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Jonny 290 posted:i've had antenna 200 feet long and 5 feet long, and if you have an apt balcony with a railing (preferably metal) you want the mfj big stick. https://mfjenterprises.com/products/mfj-2286 Could the big stick be attached to something like a tripod instead? My balcony is iron but designed with mostly thin slats so I don't think the stick's mount would be able to grip to it.
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Apr 15, 2024 01:09
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It looks like it comes with a pipe mount, so you can attach it to a speaker tripod. I'll also be a contrarian and throw out the Yaesu FT-710 as a radio suggestion. The IC-7300 is fantastic, but the 710 is comparable, and typically a few hundred bucks cheaper. I picked up one last month and have been happy with it so far. It also has the least bad menu user interface Yaesu has made to date!  But you really can't go wrong with either.
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Apr 16, 2024 15:30
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Supersonic posted:Could the big stick be attached to something like a tripod instead? My balcony is iron but designed with mostly thin slats so I don't think the stick's mount would be able to grip to it. Oh sure, that's what my camping setup is. You need counterpoise wires then, though. at least one quarter wave counterpoise for each band you wanna run.
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Apr 19, 2024 00:16
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Merv Burger posted:It looks like it comes with a pipe mount, so you can attach it to a speaker tripod. I've heard good things about its receiver, but the ergonomics make me a little nervous. There's currently a sale on at DX Engineering, and Icom also offers a mail-in rebate which puts the price comparable to the FT-710 AESS so I might jump on that in a few weeks.
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Apr 19, 2024 02:17
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Supersonic posted:I've heard good things about its receiver, but the ergonomics make me a little nervous. There's currently a sale on at DX Engineering, and Icom also offers a mail-in rebate which puts the price comparable to the FT-710 AESS so I might jump on that in a few weeks. There might be some sales around Hamvention in mid-May as well. Any Goons going to Xenia?
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Apr 19, 2024 02:39
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I have set up rotator for satellite use and tested it. It worked but i discovered i need to use other type of clamps for my yagi antenna (square boom). and i put the antennas the wrong way so when i want more elevation it stops. classic noob mistakes. also need to consider how to put the cables for the rotator so that it can rotate 360 degrees freely. I am happy i put it 1.5 meters over ground so it is easy to test and fix things.
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Apr 22, 2024 11:00
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Ended up writing the exam at a cafe tonight and scored high enough for basic with honors qualification so I have access to the HF bands. Looking forward to getting on the air once I figure out my optimal balcony setup. I'm likely going to go with the IC-7300 and MFJ Big Stick but I need to figure out the counterpoise situation as Could I mount the antenna to a tripod and then connect a counterpoise wire to my iron balcony fence? I don't want to mount it directly to the balcony as the balcony supports are pretty flimsy.
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Apr 25, 2024 02:13
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Yeah, but you may want to try it without the balcony tie. Just hang two 1/4 wave wires off the ground side of the mount. you can bend em a bit, they don't have to be straight
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Apr 25, 2024 02:50
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Jonny 290 posted:Yeah, but you may want to try it without the balcony tie. Just hang two 1/4 wave wires off the ground side of the mount. you can bend em a bit, they don't have to be straight My only issue is that my balcony is about 8’ long and 5ft’ wide so I really don’t have much space to work with unfortunately.
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Apr 25, 2024 20:46
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Lay them out in a zig zag kinda pattern. It'll probably work. Edit: I wonder if helically wound counterpoise would work reasonably well. I feel like it should, but I'm unsure. yoloer420 fucked around with this message at 03:31 on Apr 26, 2024 |
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Apr 26, 2024 03:28
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So I kinda wanted to give POCSAG paging another shot, but it seems that the only real way to play with it is using 9k6 radios. I tried looking around for any current radios still having packet support, but it seems they just don't exist anymore? Has that feature just died out?
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Apr 26, 2024 22:49
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Not sure if anyone has seen the announcement, but MFJ is ceasing its on-site production in Starkville, Mississippi on May 17, 2024. They’re still selling products for however long they have them however. https://mailchi.mp/62e24f2ccc99/a-heavy-sad-heart
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Apr 27, 2024 02:54
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The end of mighty fine junk. I wish I was surprised, but it's hard to be.
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Apr 27, 2024 03:05
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SEKCobra posted:So I kinda wanted to give POCSAG paging another shot, but it seems that the only real way to play with it is using 9k6 radios. I tried looking around for any current radios still having packet support, but it seems they just don't exist anymore? Has that feature just died out? Packet is alive and well. The way to do it would be using direwolf or something similar and figuring out how to get a 9.6k compatible connection to your radio. With the ft-991 it involves making some custom cables. I'm not sure about other transceivers. If you just want to receive, it would be far easier to use an rtl-sdr.
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Apr 27, 2024 04:09
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Well, the finer point on that is that it's not actually ax.25 packet. But pocsag requires a direct line to the modulator and discriminator to work (i.e. you cant jam the tx audio into the filtered mic port and pull the rx audio off the filtered/amplified speaker out). We've traditionally called those '9600 baud ports' because that was what 9600 baud packet needed. I wish i had a better idea of what rigs you could use that won't break the bank. obviously something like my 9700 could do it, but $$$ there.
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Apr 27, 2024 18:28
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Jonny 290 posted:Well, the finer point on that is that it's not actually ax.25 packet. But pocsag requires a direct line to the modulator and discriminator to work (i.e. you cant jam the tx audio into the filtered mic port and pull the rx audio off the filtered/amplified speaker out). We've traditionally called those '9600 baud ports' because that was what 9600 baud packet needed. I wish i had a better idea of what rigs you could use that won't break the bank. obviously something like my 9700 could do it, but $$$ there. I did some more research and all current mid and upper tier YAESU have a DATA Port with 9k6 listed. Is this just like on the old ones, or a more simplified kind? Do you know?
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Apr 27, 2024 21:26
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That's most likely it. Look at the manual for the pinout of that port - if it's like MOD IN and AUDIO OUT on the pins, you're good.
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Apr 27, 2024 21:53
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Jonny 290 posted:That's most likely it. Look at the manual for the pinout of that port - if it's like MOD IN and AUDIO OUT on the pins, you're good.  It says "packet data input", so I'm hoping that's it. Dropping 300 € on another basic dual band transceiver doesn't exactly feel like a smart move, but I really would love to play with POCSAG paging.
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Apr 27, 2024 22:02
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Yep that's the transmit audio line. and obviously 9600 RX is your receive line.
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Apr 27, 2024 22:33
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I am going to try greencube today and see what happens. Hope i dont burn up a hole in the satellite because of too much watt.
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Apr 28, 2024 14:10
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