Thread 2917766

"CQ DX 23 cm CQ DX 23 cm this is W0JT stroke mobile" Edition

Previous thread: >>2894908

>New to /ham/? Read this shit!
http://www.arrl.org/what-is-ham-radio
https://www.fcc.gov/wireless/bureau-divisions/mobility-division/amateur-radio-service
>Your search engine of choice works well too!

>The FAQ is now back:
>https://wiki.cybsec.io/index.php/HamFAQ
>OP, the cybsec domain is gone.
>NEW FAQ is updated to preview 15
https://files.catbox.moe/aftx43.htm

>The wiki is down but is archived: https://archive.is/PjR5s
>Idiot's Guide to Coax Cable
https://www.pcs-electronics.com/guide_coax.php
>Looking for frequencies to monitor near you?
http://www.radioreference.com
>Basic Rx loop fundamentals
https://www.w8ji.com/magnetic_receiving_loops.htm
>DIY SWL Mag. Loop
http://www.kr1st.com/swlloop.htm
>Small Tx Loop
http://webclass.org/k5ijb/antennas/Small-magnetic-loops.htm
>In Depth Loop articles
http://www.kk5jy.net/magloop/
>Homebrew RF Circuits
https://www.qsl.net/va3iul/Homebrew_RF_Circuit_Design_Ideas/Homebrew_RF_Circuit_Design_Ideas.htm
>NEW Library
https://mega.nz/file/UCgEGAjb#rwNcnMAQCUUbSp8supsFvn9QEHCWUW86eLcZa16ZG4Y

>Online Practice Tests:
http://aa9pw.com/
https://hamstudy.org/
https://hamexam.org/
> Real-Time Propagation Data
http://prop.kc2g.com/
>Space Weather
https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/communities/radio-communications
>WSJT-X 2.1 User Guide
https://physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/k1jt/wsjtx-doc/wsjtx-main-2.1.2.html
>Homosexual (ft8) guide
https://www.g4ifb.com/FT8_Hinson_tips_for_HF_DXers.pdf
>APRS
http://www.aprs.org/
>Weather Fax resources
https://www.weather.gov/media/marine/rfax.pdf
https://weatherfax.com/stations/
>point to point predictions, its free and will give you an idea of how much power/ what frequencies to use to reliably talk to your friend
https://www.voacap.com/hf/
>how do I into Morse code in a good way?
https://pastebin.com/HByjfN4F (embed)

>Shortwave radio schedule
https://shortwave.live/

HAM you say?

>>2917797
finally someone did it

Why are you giving in to the antenna jews just to DX?

>>2917766 (OP)
Thanks for starting a new thread.

I wonder how that handles at speed down a highway when zipping over to a new grid square?

What's a good bugout radio kit? I'm checking my current grab and go pack, and I'd basically be totally reliant on cell towers right now. Is there something cheap to the point of being disposable, programmable so I can plug in "FRS-1" and similar channel designations (can be done through a computer, doesn't have to be through the radio itself), simple to use if I don't plan to involve myself with it as a hobby, and that takes relatively universal accessories like microphones or antennae? Planning on getting about 6 for myself, family, and a couple of close friends. Would like to stay below $200 usd with reasonably ok antennae, at least 2 batteries per device, and a way to talk without holding it in my hand or leaving it mounted on a backpack

>>2917877

>Checkd

I think some sort of Jailbroken Quansheng.

They can receive A shit ton of Frequencies and transmit on them too( Micro Mega Mini Weenie Watts)

They are Deece but not with the Stock firmware

>>2917852
>dude just put your antenna 40+ feet in the air
That easy, huh?

>>2917945
Man I'm just worried about weather knocking out infrastructure, I'd want to stay in my home to defend it/deter looters if there was only civil unrest. But next time there's a tornado I want to at least be able to communicate
>>2917890
I'll google around, thanks

Ham radio operators should rot in jail for starting all the fires they do.

>>2917877
qansheng uv-K5 with the egzumer firmware, you can receive HF too, there are accessories to suit your needs and they are cheap (and flimsy) as fuck
>I don't plan to involve myself with it as a hobby
oh yeah that's what I said too years ago and now there's a small mountain of stuff

The AM tower in my town is for sale.

https://ayoncodner.com/property/development-site-for-sale/
>400k
dude's smoking crack
>The tower has current long-term tenants with secure leases.
And I wonder why then they want to sell it? Is it because it hasn't been maintained and needs a shit ton of work perhaps?

If it was 100k I'd buy it desu.

>>2918103
So he received a letter or a visit from the structures guys who said to take it down because it's rusted as fuck and it costs 100k to do that and 300k to make a new tower and nobody wants to pay ?

Is this legit site or fake ? https://www.baofengradio.co.uk/

Would you recommend quansheng uv-k5 to occasional hunter and hiker ?

Anything else i need to order with it ?

>>2918126
>Anything else i need to order with it ?
a real diamond antenna (it costs as much as the uv-k5)

>>2917905
Kek at the soaked adult depends so he can just piss his pants instead of getting up to use the restroom

>>2918103
1ac of R10 land between a neighborhood and a department store right next to I-78. Tear it down, build eight town houses, sell each house for $400k. The cost to demolish everything in your pic is no more than $10k. Mexicans and junkies will take that antenna down for free.

>>2918137
>Mexicans and junkies will take that antenna down for free.
Hey I would too

>>2918137
Department store is an indian department store and out of business. the sign is still up, with a half torn flag of "Harris for president" and it's close enough to 78 that you get all the noise. Graveyard next door prevents zoning high-density, you'll get one house tops and directly behind you is alpine-metal so you can listen to the trucks and band saws all day.

>So he received a letter or a visit from the structures guys who said to take it down because it's rusted as fuck
More than likely. I can go take more pictures if you're interested, it's got a big dish out back that isn't bad but the shack with all the gear in it must be 100 years old and the yagi on the roof is only held up by a piece of paracord.

Did any of you complete this yet?

>>2918103
>The tower has current long-term tenants with secure leases.
The hell? Are they living in that little crap shack there or what?

>>2918326
It's currently broadcasting an AM hip-hop station.

>>2918103
>AM tower
I have doubts. The tower base is not insulated and the apparent lack of ground plane. Only a pair of circularly polarized V-dipoles at the top for commercial FM radio. I don't see any other antennas except for that tilted yagi. And the two wooden poles make this look like a transmitter site in decline.

Can you make an inquiry to the FCC or the county about inspections done?

>If it was 100k I'd buy it desu.
Make e'm an offer. Worst they can say is No. :-)

I'm really curious to know what's inside the boarded up shack. Maybe some old broadcast gear or old tubes.

>>2918103
The only thing of value is walking into a pre-permitted antenna site.
You could sell space on it to cell phone providers, and/or repeaters.

>>2918525
Cell providers would skip. There's an old mill in the center of this side of town, on top of a hill, where they already have all their towers bolted to the old smokestack. It's less than a quarter mile as the crow flies.
>>2918509
>I have doubts
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WEST_(AM)
This is the AM station.

I can't find the FCC filing for the tower though.

>>2918509
>I'm really curious to know what's inside the boarded up shack.
All the feed lines from the antenna run into it, so I'm assuming all the electrical switching and transmission gear. It's at least 100 years old, though I'm not sure the tower is that old.

>>2918655
>I can't find the FCC filing for the tower though.
Nevermind, found it.
https://enterpriseefiling.fcc.gov/dataentry/public/tv/publicFacilityDetails.html?facilityId=36996

>>2918509
Might be small insulators 1kw isn't that much

>>2918655
Wiki must be wrong. It lists the transmitter location as St. John Street but the map shows Line Street.

>>2918676
I think you might be right. Even so, there should be a ground system and the tower placement on that lot isn't optimal for it. I worked at a 1 kw AM station years ago, a single guyed tower 41 m high. Even though it had reasonable ground conductivity due to the close proximity of the water table, it was surrounded by a field of buried copper lines in a mesh pattern. With the price of copper these days i'd hate to price out what that would cost.

Does anyone here use meshtastic? Im receiving and sending node info and actual messages from my home to over 40km away.
people are not very talkative but you recognize one or two people.

Completely new this this type of stuff, opening this thread for the first time today, what do you guys talk about on the radio? and what are you listening for? how does one get into this? I am so curious right now

If you want to get started, try listening on kiwi sdr.
Haven’t been talking on my hf in a while, but you’ll probably hear about setups, tips, pretty much anything that isn’t politics, religion, or sex. I have mine tuned to WWV, and left on so that my caps don’t dry out. (A famous time station on 2.5,5,10, 15, and 20MHZ.) Listening to it helps me determine propagation if I don’t have access to a device with hamsql.net (allows me to see what the sun’s doing). Bonus: if you don’t think you have any am stations around, have a proper shortwave set up. I know I was shocked when i tuned to am broadcast on mine. I have more am stations saved on my hf memories than anything else lmao.

73 from VE land

>>2918957
I went into it after buhing an oscilloscope : the lady lost her husband and with the oscilloscope there was a bunch of radio stuff and I bought all, I started listening and get the license years after.

>>2918949
I might try it to contribute to the local network, a ham friend can help me set it up, I like the idea of being able to communicate without phones, internet and even electricity network as you can run it on a small battery

>>2918957
>talk
I very rarely do, and it's just for making contacts during very specific contests like Field Day and Winter Field Day.

>listen
Boomers and their latest colonoscopy and prostate problems on 80m. I don't even listen to local repeaters anymore since it's always the same two jackasses jerking each other off and one boomer who think every one's audio has to be 100% perfect or else he has a major meltdown and heart attack. He's literally:

>YOUR AUDIO IS .001% LOW! UP YOUR MIC GAIN! NO NO, NOW IT'S TOO HIGH! HOW MUCH DID YOU TURN IT UP? LIKE 100 NOTCHES!? OMG HOW THE HELL DID YOU EVER GET YOUR LICENSE??!!!

>get into this
More curiosity, so googled stuff, researched about the capabilities, looked into how to get licensed, went the easy route of memorizing the questions and answers, took the test, got all 35 questions right on Tech and Gen, only missed 4 on Extra.

>This is W4CUM for the emergency net, we need supplies STAT. The needed supplies ar-
>CQ CONTEST CQ CONTEST

>>2918163
1ac/8 isn’t high density: 43,560sf per acre, subtract 10% for common area like an alley way = 39,204sf sellable at a cost of $250k for building a road and site prep.

Now 39,204 / 8 = 4,900 sf per lot. If the impermeable area cannot exceed 35% of the lot that means you can have 1,715 SF impermeable. If everything is as run down as you say it is, you’d get a variance for each lot no problem but probably don’t even need one as 4,900sf per lot is plenty. Subtract some area for driveways and patio and walkway you’d probably have more than 1000 square feet of footprint per lot, so three stories with a height restriction of 36 feet = 3000 square feet per residence plus finished basement you could do another 600sf. 3600sf is a mansion easily worth $400k. That acre, even with the run down stores and improvements, is a good buy at $400k. A developer can net $500k easily. I’m a commercial appraiser so I see this shit happen every day.

>>2919174
I believe you, but I think 500k is insane still. Housing here is nuts. I spent 75K on my single family home in like 2017, in 2025 these same houses are selling for 220k and they're under 700 square feet.

Here's some close ups of the tower for those interested.

>>2919214
Dish isn't plugged into anything, I'm half tempted to call the agent and ask if they'd sell it- I have space for it.

>>2919211
If it has long term leases in place you divide the annual income by the cap rate (like 5-7%) to get the income value of the property. We can work backwards. $400,000 x .05 =$20,000. $400,000 x .07 = $28,000. So the lease better be worth $20k to $28k per year. Does that make sense for an AM radio station? Would they make more than $20k per year? Must be some kind of money laundering shit.

>>2919216
What’s the property tax on this shit? You should just buy the whole property anon, offer $360k. If it has a long term lease in place it probably pays for itself.

>>2919215
>>2919214
wow it looks old as fuck, maybe it's as old as the station
>>2919216
would be funny for EME and radioastronomy

>>2919007
>a ham friend can help me set it up
Its dead simple even somebody who never fucked around with radios can do it. All you do is put meshtastic on a board(can be done in the browser) and you connect your phone to it. Simple as.

But don't just contribute but also use it. Im a network of around 200-400 nodes how i understand it and while only around 100 of them are addressable with the default settings its still too quiet. My node received over 10k packets of data but like 20 of those were actual messages. Also i just got a message from 70km away. And i also get some international contacts too.

For a couple weeks now I've been using a Datong FL3 active filter I bought from a silent key sale. Its unreal how much of a difference it makes. I was expecting a slight improvement on CW since I don't have a narrow crystal filter, but it's such a significant difference it feels like I have a new radio. Combined with my radios internal DSP, I'm picking out signals I would never hear otherwise. Turn it on and everything goes dead quiet except for the CW sidetone. The filters are 12 pole that come out to something like 70db with very sharp skirts. I'm surprised filtering on the AF side is so effective.... I've mostly just focused on the IF filter chain before this.
The analog filtering sounds warmer and less fatiguing than most DSP gear I've heard, especially with CW sidetones, its almost musical. But I suppose there really isn't a market for AF filtering like this unless you're running an older rig and want to avoid the cost of crystal filters.
I was going to replace the caps considering they're approaching 50 years old. But they all looked fine and its working so well I'm just going to put the new caps on the back burner.

>>2919214
>>2919215
>insulators
Well that confirms it.Tower is definitely insulated from ground.

>>2919211
Wow gotta love that antenna mounting job. :-) I didn't see the one below it nor the 3 element one bolted to the wooden pole earlier.

>>2919216
My experience says you could probably get that for nothing. Just be cautious if it's a fibreglass dish. Over the decades they tend to lose their shape causing a degradation in focusing the signal into the feed.

Thanks for the pix btw.

>>2919437
Nice write-up and thanks for getting back on this. I considered one of these years ago. I like the simplicity of the unit and how the bandwidth is continuously variable.

>>2919221
>If it has a long term lease in place it probably pays for itself.
If it's paying for itself then why are they selling it? Oh it's probably because the AM station is barely breaking even and it needs 100k of repairs on this 100 year old tower lol.
>>2919221
>What’s the property tax on this shit
City of Easton taxes aren't too bad, but high compared to more rural surrounding areas. 24.95 mills
>>2919514
> I didn't see the one below it nor the 3 element one bolted to the wooden pole earlier.
It's not bolted to the wooden pole, it's fallen off the roof and onto the sumac trees which kept it in the air. It's hard to see, but there's a rope hanging over the roof from the front that is holding it partially up on the roof itself.

>>2917877
> Grab and go pack

> basically be totally reliant on cell towers

Are you sure you're talking about ham radio?

>>2917992
Says the woman that has never been on the air.....

>>2918223
No, real hams can work this out in their heads or on a sheet of paper.

Is a 4 watt cb radio with an antenna enough to cause interference to my neighbor's speakers? My neighbor's speakers are VERY close to my room.

>>2920019
Probably not. But maybe. Its possible the speaker wire might act as an antenna if its long enough. Hook up a KW linear amp, they'll probably hear you.
I can turn my neighbors touch lights on and off with my HF radio. When I'm sending CW, I can look at their windows and visually see my code by the flashing of their lamps.

local ham club is going from ARRL VEC to GLAAC VEC, might actually be remote testing in the future

>>2920429
>remote testing
That's what I did in 2021 with the Aurora Amateur Radio Group. Did all three of my tickets through them. Nice people. If there is technical issue, they'll help through it and even hold up you taking the test until it's either solved or do it another time.

>>2919994
Eh, don't feed the trolls. Juvenile obesity is bad enough as it is. Just notch them out and voila! ...they're gone. It's like they're talking into a jar. :-)

>>2917797
>headphones on backwards
>FL boomer

Does anyone have suggestions for a satellite setup?
I have the gear (Arrow antenna and dual FM radio) to get started, I'm stumbling on setting it up, or perhaps the best location.
My backyard is covered in trees. My front yard has power lines.
There's a church up the street with a wide open lot, so that's where my mind is wandering, but it seems like a pain to have 10 minutes of driving/setup for a potential 10 minute window.

>>2921550
25 years ago that woman was calling on CB channel 19 from her boyfriends GMC panel van, advertising the bootleg porno dvds she's selling in the empty lot next to the truck stop. 3 for $25.

>>2921550
>when a ten minute drive to make a neat satellite QSO is considered a pain
The thrill of the hobby is clearly gone. You need to try something new. :^)

But seriously, a wide open sky is the best and if that church has it and is the closest, i'd use it. It sounds like your only option is to be portable/mobile. To me, hand aiming while juggling a radio and mic and trying to adjust for doppler seems quite the chore. It'd still be fun but if I was getting serious about it I'd eventually get better beams on a tripod with a tracker and probably an LNA. I'd like to try it as I have a radio that automatically tracks both the up & down frequencies with doppler shift. My last sat ops attempt was trying to contact the packet BBS on MIR with a discone and an Icom IC-W2A dualband HT running 1.5 watts. That was a real struggle but I was heard.

>>2921709
>The thrill of the hobby is clearly gone. You need to try something new. :^)
I agree, and that's where I thought the joy of working the birds would come in. Coming from the HF side where I can just go to the basement, traveling and fighting the elements at one narrow window, and planning your morning/afternoon around that seems like a drag.
I guess my mind is/was focused on setting up a base satellite station (which can't work given the lot and impracticality given we're looking to move) or a mobile friendly station - hop in the truck and go down the street at a moment's notice

>>2921550
>My backyard is covered in trees.
Build a comfy tree house and place your 4 m parabola on top of that. Problem solved.

>>2921775
Yeah I feel your pain. For years i've wanted to experiment in the LF bands but don't have the real estate to do it. And the noise levels from cheap electronics nowadays is amazingly high. I used to drive 100 km at night no matter the weather to get to an area where there is absolutely nothing around, not even powerlines or cellphones, just so I could listen to ELF/VLF unimpeded.

A hams gotta do what a hams gotta do, eh.

>>2918103
>The tower has current long-term tenants with secure leases.
Who the heck leases an AM tower for any amount of money in 2025 and beyond? Up here in Massachusetts the only stuff on AM is either religious broadcasts or Spanish lagnuage broadcasts. This doesn't seem real. Regardless it's cool property.

>>2922409
There might be a link for high frequency traders. They are known to pay a LOT of money for their links.

>>2918957
I'm new as well, tomorrow I'm going to be hooking up an old CB radio in my car, mostly so I can yell at people over the PA speaker I'm going to put under the hood, and also a gmrs radio that is just for communicating with the walkie talkies my friends have when we all visit the dragon every year.
Also because I think my old Panther looks a lot cooler with two extra antennas on the trunk.

>>2918103
that appears to be an old adams and walter tower
really only an investment property where you would hope the current lease would walk away so it could be developed
otherwise not much you can do with it other than be responsible for it

>>2922549
What's it like never maturing past 16 years old? Does everything important in adult life feel like two kids in a trench coat buying a pack of cigarettes? Like you're getting away with something, or is it purely for attention because your parents were absent?

>>2922673
>What's it like never maturing past 16 years old?
>>2922673
No OP, but its pretty great. I'm not joking, either. Have fun being grumpy and boring.

>>2922673
>Does everything important in adult life feel like two kids in a trench coat buying a pack of cigarettes?
Kinda, yeah. I hope I never get used to real life. It sucks. Too many people think maturity is just never having fun anymore.

>>2922742
>>2922753
>virgins detected

>>2922854
I was removed from my mother surgically and that gives me the power of having never laid any part of my body on a vagina throughout my entire 27 years of life. You could never possibly comprehend my virginity.

>>2922875
C-section baby here as well.

I have a bit of a problem with ham in my area
>I never heard any hams on VHF (AM&FM)
>a lot of QRM
>only readable stations are pirates with poor test in music, and a chink propaganda, and commercial FM ofc
<what do?

>inb4 QTH?
KM71

>>2923011
Not a lot of VHF relays but it's a small country :
https://www.iarc.org/iarc-repeaters-network/

maybe there are local QSO, especially during the morning and maybe evening on simplex frequencies for 2m

band plan for 4X :
https://www.iarc.org/%d7%aa%d7%93%d7%a8%d7%99-%d7%97%d7%95%d7%91%d7%91%d7%99%d7%9d/

>>2922875
>>2922894
gay

>>2923051
So gay I talk about my latest prostate exam on 80m.

>>2923050
ill try tuning daily on the mornings
the R1 relay just relays some FM station from my experience, might be the same station as the MW relay

you a 4X/4Z anon?
other than that, thanks anon

>>2923174
>you a 4X/4Z anon?
Nope I am in yurop, but I am used to the terminology to search for VHF UHF relays in google kek

Other than that you can look for simplex frequencies in FM, here it's 145.525 that is used regularly, maybe the hams around you are using something like that (in the lower part of the band, it will be USB)

Didn't realize until late last night while driving around that my CB only worked if I wiggled the microphone wire a certain way, so not only did I try to re-solder it today and fail, deciding to just order another one on Amazon for $15 instead, but judging by the way the radio is behaving I'm pretty sure I was driving around for hours last night broadcasting on Channel 19 because the CB thought I was holding the button that entire time.
Whoops!
Because the CB goes quiet when broadcasting, and it would go quiet unless I was holding the wire a certain way, so...

>>2918957
http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/

>>2923167
How was it?

Going for my general license in New Zealand soon (it's the most basic kind of license here) , any recommendations for call-sign selection? Starting with ZL2.

Gonna try using my new Unihertz Atom XL as my hand-held UHF radio. Once it's no longer bricked, that is.

>>2924020
The prostate exam or the talk about it on 80m?

>exam
The prostate exam went. The doctors fingers were too big though.

>80m
The guys were impressed. The other guys got so jealous they started sperging out about how their prostate exams were better than mine.

For a more wholesome discussion over the air: any news from the omelette dude?

>>2924065
I'm a new fag ham. Can someone recommend me a good electronics book (analog based no arduino shit) that will help me make my own 20m regenerative receiver.

>>2924071
For analogue you are in luck, it is part of the library in OP msg. The book is "Crystal Sets to Sidebands".

>>2924104

Thanks for letting me know. I downloaded it already and was expecting AARL stuff. Im not aware of all hidden gems within it.

>>2922606
It has no light at the top either, which things way shorter have since we're relatively close to an airport, so I'm sure whoever buys it will have to get someone to put a flashing red light at the top of it.

ham radio in the US may be going license free.

>>2924294
I fucking hope not. It'll turn into CB 2.0. I worked hard to memorize the questions and answers to get my Extra license to talk about tmi medical issues on 80m.

I love pissing off hamz by saying "breaker, breaker" on the bandz.
t. General

>>2924351
I too think it would be really cool for ham radio to die a slow death of disinterest instead. Actually we should add a test to use celluar telephony bandwidth too, that'll surely make things better

>>2924294
Congrats. That may be the lowest troll effort to date. Did you mean 'License fee free'?

>>2924412
>ham radio to die a slow death of disinterest instead
Not going to happen. The doomsday larpers are getting their licenses enmasse.

>>2924420
nope, they apparently are considering getting rid of licenses for ham operators. seems it is now more of a pain to deal with than worth it with the hobby dying.

>>2924351
Even CB is mostly dead.
We still use it here, mostly for trucking in the mountains around single lane passthrus.

If even the license-free shit is dead, it’s probably not worth the gatekeeping effort for ham.

If you break the rules, they’ll find you anyway if it’s severe enough. Most people are running, what… 5 W transmit?

>>2924478
>If you break the rules,
no one cares anymore.

>>2924478
CB isn't dead around here. Even the idiot drug addicts and dealers here use it for short range comms in areas where there is no cell coverage. I'd rather them gatekeep. One of the local repeaters in the past had unlicensed idiots think it was okay to BS on the repeater when the cell coverage was down since it was an "emergency."

Woohoo! Only ten more days until Field Day. Was planning to set up in a local park but found my Yaesu ATAS-120 antenna hopelessly seized up. :-(

>>2924859
you have time to take it appart anon
https://www.pestingers.net/pdfs/other-radios/yaesu-radios/atas-120-technical-supplement.pdf

Got this lil guy to try verifying if the cobra 26 works with the new microphone but man it barely works in general lol

>>2925020
Damn dude, save some the women for us. You're bringing them all together to you like a magnet with a CB radio like that.

>>2925087
I may drown in pussy but it will be worth it

>>2924863
Already done. It's the motor drive assembly and jack screw inside the main tube that seem to be stuck. It's currently at work soaking in WD-40 for a month. Still hasn't budged. We used the same exploded view diagram you posted. We keep checking to see if I missed a screw but so far nothing else seems out of place. Not giving up yet.

>>2918957
I got into it when I was 14 but couldn’t afford the HF equipment. When I was 23 got a Xiegu G90 and later an IC-7300. For me is the challenge that drives the experience i.e. I want to make a DX contact but I live in an apartment, so how do I use my apartments gutters as an antenna and get away with it?

Besides the problem solving and building, I mostly enjoy digital modes such as SSTV, RTTY, FT8, and some CW. I listen to 80m SSB but never Tx.

Give it a shot and find what you like

>>2925100
That looks in pretty good shape is it crystal controlled? Intrigued, I tried searching for a manual online but haven't found anything.

>>2925104
I'm not sure, the gauge to the left doesn't work even after I got it apart and wobbled the needle to make sure it wasn't stuck, and the microphone wasn't working so I ordered another one on amazon, but that one doesn't work either so I ordered one that looks the same as the old one on ebay, but as far as I can tell it functions?
By it doesn't work I mean that the Amazon microphone appears to have a much smaller microphone (like inside the casing) and I guess the radio is expecting a bigger (or powered?) one, something like that. The PA speaker didn't work at all with the new microphone, either. Idk.
The GMRS was a lot easier to test since I already have walkie talkies!

Oh, and I didn't buy this thing, it belonged to my pap- according to Grandma, it lived its life in a red station wagon that they used to have, I assume on the transmission tunnel hump due to the weird bracket it was attached to, but I didn't want to drill holes in the floor of my car so I have it bolted to the underside of the cup holder. And yeah, only 24 or so channels! All of the CBs I have looked at on eBay have 40, so this thing must be pretty old. Also yeah I changed two of the knobs, just felt like doing it.

>>2925107
Doing some digging around and it appears those Cobra 26's are rare birds. So little can be found on them. Someone mentions that the radio came out when the expansion to 40 channels occured so they didn't sell in large numbers and had a limited run. The channel expansion happened in 1977 which matches a 1977 vintage ad for a Cobra 26 that was listed on eBay. So that pins down the age of your unit. :-)

Too bad we can't put it on a service monitor. The S-meter issue and hand mic problem probably indicate a bad component or two or bad solder/connections. I think the mic uses a standard electret microphone element so as long as your replacement hand mic is wired the same way as the original it should work. And the PA speaker impedance should match the radio output (i'm guessing the usual 8 ohms). Oh yeah, and the Cobra-26 uses crystals.

>>2925122
>The S-meter issue and hand mic problem probably indicate a bad component or two or bad solder/connections. I think the mic uses a standard electret microphone element so as long as your replacement hand mic is wired the same way as the original it should work.
What I noticed with the original microphone is that it only works when wiggling the wire a certain way, and even worse, I'm pretty sure it was behaving as if the button was being held down because it was silent during all of my test drives, so I'm pretty sure I was broadcasting endlessly on Channel 19 up until the point where I realized that jiggling the wire actually made it start working again.
I was able to verify the microphone worked because when holding it in the right position, I was able to talk over the PA speaker, but the Amazon microphone, it would not.
I attempted to resolder the connector, but my ancient soldering gun is about as delicate as a buffalo and I only made it worse, it just squeals when hitting the button now.
So for now I have ordered another microphone that resembles the original on ebay, we will see if that one works?

But the S-Meter... ehh, maybe i'll go grab it out of the car and take it apart again and try to get some pictures of its internals, if you want to see that.

I could also cut both wires and splice them together, but that would be pretty ugly looking.

>>2925122
>1977
Also, cool! I didn't expect it to be that unique!

I think once I figure out what is wrong with it, I will mount it in my van instead, it seems fitting to pair up the CB radio my Pap bought in 1977 to the van he bought in 1988, after all.

The main reason I didn't is because I don't really know where to mount it... the dashboard is cluttered enough as it is, the engine cover is also quite full, and overhead I already have two flip-down TVs.

Oh, and because the hood is at a 45° angle and the roof is entirely fiberglass, I can't just slap a magnetic antenna on it. Maybe I'll bolt one to the ladder on the rear!

I got the hermes lite 2 sdr recently and damn, that receiver is one numb bastard. but apart from that it is a very fine machine! since the 12bit adc leaves some amount of headroom, I thought about a pre-amp. I know other sdrs with built-in pre-amps, like the xiegu 6100. can I expect an external pre-amp for my hermes to work and behave like those built-in pre-amps? or do these manufacturers do some special constructing with their pre-amps which cannot be achieved with an external one?

>>2925208
Because I'm retarded I have already talked myself into moving the Cobra 26 into my van and buying a smaller Cobra 19 for the car, already ordered it and a "mirror" mount that I'll bolt to the van's ladder.
Didn't feel like blowing another 20 bucks on another PA for the van and the engine bay is too cramped anyway, so here's hoping the $7 external speaker I got at Walmart one time doesn't melt into a puddle of plastic goo or some shit the first time I go driving. Whenever that is. Thing probably aint designed to sit on top of a fan shroud.

How often are people prosecuted for purchasing radio jammers from sketchy chinese importers?

>>2925253
If you can spec out an external preamp with an excellent NF, you should find it as good, if not better, than the internal ones. The key is to find a good compromise between the noise figure, gain, and frequency bandwidth/coverage you desire. And one you can mount at the antenna is better than one at your radio.

My experience is also limited to VHF-Lo and up. I've rarely used the onboard preamps on my HF radios.

has anyone here ever thought about running some kind of indie usenet type network over hf?

>>2925322
but why

>>2925337
Sure. With known links including VHF/UHF links you can make a fairly effective bang-net.
user!4chan!...!seismo!kremlvax...

>>2925344
Why not?

I’m new to radios and learning radio stuff. I’m basically trying to figure out how to broadcast over a long range from my bedroom. Like 1,000 miles.
I want to do it legally, but I’m not sure if HAM is what I’m looking for. I just want to talk, and I’m not particularly interested in anyone talking to me. I know nothing about equipment. AM seems interesting to me. From what I understand, AM bounces off earth’s ionosphere at night. Therefore allowing it to travel 100’s or even thousands of miles.
I’m not sure about what you would need in terms of antennas, power, or really anything about radios.
Can someone school me on what I’m looking for and if it would be doable for cheap? Or is HAM my only option?

>>2925569
Welcome to the hobby. There will be a few things to learn. 1.) Forget legal. Even when you limit yourself to bands and power, it sounds like you want to "broadcast", which is illegal. Everything's illegal. Forget even trying to stay legal. Nobody cares anymore about HF anyways. 2.) Sky propagation is not dependant on the modulation but the frequency. Reflections are quite sporadic. So there are just a few bands you could use for your 1000miles in a stable manier.
My suggestion to achieve the goal would be broadcast on the 80m band at night with somewhat around 500 - 1000w. Maybe even slightly outside the ham band so that that stupid boomers maybe stick their muh loicense complaints in their asses and let you alone. (don't count on that.)

>>2925569
>long range from my bedroom. Like 1,000 miles.
Check out the FAQ. The HF band is what you are looking for. AM is inefficient (and it is the band that counts for ionisphere reflections) but modern digital modes will get you around the entire globe.

>>2925586
>AM is a band
...

>>2925569
>broadcast over a long range
>legally
Outside of ham. You'll need to get a separate license for it. You cannot legally broadcast on ham. What you want to look into is shortwave radio. There's a lot of factors you'll have to learn regarding this. This is why it would be a good reason to actually learn ham since a lot of the same concepts apply such as antenna types, impedance matching, propagation, modulation, and power output (e.g. adding an amp to boost the signal). If you are here in the States, get your General license. Tech will teach you a little bit, but it isn't much. It's why getting General would be much better.

>cheap
Oh boy. Radio isn't cheap at all. It's an expensive hobby in itself.

>>2925622
I don't think he means broadcast in terms of like TV shows or music. I think he just wants to talk to people.
>>2925569
Maybe look into QRP radio? QRP stands for Quater Rated Power and you can get a kit to assemble yourself for 100 bucks. You could piratemax but I don't recommend it. I've been looking at this QRP kit https://qrp-labs.com/images/qmxp/manuals/assembly_3_05.pdf

>>2925581
>>2925586
Thanks for the welcome, anon.
When you say HF, are we talking HAM? I’m really more so interested in a broadcasting sort of thing. Pretty much just talking and whoever wants to listen can.
Speaking of, is HAM just basically a big walkie?

I'm a retard with an Extra Class license.

I've only ever set up mobile rigs and a shitty old 2m antenna.
What should I do if I want to feel like I am a ham operator for real?
I already have bib overalls.

>>2917915
He used a tree if you look closely at his post.

>>2925207
You are doing it anon.
Talking to someone is a let down.

>>2925863
It's funny, I have yet to actually talk to anyone successfully over CB yet

>>2925865
I just take heart in the infinity of my waves and the aylmaos that will eventually receive my broadcast.

>>2925866
Is CB radio able to escape the atmosphere? Surely one broadcast alone is incomprehensible in the mix of stuff we are beaming out into the galaxy...

>>2925102
>Not giving up yet.
Good

ultrasound cleaner maybe ?

>>2925599
No, it is not, and >>2925586 does not claim so. It is the frequency band that counts.

>>2925716
For HF you can use one of the many ham bands. Ham is not broadcasting, for that you need a broadcasting license. Having said that, some ham guys have long monologues before they let the other guy get in a word. That is how the omelette dude was known.

>>2925957
So hf is HAM?
Could you guys describe the average user experience of HAM vs shortwave?
Like is HAM basically “Hey friend, where ya from?”
And is shortwave just people broadcasting random stuff?
I remember I had a CB in my truck years ago in high school. That was fun.
If only you could take a little CB and modify it to work on shortwave or HAM. I love the simplicity and style of em.

>>2925904
They have advanced technology and will auto filter out stuff from faggots. What I have to say is very important galactically speaking.

>>2925978
In ham radio you are shirtless in your garage sweating profusely and really just trying to avoid the wife and kids for a bit.
In short wave you have already lost your wife and kids and are in a nice comfy air conditioned room eating pizza and arranging your Bill Cooper collection ten hours a day.

Honestly, would like a Shortwave, HAM, and a CB.
Can’t really decide what I’m looking for.
Would like to broadcast, but also think it would be cool to talk to other people.

>>2918949
Cute design, how’s battery life?

>>2926058
HT or mobile?

>HT: Yaesu FT-5D
Ham, GMRS, MURS, etc. Can listen to all bands down to 160m including AM radio, but cannot transmit. It cannot listen to SSB as well.

>Mobile
To many to count. You'll have to MARS mod the ham radios. I don't know if the many Yaesus can be MARS modded. For my IC7100, there was just one diode I had to remove. However, it's clunky as a mobile so it's more of a base station than anything else, which is what I use it for. Also, it doesn't have a waterfall if you need it.

>>2926065
Samefag here. Might want to see if you can look for a Yaesu 857D. It has a MARs mod available.

>>2926065
I think mobile. I had a CB years ago in my truck. I like that size, but I will probably just set it on my desk or something.
Also, can HAM pick up shortwave? I’d like to listen to shortwave but also try my hand in HAM. Really I would like to try talking on and listening to both.
If I can’t decide I’ll probably go shortwave.

>>2925581
>Welcome to the hobby. There will be a few things to learn. 1.) Forget legal. Even when you limit yourself to bands and power, it sounds like you want to "broadcast", which is illegal. Everything's illegal. Forget even trying to stay legal. Nobody cares anymore about HF anyways. 2.) Sky propagation is not dependant on the modulation but the frequency. Reflections are quite sporadic. So there are just a few bands you could use for your 1000miles in a stable manier.
>My suggestion to achieve the goal would be broadcast on the 80m band at night with somewhat around 500 - 1000w. Maybe even slightly outside the ham band so that that stupid boomers maybe stick their muh loicense complaints in their asses and let you alone. (don't count on that.)
for the empire!

>>2925978
>Could you guys describe the average user experience of HAM vs shortwave?
they are the same.

the experience is:
old guys talking about their equipment. health issues, their equipment, the weather, their equipment, their jobs/former jobs, and their equipment.

younger guys on repeaters talking about their equipment.

recordings of old dead preachers.

religious broadcasts.

foreign languages

rtty

jt8

weather fax

HARP

basically nothing of interest.

>finally decide on a HAM radio
>start doing research
>guy tells me to transmit I need
-radio (usually an transciever)
-antenna
-amplifier
-balun
-tuner (if you use an antenna that isn't tuned to the freq you want to transmit on)
-swr meter (optional but recommended)

Well fellas, I guess I’m just gonna go and buy an old CB to play with.
Either that or buy a HAM until I can justify spending all that money.

>>2926133
ham/SW radio is a hobby for retired insurance salesmen with more money than brains.

>>2926134
Nah you can do great stuff for cheap, especially if you buy used equipment and make antennas yourself or if you are a member of a club and have access to their station. Saying this as a poor zoomerfag

>>2926133
Just buy used. Old boomers area always putting their stuff up for sale.

>>2926144
Before I go any further into this, I’m curious how much it would cost to get a license on shortwave? Like my idea is to just do like a talk radio type thing where people just listen if they want. And preferably I want to cover a large distance.
Would I need a license? How much are we talking? How hard is it to do something like this, and what’s the bare bones equipment needed?

>>2926146
You'd be better off buying airtime from wwcr or doing something like Icecast/Shoutcast. You're not going to be doing shit with a wire and a shitty boat anchor. The infrastructure will be tens-of-thousands alone.

>>2926132
You forgot:
>CQ CONTEST CQ CONTEST

>>2926133
What are your plans for it? Do you just want to talk local? You won't need all of that if you just want to chat to people on the local repeater. CB will do that at a very short distance (unless you really want to go way further, which gets into stuff like SSB and skip.) However, repeaters, that others have already put up and fine tuned everything, will allow you a better range. Some of them have a really wide coverage area due to linking repeaters together.

>radio
>antenna
All you actually need.

>amplifier
Only if your antenna design is absolute shit and you need more than 100w to transmit due to efficiency lost.

>balun
Only if you make your own antenna and the type you make (e.g. standard dipole, off-center fed dipole, random wire antenna, end-fed half wave antenna.)

>tuner
Again, only if you make your own antenna and don't want to "tune" it (cutting and adding to the antenna). There are multiband antennas that will get you on the bands you want. It's just a tedious process, and it can be a major pain the higher band you want. A "tuner" just makes your radio happy being at 50ohms. But that results in efficiency loss.

>swr meter
Many HF rigs have this. It works well on my IC7100. A Xiegu G90 has one and can "tune" your radio pretty decently, but comes at the cost of its output being 20watts..

>>2926223
>What are your plans for it?
>Do you just want to talk local?
This- >>2926146
What would be the max distance on a radio and antenna?
I mean, it wouldn’t have to reach out to like 1000 miles. I think it’d basically be cool to do like a little talk radio type thing. Where I just talk. Nothing weird. Just talk radio I guess.
If it proves too complicated, I’d honestly settle for playing with a CB. lol and maybe try to extend that out for fun I guess.
Speaking of which- how hard is HF (shortwave I guess?)? I know CB’s are literally as simple as simple gets. I’ve had one in the past.

>>2925942
Huh, I don't have access to an ultrasound cleaner. Nifty idea, though. It's become a challenge with the guys at work. Each betting the other they can free it while belittling the previous attempts. :-) One guy took it home tonight to work on it.

>>2925978
>Sony ICB-R5
What a neat looking radio. At first I thought it transmitted in the AM BCB.

>>2926295
I agree. It does look good. I really like the CB designs. I wish there was a HAM or HF that were designed like an old school CB. I’d like to use the CB part, and listen to the HF until I got my license or decided to.
Pic rel exists, but I don’t know if you can actually talk on the CB part, because from everything everybody has told me, a HAM cannot transmit on CB because it’s apparently “illegal”.

I have a few questions as to how that works. I apologize for asking so much, but I just wanna make sure I understand clearly.
Say I go through the process, get my license and all that.
Then let’s say I want to broadcast on HF (shortwave). Like say I just want to talk. Simply talk and broadcast it out. Kinda like talk radio.
1- Can other people talk to me on my station?
2- How do I get my own station?
3- Do I need and kind of special equipment for this other than a transceiver and an antenna?
4- Say I didn’t get my license. Would the FCC or anyone actually care about a guy talking over shortwaves and not saying anything controversial?

>>2926059
Depends on battery size and power saving settings but a couple of days a easily doable. Add solar into the mix and it could run for years.

>>2926323
You can't broadcast with an amateur license. You have to buy the equipment. The FCC will absolutely ass fuck you if you're broadcasting a pirate station. Also, fuck you. Finally, building RADAR is not feasible and you can go fuck yourself again.

>>2926382
Radar is totally feasible. I've seen several youtubers

>>2926385
>I've seen several youtubers
Whoa, several? I have to rethink my entire being now.

How precise should I be with my impedance matching networks?

More precision is obviously better, but I have no reference frame to judge what would be an unusable deviation and what would be an unnoticeable difference from perfection. Tuning inductance down to the nearest 250nH or so seems unfeasible, and that alone can easily be 25% off from the target, which is huge. That's not even considering the parasitics, which are basically unknowable and seemingly non-negligible at these scales.

Basically, at what point can I throw my hands in the air and say "good enough" without feeling like I'm squandering the potential of the rest of my rig?

>>2926402
nta but you should rethink the part that makes you talk like a spergy reddit gatekeeper

>>2926473
cry about it, fag

>>2926280
>>2926323
I don't know about how much it costs for an FCC broadcast station license. It's doable with ham equipment if yiu have them unlocked like the Xiegu G90 which can, if I remember, transmit on all HF frequencies. Again, ir's only 20 watts so it's not much. You'll want an amplifier.

With the ham (along any of the free services like CB, MURS, GMRS), you cannot legally broadcast. So other people will be allowed to talk to you. If you get a broadcast license, then you fon't really have to worry about it since most don't have their rigs unlocked.

The type of antenna you'll most likely use will be a vertical. Though I've had success using an inverted v dipole via NVIS getting across the country on the 20m band.

I'll just upfront and honest with you: you are better off just looking at shortwave stations that have slots open. You'll be able to broadcast then legally. It'll judt be so much easier on you since the station has already paid the fees and such. The issue seems though many are live, which requires you to record your show and send it to the station. The other issue is that shortwave is pretty much dead now. All you hear anymore is long dead preachers.

But, if you want to go through all of this, by all means, go for it. You'll learn a lot just by getting your ham license.

>>2926382
I think radarfag really broke you.

>>2926385
I watch youtube too. You can actually find out a lot of useful information there.

>>2926514
Two people watch youtube!?!? Holy motherfucking shit. Praise Jebus.

>>2926513
I do genuinely appreciate the advice and words of encouragement.
I kept bouncing back and forth, but I think I’m probably just gonna get a little CB radio and play around with it for a bit, and if I like it enough, I may just look into getting my HAM or SW license.
Didn’t really realize SW was pretty much dead. When you say
>better off just looking at shortwave stations that have slots open. You'll be able to broadcast then legally.
Are you talking about buying a time slot or something on an existing station?
That does sound a lot simpler.
Oh and speaking of playing around with a CB- is there a way I could extend the range while staying in legal regulation or whatever?

I just bought pic rel for 80 bucks.
Was going to set it up in my room, but I’m actually thinking about putting it in my car now.

>>2926595
I have Picrel in my Truck and wish it Blasts more Power to my 108" whip. The radio is also from 1980's and it needs a recap, I got all the caps but I figure for the time and effort I put into it ivsn just get an upgrade to Galaxy or Stryker Radio for more umph.

>>2926620
Nice! Why would you need more power? Better range?

>>2926631
To get out more. I can hear more distant stations all day and some I've heard crossing multiple state lines with a barefoot Stryker Radio and 102" Whip. My 4 Watts don't get out nearly as far as someone who can push 100 Watts

>>2926638
But I thought 4 was the legal limit. Can’t you get in trouble with that?

What do I do if a cop pulls me over while using a cb and tries to accuse me of using my phone, or saying it’s distractive driving?
When in fact I know cb’s are legal to use in my state while driving.

>>2926132
if I have to hear one more motherfucker talk about cancer I'm going to lose it. I once talked to this guy on a a 70cm repeater about the weather and he was located about 2 miles from me. WE HAVE THE SAME FUCKING WEATHER

>>2926595
Does that do FM? Looking around online I see these claim to be AM/FM models if built after 2023 but I don't see a mode switch.

>>2926647
Yes.

>>2926683
Better call Saul.

>>2926791
Push in the channel Knob for FM

If someone wanted to start a “radio station” where they went around to different locations and interviewed people, what would be the best aand cheapest form of radio to do it?
How much would it cost once it’s all said and done?

What makes a CB antenna good? I obviously want maximum range and clarity. I’m
Not looking to spend over a hundred bucks honestly, and quite frankly I might just put it in my car, so I guess I’m looking for something for mobile use.

So if LoRa can transmit tens or even hundreds of kilometres using a fraction of a watt, isn’t there room for chirp-spread-spectrum international comms in the 5W region? More robust and cheaper than satellite comms, though at far lower bit-rates. It would either have to rely on repeater nodes or on sky propagation for proper over-the-horizon operation.

Some sort of digital text-based protocol, maybe citizen-band, maybe amateur licensed, or maybe commercially licensed into certain devices.

Assuming it makes use of repeaters and does proper packet routing, I wonder how crowded the airwaves would get? Let’s say 10MHz total channel bandwidth, with people sending ~100B messages. Is there some way of having overlapping CSS signals not interfere with each other? LoRa is detectable below the conventional noise floor because you’re specifically looking for those chirps, maybe if you’re looking for a chirp that starts and stops at certain times you’ll end up not seeing chirps that start at other times.

What was your experience like when getting your HAM license?
Walk me through the entire process.

>>2927021
Fortunately in my country morse code isn't part of the exam anymore, I went to a course for a year but didn't pass the exam right after, I was in a small appartement, no room there and in my life for the radio.
Just before I bought a house I met with a guy living near where I'll be and we motivated each other to get the license, so I got the formulas, the regulation aspects, compiled everything, memorized everything that should be during a month or two, practiced a lot the exam online and with exercises and went to the exam.

So I just got my license but still looking to set up a station, still figuring a lot out about the equipment. I've noticed that there are plenty of DIY antennas out there, and a simple vertical or dipole antenna looks easy enough for a beginner to build.

But it seems to me that not just the antenna but the whole setup is tuned for a very specific frequency, and everything is a function of the desired wavelength. But even within a band there are a range of frequencies you can use. So how does that work? Do you have a separate antenna for 10m, 2m, 70cm, etc and keep changing between them? And within a single band, do you get an antenna tuned for like the middle frequency of the band and accept that performance won't be as good on the edges of the band?

>>2927044
go for symmetrical antennas, anon, or off center at worst. Get some good cable, 7mm is the minimum, 10mm RG-8 can be good to begin with it's cheap and has reasonable attenuation in HF.
If you want to do VHF, UHF, you'll need very good quality cables, connectors and minimal distances.

Antennas are very important, i had a long wire then an end fed half wave and now a FD4 for 80m to 20m and a Cobweb for 20m to 6m and I am very happy, it's minimal investment, it's only string and cable. I made the FD4 myself, I changed the cables of the MFJ Cobweb. I made a 20m dipole too with two cheap glass fiber fishing poles, it's a couple of hour job and you can tinker with antennas. Put pulleys at the anchor points, so you can easily lower all parts and trim the antenna, change it...

Get an analyser : nanoVNA, Bird, rigexpert, whatever but get one so you can tune your antennas and verify that you don't have weird cable lengths that can forbid you to use a certain frequency.

Everything is a compromise : the more things you put in a device (for example the more bands an antenna is designed for, more gain vs more bandwidth) the worse the performance will be but you can't have one antenna per band (well you can but it costs a lot of money and land)

>>2926549
No problem. I like helping. We were all at your point at one time. CB wouldn't be a bad idea to start. As long as you are not causing any interference, I and many don't see a problem with you just doing what you are planning on doing, though the FCC rules don't allow it. Just don't do that on ham though. Those grumpy old men will shart into their Depends about it. Think about the environmental impact that makes changing all their adult diapers! They'll have to get another colonoscopy!

>Are you talking about buying a time slot or something on an existing station?
Yes. Several like Hal Turner and Reviewbruh do this. You just have to find an open spot. As far as cost, I don't know. That's an area I'm not familiar with, but I figure it's a pretty penny.

>is there a way I could extend the range while staying in legal regulation or whatever?
That has to do with propagation and the type of antenna you use along with it's height. Certain bands work better at certain times. For example, you may only hear local AM radio stations during the day time, but when night time comes, you can hear stations from everywhere.

Antennas have a huge play in it as well. I'm not too familiar with verticals since I don't really care about long skips/DXing or anything like that. I just do local and regional comms (i.e. 30 to 300 miles). So, I use what is called a random wire antenna mostly for all bands except 160m and 40m (I have separate dipoles for these bands.) This is just an antenna that is lower to the ground. My random wire is just 17 feet off the ground, and my 40m is just 15ft. The concept here is called NVIS.

However, with antennas, Dave Cassler says it the best:
>everything effects everything

Again, I urge you to get into ham. I cannot remember who says it most often, but it rings true:
>the ham license is the license to experiment

>>2927044
>Do you have a separate antenna for 10m, 2m, 70cm, etc and keep changing between them?
You can, but you don't have to. There are multiband antennas like end fed half waves and off center fed dipoles. The magic thing is that the more off center you feed your coax into it, the more multiband properties it has. Now, they're not as efficient as a standard dipole that's middle fed (i.e. equal in length on both sides.) And if you have an ATU, it can match the impedence to just about any band and will still work. However, the efficiency is going to be terrible on the band it's not mean to work on even when it's one of the "harmonic" frequencies (e.g. 40m dipole working on 80m). Even "tuning" with an ATU will affect the efficiency.

This is why I use my random wire the most. It works on every band except on 160m with minimal tuning. It will work on 160m, but it heats the ATU up very quickly, so I don't bother. If I have to work 160m, I have a separate antenna I will set up, which I don't do anyway except for one particular contest I participate (which I rarely do) in that involves 160m band.

The other one I have set up is a standard 40m dipole since if I'm going to communicate, it's the band I want to be most efficient on.

If you really want to go crazy, look up fan dipoles. Good luck with it though! It was my first HF antenna homebrew, and tuning it was a fucking bitch to do (think tuning one standard dipole is terrible enough? lol). Now, it was very efficient though, and audio was much less noisy than what I use now with the random wire. It is still noisy though compared to a standard dipole. I wish a tree didn't take it down.

>>2926960
kys

>>2927017
I'm going to screw my $38 Amazon antenna to the ladder on the back of my van and send it

>>2927048
>>2927090
Thanks for the info anons

>>2927088
>>2927044
Could you guys walk me through step by step what it was like getting your licenses? Like the whole process.

>>2927123
No problem!

>>2927140
>download the ARRL book on whatever license I'm working on
>read it to understand the concepts that will be on the test
>memorize the questions and answers (reading the book will make the questions make more sense even if you don't know the answer)
>schedule with one of the many online ham test websites (I used Aurora Amateur Radio Group)
>pass test
>receive license class
Pretty simple.

>>2927144
Is it all online? Like do you need a webcam even?

Have the chinks already made some cheap sdr that goes up to 3ghz or is hackrf still the only one

>>2927021
>>2927140
kys

>>2927191
I assume you can just make a “carrier multiplier” to 2x the frequency, no?

>>2919038
> your audio is .001% too loud
This made me roar…
Hey, is there way to respond to nit-picky retired guys out there when I’m trying to talk to someone about something important and time sensitive?
Like “noted, anon” or “roger that anon” but instead of “anon” i want to use a term that suggests or implies that I am being dismissive and don’t care, since I’m moving on to important shit immediately and cannot even be bothered to remember his callsign.
Is there a common term for an annoying malfeasor hanging around?

>>2927147
First off, are you in the US? It was my mistake in assuming you were. Here in the US, I was able to. As for webcam: I'll just link you to the site where I tested from. It'll provide a much better explanation. Scroll down to #3

https://aarg.club/index.php/license-testing/

>>2927241
I do live in the US, yes.
Thanks for the link, anon.

>>2927236
>i want to use a term that suggests or implies that I am being dismissive and don’t care, since I’m moving on to important shit immediately and cannot even be bothered to remember his callsign
No, not really. Mature people (and good operators) just politely cut short their communique with some kind of excuse like "well, i've reached my destination and am going inside. i'll be back in 10 minutes" then don't, or "my neighbour is knocking on my door", or "the XYL needs me, ttyl". There's no real need to be snide and juvenile about it. Just conclude the conversation and move on.

Just ignore the lids. We had one in my region that got real obnoxious. People gradually stopped answering his calls or cutting short on-air radio conversations with him. It took a year or two but he got the message.

>>2927044
Congrats on getting your licence.

Don't overthink your first radio set up, just figure how to get on the air. Trust me, it will grow from there. If you really got bit by the radio bug you'll end up with a room full of equipment like that guy in the meme the punks keep posting here. :^)

I worked days so I knew most of my operating would be at night so I concentrated on the lower HF bands. A couple of locals ragchew on 80m and encouraged me to start there. I'd done some monitoring with a Panasonic RF2200 and liked what I heard. One member gifted me his 80m vertical, another loaned me his old Yaesu FTdx100 like one pictured. Voila, I was on the air. After that it started to grow. I started experimenting with the vertical and laboriously found that tapping into certain parts of the loading coil I could use it on the lower SSB portion of the 40m band. My best DX is on 40m. I later put up a scrapped G5RV dipole that I repaired and used a coax switch to select the dipole or vertical.

>But it seems to me that not just the antenna but the whole setup is tuned for a very specific frequency
You're partially correct. An antenna can be made to work well on one wavelength and be multi-band with the addition of traps. Effective bandwidths on each band can be narrow but an antenna tuner will allow you to expand on it with reasonable performance but there are trade-offs with radiated efficency.

>And within a single band, do you get an antenna tuned for the middle frequency of the band and accept that performance won't be as good on the edges of the band?
Yes.

>Do you have a separate antenna for 10m, 2m, 70cm, etc and keep changing between them?
I used to when I had a dualband HT. My secondary radio has 4 separate outputs for HF/6m/2m/70cm. Changing bands on the radio changes the antenna. I run mostly SSB on VHF/UHF. My main HF radio has a separate output for HF and one for 6m.

>Everything is a compromise
What >2927048 said sums it up.

>>2927140
Sure
>Be me
>Join the military, get in uniform, do some minor running around in the field, weapons stuff etc.
>Pass Morse code entry test, sit down to learn Morse code and telegraphy related stuff - now with a lot less running around in the field
>Do fairly well, pass the military tests
>Hear about civilian /ham/ license, the .mil is willing to pay for the test.
>Evening classes in electronics for the /ham/ exam.
>Exam day, sit down with my fellow Morse code operators, pass the electronics test, pass the Morse code proficiancy test, get the license and callsign
>Work the radios during working hourrs, do /ham/ stuff in the evenings.
I still have the same callsign.

I'm in the US and I have a license. I got it a few years ago for work. Needed to broadcast telemetry from something far away and used morse code. I have always wanted to get on the air but I'm afraid of doing it wrong. I grew up with CB radios between all our vehicles. But I'm sure you can't just get on HAM and say whatever you want like it's CB. But I just wanna chat with people. What are the rules/etiquette? What frequencies am I allowed to use? I wanna chat verbally, no morse code.

>>2925207
>get some pictures of its internals
Took a while but here it is, the joints to the back of the microphone connector look okay so I'm hoping the eBay mic works

>>2927301
Sounds fun, thank you. I don’t know if it’s just anxiety, but it seems like a difficult process to pass.
Also, for shortwave radio, is it the same thing as HAM? I want to have the ability to broadcast, but somewhere I read that you can’t jump straight to that. You have to start with a basic license, then upgrade.

>>2927318
I feel a similar way. I’d like to get a shortwave radio license (whatever is involved in that). I ordered a CB last week. Still waiting for it to come. I love the laid back attitude of CB radios, but everything I’ve seen on HAM (videos, I don’t have my license) is people being super strict and by the book. Which I think is very lame.

>>2927328
>HAM
>broadcast
You might want to learn these terms before you use them.
Ham isn't an acronym.
Broadcasting is commercial stations broadcasting radio programs and music to the general public.

Is cw dead for everyone else too this field day?

lulz

>>2927254
Thanks, I was worried about messing up the setup, but I'm starting to see that there is a 'good enough' that get things done. Looks like radio optimization is one hell of a rabbit hole.

I want to get into dx eventually and chat with people all around, but I think I'll start with a 2m setup until I get my feet wet

>>2927386
It's alive and well. Check your antenna.

>>2927509
Ehh, I think conditions are just a bit blah. I've only made 1 contact on 15, the rest have been on 20 and 40.
I've gotten accustomed to contests where 10 meters was open for 15+ hours

>>2927318
listen to an sdr and do the same as the other guys do, it's easy anon

>>2927544
What is an sdr? What do I listen to? Is there like a frequency or something?

>>2927570
Software defined receiver, it's a radio receiver where the functions of modulation, demodulation, etc. are made by a computer
for example :
http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/
the green bands are ham, pink are broadcast
Here you have a map of them, receiving various things, from HF to VHF, UHF so you can listen to one close to you :
https://rx-tx.info/map-sdr-points?freq_of=&freq_to=&bands=1032&country=All&title=&qth=&url=#close

in picrel you have USA ham bands

>>2927573
Thank you, I appreciate your response. I have more questions now though.
What is CW?
Is "phone and image" like cellphone?
Where do I listen to just people talking with a radio thing like on CB radios? As in, just voices talking on a channel.
What is SSB phone?
What is RTTY?
I'm sorry if these are dumb questions.

>>2927590
CW is morse code, phone is voice, SSB can be upper side band or lower side band (or AM or FM but rarely used on HF)
ham bands are like CB, we just exchange callsigns more often, listen, you'll get what is going on
There are no dumb questions anon, it's a vast subject. You can get a ham HF transceiver, a long wire and listen to ham bands (and broadcasts and other things) and get what is going on easily

>>2927590
image is SSTV (slow scan TV, still images, an image takes half a minute to one or two minutes to send) it can be analog or digital TV on UHF and above. phone and image means on that part of the band, both can be done

>>2927590
at this time of the day it seems 20m is working in Europe
So above 10mhz you use USB (below 10MHz you use LSB) for voice and you can see the voice on the waterfall, for example there's someone calling on 14219.50 KHz and some people answering
the guy callsign is YQ0RN from Romania :
https://www.qrz.com/db/YQ0RN
Sometimes you can't hear the other guy, because of propagation, where you are, etc.

>>2927590
>I have more questions now though.
We all started from scratch but you might find your answers much faster if you get the library in the OP txt. The FAQ has list of Internet accessible receivers where you can listen in on traffic.
>What is RTTY?
Radio Teletype. It is an old standard, still used but inefficient in terms of reliability and bits per second than more modern digital modes.

>>2927590
You have a license but don't know about bands, sdr, cw, or phone?!

Anons, should I put my CB in my Mustang?
I’ve got an 05 GT, and it’s really clean. I wanna put my CB in it, and like the idea of a whip antenna, but at the same time I do feel conflicted about drilling holes.
:(

>>2927590
kys

>>2927664
Don't drill holes, you will get corrosion, either rust or electro corrosion.

>>2927624
I'm not baitin'. The test was really easy. I just got it so I could use the radiosonde because my boss wanted to use that for a project and it needed a call sign to transmit. My expertise is physics, not radio. So I ask questions. It's how I learn.
>>2927669
This is like... Wicked mean. Why would you say this? Aclose friend of mine did this back in '16. It was horrific.

>>2927673
kys

>>2927673
Fuck off. This general doesn't exist to babysit retards nor trolls.

Just moved and got my police scanner back online. Have a full acre to do whatever I want, so for starters I'll be putting up my 5/8 wave 10m antenna as well as 40/20m dipoles facing east/west at 50 and 40 ft high respectively.

Just moved and got my police scanner back online. Have a full acre to do whatever I want, so for starters I'll be putting up my 5/8 wave 10m antenna as well as 40/20m dipoles facing east/west at 50 and 40 ft high respectively.

>>2927677
>>2927724
Wow. You guys are assholes. I'm just trying to get my bearings in a new interest that I find really cool. Way to gatekeep and turn me off of ham stuff. I'm not a retard or a troll, but you are jerks.

>>2927746
That’s just people on 4chan. Don’t let em get you down, friend.

Is there some cheap handheld reciever (/scanner) that can decode analog fm, dmr tier ii and tetra

>>2927746
kys

>>2927746
>You guys
Nah, just one old man. He got broken by radarfag and hasn't been the same ever since.

so do you guys not talk to the people in the space station or at least listen to them

>>2927833
Y'all can talk to the space station?! That's so cool! How?! The only equipment I have at the moment is an AirSpy and a little Baofeng handheld unit.

>>2927844
i think i might have just seen that in a movie

>>2927844
there's a VHF repeater or something like that, you can listen to it with a baofeng, it's 300 km away, with 5-6 km of atmosphere like on the ground
https://amsat-uk.org/beginners/how-to-hear-the-iss/

>>2927833
>>2927844
also checked and you know where it's above you there :
https://www.n2yo.com/satellite/?s=25544

Hey guys!


I just passed my license! I had a few questions tho <:P

What is a radio. What is this stuff? And that one thing. Coaxie? Like what do you all do? What is HAM radio? Is it a good hobby for people? Do I have to go to the FCC to get my badge?

>>2927673
>My expertise is physics, not radio.
I am a physicist too, and I know that with knowledge of Physics this should not be hard at all.

>>2927673
>The test was really easy
It also 90% covered the questions you're asking. You also only took the tech test. Go take the general now Mr. Hawking.

>>2927903
Hey Guys!

Just got my driver's license! I had a few questions though.

What's the difference between turn signals and radio? What are hand signals? What's the difference between yield, stop, and mega bean and cheese burrito only 4.99 next 1 mile? Do I use the green or black pump to fuel my car? Fuel is free right?

I'm a PhD in Cellular & Molecular Pharmacology & Physiology, so the test is really easy. I needed to get my license for work so I could drive my boss's Yorkie to the groomer. Thanks!

>>2927420
The grift continues.
We're in the 5th day of 'maintenance'

>>2928102
Thank God I don't use LotW. I wonder if it got hacked again.

>>2928103
In commemoration of the 1 year anniversary of the hack that killed LOTW for 3 months, they decided to take the LOTW offline for 5 days during Field Day for 'maintenance'.

>>2928108
>We can't have LOTW online during field day because you haven't bought enough $80 bricks!!

>>2928087
>What's the difference between turn signals and radio?
the first one is for challenging people for their domain over whatever lane you're trying to change to, the second one is some sorta magic air talking thing
What are hand signals?
If you hold your hand up high with only your center finger raised, someone will eventually kick your ass
What's the difference between yield, stop, and mega bean and cheese burrito only 4.99 next 1 mile?
Yield means someone is going to try to get in your way, stop means try not to get t-boned in the intersection, and the last one means there's a taco bell nearby so put your air on recirculate before you get close to the cloud of farts
Do I use the green or black pump to fuel my car?
use the yellow one it's more fun
Fuel is free right?
Yeah, watch out for the weirdos with red and blue lights that sometimes want to arm wrestle you for it, just tell them you have a gun and they'll leave you alone since gun owners usually have extra strong arms to handle all of that recoil

>>2928190
I fucked up all of the troll's questions were supposed to be green but I forgot the indents

>>2928145
Hams don't realize the value of these bricks. They cannot keep up with membership rate increases.

BUY THE BRICKS YOU SELFISH ASSHOLES!

>>2927592
It is pretty cool when you see the AMers though
I've only ever seen them at the top of 40m.
Usually they're pushing a ton of old vintage power.

>>2928225
I've heard them on 80m. Though they were just your typical whiners about new people coming into ham radio. They must have using 1500 watts because they were full clear like they were uding a repeater.

>>2928226
I've only ever heard the AM club on 40m. They just talk about rigs
They're real easy to spot on a waterfall. They look like a broadcast station.
I would say some of them are a little over 1500w pep :)

I’ve got a couple of questions about CB’s.
So for 1, I’ve heard of people making Ham antennas out of literal pipes. Can I do the same thing with an old TV antenna outside of my house for CB’s?
And 2nd, is there any way I can increase the power or range of my CB while staying within legal limits? If it’s illegal, how would anyone even know or much less care since it’s a CB?

>>2928223
I've been slowly moved to despise the ARRL ... due to their own grifting and bullshit
>Guys! We need to do a week long upgrade
>It'll impact Field Day
>We need your donations!!
>Don't look at our server logs
>You won't see any results
>Just trust us
>WE NEED MORE MONEY CUZ
>Thanks for the $4K. We'll stop holding our only valuable service hostage.
>If you want an award, that'll be $200 plus tax and shipping and the $60 yearly membershit fee

Have any of you ever been pulled over for using a CB?
I’ve been pulled over for being on my phone, so what if a cop mistakes my CB for a phone?

>>2928234

>TV Antenna for CB

The TV Radio Frequency is Tiny compared to CBs, Would involve lengthening the Elemets alot and using a Vector Network Analyzer Tool to Match the Antenna to 11 Meters.

>Get more power/Range while being a Pussy to Fake FCC.

Just get a Stryker Radio and Put that bitch on Blast. Push all the Watts you can Fuck the FCC, the electromagnetic Spectrum was Bestowed Upon us by God Himself. We Have Dominion over Manipulation of the spectrum and radiological waves we produce.

But if you really Want to Pussyfoot it. Get an Antenna that's Stacked 5/8 Wave elements, it'll make your effective radiated power immensely grander than the 4w Limit.

>>2928303
>it'll make your effective radiated power immensely grander than the 4w Limit
I don’t know anything about the technical stuff, but wouldn’t pushing a CB past 4w cause interference?
Also idk if anyone knows anything about this, but would there be any benefit in using a studio microphone on a CB?
I’ve got a really cool XLR microphone, but it requires a preamp. Not sure how to make that work with a CB or if it would even be worth it.

>>2928234
This guy >>2928303 answered you correctly. You'd need longer pipes for it to be resonate. Less resonance mean ineffiency which means less signal being radiated and more power going back to your radio (which can damage your radio.) A tv antenna is very likely a yagi, so it's a beam antenna which makes it directional. That is: you point it north, it will be excellent in getting the signals north along with transmitting. You are better judt buying a grest antenna or learn about antennas if you want to homebrew.

Your second answer: extremely efficent antenna and lots height. Though, just be wary of going higher than legal limit. Most won't care unless you are causing interference. So, go ahead and get that Stryker like other Anon said and do nit cause interference

>>2928309
Very likely no. If it does, it's because the things being interfered with are crao chinese shit that couldn't take 10 seconds and a penny to properly shield it. As an example, the motion alarm I work at goes off once when I was transmitting on any of my HTs (I EDC a FT3D.) I took it apart, and what do you know: zero shielding and no FCC label on it.

>studio microphone
If it works for you, have at it. I couldn't tell you how to hook it up until I know what radio you are getting and the microphone being used. There's an issue of adapters, ground loops, etc. It would be better just to get a handmike fir the radio you are getting (if it doesn't already.)

>>2928267
I began a few years ago. The only reason why I kept my membership is because I wanted be in ARES which requires courses that requires membership. I don't care now do I didn't renew my recent membership. The ARRL can go bankrupt for all I care. They've done nothing for ham radio despite their claims.

>>2928281
Never.

Bumping again >>2926960

>>2928420
The great grift continues. No wonder why they have to go popular ham radio youtube channels and get them to do videos about "joining the ARRL." Their memberships are sinking fast.

hi, i had an rtl sdr v3 kicking around for a few years. originally bought it for another purpose but when i was done it ended up in a drawer.

i found a decent laptop in the trash that works and i've been playing around listening for a few hours with a 2.4/5ghz tuned wifi antenna. works okay to see shit in my house pissing out RF.

I have 200 feet of speaker cable, can i make a loop out of that and receive more than my shitty wifi antenna?
i heard resistance matters(antenna tuners I think they're called?), or does that only matter for transmitting?
if it matters regardless, what length of loop and resistance should I shoot for?

i wanna hear the space station and jews taking ballistic missiles to the nose.

>>2928575
droor not drawer, but it was next to some drawers.

>>2928575
>>2928576

If I'm not mistaken. Picrel will make it jump for you. Connect one side of the speaker wire to red and the other side to black and have it literally Loop on the Ground (LoG Antenna as the search query in your favourite Search Engine for more info)

>>2928684
i nigger rigged it with solder and electrical tape using an SMA lead i had last night while drunk. i threw it on top of my garage but it didn't really work. i was getting a lot of noise.

>>2928575
>I have 200 feet of speaker cable, can i make a loop out of that and receive more than my shitty wifi antenna?
Sure but you certainly do not need 200 ft for one loop. For a tuned loop the size has to be related to the wavelength, which for 2.4 GHz is about 12 cm.

>>2928753
how does that work with loop antennas? wouldn't you want it to be twice the wavelength since it needs a route back to the receiver? if you make it exactly the size of the wavelemgthj it's a loop it's only being exposed to half the wavelength.
sorry i'm new and dumb.

>>2928684
>>2928753
>>2928756

Pic Rel is what should be used instead of the Yee Yee Ass Banana BNC.

>>2928766
the rtl doesn't have that coax connector. it has an SMA. do I need to isolate the antenna with a transformer like that?
halp

>>2928767
>>2928766
also wouldn't that inductance ruin the signal?

>>2928767
>>2928769

You can make it with sma connector instead of SO-239

Do you all have a recommendation for a vhf/uhf all mode radio? I already have an IC-7300, so something like a 991A or IC-7100 seems excessive.

>>2928954
If you have some money get a IC-9700, it's the IC-7300 for 2m, 70cm and 23 cm
if you have less money get a used one, like IC-910 : https://www.rigpix.com/icom/icom.htm#basevuhf

>>2928954
I don't do UHF because of my location in some mountains but the plan was to get a kenwood TM-255 for VHF and a TM-455 for UHF, there are similar old SSB capable models from Icom

>>2928960
>because of my location
Part of my concern about setting up a VHF/UHF station is the potential lack of signals. I live in a large city, but heard minimal repeater traffic and couldn't find anyone calling CQ on 2 meters for field day.
I would be one step closer to setting up a base station for the birds though, I'd just need a rotator.
Those Kenwoods look nice - I was thinking of separate 2m/70cm radios, but don't really have the space and wouldn't mind doing data
>>2928958
A IC-9700 would be nice since it's similar to the 7300. I get frustrated with the menus on my older Yaesus and Alincos. I have the cash, but I do like to pinch pennies too. The 910 looks like a close substitute, but the used rate seems to be around $1K. Given the 2, I'd rather splurge a bit more.

>>2928979
The only activity other than the repeater I am aware of on 2m and 70cm is because once a week a guy organizes something around 8pm but the hams that are participating all have directional antennas and amplifiers

>>2928993
That's kind of what I'm looking to get into. I have a FM VHF/UFH radio on the desk I occasionally listen to repeater traffic and the local schools, but I wouldn't mind starting to try to work the satellites and meteor scatter. Huh. I guess in that case local traffic doesn't matter. I usually pick up guys from 3+ states over when I try satellites on my ht. I guess my big headache now is to find a spot for the yagi and rotator in my small, wooded backyard

First 50ft mast done, I'm about 3ft into my 5x3 hole and I've hit hardened clay, so I gotta let water soak in before I can slap this bitch in. Eye hooks on every section for easy guying, it'll be used to hang dipoles from 40m to 10m. 40m will be low (around 45ft) but everything else will be high (roughly .6 wavelength from 20m down).

>>2928954
I like my Yaesu FT-847. It has a decent front end on it for VHF/UHF. A Kenwood TS790S is great for weak signal work too, it was designed for it. I got to use one in 2000 and loved it.

I also have a Yaesu FT290R 144 MHz SSB radio.

>>2928960
When I was first licenced I wanted a TM-255 and TM-455 so bad. Good looking radios with a sensitive receiver.

>>2928225
>It is pretty cool when you see the AMers though
Agreed. Neatest thing I've heard was the West Coast Military Radio collectors group at the top end of 80M. A bunch of guys using Vietnam era radios.

Goodbye Mr. Phelps
>Lalo Schifrin, composer and jazz musician, 1932-2025
https://archive.ph/xR2sQ
>Mission: Impossible was his breakthrough. Having had his first effort rejected, he dashed out a piece of music in unusual 5/4 time. Typical of his wit and intelligence, the stabbing rhythm makes hidden use of the Morse code for the letters “M” and “I”.

Got my license in New Zealand. Guess I’ll bust out the old RTL-SDR dongle and listen about for a while until my radio arrives. Gotta get 50 contacts in the next 3 months in order to use HF bands here.

>>2929203
TIL something new. Crazy, now I can't unhear the 'MI' being sent in cw.

Recently bought a used Cobra 29 ltd Chr.
It didn’t come with a microphone should, so what’s do you guys recommend for a good mobile mic?

>>2929520

Astatic Road Devil

>>2929203
>he stabbing rhythm makes hidden use of the Morse code for the letters “M” and “I”
>MI
>Mission Impossible
Genius yet simple

>>2929505>>2929564
Back in the day when I was learning Morse code, it was well known that most operators played at least one musical instrument. And the letter V reminded everyone about this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jv2WJMVPQi8

>>2929640
I remember seeing Rush in Calgary, Alberta in 1986 and it wasn't until the mid-90's when I learned the significance of the beat in their song "YYZ". I was quite surprised to find out Peart was banging out the airport identifier in morse code.

https://dl2man.de/2-trusdx-assembly/
This is the (tr)usdx HF transceiver schematic. There's another schematic with a current-sensor, filter-switching relays for multiple bands, and a class-E amplifier. If I recall, you can use an analogue switch as a mixer, and I think that's what they're doing here. It's still impressive that they manage to get the I/Q sampling at 31kS/s each channel, demodulate FM, AM, or SSB/CW, and output a shitty PWM audio signal all without any DMA in an 8-bit single-core 20MHz AVR.

I know it's nowhere near as good as a proper radio, but its price and availability of parts makes me want to build one as my first HF radio. Thoughts?

>>2929793
Try to get a QMX or QMX+, they're the best and that Hans guy really updates the firmware on a regular basis. You can get 8W out of it.

I couldn't resist, plus my father doesn't have the ham license yet, I got that handled that is way overpriced but does SSB.
Here's what the setup will be :
my father 5-10 km away with a 1/2 wave vertical and a FT-891 and me with that device, I hope to rig a 12V battery supply to it, a one meter long antenna (I ordered a BNC telescopic one and a BNC "tactical" one) and the 4 watts of the device : is there hope to do the contact ?
Maybe a dipole (and me putting the antenna horizontal, more or less) to use NVIS will be better ?

>>2929820
I’m looking at the QMX rev 1 schematic and man I cannot make heads or tails out of the transmitter. I like the quality ADC though. The plus does more bands, but I may not need those since here we don’t have access to as many HF bands as in the states.

I bought a used CB yesterday. Just opened it up to clean it- is pic rel a concern? What is that?

>>2930018

It's Just Wax that Cobra puts in it's CB Radios to Seal Some Pots and other things.

The VietGook who made your radio just had a lil Spill

>>2930018
it's jiz my dude. I cum in every CB we make.

>>2930041
Oh ok, thanks anon. The guy that wired it must’ve been new. lol

Guys, how do you ground a cb radio?

>>2930108
Connect a wire from the chassis or the shielding of the coax connector and lead it to ground? Are you taking vehicle-mounted?

>>2930123
Yes. I know very little about electrical.
So I’m wanting to mount it to my truck- honestly I’d love to mount it to my Mustang, but I hate the idea of drilling holes- which if you guys have any idea on how to do it with a whip, please let me know. I thought about somehow mounting it to my gas cap door, but I’d still have to drill somewhere.
Also, would pic rel work for a whip? It’s only like 13 bucks.

>>2930142
Yeah that would work. Yaseu also sells a nice antenna mount that clamps to a body panel edge. No drilling required. There are cheaper Chinese versions of the clamp mount if the Yaseu one is too pricey.
Also don't worry grounding your CB for a vehicle install. It'll already be grounded through the antenna mount so no need to run an extra line off the shielding. The vehicles body is your ground plane.

daily reminder that there isnt anything interesting on radio

2 left

>>2930167
Sick! Thank you my friend. I’ll for sure look that up.
That’s refreshing about grounding it btw.

>>2930142
I have that exact one that I'm going to use to mount an antenna to the ladder on the back of my van

>>2930142
>Amazon

Get on Right Channel radios and get hooked up with some Real Deal USA sheeeeeeiiit. Also depends on how big a whip you wanna run. if you a True Nigga, 102" Whip will bow that thing.

>>2930167
>It'll already be grounded through the antenna mount
Carefull about that advice. The paint will prevent a proper ground unless you sand it away to bare metal. You can run a wire from the radio thru the firewall and attach it to the frame anywhere in the engine compartment where it's out of the way and unseen.

>>2929826
I'm going to answer with a 'maybe'. I've done a bit of 10 metre AM with a CB vertical and about 10 watts RF to chat across town during an experiment. Max distance was about 3 to 4 km but we might have been going farther. IRC the old PRC-77 manpack military radios using the big whip antennas got about 5 km or so range with only a couple of watts and they operated just above the 10m band.

I think terrain will have some effect on you, especially in an urban environment, and not in a good way. The base station will be doing most of the work with it's higher power and better antenna gain & pattern. The portable will likely hear him, and the base's better antenna may hear the weaker portable signal.

It's a bit difficult to predict what your experience will be. Someone else might chime in here with more experience. You might have to travel around to find the best path. Amateur radio is the experimental service, afterall. :-)

I'm just speculating out loud, but I wonder if a tiger tail on the portable would be effective. At that wavelength the wire might be a bit long. Does that portable Albrecht unit have a metal case? If so, the user acts like a counterpoise but a wire will do better.

>>2930167
Won't the radio be grounded via the negative wire that gives the radio a 12V power supply? Or is the output stage deliberately left floating wrt the input power rails?

>>2930226
Thank you anon about your experience, also to remind me to use a counterpoise, even for VHF handheld it can make the antenna way more efficient. I'll buy a ruler this eweekend and try to make a huge antenna tuned to 27MHz like the ones you see on soldiers back in the 50s and 60s. About the terrain it's not as bad as urban where I never really managed to get something to work when experimenting with a friend in VHF, it's in the mountains, so huge masking but the valleys might drive the signal a bit with reflections, or NVIS but the 4watts of the handled are limiting. I might bring a little amplifier if I carry a 12v battery (don't tell anyone kek)

>>2930198
I do in fact have a 102” whip. Probably should’ve mentioned that before. I see the site you recommended does have a stainless bracket and a ball bracket.

>>2930286
>I do in fact have a 102” whip
Damn anon. You must bring in the women with that.

>>2930230
Electrical and RF grounding are two different things, and im not the best person to explain it. The radio needs an electrical ground to complete the circuit and power on, which is your negative wire. But the radio and antenna also technically ought to have an rf ground. That's why anon recommended soldering a wire to the coax shield and grounding it on the vehicle frame. But if you're using an antenna mount that requires drilling into a body panel, I tend to consider that a good enough rf ground even though its probably not great.
You're more likely to run into a hum from a common mode current than you are an rf grounding issue in a vehicle install in my experience.

>ARES pretending to be super important and "helping out When All Else Fails (R)" since 1954
I wonder how many ARES members are jacking off over such a tragedy as a way to feel important?

https://www.arrl.org/news/amateur-radio-volunteers-serving-during-texas-floods?utm_source=Informz&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=ARRL&_zs=nLUMm&_zl=GqrO3

>>2930298
I run 111" Whip lmao.
6" Extension plus two studs to get Channel 19 Gucci Pucci.
My ICOM can tune the shit out of it too all the way up to 40m.
Mad Pussy I get with it aswell

Is 160m a good idea to get into? I'm trying to think of a way to monitor the bands near me before investing in it. Maybe try to string up a quarter-wave antenna across my yard and hook it up to my scope with a tuning circuit? Or should I be looking at a loop antenna instead?

>>2926382
you do not need a license to transmit. the fcc cannot find you. i know this because i do this.

>>2917998
>qansheng uv-K5
I guess this is preferred over the UV-5R now? I’m looking at this UV-K5 and see there’s also the UV-K6, and a little modchip you can solder atop the circuit board to enhance it. Then there’s the firmware you mention, is it complimentary with the modchip, or are they mutually exclusive or are they for different hardware versions anyhow? Can someone demystify my options? Assuming I want to at least be able to listen to HF with it, what would I need? Besides the antenna I mean.

>>2930537
If you want to brag, why not? I can get on it with a 135' efhw 20ft off the ground. The swr is in the 2's so I still have to use an ATU. I can get it on my random wire but the ATU heats up so I don't use it on that antenna since the swr is like 5+. I don't hear much traffic on it (very little tmi medical shit like prostate exams), so it maybe a good band to be on if you want to shoot the shit with some regulars. The only time when there is quite bit more traffic going on is the CQ 160 contest. Other than that, I'm not really on 160m. I stick to 80m and 40m since I'm a night owl.

>>2930800
As a new ham in NZ I don't get access to HF for the first 3 months / 50 contacts. I'm basically stuck with 2m and 70cm for now, but the more obscure bands over 30MHz and the 160m are alternatives that could be fun. The handheld UHF radio I planned on buying is back-ordered so I'm wondering what to do.

I'll order myself a nanoVNA, I assume that's enough to figure out my antennas and transmission lines without needing a dedicated antenna tuner.

>>2930417
>I wonder how many ARES members are jacking off over such a tragedy as a way to feel important?
Probably none. Nearly all /ham/ guys I know have a military background.
The real question is why do people like you have a problem with ARES?

>>2930710
There's a version on aliexpress with the mod already installed, I think you have to select what chipset you use (VHF / UHF or HF) and then the device will restart and select the other antenna. I was looking into that but I have a Kenwood TH-F7E that does that job too (even if the sensitivity on HF is not very good) and I got a UV-98Plus that is a bit bulkier and does the HF part too with a second SMA port and bigger screen. So I use the UV-K5 for VHF/UHF where it's very nice (with a good antenna, like SRH-771 that costs the same price as the handheld kek) with the egzumer firmware.
Modulation quality is night and day from the UV-5R and the UV-K5, plus the different firmwares available are a huge improvement, plus it's still cheap as fuck and you can toss one in a vehicle, in a backpack and not cry a lot when it's damaged. Some people are having issues with the batteries, maybe one of mine is affected : it doesn't hold charge more than a couple of days. It can be expected for the price.

>>2930700
k

Dumbass question incoming but do having CB and GMRS antennas on my vehicle make it more likely to get hit by lighting in a storm?

>>2930846
I don't have an issue with ARES itself. It's a valuable service that has helped saved lives. I have witnessed in it action in my state multiple times in the past few years. I still hear it on the state wide repeater system.

I have an issue with many are in it. They act all important as if they are better than everyone simply because they are in ARES. They create more issues than what they help by getting in the way. About half here need their hands held since they don't even know the very basics they should know like manually programming their HTs instead of using Chirp. They should be the comm experts, yet they're not much different than a new ham who bought an UV-5R and cause interference on the repeaters

I know plenty of people in the military too: it doesn't mean that they're smart. My own brother is the perfect example. He maintains constantly that "he in the army" so therefore he knows what he is doing. He literally almost ate Pokeweed berries until I told him those were poisonous. What did he argue? "i WaS iN tHe ArMy, ThErEfOrE i Am CoRrEcT!!" It wouldn't surprise me if he ate the poison hemlock growing close to his driveway while learning to forage.

It was the same with his own army buddy who was instructing me how to use an HT while not knowing how to because "he's in the military." It's teh same with all who he deployed with when they were deployed to Iraq in 2006. If I want to learn how to maintain a firearm, I'll ask them because they can do it blind. If I wanted to know combat strategies how to cover properly and return fire, I would go with them since they're brilliant on that. If I wanted to set up a comms network in an emergency (which I already know how to do since I practiced it, unlike many is ARES), I wouldn't go with them since they're brainlets when it comes to that.

Being in the army doesn't mean shit. Some of the biggest brainlets I knew were in it.

>>2930954
No, it doesn't increase the likelyhood of a strike. But there can be a danger that the antenna conducts the energy of a nearby strike and blow the front-end of the radio. Rare but possible.

Why aren't CB radios dirt cheap? It's HF AM, the technology is 100 years old. 40 fixed channels, you don't even need programming. Surely Chang could whip up something in the sweatshop that would retail for under $25, but the ones I can find start closer to $100. Take the guts of a UV-K5, change a few firmware values, swap out some filter components, done. I don't get it.

>>2931146
>HF AM
FM has been available on CB for quite awhile. It just took Amerisharts up until 2 or 3 years ago to finally a law to allow it when other countries have been doing it for far longer.

>>2931146
They charge what the market can pay, not what the cost is. With modern tech a HF radio should be the size of a smartphone and much cheaper.

The reason I think CB’s are the coolest form of radio is because I can talk to truckers who are actually out in the real world doing something and not just sitting in their rooms talking about their radios.
Change my mind.

>>2931532
I'm not. You like hat you like. Meanwhile, I'll keep telling those guys on 80m that no one wants to hear about them sharting themselves and whether generic or name-brand adult diapers are better.

>>2917766 (OP)
QSY CHANNELS >>2931635
SWITCH THE QRG >>2931635
BEST 73'SES >>2931635

>>2931532
CB is cool because you don't have to dox yourself to use it so no one can tell your mom if you use a bad word on the air

Oh yeah

>>2931836
Oh no

>>2931920
Sigh...