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We're in a Golden Age for Amateur Radio

558 points by resters 8y ago

tabtab 8y ago
These hobbyists may save our hide after an apocalypse that levels the Internet.
lightlyused 8y ago
I posted this the other day: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18375562 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18375562 Amsat and Ariss fundraiser to support new infrastructure for the ham stuff in ISS.
- richardbdrowley 8y ago
  Post is dead fyi
jpm_sd 8y ago
I'm almost 40 and never quite managed to get into amateur radio, but my kids are getting old enough that they might be interested. Reading articles like this gets me excited to finally give it a try.
- ssimpson 8y ago
  do it! you can get started with some cheap SDR stuff to "see" whats out there. I you want to participate it is really a great hobby. I can't wait until my daughters can participate.
- abfan1127 8y ago
  the average age of ham operators is well above 50s. You still have time for yourself! I'd love to get more involved, just don't have the time. Some of the best ways of getting kids involved is local DX events. -KE7BRP :)
- loph 8y ago
  Find a local club, there will be people there that will want to see you succeed.
steveharman 8y ago
I guess it might be of as old fashioned, but there's nrarely a "Resource Limit Reached. Error 508" with radio. Shame, I was interested in reading about this.
- rnotaro 8y ago
  http://archive.is/tH0Ae http://archive.is/tH0Ae
- lightlyused 8y ago
  Well, I once was operating from the Caribbean on 40m and had such a huge number of people calling me, I couldn't make any contacts for many minutes. I guest that would be a 508 error.
gergles 8y ago
The title of this piece is "HF Ham Radio on a Budget: QRP Labs, QRPGuys, CW Academy" and probably should at least just be the first part. The article doesn't really talk about being it a golden age for amateurs except for the existence of SOTA. It's actually a pretty bad time for HF right now because of low solar activity; in fact, it's probably one of the worst times in recent memory to try doing HF beyond SOTA.
- ssimpson 8y ago
  While i wouldn't call it a golden age, its definitely not a bad time if you want to do things like digital or satellite work. New modes like FT8 really allow hams to work in at this crappy solar level. Pricing on HTs has gone down a lot due to the now illegal Chinese knockoffs, so Satellite work and local stuff is more accessible. Personally I've only done FT8 for the last year and its great. I've been able to make contacts 8000mi+.
  - tuxxy 8y ago
    Got any links for getting started with SATCOM other than the SDR to weather satellite stuff you typically see?
    - SOMA_BOFH 8y ago
      getting started is cheap and easy: http://www.work-sat.com/Home_files/WorkSat-08-2018a.pdf http://www.work-sat.com/Home_files/WorkSat-08-2018a.pdf http://www.algissalys.com/amateur-radio/aprs-over-satellites http://www.algissalys.com/amateur-radio/aprs-over-satellites
- wishinghand 8y ago
  Why is low solar activity bad for amateur radio?
  - GlenTheMachine 8y ago
    HF signals need to bounce off the ionosphere to travel any distance. The more ionized the ionosphere is, the more effectively hf radio waves refract off it. High solar activity leads to higher ionization. In ham terms, this is know as “band openings”, eg when ionospheric conditions allow hf at a given frequency to refract off the ionosphere.
rnotaro 8y ago
Backup link: http://archive.is/tH0Ae http://archive.is/tH0Ae
presscast 8y ago
I want to get started with packet radio. I don't know anything about it. Where do I start?
- vvanders 8y ago
  If you already have a license/radio the mobilinkd[1] is a great way to get a TNC added to any radio. It has a Bluetooth SSP that lets you write packets in KISS[2] protocol which gets bits on the air(APRS adds a lot more on top of this). [1] http://www.mobilinkd.com/ http://www.mobilinkd.com/ [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KISS_(TNC) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KISS_(TNC)
- SOMA_BOFH 8y ago
  APRS is an easy way to get started in packet radio: http://www.nwclimate.org/aprs/introduction-to-aprs/ http://www.nwclimate.org/aprs/introduction-to-aprs/
- nickysielicki 8y ago
  Start with APRS --- a lot of people aren't even aware that there are packet radio networks that exist on VHF outside of 144.390M, but no matter where you are in the US, you probably will be able to get something going on APRS. There are all sorts of ways that you can go with packet radio. Here are a couple ideas: 1. Start monitoring APRS traffic in your area. I have a blog post that I wrote about repurposing a $5 scanner from a swapfest with a broken USB headset from a junk drawer, and turning it into a receive-only APRS igate. [1] I run that on a raspberry pi, you can see the current status of it here: [2] You can do this with an RTLSDR, or a Baofeng into your laptop's microphone, etc. This is the easiest way to just listen and hear for yourself that there is traffic around you, and I think that will motivate you to get further into it. 2. Start putting cool packets onto APRS! If you have a Baofeng, you can make a cheap TNC out of a USB soundcard, an appropriate break-out cable (available for ~$15 on Amazon), and any computer running soundcard TNC software. I strongly recommend Direwolf if you are playing with a Raspberry Pi (or just a laptop running linux), and APRSDroid if you have an old phone in a drawer. Something to watch out for is the quality of the signal that you put out, you need to tweak the volumes so that things aren't being overdriven. Nobody will hear you otherwise, and you'll be jamming the band for others. A cool project idea is to put together a Baofeng-powered APRS security system in your car, with the radio stowed in the trunk and tied into the ignition switch. You could track your car at any time! (I started a project like this but never finished it --- the Baofengs use something weird like 7.4V, and my Raspberry Pi was powered at 5V, and I never could think of a proper solution for my ground loops, and how to put it together in a clean package. I have a TH-D72A with a built-in GPS and TNC that I use for APRS in my car on longer trips, for now.) I bought a cheap weather station, and I was able to get wee_wx to start pulling data from it, and sometime over Christmas I'm hoping that I'll find the time to start putting that data onto APRS. The sky is really the limit, there are dozens of interesting data formats on APRS besides positional data and weather data. 3. Non-APRS packet radio! This is where the real fun is. Here in Wisconsin I have the following site to see where traffic is [3]. One of the craziest things I've done in Ham radio is hooked my TH-D72A up to my laptop, connected via raw commands to a neighboring station speaking AX.25, left a message on his BBS, and then issued a command which had me hopping from his VHF receive to his HF rig, which forwarded me onto another BBS over HF. The connection was very broken up, but enough came through that I know it happened, and that was enough for it to put a wide smile on my face. 4. If you live in Seattle, check out HamWan. Hams are allowed to run standard 2.4GHz Wi-Fi equipment at higher power than normal people, provided that we stick to the FCC requirements (station identification in the form of our SSID, no encryption, etc.) I really don't know much about this project, but it's cool stuff. Fun to see what WiFi is theoretically capable of. [4] [1]: https://nsielicki.blogspot.com/2018/04/repurposing-old-radio-scanners-to-make.html https://nsielicki.blogspot.com/2018/04/repurposing-old-radio... [2]: https://aprs.fi/info/a/W9NLS-2 https://aprs.fi/info/a/W9NLS-2 [3]: https://www.qsl.net/n9zia/wapr/bandplan.html https://www.qsl.net/n9zia/wapr/bandplan.html [4]: https://hamwan.org/ https://hamwan.org/
jimnotgym 8y ago
I would like to have a go at building a receiver for listening to CW with my kids. I don't want anything on the computer, just something I can solder that will work. Is there a kit that has a good success rate? I'm in the UK if that matters.
- resters 8y ago
  I suggest a simple direct conversion receiver such as the really simple one in the classic book EMRFD: https://www.amazon.com/Experimental-Methods-Design-ARRL-Inc/dp/087259923X https://www.amazon.com/Experimental-Methods-Design-ARRL-Inc/...
- nickysielicki 8y ago
  Check out the Pixie kits, they're extraordinarily cheap, like $5 on ebay cheap. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwtErr2E1kQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwtErr2E1kQ
  - taborj 8y ago
    I'd recommend getting a couple different crystals, at least one at 7.030Mhz, which is likely going to be more popular than the typical 7.023Mhz they come with.
  - Johnythree 8y ago
    Not a pixie. They are super simple, but require considerable skill to use. For example, they are morse code only.
    - nickysielicki 8y ago
      He specifically asked for a CW device.
- p0d 8y ago
  You just need a long piece of wire, diode, ferrite coil wth wire wrapped around, variable resistor and old style ear piece to pick up am radio. No batteries required. I can remember my son’s lack of interest while we made the venerable crystal radio and then his little fascinated face when we picked up some signals
kevindqc 8y ago
What is a Toroid used for and why does it need to be winded differently for different bands? Is it what generates the signals that get transmitted by the antenna?
- SOMA_BOFH 8y ago
  It's a coil when used in RF applications. Different windings give it different induction properties: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_coil https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_coil
- resters 8y ago
  Ferrite and powdered iron toroids are used for winding transformers and inductors. For radio stuff they are usually used as impedance transformers or as inductors in LC bandpass filters.
- lightlyused 8y ago
  Basically a circular inductor with a ferrite core instead of air which allows it to be more compact, have a higher inductance per volume and a greater q factor (bandwidth). A different inductance (different number of wire turns) is needed depending upon several factors, especially if you are using them to make a resonant circuit (a circuit that responds to a particular frequency). It does not generate the signal. I hope I got that right.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- brandmeyer 8y ago
  Adding to what some others have said, a toroidal shape for an inductor has some particularly nice properties for RF applications. The magnetic field outside an ideal toroid is exactly zero, regardless of what's going on inside the toroid. Even for real toroids, the leakage is very low.
TimTheTinker 8y ago
Submission is mistitled. Should be "HF Ham Radio on a Budget".
- resters 8y ago
  The title used is more descriptive of the intent of the article, which is clear if you RTFA.
  - Jaruzel 8y ago
    No need for 'RTFA', just 'RTA', you'd been flagged/dead but I thought I'd resurrect you and explain why.
  - TimTheTinker 8y ago
    I did RTA and I understand the reasoning. I just disagreed in this case because although the HN title was one of his main points, that wasn't the main point and the article wasn't structured around it. If that had been the title and the main point, he'd be emphasizing a lot more than the great cheap HF gear that's now available. (There's a lot more that's really awesome in AR than what you can do with basic HF gear.)
jimmcslim 8y ago
I'm interested in amateur radio but always feel that I can't get anything done without a big honking antenna?
- rhinoceraptor 8y ago
  I'm not a radio/antenna expert, so this might be a bit inaccurate. You want your antenna length to be some fraction of the wavelength, e.g. 1/1, 1/2, 1/4, etc. As the antenna length fraction gets smaller, it will have a less signal and more noise. Ham radio bands are much lower frequency than wifi, bluetooth, GPS, or cellular. The wavelength is equal to the speed of light divided by the frequency, so lower frequency bands need bigger antennas. So for example, the wavelength for a 144 Mhz you might use for amateur radio voice is 2 meters, whereas the wavelength of 2.4 Ghz wifi is only 0.12 meters. The advantage of lower frequencies is they travel farther. AM radio is a lower frequency than FM, so it travels farther than FM.
- aidenn0 8y ago
  HF (which is what this article talks about) works best with a big honking antenna, but if you build your own you can get pretty creative; my dad did 20m from a townhouse. As far as VHF/UHF, there are compact handhelds[1] with an antenna less than 12 inches long. 1: For example https://www.yaesu.com/downloadFile.cfm?FileID=12831&FileCatID=38&FileName=FT%2D65%5FFT%2D25%5Fleaflet%5FWeb.pdf&FileContentType=application%2Fpdf https://www.yaesu.com/downloadFile.cfm?FileID=12831&FileCatI...
- int_19h 8y ago
  For VHF and UHF , that's not generally true - e.g. a simple quarter-wavelength antenna (exactly what it says on the tin - a stick antenna that is 1/4 of the wavelength on which you intend to operate - so e.g. for VHF 2m band, we're talking ~20" long, and for UHF 70cm it's even shorter) is perfectly sufficient to work repeaters, and to communicate with others directly within the radio horizon. For HF, you do need a large antenna, but it's not necessarily what people think of when they think "antenna" - i.e. not a tower with a giant vertical rod. An HF antenna can just be a piece of cable of the right length and type, properly arranged; and it's usually strung more horizontally than vertically. Using trees for that is pretty common, too. Something like this: https://hamcall.net/images/BuckmasterOCFInstallDiagram.png https://hamcall.net/images/BuckmasterOCFInstallDiagram.png
httpz 8y ago
I have a license because my high school teacher made us do it but I never quite understood what hobbyists do with it. I see how it can be a useful skill to have for people in a certain profession but as a hobbyist what do you do? Do people just talk to random people on the radio? I'm genuinely curious.
- gingerbread-man 8y ago
  I got my license (KE0RYU) a few months ago partly out of curiosity and partly because I wanted to mess around with software-defined radio. So far I've volunteered for communications at a major half-marathon and done a little bit of storm spotting for the NWS. It seems like the majority of serious amatuer radio hobbyists are retired man, many of whom have a background in military communications or electrical engineering.
- quickthrower2 8y ago
  I used to have a CB and it was fun to talk to mates on there and muck around. At the time I liked the idea of HAM radio because you could go longer distance, and the idea of speaking to someone in another country was really cool. However now with the internet etc. it may seem a little less cool. (The internet was around when I was young but was pretty expensive to get connected). I remember a time when someone on the CB got 64kbps connection to the internet through packet radio, faster than dial up! It's a bit like how mucking around with microcomputers was very cool back in the day, but now why would you bother when you can run a C64 in an emulator? But there is something nostalgic about it that makes me sometimes want to buy and old computer.
  - Jaruzel 8y ago
    > but now why would you bother when you can run a C64 in an emulator? Once you dive into Retro-computing, you'll find loads of us getting and keeping old kit running, with a whole host of strange old and new add-ons, with new bits of kit being designed and built everyday. It's a really fun (but expensive) hobby!
- codemac 8y ago
  You nerd out about radio technology, and you see what you can do with it (bigger ones, smaller ones, distance and quality of transmissions, etc). It's a feeling of power and independence that is very lost with the Internet to me. With the internet - I'm connecting to something very very large. With ham - I'm building my own. I'd see it as the same draw as setting up your first website in the late 90's/early 2000's, with the visitor counters and comments sections. Each interaction is a treasure.
snazz 8y ago
I am interested in ham radio, but I’m uncomfortable with broadcasting my call sign around (as required by the FCC) since in the US it’s super easy to get someone’s name and home address from their callsign. For currently operating hams: do you just deal with it, or is there something you can do to protect your privacy?
- threeio 8y ago
  You can get a PO Box or forwarding service as your FCC address.. doesn't have to be street address just mailing addy.
  - sevensor 8y ago
    I thought the FCC wanted to know where your station was. Doesn't this defeat the purpose?
    - gwillen 8y ago
      No, they only need to be able to contact you. However, as far as I know, even if you change your listed address, your _past_ addresses are still published, unfortunately. There was some movement towards ending that, but I don't think it was successful.
- nickysielicki 8y ago
  You can go to the FCC's website and get a list of every currently valid callsign, and then from there get the name and listed address associated with the callsign. Your information is already public if you're licensed, so it doesn't concern me at all.
- imroot 8y ago
  I've just dealt with it (K4IMW), but, I use my PO Box for my FCC ULS information. If the FCC or anyone else wants to get in touch with me, it's probably quicker to email me, but, I understand that there are times where a paper letter is more "formal," (also, QSL cards).
threeio 8y ago
I'll also toss out that there is a great amateur radio community on Reddit... where you can avoid some of the more... seasoned radio operators, their opinions and health conditions ;) https://www.reddit.com/r/amateurradio https://www.reddit.com/r/amateurradio
p0d 8y ago
I agree we are in a golden age of ham tech but older hams than me (like my friend GI0LZR) talk about days when the radio bands were more open. This is ham speak for sending/receiving more frequent long distance calls. I think we may be in a season of bad radio weather. The Sun usually gets the blame. I get a buzz out of the low power stuff and don’t see the fun in pumping out signals using 1 or 2kw of power. I have sent and recieved low power messages 6k miles using less than 5w. Transmitting low power signals, like wspr, using a raspberry pi is great fun. And before anyone mentions it I do run my noisey signals through a low pass filter :-) 2IOJXA
jimhefferon 8y ago
The problem is that many on the bands are miserable people. It can be discouraging. The radio is a lot of fun. (I love Morse.) But a sizable percentage of the radio-ers make you want to do something else.
- setquk 8y ago
  This is a big problem. I find CW to be populated with less annoying people.
  - jimhefferon 8y ago
    Sked? I'm just 15 wpm but if you need a VT ...
    - setquk 8y ago
      Thanks for offer. Minus an antenna at the moment unfortunately due to a tree attack. Maybe in a couple of weeks :)
      - jimhefferon 8y ago
        Cool.
  - resters 8y ago
    That’s a broad and inaccurate generalization. You just need to find a niche that is more socially appealing to you if you want to use it to socialize. Sounds like common sense but it’s easy to be weirded out by the “pig farmers” or by listening to a chat where one of the parties expresses conservative views. But overall hams embody the best aspects of science and engineering culture and DIY/maker culture. Most of the subgroups bave active online communities and are more focused in their on the air activities, and a bit less inclined to shoot the breeze about Fox News talking points. CW tends to be nice and some of the “rag chewing” (casual conversation) is remarkably thoughtful and there are some really interesting people. Doing conversation well on Morse is a bit of an art form.
gwbennett 8y ago
Great read! Thanks for the website info! Taking my General Test on Tueday. I have picked out a Yaesu 818 as my first HF radio. Look forward to QRP and SOTA.
- ssimpson 8y ago
  awesome! i need to get my butt up some of the summits around me and do some SOTA work myself. I've got all the stuff, just need to do it!
noipnoid 8y ago
http://peimc-smp.paic.com.cn:8080/peimcnl/innovateVote/index.html#/ http://peimc-smp.paic.com.cn:8080/peimcnl/innovateVote/index...
apatters 8y ago
I've always been curious about this hobby but never jumped in. The technology is an interesting curiosity to me but speaking bluntly what would probably give me the impetus to really spend time on it would be tapping into any kind of underground content or social experience that exists. For instance I read that Art Bell got started by broadcasting his show over shortwave bands, what a fascinating experience it would have been to be hanging out with those guys and listening to their conversations through amateur radio. What is the easiest way for me to start listening in and discovering what's out there on the airwaves? Do I have to buy hardware or are there purely software/online options? Also I live in Thailand so most of the local chatter would probably be in Thai which is hard for me to follow.
- ssimpson 8y ago
  You could always use websdr to listen http://www.websdr.org http://www.websdr.org
- SOMA_BOFH 8y ago
  Online SDR receivers are a great way to listen using other people's equipment: http://www.websdr.org http://www.websdr.org Reverse Beacon Network and PSKreporter are excellent tools to see how people's signals are propagating: http://www.reversebeacon.net http://www.reversebeacon.net ttps://pskreporter.info/pskmap.html
  - apatters 8y ago
    Oh man. This is amazing. Going to require at least one full evening to figure out WTF I am looking at though :)
    - BenjiWiebe 8y ago
      Check out the WSPRnet map to get a visual indicator of propagation conditions, by seeing which automated stations can hear which other automated stations.
- sasaf5 8y ago
hyperpallium 8y ago
What's the most lightweight, portable ham radio? Is it comparable to a smartphone?
- brians 8y ago
  More comparable to a raspberry pi. There are some UHF transceivers the size of thumb drives, and a couple beacon designs the size of lithium coin cells—the idea is you clip the coin cell on, then put this in your drone/rocket/balloon. Mass is a couple grams at most. A typical low-power shortwave station will fit comfortably in my spare space in a backpack, as described at the link.
- cylinder714 8y ago
  It's about as big as a book, but a popular choice is the Yaesu FT-817ND and its replacement FT-818ND. Both are low-powered radios, transmitting only a few watts, but they cover all of the ham high-frequency bands, as well as the popular 2-meter and 440 MHz VHF bands. You can also receive aviation traffic and the FM broadcast band. If you don't need all-band coverage, there are smaller, lighter transceivers available.
- FlyMoreRockets 8y ago
  I guess it depends on what you mean by "ham radio". Here's a tiny surface mount transmitter that is barely more than a gram and operates on amateur frequencies. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMkaN21K5S0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMkaN21K5S0 Gerber file, bill of materials, etc are freely available. I'm looking at modifying the design into a beacon for a rocket radiolocation project.
arendtio 8y ago
If you want to learn Morse Code I can recommend using these Anki decks: - Easy start but without punctuation. You might want to add that https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/950182698 https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/950182698 - Pretty good but hard to start with https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/3645353967 https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/3645353967 - There are a few more Decks: https://ankiweb.net/shared/decks/morse%20code https://ankiweb.net/shared/decks/morse%20code
- daedalus_j 8y ago
  https://lcwo.net https://lcwo.net is also quite a good tool.
- lujim 8y ago
  Sorry to be that guy but it is for good reason. Don't learn Morse Code visually. The time it takes to convert an audible signal into a visual representation is simply too long to be able to decode a real Morse Code signal. I learned visually at first and the amount of effort it took to unlearn it was unbelievable. You have to learn by hearing the audible character and have your brain immediately translated it through shear practice and repetition. If you have to convert it to a visual dot dash symbol in your head you will be too slow to ever have a conversation on the air.
Tepix 8y ago
I'm interested in getting into HAM radio to communicate with/via satellites (or the moon), what's a good resource to get started?
- FlyMoreRockets 8y ago
  AmSat has some good articles for getting started with satellites: https://www.amsat.org/introduction-to-working-amateur-satellites/ https://www.amsat.org/introduction-to-working-amateur-satell... Moonbounce is challenging even for experienced hams.
furyg3 8y ago
I was a HAM in the US, mostly just to get internet access via packet radio (and play with higher power wifi) back in early 2000's. I participated in a few field day's which were really awesome. The community was pretty cool. I didn't take this hobby over to Europe when I moved, and let my license lapse. How's the community over here (specifically the Netherlands)?
- eythian 8y ago
  Can't speak to it specifically - yet - but I've been in NL for a few years now and haven't converted my licence as it requires some paperwork hoops on the non-NL side that I haven't bothered to figure out all of yet. Probably easier than doing the exam in a tweede taal though. But I was at SHA2017 where we had a temporary repeater hoisted up on a cherry-picker, and someone who had boated in was doing APRS (I brought my HackRF so could dabble on the edges of legality :) But one of these days, soon I'm sure, I'll get my HAREC thing sorted and convert it over.
Uberphallus 8y ago
A question for the international crowd, I want to take the license exam. I live in France, and the closest exam center is like 300 Km away, exam dates always on weekday, so I'd need to take a day off for that. I live near Monaco, had a look but I can't find anything regarding exams, some people hold licenses but they don't answer to my emails asking about it. Is there a comfortable way to obtain the license around here?
- madshiva 8y ago
  Same question but for Switzerland too.. I'm totally lost with the news legal license needed or not.
- resters 8y ago
  Surprised nobody has responded. What entities have you tried reaching out to? I'm sure that if you find the right person your quest to get licensed will be greatly streamlined.
ablation 8y ago
Are those cheap Baofeng radios decent? Was considering getting into this and using one of those as a starting point (to listen at first, obviously, not broadcast until I've got a licence.)
- Uberphallus 8y ago
  They're decent for their price... but you won't hear much, as they're stuck in 136-174 MHz (some AM airband, but the radio is FM) and 400-480MHz (local PMR446, some pager networks operate here). Also no digital modes, and max bandwidth (25 KHz? don't remember) limits what you can postprocess in the computer. Otherwise, they're fine for low bandwidth stuff. They work great as ghetto amplifier for 433MHz applications. To get started I'd rather recommend a RTLSDR dongle, they're under $10 and you can listen (though not transmit) from 24 MHz to 1.7 GHz at 2MHz bandwidth: you can capture images from weather satellites at ~145MHz, scan for weather stations at 433 MHz, various telemetry at 868/915 MHz, airplane tracking, L-band satellites... for some of these things you'll need some sort of filtering and amplifying though.
  - ablation 8y ago
    Thanks for the reply, very useful. I have an SDR dongle around somewhere already I think. Are there any entry-level (price wise) handhelds you'd recommend? It's not always hugely easy to carry my laptop around with me sometimes.
    - Uberphallus 8y ago
      If you have a (rooted?) Android phone, you can use the dongle with an OTG cable. Otherwise, a Baofeng DM-5R should do the job, it has digital modes compared to the cheaper and more popular models. Still limited to FM in analog, which is a pity for airband (where, by the way, you should never ever transmit in).
HocusLocus 8y ago
Cell phones are laughable single points of failure. Everyone brought this upon themselves from decades of bad engineering choices, if you consider resilience an objective. Once upon a time there was a terrestrial network of small autonomous telephone exchanges. Your phone numbers were tied to geographical locations. It seemed 'inconvenient'. Now you or your signal often have to travel hundreds of miles (as the crow flies) to find a central office that is required for call completion, even between two phones 10 feet apart. Even so-called 'land line phones' are tied into this network now because cell phone providers have remade the old Bell system in their own image and require, of all things, Internet connectivity and utility power to boxes on poles all over the neighborhood to work. Expect it to fail all at once. You will not be disappointed. What this means in terms of the value of amateur radio is not hard to figure out.
- gambler 8y ago
  Thank you for posting this. > Now you or your signal often have to travel hundreds of miles (as the crow flies) to find a central office that is required for call completion, even between two phones 10 feet apart. And people generally think this is okay. Until something big happens and everyone reacts to it by trying to call other people, the central office gets overwhelmed, and the entire system stops working right when it's needed the most. Then you get something like AWS or Azure outage. And you see engineers saying "it's fine, there are so many services down, no one expects out to work". Then you get something like that big Oculus Rift shutdown. No big deal, right? But do you know that that some industrial control systems use certificate signing? I've just finished reading The Machine Stops by E. M. Forster. If you think about it, the kind of systemic failure he describes is not as ridiculous as it might sound. Over time, people start taking large technical systems for granted, like forces of nature.
  - phaedrus 8y ago
    The Machine Stops was one of the first science fiction stories I ever read, and one I will never forget.
- calebm 8y ago
  This is one of the things that got me into ham. If cell phones and internet go down, most people can only communicate as far as they can yell.
CathyWest 8y ago
I'm curious, do hams ever troll one another as internet users frequently do?
- idoescompooters 8y ago
  Ohhh yes. That would occur on 14.313 MHz on the 20m band. Don't find yourself caught calling "CQ" on that frequency. It is where lots of bad language and name calling occurs.
  - resters 8y ago
    The FCC occasionally does a sting operation to shut down someone doing malicious interference, but there are a few frequencies where a handful of griefers congregate. I suspect the reason the FCC ignores it is that they generally only bother each other and limit it to one or two frequencies.
idoescompooters 8y ago
Obligatory comment for new radio enthusiasts: "ham" is not an acronym. Ham not HAM :)
neatlifers 8y ago
This is great. I love that old things, old paced stuff comes back. We all need to take a break to re think how we do things that entertain us. Spotify, Netflix, Facebook, etc, are just making us more miserable and less social in real life.
jcmoscon 8y ago
Remember that we used to have antennas in the our cellphones back in the 2000s? Well, where did it go? This is a pretty interesting history about an Amateur Radio hobbyist going to a Amateur Radio conference and Fractals!!!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mPefLpoz50 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mPefLpoz50
- buescher 8y ago
  That's not where they went.
rv-de 8y ago
https://www.reddit.com/r/amateurradio/comments/9q15t1/the_real_problem/ https://www.reddit.com/r/amateurradio/comments/9q15t1/the_re...
tdeck 8y ago
I guess it's all relative. I am just getting into ham radio and I am shocked at how expendive HF rigs still are. The QCX kit is $50 sure and it's really well designed, but it takes hours to assemble and it's difficult to debug without already having a radio or other test equipment. If I want to get into Arduino, I can buy a fully built board on eBay for about $3. Other HF radios on the budget end are a couple hundred bucks. It's one of the few areas where you can save significant cash building kits, which is kind of cool.
tonymet 8y ago
If you're a software engineer, and know even a little electronics ( V=IR, basic components, schematics , etc), you can get your technician's license with 2-4 hours study using https://hamstudy.org/tech2018 https://hamstudy.org/tech2018 . There are many exams every month, and it's only $15 (use http://www.arrl.org/find-an-amateur-radio-license-exam-session http://www.arrl.org/find-an-amateur-radio-license-exam-sessi... to find a local exam) Think of your HAM license as a driver's license for radio communications, and you'll see it opens up a lot of opportunities & functionality. You can do voice simplex (radio-radio), chat on repeaters (bunny-hopping to reach distant stations), DMR (same as above, but digitally encoded), CW (morse code with low bandwidth & long range), APRS (digital beacons for GPS, weather, etc), and more. Most people experience radio through a commercial (aka unlicensed) product like GSM/CDMA (cell phones), WiFI, FM-broadcast, FRS (walkie talkies), CB Radio (trucker's radios) etc. That's a great intro, but so restricted it's kind of like comparing bumper-cars to driving a car. It's more than a just a hobby too. Most emergency response teams get licensed. The Red cross sent Hams to puerto rico when the network went down. Sailors still use radio to communicate. Since your first radio is $30 and the technician's exam is $15, it's a very easy and rewarding hobby to get into.

558 points by resters 8y ago

These hobbyists may save our hide after an apocalypse that levels the Internet.

I posted this the other day: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18375562 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18375562 Amsat and Ariss fundraiser to support new infrastructure for the ham stuff in ISS.

richardbdrowley 8y ago
Post is dead fyi

jpm_sd 8y ago

I'm almost 40 and never quite managed to get into amateur radio, but my kids are getting old enough that they might be interested. Reading articles like this gets me excited to finally give it a try.

ssimpson 8y ago
do it! you can get started with some cheap SDR stuff to "see" whats out there. I you want to participate it is really a great hobby. I can't wait until my daughters can participate.
abfan1127 8y ago
the average age of ham operators is well above 50s. You still have time for yourself! I'd love to get more involved, just don't have the time. Some of the best ways of getting kids involved is local DX events. -KE7BRP :)
loph 8y ago
Find a local club, there will be people there that will want to see you succeed.

steveharman 8y ago

I guess it might be of as old fashioned, but there's nrarely a "Resource Limit Reached. Error 508" with radio. Shame, I was interested in reading about this.

rnotaro 8y ago
http://archive.is/tH0Ae http://archive.is/tH0Ae
lightlyused 8y ago
Well, I once was operating from the Caribbean on 40m and had such a huge number of people calling me, I couldn't make any contacts for many minutes. I guest that would be a 508 error.

gergles 8y ago

The title of this piece is "HF Ham Radio on a Budget: QRP Labs, QRPGuys, CW Academy" and probably should at least just be the first part. The article doesn't really talk about being it a golden age for amateurs except for the existence of SOTA. It's actually a pretty bad time for HF right now because of low solar activity; in fact, it's probably one of the worst times in recent memory to try doing HF beyond SOTA.

ssimpson 8y ago
While i wouldn't call it a golden age, its definitely not a bad time if you want to do things like digital or satellite work. New modes like FT8 really allow hams to work in at this crappy solar level. Pricing on HTs has gone down a lot due to the now illegal Chinese knockoffs, so Satellite work and local stuff is more accessible. Personally I've only done FT8 for the last year and its great. I've been able to make contacts 8000mi+.
- tuxxy 8y ago
  Got any links for getting started with SATCOM other than the SDR to weather satellite stuff you typically see?
  - SOMA_BOFH 8y ago
    getting started is cheap and easy: http://www.work-sat.com/Home_files/WorkSat-08-2018a.pdf http://www.work-sat.com/Home_files/WorkSat-08-2018a.pdf http://www.algissalys.com/amateur-radio/aprs-over-satellites http://www.algissalys.com/amateur-radio/aprs-over-satellites
wishinghand 8y ago
Why is low solar activity bad for amateur radio?
- GlenTheMachine 8y ago
  HF signals need to bounce off the ionosphere to travel any distance. The more ionized the ionosphere is, the more effectively hf radio waves refract off it. High solar activity leads to higher ionization. In ham terms, this is know as “band openings”, eg when ionospheric conditions allow hf at a given frequency to refract off the ionosphere.

rnotaro 8y ago

Backup link: http://archive.is/tH0Ae http://archive.is/tH0Ae

presscast 8y ago

I want to get started with packet radio. I don't know anything about it. Where do I start?

vvanders 8y ago
If you already have a license/radio the mobilinkd[1] is a great way to get a TNC added to any radio. It has a Bluetooth SSP that lets you write packets in KISS[2] protocol which gets bits on the air(APRS adds a lot more on top of this). [1] http://www.mobilinkd.com/ http://www.mobilinkd.com/ [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KISS_(TNC) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KISS_(TNC)
SOMA_BOFH 8y ago
APRS is an easy way to get started in packet radio: http://www.nwclimate.org/aprs/introduction-to-aprs/ http://www.nwclimate.org/aprs/introduction-to-aprs/
nickysielicki 8y ago
Start with APRS --- a lot of people aren't even aware that there are packet radio networks that exist on VHF outside of 144.390M, but no matter where you are in the US, you probably will be able to get something going on APRS. There are all sorts of ways that you can go with packet radio. Here are a couple ideas: 1. Start monitoring APRS traffic in your area. I have a blog post that I wrote about repurposing a $5 scanner from a swapfest with a broken USB headset from a junk drawer, and turning it into a receive-only APRS igate. [1] I run that on a raspberry pi, you can see the current status of it here: [2] You can do this with an RTLSDR, or a Baofeng into your laptop's microphone, etc. This is the easiest way to just listen and hear for yourself that there is traffic around you, and I think that will motivate you to get further into it. 2. Start putting cool packets onto APRS! If you have a Baofeng, you can make a cheap TNC out of a USB soundcard, an appropriate break-out cable (available for ~$15 on Amazon), and any computer running soundcard TNC software. I strongly recommend Direwolf if you are playing with a Raspberry Pi (or just a laptop running linux), and APRSDroid if you have an old phone in a drawer. Something to watch out for is the quality of the signal that you put out, you need to tweak the volumes so that things aren't being overdriven. Nobody will hear you otherwise, and you'll be jamming the band for others. A cool project idea is to put together a Baofeng-powered APRS security system in your car, with the radio stowed in the trunk and tied into the ignition switch. You could track your car at any time! (I started a project like this but never finished it --- the Baofengs use something weird like 7.4V, and my Raspberry Pi was powered at 5V, and I never could think of a proper solution for my ground loops, and how to put it together in a clean package. I have a TH-D72A with a built-in GPS and TNC that I use for APRS in my car on longer trips, for now.) I bought a cheap weather station, and I was able to get wee_wx to start pulling data from it, and sometime over Christmas I'm hoping that I'll find the time to start putting that data onto APRS. The sky is really the limit, there are dozens of interesting data formats on APRS besides positional data and weather data. 3. Non-APRS packet radio! This is where the real fun is. Here in Wisconsin I have the following site to see where traffic is [3]. One of the craziest things I've done in Ham radio is hooked my TH-D72A up to my laptop, connected via raw commands to a neighboring station speaking AX.25, left a message on his BBS, and then issued a command which had me hopping from his VHF receive to his HF rig, which forwarded me onto another BBS over HF. The connection was very broken up, but enough came through that I know it happened, and that was enough for it to put a wide smile on my face. 4. If you live in Seattle, check out HamWan. Hams are allowed to run standard 2.4GHz Wi-Fi equipment at higher power than normal people, provided that we stick to the FCC requirements (station identification in the form of our SSID, no encryption, etc.) I really don't know much about this project, but it's cool stuff. Fun to see what WiFi is theoretically capable of. [4] [1]: https://nsielicki.blogspot.com/2018/04/repurposing-old-radio-scanners-to-make.html https://nsielicki.blogspot.com/2018/04/repurposing-old-radio... [2]: https://aprs.fi/info/a/W9NLS-2 https://aprs.fi/info/a/W9NLS-2 [3]: https://www.qsl.net/n9zia/wapr/bandplan.html https://www.qsl.net/n9zia/wapr/bandplan.html [4]: https://hamwan.org/ https://hamwan.org/

jimnotgym 8y ago

I would like to have a go at building a receiver for listening to CW with my kids. I don't want anything on the computer, just something I can solder that will work. Is there a kit that has a good success rate? I'm in the UK if that matters.

resters 8y ago
I suggest a simple direct conversion receiver such as the really simple one in the classic book EMRFD: https://www.amazon.com/Experimental-Methods-Design-ARRL-Inc/dp/087259923X https://www.amazon.com/Experimental-Methods-Design-ARRL-Inc/...
nickysielicki 8y ago
Check out the Pixie kits, they're extraordinarily cheap, like $5 on ebay cheap. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwtErr2E1kQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwtErr2E1kQ
- taborj 8y ago
  I'd recommend getting a couple different crystals, at least one at 7.030Mhz, which is likely going to be more popular than the typical 7.023Mhz they come with.
- Johnythree 8y ago
  Not a pixie. They are super simple, but require considerable skill to use. For example, they are morse code only.
  - nickysielicki 8y ago
    He specifically asked for a CW device.
p0d 8y ago
You just need a long piece of wire, diode, ferrite coil wth wire wrapped around, variable resistor and old style ear piece to pick up am radio. No batteries required. I can remember my son’s lack of interest while we made the venerable crystal radio and then his little fascinated face when we picked up some signals

kevindqc 8y ago

What is a Toroid used for and why does it need to be winded differently for different bands? Is it what generates the signals that get transmitted by the antenna?

SOMA_BOFH 8y ago
It's a coil when used in RF applications. Different windings give it different induction properties: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_coil https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_coil
resters 8y ago
Ferrite and powdered iron toroids are used for winding transformers and inductors. For radio stuff they are usually used as impedance transformers or as inductors in LC bandpass filters.
lightlyused 8y ago
Basically a circular inductor with a ferrite core instead of air which allows it to be more compact, have a higher inductance per volume and a greater q factor (bandwidth). A different inductance (different number of wire turns) is needed depending upon several factors, especially if you are using them to make a resonant circuit (a circuit that responds to a particular frequency). It does not generate the signal. I hope I got that right.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
brandmeyer 8y ago
Adding to what some others have said, a toroidal shape for an inductor has some particularly nice properties for RF applications. The magnetic field outside an ideal toroid is exactly zero, regardless of what's going on inside the toroid. Even for real toroids, the leakage is very low.

TimTheTinker 8y ago

Submission is mistitled. Should be "HF Ham Radio on a Budget".

resters 8y ago
The title used is more descriptive of the intent of the article, which is clear if you RTFA.
- Jaruzel 8y ago
  No need for 'RTFA', just 'RTA', you'd been flagged/dead but I thought I'd resurrect you and explain why.
- TimTheTinker 8y ago
  I did RTA and I understand the reasoning. I just disagreed in this case because although the HN title was one of his main points, that wasn't the main point and the article wasn't structured around it. If that had been the title and the main point, he'd be emphasizing a lot more than the great cheap HF gear that's now available. (There's a lot more that's really awesome in AR than what you can do with basic HF gear.)

jimmcslim 8y ago

I'm interested in amateur radio but always feel that I can't get anything done without a big honking antenna?

rhinoceraptor 8y ago
I'm not a radio/antenna expert, so this might be a bit inaccurate. You want your antenna length to be some fraction of the wavelength, e.g. 1/1, 1/2, 1/4, etc. As the antenna length fraction gets smaller, it will have a less signal and more noise. Ham radio bands are much lower frequency than wifi, bluetooth, GPS, or cellular. The wavelength is equal to the speed of light divided by the frequency, so lower frequency bands need bigger antennas. So for example, the wavelength for a 144 Mhz you might use for amateur radio voice is 2 meters, whereas the wavelength of 2.4 Ghz wifi is only 0.12 meters. The advantage of lower frequencies is they travel farther. AM radio is a lower frequency than FM, so it travels farther than FM.
aidenn0 8y ago
HF (which is what this article talks about) works best with a big honking antenna, but if you build your own you can get pretty creative; my dad did 20m from a townhouse. As far as VHF/UHF, there are compact handhelds[1] with an antenna less than 12 inches long. 1: For example https://www.yaesu.com/downloadFile.cfm?FileID=12831&FileCatID=38&FileName=FT%2D65%5FFT%2D25%5Fleaflet%5FWeb.pdf&FileContentType=application%2Fpdf https://www.yaesu.com/downloadFile.cfm?FileID=12831&FileCatI...
int_19h 8y ago
For VHF and UHF , that's not generally true - e.g. a simple quarter-wavelength antenna (exactly what it says on the tin - a stick antenna that is 1/4 of the wavelength on which you intend to operate - so e.g. for VHF 2m band, we're talking ~20" long, and for UHF 70cm it's even shorter) is perfectly sufficient to work repeaters, and to communicate with others directly within the radio horizon. For HF, you do need a large antenna, but it's not necessarily what people think of when they think "antenna" - i.e. not a tower with a giant vertical rod. An HF antenna can just be a piece of cable of the right length and type, properly arranged; and it's usually strung more horizontally than vertically. Using trees for that is pretty common, too. Something like this: https://hamcall.net/images/BuckmasterOCFInstallDiagram.png https://hamcall.net/images/BuckmasterOCFInstallDiagram.png

httpz 8y ago

I have a license because my high school teacher made us do it but I never quite understood what hobbyists do with it. I see how it can be a useful skill to have for people in a certain profession but as a hobbyist what do you do? Do people just talk to random people on the radio? I'm genuinely curious.

gingerbread-man 8y ago
I got my license (KE0RYU) a few months ago partly out of curiosity and partly because I wanted to mess around with software-defined radio. So far I've volunteered for communications at a major half-marathon and done a little bit of storm spotting for the NWS. It seems like the majority of serious amatuer radio hobbyists are retired man, many of whom have a background in military communications or electrical engineering.
quickthrower2 8y ago
I used to have a CB and it was fun to talk to mates on there and muck around. At the time I liked the idea of HAM radio because you could go longer distance, and the idea of speaking to someone in another country was really cool. However now with the internet etc. it may seem a little less cool. (The internet was around when I was young but was pretty expensive to get connected). I remember a time when someone on the CB got 64kbps connection to the internet through packet radio, faster than dial up! It's a bit like how mucking around with microcomputers was very cool back in the day, but now why would you bother when you can run a C64 in an emulator? But there is something nostalgic about it that makes me sometimes want to buy and old computer.
- Jaruzel 8y ago
  > but now why would you bother when you can run a C64 in an emulator? Once you dive into Retro-computing, you'll find loads of us getting and keeping old kit running, with a whole host of strange old and new add-ons, with new bits of kit being designed and built everyday. It's a really fun (but expensive) hobby!
codemac 8y ago
You nerd out about radio technology, and you see what you can do with it (bigger ones, smaller ones, distance and quality of transmissions, etc). It's a feeling of power and independence that is very lost with the Internet to me. With the internet - I'm connecting to something very very large. With ham - I'm building my own. I'd see it as the same draw as setting up your first website in the late 90's/early 2000's, with the visitor counters and comments sections. Each interaction is a treasure.

snazz 8y ago

I am interested in ham radio, but I’m uncomfortable with broadcasting my call sign around (as required by the FCC) since in the US it’s super easy to get someone’s name and home address from their callsign. For currently operating hams: do you just deal with it, or is there something you can do to protect your privacy?

threeio 8y ago
You can get a PO Box or forwarding service as your FCC address.. doesn't have to be street address just mailing addy.
- sevensor 8y ago
  I thought the FCC wanted to know where your station was. Doesn't this defeat the purpose?
  - gwillen 8y ago
    No, they only need to be able to contact you. However, as far as I know, even if you change your listed address, your _past_ addresses are still published, unfortunately. There was some movement towards ending that, but I don't think it was successful.
nickysielicki 8y ago
You can go to the FCC's website and get a list of every currently valid callsign, and then from there get the name and listed address associated with the callsign. Your information is already public if you're licensed, so it doesn't concern me at all.
imroot 8y ago
I've just dealt with it (K4IMW), but, I use my PO Box for my FCC ULS information. If the FCC or anyone else wants to get in touch with me, it's probably quicker to email me, but, I understand that there are times where a paper letter is more "formal," (also, QSL cards).

threeio 8y ago

I'll also toss out that there is a great amateur radio community on Reddit... where you can avoid some of the more... seasoned radio operators, their opinions and health conditions ;) https://www.reddit.com/r/amateurradio https://www.reddit.com/r/amateurradio

p0d 8y ago

I agree we are in a golden age of ham tech but older hams than me (like my friend GI0LZR) talk about days when the radio bands were more open. This is ham speak for sending/receiving more frequent long distance calls. I think we may be in a season of bad radio weather. The Sun usually gets the blame. I get a buzz out of the low power stuff and don’t see the fun in pumping out signals using 1 or 2kw of power. I have sent and recieved low power messages 6k miles using less than 5w. Transmitting low power signals, like wspr, using a raspberry pi is great fun. And before anyone mentions it I do run my noisey signals through a low pass filter :-) 2IOJXA

jimhefferon 8y ago

The problem is that many on the bands are miserable people. It can be discouraging. The radio is a lot of fun. (I love Morse.) But a sizable percentage of the radio-ers make you want to do something else.

setquk 8y ago
This is a big problem. I find CW to be populated with less annoying people.
- jimhefferon 8y ago
  Sked? I'm just 15 wpm but if you need a VT ...
  - setquk 8y ago
    Thanks for offer. Minus an antenna at the moment unfortunately due to a tree attack. Maybe in a couple of weeks :)
    - jimhefferon 8y ago
      Cool.
- resters 8y ago
  That’s a broad and inaccurate generalization. You just need to find a niche that is more socially appealing to you if you want to use it to socialize. Sounds like common sense but it’s easy to be weirded out by the “pig farmers” or by listening to a chat where one of the parties expresses conservative views. But overall hams embody the best aspects of science and engineering culture and DIY/maker culture. Most of the subgroups bave active online communities and are more focused in their on the air activities, and a bit less inclined to shoot the breeze about Fox News talking points. CW tends to be nice and some of the “rag chewing” (casual conversation) is remarkably thoughtful and there are some really interesting people. Doing conversation well on Morse is a bit of an art form.

gwbennett 8y ago

Great read! Thanks for the website info! Taking my General Test on Tueday. I have picked out a Yaesu 818 as my first HF radio. Look forward to QRP and SOTA.

ssimpson 8y ago
awesome! i need to get my butt up some of the summits around me and do some SOTA work myself. I've got all the stuff, just need to do it!

noipnoid 8y ago

http://peimc-smp.paic.com.cn:8080/peimcnl/innovateVote/index.html#/ http://peimc-smp.paic.com.cn:8080/peimcnl/innovateVote/index...

apatters 8y ago

I've always been curious about this hobby but never jumped in. The technology is an interesting curiosity to me but speaking bluntly what would probably give me the impetus to really spend time on it would be tapping into any kind of underground content or social experience that exists. For instance I read that Art Bell got started by broadcasting his show over shortwave bands, what a fascinating experience it would have been to be hanging out with those guys and listening to their conversations through amateur radio. What is the easiest way for me to start listening in and discovering what's out there on the airwaves? Do I have to buy hardware or are there purely software/online options? Also I live in Thailand so most of the local chatter would probably be in Thai which is hard for me to follow.

ssimpson 8y ago
You could always use websdr to listen http://www.websdr.org http://www.websdr.org
SOMA_BOFH 8y ago
Online SDR receivers are a great way to listen using other people's equipment: http://www.websdr.org http://www.websdr.org Reverse Beacon Network and PSKreporter are excellent tools to see how people's signals are propagating: http://www.reversebeacon.net http://www.reversebeacon.net ttps://pskreporter.info/pskmap.html
- apatters 8y ago
  Oh man. This is amazing. Going to require at least one full evening to figure out WTF I am looking at though :)
  - BenjiWiebe 8y ago
    Check out the WSPRnet map to get a visual indicator of propagation conditions, by seeing which automated stations can hear which other automated stations.
sasaf5 8y ago

hyperpallium 8y ago

What's the most lightweight, portable ham radio? Is it comparable to a smartphone?

brians 8y ago
More comparable to a raspberry pi. There are some UHF transceivers the size of thumb drives, and a couple beacon designs the size of lithium coin cells—the idea is you clip the coin cell on, then put this in your drone/rocket/balloon. Mass is a couple grams at most. A typical low-power shortwave station will fit comfortably in my spare space in a backpack, as described at the link.
cylinder714 8y ago
It's about as big as a book, but a popular choice is the Yaesu FT-817ND and its replacement FT-818ND. Both are low-powered radios, transmitting only a few watts, but they cover all of the ham high-frequency bands, as well as the popular 2-meter and 440 MHz VHF bands. You can also receive aviation traffic and the FM broadcast band. If you don't need all-band coverage, there are smaller, lighter transceivers available.
FlyMoreRockets 8y ago
I guess it depends on what you mean by "ham radio". Here's a tiny surface mount transmitter that is barely more than a gram and operates on amateur frequencies. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMkaN21K5S0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMkaN21K5S0 Gerber file, bill of materials, etc are freely available. I'm looking at modifying the design into a beacon for a rocket radiolocation project.

arendtio 8y ago

If you want to learn Morse Code I can recommend using these Anki decks: - Easy start but without punctuation. You might want to add that https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/950182698 https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/950182698 - Pretty good but hard to start with https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/3645353967 https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/3645353967 - There are a few more Decks: https://ankiweb.net/shared/decks/morse%20code https://ankiweb.net/shared/decks/morse%20code

daedalus_j 8y ago
https://lcwo.net https://lcwo.net is also quite a good tool.
lujim 8y ago
Sorry to be that guy but it is for good reason. Don't learn Morse Code visually. The time it takes to convert an audible signal into a visual representation is simply too long to be able to decode a real Morse Code signal. I learned visually at first and the amount of effort it took to unlearn it was unbelievable. You have to learn by hearing the audible character and have your brain immediately translated it through shear practice and repetition. If you have to convert it to a visual dot dash symbol in your head you will be too slow to ever have a conversation on the air.

Tepix 8y ago

I'm interested in getting into HAM radio to communicate with/via satellites (or the moon), what's a good resource to get started?

FlyMoreRockets 8y ago
AmSat has some good articles for getting started with satellites: https://www.amsat.org/introduction-to-working-amateur-satellites/ https://www.amsat.org/introduction-to-working-amateur-satell... Moonbounce is challenging even for experienced hams.

furyg3 8y ago

I was a HAM in the US, mostly just to get internet access via packet radio (and play with higher power wifi) back in early 2000's. I participated in a few field day's which were really awesome. The community was pretty cool. I didn't take this hobby over to Europe when I moved, and let my license lapse. How's the community over here (specifically the Netherlands)?

eythian 8y ago
Can't speak to it specifically - yet - but I've been in NL for a few years now and haven't converted my licence as it requires some paperwork hoops on the non-NL side that I haven't bothered to figure out all of yet. Probably easier than doing the exam in a tweede taal though. But I was at SHA2017 where we had a temporary repeater hoisted up on a cherry-picker, and someone who had boated in was doing APRS (I brought my HackRF so could dabble on the edges of legality :) But one of these days, soon I'm sure, I'll get my HAREC thing sorted and convert it over.

Uberphallus 8y ago

A question for the international crowd, I want to take the license exam. I live in France, and the closest exam center is like 300 Km away, exam dates always on weekday, so I'd need to take a day off for that. I live near Monaco, had a look but I can't find anything regarding exams, some people hold licenses but they don't answer to my emails asking about it. Is there a comfortable way to obtain the license around here?

madshiva 8y ago
Same question but for Switzerland too.. I'm totally lost with the news legal license needed or not.
resters 8y ago
Surprised nobody has responded. What entities have you tried reaching out to? I'm sure that if you find the right person your quest to get licensed will be greatly streamlined.

ablation 8y ago

Are those cheap Baofeng radios decent? Was considering getting into this and using one of those as a starting point (to listen at first, obviously, not broadcast until I've got a licence.)

Uberphallus 8y ago
They're decent for their price... but you won't hear much, as they're stuck in 136-174 MHz (some AM airband, but the radio is FM) and 400-480MHz (local PMR446, some pager networks operate here). Also no digital modes, and max bandwidth (25 KHz? don't remember) limits what you can postprocess in the computer. Otherwise, they're fine for low bandwidth stuff. They work great as ghetto amplifier for 433MHz applications. To get started I'd rather recommend a RTLSDR dongle, they're under $10 and you can listen (though not transmit) from 24 MHz to 1.7 GHz at 2MHz bandwidth: you can capture images from weather satellites at ~145MHz, scan for weather stations at 433 MHz, various telemetry at 868/915 MHz, airplane tracking, L-band satellites... for some of these things you'll need some sort of filtering and amplifying though.
- ablation 8y ago
  Thanks for the reply, very useful. I have an SDR dongle around somewhere already I think. Are there any entry-level (price wise) handhelds you'd recommend? It's not always hugely easy to carry my laptop around with me sometimes.
  - Uberphallus 8y ago
    If you have a (rooted?) Android phone, you can use the dongle with an OTG cable. Otherwise, a Baofeng DM-5R should do the job, it has digital modes compared to the cheaper and more popular models. Still limited to FM in analog, which is a pity for airband (where, by the way, you should never ever transmit in).

HocusLocus 8y ago

Cell phones are laughable single points of failure. Everyone brought this upon themselves from decades of bad engineering choices, if you consider resilience an objective. Once upon a time there was a terrestrial network of small autonomous telephone exchanges. Your phone numbers were tied to geographical locations. It seemed 'inconvenient'. Now you or your signal often have to travel hundreds of miles (as the crow flies) to find a central office that is required for call completion, even between two phones 10 feet apart. Even so-called 'land line phones' are tied into this network now because cell phone providers have remade the old Bell system in their own image and require, of all things, Internet connectivity and utility power to boxes on poles all over the neighborhood to work. Expect it to fail all at once. You will not be disappointed. What this means in terms of the value of amateur radio is not hard to figure out.

gambler 8y ago
Thank you for posting this. > Now you or your signal often have to travel hundreds of miles (as the crow flies) to find a central office that is required for call completion, even between two phones 10 feet apart. And people generally think this is okay. Until something big happens and everyone reacts to it by trying to call other people, the central office gets overwhelmed, and the entire system stops working right when it's needed the most. Then you get something like AWS or Azure outage. And you see engineers saying "it's fine, there are so many services down, no one expects out to work". Then you get something like that big Oculus Rift shutdown. No big deal, right? But do you know that that some industrial control systems use certificate signing? I've just finished reading The Machine Stops by E. M. Forster. If you think about it, the kind of systemic failure he describes is not as ridiculous as it might sound. Over time, people start taking large technical systems for granted, like forces of nature.
- phaedrus 8y ago
  The Machine Stops was one of the first science fiction stories I ever read, and one I will never forget.
calebm 8y ago
This is one of the things that got me into ham. If cell phones and internet go down, most people can only communicate as far as they can yell.

CathyWest 8y ago

I'm curious, do hams ever troll one another as internet users frequently do?

idoescompooters 8y ago
Ohhh yes. That would occur on 14.313 MHz on the 20m band. Don't find yourself caught calling "CQ" on that frequency. It is where lots of bad language and name calling occurs.
- resters 8y ago
  The FCC occasionally does a sting operation to shut down someone doing malicious interference, but there are a few frequencies where a handful of griefers congregate. I suspect the reason the FCC ignores it is that they generally only bother each other and limit it to one or two frequencies.

idoescompooters 8y ago

Obligatory comment for new radio enthusiasts: "ham" is not an acronym. Ham not HAM :)

neatlifers 8y ago

This is great. I love that old things, old paced stuff comes back. We all need to take a break to re think how we do things that entertain us. Spotify, Netflix, Facebook, etc, are just making us more miserable and less social in real life.

jcmoscon 8y ago

Remember that we used to have antennas in the our cellphones back in the 2000s? Well, where did it go? This is a pretty interesting history about an Amateur Radio hobbyist going to a Amateur Radio conference and Fractals!!!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mPefLpoz50 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mPefLpoz50

buescher 8y ago
That's not where they went.

rv-de 8y ago

https://www.reddit.com/r/amateurradio/comments/9q15t1/the_real_problem/ https://www.reddit.com/r/amateurradio/comments/9q15t1/the_re...

tdeck 8y ago

I guess it's all relative. I am just getting into ham radio and I am shocked at how expendive HF rigs still are. The QCX kit is $50 sure and it's really well designed, but it takes hours to assemble and it's difficult to debug without already having a radio or other test equipment. If I want to get into Arduino, I can buy a fully built board on eBay for about $3. Other HF radios on the budget end are a couple hundred bucks. It's one of the few areas where you can save significant cash building kits, which is kind of cool.

tonymet 8y ago

If you're a software engineer, and know even a little electronics ( V=IR, basic components, schematics , etc), you can get your technician's license with 2-4 hours study using https://hamstudy.org/tech2018 https://hamstudy.org/tech2018 . There are many exams every month, and it's only $15 (use http://www.arrl.org/find-an-amateur-radio-license-exam-session http://www.arrl.org/find-an-amateur-radio-license-exam-sessi... to find a local exam) Think of your HAM license as a driver's license for radio communications, and you'll see it opens up a lot of opportunities & functionality. You can do voice simplex (radio-radio), chat on repeaters (bunny-hopping to reach distant stations), DMR (same as above, but digitally encoded), CW (morse code with low bandwidth & long range), APRS (digital beacons for GPS, weather, etc), and more. Most people experience radio through a commercial (aka unlicensed) product like GSM/CDMA (cell phones), WiFI, FM-broadcast, FRS (walkie talkies), CB Radio (trucker's radios) etc. That's a great intro, but so restricted it's kind of like comparing bumper-cars to driving a car. It's more than a just a hobby too. Most emergency response teams get licensed. The Red cross sent Hams to puerto rico when the network went down. Sailors still use radio to communicate. Since your first radio is $30 and the technician's exam is $15, it's a very easy and rewarding hobby to get into.