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What do you have it hooked into?
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Oct 20, 2016 04:51
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Jonny 290 posted:or, like i posted on QRZ, you could throw up a rogue AP with hosed DNS and your own telnet server and disable all the HRD on laptops at field day, lol Gonna just assume that you can root everyone via a buffer overflow or similar in the response parser as well
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Dec 21, 2016 05:12
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I likewise got an N-connection discone put up this weekend. It's on a pole that's mounted onto the side of the house. I put up the mast/mount a few weeks ago and I'm only just now getting around to doing the actual antenna. In order to get the mast up, I ended up crawling up into the attic a couple times to measure and then add horizontal boards where the mount was going to be screwed into the wall, so that it wouldn't just be hanging off the wood siding. It was a real pain, but on the plus side the mount is now so solid that I can use it as a handle when climbing up onto the roof. When terminating the cable I discovered that none of the heat shrink I had was quiiite thick enough to fit the connectors. I ended up going to the nearest hardware store (an Ace hardware 20 mins away), where I was able to find that as well as some coax wall clips (like the kind frequently used for TV cable) that would be suitable for running the feedline under the roof eaves. Overall, I took way longer terminating the cable than actually putting up the antenna itself. It was my first time terminating a cable and it was 1. a thick cable with a solid conductor, 2. a soldered N connector. On the upside I got to practice making the line cuts several times due to getting the proportions wrong (and the dimensions in the connector documentation being wrong as well), so future ones should be much faster... From front. You may be able to see a vertical black rope hanging in front of the third tree from the left; that's going to a pulley that's 90 ft up. There's another two of those in the yard, making roughly a 50ft triangle to be used for hanging wire antennas:  From side. May shorten the drip loop a bit with another connection further up the eave, but it started getting hard to reach at that point so I left it alone for now:  And the incomplete part. I've got an entry panel already purchased that I'm planning on putting under this window. The grounding system has also been worked out and is mostly finished, I may post about that later:  Parts: - Antenna: Diamond D130NJ (alternate: D130J with UHF connector) - Mount: Rohn WM12D - Mast: 10 ft galvanized fence top rail ($12.50 at home depot) - Feedline: LMR-400 type with solid center conductor (planning on doing some higher-freq scanning, in addition to hooking up a dual-band mobile) - Weatherproofing: 3M Temflex tape (would normally also need UV protection with e.g. Super 88 electrical tape, but with this antenna the connector is covered by a long metal tube)
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Jul 31, 2017 21:08
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Michael Jackson posted:Do you live in the wilderness? I hate the EMI noise here in the city and i wonder how much improvement one would get in no mans land. Sorta, it's in a locally rural area but it's 20 minutes from 7 million people (hosed up bay area zoning in a nutshell). There's a hill ridge that separates me from there so I don't get too much noise here. However I'm also in a valley so desirable stuff frequently gets blocked as well.
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Aug 1, 2017 03:51
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johnnyonetime posted:So if I mounted a piece of unistrut on the tower to hold the ladder line away and parallel to the tower would that be enough separation? If you haven't done this already, this guy sells a 3' tower arm for $60, pulleys incl: http://www.kf7p.com/KF7P/Antenna_Standoff_Arm.html
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Aug 14, 2017 23:41
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poeticoddity posted:Anyone have any experience with Yaesu mail-in rebates? I got an Icom IC-2730a for less than half the cost of that and it's been fine, with a reasonably intuitive interface (had the hang of it in 15 mins or so). This was just going to be at my desk so I didn't really care about additional built-in features like e.g. APRS or some snowflake selection of digital voice codecs. Icom had a small rebate at the time, which also went fine. They even mailed an actual check rather than one of those lovely prepaid cards that rebates sometimes have Progressive JPEG fucked around with this message at 16:51 on Aug 31, 2017 |
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Aug 31, 2017 16:48
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 Regretting giving these people a bunch of money now, ughhhh  I'm sure there's a world where this balances out somehow
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Sep 1, 2017 23:02
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mycomancy posted:Greetings hamgoons! I passed my General exam on December 1, so now I can play with the big kids on HF and get away from this repeater-hogging smoothbrains. I may build a small 80/40m rig to tide me over until I save up to build my shack and buy something proper. I have my eyes set on a Yaesu FT-991A, it looks baller. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyphxUs7O1A Here's a good A-B comparison video between the 991A and the IC-7300. If you skip to about 13 minutes in there's a pretty good explanation and comparison of the differences between the 991A's heterodyne-based system vs the IC-7300's SDR-based system, and how they result in noticeably different behavior between those two models particularly when it comes to displaying and navigating the waterfall. More specifically it points out the limitations of the 991A's system while giving a pretty good explanation of why it ends up that way.
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Jan 10, 2018 07:42
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I got one recently as well, lol at the $10 customs declaration they went with Need to figure out how to have 2 antennas (1 discone, 1 wire) go 4.5 places: VHF/UHF mobile, HF base, OG airspy w/ spyverter (the .5), and now the HF+
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Feb 9, 2018 21:37
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eddiewalker posted:Any tips on getting a dope vanity call? My given 2x3 is so hard for me to say quickly that I use NATO alphabet on local repeaters like a huge dork. Easy option is 1x3 with your initials for the 3. That's what I did anyway. You can get a 1x3 as a tech too.
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Feb 14, 2018 05:56
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blugu64 posted:No-code extras unite! Sponsored by hamstudy.org (legit good if anyone's studying btw)
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Mar 25, 2018 02:16
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Solid lines may be RF interference, possibly from nearby electronics and things like power supplies. If you have a laptop or UPS you could simply cut power to your house/apt at the circuit breaker and see if the noise goes away, or alternatively take the kit with you outdoors/away from the building, and see if it goes away then. Taking your receiver outdoors will also help a lot with picking up other (desired) signals, by the way. If the noise doesn't go away from doing one of those things, it can also be from noise going up the USB cable from the PC, and/or the power cord to the receiver if it has a separate power cord. You can slap a ferrite bead on there (ideally wrapping the cord through a single bead multiple times) and see if that helps. You will likely find that you have multiple noise sources involved, each with its own harmonic set of lines. You can track many of them down by playing with the breakers as mentioned above, or by simply waving around the antenna (or a cheap portable shortwave receiver) and tracing noise sources that way. I've found just slapping ferrites on noise sources will fix or at least greatly reduce most of them. Ultimately its a game of decreasing returns to try and solve all of them.
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Mar 29, 2018 15:41
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Are there any HTs with a UI that's intended for use by humans? I have an FT-60 and I gotta read the manual each time I use it.
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May 6, 2018 20:50
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Motronic posted:I've always owned Yaesus, and just bought an Icom 2730A after agonizing over the equivalent Yaesus and Kenwoods.  2730a buddies -- mine's set up on my deskjust wanted something that had dual tuners without too many (other) bells and/or whistles
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May 14, 2018 03:03
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mycomancy posted:Hi radio goons. I'm planning my first radio shack, as I'm moving to a new house with a great layout for one, and I'm trying to decide what I want. Currently I'm leaning towards a Yaesu FT-991A as my first shack rig, as it should allow me to do a wide variety of things with one unit for a reasonable price. This has a good comparison/explanation of SDR vs non when it comes to display behavior: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyphxUs7O1A
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May 15, 2018 02:56
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SEKCobra posted:Encryption is illegal for ham radio here. However signed messages are just fine 
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May 23, 2018 17:55
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What's the benefit of doing that? Does it affect rx range or only tx?
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May 27, 2018 01:15
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If you're already studying for the tech and it's going well, you may want to consider just going for the general. General is effectively tech + some questions about propagation, and finishing it gives you a lot more options. I ended up just doing both in the same visit.
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Sep 1, 2018 06:01
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Extra would probably need a bit more studying, unless you're already an EE or something. But it's not nearly as hard as people claim, and it's not unheard of for people to get all three at once. A couple years after getting the tech/general I studied for the extra on and off for 3-4 weeks (hamstudy.org + kb6nu book) and apparently overdid it because I ended up getting 100%  Since then most of the stuff from the extra exam has actually been really useful in understanding wtf is going on, so the system works I guess
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Sep 1, 2018 16:45
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What did you use to get the chart? I've got a fancy rigexpert with usb output but I haven't tried that out yet
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Sep 7, 2018 20:41
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Michael Jackson posted:update: i bought an elecraft kx3 and i am now sending EMAIL through winlink (ardop). Does the kx3 come with a sound card or are you using an external box?
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Oct 1, 2018 06:02
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https://hamstudy.org is a good site for studying the exams, and they also have the Canadian Basic and Advanced exams if you go into "Other..." According to this page you would first obtain the Basic licence and then you could upgrade to Advanced later if you want. It looks like the only real benefit to doing so is being able to increase the power that you're transmitting at. Note that the licence would only be required to transmit. If you're interested in just seeing what's out there, you could also put together a receive-only setup for fairly cheap. The ingredients would be: - An SDR dongle that accepts an antenna connection and connects to your computer over USB. This would be "the radio". I have an Airspy HF+ which I really like, but you can also get ones like an RTL-SDR for around US$20-30. - A computer to plug the SDR dongle into, running software to receive the radio data over USB. I use SDR# ("SDR sharp") but there are a few good options for this. - An antenna. This part is a very involved part of ham radio. There are all kinds of options for what antenna you'd get, and there aren't really any right answers as the correct antenna depends on the frequency you're listening to. In practice the biggest single factor is where the antenna is located; if you can get it to the top of a hill or over your roof line then you're much better off than in a valley or indoors. Also, when it comes to antennas cheap can often be better. Just throwing a scrap wire up into a tree can capture as much if not more signal as a $500 vertical on a mast. The above RTL-SDR.com site has an SDR+antenna kit for US$28, so you could just buy one of those to start with. You may have better results if you do this on a laptop that you've taken outside, as indoors you will likely find all the RF noise sources in your home.
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Dec 15, 2018 04:09
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As motronic is hinting at you are likely seeing some kind of spurious image of the original fm broadcast that's being produced within the rtlsdr itself. The station probably wouldn't be broadcasting FM in the AM/SSB CB band, so that's a pretty big tell on its own. If you had another radio around that could tune the same area like a shortwave receiver that could also establish if the issue is rtlsdr-specific Ways to fix: - turn down the gain - get an fm filter like this
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May 3, 2019 21:59
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I have a regular airspy as well as an hf+. Despite the much smaller bandwidth I prefer the hf+ since it doesn't need a transverter to see hf. I also have the airspy branded transverter but somehow haven't ever gotten it to work properly outside of sdr#. It might also just be broken, I had previously turned one of the washers holding a connector to the housing too tight and the connector popped loose. Mashed it back on and seemed fine but could still have busted something via that.
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May 27, 2019 22:03
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Any HF radio could work. A lot depends on how much they want to spend, and whether they plan to use it at a desk or on the go. In my opinion an IC-7300 is great value for money (among new radios) but not everybody wants to spend that much up-front.
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May 28, 2019 02:08
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Dehry posted:https://twitter.com/pwguru65/status/1133254042174590976 Wasn't it already collapsing in on itself before? I imagine the owner is cashing the insurance checks as we speak.
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May 28, 2019 08:18
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Big Mackson posted:edit: we live in modern times so 0 loss cable when? Was going to say ladder line but from playing with this calculator it might actually be worse than good coax in 2.4ghz territory
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Jun 9, 2019 00:00
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Jonny 290 posted:G-line to the rescue! I'm calling it a G-string and none of you can stop me
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Jun 10, 2019 20:56
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Before the exam, cram cram cram, don't worry too much about actually learning anything but maybe take notes for later. I remember the General having stuff about atmospheric layers and propagation that caught me up in particular. For after the exam, I've found the most useful stuff to be in books: - ARRL antenna book is pretty much the benchmark for antenna information. Worth checking if there's a library nearby that carries it. It doesn't change much between editions. - I really like Practical Antenna Handbook (Carr/Hippisley), it has things neatly divided into sections by antenna type and also includes gif information about actually hooking things up, grounding, diagnosis methods and tools. I actually like this one more than the ARRL antenna book. - I think there's also an ARRL "antennas for small spaces" that's supposed to be good? I've heard the catch is that "small spaces" is relative and just means anything that isn't traditionally measured in acres.
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Aug 25, 2019 20:16
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Oh wow, congrats! I remember being able to get tech+general in one trip after studying for both. They offered the extra and I said sure for kicks. Ended up just returning the exam completely blank because I couldn't even understand most of the questions. Eventually came back and aced it about a year later, after 3-4 weeks studying whenever I had spare time
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Sep 7, 2019 22:25
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That rules and I'm kinda jealous because all my radio equipment is still in boxes from a move. You're effectively getting 100% more done with your ladder and RTL-SDR than I am with a couple grand of equipment and parts!
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Sep 14, 2019 02:12
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If you expect to hardly use it then a baofeng is fine but otherwise probably better to wait for something nicer. A baofeng is likely to not get used very much just because it'd be so frustrating to deal with on a day to day basis. It feels like a lot of people who sing their praises are just getting them to throw in a go bag or similar as opposed to regular use, in which case it indeed makes sense to prefer something cheap and replaceable. FWIW "mobile" units can also be used on a desk. For example I have an Icom 2730a along with a Nifty accessories stand for holding the head. That particular model wouldn't be great for digital stuff as it lacks a data port* but it can tune two things at once and I find the interface much more intuitive than any HT I've tried. * could be hooked up to send data over the audio input but that's a bit more of a pain to set up
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Sep 14, 2019 23:57
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Yes the antenna resonance or lack thereof goes both ways, for example using an antenna tuner will also improve receive levels
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Oct 30, 2019 13:24
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Amateur transceiver lead times are enormous for reasons that have been explained to me but have since forgotten - “not enough money in it” is probably the main reason? It could easily be another 2-3 years before there’s a response from the other manufacturers, and no guarantee that the response won’t come with some bizarre downside. And anything that they’re developing will itself be announced at least a year or two before it’s actually ready to sell, to try and stop people from buying a 7300 today, so you’d have lots of advance warning if a 7300-killer was coming anytime soon. I mean no reason to rush out and get a 7300 ASAP either. Just don’t expect amateur radio to be like computer parts, where things are outdated before they hit retail and waiting a few months rewards you with something much better for the same price. For transceivers in particular you don’t see much in terms of innovation from the big 3. The cool new stuff is instead developed by a few boutique manufacturers, and fly by night operations selling from eBay, to maybe eventually get picked up by the big 3 a decade later when it starts getting hard for them to source parts for their current models. Progressive JPEG fucked around with this message at 21:52 on Dec 4, 2019 |
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Dec 4, 2019 21:37
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Same except hamstudy.org
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Dec 21, 2019 00:29
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I was wondering why hamstudy.org wasn't connecting from here in NZ, looked like it was down all day On a lark I try hopping onto a VPN so that it looks like I'm connecting from USA and suddenly the page loads fine. Switched over to Australia and it works fine from there too Gotta keep all the kiwi hackers out I guess
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Dec 22, 2019 09:03
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It’s been a couple years since the last ferrite haul but I remember getting trays of big honkin fair-rite brand ones from arrow.com for way cheaper than I could find anywhere else at the time. Keep the trays they come in because they’re great for storage. That said I do remember some specific ones being slightly cheaper on kf7p.com (whose outdoor access panels are amazing btw)
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Dec 23, 2019 20:41
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Motronic posted:If you can't do it properly frozen you probably can't do it properly period. Do you mean rotary hammer?
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Dec 30, 2019 10:43
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I have an Anytone D878 and it's been fine, though I admit I haven't used it much lately. I got mine direct from China via Ebay since nobody in NZ carried it anyway. I was able to reach a nearby DMR repeater with it just fine, after some trial and error with getting the code plug right. It's an HT, so the interface is an unintuitive mess, but it's not any worse than any other HT. It "feels" very solid and high quality, right in the territory of my FT60. I imagine it'd be a bad idea to let it get wet though.
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Apr 14, 2020 06:29
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Are they GFI breakers (with test buttons) or regular breakers?
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May 11, 2020 12:01
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