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Camping, Hiking and Outdoor Activities Camping, hiking, and other outdoor activities within. |
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#761
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KM6xxx
South Bay Tech Just a UV-5R with a couple of antennas in 2m and 440. I sometimes hang out on the Charlie repeater, but there doesn't seem to be a lot of traffic. I want to build a 40m QRP CW rig but, for space considerations for the antenna, might go with 20m instead (would be easier to string a dipole in my attic). Do I know CW? Nope, but that's why I want to build the radio so I can listen and learn!
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Calguns.net, where everyone responding to your post is a Navy Force Delta Recon 6 Sniperator. |
#762
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I need a frequency/band that I can use in the mountains or middle of B.F.Egypt. As far as I know 2M and 70cm will not work in the mountains.
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Be sure to ask your doctor if depression, rectal bleeding, and suicide are right for you. In the United States a person's expertise on a subject is inversely proportional to their knowledge of the subject: The less they know about something, the more they become an expert on it. I am being held hostage in a giant insane asylum called Earth. |
#763
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#765
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Yeah, I need to do a little more research but a mag loop seems to fit the bill. I'll check out the 1788.
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Calguns.net, where everyone responding to your post is a Navy Force Delta Recon 6 Sniperator. |
#766
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I have a Yaesu FTM-100dr in my truck that I like. I got it used on eBay about a year ago. Makes for a good 2m/70cm rig with APRS for relatively cheap.
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Kunar Prov, A'stan '08-'09, 1-26 INF |
#767
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Question for my fellow gun-but HAMs. I live in an HOA that bans antennas. I'm thinking about two options.
Strap one to the outside of my chimney (which I do not use) on the back of the house where it cannot be seen from the front or sides. I would mount it such that the antenna rises about 12" or so above the top of the chimney and since it would be slim at that point should be unseen by anyone and should not affect propagation. Or just go with the attic route. I have a very highly-peaked roof, and since my main HVAC unit sits in the middle of the attic I could just use a magmount and use the HVAC unit as a ground plane for the antenna. My roof is not lined with foil or anything like that, just wood and asphalt shingle. The attic route would mean a much shorter feed line run, I would say about 75 feet or so to my rig. The chimney route would be loooong. Probably way too long to make it worth it just to get one outside. The antenna in question is a Comet dual band 2m/70cm I've had for a long time that I do not use anymore because it's longer than I would like on my car. It's about 5 feet in length, I'd say about 3.6dB gain on 2m and 7dB or so on 70cm. What do y'all think?
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-POLICESTATE, In the name of the State, and of the School, and of the Infallible Science If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — forever. Government Official Lies . F r e e d o m . D i e s . |
#768
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Are you looking for simplex range, or are you having trouble hitting all the repeaters you want to hit?
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bluenoiseise.........Click HERE to support the CRPA Foundation lllllllllllllllllllllll..........by shopping Amazon.com ....."Socialism, in general, has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it." -Thomas Sowell
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#769
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Mostly for working machines in the area, I can't hit downtown Dallas from my car parked in the driveway mainly because I'm screened off by houses and horizon a little, but getting an antenna up about 20 feet off the ground or so will likely do the trick. There are other machines as well, always other machines.
Simplex is nice if folks are close, but as I become more active and join clubs/races and now that I've got my new call without the dreaded California "6" in it I don't feel shy about getting on the air again
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-POLICESTATE, In the name of the State, and of the School, and of the Infallible Science If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — forever. Government Official Lies . F r e e d o m . D i e s . |
#770
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But to your point, yeah I think the attic route is the better route, mainly to keep the line shorter and thus the signal loss. I might even one day construct something bigger and hang it from the rafter, the upper-most peak of the roof is probably 15-16' off the floor of the attic so I have a LOT of space to work with.
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-POLICESTATE, In the name of the State, and of the School, and of the Infallible Science If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — forever. Government Official Lies . F r e e d o m . D i e s . |
#771
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Once you go HF, then you'll have antenna/HOA issues.
You could go with the "antenna disguised as a flagpole" route in that case. Who in Texas would block you from putting up a flagpole?
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bluenoiseise.........Click HERE to support the CRPA Foundation lllllllllllllllllllllll..........by shopping Amazon.com ....."Socialism, in general, has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it." -Thomas Sowell
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#772
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Try the attic first. You can go up in the attic with a magmount and a battery to run the radio (just don't be too close to the antenna, especially at high power). See how it works and go from there. You could also do the same thing with the chimney, but realize that while you think that they can't see it, that doesn't mean that they won't see it. If somehow they see it, then you can have a problem.
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Kemasa. False signature edited by Paul: Banned from the FFL forum due to being rude and insulting. Doing this continues his abuse. Don't tell someone to read the rules he wrote or tell him that he is wrong. Never try to teach a pig to sing. You waste your time and you annoy the pig. - Robert A. Heinlein Last edited by kemasa; 03-07-2019 at 12:32 PM.. |
#773
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I can put up ONE flagpole, and I can fly ONE flag from it at a time. 20' flag pole would be nice. I would want to fly USA flag and Texas flag together but that is not allowed. Not sure how folks would take to me flying just the Texas flag alone. I guess I would figure out who the liberals are real quick though. Quote:
I was looking at the chimney, it's not brick, it's wood siding because it's one of those crappy gas fireplaces so not rated for real fire. Because of this though I can mount the antenna such that is sits just inside the trim and I have no HOA neighbors behind me. The folks on the sides of me are cool and people behind my property on the sidewalk (which is really rare) would be too far away to see it. I could even spray paint it to match the siding color. My biggest issue with that location though is the length of the feed line going back to my HAM "shack" on the other side of the house. It would be at least 100 feet to snake it around all the right places to make the trip.
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-POLICESTATE, In the name of the State, and of the School, and of the Infallible Science If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — forever. Government Official Lies . F r e e d o m . D i e s . |
#774
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Kemasa. False signature edited by Paul: Banned from the FFL forum due to being rude and insulting. Doing this continues his abuse. Don't tell someone to read the rules he wrote or tell him that he is wrong. Never try to teach a pig to sing. You waste your time and you annoy the pig. - Robert A. Heinlein |
#775
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I have a shorter antenna and there is the glass, but the tip of the antenna is still above the roof line a little bit. Trunk mounted. Not so sure about the back seat but I don't talk on the radio when I have family in the car anyway so all should be well.
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-POLICESTATE, In the name of the State, and of the School, and of the Infallible Science If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — forever. Government Official Lies . F r e e d o m . D i e s . |
#776
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For those HF operators with HOA issues, this "invsi-tenna" might be a good solution. Essentially an antenna woven into a sunshade. Clever idea. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIwmfqK4jJM For VHF uses, there are "stealth" antennas like these. https://shop.heathkit.com/shop/produ...pipetennatm-10 Last edited by BillCA; 03-07-2019 at 11:31 PM.. |
#777
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Be sure to ask your doctor if depression, rectal bleeding, and suicide are right for you. In the United States a person's expertise on a subject is inversely proportional to their knowledge of the subject: The less they know about something, the more they become an expert on it. I am being held hostage in a giant insane asylum called Earth. |
#778
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For mobile/UHF/VHF, I chose the Yaesu FTM 400xdr for its' wealth of features, including APRS, dual VFO, altimeter,compass, gps, Fusion digital...
http://www.yaesu.com/indexVS.cfm?cmd...5&isArchived=0 I also use it indoors with a Dual band Diamond antenna. Very happy with the performance and features. For HF, I went with the ICOM 7300 and a OCF dipole antenna. Seriously considered the PT-991a, because it was smaller and includes HF/VHF/UHF. http://www.yaesu.com/indexVS.cfm?cmd...5&isArchived=0 Ultimately went with the IC7300 as it has a much nicer screen and waterfall scope. Listening to a Washington state net on the IC7300 right now. http://icomamerica.com/en/products/a...0/default.aspx Also very satisfied with it.
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Discreet, Legal Carry in 37 States... |
#779
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I took full advantage, bought a FTM-7250 for my office desk and for road trips in rental cars, and a FT-70D HT.
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-POLICESTATE, In the name of the State, and of the School, and of the Infallible Science If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — forever. Government Official Lies . F r e e d o m . D i e s . |
#780
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So back to the attic antenna thing. I looked at a lot of options, and a lot of HAM forums and FB groups dedicated to amateur radio.
#1 I am not the only one who has to resort to this #2 If you don't have a metal roof, or a Radiant Barrier it can work pretty well if all you've got is plywood and asphalt shingles like I do. #3 There are more opinions about grounding in this circumstances than you might think There is a repeater west of my house a bit, I can hit it with my car parked in the driveway with a Comet SSB-5 antenna but it's parked on the east side of the house so it's got all that house and the stuff in it to transmit through. It's not a full-quieting reception but it's usable. Putting a mag-mount Tram antenna in the attic and using with my Yaesu FT-60 HT gets me better reception. So after looking at various antenna systems, and also (of course) considering to build my own I settled on a Diamond X-50A (SO-239 connector). It's 66" long, I was tempted to go with the X-200A which is 8 feet but the price jumped a bit for not a whole lot of gain and the X-300A at 10 feet would only have about 6-8" clearance from the peak of the roof and I didn't want to deal with that. 75 feet of LMR-400 cable from ABR industries run down the wall in my office and around the wall to wear my Yaesu FTP-7250 is sitting on the corner of my desk. I used a 1.25" black iron pipe bolted into a 2x6 which is in-turn supported by a 2x4 and anchored into the support of the roof. I have about 15 feet of slack in the cable so if I feel like I want to move the antenna at some point I have plenty of options. Hooked everything up, and tested SWR: At 5 watts testing various freqs from 144-148 and 430-450 I got no higher than 1.1:1 At 50 watts testing 2m and 70cm I got no higher than about a 1.4:1 in the 70cm side but most of that was 1.2:1 and the 2m side was under 1.2:1 or under. Signal report on the repeater was loud & clear at 5 watts. Now comes the time-consuming, but fun exercise of running through more machines further and further away to see what kind of distance I can get.
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-POLICESTATE, In the name of the State, and of the School, and of the Infallible Science If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — forever. Government Official Lies . F r e e d o m . D i e s . |
#782
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I have a two story house and have a 2m/440 J pole in the den closet. In the attic I have a dipole. The dipole is not as good as my vertical that was on the roof, but I had problems with the HOA so it came down. I have a much better vertical in the garage and may put that one up some day.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
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Rudy N NRA BENEFACTOR MEMBER CRPA MEMBER |
#783
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Heads up.
California's new sales tax law takes effect in 4 days. Any out-of-state companies who do $100,000 worth of sales to California residence OR more than 20 sales to California have to start charging sales tax (figure 10%). Anyone looking to get a high dollar ham radio may want to purchase it now from Gigaparts. Icom also has a rebate going on until March 31. .
__________________
Be sure to ask your doctor if depression, rectal bleeding, and suicide are right for you. In the United States a person's expertise on a subject is inversely proportional to their knowledge of the subject: The less they know about something, the more they become an expert on it. I am being held hostage in a giant insane asylum called Earth. Last edited by Carcassonne; 03-28-2019 at 10:32 AM.. |
#784
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If those straps holding your ducts are metal and in increments of 1/2 wave length of the frequency you are transmitting you might get reflections which will do funky things to the radiation pattern. You may want to connect them all together with a wire (and maybe ground them) so there is less chance of reflection. The aluminum foil on the duct may act as a connector. Check with a multimeter.
You could make a simple vertical dipole out of bare copper wire and hang it from a beam with a weight on the bottom. Make one for 2M and one for 70CM and put a frequency splitter (or whatever it is called) to send the signal to the appropriate antenna. The feed line (usually coax) needs to be at 90 degrees from the dipole for at least a certain length; I can't remember, but I think it is 1/2 wave length. .
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Be sure to ask your doctor if depression, rectal bleeding, and suicide are right for you. In the United States a person's expertise on a subject is inversely proportional to their knowledge of the subject: The less they know about something, the more they become an expert on it. I am being held hostage in a giant insane asylum called Earth. Last edited by Carcassonne; 03-28-2019 at 12:32 PM.. |
#785
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https://www.hamradiodeluxe.com/ .
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Be sure to ask your doctor if depression, rectal bleeding, and suicide are right for you. In the United States a person's expertise on a subject is inversely proportional to their knowledge of the subject: The less they know about something, the more they become an expert on it. I am being held hostage in a giant insane asylum called Earth. |
#786
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Any updates on HRD?
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Discreet, Legal Carry in 37 States... |
#788
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No, I don't even have an antenna yet
Here is some free software similar to HRD. https://www.dxlabsuite.com/ Here is some for Android and iPhones apps (not free). http://www.wolphi.com/ .
__________________
Be sure to ask your doctor if depression, rectal bleeding, and suicide are right for you. In the United States a person's expertise on a subject is inversely proportional to their knowledge of the subject: The less they know about something, the more they become an expert on it. I am being held hostage in a giant insane asylum called Earth. |
#789
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What antennas are you considering? There are a lot of great options out there, depending on your budget, of course.
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Discreet, Legal Carry in 37 States... |
#790
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An inverted V wire antenna for 30M and 20M. I also need a 1:1 current balun.
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Be sure to ask your doctor if depression, rectal bleeding, and suicide are right for you. In the United States a person's expertise on a subject is inversely proportional to their knowledge of the subject: The less they know about something, the more they become an expert on it. I am being held hostage in a giant insane asylum called Earth. |
#791
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https://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-008370 It is a good cheap way to cover a lot of bands easily...
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Discreet, Legal Carry in 37 States... |
#792
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After 6 years of a General license finally ordered a KX3 instead of just playing with HTs.
Thus never gave antenna setups as much thought as I am now... Going to want 80m and 40m for sure and probably 160 though I don't want it super duper obvious from the street what I'm up to. lol. That and grounding are my biggest concerns. Then I'll be in the attic running some coax.
__________________
"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms. The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government." -- Thomas Jefferson 9mm + 5.56mm = .45ACP + 7.62 NATO = 10mm + 6.8 SPC = Et Verbum caro factum est et habitavit in nobis; Jn 1:14 |
#793
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Congratulations!
__________________
bluenoiseise.........Click HERE to support the CRPA Foundation lllllllllllllllllllllll..........by shopping Amazon.com ....."Socialism, in general, has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it." -Thomas Sowell
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#794
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KN6***
Passed Technician in October 2019, Passed General January 2020. Using an AnyTone 578III Pro with Comet CX333 antenna mounted at 23’-33’ HF rig is a Club borrowed Yaesu 757 and matching tuner. The antenna is home made inverted V in 20 & 40 meters on a 21’ mast at 23’-44. It has not been analyzed and I get out all over the place with 100w or less. I will get before the coupons expire is an ICOM 7300. I’d like to get a Comet 250B but am continually told it is a dummy load. I will eventually get an Elecraft KX3 for SOTA activations I may make an end fed hiding it inside the mast. Right now it looks like a Christmas tree with wires and insulators coming off on different sides. It is made from old speaker wire, insulators are made from PVC with nylon string. I am a member of: ARRL PAPA Systems GLAARG, VE OMISS YL SYSTEMS SO CAL SOTA I hope to pass my Extra before the question pool changes June 30 |
#795
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For those newer Hams, you can make your own antennas instead of buying commercial made ones.
It helps if you have reference material for designs, such as books put out by the ARRL. Or there is a website for amateur radio AC6V . com that has an antenna homebrew page. They list several "stealth antenna" projects there. Be aware that it is an older website, so some of the links don't work anymore... http://ac6v.com/antprojects.php A home brew 2 meter colinear J-Pole, and a 4 element 2 meter quad made from simple materials. The J-Pole is made from 3/4 inch copper pipe, and the 4 element quad boom is 1 inch PVC pipe with a wooden dowel inside for rigid support, and the spreaders are from 3/8 inch wooden dowels. For almost all of my many HF wire antennas/ dipoles, full wave loops, delta loops, etc., I use 450 ohm ladder line (balanced feed line) thru antenna tuners. That way an antenna built for a fundamental frequency on 160 or 80/ 75 meters, can be used for all of the HF bands up thru 29 Mhz.
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Member of the N.R.A., Marine Corps League, and American Legion. |
#796
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KN6HAG - general
My son got his Tech at the same time this last January Just using a small handheld Baofeng with a homemade 1/4 wave ground plane antenna that allows us to open up all the local repeaters. From here in Modesto, my son talks with people from Fresno to Sacramento. He even has a contact from London, England who was on the Mount Oso repeater via EchoLink |
#797
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Spent a week in Sequoia with the KX3 at about 6000'. 20 meter was pretty sparse but 40 meter was kicking. Too bad my camp site had critters with especially voracious appetites this year and my bug spray wasn't quite up to snuff for night CQ. QRP was still challenging, too... mostly because alot of the hams on the HF don't seem to ever want to shut up and kept on yammering, so I'd tried another station and then by the time I got back they would be gone.
At home, planning on a fan dipole hopefully to cover at least 10, 20, 40, and 80. I'll leave 160 and maybe 80 for another project.
__________________
"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms. The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government." -- Thomas Jefferson 9mm + 5.56mm = .45ACP + 7.62 NATO = 10mm + 6.8 SPC = Et Verbum caro factum est et habitavit in nobis; Jn 1:14 Last edited by Uxi; 08-04-2020 at 8:44 PM.. |
#800
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Congratulations and welcome, Mark!
__________________
bluenoiseise.........Click HERE to support the CRPA Foundation lllllllllllllllllllllll..........by shopping Amazon.com ....."Socialism, in general, has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it." -Thomas Sowell
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