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Holy crap, Just when I was starting to think that 2 scanners (RadioShack pro-28 and icom R3), 2 2-meter radios (Realistic HTX-202 HT and Kenwood TM-241a), and a couple of frs/gmrs radios just might be a bit much... I'm just starting to get back into the hobby a bit after not operating for 10 years too. Just wish I had money to buy the fancy toys that are around these days. Can anyone help me build a WA5VJB "cheap-yagi" for 2-meters operation?
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Aug 10, 2009 06:42
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Many years ago I once made a 2-meter dx contact without really meaning to on my htx-202. On 5W with external power from a 12v SLA battery and on the rubberducky antenna I made a contact from whitewater state park here in Indiana to Terra Haute.. roughly 100-120 miles. I'm convinced it was during a really nice VHF propagation period though. http://www.mountainlake.k12.mn.us/ham/aprs/path.cgi?map=na This was also 10-14 years ago so different solar conditions than we have today. I never got a qsl card to back up my claim though.
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Sep 5, 2009 06:01
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I bought my Icom R3 scanner from them something like 7 years ago. Didn't have a problem with them though my bank called me the next day to ask if I just spent $400 at a universal radio website. Heh. There's an echolink node that I don't think anyone around here ever uses. 332794
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Apr 16, 2010 01:11
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Catastrophe posted:grrr.... found an ft-817nd for sale for $325 shipped. Emailed the guy and he still had it. Slept on it and emailed him again today to say I wanted it. Obviously, it was already paid for and gone. Yeah, sleeping on good deals like that is the wrong thing to do. I saw an Icom 706MkII on QTH several weeks ago for $350 with a tuner (that turned out to be $200 brand new) and I'm still kicking myself over turning away from that. Granted I don't have that kind of money to blow on radio stuff right now. I did get a great deal on an alinco dr-600t dual-band radio the other day though. $130, 2m/440 and it has crossband and remote dtmf control. Sadly, no tone decode board or separation kit.  It's an older one too so accessories are impossible to find. Also, I need to change the backup battery because memories go away after several hours of it being turned off. Still a good deal and I'm tickled pink over having crossband capability finally. I'm planning on snooping the communication between the face and the radio with something and seeing if I can't figure out how to control it with my own stuff. (ie computer or homebrew faceplate :P)This radio is kinda neat in that it has an extended receive mod applied to enable VHF air band RX and ~800-999mhz receive. (technically. The ~800-999mhz needs an additional antenna jack added, but the case is actually designed to accommodate such a mod if I want to add it.) I do need to undo an extended TX mod that's been done to it before I accidentally TX out of band, that would suck.
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May 26, 2010 05:35
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Vir posted:APRS with VX-8R-mounted GPS: I don't know what TNCs support it but some have APRS support built in. My old rear end PK-12 from the mid-90s would let you configure it and then hook any NMEA GPS to its serial port and it would beacon without a computer. Of course, receiving is another story.
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Jun 16, 2010 20:35
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I got my no-code tech license in either 93 or 94... I just upgraded to General this year. I know how you feel.
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Jun 22, 2010 17:20
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I was going to suggest n0ob but.. it's taken too. http://www.qrz.com/db/N0OB
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Jul 21, 2010 23:51
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I need to get to work on my HF radio. I was gifted a ts-520s but it had a problem with it. I investigated and just recently discovered an open connection in the function switch. There's a wire that should be connected but one end of it is swinging free. :/ I intend on making a 40m dipole when I get that fixed so I can play on 40m at least. I guess those are usually resonant on 15m as well. I wish ssb radios for 2m/440 weren't so expensive. I've missed out on a couple recently. One was a 706 with bad HF finals but it worked fine on 2 meters and also to receive HF. $200, I emailed the guy as soon as I saw it pop up and he emailed me back 4hrs later to tell me it sold already.
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Jul 25, 2010 07:43
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I think you're suppose to have it 1/4 wave above ground for the best results. I don't know if that affects your swr or not though.
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Jul 25, 2010 21:58
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Anyone do anything homebrew? I made a pixie2 earlier this year but I'm thinking about trying to make something more serious to use as an HF radio. Maybe a softrock ensemble rxtx or a BITX or something. I'm wanting to get a 40m dipole or something up before the weather turns sour but I don't know if I'm going to or not.
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Oct 8, 2010 21:24
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BigHustle posted:I'm thinking about ordering a Small Wonder Labs Retro-75 5w AM transmitter. I'd like to find a 6m transceiver kit to build, but all I can find for 6m is receivers. I looked at building one of these too. I still may one day. I'm glad I didn't for now though because there's a review in the most recent QST. These are truely retro... Apparently the transmit side is crystalled, 1 or 2 frequencies and the receive side can be tuned up to 50khz. I guess this is a method of operating from quite long ago. Incidentally, I got in on an order for the Softrock emsemble RXTX kits the other day. https://www.kb9yig.com The guy putting them together only puts a set number on his website at a time so you have to keep an eye on it. I'm going to be building the 40m/30m/20m version. He includes parts to put it on any 3 band set that he sells. It's 1 watt out. The only thing I'm concerned about is SMT parts; I've never soldered those before. I'd like to eventually stick it in one of these: https://www.sdr-cube.com
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Oct 12, 2010 20:28
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TC the Giant posted:That SDR-Cube thing is neat. I'd love to have one, but their website is awful sparse on a handful of details, like, y'know, price. And power output. The invoice lists an amplifier module, but that doesn't rate a wattage either. It uses a Softrock 6.3 RXTX. So it should have 1-2.5w barefoot. I don't know what the amp is. The reason why there's no price is because this was just announced very recently. They are getting PCBs, parts and enclosures ready and then they are going to announce a price in the next week or two. The softrock is separate but they are selling a few of those too. Unfortunately the 6.3 was single band unless you had external switching band pass filters but the cube will work with other softrocks. The Ensemble RXTX has up to 3 bands. I guess it's too big to fit inside the cube though. Still, this is a very neat development as it's a SDR frontend that can take the place of a computer. It has a port for a NUE-PSK (same guys) so you can do RTTY and PSK without a computer also.
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Oct 12, 2010 22:19
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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.
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Oct 14, 2010 04:33
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Incidentally, lots of people hit a ceiling at 13wpm if they make the mistake of starting slow and working up. It apparently throws you off trying to speed up. Try using this: http://www.g4fon.net/CW%20Trainer.htm
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Oct 19, 2010 03:10
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I would actually like that Ohm's law shirt.
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Dec 17, 2010 06:18
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Something I've wanted to do for awhile but never got around to it is investigate some of those cheap small name gps units that are for sale. Typically they run some sort of Windows CE os with the shell replaced by the GPS program. If you can find a serial connection for one, shouldn't be too terribly hard to get it running aprsisce instead.
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Dec 22, 2010 07:46
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Hummer Driving human being posted:Okay, so the sound card is just sampling those frequencies many, many times a second to the point that it's almost the same as being able to monitor a large group of frequencies at one time? You can use it just like any other radio, your transmit bandwidth isn't any wider than it needs to be. The RX side is the biggest thing, you can click right on the signal that you want to listen to and tune to it instantly. Plus your filter is entirely defined in software, so no more blowing hundreds of dollars on filters. I have a RXTX ensemble that I'm slowly working on. I can build it for anywhere on HF but once I do, it's stuck on the bands I pick. I'm building mine for 40m/30m/20m and it'll be a max of 1W out on those bands. It is QRP but I might build an amp later. There are those who build a Softrock Lite II receiver to attach to a IF on a radio so they can view the spectrum but use a radio they like for the transmit. I'm working on repairing a TS-520S, I may add something like that to it one day too.
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Jan 3, 2011 01:18
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BigHustle posted:Apparently at one of the previous SKYWARN meetings one of the RACES guys showed up in tactical SWAT type gear and was packing heat. Keep in mind that the session was held at a boys and girls club. Net control? Do you have a weekly net that serves as your meetings somehow? You should record nutjobs like that for laughing at later on: http://www.davee.com/scanrec/
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Apr 11, 2011 20:06
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xergm posted:It looks like your wish in the on the way. Yeah, don't hold your breath on that too long. This has been known about since probably this time last year and it was expected to be out right after the new year. That reservation page has been up for at least 6 months now. Granted, there are some trade shows and such coming up that might be showing the radio. There's this radio I saw the other day too. I emailed the company and they said it would be out in June. It probably wont be as well made with as many features as the Wouxun though.
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Apr 16, 2011 00:43
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Sniep posted:So, the other night I was playing around in the business bands and found the taco bell right across the street from me, easy enough right? I wonder if other restaurants use this same thing? I don't remember hearing it on the local frequencies but I have yet to find Taco Bell here. There's a nice spread between the restaurants here. McD's is around 469, Wendy's is up in 900mhz somewhere and BK is 33.4mhz. I've never once found Taco Bell though.
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Jun 10, 2011 20:37
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BigHustle posted:List of drive thru frequencies Thanks for the frequencies, I'll have to sit outside of one and scan through them. I've seen that PLA video before and I don't believe their modding instructions. Why would a toaster have a crystal in it? I bet they have a Maxtrac or something. I've seen a video along similar lines where someone had a Yeasu VX-7R with the extended transmit enabled to mess with people. I'm still surprised I've never seen a video of someone crossbanding the drive-thru frequencies between two places.
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Jun 21, 2011 14:47
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Vir posted:Haha. So it's not programmable through BT then? Feels a bit like those new netbooks - OK it has wireless and BT, but how do I install this OS DVD? I wonder if there's a software application that takes advantage of the bluetooth cloning in order to wirelessly program the radio yet. It's cool that it has bluetooth apparently. I've never heard of that radio having that. I know the point you're trying to make about the netbooks but anyone can get a usb cd drive or if they are smart enough they can put the OS install on a flash drive.
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Jun 23, 2011 05:00
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I don't know if any of you guys watch the "Falling Sky" tv show on TNT, but they had a Globe Scout 40a transmitter in the last two episodes this season. Of course, it's like hollywood with computers so there's a couple things I had to overlook with it. Still neat though.
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Aug 9, 2011 16:42
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Jose Pointero posted:
I love stories about people who bring dead radios back to life, especially when they mod parts to get it to work, or add stuff like ctcss.
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Dec 9, 2011 00:03
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| # ¿ May 20, 2024 05:46 |
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I was wondering about this place. RIP Hara Arena.
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May 28, 2019 14:15
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