Amateur (Ham) Radio BS and Callsign Thread!

it’s not like GPS or sat phones where there are always a few “birds” in view while in geosynchronous orbit. These aprs sats are in low earth orbit and pass over head a few times a day/week for maybe 5-10 minutes. But there are cheap apps you can get that tell you when and work offline if you download a few days or week worth of telemetry prior to losing cell coverage. They also don’t operate anywhere near 100% of the time because many are cube sats and all have other missions that take priority. With all that said, I have sent a text to my wife via satellite and aprs when I had no cell coverage and no terrestrial aprs service. It does work.

http://www.aprs.org/astars.html

 

Authentic Genuine Nagoya UT-72 Super Loading Coil 19-Inch Magnetic Mount VHF/UHF (144/430Mhz) Antenna PL-259 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B016SIJX28/ref=cm_sw_r_other_apa_i_pYIqEbDJ3THE4




And I also vote for going with a good dual band radio. 2m/70cm should cover your repeater needs.

I use my tm-v71a daily.



And @BenMara gotta get on! I've a pipeline into your neck of the woods every night in 40 if you're still in the NC / returned.

 

Sounds normal.. Soon.. Almost done working on car, and I will Make and get a HF wire into the trees

NC is close but im in Charleston SC

 

OK guys, need your help. I may very likely volunteer for "weatherman" at our local offroad races this season, and would be running a VHF base station. My question for you field day folks is what to do for a power supply? There's a fair amount of radio traffic throughout the race day, and my truck battery isn't enough from my experience without idling it unnecessarily.

 

you can pick up agm deep cycles for pretty cheap. $50 for a 35ah on Amazon. Figure out what the true amp draw is on receive, add in what it is on TX at the actual wattage you need for event, and figure out AH needs. I went big and put a deep cycle behind my rear passenger seat and installed a solar panel lol. Or at first I just had an 80 watt folding panel I’d setup to help reduce the battery discharge.

 

This might be a good excuse to toss a solar setup on my truck. Weatherman seems to have a lot of idle time, then surges of radio traffic which would allow the solar to help replenish the battery, and sitting in the sunny ass Utah desert, there'd be a decent amount of solar available.

Case in point:

 

Here’s mine!

 

Looks like the same renology kit I was planning on using.

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-northstar-agm-battery-voltage-booster-upgrade.604478/

 

The 100 watt solar panel was $79, not Renology but I’m sure it’s all from the same place lol. It produces 4-7.5 amps at 14.2 volts in the winter AZ sun.

 

Not necessarily a battery voltage boosting need, more of a "I don't feel like running my truck all day" thing.

It does look like a solar panel setup and a small reserve battery could be the ticket. I don't feel like springing for dual batteries otherwise this would be a good excuse for it.

 

Well, I passed my technician exam tonight. Now just waiting on the FCC to process the application and get my call sign. I fell like I still don't have a clue about a lot of it. lol

 

How much dc supply current draw is there in a typical mobile dualband transceiver?

 

my Yaesu FTM400 pulls 2.7 amps at 5 watts, 4.8 at 20 watts, and around 12 transmitting on 50 watts. Standby (receive) is 0.49 amps with volume turned down and just over 1 amp with speakers turned up and receiving a signal.

 

^^ thanks useful info.

I'm gonna tie in my radio to my solar/SLA (200 W, 200 A-hr) setup.

 

665......Congrats on passing the test.

 

Thinking about getting a GMRS license too. Anyone use GMRS?

 

It's becoming more popular for offroading up here. 15w mobile with external antenna works well for that group

 

Guessing this may already be a topic of hot debate, but how much do you lose by going to a lip mount on the hood compared to a mag mount on the roof? Obviously the permanent hole in the roof is better due to ground plane and antenna height, but wondering if the ground plane is the driver or if the antenna height is. Thoughts?

 

I felt the same way after I passed the test. I joined the local club and the ARRL, the book the ARRL sends you with membership has a lot of information, I have more clues now.