Literally Just Copypasting You Lazy Fuck 2.0 editionPrevious thread: >>2931635Eternal thread theme: [YouTube] Deadbolt - The Mocker>New to /ham/? Read this shit!http://www.arrl.org/what-is-ham-radiohttps://www.fcc.gov/wireless/bureau-divisions/mobility-division/amateur-radio-service>Your search engine of choice works well too!>The FAQ is now back:>https://wiki.cybsec.io/index.php/HamFAQ>OP, the cybsec domain is gone.>NEW FAQ is updated to preview 15https://files.catbox.moe/aftx43.htm>The wiki is down but is archived: https://archive.is/PjR5s>Idiot's Guide to Coax Cablehttps://www.pcs-electronics.com/guide_coax.php>Looking for frequencies to monitor near you?http://www.radioreference.com>Basic Rx loop fundamentalshttps://www.w8ji.com/magnetic_receiving_loops.htm>DIY SWL Mag. Loophttp://www.kr1st.com/swlloop.htm>Small Tx Loophttp://webclass.org/k5ijb/antennas/Small-magnetic-loops.htm>In Depth Loop articleshttp://www.kk5jy.net/magloop/>Homebrew RF Circuitshttps://www.qsl.net/va3iul/Homebrew_RF_Circuit_Design_Ideas/Homebrew_RF_Circuit_Design_Ideas.htm>NEW Libraryhttps://mega.nz/file/UCgEGAjb#rwNcnMAQCUUbSp8supsFvn9QEHCWUW86eLcZa16ZG4Y>Online Practice Tests:http://aa9pw.com/https://hamstudy.org/https://hamexam.org/> Real-Time Propagation Datahttp://prop.kc2g.com/>Space Weatherhttps://www.swpc.noaa.gov/communities/radio-communications>WSJT-X 2.1 User Guidehttps://physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/k1jt/wsjtx-doc/wsjtx-main-2.1.2.html>Homosexual (ft8) guidehttps://www.g4ifb.com/FT8_Hinson_tips_for_HF_DXers.pdf>APRShttp://www.aprs.org/>Weather Fax resourceshttps://www.weather.gov/media/marine/rfax.pdfhttps://weatherfax.com/stations/>point to point predictions, its free and will give you an idea of how much power/ what frequencies to use to reliably talk to your friendhttps://www.voacap.com/hf/>how do I into Morse code in a good way?https://pastebin.com/HByjfN4F>Shortwave radio schedulehttps://shortwave.live/
>>2939599Radoe
Don't go throwing your money to the antenna jews just to DX.
I have a 102” whip. I was trying to tune my SWR earlier, and channel 1 is reading 2.0 and ch 40 is about 1.5I also have a barrel spring. How am I supposed to fix my SWR?
>>2939614How are you grounding it? Does it stay like that consistently (e.g. same on sunny and rainy day?) Unless you are transmitting often, 2.0 is not really that bad.
>me and my bud buy cb's at radio shack when we were 16>start talking on the cb channels to each other while delivering pizzas>BRAKER 1 9 BREAKER 1 9 THIS HERES DUBYA D 40 COME IN>the truckers start getting mad and yelling at us on the radio>we keep trolling them for a week until we get bored of itgood times
>>293962I am grounding it. How well the connection is- I don’t know. Ch. 1 reads 2.0 and ch. 40 reads 1.5I thought you had to have those 2 pretty much the same.
>>2939620This was for you. >>2939622
are there any bands that you arent supposed to listen in on? aircraft/military/etc? or is it pretty much public domain but illegal to transmit anywhere outside hobby bands
>>2939614From Cobra's Website>Check the SWR on channels 1 and 40.If the SWR is lower on channel 1, then the antenna is too long. Make the antenna shorter. If the SWR is lower on channel 40, then the antenna is too short. Make the antenna longer. Continue to adjust the antenna until the SWR is approximately the same on channels 1 & 40 AND is less than 3. The antenna is now properly tuned for the CB band.I added 12" to my 102" whip to get 1:1 on 19 lmao
>>2939651>>2939614Using something like Picrel will get your 102" to 108", the true 1/4 Length of 27.185
>>2939651I’m sorry- a foot? How in the world am I supposed to add a foot to my antenna?
>>2939648As far as I know, it's only illegal to listen to analog phone calls (which have not existed for well over a decade) and to decode pager messages (which are surprisingly common)
>>2939653This is why I'm purposefully not buying an SWR meter I'd rather just live in ignorance and pretend that everything is all good on both of my rigs
>>2939653>>2939655>Adding one foot
>>29396561:1 Getrdone
>>2939656I’m sorry- like literally mounting it a foot higher?>>2939655Can’t you damage your radio though?
breaker 19 this here's swollen prostate!
the chad scanners
>>2939614cobra SWR meters in their radios are notoriously off.
>>2939746I know, that’s why I bought an external one.
>>2939735I guess if I was going to damage one of them it would have happened by now, it's not like it's anything crazy, just a van with a cobra 26, 15 ft cable, and a fire stick mounted to the ladder on the back door, and a cobra 3 in my car with another 15 ft cable and a $15 Walmart CB on the trunk lid.Like, I'm hoping it's all standard enough to just work as-is.
>this is w1cum with the Hurricane Watch Net. Do we have any emer->CQ POTA CQ POTA
>>2939735Yessir, do the math to figure out 1/4 Wavelength of 27.185MHzIt is around 108.35" or so(Number off the top of my head) but in my case, the rear door of the truck messes with the antenna and that's why I needed more than the spring and six inch extender.>>2939746As to the SWR Meters in cobras, they are junk and purely Gimmick but I tuned my Whip with a Nano VNA
>>2939808Man, I didn’t know antennas were that sensitive. That’s absolutely insane. I really don’t want to add another foot to my antenna.
>>2939758gaykys
>106.7 FM braudcast way down at 33.107mhzharmonics? or is this that "DX" thing?
>>2939874>rtl-sdrnot sure about your question, but i just got 2 of these things and have been listening to the cops in my area with themits pretty entertaining listening to them>negress in a mercedes license comes back suspended>cop lets out big sigh on radio>you can hear his fatigue is maxed out off the chartlmao i feel bad for the cops i hear sometimes.any other cool shit i can listen to with them?
>>2939880planes and shit at around 127 mhz (AM, they all seem to use a push to talk system, so its a waiting game), and the national weather service radio stuff (NBFM, ~162Mhz, should see them around there) parently you can also pick up weather satalites but i havnt been able to pull any in through the window yet tho, may need a diffrent antenna or an amp and a filter
>>2939874I’d guess it to be your SDR is seeing an image of a powerful signal out of your mixer, which is likely the case since I believe cheap SDRs use square wave mixers with all the 3rd 5th etc. harmonics that entails. If you can find out what your local oscillator frequency is set to, you can calculate what images such a mixer would create. The LO is probably 30-36MHz judging by the RTL dongle bandwidth, putting its third harmonic in the 90-108MHz range, slap bang within range of the FM broadcast band.
>>2939887>artifact of the archatectureah ok
>>2939886>planes and shityeah i have listened to them but im not close to a busy airport sadlyI didnt know about the national weather service stuff tho, thanks anon
>>2939648That depends on your region. Some countries block segments of the RF spectrum or outlaw it entirely from it's citizens. Here in Canada you can receive any RF signal you detect. The only stipulation is that you can't reveal the contents of the signal except when subpoena'd by the Crown or as requested by the Communications Minister, and you cannot benefit from the communications heard.
>>2939880How do I find out what channel the cops are using around my area? Maybe I could add it to my GMRS radio and snoop on em sometimes
>>2939648It depends on the laws in your country, it can be forbidden to listen to some bands, or legal to listen but forbidden to retransmit by any mean (youtube, broadcast, discussion, etc.) what you listened to.I don't think that, in the western world, someone gives a fuck as everything that shouldn't be listened to by civilians is ciphered
>>2939891>yeah i have listened to them but im not close to a busy airport sadlyNo need to, you can listen to the air traffic control specific areas, you can use https://skyvector.com/ to find these areas and the frequencies in the VHF band are indicated on the map, use the different levels of fly (world hi, world lo, VFR...)
>>2939603Why would you use this instead of a 4:1 or 1/4 wave of 75 ohm line to a tuner with an actual resonant loop? You already have the height. Could also do a horizontal loop on 80m and have 10-80m virtually resonant or within 3:1. This vertical is dogshit. You can make a fan dipole and configure it as an inverted V too on 5 bands that would blow this dogshit random wire vertical out of the water. Or do an extended double zepp, or any kind of doublet.
>>2939874Harmonics and dogshit unusable front end filtering.
>>2939898i used radioreference.com/db/browse/it has pretty much everything you would need to know
>>2939910stale
>>2939966>Harmonics and dogshit unusable front end filteringI think it's the harmonics of the square wave local oscillator, hard to filter those out when the LO can go from 25-1700MHz.
Stop creating hurricanes just to make yourselves look important.
>>2939599why dont you guys just use cell phones
>>2940079We're autistic.
>>29396142 is ok.Allegedly you wont damage your equipment until closer to 3.I mean it lowers your range, but w/e you dont seem like a minmaxxer>>2939648If its old analog, they wont know if you passive listenIf its new digital, it'll be encrpyted & you wont be able to listen> as everything that shouldn't be listened to by civilians is cipheredlol. govts live off reputations far more than reality.>>2939874I dont understand what the context for this image is. Is Transmit power -60, and off band is -70? Offband noise level should be ~70db below transmit level, not 10. There definitely do look like some periodic spikes; I'd zoom in on one see how bad it is.>>2939898Easiest way is to know somebodySecond way is FCC license search.3rd way is govt. agencies publish stuff all the time; in a mountain of paperwork
i have a bunch of rtlsdr's sdrtrunk to listen to p25 policekismet for adsb its nice listening without all the fuckin broadcastify ads and they have some nice software for streaming
>>2940082>2 is okThanks anon. That’s what I read as well. I’d like it to be at peak performance, but I really don’t know how I could raise it a whole foot.
>>2940089Its an inverse relationship, so more return loss doesnt help you a lot.At VSWR of 2, ~90% of your power goes out.Lets say you bump that up to 100%. Thats less than 1db of gain.Id be more worried about damaging the equipment, which you prob wont. Look for gains elsewhere.
>>2940090Oh wow, that’s basically non existent then.I really appreciate that. I guess if I’m still into CB’s in a year, maybe I can buy an amp.
i hear we might be getting a near 6meter freq for gmrs
>>2940097Only proposed. It's be great if they added in digital modes to GMRS and ability to legally link repeaters. Maybe if they add 6m to the license, they can legally crossband link the repeaters together using one of the 6m channels. Not that any of that matters here since everything is dead except for the ham repeater with the same asshat OMs using it all the time talking about their last medical appointment.
>>2940079because cell phones are radios used to talk very long distances, these idiots want to use RADIOS to talk long distances... maybe... if the weather is good... if there is someone on the other end... if their prostate isn't acting up.
>>2940133>if their prostate isn't acting up.Fuck. Thanks for reminding me that I need to take my finasteride, anon!
i agree ham is largely gay af i dont want to talk with random men let alone a bunch of boomers cause that was all the rage before computers and internet in every home the rules governing it are ancient and overly restrictive id much prefer a chunk of every ham band be sectioned off for unlicensed anarchy then it might get some use
the only time theres real activity outside a few rag chew repeaters is during faggy contests where reddit-esque normies try to collect the most callsigns/hellos in a weekend
no one want to make random statements over the radio while also doxing themselves with every fucking thought
>>2940079decentralized communications that can't be censored by corporate monopoliescommunications that are resilient during emergencies without requiring infrastructurescientific purposes like communicating to amateur weather balloons, satellites, ROVsscientific studies of things via radio propagation, like weather, sunspots and the ionosphere, or tracking mh370 or bouncing off the moonlearning about radio itself by way of making and upgrading your equipment for greater signal strengths and distancesthe first point is half moot because you are compelled to identify yourself and to not obfuscate information, but there are definitely ways around that second point on digital modes by hiding encrypted data within common compression methodsas for your identity, ham radio isn't the only method for transmitting information wirelessly, you can use existing protocols that don't need a license like loraif you're extra paranoid you could write your own lora-like protocol with a significantly different chirp-style and frequency range so you can transmit long distances below the noise floor without anyone having the idea to look for your signal, just avoid the deep space network
>>2940248>decentralized communications that can't be censored by corporate monopolieslaughs in squarey wavey broadybandi jammies
>>2940249governments can do that sure, but corpos probably won'tboth govts and corpos can control your internet and phone comms
>>2940079That's just radios + repeaters.>>2940133>if the weather is goodHF is not effected by weather.
>>2940146Kek!
>schizo larper had a melty because he wants to shit up the ham bands with him and his group of larpers>they're always too scared to memorize a set of easy questions and answers, and take a test>he's so paranoid that people go out of their way just to dox their information when no one gives a damn and only wants their location for some obscure award>he'll spend thousands on a few equipment citing the quality of equipment is important all while limiting his comm equipment to a $18 chinese radio (which was made in a country he is afraid and paranoid of)Can anyone tell me why no one takes larpers seriously? Oh wait, no one does. They need to bring back Doomsday Larpers to remind people again how they need medicated. I always love making fun of them and much more so when they have meltdowns when it comes to hams.
>be me>set up CB>”auuudddddio”Don’t think anyone could hear me. I tried asking people if they read me, but I don’t think they could hear.Also- if I can pick up someone loud and clear from California for example, could they hear me if I’m all the way on the east coast? Or would I need an amp?
>>2940279>HF is not effected by weather.ever heard of space weather? dipshit.
>>2940302>Can anyone tell me why no one takes larpers seriously? Oh wait, no one does. They need to bring back Doomsday Larpers to remind people again how they need medicated. I always love making fun of them and much more so when they have meltdowns when it comes to hams.
>>2940336CB is dead, the only traffic is from the superbowl channels with illegal amps. I don't care if CB is not dead where you are, CB is dead.no anon they cannot hear you.
>>2939599>[YouTube]phonefag deadbeat
>>2940397Guess I should just sell it then.
>>2940404where I live, I have left my CB on all day for weeks on all the popular (non superbowl) channels and hear almost nothing. I've gone on trips and almost nothing even from truckers.
>>2940448yes you will get more contacts putting a phone number on a rest area stall than a cb radio in 2025 just do that
>>2940401Ah shit. Not a phoneposter, I got the (dead) and (embed) bullshit out but forgot about the youtube link.
Thinking about mounting a CB in my house with the microphone rubber banded on next to a bluetooth speaker or some shit playing music from my PC and then driving around in my car and seeing how far away I can hear it.Not like anyone's gonna give a fuck I've had the radio for months and never hear anything, not even near the highway on Ch19.
>>2940448Should I just sell it or get an amp?
>>2940395>propagation for 10m is down>move to 20m>propagation for 20m is down>move to 40m>propagation for 40m is down>move to 80m>propagation for 80m is down>move to 160m>propagation for 160m is down>ragequit and bitch on 4chan>no internet access because it's extra rainy and broadband wireless won't get a signal from the tower 7 miles away
>>2940590
>>2940590How about the 630 m and 2200 m bands?
>>2940674>2200 m Good luck with building this dipole!
>>2940571use your own brain and decide.
>>2940674Never used them, even with an acre of land I couldn't possibly reasonably string up a 630m antenna. >>2940676You really won't be using a dipole for 630/2200. Because the signals are so weak, and because you'd need such insane height, most agencies that use these frequencies use some type of curtain array or good old beverage antennas for reception. Otherwise, you won't hear jack shit.
>>2940676I think in an earlier thread we found that the Golden Gate bridge would be an excellent base for such a dipole. What could possibly go wrong?
>>2940706Hams will always experiment. One of them should do it even just for the lols.
theres already a jewtube ham fag that hikes around and uses anything metal as an antenna to transmit on
>>2940770Yeah, ham radio tube with a G90 as an experiment to see what the G90 cannot tune up.
Has anyone tried Baofeng radios? Are they good? I wanna get started in amateur radio and they told me Baofeng radios are cheap and effective and have low power.
>>2940901qansheng are better
>>2940901kys schizo
>>2940901I have some put up for emergency use in the neighborhood like the time a guy had a hunting accident and the time when the power was out for along time which I handed out for the old folks if they needed anything. Otherwise, they're absolute shit.
found some non english speakers using what i presume is a miltary sat as a repeater lol
>>2940986Eastern Russia and South America are nicely covered by the couple remaining ones
>>2940901Any walkie talkie is shit, get on HF.
>>2940986'found' LOLthats just the old P-band satcommeritards figured it would be a good idea to launch sat repeaters that cover from 240MHz to ~300 or so, without authentification and just bank on no one ever noticing.Well that aged like milk so they launched new ones with auth.They either cant derail the old ones of keep some backup. It's not really like you interfere much if a warship poibnts an antenna up there and blasts it.
>>2940302Lol you fucking faggot. Its called "pirate radio" for a reason. Think i give a fuck if some boomer triangulates my nazi propaganda? He can look down the barrel of my shotgun as I tell him to get the fuck off my land. Only faggots register with the government. And yes I do play hitler speeches overpowering the local NPR and liberal media. ;)
>>2940901>>2940902both are great affordable entry level radios to realize that the only people you will hear from are boomers in assisted living homes with nothing to do and no friends and it only costs you sub 50$ (to buy both) and not 500$ super het kenwood/icom slop
>>2941158You're better off getting a real scanner, because all you'll hear are old fuck boomers, and that's all that will hear you as well.
>>2941159If they go with a scanner, might as well go up and get one that can all band and SSB so he can hear the dumb boomers on 80m talk about their latest colonoscopy and antennas. But at that point, might as well get an SDR and listen to it from his computer.
>>2941160Most scanners will do ssb, and he really wants p25 phase 2 simulcast compatibility so he can hear all the feds, cops, and wendys employees.
>>2941162>Most scanners will do ssbnot only will they NOT do ssb. they also don't receive below 54mhz.
>>2941162>Most scanners will do ssbname them
>>2941165the expensive ones only boomers can afford saving a few months of ss checks
>>2941163Most scanners do ssb AND receive well below 54mhz.>>2941165BCD325P2SDS100SDS200Basically any SDR you'd hook to your computer (RLT-SDR being the cheapest I know of) will also handle full blown trunking as well as ssb. That said, the front end filtering is non-existent and the knowledge curve for operating sdr software is extremely steep.
>>2941163>they also don't receive below 54mhzDon't most scanners receive cb radio? That'd be below 54mhz.
>>2941170Name them.
>>2941172>most scannerscan only list 3 of hundreds.the 3 listed cannot do SSB.
meanwhile a 20$ dvb usb dongle can do just about anything
is there a readable table of frequencies that weather satalites downlink on that satdump can decode?
>be me>listening to CB>channel 38 USB>hear moris code and some weird noises and faint voices>cant tune in>skip to another channel earlier>hear what can only be described as a helicopter flying over for a second or 2Have I broken into ham territory?
>>2941207https://www.satdump.org/Satellite-List/literally my first jewgle hit
>>2941183All 3 can do ssb, in fact my bcd325p2 does it from the box. Try again.
>>2941219Nope, either sound boards or hearing digital modes illegally used on cb. It happens all the time, none of the cbers give a shit and neither does the fcc.
>>2941219They're freebanding by going between the CB frequencies.
>>2941239the sds100/200 and your bcd325p2 cannot do USB/LSB/or SSB. they can do AM, FM, NFM, WFM, or FMB)your bcd325p2 cannot even tune anything that would be transmitting SSB.there are no scanners that can do SSB.
>>2941299Scanners only do AM on the aviation bands and CB.
going to an airport event this weekend got my cheap laptop, 2 rtlsdr's 1 scanning the airports tower/ground/approach+departure freq's using rtlairband and a 2nd dingle listening and plotting ads-b transponders using kismet
>>2941339and if i add up the costs of this setup its like 150$ dongles+laptop just need to pickup a cheapo inverter to keep the laptop charged and a large microsd card to record it all to disk using obs
>>2939599I wish Ukrainians would bomb that piece of shit
>>2941160>so he can hear the dumb boomers on 80m talk about their latest colonoscopy and antennasWould you hear an 80m signal with a cheap scanner antenna? Probably not...
>>2941395uhm... idiot... it's in Ukraine.
>>2941302yeah no shit.
>>2941403So many ways. The easiest: long wire crimped onto an alligator clip onto the metal antenna. String up the wire. It doesn't have to be high to receive. I've ran it through some low bushes before and got 80m. Mine? I just have my SDR attached to my rain gutter. I just took a SMA male jumper, split it in half, spliced a long wire onto the coax wire itself, soldered it, taped it, heat shrink, ran it through the hole fir all my cables and attached it the gutter. Attach the sma connecter to sdr. Audio received. It's not good, but it does the job.Shit is not complicated if you are just listening and don't care much for audio quality.
>>2941408I was clarifying for the trolls and retards, assdick.
hell, finding a cheap cb radio with ssb was a bit of chore last time i tried
>>2941480no one could tell that.
OK, I said fuck it and pulled the trigger on an SI-4732 thumbmaster 3000 and a connector SMA->BNC->BNC->Screw terminal block for shits and giggles.How good are they compared with full size "real" radios like the PL-330 or so?I'll upgrade the firmware and I asked a bro with a 3D printer to print me a lime green shell. Anything else I could/should do? I mainly bought this for quick & dirty experiments with nigger-rigged wire and other antennas. Like >get 30 feet of thin braid wire, wrap it around a Harbor Freight bucket and see what happens>Jumper cables - your truck's unlikely loop antenna>Doc Shortwave live from the local iron railroad bridgeAlso: Does anyone here know why the Lilygo T-Embed SI-4732 has LW too but no SSB while the ATS-Mini SI-4732 has SSB but no LW?
>>2941586probably a different chip or missing software chinkshit isnt known for quality control and not cutting corners to save yen im not familair with this soc myself
>>2941436So the answer is no, you wouldn't hear 80m with a cheap rubber duck scanner antenna, and would need a long antenna capable of receiving a decent 80m signal. Got it.
>>2941612generally yes need a very long wire (away from any interference producing electronics) and a propper ground things that handhelds are very poor at
notarubicon told me that gmrs is the way for portable handheld comms
>>2941617For ease of use? Sure. You can put up a repeater as well. I think GMRS is great for family comms.As for Randy, I like him, but I hate his fanbase. Esp when they misuse terms. Now, apparently pointing out anyone who is wrong is a "sad ham." One video I watched recently, all the hams calledout the guy about his Baomeme repeater saying he'll have desensing issues and won't work well. The guy? Called everyone sad hams. He'd said he release a video showing he is right a few days later. It's been six months and he hasn't made the video.
>>2941674hes not wrong though some ham's are a bit overly zealous with the craft and anyone on jewtube is far from being a master at their topic of choice its just a shit job ever look up the requirements to start monetizing videos? its bad no one does that shit quality content will get absolutely burried under the people doing it as a job
>>2941617Portable handheld comms are just that, line of sight vhf /uhf comms. Use whatever you want, ham, marine band, gmrs, 900mhz, fuck who cares? Get some FRS bubble pack radios and send it. Get some cheap baofeng or anything else off amazon and send it. The people listening to these aren't tracking you down offroad to send your license plate to the fcc, they'd have to get off their fat wrinkled asses to do so.
>>2941586those are shit.
>>2941586>>get 30 feet of thin braid wire, wrap it around a Harbor Freight bucket and see what happens>>Jumper cables - your truck's unlikely loop antenna>>Doc Shortwave live from the local iron railroad bridgeIs a random wire of any length not good enough for you? Anything that isn't a proper resonant antenna will sound like shit and only receive strong broadcast signals.Enjoy brother stair.
>>2941718let me rephrase that meaning the gmrs freq antenna length is more conducive for hand held use as apposed to sad hams using lower freqs like 2meter, while propagating through and around obstacles unlike higher frequencies and smaller antennas
>>2941796gmrs behaves the exact same as 70cm which sad hams also use. Just get on shortwave.
>>2941586>>Doc Shortwave live from the local iron railroad bridgeOkay, I have to experiment with this. I don't expect much, but curiosity got me. I've done steel wire fences with bad results transmitting (I did make contacts!) and receiving.
>>2941828Think of transmitting swr for a moment, and what your tuner functionally does. As we transmit a signal, say we have 5:1 swr, about 44% of your signal is lost. That signal is reflected back down to the tuner, which then sends it back up to the antenna. Eventually, the full signal and power is transmitted out of the antenna, but with numerous trips down the feedline and through the tuner, you have loss. Without the tuner, you simply have loss, 44% of your signal is heat, enjoy. This doesn't account for ground losses, etc. Especially since your bridge or fence is grounded.So we hook up to a bridge or fence. 9:1 swr. 64% of your signal is lost, and due to ground losses because of low height (for a fence especially) and other resistant factors, you probably lose closer to 80% of your transmitted signal strength. Okay, so you still have 20w to work with, right? Sure, but because your radiation pattern looks like an egg exploding under a spatula, you might have a usable 10w of power.If you experiment with antennas long enough, you eventually learn why matching networks and baluns actually aren't as good as you'd think. A full wave delta loop for example has an swr of around 200ohm. Your coax and radio expect a resistance of 50ohm. You take a 4:1 balun and match the antenna to the coax, and therefor the radio, and presto you have a low swr full wave loop antenna. But that high current maxima still exists in the loop. The antenna doesn't stop being a 200ohm antenna, and it doesn't stop resisting at 200ohms.So you look at that same swr number and imagine it for receiving. A 5:1 swr antenna is resisting the frequency you're putting through it, and as such, resists the frequency on receive as well. It's not a resonant antenna, so instead of 100% signal strength of a given station (for example) we calculate the loss as 44% of expected signal strength. But wait, we don't have a near resonant dipole losing 44%, we have a chainlink fence. -cont
>>2941852So instead of losing 44% of your signal on send and calculating equivalent loss of gain on receive, we're looking at much higher (and impossible to accurately calculate for a bridge or sloppy rigged antenna) amount of losses. So instead of hearing potentially 100% of stations that you'd hear on a resonant dipole, you could probably expect to hear 10% of those station, if that. Only very strong signals.This is why the meme of a 49:1 with a long wire doesn't make sense to me. If you've run with big loops and random wires before, and ran a side by side against a center fed resonant dipole, you'd see what I mean. Vertically polarized and oriented loop antennas have a mean elevation of the current maxima, so they need significant height to out perform a dipole. Horizontally polarized and oriented loop antennas work great, but they are not mono-band antennas, and resonate on multiple frequencies, allowing the antenna to pick up more harmonic frequencies from noisy sources. A resonant dipole is only resonant on it's own frequency and possibly the third harmonic, which for all but 40m are typically unused by hams and are seldom used by their actual designated operators. That or the third harmonic simply doesn't propagate well enough to generate a significant amount of noise. So our 20m dipole will have a lower noise floor and sound better than a 20m delta loop that's vertically polarized, and will often sound better than a 20m delta loop that's horizontally polarized when both have an apex of the same height.Whenever you use matching, you're decreasing the amount of signal traveling to the radio. A balun or tuner, doesn't matter, because the antenna isn't as resonant as it could be at 50ohm. This is why dipoles, yagis, and hexbeams work so fucking well. They're ~50ohm antennas, so the coax and radio are all in happy unison. If you decrease resistance further, it could be a better receiving antenna (think a vertical with way too many radials).
>>2941854But even a lower resistance vertical will often perform poorly compared to a horizontally polarized dipole at a 1/2 wavelength high. Vertical polarization is unfortunately very noisy, even in the boonies, but is an acceptable omni-directional alternative to trying to put up a dipole 60-100' high, especially on low bands. But, my point is that with low resistance it picks up signals better than it would with high resistance, even if it doesn't perfectly match the radio and coax. Your main issue starts coming from velocity and shit, so a tuner in line works to make the antenna function the way you need it to with the radio. Too little resistance isn't a bad thing with verticals either, slam all the radials you can on it, it'll still perform better with them.So no, a 49:1 with a random length wire, a bridge, a fence, none of that shit will ever make a good antenna. "Doc Shortwave" would get laughed at, but nobody can hear him transmitting effectively QRP into a bridge.
>>2940248I think what you guys are missing is the software component.Some protocol that maintains your decentralization but makes routing more seamless. Also auto transit Closer to a mesh network. That would make you rival cellphones.As is whole things unwieldy. HAM rivals LINUX for how much you gaslight users on how 'easy it is to use'.Pretty obvious why there's no research on the topic; threat to corpos.
>>2941852>>2941854>>2941855Okay, OM. I didn't ask for a thesis. All I want to do is test it for myself for shits and giggles like several youtubers have done. Our hobby is one of experimentation, which is fun. It was neat that I was able to make a few contacts on the steel wire fence and get some lols out of it. Chill out and take some Valium.
>>2941870Why not test usable and effective antennas designs then? You could spend that money that you're burning on wire around a bucket on a helically wound vertical. LOTS of wire antennas make excellent antennas even with small setups. Look at spiderbeams and hexbeams, or folded dipoles, or lazy H phased dipoles. There's a ton of easy to make and install antennas that don't need a ton of height, and you could experiment with designs. I've heard guys on the air with horizontally oriented bruce arrays strung out between random ass trees on their properties that would make Art Bell blush. Just be creative and work within the actual functional limitations and physics of antennas, and you can create some pretty ridiculous shit.
>>2941876spoken like a true ham experiementer in 2025 "JUST BUY PRODUCT LOL"
>>2941876Because I just said for lols. Get your reading glasses on. I already have a fan dipole up that I made from just scrap wire from devices people were just throwing out like vacuum cleaners on a 1:1 balun.
>>2941885>JUST BUY PRODUCT LOLNever said once to buy a product, I was using a handful of designs as an example. I'm not even sure you can buy a bruce array or lazy h, you have to make one.
>>2941885In fact, my main point was to experiment using radio and antenna physics we already know as a base point for your designs, instead of chucking wire around a bucket and having 99% ground loss.>>2941888>hahaha guess what, I'm actually using a railroad track to contact you! That's so funny huh! HAHAHAHAHAHA>huh? Can anyone pull him out?>relay>go ahead relay>yeah he said he's using a railroad track with 100w and a tuner as an antenna>oh, okay, well 73. Anyway back to my colonoscopyI fail to see the humor.
>>2941888I like how you call yourself doc shortwave and then come up with the most retarded shortwave antenna designs. Then argue with prof retard that actually knows about antennas trying to help your goal.>>2941892You're being trolled faggot, they don't even own a radio. If they do it's a baofeng.
>>2941892You fail to see it because you are autistic.>>2941893>I like how you call yourself doc shortwaveYou are confusing me with the other guy. I'm >>2941828, not >>2941586. >antenna designI literally have a fan dipole.>they don't even own a radio. If they do it's a baofeng.Uhh, okay?
its getting a callsign worth it?pls respond
>>2941876>dipshit doesn't understand that SI4732s are RX only. They are tiny SDR receivers you mong. Your monologue about TX energy getting reflected back and NO FUN ALLOWED MKAY?! was completely useless
>>2941923I made the comparison so you'd understand resonance and resistance works both ways, but apparently you're too retarded to understand that.
>>2941856You mean something like Lora with Meshtastic/Rnodes, but where you’re allowed to transmit with more power than 1mW? Yeah that’s what I was thinking too. Looks like with something like FT8 on HF you can probably communicate around the world without repeating nodes, but it seems you’d have to seriously design around band-crowding if everyone can receive everyone’s signals. You’d also want the modulation method to not result in unreadable signals when a weaker transmission interferes with the stronger one you were listening for.
>>2941913fuck you
>>2939599>>The FAQ is now back:>>https://wiki.cybsec.io/index.php/HamFAQ>>OP, the cybsec domain is gone.>>NEW FAQ is updated to preview 15>https://files.catbox.moe/aftx43.htmOP, a more convenient site is here:https://sizeof.cat/post/cyberpunk-faq/files/radio_FAQ_Preview15.htm
Not a ham question but this is a kind of radio theory problem. What kind of pattern of cables or threads becomes a coil? I have a 4 meter (12 feet) long welding cable that is turned around of flexible hose that has 16 millimeter (5/8") diameter. Maximum current in the cable is 250 Amps DC. Frequency is unknown since the voltage source is inverter type and there is 15 rounds around the flexible hose. Cross section area of the hose is of course one thousandth of that which occurs between a ground cable and the welding cable but it still feels uncanny to use coiled cable in this kind of purpose. Coiled cable makes the welding hose flexible and ergonomic to use and easier to store than a straight cable one.Pic has 4 different ways to tie the thread around the hose. Uppermost pattern is worst coil in this case but is there any difference between that and the second and the third patterns when it comes to magnetic field strength? Lowest of the patterns should reverse magnetic field as it induces two fields against each other. >inb4 buy a ready cableI should buy a ready mag welder but I need a compact one since I have no room for old big one.
>>2942043I will guess the individual conductors aren't insulated, 1 and 2 will make kind of a coil, 3 and 4 won't. Anyway 15 turns is nothing so you shouldn't worryAll will make an antenna
>>2939599I remember hearing the russian woodpecker in late 1987? I thought it was ignition noise. Wasn't until years later I found out what it really was. At my QTH I think I was hearing the pacific Duga (Duga-2?) in the russian far east. Which reminded me of a device I saw in one hams shack shortly after. I did some searching around and found it: a Datong SRB2. I remember asking about it and he explained how it worked but by then 1991 the Duga OTH radar was gone. I do remember him saying it worked quite well but required the person who was talking to speak slower than usual to be understood. Subsequently found this youtube video showing it in action. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmBUHvFi6EwAnyone know of any good technically detailed book about the Duga OTH system?
>>2941586>How good are they compared with full size "real" radios like the PL-330 or so?The original firmware ist shite, make sure you update to 2.30 asap. And there are three versions afaik. Yours in the pic is V1 made by mutiple companies. The Amnvolt V3S is the best one right now. It's got an injection molded shell and there's an amp behind the 3.5mm jack that makes it actually usable (earlier versions have a very weak headphone jack signal).Aside from that: Especially considering the price tag thery're remarkably neat little radios. Especially since the latest firmwares fixed stuff and added more they are really fun to play with. Just as you described: They are top tier if you want antenna experiments and just have easy, headache-free SWL fun for a very small buck. Sure, 'real' radios got more options, filters, better reception but they also cost a lot more. Depending on where you buy you don't pay more than 35 bucks tops for an SI4732 and still get all the features you want in a shortwave radio.
>>2939614If you are talking about CB radio channels, they are in the 10-meter range (300MM/~30MM~=10).Your antenna is at about 1/4λ for CB. If your SWR worsens at lower frequencies, your antenna is electrically short and capacitive, so you need to introduce more inductance. If your antenna is telescoping, stretch it. If you have an adjustable tuning coil at the base, set it so more turns are connected between the feedline and antenna. 1.5 SWR is about the "acceptable" limit which introduces about 5% mismatch losses, and not bad at all. At 2 SWR you risk shortening the lifespan of your radio final amplification stage.
>>29400791. Faster to use when coordinating a multi-car trip.2. There isn't always cell phone reception in the middle of nowhere.3. Electronics/radio is fun.4. AUTISM
check out 7200 right now if you want to hear a boomer melty happening
>>2944247He has one of those older mobile antennas with a spring coil base. I've long wondered how you tune one of them without resorting to a antenna tuner. Near as I can tell it's not like the antenna can be lengthened easy. And I wonder if his mismatch is because it's too close and parallel to the carbody?
>>2944318>And I wonder if his mismatch is because it's too close and parallel to the carbody?Maybe, but at this wavelength it would have been way more catastrophic, like 5:1, 8:1 SWR.
Did Andy and Barney do this properly?
>>2944367I want one of those antennas but they just don't exist anymore
>>2944375I'll make you one, give me a fake account for contact I'll send you one for free. 8.5' whip easy to make.
What do you guys think of the QMX+ 160-6m Tx ?https://qrp-labs.com/qmxp.htmlI am looking for an affordable setup for portable, I am tired of carrying the FT-891 and it drains at least 1A when receiving, the FT-818 is severely heavy for the little power it provides
>>2944508>QRPNot a fan of QRP. Why waste money for less power? If I wanted less power, I can turn down the power on any 20w or higher rig. It's why QRP rigs like the IC705 and FTX-1 are stupid. Pass.
>>2944515NTA but QRP are lighter, more mobile when you are trekking in themountains, and the lower power consumption makes batteries last longer.
>>2944651If it's just a few lbs make you that much less mobile to trek a radio and a slightly bigger battery (or a portable solar set-up like Powerfilm roll-ups and tiny charge controller) up some mountain, then you are out of shape. You are already lugging antenna equipment along with coax and all that other stuff, so a slightly bigger battery or a rollable solarpanel isn't going to be an issue. Lift more and do some cardio.
>>2944673Sure, anon. Show us all a picture of you, your rig, on a mountain top.
no clue what sat these are from, really strong signal>9 foot dipole in the yard with 16AWG magnet wire >homemade FM bandstop filter>BNC cabler from the anntena to filter to the lna>LNA 'salvaged' from a trashpicked "window mount" TV antenna , modified to work from the bias-T powerdoesnt seem to like passing anything from aroynd 900MHZ and up though...
Okay, I have to ask the stupid question here: Why haul an HF radio to the top of a mountain? Where are you stringing your antenna?I get it with VHF/UHF/EHF, I used to take my Yaesu FT290R with me. Sensitive receiver and only draws about 65mA using the internal 'C' batteries.
>>2944718Is there any doppler shift? I want to say that's a signal from an ORBCOMM satellite.
>>2944777>has never heard of summits on the air>not using it as an opportunity to ruck (great workout!), see nice scenery, and practice radioUnlike the other anon that's so out of shape an additional 4lbs means he's going to die of exhaustion. >stringing your antennaTree branches. Behind me in this photo is a tree I threw my wire over one of its branches and just let it hang down the cliff. If I had more than 20 watts and a bettee llr efficient antenna since I was using a G90 with an efhw antenna, the contacts would have been easier, but w/e.
>>2944790Ah okay. I warned ya it was a stupid question. :^) Nice pic btw. The mountains in my region don't have trees near their peaks & are rather exposed. Fun times trying to keep a 2m beam on a tripod stable and trying to log contacts in wind, rain, etc on an exposed peak. I do IOTA not SOTA or POTA, even though I enjoy checking into VHF nets from the few peaks I've camped on. Surprising to me is that in spite of SOTA's supposed popularity i've only been bagged a couple of times by people collecting peaks.I bought a Tokyo Hypower HT750 in 1994 and took it on a couple of climbs. Was disappointing as 15m was in decline, 40m dead during the day, and no one on 6m & it ate batteries like crazy. I sold it in 2000 now I kind of wished I had kept it, they're sort of rare now.In the mid-90's a buddy built a 5 watt 80m SSB transceiver about the size of a cigarette pack. We took it backpacking several times and I remember hauling one of those black 7AHr gel cells to power it. Heavy thing. Lithium batteries are a godsend compared to those.
>>2944777I have the DX wire fiber glass pole, 10m, 1,25 kgs, I can put a FD3 on that or a vertical dipole. I also have the JP7 / APC12 whatever with the 5m collapsing whip, I like to do portable because I live at the bottom of the little mountains that are around, I have obstructions at 25° above the horizon, so I can't have antennas with an angle of attack suited for DX. Not mentioning VHF / UHF...
>>2944800>Tokyo Hypower HT750 in 1994https://www.rigpix.com/tokyohypower/ht750.htm> 40, 15 and 6 m in three bandsneat, you can suppose that at least one of these bands will work
>>2944818Indeed. I should've used custom built dipoles or something rather than use the whips that came with it.
Just an interesting idea came up after having to unplug my antenna due a storm. Would it work to have an antenna switch have an empty slot just to switch to during a storm? Or would the contact points in the switch be too close that lightning would make the jump anyway?
>>2945429I put a neon bulb across the center conductor and shielding. during some storms the neon bulb will flicker. This allows any charge that builds up to discharge to ground safely when it exceeds 55volts.
>>2945429Samefag here. Just looked it up. Unfortunately it doesn't work. I was hoping it would. I already have multiple things in the chain like lightning arrestors to prevent this in case I'm not here to disconnect, but I thought I could have another method without disconnecting. Oh well. It was a nice thought. >>2945435Interesting.
is it okay to talk about meshtastic in here
>>2945465Yes. But Rnodes is technically more powerful.
>>2945465>meshtastic
>>2945466ehh doesnt matter for my usecase. i'm going to stick a chinkshit "meshtastic router" on a really high place and use it for sensor data and trackers. just lora is fine. kinda waiting for that shit to show up first before I poke more at it
>>2944779>not listed in satdumpdamn, so they are all S and L band nowadays
>>2944790>summits on the airYou need to up your game, my man!https://qrper.com/2025/09/behind-the-scenes-at-first-u-s-tota/
>>2939599Does anyone have any hands on experience comparing the IC-7300 and the FT-991?I have a 7300 and a Yaesu VHF/UHF in the basement. I'm kicking around the idea of getting another HF radio plus running a few more coaxes so I can do digi on one radio while working CW/SSB on the other. I"m fed up wasting too much time trying to jump from WSJT and N1MM chasing different dx stations.Would dedicating the 991A to FT8 make sense, then I have the 7300 for the human interactions?
>>2945814* I was eyeing the 991A because I could put it in the space of my current VHF/UHF FM radio which I use from time to time to hit repeaters - plus I could add VHF/UHF SSB or FT8. Maybe some meteor scatter??
>>2945808Reminds me of when Walmarts on the air was a thing.
>>2945814>>2945816Or do I go with another 7300 and revisit VHF/UHF at another time? It seems like the 7300 is superior to the 991A in terms of HF and the 7300 is cheaper ....
>>2945910>do I go with another 7300MK2 will arrive soon and the plain 7300 will fall in price.https://www.icomjapan.com/news/4411/
>>2945985I saw that today! Plus dual COM ports!Hopefully my idea overarching idea made sense. I've been chasing the following DX stations for a few days while trying to work them in all modes and on all bands, and am beat hunting on just one radio. I could add some SDR receivers, but swapping from FT8 to CW or SSB is getting old. I'd much rather run 2 radios on the same PC. Throwing in upgrading to also do SSB VHF seems like a no-brainer which makes me lean towards the 991A.>E44OM>FP5KE>PJ7K>OJ0YL>VK9/SP9FIH
>>2945989>I saw that today! Plus dual COM ports!Use of modern interfaces was way overdue. Yaesu was roundly criticized for using ancient graphics ports. This is 2025, USB is where it is at.So they need a major refresh on their line, like 991B, FTDX-10A etc. And hopefully a FTDX-9000F.
