Ham Radio / Off-grid communication

888Flux

888Flux

True & Honest Fan
kiwifarms.net
Joined
Jul 6, 2021
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This thread is dedicated to the discussion of Ham and amateur radio related topics. This thread can also be a place to discuss alternative communication technologies such as LoRA, Meshtastic, Satellite communications (Iridium, QO-100), and CB.

Why would anyone be interested in this?
Radio lets you communicate anywhere on earth across distances of thousands of miles without any infrastructure. It is the ultimate form of peer to peer communication. There are many things to do in this hobby from listening to number stations to bouncing signals off the moon and back. Packet radio lets you send data over the air. Digital modes like JS8call can get your signal from New York to Tokyo with 5 watts of power. Some people build and launch picoballoons with radio repeaters strapped to them that circumnavigate the globe.

Should the Internet ever go down or become a dystopian nightmare, Ham will always be there. It's a vital tool and a fun hobby.

Useful info
Want to get started listening to signals from around the world? WebSDR and KiwiSDR are two websites that provide a browser controlled receiver.

A device like the RTL-SDR is a radio receiver you can plug into your computer. If you are interested in getting started with the hobby, I would recommend buying one of these. They can be purchased for $20 online and let you view the entire signal spectrum from HF to 2.4 GHz

Should I get a license?
That is entirely up to you. If you are from the United States the process of getting a license is easy and straightforward. The main drawback is when you get a license, you are entered into a callsign database on the FCC's website which is publicly searchable. This could potentially let anyone who knows your callsign find your name and address.

Want to learn how to get licensed? Click here!

Do I need a license?
The first rule to radio is: don't get caught

888Flux

Post in thread 'Ham Radio / Off-grid communication'

fast track to your license .jpg
Fast track to your license (2026)
This post serves as a short guide on how to become a licensed Ham if you are in the US



First to answer the question:
Why should I?
If you are interested in electronics, physics, computers, or anything in between, it has something to offer for everyone. Whether you're chatting on a local repeater with a Baofeng or hiking up a mountain on a POTA deployment, you will always find something new to do.


The entire hobby is about experimentation and the art of radio. A...
Reactions:Winner x 4 Informative x 2 Semper Fidelis x 2 Like x 1


Ham related lolcows and liddery:
Ham has it's fair share of lolcows who go by the term lids. While many may think of the hobby as elderly boomers tapping away at a morse key Ham is home to some of the biggest flamewars.
Todd Daughtery, N9OGL is our resident HAM lolcow. Arrested twice for terrorism and child pornography. Being that Ham is the Proto-Internet, it attracts autists of many varieties. Another HAMcow is Karol Madera, VE7KFM.

Getting Started:
► Part 1 - Simple intro to off-grid comms
► Part 2 - Intro to HF
► Part 3 - Getting on the air with JS8CALL
► SDR Buyers Guide

Links:

Handheld Feature Checklist
Handheld Feature Checklist.webp


HF Radio Feature Checklist
HF Feature Checklist.webp

Recommended radios:
HF:
Best for budget: Xiegu G90 ($390)
When you want to upgrade: ICOM 7300 for a base station, Yaesu FT-891 for portable ops

VHF/UHF:
Handheld: TYT TH-UV88 ($30)
Base station: AnyTone AT-778UV ($130)
If you are looking to get into the 2m side of things I would recommend getting a base station before a HT first. Repeaters can be hard to hit sometimes with low power and having a base station with more transmit power can make a significant difference.
 
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I... actually didn't know we had hamcows already. That's fun! And one's a 14.313 luminary. That place has been a pit since I was a kid.
 
I want to thank @777Flux for posting this thread (and all users at the Keno Kasino chat involved on the topic) to discuss amateur radio, alternative communications, its hardware, history, market, achievements and most importantly, lolcows. I have high hopes for this thread.
:like:
Thanks to programs like WSJT-X and Fldigi, we came a long way since the pre-'00s era and I recommend take a peek on the documentation or the beginners guide. They facilitate weak-signal communication, offer an array of data modes like FT8 and PSK31, and enable long-distance, high-precision contacts. For the most autistic operators, the advantages of these tools is no secret, and I am sure that most of them want to push the boundaries of what's possible.
Also remember to not glow, always respect the totally not obsolete FCC regulations, or respective laws of your state or country.

73s and best wishes.
 
Can we apply for a Club Station Vanity Callsign?

My votes are on :
SIERRA NOVEMBER 3 ECHO DELTA
or
NOVEMBER INDIA 6 GOLF ECHO ROMEO
 
777Flux said:
Recommended radios:
HF:
Best for budget: Xiegu G90 ($390)
When you want to upgrade: ICOM 7300 for a base station, Yaesu FT-891 for portable ops
Click to expand...
For anyone just interested in listening into HF, I strongly recommend Airspy HF Discovery, it's an SDR USB dongle, best used with a loop antenna like K-180WLA or Youloop.
Most HF signals can be heard after sun down, since ionospheric bounce work best without the sun.

My K-180WLA + Airspy HF is pretty impressive that it can pick up humming transformers and up to BBC shortwave transmitters half a world away.
The Antenna can be used with other SDRs, but Airspy HF is so far the best I've used at rejecting noise.
 
I bet I have some old CB trolling microcassettes somewhere, I had great flamewars on them. But then again, not exactly HAM.
 
I have a feeling I am going to like this thread.

777Flux said:
The main drawback is when you get a license, you are entered into a callsign database on the FCC's website which is publically searchable. This could potentially let anyone who knows your callsign find your name and address.
Click to expand...
As a reinforced reminder and a lesson for those who do not know, or have forgotten. The FCC doxes each and every HAM licensee, including myself. The FCC website, https://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/UlsSearch/searchLicense.jsp, is absurdly easy to use.

Step 1: Type in the callsign, and hit search.
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Step 2: Click the blue hyperlink.
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Step 3: Dox:
3.png
 
Great to see a thread on this, thanks @777Flux :). I've been out of ham radio for a while, but I have nothing but good memories about it. I bought a new Icom 7300 series transciever a couple of years ago to get back into HF ham radio, but other things got in it's way. It's just sitting on my desk now, connected to a random wire antenna, and I only do listening for now. Both to weird number stations or just trying to pick up European HF stations during nighttime.

Back in the days pre-internet when living in Europe I used to fuck around a lot with packet radio because dialing any other European country was unaffordable, up to 10 current US dollars a minute, to exchange data with other nerds that were into ham radio. Hours long AX.25 sessions over HF, exchanging either Fidomail for local BBS'es or just straight up pirating software over radio. Loved VHF/UHF DX'ing as well, trying to pick up TV stations from far away and seeing the station identifying logo's through a fuckload of noise.

Happy to see what other Kiwi's are up to, this is certainly renewing my interest in this stuff again!
 
Flatline said:
To HAM is to self-dox. I've never seen the appeal.
Click to expand...
What our resident Baltimore hater just said. But also, what do you want to do where self-doxing matters? Most hams just wanna do DX contexts or talk to people on local repeaters about not-terribly-controversial thing (or sometimes they do and that's funny). Since profanity and broadcasting are against the rules you can't do a lot of fringe things on the ham bands. If those activities don't interest you, that's fine, most of them are pretty autistic, but to the general user having your address findable isn't a huge deal.

It's also immaterial since every time you transmit on RF, ham or otherwise, you're very precisely self-doxing to anyone with a DF setup. Never forget that. And if your end goal is something that is outside the ham band remit, say radio fedposting on encrypted DMR, participating in amateur radio is a good way to get a solid understanding of RF black magic for the 'unlicensed activities'.

Kees H said:
Great to see a thread on this, thanks @777Flux :). I've been out of ham radio for a while, but I have nothing but good memories about it. I bought a new Icom 7300 series transciever a couple of years ago to get back into HF ham radio, but other things got in it's way. It's just sitting on my desk now, connected to a random wire antenna, and I only do listening for now. Both to weird number stations or just trying to pick up European HF stations during nighttime.

Back in the days pre-internet when living in Europe I used to fuck around a lot with packet radio because dialing any other European country was unaffordable, up to 10 current US dollars a minute, to exchange data with other nerds that were into ham radio. Hours long AX.25 sessions over HF, exchanging either Fidomail for local BBS'es or just straight up pirating software over radio. Loved VHF/UHF DX'ing as well, trying to pick up TV stations from far away and seeing the station identifying logo's through a fuckload of noise.

Happy to see what other Kiwi's are up to, this is certainly renewing my interest in this stuff again!
Click to expand...
For listening, I've got a KiwiSDR (lol) up. Need to figure out how and where to use the complete HF battlestation I've been gifted...
 
Mikoyan said:
It's also immaterial since every time you transmit on RF, ham or otherwise, you're very precisely self-doxing to anyone with a DF setup. Never forget that. And if your end goal is something that is outside the ham band remit, say radio fedposting on encrypted DMR, participating in amateur radio is a good way to get a solid understanding of RF black magic for the 'unlicensed activities'.
Click to expand...
If you do any of this kind of shit while identifying yourself using your callsign you are retarded. When I was a young irresponsible sneeder I'd never identify myself by callsign on radio while doing retarded shit, due to realising you are literally doxing yourself, and I made sure I was in a random parking lot on a mobile radio. We hunted down plenty of retards being retarded from fixed stations DF'ing back in the days. Especially because FCC enforcement was useless on VHF/UHF repeaters, and it was quite easy to DF these retards and ring their doorbell.

Mikoyan said:
For listening, I've got a KiwiSDR (lol) up. Need to figure out how and where to use the complete HF battlestation I've been gifted...
Click to expand...
SDR is really something I need to read up on, I am a oldskool radio sperg, used to having to build weird circuits to get shit done. It should really combine well with my other autistic hobby of coding.
 
Mikoyan said:
For listening, I've got a KiwiSDR (lol) up. Need to figure out how and where to use the complete HF battlestation I've been gifted...
Click to expand...
Last I tested, KiwiSDR still can't hold itself up against Airspy HF+ in terms of noise rejection, though KiwiSDR is easier to setup if you plan to share your receiver with the Internet.

The secret to getting a clean signal with an SDR is to set the tuner near the target frequency you want to listen in on in such a way that the lower and upper sidebands of the signal you are interested in is near but do not overlap the center frequency. Due to how most SDR mixers work, it can easily reject DC signals a lot better if you avoid decoding the center band. The narrower your overall SDR bandwidth, the better the noise rejection. Obviously this technique will work best on AM and shortwave radio, not so much on FM.

For example, if you are interested in a ham signal at 28720kHz with a bandwidth of 10kHz, just set your tuner nearby, like 28600kHz, and then decode what you need. The signal you want will be 120kHz away from the center mixer frequency. You can also try with 28800kHz.

I recommend RTL-SDRs for newbies, since they're cheap and easy to setup on both Windows and Linux. For Linux, you need to make sure you unload the video tuner driver and use libusb based drivers directly, since RTL chips were first designed for DVB-T/2 over the air digital TV. It's complicated to get it to work with HF signals, but you can easily use it to tune into more easily found FM or DAB signals depending on your location for experimentation. You should be able to listen into airport communications too that's slighter above the FM radio frequency.
 
Another Char Clone said:
Last I tested, KiwiSDR still can't hold itself up against Airspy HF+ in terms of noise rejection, though KiwiSDR is easier to setup if you plan to share your receiver with the Internet.
Click to expand...
It like most SDRs in general and direct conversion in specific has zero fucking rejection, so there's one thing. The plugins are the real fun to me. WSPR receive, ALE, all the other stuff just built in.

It also unlike the Airspy stuff doesn't have a creator who borderline deserves a thread of his own on the Farms.

RTLs are indeed fun and people keep minmaxing them for more performance. They're not awesome but the price/performance is out of this world.
 
BONE_Buddy said:
I have a feeling I am going to like this thread.


As a reinforced reminder and a lesson for those who do not know, or have forgotten. The FCC doxes each and every HAM licensee, including myself. The FCC website, https://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/UlsSearch/searchLicense.jsp, is absurdly easy to use.

Step 1: Type in the callsign, and hit search.
View attachment 5439021
Step 2: Click the blue hyperlink.
View attachment 5439022
Step 3: Dox:
View attachment 5439063
Click to expand...
Very seriously, the idea of a 'callsign' from the start is to link to a physical address for regulation reasons. That's why there's really not that many people outside the OP insanity that do HAM. A callsign is the ultimate dox, more than a phone number or home IP address because that is federal licensed ID and has been longer than any kiwi's been alive.

I hope we need hamcows, number stations, and all sorts of radio goofiness on here. If anything, HAM might be a bit too restriction. CB and other topics might apply.
 
One of the best tips I could offer anyone getting into the radio hobby (especially HF) is to construct/purchase a good antenna and get it as high up and away from other objects as you can. A good antenna, decent feedline, and an average radio will offer you better performance than a $5000+ radio with a compromised antenna system.
 
mlanguishi said:
Very seriously, the idea of a 'callsign' from the start is to link to a physical address for regulation reasons. That's why there's really not that many people outside the OP insanity that do HAM. A callsign is the ultimate dox, more than a phone number or home IP address because that is federal licensed ID and has been longer than any kiwi's been alive.
Click to expand...
You can use a PO box for your ham ticket now. I don't know if its legal but the broken FCC website automation doesn't stop it and lots of people have PO boxes on their license, myself included. The only annoying thing is if your PO box is another town. Lots of automated logging software pulls your grid square from your license address.
mlanguishi said:
I hope we need hamcows, number stations, and all sorts of radio goofiness on here. If anything, HAM might be a bit too restriction. CB and other topics might apply.
Click to expand...
There is always some drama in the CB world. They have their own lingo and cows. Lots of retarded youtube "techs" who do nothing but bash each other. The biggest cow now is "Mud Duck In the Desert" aka Fine Tune CB aka Mark Sherman. He jams channel 19 all day obsessing over other youtube "techs" and lives in an RV. He has been location doxxed and chased out of a few trailer parks.

And there are some big stations on "The Bowl" (ch6) who everyone is always gunning for. One of them is Sir Mix A Lot(the big butts rapper guy) who goes by Prime Minista on CB. He has rap songs about CB too. His youtube channel
 
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