Can we have a radio thread please?

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>>34699269
Whatcha wanna talk about OP?

>>34699301
Lets get some radio operating kommandos in here. I'm working on getting my technician license and wanna hear from people on this board about equipment/skills etc

>>34699689
No way

>>34699689
You saved that from last thread.
How do i know ?
I was about to post the same pick so someone could go
>>34699713
But you beat me to it.
Goddammit.

Did any of you non-military guys go through the trouble of learning Morse?

>>34699269
I have my general license. It was pretty easy, the technican's exam is laughably easy and you can probably pass it without studying.

I have a VX-8DR for local VHF/UHF stuff and an Elecraft KX2 for SOTA/innawoods-ing.

Not really been able to use the KX2 since I moved from a house into an apartment, though. Gotta find a decent antenna setup for an apartment, but I've been too busy pouring money into guns and cars.

>>34700063
What is SOTA? I'm only part way through the technician manual

>>34700045
Yeah. I (>>34700063) like CW. It's nice to be able to take a super lightweight kit out camping; my CW setup is ridiculously small -- about the dimensions of a house brick -- and I've DXed with most of Europe with it from Texas on a shitty end fed antenna strung over a tree. If you like /out/ radio operating, CW is really great.

>>34700078
SOTA is Summits On The Air. Basically, you hike up a mountain and try to make contacts up there. You get a certain amount of points for being 'spotted', and also for 'spotting'. It's a fun way to mix hiking/outdoors hobbies and radio stuff.

>>34700078
>>34700085

http://sota.org.uk/

It started in the UK, but it's worldwide now.

>>34700078
By the way, check out https://hamstudy.org/. It's a free ham test resource that makes studying for your exams super easy, way easier than the arrl guide.

>>34700080
And CW = continuous wave right?
And how I was planning to hike up the hill behind my girlfriends house tomorrow with my little baofeng just to see what I could hear, that's sorta SOTA'ing?


I went to her house today and heard a Morse code go out 3 times at 15 minute intervals but it stopped after the 3rd

>>34700139
>And CW = continuous wave right?
Right!

>And how I was planning to hike up the hill behind my girlfriends house tomorrow with my little baofeng just to see what I could hear, that's sorta SOTA'ing?
Kinda. You can make contacts over UHF/VHF with SOTA, but it tends to be a HF thing. As with all things ham, the fun is in the HF bands! You'll also have to make contacts (usually by announcing 'CQ SOTA, CQ SOTA, <callsign> CQ SOTA'). You can also post on http://sotawatch.org/ to tell people where you'll be and when (or keep an eye on it to see when people are out and about!)

I tend to use VHF/UHF for repeaters, which are a mixed bag depending on where you are. Here in the Dallas area, Denton County's repeaters are pretty good since they're mostly college age youngfags. Most of the others are old timers talking about their health or politics, though.

You can also get into sat chasing; you can actually hear signals from overhead satellites with a little handheld radio like a Baofeng, or talk to people across the world by using satellites as a 'bridge'.

i bought one of those RTL-SDRs, and it's fun to use. i can hear radio stations 150 km away.

>>34700198
How do I get into sat chasing with my little cheapo radio?
Just look up a certain satellite I know will fly over my state at X time and frequency?

Also I'd like to try building a DX brick like yours, or getting a bigger desk or backpack radio

>tfw tempted to get this
http://www.kn2c.us/


>>34700241
What's that?

>>34700270
http://www.rtl-sdr.com/about-rtl-sdr/

it's a cheap $20 tv dongle that can be used as an SDR.

How much does the FCC hate decrypting scanners?

>>34700256
> Just look up a certain satellite I know will fly over my state at X time and frequency?

Yup! Pretty much. There are a few sites you can find that will tell you exactly when sats are going to pass over your location. They'll even text or email you to give you time to get set up.

You don't need anything fancy to at least listen.

Check out https://www.amsat.org/ and http://www.n2yo.com/

> Also I'd like to try building a DX brick like yours, or getting a bigger desk or backpack radio
I like my Elecraft a lot. They're expensive and a bit of a meme — kind of the radio equivalent of HK — but they make fantastic receivers. I've never been a fan of the desk radio since a lot of my enjoyment comes from being outside, but YMMV.

I used to carry a Yaesu FT-817, but it was heavy as fuck and the battery life was abysmal.

>>34700289
What's an SDR? Only asking because I can't find it in muh book

>>34700297
>decrypting scanners
What?

>>34700303
I'll have to look into those

Also sorry in advance everyone, I don't ever see radio threads and I'm gonna pick everyone's brains as much as I can

When I decide to learn something new I try and absolutely learn the fuck out of it at every opportunity

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>>34700328
software defined radio. the tv chip inside the dongle can be configured to dump all of it's input, pre-processing, through USB and to your computer. then you can manipulate the data from the dongle in software. pic related.

>>34700328
Where are you located OP? Have you checked out https://www.repeaterbook.com/ ? They have an app for iOS, too. You can get some of the local repeaters plugged into your Baofeng and see what the local scene is like.

>>34700343
Sounds confusing as fuck but I'll look into it

>>34700354
Southeast Idaho

Do any of you hams think that amature radio guys have monitored North Korean missile test telemetry transmissions?

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>>34699269

>>34700882
It's possible, but without knowing what band they're on and what kind of encryption they use, I'm not sure anyone would be able to identify what it was. Plenty of encrypted digital transmissions in HF land.

>tfw your ex got her ham license after you broke up

I missed the chance to do nerdy radio things with a cute girl.

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Bump

What police scanner would you lads recommend?

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Somebody give me some 101 reading material on radios, please.

>>34703475
The ARRL technician manual, 3rd Edition

>>34703475
https://hamstudy.org

>>34703447
Anything by Uniden is usually fine, but you basically can't really go wrong. It's not like listening to VHF freqs is high tech.

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How can i learn how to comms, sat phones, PRRs, etc?
preferably some online resources

>>34703774
welp now I have federal radio number and am signed up for a HAM class in September.

Is it illegal to encrypt a signal?

>>34707704
Seconding this. Also how to build a continuous wave brick for Morse code communication around the world?

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Is there a name for this particular type of radio?

>>34699611
I use a public band on my job and we can hear a local resort talking to each other as they clean rooms. Pretty funny to hear what they say.

>>34708201
Stories?

Low tech guy here.
If you need a budget, low tech,legal radio it's tough to beat a Bearcat 980.
We use them on our Jeeps/trucks and they get decent range with the 12watt sideband.

>>34708300
I'll add it to the list

I need to come up with some gear to get when I get my technician license, something to use Morse code on, and something heavy duty to have access to a bunch of bands and listen to multiple stations and do some sky wave propagation

>>34708334
The Bearcat 980 requires no license.
The radio can be found for about 100 bucks and a Wilson antenna makes it work pretty decently.
You likely won't talk to anyone on it unless you have specific people you are trying to comm with.
Still a short range radio.

>>34708577
I still don't understand 'short range', is it because you can't bounce shit off the atmosphere or use satellites because it's too high freq?

How many questions are on the amateur HAM test? Is it easy?

>>34709032
Like 36 or something

>>34708264
Mostly just people complaining about at the resort about the customers and whatnot. When weddings happen its funny to hear all the panic and hectic-ness off the staff. Nothing that stands out, just some chuckles from them

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>>34708085

>>34709032
--Official Secret Club Ham Radio Test--
1. r u under 45. if so then get out gen xers!!!!
2. do u weigh less than 400 lbs. feck off
3. do u talk like this... taking pauses every once in a while... cause im really old and radio is for losers

do not, under any circumcisionstances, join our secret ham frequency, we been vocally jerking off for 6 decades now and we dont let new people in!!!!!!! holy shit I am so old and fucking fat!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

>Door opens up
>9001 shitty hipsters with the same "ironic"-beard

[LOUD BOOMER 'TISM]

Fast forward 40 years and boomer's grandson is selling his shit set for $5 as hard as possible to a crying pawn shop man who is really old because he was the only other one in its radius that he could talk to because the pawn shop man is the other radio operator so he just cries and after the kid leaves with $5 the shop collapses and bulldozers come and bury it all and the next day a smartphone shop is there

If you read all the above, and still think this is for you, congrats you passed the amateur HAM test. Now get ready for the professional HAM test

>>34708638
It's CB, which is inherently a low-power, low range shitter band that is more or less the /b/ of the airwaves.

>radio thread
>/k/ summons the ghost of LMJ
>newfags will never know the joy of fucking with that autistic bastard

>>34709092
Sounds fun, I haven't caught anything interesting over my radio yet

>>34709720
I'm fucking crying dude

>>34709751
I'll take your word for it

>>34699611
Just got my general 2 weeks ago. Hamstudy.org is a great resource. My thought was to get the license then learn as i go in terms of actual Ham skills. Made my first contact last night using a baofeng uv5r a super elastic signal stick and a counterpoise. Hit a repeater 25 miles out and heard someone 50 miles away. Overall pretty cool. I want to get into HF but I dont have the 1k for all the gear yet.

>>34709751
pretty much, still not bad though considering no license needed and better than frs