Amateur (Ham) Radio BS and Callsign Thread!

80m and 40m are moving good..... 20m not much...

 

you are correct. I am really bad with punctuation. No, you are correct I am looking for digital I. was just looking for a place to start.

 

Congrats

 

Check out KM4ACK on YouTube. He's got a lot of good tutorials about digital modes. He used the Raspberry Pi for everything but getting one is only$35. Then you interface with it through your laptop.

If you are decent with wires, you can actually hack into your radio to run APRS, Winlink, and SSTV. You just need access to your mic and PTT. The speaker plug on the back of the radio would also be used. Or buy a cheap handheld and try it that way. Plugs right in to a handheld.

 

First CW contact today! Talk about a mental exercise! A nice and patient guy in Phoenix answered my CQ and a slow pace. We exchanged locations, rigs, a little info, and I called it a day.

 

Greetings all, Well Still waiting on the call sign. Jesh they don't get in a hurry. But, I am wondering if anyone has any thoughts on the qyt Radios. tri-band or quad-band ones around 90 bucks. just kinda wondering about them. yes, they are cheap. The reviews look okay. But thinking I will probably need a tri-band or quad-band antenna. I am now studying for the general class as well. Looks like it will open more stuff.

 

IMO, I think the choice of radio depends on what you are going to do with it. For me with a technician license (good luck on the general test BTW), the VHF/UHF analog bands that I am allowed are like listening to crickets, i.e., little to no activity outside of directed nets. Therefore, I chose a dual band VHF/UHF radio analog with digital DMR. There is way more ham traffic and contact activity on digital in these bands. I can use a DMR repeater or when I have my mobile hotspot w/ me , I can go cross mode to talk on D-Star and Fusion using my DMR radio with contacts across the US and world. For me, analog/digital was the way to go for a mobile radio, and for that DMR digital was cheaper than D-Star or Fusion.

That said, a $90 radio w/o digital, would only be good if I was doing simplex on a trail or if I was close to an FM repeater, and would have only sparse contacts with analog if I had to stick with VHF/UHF. As for HF, I am not sure; maybe someone else can chime in there. Just my two cents.

 

You do get what you pay for the TYT are good entry radios but you will pay a lot more for a brand name one from the big 3 with better quality. We have 3 digital repeaters every one was behind the effort but all we get now are crickets they are underutilized. Our FM repeaters are very popular with a good group of club members. One covers 3 states and parts of SE Canada. If you are with in range of repeaters get on the air and make some noise someone is listening it may take awhile for a numby to become accepted, join a local club. Many DMR radios are mode flexible both analog and digital that maybe a an option for you. Frankly I would be more incline to use an analog radio out in the willywags, with digital it's all or nothing analog will communicate where digital won't. I'm the guy that deals with our club repeaters and It kind of cheeses me that our digital repeaters are not being used, everyone is sitting home with a hot spot to me you may as well be communicating with a computer.

 

I think you reinforced the points I was making an analog FM radio with digital as a way to go. Analog for the assurance in emergency comm situations since there might be more regional FM repeaters or just simplex, and digital to ragchew w/ the larger crowd of hams even if it's thru a repeater or hot spot.

 

I use some lower cost radios but they don't perform as well. I think I've said my peace on lower cost radios.

On another (maybe more important note), we may have more people using analog FM if people responded to check-ins. I'm a bit surprised how seldom a "listening" or "monitoring" call on a repeater gets answered. I answer most that I hear but almost never get one of mine answered. We have expensive repeater systems and expensive radios all over but we don't use them much. It might be that the radio gets turned off/down due to kerchunking. Maybe if you aren't part of the local gang, you don't get as much notice. I am not sure. I just think we could do a better job of being on the answering side of a call.

DMR exposes you to more people and maybe that's why (I hear) it is more popular?

Life is busy and maybe people really just don't have time to answer the radio. I can understand.

 

I sometimes ask why Listen or Standing By.... Just talk.... Me I just put my Call Sign out there... no answer press scan.. I get more response from simplex frequencies. I am an outcast, i dont belong to any clubs, but everyone knows who i am....
My 2m is always on scan.... if i get tired of people just Klunking the system i just turn it OFF.... or be an ass and say "Klunk *callsign* Klunk" just to be funny and acknowledge i know someone did it...

 

The key to repeaters is a strong club or repeater owner, I can almost guarantee some one is listening. If I can I always answer a call, mike fright has a bit to do with it, new hams tend to be afraid of doing something wrong so they don't answer. Not too many people would walk up to someone on the street they didn't know and strike up a conversation so that's part of it also. Be persistent eventually someone will answer and then another will chime in, be proactive. In my area there are a lot of hikers in the mountains on simplex freqs trying to make contacts (summits on the air or SOTA) Trust me with this key up make some noise! As for low cost radios buy what you can afford then work your way up it's "you get what you pay for". I recently gave a TYT 9600 away and programed up a commercial Motorola DMR for my personal DMR radio.

 

For the first time purchaser of a DMR unit, here is a pretty good intro into the technology:

https://youtu.be/0IivogWk31Y

 

Hoping to put a mobile rig in my Gen 3 which has a DMM rail mounting arrangement that uses 1" RAM balls. I am looking at an Anytone 578 but I think it will be way too much weight for the DMM rail.

I wonder if there is any chance Anytone will come up with a remote head solution because I am hoping to mount the radio under the front passenger seat.

Would love to hear about anyone running an Anytone 578 in a Taco.

 

Hey everybody, just got my technician license a few weeks ago. I'm KJ7RGZ up in Renton, WA. Anybody up in my area use ham for their offroad adventures or SOTA stuff?

 

Does that rail mount to the head unit mounts or just to the trim piece?

I’ve had a lot of shit mounted to my EE mount which likely puts more stress on the dash than those track mounts and it’s just fine. I assume that the track mounts would do just as well if they are indeed mounted to the head unit bracket.

I can’t find the anytone specs, but Amazon lists the box as weighing less than 5 pounds. You should be fine to mount it direct to the rail. I don’t know if I would want that much weight on a ram ball. But, I have no justification for not wanting it on a ram ball.

hope that helps.

 

Sadly, just the trim piece. People say you can put 1.95 kg on it, but "not off road". I'm really looking for a proper solution. I don't want things going flying if there was an accident.

People have taken the Anytone 578 apart and there seems to be a high speed ribbon cable involved. I doubt you could extend that bus for several feet without creating a lot of crosstalk.

You can just use a bolt with a spacer on the DMM and EE, as far as I know. Don't need to use a ball.

I might have to go to number two on my preferred equipment list - FTM-400XDR.

 

I'm pretty sure a remote head 578 is in the works from them.

 

The 578 remote head has been confirmed by a number of youtubers; it is supposedly wireless between the unit and head - bluetooth

 

I've tried searching this thread for information on hood mounts. I have Cali raised bed mount with my CB antenna. I have another mount but the NMO antenna base is too big for my other side. Currently, running a temporary mag mount on the roof four dual vhf/uhf, but I off-road and live in a city where I'd rather not have antennas hight up. I am looking at the Comet rs840, what other NMO compatible hood mounds would folks recommend? Should I look at SO/PL 259 mounts and antennas instead? I have a 2015.