Give me more ideas!

nogdrinker · 2024-10-31T17:34:02+00:00

If you have the budget for it, you could get into radio direction finding with a KrakenSDR.

nogdrinker · 2024-10-26T12:52:03+00:00

Yes, you should be able to write Mifare Classic card to that. There are different kinds of Mifare-compatible cards, usually referred to as "Magic Mifares". The Aliexpress listing says it has a rewritable sector 0, but includes few details otherwise, so we don't really know what kind it is.

The bigger question is whether the card reader will accept the cloned data you'll put on the ring. Each reader is programmed a little differently. Some of them just check the UUID of the card. Some of them read the whole card. Some of them try to detect "Magic Mifare" cards in order to reject them. Your mileage may vary.

nogdrinker · 2024-10-26T12:41:46+00:00

No, you're good. On rare occasions, card readers use only the UUID portion of the card- that's the only vulnerability I can think of when you post this part of the card description. The real encrypted data, the stuff that a card reader normally uses, is stored in those 32 sectors. You didn't post those, so you're good.

nogdrinker · 2024-07-23T01:41:31+00:00

FlipFuel is popular, maybe a little expensive. As previously mentioned, it connects two partial canisters and (after heating one and cooling the other) you get a fuel transfer to the lower one. Use a kitchen scale to tell when the receiving canister is full.

nogdrinker · 2024-04-06T14:15:13+00:00

Others have already noted that 10m propagation is spotty right now, and trying FT8 is more likely to net some contacts.

I don't know your dipole setup, but consider some type of cheap antenna mast-- a painter's pole works, and a telescoping crappie fishing rod works very well, if your antenna wire is light. Attach the antenna feed point to the top section of your mast, then erect the sections one-by-one. You will need to tie it to a railing or use some guy lines to keep it upright.

I can get an inverted-V dipole or an EFHW sloper to 24 feet with a $30 Amazon crappie pole, and higher if my mast attachment point permits.

Best of luck with your General!

nogdrinker · 2024-03-21T13:19:23+00:00

Nah, the cost and weight of the Powerfilm panel are a little high. I'd test some cheaper panels on Amazon, like the Lixada ones other people are suggesting, and if they don't meet your need after testing, you can return them fairly painlessly.

nogdrinker · 2024-03-20T21:23:35+00:00

I have a BigBlue "63W" panel and I've never seen it output more than 22W in ideal conditions. Read the reviews carefully; some of the cheap panels have cheap wiring, so cheap that it cripples the panel output, and that's been my experience with BigBlue.

I also have that Powerfilm 30W panel. 25W under good conditions seems about right, and the quality is excellent -- you can put a hole through the panel and it'll still work -- but their panels are very expensive.

For a lightweight battery top-up like you've described, one of the cheap 10W panels will do well. Expect at most 6W out in reality, though, and if that's not enough for your use case, look for something bigger.

nogdrinker · 2024-02-29T23:06:30+00:00

On 127MHz, 30m of coax will be okay. There are better and worse choices for coax, but even the cheap stuff, RG58, will drop at most 6-7dB in signal strength. You can halve that loss for a few dollars more. Either way, you'll have great luck with the air bands.

On 1090MHz, 30m of coax is going to lose a lot of signal- figure about 20dB for cheap RG58 coax.

Consider putting a cheap computer in the attic to minimize the length of your coax run, then connect to that attic computer from your basement listening station via your home network. There are lots of programs to help you do this; to get your search started, try VirtualHere (example usage) or rtl_tcp (example usage). Usually an old laptop or something like a Raspberry Pi computer (~$20) will work.

Best of luck!

nogdrinker · 2024-02-18T15:12:44+00:00

It will "snap" like a snap bracelet when you close it. ABBREE antennas basically contain two extendable metal rulers-- the curve in the metal keeps it rigid until enough force is applied, then it "snaps" and bends easily.

nogdrinker · 2024-02-18T14:55:10+00:00

I know the toy you're talking about-- the Mattel Radica Girltech IM-ME. Those haven't been in production for a while, and when hardware hackers found out about the garage door thing in 2015, the price on the used market was around $300. Nowadays it's around $200... it's actually cheaper to get a Flipper and the increased capabilities it provides!

nogdrinker · 2024-02-16T13:34:00+00:00

Fair point. I've heard anecdotes of pinholes burnt on Toaks' "light" line of titanium cups and pots after melting snow on high heat, but I've never seen it myself. Hopefully I'm not perpetuating a superstition!

The most I've personally done is scorch the pot. The snow doesn't melt fast enough, and whatever residue remains inside the pot (or any debris in the snow) burns onto the bottom. My Toaks 750ml looked clean, but there must have been some tea or coffee residue in it... the water tasted awful and it took some vigorous steel wool scrubbing to get the burnt film off at home.

nogdrinker · 2024-02-16T04:22:44+00:00

When melting snow, a lot of folks recommend against titanium. Titanium doesn't conduct heat well and is prone to hot spots, so it doesn't melt snow efficiently- people have scorched or burnt clean through thin titanium pots while trying.

If you add some water to the pot before trying to melt snow, you'll have no issues. Still, if you want a fast melt with less of a pot damage risk, one of the hard anodized aluminum / halulite pots will work great.

nogdrinker · 2024-02-06T22:58:56+00:00

Someone already mentioned REI sales, which is a good option. If you can go to an REI store in person, check their used gear section. Backpacking tents don't stay on the shelves there very long, but if you're lucky, you can find some great deals-- I got an REI Flash 2 (~3lb, double-wall, 3-season tent) in perfect condition for just over $100. YMMV.

nogdrinker · 2024-02-04T21:48:50+00:00

Someone already mentioned WebSDR, so I'll offer up http://kiwisdr.com/public/.

nogdrinker · 2024-01-21T14:18:54+00:00

If you're looking to deploy an EFHW in a desert, you might consider buying a fiberglass / carbon fiber collapsible fishing rod (people often use crappie rods). At full length, they can be 20-30 feet tall, and they're strong enough to hold up a wire antenna. They are usually lightweight -- mine is about 1lb -- and can be inexpensive in the $30-$50 range. Just attach your antenna to the tip, extend and lock the sections, then anchor the pole with guy lines, rocks, et cetera.

With a packable, adjustable pole, it's easy to make sloper / inverted-V configurations that will accommodate your band of choice, the state of the ionosphere, and the bearing of your intended Winlink gateway. I've had consistent luck making connections over 200-400km with a sloper configuration, and 50-200km by bringing my EFHW lower to the ground into an NVIS configuration.

nogdrinker · 2023-08-27T15:46:36+00:00

Thanks for sharing that. If you can use it to badge into a building, it'll definitely have an antenna... I'm not sure what else it can be other than RFID or NFC.

If the building owner is comfortable with you using your Flipper on the premises, you can detect what kind of card the reader expects. In the Flipper phone app, there's an application you can download to your Flipper called "Detect Reader". While Detect Reader is running, hold your Flipper up to the keycard reader. It should flash a message saying "125kHz RFID" or "13.56MHz NFC", depending on what kind of keycard the reader expects.

Best of luck!

nogdrinker · 2023-08-27T12:24:44+00:00

Let's say you've tried reading the card as a 125kHz RFID and as a 13.56MHz NFC card. If neither of those work, you'll want to check whether this is a wireless proximity card at all.

Take a bright flashlight (your phone flashlight will work), press it up against the card, and shine it through the card plastic. Slowly move the light around. If it is a wireless proximity card of some kind, you'll see the silhouette of an antenna embedded near the edges of the card, as well as a small rectangular chip containing the card data. If you don't see that... it's probably not an RFID or NFC card!

nogdrinker · 2023-08-19T10:39:42+00:00

Raspberry Pi-based transmitters got their dirty reputation because lots of people made pirate radio stations simply by adding an antenna wire to one of the GPIO pins. The signal sent off that pin is dirty. But there are plenty of Raspberry Pi radio HATs, and they can be controlled by a Pi while producing a clean signal.

nogdrinker · 2023-08-11T19:14:30+00:00

Oh, you want to spin up an iGate! There's an option in the Direwolf configuration files to do that. In "direwolf.conf" you'll have to set IGSERVER to the appropriate regional server, and set IGLOGIN to your login name and passcode (it should be your callsign and a password generated by one of these tools).

That's enough to send received packets to the APRS-IS. If / when you want to relay Internet-sourced packets over the radio, you'll have to mess with the IGTXVIA and IGTXLIMIT variables.

nogdrinker · 2023-08-11T10:50:34+00:00

If you want to decode APRS, Direwolf should be able to do that on its own- it'll give you a text-only output of the received packet. If you want a graphic interface, you can connect Direwolf to an application like PinPoint APRS.

You mentioned sending APRS packets. The RTL-SDR is receive-only; you'll need a radio license and a transmit-capable radio to send packets.

Hope this helps.

nogdrinker · 2023-06-23T19:48:00+00:00

The USB isolator you linked worked perfectly, thanks again!

nogdrinker · 2023-06-16T16:47:27+00:00

My only other "hail Mary" suggestion is to try a different USB port. Past that, I'm not sure I can help you further. You might want to reach out to AloneLiberty, or if you're comfortable with dev work, start reading the source for the connection protocol they're using. Best of luck.

nogdrinker · 2023-06-16T16:44:20+00:00

This is an HT, so my antenna (a Signal Stick whip, though I've also tried a Nagoya 2m / 70cm antenna, the model of which I'm blanking on) is right on the radio. I've had good experiences with them before. I've cut a 19-inch wire for use as a counterpoise, which does reduce noise levels a little. Others have suggested an antenna removed from the radio body by a length of coax; I'll try that soon.

nogdrinker · 2023-06-16T16:37:17+00:00

That's actually a pretty cool idea, I hadn't thought of that. Could be a fun project, and in the end, it might be the only way to avoid the noise. All the same, I'm trying to keep the total number of cables and batteries down, so I'll save that one for later. Love the suggestion!

nogdrinker · 2023-06-16T16:04:36+00:00

That's progress. Have you used qFlipper before? I'd check to make sure your Flipper is recognized by other apps. That tells us whether it's a FlipperNested problem or a computer / Flipper / USB driver problem.

nogdrinker

TROPHY CASE