- Joined
- Mar 21, 2022
Fuck, I HAVE to build one of these now, to get a license I have to answer a test, how hard is it?
Ham Radio / Off-grid communication
- Thread starter 888Flux
- Start date
- Joined
- Aug 12, 2023
I can only talk about the UK, but out foundation level licence test is pretty easy.
- Joined
- Feb 26, 2019
Pretty easy. Questions are an open bank. No Morse Code requirement. Like $20 bucks for processing the license.
- Joined
- Mar 21, 2022
Thanks Chad, All the reading in the thread got me really excited to jump into this subject
- Joined
- Apr 22, 2022
It was my introduction to HF radio. I liked it so much I bought an x6200 and the Xiegu 100W amp for it last October when I was trying to do the KiwiNet! So its a pretty robust little radio. I hauled it on vacation this weekend to do a POTA
- Joined
- Apr 22, 2022
Go ahead and study for Tech and General. You only pay for one test but you have to take them both. The general license isn't significantly harder than the Tech license and builds off the same material. It only added 2 weeks to my studying on HamStudy to get ready. You'll appreciate the greater HF access
- Joined
- Feb 27, 2019
I'd encourage anyone taking the US tests to take all three in the same VE session (if there's time). When I passed the General exam the examiner asked, "Hey, you wanna take the Extra right away? You can do it for free." I said, "Sure, why not?" and promptly failed, but who cares?
- Joined
- Jul 7, 2015
Passing the Tech is so easy you can memorize test bank questions on the way to the testing place [assuming they're not still doing it remotely]. If you put a couple of hours into studying the easily available General materials, you can probably pass the Extra.
But learn code anyway, so that when some doofus calls you a "no coder" you can promptly tell them to go fornicate themselves [use the word "fornicate"] in CW.
- Joined
- Jul 6, 2021
yeah!!! the X6100 is basicall,y just a computer with a Allwinner R16 chip in it + SDR frontend, so you can run anything that targets ARM. The X6200 is the same too.
If you're wondering what the battery life looks like, on the internal battery you get 1.5 hrs @ 5 watts TX + software and desktop running, and with an external 12 volt 6 amp hour battery you get about 8. there's probably ways that this can be optimized like killing WiFi and Bluetooth.
if you want to learn code, I recommend the Koch method https://lcwo.net/courseintro
The recognition of character groups versus just character recognition is so much more important. the LCWO site is ama,zing for this. 95% of CW is hearing. keying itself is almost secondary if not even important at all
For keying just buy a iambic paddle and once you know how to listen the timing and everything else translates very well
I have one of these "Putikeeg" mini iambic paddles that are cheap and fairly well built, although my code is shit and i dont use it as often as i should
CW will never be replaced because it's the lowest form of tech that enables you to send information
- Joined
- Aug 29, 2019
The nice thing about hamstudy.org is you just keep taking the practice tests and as long as your logged in it stops asking you the ones you keep getting right. So you can really focus in on the areas your having trouble with. And the question pool is open like others have said, so take the practice tests often enough and you start to know the answer just from the 1st few words in the question.
Getting though the cluster fuck FCC website to get your FRN# is harder then the actual Tech test imo. Your going to need a FCC FRN# to take the test. Its free and you create it yourself on the FCC website. Ask your VE if you need help.
- Joined
- Dec 13, 2022
Based beyond belief. Tested it very quickly on my laptop, this is sweet. I'll test it some more when I get back home (it will be quite some time). OFDM really seems to blow classic 1200 and 9600 bauds packet out of the water for beefier transfers.
The POTA bag is coming along quite nicely, ditched the EFHW to carry only the shortened vertical. For now, I can do 40-10 m but something tells me that 80 m may be somewhat attainable.
This may be another certified retard moment from me, but how far from radials do I have to be ? For now I plan only to do QRP + digital modes.
73 my niggas.
- Joined
- Jul 6, 2021
The standards that are currently used for APRS, AX.25, etc, and similar packet applications are arguably the worst of both worlds.
Bell 202 AFSK is more than a century old, designed to work with analog telephone equipment. The 9600 baud DFSK standard developed by G3RUH was made in 1988. There is zero reason they should be used in any application. With modern hardware doing something like OFDM is inconsequential.
The Bell 202 standard is a single carrier mode where one bit is represented per one symbol. Meaning that for 1200 Hz of bandwidth you can fit in the same amount of symbols, or information. With OFDM you can have as many subcarriers that fit into that bandwidth each indp,dendantly. That's why you can get up to 16.0kb/s in a 2300 Hz space. Of course you're limited by the channel itself for proper decoding but the nice part is now you can add in redundant info in the form of forward error correction. The Rattlegram/aicodix modem does FEC using polar codes
Length of the radials? or am I misunderstanding
- Joined
- Dec 13, 2022
No, literally the minimal length me and my setups have to be from the radials:
Thanks for the info on packet ! The more I look into it, the worse it gets.
- Joined
- Jul 6, 2021
oh, lol, not sure about that one
I'd say just stay clear of them, but really, I can't see what much it would do outside of some RFI on your cables if you're doing digital ops. Put some ferrite beads on your cables if you ever run into anything like that
There's probably some crazy modelling in EZNEC you could do if you wanted a more scientific answer
NortelNutworks
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Jun 28, 2024
Network105 is still around on 300bps AX.25 packet, but it can be hard to use with all the VARA Winlink RMS interfering with it.
- Joined
- Jul 6, 2021
the juice on that one just isn't worth the squeeze.
I'd really like to develop a bulletin board software that operates on linked 20 and 40. The main constraint of bulletin board and similar operations on HF is the bullshit rule about automatically controlled stations not being able to occupy more than 500 Hz. The only loophole around that is if you had some type of store and forward system.
I myself don't care, but to get anyone using your software it has to be kosher with whatever Cold War era rules that they have. With the 300 baud limit gone, I do wonder how much you could stuff into a 500 Hz space. And with compression (kosher) and signatures (kosher) you could do something quite cool. (This project called chattervox did something similar)
The FLDIGI OFDM-500 mode comes to mind. Probably what you're limited to on 20/40 either way
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- Joined
- Jul 6, 2021
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 common misconception is that Ham is geriatric boomers talking to eachother about their heart meds. But in reality, it's the closest thing to magic that you can do IRL.
You're sending out electromagnetic waves that could be a picture, voice, or data directly over the aether, potentially even all away across the planet. All with just your own equipment.
Perhaps I'm biased but I think that's really cool. Another part to Ham is what I'd say is almost like fishing for signals in the form of contesting. Building an antenna, deploying it, and seeing how many other Hams you can exchange contacts with in a period of time is another fun aspect of the hobby.
Do I have to dox myself?
Anyone with your callsign can look you up on sites like QRZ.com or the FCC's database and find your name. However, you're allowed to use a mail forwarding service, UPS Store, or PO box as your address of record, so your home address never has to be public.
How do I get started?
In the US, there are three license classes: Technician, General, and Amateur Extra
Technician gets you access to VHF and UHF frequencies. Think of local repeaters or anything line of sight, as well as the 10 meter HF band (basically the demo version)
General gives you access to the full HF spectrum, which enables wor,ldwide communication
The exam for all classes is 35 question multiple choice pulled from a public question pool. You need a 74% to pass, meaning you can miss up to 9 questions. The current question pool is on the 2022 to 2026 question set.
Example of one of the multiple-choice questions
has practice exams and flashcards for the exam's content, as well as https://hamexam.org/
The exam can be taken fully remotely. You can find a session at https://hamstudy.org/sessions
1 to 2 weeks of doing the flashcards on hamstudy.org is enough to get over 90%> with just some light studying. There is no intensive math or anything else required on the exam, other than super basic formulas like the Ohm's law pie chart. No morse code requirement either.
There are also many resources on YouTube available that go over many of the subjects in the question pool. Attached is also the ARRL's study guide which may be helpful to skim over.
How do I get on the air?
These days it's cheaper than ever to get on the air. A Baofeng UV-5R or UV-K6 radio can get you access to your local repeater for $30. An RTL-SDR lets you listen to the entire radio spectrum from your computer. You can find local repeaters on https://www.repeaterbook.com/# and see what you can hit!
Technician license class also gives you access to parts of the 10 meter HF band. There are low cost 10 meter rigs that you can really do some impressive stuff with when 10 meters is open.
The next step from technician is getting an upgrade to General.
General opens the door to the entire HF band. The process is more or less the same but it can be helpful to have played around with radio a bit and getting comfortable with Technician before upgrading. Some people also take the Technician and General ticket at the same time, and if you pass your Technician exam they most VE's let you take the General immediately after.
- Joined
- Feb 25, 2024
This is not strictly true everywhere. There are certain portions in the HF bands where you can occupy more than 500 Hz of bandwidth according to FCC Part 97.221:
Note the wording of "on any other frequency". That means that if you're in those listed HF segments above, you're free to blast whatever data mode you want automatically as long as it follows the 2.8 kHz bandwidth limit. You can throw down a VARA connection or even PACTOR if you've got the cash on 14.102 MHz and 7.102 MHz just fine. It's anywhere outside those listed frequencies that you have to stick to 500 Hz.
Making sure you're not stepping on somebody else is another matter, but you can, at minimum, host a fancy BBS on HF automatically as long as it's within those frequency ranges. Might be worth a shot!
- Joined
- Jul 6, 2021
Shit ok I'm retarded, I had misinterpreted that. That's a lot more interesting then!
Maybe I will try to get something going here soon.
Also I'm 1/2 done with writing the stuff for the new OP, in addition to a few other things here and there
NortelNutworks
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Jun 28, 2024
Given how many times I've had my own contacts stomped on by those damn VARA Winlink RMS, I'd argue this rule is not bullshit.