Ham Radio
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Questions from a newbie ham
Right, so this is the situation: I still haven't obtained my license here in Brazil, but I already have a Baofeng DR-1801 HT that can connect to dmr networks. Therefore I haven't transmitted yet. But I'd like to clarify some doubts:
- When I get my license, even in C-class in Brazil, I will be allowed access to some frequencies in 40-10m bands. Should I get a low power QRP transceiver (e.g. uSDX) or go for an used rig from known brands?
- It's almost impossible to find a transceiver project with a power rating greater than 10w. What would be the difficulty of, say, copylefting the schematics of an ft-7b?
- Can I really use a wire thrown over my house (of course, with baluns and stuff) as a monopole antenna or that's just myth?
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Internet Archive: Huge collection of amateur radio equipment manuals
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/14642252
> cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/14642244 > > > cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/14642241 > > > > > cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/14642231 > > > > > > > cross-posted from: https://real.lemmy.fan/post/2770288 > > > > > > > > > They need help scanning twenty more pallets of stuff.
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Can anyone explain the difference between aprs and drm?
Simple question that for some reason is difficult to find an answer to
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Digital-only QRP transceivers
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/9321551
> I'm really intrigued by digital modes. Stuff like JS8Call seems really cool, and I want to get into it. > > I don't have any HF equipment. SSB isn't very interesting to me, so I was thinking of getting a digital-only transceiver and saving some money. I think it would be cool to take a small QRP box with a laptop or raspi, and do digital mode Pota with it. > > I've seen the QDX which looks exactly like what I want and seems to get good reviews. Any others that I should be aware of?
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Anyone who knows antennas that can explain this j pole to me?
Granted, I'm new to ham, but I haven't seen a DIY j-pole like this with an element in the middle tuned for a different band. All the diagrams I've seen show that the 1/4 wave element (the parasitic element?) is supposed to cancel out the bottom part of the 3/4 wave (driven?) element.
At first I thought the 70cm band element was just for running a second coax connection that you'd swap between, but it has no connections. Furthermore, my reading on j poles says that they're supposed to be sensitive to metallic stuff around them, so an extra element would seem to interfere.
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(Warning: Loud) What is this sound in the MW band?
Video
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!Attempt at embedding video Heard this sound at about 1200 kHz AM using an analog consumer radio in eastern Czech Republic. (Could be a superheterodyne mirror from another band, though.) What is this? I don't have an SDR or other ham equipment, this is just a mic recording.
I thought it could be useful to drive mice out of a garden shack but it was gone the next day.
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Equipment to suit my needs
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/7646743
> I'm just getting into ham (my technician exam is tomorrow night), and I'm looking for ideas on starter kit. > > For now, my interest is in making contact with a friend who lives ~10 miles away, as well as other amateurs in the county (there's a repeater ~2 miles away). This friend needs to reapply for his license, but he has a mobile 2m/70cm transceiver from his old call sign. Eventually, we'd like to get into digital communication between our houses. > > Even further down the line, I think long distance HF sounds cool, but that looks like a money pit I'm not quite ready to dig just yet. > > I don't want to set up any crazy antennas just yet, as partner and I are house hunting. This also means we could end up more like 15 miles from my friend, depending on what we find. > > I was wondering if anyone here could suggest beginner's equipment for my goals. I'm ok to spend a bit more on systems that are still useful if my interest in ham expands beyond these initial requirements.
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Learning morse code by tracing patterns
YouTube Video
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Found this to be a pretty neat visualization. I'm horrid at morse but this visual representation helps an awful lot.
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Encrypted Data Burst question
Is there a portable civilian device that allows for short to medium range (10 miles or so) that would allow for 128 or 256 bit encrypted data bursts, and if so, what level certification would one need to go about for using it legally in the US? I’m imagining a data burst to convey less than 1 MB of data with an accompanying bit total that could then be “delivery confirmed” by a return message with that bit total. Bonus points if it could play nicely with a Disco32 Discus.
I know it wouldn’t fool a foxhunt, but was curious if such a thing exists and if so, what’s the entry cost in money and time?
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Any MMDVM firmware /software that can be used for a DMR to analog simplex repeater
I can’t hit the local analog repeaters without using the higher power on my HTX242 (yeah it’s old but it’s what I got), the HT I have is DMR (and analog) but I would like to use low power DMR to make the battery last longer. I want to do something like this (see pic). Anyone done something similar?
Note I already have moded the HTX for COS output and made a control interface using a ESP32, I also have a Pi-star hotspot that I could repurpose until I can get another.
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Satellite advice
I'm going to try building a couple of pvc/measuring tape Yagis, one for 2m and one for 70cm. I have a basic understanding that the satellite (going to try ISS voice first) will be at a certain compass direction and angle above horizon. I think my main question is the beacon. I tune to the beacon signal and start hunting for the satellite, what am I listening for? Any particular Homer advice?
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Community Radio opportunity
The window is being opened for new Community Radio stations. While this is not our amateur radio, it should overlap interest-wise. Post on mastodon with link https://mastodon.radio/@[email protected]/110645699222089850
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Had a lot of Field Day fun this weekend
imgur.com Field Day at Cherry Creek State ParkDiscover the magic of the internet at Imgur, a community powered entertainment destination. Lift your spirits with funny jokes, trending memes, entertaining gifs, inspiring stories, viral videos, and so much more from users like minorsecond2718.
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/1519718
> Went out to Cherry Creek State Park (K-1213) with a buddy and played radio. I took my buddipole but couldn’t get it to tune up because I forgot to charge my VNA. Luckily I brought an EFHW that I strung up to the buddipole’s tripod. > > I only worked 10 contacts in 4 hours. 8 SSB and 2 CW, but it was fun. I forgot how awesome operating from a park is, and I want to get back into POTA! > > Rig: IC-705 > Antenna: 80-10m EFHW > Power: 9ah Bioenno battery
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A good place to get started?
Hello everyone.
I recently learned on this very community about SOTA and immediately fell in love with the concept because it combined my two favorite things: hiking and technology/radio. Problem is, I don't actuatlly have any formal knowledge or qualification, but I would very much like to start learning.
I don't know the exact laws about ham radio in my country (Romania) but I will look them up if that helps.
Thank you in advance for anything.
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What are your field day plans?
If it’s not too muddy, I plan on going out to a nearby park and operating portable on emergency power by myself or maybe with a buddy. If it is muddy, I’ll try setting up in my backyard. I’m hoping to get a lot of good CW practice in!
What is everyone else doing?
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Linux Unplugged Podcast Episode on Ham Radio
pca.st 515: Ham Sandwich - LINUX UnpluggedIs Ham Radio a natural hobby for Linux users? An old friend joins us to explain where the two overlap.
One of my favorite podcasts had an episode on ham radio, and I thought you all might find it interesting.
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Ventura County Board of Supervisors recognizes Ham Radio
https://mastodon.radio/@[email protected]/110579026160248457
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2023 Mountains 2 Beach Marathon
KN6QQW put together a great slideshow from the Net Control trailer at the 2023 Mountains 2 Beach Marathon in Ventura County earlier this year, and it's on Conejo Valley Amateur Radio Club's Youtube channel now. Take a look!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGeXIR1h8U4
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Y'all should set up hamclock in your shacks
(Yes I know the photo has my coords and grid, but at that scale I'm not concerned)
Got it up and running this weekend but didn't have the mounting hardware until this morning. Just now got it mounted and am loving it!
It's highly customizable and each of those windows you see can display quite a few different things.
Anyone have recommendations on how to hide the power & HDMI cable?
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Before SDR
These days there are lots of web-connected software defined radio receivers around the world. Back in 1995 I built a web-controlled shortwave radio web site using my Drake R8, a SoundBlaster sound card and NetBSD Unix. You can still see what it looked like with the Wayback Machine, https://web.archive.org/web/19970507174555/http://www.chilton.com/scripts/radio/R8-receiver
A few years ago I finally got around to learning enough JavaScript and Python to make an interactive HTML5 page with streaming audio. I think it turned out pretty nice. The controls mimic the functions of the R8 pretty closely with a few changes for simpler operation. Works with most web browsers (though not iOS/Safari which, for some reason, doesn’t support the HTML5 “mediaSource” type I use for decompressing the audio stream.)
Check out my HDR (hardware defined radio) at https://www.chilton.com/R8/receiver.html
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Lemmy Instance for Amateur Radio: lemmy. radio
If anyone would like to join an amateur radio lemmy instance or post to an amateur radio specific community, https://lemmy.radio has been set up.
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Is anyone chasing VP6A?
They're active from Ducie Island right now. I've only managed to pick them up on 20m so far.
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Should I jitter the points on https://www.packetradiomap.com?
This is my project and someone pointed out that it might be good to jitter the points by some set amount to help with privacy concerns some people might have. I want to know what the ham community thinks.
At least here in the US, it's very easy to look up someone's location based on their callsign already, unless they've opted for a PO box. I don't think jittering would affect the usefulness of the site in any major way as long as one can ascertain the general location of a node.
What does the community think? If so, how far out should the jittering me done?
https://www.packetradiomap.com
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Any SOTA enjoyers?
SOTA was the biggest reason I got into amateur radio. Love mixing radio/tech with getting out in the fresh air.
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Listening to the ISS on the Cheap
hackaday.com Listening To The ISS On The CheapLike any hobby, amateur radio has no upper bounds on what you can spend getting geared up. Shacks worth tens of thousands of dollars are easy to come by, and we’ll venture a guess that there …
So what do you need to talk to a $100 billion space station? As it turns out, about $60 worth of stuff will do.
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Choosing between a full-time APRS or packet station?
I love playing with packet, and I love playing with APRS. So how do I decide?
There’s quite a bit of both packet and APRS activity in the area. I don’t want to put up another antenna at the moment because funds won’t allow, otherwise I’d get another cheap 2m rig for APRS.
On packet, I occasionally check in with other hams and send messages. I mostly keep it running because my webmap at packetradiomap.com uses my radio to map locally received stations. I could modify the webmap to not use my radio though.
I feel running an APRS station is more “useful” though, as my area isn’t covered very well by iGates or digipeaters.
So if you had to choose, would you go full time APRS or packet?
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Post photos of your shack!
I'm just curious what everyone's operating positions look like. If you feel comfortable, share a photo or two.
Here's mine. I'm really wanting some sort of shelving to sit the monitor's on to help tidy things up a bit. I'm not too handy though, so it'll be an adventure. The autotuner controller drives me crazy because it won't sit flat due to the heavy coax coming into the back.
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Is anyone here?
Looks like the last post is a year old. Are there any hams/amateur radio operators here on lemmy? If so, what projects (if any) are you working on? I'm building a 5 element yagi for 2m.
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Practice for ham radio exam
www.f-droid.org HAMtrainer | F-Droid - Free and Open Source Android App RepositoryStudy for the American HAM radio license exams
Quiz yourself on the official questions of the American ham radio license exams, track your progress, focus on challenging questions, and take randomly generated practice exams. The most up to date questions provided, outdated questions also available. Fork of Funktrainer by D.Meyer.
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Sunspot Outbursts Likely To Trigger Radio Blackouts and Auroras in Coming Days
www.space.com Sunspot outbursts likely to trigger more radio blackouts and auroras in coming daysThe "magnetically complex" sunspot 2975 continues its outbursts.
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Tilde.fun Wiki page about starting with Ham Radio
I'd love to add more resources; the German version is fleshed out a bit more. Feel free to link resources for starting here and I'll add them :)