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News piece I caught on amateur radio's place in the Haiti disaster, http://www.nbc26.com/Global/story.asp?S=11819668
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Jan 16, 2010 20:07
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Beefington posted:So how do you like it? My VX7R has developed some issue with one of it's receivers and I'm debating whether or not to replace it since it's out of warranty. My 2nd radio was a VX5R I got my senior year of high school. Reading everyone talk about their 6,7 or even 8R makes my radio feel pretty dated but drat if it still works like day one!
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Feb 16, 2010 21:17
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Phuzion posted:PS, who's going to Dayton this year? That's something I've always wanted to attend. I might make this my first year depending on finances.
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Feb 21, 2010 06:46
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nmfree posted:I'd highly recommend getting the programming cable (if one didn't come with the radio) and doing the bulk of the programming on your computer. I would have thrown my VX-5R through the wall if I had tried to set all the memories by punching them in the tiny keyboard. I programmed my VX-5R by hand so yes buy the programming cable! 
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Feb 24, 2010 05:13
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Repeater-wise it's actually pretty active here, 2M and 440. During drive-times there's always activity on at least 2 repeaters, other hours there seems to be a 2M repeater that has like 5 old guys rag chewing like 12 hours a day. So if I really wanted to talk to someone on my HT there's usually someone there. 146.52 is a little quieter but being close to 2 interstate highways activity isn't bad. When I first got licensed I loved playing on 2M/440 since that was all I had and antennas are small. I reached a point though and got equipment and antennas for other bands. I'd say my favorite are 6M and 10M for the real randomness of the bands. 90% of the time they are quiet except for some local repeaters and local SSB activity, then BAM, out of the blue it's CQ CQ from the Bahamas or Canada! Hopefully those bands will pick up as sun spots increase.
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Feb 28, 2010 05:27
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HFX posted:6 miles from me. I haven't been in there in a while. No time / money / location to setup something good. I'm around 90 minutes to 2 hours from the Woodbridge, VA HRO depending on beltway traffic. When I was in college I was only 30-45 minutes away and would go every few months, then I learned it was actually cheaper to buy from them over the phone to avoid sales tax. Don't think I've been to the actual store in like 6 years, and I haven't bought any amateur radio toys in 5 years. I have an Icom 706MIIG that needs work on the FM transmit (a simple soldering joint needs retouched), a dual-band Yaesu mobile whose dual receive is aweful unless you have tone-decode enabled otherwise it's pager-noise galore, and a Yaesu VX-5R which works as good as the day I bought it. All my antennas are still either on the roof or strung through the woods of my parents house, at the moment I live in a apartment with my wife. We're moving soon so soon I'll have some land to play around. Radio Nowhere fucked around with this message at 14:26 on Mar 25, 2010 |
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Mar 25, 2010 14:08
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Any Mid-Atlantic area ham goons going to the Timonium Hamfest this weekend ? http://www.gbhc.org/
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Mar 26, 2010 04:24
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Damnit, I want to upgrade my Yaesu HT from a 5R so bad but must resist! This thread isn't helping, the 8R looks so awesome! I like the Kenwood tri-band HT too since it does a full 5 watts on 220 (a band used around here) and SSB reception. 6 meters on HT is of very limited use.
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Mar 31, 2010 13:34
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I have that Comet stubby HT antenna for my 5R, works great on 440 but very limited coverage on 2M obviously. O and you got a 8R
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Apr 1, 2010 02:21
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The next model will be the VX-8GR which has the GPS unit built into the radio (no seperate puck).
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Apr 1, 2010 13:38
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Caught a little bit of this driving home on NPR yesterday. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125586086
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Apr 6, 2010 18:16
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I made a 150 mile 2M contact on my HT once. It helped though the contact was someone flying at like 4,000 ft a few states away, but neat anyways! Best
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Apr 13, 2010 13:44
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One of these days I'll get Extra, something I've been saying for about 8 years! I got my Tech junior year of high school, then 4 months later upgraded to General. I did it properly too since I had to learn morse code, nah nah! It didn't take me long to loose my morse code skills, use it or loose it and I lost it. Thank goodness computers can do my work!
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Apr 19, 2010 13:35
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Catastrophe posted:I think combining the 6m/2m/70cm bands with HF in one radio like in the IC-706MkIIG would be a BLAST. This stuff is addictive. It is. I need to get my 706 fixed, it has that FM transmit problem where you have to touch up a soldering joint on a capacitor. Otherwise it transmits like 5 KHz off-frequency. Just haven't worked up the confidence to apply heat to the $900 radio yet.
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May 9, 2010 05:18
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This thread has pushed me to find some old CB radios I have, and it's a ham thread! Over the years I've inherited 3 CB radios. One is an old Sears model from the 80's my dad had in his (then) new Cadillac. He took it out after a few months since he never used it and when he did have it on it was all hillbilly talk. He put it away, I found it some years later and kept it. Another radio I found and kept was my grandfathers, it's Sears too but looks older. Last find was at a ham-fest some years ago when I was in high school. I'm at work but I think it's a Maxon(?) brand handheld. Probably used it one and put it away with the rest. I'm on the edge of a medium city so I may try one of these radios out on a 10 meter whip and see what I get. Guess if it's interesting/entertaining enough I'll grab a dedicated 11 meter antenna and hook it up permanently.
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Aug 24, 2010 17:15
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Nullsmack posted:A buddy of mine has one of those MFJ analyzers. It's pretty sweet although he doesn't use it a whole lot I don't think. My college amateur radio club had one, it was pretty sweet and used it a few times in antenna experimentation. Okay really I hooked it to various metal things to see what could potentially be antennas. My parents gutter system worked rather well on 20 meters before I got a tuned dipole up.
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Oct 14, 2010 21:17
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AstroZamboni posted:I don't qualify for any kind of officership, since I don't have a neckbeard (neatly trimmed Van Dyke), I maintain proper hygiene, I don't drink soda (and don't even like Mountain Dew), and actually get dates occasionally. I may, I'm currenty sporting a neckbeard and drink soda. My downfall is I shower (sorry) and get continous dates since I'm married. I can do a half-rear end position, backup backup net coordinator? On my resume I was President of my college's radio club and ran their weekly net. Too bad their node seems to have fallen off the planet, would be the perfect node for this. I use to have college check-ins from all over, it was strange having a amateur radio net where most participants were under 40! I also passed code to get General, in amateur radio land that makes me cooler.
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Nov 15, 2010 16:24
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Catastrophe posted:Well... I can't use echolink because stupid echolink's stupid site won't let me validate my stupid account with them because it's stupid and is somehow still seeing my old address from 4 months ago when I still lived in Philly even though the FCC database lists my new, correct address so I have no idea what to do here because everything is stupid and broken and stupid. Ha, this made me realize I've never updated the address on my amateur radio license. I've moved like 3 times though today I'm still in the same area as my old address. My old address is my parents house and they haven't gone anywhere, so I'm okay if anything got mailed. Still I should get that changed now that I'm settled in my new house. Are we doing any regularly scheduled nets on this echolink node? I'll volunteer as net control if that gets the ball rolling.
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Nov 17, 2010 15:26
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BigHustle posted:Don't wait for approval, decide when you want to get your balls out and let everyone know when to check in. Well I didn't want to step on dv6speed if he already had plans since it's his node and all. I'll gladly get a weekly net rolling, I'm thinking starting at 9 PM EST so it's not too early for west coasters nor too late for east coasters. You goons can PM me what evening would work best. Also PM me some goony net names but remember to keep it FCC legal.
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Nov 18, 2010 15:42
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Catastrophe posted:What??? Where? When not using your HF+6M rig tune it to 50.125 USB in the background. Openings can come and go fast so when you hear something call back ASAP. I've made random contacts up and down the east coast this way.
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Dec 20, 2010 04:49
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I'll be hanging out on the SAARS Echolink node (AG0ON-L) for the next half hour if anyone wants to chat.
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Jan 15, 2011 23:54
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I checked into the local 2M net last night where it was announced a 10M SSB net was following. Since I just got my HF setup going (Icom 706MIIG, MFJ Tuner, 10 M vertical in attic with radials for ground) I would give it a try. The net was pretty small, only like 3 check-ins and all were local. What I found interesting was despite everyone being close (3-10 miles away) noone really had a strong signal. Even the closest check-in to me was only giving me S-4 at like 3 miles away. Everything is great with my setup, low 1.2'ish SWR with 100 watts out. They had the same signal from me, I figure that's just normal local loss on 10M. I think 6M is similar, great during openings but locally you're not going to get the same distance as 2M.
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Feb 15, 2011 18:39
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Dijkstra posted:How many radials does it have and how long are they? If there were a lot of buildings/hills in between you and your antenna is pretty low then local groundwave won't be very strong. I did 6 half-wavelength radials. It's about 3 stories up but then again so is everyone else's townhouse in our developement. I knew groundwave would be low but didn't realize how low. The net was an ARES net and I'm thinking 10 meters would be pretty useless all coms were in the same city. Even then 2M would be much more efficient and ubiquitous. To show I'm not completely knocking 10M I've made some awesome contacts across the country when sunspots were better. Talking to someone in Texas directly on FM is pretty cool.
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Feb 17, 2011 20:46
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I want to see the FCC run around smacking walkie-talkies out of little kids hands screaming "You can't use that!". The 440 repeater frequencies (440-450) are used a decent amount around here, not as much as 2M though. 430-440 is home to SSB only during contesting and some links between repeater systems. Have yet to hear anything between 420-430, all I know about that area is technically illegal close to Canada.
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Feb 18, 2011 19:15
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I've had good luck with something like this, http://www.sadoun.com/Sat/Installation/Flat-coaxial.jpg A short length of flat cable that can be shut in a window or a outside door. I've never seen any made with PL259 or BNC ends though so adapters are needed.
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Feb 19, 2011 23:19
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Vir posted:Maybe you could change your address in the FCC records to a mailbox address or something, if you're concerned about burglars or whatever? This just made me realize my FCC address is still my parents house. I'm not on the air too much but even when I am I have no issues giving out things like a phone number (cell) or an e-mail address over the air, even over repeaters!  Guess I'm not that paranoid as some. I'll likely update my address though when I renew my license next year.
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Mar 7, 2011 02:28
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Anybody going to the Greater Baltimore Hamboree & Computerfest (also known simply as the Timonium Hamfest) March 26th weekend? It's the biggest hamfest in the Mid-Atlantic region, highly recommend it for a day of nerdom. There's also testing for newbies and upgrades.
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Mar 14, 2011 14:33
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AbsentMindedWelder posted:At the Timonium hamfast tomorrow, I think I may keep an eye out for a 2m amplifier... something in the order of 200 watts or so. What would a good price vs rip off price be for something like that? Sorry I missed this last night, got busy Friday night and tried to go to bed a little early to get to Timonium at a decent hour. I got there around 9 AM and walked around for a little over 2 hours. SO much stuff, most of it random crap though. I only ended up buying a antenna switcher and some very short lengths of RG-8.
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Mar 26, 2011 23:38
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I'm in a HOA situation here myself, at the moment I just have antennas in the attic/crawl-space area under the roof for HF/VHF/UHF. At some point this spring I will get a par-endz antenna and run that to a nearby tree which is technically in a "common area" just behind my fenced in yard. My hope is few will see it and even fewer will care. My attic antenna picks up around S-3 units of noise average which isn't bad considering the situation but I'm surely missing out on weak signals. I'd like to get my 2M/440 j-pole another 15 feet higher by putting it on the roof but that would likely get HOA on me quick. My satellite TV antenna is on the side of my house (I'm in a end unit) but so is everybody elses. I guess everybody's HOA is different. Why can't all HOA's understand we need 200 yard wire antennas and 60 ft towers to work those rare DX stations! 
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Apr 3, 2011 22:32
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BigHustle posted:Would the HOA pitch a fit if you put up something while transmitting and pulled it down once you were done? It would be a pain in the rear end unless you came up with a quick way to mount/dismount the antenna, but at least you'd be able to get some decent signal reception while operating. I guess it depends on what you're doing. I'm sure it would raise a few eyebrows if every contest I cranked up my 60 ft tower with an 80M beam above my townhouse. I suppose a VHF/UHF vertical on my roof for two days would do little harm, but like you said it would be a pain. A flagpole antenna in my small backyard could work, the radials would be good to 20M without a tuner. I'm somewhat lazy and won't go through the effort to erect a flagpole just to work HF. If I can shoot a wire to a nearby tree to get my antenna away from the noise that'll be good enough.
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Apr 3, 2011 23:11
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BigHustle posted:If anyone would be interested in a copy, I might be able to burn copies or throw up a torrent. I would be interested. I still have paper copies from when I did Skywarn training in 2002, could use any updates. I think the NWS still has my old address, should contact them to fix that.
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Apr 5, 2011 13:52
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drat BigHustle, I wish the nets around here had even a fraction of that entertainment! I have to listen to 80M for that kind of craziness. Locally the nets are pretty dry, nobody acts up and the phrase "no comment" is common after check-ins. Once in awhile I can catch something interesting on 2M simplex (cursing, etc) but otherwise FM is dull. Skywarn nets from the semi-famous "147.300 Bluemont repeater" which covers a huge chunk of Maryland, DC and Virginia can be interesting during severe storms. I still remember the phrase "OMG the hail is cracking my windshield" from some storm going through northern Virgina a few years back. Kind of makes you think "time to go inside!"
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Apr 12, 2011 02:43
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QPZIL posted:
drat $110 is a sweet price for a dual-band HT! So very tempted ...
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Apr 14, 2011 20:36
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Jose Pointero posted:I suppose so, but there's always room for improvement! Particularly with older radios that have only dropped in price like $100 since they were introduced. The FT-817 comes to mind...there's no way it still costs ~$600 for Yaesu to produce after first being released in ~2007. $600 ain't too bad, but you know they've got some good margin on that right now. The FT-817 has been around longer then that, at least since 2001 when I first got licensed. I was very tempted to get one a year later but I realized a Icom 706MIIG was a much better investment.
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Apr 15, 2011 13:19
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I wonder how those Chinese dual-ban dual-receive models handle intermod? I have a Yaesu model where the second VFO just screams pager signals unless the PL is on. I use this model in the house now, been looking around for a dual-bander (2M/440)to put in my car. I lean on just doing a dual-bander with only one VFO.
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Apr 16, 2011 01:09
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LtDan posted:Anyone doing anything for this year's field day? I'm always on vacation that weekend, but I bring a portable shortwave radio to check in on the crazyness.
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Apr 26, 2011 15:55
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mwdan posted:oh yeah. That comet antenna is huge, its like 62" so mounted on the roof I'm at like 11'2" to the top of it. Sexy, hamsexy! Or at least it would be on my small car, it probably works well on a truck.
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Jun 9, 2011 19:01
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On one of the amateur radio list-servs I subscribe to I caught someone asking for radio volunteers at the occupy wallstreet protests for coordination . Of course it led to a back/forth between users but my reaction was how great to have this backbone when cellphones and wifi get overloaded. I don't see any difference between having volunteers there or another bike marathon, minus the political angle I suppose.
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Oct 12, 2011 18:02
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iostream.h posted:You can laugh, but I've always wanted one of those based strictly on how it looks. Like something out of my childhood in the '80's that I'd use to reach some Spielberg aliens or something. Yea my knee-jerk reaction is something like that. The I realize a ~$1000 SDR transceiver can do what these do and more. But damnit I like REAL knobs and buttons!
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Feb 2, 2012 03:55
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I just made contact with someone who participates in something called "Summits On The Air". Its a program that started in Europe in 2009 and has worked its way here. Basically climb a mountain with portable radio equipment and make contacts for points, seems pretty cool. It strikes me as a anytime extreme field day, at least it gets ops outside. My contact was someone on a 5 watt HT about 80 miles away, not bad. http://www.sota.org.uk/
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Mar 11, 2012 22:27
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