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So, I went and looked up the park radios we’ve got. It’s a BK Radio, model King-P150S. They’re ~$2,000 apiece 🤣 They’re the model that the Forest Service uses, along with the National Park Service as a backup to our boat VHF systems. e: our radios for in-park comms is a West Marine Floating Handheld VHF. They’re ~$120 apiece. Icon Of Sin fucked around with this message at 19:40 on May 28, 2019 |
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May 28, 2019 19:38
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 13:47 |
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Icon Of Sin posted:So, I went and looked up the park radios we’ve got. It’s a BK Radio, model King-P150S. They’re ~$2,000 apiece 🤣 They’re the model that the Forest Service uses, along with the National Park Service as a backup to our boat VHF systems. Cool, thanks for checking that out. 2k is...well no... but I'll definitely look up West Marine. Thanks.
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May 28, 2019 20:08
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Erghh posted:Cool, thanks. Without amateur radio stuff you're somewhat limited. CB: 27mhz, high-HF low-VHF band. Basically vehicle only due to the needed size of antenna (8.5 feet for a 1/4 wave antenna) and limited to 4 watts of power unless you run a illegal amp or a 10 meter ham radio modified to transmit on CB frequencies (generally done by cutting a wire inside the radio or desoldering some resistors because the radio manufacturers know they're not selling them to hams.) Handheld CB radios exist only to separate rubes from their money and maybe let people on the ground talk to truckers while coordinating stuff in a freight yard or whatever. MURS: 5 VHF channels located right above the 2 meter ham band. Power output is limited to 2 watts, which is okay if you have a large antenna, say figure 3 miles or more on a good day. Suffers from a general lack of equipment availability, your options are either Dakota Alert brand radios, FCC certified Baofengs with a frequency block, and expensive Motorola commercial radios. FRS/GMRS: UHF handheld radios, those lovely bubblepack walky talkies that every big-box store sells that claim to have a 50 mile range and so on. Both are limited to like .5 watt output and have fixed short antennas, effective range will be maybe 1-2 miles at best assuming nothing in the way. Using the GMRS frequencies requires you to have a license (pay the FCC something like $60) but the license also lets you run a repeater at up to 50 watts, which could be useful if you've got a cabin on top of a hill or something. In September the FRS/GMRS combo radios will become illegal to sell because lol nobody ever actually gets the GMRS license. Quasi-legal: Chinese Baofeng VHF/UHF ham radios have become very popular over the past few years since they're cheap, relatively sturdy, and come from the factory without any sort of block on what frequencies the radio can transmit on. They've massively lowered the entry price to doing ham stuff but tend to have a "dirty" signal and aren't certified to use on MURS/FRS/GMRS or commercial bands because they're not channelized and their power output is too high or they have detachable antennas and so on. However a lot of prepper types don't care about this and use them on those frequencies anyways, or just on whatever frequency they like. Likewise the usage of marine VHF radios on land, it's not legal but people still do it and occasionally some hunters will get fined if the Coast Guard/FCC notices them. Amateur radio on the other hand lets you put a 30-50 watt radio in your vehicle with a big antenna and carry around a 4 watt handheld with a equally big antenna and use linked repeaters and so on. 10 miles or better if you're lucky and one person is on a mountain or something. The Technician class exam is pretty easy and mainly just covers basic practices and electrical theory, and is all you need for basic two-way radio stuff on the amateur bands. So for general outdoors use I'd say MURS would probably be the best option despite the limited selection and price of equipment. It has a okay amount of power, the Baofeng radios can be fitted with longer antennas, and generally VHF is better for use outdoors, while UHF has better building penetration. Another option might be the GoTenna mesh network, which is basically a transmitter that pairs with your phone with bluetooth and allows you to send text messages and GPS locations to other people. It used to use MURS frequencies but apparently they've changed it to UHF ISM band. There are other various open source and proprietary mesh networking systems but they don't use a external transmitter. Though from a quick google it appears the entire mesh networking community appears to have pivoted from "post-disaster communications/anti-censorship" to "BLOCKCHAIN TRANSACTIONS" so who the gently caress knows.
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May 29, 2019 10:04
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C.M. Kruger posted:FRS/GMRS: UHF handheld radios, those lovely bubblepack walky talkies that every big-box store sells that claim to have a 50 mile range and so on. Both are limited to like .5 watt output and have fixed short antennas, effective range will be maybe 1-2 miles at best assuming nothing in the way. Using the GMRS frequencies requires you to have a license (pay the FCC something like $60) but the license also lets you run a repeater at up to 50 watts, which could be useful if you've got a cabin on top of a hill or something. In September the FRS/GMRS combo radios will become illegal to sell because lol nobody ever actually gets the GMRS license. ... I did. 
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May 29, 2019 14:31
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Those GoTennas seem pretty slick. It’d be nice if there was an open standard for wireless mesh comms like that so devices from various manufacturers could interoperate.
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May 29, 2019 15:46
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Has anyone ever been prosecuted or even got in the slightest bit of trouble for using GMRS without a license?
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May 29, 2019 19:16
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C.M. Kruger posted:Without amateur radio stuff you're somewhat limited. Thanks for that, awesome run down and legit helpful. Especially from just a where/what do I start looking at perspective. I followed some of the older threads and always had an interest but kind of fell out. Went to check back in and so much has changed. Also seems like something that could get expensive fast depending on how deep you dive. Start out at outdoor/emergency radio stuff then boom, private satellite tracking station and unauthorized re-broadcast of MLB games.
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May 29, 2019 19:37
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pantslesswithwolves posted:Has anyone ever been prosecuted or even got in the slightest bit of trouble for using GMRS without a license?
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May 29, 2019 19:45
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Yeah it’s something of a sport for them to track down illegal transmitters with direction finding.
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May 30, 2019 14:51
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Crakkerjakk posted:... I did. But the vast majority of the people buying them at Walmart or wherever don't. From what I've seen the radio packaging generally doesn't even indicate you need a license to (legally) use them. pantslesswithwolves posted:Has anyone ever been prosecuted or even got in the slightest bit of trouble for using GMRS without a license? No because the radio range is so short they're unlikely to cause interference with other users, and most users don't even know they need a license. The only GMRS related FCC enforcement actions I could find with a quick search are letters being sent to companies for unlicensed use or unlicensed repeaters. Worst case scenario for the average user is some old guy on a power trip goes "you can't use these radios without a license!!!" and they go "oh I didn't know" and change channel. Erghh posted:Thanks for that, awesome run down and legit helpful. Especially from just a where/what do I start looking at perspective. With Chinese radios and computer integration the entry cost for amateur radio stuff has come down a fair amount. Handheld and mobile VHF/UHF radios are cheaper thanks to China (Yaesu has introduced a radio built on the same chip as Baofengs but with better engineering in an attempt to compete on the budget market) and affordable software defined receivers/transmitters like the RTL-SDR and BITX have made things more interesting/accessible. Like for less than $50 you can get a USB dongle that you can use to do stuff like decode weather satellite images every time a NOAA or Russian METEOR satellite passes overhead. http://www.websdr.org/ Shortwave/HF equipment on the other hand mostly remains expensive just due to technical constraints on what components are used to make the radio. There have been a couple Chinese companies recently attempting to enter the market with low-power radios but they're only slightly cheaper than similar full-featured transmitters from the big manufacturers. And HF stuff is so variable it can be very frustrating getting started since your $600-1000+ radio needs a good antenna to actually work and you've gotta get everything grounded properly and so on. I would suggest not buying anything more than a midrange shortwave radio with SSB or a SDR with HF capabilities and then see if you're still interested after messing around with it for a while. Though the FCC will go after you for pirate broadcasting. That's like the one thing they actually enforce on a regular basis because broadcasters get mad about it. Though low-power shortwave pirates are mostly ignored and will send you QSL cards if you can find their signals. https://www.hfunderground.com/wiki/index.php/Pirate_Radio_New_Listener_Guide_and_FAQ Casimir Radon posted:Have you ever met HAM guys? They'd suck all the dicks for an opportunity to bust someone breaking rules. Yeah I don't really do much stuff with the local amateur radio group or repeaters because of this. It's the original "maker nerd clique", with all that entails. Endless complaining on how new fangled digital modes are killing amateur radio by making younger people interested in it because it's not a bunch of old guys jawing at each other about their bunions. On the other hand they're literally dying off and the community as a whole seems to be finally moving away from the post-9/11 and Katrina disaster response obsession and is getting some new blood from the hacker scene.
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May 31, 2019 08:47
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Can you give a rundown on easily accessible (hopefully low cost) digital modes? I'm actually sort of interested in learning about it and maybe getting the license.
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May 31, 2019 13:27
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 13:47 |
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DoktorLoken posted:Can you give a rundown on easily accessible (hopefully low cost) digital modes? I'm actually sort of interested in learning about it and maybe getting the license. Digital is not really my area of interest but basically: For VHF/UHF voice there are competing standards. D-STAR (GMSK) is the proprietary mode used by ICOM/Kenwood, Yaesu has their System Fusion (C4FM), while Alinco (Japanese manufacturer) and the Chinese companies (mainly Anytone and Hytera/TYT) use the more open DMR protocol. Alinco also offers a separate GMSK implementation on some of their mobile radios that is not compatible with D-STAR. Broadly they provide better audio quality and allow the users to set up things like contact lists and talk groups and internet-linked repeaters/hotspots. Basically it makes it so you don't need to be local to somebody to talk to them, which is useful if you're in a area that doesn't have a lot of activity I suppose. Now for shortwave there are many modes ranging from RTTY and packet radio to more advanced modes, but the current "everyone's doing it" is WSJT and it's newest mode, FT8. Originally developed by a Nobel physics laureate for weak signal stuff like moon-bounce and meteor burst, it's gotten very popular since it's introduction because the ongoing solar minimum means that it's harder to make contact with voice/morse code and thus FT8 means you can actually talk to people. To do digital stuff you hook up your radio to a computer (either with a built-in USB connection on newer ones, or for older radios a sound card adapter like the Signalink USB) and then use the computer to send and decode data through the radio using a program like Fldigi or WSJT. In practice the digital modes all function kinda like a IRC chat except the ionosphere determines who you get to talk to, with FT8 a lot of stuff is heavily automated and geared more towards quick contacts while something like PSK31 will let you do more conversational "Hello Timo in Finland, how is the weather?" style contacts. I gather back in the 90s you needed more interface hardware but nowadays pretty much everything is done through software. Morse code is still popular too, despite being removed from the licensing requirements.
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Jun 1, 2019 09:33
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