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Hey all. Been studying for Technician for a bit and have been passing my practice exams. Looking to take the test soon, but it looks like it will have to be virtual. I see a tremendous number of exams listed every day on HamStudy, is there any reason to believe that any of them are, I don't know, not totally legitimate? Or anything I should know before a virtual exam?
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Sep 26, 2023 02:51
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| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 13:39 |
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Thanks everyone. Signed up for a test last night, took it today, and passed my Tech. Excited to move up to General next!
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Sep 27, 2023 18:47
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I fired up my standard, stock RTL-SDR with the kit dipole antenna today and figured out how to receive/decode FT8. Almost right away I caught an interaction between someone in Spain and someone in Montana. So cool... I wish I had a real antenna now, but I'm not sure where I'd put one of the monsters it appears you need for proper HF.
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Sep 30, 2023 01:54
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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'd like to upgrade his experience but I'm not sure where amateur radio and train radio coincides. Does anyone have knowledge on this part of the hobby? Is train traffic generally encrypted or anything like that, and is there a common frequency range that would be particularly fruitful? I'm not necessarily fishing for product recommendations (though if you have any I'm all ears) but it'd be nice to gain more technical knowledge that may help him out. e: Possibly the same questions about airplanes, if anyone knows that as well. Thank you! BONESAWWWWWW fucked around with this message at 22:35 on Nov 6, 2023 |
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Nov 6, 2023 22:25
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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...
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Dec 4, 2023 17:20
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| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 13:39 |
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Antennas are basically magic to me. I've never heard of a cubical quad before. Looks great! What's the use case? Or is it just for fun?
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Feb 28, 2024 15:57
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