SteveShannon

Welcome @Maghunter Neither of you have to start with your call sign. You can just push the PTT and use each other’s names. “Hi Dennis, this is grandpa.” Every 15 minutes and when ending a transmission or series of transmissions you are also required to ID. You can include some other identifier, which could be a letter, number, name, or pretty much anything you want: “Wrom258 - grampa”, but you’re not required to. Exactly the same on a repeater.

It’s a radio receiver that’s controlled by your computer. It’s extremely flexible, allowing you to listen in on almost any mode over an extremely wide range of frequencies. Because it’s controlled by your computer you can manipulate the received signal and view it however you’d like.

Using Morse Mania I was able to recognize all the letters within just a few days. You can too. It’s not that difficult. There are multiple levels, with each level teaching two additional letters. The first level is ‘E’ and ‘T’, a single dot and a single dash. But you have to keep at it or it goes away (at least for me). What’s difficult for me is getting to the point of being proficient enough to send characters. I really urge anyone to try Morse Mania. It’s actually fun.

True, but just yesterday @WRTC928 was asking about MURS alternatives to some radios so I let him know about the RT27 MURS radios.

Not a silly question. Not draped over a backyard like my EFHW, but that’s what some whip antennas for UHF are - half wave and end fed. Of course the wire is stiff and usually vertical, thanks to the ultra short wavelength

What I’m saying is that I’m not proficient, not at all. Just this week, as a result of replying to your post, I’ve started over again. I can go through the levels fairly quickly and learn to recognize characters using the Koch or Farnsworth methods but then I don’t use it and I get distracted by other things. So don’t think I’m anything special

Good luck! I’ve been through the letters but then I stop studying for too long and have to start again. I still get C and P and R and U mixed up in my brain.

There were other bundles of the RT27, perhaps even single radios if you want to try.

No, I haven’t.

There are many.

Unless you get their free firmware.

I am an engineer and I watch tv. What @WRYZ926 says is exactly right. If you connect any device directly to the battery you bypass any protective electronics that monitor and manage the charging system and battery. 30 years ago that would not have meant much but the under hood electronics are much more sophisticated now and much more susceptible to getting out of whack when something bypasses them.

Well, there are these: https://a.co/d/cMKWCeq

One of the neatest ways to practice cw appears to be by using VBAND. This video discusses it. It appears that you can practice QSOs against a bot or against other people who use the same program: They have a pretty simple key to USB interface that makes your keyer appear to be a key on a USB keyboard. It’s sold here: https://hamradio.solutions/vband/ and then click on the STORE button. They also have a wifi interface to a key for use with VBAND. It’s available as a kit or in different states of assembly. It’s called CW Hotline. I have no experience with these, but I am interested in VBAND and the USB interface.

He briefly discussed connecting to serial port pins, which he does using a USB to serial adapter, beginning at 11:21 in the video. The same guy has a video on hardware interfacing but it’s specifically for as ASIO sound card. Here’s that video, but I’m not sure that I would recommend it. I’ll keep looking for something easier.

Thanks for your hard work, Rich!

Today I’ve been getting “access forbidden” errors when trying to reply to some posts. I also have seen an error that looks like a DNS error when the URL couldn’t be found and for the past few days I’ve seen a few instances where I received an error saying that there were too many connections. Another person has mentioned that he had gotten the “access forbidden” error. Have others seen these same errors?

Here’s a recording of DMR on an analog FM Recording of DMR on analog with call sign..m4a radio followed by the repeater call sign in FM Morse code.

Welcome!

From the announcement:

No, the Fox is sending a one way transmission, which is only allowed for certain reasons. Foxhunting isn’t one of them. Here is the list of approved one-way communications: b) One-way communications. The operator of a GMRS station may use that station to transmit one-way communications: (1) To call for help or transmit other emergency communications; (2) To provide warnings of hazardous road conditions to travelers; or, (3) To make brief test transmissions.

Of course a person could just buy the right gasket: https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/TE-Connectivity-Linx-Technologies/OR-SMA-R?qs=K5ta8V%2BWhtZ1tkc6ewZLpA%3D%3D&mgh=1&utm_id=17222215321&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAADn_wf2XqvV72QQ6JKkpnT7XWMyfV&gclid=CjwKCAiA6aW6BhBqEiwA6KzDc6HPwOFdJwdgYTMBo70X5seqX_IPbsvkaFgPLO-zHuuN0YnHMP2LSxoC0-sQAvD_BwE

We had two instances of this. In one instance the microphone jack had failed such that the PTT worked but the audio line was broken. We knew who it was because of his Roger beep. I soldered his mic jack and his UV5R was back in business. In the second instance a guy actually had his microphone hole plugged with some food.

I would agree; I just don’t have experience with them.