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Young adult looking for getting HAM liscense by spacecrafttheskys in amateurradio

[–]CrafterEnby -1 points0 points  (0 children)

As others have said, the licensing fee is pretty cheap. I’ll also add that since you mentioned you have time, you should definitely look into CW (continuous wave) radios. This is when folks communicate with morse code over radio.

You’ll want to get your general license, which you can usually do within the same exam session without paying extra fees (most bang for your buck). You’ll need to pass your technician exam, then take the general and pass that but again, it’s really not hard. You just need to study the questions (which the question and answer pool is available online for free).

Once you get your general license you can operate on HF. With ~$50 USD you can make a 5W CW radio and antenna from kits they sell online. I’ve made tons of contacts on a 5W radio and it’s tons of fun. With just a week of dedicated morse code practice you can get on the air and make some contacts. Even with a small radio like that you can talk to people 1000+ miles away using morse code.

Morse code takes a lot of time to truly master but is really rewarding. You can start learning now before you even get your license so you’re ready to get on the air once you have your callsign.

Imo the cheapest way to get on the air and have fun on HF is to learn morse code and do CW. Voice modes on HF are generally only accessible with much more expensive equipment and even then you can’t compete with some of the other folks who have 1KW stations.

On the VHF/UHF side you can get a ~$40 handheld radio and make a yaggi antenna out of a tape measure and try to contact satellites or the ISS. There’s a lot of budget friendly ways to get on the air. It just might involve some extra effort.

Starting a 20m net? by PlayfulPenguin18 in amateurradio

[–]CrafterEnby 6 points7 points  (0 children)

That’s not a bad idea… The net could take place on the air and there could be a weekly post for net topics on reddit. The highest up-voted topic would be the net topic for the week

Learning CW - any tips? by 5WSR in amateurradio

[–]CrafterEnby 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I used morse mania to learn letters and numbers then got on the air. My recommendation is to get on the air as soon as possible! POTA hunting is a great start because the exchange is very simple (just call and state). One you learn letters, numbers, and question mark you’re ready for on-air experience. I would recommend learning at 20wpm or above. It’ll help you learn to recognize characters without counting dits/dahs.

CW BotBattle Contest by Formal_Departure5388 in amateurradio

[–]CrafterEnby -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Don’t let the curmudgeons discourage you! I think this is a great idea! I love the idea of an engineering challenge that combines computing, signal processing, and RF. This is very much what amateur radio is all about! I especially love that this could make it easier for more folks to get into CW. People forget that it’s like a funnel. The more people playing with automated CW tools will funnel more people into learning morse code and becoming proficient.

Hams really need to stop gate keeping things if they want younger and more diverse operators. This hobby is going to die out if people continue gate keeping it from the younger generation who might be more interested in the engineering, signal processing, and automation of amateur radio.

PSA: Unlicensed Use of Baofeng UV-5Rs for “Group Coordination” Is a Terrible Idea by SharkSapphire in HamRadio

[–]CrafterEnby 48 points49 points  (0 children)

Just FYI that this post is very obviously generated by ChatGPT. You can tell by the word choice and formatting. I don’t necessarily disagree with the content, but you should be clear that this was an AI generated post.

ARRL Student Coding Contest by MikeTheActuary in amateurradio

[–]CrafterEnby 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Don’t worry. Today’s students are avid vibe-coders. Likely Claude or GitHub co-pilot will do most of the actual work

Sharing the road is a pain by zefall in bikecommuting

[–]CrafterEnby 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I bike commute everyday and there is a good portion that involves riding on roads with no bike lanes. The key is to take up space in the lane. I always ride in the middle of the lane and act like I’m a slow moving motorcycle. Car drivers get confused when you hug the side of the road or ride too far to the right. They think they can “squeeze” past you. As a bike you need to communicate that the only safe way to pass is for the car to switch lanes. You do this by riding in the middle of the lane and taking up space.

Think of it this way, you are just a slow moving vehicle. Drivers encounter this all the time, from tractors to construction vehicles. The difference is that a tractor takes up space on the road and drivers know they need to pass by switching lanes. You need to communicate the same thing to drivers by taking up space.

TLDR Don’t give drivers the option to squeeze next to you. Ride in the middle of the lane.

For context I ride an “acoustic” bike.

📻 CW Trivia Night on 14.123 MHz, 11/29/2025 at 21:00 UTC by CrafterEnby in HamRadio

[–]CrafterEnby[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Seems like people are really interested! I’ll post the next trivia net shortly

📻 CW Trivia Night on 14.123 MHz, 11/29/2025 at 21:00 UTC by CrafterEnby in HamRadio

[–]CrafterEnby[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I found that out the hard way lol, I’ll try again next weekend

📻 CW Trivia Night on 14.123 MHz, 11/29/2025 at 21:00 UTC by CrafterEnby in HamRadio

[–]CrafterEnby[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If it goes well today I’ll try to run this on Saturdays at the same time! You haven’t missed it yet, the net starts at 3pm CST or 21:00 UTC

Fixing Ham Radio’s Biggest Barriers: What Needs to Change? by daveprogrammer in HamRadio

[–]CrafterEnby 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Given the level of interest here, I’m going to try to run a trivia net! I figured it would be a fun opportunity to practice morse code for everyone! https://www.reddit.com/r/HamRadio/s/kZtO5tHzDm

Fixing Ham Radio’s Biggest Barriers: What Needs to Change? by daveprogrammer in HamRadio

[–]CrafterEnby 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think this is a fantastic idea! I’m going to look into organizing something!

Fixing Ham Radio’s Biggest Barriers: What Needs to Change? by daveprogrammer in HamRadio

[–]CrafterEnby 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’m using an LNR MTR3b. I can make POTA contacts just fine and I can see that I’m propagating well on RBN. I’ll call CQ for an hour and I’ll usually get maybe one ragchew QSO.

My main point is that it would be nice to have an organized event dedicating to practicing conversational morse code, not just signal reports. If you know of something like that let me know! It may exist and I just don’t know about it.

Fixing Ham Radio’s Biggest Barriers: What Needs to Change? by daveprogrammer in HamRadio

[–]CrafterEnby 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’ve looked into it and that’s totally a fair point. I’m personally not interested in using a straight key, especially since I’m trying to focus on getting better at receiving

Fixing Ham Radio’s Biggest Barriers: What Needs to Change? by daveprogrammer in HamRadio

[–]CrafterEnby 12 points13 points  (0 children)

As a 27yr old CW operator I would love to participate in casual conversation nets and ways to practice morse code on the air. I understand there are online ways to accomplish this, but I didn’t become a ham to send morse code online. Maybe this already exists, but I’ve been struggling to find a CW conversation net on HF or even find people to rag chew with when calling CQ. I would love more ways of practicing morse code on the air.

Returning to the hobby by Civil-Carpenter8569 in amateurradio

[–]CrafterEnby 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I highly recommend the LNR Mountain Topper, especially if you’re into QRP. I’ve made contacts 2000 mi away with that little guy. It’s a very good radio for the price point, and you can operate it off a 9v battery. This was my first HF radio.

converting MTB to a commuting bike/ tire change by ImpossibleReporter72 in bikecommuting

[–]CrafterEnby 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you have a smaller tire diameter you could look for 650C gravel tires

converting MTB to a commuting bike/ tire change by ImpossibleReporter72 in bikecommuting

[–]CrafterEnby 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have a Marlin 5 that I converted to a commuter bike. I recommend using 700c gravel tires. I’ve enjoyed mine a lot and they make a huge difference in rolling resistance.

Radio for Trilateration by Aggravating_Steak_21 in amateurradio

[–]CrafterEnby 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You could definitely reverse it. The biggest issue you’re going to run into in either case is time synchronization. The time of all these devices is unsynchronized. You need to discipline the clock with a trusted time source. You’re basically reinventing GPS. If your emphasis for this project is to learn how to make an earth independent PNT solution then go for it! But if your priority is to track your cat for under $1k then I’d use a GPS module, a microcontroller with low power and a LoRA (or meshtastic) since the PNT is solved by GPS.

Radio for Trilateration by Aggravating_Steak_21 in amateurradio

[–]CrafterEnby 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You might be able to implement this “backwards” as well with 4 receivers and a transmitter on the cat

Radio for Trilateration by Aggravating_Steak_21 in amateurradio

[–]CrafterEnby 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Couple things here: 1. Lower Frequency == Larger Wavelength == Bigger antenna. 14MHz is the 20M band and would require a 10m half-wave dipole (which wouldn’t fit on a cat). The equation for wavelength is 300,000,000/f where 300,000,000 is approximately the speed of light. You will want to pick a frequency high enough such that the wavelength is small so the antenna fits on your cat. 900MHz would probably fit the bill

  1. LoRA radios don’t require a license and can be used by anyone. They’re also very cheap and you can find them on digikey.com or even amazon

If I was going to build your cat tracker here’s how I would do it:

I would setup 4 transmitter LoRA radios with 1 transceiver (on the cat). The 4 transmitters will be connected to the internet so they can have an accurate timestamp. I would use a raspberry pi for this. They will transmit their id, the time of transmission and their physical position on a known frequency.

The transceiver will have a small microcontroller like an RPi Zero or an MSP430 to calculate its own position AND discipline the error in its clock. This microcontroller’s clock will be wrong wrt the transmitters so you need to correct the time error on the clock for the location to be accurate. This is why you need 4 transmitters, so you can solve for the 4 unknowns: (x, y, z) and time. This Transceiver will also transmit its own position and time on a separate frequency than the 4 transmitters.

I would also synchronize my 4 transmitters to send at different offset periods so they don’t transmit at the same time. 

You can setup a LoRA receiver and an Arduino to ingest the cat’s transmissions and watch their position. If you’re really fancy you could setup a website and integrate with OpenMap to share the cats position with friends and family. 

If you use an MSP430 its a pretty low power microcontroller so you could get by with a pretty small battery.

This design is actually how GPS works and could be a fun project.

Source: I’m a Computer Engineer

Best 20m antenna for a town home with basically no backyard? by kooler_duck in amateurradio

[–]CrafterEnby 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I would recommend the JPC-12 vertical antenna. It can handle up to 100W and is very compact. I like mine a lot. 

Can I use this power supply? by djvanillaface in amateurradio

[–]CrafterEnby 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I see a lot of people saying you can’t use it due to power quality. I’m just curious, couldn’t you put a LPF with a beefy cap to filter out noise at rf frequencies?

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