Anyone HAM here? I'm think about getting my amateur radio

>>57064666
Curious who ham radio here. I dabbled in it but didn't have a definitive direction to keep me interested, so I fell out of it.

>>57064666
Well Satan, as somebody who got licensed not too long ago I may be able to answer any questions you have.

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>>57064666
hail satan

Yeah, I got my Technician class earlier this year.
I have a Baofeng (pofung) GT3-TP (1/4/8w)

I also have a Tytera MD-380 UHF DMR radio.
(havent loaded the hack firmware on it yet.. been occupied with other shit)

>>57064666

hey this has always seemed interesting to me but what is a general use case for you HAM operators?

When we were kids, my buddy and I used to fuck around with marine radios and mess with the people on public channels. Is that still viable with HAM? Is there a sparse install base of truckers or what

Why Baofeng? Why not a nice Yaesu? An FT-60R + Diamond SRH77CA will only run you $200 at the most.

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>>57065106
>>57065210

It's kind of a useless hobby.
I wanted to familiarize myself with radio for ICOE/SHTF situations.

If you're an outdoorsman, you can have some communications when out and away from cell coverage, but to make long distance communications, you'll need 10meter or longer wavelengths.

>>57065281
>Why Baofeng
Because they are $25 on Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/BaoFeng-UV-5R-Dual-Radio-Black/dp/B007H4VT7A

Get a cheap radio first, before you start dropping hundreds of dollars on expensive radios that really dont do that much more.

>inb4 radio snobs

>>57065314
I don't wanna sound snobby, but $200 for a damn nice radio + good antenna IS cheap. I've seen people pay thousands for radios, not including the antennas and whatnot.

I understand the whole "look before you leap" thing, but you need to get a license before you can use any of these. Why not pay a bit more for something that will last you longer/is a better product?

>>57065360
>Why not pay a bit more for something that will last you longer/is a better product?

If all you're doing is making contact with the local repeater system, a Baofeng at 1w low power is ususlly all you need.

Now if you want to get into 10 meter, 40 meter, or DXing then yeah, a Baofeng isn't going to cut it.

Plus, everyone, even the snobs on my repeater system, have a cheapie Baofeng for backup (which I find them using more often than you might expect, despite having icom, yaesu, kenwood, motorola, and all the big boy radios)

$25 for your initial output of money will be great for when you want a cheap radio you don't care about losing or breaking, or to give to a friend.

>>57064666
I just lurk with my SDR during the weekends, it's only old farts talking about bad rx and shiet. I would totally get into it if other fellow anons were in my area (Seattle).

>>57065413
Don't get me wrong, it's deff a good idea to have a Baofeng or two around, especially for BOBs or just going innawoods. I just wouldn't use it as a main handheld is all I'm saying.

>>57065417
SDR is pretty interesting shit.
I'm on the 12th floor of my building at work and can pickup LA, and Hollywood police with it.

>it's only old farts talking about bad rx and shiet
Lol. I'm 41 and by far one of the youngest guys on the repeater system.

www.papasys.com

my experience as a ham

>schedule test
>study the night before, all easy electronics and memorizing rules
>get license
>buy FM radio transmitter kit and solder it together, which isn't even related to ham radio but i realized who the fuck cares about some neckbeard frequencies
>my transmitter works for like a 10-foot radius
>buy amplifier
>it works in the parking lot

wow, cool way to waste some time. at least I can put my callsign on my resume or something

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>>57065447
>I just wouldn't use it as a main handheld is all I'm saying.
My Baofeng is pretty damn clean. I didn't buy the absolute cheapest, the one I have came with what looks like a diamond knock-off antenna but it's really good.. hit my repeater at 1w no problem.

>buy FM radio transmitter kit and solder it together, which isn't even related to ham radio but i realized who the fuck cares about some neckbeard frequencies
>my transmitter works for like a 10-foot radius
>buy amplifier
>it works in the parking lot

meanwhile you have created a broadband scrambler and the FCC is in their fox hunt van trying to find you.

I have that little baofeng and i can hit satellites with it and a homemade yazi antenna, i think the furthest i've heard was Minnesota to New York. You can also talk to the International Space Station. Some repeaters are linked to the internet and ive heard people in florida while in minnesota

>>57065514
>fcc
>doing anything unless NEET autistic hams complain

>>57065551
>hams complain

well you're probably right as long as you don't interfere with a repeater system that people are monitoring.

We got a guy who keys down over some of our weekly nets and guys from the repeater system have narrowed him down to a pretty small area. But yeah.

>>57065047
got licensed and... nothing. don't know what to do with it and i'm not social enough to talk to anyone

>>57066138
find a repeater system

on our repeater system we have a "no call goes unanswered" policy.
That means anytime somene keys up, the members - someone - will respond

Another thing are weekly "nets"
those are weekly (or whenever) group meetings organized by the repeater members.

I'm on papa system
papasys.com

You can probably find other repeater systems from that site. Also google.

I have the GT-3 5W, I don't have my ham licence in Australia, but I use it on the 'UHF' public range for when I go driving with friends and hunting.

Looks like this one, but only 5w >>57065514


The FM radio is handy when at the camp site,

I also have knock off Nagoya NA-771's, im not sure if they are better than the stock, but it was $3

Does anyone have any experience setting up multimon? I tried this but didn't decode shit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMATOTYa-AI

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>Tfw military service killed all interest in playing with com.
Fucking heavy, broken pieces of shit.

>>57066666
damn son nice satan quints

along with OP's satanic triples wtf is with this thread much satanic very spook wow

Bump. Licensed ham here with no gear other than a UV-B5 (NA-771 and a J-Pole) and a direct sampling modded RTLSDR with a pretty big random wire. I spend most of my time listening shortwave since the topics hams ragchew about here are quite boring and there's not much activity on 2m/70cm anyway. Heard VOA being jammed yesterday but until I found out what it is, I was very confused and started turning off everything in my house in hopes of killing the weird 50Hz hum. Any anons wanna share some shit they found on LW/MW/SW?

>>57065205
How do you like BaoFeng? Durable enough? I'll be taking it backpacking and camping. I love Lenovo products so I'm going for similar quality

>>57065281
Yea it's just the best entry level. A 15 dollar license and 100 bucks on equipment is easiest way to get in. Don't have a whole lot of disposable income at the moment

>>57065360
I've seen reviews saying the BaoFeng are extremly durable and long lasting. I just don't have the disposable to upgrade. License is only 15 and the radios 65 with an extra antenna brings it maybe to 100. Cant beat that bang for your buck

>>57065447
That's the idea. I'm going to get familiar with my radio first and invest in a pack of low power ones for wife, kid, parents, for ICE

>>57065458
I similarly work on the 11th floor with access to the 18th floor roof in RDU so i would love to see the range

REE GET OFF MY FREQUENCY I'M CALLING THE FCC

Shit radios all of them but, I work with 5-12K a piece radios on large scale systems