Extra Very Lazy Edition: Previous Thread: >>2987813>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 archived wikihttps://archive.is/PjR5s>NEW FAQ is updated to preview 15https://files.catbox.moe/aftx43.htm>Coil-Shortened Dipole Antenna Calculatorhttps://www.66pacific.com/calculators/coil-shortened-dipole-antenna-calculator.aspx>Idiot's Guide to Coax Cablehttps://www.pcs-electronics.com/guide_coax.php>Looking for frequencies to monitor near you?http://www.radioreference.com>Random Wireshttps://udel.edu/~mm/ham/randomWire/>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/https://www.ham-stream.com/>Space Weatherhttps://www.swpc.noaa.gov/communities/radio-communicationshttps://www.solarham.com/>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/>WSJT-X Home Pagehttps://wsjt.sourceforge.io/wsjtx.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/>how do I into Morse code in a good way?https://pastebin.com/HByjfN4F>Shortwave radio schedulehttps://shortwave.live/
>>3005918
>another thread later>still giving money to the antenna jews
>>3005923When I worked at a railroad I bought a Baofeng and programmed it because I was tired of always lending my work radio out to other people and never getting it back.
>300+ dead, thousands missing from tbe recent deluge. We need supplies badly in N->CQ POTA CQ POTA
how viable are solar+battery powered only wifi repeaters and other types? how illegal would it be to construct a tower in the middle of nowhere hill just above the treeline?i live surrounded by hills from all sides
>>3005923missing the very first square:are you a redditor: yes -> look smugly at this chart and chuckle to yourself about how clever and witty it is
>>3005981Towers are pretty heavily regulated. If it's high enough a plane could crash into it, it needs actual engineering plans on file with the FCC, among other requirements.>>3005986Sounds like you should study it a little closer.
first time into australia on any band ft8 on 40mshould we expect a signal boost in winter time here in europe for dx and by how much if so?it must be the antenna height because everything else is pretty much a compromise.its covered by a roof, its bent, there are plenty of metal objects around, another building on the other side of the wall and in the middle of a city with plenty of qrm.i've noticed on some bands that i tend to transmit a little bit better than receiving but that really depends on band and noise level. everything is far from ideal but at least the height is about 12 m up.i'm also getting out on voice up to about 600 km but the signal is weak with only 20w considering all the qrm everyone has it may be wiser to do 100w instead but then i would mess with my neighbors electronics much more. such is life i suppose. can't have everything. but ft8 and js8 is more than enough for pretty reliable comms.
73's swollen ostrich!
>>3005923I do what I want.
>>3005981There is a slow but steady stream of such repeaters being discovered and taken down.
>>3006146How would you make a fully legally compliant wifi repeater? Is there some sort of automatic power reduction firmware to not interfere with other comms?
>>3006148First get permission from the land owner fo ruse of the land and the use of a tiny shack. Then get the local /ham/ society into the project for the legal stuff. Make sure the shack looks uninviting, e.g. make it look agricultural related and spread manure around the place.
>so many natural disasters and crises>so many ARES members getting in the way just to make themselves feel relevant
>>3006148more of a combination of two point-to-point links
>>3006149A shack? I was thinking just strapping a waterproof 20L box to a tree. On your own property. But I don’t really know how big it would need to be.
the chad scanner.
>>3006168It's be funny if this actually worked.
>>3006164You will need - a pair of transceivers - a rather voluminous filter to get the relay to work at all - cabling, should not be underestimated, along with the tendency to turn into a rat's nest. - batteries that will withstand a few days without sunshine - charge controllers / BMS - solar panels with supports that will survive strong winds - optionally a small wind turbine - a computer/controller to monitor and control the system along with sensors (temperature, humidity...) - fuse box - optionally a small camera - attachments for antennas that will survive strong winds
>>3006266it does work. though I since got proper cabling. but I don't actually use 3 at once.
i'd use some help identifying what seems to be an antenna.found a roll of wire of unknown length but estimated at around 40 or 60 meter. more like 40.it has two wires. one looks thicker than the other.on one end there is an unidentified 5-pin connector. the pins are laid out like a U.two of the wires go to one wire and two others opposite to the first two go to the other wire.the 5th wire in between and offset seems to go nowhere.at the other end of the wires is a sort of shorting device with a pair of joined pins. one pin is thicker than the other just like the wires.with these pins inserted into the shorting terminal, they connect the two wires.the color is darker green, looks like military gear. nice plastic on the roll, hard but with very slight flex if bent but looks like good quality.i'm thinking its some wire antenna or a part of a bigger antenna setup maybe dipole with one leg missing.anyways i put it up as a horizontal loop with many parts which sag because i could not fit it otherwise. its connected to a fan dipole and i seem to get better gain on 40m. however conditions seem to be pretty good right now so i need to test it with worse conditions.any ideas?
>>3006507Photos or drawings.
>buy my first shortwave radio>start fiddling with knobs and buttons >morse code>sermons>weird sci-fi bullshit noises>cubans>conspiracy bent news>house music>alternative medicine>whiskey tango foxtrot>good ol boys talking about tractors, concrete and their radio specs>fishing spots>blues music>bunch of news from mexico, western africa, turkey, china, romania and spain>your standard 4 white dude roundtable podcast about nothing in particular
>>3006797Nice. Out of all that, what's your favourite?
>>3006834Good ol boys by a country mile. Just honest casual salt of the earth boomer chit chat. Finding random music broadcasts is also pretty exciting even if it's just muffled fuzz garbage. Might sample some of the sci-fi bullshit at a later date.
Anyone ever hear of UFO Joe? Dude likes his banjo.
So is WRMI the go to for regular shows and decent signal strength in North America?
You will never be a true ham radio operator until you make a dipole that is resonate on the 2200m band.
>>3006848Always a bonus when you find the right music. Condx are good for me tonight. I've been trying to hear an Aussie LF station but instead I discovered a classic rock station on the AM BCB located in Juneau, Alaska coming in crystal clear. A rare find for me.>>3006884Probably. I believe they are the only SW broadcaster on conus.I wish I could hear Channel-292 where i'm at.
Another R-390 up for sale around here, I am considering pulling the trigger. Anyone here got one or got experience with one?
last week i realized the potential of loops.namely 2x wavelength loop.but how would you fit a 2x loop for 40m in your attic? by zig-zaging the wire. so basically, a 40m antenna with a lower take off angle (due to having more pronounced lobes due to being 2x wavelength) and the zig-zaging does not seem to be much of a problem considering the angle and the otherwise low height for a 1x loop.so with loops, if you dont have the height, it makes sense to make it twice as much in circumference.according to nec simu, you would need more wire though. (about 30% more wire)
>>3007470and the size of this thing is pretty much half the size of a full 80m loop. size is obviously the main deal-breaker when it comes to antennas and this seems to solve that.i'm planning to put it at about 12m height inside an attic and the width of any side can not be longer than about 10m. will test as soon as i get the speaker wire shipment.
>>3007470sorry i was not clear.basically instead of struggling with space to put a 80m loop to operate on 40m (double wavelength loop for 40m)you zig-zag the elements and reduce the sides by about 50%. the zig-zagging is vertical and i only tested a 90degree angle bends for the zig-zag. (like a bunch of rectangles)you could probably make the zig-zags like a bunch of triangles but then the loop would need to be bigger but i didn't model this.double wavelength loops are described on multiple sites as well as zig-zag antennas so this just combines both to make a compact antenna.
>>3007470I know a couple of guys who use full-wave loops but not doubles. If you experiment with this you gotta report back because i'm curious about the results.>>3007436I have a personal rule where I won't buy anything old I can't fix. Because chances are there isn't anyone close who can restore it. Those things are big and heavy thus expensive to ship. I've read how to align it and it's quite an elaborate procedure. The good thing is there is plenty of documentation online so no shortage of info. That said, if the price was right (cheap), and it's in excellent shape... you'd have a classic radio. Now if it was an R-389 i'd be seriously tempted.
>>3006916Another night of great conditions if you were on the Pacific rim. Spent time between 06:00 - 10:00 UTC checking the LF/VLF bands searching for some elusive stations. Heard beacon "ALJ" loud and clear with S3 signals on 233 kHz. Looked it up assuming it to be a local and was surprised to see this is a 50 watt beacon out of Australia 12,753 km away! The beacon was way louder than the 100 watt & 500 watt beacons in my region by a wide margin. I think this is my best NDB DX catch to date.
>>3007476still waiting for speaker wire here.in general, i find 2x (or more) wavelength antennas very interesting because they give you lobes and nulls and the higher in frequency you go on the same antenna, the more dramatic this effect becomes.also, feels like receive is less noisy at double the fundamental frequency assuming antenna is fit for whatever fundamental frequency that happens to be.i've put up a few wire antennas and i noticed that i had a lot of noise on antennas on the frequency they were cut for.( say 20m dipole for 20m)then i read a faceberg post that suggested using 2x wavelength loop to also reduce noise.
>>3007476>I have a personal rule where I won't buy anything old I can't fix.I agree and I have a lot of investment in equipment in front of me.>Because chances are there isn't anyone close who can restore it.Also true. This model seems to be in need of some adjustments, the seller is a little vague, so there is a risk.>Those things are big and heavy thus expensive to ship.About 40 kg, yes. In this case it is within reasonable driving range.>I've read how to align it and it's quite an elaborate procedure. The good thing is there is plenty of documentation online so no shortage of info.In my experience, when people make things seem easy it does not mean what they do is easy, just that they are highly experienced. I have collected a lot of info but the task is demanding. It looks like they let watchmakers in on the project. It is strange they didn't make a R-390B with servo control or stepper motors rather than all that mechanics. >That said, if the price was right (cheap), and it's in excellent shape... you'd have a classic radio.It is cheap, but seems to fall short of being in excellent shape.>Now if it was an R-389 i'd be seriously tempted.I might not resist that one, or the R-725.
>>3007614Pure speculation on my part but I wonder if motor-drives were not incorporated into its design because they would emit noise?>R-725I had to look this up and i'm surprised i've never heard of it. I like to follow ASA and NSG related history stuff and I don't recall seeing this one mentioned. Interesting.
>>3007622Motor drives were already part of R-391 and R-391A, and is in any case just needed when re-tuning.
>>3005993downvote
>>3006884>>3006916and WWCR
>>3006890That's easy. The hard part is that it needs to be 1/4 wave above the ground at least at the feed point.I guess drag it into the air with a big ass drone
My TV antenna mounted on bamboo was pulling jack shit as far as FM radio stations go. So I tilted it around and I can kinda hear some stuff again. It's time for me to get my shit together though. Great SDR + terrible antenna is not the winning move.
>>3005918I have a ubiquiti J arm that needs to go up, but I read that I need to ground it?? I'm not an electrician. It's only going like 6 feet up from the side of the house for a starlink dish.
>>3007695Check your regions' electrical code. It could be for lightning reasons, and/or maybe because power is being applied to the dish.
>>3007695This is because of reasons you don't have to worry about.Basically up until like 10 years ago, anything someone was mounting to a roof connected to a coax cable going down into the house, so the metal antenna arm and antenna parts and all thst connected directly to the shield of the coax which is exposed metal om each end, and that connected to your TV or something eventually which was not grounded, so now if it gets hit by lightning it would kill your family and burn down your house or something. So grounding was required.Not a. Thing with starlink or anything ethernet/poe powered.
>>3007787The starlink documentation states that it is NEC compliant and doesn't need grounding.I don't know what a building inspector or an insurance adjuster would say though.
if i want to get into SWL for cheap, would it be better to get a standalone chinese portable radio or a USB SDR dongle? and what is the best way of getting a callsign just for listening? i've seen a few sites where they issue one for free but i'm not comfortable providing the personal information they require, so i was wondering if i should get a normal license even if i don't intend to transmit. i'm mainly interested in collecting QSL cards.
>>3007944>if i want to get into SWL for cheap, would it be better to get a standalone chinese portable radio or a USB SDR dongle?Get a RTL-SDR, it is super cheap and can also cover a far wider frequency band, can even be used for hobby radio astronomy. >and what is the best way of getting a callsign just for listening?You need no callsign or license (in all countries I am familiar with) for listening only. For transmitting you need a license.>i've seen a few sites where they issue one for free but i'm not comfortable providing the personal information they require, so i was wondering if i should get a normal license even if i don't intend to transmit. i'm mainly interested in collecting QSL cards.You can get a QSL card without a license, for receiving some of the broadcasting stations. More info on the FAQ and alsohttps://swling.com/blog/
I’ve got a TV inside a shop I work at, and the iron roof is blocking reception badly. It’s UHF 520-620MHz, would a magnetic antenna of some sort be likely to give me better reception, like a magloop in your attic? I assume a purely magnetic field receiving antenna only works like this if the wavelength is significantly greater than the size of the obstruction. Also since the electric field is horizontally polarised, the magnetic field will be vertical, which seems like it would be shielded by the iron roof even more effectively than a wavelength-matched antenna like a dipole. Would an electric field antenna work better? Can you even make an electric field antenna that has a large collecting area?
>>3007966>magloop in your attic?Simplest and cheapest solution is to draw a coax from the TV to an antenna (like a dipole) placed somewhere above the metal roof. A good antenna inside will be better than nothing but still probably bad.Metal shielding will attenuate EM waves, both electric and magnetic field, pretty strongly.
thank you, i was under the impression that i needed a callsign to receive QSL cards. are the antennas included in cheap RTL-SDR kits good enough to start? i've read mixed opinions on that
>>3008067this was meant for this>>3007946
>>3008068>are the antennas included in cheap RTL-SDR kits good enough to start?They are good enough for FM but not for SWL unless the station is close. A 10 m long wire antenna will be fine.
>>3005993you're dumb
>>3005918anyone here play around with meshtastic?im in north jersey,my id:!f68e271chit me up if your ableand does /diy/ have meshtatic threads of themselves?i enjoy not needing a "loicense for that"
>>3008197Last thread there was some discussion, it seems like Meshtastic use is dropping off in favour of Meshcore, possibly Reticulum too. You can look up online maps for these services to see how many nodes are in your area.
>>3008240Probably because you can actually hold a coherent long-distance conversation over MC unlike MT
>>3008276you have uhf, vhf and cb for that.i've used js8 on 11m it works very well.i read in previous thread that meshtastic was not scaling very well and meshcore was better.https://hackaday.com/2025/10/09/meshtastic-a-tale-of-two-cities/however. the real king is 40m nvis links.i'm sure you and a fren could try out some shit without being licensed on 40m or just below at 6980 khz or just above 7200 khz.if you are not a total faggot with spurious emissions and if you dont cause any problems, you can be unlicensed.i know guys who operate on hf here in europe and they are courteous and do not cause trouble, well they have operated for 30 years or more.
Is there a future for shortwave? I love it but it's hard not to blackpill hearing boomers talk about how much there was going on in the 50s-80s compared to now.
>>3008340use it or lose it.the hf bands are somewhat threatened by wall street jews who want to trade over it.dont let them.
>>3008340also, i'm pretty sure as the internet closes down more and more, hf will become more attractive for young people to experiment with. it is after all more than 9000 times cooler, 9000 times more autonomous and 9000 times more fun.also, since it is 9000 times slower than internet it will keep away all the hyperactive adhd retards who need instant gratification thus making it a good place for comms not polluted by crap.licensing is a good way to gatekeep but if you are careful enough, there are things you can do without a license on the same bands or outside. just dont use someone else's callsign and you should be fine.usurping someones callsign is a more serious offense than making one up yourself.in reality, a license is not a bad thing. it keeps out the most retarded guys.and those who operate without it for any length of time tend to take their own precautions and they try not to step on anyone's toes and they do it intelligently.
>>3008334>https://hackaday.com/2025/10/09/meshtastic-a-tale-of-two-cities/Some important updates:https://hackaday.com/2026/09/17/fcc-ism-rules-may-shatter-lora-mesh-communities/
>meshtastic>meshcore
>>3008604They’re saying that the minimum bandwidth is for the purpose of spreading your transmit energy out more, and so being less able to cause interference. Shouldn’t it instead be a spectral density limit? As in, a maximum amount of watts per kHz of bandwidth? A 500kHz 0dB signal is going to be much worse for interference than a 250kHz -10dB signal, in my estimation. And maybe the duration spent at that frequency matters, in a millisecond a LoRa chirp might look like a narrowband transmission, but across ten seconds it looks like a smooth spread across a wide range of frequencies. So I think the LoRa guys in the USA should rile up a bunch of the American companies that sell and use the technology to demand a clarification from the FCC.
