to see addressed during the meeting, please post them here or let me know on Discord.
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Apr 19, 2022 22:21
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Clamped a wire to the scaffold and it's definitely picking up way more signals. Right now I've just been checking the 2m and 70cm bands so I can compare it to my handheld and it's getting stuff loud and clear that my handheld can only barely make out if it hears anything at all.
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Apr 20, 2022 00:21
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The Vail app (Internet Morse Code) I posted about a while back has been getting steady updates. Yesterday I released version 2 of the hardware adapter, to make it even easier to program and set up. Some video walkthroughs:
Vail is a free service run by yours truly, available at https://vail.woozle.org/. We now have our own (tiny) Discord, run by one of the users. If you're interested in learning Morse Code, and want the real experience of transmitting over radio waves / wires / light -- that is, you don't want the computer to decode/encode stuff on your behalf -- Vail might be for you!
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Apr 21, 2022 16:31
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I want it recorded for posterity in the thread forevermore that I did my first CW QSO today and it wasn’t totally awful. What a rush! I need to buy a proper paddle though, got my eye on a few. I don’t want to pay through the nose for it though. Looks to be some kits on eBay. Or some decently made ones for £40 locally.
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Apr 25, 2022 21:21
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I've been messing around with building simple radios from transistors for a while now and having fun, but I finally picked a cheap Baofeng UV-5R and gotta say... it's a ton of fun! I think I got lucky and happen to live in a spot where it's easy to get into ham with such a radio because the EMS/FD/PD still use regular ol' analog FM, at least for dispatch. So I've been having fun keeping them on in the background. I've got the programming cable on the way and looked at the local repeaters, and I think I lucked out again there too if I understand it right. They're showing one running "FM Fusion" as the mode, which appears to be a bridge between analog and digital modes if I understand it? In other words, with a license, I could use the UV-5R to talk to the repeater and be able to reach people running digital modes and vice versa? Also I definitely got an itch to build more sophisticated radios  I looked at the tests and was pleasantly surprised that online testing seems easier than ever! I can pass the technician exam easily, and probably a coin flip on the general (without studying). It sounds like I can take the technician and then if passed, the general in the same sitting without an additional fee? So like I might as well try the coin flip if I don't feel like studying beforehand? Also I'm not clear on calculators, the first VE's rules I _think_ said no calculators period, but searching online it seems like that's VE discretion? Reason I ask is there are questions that I could easily answer with a calculator from the formula, but things like "what percentage is an insertion loss of 1dB", I can't do 10^(1/10) in my head. Are these like lookup tables that most people memorize or something? It seems a lot easier to just remember dB = 10*log(P/P') and do algebra... Likewise for the questions about relating frequency to wavelength, it's easy to calculate l = c/f and I just don't have a memory build up for what frequencies correspond to what wavelengths. I'm fine (actually I prefer because I like the entry speed) using my Sharp EL-501X2, a pretty basic scientific calculator Edit: Oh, I should also so that it's my understanding the latest versions of the UV-5R, which this one is, are just fine for use on the ham bands. Sounds like early iterations were pretty noisy emitters but they cleaned that up at this point? I know you still can't use them on FRS/GMRS (outside of an actual emergency) because they're too powerful in addition to not meeting the specific rules like permanently attached antenna for that use. If this is incorrect, is there something better than the Yaesu YT-60 at this point or should I just pick one of those up? I expect I'd want to pick up better radios at some point anyway Forseti fucked around with this message at 20:06 on Apr 26, 2022 |
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Apr 26, 2022 20:01
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I think the Newest U5R's block GRMS/FMRS totally due to the power issue.
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Apr 26, 2022 21:21
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tater_salad posted:I think the Newest U5R's block GRMS/FMRS totally due to the power issue. They do out of the box now but people figured out you can just hold down three buttons when you turn it on to unlock it permanently: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sg3RJf1ZEA Which I don't think I really need to do and kind of like the guard rail, but I can see how someone may want to do that for actual emergency use like out in wildfire country or something. Would be nice to have it all on one radio, and I _think_ it's kosher in an actual emergency?
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Apr 26, 2022 22:20
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Forseti posted:Would be nice to have it all on one radio, and I _think_ it's kosher in an actual emergency? Have a look at subpart E. http://www.ncvec.org/page.php?id=320 If there’s a real emergency and regular means of communication aren’t available, almost anything goes to get or provide help. The Baofengs are cheaper than a lot of bubblepack FRS radios and top results on Amazon. I’m all for soft-locking them so that every family at Disneyland isn’t blasting 8 watts of bad RF without knowing any better. As a licensed operator, you’re already supposed to know better.
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Apr 26, 2022 23:43
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https://twitter.com/K0NR/status/1519447568790564867 Seems bad.
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Apr 28, 2022 02:57
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"look, not even a single person has signed up for the ham frequencies in the past two weeks, it's fine. just sell it to Verizon, i'm done hearing about this"
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Apr 28, 2022 03:15
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Can y’all help me understand what I heard on the air? Scenario is: On brandmeister repeater. Two stations with dmrids not listed on radioid.net Both talking independently into repeater Talkgroup I can’t find any reference to online Didn’t ID in the 20min I was listening. (Granted I didn’t hear the fist 10 minutes) Their calls on the repeater page have a red dot next to them.  Any ideas? Some weird digital crossmode? Unlicensed transmissions?
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Apr 28, 2022 05:53
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I've been fooling around with my Yaesu ft7. With just 4m of wire literally thrown over a hedge (a rather tall one, about 4 meter) i could already hear my CW signals on the SDRs in Andorra, Bordeaux, Estland and Cheshire. My own location is close to Amsterdam. Shortwave is pure magic. I do need my tall spiderpole for SSB use. Also, the QRM eliminator works much better with that one. The wire in the hedge picks up almost the same amount of 'wanted' signal as the indoors qrm antenna does. That said, the QRM eliminator is pretty amazing when combined with a 'proper' antenna!
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Apr 28, 2022 22:07
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blugu64 posted:Can y’all help me understand what I heard on the air? Well turns out it was unlicensed transmissions. Asked around and the good ole boy net knew who it was (couple of high schoolers) and ran with it. Bit more to it (apparently there’s a history or something I don’t know) but the tldr is kids with way cooler toys then I had growing up Haha.
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Apr 29, 2022 16:14
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You guys, i'm pretty amazed. I just repaired a chinese $5 Pixie kit i somehow hosed up a long time ago. I hooked it up to my short wire antenna, and i could hear my CW signals originating here near Amsterdam, all the way in Bordeaux, 900km away. The power going into the antenna is small enough to not even let a little lightbulb light up. How the hell can such a cheap and lovely thing, still get almost a thousand kilometers of range, with such a lovely antenna. Signals aren't strong or consistent of course, but holy gently caress. The TX is stable, no chirp to speak of. It does not offer any tuning, not even 'pulling' the crystal a bit. Which is slightly annoying when you're calling CQ and the someone just doesn't hear you and steamrolls right over you. But gently caress, man, it's a 5 dollar fully functioning transceiver. The receiver is pretty sensitive, but also extremely sensitive to QRM from electronics. And of course there is literally no selectivity. You hear all signals within 7khz on either side of the Xtal frequency. You can adjust the RIT, then memorize the right beat note, and hope you're within the filters of the people you wanna speak. LimaBiker fucked around with this message at 19:25 on Apr 29, 2022 |
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Apr 29, 2022 19:22
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i really need to get an antenna (wire) and stuff(tuner) set up for my SDR, but I can also just fuckaround on SDR onlines and hear wahtever so I have very little desire to dick around. I initially wanted to use my Rpi to post a local PD feed to radioreference but that's even more of a pain in the rear end than I imagined.
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Apr 29, 2022 19:46
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LimaBiker posted:The power going into the antenna is small enough to not even let a little lightbulb light up. How the hell can such a cheap and lovely thing, still get almost a thousand kilometers of range, with such a lovely antenna. The QRP guys wrote the paper I found most helpful out of anything in understanding transistor datasheets: https://hyse.org/pdf/www.aoc.nrao.edu/~pharden/hobby/HG_DS2.pdf It looks like a super fun hobby! A bunch of other resources I've found helpful have been from them too (there's another one about using Power MOSFETs in Class C that I thought was really good that I can't recall right now)
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Apr 29, 2022 20:52
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2uBFpzX7DQ Poor little mosfet, somehow pins 3,1,2 became 2,1,3! Perhaps you enjoy floating in space. Goon SAARS discord suggested trying store epoxy to bond components to the board, going to try that next time.  Another board revision, another day. Or 14 days? JLCPCB turn and burn. My Quikchip leaded solder paste went bad, again; Had significant rework and it looks like crap. Apparently the flux in the paste goes bad, some chip legs "floated" out during reflow. Lots of intermittent connections and chasing ghosts, my favorite. Next revision I will try ENIG finish and lead-free GC10 paste, which allegedly is shelf stable for year. Higher materials cost, but less waste? This component shortage is absolutely brutal, can't go to production in the foreseeable (52 week) future. Might try and source components for a goon-beta, 10 to 20 units.
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May 1, 2022 06:37
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So I'm eyeing a rural property up on a hill, beautiful place with a few acres and a shop that would be great for a radio setup... but there are high-tension lines going right through the place, basically directly over the garage/shop and pretty close to the house. How bad do those things mess with HF? Is there some sort of inexpensive meter I could get off Amazon and just wander around the place to get an idea for RF noise?
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May 4, 2022 01:41
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transistor AM radio. Easy peasy. I have 15kv lines running literally 15 feet away from, and parallel to, my HF dipole, and the powerline noise isn't really noticeable at all. Much worse are my neighbors' lovely wall warts and laptop bricks.
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May 4, 2022 01:43
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Jonny 290 posted:transistor AM radio. Easy peasy. Ah see that's the nice part about this place, the nearest neighbors are like 1/4 mile away. Portable AM radio is an obvious answer that I should have thought about. I was thinking "well my HF rigs need 120...", forgetting that I have a little pocket-sized AM/FM radio sitting on the shelf behind me. Now with my luck they'll accept an offer tomorrow after months on the market...
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May 4, 2022 01:51
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Take care that even in the worst case scenario (such as power lines or antenna poles breaking in a storm) there is no risk on contact between the antenna and the power line. Some power lines create a ton of interference. In some countries high voltage stuff is controlled via power line communication. Whenever i'm listening to AM radio in the car, the 380kV lines in my city create a ton of weird distortion when driving under them. I guess some are worse than others. In my home situation, the VFD of the ventilation system that's fitted to each house in the block, as well as solar panels, are the things that cause the worst interference. In other news, i reached the spanish WebSDR with my little chinese Pixie transmitter. Barely audible signal, but it was there. Antenna was a quarter wave vertical. Distance 1200km! I keep being amazed. People don't seem terribly interested in replying to my CQ's though 
LimaBiker fucked around with this message at 22:13 on May 6, 2022 |
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May 6, 2022 22:07
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Excuse me for kicking the thread, but i just built this! It's a little push pull Hartley transmitter with a DCC90 (3a5) double triode on a small 7 pin base, designed for battery operated VHF transmitters. It tunes the whole 80m band and currently puts out between 0,5w or so, of which perhaps 0,2w is actually flowing through the antenna judging by the very scientific method of 'looking at the dim flashlight bulb and estimating the power it produces'. It should be able to do 1ish watt, perhaps 1,5. It's still a work in progress (yes, that is hot glue), i still have to optimize it and see how much power i can coax out of it, without making the signal too chirpy. After all, this thing doesn't have a separate oscillator! Right now, it is remarkably stable once it's tuned. The chirp is about 200hz which is pretty good for a non crystal stabilized transmitter. Better than my Angry 9. It runs on a 1,2v rechargable battery for the filaments and a 90v inverter for the high voltage. As of yet, i've heard it readable but weak on an SDR 100km away, and detectable and very weak 250km away with a 10m vertical wire in the backyard. The antenna is very non ideal for 80m. It's still daytime here, i'll give it another go when the sun goes down and greyline propagation kicks in  Of course, the signals should be much better once i'm done figuring out how much antenna coupling it wants, and how much drive i can give it before the chirp/heating of the tube gets unacceptable. Here's the schematic:  Component values are here for 160m and for bigger tubes. LimaBiker fucked around with this message at 19:25 on May 9, 2022 |
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May 9, 2022 19:14
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