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Jonny 290 posted:yep! i use 100 watt on end fed wire lol
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Sep 28, 2022 12:52
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| # ? May 9, 2024 22:52 |
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Anyone else grab APT images from the NOAA sats? It looks like NOAA-15 is having some issues, its transmitted pics are very glitchy over the last 48 hrs. Wonder if it's finally dying.
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Oct 21, 2022 15:52
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It seems the motor on the scanning instrument is a bit poorly. It does that because it is very old, the poor thing. We’ll have to wait for news
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Oct 21, 2022 16:38
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Is it dumb to try and make a Raspberry Pi SDR just to listen to HD Radio? I have a couple RPIs, which are the hard part to source at the moment, but is this a weird idea? One of my favorite radio stations got bumped off their analog freq by NPR. I haven't found any good/cheap HD radios to listen at home. I've mentioned this to a few friends and they just say use tune-in or streaming but they have ads and tracking and in general I would rather not. I've also got a couple old laptops I can image with debian if hardware makes a difference.
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Oct 21, 2022 17:00
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Is HD Radio decoding via SDR a thing now? If so, then why would it be dumb? Especially if you already have some of the hardware so it costs a lot less than the real thing. Double especially when none of the hardware involved is specific to the task so if it doesn't work out you haven't really lost anything but time. I mean, it'll probably have worse RF performance than a hardware radio and possibly also a worse UI, but since its digital the RF performance doesn't matter as long as you're getting enough and a low cost DIY project excuses a lot of UI flaws.
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Oct 21, 2022 19:39
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built a 1:1 balun with a 'vertical mode' switch for my ZS6BKW that i just put back up  Straight through in one position, flip the switch and it shorts both ladder line conductors together, feeds them like a vertical monopole, and connects the other balun conductor to ground. Good for 160/80 and listening to AM broadcast. wire is 16awg magnet, run through 3mm ID PTFE tubing (sold for 3d printer folks). switch is big; i bought 10 and tore one down to see how burly it was. Big gaps on the unconnected terminals so won't be any arcing. whole thing's probably good for 5 kW lol
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Oct 21, 2022 21:43
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wolrah posted:Is HD Radio decoding via SDR a thing now? If so, then why would it be dumb? Especially if you already have some of the hardware so it costs a lot less than the real thing. Double especially when none of the hardware involved is specific to the task so if it doesn't work out you haven't really lost anything but time. I just wanted to ask since it seems odd to me that there aren't a bunch of cheap HD radios or AUX 3.5mm tuners to plug into a speaker. I mean I guess I could get a 2-din head unit someone threw out but that seems sillier than buying a $20 SDR Pi Hat. The code involved is https://github.com/theori-io/nrsc5 and seems well maintained. I'll give it a try and see how it goes. If it's not too badly built by the end I'll put some pics up.
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Oct 21, 2022 23:11
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Jonny 290 posted:built a 1:1 balun with a 'vertical mode' switch for my ZS6BKW that i just put back up That looks really professional for a homemade product. How much did it cost in total?
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Oct 22, 2022 11:45
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Box was actually the most expensive part. Most of it was fractions of bulk purchases i've made to stock up so i will average it out $11 - 4x4x2 outdoor box from HD $10 - ft240-43 toroid $5 - 3mm ID teflon tubing $3 - screws, nuts, washers $1 - weatherproof DPDT switch $1 - so-239 $0.50 - 16awg magnet wire $0.25 - ring terminals lets say 35 beans all in + labor - did take me an hour or so to build, in small chunks between checking the work pager. compare to something like https://www.balundesigns.com/model-1116di-1-1-balun-low-band-optimized-1-31-mhz-5kw/ which doesnt have the flexibility of mine i put it in vertical mode overnight and let wspr run at 5 watts, here's the results 
Jonny 290 fucked around with this message at 18:46 on Oct 22, 2022 |
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Oct 22, 2022 18:44
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dangit how do i still not have an hf rig. i mean seriously but dang $1k+ for the transceiver plus a few hundred getting an antenna up (plus antenna cost itself) plus a power supply. and unlike all my other hobbies i can't by it one piece at a time. i figure i'd be $2k all in easy to get a setup, and that's if i were to know what i actually want for the antenna setup, and i dont
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Oct 23, 2022 01:19
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Achmed Jones posted:dangit how do i still not have an hf rig. i mean seriously If you're willing to learn Morse code or you want to play with digital modes, you can get into HF for significantly cheaper: https://www.qrp-labs.com/qcxp.html https://www.qrp-labs.com/qdx.html Build them yourself for cheap or buy them pre-built for slightly less cheap, but still an order of magnitude less than a typical rig. You can get on the air and learn what you like to help inform what kind of radio you want. If you want a pre-built antenna, you can get them relatively inexpensively too: https://www.sotabeams.co.uk/two-band-portable-dipole-antenna-system-band-hopper-ii/ For antennas, just start with a scrap wire dipole on a tree and see how that works out, you can always change it up later. I'd love a directional antenna on a huge tower, but I do all my operating QRP with some wire up on an ebay fishing rod mast. Still lots of fun.
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Oct 23, 2022 14:40
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oh poo poo good call, i even have a qdx kit layin around. time to get building i guess!
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Oct 23, 2022 17:24
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Leaving the radio and computer to monitor while i sleep. Cat changed the frequency while i slept. Lock function is there for a reason lol.
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Oct 23, 2022 19:03
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Is your cat even licensed?
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Oct 23, 2022 19:05
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eddiewalker posted:Is your cat even licensed? No officer it was my CAT not my cat.
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Oct 23, 2022 19:08
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i built the qdx. i don't know if i messed it up or my antenna (idk maybe 15 feet of wire inside my house) is too crummy to pick up FT8 could be both! if any of y'all have "how to tell if it's built right" tips please lmk. status led does all the expected things, firmware updates fine, and CAT test etc worked. i can get a terminal and run the diagnostics, but as far as i can tell there's no "check to see if it actually works" diagnostic
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Oct 25, 2022 00:44
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Try transmitting on wspr and see if anyone picks it up.
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Oct 25, 2022 01:01
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oh, wspr will work better than ft8? cool i'll try it. thanks!
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Oct 25, 2022 01:15
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you should be able to hear ft8 on 20/40 meters basically 24/7. makes for a pretty good test because its a popular mode and there’s always signals
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Oct 25, 2022 01:17
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dang, i'm getting nothing. would it come through indoors with only a few feet of random wire?
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Oct 25, 2022 01:26
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Transmit, don't worry about receiving. You can search on https://www.wsprnet.org/drupal/wsprnet/spotquery to see if anyone picked up your transmission. This way we can determine if your TX capability is ok or not. Achmed Jones posted:dang, i'm getting nothing. would it come through indoors with only a few feet of random wire? You'll likely get something if you let it run for a day or so. That setup isn't going to be reliable though. You're more likely to get lucky with TX.
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Oct 25, 2022 01:30
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Achmed Jones posted:dang, i'm getting nothing. would it come through indoors with only a few feet of random wire? A few feet of random wire inside a building isn't ideal for picking up HF signals. Try using equal sized long wires, one attached to the center of the antenna plug and one attached to the outside of the plug. Get the wires as high off the ground as you can in the circumstances. You might have better luck receiving signals. Also the qdx manual has testing and troubleshooting tips at the end if you think you might have a build issue.
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Oct 25, 2022 03:14
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i put up a zip cord antenna set up for 20m (...-ish) and have received a couple piddly little ft8 transmissions and then, later, a whole pile of em on 40m. i can't get anyone to hear me, though. i also swapped out shinysdr for openwebrx on my rtl-sdr. using openwebrx as a receiver with my indoor random wire antenna, i was able to self-spot an ft8 transmission from the qdx. the SWR on my zipcord antenna is ~11; compare to 20something for the random wire. i kinda feel like i'm not likely to have much success trimming the zipcord. i dont think this is a situation where an antenna tuner would help (but please correct me if i'm wrong - also, please recommend an antenna tuner  )anyway, i'm thinking i might end up getting a buddistick or similar thing from mfj. my radio stuff (read: home office) is by a side yard that doesn't have easy access to trees and such, so I think my options are gonna be putting up a temporary tripod, or a roof installation (which is expensive and frankly i dont want to deal with). i'll have a better look tomorrow in the daylight, though
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Oct 26, 2022 03:56
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think about being drowned out by some local rfi. i have put together the worst homebuilt antenna and heard ft8 on 20/40 in my basement. even suboptimal antenna should be picking up ft8 unless it’s completely swamped by a local noise source.
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Oct 26, 2022 04:02
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yeah, i can receive but now i wanna talk (to someone other than myself)
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Oct 26, 2022 04:05
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that should work rather good? even if you’re deaf locally. when you TX. that should go pretty far. assuming resonant antenna, coax, decent transmitting radio. its common for people to hear you but you dont hear them well enough to be able to reply.
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Oct 26, 2022 06:33
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If you have a lot of local interference, i can recommend a X-Phase QRM eliminator (google it). They work well on the condition that you have an antenna that receives the signal + noise, and a little extra one that doesn't (or only barely) receives the signal, and a lot of noise. It doesn't work as easily due to a few seconds delay and no blocking of the received audio during TX, but you can also try a webSDR from https://www.websdr.org (preferred) or http://kiwisdr.com/public/ (in my experience they're less sensitive). The delayed signal you receive from yourself means that if you do phone or CW, you'll have to turn off the sound manually during TX because it's extremely hard to speak/key when you hear your own signals 1 or 2 seconds later. If your SWR is 1:11 or 1:20 you're not gonna transmit anything. 1:1.1 or 1:2 is fine. At 1:2 you'll get a 12,5% weaker TX signal or so i've heard. But with a 50 ohm output and a random wire antenna, even with the most rudimentary of tuners it's pretty easy to get an SWR of 1:1.7 or so.  Start with 40 turns of 1mm wire, that'll work for 20-80m. Capacitor is about 300pF, a broadcast one (air dielectric) works fine up to 20 watts or so. I've been using this tuner with decent results. Works fine for whip antennas and half wave-ish random wires. You do need to add taps on the coil every 5 windings or so, a shorting clip from the coax input on the left side with which you can bridge part of the coil, and your antenna goes either all the way on the right side, or clipped onto one of the taps. I can highly recommend inserting a light bulb into the antenna wire so you can actually see when you get antenna current. An SWR meter can display good SWR sometimes, while there's absolutely no antenna current flowing. Bridge the bulb when you've roughly found the right spot. LimaBiker fucked around with this message at 08:17 on Oct 26, 2022 |
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Oct 26, 2022 08:08
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Achmed Jones posted:i put up a zip cord antenna set up for 20m (...-ish) and have received a couple piddly little ft8 transmissions and then, later, a whole pile of em on 40m. i can't get anyone to hear me, though. Some things to check that might help your transmissions: -If I'm reading your post correctly, your SWR is 11:1. That's pretty high, and turning a lot of your output energy into heat. A tuner would help some, but I would start by folding the ends of your antenna to try and get closer to resonance. -The QDX (and probably most transmitters) is sensitive to the wound inductors working correctly. People have reported a lot more output power adding/removing a loop on an inductor, or spreading or compacting the coils. Check out the qrp-labs group on groups.io, I'm sure there's lots of discussion. -have you checked your signal on https://pskreporter.info/pskmap.html? Put in your call sign (and optionally the band you're working with) and you'll see everyone who heard you. Sometimes I find my signal is getting out fine and no one happened to reply. Regarding an upgraded antenna, how much room do you have in the side yard, and how picky are your neighbors/spouse/dog/local schoolchildren? The higher you can get your antenna the better, and a dipole might be easier to start with than a buddistick. for example, put your existing antenna on top of one of these: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002YPS9HU/ref=twister_B00PBG56RA?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&coliid=I1U1W9A08UW37T&colid=24PSQHWOS1ALJ and you'd be surprised how much more you'll get. Anything tall is fine, doesn't have to be that specific pole. Walrusmaster fucked around with this message at 15:09 on Oct 26, 2022 |
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Oct 26, 2022 15:04
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Just to add: An swr of 1:10 means that 66% of the power you normally send to your antenna, is now lost as heat in your output valves/transistors. Many SWR meters don't have scale calibrations past 1:3, because past that point you're pretty likely to burn out a transistor/valve, unless it's a QRP device, or there is protection circuitery against high SWR. It is safe to assume all modern and semi-modern ham radio gear from reputable brands is protected. But old valve equipment like a Yaesu FT-101 will appear to operate fine, perhaps hum a bit more than normal, but you will eventually burn up the final tubes which are getting expensive...
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Oct 26, 2022 17:24
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ah, thanks. i ordered a tuner kit from aliexpress; it'll be here in a month or so. In the meantime, I'm glad to know that there's still a good chance I didn't screw up the build. I built the QDX to use 9v, so its max is like 4W. of course, maybe I _also_ blew it when building. as far as the side yard goes, it's about five feet wide and is mostly paved - it's a pathway with plants on either side. there are some trees, but they aren't very tall, maybe 10 feet or so. i have no HOA so can do what I want, but I'm generally a big no on guy wires. there's a possibility of getting some guy wires in one spot in the back planter (where dogs/children don't go), but the way the feedline would have to run would make it super obnoxious so the easiest thing is to probably just say "no guy wires" maybe i'm just gonna have to dehumanize and face to hiring somebody to put a tripod on my roof my office is next to the garage, though - maybe I could get something up in there - the ceiling peaks at 14-15 feet. maybe something like a magloop nestled up there anyway, before I drop a bunch of money on a mast/mount/whatever, I'll see about getting my SWR down through trimming, building the tuner when it comes in, etc. what's a decent pre-built tuner for not that much money? i'm looking forward to building the ATU-100, but it might be prudent to buy something that I can have more confidence in
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Oct 26, 2022 19:43
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Achmed Jones posted:No guy wires I'd try and run your wire antenna across the tops of your 10 ft trees, should work ok on 20m without much stuff near the ground. FYI, even if you have a vertical antenna you're still going to need counterpoise wires on/in the ground if you want good results. For commercially available tuners, I hear good things about ldg electronics, available at all fine ham radio retailers. I built some antennas and tuners from qrpguys.com which worked pretty well. They have some end fed antennas you could string from your window to the top of a tree that might work well. I also have an antenna from packtenna that's great for portable operating, small, light, and unobtrusive. Unfortunately they're usually sold out.
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Oct 26, 2022 20:00
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yeah, counterpoise is fine - I don't mind having stuff running at ground level (especially if I can bury it or otherwise cover it), it's having stuff at dog/child-neck level that I'm wary of. the side yard doesn't require mowing, so at least i wouldn't have to worry about that! right now my zipcord dipole is about 8 or 10ft up, taped under an eave. would moving it a few feet to the trees be all that helpful?
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Oct 26, 2022 23:18
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There was a time where i'd just tell you to go to the next hamfest and pick out one of twenty low end 100w tuners people are dumping for $5-10 each but hamfests went away for two years, and they're back now, but every old fucker is now 300% convinced they can charge retail - 1% for a thirty year old gadget got one of these for a fiver off a hamfest a while back, it's my camping / park tuner. for the antenna i run a 44 foot dipole fed with old school radio shack 300 ohm twin lead. lightweight Jonny 290 fucked around with this message at 03:21 on Oct 27, 2022 |
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Oct 27, 2022 03:19
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Achmed Jones posted:yeah, counterpoise is fine - I don't mind having stuff running at ground level (especially if I can bury it or otherwise cover it), it's having stuff at dog/child-neck level that I'm wary of. the side yard doesn't require mowing, so at least i wouldn't have to worry about that! The few feet up might help, but getting out away from the house might help more. I have an end-fed that I put up attached to the eves and performance was mediocre. Getting it away from the house (and probably a tad lower actually) improved things. My house's exterior is stucco, so the metal mesh was probably not great for reception. Also keep in mind environmental factors where you live. For example, in California a low antenna on the west side of the house could have difficulty receiving signals from most of the United States.
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Oct 27, 2022 14:05
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 Here's an example of what I do. Ebay fishing rod for the mast, wire runs parallel to the fence line. Everything is above pet/child level except for the feed line, which is at ground level. Takes less than 5 min to set up/put away, and works much better then the antenna on the eaves.
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Oct 27, 2022 15:32
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Installed this https://www.wimo.com/en/11368-01 except 1.8-50 mhz and it helped greatly. I can tune all bands except 160m and 10m (those i can tune if i set my ic-7300 in emergency mode) + lowered noise floor.
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Oct 27, 2022 17:46
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Honestly impressed with how little flex you're getting there. Nice!
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Oct 27, 2022 17:54
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Walrusmaster posted:
this is cool, what are you using to hold the mast/fishing rod up?
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Oct 27, 2022 22:52
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Achmed Jones posted:this is cool, what are you using to hold the mast/fishing rod up? Honestly, I just lean it against the wall if the wind is low. I also have a bracket screwed to the wall, or I can bungee it to a tree.
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Oct 28, 2022 01:49
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Since we are talking about securing janky antenna structures, feel this is a good point to mention that tripods designed for holding up speakers are great. They're designed to mitigate top heavy loads, and can easily be attached to with gear that you would use elsewhere.
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Oct 28, 2022 04:33
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