[OT] HAM Radio Folks?

[LBussy]

I guess I'm surprised/not surprised that there are so many hams on here. We all seem to run in the same hobby circles. I;ve seen many of you in this thread on other forums for other things.

That brings me to my next question: What's a good ham forum? I found qrz.com which seems to have a pretty brisk participation level. There are a LOT of grumpy old coots who think the only way to learn is to build a Heathkit with hand-wrapped torroids and fight your way through learning CW the hard way. Once I figured those people out, so far anyway, I've found some good people there.

 

[passedpawn]

QRZ is the best one. eHam.net is alright, but I think the forum is a little klunky. My local club has a Slack chat that is very active. Most of the members are within a mile or two of me.

Ham is definitely full of a lot of old retired dudes. I'm ok with that - mostly, they are not the grumpy variety. There's an 11-yr old girl in my club that just got her Extra (!), so there's still hope for the future of the hobby.

 

[LBussy]

Ham is definitely full of a lot of old retired dudes. I'm ok with that - mostly, they are not the grumpy variety.

As you know, there's always an extremely vocal minority online that can ruin the experience for a lot of folks. I read a thread where one guy was going on and on about "no-code extras." I mean come on, man, that was 32 years ago, let it go. Sooner or later that guy is going to look around at his "peers" and realize he's the only one left.

I would not have taken my tests if I had to do CW. That said, having my license now has exposed me to more of the hobby and I want to learn CW. Just like some folks may never do RTTY or FT8 but be very accomplished hams, we need to treat CW just like any other mode - optional.

I am signed up for CW Academy for a class starting in May (assuming they slot me where I need to be.)

There's an 11-yr old girl in my club that just got her Extra (!), so there's still hope for the future of the hobby.

That makes my heart warm - and it sounds like she has people around her who are a great influence.

My local club has a Slack chat that is very active. Most of the members are within a mile or two of me.

I wish there was a club local. I actually got my first VHF contact yesterday! I was driving through a town and I had the foresight to program in the repeater there. First contact sounded like a scratchy record through a torn kazoo. The second gentleman answered me back, told me that the first was indeed scratchy (made me feel better) and that the local repeater was having a bit of trouble. He was nice enough to tell me my audio was good even though I know it's not (I'm on a Baofeng with a decent mag mount.) I forgot to ask if there was a club there.

When the snow melts I am going to see if I can access the DC line, I think there's a power-pole looking thing down by the inverter. If so I can put one of those distribution blocks down there and be in pretty good shape. Grounding will be issue #2, but one insurmountable obstacle at a time. By the way, if you search for "power pole" [****] on Amazon, be careful what you click on.

 

[passedpawn]

Congratulations Lee, 73 & DX when you get HF.
Lalo CX7AAB

Uruguay contact tonight. Not you (was CX1FK) - I'll keep an eye out for you

 

[passedpawn]

I am signed up for CW Academy for a class starting in May (assuming they slot me where I need to be.)

On the iPhone, try Morse Mania. I'm working on it now.

 

[passedpawn]

 

[LBussy]

On the iPhone, try Morse Mania. I'm working on it now.

I do have an iPhone and I was looking at that. CW Academy wants me to learn on a paddle though so I was going to wait to get one before I start learning any bad habits.

 

[passedpawn]

I do have an iPhone and I was looking at that. CW Academy wants me to learn on a paddle though so I was going to wait to get one before I start learning any bad habits.

I'm not morse-capable (yet), but it seems to me that being able to copy first, before sending, is necessary. I think the human brain is wired this way - it's how we learn to speak. Maybe we compare notes in a year and see how it went.

It's true about not learning bad habits. If you read threads online about it, most of them say to avoid gimmicks and dit-dah tables. In my research, most of them encouraged learning to recognize the general sound of a letter without explicitly breaking it down into dits and dahs. Morse Mania definitely operates this way.

 

[passedpawn]

I do have an iPhone and I was looking at that. CW Academy wants me to learn on a paddle though so I was going to wait to get one before I start learning any bad habits.

Re-reading this... I only use MM to recognize the sounds of the letters. I don't use MM to send them - not sure the free version even does that.

 

[passedpawn]

I do have an iPhone and I was looking at that. CW Academy wants me to learn on a paddle though so I was going to wait to get one before I start learning any bad habits.

Have you picked out a paddle? The bencher is popular. And there are some paddles with magnetic returns that I looked at seriously. I ended up with a Vibroplex. So shiney!

 

[LBussy]

I only use MM to recognize the sounds of the letters. I don't use MM to send them - not sure the free version even does that.

Part of it is my excuse not to get sidetracked (yet.) I am taking some new courses @ work, so I need the concentration time for the part that pays the bills. Stop tempting me!

Have you picked out a paddle? The bencher is popular. And there are some paddles with magnetic returns that I looked at seriously. I ended up with a Vibroplex. So shiney!

I was looking for a lower-priced yet decent paddle, and I came across this one from CW Morse.

Seems decent, the folks on QRZ had nice things to say. I wanted to stay under $100 since I have no idea if I'll stick with it.

 

[passedpawn]

Part of it is my excuse not to get sidetracked (yet.) I am taking some new courses @ work, so I need the concentration time for the part that pays the bills. Stop tempting me!


I was looking for a lower-priced yet decent paddle, and I came across this one from CW Morse.
View attachment 811397
Seems decent, the folks on QRZ had nice things to say. I wanted to stay under $100 since I have no idea if I'll stick with it.

Lightweight sounds like a bad idea. I suppose you should trust the QRZ reviews, but if it moves around on you while using it, not good. Also, that's a dual (iambic) paddle. It offers a third position, both paddles engaged. I forget what that does, but I figured it added unnecessary complexity that I certainly don't need at this time. I wonder if this third state can be disabled? The paddle I chose is just one moving arm, one way for dit, other way for dah.

 

[LBussy]

Lightweight sounds like a bad idea. I suppose you should trust the QRZ reviews, but if it moves around on you while using it, not good.

I was just going to use some of these little tack spots I have and tack it to the table I have in here. Remember I am in an RV and every inch and ever ounce counts.

Also, that's a dual (iambic) paddle. It offers a third position, both paddles engaged. I forget what that does, but I figured it added unnecessary complexity that I certainly don't need at this time. I wonder if this third state can be disabled?

I am 98% sure the owner (who was very nice and emailed me back right away) told me that it works for both.

 

[Lalo_uy]

Uruguay contact tonight. Not you (was CX1FK) - I'll keep an eye out for you

View attachment 810911

I need to re up my inverted V for 40m. In the seaside house only have home build 40m QRP.
I do cw on and off over the years, but always on vertical key. That paddels look hard to master.

 

[LBussy]

I do cw on and off over the years, but always on vertical key. That paddels look hard to master.

It seems they would be, but this is also why I am not trying one of the trainers (yet.) I want to learn from the start with the paddles and then I won't know any different.

 

[LBussy]

Hey! Since we don't have a Ham forum I guess we have a ham thread for a while.

I did get my vanity callsign: AA0NT It's not a 1x2 but I like it just fine. I wanted one of the legacy "Army" signs, since I'm former Army.

And ... I got my CW stuff:

CW Morse Pro Keyer Powered By The Legendary K1EL K16!​

Red Lightweight Double Paddle With Steel Base​

Someone in this thread mentioned a lightweight keyer maybe not being the best. Well, this does have a steel base, so it's pretty steady. Now I can annoy my wife with beeping that means absolutely nothing. Still waiting for the CW class to start.

 

[estricklin]

One of my BIG goals is to make a contact with the ISS. I've got a buddy that did so - I saw the video to prove it. I've got some more VHF equipment to put together this year to get to that point (Icom ic9700, az-el rotor). Then I'll be hammering the space station every pass

I tried for about 2 years. I guess I should blow the dust off of that dream and start trying again. Yes it's technically challenging, but what I found so difficult is a lot of times when ISS is going to be over head, the astronauts aren't on the radio. I would say a hand held yagi is the way to go, you can make one out of a tape measure cheap.

 

[LBussy]

I tried for about 2 years.

"I was thinking" ... if a person had a circularly polarized Yagi and one of those fancy satellite trackers, it would take a lot of the guesswork out. At least you'd know it was really there and not a government conspiracy.

 

[day_trippr]

I thought you were joking. Now I'm wondering what a circularly polarized transmission looks like

[edit] Asked Google. I get it now...

 

[passedpawn]

"I was thinking" ... if a person had a circularly polarized Yagi and one of those fancy satellite trackers, it would take a lot of the guesswork out. At least you'd know it was really there and not a government conspiracy.

They say you can hold the antenna in your hand and make the contact, but what's the fun in that!

I've got the fancy tracker (S.A.T. Satellite Rotator & Rig Control), but not the antenna and az-el rotor (yet). The latter two things are shown below (two circularly-polarized VHF yagi antennas, for both common satellite bands). A guy in my club has this setup sitting on his porch flat roof.

https://www.m2inc.com/FGLEOPACKhttps://www.dxengineering.com/parts/ysu-g-5500dc

 

[passedpawn]

I thought you were joking. Now I'm wondering what a circularly polarized transmission looks like

[edit] Asked Google. I get it now...

Necessary for satellites because they tumble through the sky. Without circularly-polarized, the reception would waver / dropout a lot. Or so I've been told.

 

[passedpawn]

Made a contact in "The Gambia" last night. Yes, that's a country and I'm sad to say I had no idea. (hint: it's in Africa, on the west coast. Also Russia, Italy, and Switzerland last night.

A few months ago I was chatting with a guy on 40-meter and it turns out he's one block away from me. Ham is funny that way.

 

[day_trippr]

Necessary for satellites because they tumble through the sky. Without circularly-polarized, the reception would waver / dropout a lot. Or so I've been told.

That's exactly what the write-up I read said. Totally makes sense. The "circular" threw me but as soon as I saw a sketch I understood it wasn't quite that but it did provide four quads of angular coverage...

Cheers!

 

[passedpawn]

That's exactly what the write-up I read said. Totally makes sense. The "circular" threw me but as soon as I saw a sketch I understood it wasn't quite that but it did provide four quads of angular coverage...

Cheers!

Among a LOT of other stuff, this is on one of the amateur radio tests to get licensed.

 

[passedpawn]

I'm in an active connection right now to Northern Ireland. While I'm posting this, I made another to Lebanon. I like DX on HF.

 

[LBussy]

Now I'm wondering what a circularly polarized transmission looks like

It's like squinting and twisting your arm around, only with fancy stuff.

When I was studying it was a lot like the trig/calc for sine wave math. Read it, understood it for the test, then it's just something I know is there.

 

[passedpawn]

Nerd alert! I connected my VNA (network analyzer) to my antenna and checked out the SWR (standing wave ratio) of the bands that I care about. 160M/80M/40M/20M/10M/6M. I put markers on those. The SWR is under 3 for all but 160M. Getting under 3:1 is important because my Icom IC-7300 has an internal tuner that will tune frequencies that are under a SWR of 3. I've previously played with this long wire antenna, changing its length, to get to these numbers.

There is a low cost version of one of these meters called a NanoVNA. I have no experience, but it seems pretty popular. Anyone hoping to build their own antennas should check it out.

 

[LBussy]

I connected my VNA (network analyzer) to my antenna and checked out the SWR (standing wave ratio) of the bands that I care about. 160M/80M/40M/20M/10M/6M. I put markers on those. The SWR is under 3 for all but 160M.

"One Antenna to Rule Them All."

What kind?

There is a low cost version of one of these meters called a NanoVNA. I have no experience, but it seems pretty popular. Anyone hoping to build their own antennas should check it out.

I have a NanoVNA here. I've turned it on, that's about it. I'll have to connect it to my JPole to see how it actually tests out.

I did order an EFHW kit. I know one can make these but without the parts and instructions it's sorta hard - so this is me paying a few extra bucks for an Elmer to show me how to do it my first time.

 

[passedpawn]

My antenna is EFHW also. It's 65', which makes it a 40M antenna. It was a kit I got on the ARRL website. You had to fully construct (wrap, solder) the the matching transformer (unun), but that exercise was kinda fun. I've got another 6M directional antenna up in the air that I rarely use - not much going with 6M right now.

 

[LBussy]

Same-ish. Ordered it from Coffee and Ham Radio guys. It's just gonna be WSPR for a while.