My son and I made a quick run to the Puget Sound seaside to take advantage of the 20 meter band this morning. Sitting here in Seattle we made a contact in the Czech Republic using less power than you'd use to light a lightbulb. #hamradio#amateurradio#ft8
This weekend’s data mode station setup is too big. It’s portable, but too big. Am looking at the QCX transceiver, a small ATU, and a slightly smaller design for my modular T2LT vertical dipole system. Raspberry Pi can replace the Windows laptop I hope. #HamRadio
For all #WSPR operators in the Midwest, keep an ear out for DL0WH on 40m. @quantensalat is a physics teacher who built a WSPR station with his class. It would be so awesome for the kids to hear reception reports from real live people.
Tune to 40m overnight, and let’s see if we can give them reports!
I got some Onn brand walkie talkies intending to use them in the mountains (which we did!). I'm learning all about how they work, including the privacy codes. Now I'm falling down the rabbit hole of #FRS (low power walkies like the ones I have) and #GMRS, and #CB and #HamRadio are on my radar now...
After some modification to the amplifier, the oscillation has been suppressed enough. The dipole had to be shortened 15% or so due to the proximity to ground and buildings but no matter, the system works.
We got immediate spots in Great Britain on our first transmission cycle - in broad daylight @ 40m using our club call sign.
The dipole has a metal facade directly to the east, which might explain the directionality of the spots #physics
For any #blind#HamRadio operators needing some more detailed steps for assembling the standard Alpha loop, here's my attempt to provide more useful instructions than what are available from Alpha Antenna's website.
Everyone on our ham radio net is discussing the performance (or non-performance) of solar inverters/generators/etc. during the power outages in my part of Ventura County last night. More generators/power backup among our group than the general public. #hamradio#power#grid#PSPS#wildfires#CAwx
This is the first in a series of posts discussing small #hamradio transmit antennas. I intend to add more as "answers" to this.
A "natural" length for a dipole is roughly 2 x λ/4 for a dipole or λ/4 for a vertical with λ/4 elevated radials.
Shorter than that, a tuner (or a coil or two) are needed.
There's not a clear, distinct boundary, but I think of 2 x λ/8 as border region between "getting by" and "poverty", so to speak. Still shorter I call a "too short antenna".
What #HamRadio projects/sites/services/apps would you really like to see/use? What’s missing? I’m thinking of putting my current project on hold; I’m losing my original motivation in it… and am wondering what might be useful to develop? Tell me of your needs/wishes. Must be developed as open source/community. Please boost for awareness.
Well, I received a reply to my open letter to the #ARRL. It was defensive, and said that my call for a position statement on inclusive ham radio was "political" and they would make no such statement.
I need to process and think about it before deciding what to do, but this is disheartening to say the least.
You are in a very small, very clean apartment. You see a #blind#gay man sitting at a desk. He is shirtless and wearing a pair of large cans. He is singing Ace Of Bass in very loud, very bad falsetto. No wonder he didn't hear your entrance. There's a glass of #wine at his right hand. His left is fidgeting with something. There are shelves above the desk. On the top, you see an AM-FM broadcast receiver, a small #HamRadio transceiver, a power outlet strip, and a small #audio recorder. You turn your attention to the laptop.
>> read screen
You notice a distribution of #GNU#Linux with the Mate desktop. There are three windows open. The foremost is a vlc open on a playlist. Behind this, you see two text editors and a firefox. One editor has what looks like an #introduction post for Mastodon. The other has a #DND5E character sheet, in progress. The firefox has the DND wiki. On one of two easy chairs, you see #LGBTQIA#Pride graphic tees. You realize there's nothing worth stealing, so, you quietly exit.
Hello #HamRadio folk, do any of you have any advice / horror stories about home Electric Vehicle chargers (makes/models) from an electromagnetic compatibility perspective? e.g. “my XYZ charger completely wipes out 21MHz when charging / every time I transmit with 50W on 14MHz, my car stops charging” Please boost for visibility.. Thanks!
I can say without a doubt of all technically oriented communities the HAM radio community is by far the most rude, hostile, and least educated in their field of any group.
The amount of just pure idiocy and lack of understanding of even the basics is astonishing considering this is a licensed trade.
Does anyone know of a UK-available multicore / rosin flux leader solder for #hamradio#electronics? The good old stuff, not this hard-to-use lead free type? RS list some but I couldn’t find any in stock.
Wenn ich auf der Seite vom Rundspruch Berlin-Brandenburg beim #DARC lese, dass "sogennantes Gendern" in eingereichten Beiträgen als politisches Statement gesehen und daher "korrigiert" wird, möchte ich ja gerne sehr laut und deutlich fragen, warum sich da noch irgendjemand wundert, dass junge und weibliche Menschen dem Hobby #Amateurfunk (und denen, die es betreiben) skeptisch gegenüberstehen. #hamradio
Anyone know roughly how far a UHF (440) signal can travel, 40W of power, end-fed half-wave vertical mounted above the metal roof of a 1-story house? We're on the city limits so there's not much obstruction.
I'm not looking for exact answers, I'm just trying to calculate if 40-50 watts of power is enough to reach the neighboring (30 miles) city.
For bonus points: assume I'm on a 5W HT. You think there's enough rx gain to even hear an HT 30 miles away? Or would I have to bounce through the 50W tx in my car as an amplifier to even try that.
Hmm... need to build myself (another) standing table + ham radio rack, and just realized this might be an opportunity to use the Ikea LACK table/19 inch rack 🤔 (instead of raw lumber and building essentially same thing) -- will bolt a couple to the top of a desk, after cutting the legs down to preferred size. #hamradio#rack
ARDC is making everyone using their address space to renumber into a single /16, presumably so they can continue to sell off chunks of 44 net address space.
Anyways, I'm working to wind down a whole bunch of my #hamradio network services soon.
Aha, my friend @W2AYZ sent me a photo of his ham radio bicycle trailer, full mobile radio with antenna mounted in a bicycle trailer (with batteries) -- contemplating my own setup, just because... #hamradio#BikeTooter