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Ham thread? Ham thread.
KD9B** here, where my hams at?
Also, have to move in a couple months. I'll finally have a place with a yard. I'll finally have room to do some HF work. I'm thinking either a Kenwood TS-2000 or an ICOM IC-7100. Sure, a few tradeoffs between the two, but any opinions from those who have used both?
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>>905054
>. / . -. -.. . -.. / ..- .--. / . -. .--- --- -.-- .. -. --. / ... . -..-
Buy the Kenwood!
73 de YO5***
>>905249
Just bought a baofeng and the study manual.
I have yet to hear anybody on the airwaves.
Location Nova Scotia. Send help
>>905054
KD9A here!
Have a Ft-817ND, VX-8DR, and a Ft-7900
What repeater do you use most?
Tech here, got my license back in July and I'm working on studying for General, though I figure I'll probably have Extra before I have enough cash for a HF radio.
Right now all I've got is one of the F8 Baofengs, plus a Grundig G6 and a RTL-SDR dongle. Right now I'm mainly thinking about building a J-pole to put outside my window and a QFH antenna so that I can use the RTL-SDR to pick up weather satellite images.
>>905433
Industry Canada has a spectrum search tool, don't transmit on anything. You're in a place where you should get on HF as quickly as possible and aim to get honors on your Basic exam. A repeater network is planned for Labrador soon, if that helps.
>>905054
>Kenwood
>ICOM
>Baofeng
>Yaesu
>Grundig
So do any of you actually /diy/ other than antennas?
>>906417
I made a custom RTL SDR thingy with a built in LNA and upconverter http://imgur.com/a/2Eo9y
I also fuck around with arduino interfacing shit. pic is a relay board that uses a baofeng as a receiver and runs using dtmf tones.
Anyone know any compact (10x10 cm or so) 23cm SSB transmitters with at least 5W output?
>>906616
You're probably going to need to build it yourself. I think only Alinco makes a HT with the 1220 band and it's a FM only 1 watt radio. Heck I don't think 2m SSB equipment is readily available outside of HF+VHF base stations.
>>906703
That's what I suspected. The closest thing I've found is these amplifiers W6PQL and others make, but they seem to be based around the godawfully huge RA18H1213G. Digikey has some much smaller amps that I've tempted to build something out of (together with a mixer or two and a few filters ofc).
>>906411
Thanks. It's a side hobby while I study and save up for my General Operators Certificate for the ships
>>906792
I trip on another board when talking about radios.
>>906616
You're not going to be able to find a commercial unit with those specs. The only thing I can think of is either making a unit, or getting a SDR.
If you make your own, you can get it to be exactly what you want, but it'll be very time consuming. An SDR would be easy, but then you need a computer and your setup quickly gets expensive.
You might want to look into generic SSB modules that can be found at electronics retailers. You might get lucky and find something that requires very little external circuitry.
>>906922
An SDR won't have the output power I need. But it will be able to generate the signal to feed to PA, so it's a place to start at least
Hey, KE0*** here, I want to make a telegraph key but am having trouble finding instructions. Can anyone help me out?
Latest report on intruders into ham bands, published today: http://www.iarums-r1.org/iarums/latest.pdf
>>906926
There are some SDRs with enough output, but they can get expensive. I'm sure you could either make or buy a small amplifier to use with a weak SDR.
>>906968
If you have access to a 3D printer you could check out Thingiverse and look up "morse key" there are several CAD drawings. even if you don't have one, you can at least get an idea of what to do.
>>906968
Consider that you're basically just closing a circuit. At the bare minimum you can get away with three nails on a board and a hacksaw blade.
I want to learn CW but I just don't have the time and it seems daunting. Maybe I'll try it over the summer once I'm done with school.
When I was a teenager I read a story about a pilot who got shot down in Vietnam made a foxhole radio in a prison camp out of the usual coil of wire, razorblade and pencil lead, but he made a speaker out of four nails wrapped in cloth (I'm guessing in a square shape?) and covered with wax. He then made a coil of wire over it, sealed with wax, and housed the thing in a piece of bamboo with the lid from a tin can on one end. Could anybody explain how/why this works and how the "speaker" would be connected?
There's a Ham club in the EE department at my college. Since I'm an EE, it seems like I should get certified, but why should I? What does it take?
>>906417
I'm planning on making a high-pass filter in a few days to see if I can cut out the local MW stations.
M3*** based in Milton Keynes, UK. Mfw stuck on baofeng uv-5r as cannot setup an antenna for my hf ic-728 cos I moved to a shitty 1 bed flat
>>906417
Restoring a pure analogue 14m kit ht, got all nos tubes replaced but struggling with rectifier and wood work.
>>907182
Sounds like this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moving_iron_speaker
Except that leaving the magnet out totally ruins the sound quality.
>>907316
not at the moment, bud I'd be glad to forward you my shitty schematics and code for it.
>>907319
Wow, that IS a shitty schematic!
>>907319
How about the schematic for the preamp on imgur?
>>907636
I didn't exactly take the time to actually label all of the components, so the capacitor and inductor values are all off. The LNA I used was a PSA4-5043+ and the frequency mixer is a SBL-1+, both from minicircuits. Also, I ended up not using the micro USB, and using a type B instead.
I forgot all about this thread until just now.
>>905438
Honestly, I use whatever is active. Sadly, it seems like it's mostly the WA9ORC repeater. Gotta use the 440 machine since for some reason, I just can't hit the 2m machine from home. I can hit it just fine much father away, but, yeah... I need to build a new attena after I get out of this faraday cage of an apartment.
>>907885
Ah, yeah. Sometimes either that or the NS9RC. I like the 2m WA9ORC but their freq. is exactly where interference from my car stereo goes into my mobile antenna. Haven't tried a high or low pass though. I drive all over chicagoland for work, so 2m simplex is where I run 70% of the time.
>>907997
I have a hard time hitting the NS9RC Repeater. Not really sure why. Offset and tone are right, but it's once in a great while I can actually get in. And honestly, Simplex is kinda what got me on the ORC repeater. Just so happened to send out my call on 652, something I do once in a great while, and Tom came back to me. Turns out he was dicking around on Simplex, heard me, and well, invited me over to the machine. Besides, I'm always entertained by simplex, I'll keep my radio on 652 even when listening to the police. Who knows, drop a call, I might respond.
In an area with a relatively little amount of EMI, how long of a random-wire antenna can I put up without overloading the front-end on a portable? I'm visiting family for a few weeks and I could hang an ~80' antenna but I don't have a balun or an effective ground and I'm not interested in going to the trouble of installing something more professional. Looking around online I saw some people saying that any antenna length over 30' would cause problems but I also saw lots of people saying to use as much wire as possible and that they had great results.
>>908327
It depends on what you're doing. What band? Dipole? J-Pole? How much power is the portable putting out?
>>908340
>What band?
All HF; I should have said that this is for SWLing. I originally had that in my post but I guess I edited it out.
>Dipole? J-Pole?
Random wire sloper.
How much power is the portable putting out?
N/A
>>908824
http://www.hamuniverse.com/randomwireantennalengths.html
seems about 84'
I'd go longer if you can depending what you're looking for.
You could ground the radio through the screw in between 2 outlets, if you can.
>>908824
Ok, just listening, there isn't a need for a balun really.
>>908964
Had it about right, but if you want, hell, just run as much wire as you can. I sually say, just go 100'. You can ground on an outlet like he said, or just attach another to a chain link fence, or just drive a metal stake into the ground and attach it to that. Luckily, listening isn't nearly as hard as transmitting.
>>905054
I bought a handheld HAM radio but I don't have a license so I don't use it.
Everyone I work with says I should be a HAM. I've work as a television broadcast engineer for ten years now.
>>908981
Then you should be able to pass your Technician's exam with a bare minimum of study.
>>909000
Yeah, I feel like I could do it, I just need to GO and do it.
>>908327
Get a tuner, bro.
>>909762
Too poor for the foreseeable future.
>>909766
ebay is your friend, buy used. Most hams are pretty honest with gear, but that has been my experience
/k/ommando here in a recent Christmas gift thread an anon suggested a Chinese radio baofeng as a neat gift.
Where do I start getting into radio?
What kinds of things can I do with a radio like this?
I am in USA if that matters.
>>912094
you could check out eHam's beginners section for some basics.
Also, check out murdercube.com/radioconfig/ for help with programming.
>>912094
/k/ sucks, try the ARRL instead.
>>912098
Any books you could recommend?
>>905054
KD0A** reporting in
>>912111
ARRL has a nice set of books for studying for the exams. Though the main point is to prep for the exams, they also do a really good job of explaining everything from the ground up.
Also if you're interested in learning about the electronics behind it all, I'd suggest the youtube channel andydaviesbythesea. He makes lots of nice videos that explain radio internals.
>>912094
http://www.miklor.com/
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiE35KH-szJAhXwq4MKHUvqCdYQFggjMAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.kb6nu.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2015%2F03%2F2014-no-nonsense-tech-study-guide-v20.pdf&usg=AFQjCNG3DVpc9PFiWAKdmr6MIxahvB54Gg&sig2=IxIDKlYWpqPYN5o9YI5aSQ
KE8C** here.
Just finished my first few contacts with a Smiley 270a on a UV-5R5.
Ham radio is fucking fun. God damn.
you shouldnt buy licenses, its a total fucking scam that they make you do it.
pirateradio for life. you cant sell airwaves.
>>912588
http://youtu.be/H0kJLW2EwMg
>>912111
The ARRL books are good but IMO the Gordon West books are the best for actually studying and passing the exam and I think he explains the electrical stuff better.
I would suggest shooting for both the Tech and General class licenses at the same time. Tech is pretty much just limited to VHF and above, plus CW on 80 & 40 meters and a small SSB section on 10 meters. General on the other hand opens up pretty much everything else in any mode you can imagine, aside from some band sections set aside for Extra class.
Got myself an SDR dongle and so far my intention is to listen until the opportunity rises to get a license. Would it be wise to purchase a handheld radio as addition/toy for discovery?
Or just for emergencies.
>>912588
ya dude fuck hams. i always fart and burp into my baofang handheld radio during their meetups. those autistic retards try to ignore it but always eventually have a meltdown.
ya im really fucking sure youll be able to triangulate my position. sorry for interrupting your incessant jabbering about ham meetups and retarded antenna ideas. seriously guys its 2015
>>913485
yeah its 2015, they do triangulate your position. Happens about twice a year near me. FCC gets boners over it.
>>905054
I was looking at building a larger 2 meter antenna for my Baofeng BF-F8+ for better reception when I'm inside my apartment, only problems are that I live in a basement apartment, I'm not sure if the owner of the building would have a problem with me sticking something into the "garden" (only long grass and weeds grow in it) outside my bedroom window, and there isn't a window in my apartment that isn't rather close to a power line. Is there any way I can make this work?
Can anyone identify what this signal might be? I see these when scanning through HF with my SDR sometimes, and they appear between 20 and 25 GHz. Bandwidth is approximately 10 KHz with a duration of about 3 seconds.
>>913619
Well I'd say your first step will be finding out if your landlord is okay with you putting up a antenna in the yard, hung under the eaves or clamped to a drain stack on the roof or something. If they're concerned about how it looks you could put the antenna in a flower pot, spray-paint it brown and green and wrap fake ivy around it or something. Or put it near/in a tree and paint it so it looks like bark.
Small loop antennas are also pretty low footprint as I recall. You could make one look like a wind chime with some sections of bamboo.
If they say no even to a disguised antenna, I suppose your best bet would be to make a antenna that's easy to disassemble so that you can set it up temporarily.
>>913736
aliens
>>913619
>Asking permission
>Begging forgiveness
They both have their advantages.
Chances are that unless you're going to climb the roof (best option for LoS) you can probably stick something outside without causing too much of a fuss. A simple 1/4 wave ground plane can be amazingly effective with enough elevation so don't feel like you have to get too fancy.
https://radiotransmitter.wordpress.com/2015/06/02/a-compact-handheld-qrp-ssb-transceiver-for-14-mhz/
Stuff like this guy's projects really makes me wish I knew more electrical engineering stuff.
I'm one of those "illegal" hams never have never will understand why the government / FCC needs to say what I can and cannot do.
Pirate radio since 2012
>>913736
I receive that signal also (UTC+1). It is probably a data strobe from one of the NATO (satellite) ground stations. I live close next to one and that specific signal comes from the stations direction.
>>913873
>Why regulation?
Well, people are idiots.
>>913873
im with you 100% man. its fucking bullshit.
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>11. CIS taxi traffic on our 10 m-band – no change
>I found about CIS taxi traffic on F3E (FM) on about 100 frequencies in November 2015, mostly transmitting from Russia. They were angry about the CW-Contest on Nov. 29th (observed on 28105 kHz).
http://www.iaru-r1.org/index.php/iarums-news/1503-iarums-region-1-newsletter-november-2015-available
>>913873
because we don't want every band to be like CB
>>913873
>>914242
I agree!
>>914350
God forbid people enjoy the hobby of radio communications, and keep it alive.
I attended a local ham gathering interested in getting some info about hopefully someday soon being licensed, and was treated like absolute garbage because I wasn't a member of the old boys club. These are the same people upset because no one new or young is getting interested in radios/tech like the old days. Most hams claim they have professional attitudes towards everyone, but my experience with them has been the exact opposite. At least on a cb if someone wants to say piss off they don't hide behind a condescending attitude, and shit eating grin. They just tell you to piss off.
>>914491
>God forbid people enjoy the hobby of radio communications, and keep it alive.
So what exactly is the reason you can't stay on the license-free bands? They exist for the purpose of allowing anyone to use them with minimal legal hassle.
> was treated like absolute garbage because I wasn't a member of the old boys club.
If anything, the majority of them seem to promote their hobby rather aggressively, to the point that it's annoying.
>>914502
When did i say I can't just stay on the license free bands? I was pointing out how ridiculous it is to pay for using radio bandwith just to be treated like an outsider or nuisance after going through the process anyways.
At no point have any ham clubs or ops ever aggressively promoted the hobby. I don't understand where you came up with that idea, considering they treat it like their own private property and you'll be shot on sight around here.
>>914491
This has not been my experience in the ham community.
>>914693
i have always had good interactions with other pirate radio guys. Most of us know that its bullshit to charge people for a license. how the hell can you charge people for using air...
The licensed guys think they are so cool and if you even try asking a question they make fun of your lack of knowledge. Yea way to be professional and make your hobby enjoyable.
But this is in every hobby. the seasoned guys always make fun of the new guys and then cry and complain that no one is doing it and the community is dying. maybe treat new people better? that might work. or maybe more people are realizing that pirate radio should just be radio.
>>914716
>Most of us know that its bullshit to charge people for a license.
What country do you live in? In the US it's only about $15 to take the tests and you can take the test for each level license at the same time for that one payment, and from what I understand the payment is more for the having the people there for the testing and for the people who have to be paid to do the paperwork.
>>914735
I have to wonder if he hasn't somehow confused ham radio with AM/FM broadcast.
>>905433
>Bought a baofeng :^)
>Expects to hear people.
You can have one. But not both.
To any new friends reading this thread. If you want to go cheap. Get a kenwood, yaesu, or worst case.. icom.
For even cheaper, get it second hand.
Even second hand it's better quality then baeoquanshhyteranew.
In canada, industry canada is forcing people to narrow band. Meaning older 25watt wideband radios are no longer allowed. You may be able to pick some up cheap. And being older means you can get the programming software. Just avoid ICOM.
>>913464
Reading those legal stuff, I wonder about this case;
I already have a set of consumer radios which of course are legal to use on the PMR bands allocated to those. If say, you'd have a baofeng/kenwood/whatever but no license, and ONLY use those frequencies, would you be fine?
Would be convenient to have three radios, so three groups could walk through the forest.
>>914869
>If say, you'd have a baofeng/kenwood/whatever but no license, and ONLY use those frequencies, would you be fine?
De-jure, no.
De-facto, probably. The FCC only reacts; if you're using unlicensed equipment in a compliant manner, no-one's going to report you and the FCC isn't going to do anything.
http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?node=se47.5.95_1409&rgn=div8
>>914716
Yeah, I've never paid anything for my amateur license and so far I've yet to encounter a licensed amateur making fun of my lack of knowledge beyond an awkward silence and a polite "I don't think that's how it works." Of course, I'm Canadian so this might just be a cultural thing.
Making generalizations about a large group of people based on the actions of a small group of vitriolic dicks is confrontational and only serves to amplify and perpetuate the negative experiences that you've already had. Your further generalization that 'every hobby' involves 'seasoned guys always making fun of the new guys' leads me to wonder if there is some sort of persecution complex at play here, though it's hard to tell after only a few posts.
Also, why do you expect an amateur hobby to behave by professional standards? It IS a hobby and, much like a sewer, what you get out of it depends largely on what you put into it.
It's not exactly HAM, but I have a question regarding Part 15 transmitters.
Part 15 allows for a hobbyist to build and operate up to five Part-15-compliant transmitters of their own design, without going through the certification process. My question is, what constitutes "designing" a transmitter?
For example, if I were to buy one of these (http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__27095__OrangeRx_Open_LRS_433MHz_TX_Module_100mW_JR_Turnigy_compatible_.html) 433 MHz, spread-spectrum LRS units - which require a HAM license to operate in the US - then swap out the RF module and antenna to bring it into the Part-15-kosher 915 MHz band - would I then be legal in operating it without a license? Or would that not be far enough to be considered "designing" my own transmitter?
>>914972
Well it says it's programmable from 400 to 460mhz so I don't think you'd need to get that involved with it, jut program it to be outside of the 420 to 450 of the 70cm band. And it's 100 milliwatts so right at the power limit for part 15 stuff.
So just go for it and claim ignorance if anybody complains. Or just spend a couple weeks studying and get a tech ticket, the tech exam isn't really any harder than the midterm to a no-credit elective at a community college, and when I got mine I was only a couple questions away from getting General too and I hadn't even studied for it.
>>914972
AIUI, you can run as many certified part-15 devices you didn't design as you like. Designing it yourself adds a restriction; it doesn't take one away. Any change to a device invalidates its FCC certification; they keep bleating about replacing aerials and firmware on 802.11 kit.
The whole thing about part-15 is that with a range of 200 feet, it can't really do that much damage.
>>915223
Part 15 is more complex than just a blanket transmitter power restriction. The limits vary widely with frequency band and transmitter type/intended usage. They seem to want to keep the 70 cm band clean for the HAMs, so 410-470 MHz is limited to 200 microvolts/m @3m (which translates to less than a microwatt EIRP) in Part 15 (with a larger allowance for "intermittent control signals," but these LRS transmitters are not intermittent). At 902-928 MHz, on the other hand, spread-spectrum transmitters (which this can function as with FHSS firmware) are generously allowed a full watt, plus up to 6 dBi of antenna gain. This LRS equipment could have EASILY been designed as Part 15 compliant for no additional cost or effort, yet every LRS I've seen marketed has been designed to operate at or around 70 cm instead.
>>915236
>AIUI, you can run as many certified part-15 devices you didn't design as you like.
Yes, but if they're certified, it doesn't matter if you designed them or not.
>Designing it yourself adds a restriction; it doesn't take one away.
Homebuilding a transmitter exempts you from the requirement to have it certified/verified, on the condition that you are not manufacturing them for commercial sale. But you CANNOT operate under this exemption if you have a non-certified but compliant transmitter that you did NOT build yourself.
>Any change to a device invalidates its FCC certification; they keep bleating about replacing aerials and firmware on 802.11 kit.
Well yes, but that's largely because such modifications can cause these transmitters to potentially exceed Part 15 allowances. What I want to do is quite the opposite.
I'm probably going to do it one way or another. They can't give me shit for trying, when most other LRS users are just pissing all over 70 cm instead.
I'm looking to get an exception for amateur scientific research. Wanting to set up a radio telescope.
>>915341
>Homebuilding a transmitter exempts you from the requirement to have it certified/verified, on the condition that you are not manufacturing them for commercial sale. But you CANNOT operate under this exemption if you have a non-certified but compliant transmitter that you did NOT build yourself.
So I don't get what you're trying to do.
If you're clicking together legos once, why does it matter whether it counts as having designed it or not? Are you planning to 'accidentally' exceed the specification?
