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Jonny 290
May 5, 2005



[ASK] me about OS/2 Warp
xpost: the adorable icom R10 showed up.

Those buttons. That green glow. That off the rack 16x2 HD44780 LCD with a few extra segments.

Also it's incredibly light? Like, the batteries are 70% of the weight once you load it up.

https://twitter.com/KC4YLV/status/1380006578640748545

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Beve Stuscemi
Jun 6, 2001




I’m the literal easy button

thehustler
Apr 17, 2004

I am very curious about this little crescendo
Awww https://www.reddit.com/r/amateursatellites/comments/mm8fcz/spacex_vehicle_decoding_and_encryption_part_2_its/

Jonny 290
May 5, 2005



[ASK] me about OS/2 Warp

Jim Silly-Balls posted:

I’m the literal easy button

it actually fuckin rules, basically it enacts some preset search zones so you can just open palm slam "scan all UHF frequencies right fuckin' now" instead of punching in start and end frequencies.

They were experimenting a lot with UIs in this era, i have an icom P4AT which is probably the most emblematic of that



has an "AI" button

the radio is always keeping track of which features and settings you adjust most, and the AI button just rotates through a stack of the 3 most frequently used ones.

It's hilariously crude but also incredibly brilliant. Just use the radio for an hour or two and it figures out that you access the PL encoder tone picker, the repeater offset picker and the power level most, and lets you access those with one button.

Jonny 290
May 5, 2005



[ASK] me about OS/2 Warp
boy howdy qrz.com banned all pol chat (including shutting down the subscriber-only pol forum) and is banning sigs and avatars because people won't stop spewing hate speech. The response so far is completely predictable. See this now makes qrz.com a publisher and they're gonna section 230 it into the dirt!!!!

manero
Jan 30, 2006

They also made it so you need a paid subscription to sell stuff

thehustler
Apr 17, 2004

I am very curious about this little crescendo
I just saw a thread on Reddit where a post on QRZ was asking for examples of QRZ being poo poo in response to the Reddit hatred. Seems that place annoys everyone.

RadioPassive
Feb 26, 2012

When I was just getting started I made a qrz account and then spent 10 more seconds looking into the site and its culture and immediately had to email them to please delete my account.

Not loving touching that place.

manero
Jan 30, 2006

RadioPassive posted:

When I was just getting started I made a qrz account and then spent 10 more seconds looking into the site and its culture and immediately had to email them to please delete my account.

Not loving touching that place.

I've bought and sold lots of stuff on QRZ, but the discussion forums are pretty terrible

Coxswain Balls
Jun 4, 2001

I think it's like that for any hobby with lots of old white people. CGN is the most established buy and sell place in Canada for firearm stuff with web design firmly in the early 00s, but you only go into the discussion areas if you're actively trying to self-harm.

Just make your bookmark go directly to the buy and sell and you never have to deal with it, and when those people croak sooner rather than later you get yourself some nice gear for a song at their estate sales.

Coxswain Balls
Jun 4, 2001

https://www.kijiji.ca/v-general-electronics/winnipeg/kenwood-2-ways-for-sale-3-60-dollars-each-with-mics/1560370528

How's this for a basic transceiver to start with in the 70cm band? I've got some friends who are interested in going in on this and I'm hoping it'll be enough to finally push me to get licensed. It looks small enough that it's something I can stuff in a bike pannier as a portable rig which would be neat.

Motronic
Nov 6, 2009

Coxswain Balls posted:

https://www.kijiji.ca/v-general-electronics/winnipeg/kenwood-2-ways-for-sale-3-60-dollars-each-with-mics/1560370528

How's this for a basic transceiver to start with in the 70cm band? I've got some friends who are interested in going in on this and I'm hoping it'll be enough to finally push me to get licensed. It looks small enough that it's something I can stuff in a bike pannier as a portable rig which would be neat.

I'm not sure why you would bother with a mobile radio to put on a bike. Just get a cheap chinese HT.

Coxswain Balls
Jun 4, 2001

Motronic posted:

I'm not sure why you would bother with a mobile radio to put on a bike. Just get a cheap chinese HT.

I just figure it'd be a neat project to have a station that I can take out of my truck and stuff onto my bike when the fire bans this year mean the only way I can get out into the middle of nowhere is on my bike. If it was just for bike use then yeah an HT would be more convenient, but I'd also be using it at home or in my vehicle as well. It also wouldn't be the first stupid thing I strapped onto my bike for shits and giggles.

Stuff like this looks cool, but it definitely makes more sense with like an HF setup.

http://www.k5pa.com/Ham%20Radio/Bicycle%20Mobile.htm

Jonny 290
May 5, 2005



[ASK] me about OS/2 Warp
those things are built like brick shithouses with a weight to match. you'll be hollerin'. HT for the pushbike imo.

Coxswain Balls
Jun 4, 2001

My bike is already a hoss but yeah, probably no point in getting that over a dual band HT to start with if it's the same price. It's been a while since I looked at cheap handsets and I found a place with TYT TH-UV88 handsets for the same price. After looking around a bit they seem to be better than the Baofengs with regards to spurious emissions. Anyone here have any experience with them?

https://baofengradio.ca/collections/analog-radios/products/tyt-th-uv88-dual-band-analog-two-way-radio

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pYrrdGF1UU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uW27RdBIsoE

Jonny 290
May 5, 2005



[ASK] me about OS/2 Warp
There's also the itty bitty Btech 25 watt mobiles if you want something with room to grow



the RJ45 mic plug gives you a sense of scale. That would do just fine on your bars.

Twerk from Home
Jan 17, 2009

This avatar brought to you by the 'save our dead gay forums' foundation.

Jonny 290 posted:

There's also the itty bitty Btech 25 watt mobiles if you want something with room to grow



the RJ45 mic plug gives you a sense of scale. That would do just fine on your bars.

I thought that these guys were basically just a Baofeng + an amp, and desensitized just as easily?

Jonny 290
May 5, 2005



[ASK] me about OS/2 Warp
They do a bit better, mainly because they don't get designed with an intentionally lovely rubber duck as an ad-hoc filter

My favorite 'mini rig' is the old Kenwood TM201a; i've bought 3-4 of them at hamfests and have given 2-3 away.



Some day I will track down the FC10 add-on display for it and buy a 300zx and have the dopest 80s throwback mobile rig

Crusader
Apr 11, 2002

god knows how many months after passing my general, i finally used a websdr in florida to grab some of the shortwave radiogram tonight; i'm back in the hobby i think!

manero
Jan 30, 2006

Made 3 CW contacts this weekend. I’ve been telling myself for years I need to buckle down and finally learn CW. I mean it this time, dammit!

Turmoil
Jun 27, 2000

Forum Veteran


Young Urchin

manero posted:

Made 3 CW contacts this weekend. I’ve been telling myself for years I need to buckle down and finally learn CW. I mean it this time, dammit!

This is how I got the basics of CW: https://morse.withgoogle.com/learn/

Now to just get an ear for it.

For now the CW decoded in Ham Radio Deluxe(DM780) does a fair enough job.

manero
Jan 30, 2006

Turmoil posted:

This is how I got the basics of CW: https://morse.withgoogle.com/learn/

Now to just get an ear for it.

For now the CW decoded in Ham Radio Deluxe(DM780) does a fair enough job.

Nice, I'll have to check that one out. I've been using LCWO.net on and off. I'm on lesson 34 of 40, and I should really just spend a couple weeks getting back up to speed and finishing off the lessons.

thehustler
Apr 17, 2004

I am very curious about this little crescendo
Does anyone know where MMSSTV stores your received images *before* you save them out from the history section of the software? They must be somewhere but Google is not helping at all.

copen
Feb 2, 2003
Well, after wanting one of these from the first time I saw it. Finally got my hands on one.

Jonny 290
May 5, 2005



[ASK] me about OS/2 Warp
I let my preorder expire for the 705 cause covid hit. Thinking about circling back but I need to justify it by actually getting out and camping with some of the 7,281 radios i already own

copen
Feb 2, 2003

Jonny 290 posted:

I let my preorder expire for the 705 cause covid hit. Thinking about circling back but I need to justify it by actually getting out and camping with some of the 7,281 radios i already own

lol fair enough. I partially justified it for use as home station VHF/UHF but may end up putting my ft-891 on the chopping block. But come to field day with us!

thehustler
Apr 17, 2004

I am very curious about this little crescendo
I did my first SSTV simplex QSO today finally during a SOTA activation. Felt really good. Hooray for personal milestones!

Not sure where to go next with things. It seems most applications for a data cable are a waste of an FM channel’s bandwidth so I may have taken it as far as I can go. And I like to operate SOTA & /P so the kit is a bit heavy (using a laptop, not doing it with a phone as the apps cost money on iOS and I’m cheap).

Maybe I should try working a satellite next? The antennas look hard to make though. What’s the simplest?

manero
Jan 30, 2006

thehustler posted:

I did my first SSTV simplex QSO today finally during a SOTA activation. Felt really good. Hooray for personal milestones!

Not sure where to go next with things. It seems most applications for a data cable are a waste of an FM channel’s bandwidth so I may have taken it as far as I can go. And I like to operate SOTA & /P so the kit is a bit heavy (using a laptop, not doing it with a phone as the apps cost money on iOS and I’m cheap).

Maybe I should try working a satellite next? The antennas look hard to make though. What’s the simplest?

I haven't made one yet, but tape measure yagis seem pretty easy to build

Vir
Dec 14, 2007

Does it tickle when your Body Thetans flap their wings, eh Beatrice?
I need to come up with a better portable holding solution for my satellite antenna. It's an "Alaskan Arrow" antenna which comes pre-tapped for camera tripods, but any tripod head that's beefy enough to hold the weight seems to be too heavy to backpack into the field. It seems that people create an extender arm for the antenna as a counterweight:(not my video)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33ewm_JKil0

The problem with this is that sometimes you have passes directly over head, which means the extender arm will get in the way of the tripod while you're tracking the satellite - especially if you're flipping it sideways as well.

One alternative for light-weight operation might be to take inspiration from competitive shooting and rig up some sort of sling and suit system that helps hold the antenna out from my body.

copen posted:

Well, after wanting one of these from the first time I saw it. Finally got my hands on one.


Congratulations. I got a TH-D74 this year, so the ham budget for the rest of the year is going into homebrewing stuff.

Vir fucked around with this message at 21:07 on Apr 24, 2021

The Claptain
May 11, 2014

Grimey Drawer

thehustler posted:

I did my first SSTV simplex QSO today finally during a SOTA activation. Felt really good. Hooray for personal milestones!

Not sure where to go next with things. It seems most applications for a data cable are a waste of an FM channel’s bandwidth so I may have taken it as far as I can go. And I like to operate SOTA & /P so the kit is a bit heavy (using a laptop, not doing it with a phone as the apps cost money on iOS and I’m cheap).

Maybe I should try working a satellite next? The antennas look hard to make though. What’s the simplest?


Depending on what you consider hard, if you know to cut aluminium stock, drill holes and thread the rods, this antenna is not too difficult to build and gives excellent results for satellite work: https://1drv.ms/b/s!AsEM0jxGqcSsgZlMqPq4d4wVKyzfdg?e=dehjSq

The design, like most LPDAs, is very tolerant to slight errors in element alignment. The one change I made to the design is to use U profiles instead of square stock, that saves some weight.

That being said, as mentioned, you can't go wrong with tape measure yagi. They're not great by any means, but they work, are fun to build and cost basically nothing (though the weird thing in my case is that the cost of tape measures was not that much cheaper than the aluminium stock for the LPDA :v: )

Jonny 290
May 5, 2005



[ASK] me about OS/2 Warp

Vir posted:


The problem with this is that sometimes you have passes directly over head, which means the extender arm will get in the way of the tripod while you're tracking the satellite - especially if you're flipping it sideways as well.


I hate overhead passes. Hate the poo poo out of them. I know it's easy copy but you gain like another 30 seconds of pass time vs a 45-ish deg max elevation pass and pay for it with having to do WILD poo poo with positioning. Ever seen an az-el computer controlled setup try to keep up through zenith on an 88 degree pass? It ain't pretty. Computer freaks out, over-rotates, over-corrects, blah. The best fix is using a 180 degree elevation rotator and enabling the feature that basically just goes past 90 degrees and flips it upside down, but then you've got to do extra math on the tail end of the pass.

Sweet spot is a nice 30-50 max el pass. Easy to track, no matrix glitching at the halfway point.

Vir
Dec 14, 2007

Does it tickle when your Body Thetans flap their wings, eh Beatrice?
I wonder if just switching antennas during the zenith is a better option if you're doing motorized tracking. You might lose some dB, but being straight up might make up for it?

Jonny 290
May 5, 2005



[ASK] me about OS/2 Warp
One tactic I've heard of that vhf/uhf satellite snoopers use is to mount two small TV yagi/log periodics on a V-shaped mount, one aimed south, one north, about 45 degrees elevation - then just combine them. You lose low elevation passes because you can't look east/west but it's a cheap way to get going.

ickna
May 19, 2004

Jonny 290 posted:

One tactic I've heard of that vhf/uhf satellite snoopers use is to mount two small TV yagi/log periodics on a V-shaped mount, one aimed south, one north, about 45 degrees elevation - then just combine them. You lose low elevation passes because you can't look east/west but it's a cheap way to get going.

Couldn’t you use this kind of arrangement with a tilt head, and align it such that it is coplanar to the satellite track? Instead of N-S it would be rise and set?

Jonny 290
May 5, 2005



[ASK] me about OS/2 Warp
Oh sure. Thing is, most birds are in polar orbit, meaning they go largely north-south or south-north. The big exception is the ISS which runs in a roughly equatorial orbit because they care more about doing sciencing on mid-latitudes than the poles



so if you're in mid-latitudes an east/west setup would probably work to receive the ISS digipeater, sure.

ickna
May 19, 2004

Jonny 290 posted:

Oh sure. Thing is, most birds are in polar orbit, meaning they go largely north-south or south-north.

Oh neat, I wasn’t aware that this was the case. I presume they’re not in molniya orbits if a 30s window extension is a factor, so why do most of them use polar orbits?

Jonny 290
May 5, 2005



[ASK] me about OS/2 Warp
cause LEO is cheap and goes up all the time. We don't have enough money going into AMSAT to launch anything in higher orbits, sadly.

All the molniya sats we enjoyed in the 90s were piggybacked on space race launches, and that poo poo's gone now. Every gram of payload must be paid for now.

Vir
Dec 14, 2007

Does it tickle when your Body Thetans flap their wings, eh Beatrice?
QO-100 is geostationary, but it's parked over Africa, so it's not reachable from the US. Also you need to work it on microwave bands.

Edit: You can listen to it online: https://eshail.batc.org.uk/nb/

Vir fucked around with this message at 10:45 on Apr 26, 2021

Big Mackson
Sep 26, 2009

Vir posted:

QO-100 is geostationary, but it's parked over Africa, so it's not reachable from the US. Also you need to work it on microwave bands.

Edit: You can listen to it online: https://eshail.batc.org.uk/nb/


i have set up satellite dish on my porch and can take in QO-100 but i have let it rot for 2 years because the equipment for TXing costs a lot (for me). :negative:

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Jonny 290
May 5, 2005



[ASK] me about OS/2 Warp
yah es'hail-2 is fuckin rad and it's a testament to how much american hams have fallen behind that we let somebody else beat us to a geostationary sat. Not that it's a contest, but.

the best amsat can come up with is yet another wave of schoolyard demo satellites with _slightly_ higher orbits so wow they'll last 27 minutes on a pass instead of 13! They might have one built later this year! Meanwhile the other hemisphere is happily loving with downconverters and sending digital audio and video from Europe to Africa.

(AMSAT has given up on so many projects and they're going to ride out the shot clock trickling out LEO cubesats until they all die off, then shutter it, is my guess.)

Jonny 290 fucked around with this message at 17:41 on Apr 26, 2021

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