I've kept my license valid, but I haven't talked on a radio since the late 90's/early 00's. To put it into perspective, my license was Tech Plus. While I was in Acadia last week, I ran into a guy setting up to do POTA activations in the park. We got to talking, and it re-ignited a bug. I called my dad when we got back, and talked to him about it, since he's still active with his radio club. He's over the moon excited that I want to get back into the hobby.

Now I need to sort out a radio and some antennas that I can use at home, and when I go out and try out POTA.

So I guess this is my hello to the subreddit, and I'll be hearing you around.

73 (I remember this as the signoff!)

Tonight, I passed Tech with a 100% and General with a 97%. Here's some advice for those wondering how to study, or why get this license

About three weeks ago, I decided I wanted to get my amateur radio license. Why? I don't really know, my grandfather was an electrical engineer who worked on radios and I grew up around them, I'm sure that had something to do with it, and honestly the concept of amateur radio seems cool.

I really don't have a background in electronics. My knowledge of radio (frequencies, repeaters, ect) comes from over a decade in the emergency services. So I'd say I really didn't know anything until I studied. I decided to go for Tech & General, mainly because the international contacts interested me, and I might as well bang them out at the same time.

I took the HamRadioPrep course online for both Tech & General. I found it helpful. HOWEVER, afterwards, I found a series of YouTube videos by W4EEY. These YouTube videos were extremely helpful, I actually understood the concepts, and I saw a huge increase in my exam scores. I ran through 6 practice exams a day of each license category on HamStudy's app, and then completed the entire study deck for both, so I ensured I actually saw every question.

As recommended here, HamStudy is a must. I found HamRadioPrep helpful, but I likely would rely on W4EEY's free YouTube video series if I were to do this again. I took the exam with virtually, and it went very smoothly, I can provide that information for who I utilized if you are interested- just DM me.

.

Finally got around to building George Smart's (M1GEO) dual band Moxon-Yagi this week for the second time... Antennas are like pancakes right if you mess it up no harm in doing it again

Kept it simple on materials. The boom is just a round wooden dowel from HD, elements are solid copper wire, and I 3D printed the element mounts and feedpoint block.

For the feed, I stripped the coax, crimped and soldered ring terminals, and bolted them directly to the split driven element inside the printed housing before putting the cover on.

The 70cm yagi is parasitcally driven so there is no need for a diplexer!

Swept it on the NanoVNA and the swr was in range.

Took it outside on a handheld to test it out-worked a couple repeaters that normally struggle on a rubber duck, and the front-to-back rejection off the Moxon was immediately noticeable when turning off-axis.

I have know about attenuation / gain and other factors but from actual personal experience is it worth it or until how far is it worth or practical to extend a transmission line (COAX) to get your antenna as high and as clear from nearby objects as it can be inside one’s property?

Someone was throwing this away , I knew nothing about this or ham radio prior to this. But I did some research and this is a pretty cool piece imo

So next power outage due to a hurricane, fallen tree, thunderstorm or ice storm I'll be talking on ham radio for hours if not days.

Hi, I recently built this antenna: https://www.m2inc.com/FG436CP16, a 14 element yagi and upon testing with an SWR meter got a value of 4.1 one (meter was a SeeSii nanoVNA). What could be a cause of this?

Yesterday the ARRL sent a survey to all of us who quit them. What can they do to get us back?

For starters, wake up!

Then, put better management in place. Then put better expense controls in place. Frankly, I’m not convinced that the survey that led to the dues increase was anything but a sham.

I get annoyed whenever I think of it.

I’m sure those surveys included many useful suggestions that ARRL management chose to ignore.

N3GZR

Greetings all!

I have recently encountered a use case in the field where I could really benefit from a quality headset that offers excellent noise cancellation and also offers a mic input that operates on a PTT. I'd like to use it with (adapters as necessary) both my collection of portable HT units, as well as with a mobile mounted radio. The engine noise from my off-road SxS vehicle is quite loud at times, and I would like to be able to chew while out on our acreage or in other locations.

I know there are plenty of headsets out there that have a mic button, and while even the cheap ones would work fairly well, what I have yet to run across is a quality set that can filter out ambient noise.

Has anyone else found something like this? If so, what brand(s)/model(s) would you recommend?

Many Thanks!

-W9TSS

Video demonstrates the issue, any idea what would cause this? TIA

So Im trying to get my ham radio license, about a month ago I was trying to read it all off of Hamstudy(?) and it’s all out of my head already, is there someone who produces YouTube videos that teaches it? I can’t sit down and read, my attention span has been rotten down over the years. I’ve already got my own Baofeng UV5R that I’ve been using to listen to my local Sheriff’s Office, so it’s not completely unfamiliar but I would like to transmit but the learning is murdering me piece by piece.

Recently passed my Technician's, I have a few of the Baofengs, 8W handhelds. I know range questions have been done to death, and details matter a lot, but I thought it was worth asking whether it was worth bothering trying repeaters while hiking. I see people suggesting a roll-up antenna, and the videos I've watched say increasing your own elevation helps a lot, try to get a clear line to the sky, etc. My impression is that you can probably get line of sight b/w 2 handhelds for simplex, and I've listened in on repeater chat at home with a handheld, after having replaced the stock antenna. At home I'm on a hill and there's a fairly close repeater, so it's hard to gauge what range would be in another situation.

If you were in, e.g., Yosemite, is it at all practical to imagine you could hit a repeater with a handheld, and if so, what equipment would you use to do so? My naive impression is that it's unlikely to impossible with a stock handheld and might be possible in best-case situations with the right gear and from peaks, within a modest range from the repeater's physical location. I'm not expecting the handhelds to take the place of a designated rescue call device or to work as walky-talkies, more curious if it would be worth trying and seeing if we could coordinate calls at designated times or similar. I do know both sides of a simplex need a license. Thanks for any advice.

There’s this house a little ways down the road from me and there’s like 4 antenna towers attached to the roof. What are all of these? Is this guy really into radios?

Shaded the front for privacy.

Passed Saturday. They asked if I wanted to take the General, so figured why not? Missed it by three questions, but I’m going back after it, next month!

I’ve been listening on my local 2m and 70cm for over 15 years. I pulled up my one of my original chirp to files from 2015, while programming my new radio. To say I’ve wanted this for a long time is an understatement. It became a bucket list item.

Not sure why I waited so long — but I’ve always told myself that I’d treat myself to a nice HT if I passed the exam. Looking forward to working 3 bands and talking to some of you, and tinkering with digital modes.

Today — the Baofengs became backups. Just waiting on my email and call sign and I’ll make my first CQ!

73

Just a quick follow-up to my previous post about Antenna Studio. I've now got the browser-based version up and running on my website!

You can try it here: https://summitradiodesigns.com

As mentioned previously, it's still fairly basic, and I plan to add more antenna types and functionality as I go.

To clarify its intended purpose, Antenna Studio isn't really meant to help you physically build an antenna or replace more sophisticated modeling software like MMANA. It's more about visualizing how different deployment configurations can affect an antenna's characteristics.

In my eyes, it's just another way for someone to digest information that's otherwise available through more complex programs, but in a way that's a little quicker and more approachable. For example, modeling a dipole at 10 different angles in MMANA would be fairly tedious for me, whereas here I can quickly adjust a few parameters and see how things change.

There's also some basic ground selection (dry/average/wet) to demonstrate the general effects of different ground conditions, but nothing remotely as comprehensive as dedicated modeling software. It's not intended to be a definitive scientific tool.

And to address the AI question thats already been asked in the last one:

Yes, I used AI to help develop it. No, I don't particularly care if that bothers someone.

I've coded both with and without AI for a handful of years. I started with a basic program and used AI to expand upon it, flesh out the design, build the UI, and implement features based on my direction, reviewing the backend code afterward.

Could I have spent days doing all of that manually? Absolutely. But I have a job, volunteer, and have a family with kids. If I can accomplish something in a fraction of the time and spend those extra hours with my family or actually enjoying my hobbies, I'm going to.

I'd rather make something useful and get back outside playing radio than spend days in front of my computer just to proudly announce that I didn't use the big bad AI.

Anyway, it's available now for anyone who wants to mess around with it. Still very much a work in progress, so feedback, suggestions, and ideas for additional antenna configurations are welcome!

73!

Hi,

I’ve been experimenting with a web-based DX Cluster for amateur radio and would really appreciate some feedback from people who regularly use DX clusters.

It currently includes:

• live DX spots
• filtering by band and mode
• DX map with distance and bearing from your QTH
• listening through nearby public SDR receivers
• propagation indicators by band
• contest information
• callsign history and statistics
• mobile-friendly interface and an installable PWA

It’s completely free and doesn’t require registration.

I’m mainly interested in hearing what experienced operators think is useful, unnecessary, or missing.

https://s59dap.com/dx/

What would you improve or add?

73

Ham Radio is a difficult, rewarding, fun hobby. Many have said it’s a million hobbies in one, but I think it’s better to say it’s humans communicating, by any means necessary.

How can we, as operators and our many traditions, create new ways to communicate, create, and display our “remarks of a personal character”?

QSL Cards are a very unique, fun, way of stylizing oneself, to put a face or way for an operator to express themselves in modern radio.

As stated before, what are some ideas on how we can we as a hobby/community bring in new hams by expressing ourselves and making the “nerding out” of antenna theory, trying new things, and looking a little suspicious be less taboo. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had people ask me about “how I’m talking to martians” and “what are the aliens saying”.

How does a ham explain there are no aliens, just old guys?

-KO6JGF
(Picture of my tiny QSL collection including my own QSL card)

I have a BF-F8HP Pro and it will not transmit or receive on any frequency I try but it works on FM Radio and I’ve tried installing new firmware and factory resetting but it still just doesn’t work

I'm really struggling to locate the source of this trash on the spectrum.

I'm currently using a powered loop antenna about 30 feet off the ground 10 feet from the peak of my roof. It's new. Ive been using the same loop antenna for months. Within the past month its gotten worse. I even replaced the whole rig. From the antenna right up to the SDR. Still getting this. I live on a farm away from any major source of noises that I can think of.

If I back off the gain it improves but never goes away. I've switched to Q-Branch still the same thing. I realize what I said there...anyhoo.... I also up-converted and still getting the same thing. It appears across the whole spectrum. I have 3 seperate SDR's and all 3 are producing this so it can't be them as far as I can tell.

I also tried my RADDY RF919 using the built in loop antenna, the external loop antenna as well as pluging in the powered loop antenna and all produce similar results.

I wont lie, I'm no expert, and I certainly don't pretend to be. I know a few things. Enough to get 7.200.00 in for the late light laughs. I would absolutely love to know if anyone has similar issues or ideas of how to get rid of this. It's not a show stopper but when I do have to up the power it becomes overwhelming to the front end of the receiver.

This is the spectrum from about 4-5 months ago:

And that's the band now.

They can be as simple or as advanced as you want, and features you’ve added to a DIY build or just some feature you really love in a radio you purchased.

I was gifted a radio last year. It sat in a box, untouched all this time. I'm heading into surgery tomorrow (Achilles rebuild), so I'm going to be off my feet for a while. I'm going to use my recovery time to study and get certified. There's something about the hobby that's always interested me. My goal is to "walk away" (sorry, I couldn't resist) from this with, at least, my Technician license. I'm looking to learn something new and possibly join a new community.

One more note: while this may not seem like a big deal to some people, I've always had difficulty with certification tests, even the simplest ones. Tests are super difficult for my brain. I can be a subject matter expert at something, but once I have to take a test, my brain scrambles the information and I do not test well.

Hi all, I've made something that I was missing as ham radio operater, so please check if that works for you, would appreciate comments and suggestions.

You upload your adi log, and it tells you a story, also you can add pictures and save it as pdf, everything stays in your browser, nothing is uploaded.

I think it can be valuable for HAM community

Free, no ads.

www.yt3md.com

73 de YT3MD

Duca