|
echinopsis posted:idk how you mega nerds have done it but im finally hey tell your dentist 9#3_sh 0b2_a5 4xt_28 
|
#
?
Mar 5, 2021 23:33
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 9, 2024 09:40 |
|
|
wanting to investigate hft microwave towers. are there any tools that make the fcc website more bearable/useful ?
|
|
#
?
Mar 12, 2021 22:54
|
|
|
nope. it was built in '99 and thats the way we like it god drat it
|
|
#
?
Mar 12, 2021 23:38
|
|
|
Jonny 290 posted:nope. it was built in '99 and thats the way we like it god drat it ham_radio.txt
|
|
#
?
Mar 14, 2021 16:26
|
|
|
vodkat posted:wanting to investigate hft microwave towers. are there any tools that make the fcc website more bearable/useful ? I made my own I've posted about once before. finally got it polished to a suitable state for public consumption: https://microwave.earth/. it takes the fcc microwave database and the e-band link registry, does some massaging with postgis, and provides a dynamic kml interface for google earth. for a given view of the planet it will plot all active+inactive licences and/or just those belonging to groups of frns assigned to particular organizations intersecting that geographic space. many of the frn groups are in colorado because that's where I am. there's a bunch of hft around nyc and to/from chicago, but you'll be surprised at just how much microwave+mmwave there is. standard backhaul (one of the frn groups) is one of a few a paths between nyc and chicago:  (it won't let you query this big of any area any more though fyi) but kn telecommunications and los angeles dwp definitely have more route miles. and webpass operates a dense 2/5/10gb e-band network in a few cities with many many more stations. if anybody wants me to add an frn group shoot me a pm or something. or I might have to actually make an interface for it
|
|
#
?
Mar 27, 2021 20:27
|
|
|
whoa neat
|
|
#
?
Mar 27, 2021 20:29
|
|
|
Captain Foo posted:whoa neat
|
|
#
?
Mar 27, 2021 20:34
|
|
|
that's cool as hell
|
|
#
?
Mar 28, 2021 15:47
|
|
|
wonderful site. i'm fine with them doing poo poo in microwave bands (suspect that's who will end up owning our 3.5ghz band in the end), i just want them to stay the gently caress out of HF.
|
|
#
?
Mar 28, 2021 20:10
|
|
|
Bruno_me posted:I made my own I've posted about once before. finally got it polished to a suitable state for public consumption: https://microwave.earth/. it takes the fcc microwave database and the e-band link registry, does some massaging with postgis, and provides a dynamic kml interface for google earth. for a given view of the planet it will plot all active+inactive licences and/or just those belonging to groups of frns assigned to particular organizations intersecting that geographic space. many of the frn groups are in colorado because that's where I am. there's a bunch of hft around nyc and to/from chicago, but you'll be surprised at just how much microwave+mmwave there is. this is very very cool my friend! may shoot you a pm once I have had more of a chance to explore this. Jonny 290 posted:wonderful site. i'm fine with them doing poo poo in microwave bands (suspect that's who will end up owning our 3.5ghz band in the end), i just want them to stay the gently caress out of HF. From what I have found out the new hotness in hft is trans-oceanic shortwave. apparently not enough bandwidth for executing orders but enough for ticker information that will give you (weather permitting) a few micro second advantage over fiber.
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2021 20:36
|
|
|
vodkat posted:
Yep. Some station in chicago got authorization to transmit on 14.350 MHz center frequency, but their data stream is 10khz on either side, so they're eating up the top 10khz (three voice channels) of the most popular ham band in the world and nobody is talking about it and everybody thinks this is Just Fine.
|
|
#
?
Mar 29, 2021 20:43
|
|
|
i ordered a new Weller iron, solder, solder sucker+braid, flux, some nice pliers and screwdrivers. And I got this kit in  it's a dorky little FM radio! Since we started out the zcast with an AM radio kit build, I figured this would be good to try to get motivation to get back on the horse.
|
|
#
?
Mar 31, 2021 02:25
|
|
|
you got a link to the kit? i wanna check it out
|
|
#
?
Mar 31, 2021 03:33
|
|
|
yeah for sure https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08RXQDNL6/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 there are a bunch of them, search for 'radio kit' for the various flavors. i like this one b/c of the red LED 7segment display and little plexi case.
|
|
#
?
Mar 31, 2021 04:05
|
|
|
rad, thanks! that's what made me interested - i'm used to ham kits that are probably above my skill level (or more appropriately, i could do but i'd be frustrated and swearing half the time) so a cheap but cool looking kit where i don't care too much about the functionality sounds right up my alley. and it absolutely needs to be doable in an hour or so cause i can't leave everything laying around. that looks perfect
|
|
#
?
Mar 31, 2021 04:41
|
|
|
these are commodity chips and are literally an fm receiver on an IC. they're super simple and rather than having to solder up finicky tuning circuits, all you're really doing is providing power and control voltages to the various pins and connecting switches. like you don't need a spectrum analyzer to peak-n-tune one of these little radios because it's as good as it's gonna get. if it powers on and squawks tunes out the speaker, you nailed it
|
|
#
?
Mar 31, 2021 05:13
|
|
|
25 year old receiver came in 100 khz-1300 mhz, am/fm/ssb/cw. good scan speed. lots of memories and search ranges. also incredibly light and runs on 4 AAs. and chirp compatible
|
|
#
?
Apr 8, 2021 03:20
|
|
|
Jonny 290 posted:Yep. Some station in chicago got authorization to transmit on 14.350 MHz center frequency, but their data stream is 10khz on either side, so they're eating up the top 10khz (three voice channels) of the most popular ham band in the world and nobody is talking about it and everybody thinks this is Just Fine. i know that causing interference is like a cardinal sin in ham radio (and also probably one of those big-boy crimes too) but i just can't help but think about the frustration that some individuals might feel if those radio links were to experience some... degraded reception at certain times of the day
|
|
#
?
Apr 8, 2021 05:07
|
|
|
yep. they're leaving themselves wide open. there are tons of old hams with Henry 4KL amps that they normally run at 1,499.99 watts but can easily poo poo out 3kW ---- Let's listen to beisbol chat on the new radio https://twitter.com/KC4YLV/status/1380006578640748545
|
|
#
?
Apr 8, 2021 05:18
|
|
|
I’m moving from a basement suite to a nice second floor apartment and there’s nothing in my lease agreement about putting a modest antenna on my balcony time to get my ham license
|
|
#
?
Apr 11, 2021 01:46
|
|
|
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otS0ELOkbPk russian state news via shortwave RTTY, vintage '91.
|
|
#
?
Apr 12, 2021 23:42
|
|
|
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMwciWchH3Q this lovely video popped into my youtube feed and it contains all sorts of goodies that everyone should try: listening to satellite communication and looking at what planes above you are squawking. also contains: don't ever do this or its forever-jail for you. Turns out it's incredibly easy to ddos flight control radio. One moment, normal traffic, next a wall to wall carpet of planes all heading for the control tower.
|
|
#
?
Jun 10, 2021 08:54
|
|
|
when you say ddos do you mean dos? bc it seems hard to run a bunch of radios all doing the thing at once obv i haven't watched the video yet or id know the answer
|
|
#
?
Jun 11, 2021 05:38
|
|
|
well now I want to find a cheap SDR stick and maybe an upconverter so I can listen to stuff under 25 MHz
|
|
#
?
Jun 11, 2021 06:15
|
|
|
Achmed Jones posted:when you say ddos do you mean dos? bc it seems hard to run a bunch of radios all doing the thing at once it’s not actually dos, but more creating an army of ghost planes favorite example of the speaker is generating a ghost plane that’ll fly directly through traffic control, but they can’t know it’s a ghost plane so they will evacuate needless to say, forever jail
|
|
#
?
Jun 11, 2021 06:24
|
|
|
instead of buying poo poo we built some poo poo bottom 2 sections of an old 23 foot CB antenna. I ripped out the matching network and just made it basically a straight wire all the way through. Then added a big capacitance hat made out of steel wire and a 4x4" junction box blank. You can see it if you zoom in  Here's the match box. Goal is 40 meters. I need to add some more capacitance in the box to get it down there but we're already below 2:1 SWR. Only thing I had to buy was the utility box, everything else was out of the junk/scrap pile. 1:1 balun lower left feeding the L network. Playing with a couple different tap points as you can see. Without the match box this resonates at like 10.5 MHz even though it's six feet shorter than a quarter wave would be there (the magic of capacitance hats - they're REALLY GOOD). With a tiny bit of tweaking I believe I can add a single switch to the bottom of the box and have a 40/30m setup. Initial tests late last night were very good, will try when it's really alive this sundown  schematic. Simplest matchbox one can build.
Jonny 290 fucked around with this message at 17:38 on Jun 20, 2021 |
|
#
?
Jun 20, 2021 17:36
|
|
|
added 440pf of capacitance in parallel with the main variable cap (remember, parallel capacitances add) and i fuckin' nailed it (also, nanoVNAs are amazing and every radio dork should get one) Picking up a couple DPDT heavy duty switches this afternoon to add 30 and 20 support. stoked!
|
|
#
?
Jun 20, 2021 19:56
|
|
|
Looking to get back in the RX game. I currently live halfway up a hill facing the Dee estuary in Wales, which limits my reception abilities, though I'm looking forward to trying to receive SSTV from the ISS tomorrow.
|
|
#
?
Jun 20, 2021 20:34
|
|
|
hazza posted:Looking to get back in the RX game. I currently live halfway up a hill facing the Dee estuary in Wales, which limits my reception abilities, though I'm looking forward to trying to receive SSTV from the ISS tomorrow. Nice! MLA-30+ is a great small antenna for MW broadcast through the top end of the HF band. Love mine. --- Grabbed a couple huge DPDT switches from home depot so the tuner box has some flexibility  Left switch puts the 40 meter L network in line or not. Right switch is vestigial for now but will let me add another matching network if needed. Which i don't think i do; in bypass my rig autotuners will tune it on every band from 40 through 10 meters. It's naturally resonant dead in the middle of the 30m band so its time for me to mess with digital crap once again 
|
|
#
?
Jun 21, 2021 02:35
|
|
|
Jonny 290 posted:added 440pf of capacitance in parallel with the main variable cap (remember, parallel capacitances add) and i fuckin' nailed it i love it 
|
|
#
?
Jun 21, 2021 05:11
|
|
|
hazza posted:though I'm looking forward to trying to receive SSTV from the ISS tomorrow. Well so much for that. I could just about hear the tones on my Uniden scanner, but not strong enough for my phone to decode them. Didn't pick up anything on my RTL-SDR with dipole. I suspect the EMF in my house is too strong - it's basically a datacentre with all the stuff running in the loft. That and the VDSL-carrying phone lines criss-crossing by my house. Perhaps tomorrow I'll try driving up to the top of the hill to see if I get a better LOS. I want space pictures, dammit!
|
|
#
?
Jun 21, 2021 15:08
|
|
|
yeah, get outside if you can. ISS has like a 50 watt radio so it'll blast in full scale if you are in line of sight, but local interference can kill even that
|
|
#
?
Jun 21, 2021 16:23
|
|
|
building my first yagi for this event, as have had a similar experience with the stock rtl-sdr dipole so far
|
|
#
?
Jun 21, 2021 16:29
|
|
|
this may be helpful for yall instructions: https://g7vrd.co.uk/public-satellite-pass-rest-api max is 72h into the future but it continually updates. i added the calendar 6 months ago or something and it still Just Works
|
|
#
?
Jun 21, 2021 16:33
|
|
|
I decided to say gently caress the  camo job on the important part (antenna) is decent. completely invis from the road. hell, almost invis from 20 feet away if you dont know what youre looking for Also switched the feed for the HF vertical from this weekend from some old lovely RG8X to a nice run of LMR400. beefy coax is beefy. Jesus those connectors are hard to solder though, just physically wrangling the cable is a pain.
|
|
#
?
Jun 21, 2021 22:59
|
|
|
Partial success on SSTV reception this morning. Not a sausage on my RTL-SDR with dipole, but I managed to pick up this using my Uniden UBC125XLT, decoded with Robot36 on my phone: Unfortunately there was a break in broadcasting right at peak elevation, so I only got the end of an image. Next step, I think, is to connect my Uniden directly to a laptop for a cleaner audio feed.
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2021 10:49
|
|
|
it's good that you got sync yeah, a good start! I'm going to give it the college try in a couple of hours on the last pass of the day here
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2021 17:52
|
|
|
Oh yesterday i resoldered 4 PL-259's on the ends of some coax runs that I'd left outside and not connected to anything. I finally after thirty fuckin years learned the trick to installing them on RG8 sized coax. Drop of dish soap on the first inch of the outer jacket to help the connector screw on easier. probably the cleanest terminations i've ever done. Why did you never tell me this trick, former elmers. aaah
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2021 17:54
|
|
|
zero contact so far for me, guess i need to finish the yagi because the dipole isn't cutting it maybe:
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2021 18:22
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 9, 2024 09:40 |
|
|
we'll see what my lovely tree vertical does in about an hour and change tomorrow i'll pop my very cool dual band horizontal loop and compare  sadly this is the best extant picture of it on the internet; they're out of production now and the site's gone all placeholder page
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2021 18:39
|
|