/HAM/ Amateur Radio General

[Anonymous No.1742360]

High Voltage New Years Edition
>NEWBIE FAQ - NEW TO /HAM? READ THIS FIRST IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS
ftp://50.31.112.231/pub/radio_FAQ_Preview9.htm
>Getting Licensed / Exam Information
>Online Practice Tests:
http://aa9pw.com/
https://hamstudy.org/
https://hamexam.org/
> Exams are FREE through Laurel VEC
https://www.laurelvec.com/
> Real-Time Propagation Data
http://prop.kc2g.com/
> Useful SWR/ Power chart for antenna tuning (Want to know what is good SWR? Have a look)
http://www.packetradio.com/pdfzips/SWRvsPowerNwatts.pdf
> Previous Thread
>>1733454
>>1733454
>>1733454

[Anonymous No.1742449]

>>1742360
Bump

[impact !Ls9RqHyZwg No.1742480]

Yo /ham/, you ever though about putting your radio right next to your antenna and not running more than 8ft of coax?

[Anonymous No.1742502]

>>1742360
Fitting pic, I could use help boosting the TX of that beauty. At least the rceive is working.

[Anonymous No.1742643]

I want to transmit on at CB radio about 6 miles but there is a 200 foot hill between the two stations so we are not directly in line of sight. Will that be a problem for 11 meter?

[Anonymous No.1742652]

>>1742360
I'll add this to the OP post next thread, but if you don't already know, VOACAP is a great tool to help figure out when you're most likely able to talk to someone in a given location / country. The model takes into account sunspot conditions, antenna types, noise floor at your QTH, etc. There are many settings you can play with, and it's easy(ish) to use and figure out.
> https://www.voacap.com/
The photo is a propagation wheel, showing the probability of being able to make a contact at a given power level and data mode. This example is using FT-8 and 5W of power. going from the east coast to the west coast of the USA. You can see during the daytime, 60 meters and down is good, while at night 20 meters opens up.

[Anonymous No.1742653]

>>1742652
4chan ate my image, nice.

[Anonymous No.1742656]

>>1742480
Sure. Just have to watch your power levels, because RF exposure can call all sorts of issues.
>>1742502
Time of day and band, see >>1742652
>>1742643
Try it and let us know. You'll have better results if you run an SSB CB or export radio.

[Anonymous No.1742668]

>>1742643
I would say you should be fine unless you have really a high noise floor or a shit antenna.

[Anonymous No.1742676]

Bought a Poorfag UV-5r, What’s some cool shit to do?

[Anonymous No.1742678]

>>1742676
Get licenced, talk to gay old boomers, realize that 2M is all gay old boomers, save money, get an HF rig instead, talk to slavs.

[Anonymous No.1742680]

>>1742678
this is about where im at too, most of the conversation is pretty fucking boring on 2M, its only function really is for emergencies, or if you're stuck in the woods and need someone to come yank you out etc, for chatter, it's often pretty fucking bland and it's rare people talk about anything other than radios, or the weather

[Anonymous No.1742683]

Is this swr meter worth $15? Do they go out of calibration?

[Anonymous No.1742692]

>>1742678
More or less.
A tech license is good for local communication, but in this day and age, there are few circumstances where radio comms are actually needed in an amateur life. 4x4 communication in rural offroading comes to mind (beats CB), as does emergency communication if there isn't cell service.
Techs also get 10m, but given the conditions, it's almost worthless.
I got my tech, realized I liked radios and wanted to work the world, then next month got my General. They're damn near the same test.
So as for what Anon can do with that UV-5R?
Learn to program it with free Chirp software. Understand PL. Listen to goobers, interact if he's crazy enough. It's better than listening to commercial radio during your commute.
Then ask yourself what you want out of ham radio and come back.

[Anonymous No.1742759]

I'm Sexy and I know it!

[Anonymous No.1742779]

>>1742678
VHF/UHF Depends on your area. Most of the interesting people using it to keep up with friends and family dropped off when cellphones became popular. Urban areas tend to have more use just due to sheer numbers. Rural can either have active small groups, boomers that only talk to the 5 friends they know, or no activity. Usually repeaters are maintained by local clubs, so that's also an option for meeting people locally (They tend to be great or horrible, with little in between in my experience)
The Baofengs and the like are cheap and great for short range comms. If you want more than that, you need an HF rig; and while prices have come down it's still out of reach of many. 10/12 meter "export" radios are also a cheap option, but IME much general ham HF activity tends to be centered on 80 through 20 meters.

[Anonymous No.1742808]

>>1742676
Shove it up your ass and stimulate your prostate.

[Anonymous No.1742816]

>>1742683
>Is this swr meter worth $15?
Yes, if it works.
>Do they go out of calibration?
No. Usually the meter gets broken from being dropped. If the needle moves, it's probably OK.

[Anonymous No.1742940]

What does "CQ ND" mean? Is that North Dakota?

I know that NA stand for "north america", ja is for japan, but ND?

[Anonymous No.1742974]

>>1742940
>North Dakota?
Yes

[Anonymous No.1742991]

>>1742940
Negligent discharge. He got an unwanted, gooey STD.

[Anonymous No.1742992]

>>1742974
Why? Why would you cq north dakota? I don't get it.There is nothing there

[Anonymous No.1743024]

>>1742992
See image.

[Anonymous No.1743028]

>>1743024
You seems forgot to attach it

[Anonymous No.1743035]

>>1742652
Why is all ham related software utter shit unless you take hours if not weeks to implement?
>LotW
>Eqsl
>Tsql
Even wsjt needs jtalerts and I still can't figure out if I can get it to read my logs so I don't have to manually flag states and countries.
Add VOACAP to my rant.

[Anonymous No.1743072]

>>1742992
That’s probably the point. They’re trying to work all 50 states and that’s one they ain’t got yet.

[Anonymous No.1743124]

>>1742992
>t. retard

[Anonymous No.1743368]

>>1742992
>CQ ND
>calling anyone in North Dakota.
Doesn't seem that unusual.

[Anonymous No.1743391]

>>1742360
I have a UV-5R. No, i don't have a license and yes i transmit. i use it to fuck with taxicabs, and occasionally I sail the airwaves and piss off boomers from my car with the radio set for max power. i don't give a fuck, nor do i do it at home. it's just a toy for me. Foxhunt me all you want...

[Anonymous No.1743398]

>>1743072
>They’re trying to work all 50 states and that’s one they ain’t got yet.
I see.

[Anonymous No.1743455]

From time to time I see people are using < > brackets in FT8 mode. What does that mean?

[Anonymous No.1743460]

>>1743391
>I have a UV-5R
nobody cares, you stupid canadian faggot, knock yourself out

[Anonymous No.1743463]

>>1743035
VOACAP was a USGOV ionospheric model for Voice of America. The website I linked is actually the best implementation- There's a few very old desktop versions floating around the net.
There's a serious problem when it comes to software development in ham radio. Most of the old ham developers were hardware guys, and only learned software later on. So what you get is a hot mess of spaghetti code and programs that "mostly" work, with shit UI's even by 90s standards. Making matters worse, a lot of these engineers literally had zero knowledge of design practice, aesthetics, or other things that factor into making the program "easier to use". Figuring out how the software worked was almost a rite of passage, a litmus test of if you had what it takes to join the ranks of fellow autists.
Me, I like to make programs as easy to use as possible. On the other end of the spectrum you have MULTIPSK, which is up there with OrCad in terms of clunky menus and layout. It's 2020, and well designed UX doesn't just look pretty- people actually get more done when they're not fighting with software.

[Anonymous No.1743478]

If I send a signal that would've been s5 with no noise at all, but there's a noise floor of s2, will the s meter at the receiver show an s5 or s7 signal?

[Anonymous No.1743532]

>>1743478
You will see an s5, with the signal being 3 s-units above the noise floor.

[Anonymous No.1743571]

>>1743463
Yea, you more gracefully summarized my frustrations.
I've been tinkering with python for the past 3-4 years and have now gotten into bundling scripts with a gui for others to use and even my most rudimentary projects turn out much cleaner.
Maybe a ham website will be in the works for 2020.
>>1742360
Anyone know what's going on with Old Jim?
>Move from his house of 35 years to be close to a doctor
>Be admitted to hospital
>Start fatally talking about being in a wheelchair while building a new ham shack
Seems like a long term illness, but I'm not too familiar with many that begin at that age (MS, Parkinson's, etc). He looks physically healthy enough - Alzheimers?

[Anonymous No.1743596]

Is QRZ the meth addict's dream come true?
>Old guys bragging about thousands of dollars worth of electronics, some left unattended in cars.
>Posts location and pictures of gear
>Little to no depreciation, so druggie (or druggie's pimp) can sit on the hot merchandise until things cool down.

[Anonymous No.1743645]

>>1743391
Now that's what I call edgy 2019!

[Anonymous No.1743653]

Experimental narrow band image transfer (while it scrolls into oblivion)

[Anonymous No.1743655]

>>1743596
This happens in Spain already especially with SOTA guys who post where they'll be parked with a bunch of Elecraft gear in the car.

[Anonymous No.1743680]

Anyone ever thought of hacking ft8 to send and receive freetext? Js8 adoption seems to be a losing battle. Ft8 niggers might become curious if they see a bunch of broken up messages in their computer.

[Anonymous No.1743789]

>>1743680
Why don't you use a different mode? There's no point to do this. The WSJT modes were developed for EME and meteor scatter comms. Weak signals with a very limited opening time.

[Anonymous No.1743810]

>>1742360
What frequency should I use for a satellite in low earth orbit? Trying to decide what radio module to buy. I want to launch a cubesat 5x5x5 cm, 250grams then give the public access to it (including 4chan) so you can shitpost from space and nobody can censor it. (I know it only stays in orbit 3 years but that's enough).

[Anonymous No.1743814]

>>1743810
Do 13cm band because then people can use cheap Wifi amplifiers and a hackrf

[Anonymous No.1743816]

>>1743814
This thing any good?
https://www.tindie.com/products/NiceRF/rf4463f30-1w-wireless-transceiver-module/

I see an Austrailan guy using it:
https://hackaday.io/project/1726/logs?sort=newest&page=1

But he also disappeared somewhere.

[Anonymous No.1743818]

>>1743814
BTW what is the length of tape measure I need to cut to get the most effective antenna for this range?

[Anonymous No.1743820]

>>1743789
Wrong, FT-8 was developed for HF
The point is that people have to seem standarized on a stupid mode with a fixed message length, so we have to fix that

[Anonymous No.1743828]

>>1743814
How is that better than UHF that can be worked with a Baofeng?
The main problem is that with the power you can harvest from a small solar panel you can't power a broadband transponder because with the low power per Hertz the SNR would be unusable. But I don't see any benefit to higher frequencies there. Maybe that it'd be easier to build a high gain antenna? For maximum efficiency what you'd want is a digipeater that would work in bursts to transfer as much data as possible per watt, as opposed to constantly relaying the whole spectrum.

[Anonymous No.1743833]

>>1743828
>high gain antenna
The image is a project by some university in Budapest. We need to stick to the 5x5x5cm spec. How long should be the antenna for UHF?
The solar cells will probably suck so I agree it's probably better to transmit in bursts.

[Anonymous No.1743841]

>>1743828
Which Baofeng is he using here?
https://youtu.be/weK97F9ZbnI?t=951

[Anonymous No.1743853]

>>1743820
FT8 stands for "Franke-Taylor design, 8-FSK modulation" and was created by Joe Taylor, K1JT and Steve Franke, K9AN. It is described as being designed for "multi-hop Es where signals may be weak and fading, openings may be short, and you want fast completion of reliable, confirmable QSO's".

[Anonymous No.1743854]

Sporadic E or Es is an unusual form of radio propagation using characteristics of the Earth's ionosphere.
MUF also varies widely, but most commonly falls in the 25 – 150 MHz range

It was intended for use on 6m.

[Anonymous No.1743857]

>>1743841
They aren't using Baofengs.

[Anonymous No.1743858]

>>1743810
>A typical CubeSat launch cost is estimated at $40,000.
OK bro, how about you make your own LARP thread.

[Anonymous No.1743873]

>>1743858
/pol wanted to launch a satellite not long ago
I'm making one to spec as a hobby project for myself. Once I'm done with it I will give it to them and see what they will do with it.
I don't want any credit or anything, just think it would be hilarious to see them launch a shitposting satellite.

[Anonymous No.1743887]

>>1743820
>>1743853
This. The man behind FT-8 specifically stated it was developed mainly for weak signal and sporadic openings on the 6 meter band primarily, which is technically VHF, not HF. The mode was co-opted by people for regular use on HF bands because it's so automatable and allowed people to win awards without having to do any work.

[Anonymous No.1743889]

>>1743853
>>1743854
Sporadic E doesn't allow for multi-hop. Multiple skips only happen with ionospheric propagation on HF.
>>1743833
For the 70cm band you need a 35cm long dipole.

[Anonymous No.1743921]

>>1743889
Seriously, shut the fuck up. You don't know what you're talking about.

[Anonymous No.1743923]

>>1743873
>LARPing about LARPing
OK, retard.

[Anonymous No.1743926]

>>1743923
LARP your ass. I'm a software engineer and know how to make my own circuit boards unlike morons like you.

[Anonymous No.1743938]

>>1743926

[Anonymous No.1743941]

>>1743680
I don’t know much about FT8. Only do it every now and again. But I did see this once so maybe it’s possible.

[Anonymous No.1743945]

>>1743941
The asshole guy is a pretty much daily thing now.

[Anonymous No.1743947]

>>1743889
Where the fuck is the E-layer? The ionosphere. Don’t get me wrong, E-skip is usually just one hop, but if everything all lines up correctly, multihop E-skip can and does occur.

[Anonymous No.1743957]

>>1743921
Then explain where I'm wrong. We're all here to learn.
>>1743947
I was under the impression the ionosphere is the part of the atmosphere that's permanently ionized. I might be wrong though, but still, if you admit multi hop is very rare with e-skip then how was FT8 developed for 6m when it was developed for multi-hop?

[Anonymous No.1743962]

>>1743941
If transceivers were less than a Playstation, imagine the kind of trouble /b/ would be up to ... or at least the original /b/.

[Anonymous No.1743967]

>>1743957
Because the ionized “clouds” in the E-layer might not be good enough to support SSB, CW, or other digital modes but something as sensitive as FT8 can get through because there’s just barely enough of a signal to make it through.

I know that probably makes no sense. It’s hard to explain it on just a forum post. Google that shit.

[Anonymous No.1743970]

>>1743962
Used ones are. Probably some of the dirt cheap ones like Alinco are too. But thankfully /b/tards are retards and probably couldn’t set it up even if mommy and daddy allowed them to string coax out the basement to the backyard.

[Anonymous No.1743973]

>>1743970
I need to buy a mobile HF and raspi that feeds into a radio display and screencap 'Day of the pillow'

[Anonymous No.1743979]

>>1743887
This is part of why FT8 is so popular. It's fast, and for the people who are chasing paper (Don't care about friends or qsos, just want that DXCC 100 award on the wall!) can do so with a minimum of effort. The fact it's better than CW at weak signal comms was just a bonus. JS8CALL attempted to modify this for general conversation work, but hasn't taken off as much.
>>1743957
Multi-hop E does happen rarely. Depending on the angle of refraction you can hit another ionized surface (temperature layers above bodies of water are a common one) and get various combined modes of skip propagation, ducting, etc. Literally, this is mentioned on the "Sporadic E propagation" wiki article
>>1743957
> part of the atmosphere that's permanently ionized.
Yes, but no. Think of it as regions with varying levels of ionization. The textbook examples are purposefully simplified into D / E / F1 / F2, but each of those layers can have different properties depending on solar cycle, time of day, season, etc. It's entirely possible to have ionization present but not in levels enough to create a skip layer, and it's not rigidly defined.
> how was FT8 developed for 6m when it was developed for multi-hop?
E layer multi-hop and troposphere ducting tends to rapidly fade, and the high speed of the protocol was meant to make up for this. If you have a working conditions window of 5-10 minutes, and only need 2 minutes to make a contact, you've succeeded. The fading conditions also mean a weak signals mode is going to be superior to SSB or other types of mode, which need more signal to make contacts.
>>1743970
Radios aren't cool anymore unless you're an engineer or a nerd that caught the ham radio bug at some point. Even CB, the original /b, is pretty quiet in most places; sans a few black southern guys running amplifiers and rambling about nonsense day in and day out.

[Anonymous No.1743985]

>>1743979
I am an engineer who lives in the south. CB is still kicking a bit and it’s still kinda like the /b/ of the airwaves. Entertaining at times. Trying to build a CB antenna right now so I can get back in on the fun. Ham is good but the prim and proper nature can be boring at times.

[Anonymous No.1743999]

>>1743967
>>1743970
Ok, but how do you know it was for the 6m and not for the lower bands? You just stated it but didn't quote him or anything other than the multi hop thing which doesn't necessarily means 6m. Just because it's fast doesn't mean it was for 6m. FT4 is even faster and it isn't for 6m.

[Anonymous No.1744002]

>>1743999
What are you even talking about and who cares?

[Anonymous No.1744012]

>>1743985
That's a lot of EE's and CE's here, myself included. I've come to really like CB for how wild-west it is, and the radios can be found second hand for next to nothing. I picked up an export rig for my car, so it's easy to have a 10/11M combo for mobile.
> prim and proper nature can be boring at times.
I can understand the need for structure but it does get boring at times. In the 90s / 00 you'd see more interesting conversations, but now it's pretty basic stuff until you get to know someone.

[Anonymous No.1744022]

Any ham related car stereo upgrade recommendations?
I swapped my am/fm antenna for a 2M antenna, and now my volume button is broken and I want an audio jack to listen to podcasts.

[Anonymous No.1744042]

>>1744002
Some other anon was claiming Joe designed FT8 for 6m e-skip. I care, that's why I'm asking.
If you don't care about digimodes and propagation then what do you care about?

[Anonymous No.1744055]

>>1743962
Are you high? Single band digital mode transceivers can be had for under 50 bucks.

[Anonymous No.1744090]

>>1744055
Not him, but other than the recently recently announced Phaser, which ones did you have in mind?

[Anonymous No.1744141]

>>1744055
But in context, were talking about writing 'asshole' in FT8, so how many digital modes HF transceivers are out there for $50?

[Anonymous No.1744165]

>>1744090
>>1744141
D4D and the QRPGuys DSB transceiver will do FT8 out the box and the QCX only needs ~$5 worth of parts and a change of firmware to do sideband work including FT8. If you want to get really ghetto, you can use filters and a PA and do FT8 with RPiTX.

[Anonymous No.1744233]

>>1743999
>>1744042
Go look at his site or shoot him a fucking email. You're more interested in being "technically correct" and winning an argument than anything else.

[Anonymous No.1744237]

>>1744022
Stop being a retard. It's not amusing to anyone but yourself.

[Anonymous No.1744253]

>>1744237
Who touched you?

[Anonymous No.1744256]

I'm putting a CB antenna on my roof. Is there some scientific rule for the size of the ground plane in relation to the antenna length? I have a 102" antenna.

[Anonymous No.1744279]

>>1744256
204" radials.

[Anonymous No.1744333]

>>1744256
I’m a little rusty on the science behind it but generally 1/4 of the free space wavelength for each element is the point where resonance is generally achieved. You can think of a ground plane vertical as a variation on the dipole (well, all antennas are technically). The vertical element is one and the ground plane is another. Not sure how critical the length of the radials or ground plane is but I know for a fact that the droop of the radials on a ground plane antenna changes the feed point impedance.

[Anonymous No.1744368]

>>1744165
>If you want to get really ghetto, you can use filters and a PA and do FT8 with RPiTX.
You misspelled fl2k.

[Anonymous No.1744369]

>>1744233
I already looked at his site. There's nothing about it not being for HF. That was your point the whole time and you haven't given any evidence for it.

[Anonymous No.1744375]

>>1744368
My nigga.

[Anonymous No.1744402]

$3 thrift store score.

[Anonymous No.1744408]

>>1743833
Can't you unfold it, origami style, and get a larger solar panel?

[Anonymous No.1744431]

>>1744402
uh whats that

[Anonymous No.1744438]

>>1744431
>>1744402
CB radio. The first one I ever bought was a Midland 1001z; a comparable model to the Uniden. For a dirt cheap and basic CB, they’re pretty good. Not very flashy but they get the job done.

[Anonymous No.1744439]

>>1744431
>He doesn't know a Uniden Pro 510XL.

[Anonymous No.1744540]

>>1742360
Anybody have a copy of a v9 Hytera CPS? I got my radio used and the only v9 stuff I can find online is for Europe.

Radio is a PD782i.

[Anonymous No.1744541]

So...
I spend $66 on the ARRL antenna book set. Not just the book set, mind you. The special edition 4 volume boxed set of the ARRL antenna book. Full price.

[Anonymous No.1744542]

>>1744541
And then they have the fucking stones, the gumption and arrogance to put a fucking full page ad on the cover? On the book I paid full price for?
It's not even on a separate page, it's /literally/ printed on the back of the cover so I can't even fucking tear it out

what the FUCK is this horseshit

[Anonymous No.1744543]

Anybody know of a good handheld that's AES capable for relatively cheap? Only thing I could find was the Anytone AT-868.

[Anonymous No.1744546]

>>1744543
TYT-MD380

[Anonymous No.1744550]

>>1744542
Fuck the ARRL. You can find lots of antenna designs for free online.

[Anonymous No.1744551]

>>1744550
yeah lol, if they haven't fucking digitally/steganographically signed my copy of the digital version that came with the book, you can fucking bet it's going on libgen

[Anonymous No.1744561]

>>1744546
I thought that one only did 40-bit?

[Anonymous No.1744565]

>>1744369
>There's nothing about it not being for HF
>That was your point the whole time
That was never my point, Special Ed. It was developed for 6m e-skip, but later people started using it on HF. Ham might above your pay grade if you cannot follow written conversation.

[Anonymous No.1744568]

>>1744541
They're at 4 volumes now? I found a used (near mint) hardcover 22nd ed. a couple of years ago.
>>1744542
Keep in mind these are like textbooks. If they didn't subsidize with some ads it'd cost similar to buying from a bookstore $120 - $180.

[Anonymous No.1744698]

>>1744568
>Keep in mind these are like textbooks. If they didn't subsidize with some ads it'd cost similar to buying from a bookstore $120 - $180.
Given that the antenna book is decades old with roughly annual updates rather than major rewrites, this argument is not plausible.

[Anonymous No.1744709]

I made a 20 foot mast for my antenna for like $8 with steel electrical EMT conduit pipe. I think I could go 40 with guy wires.

[Anonymous No.1744711]

>>1744698
Lol. Textbooks are that expensive because you need it for college and you're paying out the ass anyway.

[Anonymous No.1744714]

>>1744565
Correct, your point was that it was developed to work 6m when openings happen and not HF. You haven't provided any evidence of that claim so far.

[Anonymous No.1744720]

>>1744711
And that is just another way of saying it is expensive because there is a demand, not because there is a lot of work to update.

Out of interest, when was the last genuine revolution in antenna technology?

[Anonymous No.1744789]

>>1744561
Enhanced privacy mode is 128-AES.

[Anonymous No.1744802]

>>1744789
Sauce for this?

Only thing I could find was that it uses a non-standard 128-bit encryption with a 32-bit key.

[Anonymous No.1744814]

>>1744720
It's a false demand, a monopoly and collusion.
Most textbooks are reprinted and simply reorganize its contents to require you to purchase a new edition.

[Anonymous No.1744827]

>>1744540
>Anybody have a copy of a v9 Hytera CPS? I got my radio used and the only v9 stuff I can find online is for Europe.

Lol ze russians are visiting 4chan, how come

http://www.cqham.ru/forum/showthread.php?41075-%D0%E0%E7%FB%F1%EA%E8%E2%E0%FE-CPS-%E4%EB%FF-%F0%E0%E4%E8%EE-Hytera-AR482G-(TD580-PD48x)

[Anonymous No.1744828]

>>1744827
Heh, mine's actually a PD782i. The stuff I was able to find were for PD785 models.

[Anonymous No.1744840]

>>1744402
I envy you. All I have found was a pack of 25 RCA jacks and a CB swr, mod, and power meter.

[Anonymous No.1744985]

>>1744720
Yeah, I know, I accidentally replied to the wrong post.

[Anonymous No.1745015]

I only need Hawaii for WAS.
Took me 1 month to get 49 - pretty sure it's going to take me a year to get the last State.

[Anonymous No.1745055]

>>1745015
Maybe use a directional antenna pointed straight at Hawaii?

[Anonymous No.1745060]

>>1744714
Here you go you stupid piece of shit. Pic related taken from the FT8 Operating Guide, which can be found here:
http://www.g4ifb.com/FT8_Hinson_tips_for_HF_DXers.pdf

[Anonymous No.1745065]

>>1744720
>genuine revolution in antenna technology
Most recent tech would be Plasma Antennas, using the fact plasma is conductive to make an antenna surface. Even that ideas not new though, there was a patent in 1919 for the technology.
Dipoles and Verticals tend to be good enough for most applications, and the math simplifies even weird antennas down to a dipole of some form anyway, most of the time.

[Anonymous No.1745067]

>>1745060
You'll note the predicated phrase "Propagation conditions such as", followed by an example ("sporadic-e at 50 mhz"). This does not imply exclusivity to the descriptive conditions. The reinforcing argument "signals weak and fading, short openings, blah blah" details the type but not exclusivity of the conditions where this mode might be ideal. Your argument therefore of "FT8 was designed for 6M only" is implicitly invalidated.
Given digital modes are frequency agnostic, I don't know where you're going arguing this.

[Anonymous No.1745072]

>>1745067

[Anonymous No.1745137]

Anyone know how to stop the scan on a TYT VHF transceiver?
I push FUNC + 4 on the mic to scan, but any button reverts to where I started prior to the scan.

[Anonymous No.1745148]

Hey guys. Does anyone know of a man portable antenna i could use in the hf bands? I am thinking one i could strap to my rucksack.

[Anonymous No.1745194]

taking my tech today. i dont know if im ready for this

[Anonymous No.1745200]

>>1745194
assume you are
and good luck

[Anonymous No.1745229]

>>1744439
It could be a pro500, pro500d, pro510e or a pro510xl. In any case is a very basic model. Since he says "thrift store" I take it he is a burger so it may be some use still even though its only AM.

[Anonymous No.1745230]

>>1745148
Not sure if you mean for use wile walking or once you get there and set it up.

I'd search
>amateur pedestrian mobile antenna

[Anonymous No.1745233]

>>1745015
>I only need Hawaii for WAS.
What mode? SSB huh?

You can easily do WAS if you go digital. That is FT8 or something along these lines.

[Anonymous No.1745235]

>>1745055
>Maybe use a directional antenna pointed straight at Hawaii?
The key is to use the right band and the right time of day. And also you have to have somewhat decent set up, a random wire may not do it.

[Anonymous No.1745269]

>>1745055
Certainly something to explore, right now I'm running a vertical.
>>1745233
Nope, FT8 which only ads to the frustration ;)
I've gotten Russia at 5,700 miles away and HI is only 4,300 miles, but it's a lot less of a land mass!
>>1745235
>The key is to use the right band and the right time
That's where I've funneled my energy for the past few days. I downloaded HamAlerts and have been logging when others around me have seen HI, so after awhile I should have a practical plan of when to be where. I was on from 6a-10p yesterday and saw HI for around 5 minutes.

[Anonymous No.1745271]

>>1745269
I am doing something right - I've only been at it for 3 weeks with my FT-101. A big thank you to those who helped me with my ground loop issue.
It's just that I'm missing Hawaii and that's where I've funneled all my focus and frustration.

[Anonymous No.1745292]

>>1745271
>and frustration.
>>1745269
>I've gotten Russia at 5,700 miles

Dudes you are doing something really really wrong. I've been monitoring for like 5 days, with a random wire antenna, shitty ground and (take a deep breath) DIY upconverter for $10 rtl-based tv tuner. I live in apartments, my QTH is super fucking noisy.

I'm attaching a pic of the countries I got (the number of peers is way more than that)

[Anonymous No.1745294]

>>1745269
>. I was on from 6a-10p yesterday and saw HI for around 5 minutes.
What state are you in? What kind of an antenna do you have? What bands are you on?

[Anonymous No.1745303]

>>1745292
It's crazy what you can get with very little. Attached is what I get with an RTL stick in direct sampling and a magloop made from plumbing spares and a varicap out an old hifi.

[Anonymous No.1745304]

>>1745269
>I downloaded HamAlerts
You know about https://pskreporter.info/pskmap.html right?

[Anonymous No.1745306]

>>1745292
Damn. I need to exam what I'm doing.
>>1745294
Mostly 20m yesterday, but have a 20, 40, and 80m vertical. I'm in the TN/MO area.

[Anonymous No.1745314]

>>1745303
>a magloop

Resonant antennas like a magloop is super useful for RTL-SDR as it provides nice filtering. How big the the loop?

I'm thinking about doing the same. Anyways the EU is fucking crowded, I get lots and lots of signals from there. I'm not monitoring for 24hrs/days but yet I still the EU wins when it comes to DX's

[Anonymous No.1745316]

WSPR works really well: Arctic (north of the map) to Antarctic on 40m with 10W and SNR -22dB.

[Anonymous No.1745318]

>>1745303
That's approximately what I can see in the morning
>>1745304
I've been using that recently and have been heard as far out as New Zealand and Africa.
Where I can see is where I can talk to, so I suppose it's not an RX or tx issue, but I should start examining a general antenna issue.
To be continued, gotta do some babysitting ...

[Anonymous No.1745321]

>>1745314
night vs day effect

[Anonymous No.1745325]

>>1745321
>night vs day effect
Nah it's not that. Russia is a huge country yet like 60-70% of its population lives close to moscow/st peterspurg. Huge empty space with little to no stations.

Hams of the EU are active both during the day and during the night. I got them using both night bands and day bands. Lots of people run FT8 software unattended.

[Anonymous No.1745333]

>>1745314
>How big the the loop?
It's just 1m of 8mm copper tube on the outer and an 18cm inner loop of the same. Capacitor is a mystery, need to borrow an LCR meter from work some time. Works great at 80m and 40m, alright at 160m and during the day it picks up 20m reluctantly. I'll revisit it once I get licenced.

[Anonymous No.1745334]

>>1745306
>Damn. I need to exam what I'm doing.
>>1745318
>but I should start examining a general antenna issue
You may also look at noise sources around your house. Like LED lamps, power bricks for laptops or routers, etc. I have a neighbor somewhere with some kind of shitty audio system. When he turns it on I can receive the fucking music he is listening to using FM mode every ~24-26 khz from 80m to 40m meters. Must be the greatest and the latest class-D amplifiers. If he forgets to turn it off I get strong hum every 24-26khz. Few neighbors have noise AC systems but these kind of stuff generally isn't noisy enough to affect 30m or 20m bands.

[Anonymous No.1745335]

>>1745316
http://wsprnet.org/drupal/wsprnet/map
I'm doing something wrong but don't know what :(

[Anonymous No.1745336]

>>1745333
>and during the day it picks up 20m reluctantly
Probably that's just not enough of RF gain. You get something better than RTL-SDR in direct sampling mode. I saw chinks are selling somewhat decent HF SDR's on aliexpress for like $50. I forgot the brand name.

[Anonymous No.1745337]

>>1745303
What tool is that and what does that pink partial circle indicate?

[Anonymous No.1745339]

>>1745337

>>1745304
>You know about https://pskreporter.info/pskmap.html right?

>>1745337
>what does that pink partial circle indicate?

Good question. Probably it just indicates the direction the most signals are coming from. But I'm not 100% positive about that.

[Anonymous No.1745341]

>>1745336
I think it's down to the loop size too, most guys I see use one larger loop for 80-40 and another smaller for 20-10.
>I saw chinks are selling somewhat decent HF SDR's on aliexpress for like $50
Msi.SDR, it's a 'clone' of the old RSP1 without any front end filtering. They're alright, I have one listening to the CCTV dispatch in my city that uses NXDN.
>>1745337
PSKReporter, the pink area represents where the majority (>85%) of signals are received from.

[Anonymous No.1745343]

>>1745306
>I'm in the TN/MO area.
EM56 ? Try to monitor 80m band -/+ 1 hour before/after the sunrise at HI, then switch to 40M, after about 2-3 hours go to 30m band. Once 30m starts to fade go to 20m. Being in EM56 (or close) I believe you should start using 30m band more often. Not that I'm super wise or anything but still I guess it should do the trick.

[Anonymous No.1745348]

>>1745341
>Msi.SDR,
Yeah that's the one! How does it compare to RTL-SDR? I'm looking for something to set up to monitor FT8 on HF. For 24/7 duty.

[Anonymous No.1745350]

>>1745343
>Once 30m starts to fade go to 20m
Forgot to mention, propagation changes during the day, both 20m and 30m could open up during the day for DX. Try to switch between these bands. Oh and don't hesitate to CQ HI, old farts there would be happy to answer your call.

[Anonymous No.1745351]

>>1745348
Quality controls a bit garbage, mine spews LO noise into everything so you have to set it above what you want to listen to, lock it and tune down. Once you get past the quirks though it's awesome, it's a lot more sensitive than the RTL and the big plus is the 8MHz usable bandwidth (I know it advertises 10Mhz but it drops to 8 bit resolution if you do that). 7/10 would recommend.

[Anonymous No.1745357]

>>1745334
Interesting!
I heard a guy's voice on 7.074 last night - I figured it was someone screwing around off frequency, but couldn't isolate the voice.
I've got a laptop setup with WSJT which I'm going to setup at the base of the antenna and see if receive is any better. If that is, I'll examine my coax run(please no) and shack connections, plus interference.
>>1745343
I appreciate it, that's roughly the band and timing I was starting to get to.
I've got an ancient transceiver that doesn't have 60, 30, or 17, but the advice still stands for 80, 40, 20, and 15.

[Anonymous No.1745359]

>>1745357
>I heard a guy's voice on 7.074 last night
People are retards and leave their mic hot or VOX enabled while using WSJT, you can hear all kinds of shit on the digimode frequencies.

[Anonymous No.1745396]

hello fellas, what digital modes are popular on 6m in us? where do i look to get started?

[Anonymous No.1745404]

My SDR dongle and SDR# are being fussy and it's too cold to mess around with looking at WSJT at the source of the antenna outside, but I did find one connection had corrosion.
Brushed it off but it didn't seem to do anything.
Are you guys saying this is atypical for 1pm local time? Can't tx out of the US and am only picked up a little bit of Europe.
Going off of dxmaps.com, that's what I should be seeing.

[Anonymous No.1745408]

>>1745404
>Going off of dxmaps.com, that's what I should be seeing.
Super-duper transposed deep learning analysis included.
My PC time is correct. Should I examine PC audio settings? Bandwidth? Are you all just busting my balls?

[Anonymous No.1745409]

>>1745396
6M? There's a handful of FT8 guys. You could get a big fuckoff Yagi or Moxon and work meteor scatter with MSK144 though.
>>1745404
Looks normal for 20M, it doesn't go far in the dark.

[Anonymous No.1745418]

>>1745409
>Moxon
looks pretty easy, any reason i couldnt build it out of copper pipe? i have access to quite a bit of that. lots of 12g solid copper wire as well.
jumped the gun and bought a 7300, but only have my tech. next test is end of next month.
figuring out how to hook this bad boy up to my pc right now.
fucking boomers at my club have never even mentioned digital, wish there was a younger club around

[Anonymous No.1745423]

>>1745418
Copper pipe is fine, follow some guides and you'll be a-okay.
>figuring out how to hook this bad boy up to my pc right now.
Easiest radio in the world to connect, all you need is pic related. Install the driver from Icoms site, connect the cable, select "Icom 7300 USB Audio CODEC" as a sound device.

[Anonymous No.1745430]

>>1745423
thats great. i have a bunch of them.
im enjoying talking to the locals, but i can hear there is more out there.

[Anonymous No.1745432]

>>1745430
Good luck on the General - it's night and day different going from VHF to HF.
Make sure you have a tuner and good antenna. You can do those before the test.

[Anonymous No.1745440]

>>1745432
>Make sure you have a tuner and good antenna
i built a fan dipole for 80/40/20, with a tuner it works ok on 6. i have time, and access to a lot of copper, plan on building more antennas
i have a stack of ARRL books, most from 70-80s. but i dont think much has changed antenna building though
need to buy a better hf antenna analyzer

[Anonymous No.1745441]

>>1745432
>Good luck on the General
also thanks
didnt study for it, but missed it by 4 questions. figured i should take it anyway

[Anonymous No.1745442]

ARRL confirmed for NAMBLA.

[Anonymous No.1745498]

>>1745442
become a member

[Anonymous No.1745521]

>>1745498
NAMBLA or some do-nothing magazine subscription that sends reprints every month?

[Anonymous No.1745579]

[Anonymous No.1745599]

>>1742360
Kek. I greased my antenna today.
>Soldered and greased

[Anonymous No.1745641]

>>1745233
>>1745235
>>1745292
>>1745294
>>1745350
Woot, woot, got the WAS.
Just got HI at 8pm EST on 20M with a -16db report. I think it was timing - I'd never otherwise be on 20M at night. Thank y'all. Feels good, man. Also picked up Brazil and Argentina.

[Anonymous No.1745643]

>>1745233
>>1745235
>>1745292
>>1745294
>>1745350
Woot, woot, got the WAS.
Just got Hawaii at 8pm EST on 20M with a good report. I think it was timing - I'd never otherwise be on 20M at night. Thank y'all. Feels good, man. Also picked up Brazil and Argentina.

[Anonymous No.1745646]

>>1745643
Congratulations! What's next? Worked all continents?

[Anonymous No.1745664]

>>1745646
I appreciate it, I've asked dozens of questions here and wouldn't have gotten it without you all.
I only need SA and Asia for WAC, so that doesn't seem like much of a hurdle.
I'm thinking I should aim for the DXCC and in the process complete a 5 band WAS. I'm already pretty well rounded with 80, 40, and 20. Maybe by the time summer arrives, 15 and 10 will be wide open.

[Anonymous No.1745675]

>>1745664
>I only need SA and Asia for WAC, so that doesn't seem like much of a hurdle.
Japs are very active at 7,040khz (ft8) I have no idea why but they are really really active there. Something akin to karma thread you know

[Anonymous No.1745678]

>>1745359
>People are retards and leave their mic hot or VOX enabled while using WSJT,
I heard unintelligent mumbling on FT8 freqs as of yesterday, was wondering why would one use these frequency for SSB.

[Anonymous No.1745746]

>>1742360
Any recommendations for someone looking at getting a portable scanner for near field scanning (quickly scanning large chunks of spectrum to pick up nearby activity, with features marketed under names such as Close Call, Signal Stalker, and Spectrum Sweeper)? I'm mainly interested in picking up nearby portable activity when I'm out driving on trails, hiking, or camping considering a significant portion of people using HTs these days don't conform to any band plan which makes channel based scanning ineffective. I'm not too concerned about digital modes and would prefer to buy used to save money, but wouldn't be against paying slightly more to pick up DMR activity if that's an option since it has been growing in popularity.

[Anonymous No.1745781]

>>1742360
Any budget rig recommendations for entry level FT-8?

[Anonymous No.1745784]

>>1745781
What is your budget? IIRC we have a guy here who uses FT101.

[Anonymous No.1745791]

>>1745784
LMAO, I was trying to be subtle, but I guess there are only a few folks who post here and they have damn good memories.
I worked 50 States in under a month on 50 year old tech.
I think I've earned an upgrade. Initially I had my heart set on the IC-7300 due to the waterfall, but given it's tethered to a computer waterfall, a FT-450D or Alinco would suffice just as well ...
I can't wait for DSP

[Anonymous No.1745858]

>>1745200
hey i passed

[Anonymous No.1745873]

>>1745858
Congrats!

[Anonymous No.1745911]

>>1745781
You can Make an FT-450D, IC-718, or Alinco work fine.
>>1745791
Add another $75-200 because the Alinco and 450D don't have isolated inputs, and you'll need some type of sound card adapter/line isolation to make it work. If you're tempted to go without the isolation, I blew up the data line level resistors on my 450D with only 5W out- Ground loops happen, and the 7300 and similar modern rigs have an integrated, isolated, and EZ to use USB audio/CAT jack, which means ground loops like that will never be a problem. No Janky serial connector or audio cables, just ONE cable that works.
Out of something like 10 people that got a 7300 I know, not a single one regrets it.

[Anonymous No.1745913]

>>1745791
Oh yeah, some old fart hams used to get these AF DSP speakers for older rigs like your 101, you could give that a shot as a cost effective semi-upgrade. They're not as good as dedicated IF-DSPs but they're still good for noise reduction and such.
>>1745858
Welcome to the club, friendo. If you did it through Laurel VEC you'll get your callsign pretty fast, if you did ARRL they snail mail everything so it'll be a week or two. You can do a lot of stuff with VHF/UHF, but if you want HF privileges you need general / extra.
Still lots of fun to be had even if all you have is a baofeng, assuming you have active people around you. If you like electronics / electrical engineering, you'll find a lot of similarly minded people here and in person.

[Anonymous No.1746018]

>>1745746

[Anonymous No.1746021]

>>1745791
DSP doesn't help much for digital modes. You understand that, right?

[Anonymous No.1746023]

so whats ham situation today?

when i was a kid my dad did ham and i joined too, it was pretty cool, nowadays chatrooms and the internet itself is very like it, especially twitter. so, with all the new stuff, whats ham for today? i guess its cool for up to the minute cop and firefighter info, but what more for?

[Anonymous No.1746041]

>>1746021
Not him but a dedicated DSP is a more power efficient way of decoding digital modes than using a PC. This is important for portable battery operated use. A DSP is optimised for low latency, hard real time and low power consumption. A PC, in contrast, sacrifices most of these things for sheer performance.

That is why I am curious about the DSP in the Elecraft K4. We know it has an embedded Linux computer but I hope it has something better than an ARM with NEON. A Snapdragon with a Hexagon DSP would be a better fit. A small FPGA would be nice but perhaps too expensive. An ASIC is unrealistic.

[Anonymous No.1746049]

>>1745746
>>1746018
No scanner you buy is going to be better than a decent Windows tablet and an SDR receiver. You can see the entire band at once and use DSD+ for DMR.

[Anonymous No.1746077]

>>1746049
I know that, but I'd like to get something smaller that can run on AA batteries like every other device I take along when /out/. I briefly considered building my own based off an SBC but other portable projects I've seen that used a Pi Zero only get a few hours of run time off 3x eneloop AAs, and any software that I've tried that can scan quickly with an RTL-SDR and runs under Linux bogs down on the old Intel N270 Atom based laptop that I use so I'd need something more powerful than a Pi Zero with even less run time.

[Anonymous No.1746126]

>>1745913
i did it with a small vec and they said to expect it by thursday im not sure if theyre mailing it or not. I found it on the arrl website but i think anyone can post exam sessions there

[Anonymous No.1746136]

Howdy folks, I'm just getting started and I'm looking for a decent power supply unit to run my Yaesu FT-450D off of. I've looked at some of the 110ish dollar ones, but there's always a few reviews that put me off. I want something that has a consistent meter and not a loud fan, if possible.

[Anonymous No.1746153]

>>1746126
Mailing only on request
https://kl7aa.org/vec/i-passed-my-test-what-now/
FCC License Data Search
https://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/UlsSearch/searchLicense.jsp

[Anonymous No.1746159]

Could someone give me a breakdown on the relation between the position and angle of an inverted L and the RF takeoff angle?
In my pic, I equate 'C' ( <90°) to be similar to an inverted V dipole, and would have some NVIS properties.
By the same logic, ''A' (>90°) would be most like a vertical antenna with the steepest takeoff angle ... but in which direction?
Would House #1 be most likely to receive the strongest signal?

[Anonymous No.1746173]

>>1746136
> I want something that has a consistent meter and not a loud fan
Get a linear supply then, genius.

[Anonymous No.1746176]

>>1746136
I got a 30 amp power supply for $50 at a hamfest. Learn when and where the ones nearest to you are. You might find a deal on a used one.

[Anonymous No.1746330]

https://preppingtosurvive.com/2012/03/14/theres-no-privacy-in-ham-radio/

https://www.amateurradio.com/encryption-is-already-legal-its-the-intention-thats-not/

is there really no good way to communicate privately over amateur radio? would it only really be coded language if encryption is illegal? what's the likelihood of any actual legal trouble if you broadcast encrypted messages over radio? how likely are you to be caught and prosecuted if you operate without a callsign?

[Anonymous No.1746369]

>>1746330
What exactly are you doing that you need encryption for that isn't better handled over a different medium? Your signal isn't going to propagate so far that being recorded is a normal issue if you aren't using a repeater, and repeater operators aren't going to take kindly to your hogging their repeater for your own private cell phone alternative (even the ways to achieve this on DMR repeaters without using encryption or by using digital modes on repeaters not designated for using digital modes will piss people off, and I've personally seen a local repeater get shut down temporarily due to the later).

>what's the likelihood of any actual legal trouble if you broadcast encrypted messages over radio?
Considering the ban on encryption is one of the main things that keeps businesses from encroaching on the amateur radio bands which also means the FCC would stand to lose money if it stops being rigidly enforced, both amateur radio enthusiasts and the FCC take it seriously.

>how likely are you to be caught and prosecuted if you operate without a callsign?
This is also taken seriously since a lot of amateur radio enthusiasts are old enough to have been active when the 11 meter band/CB went to shit due to floods of unlicensed operators. What are you doing that using the amateur radio bands rather than unlicensed FRS/MURS frequencies is necessary if you want to operate without a callsign?

[Anonymous No.1746379]

>>1746330
I may be wrong, and I welcome correction, but I do believe that if you keep your messages under a certain length of time, you can cheat and not announce your call sign, therefore, encryption would not be necessary.

[Anonymous No.1746394]

>>1746153
Looks like they use normal email submission, I'd bet you have your call letters within the week, if not sooner.
>>1746330
It's called one time pads and hiding messages in innocuous conversation, like literally every spook group has been doing for decades. Legality will be last of your concerns in an actual crisis. I'm not advocating breaking the law here, but even a small amount of creativity would give you the privacy you want, should the situation warrant it.

[Anonymous No.1746428]

>>1746021
>DSP doesn't help much for digital modes
Are you insane? It's border line stupid to compare 50 year old tech (ft101, just as a reminder it uses valves) with IF-DSP or DDC/DUC rigs?

Modern rigs have higher dynamic range (that is you can copy a weak station if there is some kind of strong signal nearby, being it a station or a noise source or some kind), you can adjust filter bandwidth on the fly, you can have NR and autonotch, decent AGC and a waterfall disply to check what's going on on the band. Not to mention VFO/LO is rock stable these days (ever seen a built in xtal calibrator? ft101 has one!)

[Anonymous No.1746466]

>>1746379
It doesn't matter how long, or with how much or little power you use on ham frequencies. You must give your callsign. FRS, CB, and MURS are free to use with restrictions, and GMRS is just a license you pay for. Honesty if you just stick to MURS or FRS with no more than 5W, and aren't doing some dumb shit I doubt anyone would ever care enough to fox hunt you.

[Anonymous No.1746503]

It's been well over 2 hours after the sunset and I still hear lots of stations on 14 MHz. Hmmm (5000 miles+++). Hmmm.

[Anonymous No.1746528]

>>1746503
Either the sky is falling or there's still a contest.

[Anonymous No.1746559]

>>1746428
Digital protocols, like FT8, resolve all this in their own software. DSP is great for voice, but I find working digital modes with a clean, unaltered signal works best. Also, a waterfall is nice, but far from needed (and done in most software already). You do you though, buddy.

[Anonymous No.1746571]

>>1746503
damn, im excited to get one 30' tower set up this spring

[Anonymous No.1746588]

Has anyone successfully claimed to be blind to get the ARRL $10 membership?
I really don't want their re-hashed magazines every year

[Anonymous No.1746594]

>>1746588
no, but im waiting for them to be giving away one of those handbooks before i sign up again

[Anonymous No.1746599]

>>1746594
I wanted a WAS cert, but a piece of paper isn't worth $75.
The only 'benefit' a membership seems to offer is a monthly magazine which I don't want or need.

[Anonymous No.1746609]

>>1746571
LX7I is a remote contest station of the Radioamateurs du Luxembourg and operated by many.

[Anonymous No.1746712]

My license is coming up for renewal this year. ARRL site says I can file FCC form something or another no earlier than 90 days before expiration, but if I get one comma out of place it will be rejected, and that if I join they will do it for me. Is this just "gibs us money" FUD?

[Anonymous No.1746734]

>>1746712
I don't think you need the ARRL for renewal, it is handled by the FCC. Just educate yourself.

[Anonymous No.1746743]

>>1746712
>if I get one comma out of place it will be rejected
Fix it and resubmit. It's not soup nazi tier rules.

[Anonymous No.1746753]

>>1746159

Alright, you have a few assumptions half-right, or wrong, so bear with me.

To start, you ask about direction of signal propagation. In all cases of wire antennas (dipoles, endfeds, etc.), the signal propagates in all directions perpendicular to the wire, and to a degree at some off angles. They go pretty much in all directions except directly down the axis of the wire itself, so you get a bit of a null-node off the end(s) of the wire elements.

Now, of your 3 examples, I would suggest against "C" all together, Whenever you have a bent element, you should not bend it less than 90 degrees, it causes some coupling interactions and de-tunes the antenna. Even with inverted-vee dipoles, the rule is to keep the legs greater than 90 degrees.

Now, both "A" and "B" are workable. "A" will be closest to a true vertical, and offer less NVIS properties. "B" will give you both true low-angle signals off the vertical part, and high angle off the horizontal part. The horizontal part will give a bit of NVIS potentially, but remember the frequencies used for successful NVIS right now should be below about 6 MHz, so you'll need an antenna cut for 80M or lower most likely.

And since I think we're looking at an end-fed antenna here, also note that the stronger signal potential on end feds will be closer to the feed-end of the wire. So in all cases here, the stronger signal will be thrown off the vertical part of the element, while the sloped or horizontal part will get less radiated signal potential.

[Anonymous No.1746755]

>>1746159
>>1746753

>cont.

As far as what house gets more signal, assuming they're all within ground wave range, the same. At medium or "NVIS" range, again the same signal to all houses with best chance with "B" on appropriate frequencies. At longer skip ranges, it's hard to say without a 3D picture, but again remember that the best signals will come off perpendicular to the wire of the antenna. So looking at he bent tops of each (since the vertical parts are equivalent), and assuming just the pane of the paper, "A" would throw a bit more signal in the up-left direction, "B" would throw more straight up, and "C" Would throw a little more up-right (but is de-tuned from the sub-90 degree bend).

[Anonymous No.1746764]

Anyone familiar with a way to access all of the PSKReporter data?
I couldn't find an API and the map isn't scrape-able. Best solution I could find was the qrz feed

[Anonymous No.1746769]

>>1746712
Isn't this handled online now, just like the vanity callsign request?

[Anonymous No.1746773]

if I set my baofeng to low power, can I legally broadcast on FRS frequencies?

How can I have my baofeng communicate with some walkie talkies legally?

[Anonymous No.1746775]

>>1746773
you cant. frs devices arent allowed to have detachable antennas.

[Anonymous No.1746776]

>>1746775
what's the likelihood of facing legal consequences for it?

[Anonymous No.1746780]

>>1746776
i wouldnt worry about it. just get on low power and and talk away from the city where some boomer BAND PATROL faggot isnt hunting down infractions. Ideally though, you guys should just all go take the technicians test its really easy if you just do the flashcards on hamstudy for a couple hours. then you can tx full power and use repeaters. but then again if youre doing illegal shit then dont. just use frs or maybe some unused business freq

[Anonymous No.1746782]

>>1746776
None if you stick it on 1 watt, 12.5KHz channel spacing and stick to the FRS frequencies. Nobody but some boomer with a spectrum analyser will even notice.

[Anonymous No.1746784]

>>1746712
Don't bother. Go on the FCC Website and renew via ULS. Relatively painless process. All the ARRL is going to do is fill out a Form 605 for you and mail it in, because boomers.
> fcc.gov/wireless/support/common-amateur-filing-tasks/common-amateur-filing-task-renewing-license

[Anonymous No.1746794]

>>1746773
Legally? You can't.

In reality? No one cares, and unless you go out of your way to get caught you're fine.

[Anonymous No.1746800]

>>1746776
K9RSY camps his amp out on 7.20 and curses for 4 hours every day.
If they don't want to police that, they aren't going to hunt down the origin of every FRS source across the country and ensure the antenna doesn't screw off.
If you're that autistic, throw on a little LocTite

[Anonymous No.1746823]

>>1746800
>K9RSY camps his amp out on 7.20 and curses for 4 hours every day.
this
if youre not on a frequency they care about nothing is gonna happen

[Anonymous No.1746872]

>>1746559
>resolve all this in their own software
Pardon me but what exactly does FT8 "resolve" in SW? It automagically makes the receiver better than it's, improves dynamic range, clean LO phase phase noise and filters unwanted IMD products? Nope and nope again. Because all that issues produce all kind of extra signals and noise in AF. You can't filter that.

Check the table here: http://www.sherweng.com/table.html Search for FT-101, it's #8 from the very bottom. Now compare it to IC-7300 or any modern DDC rig.See the difference? If only it could be possible to slap audio dsp to "fix" the radio... but alas

[Anonymous No.1746885]

>>1746872
Were you touched as a child? Such hostility. SAD!

[Anonymous No.1747038]

>>1746559
>DSP is great for voice, but I find working digital modes with a clean, unaltered signal works best.
What is your background in DSP?

[Anonymous No.1747107]

>>1747038
>My grandfather was a DSP man.
>He came from the East, on ship with hopes and dreams
>My father rejected DSP, to spite my grandfather
>If the term was even uttered in my childhood home, I'd get a beating and be forced to disassemble and clean 70 stacked pots with a single cotton swab
>I vowed to carry on my father's hatred for DSP, as I moved on to adult life.

[Anonymous No.1747284]

Today was a slow day at work, so I made my own Ham Alerts/PSKReporter
>Scrap a live stream of QSL feeds every 5 minutes
>Collect DX with a sender or receiver less than 500 miles from me
>Announce most currently active HF band, country, and region
>Save to SQL
>Predict which band I should move to in the next hour b/c of what's logged in the DB for that hour
Am I on to anything? I got a little choked up watching a 90y/o Elmer beam with pride for getting the DXCC. At this rate I fear I'll get that in a year.

[Anonymous No.1747294]

>>1747284
>At this rate I fear I'll get that in a year.
Do it with SSB or CW

[Anonymous No.1747463]

>>1746885
>Such hostility. SAD!
It's due to zero tolerance to idiots and imbeciles. Can't do anything I was born what way.

[Anonymous No.1747492]

>>1747284
>Am I on to anything?
The number of stations you hear depends not only on the time of day but also on a day of the week. obv there are way more stations active during the day offs. A contest of some kind or a n expedition (when there are lots of hams who re hunting for some specific station working from the middle of nowhere) could skew your data set. Plus sometimes the window for a stable contact is just a minute or two long. Then the signal fades and you are shit outta luck

[Anonymous No.1747518]

>>1747492
There are many sounders operating on most (all?) amateur bands, are these dependent on day of week?

[Anonymous No.1747543]

>>1747518
Ionospheric sounding is done using real-time amateur radio reporting.

[Anonymous No.1747558]

>>1744256
Former commercial CB radio installer here.
CB antennas usually didn't match well when mounted on the corner of a vehicle.
It will work best if you mount it directly in the center of the roof.

The scientific suggestion would be to have at least 128 radials a minimum of 1/4 wavelength long.
What's practical is a different story.


For other people:
Center of roof installation:
You can use a step drill bit to make a hole dead center of the roof.

Use some sort of NMO connector. Make sure the hole you made in your roof was just a bit too small for the connector and use a file to oblong the hole a bit in one direction so it can _just_ get in. File off a bit of the paint so the connector has good connection to the car body.
When you are done with the car and want to sell it, you can get a small black pluming cap from your hardware store. Clip off the coax and cap the NMO connector. It will cross-thread.

Run the coax along the inside of the roof (on top of the fabric) and have it come down the door frame, run it under the plastic floor covering to the front of the car and then bobs your uncle.

Mounting the CB,
I'm a big fan of drilling holes and using pop-rivets (with washers). This is assuming you have good pop-rivets.
You can also use screws (with washers). When screwing it in, do it by hand using shorter non-self tapped screws. Push and turn, then remove, a few turns in and a turn out (very quickly). I like to think that building up the heat and friction keeps it from cracking. The advantage to screws is that when the installation needs to be removed the plastic can be folded over in to the hole to minimize the appearance somewhat.

[Anonymous No.1747569]

>>1747543
It would be interesting to see how well this matches the ionospheric propagation of GPS signals? I see tomographic imagery that is passive and replies on the transmitters on Navstar satellites only, without having to run sounders across all bands.

[Anonymous No.1747583]

>>1747569
>Each GPS satellite transmits data on two frequencies, L1 (1575.42 Mhz) and L2 (1227.60 MHz)
>ionospheric propagation of GPS signals
You retards are hopeless.

[Anonymous No.1747602]

>>1747492
I hear you, it'll never be perfect, but it'll help me get a bearing on what and when and where to be ... or at least throwing my line in the same water where fish are biting.
>>1747543
I was thinking of adding atmospheric conditions - the hard part is done!
>>1747294
I'm not man enough to get DXCC Honor Roll on phone - that'd take 3 lifetimes lol

[Anonymous No.1747607]

anyone got any tips for crimping on an sma connector without the tool?

[Anonymous No.1747609]

>>1747607
>without the tool
Don't use crimp connectors

[Anonymous No.1747614]

>>1747609
get the fuck out of this thread you useless cunt.
i cant imagine how pathetic your life is if youre shitting up /diy/ on a wednesday morning.

[Anonymous No.1747619]

>>1747583
Did you have a well thought out point, or just a need to dump in this discussion?

[Anonymous No.1747625]

>>1747614
If you're not using the proper crimping tool, its only a matter of time before the connection gets loose and you smoke your radio. That's only if you somehow made a satisfactory connection in the first place. Using purpose-built tools doesn't make it less /diy/, you absolute pillock.

[Anonymous No.1747668]

>>1746755
>>1746753
I really appreciate the guidance. In pic related, I was picturing the takeoff angle was showing the direction (ie left/right north/south), but if it's omni directional, that picture is showing only the 360° takeoff angle.
I had a wild hope that I could use the 'tail' of the inverted L as a scope and fire into Europe, then turn and aim into Asia ;)

[Anonymous No.1747674]

>>1747607

Build a crimper?
Check out:
>>1746127

[Anonymous No.1747736]

>>1747668
Your image looks like the approximation for a vertical antenna. It could also be analogous to an inverted-L with a mostly vertical component. You picture is a depiction of looking at the antenna from the side. The hoizontal axis on the bottom is like the ground. The top where it says "0db" would be like strait up in the air, and the direction of the "lobes" are up and away. This is only a 2 dimensional depiction, but in reality the lobes you see are just a cross section of a complete circular, torroid type shape. My image would be a 3D depiction of the same thing

[Anonymous No.1747739]

>>1747736
And, as you said, most is radiated at the base, so I can really now visualize how insignificant the upper leg of that L would be.
That's pretty altruistic of you, thanks, Anon.

[Anonymous No.1747746]

>>1747739
Exactly. This is why vertical HF antennas are usually better at longer range DX contacts. Since the strongest radiated signal is at such a low angle, that signal travels a longer path closer to the horizon before it hits the outer atmosphere and bounces back to earth.

[Anonymous No.1747747]

I'm a licensed electrician in my state, and within a year I will have my master's license that will allow me to create my own company legally. This weekend I'll be getting my technician license. How can I incorporate my amateur radio license with my electrical contractors license to become rich?

[Anonymous No.1747765]

>>1747747
You can’t.

[Anonymous No.1747766]

>Boomer HAM cucks getting mad at based Poorfag UV-5R chads on youtube


GET OUT OF MY HOBBY REEE FCC HELP ME

[Anonymous No.1747768]

>>1747765
Pretty sure I can...

[Anonymous No.1747785]

>>1747768
Pretty sure you can’t legally.

[Anonymous No.1747786]

>>1747747
>>1747768
You can't use amateur radio for commercial purposes.

[Anonymous No.1747788]

>>1747746
Exactly. This is why no one uses a Yagi antenna.

[Anonymous No.1747789]

>>1747768
Oh, ok. How?

[Anonymous No.1747791]

>>1747766
>We need to get more young people in the hobby.

Proceeds to shit on no-code licensees, Chinese radios (maybe that’s all they can afford), and just generally talking down to the newer generation of ops like they don’t know shit.

>Why aren’t more young people becoming hams

Why are boomers so dumb?

[Anonymous No.1747795]

>>1747788
Huh? I mean if you have the room for it, any beam like a Yagi will give even more gain, so sure plenty of people use them. They just become more of a financial and spacial burden as you go down in the bands. Previous discussion was more toward the difference between horizontal and vertical elements of a mono-element antenna...

[Anonymous No.1747803]

>>1747788
>. This is why no one uses a Yagi antenna.
u wut m8?
yagi on 20 is a fucking hammer

[Anonymous No.1747815]

>>1747558
What did you do to that poor connector? Also I hope you're using some dielectric grease on that sheet metal, lest you be the source of cancer rust on others' roofs.

[Anonymous No.1747851]

>>1747543
>Ionospheric sounding is done using real-time amateur radio reporting.
I think it's done using WSPR or beacons of other kind that operate 24/7.

[Anonymous No.1747859]

Hello all!
Just passed my tech/general! I have a dipole set up for HF, but was wondering where you guys go to find antenna plans? Wanting to build a yagi eventually, but a monxon seems easier to build.
Looking to build this with my son and a few of his friends(and their fathers for actual help)
so anything visual would be great.
We have all put together roll up j-poles together, and made one copped j-pole.

Any help would be great....trying to get new blood on the air

[Anonymous No.1747864]

>>1747815
Not my picture, it's from a previous ham thread.
The O ring from the antenna is pretty good at keeping water out for 2-3 years. A little bit of silicon might be used if I was paranoid.

[Anonymous No.1747867]

>>1747859
http://gen.lib.rus.ec/search.php?req=antennas&lg_topic=libgen&open=0&view=simple&res=25&phrase=1&column=def

I also like to read gqrp's sprat magazine.
If they can make it work on milliwatts, they must be doing something right.

[Anonymous No.1747868]

>>1747864
Direct contact with water helps produce rust, but just being exposed to oxygen and moisture (from the inside of the cab too) is enough to start rusting the metal. And with what is often 22ga steel there's not much there to begin with.

One of my worries as I look at adding a CB to my truck (already have ham), is that a 4ft antenna is going to cause a lot of flexing, which I can see forming stress cracks over time. Even with a spring I wonder how reliable direct mount through the roof is.

Part of why I personally plan to use a headache rack, even if it's less effective.

[Anonymous No.1747918]

>>1747768
That's the spirit

[Anonymous No.1748389]

just played with echolink for the first time, seems pretty neat
going to try contacting a buddy in malta later

[Anonymous No.1748427]

>>1748389
>Inb4 not real radio

Yeah, echolink is pretty cool for what it is. Not as exciting as HF but a good free way to connect with hams outside of LOS. Also, there’s a net that I occasionally join on there (no RF, just pure VOIP) where we talk about shit that just wouldn’t fly on the air. /pol/ would love it.

[Anonymous No.1748494]

>>1747569
Sorta, Long range HF propagation has somewhat different properties to the 1900 Mhz band. At microwave, it's bent, but not bent back like at HF. IIRC plasma density / refraction was only part of what makes DX happen.
>>1747583
> https://www.e-education.psu.edu/geog862/node/1715
> Ionospheric Effects being literally "One of the largest errors in GPS positioning"
I think the neopets forums are a better place for you.
>>1747607
>sma
Use a crimping tool. Too small to risk doing it the ghetto way IMO.
>>1747859
Try ARRL Handbook / ARRL Antenna book to start. Antenna design can be math heavy past a point, but there's enough plans out there now to cover nearly anything.

[Anonymous No.1748529]

>>1748494

[Anonymous No.1748670]

>>1748494
distortion and propagation are not the same thing you brainlet.

[Anonymous No.1748673]

>>1747791
>Why aren’t more young people becoming hams
because they like smartphones and pre marital sex and arent smart enough for it anyway.

[Anonymous No.1748679]

>>1748494
>At microwave, it's bent
At 3 GHz you can get a lot of extended view though refractions, especially over sharp edges. We saw that when we worked on radar systems, where you could look over an object and past it into regions that were beyond line of sight.

>>1748670
>distortion
What distortions?

[Anonymous No.1748680]

>>1748679
the ionosphere distorts the gps microwaves. it does not reflect them.

[Anonymous No.1748733]

>>1742360
Is there a way to us a balun or Unun to shrink a directional antenna like a hex beam or moxon?
I live in a small suburban house and can't get away with a full sized antenna. The only other thing that comes to mind is a delta loop, but it seems the reception of a beam is better.

[Anonymous No.1748759]

>>1748733
How would an impedance matching device let you reduce the size of an antenna?

[Anonymous No.1748768]

>>1748759
Doesn't a balun act essentially like an impedance transformer?

[Anonymous No.1748775]

>>1748759
>>1748768
Bare with me, it's been a distracting morning.
There was a youtube video I found of someone using a wound torrid core and a food of wire to get on 160M.
Figured that idea could translate to a directional antenna.

[Anonymous No.1748788]

>>1743391
Wow, you troll dead bands.Wow!

[Anonymous No.1748789]

>>1748775
>Bare with me
>inb4 ham hero anon to swoops in, replying to multiple posts, while giving nonfactual/wrong advice.

[Anonymous No.1748792]

I am not sure how to phrase this but, As you go higher in frequency from HF to SHF does atmospheric penetration follow a linear pattern.

For example once you pass a certian frequency it 100% can no longer bounce or do Frequencies in the Mhz range still bounce.

[Anonymous No.1748804]

>>1748792
Found the video that's been in the back of my head.
They used a 47:1 balun as an 80M antenna (pic related) to raise the impedance from 50 to 2,700.
Therefore, couldn't the same vague concept be used to scale up say a 2M to 20M? What else would be required?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbIZ8CwGCXw

[Anonymous No.1748805]

>>1748792
>>1748494
Super anon! Where are you? I need some web literature with partially related keywords, followed by pseudo-intellectual insults. Please, you're our only hope!

[Anonymous No.1748815]

for 6m digital..would a dipole be decent? or should i build ground plane??

[Anonymous No.1748819]

>>1748815
Depends on what you want and where you are

[Anonymous No.1748823]

i can access the highs i can access the lows i can bing dong bicky dicky ding dong doh

[Anonymous No.1748830]

I became a HAM (extra class) only to end up using Zello and echolink with my posse.

"the motley crew" on Zello

[Anonymous No.1748842]

>>1748804
The balun matches only the impedance - you still need an antenna.
If you think of a runway, the antenna is the asphalt road, that balun is the bumps and potholes.

[Anonymous No.1748846]

>>1748819
im in US
not sure what i want. i only have a dipole at the moment.
every page seems to be not in service when i go to look at digital modes, or something in the UK

[Anonymous No.1748853]

>>1748846
That's b/c 6, 10, 12, and 15 are very dependant on the sun. A dipole also is more useful for local communication.
You're fucked Anon. Truly and thoroughly fucked. Fucked in the ass through Monday, then thrown up Shit's Creek. RIP. Write a will and leave me your radio.

[Anonymous No.1748855]

>>1748853
sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet

guess ill just give up

whats your address ill send you my rigs

[Anonymous No.1748858]

>>1748855
Kek.
If you have a backyard, go build what's in OP's pics and dangle some wires from it.
I've worked Oceania, Africa and Europe so far. This is all that's in there

[Anonymous No.1748900]

>>1742360
I'm bored on payday. May break down and buy a new ic-7300 this afternoon.
Hold me, /ham/.

[Anonymous No.1748902]

>>1748792
>atmospheric penetration follow a linear pattern
What does this even mean?

[Anonymous No.1748946]

>>1748804
The feedpoint impedance along a wire antenna changes depending where you feed it. For example, a center-fed half-wave dipole has an impedance at the center of about 73 Ohms, while an end-fed half-wave has an impedance at the end of the wire of about 2,500-3,000 Ohms. All the balun is doing is transforming that impedance to around 50 Ohms to give a good match to 50 Ohm coax cable. In either case, you still need a half-wave length of wire as your radiator.

What you want to do physically shorten the antenna, this is done not with a balun/impedance transformer but with a loading coil or coils.

Loading Coils keep an element electrically long but physically short, at the trade-off of usually having a narrower bandwidth where they are resonant. They are straight forward to calculate and add to wire antennas, but adding them to more complex designs like you're thinking could have weird effects. Worth a shot I guess, but you'll be doing a lot of experimentation and complex adjustments.

[Anonymous No.1748974]

>>1745072
>2

[Anonymous No.1749014]

>>1748900
buy a used radio.

[Anonymous No.1749027]

>>1749014
They're down to $900 new. I'm waiting until Monday b/c it's too late to ship, nothing else catches my eye

[Anonymous No.1749049]

>>1748974
Yes, in my catalog of "Trump anus eyes" pictures, I have 2. The one called in question being the second.

[Anonymous No.1749052]

>>1749027
>not waiting for pic related

[Anonymous No.1749062]

9 left

[Anonymous No.1749067]

>>1748900
Just curious, why a IC-7300 over an Elecraft K3?

[Anonymous No.1749083]

>>1749052
Its just not for me. I don't want to buy a HF amp for my house and a VHF amp for my house and 2 amps for my car and ...
I was rooting for it to drop the IC-7300 price, but they're both Icom - they're in the business of making money, they wouldn't let that happen.

[Anonymous No.1749088]

>>1749067
Price, I would think.

[Anonymous No.1749095]

>>1748900
>and buy
Go for it

[Anonymous No.1749115]

>>1749067
This anon >>1749088 nailed it, $900 is the very upper end of my budget.
I'm not above buying used, but I just don't see any better bang for the buck or discount opportunity in the foreseeable future.

[Anonymous No.1749120]

What's the worst State to live in for DX?

[Anonymous No.1749290]

>>1749120
the wrong state of mind

[Anonymous No.1749319]

>>1749120
Anything in the middle of the continent is sub par

[Anonymous No.1749345]

>>1749319
So if I'm in Tennessee or Missouri, I should consider my location as a bump in the road to becoming a better operator

>>1749290
Cough cough ... which of the 48 landlocked States are most elusive for other countries due to positioning? ;)

[Anonymous No.1749353]

Anyone know of a free way to reclaim an .adi log?
I switched from Windows to Linux, and while I uploaded my logs to QRZ, LoTW, eQSL, and ClubLog, I didn't email the log to myself so I could add it to JTDX so I know where I've worked.
I'm afraid QRZ or LoTW is going to sucker me into a membership.

[Anonymous No.1749362]

This is only mildly on topic at best, but I figured if anyone could help me it would be you guys. I picked up this old radio/cassette player yesterday. The thing barely picks up any stations. Is there a low profile way to improve the antenna on this thing? I don't want to have to run a wire anywhere, I'm just curious if there's something that can be done internally.

[Anonymous No.1749364]

>>1749362
Of course, just depends on what's going on. Seems you're jumping to conclusions thinking it's the antenna. Could be a speaker or connection or battery ...

[Anonymous No.1749365]

>>1749364
That's interesting, I had no idea those could factor into the problem. Well, I'm not using batteries, it'd plugged into the wall. As for the speaker connection, I took the thing apart and cleaned it up and everything looked good to me. Cassettes sound fine, so I assume the speaker is connected fine.

[Anonymous No.1749372]

>>1749345
>due to positioning?
None. The ionosphere is everywhere but the local active ham density may play a role.

[Anonymous No.1749394]

>>1749345
>48 landlocked States

[Anonymous No.1749398]

>>1749362
AM or FM?
Check that the FM antenna is connected (wire isn't broken, screw is in place, etc.). Most of the time poor signal reception is due to a broken antenna connection. AM: there isn't much to do other than look for obvious physical damage to the bar antenna.

[Anonymous No.1749417]

>>1749398
FM mostly, but AM is also not picking up a bunch of stations that I can get on other things.

[Anonymous No.1749423]

YOURE·FIVE·AND·NINE·MY·NAME·IS·PAUL·QRZ·?
no thanks, no.

[Anonymous No.1749940]

NEW THREAD
>>1749938
.>>1749938
>>1749938