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Be careful with SDR's. One minute you're scrolling around the spectrum, and the next you'll find yourself ordering parts for a 36 element Yagi and AZ/EL rotator
by _whiteCaps_ 1y ago
Be careful with SDR's. One minute you're scrolling around the spectrum, and the next you'll find yourself ordering parts for a 36 element Yagi and AZ/EL rotator, and a $3k radio to do Earth Moon Earth bounce communication.
- viraptor 1y agoConfirming this. Sounds like a joke but suddenly Ali knows just how how to snipe you with radio equipment offers...
- tehlike 1y agoI was already building a homelab, and was eyeing SDR and Meshtastic gear.
- chneu 1y agoDon't do it!! Next you'll be setting up a weather station. Then you'll be setting up a microphone to ID birds via Merlin. Then home Assistant. Oh gosh it never ends. But it's so much fun.
- JustSomePackets 1y agoWell now I'm looking at automatic bird id and logging so I can track local species and see what my attempts to turn my stretch of grass into a wildlife garden does... Thanks, I think?
- chneu 1y agoI'm so sorry. Lol
- bo0tzz 1y agoThis comment is targeting me personally.
- zeristor 1y agoThey are all ready on my to do list, but just those three things.
- tehlike 1y agoSo far. While at it consider storing all the Linux isos ever existed too
- bitbckt 1y agoI feel attacked.
- enterpriss 1y agoWhat weather station did you end up with? And if it’s already been set up, is it proving to be more useful than local weather stations?
- UtahDave 1y ago$3k is barely getting started. Literally barely getting started. But you love it anyway
- wglb 1y agoMy buddy is one of the top station builders and contesters. He says it is a about $10,000 per tower. And one tower won't do.
- Keyframe 1y agoThe hell are those guys doing? I always had the itch, but never pulled the trigger on getting my feet wet into SDR. Radio astronomy?
- drmpeg 1y agoIt's a ham radio contest station. Doesn't really have to do with SDR. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dd4NWyFq-dM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dd4NWyFq-dM
- wglb 1y agoTim’s station is one of the biggest in the world. His tallest tower is 240 feet high. Some stations do use SDRs to feed the reverse beacon site. https://beta.reversebeacon.net/main.php https://beta.reversebeacon.net/main.php
- agiacalone 1y agoAnd then there's the license upgrades!
- dheera 1y agoOnly 3K to bounce shit off the moon?
- _whiteCaps_ 1y agoNo... 3k just for the radio - actually, an IC-9700 is about $2k now. Then add the yagi antenna, az/el moon tracker, amplifier, coax, etc. It really starts to add up. I've never done this but I've worked a bunch of satellites and the ISS repeater. It's generally the same stuff, just a bit more powerful and precise.
- RF_Savage 1y agoCan be done more cheaply if tou are good at reusing things and building.
- giantg2 1y agoCan be cheaper than that. I picked up 2 used icoms for about $500. I haven't tried to moon bounce with it yet, but the one should be able to (and do satellites too). So the radio by itself would have been about $300 and the antennas are self built.
- geeunits 1y agoOne of the few hobbies in my adhd/ult life that has sucked me in and spat me out precisely as described
- travisjungroth 1y agoWhat’s ult?
- ews 1y agoadult with adhd I assume?
- travisjungroth 1y agoThat makes sense, thanks. Ad[hd/ult].
- ews 1y agoLiterally me right now, got my first SDR less than a month ago because I wanted to have an FM radio for emergencies and I am designing antennas and studying for my amateur radio license.
- _whiteCaps_ 1y agoGood luck with the license! There's lots of people on Mastodon that chat about radio stuff.
- ews 1y agoThanks ! What accounts should I follow ?
- _whiteCaps_ 1y agoAnyone on mastodon.radio, and check out the #amateurRadio topic.
- diggan 1y ago> because I wanted to have an FM radio for emergencies Just make sure you have batteries/a way to run it! When we lost electricity for 1.5 day here last month (Spain), I thought I'd be clever and use my SDR too, but since we didn't have electricity at all, and none of my laptops were charged, I was out of luck. Wife's Macbook had battery available, but since I never used it with her Macbook, of course it didn't have the software/drivers needed, and the internet didn't work as all ISP equipment was also without electricity. Ended up listening to the radio in the car which was more than cumbersome :/ TLDR: get a shitty battery/hand-crank powered FM/AM radio for emergencies
- varispeed 1y agoRemember schematics for radios powered just by radio waves. No need for battery or hand-crank. That was in some old books, but never managed to build one.
- polishdude20 1y agoIf anyone wants ideas, try and get on the WISPR network! All you need is like 20 ft of wire and an SDR and you can listen to signals from across the ocean easy.
- cess11 1y agoWSPR, WISPR is something else. https://www.rtl-sdr.com/a-tutorial-on-receiving-wspr-with-an-rtl-sdr-v3/ https://www.rtl-sdr.com/a-tutorial-on-receiving-wspr-with-an...
- tecleandor 1y agoAdmiral Ackbar says... "It's a trap!"
- mschuster91 1y ago... and time and money for acquiring a ham license! Followed by more thousands of dollars for HF and 2m/70cm rigs, followed by more thousands of dollars for Hamnet links, a QO-100 sat dish for the Europeans... 73
- ggariepy 1y agoYou can do it on the cheap with CCRs and estate sales. My Kenwood HF unit was bought for $250, I made wire dipole antennas. I'm surrounded by Baofeng equipment as I type this. Total outlay for all of it probably on the order of $1000. I do so want an Icom 7300, though.
- _whiteCaps_ 1y agoI'm so jealous of the people that can see QO-100. Here I am in Canada checking my app for the birds to fly over, and people on the other side of the world can just point their antenna at it any time. :-/
- zoklet-enjoyer 1y agoI will avoid it for now because I don't think my wallet can handle it. I got really into home brewing for a while. Then synthesizers and drum machines. I need to stick to cheaper hobbies