/ham/ - Ham/Amateur radio genera

[Anonymous No.1517356]

Last thread died for our sins edition.
FAQ:
ftp://50.31.112.231/pub/radio_FAQ_Preview8.htm

[Anonymous No.1517360]

So I need the help of you hams.
I'm new to the whole ham thing, but I want/need to build a telemetric system for a project. The first prototype uses an Adafruit Feather 32u4 RFM95 LoRa Radio and transmits/recieves at 868MHz.
To increase the range I wanted to use better antennas than the monopole antennas (a.k.a piece of wire) shipped with the module.
I thought about a dipole antenna on the radio (instead of a monopole - because the chip would be the ground plane and that seems wasteful) and a yagi uda antenna for the reciever. Everything I read about is a 600+ page overkill and it's honestly pretty overwhelming. If I build a yagi uda and a half wave dipole and connect them to the chip normally, would those work?
Or do I need to somehow control the signal phase, match impendances or some other stuff? It's all a bit complicated.

[Anonymous No.1517529]

>>1517356

[Anonymous No.1517533]

>>1517356
wtf is wrong with his pants?
he literally wearing a giant diaper so he doesn't have to leave his chair for days?

[Anonymous No.1517620]

>>1517360
Woah, slow down there top gun.
You are not going to be connecting two antennas to this chip. Pick one. Build it, and solder it on...

I have no idea what "connect it normally" means. I'll assume you meant solder.

To improve the range I would try one of the following.

Add a metal disc for a ground plane underneath it. At least .6 wavelengths in diameter. If you use a non-stick cookie tin make sure to clean the area you solder too really well and use a fan! Teflon fumes are nobueno.

Another option is to have the wire sticking up with four 1/4wave wires hanging down at a 45 degree angles from each other. This will be closer to a 50ohm match I'm sure the chip is looking for.

A dipole. 1/4 wave wire attached to the ant and ground pins.

Feeling dangerous? Try a yagi. There are many calculators online, the provided dimensions should get you in the ballpark.
You can test if you did it right by making the TX signal weak enough that you can barely receive it, then rotate the antenna. It should be strongest when pointed at the tx and get weaker when pointed away (will only work when the signal is on the _fringe_ of reception).
Things to watch out for here are multipath, so uh.. do this in a field. You might be able to get the signal weak enough indoors with the TX, by soldering a ~50 ohm resistor across ant to ground,

[Anonymous No.1517627]

I have no idea what "connect it normally" means. I'll assume you meant solder.

The ground is the other part of the antenna, so all your "ground" wiring will affect it.

To improve the range I would try one of the following.

Add a metal disc for a ground plane underneath it. At least .6 wavelengths in diameter. If you use a non-stick cookie tin make sure to clean the area you solder too really well and use a fan! Teflon fumes are nobueno.

Another option is to have the wire sticking up with four 1/4wave wires hanging down at a 45 degree angles from each other. This will be closer to a 50ohm match I'm sure the chip is looking for.

A dipole. 1/4 wave wire attached to the ant and ground pins.

Feeling dangerous? Try a yagi. There are many calculators online, the provided dimensions should get you in the ballpark.
You can test if you did it right by making the TX signal weak enough that you can barely receive it, then rotate the antenna. It should be strongest when pointed at the tx and get weaker when pointed away (will only work when the signal is on the _fringe_ of reception).
Things to watch out for here are multipath, so uh.. do this in a field. You might be able to get the signal weak enough indoors with the TX, by soldering a ~50 ohm resistor across ant to ground,


Are you the anon putting this a rocket?

[Anonymous No.1517658]

>>1517627
>Are you the anon putting this a rocket?
I know I will be.

[Anonymous No.1517684]

I want to make world's smallest pirate radio station. So I'm wondering what the smallest distance I can transmit for it to still be considered radio. Could I do it in 1 mm or less?

[Anonymous No.1517689]

>>1517684
It could be magnetic induction if you are too close.
If you are receiving it greater then one wavelength away at the frequency of interest it is radio. (This is my guess because radio is a magnetic wave collapsing into an electric field.)
I.E. 2meters at 144MHz
λν=c
300(speed of light)/144(Frequency in MHz)=2(Length in meters)

300/88=3.4meters

So for an FM station at the low end of the range, 3.4 meters.

I'm 86% sure about my reasoning on this, hopefully another anon can confirm.

You may also be interested in Lecher Lines.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbVbMR6jmSI
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lecher_line

Visualizing RF Standing Waves on Transmission Lines By w2aew
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1PgCOTDjvI

http://www.electronics-lab.com/project/simple-fm-transmitter/

[Anonymous No.1517714]

>>1517533
hes probably trapped in all that shit

[Anonymous No.1517777]

>>1517620
Thanks for the detailed answer!
By using both antennas I meant one for the transmitter and the other for the reciever, the transmitter should have the more omnidirectional radiation pattern...

>I have no idea what "connect it normally" means. I'll assume you meant solder.

The chip has pads for a Umf connector, I wanted to connect the poles of the antenna to these pads.

>Another option is to have the wire sticking up with four 1/4wave wires hanging down at a 45 degree angles from each other.

Should those 45° wires connect to ground with less losses? If so does that still work if the chip is in free space? (A.k.a. 100+ m in the air)

And lastly:
>This will be closer to a 50ohm match I'm sure the chip is looking for.

Does that mean the impendance of my antenna (so the resistance of my wire/ resistance of my dipole) should have entirely real impendance of 50+0j ohms?
Impendance matching seems the most complicated part of this to me.

Again thanks a lot for such a detailed answer!

[Anonymous No.1517779]

>>1517627
I forgot answering:

>Are you the anon putting this a rocket?
yes. Again, this is only for the first and second prototype, likely the chipset will be a semi custom one by someone who knows their shit for the third prototype. That being said, optimising the antennas should work for another chipset as well (as long as the frequency stays the same).

If you are the anon answering all the time earlier, thanks a lot.

[Anonymous No.1517780]

>>1517658
Honestly? Try it. You can get pretty damn high with (boring) solid fuel. If you have a big enough team you can even design a liquid fuel engine. It's a lot of fun.

[Anonymous No.1517782]

>>1517777
was meant for >>1517689 before >>1517620 was deleted by the way.

[Anonymous No.1517974]

>>1517777
The previous comment was deleted because I didn't like the tone I used and also realized what you were trying to accomplish.

https://m0ukd.com/calculators/quarter-wave-ground-plane-antenna-calculator/
Connect to ground with less losses? I am lost as to what you mean.
The "ground" side of the antenna, is just that. A side of the antenna.
With these antennas there is always current leaving one side, while current comes in the other.
(This will cook your noodle! The rest of wires attached to ground (on the chip) will affect the radiation pattern I.E. battery leads etc.. )

In this case the ant. ground is going to be the ground on the circuit board. It will not need to be connected to the earth "ground".

If you mean, will it connect to the ground station RXing the signal better?
Maybe.
It will be more efficient, so it will radiate more power. However, the "radiation pattern" will change, so less power may make it to the ground.


Because it's so much easier to build and get going I recommend trying the dipole on the rocket.

Will it work in freespace?
It will work best in free space.
It will work about the same from ~10 meters to 100,000m in the air. However as distance increases, power received decreases.

Impedance matching.
You are _not_ using coax and coming directly off the chip with low power.
I wouldn't worry about impedance matching. That RF power _will_ be radiated or become heat. Have a resonant antenna to make sure the most signal gets radiated.

To have the absolute best efficiency you may need impedance matching.
You could test your TX/RX setup before launching by mounting the TX a few meters above the ground away from other objects. Then walk away and see how far you can RX.
The experiment with a different antennas and see what works best.

[Anonymous No.1518074]

>>1517533
Could be a colostomy bag.

[Anonymous No.1518231]

how do I find a good frequency for listening to meteors?

[Anonymous No.1518538]

>>1518231
Directly listening to a meteor at RF frequencies may be possible. See:
http://www.vlf.it/F6AGR/meteorsignatures.html

Detecting the presence of meteors by listening to forward or back scattered signals from the meteor burning up in the atmosphere is a lot easier. It can be done with just an FM receiver.

So you want to hear meteors? A basic
how to guide:
https://www.rasc.ca/sites/default/files/RadioAstronomy_NovaNotes.pdf

[Anonymous No.1518547]

>>1518231
http://www.livemeteors.com/

[Anonymous No.1518643]

>>1517533
looks like cancery balls

[Anonymous No.1519086]

>>1517356
Will a coax notch filter work well as an FM trap? Trying to get some decent signals out of my chinkshit RTLSDR, and I've never built filters before, so I'd like to learn

[Anonymous No.1519384]

>>1519086
Type 'coax cable notch filter'
Visit http://www.hb9amo.net/fmcoaxialfilter.php

[Anonymous No.1519477]

>>1519384
thats what I meant. Will it work, to clear FM? Else, whats another good option? Eventually I'll build one with a PCB and a proper condenser network I suppose

[Anonymous No.1519638]

Hello,
I live in East Armpit, Georgia, 150 miles from Atlanta, so rural that your cousin looks good.

I want to stream video from my tractor, to a video monitor headset receiver 200, no more than 300 yards away.

I would like to use a RC video transmitter 5.8GHz at 200mw.
However I'm told I need a HAM Technician license, with a test that doesn't address anything about video transmission.
It' a power thing, both the transmitter and government.
The closest HAM club that does testing is in Atlanta. No one around goes as far unless they need the medical college doctors.

How come drones like DJI can transmit long distances without the operator needing a license? I almost bought one to duct tape to the tractor hood!

Thanks for any answers.
Merry Christmas

[Anonymous No.1520460]

Hey,

I live in Spain, and, while I know that there are no analog TV channels in most European countries anymore, I would like to try analog TV DXing. But I have no clue of how any of this works, and if I would receive anything in 2018.

I would like to buy one of these handheld radio/TV sets like the one in pic related. I would probably put a longwire antenna on it, or something more complex if that would make this work. But I know that I would probably receive absolutely nothing on the TV band.

I would like to know if someone is doing this in [current year] and if any of you knows if I could get any TV channels on Europe.

I posted this on /g/, but then I found this general, so I repost it here.

Thanks!

[Anonymous No.1520515]

Would an antenna extension like this Tecsun AN07 make a difference on FM/SW reception? It doubles the length of the aerial.

I wouldn't mind using a random longwire to improve the signal instead of this, but this thing looks comfy as fuck.

[Anonymous No.1521706]

K9RSY is leading the usual shitshow on 7200 right now. There's a dozen different voices today.

[Anonymous No.1521861]

>>1520460
Analog TV is no longer a thing in Europe, it's become DVB-T/T2. You could try DVB or DAB DX. Some African countries probably still do broadcast analog, so those could be an option.
A portable setup is mostly a no-go, since you will be needing a directional TV antenna (yagi).

[Anonymous No.1523284]

>>1520460
Long wire is not really what you want for vhf. A phased array would be worth looking at.

I suspect there may still be analogue tv further east in places like Ukraine etc

[Anonymous No.1523305]

>>1517356
The fuck I am looking at.

[Anonymous No.1523750]

Hey guys so a while back I asked about RF on arduino.

I am going to pick the project back up, basically I was able to successfully clone my doorbell RF signal that I bought from home depot.

I mainly did it manually. I recorded the signal in sdr# opened it in audacity, did the timings on the signal etc.. etc..

What I want to achieve now is using arduino to automatically capture, and time the signal..

So I noticed the "sync word" or "preamble"? is the same every time. Do I use that in my arduino code to listen for the signal, and capture it that way?

[Anonymous No.1524183]

>>1523305
https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=https%3A%2F%2Fhe.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2F%25D7%259E%25D7%2599%25D7%259B%25D7%2590%25D7%259C_%25D7%2592%25D7%2595%25D7%25A8%25D7%2593%25D7%2595%25D7%25A1&edit-text=

[Anonymous No.1524508]

Are the Bands shit for everyone else today or is it localized?

[Anonymous No.1524512]

>>1523750
We don't know where you are and what signals are available locally. Wwv and wwvh were set to close were they not.

[Anonymous No.1524591]

>>1524512

Sorry, but I had no idea what those terms were until I googled it. But based on the locations, I am not near those signals? I am in the midwestern part of the US. Maybe the signal travels this far out, but I forgot to mention I was on 315mhz.

[Anonymous No.1524622]

>>1524591
>I was on 315mhz
What kind of propagation are you expecting? What are you even listening to?

[Anonymous No.1524679]

>>1524622
Meh, Im going to go ask in /ohm/ or arduino Im just trying to automatically clone my doorbell signal instead of doing it manually through sdr# and audacity. btw this is my post. >>1523750

I still think you replied to the wrong person. I believe you probably meant this post. here >>1524508

[Anonymous No.1524682]

Idk anything about Ham, but what's the deal with Channel 9 on CB? It's a bunch of old black guys yelling nonsense?

[Anonymous No.1524684]

>>1524682
I meant channel 6

[Anonymous No.1525035]

>>1524684
Its an RF pissing contest basically. I’m guessing you are a burgerlander.

[Anonymous No.1525432]

Is there a transceiver that just plugs into a pc and uses the pc as an interface to control the unit?

[Anonymous No.1525436]

>>1525432
Many modern ones will have a USB interface you can do that with but might need a panadapter.

[Anonymous No.1525443]

>>1525436
i know most transceivers nowadays can connect to pc, but i'm looking for units specifically designed to be used with a pc (no display, minimal interface) and are cheap

after a bit of digging i found this which is basically what i'm talking about, are there any others like this?

https://www.tentec.com/?p=1449

[Anonymous No.1525637]

>>1525443
A lot of older SDR kits (TinySDR etc.) are plain demodulators meant to be connected to the sound card of a PC for processing.

[Anonymous No.1526268]

copped this at a goodwill
I'm thinking I can take a peak at the circuit inside, maybe change a few resistors or caps around and change what frequency it amplifies

[Anonymous No.1526763]

How hard would it be to build a mm wave telescope? You know like receiving 100 GHz from space. The best way of detecting planet nine may be in the mm wave band. I've also determined that there's nothing that prevents me from naming planet nine after that baka Cirno if I'm able to discover it.

[Anonymous No.1526989]

>>1526763
I bet those 79GHz automotive radar chips could be re purposed. (They work up to 81)

However, what's the atmospheric absorption of radio waves over 5GHz? Something to think about.

>>1525443
Even simpler Software Defined Radio (and thoughts on soundcards)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6r66Pc1MYk

Remember that it's homebrew. 5 years later I know why that project didn't work when I built it. There was some sort of coating on the inductor. Caveat emptor

[Anonymous No.1527286]

>>1526989
this is the bad boy we gotta beat here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Pole_Telescope
10m dish, working at 95 GHz, 150 GHz, and 220 GHz with 960 detector elements at each frequency. Dish is like accurate to 25 microns and probably has a damn good pointing accuracy. Plus it's operating in the south fucking pole so there's less mm wave absorbing water vapor.

[Anonymous No.1527671]

>>1527286
I guess cryogenic operations are simplified when outdoor temperatures are below the sublimation point of CO2.

[Anonymous No.1529476]

How much of the info in this general applies to television broadcasting? I have an old TV with no input besides the antenna. I would like to broadcast to it from my PC.

[Anonymous No.1529697]

Would you send a reception report to an FM station?

[Anonymous No.1531064]

>>1529697
Did you hear them at a distance beyond what is normal for that station?

If no, you shouldn't do it. (But do it anyways, maybe they'll send you free shwag!!)

If yes, go for it. Include information like distance, receiver used, etc. etc.

[Anonymous No.1531417]

>>1517356
While it isn't directly amateur radio related, is the ~10.8 dB gain of SSB over AM worth it for CB radios these days or do you need an amp to get over QRP levels of power to actually make it worth while to have? For those unaware, SSB usage on the CB band is restricted to 12 watts in the US so right at what's considered to be QRP levels for phone modes on the amateur radio bands. My main interest is mobile use.

I know the 10 meter band is basically closed these days outside of sporadic E and the very peek of the solar cycle so it doesn't seem like CB SSB would see too much use unless for skywave/skip. The only real use I can think of is if I'm in a wooded area or somewhere where you have to deal with high levels of attenuation and was trying to communicate with someone else who specifically bought a CB radio that offered SSB, since I should be able to get just under 3.5x the range without considering the radio horizon with that increase in power.

[Anonymous No.1531469]

>>1517533
Right inguinal hernia most likely.

[Anonymous No.1532222]

We were discussing local monitoring of the ionosphere earlier, using phase differences of L1/L2/L5. Some interesting news:

>First GPS III satellite successfully launches
https://www.gpsworld.com/first-gps-iii-satellite-successfully-launches/
Civilian L2 (L2C) will now be available in addition to L5.

At teh same time:
>Allystar releases multi-band GNSS raw data chip and module
https://www.gpsworld.com/allystar-releases-multi-band-gnss-raw-data-chip-and-module/

Using all 3 bands it should be possible to do a tomographic cross section of the ionosphere using calculations that have been used for over 30 years.

It would be interesting then to correlate this with propagation data.

[Anonymous No.1534385]

What is there really to do on the amateur radio bands these days, or really just radio in general? I don't mean all the different ways you can use radio waves such as satellites, EME, and whatnot. I mean what is there to do with other people beyond exchanging signal reports?

It seems like most activity I've heard about that isn't just swapping signal reports either requires running a good deal of power into a decent size antenna for phone modes on HF which I don't have the means to do where I live and with lower power HF phone mode use being more restricted to just signal reports from what I've heard, requires you to actually have local people interested in using repeaters for something beyond saying they're present for a net which really only happens during severe weather where I live, requires nearby networked digital voice mode repeaters if you want to get involved in that without using an expensive HT as a fancy wireless speaker/microphone for your computer with a hotspot, or requires you to live near one of the few places where people are experimenting with digital modes for data purposes rather than just digital voice modes or keyboard to keyboard chatting. Besides those issues, the nets I have listened to via websdr that went beyond people announcing they were present have been rather boring vs what I can find on various internet boards pertaining to those topics and APRS traffic that I can pick up is really just location data rather than anything else that APRS can be used for.

cont.

[Anonymous No.1534386]

>>1534385
I really want to have fun with this, but the activities you can actually do these days beyond swapping signal reports in interesting ways seem to either not be available or don't seem enjoyable. I'm really not interested for practical purposes, but the lack of enjoyable activities to actually do still discourages me from going any further into this hobby. Honestly, the most interesting things I can think of right now are messing around with receiving weather imagery from satellites and breaking the rules and building my own transceiver for the CB band since that's actually active around where I live unlike the VHF and up amateur bands.

[Anonymous No.1534473]

>>1534386
BINGO
there's not much to do on anymore unless you want to listen to old guys give each other signal report hand jobs. ham is flatlining.

[Anonymous No.1534478]

>>1524682
Last time I listened in on a CB it was a dick swinging contest involving a bunch of degens with linear amplifiers and echo mics

[Anonymous No.1534632]

>>1534385
There is the social aspect with competitions (how many can you reach, how fast Morse can you receive) but also technical challenges (improving radios, new antennas, improved digital modes and DSP).

These days DSP is in the reach of hams but the cultural gap between analogue radio and DSP is still there. If we should do a project here I would propose a better digital transmission than FT8 etc. Something what carries useful data payload would be useful. I have done some thinking, anyone interested to join? And no logos, please.

[Anonymous No.1534696]

>>1534478
ditto

[Anonymous No.1534763]

>>1534632
>I would propose a better digital transmission than FT8 etc.
Go for it, it's not like there's a ton of other digital protocols already, or anything.
>What is Olivia, MT63, PSK, MFSK, RTTY, Thor, THROB, DominoEX, FeldHell, Contestia

[Anonymous No.1534780]

>>1534632
>competitions (how many can you reach
That really just ends up in the swapping signal reports category. Turning messing around with radios into a competition where I grind one task repeatedly seems like it would get old quickly. Also, turning the imprecise nature of amateur radio contacts into a contest really doesn't seem too interesting.

>technical challenges (improving radios, new antennas, improved digital modes and DSP)
That's really not what I'm asking about. Did you read my post past the first sentence? I already know what technical aspects interest me, my problem is that it doesn't seem like there's much to actually do with the knowledge/equipment once you have it and I don't want to have more stuff sitting around that I don't use.

>>1534763
You left out JT8 (formerly FT8 CALL) for people who want the low SNR operability of FT8 but don't want to be restricted to the short messages that FT8 and similar modes restrict you to.

[Anonymous No.1534799]

>>1534763
Do any of the existing digital modes characterise the channel? Or do any use more tan one amplitude per bin?

[Anonymous No.1534826]

>>1534799
I don't understand what your are asking.

[Anonymous No.1534924]

>>1534826
All the modes that I have seen analysed divide the signal bandwidth into bins of equal width. In each bin or subdivision of the signal bandwidth a carrier is present or not. This is done by modulating an audio signal onto the carrier but the effect is practically the same.

To improve data rate you can amplitude modulate each bin signal on a finer scale than on or off, for instance using 4 levels. You can only do this reliably if you already have characterised the channel and already know how resilient you have to make the signal to make it distinguishable at the receiver.

Old modems did a lot of characterisation of the channel which is something I have never seen done here. Models also did checks for echo cancellation but that we are unlikely to need here.

You will probably have to have a preamble for each subsequent transmission to further characterise or update the knowledge of the channel. The upside is that you could increase data rate by a factor of 4, perhaps more.

[Anonymous No.1534979]

>>1534924
If you're wondering about HF use, look up PACTOR IV and the quadrature amplitude modulation that the higher speeds use. No amateur radio specific modes bother using that modulation because the FCC restricts the baud rate for digital modes on HF to 300 baud and bandwidth isn't enough of an issue to justify a narrower band digital mode that doesn't work as well at lower SNR. IIRC, the FCC is considering eliminating the baud limit on HF and replacing it with a bandwidth limit.

[Anonymous No.1534985]

>>1534979
Baud is not bits per second, just transitions per second. So you can do this and still be within the regulations.

[Anonymous No.1535174]

>>1534924
you need to look at the Joe Taylor modes a little more closely. they're basically slow audio FSK. OOK would be just begging for dropouts
>characterised the channel
y tho, it'll change, due to atmospheric turbulence, overflying aircraft, meteors, and/or other factors
it seems more sensible to simply take advantage of the channel gain provided by FEC and maybe play some interleaving games to guard against fade

[Anonymous No.1535376]

>>1535174
>y tho, it'll change, due to atmospheric turbulence, overflying aircraft, meteors, and/or other factors
I know. That is why I wrote it would have to update the characterisation.
>it seems more sensible to simply take advantage of the channel gain provided by FEC and maybe play some interleaving games to guard against fade
Mobile phone tech (which is where I come from here) has enormous incentives to squeeze the last drop of performance from the channel. That is why they do the characterisation and the error corrections and Trellis encoding and more.

And therein lies the whole point. Unlike cell phone channels the HF net is global in nature, so all stations that can receive two parties in communication can use that to pre-train their characterisations. Especially these days with poor conditions this would be an advantage.

[Anonymous No.1535761]

What happens if I take 30 meters of copper cable and put it like this, as if it was a giant ferrite antenna, and I connect it to my shortwave radio? Would this improve reception?

Also, could I make something like this for a specific shortwave band? For example, using a length of wire of 1/2 of the wavelenght?

[Anonymous No.1535762]

>>1535761
>What happens if I take 30 meters of copper cable and put it like this, as if it was a giant ferrite antenna, and I connect it to my shortwave radio? Would this improve reception?
>Also, could I make something like this for a specific shortwave band? For example, using a length of wire of 1/2 of the wavelenght?
Forgot pic

[Anonymous No.1535837]

>>1535762
Make a loop
http://www.k5dkz.com/4loop1.html
or
http://makearadio.com/loops/

[Anonymous No.1535856]

>>1535761
The longer and higher the better when it comes to reception only. 30 meter is almost 100 feet and I had a 100 "Randomwire" antenna on my roof as a kid that was shaped like a W and I could receive signals on an ancient Hellicrafters S-83 Tomsk, USSR on it easily at night.

Wavelength is really only important when transmitting.

[Anonymous No.1535908]

Hey guys, my older neighbor who I'm really friendly with is really into ham radios. He has a ton of antique ones that have won awards or something at shows (?) and has a lot of new shit too. I'm kind of half interested in getting into the hobby, but to be honest, all he really does is talk to other old guys.
So I was wondering, what do you guys do on your radios? I'm sure you don't just talk to old guys, so what other things are there to do on radios?

[Anonymous No.1535923]

There is so much more to do than just exchange signal reports. Some of my favourites are;
- download pictures from the international space station with SSTV (surprisingly easy)
- climb a mountain and get points for summit activations (SOTA)
- build cheap kits from China and see how far the signal goes (got Calgary to Vancouver with a standard 9V battery into a $4 Pixie kit
- various contests & awards, but being selective picking the interesting ones like straight keys only (SKCC), antinue radios (BK is the ultimate challenge), etc.
- see if you can light up the neighbour’s neon tubes using only your VHF transmitter ;-)
- listen in on air traffic control and try to match the conversations with flightradar24...

[Anonymous No.1536435]

>>1535923
>- climb a mountain and get points for summit activations (SOTA)
Exchanging signal reports from hard to reach locations.

>- build cheap kits from China and see how far the signal goes (got Calgary to Vancouver with a standard 9V battery into a $4 Pixie kit
Building new equipment to exchange signal reports.

>- various contests & awards, but being selective picking the interesting ones like straight keys only (SKCC), antinue radios (BK is the ultimate challenge), etc.
Get awards for exchanging so many signal reports, sometimes with specific hardware.

[Anonymous No.1536451]

>>1536435
Yes, confirming (via 2nd party) proof (signal report) that my equipment(radio and antenna) is performing satisfactorily, sometimes using self-built equipment in hard to reach locations with specific hardware. 99% of the time the other station would like to do this also.

[Anonymous No.1536519]

When the amateur radio community offers suggestions for people who are interested in the hobby, are they actually trying to keep people away? It always seems like the suggestions people give are purposely kept unrelated to what the person wants.

>person asks what one can use their radios for because they think most ragchew would be boring or aren't interested in swapping signal reports
>most answers pertain to variations of what the person doesn't want if the person wanted more than just signal reports or are activities one can do that are unrelated to the direct act of actively using a radio

>person expresses interest in amateur radio because of what one can do without infrastructure/while being off the grid but is hung up because ragchewing with old guys doesn't appeal to them
>gets directed to contesting or working on their equipment rather other than interesting things that one can do while not relying as much on infrastructure/being off the grid that one normally wouldn't be able to do

>person expresses interest in amateur radio because they're interested in the tinkering aspect with working on radios/building their own radio/making their own antennas
>gets directed away from their interests because one should spend a ton of money on new equipment to get a feel for the hobby first rather than entering the hobby in an inexpensive way that actually matches with that person's interests

[Anonymous No.1536525]

>>1536519
if you don't want to talk to people or swap signal reports, yet you still want to transmit and not be a mere listener, about the only things left to do are to work digipeaters or spot WSPRnet, which is basically having your computer swap signal reports automatically
>one should spend a ton of money on new equipment to get a feel for the hobby
I, for one, would like to spike those people's Geritol with beet juice. buyfagging is not my idea of a hobby

[Anonymous No.1536550]

>>1536525
>yet you still want to transmit and not be a mere listener
While amateur radio normally involves actually transmitting, I don't see why people can't still be directed to interesting things one can receive as well. I was actually surprised about how much you can receive that doesn't fall under SWL or normal FM scanner use when I found rtl-sdr.com. Particularly the unencrypted satellite signals which are a lot more interesting to me than amateur satellite use which just amounts to sending signal reports with anything more than that being looked down on (though it's understandable why it's looked down on).

[Anonymous No.1536733]

>>1536550
Which satellites, which antenna?

[Anonymous No.1537061]

>>1535923
sounds exciting

[Anonymous No.1537092]

>>1537061
He's having more fun than you.

[Anonymous No.1537272]

The sdr.hu network of kiwi-sdr receivers now have upgraded the front end with a Morse decoder. Too bad far from all hams have a good fist - dare I say ham fisted?

[Anonymous No.1537301]

This seems like the right place to ask, please excuse me if it isn't. Is galvanized steel a good-enough material for antenna elements? It'd be in the 2.4GHz range if it matters, me and some buddies wanna make a little mesh net but we're strapped as fuck for cash since lolturdworldcollegestudents. I'd be making a bunch of patch Yagi-Uda's (the commie guy's "wifi gun" except isolating the driven element unlike a retard), and would like to know if the diameters and spacing on all the elements are the same as your conventional n-element yagi antenna so I could make sufficiently high-gain antennas as needed. Threaded rod is cheap, nuts are cheap, smooth galvanized steel sheets are cheap (cheaper than aluminum), and I can salvage SMA connectors and wire from your usual 2 dollar generic omnidirectional antennas. I know this might be a little over my head, but it only really needs to get a few blocks with one of my janky antennas on each end and all of us live in pretty high apartment buildings within LOS of each other.

Thanks in advance for any help!

[Anonymous No.1537801]

>>1537301
>within LOS of each other
In that case you can go with optical links. Those are license free and proven tech. Look up RONJA
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RONJA

[Anonymous No.1537803]

>>1537301
>and all of us live in pretty high apartment buildings

The problem here with 2.4ghz is that every man and his dog will also be on that band so the noise floor will be sky high.

[Anonymous No.1538949]

What do you think of the Tecsun PL-365 and its CountyComm equivalent?

[Anonymous No.1539192]

>the quality of CB in burger land

Well at least it ended up somewhere near A channel.

[Anonymous No.1539358]

>>1517356
dat bulge, tho

[Anonymous No.1539496]

Is it true that Chinky Bois will get you arrested? They're still sold on amazon.

[Anonymous No.1539591]

any motorola bois / DMR MARC hams here?

[Anonymous No.1539804]

Disappointed in my NAQP performance today.

[Anonymous No.1539853]

>>1539496
https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-18-980A1.pdf
>Equipment that does not comply with the technical requirements cannot
be certified and thus cannot be imported, advertised, sold, or used.

[Anonymous No.1539913]

Does the shared pin for ptt and mic cause a DC voltage to be mixed in with the audio from the mic? Assuming ptt is triggered when high.

Pic related.

[Anonymous No.1539921]

>>1539913
AF and DC do not 'mix' and can share a common line. They can be separated in the same way they have been combined.

[Anonymous No.1540077]

>>1539496
I haven't heard of any arrest. Until now both amazon and ebay refuse to comply and still sell fengs to children. There's a lot of room under the radar.

[Anonymous No.1540079]

>>1539496
The FCC let the IC-7851 pass, a Memefeng is nothing in comparison.

[Anonymous No.1540481]

>>1539496
Lets just hope this government shutdown starves all the beurocratic cucks at the FCC.

We really need to subvert these communists. Start designing the equivalent of 80% lowers for ham radio, make it cheap and open source.

[Anonymous No.1540489]

>>1540481
/pol/ pls go

[Anonymous No.1540890]

How did Nellie Ohr get caught using her ham? Are the transmissions recorded?

[Anonymous No.1541198]

Can I get some recommendations for a CB base station? I'm using it at home for emergency communications.. I've found recommendations on youtube and other sources for the following rigs:
Cobra 2000
Cobra 142
Realistic Navaho
Uniden Washington

[Anonymous No.1541201]

>>1540481
>Start designing the equivalent of 80% lowers for ham radio, make it cheap and open source.
You would have to design something based on off-the-shelf parts, like a raspberry pi with a software-defined radio.

[Anonymous No.1541304]

>>1541201
>buyfagging
does this thread really belong on >>>/g/

[Anonymous No.1541358]

>>1541198
I can just see it now, a horrible disaster befalls you, you get on the CB...
>Breaker 19 this hears a somewhat rich white guy needing help... (here's my address) come on!
you hear this...
>bix nood, muf fuggah
100 niggers show up and rape your ass while looting your house.

[Anonymous No.1541371]

>>1541304
I mean, you could also make a bunch of individual designs that interface with each other and can be updated seperately (PSU, Tuner, Transmitter, etc.)

[Anonymous No.1541386]

>>1539496
half the shit on 11 meters is illegal, they can't police it.

[Anonymous No.1541387]

>>1541358
niggas think cb stand for chicken box, they got no radios

[Anonymous No.1541503]

>>1541358
This is so I can receive messages from people who's only form of communication is unlicensed radio services and relay those messages to emergency services. This isn't necessarily for a total SHTF TEOTWAWKI tinfoil-prepper shit since I'm a General class ham and have much capabilities than CB. Also
>giving my QTH outside of minor emergencies
>dat ad hominem
>dat assumption of my geneder/race
ISHYDBT

[Anonymous No.1541618]

>>1541358
>niggers, using radios
anon...

[Anonymous No.1541619]

>>1541503
there isn't anything on CB but niggers. no one uses CB except board truckers and niggers.

[Anonymous No.1543697]

Anyone here listen to shortwave or use a shortwave radio to listen to amateur traffic? I'm debating whether to buy a dedicated small radio to use while camping or if I should just continue to use my Yaesu 817ND.

[Anonymous No.1544226]

>>1543697
The 817 does 160m-70cm so why get another rig?

[Anonymous No.1544249]

>>1544226
Receive is actually 100 kHz - 30 MHz in the HF band, but arguments for a separate radio:
Lighter, less expensive (if lost or broken; $60 vs. $800+ I have in mine), uses less power, etc.

[Anonymous No.1544285]

>>1544249
Radio seems fine, if you're worried about water damage just get a dry bag
>https://www.amazon.com/SnugPak-126828-P-Dri-Sak-Original-Bag/
You can also get an external frame to protect the front dials:
https://portablezerostore.ecwid.com/#!/817-ESB-817-escort-with-stand-black-texture/p/67845001/category=21722042
And a couple battery packs for extra juice:
>https://portablezerostore.ecwid.com/#!/PZ-FP-12-Field-Power-12/p/84021122/category=21722042
>https://www.amp-3.net/shop-amature-radio/double-battery-pack-complete
TL;DR: You have a good radio and don't feel the need to get rid of it to save a few ounces as most QRP rigs that compete with it (such as the KX2/3) only do HF out of the box and are more expensive.

[Anonymous No.1544468]

>>1544226
>817
that fucking menu is a nightmare
anyone have fun out on winter field day?

[Anonymous No.1544485]

>>1544468
>817 is a nightmare
please elaborate anon, you're making me nervous
Also unrelated I went to Quartzfest and stayed in a tent the entire time, so does that count?

[Anonymous No.1544537]

>>1544285
I bought it new in 2010; I'm not getting rid of it. Just realistically I don't plan to bring the equipment to Tx, just for Rx.
>>1544468
>>1544485
You get used to it, but it's worth carrying the actual paper manual as required equipment.

[Anonymous No.1544572]

>>1544485
it would be great as a mobile rig. but the screen is small, and the menu is extensive.
i still can figure out a good mobile rig.
just look up quartzfest, and that sounds fucking awesome. why would you stay in the tent the whole time?!!?
>>1544537
yeah i would definitely keep the menu with you.

[Anonymous No.1544615]

>>1544572
I'm used to it and I don't have an RV. Just wish I'd brought tastier food and a better way to make coffee. Little did I know Nalgenes aren't retard proof.

[Anonymous No.1544648]

>>1544572
>>1544537
Bigger screen:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/CatDisplay-3-5-External-Display-for-Yaesu-FT-897-FT-897D/113551027509?hash=item1a702b2d35:g:uc0AAOSwT5tcOmW~

[Anonymous No.1544660]

Anytime I hit the transmit button on my Baofeng, my fucking printer starts to print. Is that normal?

[Anonymous No.1544662]

>>1544660
yes, but how's your tire pressure?

[Anonymous No.1544715]

Oh fuck I was looking on /g/ for a ham general hell yeah. Just ordered a uv-5r for 20 dollars and I joined my school's ham club

[Anonymous No.1544741]

>>1544660
Sounds like RFI. Try installing ferrite beads on the data cables to the printer.
>>1544715
Very nice and good luck on the test. Try the practice tests on QRZ.com and check out Dave Casler on youtube for his Technician training videos.

[Anonymous No.1544755]

>>1544648
That's for the 897 not the 817/818

[Anonymous No.1544772]

>>1517533
Most HAM enthusiasts have abnormally large penises

[Anonymous No.1544811]

>>1544755
Scroll halfway down and its hidden in the bullet points, but it IS compatible.

[Anonymous No.1544829]

I always wants to do HAM radio. What's a website that I can go to that helps connect me with my local HAM radio club?? I forgot what the website was called.

[Anonymous No.1544830]

>>1544829
ARRL
>http://www.arrl.org/courses-training

[Anonymous No.1544835]

>>1517356
>you are now aware of the noticeable bulge in that mans pants, and how he has an absolute unit of a cock.

[Anonymous No.1545110]

>>1544772
you misspelled small.

[Anonymous No.1545112]

>>1544835
y'all know he's a jew right?

[Anonymous No.1545119]

>>1545112
wrong board, lad

[Anonymous No.1545435]

>Pick up old 2 in one radio with an analog tv and 3 bands to listen off of
>Nothing but static
>Realize I haven't used an analog radio in years
>Instantly start greying and beard shoots to my feet
God
What can I do with this thing anyway now? Givin it a thingk and I might glue it to my dash and try to get the garmin to feed to the screen or some shit
The screens only like 2.5 inch so it's a downgrade even if I'm watching something on my phone

[Anonymous No.1545436]

>>1540489
>>1541304
Fuck off slider
Go back to doing nothing but wasting tax payer money you faggot.
>Radio conversation doesn't belong in the radio thread
Absolutely disgusting.

[Anonymous No.1545763]

>local /o/ car meet guys use radios
>cop pic related
>100x easier to program than the internet made it out to be

>live in huge city
>been scanning for something interesting all night
>literally just 50 channels of trains producing undulating sounds and the weather

Is there anything interesting to receive when I'm not on the touge?

[Anonymous No.1545781]

does pic related have potential to work or am i retarded? if it wouldn't work how could i amplify the signal to have better range than 5ft?

[Anonymous No.1545821]

>>1545781
your retarded.

[Anonymous No.1545874]

>>1545763
well, what did you program in there?

[Anonymous No.1545960]

>>1545763
You need a scanner/radio that can decode trunked p-25 (digital), assuming your nearby agencies aren't encrypted. That POS won't do that.

[Anonymous No.1545961]

>>1545781
No, nothing about this will work. You are retarded.

[Anonymous No.1546106]

>>1545781
an amplifier is designed (usually) to only amplify a certain frequency range. there is two reasons you can't hear radio signals with your ears, one is they are em fields instead of pressure waves, the second is because they are too high frequency.
leads going into amplifiers will pick up radio interference and leads coming out will transmit, thats just the way of it, if audio amplifiers just so happened to pump out amplified radio signals it wouldn't get past any kind of certification.

building a radio amplifier yourself isn't such a difficult thing, i'm sure you can find plans anyway, the problem isn't building it the problem is getting your asshole reamed out by the authorities not taking pirate broadcasts lightly at all. it doesn't matter if you are transmitting over dead air, they treat it the same as if you are shouting out on top of emergency services broadcast or something.

[Anonymous No.1546113]

instead of the little antenna that came with my jumbo spot, could i use my mag mount? im so close to being able to cover my neighborhood, i cant see why this wouldnt work

[Anonymous No.1546157]

>>1546106
my reasoning was that by hooking up antenna to the amp instead of a speaker the FM signal would just get amplified and transmitted via the antenna instead of it just pushing the diaphragm of the speaker
I'm not worried about the authorities since I live in the middle of a forested area with no one else around for about a 1km
anyway thanks for explaining it to a retard like me

[Anonymous No.1546518]

I need some help studying for GROL anyone have any ideas on how to get started?
Maybe a book you could recommend?
Perhaps an enthusiast on YouTube?

[Anonymous No.1546644]

>>1517356
>ham
>my loicense
>cucked bootlickers
fuck you retards. i gonne keep sending unlicensed till the day the government is abolished and we can all live free

[Anonymous No.1546670]

>>1517356
I know nothing about ham, just adding a picture.

[Anonymous No.1546682]

>>1546644
>im too stupid to pass a basic test

[Anonymous No.1546694]

>>1545763
again

What other channels should I put in here?
Trying hit all the walkie talkie frequencies for ease of use when I'm wheeling or hunting.

Also, what's a good range for random chit chat if I'm within range of a friend with a radio?

[Anonymous No.1546705]

>>1546694
Just be aware that it's technically Illegal to use a FRS/GMRS radio that's not Part 95 compliant, although I doubt anyone would notice or care unless you were doing a keydown competition.

With UHF/VHF your range is pretty much just line of sight so what you can effectively do is heavily dependent on your elevation, up on a mountain I've been able to contact a friend who's 40 miles away, but in a city you'd have trouble going any meaningful distance, barriers like trees and residential houses aren't a problem but steel, concrete, and earth are.

[Anonymous No.1546717]

>>1546705
My main use cases are communicating with other cars while hooning on the mountain pass and talking to my dad while we're out hunting/fishing in Canaderp

The mountain pass is lightly wooded
Hunting is heavily wooded
Fishing is on the water

[Anonymous No.1547070]

>>1546670
That's a reel-to-reel tape player and a receiver/amp. Good job.

[Anonymous No.1547313]

>>1547070
Wow you really got him

[Anonymous No.1547321]

>>1547313
I got him good, fucker.

[Anonymous No.1547325]

>>1517356
GOAT battlestation

[Anonymous No.1547326]

>>1546670
>This pic I posted still making the rounds

[Anonymous No.1547341]

>>1519638

> How come drones like DJI can transmit long distances without the operator needing a license?

Sorry for zombie posting.

I build microwave transverters as a hobby. A few milliwats at 5.8 GHz can easily go a few hundred yards - if there's a clear line of sight. Add trees, bushes, or hills, and you need more power. By far, the easiest solution is to get one or both ends of the link up above the obstructions.

You can get 'more power' either by using a directional antenna (search for cantenna of looper) or using an amp on the transmitter and maybe a preamp on the receiver.

Since you have a mobile on one end, you'll be using an omni like a monopole. Put that up on a fiberglass pole on the tractor. Depending on the receiving side, you might be able to get away with a more directional antenna like a horn or a very small dish. Put that up high too.

The final thing to consider is feedline loss. If you have a 10mW transmitter and you have 20 feet of crappy coaxial cable to the antenna, you will lose a lot of power in the cable. At microwave frequencies, keep the feed line short: I put my transverters on the back of the dish. Everything is a compromise, so don't overthink it.

The Tech licence is an easy test. There may be another club near you; visit the ARRL at arrl dot org.

[Anonymous No.1547481]

any suggestions for someone whos pretty busy to learn their general?

[Anonymous No.1547526]

>>1547481
Just spend 10 - 15 a day minutes taking the practice exam when you have some free time in the day. I did this for a month and had no problem.

[Anonymous No.1547528]

>>1547526
im not a member of the arrl, been waiting for them to give out the handbook with membership.
can you suggest a source?

[Anonymous No.1547532]

>>1547528
The FCC publishes the all the questions and answers for the test. Do you have an android tablet/phone? If so I use: Ham Test Prep (by iversoft.com) from the google play store. It's free.

[Anonymous No.1547541]

>>1546682
yes, goy, it's all about how hard the test is and not about not giving a bunch of bureaucrats the "right" to determine which EM waves I can generate. because those fuckers have the monopoly on physics and the universe. I am such a good boy I'm going to lick boots to be allowed to send out my good boy waves. pls daddy government pls fuck me with this huge tax spike

[Anonymous No.1547554]

>>1547341
>5.8 GHz
Are you allowed to use this frequency outdoors?

[Anonymous No.1547569]

>>1517360
just do it
post results

[Anonymous No.1547578]

>back in college a few years ago
>thought it would be cool to get a ham radio license
>so I could talk to people
>bc I'm normally pretty shy and get a lot of anxiety socializing
>get license
>get radio
>listen for a little bit
>it's just old men using radios to talk to other old men about radios
what's the point of ham radio if the only thing people is it for is to talk about ham radio? Why are there so many old people?

[Anonymous No.1547584]

>>1536435

The objection to "exchanging signal reports" is noted. When I'm in a microwave contest , I do exactly that: swap grid/call. Seems boring, except for the hundreds of pleasurable hours I spent building my station. I'm a rover; cramming 10 microwave bands, amps, and antennas into a sedan is challenging mentally and physically.

The point is that contesting is a time when many (most?) other microwavers are on the air. I get to test my gear, my route, my skill. I set challenges for myself: Can my 2 watts on 3456 go a hundred miles? (Yes!) Two hundred? (Often...) Setting a sked, trying the Q and proving my ideas is the fun part. The signal exchange is just the receipt :-)

I would agree that doing the same thing on HF with a factory made rig would probably bore me.

[Anonymous No.1547587]

>>1547554
Yup. You can TX on 5.650 to 5.925 GHz for any license level except Novice.

[Anonymous No.1547593]

>>1547578
Do you enjoy posting this all the time? Does it make your little pee pee stiff?

[Anonymous No.1547595]

>>1547593
nigger what, this is literally my first time on this board. calm down

[Anonymous No.1547596]

>>1547541
It's more about making sure EM comms. are usable, instead of having retards jamming everything by running their 7000000MW transmitter with a dirty signal to show off their epeen.

[Anonymous No.1547597]

>>1547595
>literally my first time on this board
I doubt that.

[Anonymous No.1547599]

>>1536519

Totally legitimate critique of many answers.

That said, amateur radio is about two-way communication. That falls into several broad categories that are easy for newcomers to grasp: Ragchewing, contesting, digital. That doesn't nearly cover All The Things, but it's too easy to overwhelm a beginner. SSTV, satellites, beacons (the 2M transatlantic challenge is still very real), reverse beacons, remote operating, QRP, QRPP, microwaves, antenna modeling/building, meteor scatter, monitoring spacecraft in deep space, building very high end receivers (a la KK7B), SDR (transmit and receive - not just for panadapters!), advancing the practical art of radio construction (Experimental Methods in RF Design is an awesome book that a 'maker' type might devour), EME with small antennas/power...

I think the image of the geezers ragchewing about their cats' hernias is all too true - on HF. There's an entire universe of ham radio that doesn't involve HF appliance operators. The secret of growing that segment is to mentor new hams. I have great hope that the maker movement will inspire a new generation of... tinkerers, for lack of a better word.

If you're a new ham, or just not interested in HF ragchewing, use some of the terms in this reply, use teh Google and find a mentor near you.

vy 73 es tnx fer qso

[Anonymous No.1547601]

>>1547597

[Anonymous No.1547605]

>>1537301

Search for WA5VJB Cheap Yagi. Wood scraps, welding rod and a wee bit of copper wire for the driven element.

[Anonymous No.1547608]

>>1547601
>This proves everything!

[Anonymous No.1547613]

>>1547608
it just proves that I haven't visited this board before, idk why you're getting so pissed over me pointing out how ham radio is basically just used by old dudes to talk to other old dudes about radios. It's not like actually a social way to interact with other people, I've never heard people use ham radio to talk about things other than radios or boring old man stuff

[Anonymous No.1547628]

>>1547613
>my first day on the Internet
>for reals, see proof
>history.jpg
>reiterate stereotypical meme

[Anonymous No.1547637]

>>1547628
>>1547608
>>1547597
>>1547593
stop being a faggot

[Anonymous No.1547667]

>>1547596
what authority do those fucktards have to tell me which EM waves I can't emit? unless they show me that god gave them that power they can fuck off. if you want to play by their made up bullshit rules and thus legitimize their thuggery, that's up to you. but I for one won't compromise on my freedom just to fulfill some statist cuck's power fantasy

[Anonymous No.1547730]

>>1547532
can confirm, this is good shit

>>1547667
general welfare, commerce, etc.
now come back when you're 18. by the sound of your spoilt reeing, that's about 10-15 years

>>1547587
providing you don't interfere with radar operations, iirc

>>1547599
>appliance operators
kek, this

[Anonymous No.1547744]

>>1517356

[Anonymous No.1547747]

>>1547667
BRB setting up a jammer right next to your house

[Anonymous No.1547761]

>>1547541
its $15, you fucking retard

[Anonymous No.1547762]

>>1547578
maybe you would prefer contesting?

[Anonymous No.1547765]

>>1547667
>but I for one won't compromise on my freedom
start transmitting on some military bands, you baby badass. be a fucking man and do it
nobody is gonna tell you what to do, right big boy?

[Anonymous No.1547899]

>>1547667
>what authority
Guns. Mess up the military bands and you will have a tragic accident/suicide/disappearance. Mess up civilian bands, cause someone to die and you will take all the blame with plenty of jail time.

[Anonymous No.1547901]

>>1547765
Transmit on that 1 hz submarine band. See how they like that

[Anonymous No.1547954]

>>1547901
i dont transmit out of band even on my memefengs
no real point

[Anonymous No.1548687]

Still looking for a CB base station for EMCOMM purposes. So far the following rigs fit the bill:
Cobra 2000
Cobra 142
Realistic Navaho
Uniden Washington
President Dwight D
Royce I-640
Robyn AM-500D

I'm looking for features like built in SWR and RF Power meters, Instant Ch9/19 knob/button, and built in or external speaker. It MUST do AM & SSB. No stupid mods like clarifier unlocks and noisemakers. Must be FCC type accepted and have FCC ID. (some of the above examples may no longer be type accepted)

[Anonymous No.1548692]

>>1548687
>looking for a CB base station for EMCOMM purposes
???
If you're a doomsday prepper, a CB is a terrible choice. 10 watts will get you 50 miles on the best day and limit you to 40 frequencies. Now, I'm not saying don't have a CB but you really want a 100 watt HF + 50 MHz transceiver with the MARS modification and a G5RV antenna and an antenna tuner. That will get you a larger variety of EMCOMM freqs to use and at least CONUS communications, both TX and RX.

Invest your money in an IC-7100 and remove the 0 ohm jumper to MARS mod it. You can still into CB at that point but you would have access to a plethora more bands and means of communications.

I also suggest getting your General license and using it legally for the time being. Not hard to get.

[Anonymous No.1548700]

>>1548692
I already have a General class ham ticket and I'm not a "prepper" in the traditional sense. I'm looking for a good CB to receive distress signals when there's another hurricane or such disaster and my comms unit deploys again. I also want to stay in within the legal parameters set by the FCC so using my ham rig outside of a true emergency is a no-go. There is a net in my area that uses CB and I'd like to be able to relay those messages using my ham gear while staying kosher with the feds.

[Anonymous No.1549259]

>>1546518
Well I talked with an OES dude and he pointed me to HamStudy.org
Good shit for you neards who wanna get some licenses

[Anonymous No.1549300]

>>1541201

We really need to subvert these communists. Start designing the equivalent of 80% lowers for ham radio, make it cheap and open source.

you don't need an ffl to buy a radio, dipshit

[Anonymous No.1550016]

Anyone know have to view the power and snr meter when using the Tecsun PL365 in SSB mode?

[Anonymous No.1550082]

I'm building a hardwired loop for my radio, without a variable capacitor, such as pic related (https://radio-timetraveller.blogspot.com/2015/10/a-hardwired-loop-for-dsp-radios.html).).

My question is, how do I connect this loop to a mono jack in order to use it with my radio? Should I solder both ends of the cable I used for the loop to the jack, or what?

Thanks.

[Anonymous No.1550469]

>>1550082
One end to the antenna input, the other to ground. Ground, or perhaps "ground", in this case is most likely the - pole of the battery.

What brand is your radio?

[Anonymous No.1550487]

>>1547761
>I'm such a public school brainwashed bot I think it's about $15

[Anonymous No.1550488]

>>1547899
>might makes right
well thought out moral foundation you have, anon. luckily you boomer tards are dying out and no one cares for HAM. good.

[Anonymous No.1550489]

>>1547667
>MUH EM BELONGS TO EVERYBODY
No, it's a public resource that needs to be managed.

[Anonymous No.1550491]

>>1550489
>public resource
you get a good boy point. you did good in public school. you can repeat all those non-axioms perfectly.

[Anonymous No.1550636]

>1550487
>1550488
>1550491
>Assblasted due to being too lazy or dumb to get his ticket

[Anonymous No.1550638]

>>1550491
>no argument
Ta ta.

[Anonymous No.1551404]

Complete newfag to radio here. What are some textbooks I should read if I want to do the amateur radio exam?

[Anonymous No.1551408]

>>1551404
http://aa9pw.com/amateur-radio-exam-practice/

Practice the tests there. Tech is a breeze, General takes some time to learn.

[Anonymous No.1551409]

>>1551408
thanks dude.

[Anonymous No.1552140]

Why not digital SSTV? pic related

[Anonymous No.1553405]

>>1552140
you can use digi modes to send image files. The point of SSTV is to send images through very noisy and weak channels with it still working

[Anonymous No.1553480]

>>1547569
Results will take a lot of time, rocketry is not a fast thing. A shitty waterbottle rocket to test recovery and telemetry/Apogee detection is in the works though. Maybe I'll post in a current project thread when it's time.

[Anonymous No.1553861]

So I'm a huge faggot.

I have an RTLSDR, and a hamitup upconverter.

I'm using that 2 meter telescoping antenna. Upconverter seems to work because I was able to recieve NHK japanese language service in central america on 6105 kHz. It was scratchy as fuck but I could hear it.

I tried to tune into the WWV stations. 5MHz, 10MHz, 15MHz, 20MHz and couldn't hear shit.
I am assuming a 2 meter telescoping antenna indoors isn't going to do shit.

Also I want to see SSTV stuff. Help me I am a complete retard.

[Anonymous No.1553872]

>>1553861
Do you have access to putting a randomwire antenna outside? As long and as high as you can?

[Anonymous No.1553875]

>>1553872
nope

[Anonymous No.1553888]

>>1553861
you could try a miniwhip. its an active antenna, meaning you have to power it. im guessing youre inside since you cant get a wire outside?

[Anonymous No.1553895]

>>1553875
>>1553888
I hear good things about this mini-whip: https://www.ebay.com/itm/MiniWhip-Active-Antenna-Assembled-in-Box-HF-LF-VLF-mini-whip-sdr-RX-portable/222469570201?hash=item33cc383e99:g:YugAAOSwc-tY63MT:rk:11:pf:0

HOWEVER: You need a good grounding for it to RX well. And you still should get it as high as you can.

[Anonymous No.1554106]

>>1553895
yeah i was thinking of trying this one out
https://www.ebay.com/itm/MiniWhip-VLF-LF-HF-Receiving-antenna-DIY-KIT-with-bias-board/262376519087?_trkparms=aid%3D555018%26algo%3DPL.SIM%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D55991%26meid%3Dc60ce70d83d04b6abab07edeb4ffcb8b%26pid%3D100008%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D5%26mehot%3Dag%26sd%3D222469570201%26itm%3D262376519087&_trksid=p2047675.c100008.m2219
i have an 8 ft rod in the ground where my endfed comes back into the house, im wondering if i can ground it on that? i do TX on the endfed sometimes

[Anonymous No.1554446]

>>1554106
>>1553895
I have one of those.
for it's size it works well, but it still did not work better than my longwire.

[Anonymous No.1555424]

>>1548687
Why do you want SSB? Do you live somewhere where SSB use is actually common or something? I've tried doing band surveys with my RTL-SDR and the only time I may see some activity is starting after 4:30, and even then what little activity there is is very rarely somewhere other than channel 38 LSB. I live at the intersection of two major highways by the way so there a ton of truckers with CB radios driving near where I live every day yet none of them seem to be using SSB while driving around. I would put having the ability to scan far above SSB.

[Anonymous No.1555509]

>>1555424
Burger detected. Its mostly SSB on 27mhz in my country.

[Anonymous No.1555583]

>>1555424
I mostly want it because of how efficient it is and because I can legally do 12 watts. I already have a separate scanner. tbqh cb is dead in my area. I’m embarrassed to admit that I picked up a Royce I-640 without reading the sellers description thoroughly only to find out its an AM only 23 channel base. I’ll make do for the time being but I’m still looking for a good 40 channel base with built in power supply (12/120v), meters (rf power and swr), built in speaker, and a good crystal filter (I.e. a big 7.8MHz one)

[Anonymous No.1555640]

I've seen some rumors of plans for a web linked SDR receiver mounted on a satellite elsewhere, but have never been able to ask for details due to not having an account. Is there any actual news or anything about this or are people just making shit up?

[Anonymous No.1555919]

>>1540481
The hobby is called homebrewing. I recommend this book if you would like to get started:
http://www.qrparci.org/wa0itp/csts_book.pdf

There is so much open source amateur radio knowledge out there.

It's difficult to go cheap. Hard to beat Chinese slave labour.

[Anonymous No.1556363]

>>1555640
I don't understand the question. All satellites have receivers, many use SDR receivers. linking those to the web means you also need a downlink.

Or did you mean a SDR receiver on the net that listens to satellites?

[Anonymous No.1556512]

>>1556363
>Or did you mean a SDR receiver on the net that listens to satellites?
No, I mean one mounted on a satellite rather than on the ground. Yes, I understand that would need a downlink.

I tried researching it some more the other day and my best guess is that the rumor was based on a misconception because of newer satellites using an SDR in place of a normal receiver. One of the newer technologies being tested on the AMSAT GOLF satellites is an SDR based transponder designed to lower costs, but I can see how someoone could read an article about that and think people were going to send a wideband SDR receiver to be linked to the web into space. It's probably a good thing that the rumor isn't true though.

[Anonymous No.1556717]

>>1556512
The only thing that comes to mind is this:
https://www.rtl-sdr.com/eshail2-amateur-transponder-now-active/

[Anonymous No.1558354]

Sup ham!
I'm a HF circuit, which heats a plasma through an antenna and I'm confused about this whole matching deal: It's obvious I should get Im(Z) to be equal to zero using the matching network, but what do I do with the active part of the impedance? My load is 1 Ohm of active resistance, the generator's output resistance is 50 Ohm, do I just add 49 Ohm's worth or resistors to the matching network? Won't that mean I lose 98% of my generator's power to this additional resistance?

[Anonymous No.1558460]

>>1555919
>homebrewing
>always fucking QRP CW shit

CW is not the equivalent to an AR15 lower, it's a old rusty as fuck musket.

[Anonymous No.1558535]

>>1558460
>http://www.hfsignals.com/index.php/ubitx/
>https://www.ebay.com/itm/180W-Linear-SSB-CW-Power-Amplifier-amp-Kits-For-Transceiver-Intercom-Radio-HF-/312472809186?_trksid=p2349526.m4383.l4275.c10#viTabs_0

[Anonymous No.1558540]

>>1517356
>pic related
Mental illness near its peak, poor guy.

[Anonymous No.1558542]

>>1524183
Should be absolutely ashamed for posting such a horrific link.

[Anonymous No.1558649]

I failed my tech exam after practicing for month after previously having knowledge of laws and circuitry, when I got the test all the questions were about conversion between different electrical outputs and inputs. Is there any help for someone like me who is mathematically inept?

[Anonymous No.1558651]

>>1558649
>questions were about conversion
such as?

[Anonymous No.1558658]

>>1558651
sorry, conversions was the wrong word. I should have said calculations. the simpler ones were fine, but then id get some weird one asking to calculate the wavelength produced from a radio using very little info, and on top of that calculate how high the antennae had to be. pretty sure that was one of the questions. I gave up after that test, I think I was 16 at the time. Figured it wasn't being yelled at by family to get drove to another one, not to mention I'm still shit at unapplied math (i.e. math that I can't work hands on with). I don't know, maybe I'm just retarded

[Anonymous No.1558674]

someone post schema for a booster plz, I want to pump up the jam pump it up pump it up yo pump it

[Anonymous No.1558677]

>>1558535
it would help if I included a case a build instructions
>https://amateurradiokits.in/product/universal-case-blue-white-for-ubitx/
https://youtu.be/ZJRak2571Sk

[Anonymous No.1558764]

Would you guys know if a Linksys EFAH5W supports MESH/Hamnet? The 5 makes me think its too new for Linux.

[Anonymous No.1558765]

>>1517356
HAMfags are bootickers. fuck them all. I'm glad their shitty hobby is dying out.

[Anonymous No.1558776]

>>1558764
i didnt know there was a cutoff
>>1558765
im too stupid to pass a test a simple test, the post

[Anonymous No.1558779]

>>1558765
More people got their Tech and General in 2018 than anytime in history in the US. Newer guys love the digital modes.

t. VEC

[Anonymous No.1558781]

>>1558460
>CW is equivalent to a rusty old musket
>the mode that's best for punching through jamming in a cost effective manner
>the mode that has only been passed by the less than one year old JS8CALL when it comes to distance you can cover for how much power you put into your signal while allowing more than scripted signal reports, and JS8CALL was only able to manage that at the cost of requiring an internet connection/GPS signal/other highly accurate time source to function
>the mode that's still the number one choice for people who are operating off the grid and don't have the luxury of a generator or lots of heavy batteries
>the mode that was still used by the military until rather recently when it was replaced by digital modes that aren't suitable for communicating with people in a random/unorganized manner
I guess you could always look into the bitx or ubitx if you really want HF and SSB for cheap. There's also the upcoming QRP Labs QSX which should shake up the market some considring it's going to be a 10 watt all band all mode HF transceiver kit with a good number of other features for ~$150 with a case included.

[Anonymous No.1558794]

>>1558779
how much of that includes digital modes other than the buyfagging patented VHF shite

[Anonymous No.1558801]

>>1558779
they get this shit so they can run their wifi at 2 watts or their POV video link at 800mw. it has nothing to do with fagging around in your basement and exchanging faggy IDs with some aids infested chink from the opposite of the world.

[Anonymous No.1558807]

>>1558776
yeah, it's listed here:
>http://www.broadband-hamnet.org/which-hardware-to-use.html
apparently hamnet software requires larger amounts of RAM than on later routers and they also require Linux while newer routers went to a new OS.

[Anonymous No.1558817]

>>1558801
>attempting to troll /hrg/
wanna know how i know youre a lonely little fella?
pretty pathetic
you could just acknowledge its over your head and move on, but youre too retarded for even that.
how do you even remember to breath?

[Anonymous No.1558860]

>>1558764
Turns out I'm retarded and the EFAH5W is a Ethernet hub not a router. I do have a Qwest 2700HG-D router though.

[Anonymous No.1559157]

So I was learning morse code using the Koch Method, and I got reflexes on some characters correctly.
However when adding some new letters, I find that sometimes I would write the wrong character before the sound ended. For example, for • • _ • F, I would write • • _ U before the final •. Unless I control myself to not write U immediately, I would got the F wrong every single time.
Am I doing it wrong or should I just go for more practices?

[Anonymous No.1559282]

>>1558460
Did you even read the title....? "Crystal sets to _sideband_. Chapter 15.

[Anonymous No.1560825]

I've always wanted to try and transmit ascii characters as audio over a walkie talkie. I wrote a simple program that takes text and outputs audible beeps in binary representing the characters

What are the legalities involved with doing this?
Can I test this on a regular family walkie talkie without a license?
Is there a proper bandwidth that I can lease for testing these sort of things?

Basically my setup will be like this
Audio in to mic port of walkie talkie
Then text screen in another room has a mic hooked to the speaker and depending on the output tone, It determines if it's a 0 or 1 and every 8 bits it converts to ascii and appends the character to the screen

I really want to try this but I don't want angry FCC agents pulling up or old hammies tracking me down for not following the rules

[Anonymous No.1560850]

What is this and what is it supposed to be used for?
>Commander Model 137 fm scanner
Should I be able to listen to truck drivers or some other folks chatting or not quite so?

I found these but I’m too stupid to get any grasp out of this
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Sdh0FvglxsQ
http://www.rigpix.com/commander/commander_137.htm
https://rigreference.com/rigs/2539-commander-137

[Anonymous No.1560895]

>>1560850
You're probably going to want to leave it alone. It's crystal controlled, meaning you need a separate crystal to set each frequency you want to scan, and crystals are expensive. Even setting just a few channels will quickly set you back more than a Baofeng in crystals alone.

[Anonymous No.1560897]

>>1560895
I’m too stupid to tell whether you’re being serious

[Anonymous No.1560909]

>>1560897
I'm completely serious. They use crystals that resonate at a specific frequency to tune the receiver to the frequency you want to listen on. Crystals generally cost a few bucks each today. Rigpix notes XTAL in the descriptions for all receivers, transmitters, and transceivers that need crystals rather than having a modern variable frequency oscillator (VFO).

[Anonymous No.1560910]

>>1560897
>>1560909
Here's a wikipedia article about the crystals if you're still not sure:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_oscillator

[Anonymous No.1560912]

>>1560909
Ah ok. So there’s absolutely no chance that I could pick up anything with this thing as it is?

[Anonymous No.1560917]

>>1560912
Unless you get lucky and whatever frequencies it may have crystals in it for are still in use, no.

[Anonymous No.1560923]

>>1560917
Where can I get a simple manual, like, in what positions should I put these 10 switches in row? These are channels or what? What’s the point of the being able being On several at at a time?

[Anonymous No.1560925]

>>1560923
*them being able

[Anonymous No.1560939]

>>1560923
Not sure where you'd find a manual, but those switches are going to be for selecting which channels to scan and which to skip. They seem to have 3 positions that they can move to rather than just on/off judging by the picture on Rigpix so they no doubt give you the ability to select between two difference channels to scan. I'm not sure how the "local" knob works.

[Anonymous No.1560953]

>>1560939
What actually is a “channel” in such scanners and CB radios? I’ve always thought of it as a single frequency much like a preset on a consumer tuner. Does “channel” here mean a range?

Those switches do have two positions.

[Anonymous No.1560954]

And any amount of them can be On or Off at a time.

[Anonymous No.1561005]

>>1560825
Not familiar with US rules, but generally the amateur band permits coded transmission. If you're that scared you can use beeps based on morse, and add the extra characters yourself.

[Anonymous No.1561006]

>>1559157
Anyone?

[Anonymous No.1561022]

>>1561005
it probably falls under Part 97.305(a)(4)
>An amateur station transmitting a RTTY or data emission using a digital code specified in this paragraph (Baudot, AMTOR, ASCII) may use any technique whose technical characteristics have been documented publicly, such as CLOVER, G-TOR, or PacTOR, for the purpose of facilitating communications.

[Anonymous No.1561025]

>>1560825
>>1561005
"family walkie talkies" are not amateur radio service transmitters, see Part 95 for relevant restrictions, especially Subpart B regarding the FRS in particular
it looks like you're in the clear as long as you publicly disclose your coding method somewhere, but you should try reading the regs and seeing how they apply to your situation
disclaimer: not a communications law expert but I drove by a Holiday Inn once

[Anonymous No.1561046]

>>1561025
>>1561005
I'm definitely going to read up on the laws venire doing it. I'll also be sure to post publically how I'm sending the transmission and how to decode, I'll link in a future /ham/ thread once I get everything working properly
Thanks for the help!

[Anonymous No.1561048]

>>1561046
Before doing*
> phone poster

[Anonymous No.1561385]

>>1559157

Try this: Turn the speed up. It sounds as if you're sort of counting dots and dashes. You want to get to the point where you 'hear' the entire character.... all of the stuff before the space.

Koch is a good method but it's not like actual CW. Real CW has a certain rhythm that you grow accustomed to. Try to alternate your practice sessions of random characters against actual over the air CW. One thing I had to really learn was to just let it flow. If I missed something, let it go, and pick up with the next character. That was valuable.

[Anonymous No.1561442]

>>1560825
It sounds like you'd benefit from getting licensed.

In personal opinion as long as your not being stupid, using excessive power, causing interference and annoying people then I'd be ok with .

Though I agree with >>1561025 I'm not giving legal advice.

You should do some research into AFSK, PSK and RTTY. Also if you're running Linux checkout http://www.whence.com/minimodem/

[Anonymous No.1561566]

So I have this tecsun pl-310 et receiver and I can't quite catch anything of interest with the telescopic antenna. It has a socket for an external antenna but I don't know what do I plug in it, it looks like normal audio jack but nowhere in the manual is it specifided what kind I should use if I were to make one myself. Do I use stereo or mono jack, how do I wire it?

[Anonymous No.1561598]

>>1561566
It's a mono plug. I'd assume the tip is wired to the antenna. You can also just clip a wire to your telescopic and throw it up into a tree for the same effect.

[Anonymous No.1561690]

>>1561598
Clipping wire onto the telescopic doesn't do as much, the external uses different circuit to process the signal. If the plug is mono should I use two strand wire and solder it like I would an audio cable or just use a single wire connected to both leads in the jack?

[Anonymous No.1561760]

>>1560825
Illegal in Canada and the United States. No one gives a fuck in Canada. In the states you _might_ get tracked down.

[Anonymous No.1561763]

>>1517356
hams are statist bootlickers and I'm glad their retarded """"hobby""""(bootlicking) is dying out. how does it feel when the average teenager has more communication power in his pocket than your elaborate setup you spent over the years in your cuckshed?

[Anonymous No.1561764]

>>1558817
>he thinks less complex lego for adults is hard because daddy government gave him a license to generate em waves
lol you people are retarded and stockholmed it's not funny anymore

[Anonymous No.1561766]

>>1561442
>It sounds like you'd benefit from getting licensed.
look how those clowns are trying to pull people into their dying hobby and cuck to the state. pathetic

[Anonymous No.1562107]

>>1561690
Shouldn't a radio expert, like yourself, already know the answer?

[Anonymous No.1562180]

>>1560825
Why not use one of the many existing digital modes out there? With a ham license you should not have a problem.

[Anonymous No.1562206]

>>1562180
I want to stumble around creating my own digital model. Mostly for learning purposes
I think it would be cool as a demonstration to send text from my house to my university and decode the signal showing that all that's required is a radio receiver and and a microphone. No special adapters or special radio box.
Maybe when the stream is initiated there could be a few calibration beeps to get the receiver calibrated to the speaker it's listening to then start the transmission. In theory anyone could decode the message given that they have a microphone, a radio tuned to the frequency, and a computer running the decoding software. Anyone could also transmit messages given that their transmitter supports a microphone input. I've already written half of the software, I just need to write the decoder

[Anonymous No.1562211]

>>1562206
this anon understands what ham radio is about

[Anonymous No.1562326]

>>1562206
There's already like 20 digital mode that do this.

[Anonymous No.1562359]

>>1562211
I don't know how practical it would be in an emergency but I guess you could also transmit images if I can get the transmission speed up faster (maybe transmit 16 tones for hex making my speed 4x faster or coming up with my own encoding).
>>1562326
Guess there will be 21 soon

I also wanted to create a version that uses a light source and camera/telescope combination.
My experiment would go like this:
I go up a mountain behind my house(like 3/4 mile distance) and take flashlight hooked up to a rpi or something that let's me input text and convert it to the binary output and have it control the lights power turning it on and off. The receiver would be a camera/telescope looking at the light. I would then transmit a message using that to the camera/telescope station in my house.
It works on small scale 5 feet apart but I need a telescope to test the long distance version. That's when I thought about converting to radio and now I'm here brainstorming

[Anonymous No.1562383]

>>1546670
look at the chick longing for that guys penis. I wish women looked at me like that.

[Anonymous No.1562404]

As soon as he dies all of that is going to a landfill. I think he knows that but just doesn't care because he won't be around. Typical boomer.

[Anonymous No.1562592]

>>1562326
Not him but there sure is a lot of room for improvements. As mentioned earlier NONE use channel characterisation. These modes just start sending, hoping that it will be received. Had I done that in my work back when I did DSP work I would have been shot.

>>1562359
>I also wanted to create a version that uses a light source and camera/telescope combination.
Look up RONJA.

[Anonymous No.1562678]

>>1562592
RONJA is basically what I wanted to make originally but using easy to acquire items and again making it so that anyone can build a receiver/broadcast station given that they have a light bulb and a camera.
I want to make it so that if SHTF and all you have is let's say a LED flashlight (obviously the transmit distance varies with the brightness of the light source), if you jump the on/off switch with wires connected to a relay you can send a message with the program. In the end, anyone should be able to constrict a broadcast station and receiver for under $30 ($15 receive $15 broadcast)

[Anonymous No.1562816]

>>1562678
If you want to do broadcast you have to drop lenses, those are for directed beams. instead you could use recent high powered omni directional IR LEDs. A raspberry Pi with a PiNoir camera should be able to see the IR light and decode the signal as long as bit rate is lower than the frame rate of the camera. Using visible light you can use a mobile phone camera to do the decoding. Nokia filed a patent for something like this but abandoned it later and I see others have had similar ideas.


Still, a backhaul using directed beams would be useful. You really want a quick, cheap and easy way to set up a mesh.

[Anonymous No.1562870]

>>1562404
It'll be sold off in an estate sale or the family will garage sale it.
The same thing will happen to you, unless you're dying alone.

[Anonymous No.1562988]

>>1561385
God-like advices.
>One thing I had to really learn was to just let it flow. If I missed something, let it go, and pick up with the next character.
This is the second problem, I always missed the whole string if I got one single character wrong and trying to correct. Guess I'll have to speed up and practice.

[Anonymous No.1563162]

Sup /ham/,
I've recently built a QFH antenna for receiving 137Mhz NOAA satellites. For some reason I'm getting these weird reflections like lines when the satellite is right above my antenna. Do perhaps some of you guys know why I'm getting these results?
As for my setup: QFH is made out of 3mm2 speaker wire and RG-58. It is conneced with that RG-58 (approx. 2m) to my nooelec smart nesdr. I've recorded the pass via gqrx and decoded it in wxtoimg.
Currently the antenna is on a slanted roof, but it doesn't really matter since I'm always getting these lines when the azimuth is over 70°

[Anonymous No.1563184]

>>1563162
>Currently the antenna is on a slanted roof,
Metal roof?

[Anonymous No.1563273]

>>1563184
It's a standard tiled roof, but I've been told that underneath those tiles there are lightning protection rods running along the roof. Sure enough, when I have the antenna inside under the roof, it's pretty much useless.

[Anonymous No.1563321]

>>1562107
Not an expert, not even by a mile, but I read the manual and then on some forums and it was generally information to that tune, proper external>clip on to telescopic
If you know better please explain so I can understand

[Anonymous No.1563411]

>>1563273
Long shot: reflections from the metal causes destructive interference. The trouble with the theory is that the QFH is polarised so there must somehow be a double reflection involved.

To test this hypothesis: raise your antenna a quarter wavelength. If the above is the explanation there will still be weird reflections like lines but not when the satellite is directly above.

[Anonymous No.1564019]

>>1563411
So I haven't tried raising the antenna yet, but my landlord also told me that the vapour barrier on that roof is made out of foil with an metal coating. This might be the cause for these weird reflection lines.

[Anonymous No.1564178]

>>1563162
great job man, looks good. ive been wanting to build one for a while

[Anonymous No.1565719]

>>1562870
Or it will be sold to hams.

[Anonymous No.1566589]

any advice?
>>1566585

[Anonymous No.1566610]

>>1566589
Not without attenuation and most likely dc isolation.

[Anonymous No.1567522]

Anyone know of a public available download for JS8Call? Links on the website just lead round in circles even when you do login to groups.io. Maybe I have to actually join the group?

[Anonymous No.1568084]

>>1567522
>http://js8call.com/downloads/
Looks like that’s the case.

[Anonymous No.1568231]

>>1568084
Where exactly did you click to start the download?

[Anonymous No.1568519]

>>1568231
You misunderstood me, I was says you do have to join the group to download.

[Anonymous No.1568520]

What did he mean by this?

[Anonymous No.1568536]

>>1568519
Pic related is some links on http://js8call.com/downloads/ but they all point to the same place, a group.io group. It seems you have to join the group to get access to the downloads which I'm unimpressed by.

[Anonymous No.1568820]

Interesting chip:
http://www.ti.com/product/AFE7444#
>Quad-channel RF-sampling AFE with 14-bit 9-GSPS DAC and 3-GSPS ADC without bypass mode
This might enable home made direction finding systems with pretty good precision and accuracy.

[Anonymous No.1569142]

holy shit
look at this antenna

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R71qeIq5WKs

BIG
I
G

[Anonymous No.1569167]

>>1569142
>BIG
Are you not familiar with the elephant cages? That shack in the centre is a two storey building.

[Anonymous No.1569170]

>>1569167
I stumbled across a station like this on a motorcycle trip. Pretty impressive.

[Anonymous No.1569229]

>>1569167
whats that bad boy for?

[Anonymous No.1569280]

>>1569229
German glowinthedarks

[Anonymous No.1569299]

countdown starts 10

[Anonymous No.1569346]

>>1569280
i think i have that same pic, mine is low res, had no clue that was a 2 story building in the middle..

who has plans to put up some spring antennas?

[Anonymous No.1569356]

>>1569167
Transmitting to underwater submarines. Like 1B/s

That and controlling the weather and oppressing people's souls.

[Anonymous No.1569396]

>>1568820
if you can get the datasheet, maybe
and if you can get one, maybe
this one might be a bit easier to use, even if it's no real good at UHF
http://www.ti.com/product/ADS58J64
only $600 for the chip, but given enough computing power behind it you'll be able to DF literally everything on the air

[Anonymous No.1569401]

>>1541619
they cant find where I live based on my shit talking

[Anonymous No.1569524]

>>1539853
Licensed hams can use uncertified equipment.

[Anonymous No.1569533]

>>1547541
man I wish I was a dumbass teenager again

[Anonymous No.1569535]

>>1548700
I hope you are referring to a guard unit and not a bunch of fat whackers

[Anonymous No.1569548]

>>1569535
2

[Anonymous No.1569549]

>>1569548
1

[Anonymous No.1569551]

>>1569549
and...... dead

[Anonymous No.1569755]

>>1569167
i've never seen anything like that

what is it for?
il the smaller circle an induction loop or another antenna?
what's the directionality of that config?

[Anonymous No.1569772]

>>1569551
I'm not dead yet
I think I'll go for a walk

>>1569755
direction finding station for the German BND, iirc

[Anonymous No.1569856]

Anybody ever have an issue of the AA battery pack for the Yaesu 818 smoking in spite of properly putting the batteries in?

[Anonymous No.1570002]

>>1569535
Neither, it’s a .gov agency.

[Anonymous No.1570388]

>>1569229
It is the legendary Wullenweber, the main types were FLR-9 and FRD-10, used for long range direction finding. Ranges were perhaps around 8 - 10 000 km, accuracy perhaps better than 0.1 degree.

This construction could also be used for dicretive transmissions.

>>1569170
>Pretty impressive.
Yes, a 300 m diameter is generally accepted as impressive. Supposedly the Soviets had a 1 km diameter system, theirs were called Krug.

>>1569755
There are 3 rings of antennas, each for a separate range in the HF band. The two outer were (obviosuly) vertically polarised, the inner is the highest frequency range and horizontally polarised.

Rumours are that some Wullenwebers have been reactivated.

[Anonymous No.1571665]

Page 9, soon time for new bread. We could use image in >>1569167 in OP.

>>1570388
Not all Krug systems were that huge. They did however contain a lot of odd details, pic. related.