Ham Radio / Off-grid communication

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For the DX reception I usually transmit my real call three times before and after the transmission.
This time around I have my 100W amplifier and its properly grounded this time! I'm also going to be following the proper regulations and best practices and letting my radio rest so I can avoid the overheat I was having last time. I'll break down what to expect for everyone in a follow up post later.
888Flux showing us up here so I gotta up my effort for these post.
 
Thanks Flux for the HF write-up, I learned a lot about cyphers today !

I’ve mainly been doing repeater stuff since I’m often away. Not a lot of activity in the states I was in for the last month, I hope it gets better this summer.

One of my friends who is interested in ham radio stuff has finally decided to take the plunge, which makes me very happy! I've been coaching him on the basics and did a bit of SSTV reception with him.

Well, I’ve also played a bit more with my Xiegu G106 (either with an EFHW, a ¼ GP or JPC-12) and I’m standing by my initial assessment: overall a nice no-frills QRP radio.

The good
  • Sturdy as hell, I’m not worried about stuffing it in my portable bag and going on adventures.
  • Very simple operation.
  • Quite good on JS8Call or other digital modes.
The bad
  • Factory mic is abysmal (I had to drill a small hole above the mic element to make it usable). I’m looking to replace it.
  • RX is perfectible.
  • No input voltage indicator.

The ugly Things that bother me with my setups but are outside of the G106’s scope:
  • While I like digital modes a lot, my “portable” computer is an ancient beast weighing bricks and a pain to carry around. I’m considering an alternative setup using my phone for JS8Call / RTTY / Packet.
  • 5 W on SSB is very meager and I didn’t manage to make any good QSO. I’ll look into a 20 W amp. While some people make mad DX on the regular by using a fraction of watt and farting in an unconnected tin can, QRP SSB has been quite frustrating for me.
73 my kiwis
 
Juan Números powiedział(a):
QRP SSB has been quite frustrating for me.
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I started out with a FT817 which was 5 watts but just couldn't get out of the mud. Anyone who wanted to work me had to work at it, any sort of pileup and they just wouldn't bother. :lossmanjack: So then I added an amp which was just more wires and crap to go wrong.
A few years ago I finally bit the bullet and got a FT-891. Now I know why they are so popular with the POTA folks. QRP sized rig that does QRO.
Life is to short for QRP
 
Jump powiedział(a):
I started out with a FT817 which was 5 watts but just couldn't get out of the mud. Anyone who wanted to work me had to work at it, any sort of pileup and they just wouldn't bother. :lossmanjack: So then I added an amp which was just more wires and crap to go wrong.
A few years ago I finally bit the bullet and got a FT-891. Now I know why they are so popular with the POTA folks. QRP sized rig that does QRO.
Life is to short for QRP
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Agreed. I don't like how most manufacturers are focused on making new QRP rigs, and the QRP shilling in general. That market is beyond saturated. <5 watts works just fine for digimodes and stuff like FT8, but working SSB you are depending entirely on luck in most cases.

My dream rig is something like the FT-891 with a integrated sound-card and digital display in a mobile form factor. The IC-7100 is the closest thing to that. But I wish more manufacturers set something like 50 watts TX as the standard.

Venezuala is using 7.135MHz for HF emergency coordination in the wake of the earthquake and subsequent infrastructure damage, might be an interesting frequency to monitor. If you ever want to translate international stations you can use software like whishper https://github.com/pluja/whishper, also https://github.com/SYSTRAN/faster-whisper
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Ostatnio edytowane:
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JS8 KIWI BULLETIN ACTIVATION
When: July 3rd, 2026
Where: 16:00 UTC and 23:00 UTC @ 20 meters on 14085 USB using the @KFALL group

This is a test of the Kiwi Bulletin using the JS8call software. A text bulletin containing the latest site Happenings ™️ will be sent out on 20 meters on 14085 USB. The bulletin will be sent twice at 16:00 UTC and 23:00 UTC.

Anyone is welcome to participate and share their signal reports, as well as try and make some contacts using the @KFALL group after the bulletin transmission has concluded.
 
Jump powiedział(a):
Life is to short for QRP
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That's what I've started to think, I've don't have much time for ham radio and I'd rather not spend it farting in the wind. I'll try to get an amp or I'll get a G90 when Radioddity has a sale.

We had a bit of a row at the local organization last night because a boomer sperged how transceivers "THAT COMES FROM CHYNA!" should be banned, no fun allowed, only extravagantly overpriced shit, yadda yadda. Of course he was joined in by others retards for which spending less than 10k on your shack is literally unthinkable and sperged further about how young hams are not putting in the effort to search for good used transceivers. While I owe it to my organization to stay neutral on internal matters, I was very close to retort a "Nigga you're tripping if you thinking I'm gonna drop $ 1k on your crusty 50-years old transceiver".

The hoarding (and price-gouging) these guys do is driving me up the walls.
 
For some reason people tend to couple QRP sets with small inefficient antennas, making their lives even harder.

5-10w of SSB isnt really THAT hard provided you aren’t using some fashionable coil loaded garbage. People wont blink an eye running 100w into a hamstick/atas etc and getting a sub 5w ERP, I tend to chuck up an end fed or a doublet when out on portable. Thats still made contacts through a few solar minima. If you have the room for something like a ZS6BKW etc you can actually have a fair amount of gain if you set the antenna up with some care. Leave pileups to amp wielding boomers.

The 817 is doubly challenging as it lacks any kind of compressor or transmit equaliser so it is probably the worst QRP set to use on SSB, out of the box at least.
 
Used a 2m HT and mobile radio to get out of a jam today. First time using them for anything other than digital experiments or hitting a repeater once in a while. Icoms dprs showing the direction of the transmitter helped my buddies in another vehicle find us while turned around and lost in the mountains. Their vehicle had the extra gas and tools and we were out of gas and needed tools.

Also the icom ID50 can handle falling on a dirt bike while clipped to your hip. More so than my body could handle it.

Not very ham radio sciency but it was handy to have. The phones were useless. The satillite iPhone thing was getting fucked by the weather or our location idk since it's all black box. Being able to crank my tx power up or down as needed made me confident in the battery. Having raw gps data to type into other apps was handy. I'm never gonna be a builds many radios electronics science guy but ham fills a very specific niche for "guy who wants open control of his equipment"
 
Ostatnio edytowane:
888Flux powiedział(a):
I still recommend the RTL-SDR v4 for a first time receiver though. Having a waterfall display (visualization of all the signals) combined with software control over it can be really nice for beginners
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I agree. It’s also cheap which means you can spend something on a proper portable antenna of some kind, which is going to greatly improve the experience.
 
888Flux powiedział(a):
Wyświetl załącznik 9201292
JS8 KIWI BULLETIN ACTIVATION
When: July 3rd, 2026
Where: 16:00 UTC and 23:00 UTC @ 20 meters on 14085 USB using the @KFALL group

This is a test of the Kiwi Bulletin using the JS8call software. A text bulletin containing the latest site Happenings ™️ will be sent out on 20 meters on 14085 USB. The bulletin will be sent twice at 16:00 UTC and 23:00 UTC.

Anyone is welcome to participate and share their signal reports, as well as try and make some contacts using the @KFALL group after the bulletin transmission has concluded.
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STAND UP, BE COUNTED
Do we have a backup frequency if the one named is unusable?
 
Jotch powiedział(a):
STAND UP, BE COUNTED
Do we have a backup frequency if the one named is unusable?
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Make sure that your receive filter / bandwidth is set to 1500 Hz and your rig is set to USB. The frequency chosen for the Kiwi Bulletin is above the FT4 data frequency in the 20 meter band.

As a backup if the entire 1500 Hz of our primary freq is unusable we could move to 14091, though I don't anticipate it to be necessary. JS8call uses a very small carrier that occupies a narrow bandwidth of 50 Hz. The software itself is designed to decode multiple signals in the audio passband at once, and you use the offset in the software's waterfall to select an open spot for transmit. I will be monitoring and posting in the thread as the bulletin is ongoing if we need to QSY
 
And thus, the Kiwis versus Trans activist war took to the airwaves. With no limits to the autism and technical resource, Effective Radiated Power increased week by week. Eventually it got so that rude FT-8 messages were setting fire to pigeons who strayed across a particularly intense node. Power grids would brown out every Friday, and the troposphere crackled and turned orange.
Eventually the ETs we accidentally summoned would put a stop to it.
 
Can anyone link me a video/guide that will walk me through setting up my DM32 UV with baby steps? Trying to in2 DMR.
 
Has anyone here looked into the Flexradio CTO "Stephen Hicks"? There have been rumblings in the ham radio sphere for a year about this guy.
He is a registered sex offender, got caught with CP, and he partakes in Flexradio Youth events and booths at Dayton Hamvention.
It really sucks, because the Flexradio product line is pretty solid, but there's this stain of a man tied to the company that actually caused a few youtubers to back out of making videos on the products.
The company has supposedly been asked about this issue by large youtubers in the ham sphere and others, promised they would take action, and actually did nothing. He still participates in their youth events.
There was a reddit post about this issue on the Amateur Radio sub that got nuked by mods.

Stephen Hicks​

 
888Flux powiedział(a):
no i'm just autistic, the former not the latter


July 3rd works for me. If anyone else wants to participate in the Kiwi Bulletin for reception give a quick heads up and post in this thread a list of times you might be available on that date. Also let me know if you are equipped to transmit and rebroadcast the bulletin. Thanks!

Also looking for people who could give a signal report from outside the continental US. Would be interesting to see what DX reception looks like
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I can report from Western Europe. And rebroadcast but only at 20W or something.
 
Oxyjen powiedział(a):
I can report from Western Europe. And rebroadcast but only at 20W or something.
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20 watts is more than enough for me to hit Europe on 20 meters. You should be fine unless we have a major solar storm or something.
@888Flux Keep in mind 14084 is the FT2 calling frequency on 20 meters and there may be other digital activity as well. We may need a different frequency in that case.
 
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