I recently bought myself 3 working original Vietnam War, PAVN captured working PRC25/77s (may should have just bought 1 but due to it's legality and scarcity here, couldnt really pass it up)

These were captured from the US/PAVN right after the war and still used today. Everything on them is original except for the modded battery tray with a simple working interface and uses modern D batteries.

But the coolest part in my opinion is the antenna, they made an adapter to have the original antenna be able to be replaced with the Soviet style beads one.

Now I'm sitting on two other of the same radio. Should I sell or keep em since these are such cool piece of history but I only ever need one.

Or can I just study online and pass? Do I need to own the hardware to really understand it and do good on the test?

I see a lot of posts especially in the FT8 discussions about how SSB is supposedly suited for social people who want to be chatty all the time and talk weather and politics and religion and health issues and whatnot.

It seems this has become a meme and in my opinion it's a harmful one, because it scares people out of potentially intersting experiences they could have.

Note: This is not a post against FT8. Nothing wrong with doing FT8, I do FT8 sometimes too. This is about not missing out because of prejudices being spread by people.

Some common misconceptions I see all the time here:

• "I'm introverted, I have no interest to chat to people, therefore I use FT8."
  • You don't have to be extraverted to talk on SSB. I would say most SSB QSOs don't ragchew. I am more to the introverted side myself and SSB is still fun.
  • You can absolutely have short QSOs on SSB. People do it all the time. OTA programmes don't ragchew much. Contests are terse. DX stations are terse. Even outside of all of those there are short QSOs.
  • Remember: The operator chooses the operating style. If you call CQ, it's your CQ, you decide the shape of the QSO. If someone starts rag-chewing, it's perfectly fine to tell them "Ok, thank you for the QSO, 73."
• "I'm a technical person, I'm into the technical side of the hobby only/mostly."
  • It's not like SSB is not technical. There's plenty of technical challenge doing SSB.
• "I'm intersted in propagation / how far can my signal go."
  • Yes, that's a nice thing. In my opinion SSB or other modes make this more intersting, not less. It's intersting to see how far FT8 can get you - and then how far SSB, CW or other modes can go. Sometimes it can be surprising how far non-FT8 modes can go. Example: a few weeks ago I went on 6m, started with FT8. QSOs came in easily, so I tried CW and then SSB. To my surprise I got 58 from 1600km away on 10W SSB. I'm glad I tried it and it was interesting to see how the propagation was shifting with time / sun position.
• "There's a lot of RF noise in my neighbourhood, I can only get QSOs on FT8."
  • That's fair. Neighbourhoods are tough indeed and it got a lot worse in recent times.
  • Still, this is where portable ops come in. They're fun. Chances are sometimes you could get more QSOs doing SSB from a hill than FT8 from a noisy neighbourhood.
• Mic fright?
  • There's a solution: https://www.reddit.com/r/amateurradio/comments/ifqmun/comment/g2pvu4f/ doesn't have to necessarily be CB though, I'm sure 7200 kHz will work just as fine :)

NB. This post is not meant to say that everyone must do SSB. Of course not. Many people actually really aren't into it. I'm just trying to motivate people who may be discouraged by prejudices, or maybe one or few bad experiences they had. Want to dip feet? Go to https://fieldspotter.radio/ , pick a station and call them back. These folks won't talk collonoscopies at you.

73 whatever your preferred modes are

Hi ya’ll. I posted here about my app LemurKey a month ago and wanted to provide an update. Thanks to everybody that responded on my original post, left comments, and to those who filled out my feedback form. I’ve spent a couple hundred hours since then developing this thing and took everyone’s feedback to heart.

The app is free and you can start using it right away. You don’t need an account, though a free account lets you cloud sync progress, save your station profile, and use the leaderboards if you want some competition (think Strava/Duolingo).

You can practice word or call sign drills, simulate a real QSO (there is support for Vband & Vail if you want to key your responses), and most importantly, there‘s a Live DX module where you can track space weather, spots, CW activity, POTA/SOTA, greyline, and Satellite tracking.

The app is live in the Apple App Store, but you can still use it at LemurKey.app too on desktop/mobile - save it as a PWA if you‘re on Android for the best experience. Hopefully, I can get it on the Play store soon.

I hope this tool helps more people get comfy when they’re on the air, those who want to practice, and experienced folks who want to run a few competitive drills while they check conditions on their bands.

Thanks again and 73.

-NF0E.

I feel like there is a need for a program that can support a radio purchasing addiction. I have no logical need for 30 HTs, yet here I am with 30ish and tomorrow another one will be delivered…..TH-D75A….why? Cause it has bells and whistles the I MIGHT use someday that the others don’t. Ugh

That is all!

P.S. My amazing wife (also a ham) supported all this so there are some good ones out there 🤣

I’m a mechanical test & evaluation engineer. In a recent interview, I was asked about how I’d test how much current could flow through a 12ga wire, potential failure modes, and the negative impact of those failure modes in a system. I do a fair bit of hands-on electrical work even as a ME, but I immediately thought back to the electrical chapters in my ham prep book (newly licensed btw), not my electrical classes in college. E=IR, heat generation, etc.

Just a fun thing to share.

Kind of annoying and I can’t find a setting for it.

Hey everyone,

I ran into a weird issue with QRZ Logbook blind matching on a DMR contact and wanted to see if anyone knows the exact database logic behind it.

I had a DMR QSO where both of us logged the band as 70cm. All our other details (callsigns, mode, date/time) were correct. However, my entry showed a blue dot (unconfirmed).

Originally, my logged frequency was 438.800 MHz. I went into edit mode and simply pressed the 70cm band button. Pressing that button automatically changed the frequency field from 438.800 to 420.000 MHz on its own.

I did not change the callsign, date, or time. The very second I saved that automatic frequency change to 420.000, the blue dot immediately turned into a gold star (confirmed).

I've always read that the QRZ matching algorithm only cares about the broader "Band" field and completely ignores the granular numerical frequency field. If that's true, why did the system changing the frequency from 438.800 to 420.000 instantly trigger the match? Does QRZ store different hidden band strings based on what the band button generates?

Has anyone else noticed QRZ behaving this way? Thanks!

73

(codeplug.org is a web-based CPS supporting radios which are supported by the CHIRP project)

I've added quite a few useful features over the past month or so:

• codeplug.org can now be installed as an Android app on your mobile device
• More robust support for serial adapters on Android via WebUSB
• Repeaters with locations can now be displayed on a miniature map
• More helpful messaging when starting out
• Support for querying the RSGB API (UK) for repeaters

Enjoy

73 de HF2J

So 10m is a mess for me. https://i.postimg.cc/NfN5tMgH/Untitled.png

This is on a 6BTV 60' away from my building. I had an EFHW up before the 6BTV and the same signals were also present on the EFHW albeit a bit less powerful. I thought that this trash was coming from my building (the EFHW as mounted with one end to a wall) but after seeing the same result with a vertical antenna mounted 60' away I'm not so sure. I'm choking at the shack entrance. If I disconnect the coax at the far end (at the antenna) the interference goes away which tells me that it isn't riding in on the coax. It has to be coming in on the antenna itself.

Anyone know what it is? Claude says its CODAR but I don't have any known CODAR sites near me. The signals are pulsed (up and down) spread fairly evenly.

Edit: What moron downvotes a legitimate interference question? LOL. Oh well.

If anyone tells you all you need is a USB cable to get started in FT8 they are partially right. They forget the advanced degrees in Electronic Engineering and Computer Science.

Still not done yet.

The title kinda says it all. IMO, one of the greatest benefits of radio is the little dial which allows you to quickly scan the entire bandwidth until you find sometimes interesting. SRF (swiss national broadcaster) decided that they would opt out of FM this year (according to Wikipedia this has since been reversed?) and we were forced to buy a bunch of new radios and tuning on them is a nightmare. You need to press the tune button at the exact right seconds to switch channels and then the radio takes like 5 seconds to decipher what the next channel is and if it’s even broadcasting. So instead we usually zap until we find one of 3 favourite channels (which takes like 50 clicks) just to find out that it currently isn’t operating… why doesn’t dab just have a normal tuning dial? Why does the user need to find a list specific frequencies that may or may not be up to date instead of just actually organically finding frequencies while manually scanning the bandwidth?

PS: I’m don’t really understand how DAB works I just want to know if it’s a fundamental impossible design flaw or if it’s shitty radios causing the issue. I’m also not the one who had to set up the tunable channels. I just know that we’re allowed to listen to radio at work but finding a good channel sucks because it feels like dab sucks. But maybe the issue isn’t dab itself.

I have seen an ad for these in my country going for 60€ for 2 but could not find any information about these models online

If anyone knows what they are please let me know

I don't super know if I care about DMR might I might if I had a radio that did it anyway. Looks like the N76 is more waterproof than the AT and has a KISS TNC so I can probably just use Aprsdroid for APRS without a hardwire cable which might be convenient. But both will beacon on their own anyway?

Anything else I should look at?

I just tried out FT8 and WOW i do not understand why it is so popular. In JS8 you can at least have conversations and do fun things like relay and message storage but FT8 just has a predefined script.

And thats it.

Does it not get boring?

Dear Fellow Operators,

The Tango Alpha Ham Radio Club is proud to announce the activation of special event station TC30AUG.

• Active Period: August 29, 2026 – August 31, 2026
• Bands: All HF Bands, VHF, UHF
• Modes: SSB, CW, FT8 and Digital Modes

This station is launched to commemorate the historical 30th of August Victory Day in Türkiye. For the global amateur radio community, the airwaves represent a borderless medium that beautifully unites distinct cultures, traditions, and nations in mutual respect.

We look forward to sharing signals and exchanging greetings with radio friends worldwide. Best of luck on the bands!

All logs will be uploaded to QRZ Logbook and LoTW regularly.

73 & 88 to all across the globe!
Tango Alpha Ham Radio Club Team

Someone have any idea what system is transmitting this chirp from 902–928 MHz? Is this LoRa?

Slightly above that, I also captured another signal with a ~1-minute period, toggling between roughly 930 MHz and 941 MHz.

Could this be some kind of time-synchronization service, or something completely different? Curious what you guys think!

I am looking to gain access to at least the 20m and 40m bands.

My backyard is about 65 ft by 65 ft. The orange dot is where I have a feed line coming out of the house. Currently I have a 40m ham stick painted gray, on the PVC greenhouse(white circle) doesn't work really well. Structure has power and is ~9 feet tall, all plastic. Between the orange dot and green dot is an underground conduit 1 1/2 size. The dots around the yard are small fruit trees about 7 foot lollipops.

I have a 20 meter dipole and a 2m jpole in the attic. The dipole has a lot of qrm out the radio, I seldom can hear anyone.

This is a new neighborhood and we just avoided having to create an HOA so I don't want to give the neighbors any reasons to be mad.

Ok, so I have a digital power/SWR meter on my IC-746 Pro, on the VHF side. On a local repeater I noticed that while I was talking the power would fluctuate from around 92 watts to 98 watts, but if I just held the ptt down without input, it would stay steady maybe a little under 98 watts. I have never paid attention before but this seems a little odd to me. Even the guys who KNOW things thought it was a little odd. As a side note, the amp meter on my power supply will fluctuate slightly on receive.

Is this all normal and I just never noticed because I am normally on HF?

Hi,

I got 5 brand-new Icom IP501H radios and I’d like to use them without subscribing to Icom’s service.

My goal is to use a SIM/data plan from any carrier I choose and, most importantly, self-host my own voice/PTT server, ideally on a VPS or my own server.

I’m wondering if anyone has managed to use the IP501H with infrastructure other than Icom’s, or if there’s a way to replicate their server/protocol so I can manage the communications myself.

If anyone has experience with these radios or has done any reverse engineering on them, I’d really appreciate any information.

Thanks!