Amateur (Ham) Radio BS and Callsign Thread!

Those two are the correct parts. You may also want a PL250 right angle adapter so your coax coming out that NMO adapter isn't bent at an angle. The new NMO with coax is unterminated (the PL259 is not connected yet) therefore you can cut the cable to length before you install the PL259. All it takes is a soldering iron.

I would suggest just installing a new coax all the way to the radio. Mobile installs vibrate too much to trust extra connectors. You can leave the original NMO mount on your brake light kit and install this cap:

$14 Larsen Black Plastic Rain Cap for NMO Antenna Mount

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004Z941MU?ie=UTF8 It will keep the water out. Then if you want to use it again someday, the connector will still be there.

 

More adapters more loss. Not a big fan of antennas on the roof either for numerous reasons. Not a ham or CB radio but it was one of the funniest things with antennas I have ever seen. Day old cell phone install fellow drove in his driveway missed the fact the overhead phone line was hanging down the antenna spiral got tangled in the phone line yanked the antenna out of the roof and the coax snapped the head liner out of the over head and the whole mess fell on his head.

 

https://youtu.be/cQhr8mhlBf4

https://youtu.be/PyqJbPdvJak

 

Jim is great, he lives nearby. I don't think I've talked to him on 2m in quite some time.

That video was 40mhz, if I had to guess Jason is probably using gmrs or 2m. Which will have considerably higher losses. Not to mention additional areas for water intrusion.

 

If you are going with a custom cable, make sure you bring that bracket with you. So they can run the cable through it before installing the connector. It will be a

$43 pl259 USA made PL-259 improved double shielded rg-58u for firestik antenna K-8A 18-foot single cb/ham coax cable

pl259 plugging into the so239 on your brake lamp adapter which terminates to a 3/8 nmo.

 

OK I'll comment looks like he produced a resonate antenna. Not efficient but resonate I can do that with a dummy load. I would like to see the results with that mess connected to a real antenna with some thing better that a $40 Chinese analyzer then see what the return loss is. It's a huge jump in loss between 40 meters and 2, then go to 440 and 4 adapters will bring it to "I can't hear you".

 

I just thought it was some good info.... I run a 80m dipole with 600ohm feed with a Palstar AT4K. My 40-10m is resonate on 40,20 17, and antenna trans match for the rest. Currently saving for a Ciro Mazzoni Midi Loop. Cause I can only take so much of NVIS 80m

 

Excuse the poor photoshop skills. This explains better what I am looking for. I hope the cable connectors were the correct parts. The red line will be the custom wire length which is the unknown factor until I have my GFC installed.

 

If you know how to solder and use a pair of wire crimpers you can make it yourself. Connecting to the nmo base is very easy.

$43 Pl259 USA Made PL-259 Improved Double Shielded RG-58u for FireStik Antenna K-8A 18-Foot Single CB/Ham Coax Cable

Pl259, so239 are a little more involved. Especially the smaller ones.

Hopefully you can find a local to test your set up before you key up for the first time. An swr meter or even a cheap nano vna ($40) will let you know if there are any glaring problems. It will also help you fine tune your antenna to resonate on your most used frequency.

 

On another note here is what im working on tonight. Stack of programming jobs, I think these are all VHF. But I know the 200xls are uhf, they somehow snuck in and I need to sell them.

The Chinese stuff are the loaners, not bad for the price but I know I can't rely on them.

 

Man, that's a load of programming to do!
I picked up a few Kenwood TK-860s and a TK-840. So far I haven't had any luck talking to them using DoxBox.

 

Like I said, that

$43 PL259 USA Made PL-259 Improved Double Shielded RG-58u for FireStik Antenna K-8A 18-Foot Single CB/Ham Coax Cable

PL259 connector does not come attached. You can read that in the description of the link you provided. They do that so you can run the coax through a small hole then solder the connector on. The NMO will come soldered but the 259 has to be soldered. The black line you drew will be the side you cut to length and solder. Cut the coax to length and melt it all together (accurately.)

 

Dos box can be tough, do you have a serial port or an adapter? I gave up on dos box and now I boot dos from a USB drive on an old dinosaur computer. Worked perfectly the first try, after I spent 2 days on dosbox config

 

Hey, I want to bring my handheld nextime I hike the whites. Have about 15 of the 48 4000 footers. Don't have Mt Washington. New Ham, Oct last year, any advice when I get up that way? Would bouncing off a repeater count for SOTA?

 

I believe that's totally simplex all bands. From Mt Wash you will make enough to make your day. I probably answer a dozen a week either mobile or at home. Yeah the crazes are still climbing the hill.

 

I have a USB to serial cable purchased from Amazon. I tried to route DosBox's serial port to that adapter and I got a response but it still replied it can't communicate with the radio. I'm running a Macbook so that limits my options. I have a couple Raspberry Pi boards as well as bootcamp for Windows 10 and a Lenovo work laptop; maybe one of these combinations will work. I wonder if I can boot one of these machines off a USB stick in Dos.

 

I also had an adapter on a newer computer, it would say communication was ok during set up. But it never read the radio.


$20 on Craigslist got me an old clunker parts pc with out a hard drive but with a serialport. It was so much easier not having to configure dos box or windows settings.

Hit up bluemax49ers on ebay he sells cables that work every time. Message me and I'll tell you what he sent on the flash drive.

 

Hi all, just found this thread.

I've been meaning to get into ham for some time now, but want to finally follow through with it and get my license.

1) How do you all recommend going about getting licensed? I don't know any hams in my area (yet).
2) Would you recommend starting with a tech license or going for general? Again, I don't have much radio experience, but I have a science background and took several years of physics and an electronics lab back in college (that was a while ago and it probably isn't very applicable it is to the real world).
3) What gear do you all recommend starting with? Someone gave me a couple used Baofengs a few years ago, but I haven't done anything with them.

Appreciate any help and guidance you might have,
Matt

 

Hi Matt,

To start, I recommend watching the Ham Radio 2.0 channel on YouTube. Their videos are 2-2.5 hours each, but present all the info in a format that’s easy to understand. Wih your background in physics, I imagine it’ll be a breeze for you. When it’s test prep time I’d download the HamStudy app and pay their fee to record practice test progress ($3.99 I think?). When you have free time, run through the practice tests until you’re consistently passing. The HamStudy app also has a nice “find a test” feature that will help you set up a time and place to take your test. You can even take it online, which is convenient.

Our local ham scene isn’t huge, but there is a group that hosts a ham net weekly (basically a “get-together” over the air). You might look for something like that in your area to get started making contacts.

 

Mess with that Chinese radio and figure out how to program it via the keypad. It will come in handy if you ever need to program a new repeater in.

The ham scene is very active in the Sacramento area, tons of guys on the radio. 144, 440, and gmrs has plenty of traffic. Listen to the N6ICW output, they probably have the most traffic.

When you take your test, you can also take the general test if you pass the tech. It's not alot to memorize for the test. Try a couple practice tests