/diy/ - Do It Yourself

>>1709729
Ten-Tec dosen't list anything currently for under-500 beyond a CW only, QRP Transceiver on their site. For a likely first radio, that's not going to be a good experience.
>>1709752
> wasn't the ridiculous amount of repeaters there is today with inaccurate listings
It was worse in the past. No internet, and that latest guide you had might be out of date. The 90s and early 00s were a crazy time. People had packet repeaters and BBS systems all over the place, on top of standard FM. There is no official database of repeaters either, just repeater coordinator groups with no true enforcement power, that submit to directories.
> No one likes me on repeaters
I've seen this before. Assuming you're not a total sperg and locally blacklisted, some repeaters seem to be just up so a few old timers can talk to their friends. They're "Open" but beyond that hardly anyone uses them. The coffee-club-members-only problem is a real one in ham radio, but self-limiting as the worst of them pass on.
> Mag Loops
Source is "An Overview of the Underestimated Magnetic Loop HF Antenna", pic related. Even really trash backhand math gives 80%+ efficiency, better than many multi band dipoles.. Since you're coupling to the B-Field, they tend to reject high local noise and can give great performance where a normal dipole would work poorly. MFJ sells a "Box Fan Portable Loop Antenna" that while ridiculously priced, is an example of a mag loop for limited space.