Ham Radio / Off-grid communication

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The recent cover of QST (the ARRL magazine) caused a stir.

Tonnes of troons and furries in the hobby, although most of them are still less cringe than the wannabe emcomm/motorola crowd.
 
Flatline said:
To HAM is to self-dox. I've never seen the appeal.
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There exist a lot of unlicensed operators. Licensed HAMs hate them, the government regulators generally don't give a shit unless they interfere with commercial users. A lot of the really smart of the unlicensed use car-mounted whips or low profile antennas making DF hard, especially in the hilly/mountainous landscape where I live.

If you want to witness licensed German-speaking hams fight or get trolled by a unlicensed operator (we call them quietscheentchen - rubber duck in German) with a squeaky voice/pitch shift/voice mask filter tune into CB or 2 meter bands at 20-02 and monitor the round number frequencies or where repeaters are working. If you are like me and live at a high elevation, you can get some really good reception.
40 and 23 centimeter bands here are surprisingly civil, for some reason, the shorter the wavelengths, the more civilized the users are.

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The higher frequency users are more civil, probably because of the expertise and skill required, plus equipment is not readily available so a lot of transceivers working there are designed and built by the operator using it. However it does not explain why the 40cm band is civil, provided the all famous Baofeng UV-5R (banned here) covers it.
 
I've been fooling around with my RTL SDR and my triband Baofeng, but it's abundently clear that the golden days of FM fun are rapidly coming to a close. The only ones on the local repeaters are the amateur weather watchers and very very oldfags.

I'd really love a portable radio that could do digital and had a proper 3.5 jack or some other way to connect to computer audio. Any recommendations?
 
Cpt. Stud Beefpile said:
I'd really love a portable radio that could do digital and had a proper 3.5 jack or some other way to connect to computer audio
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Which type of radio are you looking for? Most analog HT portables can do digital modes with a cable and VOX. If you are looking for a 2m / UHF radio with a built in soundcard I'm not sure of any HTs there are with that feature, but base stations like the FT-991 and IC-9700 have one where you connect a USB-A cable and you have it as a soundcard device.
 
777Flux said:
Which type of radio are you looking for? Most analog HT portables can do digital modes with a cable and VOX. If you are looking for a 2m / UHF radio with a built in soundcard I'm not sure of any HTs there are with that feature, but base stations like the FT-991 and IC-9700 have one where you connect a USB-A cable and you have it as a soundcard device.
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If there's no HT with a built-in soundcard (I am TIRED of fucking around with audio-in levels and device switching) than preferably one that's designed as portable/luggable. Digital obs a must.
 
I've been a ham for almost 2 years now and it's a really engrossing hobby. I'm very interested in electronics as a hobby and ham radio is the perfect excuse to tinker around.

I have a small chinesium VHF/UHF setup (+ mobile), I mess around on voice (FM only, no SSB) and APRS. I've nursed a TS-850 back to health but I still need to get the rest of my HF setup sorted out (antenna, which is always a challenge in an apartment).

I've joined a local radio club. Lots of passionate folks out there, but also a lot of cranky old dicks (and certainly some lolcows). I'm fortunate enough to have a local thriving community with active repeaters, I even participated to some events and a contest with them. I've been teaching how to use Kicad to a group of endearing boomers.

My main roadblock to progression is having little free time to spare between work and caring for my family. A lot of SK sales are happening but it's always when I'm away for work.
 
Juan Números said:
I've joined a local radio club. Lots of passionate folks out there, but also a lot of cranky old dicks (and certainly some lolcows). I'm fortunate enough to have a local thriving community with active repeaters, I even participated to some events and a contest with them. I've been teaching how to use Kicad to a group of endearing boomers.
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That's one thing that can really make the hobby better. Having a good local club. I miss the one I moved away from. They where always doing stuff like foxhunts, swap meets, 3d printing, etc. And they had (well have, they are still active) a club house with a few hand me down HF rigs members could go and use. Those stations where a big hit with newbies and guys who couldn't put up their own station for what ever reason.

If your club is kinda weak and just old farts I still think its worth joining. Even if the club is just a few nets, field day and a club repeater. Most of the time dues are like $20 bucks year. Its a good way to network and find out about other local stuff happening in the hobby.

Juan Números said:
I've nursed a TS-850 back to health
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When someone says HF rig the TS-430,440,850, etc vintage of Kenwoods is what pops in to my head. The vacuum fluorescent display, Real S-meters on the older ones, switches and knobs. They are what a proper radio should look like. Maybe I'm just turning in to a boomer.
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I might be crazy for wanting to get my General despite not having room in the budget for an HF rig.

But by God I'm gonna do it anyway.
 
Nice to see a thread here about radio. I recently became interested with radio and I have my own SDR set up om my computer. Anyone know how to get DSD working right? I have a plugin for it installed but it all still sounds garbled when playing back the audio.

Edit: I should mention I am using AirSpy.
 
I clicked on a random station on the kiwi page for the first time. It ended up being florida. Immediately hear some woman with a heavy accent going on and on about missing miners in a copper mine or something.
Interesting.
 
Dante Alighieri said:
I might be crazy for wanting to get my General despite not having room in the budget for an HF rig.

But by God I'm gonna do it anyway.
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May as well do the lot and get the extra done. It’s out of the way and you aren’t limited in any way, especially if you want to travel.
 
temeluchus said:
May as well do the lot and get the extra done. It’s out of the way and you aren’t limited in any way, especially if you want to travel.
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How hard is it go get Extra after a decade sitting at General? Not gonna lie I've considered it but from what I hear if you don't keep the momentum from the last two tests it's tough and you gotta start back at square one.
 
Roxanne Wolf said:
How hard is it go get Extra after a decade sitting at General? Not gonna lie I've considered it but from what I hear if you don't keep the momentum from the last two tests it's tough and you gotta start back at square one.
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check out hamstudy. Use the study mode for extra and do as little or as much as you want to do. I'd suggest 20-30 minutes a day going on and work your way through the question pool, until you have decent aptitude then finish off with a few practice tests. You can even book online testing via the app.
 
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