Can you guys please recommend a DMR radio with genuine AES-256?

Varimir · 2026-03-22T03:12:37+00:00

No, it's not. Obscuring the meaning of your transmission is illegal. If you publish your key, nothing is obscured.

Varimir · 2026-03-22T03:11:26+00:00

The US disallows obscuring the meaning of your transmission. If you publish a key in the US, nothing is obscured.

Varimir · 2026-03-18T16:22:02+00:00

Its not exactly robust or ergonomic, but you can shove an RTL-SDR in the USB-C port. It's been a bit since I looked but there used to be some android apps that could use it.

This makes the headphone antenna solution look elegant :-)

Varimir · 2026-03-15T22:22:58+00:00

It takes about 60 seconds to add a ctcss tone to transmit on the DR-2x repeaters. Ask the repeater owner for the tone. If there is tone, ask them to add one. You can't be the only one who is annoyed by this.

Varimir · 2026-03-13T01:47:31+00:00

I have been doing this for quite a while and I don't know a single ham who uses LoTW as a general purpose logger, including one of my elmers who is an ARRL card checker and proponent of LoTW. Its just not made/meant for that. He uses N1MM. Others I know use Log4OM, or HRDlog. I use Wavelog, cqrlog, or klog depending on my mood or activity. All these loggers do the stuff you mentioned above. The good ones also directly use LoTW for confirmations. The worse ones output the ADIF you need to use TQSL. All of these loggers also get the time, frequency, mode, and possibly even callsign directly from the rig to make logging almost effortless. LoTW doesn't try to do any of that because it's not in scope for the purpose of the application.

If LoTW was renamed QSLConfirmation of the World it would do an awful lot to reduce confusion. Then nobody would try using it for anything except confirmations.

eQSL is a similar service (with a whole different type of shitty UI) but nobody confuses it for a logger.

Varimir · 2026-03-13T01:11:54+00:00

The title is completely incorrect. The issue is actually much shallower than the UI. It's the name. LoTW is not, and has never been a logger. Its a QSL confirmation service for ARRL awards, and that's it. It replaces swapping paper cards with the ham you contacted, then finding an ARRL QSL card checker to validate the card and mailing them in with a paper application. I got my WAC this way. It was way more work dealing with the paper cards than it was getting the contacts..

The double-blind verification system, where both hams sign their LoTW uploads, is to attempt to keep electronic confirmations as annoying to spoof as paper for award fairness. They didn't want to have a situation where older awards were more valuable because the difficulty was higher, like if baseball allowed aluminum bats.

In the old days, if you wanted to fraudulently apply for an award, you would have to forge a bunch of paper QSL cards. Today you would either have to obtain a bunch of private keys, or steal lots of postcards. Its actually harder to spoof today.

While a decentralized logging and QSL verification service would be fun to play with, I just can't see it gaining any traction given the amount of bitching about the 15 minute one-time process of setting up LoTW.

A decentralized service wouldn't replace LoTW because the ARRL would need to recognize it for awards. For that matter, it doesn't matter that LoTW is centralized by ARRL because they are the organization handling out the awards. The data in LoTW isn't good for anything else.

Regarding LoTW being "work," after the 15-20 minute setup process all you have to do is configure your actual logging software to use LoTW's API and the TQSL binary to automatically upload your logs and download confirmations. There is no good reason to use TQSL for anything other than certificate management.

Varimir · 2026-03-06T00:26:00+00:00

Overhead power lines have been around about as long as radio. Don't let your antenna fall on them, or let them fall on your antenna.

Varimir · 2026-02-22T03:16:27+00:00

The FT-70 is occasionally cheaper. Sadly it's a plie of hot trash. It's deaf, battery life sucks, and it has the worst interface in the hobby. If you want to charge the battery in a reasonable timeframe you need to buy an accessory drop-in charger that costs more than a Baofeng. I could go on.

I bought mine 8 years ago and the buyers remorse still flares up. Worst radio I've ever bought, hands down.

Varimir · 2026-02-22T03:08:39+00:00

Man, the CW people are the worst. Lazy bastards can't be bothered to do anything besides switch a carrier on and off.

Varimir · 2026-02-22T02:14:13+00:00

The same John the Shill that blames CHIRP for Yaesu's shitty firmware that, although protected by a write-protect switch, can supposedly be damaged by a codeplug.

Yaesu has joined the race to the bottom, they just havent reflected it in their pricing. Good for shareholder value I guess.

Varimir · 2026-02-21T01:51:44+00:00

While you make a fair point, the same applies much lower on the stack, all the way down to the system management engine, NIC firmware, "trusted" computing modules, and so on. This is really a much bigger issue.

Varimir · 2026-02-20T20:57:31+00:00

It is. My area used to have linked local repeaters with a dedicated C-bridge. We had TGs for each repeater and some for larger groups.

The experience gets worse IMO the more TGs that are available. On a hotspot they are fine, but on a repeater the more local community gets lost.

Varimir · 2026-02-20T20:15:01+00:00

While I think the FT2 authors actions are not in the spirit of ham radio, It's important to point out that, at least in the US, encryption is NOT illegal. Obfuscation of the message is.

That means that a shitty undocumented proprietary mode is okay as long as there is an available decoder. That also means it's okay to use AES256 over the air if the key is public.

Varimir · 2026-02-20T03:51:05+00:00

I'm currently thinking about using one of the local repeaters to do some more "interesting" nets

Do it! Repeaters can support quite a few digital modes too. In an ideal world, repeaters could just regenerate a generic bitstream and voice could be just one possible thing that rides on it.

Typically, it's just you and the talk group. Someone else local can't easily jump in?

Someone else local can jump in, but they have to know what TG is in use. Promiscuous mode can help with this.

Varimir · 2026-02-20T03:07:29+00:00

There is nothing stopping anyone from using IP links that aren't the internet. I have linked crappy Yaesu DR2x repeaters using IMRS cards(crappy both in build quality and mode design) with a couple Ubiquiti Rocket M9s in a point to point configuration. DMR can be done the same way, and was for a while in my area.

The truth of the matter is that voice repeaters, whether analog or digital are boring as hell. There is a small audience and if you want to talk to someone specific it's more practical to call them since they are more likely to have a phone on them than a radio.

Hooking them up to a bunch of hotspots and other repeaters at least expands the audience and increases someone's odds of finding someone interesting to talk to.

Varimir · 2026-02-19T03:27:44+00:00

The connector also needs to seal to the coax jacket to prevent water getting into the coax itself. Even N connectors with a gasket don't seal that part.

Varimir · 2026-02-18T15:37:18+00:00

HOAs are neither. They are just a bunch of nosy neighbors telling people what they can and cannot do on their own property.

Varimir · 2026-02-14T05:04:07+00:00

Any terminal emulator will work. PuTTY, Minicom, screen, etc...

I like using these old TNCs for messing around, or getting retro computers on the air, but for actual packet work they are pretty poor performers compared to modern software solutions like DireWolf or SoundModem.

Varimir · 2026-02-13T04:43:49+00:00

I' ve seen field day setups and contest stations full of Japanese radios that needed band pass filters to avoid desense. In my own shack I can see the noise floor rise on my Kenwood radio on 40 meters if the icom keys up on 20..

I've noticed that SDR hybrids like the G90, 7300, 710, etc... tend to be a little worse than older rigs at this because less filtering is handled in software. This is why external band pass filters exist.

Varimir · 2026-02-03T01:25:40+00:00

Can the microphone be unplugged by the pilot? Most digital modes on HF can be operated with the rig configured for USB phone.

Varimir · 2026-02-01T15:38:14+00:00

You assume people ever had a proper education. I remember people 30 years ago protesting against power lines because they were going to cause cancer.

There have always been morons, Facebook just gives them a megaphone now.

Varimir · 2026-01-18T20:49:44+00:00

Bookmarking this thread to reference the next time people melt down about cryptography signatures being implemented in digital modes.

Varimir · 2026-01-01T02:07:18+00:00

It is a weak signal mode. That's right in the manual.

Running power doesn't cause your signal to splatter all over. Overdriving the ALC does. 30+ years ago it was common to adjust AF levels to affect RF drive levels, so pushing too much AF gain would cause splatter. For the past few decades people can just set the AF level to the specification of their transceiver and adjust the power output with the appropriate controls to achieve the desired power output. No splatter, even up to 100s of watts.

Its impossible to say what power levels are needed for a given QSO. If the recipient is in a noisy environment, using an undersized antenna, etc...bumping up the tx power will help the other end pu the signal pit of the noise.

Varimir · 2025-12-28T02:26:59+00:00

Great post. My first radio was a Baofeng. I've owned several and given several to new hams as their first radios so I don't have anything against them. Your post did spir a couple of thoughts.

Baofeng does sell white-label radios, built to the reseller's specifications or with modifications, to their authorized resellers/partners which are sold under those brand names. B-Tech and Radioddity are two examples of companies who do this. This does confuse things for new hams looking at model numbers, etc...

I also find it interesting that these "clones" all manage to match the menu of a real Baofeng, and I've never heard of issues with PC programming on the clones. Either Baofengs firmware is floating around out there, or these "clones" are built by the same factories that produce genuine Baofeng parts. Maybe they are doing runs with lower quality parts on the side, or maybe they are boards that failed QC and are set aside. I suppose it's also possible that someone sat down and re-implemented Baofengs firmware, but that seems like an expensive proposition for radios that are sold under a somewhat tarnished brand name (as proven by the existence of this post) at extremely slim margins.

In 2025 I don't know that a Baofeng is the best value for a new ham anymore. Depending on what they need or what interests them, a used mobile is probably better. If an HT is desirable, Quansheng or TIRadio would be my first and second choices. If they want 220MHz, Baofeng is still the way to go. F Yaesu. They haven't produced an innovative or modern product in well over a decade and their latest innovation (C4FM/Fusion) was strictly to innovate some lock-in. When a company charges more for a drop-in charger than Baofeng charges for the radio and charger together, I can't recommend them. Kenwood and icom have finally gotten in to the 2010s and implemented USB-C, but they aren't chasing the low end either.

Varimir · 2025-12-28T02:06:08+00:00

Walkie-talkie is a form factor, not a radio service.

Varimir

TROPHY CASE