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I encourage y'all who are looking at getting your Tech to also study for General, and take both at the same time!
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Jun 8, 2020 16:56
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| # ? Apr 29, 2024 17:07 |
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Here are my - If you’re getting your tech license, use the ARRL guide, because it includes a lot of good context around ham culture/practices that aren’t on the test, but will help you a lot once you’re actually doing radio things. - If you’re upgrading, or have otherwise already been around ham culture for a while, use the No-Nonsense Guides (https://www.kb6nu.com/study-guides/) because they’re short. - For all of this, use either Anki or HamStudy to quiz yourself and make sure the readings stick. Of course, you can just memorize the question pool or drill the questions using HamStudy, but I think you miss out on a lot when you do that - especially for tech level, it’s a great time to get introduced to the hobby and poke around a bit, and it really does help to have a wide-but-shallow introduction to find out what you’re interested in, which is what the ARRL guide will give you IMO.
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Jun 8, 2020 17:14
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when i got general+extra in 2006 I was still confused by the whole complex impedance poo poo, which is a section in the Extra. I just double-crammed to make sure i got 100% on every other section and bombed that one, and eked out with like a 78%. Over the past years i've ended up learning ALL that stuff anyways. So yeah, don't cram. Just learn it up front. the tests are roughly scaled to test knowledge you will want to have at that license level, they're not arbitrary hurdles
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Jun 8, 2020 19:06
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so i’m reading my manuals. what will it take to set up a repeater at 420.69hz because that seems hilarious and in spectrum
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Jun 8, 2020 20:42
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Nitrousoxide posted:I see some online study aids and courses. Any recommended ones? I got one of them-there NanoVNA V2 deals (back in April but it just came Saturday) and was able to tune my random wire antenna like a "Pro" instead of just listening for louder static. And 1.18 SWR and 49.4ohms impedance? C'maaaahhhn!  Even more of a miracle because it is this pile of junk on a patio. Look, Ma, no inductance needed on 20m! 
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Jun 8, 2020 20:45
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I memorized the questions, aced the Tech and passed the General with ease. Took maybe 1 hour of studying for the Tech and 4-6 hours for General. $10 fee and a local group hosted exam sessions via zoom last weekend. I have a chemistry degree so the physics is heavily adjacent to my existing experience and I’ve used scanners a bit and owned a CB for years. Listening to local repeaters on my Baofeng now and figuring out bands I wanna play on while I watch youtube reviews of all the even cooler hardware I’m now licensed to use. This is fun!
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Jun 8, 2020 22:29
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I've been messing with my NanoVNA and I was really disappointed with some of the numbers I was seeing all of a sudden on 20m, then I moved another piece of coax out of the way and everything got much better. I've got two antennas on my roof, a 41-ft random wire with a 9:1 unun for HF, and a VHF/UHF antenna. The antennas are at least 10ft apart from each other. Each is connected with a separate length of RG-8X with PL-259 connectors on each end and I connect the one I want to use to the RTL-SDR. I notice (now that I can see it) that moving the unconnected VHF/UHF antenna's wire around greatly affects the SWR on the HF. The coax cables run somewhat close together for half their length. Am I supposed to ground out the unused antenna somehow to prevent it from being a passive element in the other? The SWR jumps from about 1.30 to over 2.5 just moving the disconnected antenna's coax end near the HF coax.
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Jun 9, 2020 14:30
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CapnBry posted:I've been messing with my NanoVNA and I was really disappointed with some of the numbers I was seeing all of a sudden on 20m, then I moved another piece of coax out of the way and everything got much better. I've got two antennas on my roof, a 41-ft random wire with a 9:1 unun for HF, and a VHF/UHF antenna. The antennas are at least 10ft apart from each other. Each is connected with a separate length of RG-8X with PL-259 connectors on each end and I connect the one I want to use to the RTL-SDR. I notice (now that I can see it) that moving the unconnected VHF/UHF antenna's wire around greatly affects the SWR on the HF. The coax cables run somewhat close together for half their length. Am I supposed to ground out the unused antenna somehow to prevent it from being a passive element in the other? The SWR jumps from about 1.30 to over 2.5 just moving the disconnected antenna's coax end near the HF coax. Try adding a counterpoise wire to the ground on the 9:1 unun, they can be kind of touchy with respect to SWR and feedline length, and chances are the antenna is looking for something to couple to the other "half" of the antenna.
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Jun 9, 2020 15:11
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manero posted:Try adding a counterpoise wire to the ground on the 9:1 unun, they can be kind of touchy with respect to SWR and feedline length, and chances are the antenna is looking for something to couple to the other "half" of the antenna.
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Jun 9, 2020 15:37
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CapnBry posted:Oh I should have mentioned that. I have a 10m length of wire for a counterpoise on the unun, however in my testing I had it sort of laying mostly in a pile a foot away from all the coax. I have to keep it stored most of the time because I never know when the lawn guy is going to show up and chop up my wire laying across the lawn. I will test again with it extended and out of the way to see if the VHF/UHF antenna is somehow becoming a better ground due to the proximity, and also go up on the roof to check the connections because it is just wrapped around a screw sticking out of the unun case, forming a real quality connection no doubt. Ah yeah. Also maybe make sure that screw has continuity to the coax shield part of the coax connector on the un-un.
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Jun 9, 2020 16:00
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yeah the fact that you're seeing so much environmental interaction on the end fed indicates that the counterpoise is not doing its job and the shield of the coax is acting as the other half of your end fed.
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Jun 9, 2020 19:43
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DIY > Amateur Radio: I think I hear some fellas in Ohio talking about catheters
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Jun 9, 2020 23:30
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manero posted:DIY > Amateur Radio: I think I hear some fellas in Ohio talking about TURBP
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Jun 10, 2020 00:48
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I'm debating between the Elecraft KX2 and KX3. Anyone have thoughts on these two? EDIT: KX3, oops. Macintosh HD fucked around with this message at 13:14 on Jun 10, 2020 |
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Jun 10, 2020 01:19
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Macintosh HD posted:I'm debating between the Elecraft KX2 and KX2. Anyone have thoughts on these two? You missed the second one, but even without that I have to start out by asking why you want a portable low power radio. If it's not to carry around in a backpack when you are away from your normal full power rig at home I'd say that's likely a bad idea.
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Jun 10, 2020 01:55
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If you're into the QRP HF life and are willing to pay through the nose for some performance gains, go ahead and get one of the Elecraft portables. Otherwise, get literally any other radio.
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Jun 10, 2020 02:18
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Totally Reasonable posted:If you're into the QRP HF life and are willing to pay through the nose for some performance gains, go ahead and get one of the Elecraft portables. Otherwise, get literally any other radio. You can't brag about owning Elecraft though if you have any other brand, and that's 80% of the Elecraft Experience!
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Jun 10, 2020 02:28
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Motronic posted:You missed the second one, but even without that I have to start out by asking why you want a portable low power radio. If it's not to carry around in a backpack when you are away from your normal full power rig at home I'd say that's likely a bad idea. Totally Reasonable posted:If you're into the QRP HF life and are willing to pay through the nose for some performance gains, go ahead and get one of the Elecraft portables. Otherwise, get literally any other radio. Sorry, it was supposed to be KX3 vs KX2. We're building a house and the neighborhood has an HOA that prohibits antennas. While I plan to try various compromise methods, I am expecting that it will be necessary to backpack. I'm not especially into the QRP HF scene, but being portable would be nice.
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Jun 10, 2020 13:19
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Macintosh HD posted:Sorry, it was supposed to be KX3 vs KX2. Neither of those sound like a good idea to me. How much HF experience do you have? This sounds like a setup that leads to expensive disappointment. You're likely better off with a full power rig and a compromise antenna, be it ham sticks that you put out on a tripod only when you're using the radio or running mobile HF with a full power rig out of your car.
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Jun 10, 2020 16:07
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Motronic posted:Neither of those sound like a good idea to me. How much HF experience do you have? This sounds like a setup that leads to expensive disappointment. Agreed. My antenna is a pair of 20m ham sticks on the MFJ dipole adapter, bolted to the end of a 10 foot piece of conduit from Lowes. I've also got an old tripod with the head removed:  The antenna spends most of its time lying on the gravel, but when I want to operate I just pick it up and slip the conduit over the top of the tripod. I can pick up SSTV from all over the US and Canada, and I regularly hear SSB from Hawaii, the Northeast, etc. I've made quite a few SSTV and voice contacts, and if I was any good at code I'd probably have even better luck with that. Figure out something you can easily deploy at your home, because if you have to plan a whole day of hiking just to play radio, you're not going to do it very often.
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Jun 10, 2020 16:18
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There's also the middle-finger option that involves a big fuckin whip on your car and coax snaking into the house. A lot more feasible than a lot of people realize. I've got that MFJ 17 foot telescoping whip that just has a 3/8x24 thread on the bottom and when i plop it on the ball mount on my Ford I can run 40 through 10 meters no problem. e: just to clarify, this would be only usable while parked. don't go driving with a 17 foot antenna lol
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Jun 10, 2020 18:28
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Macintosh HD posted:Sorry, it was supposed to be KX3 vs KX2. I love my KX3, it was expensive as gently caress, but it's a nice rig. Kinda dated at this point. If you are really dead-set on portable/QRP HF, wait a little bit for the IC-705 to be available. Edit: If you're looking for a comparison of the KX2 and KX3, the main differences are no 160 and 6m, and no I/Q port. The internal lipo battery on the KX2 seems like a nice option. I think the KX3 might be easier to operate, but I haven't specifically used a KX2 yet. manero fucked around with this message at 21:22 on Jun 10, 2020 |
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Jun 10, 2020 21:17
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When a product spec page says it transmits on "0.5-30 MHz," are they just being lazy when they wrote that specification and they really meant to say "all HF amateur bands in the US," or does this actually mean the radio can transmit at every frequency from one half to thirty megahertz?
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Jun 10, 2020 23:50
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RadioPassive posted:When a product spec page says it transmits on "0.5-30 MHz," are they just being lazy when they wrote that specification and they really meant to say "all HF amateur bands in the US," or does this actually mean the radio can transmit at every frequency from one half to thirty megahertz? It depends! I've got about a 37 year span of Icom production on the shack table, and the old days they just Didn't Give A gently caress and it was wide open. Then for about 25 years the nominal setup was "it's restricted, but if you cut the giant loop of neon green wire that sticks out like a sore thumb when you open the radio, it's unlocked." This is how radios like my old Alinco DR-119 ran (side note on that rig, it had a dedicated 800 MHz receiver built in from the factory and with the wire cut we could listen to analog cell calls. I'm old). And nowadays if you want to unlock the IC-7300 you're looking at cracking it open and unsoldering two or three surface mount diodes about the size of a poppy seed. I will state that my IC-735 is wide open (1982 ish?), my IC-746 is as well (early 2000s i guess) and my 7300 is band locked and I don't intend to unlock it. If the apocalypse happens I already have my pirate AM broadcast transmitter in the IC-735, which reportedly does fine on AM down to below 400 KHz.
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Jun 11, 2020 01:18
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AM at 400khz? Do you use a different antenna for each sideband?
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Jun 11, 2020 07:17
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 There is so much radio here. I also need to rearrange my workbench because there is no way this is staying like this.
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Jun 11, 2020 07:29
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Well, the thread has done a good job steering me away from the tiny Elecrafts, though I'm unsure what I might do for HF. I'll likely still look at something cheaper for portable stuff, but I guess I gotta find something worth trying at home. Something like that Yaesu or IC-7300, maybe.
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Jun 11, 2020 15:50
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Macintosh HD posted:Well, the thread has done a good job steering me away from the tiny Elecrafts, though I'm unsure what I might do for HF. I'll likely still look at something cheaper for portable stuff, but I guess I gotta find something worth trying at home. The 7300's a great radio, and you can pop it open and put a panadapter board in, feed it to an SDR and get a really wide waterfall on a monitor.
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Jun 11, 2020 16:12
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7300 is the best radio in the past 20 years imo. its so fun. i will confess that right now i leave it on 40 meter digital 24/7 and my vertical, and actually spin the dial and listen to SSB on my old 746 and the doublet as it kinda does have better sounding rx audio. It's a neat pair.
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Jun 12, 2020 06:29
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manero posted:The 7300's a great radio, and you can pop it open and put a panadapter board in, feed it to an SDR and get a really wide waterfall on a monitor. It looks like it also creates an interface for the 7300 to supply an SDR? Not just for waterfall, but PC control?
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Jun 12, 2020 15:01
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finally signed up for my test. i signed up for tech but i think ill at least swing at the general since its free
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Jun 12, 2020 15:57
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Macintosh HD posted:It looks like it also creates an interface for the 7300 to supply an SDR? Not just for waterfall, but PC control? The PTRX-7300 is purely an RF out that you can feed into an SDR. If you have the IC-7300 connected to your computer, you can use something like OmniRig to sync the 7300 VFO with the SDR's VFO, making it a fairly seamless experience. In my case, I have the IC-7300 and an SDRPlay RSP-1A both connected to my computer via USB. The coax output of the PTRX board goes to the antenna in of the RSP1A. Software wise, I use HDSDR, and OmniRig configured for the IC-7300 and RSP-1A. There are a couple fiddly options to get right in HDSDR, but I've got full sync between the 7300 and RSP1A, so if I spin the knob on the 7300, HDSDR's tuning updates, and I can click the waterfall in HDSDR and the 7300 will QSY. It's a little bit of a Rube Goldberg machine, but it's all quite slick once you get it going.
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Jun 12, 2020 16:06
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Dumb question: Does the input voltage to the radio matter with regards to the output? My FT-891 wants 13.8 volts DC, but it’s +/- 15%. So if I’m running off an automotive battery at 12.8 volts (-7%), is there a corresponding drop in whatever wattage output I have selected? I only ask because I’m watching some of the old-timers in my local club talk online about getting battery boosters to output a steady 13.8v, and I’m wondering if it’s even necessary, especially considering the potential for RF noise a booster would make.
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Jun 12, 2020 22:16
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The Hambulance posted:Dumb question: Does the input voltage to the radio matter with regards to the output? I mean at some point, yes, if not reduced output power the radio will just shut off (obviously) - but it's not a hard rule. I did testing on my 817ND and found like 12.4 to be the ideal voltage that gave full output power but at the lowest voltage, to reduce wasted power (heat) while operating QRP on battery. I presume a desk rig is going to be more robust and closer to the on/off threshold before losing output power, but you wont hurt anything to just TX digital / full power and then spin a power supply voltage knob down bit by bit until you either see the power output drop or the rig shut off, and just keep it above that threshold..
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Jun 12, 2020 23:12
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Yeah HT's probably regulate it down a bit, but on bigger radios, it definitely matters. I was on a lovely 20 amp PSU that would sag to like 12.7 on full power transmit and would get like 110, maybe 120 watts out. I switched to an Astron 50 amp that just loafs along and all off a sudden i'm getting 155 watts on my IC-746 and 140 on the IC-7300
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Jun 13, 2020 04:21
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It's The Bad Place, i know, but there's a really good discussion here on the notion of locking down ULS so people can't get doxed as easily via their ham ticket https://old.reddit.com/r/amateurradio/comments/h89g6n/every_time_you_transmit_you_dox_yourself_lets/ One fascinating thing is that a lot of lgbtq hams have piped up saying "yes this is a thing and it's why i do not operate". i want them in the hobby and the old men out. People have also raised good points about the license history thing on ULS (the "Admin" tab on the licensee's page) also deadnames you if you legally change it after you get your ticket.
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Jun 13, 2020 19:06
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Jonny 290 posted:It's The Bad Place, i know, but there's a really good discussion here on the notion of locking down ULS so people can't get doxed as easily via their ham ticket Yeah, it would be nice if they didn't make that history accessible.
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Jun 13, 2020 19:16
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I’ve always thought it sucks that you have to pay to maintain a PO Box if you want to operate in privacy and have always been careful to keep my call sign separate from online interactions, but the internet has made that issue a whole lot scarier since I got licensed 20 years ago. It’s nuts how often you’re a few clicks away from tying a persons call sign to their entire “reddit life,” all the way to a Streetview of their home or employer. That thread made up a lot of good points about how much worse that problem can be for marginalized populations. The ULS feels creepy for this straight white dude, but I’m suddenly realizing it’s way worse for others.
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Jun 13, 2020 19:35
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SK haul. A friend of mine's father was a ham, and he's finally cleaning the place out and called me over.  (it's so awesome 70s) I'll be heading back over, probably this week, to take these down. 3 verticals and the....whatever else that is. I'll sort that out when they're down. I had previously gotten a picture of what appeared to be a repeater in the shack (has since been moved out) so I think that explains the verticals. In any case, he mostly just needs them down because the house is going to be sold. So if any of it ends up being useful to me or someone else, awesome.  The rotor and cables were from a different house at least 25 years ago where I assume he had a tower. Edit: Nope, doesn't explain the verticals, now that I've gone back through my pictures. One of them has this on it: https://www.sgcworld.com/230ProductPage.html That looks quite nice. And I saw the "smartlock" remote and line isolators to power it......that's like $6-700 worth of kit. Motronic fucked around with this message at 19:53 on Jun 13, 2020 |
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Jun 13, 2020 19:46
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That's a fairly serious 2m yagi set up for FM (vertical polarization) You hit the jackpot here, amigo. Those rotators are no joke either. the SGC-230 is the standard automatic antenna tuner for very harsh environments - the #1 choice for HF on smaller oceangoing vessels. Wow.
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Jun 13, 2020 20:48
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