Amateur radio: Not much going on, other than the motherfucking satellite

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Hobbies, Crafts, & Houses > Amateur radio: Not much going on, other than the motherfucking satellite

Supersonic: Mar 28, 2008; You have used 43 of 300 characters allowed.; Tortured By Flan

So after lurking this thread for a while, I've decided to go for my license and enrolled in a 10 week course to help study for it. I'm in Canada, and if you score above 80/100 you get what I believe is the equivalent of the American General license and can operate on HF bands. I've been thinking of getting something like an Icom-7300 once I pass, but was just wondering about the antenna situation. I live in a city on the third (top) floor of an apartment complex with a balcony which is about 25-30ft off the ground. Will I be able to get decent contacts on 20m or 40m? I was thinking of using something like this loop antenna:

https://www.eham.net/reviews/view-product?id=15020

Supersonic fucked around with this message at 00:08 on Apr 13, 2024

# ¿ Apr 13, 2024 00:06

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# ¿ May 3, 2024 23:18

Supersonic: Mar 28, 2008; You have used 43 of 300 characters allowed.; Tortured By Flan

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

it's a 17 foot whip so it's guaranteed to be good on 20 through 10 meters just by setting the length, and it's got a loading coil at the base so you can get it on 30 and even 40 meters.

Also the ic-7300 is the best radio of all time, i have a yaesu ft1000mp but i use my 7300 way more

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.

# ¿ Apr 15, 2024 01:09

Supersonic: Mar 28, 2008; You have used 43 of 300 characters allowed.; Tortured By Flan

Merv Burger posted:

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.

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.

# ¿ Apr 19, 2024 02:17

Supersonic: Mar 28, 2008; You have used 43 of 300 characters allowed.; Tortured By Flan

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.

# ¿ Apr 25, 2024 02:13

Supersonic: Mar 28, 2008; You have used 43 of 300 characters allowed.; Tortured By Flan

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.

# ¿ Apr 25, 2024 20:46

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# ¿ May 3, 2024 23:18

Supersonic: Mar 28, 2008; You have used 43 of 300 characters allowed.; Tortured By Flan

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

# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 02:54

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