Amateur Radio

Any love for cheap chinese radio here? Yes, I know the Japanese ones are superior, but I just wanna play around here (and I'm on budget).

I just got a UV-5R and was thinking to get another one. It would be great to have multiple batteries handy for different HTs. Plus, the UV-5R model have battery case for AA and AAA batteries that might come handy for emergencies.

I could just get another UV-5R or a BF-F8HP (upgraded UV-5R), but I was looking at the GT-3TP, which is said to basically have the BF-F8HP guts in a weatherproof enclosure. When I looked at the battery model for it, it says BL-5, the same one as for the UV-5R. However, the battery looks a bit different (albeit very similar), and some have said they're incompatible.

Anyone here can shed some light?

How do you test your antenna idea? Well, our approach was to get a portable network analyzer that can show received dBm, put a commercial antenna on it, and strap the whole thing to a PVC pipe (for insulation and to get repeatable height). Then, zip-tie a cough drop to the PTT of a walkie talkie set to low power, so that it transmits continuously.

Now you can walk around your contraption with your Drain Pipe of RF measuring, and get a (rough qualitative) idea of how the pattern looks like. Much to my surprise, it actually worked.

I am interested in getting licensed. Does any one have suggestions for study material? I am interested in UAVs, and believe that I need a radio license in order to use some of the gear in that hobby.

Picture from a hike back in January. I need to go outside more often ;)

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/33672853

So I live in a small city of around 50,000 people and we have a router that's 200 feet up on a tower with a 5.8 DBI antenna.

There's a guy 17.5 miles away who wants to get into the mesh and his node is on a 30-foot flagpole and also has a 5.8 DBI antenna.

There is no major elevation change between the two nodes and according to a distance calculator, the line of sight between both antennas should be about 24 miles, which would cover the distance with no problem.

With that said, the nodes are not connecting together. And I'm wondering if that's because of the 5.8 DBI antenna gain on both sides, or if there's something else I might be missing.

Edit: On a side note, I live 3.7 miles from the router, and it has trouble hearing me, but I do not have trouble hearing it with my T1000E. And I'm also wondering if that's because of the antenna gain on the router side.

The ISS will be transmitting SSTV pictures from December 25th to January 5th on 145.800MHz.

My first magnetic loop for 2m :)

Really simple construction: bent ca. 2mm brass pipe soldered directly to the outside of an SMA plug, inside of the plug soldered to the red wire as "input coil". Tunable by squeezing the ends more or less close together.

SWR of <1.2 at resonance, not bad. Impedance is at roughly 44+j2 Ohm, also not bad for totally eyeballing it without any prior calculations.

I can reach the nearest 2m relais just fine at 2W, although to be fair I can do the same with a short whip antenna. More testing to follow. Holy shit, this actually works!

Is anyone else doing Field Day? How's it going? In the NE US, it's been very hot and humid with occasional thunderstorms.

Running a QRP station here and taking a break for the evening. Planning on getting up early tomorrow.

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6324540

Hi! I wanted to share a simple dual band dipole that I've built recently. It has been performing perfectly fine for me the las weeks given the fact that I'm at the first floor of a tall building surrounded by tall buildings also.

Also it's extremely cheap to build. To get it out I'm using a fishing pole.

Maybe someone in the same situation than me could find it useful.