Has anyone stateside been able to hear VU7A?

Got a QMX on order. BIL gave me his Talentcell 6000mAh pack. Its about 6 months old. No charger. Left it in his hotel room which is why he gave it to me. It works but is running low. Manual says to use only their 12.6v charger. I don't have any of those in my 20+ orphaned wall wart box - mostly 5v. Last thing I want to do is buy yet another wall wart. What are some options for charging this thing? Home and in the field if necessary.

I have these four steel squares out of a desk hutch, and I was wondering if I could make a planar array out of them? I know how to connect two together with coax but not four. I’d be glad to post results if anyone has some ideas for using these. Thanks!

Has anyone come across this? I was trying to fix one of the radio transistors in the radio. I turned away from the bench to do something else and when I turned back I saw this.

https://preview.redd.it/1drqzpjgea4e1.jpg?width=5312&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=675c43f70f1e1f22e408ff1b26f4a3914bad2c46

I am new to ham, I just got my General license and going to buy some equipment during the sales going on. I would like a mobile for truck, a HT and a base HF radio for starters any recommendations would be appreciated. Right now I am looking at Yaesu FTM 500 for truck a FT-5dr ht and either a 710 field or a ft 891 , I want to stay around 2k or less for radios . Thanks in advance

Trying to use Chirp with an Icom 2100H and keep giving me the connection error. Have the newer cable that works great on my 2720 Icom. Any clue on why the 2100H will not detect. When I hook it up to the speaker port the cable does blink like it seen it. Thanks

Really fighting the urge to not pull the trigger on a $1200 DX10. Are better discounts expected in the near future (like at Hamvention) or is this likely the best we are going to see from here on?

A lttle Sunday morning SDR

https://preview.redd.it/v0on5anpv94e1.jpg?width=3000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=af31bc7d26c42fb78b067e6d8d78735b5c89b8c2

Hello!
I know this question has been asked before, but I couldn't seem to get a concrete answer.

I'm in the UK and planning a road trip with a few friends to Scotland, doing the NC500. I wanted to get some walkie-talkies to make it more 'top gear' like. But after a little research, it seems handheld radios won't get me much range. So, I started looking into CB radios, which seem big, bulky, and expensive.
Is there an option I'm missing? Or have my impressions been wrong?
Any help would be amazing!

Is there a standard way to notate prosigns when copying by hand? I am currently copying in cursive, but it seems like there might be existing standard notations that are faster and more commonly used - recommendations/references? 73 <3

I’m a sucker for the style of analog only radios Yaesu made in the 2000s (eg FT-8800) so when they announced this radio, I was super excited. The $379 price point is better than we deserve when you consider the $399 price point of the 8800 in 2003! (Feel free to fact check me on this. I am drawing this conclusion based on eHam MSRP and the copyright year in the radio brochure.)

I am excited to see what this radio gets wrong because it seems too good to be true at this price. Early indications are it does full duplex and cross and repeat but I need to confirm that for myself.

What do you want me to test? Let me know what you think.

73

Now, they seem to have allowed their SSL certificate to expire on the arrl.org domain. (Edit: LoTW still seems secure)

I know they're easy to fault, but do these guys even have an IT department?

I've seen discussion in various places regarding the accuracy of the S-meter on the Xiegu G90. As such, I've conducted some measurements across the bands using a calibrated signal source, and I thought it may be helpful to tell people what I found.

TL;DR: if you want a fairly accurate S-meter reading on the G90, set the RF gain to 85%. It'll sound horrible if you have much background noise, but the meter will be as close to reading S9 at -73dBm as you can get it. I don't recommend doing this, but it seems to be the only way to make the meter read as it should.

The first thing I'll say is that the G90 is a great little radio that suits me perfectly – I don't have a lot of space, and I don't need a lot of power. Furthermore, I also want something I can comfortably carry 5 miles uphill in winter to a SOTA activation and not have to faff with getting a perfectly resonant antenna in 30mph driving sleet. It's also great to just rig up in a tent in a forest somewhere with minimal equipment. For these use cases, it's perfect. I will also admit it's quirky.

There's no fancy noise reduction on the G90, and the RF gain is very aggressive. For these reasons, I operate with the gain set in single figures (usually 1%–5%), with the AGC and pre-amp set to off in almost all circumstances. I also tweak the bandwidth filter to take the "edge" off the harsher audio tones it gives from SSB reception (just FYI: from default [B2700] click the gain knob once, turn anticlockwise three clicks [to read > B2550], press it again, turn it anticlockwise three clicks again [screen will read B2700 once more], then long press to get out of that mode [n.b. this is with the latest firmware]). However, set up with gain as low as this, the S-meter will read about S4 for what is actually an S9 signal, making it basically useless.

The very fact that the S-meter changes when you adjust the gain is dumb. Whatever measurement it's doing should happen before the gain is applied, so this meter behaviour makes no sense whatsoever. But here we are. I'm not prepared to operate with the gain set at 85%, because it sounds horrible (to my ears, the noise seems somehow to be amplified more than the signal). So when at home, I use a fairly cheap SDR receiver on my PC (adjusted to the -73dBm = S9 standard using a reliable signal generator) to give signal reports (and also to perform fancier noise reduction when it's really needed for particularly weak signals); when I'm out, I just guess based on how a signal sounds using previous experience.

I hope this is helpful to people who may have been scratching their heads about it. Comments, suggestions, alternative views, and feedback are welcome!

Which is idle for a full wave loop wire antenna for desired resonance frequency on 10 meters? A 4:1 balun or 1:1 balun? The transceiver is the FT-710 which has an ATU .

Is sBitx https://www.sbitx.net/ available for purchase in EU? I know it can be ordered from hfsignals in US but I don't want to run into all custom handling formalities (it is a nightmare in my country). That's a very interesting open source platform for experimenting. I don't know why is it ignored by HF equipment shops in my region.

Just ran across this, have not explored it yet. Thought it will be interesting to find out more.

https://aprs.wiki/

Does the IC-705 exhibit power spikes when beginning TX like some radios do?

If you are like me and are afraid of taking tests and/or having a learning disability. I have something to tell you.
It sounds stupid but just try. Study Study, and study some more. And if you don't pass, just take it until you do. It only took me one attempt but I had taken the practice test about 200 times on the hamexam and I recommend doing so. If it seems like you are doing worse after doing a few tests, then shorten your study sessions to only a few tests/flashcards. And when you take the practice tests, read the ones you got wrong, and read the question and then the correct answer so your mind automatically can associate it. Also, I'm very surprised I passed. I was probably overthinking it earlier when I was worried. I just want everyone on here who helped me out to feel thanked. Thank you. And to those who don't have your license yet and are afraid of the test, just study. You can do it. I did it and I didn't even pass high school. Believe in yourself. Thanks again all, and have a nice day/night/afternoon wherever you may be. Thanks for reading and helping me. It means alot.

Hi

I have just been gifted an Icom IC-7100, so I really need some help using the DSTAR aspect of this radio.

Also, I know this is a ask, can anyone point me to a DSTAR configuration file for Oceania.

Any help would be appreciated

Cheers Ian

I'm thinking of modifying my 102" steel whip antenna to work on the 17-meter band by adding 53 inches of wire to the end. The wire would hang straight down when parked and trail behind the SUV like a flag while driving. Would this effectively convert it into a top-loaded or 1/4-wave antenna for 17 meters?

I’m interested in this setup because I value the durability and efficiency of a long steel whip and want to use a band that’s more accessible than 10 meters. The antenna would be mounted on the heavy-duty steel bumper of my SUV winch bumper.

Do you think this would work as intended, or are there potential issues or considerations I should be aware of?

Hey!

So I recently got into ham radio and for my first “high end” radio I wanted to go with something that wouldn’t break the budget but would be good I’m looking for 2M/70cm. So I opted to go with the FTM500, I am new to this but I’ve been looking to buy it and right now it’s on sale on Ham Radio Outlet, I’m going to buy it but after doing some research I don’t know how I will power it. I want to use this inside my home and not as a mobile. So I need to find out how to power it inside my home, do I need a power supply? If so what extra cables would I need and what kind of power supply? I’m just looking for help, and would like to stick to name brand products for anything.

73,

I recently bought this Yagi antenna (Nippon America UVV HD-600) and it arrived without any connectors (type f, sma, whatever). Should I just connect alligator clips to the relevant parts and hope for the best?

Antenna tuner for an FTDX10: Yaesu FT-40 or one of the LDG auto-tuners? Antenna is a G5RV. Tuner will be located in the shack. I know the FT-40 is supposed to go outside, so is it just an eyesore inside? Better integrated with a Yaesu radio? Thank you.

I've bought myself a Yaesu FT-710 for Christmas, and I'd like to mainly use it with a large doublet antenna configured as an inverted V with ladder line. I don't think the FT-710 can handle ladder line directly, and even if it could, I'm not sure if the internal 3:1 tuner is enough to get me full performance on 160-6m. I'd also like more leeway in how far I can put the radio from the mast.

What the radio does have is a port to control a remote tuner. I'd like to run the ladder line down to a remote tuner at the bottom of my mast, then coax over to my radio, since (as far as I've read) that would avoid a lot of problems with feed line/coax length.

My issue is that I'm not a very experienced ham in general, and I've never done anything with remote tuners at all, so I'm having trouble figuring out which ones will work for this. All the Yaesu tuners I've found (FC-30 and FC-40) have been advertised as compatible with other models, and a handful of third party ones that can't handle the full 100w output of the radio.

Has anyone here done something similar to this that can give me some guidance?

So I found in finnish marketplace this radio and i was wondering if its worth the 8 buck price and does it work with baofeng since I used mostly baofeng

Don't hate me, I'm new and simple ! I have a Biofeng (surprise!!!) so, when I'm at my mums, I think can listen to a simplex gateway that's connected to some kind of internet and conects locals with people from other parts of the world. I love it. Right now I'm having a months stint at my mates in a place called "Tidworth" (England) there seems to be a repeater in Salisbury (it's meant to cover a town/village 15 min drive away from here) and one for their hospital, and one in a place called Andover which is also very close. All I wanna do is listen to people but I hear nothing, not even static. There has to be something ? Could someone check I'm doing everything right :) it's a military area too.