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Got my Technician License on Sunday, bought a radio, and it's already shipped  Looking forward, when I go for the general and want to play with HF, is there much of a disadvantage to putting the antenna in the attic? The roof is tile. Would it attenuate signals much at those frequencies? There are objections to putting things on top of the roof 
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Jun 16, 2020 02:42
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This hobby might be a problem. I've had my license for less than 2 weeks, and I've already gotten 2 radios, built a hamclock, ordered a rtl-sdr, and the mmdvm hat for a pistar hotspot. Someone tell me not to keep looking at ads-b tracking.
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Jun 22, 2020 03:32
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Any suggestions for an inexpensive iambic key (kit form is fine, maybe even preferred). I'm starting to learn CW, and the QRPguys kit ($15) has been discontinued.
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Jun 28, 2020 23:33
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My understanding is that you can also tune an antenna by sharply folding the end of the wire back on itself instead of cutting it, which would allow your wine wiggle room. Maybe somebody more experienced than me can confirm that.
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Jul 4, 2020 17:53
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manero posted:I built a QCX last winter and had a blast. The QCX+ has way more room and shouldn't be too bad as long as you're careful about it and check your connections. I just built a 20m QCX+ and can confirm it was fun. Go check out the instructions online-- they are the most comprehensive, detailed, easy-to-follow I've ever seen. There's also a fairly friendly online community that will help troubleshoot, and diagnostic tools are built into the radio. They are mono band, but at ~$50 for the kit you could buy 4 with your budget. It's a good performing radio too. If you're interested in portable though, definitely wait for the QCX mini in about a month. Still the same software and still 5w output, but literally fits in your pocket.
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Oct 4, 2020 02:53
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eddiewalker posted:The ft-897 was my first experience with HF. Same radio as the 857, but in a larger chassis with room for batteries. FWIW, I hated it. As a newbie, I never got used to the long alphabetical list of menu items, especially without a firm grasp of what they all do. Maybe the newer ft-891 is better? I don't know. It loses 2m/70cm though. I have the same g90/wolf river coil/parks on the air setup and can confirm it works great-I've had a qso with someone in massachusetts from California. I'm having terrible luck with digital modes though. FT8 works ok, but I haven't been able to make a winlink connection after trying for 2 weeks
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Oct 15, 2020 18:01
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eddiewalker posted:Winlink isn't nearly as robust FT8. It can't be, or a message would take hours to send. I've had some success hitting 40 meter gateways with the g90/wrc. I suspect I'm skipping right over the 20m stations, despite RMS-Express forecasting good propagation. Your post inspired me, so I started over from scratch with a fresh winlink express install. Got it to work 3 times in a row on 40m, just like you suggested. Are you a winlink wizard? I also got APRS working and had my first CW QSO this week. Now if I could get pat work...
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Oct 16, 2020 03:37
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Does anyone know how often you can activate the same park for POTA? For SOTA it's once per calendar year, but I can't find any rule on this for POTA.
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Oct 19, 2020 22:04
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 This counts as 3 contacts, right? Do I get double points for portable operation?
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Jan 28, 2021 23:26
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I also agree, I run the g90 with a linked dipole for SOTA activations and it works great.
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Feb 13, 2021 05:30
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Jim Silly-Balls posted:What’s the best cheapo upgrade for the Baofeng UV-5r antenna? I’m sure the stock one can be improved upon. The super elastic signal stick makes a noticeable improvement, is almost indestructible, comes in a variety of fun colors, and the proceeds benefit free ham radio testing resources: https://signalstuff.com/product-category/antennas/signal-sticks/ Edit: this is the one with the correct connector for your uv5r: https://signalstuff.com/product/super-elastic-signal-stick-sma-female/ Walrusmaster fucked around with this message at 15:55 on Apr 29, 2021 |
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Apr 29, 2021 15:53
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Jim Silly-Balls posted:Nice! Purchased! Did you get a fun color though??!!??
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Apr 29, 2021 16:12
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Vir posted:I've got a portable antenna kit coming in the mail - planning to make a lightweight 3-band linked dipole for summit activations. I'll have to take it down to change bands, but I also have a small tuner (Elecraft T1) in case I want to change bands rapidly. I'm getting a small SOTABeams mast/fiberglass whip since I couldn't find any stores selling fishing poles that long around there. Might still bring the regular fishing pole to fish. I use a 20/40 linked dipole with an eBay fishing rod and it works great for summits. I'm able to tune 30/17/15 with the elecraft and make contacts, so it should work well for you. I also find that 20m is usually sufficient for SOTA unless you're chasing other activators for summit-to-summit, I've never had any problems getting 4 contacts on 20.
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Jul 7, 2021 21:45
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Vir posted:On the other hand, there are parks and forests where you can throw some wires up in a tree and work HF. If conditions are good, you can get out that way. Even though it won't be as good as having a tower with a beam antenna on it, getting out in the woods might improve noise levels. Agreed, the vast majority of my HF operating is done while hiking. Especially if you're willing to try out Morse code (or digital modes), you can get good results with 5w and a simple wire antenna.
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Jul 10, 2021 23:54
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I must have really bad taste in audio, because I think my ft3dr sounds fine. Everyone online seems to hate it.
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Aug 18, 2021 17:03
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cruft posted:I made these christmas tree lights using WS2811 strand lights. They just flash pretty colors, but my dad suggested one should flash out morse code holiday messages, so I implemented that. I just passed the CWOPS advanced course and would love to exert my new found CW authority over my holiday lights, sounds awesome.
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Dec 10, 2021 17:38
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If you guys want to have a gentle introduction to cw, try responding to a Summits On the Air or Parks On The Air activation. You'll be able to listen to the standard exchange multiple times before jumping in, and it's usually pretty low key. I know personally I am happy to work with a faint signal or slow keyer when I'm activating SOTA, and that's my general impression of most activators. The exchange will go something like this: CQ SOTA DE WS0TA WG0ON WG0ON UR RST 599 UR RST 599 TU 73 73 here are lists of current activations for SOTA and POTA. If you want to improve CW receiving, it takes some dedicated practice. I went through the CWOPS academy, but I also found the "Morse Mania" app on Android and iOS to be super helpful if you don't want to commit to scheduled classes. Walrusmaster fucked around with this message at 15:05 on Feb 5, 2022 |
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Feb 5, 2022 15:02
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thehustler posted:That’s really helpful, thanks. I intend to get into this and maybe even CW activate as well Sometimes it's in the CQ, frequently people will know it from the online spotting posts. I don't typically hear activators sending it every qso, usually every few. When I activate I usually send it every 10 min or so as long as there's an online spot or if I've scheduled it.
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Feb 6, 2022 02:09
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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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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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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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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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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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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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horse_ebookmarklet posted:Maybe 1.5 years ago in this thread I had an idea for an ic7300 mod I could maybe sell. This looks great, and if I had a 7300 I'd be super interested. Nice job!
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Jan 18, 2023 02:46
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Crossbar posted:Hi Goons, I haven't posted since Obama was president and nobody remembers me but I just wanted to let you know I'm still doing ham radio, specifically a lot of Parks on the Air. It's the most fun I've had doing radio and everyone with the means should give it a try. What's up ham-radio-from-a-Chevy-bolt buddy:  Parks and summits on the air is awesome!
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Feb 20, 2023 20:24
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I haven't experienced any QRM, but I also operate stationary when I'm using the car, and off a separate battery/solar power source. I planned to put a 2m/70cm redo in the car to use as an aprs repeater while I'm hiking, but the only radio I know of that will do that without an external computer is the Kenwood TM-D710GA, and those have become impossible to find unfortunately.
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Feb 20, 2023 21:24
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evelyn87 posted:I've taken an interest into understanding radio. I volunteer at a local fire department and historically they've had their own VHF/UHF "network" with repeaters they own. I'm an IT person so I never took time to understand how all of it works, I just threw some of their gear on their own vlan's and routed them across our IP network, what was actually being sent I have no idea and didn't really care to figure it out. There's absolutely a way to send email to the wider Internet, I do it all the time. It's more popular over HF, but there are definitely VHF users as well. Everyone involved does need to be a licensed amateur. Check out https://winlink.org/ If you were to set up a radio to Internet link at your location above the city I think that'd work really well. VHF works at great distances as long as you have line-of-sight (I can easily hit a repeater on the mountain 30 miles away) so lots of people would be able to use something at a location like you described. Walrusmaster fucked around with this message at 02:39 on Mar 2, 2023 |
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Mar 2, 2023 02:35
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Quote=/= edit To prevent this from being the most shameful snipe, I recently got a yeasu ft710 and it's awesome. I also have full remote control of it via the attached computer and it's super fun. I can even turn it on and off via the PC. Walrusmaster fucked around with this message at 02:41 on Mar 2, 2023 |
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Mar 2, 2023 02:38
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Crossbar posted:I bought one for my pota adventures and mostly like it. I hate that I have to go into a menu to trigger the voice keyer and it won't auto repeat. Otherwise though it's nice not having the tangled mess of wires that is my kx3, px3, kxpa100 stack. I can see how that would be annoying for POTA. Honestly, a lot of my POTA and SOTA activations are in CW partially because it was easier to get the CW keyer set up on my portable radio. Also because no one could hear me SSB on 5w.
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Mar 2, 2023 15:48
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LimaBiker posted:If you can't separate letters or words from each other, the person you're listening to is probably sticking the letters and words together. This is definitely true. After completing the CW Ops academy I could receive at 25wpm, except if the sender wasn't spacing letters/words properly. The worst is inexperienced straight-key users, I still have a super hard time understanding them. They tend to use really inconsistent dit and dah lengths and it really messes me up. Farnsworth spacing is a super useful tool, especially when you're learning.
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Mar 3, 2023 22:18
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Sir Bobert Fishbone posted:I got my General license a couple years back, but then had a kid and couldn't make contacts for poo poo out of my yard anyway so ended up getting rid of my ft891 and antenna a few months later. For HF, if you're willing to build your own (and you're interested in computer-assisted digital modes or morse code) QRP-Labs makes an excellent digital kit, along with a couple of great morse code kits. If you're after something more fully-featured and less build-it-yourself I had great luck with the Xiegu G90 for years. I'm selling mine now since I upgraded, but it does an awful lot for the price and I used it all over the place, from my house to the peak of a 2 hour hike.
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Mar 14, 2023 16:17
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Sir Bobert Fishbone posted:How serendipitous. I'm walking distance to the fairgrounds. For CW I learned through CW Academy and enjoyed it. It's free (though time-consuming) and I got up to 25wpm. I also enjoy the Morse Mania app for less time-intensive stuff. Make sure you set the speed at 20WPM+, otherwise people tend to count dits and dahs rather than hearing the sound of a whole letter.
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Mar 14, 2023 16:37
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Jonny 290 posted:i bought a $30 chinese iron I did almost the exact same thing, and can concur, the cheap soldering irons don't last and my Weller has been rock-solid. Much nicer to use and much better temperature control as well.
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Mar 23, 2023 02:44
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BONESAWWWWWW posted:My dad has a little handheld scanner he uses for listening to trains. I don't really know what that actually means (workers on the passing train, communications to a main station, ?) but I get the feeling he just got his unit by just grabbing whatever he heard would do the job. He has no radio experience or anything. When he turns it on, it rapidly scans through a set range of frequencies until it finds something. I can help with airplanes at least (I'm an amateur radio operator and a private pilot). Aviation radio transmissions are un-encoded AM VHF radio signals. Almost any scanner or vhf amateur radio can receive these (please note that transmitting for non-aviation/emergency related purposes between 108Mhz and 137Mhz would be illegal). Between 108 and 118 Mhz is used for navigation (and would be extremely boring to listen to). You can find interesting aviation frequencies to listen to by putting your local airport into airnav.com or by finding your location on a FAA sectional chart and looking for nearby airports and boxes telling you approach control frequencies--skyvector.com is a good spot for that.
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Nov 6, 2023 23:34
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BONESAWWWWWW posted:After a lot of studying to get from zero to general, tinkering, finding a radio, figuring out how to plug in the drat radio, and now finally finishing a simple EFHW antenna, I was able to make FT8 contacts and do my first actual QSO. Amazing how bootleg my setup feels, with my antenna tied to a tree on the other side of my property, but still gets me a "5-9" from many states away. And FT8 got me all the way to deep into the EU. I've been positively buzzing all day. Really excited to keep going from here, and now starting to feel envious of the extra slices of bandwidth I could get if I got my Extra... Congrats on your first contacts! My furthest CW QSO contact was with some wire wrapped around a fishing pole and leaned against a parking sign, ad-hoc antennas are great.
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Dec 4, 2023 23:29
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| # ¿ May 11, 2024 12:48 |
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MullardEL34 posted:So, I spent the last week doing practice tests on Hamstudy.org for an hour or so a night. I took one of the online VE Exams over Zoom on Sunday and PASSED my General upgrade, 34/35. It cost $15 and was pretty darn easy to set up. All I had to do was go on Zoom with 3 VE's, pan my laptop over the room to show my test area was clean, and take the test on exam.tools while they watched me on cam. 30 minutes later and they emailed me my CSCE form as a PDF. I'm pumped! I'm probably going to upgrade to Extra soon. Congrats on passing! Time to get some HF contacts
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Dec 13, 2023 16:36
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