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That KX3 looks sweet. Since I basically run my FT-817ND entirely off the computer now, a radio that has both a ton of buttons and dials AND the ability to control it entirely off a PC would be perfect for me. Now I just need money. And a better antenna. Has anyone had any experience with MFJ's antenna offerings? I'm thinking of picking up an MFJ-1622, so I can mount it on the railing of my deck, without having to nail it in. More importantly, what other crap would I need to have on hand to make that work with my 817? Is an antenna tuner necessary? EDIT: BigHustle, that video ruled, and now I'm looking into basically everything Phone Losers of America. Their pranks are genius, especially some of the stories on their website about gaining access to store-wide loudspeaker systems and abusing deaf relay operators for fun and profit The Muffinlord fucked around with this message at 03:01 on Jun 14, 2011 |
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Jun 14, 2011 02:58
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BigHustle posted:I've seen that antenna before, but I've never used it. I don't think a tuner would be necessary if you have a way to check SWR. You adjust it by moving a jumper wire on the coil and adjusting the counterpoise, I believe. Yeah, anyone who's comparing it to a full-sized vertical or dipole is an idiot. I need an antenna that I can mount and take down at will, since building regs prohibit me from mounting anything permanent on the porch or drilling anything into the concrete. But the whole building is reinforced concrete, so I need to mount something outside. Just another lazy Sunday at the Faraday Estates. Hey Big, how come we never see you on #hamradio any more?
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Jun 14, 2011 17:00
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Actually, I listened to the PLA podcasts, apparently the drive-through thing is an elaborate prank, at least the part about getting a timing crystal out of a toaster and shoving it into a CB. That is, unless one of you guys tries it and it works. Who knows?
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Jun 22, 2011 00:58
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TNLTRPB posted:BigHustle, asshats like the guy you're involved in battle with are the reason I stick to digital voice modes (or even encrypted digital voice It's the reason I stick to bleeps and bloops. I still need to pull the trigger on that antenna. And another length of cable. And a door pass-through.
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Jul 10, 2011 03:39
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AbsentMindedWelder posted:I got my PSK31 station up and running finally. If anyone wants to try to have a QSO with me, just send me a PM or AIM. I'll try to start keeping my echolink open as well when I'm in front of the PC. Speaking of echolink, I aplogize profusely regarding the AG0ON echolink node, I'm a terrible trustee. I suppose D-Star has been a major distraction of mine! I don't have PMs, but if you're around, I'd like to see if we can beep and bloop each other - I have no idea if my station is set up how it should be, and as a result, no real idea how to fix it if it's not. If you don't mind helping me out, hit me up on AIM and we'll see what we can coordinate.
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Jul 10, 2011 20:34
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The price difference in scanners is a lot less than it is in ham radios. Just save some pennies, and get a high-end Uniden or GRE. You'll have access to all that fancy trunking stuff, plus you won't find yourself wishing, "gee, I wish I had this feature."
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Aug 11, 2011 16:19
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Why yes I would love to spend seventeen hundred dollars on a brand I have never hear of, why do you ask? On the plus side, that is a rockin' microphone. I wonder if they sell it separately.
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Feb 1, 2012 17:08
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iostream.h posted:Seventeen THOUSAND Well, it would be seventeen hundred  , if you were to do the math...The point is, I want that microphone.
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Feb 2, 2012 06:07
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That file doesn't seem to be present, but you might want to start by checking for local RFI. Try unplugging anything that's wireless from your computer while the radio's on and see if it has an effect. I found that my graphics tablet made a poo poo-ton of noise all over the HF spectrum, so you might discover something similar.
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Oct 14, 2012 21:05
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The 817's smaller than you'd think. It's dense, but you can hold it in one hand. You won't be able to do much with it, but it's more portable than all the "enlarged to show texture" pictures on websites make it look.
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Dec 2, 2012 03:43
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The 817 does have a software switch for toggling that frequency, iirc. It's been a while since I've even thought of the manual but I'm pretty sure it's there.
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Dec 3, 2012 22:34
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drat, that looks good. Nice to see a base station that's not a huge morass of buttons, not to mention an adoption of a modern design philosophy with the touchscreen.
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Dec 6, 2012 03:47
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They sure ain't cheap, though. I guess for a grand or two you get quality.
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Dec 7, 2012 06:17
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Yeah, check out RTL-SDR. You can get the hardware for a twenty or so, and there's bound to be a linux version.
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Feb 24, 2013 16:10
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There's always the FT-817. It's not super-cheap, but it's not terribly expensive, and if you can put up an outdoor antenna the low power isn't that much of an obstacle. Of course, if you live in a concrete and steel high-rise like me you're going to have problems, but nothing's perfect.
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Feb 27, 2013 23:37
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It's a good radio, but reception depends on a lot of factors. I live in a really built-up area, in a building made of concrete and rebar, and even though I get decent RX considering, I can't really TX strong enough to break through.
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Mar 2, 2013 17:57
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SoundMonkey posted:Well that was... absurdly quick. The highest of fives. You need to get a radio and a RigBlaster so we can share beeps.
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Mar 14, 2013 17:54
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Battery life aside, I would love a completely open, Android-powered transceiver. Maybe a core unit that can take different radio modules, so you could sell the huge HF base unit separate from the portable dual bander, while all maintaining the same interface, so you could jump between them easily. And then play Angry Birds on it or something.
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Apr 30, 2013 14:31
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SoundMonkey posted:What would be a hell of a lot better would be a device that could rig-control multiple different brands of radio as well as having a standardized protocol, and the communicate in that standardized protocol over USB. Open-source rig control poo poo would pop up so fast and you could use it with pretty much any radio that supported some kind of rig control. The world needs this. Needing a standard, sensible control scheme is why my radio spends 95% of its time hooked up to my pc. At least with Ham Radio Deluxe I can count on having my favorites handy at any given time. Edit: maybe a raspberry pi with a CAT connector, a data/voice output, and remote control software! That actually sounds doable, and you could basically put it anywhere, which would be nice, as my Wacom tablet puts out a ton of HF interference. The Muffinlord fucked around with this message at 14:18 on May 1, 2013 |
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May 1, 2013 14:15
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Grey Skies posted:Serious question, although it probably doesn't sound like it. Is it at all possible to use amateur radio equipment to broadcast at high power on the controlling frequencies for model aircraft, effectively jamming the aircraft from receiving signals from their controllers? Probably. It's almost certainly illegal, though.
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Jul 2, 2014 16:17
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The 817 is a great scanner, but makes kind of a weird radio to start with. It's only five watts, which could be way more than enough or not nearly sufficient for your needs. If you're not able to put an antenna outside, you might want to look at another model.
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Jul 10, 2015 16:20
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I turned my radio on for the first time in two years last night. By hand, though, because my Rigblaster Plug & Play is no longer sending commands to my ft-817. It will pull audio so i know the cabling, radio, and the Rigblaster aren't at fault, but I have no earthly idea what's not configured. Anyone else have any experience setting one of these bastards up in Windows 10? Is there something extra I have to do to get the COM port working right? If I toggle on RTS, I get a beep from the radio but it still doesn't control or read properly. I shut my computer down after I finished for the night. I'll try it again this evening and see if maybe a restart just fixes it.
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May 23, 2018 16:10
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So I fixed half the problem, by changing the microphone privacy settings in Windows. Turns out that the latest major update locks most applications out of getting full access to audio devices, presumably to stop people from snooping on your conversations, but it also means PortAudio just straight up doesn't work in fldigi unless you turn it off. I still can't control the drat radio from my desk. I've emailed West Mountain Radio but at this point I'm not terribly hopeful. I wonder if two years in a box caused something to shift inside the unit and now one of the connections is loose or something.
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May 24, 2018 14:52
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xergm posted:Have you checked that the baud rate on the serial connection matches between the radio on the PC? I've toggled drat near every setting but I do have the baud set to 38400 everywhere. I think I might try setting it to 4800 or 9600 and seeing if that resolves the issue. I'll try the DTR line again, I know when it sends down the RTL(i think? I'm not in front of the radio and my memory is spotty but whatever the other line is) line, I get a beep from the radio.
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May 24, 2018 17:49
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There's a second cable. Of course there's a second cable. It's probably in a bag in my basement somewhere. I just hope it's long enough to reach. Guess that's my objective for tonight, then.
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May 24, 2018 20:12
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I got the radio up and running, sure enough, with that second cable. Now here's the next hurdle: how do I properly dial in my settings for digital modes? Despite everything I only have the most basic idea of how to get an SWR meter to work (low numbers are good but not TOO low?? Also too high and you'll melt your hardware?), but I have a small handheld shortwave I can use to test with. Am I correct in thinking that I should just set my rig to tuning mode and maybe go to the far side of the house with my shortwave and see if it's clear and not blown completely out?
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May 25, 2018 14:37
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Well the SWR meter on the 817 itself seems to have two settings: zero and YOU ARE GOING TO DIE so I should probably dig out the external one I've got lying around. I'll look into that video over lunch or tonight and see if I can follow along, thanks. I've had this rig for years and never managed to make a successful QSO. I wonder how many other hams are out there just firing overblown signals into the walls of their house and not getting anything back. The answer seems to be a lot, considering how many unanswered CQs I was hearing on 7.074 last night. Tons of FT8 traffic, even when it was still light out. I'm really eager to get this sorted so I can start collecting a couple myself.
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May 25, 2018 15:28
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Zaepho posted:I live under a rock, What changes did the FCC make to FRS/GMRS? Or are you referring to the changes from last April? I live under a bigger rock. What changes did they make last April?
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Aug 2, 2018 12:07
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That's some of the coolest poo poo I've seen in this thread in a long time. I bet you could hawk a couple of these at a hamfest if you cleaned them up a bit!
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Nov 4, 2018 21:50
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Anyone have experience using one of those ninety-dollar mag loops off Amazon? I got a new Xiegu X6100 to play with and it hates my old 817's Miracle Whip, at least as far as reception's concerned. I'm not quite ready to put together the whole-rear end PowerPoint I would need to sell the wife on letting me plunk $600 on a name-brand loop, and believe me when I say it's safer I do not try to manufacture one myself. No trees suitable for a wire and nowhere to mount a vertical that's not going to look comically out of place in our neighborhood, either. EDIT: the antenna in question The Muffinlord fucked around with this message at 21:52 on Jan 24, 2024 |
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Jan 24, 2024 21:50
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If it would have to be outside, not sure I can make it work. But I know for a fact that a magloop works well in my noisy environment; I use a Youloop and a LNA hooked up to an RTL-SDR v4 for reception and I can hear amazingly far despite being maybe six feet off the ground floor.
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Jan 25, 2024 21:21
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I wasn't planning to use much more than 5 on it; I mostly just want to hear as well as I can be heard without having to use my RTL-SDR for receive audio. But as it turns out, the screw it has for a tripod mount doesn't match the cheap camera tripod I've had lying around for ages, so this may be a wash if I can't get the drat thing mounted properly.
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Jan 29, 2024 17:40
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The Muffinlord posted:I wasn't planning to use much more than 5 on it; I mostly just want to hear as well as I can be heard without having to use my RTL-SDR for receive audio. But as it turns out, the screw it has for a tripod mount doesn't match the cheap camera tripod I've had lying around for ages, so this may be a wash if I can't get the drat thing mounted properly. It was a wash. I guess I got a defective one, cause it wouldn't mount to a camera tripod more than one single turn without locking up so hard I couldn't turn it with a screwdriver and a wrench, much less by hand. I've returned all the poo poo and I'll do what I should have done anyway, wait for my performance balance from work in like a month and then just buy a really good one from a name brand.
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Feb 5, 2024 18:56
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Jonny 290 posted:coax loss cloaks bad SWR. previously your signal was attenuated on the way to the antenna, and again on the way back. so say your coax loss is 3db. the signal loses 3db at the antenna and the reflected wave has another 3db of loss. even if you completely unhooked the antenna you'd never see more than 3:1 SWR (6db return loss). Now lets say its a looong run with 10db of loss. 20 db return loss. 1.2 SWR. Is there anything that can be done to remediate this? I managed to get an actually good mag loop(Chameleon F-Loop 3.0 Plus, a hell of a step up from the aliexpress special I was trying out before) once my annual bonus from work came in, and slapped 50 feet of coax on it so that I could maybe move it further away from the rest of my stuff. It's performing pretty well(I'll have to go back for the remote tuning motor, though), but I noticed that compared to the 12-ft coax it came with, the 50 feet line has a way flatter SWR curve, capping out at around 4:1 instead of 10:1, and with a way wider "bottom" area where it's at 1:1. Not that I'm one to complain about mysteriously "better" performance, but it seems suspect, in light of what you're saying. I'd feel better using it knowing that I'm not accidentally dumping waste heat into an expensive-rear end high voltage capacitor, or cooking off my feed line either. I love the antenna, though! I should have done this from the start. I've got the rigid aluminum ring on it, and it straight up looks like something a mad scientist would use, and can throw my lovely basement signal all the way across the Atlantic.
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