CQ Amateur (ham) Radio Thread

>>1079250
Do you have any recommended books or websites for a novice? Im a trades electrical engineering student so I have a basic understanding of electricity if that will help.

>>1079250
Hi I'm very very VERY new to radios but I have recently purchased a couple of hang held 5w uhf radios. How difficult would it be for me to increase the range of these devices? They have stubby antennas but i can't seem to find anything more powerful.

How expensive would it be to get into CB?

Additionally, have you looked into amateur fm radio? I've been wanting to get into that forever

>>1079264
If you want to study for the purposes of passing the licensing exam, I suggest you use the ARRL handbook. It is going to contain everything you need. I also highly highly recommend you use the free exam banks online. They contain every possible question you could be asked.

>>1079265
You probably don't want much more than that in a handheld anyway. It's right against your skull after all.
If you can remove the rubber duck antennas , ie if they're removable, you should look at buying another antenna. Check the frequency you want to operate on and look for antennas for that band. They'll be bigger but m7ch much more effective. A rubber duck antenna as the type found on most baofengs and walkie talkies is basically a resistor.

>>1079267
Most hf rigs can use frequency modulation. Fm is less suitable for weak signal reception because it requires a good pll for demodulation so most people who use Fm use it on 2 meters, for local communications through repeaters. For long distance, most people use single sideband , which is AM with one side band and the carrier suppressed.

>>1079267
As for cb, you can get a base station radio very cheaply from any truck stop. The problem with cb in my opinion is that it is mostly used by truckers so it's a very specific thing. If you have friends who also have them then rock on, but keep in mind that with the sun cycle where it is, and solar activity at an unprecedented low at the moment, you're going to mostly be operating line of sight or perhaps a bit more. You won't be going hundreds of kilometres (usually, it happens though) just because cb is all within a frequency band that soars when the sun is busy.

Our sun is seemingly dying or something. Most people have migrated to the longer wavelengths that cb doestl not cover.

>>1079250
Nice one mate I'm a new ham, got my foundation license the other week and have had an FT-450D with a half size G5RV for a few weeks.

Great fun, I'm awkward as fuck talking to people but improving.

Don't have an ATU yet, using the internal one which will only tune up to 3:1 SWR. Weird thing is my antenna is supposed to be resonant on 10 metres yet the only bands I can tune to with the internal ATU are 20 metres and 6. 20 metres is perfect though as it's the most popular band.
>>1079265
Look up tape measure yagis, they're cheap to make and will make a massive difference. Yagis are directional antennas, the TV one on your roof is a yagi.
>>1079267
CB is basically dead and not great anyway m8. If you're interested in propagation, electronics, astronomy etc you want amateur radio.
>amateur fm radio
Not quite sure what you mean. Do you just mean amateur radio?

>>1079390
Nice, if you can fit a half sized g5rv then you can easily manage a lot of good antenna designs.

I have a Buddistick short vertical that I use for digital on 20 metres when travelling, and I just finished making a 1.6 metre diameter copper magnetic loop antenna. I adore magloops. Very quiet on receive, good immunity to local E-fields, and just a beautiful look to them. I'm going to set up stepper motor to turn the capacitor shaft so I can tune it from my radio while it is mounted elsewhere. Tuning is the primary annoyance with loops. Very sharp bandwidth.

I are it you're in the UK? I live on the Atlantic coast of Canada and really love talking with British operators. Lots of them operate on digital modes around 14.07015 MHZ. If you're an Australian, sorry, but sadly I've never contacted one. Not even my wspr weak signal autobeacon has managed to hear or be heard down there.

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What do you need to start receiving and sending signals legally?

Equipment category
License required
Guides to build said equipment
Rough walkthrough of how it operates

!!
Thank you, if you find my question pleasant enough to answer. I'm typing on an Android phone so it's a little choppy.

I'm not really into typing.
Fuck words.

>>1079396
Yeah England m8, not going to say my callsign, not even on QRZ though so it wouldn't matter. Don't really like the idea of having my name and address on QRZ even though it's a friendly community.

Propagation has been shit for me recently so I've heard very little North American stations, I need to stay up later and have a listen on 40 metres, but as I mentioned, no ATU and it doesn't always tune to 40, sometimes it will.

I'd love to get into digital modes. I'm using an audio cable from the headphone socket to decode RRTY, PSK and SSTV but there's a lot of noise and I get a lot of gobbldegook I think due to my soundcard, even though it's a good one. I'll have to get a signalink USB at some point, they look decent.

As I'm only an M6 foundation license I'm restricted to 10 watts so I'm not even sure if I could reach NA on SSB desu, digital modes 10 watts is loads though.
>>1079397
You can receive without a license. You can buy an amateur radio transceiver and just listen no problems, it's what I and many people did.
Where do you live?
I wouldn't build if you're starting out, depending on your license you might not be allowed to.
Look online, get license books, youtube is fantastic and has LOADS of amateur radio videos.

>>1079250
1. Why is all the fun shit illegal? Why can't I say nigger on amateur radio without the FCC getting bootybothered? Why can't I play music? Why can't I use encryption? What's the point of getting a license if all you can do is talk to old faggots about the weather and their antennas?

2. Related to the first point, how likely is it that I'd be fined for fucking around and doing whatever I want at low power (<10W) with no license? I want to get into radio but the rules are gay as hell so I'm not going to follow them. If that's going to pose a legitimate risk to my wallet then I'll just fuck around in the ISM bands instead.

>>1079400
Because you share the radio spectrum with various people and shouldn't act like a child

>>1079401
You say as you post on an anonymous imageboard with millions of other people, who regularly act like children. If 4chan can work than unregulated radio could work.

>>1079403
There is unregulated radio, it's called CB, go play there.

>>1079404
I want to fuck around with packet radio though, and packet over CB is illegal too. That's what I'm getting at. Every fun option is banned, so why not just disregard the rules? Which is why I'm asking if the rules are actually enforced or not.

>>1079407
Why don't you just get a license it isn't difficult.

>>1079408
Because even with a license, the fun stuff is still illegal. I want to be able to say nigger and faggot over an encrypted channel without having to identify myself.

>>1079410
Then get a license in the VHF business band.
Or once again, do it on CB where enforcement has never existed.

>>1079439
>where enforcement has never existed.
That's what I wanted to know, thanks.

>>1079407
>I want to fuck around with packet radio though
>>1079410
>Because even with a license, the fun stuff is still illegal. I want to be able to say nigger and faggot over an encrypted channel without having to identify myself.

You can verbally shit yourself on an encrypted channel with packet radio. It's called WiFi, you might very well be using it right now and if not, you've done it in the past. Same with something like LTE, CDMA, etc.

If you're actually interested in that stuff at a low level, and want to learn more, experiment, and build your own equipment, the amateur bands are a great place for that. If you can't deal with the rules, don't do the radio equivalent of shitposting (shitcasting?) on the ham bands. Either don't bother getting licensed, or just save it for the Internet. Those of us who are actually interested in radio don't feel like listening to it.

And yes, I feel similarly about people who go into long diatribes about their disgusting and bewildering health issues on the air...

>>1079587
OR just go to 14.313, 7.200, or the entirety of 75 metre phone and shit cast all day and all night. I've actually had a QSO with ve7kfm and he was very polite. He is Canada's most famous amateur radio shit caster.

>>1079407
The rules of amateur radio are nominally enforced to some degree. More importantly, they are self policing. You will quickly find that you have made yourself a dhalit pariah on the bands if you do not adhere to the obvious rules.

This weekend I'm working on connecting a stepper motor and motor controller to my magnetic loop antenna. That way I can tune around the bands from inside my house rather than running back and forth with an antenna analyser. It's going to be so fly and so chill. Next step is to build a cheap field strength detector and feed it through an adc into a microcontroller so I can make the tuning process fully automated for maximum field strength.

Somewhat related, so I'll ask here as well...
I need a new antenna for my CB. Looking for something with a suction cup/magnet base to mount on my car. Recommendations?

Also looking for a handheld Am/Fm/Cb/Wx radio. Recommendations on that as well.

>>1079771
Also, I haven't been able to find anything on neighborhood band in the past year. Last I read it was unregulated, but the page I saw on the FCC page is now missing.

>>1079403
Except 4chan doesn't come into your house unless you ask it to.

>>1079799
I never asked for this...

M3 here (UK), can I feed my g5rv with 75ohm coax? I'm looking to work 40/80m

Anyone else documenting incidents reported over the Police frequencies? I'm keeping a record of incidents reported over LEO frequencies - just started today. I've already got 2 medical emergencies and an act of vandalism documented...

>>1079771
Honestly don't know about CB mate, Midland do handheld CB radios, probably your best bet.

I've no idea what neighbourhood band is sorry.
>>1080105
Why 75 ohm? 50 is the standard and is what nearly all rigs require.

I'm an M6 though so not the best to ask however I think you could do 75 ohm to an ATU then a 50 ohm patch lead to your rig. I know you can actually do ladder line straight to your ATU.

You want low loss but not absurdly expensive so I'd recommend something like RG213 50 ohm coax.

My half size G5RV has 450ohm ladder line going into a balun type thing going into 50ohm coax.

>>1080232
Neighborhood band was a low power band with about a mile transmission radius. It was aimed at neighborhoods and business that cover a couple blocks so that individuals could stay in contact. It required no license, but did require registration and I think a $15 fee

>>1080232
Midland doesn't have a current model of CB/WX+AM or FM in handheld format.

The only model they have ever made that looks good is the 75-805.

Any other suggestions?

>>1080421
When do you say AM and FM did you mean AM and FM CB or the AM and FM broadcast bands?

>>1080105
I thought that the whole point of a g5rv is to feed it with ladder line or twin lead. Doesn't it have to be a balanced fees in order for the antenna to operate as expected?

As for the impedance transformations, that doesn't matter, you can force a match, but you'll have lots of loss.

>>1080483
You can use coax for dipoles, you have the braid going one way and the core going the other

How do I make my own wire antenna? I have a BaoGeng meme radio and want to improve it's range. I know I need a length of copper wire and an sma adapter, but how would I connect the wire to the sma adapter? Just solder it together?

This is the adapter I'm looking at. Thanks I'm advance!
http://fieldcomponents.com/FC10M-FC21F-2.html?gclid=CLXuzvGolNACFYFZhgodC9QCUg

>>1080480
Meant as I said it, so the band.

>>1080483
I have a 1:1 balun on it, I know 50ohm is the usual but I have 3 200m spools of 75 just sat around

>>1079400
you should get on cb first, many more keks there

>>1079250
How do you get your neighbors to quit buying cheap shit Chinese switching power supplies? I've cleaned up my own electronics, but listening to any shortwave DX involves mainly listening to buzzing noises.

>>1080558
It's awful. I wish I could just transmit full power and fry all those shitty unshielded pieces of Chinese garbage. I use my loop antenna nulls to try to help but it is never enough.

>>1080566
Doesn't part of the FCC regulations require devices to not cause harmful interference? Party van them.

>>1079669
It seems like the cleaned up 14.313, I haven't heard any shitcasting on there in a while.

>>1080812
It is still bad, but it's easier to pick up out west. I live near the east coast so I don't hear them often. I have had a good chat with Karol KFM though. He was very polite, honestly. I was happy to have spoken to a bona fide ham celebrity.

I had anone excellent hour long QSO with an OM on the Olivia 8/250 mode yesterday. I like Olivia because it handles the bassinet qsb I run into on 40 like a dream. Also it is fairly slow at sending text, so I can type up a reply, hit send, and then go make tea or pay attention to my girlfriend while it sends for the next six minutes or so, then wait another six for their reply.

Much better than psk31. As easy as psk is to use, it has become nothing but macro users and it drives me insane.

>>1079250
How o earth do you find time. I have tried to get into it so many times but it just takes so long to do anything

>>1081128
Find the time to get licensed, or to practice the hobby?

I got my license when I was 13 years old, so I had plenty of time. Now I'm an electrical engineer, so if I were getting licensed now, it wouldn't require much more than a few days of review.

As for enjoying the hobby itself, I've an agreement with my YL that I will spend nominally one hour per day shit casting on 20 or 40 metres .

>>1079407
> worried about the legalities of shitting up 27MHz
> no fucks to give about the legalities of shitting up HF

These are the people you share your board with, majestic /diy/nosaurs.

>>1081310
Respect for the bands comes with use of the bands, it's a catch-22. In order to care about it, you have to care about it. People like your referenced poster just don't have any respect for it because they know shit all about it.

Anyone here into digital amateur radio? If so, what are your favourite modes ? Where do you hang out? Have you ever tried Feld-Hell? It is fantastic.

Do any of you happen to know how to properly attach the cord that adjusts the tuning on pic related? I'd like to get it running, but that cord has come loose. I can't seem to figure out how to thread it throught the pulleys etc properly. Heathkit GR-78

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>>1081392
Oops

>>1080502
Make a tape measure yagi then solder the coax to a jack
>>1080567
I think it's because they're Chinese shit so don't have to follow the same laws.

I've got a decent switch mode Alinco power supply for my radio and it has a frequency offset knob, if you hear interference coming from the power supply you just tweak the knob and it buggers off. It only causes noise on about 80 metres and lower for me though.

What is the general ham / CB folks opinion on SDR stuff (e.g. hackRF, RTL-SDR, Funcube)?

Never really done much HF listening, and don't have the time/ money to get properly licensed and acquire equipment, so I'm sadly just left to my cheapo SDR's and a few homemade antennas. Myself, though, I like SDR because of it's versatility. It's nice to just switch antennas, load a different program on my listening PC, and then move from HF to broadcast FM to law enforcement to aircraft ADSB then all the way up to weather satellite images and so on.

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>>1081409
It's getting more and more popular, so much so that the future HF radios are and will be just SDRs with a traditional input. See the Icom 7300.

You might want to invest time and money into amateur radio though m8, it really is very fun.

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>>1081404
>Make a tape measure yagi
I think you misunderstand. I want to make a flexible antenna that I can sew into a rugged canvas or leather jacket - an antenna that is basically just a wire with no weight-bearing structure.

Or are you saying make the tape-measure yagi and forego the PVC and tape-measures - essentially simply connecting a coax cable and cutting it to the proper length?

>>1081426
>that I can sew into a rugged canvas or leather jacket

Why? That'll be shit, just buy a cheap longer Chinese antenna, the nagoya one or w/e and go and stand on a hill.

Height means a lot for VHF and UHF,m you could shove a 2 metre antenna up your arse and it still wouldn't be great.

What are you trying to achieve exactly, why sew an antenna into a jacket?

>>1081430
>That'll be shit
Not according to the anon I quoted in the pic...

>What are you trying to achieve exactly, why sew an antenna into a jacket?
I've got the 18" Nagoya whip antenna and when I run with my husky it whips me in my armpit - I figure if I sew a wire into my Carhartt I could stop the welts and learn a thing or two about antennas along the way.

>>1081432
It'll work better than rubber duck antennas as he said, but if you want distance for VHF and UHF you need height.

Otherwise get some speaker wire or w/e, cut it to the right wavelength, solder it to the right jack and you're done.

>>1081434
>but if you want distance for VHF and UHF you need height.
Duly noted, thank you anon!

>>1081435
Doi you wear a rucksack when you go running? You could have an antenna coming out of that?

>>1081437
>Doi you wear a rucksack when you go running?
No - in summer I wear gym shorts and a sleeveless T. Winter is windbreakers and my carhartt. It's Autumn in NJ now, so I've got wind breakers and a long T for running and otherwise just a belt with a pouch full of poo-bags and a headlamp (running at night).

>>1081441
What are you using the baofeng for?

>>1081442
Like i said, we're running at night so I take the radio for emergencies and my brother's got one too. We're tuned into FRS channels for the chat band and we have the secondary band set to the local PD frequency. The idea was that it's faster than taking out your phone, hitting the call button, and waiting for the call to push through in order to call home. My dad was a CB nut back in the day so he thinks it's neat too.

I also have NOAA stations and SkyWatch stations programmed for hurricane season.

>>1081443
huh??? is this radio you carry with you hand held or something?

>>1082792
Yeah, it's a BaoFeng meme radio.

>>1081443
Even if you are reporting something, It is still very illegal to transmit on public safety channels. Don't think their Comms department won't start a foxhunt on your ass.

If your local Public safety channels are running through a truncated network, all you will be doing is creating static on the main repeater that prevents them from using the network at all.

If you're looking to increase range, don't.
FRS even on 5 (really 3) watts with a baomeme isn't likely to get noticed.
You get some range on that though, some senile old hams across the county who think they're radio police might get their depends in a bunch and start reporting interference incidents to the FCC. After a while they'll come to town and start looking if the old fuck is persistent enough.

If you are authorized to use public safety, and your comms officer finds out you are using a baomeme (which is not part 90) he may report you to the FCC, who will either ask for forfeiture of the radio, or fine you, depending on how their day is going.

This is more of an SWL question than a Ham one. I am running a Funcube Dongle Pro+ SDR attached to a simple longwire. i have been playing around with MultiPSK to decode various transmissions. Wefax comes in just fine, but for the life of me I cannot get RTTY to decode. All I ever seem to get is just a random string of characters. I have been trying with WLO at 8473 KHz, which is a known quantity. Any thoughts?

>>1083968
Have you tried changing it from LSB to USB or the other way round? I can't remember what sideband RTTY normally is, I want to say USB though as I know most digital modes are USB.

>>1083942
That's an awful lot of fear mongering for a simple "how do I make a flexible wire antenna?" question.

Your response assumes I'm calling incidents over public service frequencies, but I'm only ever calling home on FRS frequencies. I listen to the public service frequencies but I never broadcast on them.

We're not linked to any repeaters, either. Even if someone were listening to our specific FRS channel they'd have to be within just a few blocks to receive it.

FFS I just want a flexible wire antenna so the whip I have stops hitting me in the back/armpit. Why do you assume everyone is up to no good?

>>1084814
>The idea was that it's faster than taking out your phone, hitting the call button, and waiting for the call to push through in order to call home.
That doesn't sound like you're "simply listening" at all, but alright.

>>1084814
Also, I never assumed your intentions were malicious.
The only thing I assumed was your ignorance to the law.

>>1079390
>I'm awkward as fuck talking to people but improving.

This is one issue that bothers me. I'm interested in the radio side and have been for a long time. Have passed top level online practice tests. How do the likes of you handle the normie side of it?

>>1079250
L Psy Congroo

>>1080558
>I've cleaned up my own electronics
What do you mean by this?

>>1079403
>millions of other people, who regularly act like children
Some of them really are children (underage).

>>1079799
You can't hear radio stations if you don't ask your radio receiver to do so.

>>1084920
Probably fitted filtering and/or shielding.

>>1079250
>I would love to answer any questions you might have about anything radio-related, or to discuss any aspect of the hobby with interested parties.

Thanks for taking time to do this. I have simple questions: who should be an amateur radio operator? I mean, I think it's cool, but don't see why should I become one. What makes an amateur radio operator? I like communications, but my focus is my blog.

>>1084930
People who like talking on the radio without the Internet or people who like building radio stuff other than cb. There would be other reasons but those are a few that come to mind.

>>1079267
If you're talking about a low power FM commercial broadcast station, a license is nearly impossible to get from the FCC. That's why pirate radio is popular. I am also a HAM, but I also dabble in pirate radio. That's not kosher being a HAM, but if the FCC won't grant LP FM licenses....

>>1085448
In my country you can get licenses if no one else in the area has one. It's pricey unless you are rural. NZ it's legal without a license if you comply with the rules.

>>1084908
You can speak as much or as little as you want m8
>>1084930
>who should be an amateur radio operator?
Anyone that has an interest in radio, electronics, communications, astronomy, metrology etc, it's a massive hobby.
>What makes an amateur radio operator
Someone who has an amateur radio license. Someone who just uses is a scanner or listens to shortwave broadcasts or w/e is known as a shortwave listener.
>I like communications, but my focus is my blog.
What's your blog about? How is that related?

>>1079250
I study electrical engineering and like radio technology, its mostly the electronics that interest me, so I don't see the point in getting a radio and licence to talk to random people.

I did buy a cheap rtl-sdr some time ago and played with it a bit like, listening to local fm radio and receiving plane locations with adsb. I do like it but still don't see a reason to 'upgrade'.

Does anyone have a reason why ham radio is more fun? Or should I stick with the sdr.

>>1086232
Digital modes are a hoot, you meet interesting people, and there's all sorts of fun things you can do with RF.
-t. Another EE student and General class.

>>1086159
>What's your blog about?
About translating texts I find interesting and which have a Creative Commons license attached.

>How is that related?
It's communications. But I think it's not the same thing, because I wouldn't be reading my posts on the radio, like a recorded radio news section. I also had a school newspaper, but it's not radio either. Why radio, and not blogs?

>>1086284
>Why radio, and not blogs?
You're fucking weird. The interest in amateur radio is about the methods of communication and the science behind it.

Amateur radio isn't like broadcasting radio, I think you're confused.
>>1086232
>its mostly the electronics that interest me, so I don't see the point in getting a radio and licence to talk to random people
Why not, there's loads of electronics in transmitting.

Does your SDR do HF because that's where all the interesting stuff is, especially the propagation.

Just get a license it's fun.

I got licensed last summer, then upgraded to General and managed to pick up a IC-718 for a reasonable price in January along with a power supply and a used MFJ manual tuner. Haven't made any contacts yet since I've only got a matchbox and about 50 feet of wire 12 feet off the ground, and social anxiety keeps me from actually hitting transmit. I think I'd probably be better off picking up a PC control hookup and doing JT65 or something.

I'm planning on doing the Extra exam sometime next year since I'm busy with school right now. Though I did build a Pixie kit in a "survey of electronics" class I'm taking, it went together really good and I'd suggest it for anybody who wants a project to learn soldering, however be sure to use a multimeter to check your resistors, I misread two of them and had to wait on some replacements to finish the kit.

>>1086525
>The interest in amateur radio is about the methods of communication and the science behind it.
So I confirmed: I have no interest. Bye!

>>1079250

Why don't you make a proxie server that strips out all encryption (https to http) and crank out wifi on channel one at 1500 watts. Name the ssid "Hammy McHamface" so everyone in your state sees it. Hams are the primary users on that channel.

>>1087177
You don't actually have to talk to anyone, y'know.

>>1087149
Go for it and transmit mate, it's awkward at first but you get a rush from it.