Ham Radio

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/20077977

What cool stuff is going on with IP over ham radio? I want to build simple services accessible to other hams in my area, and would love to learn about what's out there.

• New Packet Radio: This looks pretty cool, although until the FCC makes a decision on updated VHF/UHF bandwidth and symbol rate restrictions, I'll hold off on buying any dedicated hardware

• Broadband HamNet: I'm not sure if there's any existing network in my area. Since it's 802.11 with yagis and amplifiers, I feel like you'd need a good density of local users for anything cool to develop.

• AX.25 with TCP/IP: I might play around with this. It doesn't require equipment except a UHF/VHF radio, antenna, and a computer, so it might be easier to convince others to try it too. Obviously you're very limited in bitrate, but it would be fun to set up a gohper hole or a BBS.

Are there other technologies or projects worth looking into? Even though I'm not personally interested in buying new equipment for it, I'd still like to hear what's out there.

Right, so this is the situation: I still haven't obtained my license here in Brazil, but I already have a Baofeng DR-1801 HT that can connect to dmr networks. Therefore I haven't transmitted yet. But I'd like to clarify some doubts:

• When I get my license, even in C-class in Brazil, I will be allowed access to some frequencies in 40-10m bands. Should I get a low power QRP transceiver (e.g. uSDX) or go for an used rig from known brands?
• It's almost impossible to find a transceiver project with a power rating greater than 10w. What would be the difficulty of, say, copylefting the schematics of an ft-7b?
• Can I really use a wire thrown over my house (of course, with baluns and stuff) as a monopole antenna or that's just myth?

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/14642252

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/14642244

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/14642241

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/14642231

cross-posted from: https://real.lemmy.fan/post/2770288

They need help scanning twenty more pallets of stuff.

Simple question that for some reason is difficult to find an answer to

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/9321551

I'm really intrigued by digital modes. Stuff like JS8Call seems really cool, and I want to get into it.

I don't have any HF equipment. SSB isn't very interesting to me, so I was thinking of getting a digital-only transceiver and saving some money. I think it would be cool to take a small QRP box with a laptop or raspi, and do digital mode Pota with it.

I've seen the QDX which looks exactly like what I want and seems to get good reviews. Any others that I should be aware of?

Granted, I'm new to ham, but I haven't seen a DIY j-pole like this with an element in the middle tuned for a different band. All the diagrams I've seen show that the 1/4 wave element (the parasitic element?) is supposed to cancel out the bottom part of the 3/4 wave (driven?) element.

At first I thought the 70cm band element was just for running a second coax connection that you'd swap between, but it has no connections. Furthermore, my reading on j poles says that they're supposed to be sensitive to metallic stuff around them, so an extra element would seem to interfere.

Heard this sound at about 1200 kHz AM using an analog consumer radio in eastern Czech Republic. (Could be a superheterodyne mirror from another band, though.) What is this? I don't have an SDR or other ham equipment, this is just a mic recording.

I thought it could be useful to drive mice out of a garden shack but it was gone the next day.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/7646743

I'm just getting into ham (my technician exam is tomorrow night), and I'm looking for ideas on starter kit.

For now, my interest is in making contact with a friend who lives ~10 miles away, as well as other amateurs in the county (there's a repeater ~2 miles away). This friend needs to reapply for his license, but he has a mobile 2m/70cm transceiver from his old call sign. Eventually, we'd like to get into digital communication between our houses.

Even further down the line, I think long distance HF sounds cool, but that looks like a money pit I'm not quite ready to dig just yet.

I don't want to set up any crazy antennas just yet, as partner and I are house hunting. This also means we could end up more like 15 miles from my friend, depending on what we find.

I was wondering if anyone here could suggest beginner's equipment for my goals. I'm ok to spend a bit more on systems that are still useful if my interest in ham expands beyond these initial requirements.

This is at least apparent for what I'm observing in my country on the Southern tip of Africa. The reason seems to be that VarAC provides most of the functions that JS8Call already provides (apart from the open source), and then provides a lot of usability improvements as well as transmitting images, documents, faster speed, VMails, etc.

I've been getting up to speed with it the last two days, and am really enjoying using it. I've documenting what it is about, how it compares with JS8Call, and some tips I've been learning, at the web page I've linked to in this post.

See my experiences to date at https://gadgeteer.co.za/hamradio/varac-p2p-digital-mode-chatting-application/

Found this to be a pretty neat visualization. I'm horrid at morse but this visual representation helps an awful lot.

Is there a portable civilian device that allows for short to medium range (10 miles or so) that would allow for 128 or 256 bit encrypted data bursts, and if so, what level certification would one need to go about for using it legally in the US? I’m imagining a data burst to convey less than 1 MB of data with an accompanying bit total that could then be “delivery confirmed” by a return message with that bit total. Bonus points if it could play nicely with a Disco32 Discus.

I know it wouldn’t fool a foxhunt, but was curious if such a thing exists and if so, what’s the entry cost in money and time?

I'm not usually one to repost/post memes...but its almost believable

I can’t hit the local analog repeaters without using the higher power on my HTX242 (yeah it’s old but it’s what I got), the HT I have is DMR (and analog) but I would like to use low power DMR to make the battery last longer. I want to do something like this (see pic). Anyone done something similar?

Note I already have moded the HTX for COS output and made a control interface using a ESP32, I also have a Pi-star hotspot that I could repurpose until I can get another.

I'm going to try building a couple of pvc/measuring tape Yagis, one for 2m and one for 70cm. I have a basic understanding that the satellite (going to try ISS voice first) will be at a certain compass direction and angle above horizon. I think my main question is the beacon. I tune to the beacon signal and start hunting for the satellite, what am I listening for? Any particular Homer advice?

The window is being opened for new Community Radio stations. While this is not our amateur radio, it should overlap interest-wise. Post on mastodon with link https://mastodon.radio/@[email protected]/110645699222089850

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/1519718

Went out to Cherry Creek State Park (K-1213) with a buddy and played radio. I took my buddipole but couldn’t get it to tune up because I forgot to charge my VNA. Luckily I brought an EFHW that I strung up to the buddipole’s tripod.

I only worked 10 contacts in 4 hours. 8 SSB and 2 CW, but it was fun. I forgot how awesome operating from a park is, and I want to get back into POTA!

Rig: IC-705 Antenna: 80-10m EFHW Power: 9ah Bioenno battery

Hello everyone.

I recently learned on this very community about SOTA and immediately fell in love with the concept because it combined my two favorite things: hiking and technology/radio. Problem is, I don't actuatlly have any formal knowledge or qualification, but I would very much like to start learning.

I don't know the exact laws about ham radio in my country (Romania) but I will look them up if that helps.

Thank you in advance for anything.

If it’s not too muddy, I plan on going out to a nearby park and operating portable on emergency power by myself or maybe with a buddy. If it is muddy, I’ll try setting up in my backyard. I’m hoping to get a lot of good CW practice in!

What is everyone else doing?

One of my favorite podcasts had an episode on ham radio, and I thought you all might find it interesting.

KN6QQW put together a great slideshow from the Net Control trailer at the 2023 Mountains 2 Beach Marathon in Ventura County earlier this year, and it's on Conejo Valley Amateur Radio Club's Youtube channel now. Take a look!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGeXIR1h8U4

(Yes I know the photo has my coords and grid, but at that scale I'm not concerned)

Got it up and running this weekend but didn't have the mounting hardware until this morning. Just now got it mounted and am loving it!

It's highly customizable and each of those windows you see can display quite a few different things.

Anyone have recommendations on how to hide the power & HDMI cable?

These days there are lots of web-connected software defined radio receivers around the world. Back in 1995 I built a web-controlled shortwave radio web site using my Drake R8, a SoundBlaster sound card and NetBSD Unix. You can still see what it looked like with the Wayback Machine, https://web.archive.org/web/19970507174555/http://www.chilton.com/scripts/radio/R8-receiver

A few years ago I finally got around to learning enough JavaScript and Python to make an interactive HTML5 page with streaming audio. I think it turned out pretty nice. The controls mimic the functions of the R8 pretty closely with a few changes for simpler operation. Works with most web browsers (though not iOS/Safari which, for some reason, doesn’t support the HTML5 “mediaSource” type I use for decompressing the audio stream.)

Check out my HDR (hardware defined radio) at https://www.chilton.com/R8/receiver.html

If anyone would like to join an amateur radio lemmy instance or post to an amateur radio specific community, https://lemmy.radio has been set up.