- cross-posted to:
- amateur_radio@lemmy.radio
- cross-posted to:
- amateur_radio@lemmy.radio
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I was actually surprised to know that data transmission is doable on ham radio. Not sure why I was surprised since data transmission is possible through pretty much any protocol but it was cool to know the versatility of what many see as pretty basic radio.
Used to work with a radio enthusiast on sailing ships, he’d make posts to social media and check his email literally 1000 miles out to sea via radio.
Where do I start for this rabbit hole? That sounds mind blowingly cool.
I believe it would have been winlink or amprnet. I think winlink really only does low bandwidth things like email and weather bulletins. Not sure about amprnet
Oh yeah, there are modes like DMR and YSF that are completely digital data. That really helps a lot because with analog, the further you got away from the repeater you are using, the scratchier your voice would become until you just weren’t understandable. With digital, you either make the system or you don’t. There’s no real in-between. You’re either able to be heard or you’re not. But if you are not able to be heard, your radio immediately notifies you.
Check out “slow scan tv” if you haven’t already. I have my amateur license and was surprised to learn all of the ways in which radio waves can be utilized
The International Space Station was transmitting slow scan TV pictures last week. You can receive them with a handheld radio and the stock antenna on the high elevation passes, but a handheld yagi antenna works much better.
Im seeing more sstv memes lately and im all for it, about time I say.
I’m really close to being ready to do the test for my HAM license. It’s been enlightening to see all the applications and components tied to it. For anyone interested, even just getting started with a simple SDR setup can get you going on learning the basics about the various bands and intricacies involved.
I saw the most amazing thing. You know those meshtastic devices? Well, apparently, somebody has made something like that. Exactly for amateur radio operators, and you can text message and location share, etc. with one watt of power. I think the meshtastic devices are probably limited to 0.1 watts of power. So that would be a major, major improvement. You just plug this tiny box into the USB Type-C port on your phone and it becomes a one-watt HT with voice and text capability. Or at least I think it said it had voice.
Oh that’s really neat. It would be extremely helpful for situations like the hurricanes in the US these past months.
Yeah, tell me about it. And apparently, it only takes $35 worth of components and a 3D printer to build it.
Have a link for it? Or some specific keyword I can search for? I have tons of components sitting around and a 3D printer.
In preparing to get my ticket in 2020, I hopped on the Utah WebSDR and even got a shortwave listener (SWL) QSL card from a guy in the Cook Islands (E51JD).
Earlier this year I made a two-way QSL (contact) with him using my rig and 100W.
There’s a ton to learn, do, or accomplish if you want. So many facets to amateur radio.
I’m working on CW now!
I always say this when someone asks why I am interested in radio, when you can make phone calls for free from pretty much anywhere to anywhere else.
One day, all that infrastructure may be switched off, or just gone. But I’ll be able to take a piece of wire, hoist it into the air and have a two way conversation with people thousands of miles away.
It’s also just very interesting I think, the way the signals are propagated differently at different wavelengths at different times.
Exactly. Knowing how to use and repair the underlying technology that we rely on is really quite frankly amazing.
Number one reason why I don’t like all the analog broadcasts and use of frequencies are slowly being killed off around here.
Never been a better time to get into HF communications I think. You can get fairly inexpensive (comparatively anyway) Chinese software defined radio by Xiegu, and literally just stick a long wire in the back as an antenna and since the radio has an auto tuner, all you need to do is get that wire as high in the air as possible. I don’t have that radio so I use a manual tuner but a setup like that is the only way I can get on the air from my current house.
What will the auto tuner in that radio handle? I have an ICOM 7300 and it will handle 3 to 1 SWR and I think it will handle 10 to 1 with lower power in an emergency mode setting. But I use a manual tuner myself.
Ive heard people say that they can get their random wire antennas fed right into the g90 with little issue, I don’t have the tech specs but Id assume its near 9 to 1 if their random wire is working, and that’s made me curious to try the unit since I don’t have any SDR yet. The unit only pumps out 20w max so thats probably a factor. On my Yaesu ft 891where I can run 100w easy I use an external LC tuner and a counterpoise to mitigate rf buildup on the chassis though.
That’s actually pretty impressive if they can just feed a random wire directly into it and get it to transmit.
Its nominally called a ‘random wire antenna’ but the caveat is that it needs a tuner and if the wire length is too close to a length that makes it naturally resonate without a tuner, the antenna will not work.
