/diy/ - Do It Yourself

>>2690921
Lets get this contest going!
CQ contest
CQ contest

>>2690947
Boy, I can't wait to see all the same troll images again for 3000th time.

>>2690957
> same images
They keep getting better and better, every time I see them.

>>2690947
>>2691043
If only people would care posting the originals

>>2690957
you must be new here.

>>2690957
>Boy, I can't wait to see all the same troll images again for 3000th time.
oh good, because you're in the right place.

i was gonna talk about the antenna i made for the iss sstv test but this thread always has more estrogen than mtfg so nvm enjoy posting the picture of the israeli for the billionth time

>>2690947
>those gigantic testicles
>the toupee

>>2691243
that's the type of shit a bad mother would do to her kids.
>well we were going to go to disneyland but you misbehaved.
you weren't going to do any such thing

>>2691243
I was going to hook up your families to the disney channel for free. But now you can forget it.

>>2690957
I cannot wait until the Chad repeater image gets reposted. I love it and the one an anon here built.

>>2691337
Well be sure to take the cock out of your mouth occasionally to check.

Alright. Is it V for Voltage or E for Voltage? I'm studying for my technicians and this is triggering all kinds of autism.

>>2690957
>the CHAD repeater
:)

>>2691243
I was gonna show you my moon bounce rig but you're such a baby you can forget it.

>>2691243
I was gonna give you my netflix password but now...

>1 day later and thread is purely shitposting
we did it reddit!

>>2691493

>>2691493
>marine
vhf bands are open and are full of shitposting. channel 16 is only illegal to outright jam and in general the "protected" channels for harbour traffic or whatever vary by area. also im pretty sure aircraft are required to be able to at least transmit/receive on ch16 but generally don't actually do so just because there's other bands people actually listen to for air stuff

>>2691494
>In a true emergency, I can't talk on GMRS or FRS because I didn't give the govt $10 or because my antenna screws on and off

I saw a signal like this on 24.998Mhz today, but more uniform. I'm kinda creeped out. Can anyone give a better explanation than HAARP?
I've never seen anything like it before.

>>2691554
It started off like this, a fan

>>2691554
>>2691556
Then progressed to a pattern of 3 or 4 of these arrows, only each set was inversed as to create a diamond.
Then there was what looked to be a SSB signal for a few minutes and it was all gone.
Mideast USA around 8am on an IC-7300

>>2691557
maybe some tunes in FM or AM ?

>>2691515
>In a true emergency, I can't talk on GMRS or FRS because...
I talk on them all the time. especially when out hunting. no fcc in the desert.

>>2691598
It was wild. I've never seen anything like that before.
Certainly spooky given all the alarms that are scheduled for today ...

>>2691493
Mid kek, good shitpost.
>implying I wouldn't jump straight to calling mayday on the police repeaters during emergencies

If I want to have CB and ham radios in my truck, do I need to add an antenna for each of those?

>>2691495
Anon don't even joke about shitposting on marine 16 for anything besides mayday calls. If you live near the the water the coast guard is listening.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rescue_21

>>2691602
>>2691557
>>2691556
Perhaps someone nearby used an antenna/network analyzer?

>>2691627
when I was in the navy all our VHFs were commercial models with auto dual-watch on 16. people would use it freely to call eachother

not only is ch16 designated as a CALLING channel as well as emergency, but it's explicitly an open frequency. if your communications are short and not actual legit shitposting it's fine to use. it's common to use it to hail other boats with a simple "Sea Dragon this is Knotty Rotty, call me on Ch 69 to make passing arrangements, over" or even just "Sea Dragon this is Knotty Rotty, I'm behind you at 500 yards intending to pass on your port side, out"

the coast guard IS listening and the amount of inane bullshit that goes on over 16 is why channel 6 guard one of the most dull jobs you could have for a watch

>>2691695
The problem is Marine has 0 plausible deniability if you get caught shitposting out of band. I wouldn't recommend it.
>need to be off land or on land and making incidental calls to vessels
>need part dicks compliant marine radio
>unless it's an emergency
You're right that 16 is a calling channel but it's also where distress calls go. The FCC alone is a joke but you don't need the coast guard to help them fuck you in court for interference.

25mhz is WWV.
Big brown eye and we're standin by. 10-4 good buddy good buddy good buddy

>>2691620
Depends. You could use a diplexer and use one antenna, however it would have to be resonant on the bands you want to transmit on. I wouldn't rely on tuners for anything 11 meters or smaller. You could also go the above route and put the correct, resonant, single band antenna on when txing (stick to CB only or ham only), but still receive on both no matter what antenna is being used.

>>2691554
>>2691556
>>2691557
WWV has resumed broadcasting on 25 MHz on an experimental basis. The broadcast consists of the normal WWV signal heard on all other WWV frequencies, at the same level of accuracy.

Current 25 MHz Broadcast Specifications
Schedule: typically continuous. As an experimental broadcast, the 25 MHz signal may be interrupted or suspended without notice.

Radiated Power: 2.5 kW

Antenna: half-wave vertical dipole. Coordinates: 40° 40' 50.5" N, 105° 02' 26.6" W

Listener comments and reception reports may be emailed to: wwv@nist.gov, or sent via postal mail to:

National Institute of Standards and Technology
Radio Station WWV
2000 E. County Rd. 58
Fort Collins, CO 80524

>>2691791
Thank you, anon. That's a solid answer.
I won't bug WWV as there was no interference - I merely saw a scary waterfall and was concerned HAARP was going to murder us all today ;)
Sincerely, thank you. It was unnerving to see something like that for the first time ever.

I thought screwdriver antennas were the all in one for mobile.
TLDR: expensive motorized variable inductor.

>>2691706
16 is just an open frequency everyone has to keep watch/guard on, and so it's good for distress calls too. but that also makes it good for making passing arrangements and other traffic management, announcing issues in the route, or simply asking about other mariners' days

btw is "I'm going to kill myself" a panpan or mayday

in another dimension i'd like to imagine:
>anon complains to WWV.

>>2691825
securite at best for when your vessel goes adrift because the captain and only crew member is dead

>>2691825
Was it a soundclip of the Roybertitos Dr Tran episode?
CB is just full of hecklers.

I read the beginner stuff in the OP, but still confused as to what you actually DO with this stuff?

>>2691831
BA-CM1-RE2-3-1-63P-TA48-63P-BX

(I am closing down watch on radio; I have suffered one communications personnel casualty; I am scuttling or destroying communications personnel.)

>>2691833
>Talk to autists, boomers, and the mentally ill at a distance
>fiddle with shit for no reason other than you have too much free time
>backup communications for that rare disaster where you have no electricity/internet/cell phone but enough of society's backbone intact to make it worth calling people with mobile and portable radios
I think I got everything for you anon.

Just got me this uv5R

how do I talk to yall?

>>2691847
You got your callsign yet? Other hams will lynch you on the air if you don't have one. If you have a callsign the calling frequencies are 146.52 MHz VHF and 446 MHz UHF.
Get a programming cable if you don't have one:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08H5DS4Y3/
Go on Repeaterbook and program the local repeaters into memory. You can talk really far only if the repeater is in a linked system.

If you don't have a callsign what a lot of people illegally do is program in MURS/FRS/Marine frequencies into the radio and pretend they're using the right radio for each band. Those bands don't require call signs.

>>2691853
make up any 3 character string that alternates characters and numbers and they can't prove it's not a valid military unit callsign

>>2691853
>You got your callsign yet? Other hams will lynch you on the air if you don't have one.
What if you just make one up?

>>2691857
>>2691858
Do some research before you shitpost on the airwaves and you'll see why your ideas are bad and illegal.

>>2691860
So how would they be able to tell?

>>2691862
1. You're holding an amateur radio, people use amateur radio callsigns.
2. Amateur radio callsigns are public record.

>>2691864
what if some fucker dies how do they know?
my neighbor had a ham license. he died, I know his call sign.

>>2691864
Then just look at the records and pick a callsign no one's using anymore.

>>2691860
>>2691862
if i use a daily changing, anyone who isn't a comsec custodian who reports it is opening themselves up to revealing that they have secret documents and are using them to do things outside of their classification. even pointing out that it's outside of the complan implies they know the complan and are saying what it isn't; that's Secret or higher.

if you don't have a clearance, you have nothing to lose. if they do, they're violating comsec.

>>2691867
>the obituary
>>2691868
Nothing stops you from stealing a callsign besides it being illegal but the technician ticket is also literally so easy 5 year olds pass it. I'm just saying...
>>2691869
take ur pills nigga

>>2691876
>Nothing stops you from stealing a callsign besides it being illegal but the technician ticket is also literally so easy 5 year olds pass it. I'm just saying...
Yeah but it seems more fun to find ways to cheat than to deal with the bureaucracy.

>>2691877
>his rc doesn't do his redtape for him
What kind of shithole do you live in? I live in fucking Argentina and my RC did my redtape

>>2691876
>take ur pills nigga
Never.

if the fcc tactical unit comes for you why dont you just thermite your radio so they have no evidence with which to prosecute you?

>>2691897
I just politely point to my "Feds will be shot on sight" sign like I did with the mailman.

>>2691902
>he didn't thermite the mailman

Oh shit, I almost forgot due to new thread. Don't fall for the antenna jews trick and waste thousands of your hard earned money just so Gold Antennaberg can buy another island and put a 1000ft tower in.

>>2692024
I'm happy to see this every thread, because people need to be reminded.
I've worked 200+ countries with a homebrew wire or a vertical I found locally that was pretty used.
To some degree, large antennas are just fashion accessories.

>>2692024
>not Aunt Teena Goldberg
You blew it, Anon.

>>2691864
Depends. In my country you can publish your callsign if you want to but its not obligatory. The communications agency has the records but it's not open to the public. I havent published my callsign and I dont intend to.

>>2691876
>the obituary
well not in this case. there was no obituary. but sadly since he got on the cart 3 years ago his license expired :(

>>2691876
>Nothing stops you from stealing a callsign besides it being illegal but the technician ticket is also literally so easy 5 year olds pass it. I'm just saying...
not him but I never intend to steal someones callsign I am pointing out that unless someone figures it out there not really anyway to tell.

my neighbor was a ham but he had zero friends IRL he became a bloated jabba the gut and got massive diabetes then got the cough and died despite never leaving his house all through lockdown.

I could get my license but don't care to. I've listened to ham radio jabber and it's beyond boring. It's full of rules and bullshit, and there is nothing on shortwave worth doing anymore.

I know because I listened to shortwave in the 80's when I was in high school. bands were crowded with talk, SSTV, russian woodpecker, radio fax, foriegn radio shows, it was pretty cool, but I was poor so...

now I'm rich and there's shit all out there.

>>2692024
putting jew on thing will not dissuade me anon.

there are no jews in any of the things.

>>2692074
>I could get my license but don't care to.
>now I'm rich
>wants to use some sk's call
>his license expired :(
>reddit spacing

>>2692074
>full of rules and bullshit
lol where I live hams are always jamming each other on repeaters,playing music and insulting each other. My favorite is 9A7GUY. He's an old guy who enjoys insulting new hams for no reason. If you dare going on on of the local repeaters as a new guy he'll most likely answer and tell you something "go fuck your mother". He's been doing this for decades and everyone knows who he is but the authorities dont give a shit.

>>2692129
Where I live, the GWN, the airwaves are mostly dead, and the dept of industry put out some vague statements that imply that unless the problem is serious we ain’t gonna do anything.
The whole *point* of ham licences was largely to let people on those bands—and especially the citizens, frs, 900 MHz and 2.45 GHz, police and regulate themselves.

I think someone was playing K9RSY clips on 28.425 around 1730 UTC today.
I stumbled across it trying to work Madagascar. There was a Hank Hill clip that's played in the middle which makes me think soundboard.
I recorded it for your pleasure
https://voca.ro/1cG8qEdcrPZG

>>2692094
>wants to use some sk's call
no I don't I just said I did.
>reddit spacing

we will never stop putting spaces between paragraphs.

calling it reddit might have worked 18 years ago when people cared about that. but moot grew up and moved on.

cope.

>>2692314
>doesn't understand the difference between sentences and paragraphs.

>>2692075
>t.
You are not fooling anyone.

>>2692346
>doesn't understand the difference between sentences and paragraphs.
I do, but don't care.

>>2692355
whatever floats your boat.

The worst part of working split are those screaming over a rare DX 'SPLIT!!!!' 'UP!!!' 'HE'S WORKING SPLIT"!!!!

>QSO PARTY!!!

>>2692657
>I was just pretending
Sure thing, buddy.

I want to mount two antennas on a single cab pickup truck (one CB, one UHF/VHF) and also keep the stock radio antenna that's on the passenger side hood. I assume I can mount one on the driver side hood. Where do I put the third one?

How does I build a radar?

>>2692768

>>2692770

>>2692815
Why are you so angry? I thought you guys liked helping people?

>>2692815
I am not sure the radar pest is the same as OP.

>>2693015
>I thought you guys liked helping people?
Here we do, and you have on multiple occasions received all the information you needed. They even added radar info to the FAQ. At this point it is reasonable to assume bad faith.

>>2693024
At this point it is reasonable to assume you do not know how to build a radar.

>>2693035
Oh, I do. I am just not going to tell you again.

should I troll some of the local nets because I'm bored?

>>2693015
>I thought you guys liked helping people?
you must be new here.

>the Chad Repeaters

>>2693139
>months of trolling culminated with the stitching of two photos together

>>2692770
because you're that same nigger who is making threads on /k/ and /diy/ asking this retarded question over and over, not responding to genuine replies and overall just acting like a retarded braindead faggot who needs to be spoonfed his information.

>>2693015
lol!

>>2692815
this

>>2693149
Now all it needs is the >>2690947 listening in with his long wire up a tree.

Why is Mr Harddrive not dead yet?

I was listening in on the rag chewers to find out what the NPC boomers thought of whatever nonsense news is coming out of the middle east
One was crying for a certain country b/c they've had to build bomb shelters in their homes for the past 60 years. I couldn't hear the other guy, but he must have said something along the lines of 'if you want to talk about that I'll turn the dial, because the first guy came back with 'oh, I don't have anywhere to go. We don't have to talk about war! How's your wife?'

Better bid higher this year for your bricks, /ham/!

https://arrl.auctionanything.com/

>>2694574
idgi

any recommendations on chinkshit FM CB handhelds?
was looking at this https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256803014658926.html

>>2694596
that's very expensive

>>2694597

>>2694596
>FM CB
Why?

>>2694574
>Xiegu G106
>ARRL starting bid: $295
>Radioddity price: $256
https://www.radioddity.com/products/xiegu-g106

ARRL ripping everyone off like usual.

>>2694596
Buy non-chinkshit instead.

>>2694851
uniden is made in china, look at the design, there's no way you can't find the exact same thing on aliexpress

>>2694853
Better QC and standard compliance than 'ZhangyongDangdong TRUCKER 5W 250ch CB walkie-talkie'.
You really shouldn't risk buying a lemon if you can help it.

>>2694611
FM is the standard

>>2694596
albrecht ae 2990 afs is the only worthwile handheld CB as its the only one that has SSB. also it has 10 and 12m so the freq range is from 24.890 to 29.690mhz

>>2694890
No it isn’t. Fuckin Cobra invented it and petitioned (bribed) the fcc to allow it in an attempt to obsolesce 100 million citizen’s band devices.

That, is such that I will fuck it.

>>2694890
AM Is superior for talking.

>>2694895
bullshit, am sounds like dogshit
>>2694894
Eurpoe has been using FM since the 70s, you pillock.
>>2694892
inderesting
but its really expensive. my goal was to get a few for friends to use.
I really wish chinks would enter the FM cb market and make the uv-5r equivalent 11 meter handheld . looks like they did for a while and then stopped

>>2694916
Hmm, it seems like you're too mentally challenged to be helped here.
I just hope you eventually find the difference between a good rig and a crap one.

>>2693959
A bunker is an excellent alternative to an above ground shack.

>>2694892
hey that thing does USB, noice, but it is a bit pricey

>>2694892
>albrecht ae 2990 afs is the only worthwile handheld CB as its the only one that has SSB
Yes and no. Magnum 1012 is a US variant. Really they're only ever useful with an external antenna, even with the discontinued AH-27 or whatever bigass whip (pic related, minus the aluminum pole).
For giggles I stepped outside and did a 60 mile mountain to mountain line of sight QSO with one on AM using pic related but they're otherwise pretty useless and yield less than 1 mile range when interacting with a 100 foot tower station in flat urban land.

FM CB? Oh lord, no big strapper would want to risk their gear switching to that shit. BTW, if you switch to sideband you can hear FM people for whatever reason.
For communities I doubt they'll switch to FM, for construction crews they'll prolly switch. People want to use their D-104 on their Cobra 2000 into their linear amp on AM, simple as.

>>2694928
my baofeng is a good rig.
are you saying the albrecht is a good rig? it's chink shit marketed to europoors
theres a few chinkshit clones of it too since it was made in underpaid factories that cloned it and sold more.
I dont really need ham bands, its nice and all to have the option but I would be more than fine with just the US 40ch of CB on FM only.
if i want to listen to AM or other people I will just use a real cb like the one in my truck.

I just want to get a few of them together because they have far more range than FRS radios do, and are legal to operate without a license in the US. I'm just not sure if its worth the extra cost for the range though.

>>2695002
i dont want to talk to people I odnt know I just wana use them for 2-way communication with non-licensed friends.
I guess no one here has any experience with them though.

>>2695003
Magnum 1012 is the 'overclocked' version, but still the small case is the heatsink and you have to compensate for a *very wide* range of voltages when peaking and tuning so you don't immediately burn it up immediately in the higher voltage range.
TLDR: Handhelds are gay. it's like an instant -40dbi, I own all of them, all the antennas, they all suck and I only use one because I'm using an external antenna. Only usecase is camping.

>>2695004
>i dont want to talk to people I odnt know I just wana use them for 2-way communication with non-licensed friends.
I guess no one here has any experience with them though.
Imax 2000 on top of the biggest tree you have or a tower, peaked and tuned radio going into a linear.
Fucking CB guys 20 miles away in a ditch sound like mud ducks despite having 10kw fridge size amps in their trailer park.

man I feel really bad for flatlanders. If I'm not getting heard I can just drive up a hill with a piece of shit setup.

>>2690921
Smart RF dudes, i need your guidance.

Could i use a shitty wideband LNA like pick related for GPS purposes, sandwhiched between an active gps antenna that has its own shitty lna+bpf and a ublox m8n module?

>>2695020
I wouldn't use that with an active antenna, if your antenna is shitty, GPS antennas are cheap, so change it

>>2692706
No, the worst part is thinking you're set up for split mode & are calling that dxpedition over & over only to discover that you forgot to hit the split enable button on your rig. :-( ..oops..

>>2692074
>I listened to shortwave in the 80's when I was in high school
We're close in age, I was in high school in mid 80's. I remember listening to Moscow Mailbag during electricity class. Teacher was a former phone tech who had a bunch of older receivers on a shelf in classroom. In '88 a friend loaned me his Panasonic Rf-2200. So much to listen to back then. I think I heard the woodpecker for first time in '84 and do recall Soviet jamming of western broadcasts.

I was mostly interested in digital stuff. A guy on a BBS I used to access introduced me to digital sigs. He had an M6000 decoder which I bought off him. Still have it. Wished I still had all the printouts of what I decoded.

Fond memories.

Does anyone know how the ARRL deals with awards in relation to changing call signs?
I have a 6 letter call and I want an abbreviated vanity.
Do I just log under the new call in LoTW and the prior confirmations remain with my name? Or would I have to start from scratch?

>>2695020
probably. LNAs have always worked like ass for me tho. I think my work got in trouble causing interference for using one to repeat a roof gps antenna to the inside of the building.

I want to test an amp that says 5 watts max input, but my radio makes 7 watts minimum.
Will my rig blow up?

>>2695559
No, but you will fry your amp.

>>2694934
I would live in a bunker like that full time if it had a shower.

I'm thinking about running an random end-fed antenna along the edge of my homes aluminum gutters using plastic clips designed for mounting strings of Christmas lights. I can't decide if its going to be worth the effort.
The antenna is already a compromise even with an ideal installation location. How badly will the gutters effect the radiation pattern? I expect parasitic coupling to be significant between the aluminum gutter and the antenna but it might work well enough for a CW hobo like me.

Anyone tried this?

>>2695810
>along the edge of my homes aluminum gutter
you have to o perpendicular from that, your antenna will do shit, anon. Just use the gutter at this point

>>2695810
Just replying to second >>2695819. You might as well use your gutters if that is your plan.

mein gott

>>2695926
>you WILL enjoy using your furry avatar to make hf contacts in the metaverse

>>2695926
>ham_butgay3.jpg
more news at 11

>>2695937
>We wanted to virtue signal but it went badly and we didn't get the no cost pats on the back we expected. Since our backbones are made of jelly, we promise never to do it again, especially since it didn't net us any of the virtue we thought we'd get for free.
Geeks are passive aggressive cancer in human form.

>>2695926
Exactly what kinds of people do they think this will attract? Or what was even the thinking behind this?

>>2695926
If I knew one of my fellow hams were a furfag I'd record the motherfucker and use his voice to annoy a bunch of other people so they think its him doing it.

Does anyone know any fax or sstv mode that only uses on/off/single tone?

>>2696184
I've been looking at all kinds of digital modes for decades and I've never heard of what your looking for. The closest thing to single tone fax is hellschreiber.

>>2696186
I kind of figured. I was really hoping that I wouldn't have to roll my own. Not even sure where to start. Maybe with gnuradio? I'll start watching tutorials.

>>2696201
Why does it have to be on-off-keying or single-tone? There are many image transmission schemes that are faster and more robust than old fuzzy schemes. On PC there's KGSTV and the best one on android is shredpix. I use shredpix over vhf repeaters.

>>2696183
>If I knew one of my fellow hams were a furfag I'd record the motherfucker and use his voice to annoy a bunch of other people so they think its him doing it.
done that. radio drama is just best to not get involved with.

TLDR, radio drama just ends up with your shit getting vandalized, people thrown in jail and it just consumes your every waking thought trying to plot revenge.
These same people you feel like murdering will be cordial to you in a public environment. It's all bullshit, just don't get involved.

Is it OK to run lmr 400 to the feed point where my antenna comes in? My dipole is using RG-8X, I ran out of RG-8X that my uncle gave me and I have LMR 400 laying around from Davis rf

>>2695953
>Geeks are passive aggressive cancer in human form.
Yes. Just listen to repeater nets after some current_thing$ news broadcast.
Or when a new female ham is on air.

>>2696508
>when a new female ham is on air
I find their simp behavior funny as fuck.

>>2696509
So do I, but that doesn't redeem their cursed souls one bit.

>>2696509
It's sickening. Many girls would be into ham if the boomers would stop with their creepy ass behavior towards them. They're there to learn about radio, not to get hit on by nursing home patients.

>>2696524
Its funny. When a woman appears several old fucks start hitting on her and trolls start talking sexual shit until it devolves into a screaming and jamming fest. The women are all fat and in their 50's which makes it all funnier.

>>2696527
Around here, a lot of Morse code operators in the merchant fleet and the military services were women. And with Morse code you cannot tell of the operator is male, female or any of the other 100 other genders we have these days.

>>2690921
I've got this upstairs boomer neighbor who can't hear and turns his TV really loud. Is there any jammer I can make or smth implying he's still using a coax setup going into a tv box at the most?

>>2696527
>>2696528
Meanwhile on the unlicensed bands, I tend to hear Cleetus and Mary Jane getting along like family.
What's with these so-called prestigious hams not being able to contain their spaghetti?

>>2696527
I've kind of been wondering about this. I've only listened in so far, but if I talk it'll be obvious from my voice that I'm a young female. I don't care about people giving me a hard time, but will no one want to actually talk to me because of that?

>>2696601
A female voice instantly attracts the creeps. I've used female soundboards on repeaters and it always gets the old guys riled up.

>>2695926
If I had not already forgotten to renew my ARRL membership, this would have made me remember to forget to do so.

>>2696601
Just as an experiment, explain on the net that your daddy is sitting next to you. The creeps will probably think your father is the one with a license and that you are just training. That will probably restrain them.

>>2696528
Also during WWII:
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-67100792
>Tons of guts. Wants to go on with the work, provided it's dangerous enough.
They don't make them like that anymore.

>>2696619
The president of the local amateur club is a woman. Haven't heard of her having a problem but that's probably a combination of no one wanting to get on bad terms with the club 90% of the active hams around here belong to and also that her husband is also frequently on the air.

>>2696601
I'm in VE7-land, we have several YL's in the 12 to 17 yo range in my region and no one treats them with disrespect or avoids them. If you get into HF contesting or chasing rare dx you already have an edge. I've known several guys who've handed the mic over to their young daughters to bust thru pile-ups. Their youthful higher pitched voices stand out.

The most vile stuff i've heard hurled at female radio ops was on CB and freeband frequencies. Mind you, some of the women on there are prostitutes plying their trade to lonely truckers.

Just ignore the lids.

>>2696601
No, the old fucks will be fighting each other just to talk to you. Around here, women typically get their license to talk with their husbands, bfs or sons since cell service is very spotty. It's like that every time when the wife, gf, or mother calls out their callsign. One time, one got so pissed he jammed the repeater.

>>2691557
>>2691602
Looks like a call sign for something maybe. Did something encrypted follow?
I can't believe nations still use radio for this though.

>>2696973
It was already figured out, retard.

>>2696184
that'd be cw
>>2696443
I ran LMR from the radio to the antenna. I suspect more people do that than RG-8X

>>2695926
now it makes sense.
It kicked off the school club tech begging that coincides with schoolhouse roundup.

What is the best type of external antenna to use for TV reception on a vehicle?
Would a typical whip suffice?
I intend to drill holes.

>>2697215
A Yagi like any TV antenna.

I want to make an anti-theft tracker for my motorcycle without relying on a cell network. My ideal would be to have a transmitter in the bike that radios its location out and some network of repeaters and gateways eventually sends a packet to my server. Is there a protocol for that that's popular enough I'd have good coverage? It looks like APRS is almost what I want, but I'd want to at least obfuscate that I'm sending GPS coordinates so my bike doesn't show up on a APRS tracker site (I think that should be allowed, as it's telemetry).

Also, any recommendations on how to actually transmit the data? Space and looking like part of the bike's electronics are important to me, so slapping together three Sparkfun modules is less than ideal. I've been looking at using the rpitx library to generate the RF signal directly, then amplifying it to around 2W on a PCB I'll design. But rpitx seems somewhat janky as it's not a nice 50 ohm generator like I'm used to, and the library hasn't been updated in a couple of years.

>>2697671
What about LoJack? I think its just a low power beacon that can be activated if the bike is stolen. Many police departments have LoJack receivers in their cruisers, but I suspect it depends on the department.

Better hurry up and place your bids, guys. Less than 15 hours left to get your $40 brick and $37 bandana! There's also a great deal for lunch boxes for $70!

>>2698380
>$40 brick
partial brick !

You cannot beat this deal, bros! Better bid on these lunch boxes full of advertising for the ARRL! It shows you support them so much that you'll pay them to advertise them!

>>2698380
What you do with the bricks? Throw them at an enemy ham's window?

>>2698380
>>2698381
>>2698382

will one of these little niggers help to slightly boost my cell reception in my machine shop?

>>2698485
cell reception - wrong thread

meshtastic anyone?

I bought the RTL-SDR blog v4, but it didnt come with an antenna.
What reasonably cheap antenna should I buy for it?

I was going to buy the kit, but they arent selling the V4 with the kit.

Nice mine is still on its way. Do you have a v3 to compare it to? The antenna depends on your desired frequency. The cheap dipole kit they are out of can pickup some stuff but not better than a piece of scrap speaker wire you run up a tree as high as you can get it. I couldn't get anything that wasn't super close or strong with the little dipole. I had 83' of 14g draped over my second story roof and it worked way way better.
The "Diamond Antenna D3000N Super Discone" is only $156.99 and even though it's out of resonance I can pickup 40m and 80m with that $35 nooelec lna no problem.
You can hook it up to your gutters, a rusty pipe, any old cable (cat/coax/speaker wire)... Whatever you got lying around as high as you can get it.

Enjoy your $145 lunch bag

>>2698543
>meshtastic anyone?
I've thought about it but I have yet to try it. Has anybody?

Is anyone here part of an AREDN installation?

>>2698794
insane. An ARRL intern has to be driving the price up

>>2698794
>>2698882
>how does an auction work?

>>2698924
>one ham who sniffs his own fart might get suckered into throwing a bid into a group of kids at W1AW jokingly bidding up the price of everything

>>2698969
>pouring oil down drain.jpg

>>2699075
That's a subtle, but poignant and valid point that I agree with.
If they can sucker a moron to spend $200 on a year old lunch box with random trinkets, that's their business.

>>2690921
Anyone know how duplex mode is meant to work in Australia?
I have a repeater near me that is on Channel 8 UHF (476.600Mhz).
For duplex, I'm meant to set the offset +0.75Mhz (477.350Mhz) - AKA Channel 38.
Is the 476.600Mhz the frequency I should transmit on?
Or is the offset the frequency that I should transmit on (i.e. 477.350Mhz)?
Also, on a chink Baofeng UV-5R, rather than adjusting the offset, is there any reason I can't just set TDR to "on" and set A to Channel 8 and B to Channel 38?

>>2698794
>the FT5D sold for $525
>Ham Radio Outlet has it brand new for $430
Who are these dumb fucks that pay more for used shit?

>>2699277
Ugh. Many such cases. Greedbay is a terrible metric to price radio gear. I swear it's money laundering or unmitigated greed. I think it was QRZ that had a long running thread where people posted radio listings going for above new prices.

I bought a Yaesu FT847 off a guy a couple towns over who listed on a radio swap site for $650 in 2018. A year later started seeing prices on ebay climbing to $900. Now they regularly hit $1,100- $1,200+. I see a matching auto-tuner going for $857 on there right now even though they fetch $120 - $150 on the 'used' sites.

Look what I found in an abandoned house last night. It was in a room where the roof is still intact so I hope it works.

>this is the net control, calling for antly che-
>CQ CONTEST CQ CONTEST

What's causing a signal such as this?

>>2700954
I mean the repeating "stripe" pattern?

>>2700957
QRMer, most likely, or a noisy switcher.

>>2700957
that's a STANAG something communication channel, or if it is very large, a trans-horizon radar
https://www.sigidwiki.com/wiki/Category:Military

>>2700968
I see thx.

>>2700968
>trans-horizon radar
Cool. So how can I build one of these trans-horizon radars?

Found an Icom R7000 going for $150. Works as it should. 8/10 cosmetically. Wonder if I should snag it. I already have 2.

>>2701105
suck cocks

>>2700968
not on 3.8 MHz, genius

>>2701192
>not on 3.8 MHz
it can be everywhere on HF.

Newbie, should I buy antennas or make my own?
I live in a tight apartment unit and placing anything my balcony is frowned upon by the Homeowner Association Board.
My first antenna I was to build is a simple ATSC antenna with copper, cardboard, and r46 coax cable.

>>2701422
make them, anon, you'll find what antenna suits your situation, instead of buying a shitload of commercial antennas and none of them being satisfactory

Make your own dipole. Start with a copper wire, don't even need to put it outside. I have purchased a few antennas and built a few myself. You will always get better results if you first start with the frequency you want to listen to then build out around that vs trying to make a multiband. Even the expensive multi resonant antennas you can buy are nowhere near as clear as a specifically tuned (length) dipole at the same height. Just string 2 wires around the balcony out of view, balun, coax to shack. Or run the wire inside idgaf.

>>2701422
> frowned upon
Loop antenna. Easy to make. Just paint it black and nobody will know what it is.
You can just get your wife and her friend to make it.

>>2701422
It is almost definitely illegal for your apartment to stop you. There's a bunch of laws from the cold war amd satellite TV companies in the 90s. Check local laws and rental/landlord/hoa resources

I hate HOAs so much I hope everyone in your building orders a satellite dish. Fuck hoa.

>>2701441
Yeah at some moment I'll comfront them, but I'll wait until I run for the board in 2 months.

>>2701422
What bands are you trying to hit? For HF, you can do something similar to >>2692024, which you can wrap and take in so many different directions including snaking it around your balcony. It does not have to be vertical like in the troll image. You could probably start it inside to get a longer length then terminate it outside on the balcony. The issues are that it is an extremely compromised antenna, and you'll need a matchbox since it constantly needs tuned. Also, depending on the band, it can be resonate, but completely deaf on certain bands.

https://udel.edu/~mm/ham/randomWire/ is a good guide if this is what you want to try.

Another alternative is a magnetic loop, which work great from everyone who uses them. However, I have zero experience with them so I won't mention anything else.

>>2701595
I'm trying to hit VHF, UHF, shortwave. With focus to monitor HD Radio & TV channels. I get it I just like asking 4chan because you all sound similar to me in assurance of a learned skill.

You can get that extendo dipole kit that rtlssdr blog sells, they have a chart for how many lengths you need to resonate at x frequency. You will need a fancier SDR that can cover 6+MHz to pickup TV channels, vs the 2.5 that the RTL can handle. Still doesn't beat a copper wire you drape down your balcony at night. t. Extra

>>2701622
6+MHz for the bandwidth?

>>2701662
https://www.rtl-sdr.com/watching-atsc-tv-with-an-sdrplay-sdr-and-gnu-radio/
>ATSC is the digital HD TV standard used within the United States and Canada. It is 6 MHz wide so the RTL-SDR with its maximum bandwidth of about 2.8 MHz cannot decode this signal. However, higher end SDR’s such as the SDRplay, Airspy and HackRF have larger bandwidths that can easy cover 6 MHz.

Not trying to be a rtlsdr blog shill but they showed up first on the ole search engine.

>>2690921
What do truckers most commonly use to communicate now? I get the impression it's DMR or cellular or something retard-proof like such.

>>2702717
android apps like CB Talk, Zello afaik

If you can't handle pic related, you're probably not a ham.

And I can't attach pictures, ffs

>>2702717
It’s still CB.
I live near some crazy mountain passes and blind turns and they’re all over the 11m band.

>>2702822
I live near 2 major highways and neither of them have anyone talking on CB anymore. CB frequencies are dead silent where I live, the only thing that comes in are illegal high power stations with retards talking in gibberish.

>>2696134
tbf furries are exactly the kind of autism HAM needs
>inb4 cope
your hobby will never be cool

>>2695017
I thought flatlanding was better? I don't wanna have to drive somewhere just to hear old farts talk about their ex-wives

>contesters literally doing phone contacts on both FT8 and JS8Call standard frequencies
>literally cannot get a message through on JS8Call
Fuck off, contesters. You are the cancer of ham radio.

>>2702951
Never assume a contester understands basic things like band plans.

I bought an SDR to hopefully listen to local people talk.
Im looking at antennas, and they all seem to start at 25mhz and go up.
This infographic I have says that 9 bands are below it.

Why arent any of the handheld or discone antennas seemingly rated for so many bands. Are these bands not really used?

>>2702951
>SCREEEETCH
>BEEEEEP SCREEE-
>CQ CONTEST CQ CONTEST

>>2703081
>Why arent any of the handheld or discone antennas seemingly rated for so many bands. Are these bands not really used?
Anon, HF needs long antennas, to listen to HF you need a wire, that's all, just a long wire outside. handled antennas and discone can't be big enough to receive HF reliably, an antenna is usually as long as half the wavelength, so below 30 MHz, it is over 5m long up to 40m for 80m band

HF discone at old Titan missile silo museum. It's 80 ft tall.

https://www.gvarc.us/titan-missile-museum.html

>>2702800
>>2702801
Had this given to me by a guy whose father is a SK since the 1990s. I need to take my key to the local club to get it set up right and connected to my FT-847. I've tried the youtube tutorials but mine won't keep sending the 'dits' repeatedly.

>>2703362
Apple will make a titanium one.
Come to think of it, that’s all we ever needed.
Time to ditch my $100/month cell phone bill and get a CB radio. My wife is gonna love it.

Just got my baofeng, im on radio reference trying to put police and fire department stuff in.
The countywide dispatch shows a frequency and a tone
The neighboring smaller counties show the same frequency, and in parenthesis says CTCSS Tones vary.

Im in chirp, if I put just the frequency will I hear it, or do I have to put each tone into a separate memory bank to hear all of the conversation?

>>2702729
>zello
>>2703370
>cw on cb
>applel
>>2703081
>why arent any of the handheld or discone antennas seemingly rated for [HF]
>>2703391
>Just got my baofeng
Do you fuckers even try to figure anything out before posting?

>>2703394
>Do you fuckers even try to figure anything out before posting?
Im trying to figure it out now anon.

>>2703397
Before posting, or after posting?

>>2703398
Both
Its a nebulus sort of thing. I forgot I bought the radio from china, and once it showed up I figured I oughta use it.

>>2703402
awesome

>>2703362
I didn't get mine to work properly either until I used the instructions of this German ham, once set up you can vary speed without loss of dit quality.
>Loosen the stopping pins right and left of the swing arm [2] [3], then the contact screw for dits [1].
>Now tighten the right-hand screw [3] only so far until the swing arm is stopped - the arm must still lightly tough the damper [4] at the rear end of the bug.
>Unfasten the pendulum weight and move it to the outer (rear) end of the arm. This translates to the slowest dit-repeating speed.
>Now carefully adjust - while the swing arm rests [against damper 4 and stop 3] - the left stopping pin [2] to a gap of less than a half millimeter [between pin and swing arm].
>Now test your setup's dits. If properly done, pressing the paddle should yield you a clean 30+ dits [=swings of the arm, continue reading, dits are not quite done yet].
>To adjust the dah contacts, loosen the left stopping and contact screw [5] and adjust it to a gap also less than half a millimeter.
>Now set the screws for spring tension [6] [7] to suit your feel of the paddle. Be aware that too great a tension can cause faster onset of fatigue.
>For faster dits, shift the pendulum weight [4] towards the front (paddle) end.
Finally, check all screws [and lock nuts] and clean all contacts with a sheet of paper [or a $1 bill].
>Press the paddle to the right - the "dit" side - until the swing arm rests [against the contact or at least towards it]. Keep it there!
>Then adjust - while in this position - the screw for dits [1] so it just closes the contact [without tension on the elbow spring]. Now fasten the lock nut [1] - done!

>>2703362
Also, congrats, that's a nice bug to get as a gift.

>>2703394
Are you ever not grouchy?

Is there a historical or practical reason for using both frequency and wavelength in amateur radio? The conversion between the two isn't difficult and I'm sure those who are in the hobby for more than a short period end up just mentally equating the two ranges to each other but it still seems like an unnecessary bit of extra overhead but maybe I'm missing something.

>>2703603
My wife wanted a dress for her high school reunion, so she picked one that was 714 THz as a funny joke for her dope-smoking SDR nerds she hangs out with.
I was confused, but then I realized that she meant 420 nm!!! My ham buddies and I has sore sides from laughing so hard when it finally dawned on us.

Picrel is the color swatch.

>>2703616
>My ham buddies and I has sore sides
>we did it reddit!
>posted from my iphone

>>2703727
Thanks
I’m still typing in my last CQ contest results into frontpage, and I’ve got a few more funny stories up there already… drop by and sign my guestbook; I’ll post the link when I get my java applet view counter working properly.

>>2703603
Well, historically it started out as wavelength. Nowadays wavelength is used for generalization, frequency for specific.

"I'll be playing on 75 metres" vs "I'm on 3729 (kHz)."

>>2698543
Looking at it for a project I want to implement. Sad that their codebase doesn't really work as a library very well, you can make things to plug into Meshtastic but not the other way around so easily. Thinking about throwing together a node with a gps chip and such from parts lying around, instead of paying the premium on those lora dev boards.

>>2704022
> 3729 kHz
Translation from woke zoomer lingo above is
“3 megacycles”

>>2698546
I think N9TAX's dualbander is a good start. Past that, a long wire strung up as high as you can, with an appropriate balun.
If you're space limited, magloops would be the best choice.

I now have a cat sitting on my face.
Why, cat.

help me understand something about RF power, /ham/.
I have this 2-meter linear amplifier, Mirage B-34-G that claims 35 watts output. I don't have a use for it, don't have a transmitter to use it with, so I'm going to pass it on to someone else. But first I wanted to understand how it works.
It takes 12-15v input, there's one transistor in Class-A doing the amplification.
There's no boost converter, no way the output voltage can swing more than that 12v peak-to-peak, that's about 4.25v RMS into a 75 ohm antenna which is less than half a watt. That can't be right.

Clearly there's a serious gap in my understanding of RF voltage and power here. Where is it?

Anyone ever see a Mirage A1015G amp without a mode switch? Is this a CW/SSB only model? Image searches show this amp with the mode switch have writing on the front "50 - 54 MHz"

>>2705061
The rectangles are hybrid modules who do the heavy lifting.
Top circuit is preamp

Any way to practice cw on a real key without transmitting? I have an ICOM ic-746

>>2706001
Dummy loads?

>>2706001
this : >>2706037 with the monitor function, maybe you'll hear what you transmit in CW

>>2706001
Use a dummy load or get an external keyer for practice. Or just turn the tx power to minimum and throw caution to the wind.
When I did the cw academy classes through cw ops it wasn't uncommon for students to practise using the radios internal keyer on minimal tx power.

>>2706001
I wired a key into a mouse and used an online keying site.
>https://www.instructables.com/Morse-Code-key-connect-with-computer/
>I think I used morse.me, but that's down

>>2695926
>not even cool species

>>2706001
It's just VOX off on Kenwoods. You get the sidetone, but the rig doesn't do a thing in CW mode.
Also, my trx has a "tx inhibit" mode that locks the transmitter, even if the rest behaves as it should.
If you push "VOX/BK-IN" to turn it off in CW mode you should get the same result on the IC-746.

>>2706037
wew, im an idiot, yeah I could hook up my dummy load.

>>2702951
That's a skill issue if you can't make a contact with js8call over top of phoneposters.

I got rid of ethernet, less noise on all HF, then changed the VGA cable to HDMI, also less noise on HF especially 40m, if it can be of any use for you

>>2706341
> ethernut = no
Originally ethernet was coax. I wonder if you can still get it in that form, I think it was 1mb/s.

>>2706345
I think with appropriate shielding and grounding it would be OK, but my internet box is shit, plastic only RJ-45 connectors, no filtering, can't make anything good from that.
I tried different speeds without luck. The cabling of the house is quite nice, good CAT6 strongly shielded and grounded at the patch panel, cable to almost all rooms, it's a shame I can't do radio while using it.
I remember coax ethernet, we put some in the walls with my father when I was a kid, while my mom was looking in horror as more and more holes where drilled in the walls.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjctpHtCZn0
doing some research

>>2706341
>I got rid of ethernet, less noise on all HF
Had that issue when I brought the longwire directly into the shack. I bought a balun and coax to terminate outside but haven't done that yet. Switched to shielded cat6 cable and a netgear switch with a metal case gs105. Use a Pi4b as a sdrpp server with rtlsdr and sdrplayduo, sanded off the paint and grounded everything, metal cases over everything. Removed a bunch of weird strong signals in random spots mostly all on 40 and 80m. The ups I have everything plugged into makes an odd beat signal on 70cm so I ended up putting that in another room and running an extension cable. Now I just have to figure out how to shield the transformer outside that sounds like a pressure cooker about to explode.

>>2706345
I can get almost 2gbps over the crappy coax that was left over in the walls but I'd bet these adapters are noisy as fuck. 'MoCA 2.5'.

if there are any balkanfaggots in here and if they're in range of R6 Sljeme, they better get on there and make a contact

>>2706347
>>2706666
The point about the coax is that usually it was pretty well shielded.

Of course chinese crap is going to leak emf into the radio space because they save money by removing the metal plating and foil tape they used during FCC testing.

Try putting it into a metal box and ground it.

What chink radio is currently considered the best value? I've seen the UV-5r mentioned a lot but it's been around for ages so I assume there's better now?

>>2706345
You can get shielded Ethernet cable.

Will having my rig next to my computer cause any rfi?

>>2706975
It might. Make sure the cables to the monitor has ferrite cores to reduce RFI.

>>2706975
I busted my PC power supply when transmitting on 20m. Get ferrites on every cable of your computer and make sure all your rig cables sit tight.
If something has to cross, make it perpendicular, no PC cables should run parallel to HF ones.

>>2706975
Also, should I bond my computer to my hf rig?

>>2699180
If you have the programming cable, there are multiple existing channel lists with all the UHF CB channels in them for CHIRP out there. The offset is always the repeater's input freq.

UHF CB is generally populated by drooling retards though, and my local repeater is just a constant stream of death threats.

I thought I had posted my question, but it doesn't seems to be on the page.

I have a wifi YAGI antenna. Its arm made of aluminium, and is cut into two parts, broken.

I'd like to fix it if possible. So before potentially "losing time" could you tell me if it's doable and will not break antenna's metrics and capabilities if fixed?
Logically I'd say it's just a matter of keeping the correct length between "teeth" of the antenna. Am I right?

second question, I have 3x32KW of electrical cables carrying PLC over the grid just near the shack and it's causing me troubles into signals reception. How can I "farraday" myself versus that noise?
Thank you.

>>2706685
Bruh you're like the second croat in this thread, pozdrav!

>>2708702
>Logically I'd say it's just a matter of keeping the correct length between "teeth" of the antenna. Am I right?
Pretty much, depending on how its isolated and what you use to repair it. Pics help
>second question, I have 3x32KW of electrical cables carrying PLC over the grid just near the shack and it's causing me troubles into signals reception. How can I "farraday" myself versus that noise?
If the rf is in the shack, you can start by grounding all your equipment the best you can and add few chokes to reduce common carriers on the coax. Next would be to make your shack a Faraday cage with tinfoil wallpaper. The issue is more likely that the antenna(s) are picking up the rf, in which case you'd have to switch to a high gain antenna like a Yagi or powered mag loops / active loops which have deep nulls and simply orient them to null out the noise.

>>2708738
>If the rf is in the shack
maybe, I can feel some weird shaking in my back depending on hours, probably peak times in the grid... I'd be curious to read studies potentially existing on those body feelings. Or maybe stories from the birth of radiocommunications, when pionneers consigned weird experiments on books.

>Pics help
yup here it is. I never soldered aluminium.. only circuit boards and wonder how I'm gonna do this. A piece of hard wood I prepare at correct size maybe? I'm a skilled woodworker, which makes I have no 3d printer.

>>2708867
not worth it, the ones on aliexpress are cheap

>>2708872
yeah it was 20 buck. okay I will order another one.
There is still parts to salvage concerning cable and holding plate.

>>2706777
Quansheng UV-K5

>>2708874
You can still use the shorter part with the dipole, it will just not be as directive as the full length one.

Any good foss software I can use with an external radio to automatically record broadcasts via 3.5mm then trim and date the clips?

Would appreciate any forum recommendations for the UK too.

Simple cheap small antenna for HF?

>>2709219
Just use a random wire. HF can be rather forgiving, though a little efforts goes literally a lot longer.

>>2709219
See >>2692024. I know the poster is a troll, but it does work. A hundred watts and a wire is a common saying in the ham community for a reason.

>>2709288
>>2709226

here comes the problem because I use an xiegu g90 with 20 watts and I'm afraid I need something more than an unwound wire, or do I just have to make this wire higher?

also I've heard about rybakov antenna or inverteted V, any opinions about it?

Hi I just scored picrel, I think it’s a cable TV amplifier. I want to use it to boost sending a very low power 88.1 MHz FM signal. Do you think that will work?

Second, it says +15db, is that too much power? I don’t want to get into trouble with the FCC.

Third, the antenna on this little FM transmitter is a single wire, about 4" long. This amplifier has coax inputs. So I just connect the antenna wire to tge center conductor of the coax input, and put the same length of wire into the output of the coax to act as an antenna?

I was also thinking of using this to boost the sensitivity of an old scanner, listening only.

Any thoughts anyone has on this project would be appreciated.

>>2709663
20 W is plenty. Had you said 20 mW I would have understood your concern.

Easy mode: decide on a band you will use, and cut a plain wire to the corresponding length, see the FAQ for details. Try the antenna vertical and horzontal.
More advanced mode: decide on a band you will use, and cut two plain wires to the corresponding length to make a dipole. Test your dipole in various directions.
Bonus: use a balun or unun to match your system.

There is no limit to how advanced you can make your antenna, pic. related.

>>2709776
How many threads since the last Wullenweber poster? Been a while, I think

>>2709824
Not sure but I am confident that was me. I have a nice collection of such arrays. Here is teh Soviet variant, the Krug, which also covers up to abot 50 MHz.

>>2708383
Thanks, helpful info.
You looked into Meshtastic? Considering setting up some for my local community.
>rural fire prone area and people lose internet so might be useful in those cases
Not sure if LoRa will be able to penetrate through smoke though?

>>2709706
Connecting a unshielded wire to that is going to cause RF feedback. The signal coming out of the mic is likely not well filtered so amplifying that is not wise.

>>2709833
>rural
UHF CB is not so shit away from large population centres.

>>2709839
> unshielded = rf feedback
So, i gather I should take some cable TV or RGB video coax and connect it as close as possible to the picrel antenna pcb pad. It’s battery powered so I don’t know where to connect the shield—there’s no “ground” per se.
I measured that wire antenna. It’s 14.8 cm.
So λ for 88.1 MHz is 340.3 cm, so that means it’s a 1/23 λ antenna? I’ve never heard of that. I’ve heard 1/4 λ is common though.

> filtering
I’ve heard this is the difference between, say, a cheap baofeng and a Motorola if they use the same radio chipset. I guess it means that, when transmitting, the bandpass filter is not very narrow and will leak into the other bands?

>>2709706
That is a CATV amplifier. I handled that very same model and the 4-port version when I worked for Shaw Cablesystems. Be warned that model is bi-directional so it may pump a signal back into your transmitter causing unwanted operation (mixing) or damage. It was designed for an enclosed (shielded) system that is coax. Also note that uses 75 ohm ports, I suspect your transmitter will be typically 50 ohm so there will be a slight mismatch in power transfer.

I would not use it on a scanner. Because of the bi-directional amplification an internally generated signal from your scanner (LO and mixing artifacts) will be rebroadcast out your scanner antenna causing possible interference. I personally know of a case where a TV amp failed and it caused RFI up to 2 km away. That said, back in the late 80's I used a cheap Radio Shack tv antenna amp on a scanner and it worked reasonably well. It stated it boosted FM and VHF-Lo & Hi TV (ch,2-13) so it was good up to around 200 MHz. Back then pagers caused havoc with reception causing some frequencies (images) to be unusable to listen to. Otherwise it did a decent job. Especially on FM. I used to hear meteor scatter on the FM band.

To answer your 2nd Q: If your FM transmitter is already at the maximum output allowed, then yes it will exceed FCC guidelines.

Your 3rd Q: 4 inch antenna is tiny. The halfwavelength of an 88 MHz signal is about 33.5 inches. If you're into experimenting, try lengthening that antenna and see if that boosts your range.

And just sticking the antenna into the input of that drop amp is less than ideal. An even wavelength or two of shielded coax would be better.

I hope this helped.

>>2709940
I can tell that you haven't worked for Shaw in years because their current techs don't know shit.

>>2709776
>>2709830
Those are neat. USA, Russia, Germany, Japan, and Canada still use them. Anyone else using CDAA's?

>>2709952
You are absolutely correct. I didn't survive the great 'purge of 2011'. I prophesized back in 2008 that as soon as JR stepped down his kids would sell out. I was right. The company has gone to shit thanks to shareholder greed. Oh well, had good times with them. And your right about many of the techs not knowing much. Worse, the few remaining ones I worked with don't care anymore. they've moved into other positions or became UBE's. Slap it in and get out.

>>2709940
>The halfwavelength of an 88 MHz signal is about 33.5 inches
Woops, I meant 1/4 wavelength.

>>2709940
Thanks for the detailed answer.
It’s odd that it’s bidirectional, is that for home internet over cable TV then?
I will experiment with some coax in multiples of the wavelength—didn’t know about that either.
What’s better, 1/4 wavelength or 1/2 wavelength for an antenna. I heard that exactly 1 wavelength effectively cancels it to nothing.

>>2709940
> exceed FCC guidelines
I just looked at the input power spec, 18v at 400 mA, this could be on the order of a 5W amplifier, which is an insane amount of power to put on the FM radio band. So much for that idea, unless I build some kind of attenuator and a high-pass filter to prevent the lower-frequency back-feed.

>>2709987
>It’s odd that it’s bidirectional, is that for home internet over cable TV then?
Yes, it helps the return signal from the cable modem overcome splitter losses.

A 1/4 wave with groundplane theoretically behaves like a 1/2 wave dipole. If space is an issue go with a 1/4 wave with a groundplane.

The feedline to the antenna, ideally, should be full wavelengths. ie: if your wavelength is 3 metres, then the feedline can be 3 or 6 or 9 metres long, and so forth. Again, not critical, but if you want best performance.

>>2709988
The unit will consune ~7 watts but you won't get much more than 1/3 of that due to amplifier efficiency. And even then it's a broadband amp so the power will be even less as it spreads out over its operational bandwidth which is large in those units.

What's the power output of your transmitter? In my country those personal FM devices are limited to about 1 microwatt. 15db of gain brings it up to about 30 microwatts.

>>2709953
>Anyone else using CDAA's?
Germany has a really big one. Ukraine might still use the ones left by the Soviet Union. UK and Spain have some circular arrays that are intentionally obscured on maps.

The US closed down quite a few but seem to have stopped that process and is now instead maintaining those that remain.

>>2709953>>2710049
Not commonly known: Wullenwebers can also be used for highly directive transmissions, and the US have used a few for this purpose.

Let's say we want to make one for /ham/ use at 40m. That means the monopoles will have to be maximum 20 m apart. For 32 monopoles the circumference will be 640 m and the radius will be 51 m. Mmmmm, tempting.

>>2710021
> FM power
Don’t have bluetooth on my car or home stereo, but I only have FM tuners, so I got this thing for my phone that sends it to FM 88.1.
Let me tell you, the quality is great. I have no idea why people bothered to invent bluetooth.
In this case, it only works from about 1m away or so—it has to be very close, that’s the downside. I’m guessing that’s in the 1 micro watt range.

I still listen to FM radio a lot, but there is continuous commercials to get an iheartradio app, and then I assume they will sell the FM spectrum to SHAW or something. I don’t have cellular data. I expect when that happens I will be able to buy up hundreds of radios and receivers at pennies on the dollar.

I use talkabouts instead of cell whenever I can, I want to get those new ones that can send text messages over FRS.

>>2710251
Have you tried using an antenna matched to the wavelength? 100 MHz is about 3 m wavelength, so a 1.5 m antenna might do nicely.

>>2710407
Not yet. Based on everyone’s responses, the easiest thing to do would be to get a bigger antenna and forget about the RF amplifier for now. RF is weird, never thought of an amplifier going in both directions simultaneously,
I think I want to hook a 1 or 2 wavelength 50 ohm coax at the PCB and then a 33.5" monopole to the other end of the coax.

I saw some instructions for a dipole made of coax, but the calculations with “velocity factor” are confusing, with some saying it needs to be shorter than the calculations, and slightly asymmetric due to reflections.

Anyone know where to salvage 50 ohm coax? I thought component video cable might be 50 ohm but it’s 75 ohm as well. I have tons of that crappy, stiff, steel center conductor cable TV stuff, but 75 ohms again.

>>2710587
>salvage 50 ohm coax
Old networking cable. 10base2 systems.

What's the best 40m antenna that doesn't need a ton of height? I was thinking of a quarter wave vertical but I don't have room for the radials.

>>2710695
> 10base2
Ohh, that looks like good stuff, it’s 4.7 mm thick, I guess they also call it “thinnet” there’s also “thicknet” which is more than twice as thick. Either way I’ll try and find some.

Looks like I need anything with “rg58” on it which seems to mean 50 ohms. Not sure why they had to put that on it instead of “50Ω” but whatever.

>>2710695
>>2710875
Also can we use RG58 for shielded audio cable as well? It seems to gave a real copper center conductor instead of those cheap-ass steel core cable tv crap.

>>2710875
Just buy the right fucking coax, shitlord.
https://www.belden.com/products/Cable/Coax-Triax-Cable/50-Ohm-Coax-Cable
https://www.davisrf.com/coax.php

https://www.hamradioschool.com/post/hey-which-coaxial-cable-should-i-use
https://blog.westpennwire.com/different-types-of-coax-cabes

>>2710049
>>2710220
Y'all have a documentary or encyclopedia on circularly disposed antenna arrays?
Lord willing, I'll be able to soon buy a homestead on a few acres and be able to build an antenna farm.
I'd love a few beverage or cdaa receive antennas and a big ass yagi.

>>2711313
>cdaa receive antennas
Plural?? Even in singular, this would put you instantly in the hall of fame and you would absolutely own the band.
And yes, I have some info, parts of the library can be found here:
https://sizeof.cat/files/cyberpunk-library/Tech/Radio/ElectronicWarfare/

>got my DXCC certificate today
Happy day boys! I'm only running a 10m 5/8 wave vertical (tunes to 12m and 40m, surprisingly) and 20m handmade rotatable dipole (tunes to 17m) at 27ft, so it's a big deal for me.

>>2711388
>check'd and congrat'd
now do it in CW only

>>2711388
congratulations, anon !

Enjoying some vacation contacts. Too bad most of them are POTAfags who just mount an ATAS on their vehicle, pull into a parking lot of the park they are activating, and make contacts from their vehicle.

>>2711388
Congrats! Though I think you should have kept the homebrew hexbeam up even if you were not using it.

>>2711333
checked and many thanks for the invaluable resources.
It will take some time to digest and comprehend what all is entailed ... but hearing is only half the battle :)
>>2711388
Congrats, that's a day you'll never get back. It has been fun watching your journey. I'm sure the neighbors won't miss you when the lease expires.
>>2711448
Cheers. I make great efforts to avoid digital POTA contacts.

>>2711526
>I'm sure the neighbors won't miss you when the lease expires.
My neighbors actually love it. Nobody has complained and lots of them ask if I can talk to X or Y (or ayys). Very chill. They can't complain much when they run illegal auto shops, have 40 project cars, or have parties every weekend. So we all leave each other alone for the most part.

>>2711392
I need to do my 10m phone only first.
>>2711501
The vertical is very very close in performance and actually omnidirectional. I repurposed the elements to make that 20m rotatable dipole, and I didn't want to buy another mast. I also have everything I need to build a 20m moxon but haven't bothered yet. If/when I do, I'll trim that 20m rotatable into a 15m and set it below the moxon.

Really though I need to wait until I move next year and get my own home to put up a real tower. I might scrap the moxon entirely, put up a 5 band hex and call it a day.

>>2711526
Digital contacts was the plan, but the G90 just wasn't playing nice when connected to the laptop. I even made sure that it worked prior to leaving. I has worked on prior trips. So, I reverted to phone despite hating voice contacts. I'm ditching the G90 for portable after this. I just used the laptop to log in entries in notepad.

>>2711333
At a child-like simplistic level, it appears the Wullenweber was a series of vertical antennas backed by a 'screen' aka reflector for 3-20mHz.
Evenly spaced at specified degrees and a network of radials along with the intricate receiving infrastructure amplifies the complexity and strength of the project, but at that child like view, if my house is in a wooded area I don't see how tossing a few vertical wires attached to a reflector in trees encompassing my house would be too radically difficult. Targeting a higher frequency (14-28?) would allow the project to scale to require less work and resources

no words needed

>>2711624
>I might scrap the moxon entirely, put up a 5 band hex and call it a day.
Nothing reasonable will compete with a hexbeam, as far as multi band antennas go. Everyone I've known that has one loves it.

>>2711755
>At a child-like simplistic level, it appears the Wullenweber was a series of vertical antennas
The FLR-9 high band used horizontally polarized dipoles.
>backed by a 'screen' aka reflector
Yes, that is important. You can make arrays without the screen but that has a different name.
>for 3-20mHz.
More like 1 - 30 MHz.
>Evenly spaced at specified degrees
Yes
>and a network of radials
That would be the grounding part, yes.
>along with the intricate receiving infrastructure amplifies the complexity and strength of the project,
Yes. This was high tech in 1940 but is within the available tech for a modern day ham.
>but at that child like view, if my house is in a wooded area I don't see how tossing a few vertical wires attached to a reflector in trees encompassing my house would be too radically difficult.
That might work, yes.
>Targeting a higher frequency (14-28?) would allow the project to scale to require less work and resources
A single octave would be doable with a single ring of dipoles or monopoles.

>>2708947
The Baofeng does okay at listening to satellites but I want to see how this goes stock, gone and ordered one for the memes.

>>2712652
>satellites
ham satellites ?

>>2712683
NOAA and shieet

>>2690921
We need a new thread.

>>2712850
>FT-920
based
>We need a new thread.
just copy paste what is in the OP, anon

Would anyone have a db of which grids are in each ARRL/RAC sections?
I'm rushing to write a telnet skimmer that IDs each spot and checks if I need it for the 85 sections.
I'm getting a clean sweep this year!

>>2712850
NO HAM IS DEAD AND SO ARE THESE THREADS.

>>2712914
>>2712850
NEW >>2712931
NEW >>2712931
NEW >>2712931