City antenna suggestions?

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Update on previous post, plus a new trinket.

A while ago I posted this question about an underground transmitter that would Tx sensor data over rtty for a short range. I was successful in building the device, although getting the data to convert to a character string was a PITA. Range is about 50′ line of sight from the underground location which is 3.5′ under ground.

However, since I bought several devices I decided to see what I else I could do. I ended up throwing together a small beacon to use when hiking or as a fox hunt type situation. It gets ~.33 miles range, even though the woods w/o an antenna. Right now it is set up for an emergency transmission, alternating between rtty messages and SOS in morse code.

On the back is a 500 mah lipo battery w/ a usb charging/power management module. I haven’t tested it long term yet, wanted to be in a more isolated area to do that, but it didn’t any problem broadcasting once per minute for an hour. The plastic covering is basically an un-lubricated condom that was trimmed to fit, and then the whole device was wrapped in paracord with a carabiner to hang on my backpack.

Probably never use it for an emergency, there are much better options, but I figure having another .5oz tool (toy) to use for about $14.00 isn’t bad at all.

Some photos of the device

EDIT: Just realized I posted this in the wrong subreddit! Still, it’s related so I hope you enjoy!

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BridgeCom Systems BCD Duplexers Press Release:

eHam.net News — Introducing the New BCD line of duplexers. There are five duplexers available: BCD-144/440, BCD-220, BCD-144250 and BCD-440250. The BCD-144/440 is a small mobile style duplexer available in either VHF or UHF frequency Bands. It covers VHF (136-174 MHz) or UHF (400-520 MHz) frequencies, requires 5-8 MHz frequency split for up to 50W with 80 dB isolation. It’s small size allows it to mounted inside the BCR repeaters for a compact installation.

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flrig/fldigi connection help on a Linux workstation.

Alright, hopefully somebody knows what I’m doing wrong.

Icom 718, hooked up with the correct USB cable to my Xubuntu PC.

FLRig is running, and controlling the radio. Can change frequency, mode, etc.

FLDigi is supposed to connect to FLRig via port 4001 on the localhost IP (127.0.0.1.) This worked; once. It pulled the radio frequency from FLRig into FLDigi, so I know it was talking, at least briefly.

I closed the program, and ever since, it has not worked. I have restarted the PC, triple-checked the settings in FLRig and FLDigi related to the TCP/IP connection settings….127.0.0.1:4001. Nothing. When I run FLDigi via terminal, it shows:

connect_to_flrig: created flrig xmlrpc client 127.0.0.1, 4001

However, I cannot control anything from FLDigi. If I hit “reconnect” it throws the same message but nothing changes.

If I go to the Hamlib tab and put in the correct settings for the radio, and hit Initialize, it’ll connect to the radio directly, but this disconnects FLRig.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance to all.

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GigaParts has partnered with Hytera!

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Post your Black Friday and Cyber Monday Deals!

If anyone sees some great deals coming this weekend that relate to amateur radio post them please. I am sure they will help someone out there. Personally, I just had a son get his license so I might be looking for something for him. Thanks

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Indian Radio Amateurs Report More Mystery 2M Signals Off The Coast

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Is there a market for a $400 “prepper” radio?

A couple of days ago, a reader wrote:

I would like to know if it would be feasible to build a radio with the following features:

• SSB operation (only SSB is required, CW would be an additional benefit)
• 20 – 50W of power
• Portable-friendly (lightweight, capable of operating at lower voltages from small portable batteries)
• Low receiver current drain
• Coverage of 40m and 80m bands (very limited coverage is acceptable, even channelized coverage of a few select frequencies would be acceptable)
• S-meter

It strikes me that there is a large market for ham radio products for “preppers,” and there has been a lot of interest in the Baofeng line of radios from that market.  I think there would be a LOT of interest in a radio that could go far beyond line-of-sight and contact friends or family hundreds of miles away.  Preppers would have little interest in contacts more than a state or two away, and no interest at all in novel operating modes.  I wonder if a radio that trims away excess features (all-mode operation, wide frequency coverage, high power output, sophisticated audio filtering) could be produced for a lot less cost than currently available HF rigs.  If so, and it was paired with a decent NVIS dipole and some General-class study materials and sold as a package deal, it could be a huge hit – Something you could tuck in a bug-out-bag, set up in the field, and use to make contacts in a reasonably local area, or set up in your backyard at home and use minimal power to operate.

I work in manufacturing, but radio and electronics are relatively new to me.  Is there a reason why I don’t see radios like this on the market, some kind of technological limitation that would make this sort of thing impractical?  If something like this was built, what kind of cost and performance would you expect?  I’m certainly not expecting any kind of detailed analysis, but even just a speculation about if such a project could be feasible would be appreciated.

I replied:

I think one of the reasons you don’t see radios such as the one you describe is that more full-featured radios are already pretty inexpensive. The Yaesu FT-450D, for example, costs less than $800 and offers 100W output. The FT-817ND, which is designed for portable operation, costs less than $700. Is that too much for preppers?

While it might seem like you could sell a radio with fewer features for less, I think that you hit the law of diminishing returns. At some point, removing features, doesn’t reduce the cost all that much. For example, removing the CW capabilities from a transceiver capable of SSB operation really doesn’t save that much because in a way CW operation is really just a subset of SSB operation. You’ll save the cost of a key jack, but how much is that? Maybe a buck or two.

Having said that, it could be that the big amateur radio manufacturers are overlooking an opportunity here. The problem that a small manufacturer would face is that they don’t have the manufacturing muscle to make a product like that at an affordable price point. If a smaller company tried to produce this product, they would have to charge more.

We swapped a couple more e-mails about this. He noted, “Most preppers would probably rather buy a high-end AR-15 or several months worth of storage food for $800 than a radio.” I suggested, “If there was a SHTF event, and you really needed to communicate, wouldn’t it seem silly to have not spent the extra $400 on a really decent radio?”

I’m wondering what you all think. Is my analysis a little too simplistic perhaps? Are amateur radio manufacturers ignoring a potential market?

The post Is there a market for a $400 “prepper” radio? appeared first on KB6NU’s Ham Radio Blog.

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Looking to use SDR to communicate on a HAM Repeater

Hello I am a new HAM looking to talk on the repeaters using SDR. So far most of the SDRs I see available are receivers. I see some videos of people using HackRF to listen to conversations on the repeaters but I want to participate using SDR. I am trying to do as much research as possible before I start making purchases. But what I need to know is what is the recommended SDR hardware for use on VHF/UHF bands?

submitted by /u/brunovik
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What is DMR and what are the benefits of it vs FM/HF, etc?

Can anyone elaborate on this for me? Why would I get a DMR capable radio?

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Elecraft KXPA-100 Amp For Mobile?

I’ve been throwing up options to spend on myself for christmas. I really want to get more active on HF, and I think mobile is going to be my best best since I don’t have many options for a home base antenna. I’ve been considering getting a new rig, but now I’m wondering if you think its worth just investing in the 100w amp for my KX2 and trying it mobile? I know the antenna is the kicker, but antenna aside do you think the KXPA-100 is a good ideal for mobile in general?

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What would happen if the FCC were dissolved?

First, please don’t turn this into a pro/anti Trump discussion.

Trump’s proposed administration has hinted at dissolving the FCC, so I’m wondering what would happen should the FCC cease to exist.

Would Ham Radio go the way of CB? Would our spectrum be devoured up by corporations who want it for themselves? Would nothing change? Speculate!

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Net Neutrality and the election (xpost from r/radio)

It is anticipated that the Trump administration will have a hostile attitude to net neutrality and changes to Internet access may make it financially inaccessible to many or not as accessible as today. Has anyone else thought that the loss/impairment of Internet radio, spotify/pandora etc. may have the indirect impact of revitalizing radio in all bands?

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Looking for a 2 meter radio that automatically recognizes repeaters via GPS, and has information pre-programmed.

I’ve always wondered – why doesn’t someone create a radio that recognizes the closest repeaters via GPS and has pre-programmed tones in order to access said repeaters? I have an ID-51 and I know the radio does this for D-Start, but what about FM? Can the ID-51 find/access local FM 2 meter repeaters using the GPE search and allow me to communicate with them? If not the ID-51, is there another 2 meter radio that does this?

TL;DR I’m sick of going on road trips and having to stop/check the local tones on the 2 meter repeaters in order to ragchew. Why can’t this info be pre-programmed?

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Nets Activate for Tropical Storm Otto, Hurricane Watch Net in Monitoring Mode

ARRL — Amateur Radio emergency nets on 40 and 75 meters have activated in anticipation that Tropical Storm Otto may make landfall in Central America.In Costa Rica a net is operational on 7080 kHz. In Nicaragua, National Emergency Net frequencies in use are 7098 kHz (7105 kHz alternate) and 3798 kHz (3805 kHz alternate).The Hurricane Watch Net (HWN) continues to keep an eye on the progress of Tropical …

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DVMega problems

I’ve been using a RPi2/DVMega/Maryland DStar image for DStar access for over a year and it’s been great – until last week. When I try REF30C, I get a continual “connecting” message. REF001C says it connects, but I don’t get any traffic except the system announcing about once a minute “connected to REF001C” (which tells me it’s not really connecting). I haven’t changed anything in my Pi or network, other than periodic “sudo apt-get update/upgrade”, which I thought might have broken something, so I tried a virgin install of the Maryland DStar image, but no improvement. I’m thinking something went south in my DVMega board. Has anyone had similar issues and what resolved them? 73,Keith WD9GET

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Station Remote Control with Satellite Internet?

Hey all. I haven’t been a very active ham for a few years due to being in an apartment, but I’m trying to flesh out a possible remote control setup.

My folks have recently purchased their eventual retirement property in rural Arkansas. I’d love to put up an HF rig out there and possibly use remote control from my apartment in Dallas. However, the only high-speed internet available out there is by satellite. I’d probably end up footing the internet bill for my folks if I were to do this.

Does anyone have any experience using satellite internet with their remote control setup? I know bandwidth wouldn’t be much of a problem but what about latency? I would probably be focusing more on digital modes. Any tips are welcome!

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A member of my local club (GM2T) just posted this on Facebook. Thought you lot might appreciate it.

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BitX40… Questions, questions, and more questions

I’m looking for some advice. I have a BitX40 on the way. It’s been shipped, but it probably won’t get here before Christmas. (It’s last tracking point was Nov. 9 near Mumbai via post.) I’m going to make an enclosure for it from some 1/4″ x 6″ oak from Lowe’s (US DIY and contractor chain for anyone who doesn’t know) and line it with either copper or aluminum foil, or a mix of the two. I’m planning a 6″ x 7″ x 3″ box with a folding lid. The lid may eventually have an Arduino frequency counter and maybe get to a DDS VFO embedded into it. I also plan on putting a cooling fan in the box. Now, on to the questions…

1. If I add a fan, what’s a good way to deal with the microphone? Change to a 3.5mm jack and get a stand mic? I don’t want the electret picking up fan noise.
2. How do I mount that tiny mic into a box anyway? I just had an idea about a counter-sunk hole and some kind of plastic clip, but I don’t know…
3. When I get a frequency counter set up (I’m a General, not Extra yet, so I don’t have free reign, and I want to stay legal), where would I clip it in? On the antenna leads to the board, or somewhere else?
4. If I do the DDS VFO, how can I switch side bands, since some bands are upper, some are lower?
5. I saw somewhere that I had to mod the board to use the DDS header, but I can’t find the info anymore. Is that the case? What has to be modified?
6. When I finally learn Morse, how can I do CW on this radio? I know I can do a tone over SSB, but is that really the same?
7. What’s the best way to go about setting this up for digital modes, doing things like WSPR or APRS?

I’m sure I have more questions, but this is what I’ve got for now…

Thanks in advance for the responses! I hope to learn lots.

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“The Origins of Silicon Valley: Roots in Ham Radio” Video Now Available

ARRL — The ARRL Centennial National Convention presentation, “The Origins of Silicon Valley: Roots in Ham Radio,” by Paul Wesling, KM6LH, has been edited into a video and is now available on YouTube.”It tells of the interesting events in the maritime port of San Francisco at the turn of the 20th century, as early radio was being developed, and follows the hams who designed new devices and equipment to…

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