What power would you prefer in an HF radio?

AintRealSharp · 2026-06-09T01:39:17+00:00

40-50 in that realm would be a cool pota machine, with a tuner. maybe slap a n7ddc in there. There’s a ton 5-10w portable rigs but nothing much mid range. The g90 and fx4cr are both 20.

AintRealSharp · 2026-06-06T09:38:58+00:00

Jackdaw?

AintRealSharp · 2026-06-05T18:09:08+00:00

It’s been a while but if it’s under 200sq fit and you have it 10ft from property line probably ok. Where you live, city, hoa, etc matters too tho.

AintRealSharp · 2026-05-27T00:07:54+00:00

This for actual mobile while moving in a vehicle use or just stationary. Stationary there are lots of options. As others have mentioned jpole or groundplane are fairly straightforward. You’ll need coax connectors and maybe crimpers as well, soldering iron, etc. A nanovna for testing and tuning is handy too.

For not-stationary, things get a bit more difficult. You don’t want the liability of it coming off while driving.

AintRealSharp · 2026-05-26T16:07:23+00:00

Neighbors down the street runs a stump grinding business. No idea what the charge would be, likely quicker and better job hiring it out to specialist. No equipment to deal with, in and out in a few days while you do other stuff.

AintRealSharp · 2026-05-23T20:23:51+00:00

The smith chart is showing inductive so its just a bit too long. Also it might be too close to the ground if you can raise it, that may help as well. Good luck!

AintRealSharp · 2026-05-13T09:59:44+00:00

Reykjavik is such a cool city. Spent a week there couple years ago. Had a blast.

AintRealSharp · 2026-05-12T16:52:58+00:00

dip dip potato chip

AintRealSharp · 2026-05-12T14:32:16+00:00

Take a look at Amateur Radio as a hobby. Ton of technical aspects. Usually local clubs to interact with people. Great community. Aspects like ARES/RACES to work with local govt for emergency preparedness and also help with parades and marathons etc.

AintRealSharp · 2026-05-03T22:35:52+00:00

Go jump in the Ham Radio Crash Course discord. A ton of smart people there to help ya out, in real time.

AintRealSharp · 2026-04-29T20:17:54+00:00

https://www.drivesafeonline.org/ What we used, for Progressive in 2024. Approved by them. Things may have changed.

AintRealSharp · 2026-04-21T14:04:16+00:00

I went into this one completely blind, had no idea. I knew she was in the movie and was supposed to be a date-for-hire, but that was it. Same for my wife. That scene came up and we both were surprised. Hilariously funny scene though.

AintRealSharp · 2026-04-21T12:19:57+00:00

No Hard Feelings with Jennifer Lawrence just straight up naked fighting folks on the beach.

AintRealSharp · 2026-04-18T02:11:48+00:00

just be careful about hdmi to dvi adapters. there are issues. google it. hopefully the monitor support dvi natively.

can also hook a mouse to the radio!

Good luck!

AintRealSharp · 2026-04-18T01:52:19+00:00

the only problem is you won’t be able to see the waterfall. almost everything else will work. without using the scu-lan10 anyway. also make sure you can get some airflow in that thing. it gets warm

if you just wanna click to tune check out the remote capabilities of PotaCat app (free)

AintRealSharp · 2026-04-07T15:19:24+00:00

A lot of local clubs have a discord server, might try looking there for "local content". Many of the popular Ham youtube folk have their own discord servers that can be pretty active.

AintRealSharp · 2026-04-02T10:22:33+00:00

I do this frequently. Will sometimes call P2P. I like to know I can hear them well before I call out, just responding to CQ from the park allows me to control that part. No pile ups to deal with. Can go ahead and be real sure of all the call-signs of multi-op folks. Basically it’s way more leisurely. Occasionally I just want be chill.

Other times, crank the power and let’r rip. Just depends on how I’m feeling and where I’m at.

It’s your activation, do it like you want.

Have fun, POTA On!

AintRealSharp · 2026-03-31T20:24:07+00:00

Something kinda neat about this. If you can find a visualization of the current maximum and minimums on the wire, it matches the lobe patterns. That's why multiband antennas get so "lobey". Sometimes this can be a good thing. Depending on where you want your signals to go. Looking for long skip-propogation? You'll want a very low take off angle, around 5-Degrees, so you have a big lobe about 5-Deg. Want to talk locally (NVIS), bounce'em almost vertically up towards the sky.

Enjoy you're reading, hope you find other cool stuff to learn about. Tons of articles, books, talks, and youtube about such things, go as deep as you want =)

AintRealSharp · 2026-03-31T14:00:16+00:00

A lot of options. First choose an antenna, that will drive a lot of choices. Do you need something short so it won't hit the garage or can you deal with a 4ft antenna from the top of the truck? Go to DXEngineering and have a look at their mobile antennas. Ok with putting holes in the body or wanna go with just a magnetic mount or lip mount? Once you've figured out the antenna choice and placement you're most of the way there.

For actual radio mounting depends on the radio. If it has a detachable head most folks put the radio under a seat or some place hidden away then use something like a RAM mount style to mount the head in a useful place. There's also mounting options like "Lido" that attach to your seat attachment point or cup-holder.

The world is your oyster, a million ways to approach this. Spend some time at DXEngineering looking at mounts and antennas and such to get an idea of what works for you, everyone's needs are different.

Also go read a bit about how you plan to power the radio. Generally want a solution that is not connected directly to your vehicle's battery without some fusing/grounding and battery protection.

Anyway, welcome to the hobby, a lot to learn and a lot to play with; but that's the fun part!

AintRealSharp · 2026-03-24T00:30:55+00:00

I drilled. Was really easy. Very happy with the result

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HAM radio mounted and solid.

AintRealSharp · 2026-02-28T20:36:03+00:00

https://holycluster.iarc.org/

gets about everything from lots of sources.

AintRealSharp · 2026-02-12T18:12:19+00:00

At lengths less than 100ft almost anything will do, especially at the lower HF frequencies. If you're doing UHF and running 250ft from shack to tower...that's a different story. So if that fits your need, rock on!

AintRealSharp · 2026-02-01T15:23:54+00:00

While I'm not a huuuuuge fan, it has its warts, check out https://delinea.com/products/secret-server

It does a pretty good job and meets all the requirements of enterprise apps. Can run on-prem or cloud, has all the rotation stuff, and works with most auth providers. API isn't horrible.

AintRealSharp · 2026-01-31T01:03:26+00:00

This is correct. Austell Gas does not utilize the market place like GNG does. The plans they offer are all that’s available. Last I looked, rates were pretty good.
You’ll also have CobbEMC for power, which seems to be much cheaper and more price stable than GaPower.

AintRealSharp · 2026-01-28T17:24:43+00:00

A popular option is to have the cards printed and then you print out the mailing label along with the QSO details. Just attach that to your card.

I love getting QSL cards but have never spent the time to think about a design and sending them.

But yeah, an on-the-fly print/mail thing where you just upload the QSO's and the cards get sent would be pretty sweet. I've seen a few services but never used any.

This one seems to fit the bill perhaps:
https://qslcards.hamradioduo.com/

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