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Looks like I'll be doing some antenna building sooner than I thought... Monday morning I'm going to go pick up the following new toys: 2 Motorola mobile Business Band radios 70 cm (pic looks like these are MCX1000 rigs, waiting for the seller to reply with model info) 2 ADI AR 147 60w mobile 2 meter transciever 1 MFJ-9402 7w SSB 2 meter transceiver 1 MFJ-9406 10w SSB 6 meter transceiver 1 MFJ-4125 25 amp power supply 1 MFJ-416 plug in CW board (works with both MFJ radios) 1 KLM 40w 2 meter amp More than likely I'll be selling one or both of the Motorola and ADI rigs since I'm really only interested in the MJF radios and the 2 meter amp. The guy wants to unload the whole bundle rather than sort it out piecemeal. He said he has a few 2m and 6m antennas lying around that he may throw in too if he can dig them out of storage in time.
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Oct 29, 2010 21:41
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You will like the MFJ 6 meter rig. It is a nice little box. The only bad thing is that the mic that comes with it is kind of klunky. If you ever want to get rid of the 2 meter MFJ let me know, I'll buy it from you.
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Oct 30, 2010 01:37
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Dijkstra posted:You will like the MFJ 6 meter rig. It is a nice little box. The only bad thing is that the mic that comes with it is kind of klunky. The local ham group has a 6 meter repeater and they all like to play on 6 meter simplex. I was going to borrow a club radio (the club has about 20 old Gonset tube rigs that they loan out to members for 6 meter use) but would rather have my own. The eham reviews on it look good, too. FAKE EDIT: Well, poo poo. I'll need to borrow a club radio after all... The club repeater is straight AM. If I mess around with that MFJ rig and don't want to put it to use on a regular basis, you'll be the first person I contact.
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Oct 30, 2010 02:24
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I'm curious how much money all that is going for? If you have any local friends who you think may be interested in becoming hams, you may want to consider keeping the two 2m radios and the two 70cm radios. They could also be useful to you if you want to set up an echolink node, digipeater, etc. I've used one of those ADI AR-147's. It's a neat little compact 2m 60w rig, quite capable. That all being said, if you still want to get rid of one of the 2m or 70cm rigs, let me know, as I have a buddy who wants to get a license, and since he's poorer then me, it'll probably be up to me to supply him with a radio.
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Oct 30, 2010 14:02
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He's asking $400 for the whole bunch.
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Oct 30, 2010 14:08
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Here's a dumb question: Most of the repeater lists I see give "frequency - offset - tone", e.g. "145.150mHz, minus, 100.0khz". The frequency and offset are obvious to me, but as for the tone ... is that just transfer or transfer and receive? I've just been setting my transfer tone and leaving the receive tone blank - is that right?
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Oct 30, 2010 14:56
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QPZIL posted:I've just been setting my transfer tone and leaving the receive tone blank - is that right? Some repeaters do retransmit a tone. Some radios can be configured to only listen to signals that have that tone. This is useful if you have QRM from other distant repeaters. Edit: Wasn't it you who got that Woxum radio? If so, how do you like it? AbsentMindedWelder fucked around with this message at 15:04 on Oct 30, 2010 |
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Oct 30, 2010 15:02
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dv6speed posted:I'd really like to see this ball rolling. It would be awesome to have a weekly SA net or something on the air. I just shot Rev Quackers a PM about this. I know he recently moved and has been busier than poo poo, so if he hasn't had the time to get the paperwork moving on this I'll put something together this week. According to what I've read, we'll need at least 4 members to serve as officers and send in the minutes of the first meeting, so I'm thinking that we can get together on IRC for that crap if need be.
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Oct 30, 2010 16:05
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I got plenty of time on my hands, and want to see it happen, so I'm able to help in any capacity.
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Oct 30, 2010 16:22
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So I keep buying dumb crap, and eventually it struck me that if I save my money, I can make larger dumb purchases. Anyone have any commentary on the Alinco DX70 or Icom IC702 (of any revision)? It looks like 300-400 can set me up with HF mobile. When I mention to people that I'm in an apartment, they try to tell me to set up loops. My apartment is below ground for the most part, the ceiling being about 18" above the dirt. I can't really sneak things outside and there is nothing to hang anything from if I did. Mobile looks to be the way to go to get started in screwing around.
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Oct 30, 2010 16:26
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I have the speaker-mic for the VX-8R, and I'll clip it to the seatbelt near my ear when I'm driving, but it's easier to key up using the ptt button on the 8R itself. Would that key up the speaker-mic or the mic on the main unit?
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Oct 31, 2010 20:30
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Prince of Dicks posted:I have the speaker-mic for the VX-8R, and I'll clip it to the seatbelt near my ear when I'm driving, but it's easier to key up using the ptt button on the 8R itself. Would that key up the speaker-mic or the mic on the main unit? Most likely it'll key up the speaker mic. That's how it works on my Kenwood TH-F6A anyway.
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Oct 31, 2010 20:35
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If it's a plugged in accessory it should be the speaker microphone. I used to do that, or clip the entire HT on the seatbelt, but there was still some minor difficulty in others hearing me if I didn't talk loud enough. Has anyone done ATV? In looks like I can pick a "channel" that doesn't go near my "Line A" restriction off of an agile or fixed cable channel modulator, and rail that through an amplifier. That's pretty easy. But then looking at PC Electronics and other places, there seem to be many more products in the realm of "custom circuit boards and whatchawhozits" put out there which make me a bit wary that it would be that easy.
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Nov 1, 2010 01:28
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Well already here the local repeaters are full of  talkin bout that Obammer feller and them libruls because of the election. I mean worse than usual lately.
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Nov 3, 2010 01:47
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Our repeaters have been relatively silent. I'm going to have to check into W2NJR on EchoLink to see what those nutcases are saying. A few of them have a giant boner for Nancy Pelosi, so it should be interesting to see what they have to say. The group that usually does VE testing on Tuesdays (bowling league night) rescheduled this week's testing for Thursday, so I'm going to cram tomorrow and Thursday morning and see if I can't squeak out my Extra this week. I did a few tests on the FT-101, and I'm at a total loss with it. I'm shipping it off to Carol Maher's (founder of Fox Tango) shop so he can give it the twice over. I should be all good and back up on HF here in a few weeks if all goes well.
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Nov 3, 2010 05:20
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Prince of Dicks posted:Well already here the local repeaters are full of Boy I wish, would have been great to hear that here. I got a couple of good reports of that it was cold outside though.
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Nov 4, 2010 01:30
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I am looking at purchasing a Signalink USB. It is my expectation that I'll be able to use this box for all sound card modes. It is also my expectation that using AGWPE, I'll be able to use Winlink, APRS, and the old packet modes that you traditionally needed a TNC for. Does anyone have any comments or anecdotes regarding the Signalink USB and AGWPE?
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Nov 4, 2010 13:13
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dv6speed posted:I am looking at purchasing a Signalink USB. It is my expectation that I'll be able to use this box for all sound card modes. It is also my expectation that using AGWPE, I'll be able to use Winlink, APRS, and the old packet modes that you traditionally needed a TNC for. I have no experience, but this website has a poo poo ton of info, including links to APRS and Winlink software that is compatible with AGWPE. You can tell that site was made by a ham because it looks like it was written in the early 90's. Speaking of digital modes... What the hell is that signal being broadcast on 5095 kHz? It sounds like some sort of data transmission, but I don't know what. It sounds nothing like anything on the sapmle digital modes video I found.
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Nov 4, 2010 13:38
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dv6speed posted:I am looking at purchasing a Signalink USB. It is my expectation that I'll be able to use this box for all sound card modes. It is also my expectation that using AGWPE, I'll be able to use Winlink, APRS, and the old packet modes that you traditionally needed a TNC for. A signalink is fine for PSK, CONTESTIA and the like, however for RTTY most purists will tell you not to use AFSK, which is what you would have to do with a signalink. If you want to get into SERIOUS DXing with RTTY you will want to use proper FSK, which a signalink won't support. Your rig may support FSK, if so all you need is a program and a correctly terminated cable. It is possible to work rtty with AFSK, it's just not as clean/reliable. But it works fine if you want to play around. The disadvantage of using a signalink for packet/APRS is that your computer and AGWPE have to be up and running 24/7 in order to work correctly. On the other hand, if you have a traditional TNC it's the only thing that needs to be on, so you won't miss any messages if you have to take your computer down for whatever reason. If you just want to mainly receive APRS and see what's going on, a signalink will be fine. You can just fire up the computer and configure AGWPE. It can be kind of confusing to get up and running, and is very sensitive to volume levels. This can adversely affect your decode rate but if you live in a relatively populated area you should still see plenty of traffic on APRS. Just be prepared to spend a little time setting up AWGPE and configuring it- it takes some tweaking. Packet is mostly dead in the US, other than APRS. Thankfully, APRS is everywhere. There are still lots of DX clusters around, but they all have internet gateways now so you don't need to run packet to connect to them. I've screwed around with AGWPE on a signalink but am not that interested in VHF digital modes, so it serves me fine. I'm more interested DXing with PSK and DOMINO/CONTESTIA on HF so the signalink is a great and inexpensive way to get on the air. On the other hand if I were more interested in VHF stuff it would make more sense to buy a TNC. Probably the best thing for you is to go ahead and get a signalink, and start learning the digital modes. Then if you decide to get serious about, say VHF packet for instance, you can shop for a proper TNC. One word of caution, if you buy a sound card interface and your rig doesn't have a rear jack, be very careful hooking up the device to the microphone port of your rig. You will have to spend some time tweaking your ALC and mic gain so you don't splatter all over the band. There are several good articles about this on the web. PM me if you have any questions, I'll send you my email.
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Nov 4, 2010 14:19
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I just made a verified two way voice contact with the ISS! Hearing Col. Wheelock repeating my call sign with the added words "loud and clear" was quite a thrill. I did that with 50 watts going through my 2m J-Pole. I've tried a few times before but wasn't able to get thru. I'm hoping someone posts a recording of that pass on issfanclub.com Now, to send off for that QSL card.
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Nov 4, 2010 21:06
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Congrats on the ISS contact, dv6speed. I went and took my Amateur Extra exam today and passed by more than I expected. As soon as my upgrade hits the ULS database, I'll be applying for a vanity call. Time to bust out my list and see if some of those are still available...
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Nov 5, 2010 03:53
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QPZIL posted:Here's a dumb question: I wanted to take this opportunity to bitch about something that has bothered me a lot since I got my license. In the public safety world, having repeaters encode a tone on their output (where you may, but aren't required to program your radio for it) is standard operating procedure (and has been since at least the 1970s). It particularly makes sense if you're in an area where there is lots of QRM, or you get "skip" from other repeaters on the same frequency. In "ham" radio though, a lot of OFs don't even seem to grasp the concept of putting a "receive PL" on their radios (which, if it's not a boat anchor from 1945, is capable of doing it). I've talked to several OF repeater gurus that don't even understand it. It's frustrating to listen to skip or random interference on repeater frequencies. I've gotten to the point now that I won't use repeaters that are on frequencies prone to interference (146.88 is a good example; I have problems with QRM even on my Motorola gear for that frequency). This is another reason why I love the digital voice modes so much.
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Nov 5, 2010 06:36
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TNLTRPB posted:I wanted to take this opportunity to bitch about something that has bothered me a lot since I got my license. I almost wonder if this more a case of 'don't know how and are too lazy to figure out how to do it' due to the complexity of newer radios. In the October issue of QST, there was a a review of the Yaesu FT-7900. The reviewer spent part of the time bitching about how newer radios were too complicated and said the 7900 was 'as simple as radios get these days'. He seemed to be complaining that it had features buried in the menu system while also praising it's lack of buttons. Speaking of repeaters, he also complained that CTCSS tones were 'traveller unfriendly' and a 'necessary evil since half the repeaters on the air require it and people stopped complaining about it'. This motherfucker doesn't need to be reviewing anything made after Heathkit shut down if his complaints are all about modern features. He should just go join the OFs on the local repeater complaining about how the removal of Morse Code as a ticket requirement hosed the hobby, bitch about how EchoLink isn't 'real radio', and amazingly enough, sit around wondering why the hobby is dying just a rapid death. I heard a conversation between a couple of guys on the local repeater a few weeks back talking about how lazy they've been about things. The older of the two, who has had his license since the late 40's, said that all hams are lazy and that's the reason why half of them bitch about how their radios sound like crap. It's because they're trying to run a state of the art piece of equipment as if it were the CW rig they started on because they're too lazy to open the manual or take the time to set things up properly. As such, I've decided that ham is actually an acronym for 'He Almost Moved'.
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Nov 6, 2010 06:20
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I understand how to use a receive PL tone, but purposely don't have it enabled. I don't have many problems with QRM from distant repeaters, so when it does come through, I am actually interested in listening to it.
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Nov 6, 2010 13:04
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My QRM problems aren't generally from other repeaters, but usually from stuff like LED traffic lights, particularly the ones that have the 400/900 MHz synchronization stuff running. I can't complain much about it anymore, since now I live out in a rural area and can usually access repeaters that are 50-80 miles away (plus I don't really do much analog stuff anymore). I want to reiterate that it seems to be certain frequency pairs that get it worse than others, and 2m is mucho worse about it than 70cm. BigHustle, what you said is precisely why I don't read OF reviews, subscribe to any sort of ARRL stuff, or use QRZ for more than a quick callsign lookup service. What boggles my mind is the newer Icom/Kenwood/Motorola repeaters in use that haven't been setup to encode a tone or (heaven forbid) use a voice ID that sounds newer than 1985. It's all computer-programmed anyway, so it is quite literally a matter of activating a checkbox or two. Interestingly enough, I found a video from 1989 that has a computer synthesized voice on it. It's rather amusing and sad when you realize that most ham repeater controllers in use today don't have a better voice library than this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnpibuBojtE (at 1:13 or so you can hear it).
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Nov 6, 2010 13:25
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Those voices are drat annoying! My brain has learned to automatically tune it out. There is only one repeater I've heard, which is in Lancaster, PA that has an automated voice that actually sounds like a human. I like the repeaters that identify in morse code better. I suppose we'll have to wait till we grow older and are the trustees of the repeaters so we can choose our own technology to annoy the younger generation with.
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Nov 6, 2010 13:41
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TNLTRPB posted:My QRM problems aren't generally from other repeaters, but usually from stuff like LED traffic lights, particularly the ones that have the 400/900 MHz synchronization stuff running. I can't complain much about it anymore, since now I live out in a rural area and can usually access repeaters that are 50-80 miles away (plus I don't really do much analog stuff anymore). I want to reiterate that it seems to be certain frequency pairs that get it worse than others, and 2m is mucho worse about it than 70cm. The only QRM issues I have at the moment is dealing with bleedover while DXing shortwave. There's nothing more interesting that hearing Radio Havana Cuba talk poo poo about the USA while WWCR is faintly playing 'God Bless America' in the background.  TNLTRPB posted:BigHustle, what you said is precisely why I don't read OF reviews, subscribe to any sort of ARRL stuff, or use QRZ for more than a quick callsign lookup service. What boggles my mind is the newer Icom/Kenwood/Motorola repeaters in use that haven't been setup to encode a tone or (heaven forbid) use a voice ID that sounds newer than 1985. It's all computer-programmed anyway, so it is quite literally a matter of activating a checkbox or two. I tend to roll my eyes at most of the OFs who make comments like that, but we do have one guy on the local repeater I usually hit who got his license in the 40's and was upset that the CW requirement was removed not because it 'makes it easier', but because he sees it as losing a piece of history. I've heard him say it when someone mentions CW, but he doesn't go out of his way to comment, insult 'no codes', or cut anyone down. The 2m and 440 repeater system they have set up is on EchoLink, and the only comments I've heard from the guys on the air are related to signal quality and suggestions on how to correct bad connections. It's been a big difference from the repeater I frequented in Jersey, where virtually all of the OFs were insulting anyone who was licensed after the code requirements were lifted or were using EchoLink... Unless they were another of the OF clique that had moved out of state. The thing that got me about that article was his claim that 'half the repeaters' on the air use PL tones... I only know of one repeater in the STL area that doesn't require a PL tone, and that's because it's a 6m AM repeater set up by an AM radio fan club that uses old tube rigs to talk to each other. They do have a UHF input for that system which is PL encoded for anyone who doesn't have a 6m rig. Speaking of, the club founder buys these old rigs by the assload, reconditions them, and loans them out to club members who want to play on 6m. I'll be getting mine the first week of December during the next club meeting after I make my 'droopy ground plane' antenna. TNLTRPB posted:Interestingly enough, I found a video from 1989 that has a computer synthesized voice on it. It's rather amusing and sad when you realize that most ham repeater controllers in use today don't have a better voice library than this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnpibuBojtE (at 1:13 or so you can hear it). That's horrible... The repeaters I haunted in Jersey had custom recorded messages and the ones I've caught down here have a better quality voice or only identify in CW. dv6speed posted:I suppose we'll have to wait till we grow older and are the trustees of the repeaters so we can choose our own technology to annoy the younger generation with. No, I say that we become NFs (New Farts) and set up repeaters with narrow-band PL receive tones, EchoLink/IRLP access, DSTAR, and WIRES then advertise them on the other systems commenting on how the old heads are too behind the times to join in and bitch about how CW is 'just annoying beeping' and how we don't need to learn it because our computers can do it for us.
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Nov 6, 2010 17:57
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BigHustle posted:No, I say that we become NFs (New Farts) and set up repeaters with narrow-band PL receive tones, EchoLink/IRLP access, DSTAR, and WIRES then advertise them on the other systems commenting on how the old heads are too behind the times to join in and bitch about how CW is 'just annoying beeping' and how we don't need to learn it because our computers can do it for us. This is the perfect reason to either get a Goon Club formed or start a Goon repeater. I would partake in this every day if I could pop in via echolink.
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Nov 6, 2010 18:30
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xergm posted:This is the perfect reason to either get a Goon Club formed or start a Goon repeater. I would partake in this every day if I could pop in via echolink. I haven't heard back from Rev Quackers, so if no one else wants to submit the application I will as soon as my upgrade hits and I get my vanity call assigned. I don't want to have to change a bunch of poo poo after I swap out my call. Once we get a club call assigned, do you all want to chip in a buck to get a vanity call assigned? Vanity calls for clubs are limited only by the trustee who originates the club, so if anyone with an Extra class license puts in for the vanity we can get AG0ON since it's currently open. If no one really cares about a vanity call for the club, I know someone in here mentioned that they'd want to take it when I brought it up before. BigHustle fucked around with this message at 19:16 on Nov 6, 2010 |
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Nov 6, 2010 19:12
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That was me, but I've decided to hold off on a vanity until I actually get a radio. I've also decided I'm going to get a 1x3 with my initials instead of a short (but meaningless in my opinion) 2x1 or 1x2.
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Nov 6, 2010 20:31
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BigHustle posted:I haven't heard back from Rev Quackers, so if no one else wants to submit the application I will as soon as my upgrade hits and I get my vanity call assigned. I don't want to have to change a bunch of poo poo after I swap out my call. Edit: Form 605 needs two signatures in ink, so I could fill the form out as the trustee this weekend, mail it off to BigHustle on Monday, and he can co-sign it as a club official and send it to ARRL.) AbsentMindedWelder fucked around with this message at 21:33 on Nov 6, 2010 |
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Nov 6, 2010 21:13
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I'm looking at the club application now, and it needs a club name, obviously. We could go formal such as "The Something Awful Amateur Radio Society", something such as "Goons With Radios", or maybe even "Awful Hams". Suggestions?
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Nov 6, 2010 22:07
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dv6speed posted:I'm looking at the club application now, and it needs a club name, obviously. It would be fitting to have our initials be SAARS. Other options: Something ARCful <----- This one is my favorite Gentlemen of Oscillator Navigation (GoON) Ham GoonSquad ARRG (Association of Radio Relay Goons)
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Nov 6, 2010 22:37
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SA Ham Internet Team (poo poo) Goons Underwriting New Technology (GUNT)
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Nov 6, 2010 22:41
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I have a spare PC I could probably use to setup an echolink node. I'm guessing I could just throw the software into conference mode and let it idle. It wouldn't have RF access but we wouldn't really need that anyway. I'm pretty sure you can restrict access to a node by callsign, so it would essentially be "private."
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Nov 6, 2010 22:44
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Dijkstra posted:I have a spare PC I could probably use to setup an echolink node. I'm guessing I could just throw the software into conference mode and let it idle. It wouldn't have RF access but we wouldn't really need that anyway. I was thinking of doing the same thing. I have a laptop that I repurposed as a workstation for my ham goings-on that isn't doing anything at the moment because the mic input is too lovely to use for decoding digital mode poo poo or use for EchoLink.
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Nov 6, 2010 22:50
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BigHustle posted:It would be fitting to have our initials be SAARS. Dijkstra posted:I have a spare PC I could probably use to setup an echolink node. I'm guessing I could just throw the software into conference mode and let it idle. It wouldn't have RF access but we wouldn't really need that anyway.
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Nov 6, 2010 23:31
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dv6speed posted:This was unintentional, honest. Well I fired it up but I can't get a video signal to come out of the onboard vga port. I'll keep screwing with it but I fear the motherboard may be dead... (It's an old P4) BigHustle if you want to give it a go with yours, go ahead.
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Nov 6, 2010 23:40
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Dijkstra posted:Well I fired it up but I can't get a video signal to come out of the onboard vga port. I'll keep screwing with it but I fear the motherboard may be dead... (It's an old P4) BigHustle if you want to give it a go with yours, go ahead. I'll set mine up when I get back from dinner. I'll get with dv6speed on AIM to see if we can get some testing done.
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Nov 7, 2010 00:04
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I just came back from the post office. I mailed off to BigHustle three signed versions of the form. 1. Club name filled out as "Something Awful Amateur Radio Society" (I like the SAARS acronym) and myself as trustee 2. Club name and email address blank with myself as trustee 3. Blank form with myself as "Responsible Club Official" instead of trustee So, we still have a few days for the snail mail to get to BigHustle to make up our minds. BigHustle, I included the instruction sheet, which at the very bottom, has the address to mail the form to. AbsentMindedWelder fucked around with this message at 22:54 on Nov 8, 2010 |
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Nov 8, 2010 22:51
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