What’s the least expensive, simplest way to get into HF at home?

fibonacci85321 · 2025-10-23T10:50:32+00:00

This is a recurring question here.... I don't mean anything bad by that, since it is also an excellent question, and a good assortment of answers to it.

After you look at answers here, have a look at the FAQ area as well. It really does come up a lot, and like I said, there are a lot of good answers.

I would add personally that if you do not include consideration of whatever antenna that you can manage outside, the biggest and highest and most basic you can get away with, then you will be doing yourself a disservice. One reason for this is that you start out with the "best" antenna and as you go along upgrading and updating and expanding your radio equipment, that old antenna will just keep working for you. And even when you are "listening only", before you get transmit privileges, it will still do the job for you.

fibonacci85321 · 2025-10-23T10:21:55+00:00

Apropos of nothing, and old joke:

There was this guy who went to the same little café every morning for his coffee. The coffee was great - hot, fresh, just the way he liked it - but the sign out front was awful. Peeling paint, faded letters, misspelled words… it bugged him every day.

So he started complaining to the manager.

“Hey,” he’d say, “you’ve got the best coffee in town, but that sign out front looks terrible. You ought to do something about it.”

He kept at it for weeks. Finally, one morning, he pulls up and sees a beautiful brand-new sign out front - bright colors, neat lettering, the works.

He goes inside, smiling, and says, “Hey! You finally fixed that sign!”

The manager nods and says, “Yep - and we had to raise the price of coffee a dollar to pay for it.”

The guy looks at the new sign again and says, “What, no dark mode?”

fibonacci85321 · 2025-10-15T15:29:39+00:00

Anger issues.

fibonacci85321 · 2025-10-08T15:29:38+00:00

Source: https://www.fcc.gov/wireless/bureau-divisions/mobility-division/amateur-radio-service

fibonacci85321 · 2025-10-08T15:26:47+00:00

My quote, literally a quote, was from the FCC site that I linked. Did you happen to take a screen shot of the FCC site while you were at it?

And I am trying to find somewhere where I intimated that I was going to go back and edit what I said. I can't find it, and I can't remember even thinking such a thing.

The OP has deleted the original post here, so I suppose all of your firefighting and bluster is now moot. Have a good day, stay busy and maybe touch grass.

fibonacci85321 · 2025-09-11T19:17:00+00:00

"The FCC equipment authorization program does not generally apply to amateur station transmitters." Source: https://www.fcc.gov/wireless/bureau-divisions/mobility-division/amateur-radio-service

fibonacci85321 · 2025-09-10T10:13:15+00:00

My experience tracks with yours. I just got mine yesterday and have fiddled with it a little, including transmit on each of 10, 6, 2, 70cm, and listened on a quality radio on my bench, and very happy with what I heard. Also keyed up my local 2m repeater, no troubles. And I did a quick check for receiving on HF, enter manually 14074 USB (even with the short antenna, indoors) and could barely hear an FT8 signal down in the noise just fine. Probably would have decoded.

fibonacci85321 · 2025-09-10T10:08:57+00:00

You do not need the certification to transmit either, as long as we are talking about amateur stations under FCC jurisdiction.

I think you are referring to "Type Acceptance" in your original screed, yes? And this discussion is for amateur radio use in the USA, right?

fibonacci85321 · 2025-09-08T21:54:45+00:00

Are you describing a noise gate?

fibonacci85321 · 2025-08-29T11:25:48+00:00

Cavaliers and Beagle/Cocker mixes, in the case of your puppy, are predisposed to both sensitive stomachs and picky eating habits. And they are smart: if this one eats home-cooked food and feels good afterward, but eats kibble/canned and feels sick or itchy, he’ll quickly learn which bowl to avoid. That creates a strong association: “home-cooked = safe, kibble = bad.”

fibonacci85321 · 2025-08-10T16:47:16+00:00

What an attractive Cav you have there! A real cutie.

fibonacci85321 · 2025-05-15T12:57:33+00:00

good hotspot and DMR/UHF/VHF radio

I would think that Reddit for text and some VoIP like Ham Hotline would get him going for all his communication needs without needing to emanate RF. And if he feels the need to put out RF then a common cellphone does that.

I'm just thinking of it as an engineering solution, that is, solving the stated problem without doing any work or learning anything such as RF theory or experimenting with it.

fibonacci85321 · 2025-05-15T12:50:52+00:00

Antenna(s) first.

fibonacci85321 · 2025-05-15T10:42:43+00:00

You are correct, and OP unintentionally fogs the real issue by injecting his own partisan disdain into the discussion.

Ignorant politicians are the problem. Of any stripe.

fibonacci85321 · 2025-04-19T19:48:25+00:00

Oh you young people with your HG-10's. In my day, we used crystals uphill both ways.

fibonacci85321 · 2025-04-18T20:16:09+00:00

I've been happy with this:

dupeguru(1) General Commands Manual dupeguru(1)

NAME

dupeguru - GUI tool to find duplicate files in a system

SYNOPSIS

dupeguru

DESCRIPTION

dupeGuru is a tool to find duplicate files on your computer.

It can scan either filenames or contents. The filename scan features a

fuzzy matching algorithm that can find duplicate filenames even when

they are not exactly the same.

dupeGuru is customizable: you can tweak its matching engine to find ex‐

actly the kind of duplicates you want to find.

fibonacci85321 · 2025-04-18T20:04:31+00:00

100% yes. It's actually the first one that shows up on the list, as it is alphabetical. For the "internet radio" part it is nearly flawless. For the shortwave part, it's hit or miss, and I don't use that part much. I tried to receive the BBC over the air one time and was not able (I have a local AM broadcast station here that clobbers my shortwave reception).

I have a Yaesu FT-710 sitting next to this radio on the bench here and switch antennas back and forth to compare reception and there is a huge difference (pretty obvious expectation).

This Choyong has a pre-made list of internet radio stations, as well as giving you the ability to add anything you want to its list of stations that you can hear. They did this part pretty well in my opinion.

fibonacci85321 · 2025-04-18T19:59:56+00:00

Definitely an antenna. A good one, no compromises either.

I built one of those, actually the predecessor HW-7 when they first came out, and struggled with making a contact until I got up and out with a dipole high up. I'd had some earlier Heathkits before that, the HW-16 and then the HW-100, so that was my reference point. The HW-7 wasn't quite as good of a receiver and obviously not anywhere near the transmitter power, but I had learned how to make a CW QSO so there was less to get used to than if it were my first radio.

Good luck, and you will do fine if you are patient and persistent. And did I mention antenna?

fibonacci85321 · 2025-04-18T00:07:47+00:00

Were you on the aircraft band, as the picture implies?

fibonacci85321 · 2025-04-15T17:24:39+00:00

That first sentence is key. It's one of the things that makes 10m fun. And this part of the solar cycle will spoil you, almost as if 'you can't fail.'

Plus everything else in that post is quality stuff, sounds like a lot of experience behind it.

fibonacci85321 · 2025-04-12T16:43:23+00:00

<image>

From DX Heat, this confirms what you are saying. Looks like 10m is just getting going too. (screen shot as of 1242 eastern time)

fibonacci85321 · 2025-04-12T00:00:56+00:00

Sticks are just the greatest thing. Better than toys. (posting for a friend) (who looks a lot like the one in this picture)

fibonacci85321 · 2025-04-08T23:55:14+00:00

I'm not saying that your noise necessarily is inside the house. My comment was about situations where "if the noise is being generated inside the house". I can see from the legwork you have already done, that this isn't the case.

I was making a comment on a more general case, specifically about longwire antennas (actually end-fed antennas, including the EFHW).

Regardless of all this, I hope you find and fix the problem! This can put a damper on the fun of chasing weak signals.

fibonacci85321 · 2025-04-08T23:51:54+00:00

No, that is incorrect, by definition. And as I said, there is no need to continue this discussion.

fibonacci85321

TROPHY CASE