bmitch2112
Joined 9 years ago
Karma
236
Submissions
28
Member since
Aug 28
Recent submissions
Comment · 1 year ago
Walking, hiking, audiobooks, reading, amateur radio.
Comment · 1 year ago
If you don't read the newspapers, you are uniformed. If you do read them, you are misinformed.
Comment · 2 years ago
Not from US so I'm not sure but I think you can access the 10 metre band with technician? If so, doing Parks on the Air or Summits on the Air could possibly be something you might like.
Even with Technician you may be able to do POTA or SOTA successfully on VHF.
Comment · 3 years ago
Yep I love it for FT8. Fun little radio to play around with. If you want any more info my email is in my bio, feel free to email me.
Comment · 3 years ago
For me (relatively young, definitely in the ham radio circles) I like two activities: Summits on the Air and Parks on the Air.
Summits on the Air - take your gear to a mountain summit and attempt to make at least 4 contacts.
Parks on the Air - take your gear to a state/federal/provincial/national park and attempt to make at least 10 contacts.
Check out Ham Radio Crash Course on YouTube. He has a bunch of great stuff for people interested. From there hopefully one of the areas will pique your interest and you can go down the rabbit hole from there.
Comment · 3 years ago
I've setup quite a light mobile FT-8 setup in case you are interested.
I'm using the FT8CN Android app and a truSDX radio. USB cable from the radio into my phone powers the radio as well as sends/receives the audio.
For antenna I'm just using a hamstick on the roof.
This only puts out about half a watt but I was getting out about 2500-3000km away. You could then have an alternative power source like a battery to get around 5 watts.
Comment · 3 years ago
https://www.wikitree.com/ I believe is what you are describing. It's great. If you have any interest in building your family tree this is where I would start.
Comment · 3 years ago
You can get it pre assembled. Here's a link to it on AliExpress:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003908457475.html
The AliExpress link is one of the official suppliers listed on the site: https://dl2man.de/where-to-buy-trusdx/
Comment · 3 years ago
You basically just need any sort of wire to receive. FT8 is a very weak signal mode so I wouldn't be surprised if you string up some speaker wire inside and still hear signals.
Comment · 3 years ago
Do you have another radio to try it with?
Another cheap option is the truSDX https://dl2man.de/
I have it working with my Android Phone using https://github.com/N0BOY/FT8CN
It makes for a super lightweight pack. I usually bring a 17foot whip antenna to a park or summit and get contacts all over the world.
Comment · 3 years ago
FT8 is lots of fun. Even more fun when you go to a park or up a summit and see how far you can get out and how far you can hear.
You don't need very expensive radio equipment to transmit FT8 so if you do get your licence back it is worth looking into.
Comment · 3 years ago
This is great! Reminds me of Fire & Ice and Solomon's Key 2 on the NES.
Comment · 3 years ago
https://www.wikitree.com/ is essentially this but free and community driven.
Comment · 3 years ago
Amateur Radio. Check out Parks on the Air and Summits on the Air. Essentially you take your radio to a park or mountain summit. Setup your gear and try to make radio contacts with others. Good communities behind both and likely some people in your area doing it.
- It is relaxing and something outside to do. - You can meet others locally who are into it as well and also meet people as you make radio contacts. - You'll need an amateur radio licence which can be a new skill to challenge you.