Amateur (Ham) Radio BS and Callsign Thread!

Thanks for the links

 

Thanks for the link, im going to try again this week. I know I'll eventually get it working.

 

As of yesterday afternoon.....

CQ CQ CQ DE W9ZEB/AE W9ZEB/AE W9ZEB/AE PSE K

 

Congrats on your extra!

 

Thanks

 

It's been over 2 weeks and still haven't got my callsign. They said it would take around 10 days...

 

Business days, plus we just had a holiday weekend... that always adds a week to anything government!

 

Dang...

 

Hillary has it but it probably got deleted.

 

Looking for a good mount for my handheld Baofeng, and maybe an antennae that doesn't hinder my clearance in the parking garage.. What do you all recommend?

 

NMO on the roof or NMO mag mount. You can just take the antenna off from the NMO. Or make a mount off your bed rail, depending on what wave antenna, you'll have about 20" of the antenna above the roof line for a 5/8.

Can't help you on the mounting part. I just put my HT in the cupholder by the console.

 

On 2nd thought, you could just put the radio in the storage spot to the right of the steering wheel. Just get the mic for it and hang the mic whereever. That way all you do it just hold the mic.

 

For holding the radio... Look at the Lido Cup holder Mounts.
http://www.lidomounts.com/catalog/item/6453531/10154768.htm

I second the recommendation for a Speaker Mic, which you can clip on your seatbelt, so you don't have to monkey with the radio while driving.

For an antenna, one option is to do something like this....


* Mount: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MEA54NM?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00
* Antenna:

$47 Comet SBB-1 2M/70cm Dual Band Flexible Mobile Antenna (PL259)

http://www.amazon.com/Comet-SBB-1-F...TF8&qid=1455890799&sr=1-1&keywords=comet+Sbb1

The antenna is flexible above the last taper. It's overall length is about as tall as the factory AM/FM antenna.
If you use this mount, you might need to adjust the tail slightly to clear the cab when the door opens. Easily accomplished with a pliers while it's on the truck, just open the door slowly and watch the clearance, adjust as necessary.

 

On a "do as I suggest, and not as I do" thread.....

I just pulled the trigger and ordered three NMO mounts for the roof of my truck, 2 Larsen 1/4 wave 2m flexible whip antennas, a PCTel phantom antenna for 70cm, and a diplexer to split the 2m and 70cm antennas from a single output on the Kenwood TM-D700

 

Got APRS to work last night finally. I went to a hilltop last week and was seeing other APRS stations in APRSDroid but forsome reason would never show up on the map. Last night I went through all the settings again for the 100th time and this time i left out the station SSID drove up to the hilltop and 2 minutes later I was on the map.

Now that it's working i plan on improving my setup a little. I was using a Baofeng with a Comet dualband antenna in the cab of the truck.
I have an ft-1900 i can mount behind the rear seats and i'll install a glass mount antenna on the back window on passenger side. I'll keep using the mobilinkd TNC with my Android for a while.

 

Also this week I installed my antenna for the TM-V71A. I love this radio. SWR is good on 2meter an 70cm
I didn't want to drill hole in the roof so I went another route, and it seems to work quite well so far.

 

That's really cool. So it's like having a GPS pretty much?

 

Tomorrownits going to be 20 days and still have got my call sign. How long did everyone else have to wait?

 

The VE group has up to 10 days to ship the paperwork into the ARRL or W5YI VEC. From there it could take give or take two weeks. you're getting close.

Where are you checking for your callsign? The ULS or just waiting for it in the mail?

 

The GPS coordinates are sourced from my android phone and transmitted over VHF, thats how i show up on the map.
You can also do text messaging with other operators using APRS