marcspaz

@Radioguy7268 measuring is a very good way. I also have a antenna transmission line analyzer that works pretty well. I made a video about line loss and how it impacts communications, to help train new Hams that join my ARES teams. If you are really bored... but I am no Randy.

Can't speak for everyone, but I get my coax loss information from the manufacturer of the cable I use in any given application. Pretty solid source.

Not that I am aware of. The adjustments are all in the menu. Honestly, and believe me I am not writing this to be mean, but if you don't know how to do it based on training and experience, you probably should try to find any either. Just my opinion... without the correct training and alignment tools, its likely not going to be possible to align it yourself. Do you have an friend that have a high-end meter that is known calibrated, so you can run a comparison as you make the adjustments? That friend would likely be able to assist.

Im definitely not trying to take anything away from your thought... but I'm pretty sure all amateur radios are capable of local communications. I haven't owned a radio that can't. With 100w and FM, I can talk just as clearly and just as far (LOS wise) as a VHF FM radio, with people around me on 10m, 20m, 40m... all the HF bands. The massive advantage you have with VHF isn't the range. That actually hampers you. The advantage comes from the point that I'm pretty sure there isn't a Ham alive that doesn't have a VHF radio. Pure numbers aid the likelihood of finding the right person or persons to talk to in a local emergency.

Man, do I have e stories. LOL. When I use my GMRS radio while in my driveway, the garage door opener lights turn on. In my last Jeep, I had to move the antenna because when I keyed up, my dash would reboot, run self diag, and my windshield wipers would turn on. I also have a HF radio and an amp that puts out about 1,100 watts. If I run it full-tilt, LED lights in my house that aren't even plugged in will actually light up. It trips my wireless surround sound, turning that on. And depending on the frequency, it makes my radio/alarm clock's radio turn on until I let the mic go. RFI does some wild stuff.

So, I had fun goofing around today... and the results are a fail (thankfully). All the publicly available tool were a complete failure. This is a very good thing. So, as @OffRoaderX mentioned, short of a hacker compromising the service provider (which is very, very difficult), today no one is grabbing your information from just your IP. Thanks for the friendly challenge Randy!

So, I sent Randy what I found. Just waiting for confirmation before I share my results. I will only be sharing Pass/Fail info, though.

I'm on the road right now. when I get home tonight tonight I'll take a look at it.. I am going to send you a PM because I don't want everybody to know how it works and I'm going to show you every step of the process so you know I didn't cheat. By the way the way I can't do a packet capture without a warrant to do a man in the middle capture or without permission of the system owner to set up traces on the network. So I'll have to do a reverse look up. I don't feel like getting fired for doing a man in the middle attack without a warrant.

Once upon a time ago anyone could lookup your IP address and it would show your name and address when you ran a certain type of query (not whois)... You still can today, but with the introduction of IPv6, you either need to perform a packet capture to view the payload or you need to do a reverse lookup to get the host name, and then search for that host name's location. Not everyone knows how to do any of that, though.

@Lscott Great post. Sounds like you had some nice gear. The FT-847 looks awesome. I know what you mean about the weird looks, too. Especially with my Jeep, which is 6 inches higher than stock with 37" offroad tires and 3 86"+ antenna's hanging off the bed. It's a convo starter almost everywhere I go.

The Surecom SW-102 is designed to be calibrated by the end user. While there is a chance it's accurate out of the box, it's not always. There is a possibility that you need to have your meter calibrated.

Yes, it does. It has a built-in repeater. So it has to be able to transmit and receive at the same time. There are two radios in one package that function independently of each other.

Honestly, I don't know. The stuff I deal with at work is all geostationary for data and I just manage the servers that control them... The few AMSAT contacts I made prior to a few days ago was all on other peoples gear, with SDR's and everything was computer controlled there, too. This is my first time doing AMSAT or any other type of satellite work 100% on my own, with my own gear and manually. It does seem like I was doing okay both days. The first day I only adjusted the UHF downlink and the second day I adjusted both the VHF uplink and the UHF downlink. I had equal success both days, but the recording I received from day 2 sounded great. So I am prone to think it depends. LOL Based on what I am reading, the experienced doppler it is mostly based on the speed of the satellite and its trajectory in relation to your station. For example, if you have a direct overhead pass, horizon to horizon, you would have the most noticable doppler effect. If the satellite comes into view off in the distance and traces the horizon, you may experience no doppler effect. Again, I am new to this, but I think that is correct.

I got on the repeater again tonight and didn't have any issues. I couldn't hear myself in the downlink but a new acquaintance sent me a recording of me talking and I was staying right on frequency, even with the gross adjustments I'm limited to. I think I can't here myself in the downlink because the uplink and downlink are almost perfect harmonics. The satellite is 437.800 down and 145.990 up. If at the beginning of the pass, I noticed that if I listen on 437.810 and transmit on 145.980... I get a faint sound like a station nearby, but not on the same frequency. Since I didn't hear myself in the downlink, I started dropping my transmit frequency thinking I didn't adjust enough for doppler. When I got to 145.940, I could hear myself 100% perfect, full quiet and zero distortion on the receive side. Flawless talk back. I guess from now on, I am just going to start at 10kc+/- and assume that if I heard the repeater at +10kc, then my transmit needs to be -10kc. As I move the receive down, I'll increment transmit up the same amount. That seemed to work well last night. I may look for some other satellites to work and see how it goes.

Ah! That makes a lot of sense. Agreed!

@WROZ250 Good info! You know, you may be onto something with someone having the uplink and downlink flopped. One of the really heavily distorted/load stations I heard was calling from FM19 and I am FM18. I can 100% full quiet to a station in FM19 from my house.

@WROZ250 I appreciate the advice. I have used other people's gear before and had a great time, which is why I tried my own equipment yesterday. It was pretty fun using one person's radio at 800mw and another at 5w. I had an FTM-400. I don't know if it was a firmware issue compared to your experience, bit the lowest mine went was 5kc steps. I replaced it with the FTM-300DR. I'm currently thinking about an FT-991a, IC-9700 or an IC 705. I just don't know if I like the idea of being QRP unless I buy a bunch of amps, or I would have already purchased the 705. Anyway... thanks again. I guess a new radio is in my future.

There is no attenuation function on my radio. It's a mobile VHF/UHF radio. I do have an Icom 746 Pro which has an attenuator, but there is no UHF, so it wasn't an option. I may look at a Yaesu 991a, if that has an attenuator and 1 Hz tuning. Sucks to hear about the cancer... but it sounds like you have a nice setup with the radio.

True... but if people are worried about that, they may as well never turn a computer on ever again. Tracking cookies are worse and available to more people.... and if you are using location services on your phone, not only can I find your house, I can find you work location, where you like to by groceries, where you really were when you told the wife you were going to hang out with the fellas... I can even grab all of your account login information for banks, forums, social media, find out what you have been searching for and shopping for online, etc. People hearing my call sign on the air is so innocuous compared to using a computer or phone to access this (or any other) website. It's just not a big deal.

I have seen those before. Its a pretty net setup. I am using a Yaesu FTM-300DR. It only has a 5k step instead of a 1k or finer. I wish I had a 1 Hz tuner... but the last radio that U had that feature on was my now long-gone 857D. The reason I think there was too much gain is because of the audio characteristics. It get louder and louder until it sounded like someone was screaming into the mic. My S-meter was pegged, too. I did try shifting up and down 5 KC thinking it might have been doppler, but it didn't help. Maybe 5k is too large of a jump and I need more fine tuning? Just for giggles, next time the ISS is going to fly over, I my test with an HT. LOL I tried to find one of those for 2 years and gave up. Few are for sale and the ones that are, the owner is asking way too much. Thankfully, the FTM-300DR has 2 seperate transmitters and receivers, which made it easy work, for the most part.

Hey folks, I have a quick question. Tonight I made a 1,700+ mile contact from Virginia to Mexico using the ISS cross-band repeater (VHF/UHF). I was running my Diamond X300 vertical which has 7 dBd gain (9 dBi) on UHF and my frontend was getting overloaded to the point where a lot of audio was distorted. I was watching the tracker and I could only hear well when I was on the edges of the coverage area, near the horizons. However, one person sent me an email saying he could hear me very well in Mississippi... so I know the take-off angle and the doppler effect is accounted for. Does anyone here do satellite work? I'm thinking I have too much gain. I am considering building an omni-directional horizontal loop and trying again soon. With the exception of buying a beam on a tripod, do any of you have any advice on what to do for antenna design? What has worked well for you? Thank! Spaz

Honestly, I think you guys are over thinking this. If I really wanted any of your info, it's all Federal public record. All I need to do is submit a "Right to Know" or "FOIA" request for all documents that mention your call sign or FRN.

QFT. I have witnessed first hand, a well placed high gain antenna running 100w out, significantly outperform a poor antenna at low elevation and 1,000w+.

@Screech ah! Got it. I didn't realize you were putting a new circuit in. I missed it some how.. sounds like its going to be a good setup, for sure.. Thanks for the quick reply.

@Screech I'm curious why you are installing a 50 Amp circuit? Even poor efficiency 50 watt radios only draw 7 or 8 amps on full power. I have a 50w GMRS radio, 50w VHF/UHF radio, 100w HF radio, and a 300w VHF amplifier on a 40 amp circuit and never max it out. I could literally transmit full power on all of them at he same time and still fall short of 50 amps.