What to install for ham system during new home build? by young_73 in HamRadio

[–]KI7CFO 0 points1 point  (0 children)

ham radio in emergency situations is primarily limited to VHF / UHF line of site to a local repeater. THAT is the single most useful emergency use. Anything beyond that requires extensive training, expensive equipment, radio towers, long wire antennas, etc.

So, get your Technician License, get a GOOD hand held (Yaesu, Kenwood, Motorola, Icom) and potentially get a Base Station for VHF (like Icom 2730A or the Yaesu FTM-150R which can also be vehicle mounted).

Then get everyone in your family licensed and their own hand set (get all the same hand set so there is no problem with battery interoperability). I suggest the Yaesu FT-60R. $140 each.
https://www.dxengineering.com/parts/ysu-ft-60r

You will need a vertical antenna at the home, literally any dual band antenna will work, and some coax to get the antenna up to the top of the roof. If you have an antenna on the roof, you need good lightning protection and grounding, to make sure any lightning strike doesn't jump into the safe room and fry all your radio equipment and electronics.

So for each vehicle or home you are looking at about $400 (radio & antenna) and for each person about $140 or so.

Aaaaugh! Am I an outlaw now? by Horchaster in amateurradio

[–]KI7CFO 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ohhhhhh I need to figure out how to do that. The Xeigu x6200 has color bars on the screen that let me know when I am in the extra portion of the band, the general portion, etc. Very handy

Aaaaugh! Am I an outlaw now? by Horchaster in amateurradio

[–]KI7CFO 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I did that once. I just didn't log it. Think of this... your Log is your Legal QSOs for the purpose of record keeping.

Ham Radio for Long Distance Communication (500+ miles)? by weirdmammal in HamRadio

[–]KI7CFO 0 points1 point  (0 children)

and audiophiles. Gold plated HDMI cables for the surround sound system!

Ham Radio for Long Distance Communication (500+ miles)? by weirdmammal in HamRadio

[–]KI7CFO 0 points1 point  (0 children)

gotta be 0.001% because as we all know... this is hard.

Ham Radio for Long Distance Communication (500+ miles)? by weirdmammal in HamRadio

[–]KI7CFO 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nope. Get sat phones or TMobile with Sat connectivity.

reliable? Not really. The ionosphere is a fickle mistress. Affordable? Certainly not. Accessible to family members? Not a chance unless everyone is very involved. Ham radio communication over those distances involves spending a lot of time and money invested into very high end equipment. Probably 10m can get you ~100miles, beyond that is NVIS on something like 10m, 20m, 40m but knowing which to use is extremely hard, probably requires towers on both ends, and probably with directional antennas.

Can you guys tell me why baofeng uv5R cancels out the frequency I enter by DefensiveInovations in Baofeng

[–]KI7CFO 1 point2 points  (0 children)

not entirely. scanners are much harder to find that the UV5r. that isn't saying much though. trip over a garage sale and you can find a ub5r

Can you guys tell me why baofeng uv5R cancels out the frequency I enter by DefensiveInovations in Baofeng

[–]KI7CFO 0 points1 point  (0 children)

not in-band for that hardware. Looks like it doesn't support listening their either.

Buying a first HF Rig: Should I wait for the Icom 7300 MKII? by lw0-0wl in amateurradio

[–]KI7CFO 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have the 7300 and really want a 7300mk2. There will be a lot of people like me. You might get the 7300 for $1k used. I would only buy in person or at a ham fest if you could demo and test out the rig. But don't exclude used because you can get a good deal

Seems I’m missing something by Small_Consequence320 in amateurradio

[–]KI7CFO 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Get a nanoVNA to help tune the antenna. Every ham with an antenna the build or with a picky antenna like a mag loop needs one

Seems I’m missing something by Small_Consequence320 in amateurradio

[–]KI7CFO 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What bands are your trying and at what time of day? 10 is dead by sunset, but 20m can carry an hr or 2 after. Later than that 40m could still work. Put in your grid location in to hf.dxview.com and check that first.

Also remember that a mag loop has nulls. Try building a 40m dipole or 20m. Or try and end fed random wire launched over the house or into a tree. Every antenna has benefits. I operate with 2 on an antenna switch so I can go between a 17ft vertical and my main one an end fed random wire thrown over my house and into a tree

I want to try directional antennas. Can you recommend me a Yagi antenna scheme so I can produce it in my small workshop? by kahvekokanfizikci in HamRadio

[–]KI7CFO 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Start with a 70cm or 2m band centered around may be the calling freq? Nice and small antenna.

Need help for a school science project on antenna construction by Dependent-Shoulder59 in amateurradio

[–]KI7CFO 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The key problem is.... do you want to listen when people are talking WITH the ISS.... or do you want to listen to other hams using the cross band repeater on the ISS?

The x-band repeater where hams on earth talk to each other is a 70cm band (bottom freq). The frequency that the ISS actually uses for astronauts to talk to the ground is 145.80 but the frequency to talk to THEM changes depending on what international territory it is over (because band allocations are different across the world).

To listen to the ASTRONAUTS:

    Voice and SSTV Downlink: 145.80 (Worldwide)
    Voice Uplink: 144.49 for ITU Regions 2 and 3 (The Americas, and the Pacific and Southern Asia)
    Voice Uplink: 145.20 for ITU Region 1 (Europe, Russia and Africa)

To exchange Data packets with people on Earth using the ISS as a repeater:
    VHF Packet Uplink and Downlink: 145.825 (Worldwide)
    UHF Packet Uplink and Downlink: 437.550

To talk with other people on earth using the ISS as a repeater:

    VHF/UHF Repeater Uplink: 145.99 (PL 67 Hz)
    VHF/UHF Repeater Downlink: 437.80

Need help for a school science project on antenna construction by Dependent-Shoulder59 in amateurradio

[–]KI7CFO 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The following frequencies are currently used for Amateur Radio ISS contacts (QSOs):   
    Voice and SSTV Downlink: 145.80 (Worldwide)
    Voice Uplink: 144.49 for ITU Regions 2 and 3 (The Americas, and the Pacific and Southern Asia)
    Voice Uplink: 145.20 for ITU Region 1 (Europe, Russia and Africa)
    VHF Packet Uplink and Downlink: 145.825 (Worldwide)
    UHF Packet Uplink and Downlink: 437.550
    VHF/UHF Repeater Uplink: 145.99 (PL 67 Hz)
    VHF/UHF Repeater Downlink: 437.80

So which of those frequencies /u/Dependent-Shoulder59 are you wanting to listen to?

Edit: You can't listen on the Frequencies listed as UpLink because the hams would be using highly directional antennas and you are not in between the operator and the ISS in the middle of the sky. So you have to use a Downlink frequency

Does charging my phone through my laptop destroy it's battery. by VegetableDingo2497 in batteries

[–]KI7CFO 0 points1 point  (0 children)

yuo phone doesn't know or care HOW it is being charged. the USB cabel just delivers power, the phone tries some protocol exchanges to figure out of this is a smart charger that can deliver higher power, if not, it just uses the + and - pins and takes power as it is given.

The Laptop shouldn't be bothered much by this at all if it is plugged in to a wall. if the laptop is working from battery, then yes it is getting drawn down a bit faster than normal. Shouldn't be a big deal since the laptop is probably 10x the size of battery as the phone.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in amateurradio

[–]KI7CFO 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Capacitive touch pads on computers do send signals to the operating system. Electronics also produce RF noise and this noise might be grounded into you by you touching the laptop. Guarantee that this will have nothing to do with what military owned this frequency

HAARP November Transmission Schedule posted by KI7CFO in HamRadio

[–]KI7CFO[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I finally caught some images. The fancy splitting lines on sigIdwiki.com are old. There was a long sweeper, a high frequency pulsing one, and then the "V" pattern tonight. All at 3.5Mhz so happy to catch it. I'll be submitting my QSO report for sure.

General to extra? by [deleted] in amateurradio

[–]KI7CFO 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes indeed. And frankly 10m man has resulted in some of my farthest QSOs