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CapnBry posted:Can someone tell me if what I've got here is actually present or is some sort of harmonic artifact that comes from using a cheap SDR radio? https://m.short-wave.info/index.php I haven't checked all of those frequencies because I'm phone posting, but the two in the 7.3 MHz range are mirrors of a US Spanish language station, and there's a decent chance the others are, too. If you're looking for strong shortwave signals in English or Spanish (that aren't just just the craziest of preachers) near you, Radio Havana has a few stations I used to be able to pick up at night in Georgia on a handheld receiver. I don't speak Spanish so I have no idea what content they played in Spanish (other than music) but their English station did news and even had a weekly segment about amateur radio which was neat.
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Aug 10, 2020 14:31
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poeticoddity posted:https://m.short-wave.info/index.php I'm trying to go the other way though, NOT receive these signals. I don't think there should be a shortwave broadcast on 14.100MHz but I am getting one there. I'm trying to determine if that's a function of SDR in general, or my antenna, or if it is just specific to the model of SDR I am using. I don't want to spend $100 or more on a new SDR if it turns out I'll get the same signal all up in my FT8 or blasting over regular phone.
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Aug 10, 2020 15:22
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CapnBry posted:Can someone tell me if what I've got here is actually present or is some sort of harmonic artifact that comes from using a cheap SDR radio? 7365 kHz is one of the frequencies for Radio Marti, a sort of Radio Free Europe propaganda type station that the US blasts at Cuba. https://shortwaveschedule.com/index.php?freq=7365 "Greenville" is in South Carolina, and in Tampa you're probably directly in the beam for that 250kW signal. If you're using a cheapo SDR it's possible you're having problems with image rejection and/or overloading from that. edit: in your image it looks like the signal you've highlighted is 7332.xxx kHz which is probably not the main broadcast, as international broadcasters usually fall pretty closely on xxx0 or xxx5 kHz unless their transmitters are badly out of whack. Porfiriato fucked around with this message at 15:47 on Aug 10, 2020 |
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Aug 10, 2020 15:44
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CapnBry posted:Oh that site is great. I had googled looking for such a list but had a hard time finding a good site with that information. Have you pulled up a receiver on websdr.org and compared the output there to yours?
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Aug 10, 2020 15:48
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CapnBry posted:Can someone tell me if what I've got here is actually present or is some sort of harmonic artifact that comes from using a cheap SDR radio? It looks like an image but that spacing between duplicates is really close. What is the hardware you are listening with and what is the sample rate? What is your gain setting? Is it doing direct sampling for HF or are you using an up converter? I would try reducing the sampling rate first to see if that gets rid of some of the images, and then try reducing the gain to see if any of the other ones go away. It’s probably a combination of a strong signal overwhelming the input and the receiving hardware, so upgrading to a nicer receiver could help. I have the rsp2 and it has a lot of nice options for configuration on the front end to configure preselection filters.
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Aug 10, 2020 16:04
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Mr.Radar posted:Lately I've been getting the itch to get on HF. As I've probably mentioned before in this thread, I'm in a basement apartment (with no patio or balcony) which means any HF setup I put together will need to be portable (there's an open field near my apartment as well as a number of parks in the area that I could operate from). Here's the setup I'm thinking of: I have no experience with the Xeigu radios, but if it were me (and went through the same thing a few months ago), I'd spend the extra $100 and get a Yaesu FT-891. More power, more frequencies, and far better filter options. I also have a MFJ Big Stick, and while it performs well, I find my go-to antenna setup is a Wolf River Coil Silver Bullet 1000 with whatever whip I have handy. I usually use a Chameleon CHA-MIL and can get on 80 meters with no problems. I also have a 213" collapsible whip that I got from Wolf River that I sometimes use. I have accumulated a selection of batteries too, and I think I'll be adding that LiFePO4 you linked to my collection Wolf river Coils: https://www.wolfrivercoils.com/order.html Chameleon antenna: https://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-012751 All this crap fits into my backpack for remote operation. The joys of living near high-voltage power lines  FAKE EDIT: Pick yourself up an antenna analyzer too. Makes setting up the coil antennas a hell of a lot easier. Though the coils are really only difficult the first time, as long as your whip length doesn't vary. Once you have them marked up where the bands are, it's easy enough to just move the adjustment to the marks and get on the air.
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Aug 10, 2020 16:40
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I bought a portapack by accident instead of a hackrf  Just selected the wrong drop down on AliExpress. Absolutely livid. Anyone in the U.K. want one at cost? :-/
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Aug 10, 2020 20:08
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The Hambulance posted:I have no experience with the Xeigu radios, but if it were me (and went through the same thing a few months ago), I'd spend the extra $100 and get a Yaesu FT-891. More power, more frequencies, and far better filter options. Thanks for the input. I don't mean to be dismissive, but while I'm sure the gear you mentioned would be a step up (the one feature I want the Xiegu doesn't have is the 6m band) getting all of it would also blow past my budget of $1000 (and preferably under $800)... which, to be fair, I didn't mention in my original post  . My original shopping list comes in at just around $800.One of the things that drew me the Xiegu is that it (at least on its face) appears to be a pretty complete package for getting on HF since it has a built-in wide-range automatic antenna tuner (which reviews seem to universally praise) and a built-in basic antenna analyzer. With the Yaesu, it would not only be more expensive to get the radio but I'd also need to buy those items separately. (Don't get me wrong, I'm sure I'll want/need to buy standalone versions of those items eventually, but if I don't need to now I'll put it off.) I also like that the Xiegu has a waterfall display (even if it's literally postage-stamp size). And if I went with a higher-power radio I'd also need to get a bigger/higher-power battery to go with it since the max 12v output on the pack I mentioned is only 10 amps (fine for the max 6 amp draw of the Xiegu, not enough for the max 20 amp draw of the Yaesu; though I'm sure I could get by with limiting the transmit power). Boy this hobby can get expensive 
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Aug 10, 2020 20:16
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Mr.Radar posted:Boy this hobby can get expensive It would probably be cheaper and more socially acceptable to take up a heroin habit tbh
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Aug 10, 2020 23:29
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Mr.Radar posted:Thanks for the input. I don't mean to be dismissive, but while I'm sure the gear you mentioned would be a step up (the one feature I want the Xiegu doesn't have is the 6m band) getting all of it would also blow past my budget of $1000 (and preferably under $800)... which, to be fair, I didn't mention in my original post Fair enough. One of the hardest things for me to wrap my head around with this hobby is there really is no solution that is right for most people. Buy what you can, and keep an eye out for ham-fests and estate sales. There’s lots of bargains out there if you are patient. Mr.Radar posted:
You have no idea. Run away now while you still can! Save yourself!
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Aug 11, 2020 01:59
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Really dumb question: Can a single antenna and a T-splitter be used with a dual-input SDR to RX different band segments simultaneously? I just ordered an SDRplay Duo and a Hustler DLC-B discone antenna. Running the antenna to a T-splitter and then feeding it into the two inputs on the Duo feels like one of those things that probably won't work for reasons I'm forgetting. I know this would definitely run into issues with mismatched impedance values for the two inputs (and adding any TX element would be a big-no-no), but I'm pretty sure the impedance values for the two inputs on the Duo are identical which makes me think...maybe?
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Aug 11, 2020 02:26
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Mr.Radar posted:getting all of it would also blow past my budget of $1000 (and preferably under $800)... Is this an overall budget or a radio budget? Because boy howdy, the radio often seems like the cheap part when you don't have all the other things that people in hobby assume already exist at your location. Power supplies, coax, adapters......... It goes deep, but once you're in there it's not so bad I guess?
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Aug 11, 2020 02:26
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poeticoddity posted:Really dumb question: Can a single antenna and a T-splitter be used with a dual-input SDR to RX different band segments simultaneously? I don't see why it wouldn't, it's just like splitting a audio signal into two pairs of headphones. Like you said however, just make super sure that you're not making any sort of transmission otherwise you'll blow up your second receiver. That includes any sort of transmission that's being used to test the SWR or do impedance matching. if you're doing literally any kind of transmission whatsoever you'll need to physically disconnect the second receiver either with a switch or by physically removing the cable. Edit: I suppose if your receivers are behind the same impedance matching device you might be okay with having it tune the signal. Nitrousoxide fucked around with this message at 02:53 on Aug 11, 2020 |
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Aug 11, 2020 02:45
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poeticoddity posted:Have you pulled up a receiver on websdr.org and compared the output there to yours? ickna posted:I would try reducing the sampling rate first to see if that gets rid of some of the images, and then try reducing the gain to see if any of the other ones go away. Uh oh looks like HRO has the RSP1A on sale right now for $99 whoops my money fell out, into their website.
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Aug 11, 2020 03:16
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The Hambulance posted:Fair enough. Yeah, your advice is good and I'm sure those are the choices you would make, I was mostly looking for validation quote:You have no idea. Run away now while you still can! Save yourself! Too late, I already placed my order  Motronic posted:Is this an overall budget or a radio budget? Overall, since I am starting from scratch (the only other radio gear I have right now is a few Baofeng HTs). If I had $1k to spend on a radio alone it would be the Icom 7300 no questions asked (even though it wouldn't exactly be the most portable thing in the world...). Mr.Radar fucked around with this message at 03:27 on Aug 11, 2020 |
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Aug 11, 2020 03:21
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 hello yes signal check
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Aug 11, 2020 22:09
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Nitrousoxide posted:I don't see why it wouldn't, it's just like splitting a audio signal into two pairs of headphones. I know having an SDR in the loop with a transmitting radio and not having a switch is a great way to blow up your SDR. Would I need to disconnect the SDR from an RX-only antenna if I've got a transceiver on a separate RX/TX antenna? (Assuming I'm not doing high-wattage HF stuff.) Example: If I've got an SDR on a scanner antenna (which isn't rated for TX and will not be connected to a transceiver), do I need to disconnect the SDR from the scanner antenna before using a 2M or 70cm transceiver on my J-pole? Casual Encountess posted:
In addition to being awkward to use, that looks like a snapped SMA connector waiting to happen. Consider getting some coax to serve as strain relief between your radio and antenna. That'd also let you get your antenna higher, and hang it vertically, which might help.
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Aug 11, 2020 23:42
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poeticoddity posted:
well yes but one arrived before the other
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Aug 12, 2020 00:16
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poeticoddity posted:I know having an SDR in the loop with a transmitting radio and not having a switch is a great way to blow up your SDR. Technically if you are not doing any transmitting with the transceiver then you can have it hooked up at the same time as the receiver SDR. The concern I would have with a transceiver however is any sort of automated impedance matching it does with an integrated antenna tuner may put out tiny bits of power to test the line and end up destroying your SDR. I don't think that ham radio equipment in general would be putting out transmissions inadvertently because of how we are responsible for identifying ourselves as as part of each transmission. So I doubt that any sort of purpose built ham transceiver would do that. but if you're using any sort of transceiver that is not ham radio specific then I could not guarantee that it isn't going to put out unintended transmissions that would blow up your other receiver. Either way it's probably prudent anyway to at least put a switch between the two to prevent both of them from being connected at the same time just to make sure that you don't hit the transmit button without thinking or kerchunk it accidently and blow up your other receiver.
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Aug 12, 2020 00:17
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poeticoddity posted:being awkward to use drat, did you really think that was the end goal?
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Aug 12, 2020 00:48
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drunk mutt posted:drat, did you really think that was the end goal? Considering CE is a newly licensed ham whose previous posts in this thread have been a grab-bag of serious questions, jokes, and plans to build an antenna into a tall bike...maybe?  I recently got one of those goofy ABBREE folding antennas which immediately made me think, "Wow, that's potentially a lot of torque on an SMA connector," and it's tiny by comparison. I figured I'd try to be helpful in preventing someone from breaking their radio since people in this thread have been helpful in keeping me from breaking mine.
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Aug 12, 2020 01:22
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poeticoddity posted:In addition to being awkward to use, that looks like a snapped SMA connector waiting to happen. Forget a snapped SMA connector, he might break off his entire radio!
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Aug 12, 2020 01:31
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poeticoddity posted:Considering CE is a newly licensed ham whose previous posts in this thread have been a grab-bag of serious questions, jokes, and plans to build an antenna into a tall bike...maybe? Eh, but a Fong JPole on a Feng. You'd probably imagine the person doing this would have some insight to what is going on =P
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Aug 12, 2020 01:49
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Lou Takki posted:Forget a snapped SMA connector, he might break off his entire radio! its a uv-82hp if you break it in half two uv-5r's fall out, pinata style its baofengs all the way down
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Aug 12, 2020 02:34
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Casual Encountess posted:its a uv-82hp if you break it in half two uv-5r's fall out, pinata style And if you break the batteries it's just 1.5vs
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Aug 12, 2020 03:11
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I cleaned up my antenna tuner layout, replacing the air coil with a toroid, and 3D printed a box to put it all in. Six dang hours of messing with the box to get all the holes in the right place and make a pair of matching knobs that fit. Along the way, the capacitor's 4:1 knob mechanism just stopped working entirely. I'm not sure how that works (there's 0 exposed parts which reveal its clockwork) but I'm sure as heck not going to take it back out to fail to figure out how to fix it. I just clamped the knob onto the larger shaft and I find tuning with that easier anyway. For reference, the setup that's been sitting on the porch for a month:  And my RSP1A comes today, yussssss.
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Aug 13, 2020 14:21
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CapnBry posted:I cleaned up my antenna tuner layout, replacing the air coil with a toroid, and 3D printed a box to put it all in. Six dang hours of messing with the box to get all the holes in the right place and make a pair of matching knobs that fit. Along the way, the capacitor's 4:1 knob mechanism just stopped working entirely. I'm not sure how that works (there's 0 exposed parts which reveal its clockwork) but I'm sure as heck not going to take it back out to fail to figure out how to fix it. I just clamped the knob onto the larger shaft and I find tuning with that easier anyway. project update?
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Aug 18, 2020 06:08
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I really need to build a proper antenna, my ATAS-120 set up at home is not cutting it as I enjoy the qrp digital modes. Since having moved 5 years ago I still need to set up a proper shack. KC9DRE...
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Aug 18, 2020 07:59
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Just got my license last night, been scanning around 2m and 70cm just to see who's around. Gonna probably dig into digital modes, especially when my RTL-SDR comes in tomorrow.
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Aug 18, 2020 16:28
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Casual Encountess posted:project update? The RSP1A is great in that it has better sensitivity, and much finer gain control which means it isn't completely blown out by the shortwave stations on 40m. The echos of shortwave broadcast I was picking up in the middle of my 20m are also gone. Being able to grab large chunks of bandwdith at once is also great (up to 10MHz) which means I can get all of 2m or all of what I want to listen to in 70cm at once. What does suck is that using it with my setup of a Raspberry Pi A+ that sits outside all the time and SDR-Console on my windows PC in the nice air conditioning and big monitor / speakers doesn't really work. You can use SDRUno in ExtIO mode along with rsp_tcp to stream it, but the wifi doesn't have enough bandwidth to send 16-bit I/Q 2MHz. I'm not even sure it is working properly in that mode because SDRUno is not my favorite receiver app. I can use rsp_tcp with SDR-Console through the RTL-TCP input by chopping the 16-bit I/Q down to 8-bit (drop the top 2 and bottom 6 bits), but also the gain control is lost almost completely. I asked the SDR-Console developer about it and typed out all the specs for the "enhanced mode" API (which just adds a few more commands) and he said to just put a Windows PC outside all the time instead, which I won't be doing. That's pretty disappointing because I'm not getting full use out of the RSP1A, and because it isn't an open source program I can't add it myself. I may try to come up with a workaround by reverse engineering their V3 Server streaming protocol and wrapping the sdrplay API on the other side to emulate it. I don't know if I have that kind of energy for that, or will be able to figure out how they compress the I/Q samples. CapnBry fucked around with this message at 20:02 on Aug 21, 2020 |
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Aug 21, 2020 19:42
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CapnBry posted:Sorry I haven't responded but I typed a whole giant message and hit Ctrl+R instead of Shift+R near the end and lost my post so I put off typing it again. It's been working great out on the porch. The completed tuner is so much more convenient. Set the dials to where it needs to be and no need to bust out the NanoVNA each time I change bands. Having the capacitor without the 4:1 gearing is so much better because there's no way to see the plates engagement from the outside and the dial is just a normal dial. I will probably put a label on the front with the various positions I discover but right now I can just eyeball it and get it right enough. I use this https://github.com/F6FLT/SDRSharp_v17xx-Plugin-for-SDRPlay for my rsp1a.
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Aug 23, 2020 18:04
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Big Mackson posted:I use this https://github.com/F6FLT/SDRSharp_v17xx-Plugin-for-SDRPlay for my rsp1a. That said, it is nice that SDR# exposes their API so developers can write their own plugins to support things. I asked the SDR-Console dev for the DLL interface he uses for all his frontend plugins or any sort of information on the V3 Server protocol and he said no. It is a bit odd that it is free software but he really wants to lock it down.
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Aug 23, 2020 18:26
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https://www.sdrplay.com/new-raspberry-pi-sd-card-image-for-rspdx/ This page says it can use rtl_tcp in 16 bit extended mode and https://github.com/SDRplay/RSPTCPServer also say extended mode, author also says he only tests with sdrsharp frontend only, so you should just set up the server and then choose rtl tcp option. I am not home so i havent tested it on my battery powered raspberry pi. Author says it should work with any rtl_tcp capable frontend so if this doesn't work then idk. My solution i use are battery powered raspberry station with lan to fiber to lan converters so it truly isolated from the electrical grid with the bonus of 1 gigabit ethernet . edit: someone asked if they could run (dll?) this on windows 10 with sdrsharp and this was the message https://groups.io/g/SDRPlayUsers/message/784 it looks like the client must have an extio interface if it is gonna use extended mode. :/ edit yet again: i tried UHD/USRP method and then picked the rsp tcp extio dll from sdrplay download page and this happened. I dont have a sdrplay where i am right now, but it looks promising!  we put a dll in your dll 
Big Mackson fucked around with this message at 14:09 on Aug 24, 2020 |
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Aug 24, 2020 13:07
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Big Mackson posted:we put a dll in your dll That' ExtIO dll is the one that worked in SDRUno, and thanks for pointing me to the URSP wrapper because SDR# I like a lot better than Uno. I just tried it and hooray you can get 16 bit samples into SDR#! Theoretically anyway, it definitely doubled the wifi bandwidth so I assume it doesn't get shrunk down going into SDR#, but I'll have to investigate. The RSPTCPServer is a bit wonky, I've already been hacking on it because it does all sorts of crazy stuff where it resets turning off AGC by mistake, and it is super puzzling why they went through all the trouble to make this EXTIO dll and then used this "gain index" thing instead of just exposing the actual separate gains used by the API. The Pi's network can't just barely keep up with 2MSPS at 16 bit as it is choppy and after some random amount of minutes I get a ton of kernel driver USB errors (from the sdrplay process) that requires me to reboot the Pi. Still not ideal but this could work slightly better than using rtl_tcp emulation so I'm happy to have more options, thanks!
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Aug 24, 2020 17:16
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Hello hams and greybeards (but I repeat myself!) DIY Secret Santa signups are now open! https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3941260
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Sep 22, 2020 19:41
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I need a radio for backcountry use on forestry roads to avoid being creamed by trucks full of endangered pine logs and calling for help when my field partner is eaten by a grizzly or falls down a cliff. The legit kenwoods are too expensive to even consider. I understand the issues around Baofengs and am looking for a UV-5R but it looks like they've been discontinued, with the BF-F8HP being the next model. Problem is I can't find either of them in Canada without using a fairly sketchy looking site. Can anyone recommend a similar brand/model with similar specs?
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Sep 25, 2020 19:49
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Outrail posted:I need a radio for backcountry use on forestry roads to avoid being creamed by trucks full of endangered pine logs and calling for help when my field partner is eaten by a grizzly or falls down a cliff. The legit kenwoods are too expensive to even consider. I understand the issues around Baofengs and am looking for a UV-5R but it looks like they've been discontinued, with the BF-F8HP being the next model. Problem is I can't find either of them in Canada without using a fairly sketchy looking site. Can anyone recommend a similar brand/model with similar specs? Unless they're operating on the 2m/70cm ham bands or adjacent two-way services like MURS or FRS/GMRS a UV-5R isn't going to help you, and the range is sufficiently limited that without a repeater it's not likely to be all that useful. Truckers in North America that are using radios (a diminishing group) usually use CB (called GRS in Canada) so if you're looking to know where the log trucks are I'd assume that's what you want. Cobra is the most popular brand AFAIK, Galaxy is another big name. Make sure to get a proper antenna and mount too, not just some lovely little mag-mount thing. CB wavelength is ~11 meters, so you need a big antenna to get a decent signal out. If there's an active ham repeater covering the area then the Baofeng might be useful from the emergency standpoint, but for the most part I don't believe any emergency organizations monitor ham or two-way frequencies as a part of normal operation so without some bored ham to rely on your best bets would be a satellite phone or an emergency beacon.
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Sep 25, 2020 23:33
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wolrah posted:If you need a radio to communicate with other people (trucks, emergency assistance) an important detail is what radios they have. I was under the impression that 2m was widely used for local emergency type of situations? I would imagine if you're the target of an SNR and have even a UV you'd be better off than not having it, yeah? Seems like plugging in the 145 whatever freq might be a good idea, let me do that now haha. Edit: Does look like there are freqs in other bands https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_distress_frequency drunk mutt fucked around with this message at 23:48 on Sep 25, 2020 |
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Sep 25, 2020 23:45
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wolrah posted:If you need a radio to communicate with other people (trucks, emergency assistance) an important detail is what radios they have. BC switched over to a new system that all the forestry roads use for haul trucks a few years ago: https://www.westcoastplacer.com/program-your-radio-for-bcs-backroads/ They're required to announce direction and km markers as standard practice. I've spoken to quite a few people around here and most of them use a UV-5R. It's also useful for listening in on the ski patrol to see what runs are opening up. Driving those roads without a radio is asking to get smeared or run off a cliff. The safety aspect is for talking to other workers/people and rescue services that are closer (<5km). I'm not expecting to call 911 on a handheld.
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Sep 26, 2020 04:37
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Outrail posted:Can anyone recommend a similar brand/model with similar specs? I have a UV-82HP, similar specs to the BF-F8HP but a bit older I think? Works great. I’m in the US though, dunno what Canadian availability is like.
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Sep 26, 2020 15:35
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