5 ms·
Agree. We need a compact short wave transceiver device actually.
by alexwwang 5mo ago
Agree.
We need a compact short wave transceiver device actually.
- _whiteCaps_ 5mo agoThere's the trusdx or the QMX.
- FabCH 5mo agoBaofeng is 20 dollars? How much cheaper and compact do you need? And I know, I know, Baofengs are notorious for going over the allowed noise limits… but still…
- takipsizad 5mo agoBaofeng's are not shortwave radios afaik
- alexwwang 5mo agoyes. it's a good choice for light use in UHF/VHF scenarios even communicating to satellites if you have a Yagi antenna.
- jimnotgym 5mo agoBaofengs also have terrible receive filtering. It is perfectly possible to hear no stations because you are being overloaded by something on another frequency. I tried my first SOTA activation with a Boafeng. A transmitter on another hill meant I received nothing, although stains could hear me. By a Yaesu, still cheap
- RobotToaster 5mo agoA compact CB transceiver would be fun.
- topspin 5mo agoFun, but short range. A quarter wave CB antenna is about 2.7 meters long. Without that, you're making more heat than radio.
- iberator 5mo agowspr is known to work at 7mhz band with just cloth hanger as antenna. i think its totally possible to use headphones as shitty longwave antenna too
- jimnotgym 5mo agoWspr is very optimised for weak signals, though. You wouldn't actually hear anything but noise.
- iberator 5mo agojt8 would work. designed for ultra low db reception. We are talking here -20 dbm and chattable
- topspin 5mo agoSomeone already pointed out how the WSPR anecdotes fail for CB. The longwave reception argument is fallacy as well. There, you receive powerful signals with a poor, receive-only antenna; the typical asymmetric model of commercial broadcast radio (and cellular, for that matter.) With CB, both sides are low power. Legally, that is. And neither antenna is on a huge tower. Several handheld CB radios exist, with little loaded whip antennas. You can go buy one. You'll see. They work for talking between two tractors in a field or whatnot. Past that, not so much. Today, you're better off with license free UHF handhelds for that use case.
- NordStreamYacht 5mo agoYaesu FTW
- alexwwang 5mo agoyeap if you utilize "moneiability".
- sfmike 5mo agoIs this prevented by physics or cost or just no one has the motivation?
- souterrain 5mo agoThere are a number of compact shortwave (radio amateurs prefer the term "high frequency" or HF, in contrast to VHF, UHF) transceivers. The impracticality is from the size of an efficient antenna. I have personally made voice (single-sideband or SSB, which is analog like AM without wasting energy transmitting a carrier or redundant sideband) contacts with a 5 watt portable (Elecraft KX2) between countries in Europe, using a meter-long whip antenna and a trailing counterpoise wire. These radios are incredibly complex weak-signal equipment, and that is reflected in the price. That said, it is fun. Using morse code to do the same is even more fun. I would never rely on this for off-the-grid communication, though.
- gh02t 5mo agoCompact HF/shortwave radios with transmit capability exist, but they're pretty expensive and are generally definitely portable but not quite handheld. The biggest user of such equipment is the military, so a lot of the tech is engineered for that with civilian/amateur use as an afterthought. ICOM, Yaesu, and Xiegu are probably the best known makers, and you're looking at ~$1000 as table stakes for a modern one, though there are some slightly cheaper options. Handheld CB radios do exist and are cheap, but I've never really used them.
- jonah 5mo agoQRP is the keyword you may be looking for. 9W, battery powered, SDR shortwave transceivers. There are inexpensive and expensive versions.
- alexwwang 5mo agoThe antenna is the most critical part in this system. The transceiver is the second part, as to me at least.