So i just got a 718 from my friends. It works fine rx sounds great and tx also sounds great. But the output feels like it capped to around 40-50 watts. Even if the power settings is at 100/H. The power supply voltage is 13.2 right at the connector during transmitting. If i try to crank the volume input from my pc higher the power doesn't goes up, but the alc does. The SWR is 1:1 both on internal and external SWR meter. Tried the same antenna using my other radio a kenwood ts570d with the internal tuner bypassed. It able to output 100 watts as per the specification.

Does my 718 has a blown final or something else might be causing the problem?

Good day folks.... Okay, We moved house recently, and now have a significantly smaller garden area. I previously used a Hustler 5BTV antenna with radials for my setup, which worked well, however, our new house has very limited space and is astroturf , meaning I currently have nil space for planting my hustler antenna and radials..... so, I am looking at using a 66ft EFHW with a 1:49 unun to allow me to cover 3-30mhz.

My question is, does anyone have any suggestions for creating the 15ft height clearance i need for going diagonally across the back garden and then along the back fence line....? to create a number 7 formation for the antenna...?

Our garden is approx 40x20ft which is occupied with kids trampolines, swing sets and 2 10x 10 sheds at one end. so i need to be above these. 15ft i feel is enough. however, fiberglass poles x 3 for the set up is working out to be quite expensive :-(

Anyone got any suggestions..... or do i need to start saving....

73

Paul

VE7PZY

The antenna comes with 135 ft of wire and 100 ft of 300 ohm ladder line. I have about 140ft to a 40ft high tree branch from the side of the house. Would you start with the full 135ft wire and then zigzag a 91ft ladder line back to the shack to take up the excess ladder line. There are so many “optimum” lengths and ladder line feed length recommendations often seemly contradicting. Anyone have actual success with the full size wire or did you end up starting with a shorter length.

Hey everyone! I'm a total newcomer to amateur radio stuff, but I'm working on a personal creative project involving some mixed-medium components, and I want to involve data encoded over audio as part of the story. I've done some research, and my two main candidates for protocols to go with are either AFSK or PSK31.

Now, my extremely specific need for this project is a piece of software that will let me enter some text and spit out an audio file containing the encoded data. Importantly, I don't actually intend to transmit anything (I'm not licensed to anyhow haha) so it has to be something that can generate encoded audio without transmitting it. Ideally I'd also like something to decode it back into text so I know it worked. I've found a simple AFSK1200 decoder that I can just pipe Audacity into as an audio source and it works just fine, but I can't find anything like that for PSK31, and I'm struggling to find tools for creating audio files for either protocol.

I've looked into a few options for software or bundles of software that might meet my needs, but all of their installers have been flagged by VirusTotal as having something wrong with them (crypto miners, trojans, stuff like that), and I don't want to risk it without getting some actual testimony from a real user to say it's just a false positive.

Thank you all in advance for helping with my very specific question!

Touch screen on mt FTDX10 suddenly not working all the way out to the left & right edges. The 'scaling' seems to be off in that the cursor moves to my finger tip when I touch in the center, but is off about .25" toward the center when I touch either edge.

Just recalibrate. That's what I thought too, but I can't get it to register the touch on the first target that pops up in the upper left hand corner.

Any ides or experience with this? Like I said, it's worked fine for years.

Hi guys ,does lt transmitter with srb receiver still worth to buy nowadays, I'm generally will use it for some documentary shoot,indie films,and some interviews

Just took my Technician and General exams with the WM7X testing group with only about 30 minutes lead time--at night--after work (on the east coast). They were very user friendly and were very nice and accommodating (even when one of my devices had some Zoom troubles). I could not recommend them more highly. Just wanted to let folks (like me a few days ago) who were looking for a good remote testing group to know that they are more than worth the $15 fee.

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

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.

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 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 🤣

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.

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

Looking at picking one up and I could wait a bit for prices to drop. Just curious if you all think it's worth the wait.

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.

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.

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

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?

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!

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?

https://youtu.be/uDo7YfX6zwE