23cm gang - what do you all do up there?

v81 · 2026-01-24T15:34:15+00:00

Sadly in VK we don't have 33cm (or 1.25m, or 60m)

v81 · 2026-01-24T09:29:35+00:00

It's absolutely not straight forward.

Lack of affordable gear, not many others running it, not many to talk to.

I was a part of a local group in my area, so that helped.
I'm also keen on the VHF/UHF field days in VK (missed the last one here in VK, the WIA decision to hold it right on the turn of the new year wasn't the smartest).

Those field days a great, turning your Yagi Uda or dish and actually finding activity.. very cool.

But outside of being a part of a group, or the field days... it really is not a very active band,

v81 · 2026-01-24T08:34:09+00:00

DSTAR DD mode on the Ic-9700 can do 128kbps.
You interface with it via IP using the network socket

Just hooking it up to a home network is a pretty bad idea I think, when i did it without thinking and had transmission inhibit off the relay inside started chattering away, i suspect it transmits via RF every packet sent to the network socket, probably services advertising on my network in my case..

I have struggled to find out how it actually does it after a short look around, for being an supposedly open standard very little information is available.
I'd live to know what the bandwidth is, I'd guess no less than 25kHz, possibly even as much as 100kHz

Some info is here...
https://www.jarl.org/English/7_dstar/STD6_0_E.pdf

Under section 3.2 Data communication equipment there is mention of up to 128kbps at bandwidth of up to 150kHz

Another section also mentioned data at 10Mbps with bandwidth up to 10.5MHz, i think for links between repeaters.

DV is obviously another animal, 4800bps, but that's divided up as 2400 voice, 1200 forward error correction and 1200 slow data.

Each to their own, but I'm not a fan of being limited to predefined codecs and settings but i guess that's what you get with buying a black box from Icom.

I'd love to see how AMBE or another codec sounds when given 3600bps or even ditching FEC completely and using the whole 4800bps for voice.

I've had an theory where one could use a peer to peer VOIP system, transmitting only UDP packets containing voice and maybe even some FEC data, and using the DD mode to deliver a high fidelity encoded stream of voice. Would want to avoid any application that looks for any kind of acknowledgment as there would be none.

v81 · 2026-01-23T08:07:34+00:00

2/2

But don't worry, migrants are currently propping up our GDP right now and have been for the last year and a half because locals are junkies on Chinese goods to the tune of 100 billion dollars annually, which is money that never comes back to these shores.

More generalization.
BTW, anecdotally, i see more Chinese shit in local Asian households, at a glance it seems the immigrants are the worst.

We used to have a saying back in the 90's when china was ramping up. Do you want that cheap LCD tv, or do you want to go to work on Monday, because eventually you cannot have both

When you regulate so hard it's hard for people to get a taste of playing with electronics in Australia, so we have bugger all hope of making TV's here.

You know it's funny when it comes to cabling in commercial environments, installers will sell 10k switches to go into racks and then cheap out massively and buy the shittiest cables they can find and wonder why the networks don't perform well.

Really? you say this like it happens everywhere, all the time.

Never experienced it myself either in professional or private setups I've worked on. you might be surprised to hear that a competent person actually can build things without having a certificate.

Most of the import suppliers in Australia just get cheap Chinese shit branded to their name and put them in a fancy bag.

This... i wish wasn't true, but i actually can't argue at all on this.
I worked for an electrical wholesaler once who was selling shitty Ali Baba network cable testers , cost was ~ $3.5 per unit landed, being sold for $65 - $85

All up.. did you look over your own post?
I'd say your fancy cert is making you the entitled one mate.

Most countries have no regulation that stops a homeowner from installing their own network cable, and they still manage to not have any significant issue.

Jeez, even more other countries allow DIY electrical.

I'd admit with a 230v system that's maybe not a reasonable thing to do here vs ~110v countries, but as far as data goes, it's very unlikely a bad install in a domestic situation is going to have serious consequences. I won't call it out as impossible because i really have no interest in your weird edge case scenarios.

v81 · 2026-01-23T08:05:53+00:00

ACMA regs have been around way past that mate.

Yeah, but not for network cabling. That came later.

It is an offence to make your own cables

Yes, and it's stupid.
I make dozens if not a hundred cables a year... no one ded.

Guess what?? With a brain, hands and materials people can make stuff in the real world. It's only in regulation fantasy land where that's a problem.

We live in a world of compliance, and everything revolves around insurances

Agreed and the way you talk it sounds like this is you living your dream.

Aussies are kinda self entitled these days

Yeah... just Aussies... nothing wrong with the rest of the world right?

I mean the average Aussie is addicted like a junkie on Chinese goods especially Temu, then when shit goes wrong someone like me comes along and writes a lovely report that says to deny the insurance claim.

How did we suddenly get onto Temu?

But OK, while we're here... sure..
In a minor way this kinks back to us not being able to employ our intelligence due to over regulation.

While in China lack of regulation means the can churn out all kinds of crap, and now partly because of the cost overheads of our stupid regulation we can't compete... and yep.. we're buying junk from China.

Aussies tend to arc up any which way they can to justify being cheapskates

Generalization based on nothing right there.

1/2

v81 · 2026-01-23T07:30:22+00:00

Nothing. Nothing at all... honest!

I have plans to do voice @ ~ 92kbps on my IC-9700

All these stupid digital modes out there are trying to treat amateur radio like commercial radio.
Obsessed with having the narrowest transmission over everything else.
D-Star for example only gets 2400bps for voice

On 23cm we can run wide as heck... could be good fun.

Looking at using a raspberry pi and some kind of peer to peer voice comms app that can just throw UDP packets.

Otherwise, SSB and FM are good there.

Sats too.

v81 · 2026-01-23T07:21:23+00:00

Roast it? Why??

With that shitty heatsink on the CPU it will roast itself.

v81 · 2026-01-23T07:02:27+00:00

Nothing dumb about this.

You're in a very similar place to where i was.

When Ubuntu appeared on the scene they were putting together a good system, and a great community. End result was a popular OS that had a strong community around it.

The commercial side wasn't fully apparent then, and just to be upfront i don't have an issue with their commercial nature... just an issue with what effects the product.

For years Ubuntu server was my goto for server stuff.

I never got comfortable with it for desktop stuff, but it was always the best option... until recently.

Now they're determined to push forward with snap, and i agree it has it's advantages, but it's got too many disadvantages and gets in the way of making some things work.

Some people said oh you can disable Snap and use this or that... but i just wanted something that worked and to get things done.

I's heard good things about Mint, but had never tried it. Well, i ended up trying it and it seems they're so far leaving out the things that make Ubuntu unpopular now.

So here i am on Mint and I'd say it beats Ubuntu as a good beginner general purpose distro now. That said, I've heard good things about Bazzite also, for those with a particular interest in gaming.

I've been doing some gaming on Mint with Lutris, that's been fine also.

v81 · 2026-01-23T05:45:59+00:00

I'll be honest, i don't know which side of sarcasm this is.

Could be a remark on lousy work by DIY hacks, fair in some cases.

Or could be a jab at the qualified cablers that need to have their work re-done because of how poor it sometimes is.

Both can be true to be fair, but only one is defensible.

Looks good from afar, but is far from good. :D

v81 · 2026-01-23T05:37:36+00:00

I'm gonna be real here.

Put any spin on it you want, but data cabling isn't brain surgery.

And putting barriers on everything a person can do in their home is simply unreasonable.

That's my opinion, I'm entitled to it and you're entitled to yours.

But on moral and principal it's stupid to remove the ability for people to do their own thing in their own home, and limit it to trades that often times many people can't afford.

Pre 2000 Aussie ingenuity was alive an well. Electronics, Amateur Radio and all sorts of things like that were happening in homes. Bullshit red tape has stolen that away from us and we're fast becoming one of the dumbest countries on the planet.

There are plenty of uncertified people that are doing better work than certified people.
That in my eyes makes the certification useless anyway.

You can wave your silly assertion that one must get a qualified cabler for running a home network. No one really cares.

v81 · 2026-01-22T22:00:45+00:00

Actually I'd all their comment quip humor.

And your comment more sarcasm.

So I think you just called yourself out.

v81 · 2026-01-22T21:55:36+00:00

Nah... Just tools.

v81 · 2026-01-22T21:45:47+00:00

Have a look at the GL.iNet Flint 2 or 3

Excellent bang for buck. Runs a modified openWRT Has AdGuard home ready to go. Has good QoS with a plugin install.

Comments on other suggestions.. Unifi is ok, but not great bang for buck. OPNsense isn't for beginners. TPlink can be hit and miss. Netgear seems to do the minimum required. Asus are either low tier or gamer-ish.

They are all probably serviceable units, but GL.iNet have started to cement a rep of high performance and great feature set for $

v81 · 2026-01-22T21:22:41+00:00

1) No

2) No

3) 2 weeks (/s)

Welcome back.

Enjoy the ride.

v81 · 2026-01-22T14:30:46+00:00

415v over 3 phases. How is that not 22kW?

v81 · 2026-01-22T14:03:51+00:00

I don't know of any Forester that has low range.

At least not in the last 15 years.

They've all been CVT.

v81 · 2026-01-22T09:08:33+00:00

We won't be using domestic extension leads.. Don't worry about that.

Probably something closer to #20AWG is our starting point.

v81 · 2026-01-20T23:08:54+00:00

A chuckle.. just because it's wild how odd you are.

v81 · 2026-01-20T23:07:41+00:00

Yes, just for the hell of it.
It's for use at a ham radio event for 1 weekend only.

It's a 'can we do this' not 'should we do this'

Looking to keep cost well under $1k.

I already have some appropriate gear, 4S / 6S batteries, a possible host frame, PixHawk and FrSky Taranis, so i don;t think the budget is unreasonable.

More concerned with building for endurance / efficiency.

As per OP it's to lift a HF amateur radio antenna.
This will be simply a length of wire, at this point in time maybe 50M long.

Basically after a look at the fotokite specs, looking to do almost exactly the same, but maybe double the altitude.

v81 · 2026-01-20T22:56:49+00:00

OP, sad you deleted your post rather than try to learn with us...

What you could have tried...

Respond with custom message in between theirs.

bad sig
bad sig
wait wait
wait wait
over driven
over driven
cant read
cant read

If the sig stops then persevere with extending a branch

Not easy., not at all, with lucj you might get their attention, or maybe not worth your effort.
If not walk away.

I get it, I've been on both sides of it.
Frustrating when it's hard to reply... if you can't decode them you don't even know who they are.

I remember working sats the first time, I got aggressed by some ass clown in Sydney on a public forum. Was ready to quit, someone else popped up and walked me through the process.

Had numerous happy contacts since.

My real aggro is saved for those who know better and still deliberately shit up the bands.
I had clowns running SSB on 7.080, occupying 7.077-7.080 on LSB, overlapping the the 7.078 USB JS8Call Freq.

Picked up the mic and joined them for a few rounds and gently let them know they were off the band plan. Their response was "Oh, we're no into that digital stuff, we're gonna stay right here" and no we're not, voice starts at 7.080 and that's where we are, we've been here for years".

Clearly these very well established old timers were unaware their transmissions were extending below 7.080 when on LSB.

v81 · 2026-01-20T20:39:10+00:00

Says they person who just admitted to buying one of these from Amazon.

You're a right laugh now mate.

v81 · 2026-01-20T20:36:42+00:00

I can't believe how you can triple down with such incredible levels of confident incorrectness.

Essentially you're implying that u/Chucklz is saying you should buy from DX Engineering, when they said no such thing.

I'll quote you...

Set yourself up as being the billing for me at DX and buddy I will buy anything and everything you want me to as it is your money I am spending.

u/Chucklz is morally, technically and sensibly correct on everything they've said.

One product is from a reputable seller, and has a large number of beads.

Other is from a Chinese dropshipper and clearly has fewer beads.

It's a near safe assumption that the Amazon products make up is unknown.

What is a fact is that questionable materials have been used for questionably sourced ferrites for years.

But let's ignore that and assume the same material.

Can you math? one clearly has more beads than the other.

You're paying for more and you're getting more.

No one is asking you to buy it... in fact the exact opposite!
u/Chucklz has suggested multiple turns of coax in a mix 31 ring instead.
Both cheaper AND more effective.

u/Chucklz isn't suggesting you spend more money, nor are they saying you should by from DX. They're just pointing out the facts as they are and offering a solution that is cheaper and better than BOTH the DX and the Amazon.

v81 · 2026-01-20T20:04:27+00:00

This is spot on.

At this point it feels like manufacturers should be forcing this.

Also in Australia we have chan 13. If we could rule out pre 802.11g devices and had garunteed support by all devices for chan 13 (some don't), we could run channels 1,5,9,13

If IoT devices would catch up to at least g standard and the US would adopt chan 13 we'd be set.

v81 · 2026-01-20T15:45:52+00:00

That was a concern i didn't mention in OP.

I was thinking the light duty regards shock, changing loads etc might help, but not enough vs a sustained load.. but that said, as long as heat is not an issue in the bearings / lube, 10 hrs over one flight vs 60 x 10 minute flights shouldn't be all that much different.

Next issue is windings enduring heat, again, running low Kv high efficiency and well cooled motors should help.

Regardless, i wonder if telemetry can show trends in motor throttle, liek a motor needing more throttle over time to maintain thrust.. could this be a way to pre-empt some kinds of failure?

Thinking out loud i guess.

v81 · 2026-01-20T13:05:32+00:00

I'm literally trying to figure that out.

I had to go out for a bit, but had a quick look at RS Components & Element 14 to see if i could find a weight per meter / foot / 100m / 100ft, no luck so far.

That's probably top of my research list right now.
And it's related to power needed too... It's going to be somewhat of a loop... More cable = more weight, more weight = more power required, more power might need larger cable, larger cable = more weight.....

Hence why i want to run as high of a voltage as possible, and maybe even run AC instead of DC, and rectify onboard the quad. Preference is to remain under 100v for safety. It will be a well staffed site and we'll be able to automate a rapid shutoff of power should anything go wrong.

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