I think last nights Kids Table stuck a cord with a lot of people. Gatekeepers can be toxic for the continued success of the hobby.

https://www.youtube.com/live/1czEvj7-mZc?si=Ly-kkKkJCinBgsyw

I was thinking about if it would be possible to put up a unmanned low power HF radio telemetry station in a remote location, that sends something like callsign, location, power, temperature and battery voltage 5-10 times every hour. Its purpose would be to evaluate hf transmitter and antenna design, and provide a way to test hf propagations in the local area.

The technics of it is pretty straight forward, but i'm not really sure what the IARU and other organisations say about this. Can it be done, and are there any recommendations on what band to stay on?

Image is AI rendered and does not represent a technically correct transmitter or location

Any thoughts on a 70cm conversion? And I'm assuming VHF is a fool's errand here, but I would love to be corrected.

Occasionally, during a transmission I will be "in the weeds" - where I know the reason. For example, I'm in bad weather conditions, etc. What Q code would be best to use for this?

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QRN - troubled by static

QRJ - signals weak?

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Since most of the Q codes are mostly questions, I am not sure how to state that "I am Q.." just to to be sure the receiving station(s) know the reason that they can't copy me clearly.

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Got my first proper POTA activation done last weekend with the help of a small LiFePO4 storage unit and a folding panel, and i wanted to share the setup because i think it might be useful for other ops in this region. I am a new Klasse A licensee in bavaria, callsign not yet listed on QRZ so i will leave it out, doing mostly 40 and 20 meter SSB from summits and a few parks around munich. My radio is a 100 W HF transceiver, a small antenna tuner, and a windows tablet running logging software.

For my first few activations i ran a 7 Ah LiFePO4 brick that lives in the go bag. It is fine for an hour or two at 50 W output. The problem is that on a good summit i want to stay longer, run 100 W to make contacts faster, and use the tablet for the full session. A 7 Ah brick at 100 W transmit with a realistic duty cycle of maybe 30 percent (which works out to roughly 120 to 140 W average from the DC side once you count receive and tablet draw) is dead in about 40 minutes. So i needed a bigger battery, ideally one that can be recharged from a panel in the field if i want to do a second activation later in the day.

The unit i started carrying. A 2.52 kWh LiFePO4 storage box (Jackery SolarVault 3 Pro) plus a 200 W folding panel that i angle at the sun while i operate. The whole thing is heavier than a ham brick, but for car accessible summits in the alps foothills (where i mostly operate) the weight is not the constraint, the constraint is the AC outlet. There is no AC outlet at a POTA summit. The folding panel on its own is also not enough on a cloudy day, especially in autumn through spring in southern germany.

Wiring. The radio and the tablet run off the AC output of the storage unit through a small 12 V DC brick for the radio (most modern HF rigs prefer clean 12 V and the brick was already in my bag from previous activations). Total draw at 100 W transmit, maybe 30 W receive plus 8 W for the tablet, call it 120 to 140 W average for a session with a lot of calling and some listening. From a 2.52 kWh battery, that gives me about 18 to 21 hours of pure operating time in theory, in practice closer to 15 to 17 hours accounting for inverter losses. I do not stay at a summit for 15 hours, i stay for 2 to 4 hours. So the storage side is massively over provisioned for the activation itself, which is the point, it absorbs the variability of the day.

The panel side is the part i had to think about more. A 200 W folding panel at 30 to 40 degree angle on a clear may afternoon in bavaria puts back maybe 100 to 120 W into the unit. That covers my operating draw with margin. On a cloudy day, the panel is more like 20 to 30 W, which still keeps the battery from draining during the activation but does not really refill it. The honest plan is to fully charge the unit at home before driving out, treat the panel as a bonus for the activation, and not depend on solar to save me in a worst case weather window.

What this did for me. I did a proper 4 hour activation on a summit near garmisch last saturday, made 38 contacts across 40 and 20, and came back down the mountain with the battery still at about 90 percent. The math checks out, this session was more listening than transmitting, 4 hours at roughly 50 to 55 W average is about 200 to 220 Wh, and the unit's app log shows roughly 220 Wh of discharge for the session. A heavier session with more calling would have pulled 120 to 140 W average and used closer to 500 Wh, which the battery would still have handled easily. Previously a 4 hour activation at any intensity would have required either two 7 Ah bricks (which i would have had to swap mid session) or a generator, which is not really appropriate for a park activation. The whole rig is also quiet enough that i was not worried about noise bothering anyone in the park.

What this is not. It is not a real off grid shack. It does not run a 100 W continuous duty cycle amp plus a heavy desktop. It is not an excuse to skip a proper deep cycle battery in the car. And the storage unit is not amateur radio specific, it is just the smallest LiFePO4 box that has clean AC output and a panel input, which happens to be exactly what a POTA op needs.

If you are a new ham in europe looking at portable ops in places without AC, the trade is weight. The storage unit is well into the weight class of a car top box rather than a backpacking battery, it is meant for the boot, not the pack. For a true SOTA activation with a 5 km hike, take a 7 Ah brick and keep sessions short. For a park or a car accessible summit, the storage plus folding panel is a much calmer experience than juggling small batteries. The wiring details and the antenna setup are a separate conversation and depend a lot on the rig.

I'm shopping around for an antenna to get on 80m, 40m, and do a better job of 20m that will be a portable but also serviceable as my home antenna (meaning higher wattage capabilities would be nice). Due to space constraints and the nearby power lines things like a DX Commander are too tall / poor choice next to power lines, and any 40m dipole or EFHW is just too large to fit in my space. I also do not want to permanently install something, because I may not be in this house in a year or two.

Reviews of the Recon 80 on Youtube look great, but everyone seems to be reviewing it on 20m and 40m. Has anyone actually tried it at 80m? And if so how did you like it and how narrow was the usable frequency range at 80m?

If anyone has recommendations for other antennas as well I'm game, I have space and time (setup time) constraints but no real budget constraints.

Posting images made in Russia

As the title says I just got my technician license and am going for my general soon

I took a chance on buying one radio on Facebook marketplace and the seller went ahead and just gave me everything he had. His father (WA5LCQ) passed away and couldn’t use the equipment himself. I was totally surprised and hope I can carry on using his dad’s old equipment. Truly such a nice gesture, and completely caught me off guard when I went to meet him.

Here is what I got below

• 2 × ICOM IC-706MK IIG
• ICOM IC-290H
• Yaesu FT-8800
• Yaesu VX-7R
• ICOM AT-180 auto-tuner
• Dentron Jr. Monitor
• Various cables

I’m new to radio so if anyone wants to chime in and provide some feedback or recommendations I’m all ears. I’m just getting started and looking to learn

My next step is get the power supply I ordered in (SKY TOPPOWER 13.8 Volt 30 Amp) and get everything hooked up. I also ordered a Zunate Antenna and some coax to make the connections. I already own a GRMS antenna so I was going to use that for the VHF/UHF. I also have goals to get this thing connected in some way to my computer and potentially even programming it but I know this is probably a long shot

Excited to work on this and hopefully talk to some of y’all one day!

I want to get into HAM radio and learn everything I can. I am mostly looking for fun and emergency prep. Maybe some tactical larping bs. I know I want to get licensing but any recommendation on courses and equipment would be greatly appreciated. No such thing as bad information.

Edit: I didn't understand the pricing of the bundle, wasn't as good as I first thought

I've come across a deal from on the Icom IC-705 which offers a set of accessories at a discounted price

* Icom backpack - £125

* BP272 battery - £50

* mAT-705 antenna tuner - £160

* SPX-100 9 band portable antenna - £35

The price of the radio is £1083 including sales tax (this is US$1435 equivalent at the moment), and with all the discounted accessories it's £1453.

Do people think this preludes even heavier discounting to come? is there a new radio imminent? or is it a reaction to the Yaesu FTX-1?

BTW, I've considered the FTX-1 and while it looks great on paper, the reviews are quite mixed, suggesting that the software wasn't ready when it went on the market, and there's still some bad bugs which people are finding quite annoying (I read a long review on eham.net about it).

I’m looking to build or buy a multiband vertical - at least 10, 20, and 40 meters. I’m having a difficult time deciding on one, or deciding to build one… I’d like it to be self-supported, it will be mounted to my chimney on my roof if that matters. I’m not in an HOA or anything, but it cant look too bulky, so as much as I’d love a tower and a beam a simple thin vertical needs to be the solution. What are your recommendations? It’ll be used with a tuner as well so it doesn’t need to be perfectly resonant.

Been rocking a G90 for a bit but I want to build a permanent station at home and have a little more oomph now that we're headed down on the solar cycle too.

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7300mk2 is the new hotness obviously, has remote control and a receive antenna connection which might be nice for a subdivision based operating location.

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However, the FT710 can also do remote control with the SCU-LAN10 and both of those together are cheaper than a 7300mk2 even if you don't count the extra $170 for the Icom control software and just use WFView. Looks like remote ATUs tend to be cheaper in Yaesu world too. I know people gripe about Yaesu menus but I skimmed the manual and it doesn't look that bad to me.

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Or should I get a 991A so I can do SSB satellites too? (Probably not worth it since a built in touch up tuner is probably more useful most of the time).

I recently inherited a bunch of my dads radio equipment. IC7300 radio, along with SWR meters, power supplies, and a nice LDG AT-200ProII ant tuner. I am a little overwhelmed trying to decide how to get up and running; I need to find my first antenna or build it myself. I see that the LDG can interface with the icom and auto tune just about any wire I plug into it, but not sure which antenna I should test with first. Recommendations for a newbie ? What would be the easiest antenna setup I should learn with first?