Amateur radio: Not much going on, other than the motherfucking satellite

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Hobbies, Crafts, & Houses > Amateur radio: Not much going on, other than the motherfucking satellite

the milk machine: Jul 23, 2002; lick my keys

I got the ARRL book to start studying; is there a consensus on good beginner options for a radio? The options on amazon etc are.... confusing

I�ve been having an awesome time playing with an rtl-sdr for a few weeks and have been interested in ham for awhile so I figured now is a great time to take the plunge. I�m in DC so it�s cool to see all the traffic all over the spectrum and have it all be weird modem sounds etc., any other cool stuff to do with this dongle?

# ¿ Jun 14, 2020 06:11

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# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 00:25

the milk machine: Jul 23, 2002; lick my keys

DevNull posted:

I got my tech license last fall, and have money to spend along with a house to mount antennas. That said, I think my suggestion would be an an Anytone 878. https://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-016505 It takes a bit of work to get up and running with it, but honestly that is true for any radio.

I have a Yaesu FT-8900R with an antenna that gets really good local coverage. It also requires a power supply and an external antenna. It lets you find local talk groups really well, from my experience. That cost close to $800 once you add in the antenna, cable, and power supply.

I also bought an Icom IC-7300 and can do a little bit on 6m and 10m, mostly with ft8 and a very simple antenna. You can do a lot of receiving, and a little bit of transmitting. You can use the same power supply as the VHF/UHF, but you are about $1000 in.

So, the Anytone 878. I bought it because my co-workers were talking about doing a DMR group. I spend the $220 for the radio. Then like $100 for a zumspot, which you don't really have to get. You can use local repeaters to do DMR if you want. More importantly, you can program in the local analog repeaters and have a really good hand held for 2m and 70cm. The code plug aspect of radio takes a bit more to learn, but the radio does a lot of work for the $220 you put into it. I guess maybe a little more for a slightly better antenna. I had to pull the antennas off my roof for some construction, and the 878 is going to be my main radio for the next several weeks. Hopefully a newbie opinion is helpful. That is if you consider $220 to be a reasonable start up cost.

This is awesome and gives me a lot to chew on. Thanks!

# ¿ Jun 14, 2020 19:18

the milk machine: Jul 23, 2002; lick my keys

Nostalgia4Butts posted:

found out a local group does walk-in exams close to me, figured I'd finally go for my HAM- anyone got a study guide recommendation for 2020?

i've been studying for technician and general on hamstudy.org, it's pretty good. they even have a phone app for a few bucks and it syncs your progress

# ¿ Jul 3, 2020 16:12

the milk machine: Jul 23, 2002; lick my keys

I�ve been �studying� for too long now and need to schedule a test. Has anyone here done a technician exam online or can recommend an org?

Is there anyone that�s currently doing the pass tech -> take general in one sitting thing online?

# ¿ Sep 30, 2020 05:40

the milk machine: Jul 23, 2002; lick my keys

poeticoddity posted:

There are some pretty slick SDR setups that integrate with a Raspberry Pi which might fit the bill of what you're describing.

i was fiddling around with a raspberry pi + sdr upstairs where i get better reception this summer; i think i was following along with this article: https://www.rtl-sdr.com/rtl-sdr-tutorial-setting-up-and-using-the-spyserver-remote-streaming-server-with-an-rtl-sdr/

# ¿ Dec 16, 2020 23:44

the milk machine: Jul 23, 2002; lick my keys

hey jonny, i remember you made a post on (i think) the ham discord when things sort of popped off around here awhile back

you talked about hams sending low res digital qcs card pics around on hf, and how one could easily use an sdr w/ a balun and wire to try and receive those.

at the time i thought it was the raddest thing and got the li'l balun thing for $5 or w/e it was (i've been playing with an rtl sdr for awhile), but i seem to have lost the posts you made. would you mind describing how i could try to pick those sorts of things up? also, what sort of setup would one use to send stuff like that?

i'm in the dc area and will soon have a backyard to avail myself of if that matters.

# ¿ Jan 30, 2021 07:17

the milk machine: Jul 23, 2002; lick my keys

Jonny 290 posted:

Yeah sounds like you're talkin about slow scan tv on 20 meters.

General steps:

get your sdr set up with a wire antenna - the longer the better but at least 15 feet long outside

Get a slow scan tv reception program and get it set up to listen to the SDR audio output - often this requires a glue program like VirtualAudioCable

tune to 14.230 upper sideband basically any day of the week during daylight hours

MMSSTV is PC-only but it's my favorite program. it'll autodetect which of the 38 possible modes they're transmitting with.

awesome, thank you. I�ll post results when I can try it out

# ¿ Feb 1, 2021 05:13

the milk machine: Jul 23, 2002; lick my keys

hbag posted:

is it weird if i think the main reason i find this interesting is more for the "building my own equipment and transmitting with it" part and less the actually transmitting part (while that's also pretty cool)

no that�s me also, I haven�t gotten motivated to get licensed yet but I�m here for building cool antenna and electronics stuff

txing is cool of course but I don�t know what I�d say other than �hello it�s me, I�m on the radio�

I mainly wanna get into digital/sstv/whatever and similar stuff too

# ¿ Mar 27, 2021 01:53

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# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 00:25

the milk machine: Jul 23, 2002; lick my keys

if your dad is at all computer-y, a usb sdr dongle would let him tune in train radio and all kinds of other stuff and they're ~$40 (or used to be? that could have changed)

i've used mine to listen to near-ish train yards/traffic, air traffic control, etc.

# ¿ Nov 7, 2023 04:27

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