Hi everyone just wanted to share my cw practice kit that fits in my pocket for on the go learning and practice, I'm using the putikeeg cw trainer and little micro cw key and a pair of headphones. So far the the cw trainer has been great so far, I'm still struggling on the decode side of things but I'll keep practicing.

I live in an English basement (see previous posts), but enjoy using an HT around the house without a long hunk of LMR240 hanging off the end. The HT pictured is 70cm only, anyway, so this is my only option for using it to get into the local 2m repeaters.

It seems like most mobile rigs from the big manufacturers include cross-band repeater functionality. This is handy to me for other reasons—these rigs are full-duplex, and I use this one with a LiPo pack to work the FM birds—but until now the namesake function seemed a little silly to me.

(Still does, but it used to, too!)

We had about 15 in attendance at Ft. McAllister State Park for the Ga POTA weekend. Young Aaron W4WSV (left) and a friend entertained us with music.

I have a powerwerx megabox2 with a 50ah battery. I was wondering how I can make it so I can plug some HT charging cradles into it? Pretty sure it’s a DC/AC issue so I’d need an inverter. This one is on Amazon but reviews say doesn’t work with lifepo4 batteries.

How else can I achieve what I’m looking to do? I’m looking to be able to recharge baofengs, retevis’s, Kenwoods, etc. using their cradles from the battery box. Thanks!

I'm pondering setups for using portable directional antennas for VHF/UHF in a POTA/SOTA context, with a telescoping mast. If I can manage to get something like an Arrow packable antenna up 30 feet in the air, then "dead reckoning" gets a little more difficult for pointing it anywhere in particular accurately. I'm looking for some sort of sensor I could attach to the antennas with a Bluetooth connection down to my iPhone below to read the heading, and be able to watch that readout as I turn the mast by hand to whatever direction I want. Can anyone recommend such a gizmo?

It’s not the best quality but I’ve had trouble locating what landmass this is.

Received a postcard in the mail from a ARRL member saying thanks for the contact. Kicker is: I never made that contact. Postcard looks like something they put out en masse since it was well produced and all my info was correct, including callsign. Any cause for concern here?

I’m a new tech and picked up one of these things try and do APRS with. Has anyone else used one of these with any success?

DR-2X with LAN card being used for IMRS. Trying to understand how the “RF Option” is used to also allow WIRES-X connection. It appears a second transceiver set for direct mode will do it? Alternatively it looks like a Pi-Star operating in duplex can do it? Any experience out there?

Hi guys,

I am trying to use a 4:1 balun in reverse, to match a 50Ω line to a 12.5Ω load. The balun itself is a classic Guanella construction, wound on 2 T240-31 cores and shows a nearly perfect characteristic over the frequency range of interest (3.5 to 30 MHz) when connected in a "traditional" way, with 50Ω generator (NanoVNA) at one end and a 200Ω non-inductive resistor at the other
However, when hooked up in reverse (NanoVNA working into the Hi-Z side and a 12.5Ω carbon composition resistor across the Low-Z side), the results are radically different . Basically has a 1.5SWR at 1mh and shoots up as it goes higher in freq.

I was expecting the balun to be completely reciprocal, so this result has me stumped. Anyone has ideas why it behaves this way?

Conducted first overnight QRP POTA. Mainly digital modes (PSK31 and JS8CALL). Communicated with friends and family via Winlink. Good learning experience and gear test for expeditious setup in cold/wet weather environment.

Help me understand the monster of an antenna I made and then ruined.

I cut 20M dipole and tuned it while I had it hanging 3.5-4ft off the ground. After a lot of fiddling and a few mosquito bites, I got the SWR adjusted to 1.0. My adjustments were done by folding the wire back on itself without trimming it. By the time the SWR was 1.0, each leg of the dipole was ~15ft, with about 18in of wire folded back. I trimmed off the excess wire to clean it up and upon testing realized I ruined it by trying to make it pretty. Post cleanup the SWR was 2.8.

Did I unintentionally make and tune a NVIS antenna?

My grandfather passed away last week and I found a stack of old Ham Radio postcards, I never came across them when he was around, so I never got to question him on them. What do all those codes mean?

I looking to upgrade to a new HT. I have had the vx6r for about 5 years. It has been a good radio and very dependable. I used it mostly for weather net when thing gets rough outdoors. However I would like to try one of the newer HT radios and I have narrowed it down to either the Icom ID50A or the Yaesu FT5D.

Other than the basic 2m local stuff for emergencies I would like to try getting online with a radio.

Does anyone use that DOOZY program to chat online with?

I think I would like to try out and from what I have saw the newer ID50A seems to be the one that would be easier to get up and running for that. Plus from the videos I have watched it has a built in USB C port already and the Yaesu would need a special cable that is about an extra 40 bucks.

I like the smaller size of the Yaesu better and the color screen is nice in it but I am leaning toward the Icom due as it seems the menu system seems a bit easier to navigate.

Can anyone chime in and give their thoughts?

Thanks in advance KO4DJX

I have a Beelink mini pc running Windows 11 Pro.

I've attempted to pair my IC705 to it.

It is on the pc's list of paired bluetooth devices but it will not pair to the pc.

BT is turned on on the 705 and when I tap on the Icom; Bluetooth Set>Pairing Connect, I can see my pc's name on the list.

I then go back to the PC and after performing the above action, I can see the IC705 briefly lit and display connected, and then it is not.

Not sure if there's a solution for this?

Where would I start looking to troubleshoot it?

I have been comparing the value of an nanoVNA and the similar level spectrum analyzer. The VNA is an extremely useful, powerful tool for antenna work -- which I do a lot of. The tiny SA Ultra is another story.

In my opinion -and from what I have seen in a few dozen Youtube reviews- the tiny SA Ultra seems an expensive and pointless thing. I have seen a few dozen videos of people analyzing a $40 Baofeng with the spectrum analyzer -- which costs four or five times what the crappy radio cost... only to find out it's a crappy, noisy $40 radio.

Umm... cool. There are many dozens of video reviews of the crappy $40 Baofeng radio, with noisy overtones up and down the frequency. Well, surprise: the crappy radio is crappy. And, do you know what's to be done? Do what should have been done in the first place? Forgo the tiny SA Ultra, take that $200, then skip the crappy $40 Baofeng, and buy a real radio. Getting a reading of the crappy radio's performance doesn't change the crappy radio.

I'm making a turnstile antenna that has circle polarization. In the simulation I get VSWR 1.6

My question, is by adding a single stub in the coaxial to lower the vswr by about 1.** going to affect the received signal?

See from what I've read the Stub for lower VSWR has more effect on the transmitter antenna. Thank you

I have a couple of HF mobile antennas (75m and 20m) that work beautifully on the car with a mag mount. I tried the mag mount indoors but no luck. Any idea on how I can get an HF mobile antenna to work indoors? And how would I ground it?

I hope this isn't a silly or obvious question, but as a beginner in the world of amateur radio, I wanted to ask: does it make sense to use the ICOM AL-705 antenna together with the ICOM AH-705 tuner with my ICOM IC-705? Will they work well together, or do they not provide any added value when used simultaneously?

Thanks for your insights!

I guess I'll walk over to the bookcase and grab the manual.

I'll be in Japan end of May and wanted to get a few radio stuff such "legit" toroids - mix 31, 43 and 52 and "legit" amphenol connectors.

Any idea from which shops I can get these from?

Which set will work the best for some CW Morse DX? I'm not that good an soldering or building so I can't really work with those DIY kits. So far I've been looking at the G90 and G106 but they're still a bit more expensive than I expected, and QRP with no tuner is quite tough. I really want something that's more straightforward for a beginner.

SSB is too expensive for me. I wanted to get into some DX and I heard that CW is the cheapest way to do so.