Congrats on Tech and General! That's a feat in itself.Originally Posted by ccmdfd
The FT3-DR has been great but learning APRS the Yaesu way is a process of 13 consecutive miracles. Love the radio.
Congrats on Tech and General! That's a feat in itself.
The FT3-DR has been great but learning APRS the Yaesu way is a process of 13 consecutive miracles. Love the radio.
Okay, just had to say......this is wild! I've been a member of this board for over 3 years......and been a ham since June of last year...and have never once seen this thread.
This is very cool. We should have a communications section here.
Glad to see other hams here. I'm General class. Am mostly on local repeaters, and am really liking the versatility of DMR. Have DMR repeaters in my AO, pretty cool stuff.
Lot of fun, and I've found the skills and equipment to be of very practical use in many areas.
Yeah, not too far from me!Hams be like that. There are still those, when asked for an HT recommendation, trot out some antique from the 90s that only uses an unobtanium nicad pack. Thanks grandpa, how about a useful recommendation.
That said, I have some fairly specific requirements and think some of the older radios are better than current models for those specific use cases, but if someone was looking for a general purpose HT, there are plenty of new models to choose from (ie you want a basic dual-band FM HT, get a Yaesu FT-60).
ETA: While doing my SOTA/POTA activation yesterday, I worked a guy on 40m in Camp Lejeune, your neck of the woods.
Chris
Heard several Virginians on the airwaves over the weekend myself.
Then last night someone must have connected one of our local repeaters to Wires X, and went to a node in VA. The FT3 was picking that up. Don't have any Wires X experience myself.
cc
So as a mini update, I've managed to get a dual band, VHF/UHF antenna installed and am now able to hit local repeaters. There was a rather steep learning curve figuring out how to program the FT-897 not only for offset but, for tone activation, then get it stored into the memory. I bought a CAT (Computer Aided Transceiver) cable and and data cable and not only got computer control via a Raspberry Pi and Fldigi, but also used the data cable to build a audio on and out via a sound card to transmit and receive. I was able to pick up a couple of test messages from a cohort in NC but was not able to transmit to him. As it turns out there are a bunch of fiddly bits in the settings that have to be just right.
I head a boatload of folks up in VA today working a contest on 40M LSB. That was fun to listen to.
I'll eventually need to get a better HT but the Baofeng BF-F8HP does what i need it to for now.
No black bears to be see nor heard!
Both of you were hearing the VA QSO Party contest. I didn't officially work it myself, but did "hand out points" here and there. I worked some on Saturday via 6m and HF while doing my SOTA & POTA activations, Sunday while on a bike ride via an FM HT (bicycle mobile, yo), and again on Sunday while on the deck having a beer and grilling burgers.
@Wheeler, keep an eye on POTA activations. I typically do those on 40m, maybe you can work me with your new radio. Look for ki4pot activating parks in the NoVA region. If I remember, I'll post my plans here.
Chris
Give VHF simplex a try too. Most of my non-HF work is VHF simple on 6m and 2m. I like seeing how far I can reach with both. My record on 2m so far is 65 miles from a summit. One day I'll invest in a yagi and see if I can stretch that a bit. I had my first long distance contact on 6m this weekend using nothing but an HT and ladderline j-pole up on a summit.
Of course, being a General, you can get on HF too.
Chris
Yeah I saw your post on the 6m contact. Damn fine!
Yeah, done alot of simplex 2m and 70cm locally with other hams. 70cm gets us best results in many areas. Were able to talk just shy of 5 miles between hts the other day.
Got an N9TAX dual band I like to run up poles and trees to see how far I can get out with hts. 47 miles, out of a valley, so far, with very good signal reports.
It's also fun when in town to cast out the line on the national calling frequencies. Made a few contacts that way.
Anyone else here doing DMR? There are at least 4 TGs I access on local repeaters that're nationwide. Been talking to folks all over.
Thanks! I haven't done much with 70cm until this weekend when I used it to make a couple contacts in the VA QSO Party. The N9TAX antennas look good. I made my own for 2m, but bought the 6m version because it's a bit tough to find a place to hang up 12' of ladderline in the clear so you can make an antenna.
I need to get a yagi so I can get a bit more reach and directivity. I know a few guys who use those to great effect.
There are some folks here who do DMR, but not me.
Chris
Yeah, been meaning to build a yagi to get into the sattelites. I can hear folks talking on them just fine when they're overhead. That is fun stuff. Got into the repeater on the ISS one time, 8 watts out of that N9TAX. Fluke, I guess.
I use a fishing pole to deploy the slim jim in the open, out of an assault pack, obviously it's a 5', but bamboo poles, PVC sections, painter's poles, might be options. Have used those in more stationary locales.
MTNBKR,
I was wondering if you bought the Wolf River Coil and how it works. Speaking of antennas, what others are you using ?
Thanks for the information. Thinking about heading to the Mogollon Rim and parking under a tree. No hiking.
I borrowed my buddy's but ended up not buying one of my own. It works great, but having to adjust the coil in order to change bands was tedious considering I have an antenna tuner in my radio. I feel like the WRC would be a great antenna for a radio without a tuner like the Yaesu 818 or the new Icom 705 though. That said, when I borrowed his, I made contacts and got good signal reports, so it definitely works.
My main antenna for portable use is a 54' wire for the radiator and a 17' counterpoise. Both connect to a BNC binding post adapter that connects directly to the radio. The internal ATU does the rest. I typically set it up as a sloper or inverted V using whatever support is handy. I can get 40m through 10m with that combo. I also have a pair of MFJ coil-loaded whip antennas, the MFJ-1820t and MFJ-1815t, 20m and 15m respectively. I've made contacts with both, but have done incredible things with the 1820t version. From a mountain top in VA, I made two contacts into California, one into Oregon, and one into France in the space of about 20 minutes. All four were SSB. I've used the same antenna numerous times to make contacts around the US at shorter distances (a few weeks ago I got two contacts in Texas from a field here in VA). I connect the antenna directly to the radio and use the ATU to touch up the tuning. Because the radio has an internal mic and speaker, I can use it like a big HT with those antennas.
Not portable, but here at the house I use a homebrewed 1:64 autotransformer (FT240-43 toroid for the core) with 32' of wire for 20m and above, and a loading coil and 6.5' of additional wire (39' total with the coil) to get me 40m and below. The transformer is 27' in the air and the radiator slopes downward, stopping roughly 5' above the ground. I've used it on 80m, 40m, and 20m. It'll tune up on everything above 20m, but I haven't tried making contacts there yet.
Chris
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