8 ms·

Amateur Radio in Play in Aftermath of Nepal Earthquake

99 points by anaxag0ras 11y ago

tzs 11y ago
I wonder how many HN readers have amateur radio licenses? I got one last month (AF7PL). Now I'm working on getting a radio. I don't want to just go out and buy something. I want to do this old-school, and so have at least some of the major components of my shack home built (and ideally home designed). I may partially relent, though, and buy a handheld transceiver for 2m/70cm. My electronic construction skills are pretty primitive, and my oscilloscope (unlocked Rigol DS1054Z) only goes up to 100 MHz, so VHF and UHF radios are probably out of my DIY league. That's fine, as I'm actually more interested in HF anyway.
- jrockway 11y ago
  You might enjoy getting started with a kit like the SoftRock SDR: http://fivedash.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=7 http://fivedash.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1... Personally I think it makes sense to start with a pre-built radio to learn the radio technique and have something to compare with, but with an oscilloscope you can probably hack a kit into doing something useful. (I have the Softrock RX kit. Works well to receive WSPR.) 73, KD2DTW
  - lightlyused 11y ago
    I have one, but haven't put it together yet.
    - VLM 11y ago
      I have a Lite for 30M and the web guide is Very helpful http://www.wb5rvz.org/softrock_lite_ii/index?changeBands=no http://www.wb5rvz.org/softrock_lite_ii/index?changeBands=no There are web guides at that site for all the radio models. It doesn't drift much and is reasonably sensitive enough. To keep ground loop hum out I ended up putting in audio isolation transformers between the radio and the computer, life probably would have been easier with laptop, and audio xfrmers don't work so well at 192KHz so that limits performance. I've been thinking of buying a 455 KHz Lite model to help align tube radio IF strips. Like a cheap spectrum analyzer. In my infinite spare time LOL. Life is a lot simpler now with the web frontend store, although the prices are around twice as high as the old yahoo group days. Used to sell the Lite kit in the group for like $9 years ago although batches always sold out in about an hour, which was annoying. There is probably an interesting startup lesson that saving people 50% purchase price doesn't help if they can't buy it at all, friction in the sales process etc.
  - madengr 11y ago
    I'll also recommend the NorCal 40 with Rutldeges's book: http://www.fix.net/~jparker/wilderness/nc40a.htm http://www.fix.net/~jparker/wilderness/nc40a.htm The book takes you through the basic theory, backed up with experimentation while building the kit. You just need a a scope and function generator, and of course a soldering iron. KD4HSO
  - tonyarkles 11y ago
    I've got a half-finished Ensemble RxTx that I'm super stoked to finish building. You don't need a scope to build it, but I've got one and it's really really cool to be able to look at the oscillating LO. The only downside to the Ensemble RxTx is the sound card requirement. I'm probably going to order something right away here, but if I could have a do-over, I'd probably go for a Peaberry: http://ae9rb.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=8 http://ae9rb.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_i.... They were out of stock when I ordered though. 73, VE5AJA
- lightlyused 11y ago
  Look at Elecraft (http://elecraft.com http://elecraft.com) and start out building one of their kits. I have a K2 and a K3.
- fnordfnordfnord 11y ago
  >I don't want to just go out and buy something. Just get a Baofeng something or other so you can start playing around. You won't love it enough to let it be your only radio, and if you do, so what? >... my oscilloscope (unlocked Rigol DS1054Z) only goes up to 100 MHz, so VHF and UHF radios are probably out of my DIY league. I guarantee you that most hams do not have a scope that is anywhere close to your 1054Z. Have a look at some of the kits. You'll see that there are clever ways of building / tuning circuits that don't require you to have an oscilloscope whose BW is >= the max carrier frequency.
  - VLM 11y ago
    Another comment on scopes is about 90% of the work I do with a scope is qualitative not quantitative and the spec is usually a quant limit. So the spec reads something like less than 10% error (usually low) at that freq. So a 10 Hz 10 KHz 10 MHz sine wave at 1 V p-p will display at 1 V p-p on a 20 meg scope. However shove in a 30 MHz 1 V p-p sine wave and (on an analog scope) you'll see a beautiful sine wave at, oh, who knows, maybe only 0.5 V p-p. I do a lot more quant work with simple watt meters, at least for RF stuff. A stereotypical example where qualitative accuracy matters not quant is you have a possibly 15 dB amp, and a -25 dB sampler on the input, and a -40 dB sampler at the output and you feed one into the X and one into the Y and shove a varying signal thru the amp and rather optimistically you'll get perfectly smooth lines on the triangle border. The numerical results are irrelevant, whats important is the amp isn't going into compression and what comes out is a perfect linear function of what goes in aka the line is perfectly straight. When you hit compression the end of the line will tilt over and no longer be straight, and thats bad. And your inline watt meter says that happens at 150 watts out or whatever, so I guess you can run cleanly at somewhat less than 150 watts. Another example is a lot of "is this (four letter words) oscilator oscilating (which would be good) or is this amplifier oscilating (which would be bad)?" and things of that nature where quantative results simple don't matter, you just want to know if there's anything there at all. Also you can peak up filters and LC networks in general without exact results just a "Turn the screw that way and the sine waves get bigger, turn the other way and output drops" mentality. If you're operating at a couple watts level, then cheap wattmeters will work. Not so much for low power level receiver work, then you use the scope to tune up. Its a lot easier to use an analog scope at or beyond its limits than a digital scope, but it can be done with digital scopes if you really understand DSP undersampling theory and the sample and hold doesn't aggressively filter higher freqs etc. The reason why pros just dump money to not operate near or above limits while hobbyists can't is a long financial story, my employer can justify a $150K spectrum analyzer in the lab (aka a cheap one) but my wife has issues justifying more than a couple hundred bucks at home. But yeah I prefer the new hyper expensive digital equipment at work and analog at home for that financial reason. Another fun thing to think about with cheap equipment is I own a 70s/80s era scope but the work I do would only have been cutting edge at a research lab in the 60s, and in the 60s all they had was 60s scopes, so I have it pretty good and could actually allocate my scope money elsewhere. If you want to do 10s (2010s...) work at home its going to be difficult to afford in the 2010s although in the 2030s it might be cheap.
- wglb 11y ago
  Congrats on your license. w8lvn here, licensed since the age of 13. Ham radio led to an interest in electronics and engineering, engineering school led to an interest in computers, computers led to a career, obsession, pastime. I still do ham radio. In 2000, six of us from our local club went to Vanuatu to put it on the air for the WWDX contest. And we were the first to post online results during the event. Combining two obsessions. And yes, put up whatever wire you can get away with (more effective to ask for permission than forgiveness), go HF. Also, connect with a club in your area, they may have operating events. Field Day (last full weekend in June) is particularly welcoming to newcomers. If you don't already have contacts in a club, shoot me an email (at website noted in my profile) and perhaps I can help. There are so many different activities in Ham Radio--public service as noted in the article, moonbounce, DXing, contesting, AMSAT, mobile. I often load up my suburban with a 54 inch mast on the top and head for the Hiline--US2 along North Dakota and Montana and put rare counties on the air. ex-yj0vn
- markba 11y ago
  Can you recommend some good references for introduction to amateur radio?
  - privong 11y ago
    The Amatur Radio Relay Leage (ARRL) has a page with overview on ham radio and information on how to get licensed[0]. The wikipedia page also provides a nice overview[1]. The ARRL sells books which can help you learn the material for the license exams. You might also see if there's an amateur radio club near you; in my experience they're pretty friendly and interested in helping out aspiring hams. [0] http://www.arrl.org/licensing-education-training http://www.arrl.org/licensing-education-training [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amateur_radio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amateur_radio
    - VLM 11y ago
      "in my experience they're pretty friendly and interested in helping out aspiring hams." Talk to people who have been there about station building experiences. I think the answer you'll get is the best maximization of fun is spending around $1 on antenna system for about every $1 spent on radio gear. Hooking up a $1000 radio to a $50 antenna system is likely to be far less enjoyable and lower performance than hooking up a $50 radio to a $1000 antenna system although its about the same outlay of dough and effort. Also the old timers are pretty good at planning, having been there, and the best antenna system for a plot of land is not necessarily the most expensive or largest. The main problem you'll find is technological changes, at the feedpoint auto-tuners hit in a big way maybe 20 years ago so maybe 19 years ago you wouldn't get good advice about them or randomwire antennas in general. (OK now, probably). Maybe 30 years ago it took awhile for hams at that time to "grok" ferrite based baluns. I'm not sure what todays misunderstood hotness would be, probably remotely controlled/tuned antennas like magloops with russian vacuum variable caps or those (expensive) steppir things. Also its a very big hobby. Someone who thinks they've experienced it all either is extremely old and wealthy or is wrong.
      - wglb 11y ago
        It turns out that on the extreme end, the ratio grows to $4 or more per antenna for $1 in radio/computers/etc. A well-equipped tower can have $10,000 worth of parts. This does not count the labor. The scale range of fun in Ham Radio is quite large.
- ajdlinux 11y ago
  I got a foundation-class licence a couple of years ago - unfortunately I haven't really had the funds to buy a transceiver (foundation licensees aren't allowed to use home-built equipment) and I let my licence lapse last year. I may reapply for a licence later this year though. Ultimately I'd like to get up to a Standard licence which allows experimentation with data transmission modes - some fun to be had with an appropriately equipped Arduino...
- jimhefferon 11y ago
  Hello, KE1AZ here. I second the idea to get a radio first, and get on the air with a simple antenna, than to plan for perfection. But if DIY is an interest, have a look at GNU Radio http://gnuradio.org/redmine/projects/gnuradio/wiki http://gnuradio.org/redmine/projects/gnuradio/wiki .
- alexggordon 11y ago
  Currently studying to take the test next weekend. There's actually some really great free resources for anyone looking to learn[0][1]. That said though, a couple guys at my work have really gotten into it and have started volunteering at some of the events around the Boston area where I live. There's actually a surprisingly large demand[2] for amateur radio operators at public events like the Boston Marathon and part of the reason I'm getting my license is I think it would be a great way to volunteer at events around here. If you're interested, the survival guide for the Boston Marathon Ham Operators[3] is a pretty good read! [0] https://hamstudy.org https://hamstudy.org [1] http://www.kb6nu.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/2014-no-nonsense-tech-study-guide-v20.pdf http://www.kb6nu.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/2014-no-nons... [2] http://www.arrl.org/news/more-than-300-amateur-radio-volunteers-support-2014-boston-marathon http://www.arrl.org/news/more-than-300-amateur-radio-volunte... [3] http://www.mmra.org/marc/Boston%20Marathon%20Survival%20Guide.pdf http://www.mmra.org/marc/Boston%20Marathon%20Survival%20Guid...
  - tzs 11y ago
    hamexam.org is also very good. There are also some nice apps. The free "Ham Radio Exam" apps for iOS by Roy Watson (one for Technician, one for General, and one for Extra) are quite good. I made extensive use of them. Here, generally, is how I prepared for the tests. TECHNICIAN. The electronics knowledge I already had from non-ham interests, plus what I remembered of ham rules and operating procedure from some studying I had done when I looked at getting licensed back in the '70s when I was a kid, covered most of the test. I took a few practice tests and passed them. I then read KB6NU's No-Nonsense Technician guide to fill in the gaps, and then drilled at hamstudy.org and hamexam.org until I was consistently getting 95+%. GENERAL. I got the ARRL book for this. For Technician, I was fine with the no-nonsense guide, because all I was missing were things that you really just have to memorize. For General, I needed to actually learn some things. It took a week to go through the ARRL General book. I went through it in order. Then I drilled at hamstudy.org and hamexam.org until I was always passing practice tests by a comfortable margin. I found Roy Watson's apps during this and added them to the mix. EXTRA. After finishing the ARRL General book, I still had a week until the exam, so on to the ARRL Extra book. I started with the chapter on antennas and feed lines, because that is one of the biggest areas on the Extra exam (8 questions) and my prior electronics knowledge did not cover this. I wanted to get that done early, so I could drill that section throughout the week. Then I basically did the book in order. Near the end of the week, it became clear my pace wasn't fast enough to actually finish the whole thing the way I was doing it. The way I had been doing it was to read a section until I got to the point where it said to try specific questions. Then I'd try those questions, and if I got any wrong redo the section. To speed things up I changed this so that I'd quickly skim a section and decide if it was something I was already reasonably familiar with. If it was something new to me, I'd go back and do it the slow way. If it was something that I did already reasonably know, I'd skip straight to the questions. If I aced them, I'd move on. While studying for Extra, I was doing practice General tests. Restroom break--take a test while sitting on the can. Commercial break while watching TV--take a test. Drive-through slow at Wendy's--take a test while waiting for them to take my order. I'd also toss in the occasional Technician practice test. I finished the Extra book a day before the test. That last day, I took several Extra practice tests, and continued with the General and Tech practice tests to keep that material fresh. It worked. I passed all three tests the next day (100% on each...not unexpected for Tech and General as I was generally acing them in practice, but a surprise on Extra, as I had never aced an Extra practice). I highly recommend the ARRL books for General and Extra. Most of the other popular study aids I saw seemed to me to tilt too far toward just covering the test questions. The ARRL books flesh things out more, covering things not on the exam but related to things on the exam, so you come away with a better understanding. With the ARRL books, it did not feel like I was studying for the exam--it felt like I was learning interesting stuff that just happened to include what would be on the exam.
- mannkind 11y ago
  Congrats! I got mine (AF7NK) just before the 2015 new year. No HF radio yet. I'm just using an infamous boafeng plus a homemade ground plane antenna in the attic.
- dkozel 11y ago
  AG6PO here. I became licenced during my second year at university. It has actually been one of the most important parts of my professional path to this point. If you haven't yet, buy a basic hand held radio and get transmitting. The Baofengs are actually tolerably good radios and super cheap. Getting on the air is the best way of participating in the community and growing in the hobby/skill. Then yes, absolutely start homebrewing. I find antennas to be easy and and fun to experiment with. The Rigol's 100 MHz limit won't actually be much of a problem for you. It is plenty enough to analyze all the baseband signals and also the intermediate frequencies used in many radio designs.
- yock 11y ago
  Recent ham here as well, KE8ATC. For now I'm limited to my handheld but I'm hoping to branch out into some HF gear at Hamvention this year.
- LesZedCB 11y ago
  W1LZD checking in. Just did my first volunteer comms event this weekend which was really really fun and a great experience. It's a great community to be a part of! 73
- rbc 11y ago
  KJ6VVJ and some former call signs, part of NALCO ARES/RACES in East Bay.
- jjmanton 11y ago
  KG4ZHA here. I have been doing it for a little over 10 years now. I second the Baofeng recommendation, it is a great starter radio and you will be able to find a local 2m repeater to participate in. I would also recommend looking for a local radio club, or see if ARES has an organization in your area. While not required anymore for HF, I have the most fun with CW. It is amazing what some of the small 1-5w QRP radios are capable of these days. There are plenty of small kits that will get you on the air in an afternoon of assembly.
- kc2zuf 11y ago
  KC2ZUF here -- HN lurker, active ham. I am going to nth the recommendation to purchase a used HF transceiver. When I got my license I took the approach you did. However, the challenge is the easy/inexpensive radios to build are mostly CW (morse code) only. Learning CW is fun, but it's one more barrier, and will keep you away from other interesting ham radio activities (like digital modes). There are solid SSB/AM/etc transceiver kits (like the Elecraft ones someone else mentioned) but they are much more expensive. The homebrew ones also tend to be lower power, which is fun, but will make it much more frustrating to try to make your first contacts. A straightforward project I recently completed was to build a TNC Pi (http://tnc-x.com/TNCPi.htm http://tnc-x.com/TNCPi.htm). That will only require a VHF radio, and you'll get to put the kit together and (likely) make your own connector cable.
- sizzzzlerz 11y ago
  K6LSK, formerly N6BDO Licensed for 35 years. Homebrew is a great way to go but, outside of building some small QRP projects or antennae, it's a major investment in time and money to build usable receivers or transmitters. That said, the feeling of accomplishment you get from using something you built is almost without equal. Have fun!
- ceequof 11y ago
  KG7KGD here. I just bought a pair of cheap baofeng handheld dual band transceivers and programmed them with all the local repeaters and FRS/GPRS frequencies. Next step is to buy a dual band car radio and some solar panels.
- cweagans 11y ago
  KI4KLW here. I got my license when I was 13 and haven't had anything more permanent than a tri-band HT (Yaesu VX-5R) since then. I usually volunteer in more of a coordination role, though, and have been involved with multiple ISS contacts and running communications for the Special Olympics World Winter Games (2009). Been mostly out of the hobby since then, but I've been thinking about getting back into it and upgrading to General and getting into HF.
- bobowzki 11y ago
  OZ3ALB checking in.
- klinquist 11y ago
  W1ADV here!
- sliverstorm 11y ago
  VHF and UHF radios are probably out of my DIY league. As are making nice compact HT's! No shame in buying portables (or even mobiles) off-the-shelf. Yet another vote for the Baofeng UV-5R. I've found mine insufficient as a service radio in the field, but as your first radio for fiddling about in town, the bang for the buck is great.
- krupan 11y ago
  One of the cheapest ham radios you can get is a linksys wrt-54g router: http://www.broadband-hamnet.org/ http://www.broadband-hamnet.org/
- benburwell 11y ago
  AC2EJ checking in. Tech license at age 12, general and extra soon after.
- kw71 11y ago
  Congratulations on having a serial A call as your first/only callsign! I'm always impressed when a new person walks in off the street and gets Extra.
- cgatesman 11y ago
  W1CEG checking in! I haven't been as active as I used to be since I have two little ones that take up more of my time. I guess I'll also take this opportunity to shamelessly plug the software WU2X and I developed (although not under active development for a few reasons (one being what I mentioned above)). I mention it mostly, because some of you may find it interesting and worth looking at. It allows using PowerSDR with some traditional (non-SDR) radios: http://www.wu2x.com/sdr.html http://www.wu2x.com/sdr.html
- grumblepeet 11y ago
  G7PXR here. I used 2M and 70cms back in the early 90s mostly through repeaters. Also did a lot of packet radio work and satellite stuff. Great fun all replaced by the Internet. I have recently bought a baofeng but it's quite quiet here in SW England as most people have gone digital. Would love to have the cash to do some EME work!
- miahi 11y ago
  YO9GRT here. Got licensed during high school, now I'm mostly using software radios.
- cicero 11y ago
  WB5WGA here. I got my license when I was 13; I'm 52 now.
sjoerger 11y ago
N4TQU checking in. I come from a family of hams, both my father and his father (sk). I've been licensed 26 years now. Just upgraded to General last summer. Good to see other hams here on HN.
jasiek 11y ago
2E0KEF checking in. Got my foundation last year, and intermediate a month ago, currently studying for full. It's a great hobby, and I'm learning a ton about electronics - love it!
dorfsmay 11y ago
Is internet over ham radio still a thing? In this particular case, it could help a lot of people, enabling them to quickly and efficiently update their status with their family via email / twitter / google person finder.
- rbc 11y ago
  Check out: http://www.broadband-hamnet.org http://www.broadband-hamnet.org The amateur radio service has overlapping frequency allocations with ISM/WiFi.
- abruzzi 11y ago
  Most of the amateur radio digital protocols are keyboard to keyboard and don't really have the concept of simultaneous traffic, packets, and routing. AX.25 (also known as packet radio) does however and could possibly be used to transmit traffic like that. It is most frequently used on line-of-sight (VHF, UHF) bands. There are some others like the different PACTOR protocols, but they are essentially proprietary, and PACTOR IV TNCs are not cheap.
  - rickr 11y ago
    There's WinLink (http://www.winlink.org/ http://www.winlink.org/) which is able to send email, photos, position reports etc over HF. It seems to be pretty healthy.
azdle 11y ago
I'm getting a 404 on that link now, it seems to be this: http://www.arrl.org/news/amateur-radio-volunteers-in-nepal-india-continue-to-aid-earthquake-response http://www.arrl.org/news/amateur-radio-volunteers-in-nepal-i...
nlh 11y ago
K2KD here :) Glad to see hams getting involved -- disaster communications is one of the strong suits of amateur radio. I still have a to-be-implemented plan of getting a portable HF rig w/ solar charger for my to-be-implemented "go bag". One of the big challenges the whole hobby has faced is the struggle for relevance in the Internet era. When I got my license (early 90s), there basically wasn't an Internet for kids like me, so the concept of switching on an HF rig and talking to someone from Australia from my bedroom in NYC was awe-inspiring. That isn't really the case these days (considered I'm likely communicating with a bunch of people from Australia on this thread alone.) Communication from an "exotic" place like Nigeria or Eastern Europe was rare and exciting. Now it's a source of skepticism. I haven't been following the hobby much for the past few years -- other than disaster coms, any thoughts on what the highlights are these days?
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- krupan 11y ago
  I've heard the same talk about declining interest, but in the U.S. at least the number of ham radio licenses is at an all time high: http://www.eham.net/articles/34155 http://www.eham.net/articles/34155
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
- doom2 11y ago
  W3MCD here. I was fortunate enough to operate W2SZ during my college days, which really cemented my interest in the hobby. I actually do think talking to strangers from afar via amateur radio is still awe-inspiring, considering that you're not running your comms through large underwater sea cables. I think the highlights these days are contacting DXpeditions, working the space station, and satellite comms[1]. [1] http://www.amsat.org/ http://www.amsat.org/
  - nlh 11y ago
0xdeadbeefbabe 11y ago
Is there a protocol for making your radio more phone like, that is it rings when someone calls you or beeps when someone texts you? I guess if I were to hack together an RTTY or PSK32 thing to do this my next question would be where can I find a portable cheap low power draining SDR similar to a "smart phone".
- madengr 11y ago
  Some of the Yaesu HTs have an alert function that will beep you when an APRS message appears. I'm thinking about making an APRS RX only pager. The pager ICs (front ends) are very low power. KD4HSO
- VLM 11y ago
  HF ALE. Not terribly popular (not many people to talk with). Its the same as .mil ALE but on ham bands. Technologically what ALE can do is very impressive. http://hflink.com/ http://hflink.com/ ALE would be HF base station type operation not hand held VHF 2M radio. Low power and SDR do not naturally go together. The folks most interested in low power drain (the trail hiker/camper types) use discrete devices as opposed to SDR. Not saying its impossible of course. I have a KX1 that draws about 30 mA when listening, so "dozens of hours" on a set of batteries. It would be challenging to find a SDR system that uses similar or less. It is challlenging enough to find a smart phone that can idle for a dozen hours on a charge much less actually do anything LOL. Still, good luck with that, etc.
abruzzi 11y ago
Obviously there are more than a few of us. W5ARP, general class. It was much of the digital protocols, especially APRS/AX.25, that got me interested. Its not nearly as high-tech as modern smartphones, but I really like the infrastructure-free tech (living in the middle of nowhere, infrastructure is often in short supply.)
djmanning 11y ago
link is broken. This works: http://www.arrl.org/news/amateur-radio-volunteers-in-nepal-india-continue-to-aid-earthquake-response http://www.arrl.org/news/amateur-radio-volunteers-in-nepal-i...
anaxag0ras 11y ago
The page has been taken down. Mirror of the original post: http://i.imgur.com/dpVo40p.jpg http://i.imgur.com/dpVo40p.jpg Here's the updated one: http://www.arrl.org/news/amateur-radio-volunteers-in-nepal-india-continue-to-aid-earthquake-response http://www.arrl.org/news/amateur-radio-volunteers-in-nepal-i...
madgoat 11y ago
I have been thinking of getting my license for the last couple of years. While I've noticed its decline in the last decade, it still seems to hold some cool factor.
pdxpatzer 11y ago
Interested in Amateur Radio and don't know where to start ? Head over to http://www.reddit.com/r/amateurradio http://www.reddit.com/r/amateurradio ... we are waiting for you ...
grandalf 11y ago
NQ6N here
feld 11y ago
So, does enabling an FM chip in your cell phone help in a disaster? CTRL+F fm Doesn't seem like it's being used here...

99 points by anaxag0ras 11y ago

tzs 11y ago

I wonder how many HN readers have amateur radio licenses? I got one last month (AF7PL). Now I'm working on getting a radio. I don't want to just go out and buy something. I want to do this old-school, and so have at least some of the major components of my shack home built (and ideally home designed). I may partially relent, though, and buy a handheld transceiver for 2m/70cm. My electronic construction skills are pretty primitive, and my oscilloscope (unlocked Rigol DS1054Z) only goes up to 100 MHz, so VHF and UHF radios are probably out of my DIY league. That's fine, as I'm actually more interested in HF anyway.

jrockway 11y ago
You might enjoy getting started with a kit like the SoftRock SDR: http://fivedash.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=7 http://fivedash.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1... Personally I think it makes sense to start with a pre-built radio to learn the radio technique and have something to compare with, but with an oscilloscope you can probably hack a kit into doing something useful. (I have the Softrock RX kit. Works well to receive WSPR.) 73, KD2DTW
- lightlyused 11y ago
  I have one, but haven't put it together yet.
  - VLM 11y ago
    I have a Lite for 30M and the web guide is Very helpful http://www.wb5rvz.org/softrock_lite_ii/index?changeBands=no http://www.wb5rvz.org/softrock_lite_ii/index?changeBands=no There are web guides at that site for all the radio models. It doesn't drift much and is reasonably sensitive enough. To keep ground loop hum out I ended up putting in audio isolation transformers between the radio and the computer, life probably would have been easier with laptop, and audio xfrmers don't work so well at 192KHz so that limits performance. I've been thinking of buying a 455 KHz Lite model to help align tube radio IF strips. Like a cheap spectrum analyzer. In my infinite spare time LOL. Life is a lot simpler now with the web frontend store, although the prices are around twice as high as the old yahoo group days. Used to sell the Lite kit in the group for like $9 years ago although batches always sold out in about an hour, which was annoying. There is probably an interesting startup lesson that saving people 50% purchase price doesn't help if they can't buy it at all, friction in the sales process etc.
- madengr 11y ago
  I'll also recommend the NorCal 40 with Rutldeges's book: http://www.fix.net/~jparker/wilderness/nc40a.htm http://www.fix.net/~jparker/wilderness/nc40a.htm The book takes you through the basic theory, backed up with experimentation while building the kit. You just need a a scope and function generator, and of course a soldering iron. KD4HSO
- tonyarkles 11y ago
  I've got a half-finished Ensemble RxTx that I'm super stoked to finish building. You don't need a scope to build it, but I've got one and it's really really cool to be able to look at the oscillating LO. The only downside to the Ensemble RxTx is the sound card requirement. I'm probably going to order something right away here, but if I could have a do-over, I'd probably go for a Peaberry: http://ae9rb.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=8 http://ae9rb.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_i.... They were out of stock when I ordered though. 73, VE5AJA
lightlyused 11y ago
Look at Elecraft (http://elecraft.com http://elecraft.com) and start out building one of their kits. I have a K2 and a K3.
fnordfnordfnord 11y ago
>I don't want to just go out and buy something. Just get a Baofeng something or other so you can start playing around. You won't love it enough to let it be your only radio, and if you do, so what? >... my oscilloscope (unlocked Rigol DS1054Z) only goes up to 100 MHz, so VHF and UHF radios are probably out of my DIY league. I guarantee you that most hams do not have a scope that is anywhere close to your 1054Z. Have a look at some of the kits. You'll see that there are clever ways of building / tuning circuits that don't require you to have an oscilloscope whose BW is >= the max carrier frequency.
- VLM 11y ago
  Another comment on scopes is about 90% of the work I do with a scope is qualitative not quantitative and the spec is usually a quant limit. So the spec reads something like less than 10% error (usually low) at that freq. So a 10 Hz 10 KHz 10 MHz sine wave at 1 V p-p will display at 1 V p-p on a 20 meg scope. However shove in a 30 MHz 1 V p-p sine wave and (on an analog scope) you'll see a beautiful sine wave at, oh, who knows, maybe only 0.5 V p-p. I do a lot more quant work with simple watt meters, at least for RF stuff. A stereotypical example where qualitative accuracy matters not quant is you have a possibly 15 dB amp, and a -25 dB sampler on the input, and a -40 dB sampler at the output and you feed one into the X and one into the Y and shove a varying signal thru the amp and rather optimistically you'll get perfectly smooth lines on the triangle border. The numerical results are irrelevant, whats important is the amp isn't going into compression and what comes out is a perfect linear function of what goes in aka the line is perfectly straight. When you hit compression the end of the line will tilt over and no longer be straight, and thats bad. And your inline watt meter says that happens at 150 watts out or whatever, so I guess you can run cleanly at somewhat less than 150 watts. Another example is a lot of "is this (four letter words) oscilator oscilating (which would be good) or is this amplifier oscilating (which would be bad)?" and things of that nature where quantative results simple don't matter, you just want to know if there's anything there at all. Also you can peak up filters and LC networks in general without exact results just a "Turn the screw that way and the sine waves get bigger, turn the other way and output drops" mentality. If you're operating at a couple watts level, then cheap wattmeters will work. Not so much for low power level receiver work, then you use the scope to tune up. Its a lot easier to use an analog scope at or beyond its limits than a digital scope, but it can be done with digital scopes if you really understand DSP undersampling theory and the sample and hold doesn't aggressively filter higher freqs etc. The reason why pros just dump money to not operate near or above limits while hobbyists can't is a long financial story, my employer can justify a $150K spectrum analyzer in the lab (aka a cheap one) but my wife has issues justifying more than a couple hundred bucks at home. But yeah I prefer the new hyper expensive digital equipment at work and analog at home for that financial reason. Another fun thing to think about with cheap equipment is I own a 70s/80s era scope but the work I do would only have been cutting edge at a research lab in the 60s, and in the 60s all they had was 60s scopes, so I have it pretty good and could actually allocate my scope money elsewhere. If you want to do 10s (2010s...) work at home its going to be difficult to afford in the 2010s although in the 2030s it might be cheap.
wglb 11y ago
Congrats on your license. w8lvn here, licensed since the age of 13. Ham radio led to an interest in electronics and engineering, engineering school led to an interest in computers, computers led to a career, obsession, pastime. I still do ham radio. In 2000, six of us from our local club went to Vanuatu to put it on the air for the WWDX contest. And we were the first to post online results during the event. Combining two obsessions. And yes, put up whatever wire you can get away with (more effective to ask for permission than forgiveness), go HF. Also, connect with a club in your area, they may have operating events. Field Day (last full weekend in June) is particularly welcoming to newcomers. If you don't already have contacts in a club, shoot me an email (at website noted in my profile) and perhaps I can help. There are so many different activities in Ham Radio--public service as noted in the article, moonbounce, DXing, contesting, AMSAT, mobile. I often load up my suburban with a 54 inch mast on the top and head for the Hiline--US2 along North Dakota and Montana and put rare counties on the air. ex-yj0vn
markba 11y ago
Can you recommend some good references for introduction to amateur radio?
- privong 11y ago
  The Amatur Radio Relay Leage (ARRL) has a page with overview on ham radio and information on how to get licensed[0]. The wikipedia page also provides a nice overview[1]. The ARRL sells books which can help you learn the material for the license exams. You might also see if there's an amateur radio club near you; in my experience they're pretty friendly and interested in helping out aspiring hams. [0] http://www.arrl.org/licensing-education-training http://www.arrl.org/licensing-education-training [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amateur_radio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amateur_radio
  - VLM 11y ago
    "in my experience they're pretty friendly and interested in helping out aspiring hams." Talk to people who have been there about station building experiences. I think the answer you'll get is the best maximization of fun is spending around $1 on antenna system for about every $1 spent on radio gear. Hooking up a $1000 radio to a $50 antenna system is likely to be far less enjoyable and lower performance than hooking up a $50 radio to a $1000 antenna system although its about the same outlay of dough and effort. Also the old timers are pretty good at planning, having been there, and the best antenna system for a plot of land is not necessarily the most expensive or largest. The main problem you'll find is technological changes, at the feedpoint auto-tuners hit in a big way maybe 20 years ago so maybe 19 years ago you wouldn't get good advice about them or randomwire antennas in general. (OK now, probably). Maybe 30 years ago it took awhile for hams at that time to "grok" ferrite based baluns. I'm not sure what todays misunderstood hotness would be, probably remotely controlled/tuned antennas like magloops with russian vacuum variable caps or those (expensive) steppir things. Also its a very big hobby. Someone who thinks they've experienced it all either is extremely old and wealthy or is wrong.
    - wglb 11y ago
      It turns out that on the extreme end, the ratio grows to $4 or more per antenna for $1 in radio/computers/etc. A well-equipped tower can have $10,000 worth of parts. This does not count the labor. The scale range of fun in Ham Radio is quite large.
ajdlinux 11y ago
I got a foundation-class licence a couple of years ago - unfortunately I haven't really had the funds to buy a transceiver (foundation licensees aren't allowed to use home-built equipment) and I let my licence lapse last year. I may reapply for a licence later this year though. Ultimately I'd like to get up to a Standard licence which allows experimentation with data transmission modes - some fun to be had with an appropriately equipped Arduino...
jimhefferon 11y ago
Hello, KE1AZ here. I second the idea to get a radio first, and get on the air with a simple antenna, than to plan for perfection. But if DIY is an interest, have a look at GNU Radio http://gnuradio.org/redmine/projects/gnuradio/wiki http://gnuradio.org/redmine/projects/gnuradio/wiki .
alexggordon 11y ago
Currently studying to take the test next weekend. There's actually some really great free resources for anyone looking to learn[0][1]. That said though, a couple guys at my work have really gotten into it and have started volunteering at some of the events around the Boston area where I live. There's actually a surprisingly large demand[2] for amateur radio operators at public events like the Boston Marathon and part of the reason I'm getting my license is I think it would be a great way to volunteer at events around here. If you're interested, the survival guide for the Boston Marathon Ham Operators[3] is a pretty good read! [0] https://hamstudy.org https://hamstudy.org [1] http://www.kb6nu.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/2014-no-nonsense-tech-study-guide-v20.pdf http://www.kb6nu.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/2014-no-nons... [2] http://www.arrl.org/news/more-than-300-amateur-radio-volunteers-support-2014-boston-marathon http://www.arrl.org/news/more-than-300-amateur-radio-volunte... [3] http://www.mmra.org/marc/Boston%20Marathon%20Survival%20Guide.pdf http://www.mmra.org/marc/Boston%20Marathon%20Survival%20Guid...
- tzs 11y ago
  hamexam.org is also very good. There are also some nice apps. The free "Ham Radio Exam" apps for iOS by Roy Watson (one for Technician, one for General, and one for Extra) are quite good. I made extensive use of them. Here, generally, is how I prepared for the tests. TECHNICIAN. The electronics knowledge I already had from non-ham interests, plus what I remembered of ham rules and operating procedure from some studying I had done when I looked at getting licensed back in the '70s when I was a kid, covered most of the test. I took a few practice tests and passed them. I then read KB6NU's No-Nonsense Technician guide to fill in the gaps, and then drilled at hamstudy.org and hamexam.org until I was consistently getting 95+%. GENERAL. I got the ARRL book for this. For Technician, I was fine with the no-nonsense guide, because all I was missing were things that you really just have to memorize. For General, I needed to actually learn some things. It took a week to go through the ARRL General book. I went through it in order. Then I drilled at hamstudy.org and hamexam.org until I was always passing practice tests by a comfortable margin. I found Roy Watson's apps during this and added them to the mix. EXTRA. After finishing the ARRL General book, I still had a week until the exam, so on to the ARRL Extra book. I started with the chapter on antennas and feed lines, because that is one of the biggest areas on the Extra exam (8 questions) and my prior electronics knowledge did not cover this. I wanted to get that done early, so I could drill that section throughout the week. Then I basically did the book in order. Near the end of the week, it became clear my pace wasn't fast enough to actually finish the whole thing the way I was doing it. The way I had been doing it was to read a section until I got to the point where it said to try specific questions. Then I'd try those questions, and if I got any wrong redo the section. To speed things up I changed this so that I'd quickly skim a section and decide if it was something I was already reasonably familiar with. If it was something new to me, I'd go back and do it the slow way. If it was something that I did already reasonably know, I'd skip straight to the questions. If I aced them, I'd move on. While studying for Extra, I was doing practice General tests. Restroom break--take a test while sitting on the can. Commercial break while watching TV--take a test. Drive-through slow at Wendy's--take a test while waiting for them to take my order. I'd also toss in the occasional Technician practice test. I finished the Extra book a day before the test. That last day, I took several Extra practice tests, and continued with the General and Tech practice tests to keep that material fresh. It worked. I passed all three tests the next day (100% on each...not unexpected for Tech and General as I was generally acing them in practice, but a surprise on Extra, as I had never aced an Extra practice). I highly recommend the ARRL books for General and Extra. Most of the other popular study aids I saw seemed to me to tilt too far toward just covering the test questions. The ARRL books flesh things out more, covering things not on the exam but related to things on the exam, so you come away with a better understanding. With the ARRL books, it did not feel like I was studying for the exam--it felt like I was learning interesting stuff that just happened to include what would be on the exam.
mannkind 11y ago
Congrats! I got mine (AF7NK) just before the 2015 new year. No HF radio yet. I'm just using an infamous boafeng plus a homemade ground plane antenna in the attic.
dkozel 11y ago
AG6PO here. I became licenced during my second year at university. It has actually been one of the most important parts of my professional path to this point. If you haven't yet, buy a basic hand held radio and get transmitting. The Baofengs are actually tolerably good radios and super cheap. Getting on the air is the best way of participating in the community and growing in the hobby/skill. Then yes, absolutely start homebrewing. I find antennas to be easy and and fun to experiment with. The Rigol's 100 MHz limit won't actually be much of a problem for you. It is plenty enough to analyze all the baseband signals and also the intermediate frequencies used in many radio designs.
yock 11y ago
Recent ham here as well, KE8ATC. For now I'm limited to my handheld but I'm hoping to branch out into some HF gear at Hamvention this year.
LesZedCB 11y ago
W1LZD checking in. Just did my first volunteer comms event this weekend which was really really fun and a great experience. It's a great community to be a part of! 73
rbc 11y ago
KJ6VVJ and some former call signs, part of NALCO ARES/RACES in East Bay.
jjmanton 11y ago
KG4ZHA here. I have been doing it for a little over 10 years now. I second the Baofeng recommendation, it is a great starter radio and you will be able to find a local 2m repeater to participate in. I would also recommend looking for a local radio club, or see if ARES has an organization in your area. While not required anymore for HF, I have the most fun with CW. It is amazing what some of the small 1-5w QRP radios are capable of these days. There are plenty of small kits that will get you on the air in an afternoon of assembly.
kc2zuf 11y ago
KC2ZUF here -- HN lurker, active ham. I am going to nth the recommendation to purchase a used HF transceiver. When I got my license I took the approach you did. However, the challenge is the easy/inexpensive radios to build are mostly CW (morse code) only. Learning CW is fun, but it's one more barrier, and will keep you away from other interesting ham radio activities (like digital modes). There are solid SSB/AM/etc transceiver kits (like the Elecraft ones someone else mentioned) but they are much more expensive. The homebrew ones also tend to be lower power, which is fun, but will make it much more frustrating to try to make your first contacts. A straightforward project I recently completed was to build a TNC Pi (http://tnc-x.com/TNCPi.htm http://tnc-x.com/TNCPi.htm). That will only require a VHF radio, and you'll get to put the kit together and (likely) make your own connector cable.
sizzzzlerz 11y ago
K6LSK, formerly N6BDO Licensed for 35 years. Homebrew is a great way to go but, outside of building some small QRP projects or antennae, it's a major investment in time and money to build usable receivers or transmitters. That said, the feeling of accomplishment you get from using something you built is almost without equal. Have fun!
ceequof 11y ago
KG7KGD here. I just bought a pair of cheap baofeng handheld dual band transceivers and programmed them with all the local repeaters and FRS/GPRS frequencies. Next step is to buy a dual band car radio and some solar panels.
cweagans 11y ago
KI4KLW here. I got my license when I was 13 and haven't had anything more permanent than a tri-band HT (Yaesu VX-5R) since then. I usually volunteer in more of a coordination role, though, and have been involved with multiple ISS contacts and running communications for the Special Olympics World Winter Games (2009). Been mostly out of the hobby since then, but I've been thinking about getting back into it and upgrading to General and getting into HF.
bobowzki 11y ago
OZ3ALB checking in.
klinquist 11y ago
W1ADV here!
sliverstorm 11y ago
VHF and UHF radios are probably out of my DIY league. As are making nice compact HT's! No shame in buying portables (or even mobiles) off-the-shelf. Yet another vote for the Baofeng UV-5R. I've found mine insufficient as a service radio in the field, but as your first radio for fiddling about in town, the bang for the buck is great.
krupan 11y ago
One of the cheapest ham radios you can get is a linksys wrt-54g router: http://www.broadband-hamnet.org/ http://www.broadband-hamnet.org/
benburwell 11y ago
AC2EJ checking in. Tech license at age 12, general and extra soon after.
kw71 11y ago
Congratulations on having a serial A call as your first/only callsign! I'm always impressed when a new person walks in off the street and gets Extra.
cgatesman 11y ago
W1CEG checking in! I haven't been as active as I used to be since I have two little ones that take up more of my time. I guess I'll also take this opportunity to shamelessly plug the software WU2X and I developed (although not under active development for a few reasons (one being what I mentioned above)). I mention it mostly, because some of you may find it interesting and worth looking at. It allows using PowerSDR with some traditional (non-SDR) radios: http://www.wu2x.com/sdr.html http://www.wu2x.com/sdr.html
grumblepeet 11y ago
G7PXR here. I used 2M and 70cms back in the early 90s mostly through repeaters. Also did a lot of packet radio work and satellite stuff. Great fun all replaced by the Internet. I have recently bought a baofeng but it's quite quiet here in SW England as most people have gone digital. Would love to have the cash to do some EME work!
miahi 11y ago
YO9GRT here. Got licensed during high school, now I'm mostly using software radios.
cicero 11y ago
WB5WGA here. I got my license when I was 13; I'm 52 now.

sjoerger 11y ago

N4TQU checking in. I come from a family of hams, both my father and his father (sk). I've been licensed 26 years now. Just upgraded to General last summer. Good to see other hams here on HN.

jasiek 11y ago

2E0KEF checking in. Got my foundation last year, and intermediate a month ago, currently studying for full. It's a great hobby, and I'm learning a ton about electronics - love it!

dorfsmay 11y ago

Is internet over ham radio still a thing? In this particular case, it could help a lot of people, enabling them to quickly and efficiently update their status with their family via email / twitter / google person finder.

rbc 11y ago
Check out: http://www.broadband-hamnet.org http://www.broadband-hamnet.org The amateur radio service has overlapping frequency allocations with ISM/WiFi.
abruzzi 11y ago
Most of the amateur radio digital protocols are keyboard to keyboard and don't really have the concept of simultaneous traffic, packets, and routing. AX.25 (also known as packet radio) does however and could possibly be used to transmit traffic like that. It is most frequently used on line-of-sight (VHF, UHF) bands. There are some others like the different PACTOR protocols, but they are essentially proprietary, and PACTOR IV TNCs are not cheap.
- rickr 11y ago
  There's WinLink (http://www.winlink.org/ http://www.winlink.org/) which is able to send email, photos, position reports etc over HF. It seems to be pretty healthy.

azdle 11y ago

I'm getting a 404 on that link now, it seems to be this: http://www.arrl.org/news/amateur-radio-volunteers-in-nepal-india-continue-to-aid-earthquake-response http://www.arrl.org/news/amateur-radio-volunteers-in-nepal-i...

nlh 11y ago

K2KD here :) Glad to see hams getting involved -- disaster communications is one of the strong suits of amateur radio. I still have a to-be-implemented plan of getting a portable HF rig w/ solar charger for my to-be-implemented "go bag". One of the big challenges the whole hobby has faced is the struggle for relevance in the Internet era. When I got my license (early 90s), there basically wasn't an Internet for kids like me, so the concept of switching on an HF rig and talking to someone from Australia from my bedroom in NYC was awe-inspiring. That isn't really the case these days (considered I'm likely communicating with a bunch of people from Australia on this thread alone.) Communication from an "exotic" place like Nigeria or Eastern Europe was rare and exciting. Now it's a source of skepticism. I haven't been following the hobby much for the past few years -- other than disaster coms, any thoughts on what the highlights are these days?

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krupan 11y ago
I've heard the same talk about declining interest, but in the U.S. at least the number of ham radio licenses is at an all time high: http://www.eham.net/articles/34155 http://www.eham.net/articles/34155
- deleted 11y ago
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doom2 11y ago
W3MCD here. I was fortunate enough to operate W2SZ during my college days, which really cemented my interest in the hobby. I actually do think talking to strangers from afar via amateur radio is still awe-inspiring, considering that you're not running your comms through large underwater sea cables. I think the highlights these days are contacting DXpeditions, working the space station, and satellite comms[1]. [1] http://www.amsat.org/ http://www.amsat.org/
- nlh 11y ago

0xdeadbeefbabe 11y ago

Is there a protocol for making your radio more phone like, that is it rings when someone calls you or beeps when someone texts you? I guess if I were to hack together an RTTY or PSK32 thing to do this my next question would be where can I find a portable cheap low power draining SDR similar to a "smart phone".

madengr 11y ago
Some of the Yaesu HTs have an alert function that will beep you when an APRS message appears. I'm thinking about making an APRS RX only pager. The pager ICs (front ends) are very low power. KD4HSO
VLM 11y ago
HF ALE. Not terribly popular (not many people to talk with). Its the same as .mil ALE but on ham bands. Technologically what ALE can do is very impressive. http://hflink.com/ http://hflink.com/ ALE would be HF base station type operation not hand held VHF 2M radio. Low power and SDR do not naturally go together. The folks most interested in low power drain (the trail hiker/camper types) use discrete devices as opposed to SDR. Not saying its impossible of course. I have a KX1 that draws about 30 mA when listening, so "dozens of hours" on a set of batteries. It would be challenging to find a SDR system that uses similar or less. It is challlenging enough to find a smart phone that can idle for a dozen hours on a charge much less actually do anything LOL. Still, good luck with that, etc.

abruzzi 11y ago

Obviously there are more than a few of us. W5ARP, general class. It was much of the digital protocols, especially APRS/AX.25, that got me interested. Its not nearly as high-tech as modern smartphones, but I really like the infrastructure-free tech (living in the middle of nowhere, infrastructure is often in short supply.)

djmanning 11y ago

link is broken. This works: http://www.arrl.org/news/amateur-radio-volunteers-in-nepal-india-continue-to-aid-earthquake-response http://www.arrl.org/news/amateur-radio-volunteers-in-nepal-i...

anaxag0ras 11y ago

The page has been taken down. Mirror of the original post: http://i.imgur.com/dpVo40p.jpg http://i.imgur.com/dpVo40p.jpg Here's the updated one: http://www.arrl.org/news/amateur-radio-volunteers-in-nepal-india-continue-to-aid-earthquake-response http://www.arrl.org/news/amateur-radio-volunteers-in-nepal-i...

madgoat 11y ago

I have been thinking of getting my license for the last couple of years. While I've noticed its decline in the last decade, it still seems to hold some cool factor.

pdxpatzer 11y ago

Interested in Amateur Radio and don't know where to start ? Head over to http://www.reddit.com/r/amateurradio http://www.reddit.com/r/amateurradio ... we are waiting for you ...

grandalf 11y ago

NQ6N here

feld 11y ago

So, does enabling an FM chip in your cell phone help in a disaster? CTRL+F fm Doesn't seem like it's being used here...