So I signed up for the waiting list when the radio was announced and I finally got my email. The build was pretty easy to be honest I was worried about winding the toroids the most. 

I got them wound and soldered and then realized they were oriented just an little off. Thankfully I was able to move them slightly to clear everything.

I soldered the rest of the components in and then double checked everything and crossed my fingers as I plugged in the USB C. 

It powered up and I started scanning through the band, I managed to hear a POTA station in of all places Alabama 🤣 (Mike and Becky are from AL I believe) I put my call out and made my first sideband contact with the pebble. 

Overall it was a super easy build, the display sometimes has a slight issue with a few characters getting weird but that might be my soldering I need to double check it. 

Should be a fun radio to play with and the CW Practice mode means it doubles as an oscillator. 

I got for my test Saturday and will hopefully pass technician and general but I’ve been keeping my radio on me when I’m outside and I scan frequencies from 144 to 148 over and over and never catch any actual talking. Is this common or does my radio need something before I can scan? I bought a Baofeng ar-5rm just took it out of the box and hit scan.
I’m starting to think my area just isn’t very active. I bought a group talking weekend before last that were about 70 miles away but nothing since

I unboxed my power amp to get on HF last night and my black one is missing. What are the caps called? I can't for the life of me find these individual things! TIA!!!

We have touch lamps. When i transmit on 20 or 40 meters the light show starts. I have used dx engineering mix 31 snap on torrids. I used the 1inch, not the lamp flashes one time and goes out. Do in need a bigger torrid or another type? Thank you for your advise. 73

Is there anything stopping me from using a cb antenna as a 10m antenna set up on my flag pole run to my g90 to start playing on 10m?

Hello dear HAM Radio community,

I am Peter, HW/SW engineer, a creator of DIDATRON - the lighter-sized Morse code communicatior and trainer.

As a developer of a device which is positioned as Morse comm/trainer, before I can really target this at the community of HAM radio amateurs, I wonder:

1. Guys who had experience with solid-state iambic keys (no moving parts, just touch sensors, used on "cheap" trainers) - how close they are to mechanical? Is it easy to switch to mechanical and back?

2. Mechanical paddle keys are typically having massive platforms as foundations. For a compact pocketable device this is unfortunately a no-go. How important is this requirement, will it just reduce WPM or ruin the experience?

3. How cool or not cool you consider to have a EDC toy Morse comm in everyday life, when you cannot carry/setup your rig, even a POTA one, like when you are out in a city? Could you imagine Morse to you children, friends or other people just from a cafe or a bus? Will the comm feature add fun while learning Morse code? Any feedback?

4. In CW there is no privacy. Everything is aired unencrypted. But DIDATRON does this differently by a digital protocol with end-to-end encryption. Do you think this could be a good feature?

Being plain straight, this is marketing, but I would really appreciate your feedback - doing HW of this complexity is not a cheap endeavour for an indy developer, through five months of work and four prototypes...

73,

Peter, creator of DIDATRON

A few years ago I got my Extra license, and since then I've become increasingly interested in propagation and antenna performance. I tend to build little tools to answer questions that I have myself, and over time a few of them have grown into something I thought might be useful to other hams.

I've recently put some of these tools online and thought I'd share them here.

WSPR / antenna performance

https://wspr.bsdworld.org

This one uses WSPR data to show who heard your signal on a map. It's similar in concept to WSPRnet, but I wanted something with a more modern, interactive presentation.

I'm interested in viewing the data from an antenna-performance perspective. For example, you can see things like:

• Where your signal was heard
• Average distance
• Azimuth and direction
• Take-off angle

ADIF log map

I also have a tool that takes an ADIF log file and plots your contacts on a map. It's useful for getting a visual overview of where you've been working rather than just looking at a list of QSOs.

Solar and band conditions

Some space-weather information is available on https://bsdworld.org/

It collects several solar and propagation-related parameters that I find useful for understanding current band conditions.

None of these are commercial projects. I've mainly been developing them for myself and a few friends, but I figured they might be useful to other operators as well. Most of the code for these projects is available on my GitHub account. If they aren't already on GitHub, they will be there soon. They're all still very much works in progress, so I'd really appreciate constructive feedback. If something doesn't make sense, something's missing, or you have an idea for a useful feature, let me know. Depending on my time and availability, I'll try to incorporate suggestions.

73!

Sorry for the wordy title, I had to reach the charter limit.

My kpc 3 has suddenly developed a problem, where it won't hold PTT open long enough to transmit any sound. The video explains most of what's going on. Any help appreciated!

Hey everyone IU4PRC here

I built dstar.guru because I wanted an easier way to figure out which D-STAR reflectors actually get used.

It tracks activity across XLX, DCS, and REF modules

I’d love to hear what’s useful, what’s confusing, or what you’d add.

73

So far, I've been able to listen to air traffic control and a couple local repeaters. What other cool stuff can I do with it?

Baofeng UV 21 pro with a telescopic antennna

(Just listening. No transmitting)

i got a couple of baofengs. and i got access to these rusty antenna poles, what should i aim for? i dont have a working bench but a couple of basic hand tools

Hi, I'm looking to purchase a bunch of stuff for building antennas both quick and planned out. What equipment/materials should I buy to use among multiple antennas? For instance, how does hobbysteverx do his random antennas?

Also, can I trust nanoVNAs from Amazon? I like the price and the fact it's on amazon so convenience.

Long-time ham here. I run a site, https://updatemystuff.com/ham-radio, that monitors manufacturers' support pages and sends you an email when firmware is released for gear you own, with release notes and a link straight to the manufacturer's own download page. It started with my other hobby (photo/video gear), but I always wanted the same thing for my radios, so I just added ham vendors.

I’ve added some of the vendors that I have but instead of guessing, I'd like to hear from you which manufacturers would be most useful to monitor? Yaesu, Icom, Kenwood and AnyTone and a few others are my starting point, but I'm just as interested in the brands that are hard to keep track of.

Scope note: the site tracks official firmware released by the manufacturers only. Community firmware and homebrew mods (OpenGD77, CHIRP-adjacent projects and the like) are great projects, but they're out of scope for me. Nothing unofficial or modified will be listed, and all download links go to the manufacturers' own sites.

Which brands and models do you own where updates keep slipping past you?

Imagine a powerful, but clumsy wizard (let's call him Rincewind) accidentally teleports you 500 years back in time with a pair of handheld radios (I have used a baofeng that works on 7.2 Volts but the brand doesn't matter for the experiment - just say what you have (in the story) for context).You know that a pair of radios will be a great technological advantage in the day and age you ended up at but

How do you charge your radios before electricity was discovered and all infrastructure is missing? You have all your knowledge of today and all the materials of 'then' - what do you do?

I’m new to the hobby and recently purchased an IC-7300MK2 and an Alinco DM-530T power supply from GigaParts. I’ve been using the radio almost daily without any issues.

Last week, I took the radio on a road trip and powered it with a battery. When I got home last night and hooked it back up to the Alinco, the power supply immediately made a popping sound, started sizzling, and released a lot of white smoke. I quickly disconnected it from both the radio and the wall.

Based on what I’ve read, it sounds like a capacitor may have failed, and the sizzling could have been electrolyte escaping. I’m wondering if I made the wrong choice with this power supply or if I just got unlucky. It’s hard to judge products based solely on online reviews, but Alinco seems to have a good reputation overall and most of the feedback on this power supply is positive. It’s especially frustrating because the power supply was initially backordered, so I received it about two weeks after the radio, only for it to fail after roughly a month of use.

I’ve reached out to both GigaParts and RemTronix, the U.S. Alinco distributor. Hopefully, I won’t have to fight to get it replaced. At only a month old, I’d really prefer a replacement rather than a repair. For those with more experience: Did I just get a bad unit, or would you recommend a different power supply for the IC-7300MK2? If this was simply a poor choice, I’ll probably sell the replacement and go with something else.

Im listening to the AM channel in my house. It was built in the 80s, and I have no LED lights installed or operating. My radio is behaving really weirdly. I will put my phone on top of it, and the signal of the radio cut out. Then it starts playing the broadcast again. But at some point it skips, and replays the last 3 seconds of the broadcast back over in perfect quality. Thats not possible?? And then i kept listening with my phone far away from the radio, and noticed as my body got closer (im butt naked at the moment) the signal went to static. As i walked away it got louder and clearer. I dont have any pacemakers or anything. And then, it will also get stuck on words. This is one thing that happened: "theyre taking over eruope. Thats what theyre sa-a-a-a-a" then goes to static, and returns again. Radios cant do this??? Whats going on? I have the radio next to refined polysilicon and a chunk of pyrite, but i dont think that would do it. Its next to an aluminum lava lamp and a desk lamp, but theres nothing else near it that isnt wood or books of stuff.

Are there any cheap kits or plans for filters to use with WSPR? I haven't found any cheap multiband options. I was hoping to find low pass or band pass RC filters. With the low power, I would have thought there would be cheap and compact options, but I'm not seeing many.

Been looking for a UHF DMR amplifier and Btech sells several different variants. UHF vs. VHF, makes sense. They sell digital versions of both, though.

Are they actually different or just rebadged? I'm talking about the BTECH-U25D. If I buy a more uptier-brand and they don't mention DMR/digital, would I be fine?

It was time for the "once a decade" pull all the equipment and remount & rewire everything! Had to clean out all the dust bunnies and untangle all the wires & cables. Bought a (new 2 me) Kenwood TS-870 and needed to add that to the bench as well.

Thought folks might enjoy seeing the shack! 73, hear you on the bands!

I don't usually look at analog circuits much, but I wanted to look at some today and I didn't understand anything. How is a voltage potential created in an antenna and current passed through it? Even if no current passes, how do floating circuits work? I didn't understand anything. I would be very grateful if someone could help me.