- Joined
- May 9, 2017
Quick protip for those concerned about self-dox that I'm not sure has been mentioned: It is perfectly legal to register your ham license to a PO Box.
Ham Radio / Off-grid communication
- Thread starter 888Flux
- Start date
- Joined
- Aug 28, 2015
As much as I'm on the 'who cares it's not Kiwi Farms' train about ham self-doxing that's not really a solution. Then they've got your name and a general location, which makes the rest trivial.
- Joined
- Jul 7, 2016
As long as you keep things separate and don't act a total tool on air its a non issue really. Hams are a friendly bunch in the main.
- Joined
- Aug 28, 2015
100%.
- Joined
- Jan 3, 2022
My callsign is NI6GER, does that help?
- Joined
- Jul 7, 2016
there are a few vulgar ones if you look, theres a good one if you live in alaska and are an extra.
My callsign is K0ON.
- Joined
- Feb 27, 2019
...and it's available!
- Joined
- Jan 3, 2022
When I got licensed in the scouts over a decade ago I just had it addressed to my folks place and never changed it. I've moved around several times and am guessing its a bitch to update (I'm so glad the FCC has no budget for website improvements). I've never done anything stupid and nobody has ever showed up pissed at their place so I imagine the whole self dox concern isn't a big deal unless you plan to make enemies.
Clubs are a great place to make frens. I've had to move across four states so far for work and every club where I moved has been an absolute pleasure to be a part of.
- Joined
- Jul 6, 2021
You can also register it to a virtual address service which scans incoming mail and some of them also forward packages. Though most services are the same cost as a PO box, ranging between $5 to $10 a month.
- Joined
- Oct 16, 2020
I don't know what to think about this, but Reviewbro/thereportoftheweek is doing a shortwave show? He's mixed in with Bible thumper shows?
TheReportOfTheWeek
1 hour ago
I'm doing a new radio show in 30 minutes (2 AM Eastern) at https://tunein.com/radio/WWCR-3-s97252/ and on 4840 kHz shortwave for anyone up late tonight! I hope you can listen in, there's lots to talk about and I'd like to balance everything out with some listener music requests too!
ETA, that community post on youtube is gone already, so I don't know what is going on here.
TheReportOfTheWeek
1 hour ago
I'm doing a new radio show in 30 minutes (2 AM Eastern) at https://tunein.com/radio/WWCR-3-s97252/ and on 4840 kHz shortwave for anyone up late tonight! I hope you can listen in, there's lots to talk about and I'd like to balance everything out with some listener music requests too!
ETA, that community post on youtube is gone already, so I don't know what is going on here.
- Joined
- Jun 4, 2017
He has been doing short wave shows for years. However, these aren't amateur shows. He has to buy time slots on commercial shortwave stations wherever he can afford them, and that means in between the screaming preacher shows.
- Joined
- Oct 6, 2022
To be honest I would look down on people who buy their rig and respect those who design, build and perfect their rigs themselves, and I think this is what the hobby should be about: actually understanding how the angry pixies turn into magnetic radiation, said EM turns into tiny voltages on another piece of metal far away to get detected and processed by some circuitry to become sound/data at the end again. Most of the modern HAMs don't understand it and assume bigger price tag and more watts = better. (NUMBER GO BIGGER!)
There is a lot to the hobby when you get into the electrical engineering, RF, signal propagation, antenna design, atmospheric conditions (etc, etc, etc) which a lot of people just look over.
- Joined
- Dec 23, 2019
To be fair, that is a major help. It's how Mud Duck/ Mark Sherman manages to shit up CB Channel 19 nationwide day in and day out.
- Joined
- Oct 6, 2022
Elevation and antennas do play a important role as well. Where I live there are a few repeaters that are heard pretty much nation-wide even though they don't run more than 20 watts, mainly because the repeater group actually invested in a good antenna and have sited on a mountain top.
Opposite end is truck drivers with 30w sets that transmit out of that one tiny piece of copper that is left because the antenna has rusted away.
Speaking of repeaters, I been seeing a lot of low power devices that run off 18650 cells that transmit at 0.5w or less and manage to drive the repeater userbase insane, those things can be simple and cheap, or really sophisticated with remote control and a library of various content to make detection hard.
- Joined
- Jul 7, 2016
Most if it is down to a generation of dipshit boomers who bought their kit, and think somehow having to pass a morse test meant they somehow have an innate knowledge of antenna theory.
These dipshits then taught more retards who parrot their faith based nonsense.
A few warning phrases:
“Tuners just lie to your radio”
“Resonant antennas are more efficient than non resonant antennas”
anything involving excessive use of “compromise antenna” without any real justification.
These are clear indicators that the speaker is a cretin.
- Joined
- Mar 20, 2018
Unless you are required to have a PO Box due to proximity to your local post office, the entire point of the PO Box is lost if you get one next to your house. Get one a couple towns over or along a regular transit route at a distance. I dunno that's how my Dad raised us but now that I'm over half his age I'm starting to realize he may have just been really paranoid and crazy... aw I miss my Dad.
This is a cool thread. I haven't done this stuff since I was a kid and I think the old equipment ended up in my sister's basement. I'm going to look into it. Dad's old house has a giant antenna in the attic... wonder if it still works.
- Joined
- Oct 6, 2022
Don't forget about DF, a lot of the boomer HAMs will try to get a precise location on you if they disagree with ANY thing you say. So unless you plan on transmitting on a mobile from the next town over, they will eventually figure out where you are.
- Joined
- Aug 28, 2015
lol yes.
I got licenced when I was... 13, I think. Ages ago. First time I got on a local 2M repeater they were putting a net together to try to 'DF the kid who found an HT'.
- Joined
- Aug 29, 2019
A few of the kids in my foxhunt group have Kraken SDR setups. A single hunter can find the fox in short time. You don't need a big group with yagi's anymore. Now they are talking about a safe way to do hunts with the fox being mobile. Because the Kracen users are finding the foxes in sub 10mins now. This is in the area of a whole town. They already added an intermittent 10mw fox on another freq for them to hunt because the constant 1 watt one us old school guys use just isn't a challenge.
Mark Sherman aka MudDuck aka Harddrive is able to tie up 19 because he his competition there is truckers running Cobra 29's in to crappy mirror mount antennas. And we are near the top of the solar cycle. There is a reason he never goes on Channel 6. Most guys there can blow his doors off. Here is a video of a time 2 of them cam up to 19 and did that. You can hear Mudduck trying to get in around the 5:25 timestamp.
Speaking of 10 meters..
On a clear channel hams can work across the USA or across the ocean on 10/11 meters with 25 watts of ssb now with where we are in the cycle. Tech licensed hams have access to the top of HF in 10 meters so you can have some DX fun no matter what your level is.
Boomers just mad that zoomers are getting WAS (Worked All States) on FT8 with a tuner that they loaded up their rain gutters or a random wire hanging out their bedroom window in weeks when it took them years. It the same type of guys telling people who live in an apartment or who have limited funds that you can't do real ham radio unless you have a full sized resonant antennas on a massive plot of land and $1000's in gear.
You can have fun on HF with some cheap 2nd hand boat anchor rig, a tuner, a 9:1 balun, and some wire. Just get as much metal in the air as you can and have at it. Ive made FT8 contacts off the metal railing on a hotel room balcony. Ive also used and aluminum step ladder before and made ssb contacts on 20 through 10. For HF DX as long as you can some RF in to the ionosphere your good.
The current ham youtuber trend around this time of year is Christmas light antennas
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- Joined
- Jul 7, 2016
The OGs didnt give a shit and loaded everything up with balanced line and operated away.
Tonnes of antennas out there that confuse and traumatise dimwitted boomers.
Tonnes of antennas out there that confuse and traumatise dimwitted boomers.