Good morning. I’m a newer General and have researched this question for a while but I can’t seem to get the right combo of keywords searched to find my answer.

How can I hook up both a transceiver and an SDR, using the SDR to listen and the radio to transmit, all on the same antenna? I don’t think I can just use a tee/splitter as my signal strength would drop and I’m not sure what would happen with the RF feeding from the radio into the SDR.

Thanks for any help and 73,

Andy KB3VAQ

As the title suggests, I live between the two countries due to studying, spending slightly more time in Switzerland. I am getting into amateur radio and I was wondering whether I need a license for both or whether one would be enough. Ideally I would prefer just getting the Austrian one (much cheaper), but if i then couldn’t transmit in Switzerland that would be a bummer.

Does anyone have any experience/knowledge in this area?

I’m moving my shack from the spare bedroom to an RV permanently parked nearby. I’m planning to use the same kind of DX Engineering (Amphenol) box as the junction for coax connectors. But I’m open to alternatives, and even if the old standby junction box is the best solution, I’m not entirely satisfied I’m putting it in the right spot. I plan to go through the wall of the slide-out section where I have a desk. Similar to what I did in the main house. Again, using a short piece of conduit ad a ferrule from the inside of the box into the interior.

I have no plans to ever move this shack. But never say never…

Hi. I am (still) on the diy EFHW build. I am running into the infamous "analysis paralysis" condition. I have wound two 49:1 autotransformers and they really suck. The wire is too hard to bend well into the 2643251002 core and gaps remain, plus the core has a very small center hole and the loops in the middle are not very clean and crowded. On the other side, what I see in some online videos is the usage of standard copper wire with plastic insulation, which bends way better than the former.

My questions are:

- Maybe I have a too large wire gauge (1.5mm) and choosing a smaller one (maybe 1.2mm) may help for both flexibility and center hole occupation. What is a good wire cross section to go safely with 100W of power? Or maybe better said, is there a sweet spot for wire gauge selection?

- Is the standard electrical wire of the same cross section with "plastic" coating good enough? That would be an easier take for bending. What is the loss on using that instead of enameled copper?

- What is the correct way to solder the enameled copper? I first scrape the insulating layer with a cutter and then using the solder heat I try to flux the tips. What happens is that copper dissipates the heat very quickly and all solders become horrible blobs unless I stay minutes heating that and browning the nearby remaining enamel.

- I see that, aside from the SO-239 connector, the antenna wire in typical projects goes into a standard nut and bolt. Plus the Amphenol SO-239 connector has only one solderable lead (center) and the other seems to be necessarily attached with one of the four screws. How good is using hardware piecese (nuts, bolts, hooks) instead of real copper for this kind of connections? How do the copper-stainless steel (or don't know / trust the hardware store material) interface performs with radiofrequency? Do I just create a small loop of enameled copper and tight a bolt on it?

To avoid being considered a fool, I will hold subsequent questions for another post. In the meanwhile I would like to thank eveybody who will give a hint here.

73s

Hi all, noob question, I found this "golf ball retriever" at the thrift shop, and with the addition of a tig welding rod, and some cross pins , it makes a fantastic portable vertical, its exactly 200 inches tall (5.08m) , I have a xiegu g90 with its pretty ok internal tuner, so it would be cool if I could use it on 20 or 40 m , would the basic 9:1 Un-Un work to feed it? like this one https://vk6ysf.com/unun_9-1.htm I would connect the ground to a spike that also holds the antenna to the ground (electrically isolated) , but I could also add some radials in the form of some chalk line reels with steel fishing line wound up inside them, so they can easly be rolled up and redeployed.

Its above the HAM band, they have a net going, sounds military or government based on their verbiage. Callsigns such as "US30, CA207, US317" etc.

Hearing it loud and clear from western Washington currently, 10/24 @ 815pm PST.

First, I'm not new to the hobby. I've been involved in radio as a hobby, then profession, since the early 1980's. I've mailed and received actual paper QSL cards, and I loved it -- but I'm not holding onto the past, per se.

After a 25 year or so hiatus, I'm back on the scene operating HF primarily. Electronic logbooks are new to me, and the whole practice of QSLs and verifying contacts is new to me. I still have a lot to figure out.

But, one thing I'm sure of -- the "legacy" QSL/logbook services (eQSL, LOTW) feel like something from the 1990s Internet, or earlier. Covered in banner ads, terrible user interface, not intuitive, require software and keys/tokens. Really? I've looked at Clublog and Gridtracker which are certainly more modern UI/UX, but still leave something to be desired.

What am I missing? It seems to me that having a powerful web-based worldwide resource to easily and intuitively confirm contacts, exchange electronic QSL cards, and act as a repository/backup for logbooks would be in high demand. Is the active population of hams just not sufficient to make it cost effective for someone to develop? Do the current sites get the job done, despite the poor user experience?

To be fair, I don't know what I don't know. This is half rant and half truly wondering what the current mood/mindset of QSLing is in the hobby. Thanks.

When I first got my Technician license 16 years ago, I had a great deal of excitement about being able to communicate with a new, tech-savvy group of people. After engaging in local repeater chats, I thought, "well, I guess that's just the local flavor" of conversation.

Seven years ago, I got my General license. "I'm gonna talk to the WORLD!" I quickly discovered that 80% of HF was either active contests, or people still just looking for quick contacts to cover a grid square on their map.

Real and meaningful conversation has eluded me as a licensed Ham. I truly hope a new generation moves in soon and changes the dynamic. Contact for the sake of contact is empty and meaningless. Enjoy your logbook, I guess. This technology should be so much more than that.

Only been doing ft8 for a few weeks now, what am I seeing? Never seen these lines before.

First off, I HAVE my Technicians license but I’m completely new at this. So we will get that out of the way haha. I got a Xiegu X6100 new and grabbed a MFJ-1899T. I have gone through the manual but it’s not super helpful. I have been going through the bands with the appropriate steps on the antenna but I can only pick up very faint signals on all bands. Is there something I’m doing wrong? I’m outside with good line of sight with mountains / repeaters etc. is there a step I need to take to program this or should it just be plug and play as I assume? Thanks in advance for all the help.

hi, I created my ground station with a Heltec V3. Initially the antenna that came with it didn't received any packages. It was able to connect to wifi tho. In the TinyGS dashboard appear as online, but the section about antenna info was blank and the frequency range info said "null-null mHz". So I bought a new antenna, a GSM 5 dbi 433 mHz. Same errors as before and still just connecting to wifi. Please help!!

Any radio operators in Melton Victoria or anyone I can talk to on channel 7 repeater please DM me.

I'm a new radio operator and would like to know more and join any local clubs if there are any.

I mean wouldn't all the many many many people who apparently think "ham" is an acronym or initialism wonder at some point what it stands for, and at that point learn it's just a regular word?

I am SO GRATEFUL I only have to navigate the FCC website every 10 years. I have been a ham since 1980 but have only dealt with the FCC website for two renewals. Not fun but whatever, you just click around until it's done. Today I decided to apply for a GMRS so it was my first time making a payment. I discovered you need a whole new login! Then you have to "associate" your FRN with that new account, and so on. I have not seen such a scrambled up stew of HTML vomit since I wanted to redeem a US Treasury Bond. Imagine people starting from scratch who don't even know what an FRN is! No wonder people just transmit illegally.

When I Google "how long does it take to get a vanity call sign," the most common answer I see is 18 days. Is this true? And is it business days or calendar days? Thanks in advance!

For D74/75 owners, I created a CAT control software for the D74/75 and thought I would share.

https://github.com/xbenkozx/D75-CAT-Control

Hi everyone!

I'm going cross-eyed researching radio stuff. I know this subreddit is specifically for amateur radio, but I'm hoping you can direct me even if this is somewhat outside of this community's scope.

The past couple of years I've been looking into HAM radio more and more. Enough so that I'm confident I could pass the technician exam. I have the Baofeng uv-5rs, and have played with their settings and stuff.

The more I've researched the more I believe the following are my reasons for learning "radio"

I want to be able to get information in the case that electricity or cell towers go out, for whatever reason. And I want to be able to communicate with my family and others in the case of emergency.

I understand this requires familiarity with the equipment, physics, protocols, and laws. With this in mind I intend to begin practicing this so I'm familiar in the case of an emergency, and if that means getting my HAM license, I'm happy to do so.

But I don't know how interested I actually am in the HAM hobby, if that makes sense. Like contesting or repeater meet ups don't interest me really, but if that's what you need to do for emergency preparedness, I suppose I would.

I've also looked into websdr and shortwave receivers, also GMRS and MURS. I found the websdr streams really cool, but I don't know if those are more for entertainment, or information.

One day it seems like GMRS would be sufficient, others I think I really should get my HAM license, but then I foresee much equipment and parts and stuff lying around the house, and I'd rather avoid that. Maybe that's just stereotyping, but also I'm sure many would say that's the part they love: the tinkering, which I definitely understand.

TL;DR I guess I'm asking for help determining what the minimum amount of equipment and skill required would be to be competent when needed. Be it an inconvenience like no cell signal, to a true emergency.

Assume I'm willing to practice to remain competent.

Target location is suburban metropolitan area.

I really appreciate you taking the time to read! Forgive me if this should be posted elsewhere

A YL operator from Saudi Arabia, HZ1HZ, is currently managing a massive pileup on 10M. With my meager 20 watts, I've little chance of breaking through, so I'm just listening. Operators are shouting their callsigns while she's speaking. In an effort to be heard, they're interrupting her 73s to those with whom she's chatting. I am amazed by her serenity and stunned by the shark-like behavior of so many operators with 1000-watt amplifiers but only 1 watt of common sense.

My only radio currently is an Explorer QRZ-1 https://www.gigaparts.com/explorer-qrz-1-5w-vhf-uhf-handheld-transceiver.html with the original stubby antenna. My local radio club has a weekly check-in on Wednesdays running on a repeater about 5 miles from me (2m). I've found my best reception is holding the radio horizontally. I am having trouble being heard, most of the time someone walks over me but I've occasionally gotten through. Last night was an exercise in frustration as I checked in no less than 8 times. I normally sit in a chair beside a big picture window but las night I needed to go outside before finally being heard.

Any suggestions for adding an antenna to my radio? Something small and possibly portable? It was mentioned (somewhat jokingly) that another member had a cookie sheet I could borrow. Is there something, perhaps a mobile antenna, I could purchase that would help? I assume the cookie sheet is the ground plane aka car body. I am hoping to upgrade at some future point to a base rig so I don't want to go crazy on this one.

Would something like this help https://www.gigaparts.com/comet-antennas-sma-24.html ? or would a car antenna with a some sort of ground work better?

I believe the radio is a female SMA connector and the antenna is a male SMA

Thanks for any suggestions/help

I planned 705 purchase for the last year or so and than new Yaesu ftx-1f was announced which made stop and think again. All my radios are Yaesu and on paper FTX looks a attractive because of C4FM and Fusion (although I have FT5). However I know it could be a long wait and new model might come with problems which Yaesu might take some time to resolve. On the other hand IC-705 seems to be bulletproof with huge aftermarket support…

Please tell me what would you do and what are your thoughts! I am not looking for someone to make a decision for me but I am very much interested in opinions of other people and their perspective. Hopefully I hear something that would sway me one way or another.

Money is not a factor. I am buy once cry once perso

Any ideas on this device’s specs? I’m thinking some kind of filter or balun. It measures 7.5 ohms on one side and 6.8 on the other. There is no continuity between the connectors. There doesn’t seem to be a way to take it apart without destroying it.

I've been getting into satellite FM repeaters, and I've got a question. First off my observation has been that making a contact is difficult, not because of reception, but because the repeaters are so busy. I hear stations call back to back constantly and often over top of each other. Does the etiquette of not transmitting on top of each other go out the window for FM satellites?

I'm considering upgrading from my IC-7300 to one of the later Anan radios from Apache labs. Wondering what features I'd be missing if I choose one of the new radios that doesn't require a computer. But more realistically, if I do need a computer along with Thetis, will my existing PCs be usable? My must-have features are noise reduction and diversity reception.
I have Dell Ryzen 7 laptop with 12GB memory and a Radeon RX Vega graphics card. I also have an i5 NUC at 1.3 GHz with 8 GB ram. Or do I need a "big box" computer with room for graphics/sound cards to make the investment in the Anan ecosystem worthwhile? Since I'm tight on space, I'm hoping that's not the case.

I'm in the process of planning and building my station and I plan to follow all NEC guidelines for outside safety grounding, and lightning protection. My question is about RF grounding.

Where did you run your RF ground wire after bonding your stations equipment?

For reference my station will be in a fully finished basement with a drop ceiling. The way I see it I have 4 possibilities. 1. Drop ceiling directly to my electrical box which is in a utility closet in the basement. 2. Drop ceiling directly to the utility closet and then through the wall directly to my outside ground rod. 3. Through the wall nearest the station to a separate ground rod yet to be installed near the station. 4. Don't RF bond, it's a myth ( I can point to at least one article that supports this). What's the right answer?

I found a TSC-2000 Thomas computer stereo, No idea of value but I can not find anyone who has ever seen one . Out of ideas to come up with a value or so history on it, I hope someone can help me. Thank you

Any ideas please email me at tbarnett@delawarenorth.com

Well I think I've decided that the best way to get higher up over the trees is to graduate from my slingshot to a potato launcher type of device.

Looking for recommendations on where to get a good, safe, reliable one either assembled or in kit that can launch a tennis ball.

Thanks!