Welcome to /hamradio/
Welcome to /hamradio/
http://8ch.net/hamradio/rules.html
Have an excellent day.
LocalLink:
List of some Ham Radio activities:
http://www.qsl.net/w2vtm/hamactivities.html
Youtube channels:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPhfct0hwCpv_q6_BVSFsRA
https://www.youtube.com/user/w2aew/videos
Resources:
Component and parts sources:
Flat rate shipping. Great for transistors.
^ Good prices on silver mica caps/ 1N34A diodes/ if American.
You can order from a dealer or your local radio shop
Good mixers/ amplfiers/ etc.
Basic:
http://home.alphalink.com.au/~parkerp/gateway.htm
Basic Electronics:
http://www.talkingelectronics.com/te_interactive_index.html
Morse Code:
A puzzle game with schematics:
http://wp.rac.ca/hampuzzle-v1-2/
Canadian Radio License Test Generator:
http://wp.rac.ca/exhaminer-v2-5/
Intermediate:
Advanced:
Information to note:
Quanshengs/Baofengs/Tytera, are all radios that are known to emit spurious signals/ desensitize/ and be of inferior quality. I beg of you, if you are going to go cheap, do yourself a favor and get yourself a 2nd hand radio from a reputable manufacturer. Pay once, cry once.
Airwave degeneracy and 14.313 MHz - the /b/ of the airwaves?
So I happened along something today, apparently 14.313 has a reputation for being full of shitty and unlicensed operators, cranks, and shitty cranks.
Plug the number into google and the first few pages are full of nothing but reports of these kinds.
Apparently there's a russian guy in Canada, VE1KFM, who's known for being either completely nutty or a complete troll, not sure which. The USA hams hate him, and he's technically broken all the regs, but Canada refuses to do anything about the guy.
Google that call, and you'll see even more reports and some pretty humorous recordings.
Anyone else ever heard things about or on this freq?
ET callling or calling BS
Does anyone here know anything about these images?
apparently they were received by a radio operator (Dr Prutchi) attempting to bounce signal off the moon. His gear was just set up for this in 2008. He was apparently involved in Project ARGUS which is crowd operated SETI programme. The image dates back about 2 years. An image search lead to a few forums abut never really settled as to whether it was legit or not.
I don't know whether this is a hoax or not.
I'll save you some time, the math is in base 6 and positional.
so:
/ is1
^ is 2
[/] is 7
[^] is 8
^[] is 12
^[/] is 13
/[][] is 36
/[/][] is 42
/[/][/] is 43
/[/][^] is 44
^[][] is 72
Apparently this came from an audio file converted with SoX. other people later did image manipulation to clean up the pictures.
its mostly just maths equations
'A' =
'–|' +
'–N' -
'F|' *
'>>' /
the last part of image is supposedly a picture of the aliens who sent the signal. and they have 6 finger so base 6 makes some sense.
curiously there is very little higher math which you might expect. there may be indications of primes —- may mean this.
one equation is half missing which may be indicating 31 as a prime.
the large rectangle at the end is about 800 x 150 the dark circles are 60. i believe inside it a geometric proof, it is indicating a calculation of similar to sqrt(2) = 305.47/216
the approximation they use is:
(sqrt((55*55) + (300*300)) + sqrt((60*60) + (300*300)) )/ 2
this is then divided by 216 aka /[][][] in their numbers
This gives sqrt(2) to 5 decimal places
in their numbers its closer to 7 'decimal' places.
So can anyone shed some light on this?
Any obvious hoax indications?
Finally going to use the General privileges of my license, had it since August 2014 and no I'm going to use it. I picked up a Radio Shack HTX-10 it was a decent price and it'll get my feet wet. Still waiting for it to be shipped, but I'm already planning for it. Already built a 10m dipole, don't need to do much of anything to get it hung at about 21' E-W horizontally, however, N-S, might have to go inverted V. I have an SWR meter/matcher that supposedly does 10m-60m, Even rigged an only CB whip to give that a shot, need the radio before cutting.
Here's my problem, I'm interested in digital modes. Sure I might be able buy something that could work, but I'd rather build.
Anyone know of any good plans to build a digital interface for the radio?
Antenna query
Pray tell oh hams, WTF is going on here??
Heya /hamradio/
So I fucked up. I blew out the charging base of my ((Baofeng(Please see sticky for more information on this radio))(Please see sticky for more information on this radio)) HAM radio with 12 volts, when it needed 10 volts.
I already bought a new one a while back, but I'm wondering if I could fix the old one with a new lithium charging board.
The battery pack is 8.4v, so I went to eBay and searched for a 2 series lithium charging board. All I could find however are these boards that have a balancing pad that goes between the 2 cells. The battery nor the base have a 3rd terminal, so it's just a postive and a negative going in.
Could I still use that board to safely charge the battery? It also doesn't have an indicator light when it's full so that's also something I'm worrying about. ( I could just calculate the approximate charging time but I'm not too fond of that method)
My new charger base also stops charging when it's 8.2 volts instead of 8.4, which pisses me off a bit since I'm not getting a 100% charge. Could I fix this as well? I don't want to buy a new one *again* just because this one is kinda DOA. I still use it though, and I should have noticed it earlier and disputed it with the seller back then. Don't want to do a paypal claim because I think that's a bit unethical.
Pic related of the charging board and info. What would be the correct input voltage for that board?
Photos from the Wyong CCARC Ham Radio Field Day 2016
Every year at this time, for like the last 60 years, there's been the biggest Amateur Radio event in the Southern Hemisphere, held on the Central Coast of NSW, Australia.
I'm not licenced, but at least I can make good use of the carpark flea market… The weather was great this year (it didn't rain like it had for the past 3..) and the stall turn-out was the best I've ever seen it.
Pixies and Morse
Well, I'm deciding to take a dive into making my own radio, I figured I start with a kit. Not only that, but I'm going to attempt to learn Morse. I have a General ticket, with I'm planning on upgrading once I get the hang of it.
Now, does anyone have any experience with with Pixie kits? Any tips on construction? Common problems to watch out for?
Also, what are some good resources for learning Morse? Anything including audio or even written based learning. Any tips for learning? Maybe even key building resources?
I may be a no-code ham, but at least I'm willing to try.
decrypt POCSAG
Hi @ all
First of all - sorry because of my bad English - i´m Austrian :P
For a few weeks i´m trying to gain insight into the world of SDR. Now i located a POCSAG signal BUT the messages are encrypted (you can see it on the pic). Is there a way to decrypt dem without knowing the key? Thank you for your answers.
My sister spilled milk on some electronics, and after looking at the board, i can see a few components clearly burnt out.
They are marked C76 for example, which i suppose stands for capacitor, but I don't know what rating etc.
- Is there a way i can identify and replace burnt out components?
-Do you think it makes sense, or is the damage likely to be more serious, and replacing stuff in the spill/burn area wont help.
pic unrel
. - - . . . . - - - - . - . . - - . . . . . . - . .
How do I test this thing?
I'm looking to get started with amateur radio. My grandfather was into it, and I inherited some things of his many years ago. Sadly, I wasn't really in a position to pursue the interest at the time, and after any gear I had was put into storage, it was quickly forgotten.
Something sparked my curiosity again, so I went looking through my things to see what equipment I actually had. I may have some other things in storage (it may have been cleared out, I can't depend on my parents to hold this stuff forever), but all I know at the moment is that I had pic related, a Yaesu Transceiver, tucked away in the corner of my garage. I haven't even gotten around to dusting it off yet.
It was (presumably) fully functional when I received it as it was used regularly, but that was many years ago.
I have no idea as to how I should test it. Is there anything I need to do before I plug it in and turn it on? I don't know if the vacuum tubes can go bad, or if I'll do damage to them if I just plug it in.
Oh, I should mention, I'm still unlicensed, and I really don't want the FCC busting down my door.
I plan on studying for the exam over the next few weeks, assuming this transceiver works, of course.
Shalom /hamradio/, I have a few questions regarding a few projects I have going
1:
How badly would a 1/10th inch plexiglass sheath affect the rx of a QFH antenna? I was thinking that I could make a circular radome for one I'm building to keep water out and make it look a bit nicer.
2: Does a steel coupling nut conduct well enough to be the only contact between two SO-239 or BNC connectors, or should I fill the space inside of it with copper wire or something? I need some double ended connectors I'm making to fit within a two inch deep box, and this is the easiest solution I've come up with.
3: What is /hamradio/'s preferred way of elevating an antenna if I can't stick it to my roof, I'm too cheap to buy a mast, and I don't trust any of my trees not to blow over and rip my shit out through my window?
Can't speak!
I can't do it! I got my ham ticket. I got my HT. I have a club nearby and they run a net (fat old dudes who put the ham in ham radio).
But I can't speak! I just go real shy. Calling CQ is like freaking me out.
What do? I would prefer HF and try talking to people miles away, but the $$$ of a rig hold me back.
IRLP
Let's have a /hamradio/ net!
IRLP reflector: 9221.
Every sunday at:
0300 UTC TIME
Anybody down for this?
Now what?
rtl2832u dongle acquired.
GQRX installed via macports.
Thing plugs in and static arrives.
>shit aerial is shit
How do I into catching radio waves with this thing?
>babies first radio speak plox.
Hey, this guy wants some help with his SHTF radio guy. He's pretty knowledgeable already but is looking for input.
hello /hamradio/
I just bought one of these and I am new to hamradio.
Can someone recommend an antenna for it? as the stock one can only pick up local farm chatter
Are these any good?
http://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?initiative_id=SB_20150930044951&site=glo&shipCountry=uk&SearchText=((Baofeng(Please see sticky for more information on this radio))(Please see sticky for more information on this radio))+antenna&page=2
Echolink?
Anyone? Nodes? Conferences? Repeaters? Which ones, if any do you use?
Are you brave enough to dox yourself and give out your call sign?
HOME BREW GENERAL
Anyone here do any homebrew?
-Mod edit- 2015/11/08
This thread is dedicated to homebrew.
my biggest fear getting into ham radio
lightning
how do you protect against lightning? i've seen some conflicting advice
>if a lightning strikes your antenna all your equipment will be destroyed. just fucking pray it doesn't strike.
>an antenna (if grounded) acts as a lightning rod and the lightning will be diverted to the ground. (i'm assuming though the radio(s) will still be destroyed if they're left plugged into the coax connected to the antenna?)
wat do? which is correct?
/gearqueer/
I didn't see one, so I thought I would start a thread for gear discussion.
Post recent additions to your collection or questions.
I just bought one of these, as an upgrade from my bongfong BF-F8+. It looked like it had a decent amount of features and survivability for the price. Did I do good?
Small question(s)
Didn't see a small questions thread. Have small question: Have boner for radio via http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/
Want receiver. Cheap PL-660 better than usb SDR and upconvertor?
Also small questions general I suppose.
Paranoid Anons /Tech/ Guide V.2 for my smart bros of /hamradio/
IMPORTANT FOR YOUR PRIVACY
https://8ch.net/g/res/3537.html
I posted this here because you anons are fairly close to /tech/ in some ways so I knew this might benefit you all somehow.
peace.
i'm studying for the general exam. I plan on getting the icom 7410 but this is already gonna break the bank for me. what would be a good antenna to get that is decent for worldwide contacts but is cheap and doesn't require a tower?
Does anybody have any helpful soldering tips? I'm looking to make my own antennas, and so far, soldering coax looks like a major pain in the ass, and I'm not entirely clear on how to properly wire an antenna. I do have experience soldering electronics, such as capacitors and wires. Also, could I hypothetically make ghetto solder iron tips out of nails?
Sup hamfags
I'm trying to plan a QRP (sub-1W) magloop project. It has to be somewhat kinda sorta portable, so copper tubing is a definite no-no, and LMR-400 is just too expensive. At these power levels, though, I still really need the efficiency of a longer, thicker, stiffer, blacker conductor for the main loop.
I did some researching n shit, and I found a place nearby that sells pretty cheap 00AWG wire, which is about 1cm diameter. Does anyone know how stiff and heavy this is? 'Cause I haven't used it before.
Also: I don't wanna bother with mounting a capacitor at the top and a coupling loop at the bottom, so does anyone know if this guy's approach to coupling and capacitor placement would introduce any appreciable loss? http://k1fm.us/2015/07/k1fm-mini-magnetic-loop-2-0/
Sorry for the long post, I'm a poorfag with too little money to experiment with things myself.
Today while hiking, I stood right in front of this big metal square, which I later found out was a radio reflector. It was about 2-2.5km from a 5kw FM transmitter.
Could I get cancer from this?
Pic related: The reflector and the transmitter.
Some time ago i read about how radio enthusiasts in the past (1980's for the most part i think) would send each other highly pixelated pictures over radio waves, does anyone here know what this technology was called?
Post Your Shack Thread
Post your shacks
Help with an HF antenna?
Hey guys, general class ham here. I've been trying to into HF for a while but I've been lost in what I should do when it comes to the antenna setup.
Obviously the size of the antenna should be based around the primary working band, but my problem is I'm not sure what band I want to work. I have an HF rig, a tuner (does balanced but requires me to buy a balun kit) and an external SWR meter. For making the antenna I have a bunch of new PL259 connectors and insulators.
My questions are: for someone who doesn't have a lot of money to spend on the hobby and hasn't been on HF basically ever, what would be a suggested band and antenna (inb4 dipole- there's a fuck-ton of variations) setup? What about station grounding and lightning protection?
Should I buy the balun kit and use ladder line to feed between the station and antenna, or just coax? What kind of coax should I use? I need to buy some for feeding between the radio and the other pieces of equipment at the very least.
Any help would be appreciated.
Oscilloscope thread! Post oscilloscopes.
I want to setup a shortwave antenna and listen to the world, but I don't know how to find out if it's worth it based on where I live. I live in Maine and would like to be able to listen to news + cool shit on it. I figure what I would do is get one of the cheapest radios from this page http://swling.com/Radios.htm and then just hook it up to a big wire antenna. Though I'm not sure what ones have the external antenna hookup.
How do I find out if I can hear the BBC from where I am?
I have no idea what im doing
I need some help, i have here a Heathkit HW-101 Transceiver, it was a gift, ive always loved old tube-y kind of stuff.
Issue is, i have no clue how to use it, i know how to use my grandfathers more modern transceiver , a little bit. But i have no clue how to operate this and i cant get any father than just turning knobs and trying to find some noise.
Could anyone experienced with this kind of equipment tell me how to find anything? Most things are just labled as a Mhz frequency, but i dont know how to use certain bands and such.
Any resources or guides would be appreciated, online i find alot of stuff for more modern stuff, but not much for anything else.
I didn't see this addressed in the rules so I thought I'd ask. Can I talk about CB stuff here? I know it's faggot stuff, but it's what I have and I enjoy it.
eyy hams, is there any good general guide for starting up ham radio? genuinely interested in doing this
pic unrelated
Professional Grade
Anybody have any experience with professional-grade radios? Pic related - Stuff that's nowhere close to Kenwood's amateur line.
Hi. I would replace my RTL SDR dongle with the Mirics dongle. Does anyone use that dongle and where i can buy it?
Newbie Getting Set Up
Total greener here from Canada. How do I get set up for the first time? No license, no equipment, and the whole process looks like a maze to me.
Can someone give me a quick step-through on how to get licenced, what are some good first books to read, and what is the best kind of equipment for me to cut my teeth on?
I heard I can make free phone calls using ham radios, is this still possible?
Internet Over Radio
I've heard you can use HAM Radio in combination with certain software in order to send files between computers. What sort of software/hardware, and what kind of bandwidth are we talking about? Can it work for streaming video? Would the microwave bands provide high enough data transfer speeds?
What's The Allure?
Hi there. My dad used to be into Ham Radios a while back, he even had a room and an antenna/tower/whatever set up for the hobby before he passed on. I was wondering what the allure of this is. Maybe figure out my dad's perspective if even for a little bit.
*still getting his magazines dedicated to this, even at a new address*
What's the difference between the General class license,and Amateur Extra License?
Which one should I get,and what is some good study material?
Norway to remove FM radio!
/tech/nician here
Since this seems to be the radio people board here is this: https://archive.today/eDuXk
Norway seems to be mothballing FM radio in favor of digital radio.
What's your take on this?
WSPR transmitter PA advice?
Sup hamfags
I'm in the process of building a WSPR transmitter based around an Arduino and an AD9850 DDS VFO. I'd like to add a PA (about 250mW or so) to the output (plus a LPF, of course), and I think I've found one whose design I can borrow: the BS170-based PA in the Ultimate3S WSPR/QRSS beacon: http://www.hanssummers.com/images/stories/ultimate3s/assembly.pdf
Now, L1 calls for an FT37-43 toroid with 25 turns of wire, but I have neither the toroid nor the magnet wire. I estimate that it's about 270uH, so could I take a pre-packaged 270uH inductor and use that?
Alternatively, are there any sub-1W broadband PAs that don't require any toroids? By broadband, I mean at least 40m thru 12m, but ideally all the way down to 600 meters.
Completely new to the ham world.
Still need to get a license, but I already a couple Cheap chinese garbage (cheap chinese garbage (baofeng)) UV-5RA's with aftermarket antennae. Are either of the things below a good thing to boost my signal to actually communicate with my spread-out innawoods community?http://www.amazon.com/Amplified-Digital-Motorized-Rotation-Infrared/dp/B00SFXDSVC/
http://www.amazon.com/RCA-ANT751-Durable-Compact-Outdoor/dp/B0024R4B5C/
Picture entirely unrelated.
but it's my life
What's the easiest, cheapest way to set up a repeater on a trip to a mountainous terrain?
I'm thinking something with helium balloons and some HT's.
>Live in south america's whitest country
>importation restrictions and embargo jacked the prices of ham radio hardware to ridiculous prices
>national currency isn't worth jack shit, any decent piece costs a few months' worth of salary and probably more than a low end car
>spend my days listening to websdr and lamenting
>my late father's antenna is still hanging from the building rooftop rusting away
>we had to sell all his equipment after he died because we would lose the house otherwise
Sorry for sharing this feel with you all, had to get it off my chest. Maybe one day I'll rob a bank or something, get my license and find you on the waves. 73
Radio Jamming
Do any of you know about this topic?From generating waves in order to jam devices to preventing it.
I think it's an interesting topic.
20.1 MHz Dipole to capture decametric radio emissions from Jupiter and the Sun.
HackRF One hooked up to it at the moment, but its proving not to be a very good receiver. :<
Number stations.
Any of you guys look for them? I have only managed one spainish one that sounded really unprofessional. Prolly drug runners.
I have a question regarding the FCC licenses over the years.
Wasn't their a license years ago for hobbyists or average people to start up a radio show and start broadcasting without needing to pay the exorbitant tax to get a license that we see today?
I seem to have read sometime a time ago or maybe Im making it up.
Im interested into seeing how tyrannical the FCC has been in history to see where the internet is going to go. Everyone knows about fairness doctrine already and only idiots support that shit so no need to cover that.
Hey, /hamradio/, I passed my technician and general last night! I plan on buying a UV-B5 and some accessories to chew rag on local repeaters, since my university already has an HF station. See you on the nets!
CQ CQ CQ
Anybody here interested in VLF reception with the soundcard in your computer?I'm a lifelong student of electricity and currently tinkering around with RTL SDR and came across this idea of using the sound card in a computer to receive VLF in the 0 ~ 40Khz range.
http://dl1dbc.net/SAQ/
http://www.qsl.net/dl4yhf/speclab/vlf_rcvr.htm
http://www.rtl-sdr.com/receiving-vlf-pc-sound-card-miniwhip-antenna-saqrx/
I think listening for SAQ might be fun as well as the other signals in that very long wave band.
I should mention another use I intend for this setup. Sergei and Leonid Plekhanov's experiment to test Tesla's wireless energy transmission ideas should be detectable with the proper antenna. Since their oscillations will be at aproximately 10Khz they fall within the range of this receiver setup but the waves will be primarily E field a normal wire or ferrite rod type antenna may not be sufficient.
Oh heay, this is a place. So I got my license a while back but never did anything with it. What should I do?
EMP testing setup
So I found this photo on Wiki earlier. It's an E-4 command-and-control aircraft undergoing EMP simulation testing. The antenna looks like some sort of cage dipole to me, but I wanted to get a second opinion: What is it? What sort of bandwidth does it have to have in order to be useful for simulating a (presumably broadband) EMP?
For anyone that has a packet radio set-up, do you guys have a mobile printer to print out any messages received?
My build, as it happens.
Printed off the schematic.
So I have a HTX-100 10-meter radio, and I need to know what's a good antenna to have to listen on 10 and 11 meter bands?
Sup hamfags
I wanna make an end-fed halfwave antenna (single band, no tuner), and I don't know if I should use an L network with a variable cap, or a 9:1 unun. I'd like to be able to switch between 20m and 30m by switching out the 33ft wire with a 50ft one. I'm only running QRP on both bands (3w on 30, 1w on 20).
Suggestions?
(Pic unrelated)
I am not too good with circuitry and electronics, but I am trying out a pong console project. I have an AY-3-8500-1 that needs an external clock. I want to control how fast the game moves and I think I can do this either with a switch to choose between two clocks or use an LMS555 and a tuning resistor to change the clock speed. Would this work or is there some problem or some safeguard put in the chip to prevent this?
a question i need answere on. im not really good on electronic stuff regarding resistors and dc current and that jazz. but im installing some spotlights the transformer needs 2 spotlights at minimum to work properly, max 6 spotlights. maximum wattage should not exceed 15w and no lower than 4.5w. but im only going to use 1 spotlight. the voltage output from the transformer is 52v. so if i have done my math properly a a 100ohm resistor which i have should help it work properly. but how do i tell if the resistor will hold for the power of the circuit?
Meteor Burst Communications
Meteor burst communications doesn't receive a lot of attention. That's a shame since it is one of the more interesting modes of communication.It is a reliable, long-range, and low cost data and message communication system based on the reflection of radio waves by the billions of meteors entering the earth's atmosphere.
Ideal for when data must be transmitted long distances from remote areas.
The way HAMS do it now is to spray and pray with packets. Hoping one reaches it's destination.
Commercially a continuous coded signal was transmitted, and when a meteor was in the proper location it would reflect that signal to a remote station. The remote station would decode the signal, turn on its transmiter and send a signal back on the same path.
Maximum distance is about 2000 kilometers. The meteor trail has a useful time of a few hundred milliseconds. Wait times between trails range from seconds to minutes. Based on time of day, time of year, and system design. The transmissions const of bursts of high-data rate transmissions.
YouTube channels
I've followed W2AEW for some timehttps://www.youtube.com/user/w2aew/videos
Anyone know of some other good ones?
GPS/GLONASS
Found this and thought some of you innawoods types might be interested. Really excellent writeup of how GPS and GLONASS works. Makes me want to build a custom receiver without those silly altitude/velocity restrictions.http://lea.hamradio.si/~s53mv/navsats/theory.html
Identity
North american Caucasians identify with technology. "I'm a mac person" or "I'm a windows user" and similar statements about mobile devices indicate this. People identify with the reference and not the substance.This identification shapes personality.
As someone who identifies as a "ham", how does that shape your personality?
hey, /tech/ here, wondering about a part that I found in a monitor.
Basically, the switches behind the buttons have gone to shit, causing the monitor settings to flicker on and off. I was able to find the exact switch used for sale at radioshack.
However, I noticed that out of the four poles that the switch had, a pair of two on opposite sides of one another, in the monitor two of them had been cut off, and some sort of plate had been attached to the button, which added two poles to the side which had both of its poles intact
I figure this plate thing was for nothing more than stabilization, as other wise just those two poles on the bottom side of the button would be holding it onto the eletronic board, but still I'd like to find this plate so that I could fully repair the switches.
The switches in the monitor are this sucker: https://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3060978
I would post a more unrelated pic, but I can't get my encrypted root partition on my new slackware install on my desktop to fucking load
banners
Hey guys, I made a few banners.
Humor thread?
Humor thread
A very cool direction finding setup. by Byon Garrabrant, N6BG.
http://byonics.com/tdoa/
Elsilbo is a voice powered radio that has a record of some amazing contacts.
This is a morse code to light reel. Super cool, I enjoy toying with concept for other things.
http://jderogee.tripod.com/projects/morse/morse.html
By Jan Derogee
I will be mirroring the rest of the images here. As a tripod site I don't know how long it will last, and I would be VERY disappointed if such content disappeared.
Optical communications
Testing out xchan and dumping some optical communications images.Picture kind of unrelated.