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NeerWas fucked around with this message at 21:33 on Aug 9, 2023 |
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May 3, 2008 10:22
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Well guys I've got all the luck in the world. My new toy arrived today complete with requisite 'Made in Japan' stickers. Its the Arrow II 2m/70cm yagi antenna that everyone and their brother is using to work FM satellites. I prepped everything and took a few pics in preperation for a nice post on the matter. Only to discover that they turned off the 2m/70cm repeater on AO-51 /today/ and it will be off for a week. Anyone have any recommendations on other FM satellites? If not I'll try again in a week or so. My other project, getting APRS going, is kind of on hold because the setup program I need to use to configure my OpenTracker with my call and such only runs on windows. I'm a happy xubuntu camper and can't seem to find my WinXP CD. I just moved a few weeks ago so it's probably in a box in a closet.
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May 5, 2008 23:33
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Jose Pointero fucked around with this message at 02:49 on Aug 28, 2019 |
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May 6, 2008 00:17
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blugu64 posted:Well guys I've got all the luck in the world. My new toy arrived today I got an Arrow II antenna as well on friday! I set it up on a tripod, and eagerly awaited for A0-51 to pass over the horizon, only to discover that I wasn't hearing anything. Glad to hear that it wasn't just me, for once.
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May 6, 2008 00:25
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Just scan from 240-270 FM and see what happens. Occasionally you'll get military out on manoeuvres, and sometimes pirates piggy backing off the birds. Or, do what I do, and wait till there's a shuttle mission on. Then you'll get lots of wonderful stations endlessly radiochecking as per the examples here: http://uhf-satcom.com/sounds/ Rescue birds and ground stations in the US and Europe (TAL sites) are heard. Lots more info here: http://uhf-satcom.com/uhf/
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May 6, 2008 00:27
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Jose Pointero posted:Nice antenna, how much do those run anyway? I've been reading up on working satellites and will probably be getting into that soon. Also are you gonna use a tripod or something with it? That reminds me, Jonny 290 give us some pics and info of your satellite setup! I paid $100 shipped, for a used one with the duplexer. You can get a new one without the duplexer for aroudn $70-$80 but I didn't want to have to jack with two radios. As for XP I appreciate the offer but I've got 2-3 copies of it, I just need to find my CD binder  (the college I went to had one of those agreements with Microsoft where you could buy their wares for $7 a license, needless to say I knew a deal when I saw one)IonClash posted:I got an Arrow II antenna as well on friday! I set it up on a tripod, and eagerly awaited for A0-51 to pass over the horizon, only to discover that I wasn't hearing anything. Glad to hear that it wasn't just me, for once. Well the transmitter should have been up on friday, as here is their schedule (http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/echo/ControlTeam.php). That said, once it's back on on the 12th we should setup a qso. No tripod yet, but I'll probably pick one up once my arm gets tired. thehustler posted:Just scan from 240-270 FM and see what happens. I wouldn't think the arrow cold scan from 240-270mhz FM, but I've got another antenna that should work, I'll troll that band tomorrow. EDIT: well I doubt that would work for satellites after giving it more then 2 seconds of thought. Also unrelated, is there some allocation that I'm not aware of? I've found what sounds like a baby monitor/daycare monitor(?) on 463.750, and I can't for the life of me figure out why that would be there. I already checked and it's no FRS or GMRS. blugu64 fucked around with this message at 01:01 on May 6, 2008 |
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May 6, 2008 00:53
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Just scanning the 2m band and thought y'all might be interested to know that yes, even in the Inscrutable Orient ham radio appears to be practically the cellphone for the elderly. E: And it certainly sounds like 2m is home to a shitton of taxi radios. Is this common in sane countries too? sub supau fucked around with this message at 13:23 on May 6, 2008 |
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May 6, 2008 13:18
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TetsuoTW posted:Just scanning the 2m band and thought y'all might be interested to know that yes, even in the Inscrutable Orient ham radio appears to be practically the cellphone for the elderly.
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May 6, 2008 23:18
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So new plan: Since I can't take the FCC exam until June when it's administered in my town, I'm going to study for, and take the general exam since I can already pass the technician practice exams with ease. Holy crap though! The general exam is hard! There's so much electronics knowledge involved! I'm only getting 60-70% scores on the practice tests right now. 
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May 8, 2008 00:22
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Jose Pointero fucked around with this message at 02:50 on Aug 28, 2019 |
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May 8, 2008 01:24
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Dolemite posted:So new plan: Since I can't take the FCC exam until June when it's administered in my town, I'm going to study for, and take the general exam since I can already pass the technician practice exams with ease. Many libraries have the Handbook, or else you can do what I did and get last year's edition secondhand off of eBay (interestingly enough, I got the copy formerly owned by the Seattle Public Library).
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May 8, 2008 03:29
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NeerWas fucked around with this message at 21:33 on Aug 9, 2023 |
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May 8, 2008 07:55
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Is anyone participating in the Armed Forces Day celebration this weekend? (crossposted from the SWL thread)quote:The Army, Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard are co-sponsoring the annual military/amateur radio communications tests in celebration of the 58th Anniversary of Armed Forces Day (AFD). Although the actual Armed Forces Day is celebrated on Saturday, May 17, 2008, the AFD Military/Amateur Crossband Communications Test will be conducted 10 May 2008 to prevent conflict with the Dayton Hamvention (16-18 May 2008), which is the same weekend as the actual Armed Forces Day. Since the .pdf is kind of long and difficult to read, I've cleaned it up and posted just the frequency schedule here. The really nice part about this is that any ham can participate, as the MARS stations will be listening in the regular ham bands. It's too bad that I'm taking the General Test a week and a half too late to participate in this as a ham, but I'll be listening when I can to send in for some QSLs.
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May 9, 2008 00:37
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NeerWas fucked around with this message at 21:33 on Aug 9, 2023 |
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May 9, 2008 19:21
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Jose Pointero fucked around with this message at 02:52 on Aug 28, 2019 |
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May 10, 2008 05:32
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Jose Pointero posted:BRRRRRTTTTZZZ Speaking of that, here is a good 3-part series from QST about effectively protecting your station from lightning strikes: http://www.arrl.org/tis/info/lightning.html
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May 10, 2008 08:08
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Jose Pointero posted:I've been bringing it to work and I programmed in all of our business band freqs so I can monitor and see what's going on because us forklifters don't get radios, and they never tell us anything, so it gets frustrating. Not that I personally care that much, but some folks might give you crap about your radio not being type approved and such. Also powerlimits and removeable antennas. Sounds cool though. I had to mod my TH-79A to do wideband as the 70cm coverage was only for the top half of the band, and thus kinda usless for satellite operation. It's fixed now Jose Pointero posted:and one of them was 55 watts from southern Oklahoma (I'm in central TX)! I'm in North Dallas with 50 watts...I'll call on .520. EDIT: Actually I'm going to hit the sack, but we should checkout the next time we get a nice band opening and give it a shot. blugu64 fucked around with this message at 08:34 on May 10, 2008 |
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May 10, 2008 08:30
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hendersa posted:You can take the technician, general, and extra exams all in the same session for $14, if you know your stuff. Apparently I do, as I am the proud holder of a $14 Extra class CSCE after passing them all back to back. (Inspired by this very thread on the internet!) Right now I would have no idea what to do if you gave me a radio but am fully authorized to poo poo all over the spectrum, which I suppose is why there are people who grouch about the way exams are set up now. I guess my plan right now is to pick up an HT and learn what's going on on 2 meters while I figure out what kind of antenna I can put up in the back yard and what kind of HF rig I want. I know there's been plenty of talk already but any more thoughts about gear to get would be most welcome.
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May 12, 2008 02:07
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Will one of these FT-60R radios let me listen to all of the cool stuff you guys have listed here, like numbers stations, Radio Moscow, etc? I'm still a bit confused on that. Would I just need a better antennae? I'm thinking of taking the test for Technician/General.
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May 12, 2008 06:42
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andrzejpw posted:Will one of these FT-60R radios let me listen to all of the cool stuff you guys have listed here, like numbers stations, Radio Moscow, etc? I'm still a bit confused on that. Would I just need a better antennae? Don't know why I haven't fallen asleep yet but whatever. From the specs on universalradios page it looks like the FT-60R does 108-520mhz and 700-999.990mhz, while that's a pretty decent range for a HT and lots of fun things to listen to, no you wont be able to listen to the shortwave(HF) broadcasts and number stations. If you are mostly wanting to just listen to broadcasts like that I'd just get an E5 and be done with it, if you want to get on the air (which I find much more rewarding/fun to be honest) I'd get the Kenwood TH-F6A. Not to sound like a walking advert, but you get 5 watts on 2meters, 1.25meters and 70cm, and wideband recieve that would let you pickup shortwave stations, 0.01~ 1300 MHz RX according to their website. Not sure about pricing but if it's more then you want to spend you might consider getting a cheap shortwave and a cheap HT. You could probably score both for under $100 each, if you look around and keep and ear to the ground. backstage posted:Apparently I do, as I am the proud holder of a $14 Extra class CSCE after passing them all back to back. (Inspired by this very thread on the internet!) Right now I would have no idea what to do if you gave me a radio but am fully authorized to poo poo all over the spectrum, which I suppose is why there are people who grouch about the way exams are set up now. Congrats fellow no-code extra, as for gear it depends on what you want to do. Or you could just get the FT-897 like some other lucky bastard in this thread and do 95% of everything you'd ever want to do, and be done with it.
blugu64 fucked around with this message at 06:58 on May 12, 2008 |
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May 12, 2008 06:55
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What's an example of "a cheap shortwave and HT?"
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May 12, 2008 07:03
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andrzejpw posted:What's an example of "a cheap shortwave and HT?" In my case, it was anything you find used that does what you want it to. From what I've gleaned (sorry it's mondays word of the day) from your post any shortwave radio that does SSB (Single Side Band) should work, I'd check out the Eton E5 or newer E6. As for an HT, I'd look around for any dual band (meaning it works 2meters and 70cm) radio from one of the big three (Kenwood, Icon, Yaesu), used. I bought mine off the last amateur radio thread for $120 and it works great. You get two seperate radios and alot of fun to familiarize youself with radios and such without too big an inital investment. Then again if cost is no object I'm sure a bunch of us could whip up a dream setup....  edit: If you've got any questions regarding anything feel free to ask, it's much better to ask and read prior to a purchase then spend the cash and find out your shiny new radio does everything except the one thing you really wanted, also if you're looking for some study guides I believe there is a really good one for Tech in the OP, and I think they did one for general that was quite similar. blugu64 fucked around with this message at 07:14 on May 12, 2008 |
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May 12, 2008 07:11
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I hate you bastards. First AstroZamboni's thread gets me spending money on shortwave radios, then this thread gets me interested in ham radio, and now, after practicing on the QRZ practice tests for a while, I finally find out there aren't any English-language ham licensing tests in Taiwan (bar the ARRL one in June, but only Americans are eligible), and so I have to spend my time not only learning about ham radio regulations and various other radio-related things, but doing it in loving Chinese. And yet somehow this hasn't put me off. It's all your fault for making what I should still consider cellphones for old people interesting.
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May 12, 2008 08:25
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Ahahaha, this is awesome! A friend from work lent me two of his HAM walkie talkies - a 2meter and 70 CM one. I'm using the 2 meter one plus MultiPSK to receive packet radio. I've always been curious about what packet radio contains and now I know: the GPS co-ordinates to rednecks' trailers! (No seriously, I used Google Maps to map a set of GPS co-ordinates. Goes straight to a trailer park.  )
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May 12, 2008 23:27
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andrzejpw posted:Will one of these FT-60R radios let me listen to all of the cool stuff you guys have listed here, like numbers stations, Radio Moscow, etc? I'm still a bit confused on that. Would I just need a better antennae? The Ft-60R is VHF-UHF, so no. You will need an HF radio for numbers stations.
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May 12, 2008 23:33
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Dolemite posted:Ahahaha, this is awesome! A friend from work lent me two of his HAM walkie talkies - a 2meter and 70 CM one. I'm using the 2 meter one plus MultiPSK to receive packet radio. I've always been curious about what packet radio contains and now I know: the GPS co-ordinates to rednecks' trailers! You've discovered APRS, and believe it or not, it's pretty cool.
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May 13, 2008 00:52
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blugu64 posted:You've discovered APRS, and believe it or not, it's pretty cool. This genuinely is awesome. I've been letting it run for a while and it's pretty cool to see people from all over the state reporting their locations. My local emergency operations center uses the APRS also. Pretty cool. Now I want to try to grab other data types. I'm doing this on the 2 meter walkie talkie right now. Next stop - slow scan TV.
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May 13, 2008 00:56
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Dolemite posted:This genuinely is awesome. I've been letting it run for a while and it's pretty cool to see people from all over the state reporting their locations. My local emergency operations center uses the APRS also. Pretty cool. If you havn't already get AWGPE setup to decode the packets and get a virtual com port setup. Then use UI-View to map out the packets as they arrive, it's pretty neat.
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May 13, 2008 01:16
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blugu64 posted:If you havn't already get AWGPE setup to decode the packets and get a virtual com port setup. Then use UI-View to map out the packets as they arrive, it's pretty neat. This sounds cool, so I've been trying to get it working for the last 20 minutes. Okay, so far I think I've been setting up my virtual TNC in AWGPE correctly. I have: - The COM port set to COM2, baud rate at 9600 - TNC type set to "soundcard" - TNC sub type set to the KISS Simple default - Underneath "TNC control commands", I have the "Single port" option selected. On the TNC Commands tab, I have everything set to the default settings. Now on the UI View side (edit: using the 16-bit version of UI View, ver. 2.39): I'm in the Comms Setup menu and I'm trying to get it to use my newly created TNC. - I'm selecting the same 9600 baud rate - I'm selecting the "KISS" host mode - COM port is set to COM 2 - Stop bits, parity, data bits I left untouched. AGWPE doesn't seem to let me set nor tell me their values. When I hit the OK button, I always get an "Error occurred opening COM2" message.
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May 13, 2008 03:26
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backstage posted:Apparently I do, as I am the proud holder of a $14 Extra class CSCE after passing them all back to back. (Inspired by this very thread on the internet!) Right now I would have no idea what to do if you gave me a radio but am fully authorized to poo poo all over the spectrum, which I suppose is why there are people who grouch about the way exams are set up now. Congratulations on the Extra ticket! Are you an EE by trade (or similar), out of curiosity? It's pretty rare that someone passes all three in one go without that kind of experience. When you get your callsign, post it up and I'll add it to the OP. I'll have to go back through the thread to check, but you might be the first one here to have picked up a ticket because of the thread. More on that later... Anyway, if you're looking for where to go from here, another good purchase to consider along with that HT is the ARRL Handbook for Radio Communications; it'll get you up to speed on more of the practice and procedures side of amateur radio, whereas for the most part, the tests you took tend to reflect the technical knowledge necessary for those license classes (that goes double for the Extra exam).
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May 13, 2008 06:20
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Small update, added a list of hams that have posted here to the OP, as well as the people that got their tickets since the thread was started. If I missed anyone or made any other glaring errors, or if you don't want to be on the list for some reason, just let me know.
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May 13, 2008 09:44
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McRib Sandwich posted:Are you an EE by trade? Close enough. My grad degree was medical physics, so I had a good bit of coursework on x-ray tube voltages, currents, and so forth. Plus I took some EE courses. Plus I've been messing with electronics since I was 10. I had to brush up a bit, but the groundwork was definitely there. My examiners were a bit taken aback. :-> I'd prefer to keep my callsign to myself though (internet detectivery ahoy). I did just order the 2007 ARRL Handbook for cheap; they're selling it for $20 now at arrl.org.
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May 13, 2008 14:32
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quote:That reminds me, Jonny 290 give us some pics and info of your satellite setup! Thanks for the shout, Jose! The antennas are almost ready to come down. I have been extremely busy this spring as we are taking the big step and buying our first home. This means, of course, that I will be putting up all KINDS of aluminum once I move in. So, I'll download a few pics of what I have currently tonight, and I will be sure to post in mid-June when we're in the new place. I am already in talks with several crazy redneck junk dealers around here to try to find old tower sections.
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May 13, 2008 16:47
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Jonny 290 posted:I am already in talks with several crazy redneck junk dealers around here to try to find old tower sections.
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May 13, 2008 19:01
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It won't be climbed, I just want 20, 30 feet or so, doing a tilt-over setup. I won't have a big enough plot to put up a guyed tower and I can't climb freestanding towers any more, I guess they just feel too tipsy for me. Guyed ones are no biggie though, to 100ft or so. But yeah, if I were doing a climbable tower I'd absolutely buy new from Texas Towers.
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May 13, 2008 19:03
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I guess that in my opinion whether a tower is climbable or not isn't going to matter much when the bracing fails and it comes crashing down in your yard/on your house/on the neighbor's house because some bubba took it down originally with a chain attached to his truck bumper. That's just me, though, I'm pretty paranoid about such things.
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May 13, 2008 20:39
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I think Darth Vader works for Yaesu's design department. http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/ht/0008.html
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May 14, 2008 00:21
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Dog Case posted:I think Darth Vader works for Yaesu's design department.
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May 14, 2008 01:16
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I could really use some help with my antenna setup as I've just placed an order for a Softrock Lite Xtall and want to get this worked out before it gets here. Crosspost from the SWL thread: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=2506872&pagenumber=49#post343487481
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May 14, 2008 01:37
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nmfree posted:That's pretty cool looking; it's a little unfortunate that they extended the receive even more instead of tightening up the front end of the VX-7 (for instance). Be interesting to see how much that's going to be, I'm sure we'll find out on Thursday or Friday this week at Dayton. Neat little radio. All I can say is, it's about freaking time Yaesu gave a nod to APRS in their HTs... I just hope this isn't the kind of feature that only lives exclusively in the high-end models. They do support ARTS across their product line, so maybe they'll see APRS as supplanting that kind of role down the line, who knows. And remember kids, never buy Rev. 1 Yaesu gear, unless you enjoy being a guinea pig. Sometimes I feel like Yaesu's ham division is just wide-scale beta testing for their Vertex Standard business/land mobile lineup. 
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May 14, 2008 15:01
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