Radio General

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Radio, what's new?

ITT: Explain to a normie beginner such as myself what i need to get started with my radio fuckery?

Other urls found in this thread:

radiomods.co.nz/hammods.html
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dielectric_resonator_antenna
gnuradio.org/
twitter.com/SFWRedditImages

What do you want?
Short wave is a good and fun start, i'm still waiting to have some money so I would buy a pl 880 tecsun.

For now, just sorrow and pain.

I have bought this rtl-sdr RTL2832U R820T2 about half a year ago, picrel.

It was impulsive chink buy "it will be cool" I tried it once and I put it away.

What can I do with it?

I happen to have a shower radio, it falls under FCC standards of transmission and interference, would it be enough?
What if i copy its circuit design and then /diy/ one? or if i just stick a REALLY big antenna onto it and amplify the transmission ""volume""?

I have these two bad boys. I would much rather be communicating on digital modes in HF, though. DSTAR just isn't as fun.

I was also considering getting one of these. I had a few bucks in Bitcoin a while ago and it turned in to around $200, I think I'm gonna buy a bunch of cheap shitty things with eBay gift cards to cure my depression.

Ignore ham autists and study the science behind radios.

but i like HAM.
The fun part is communication, who know's who you'll talk to on the other end.

The science is already pretty obvious: you produce EM waves by oscillating an emf across some metal probe (an antenna) and the transmitted EM wave can be received by another Antenna since it will induce an emf in that antenna. The rest of the science is just figuring out how to do this practically with EE.

Listen to your local police or fire rescue. Google your location ems frequencies and plug em in

second this, ham is 90% old men talking about their wives and dying
fcc cucks get off on doxxing themselves with their tracking numbers every time they key in
encrypted/obfuscated communications are banned by the fcc but extremely proprietary codecs like dstar are conveniently allowed
all ham websites are stuck in the 90s with deprecated features and most ham programs are proprietary and windows-based
as it is, the world of (legal) amateur radio has little to offer and stands in the way of security, anonymity, and freedom and should be avoided by anybody that values those things

solution:
-query the FCC database for an unused callsign you like, start using it
-modify your radio to operate out-of-band and have some fun: radiomods.co.nz/hammods.html

The ham autists are the ones studying the science behind radios. The ham normies are the ones using it as a chat room.

>emf across some metal probe
Fuckin up already.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dielectric_resonator_antenna

>all ham websites are stuck in the 90s
Good.

>most ham programs are proprietary and windows-based
Why someone would choose to use those when this exists I will never know.
gnuradio.org/

Tons of building blocks that you can use and a framework to make your own.

>security, anonymity, and freedom

Your security and freedom are being risked more operating under those rules. Your anonymity goes out the window as soon as you transmit.

Play pirate radio if you want because honestly it sounds like fun but you're not enhancing your security by breaking the law for the sake of it.

Okay, find me a good FOSS SSTV implementation. GNU Radio is awesome, but there is a lot of work to be done for open source ham programs.

>Your anonymity goes out the window as soon as you transmit.
Your general location might be known if the right people are paying attention, but not your anonymity. The requirement to give a callsign linked to your name and address was created in the early 20th century when radio use was exclusively professional and swatting and other modern issues did not yet exist.

The population of the amateur radio community is already dwindling as the baby boomers die and it will stay stagnant as long as there is an extensive licensing program, complicated operating procedures, and a strong dislike of cheaper Chinese radios that would make the hobby accessible. If a normie could pick up a Baofeng at the store and start talking on repeaters the same day without being assblasted by old men the hobby might have a chance.

It's a radio, what the fuck do you think you'd do with it? You can listen to:
>local businesses
>police/fire/EMTs
>all the amateur radio bands that it covers
>truckers with CB radios
>FRS/GMRS radios
>MURS radios
>local radio stations
>other users of radios in the frequency range it covers

>fcc cucks get off on doxxing themselves with their tracking numbers every time they key in
From what I've read, you couldn't really look people up by their callsign before the FCC put that shit online. Just one more thing people have fucked up with the internet.

>muh encryption
Allowing encryption makes no sense as establishing a secure channel over an non secure radio connection would present many issues (since anyone could butt in/try to MitM your connection) and establishing a secure multi user channel over a non secure radio connection would be basically impossible, limiting the usefulness to people who basically just want a cell phone and rule breakers (with businesses illegally piling onto the ham bands being the real issue).

>but extremely proprietary codecs like dstar are conveniently allowed
There's FOSS software for decoding D-STAR, and the patents for it recently expired IIRC so expect cheap Chinese D-STAR radios soon.

>most ham programs are proprietary and windows-based
I use Linux and have yet to come across software that I want that isn't open source (with the exception of software for programming Motorola radios).

>modify your radio to operate out-of-band
And then what? Why would you want to transmit on frequencies no one else is using?

>the world of (legal) amateur radio has little to offer and stands in the way of security, anonymity, and freedom and should be avoided by anybody that values those things
There's still plenty you can do if you're just interested in experimenting with shit/contesting rather than practical usage. Also, the near future with SDRs capable of recording entire frequency bands is going to suck ass.

>Listening to unencrypted Police/Ambulance/Fire/EMS conversations.
>Listening to aircraft traffic control conversations.
>Tracking aircraft positions like a radar with ADSB decoding.
>Decoding aircraft ACARS short messages.
>Scanning trunking radio conversations.
>Decoding unencrypted digital voice transmissions.
>Tracking maritime boat positions like a radar with AIS decoding.
>Decoding POCSAG/FLEX pager traffic.
>Scanning for cordless phones and baby monitors.
>Tracking and receiving meteorological agency launched weather balloon data.
>Tracking your own self launched high altitude balloon for payload recovery.
>Receiving wireless temperature sensors and wireless power meter sensors.
>Listening to VHF amateur radio.
>Decoding ham radio APRS packets.
>Watching analogue broadcast TV.
>Sniffing GSM signals.
>Using rtl-sdr on your Android device as a portable radio scanner.
>Receiving GPS signals and decoding them.
>Using rtl-sdr as a spectrum analyzer.
>Receiving NOAA weather satellite images.
>Listening to satellites and the ISS.
>Radio astronomy.
>Monitoring meteor scatter.
>Listening to FM radio, and decoding RDS information.
>Listening to DAB broadcast radio.
>Use rtl-sdr as a panadapter for your traditional hardware radio.
>Decoding taxi mobile data terminal signals.
>Use rtl-sdr as a high quality entropy source for random number generation.
>Use rtl-sdr as a noise figure indicator.
>Reverse engineering unknown protocols.
>Triangulating the source of a signal.
>Searching for RF noise sources.
>Characterizing RF filters and measuring antenna SWR.

SINCGARS OR DIE

qsstv
or
(sdr/radio audio out)->computer->optional gnu radio dsp->octave->image file

>callsign linked to your name and address
The address is not required to be your address. Only a place where the FCC can get in touch with you by mail is required.

>Your general location might be known if the right people are paying attention
Your location is known to a precision proportional to how much someone wants to know. If nobody cares then you could be yelling your social security number over the air and be perfectly anonymous. If we live in a world where government agencies have billion dollar budgets to gather electronic intelligence and a GB costs pennies to store then as soon as you transmit something loud enough to be heard dozens of sensors coordinated by cognitive radio calculate your position to a degree of accuracy that could place a warhead on your forehead. Which world do you think we're in?

>when radio use was exclusively professional
Things that never happened.
>swatting
I'm worried people will call the police for made up reasons so I'm going to give them a legit reason.

>The population of the amateur radio community is already dwindling

Not a bad thing. The art of radio isn't advanced by more people in a contest pileup.

>a strong dislike of cheaper Chinese radios
Nobody cares as long as you meet emissions standards.

>If a normie

Normies do things like complain about proprietary software while the tools necessary to do the job are readily available for free and new ones easy to create with existing tools but they're too lazy to learn how to demodulate their signal of interest. Give the normies Baofeng CB and FRS radios. Amateur radio should be about the advancement of radio science.

Join a club.
Seriously.
You'll get to know people whose lives revolve around radio in all its forms.
And you'll see what you'll become.

Broadband hamnet's pretty neat. I wish there was a mesh in my area so I could add a node.

>Ignore ham autists and do what ham autists do

>all ham websites are stuck in the 90s
You say that like it's a bad thing

You act like being into amateur radio is a heroin addiction.
You say that like it's a bad thing. I've been meaning to set up a ham site and am going for the same god-tier simplicity and usability.

If you want a text-based, online community that talks about it all the time plus everything Sup Forums talks about just go on a BBS that has DOVEnet.

>extensive licensing program
The current technician license exam is an idiot test that even elementary school students can pass. I passed it after a few days of studying while on break at work.

>complicated operating procedures
That's the point you dipshit. If you want everything already set up for you then just use CB/FRS/GMRS/MURS/other shitty consumer options that are accessible by the mentally retarded.

Why the fuck do you think opening amateur radio to a flood of dipshits who can't even be asked to understand how to operate the equipment they're trying to operate would benefit anyone who isn't a retard who would be best kept away from that hobby?

>strong dislike of cheaper Chinese radios
Pretty much no one gives a shit anymore as long as you aren't causing interference with it (like what happens when you try to use one of those new Baofeng T1 radios on the 2 meter band). Chinese radios were really only a concern when they were first coming over and people were worried about what corners the Chinese may be cutting.

>You say that like it's a bad thing. I've been meaning to set up a ham site and am going for the same god-tier simplicity and usability.
When I criticized ham sites for being stuck in the 90s, I wasn't complaining that they were lightweight and utilitarian, because they arent't. They're packed full of deprecated code and those horrible, flashy GIFs and the riced out, tabular styling unique to the 90s. Some are "maintained" today, but the maintainers are old and stuck in the 90s themselves. Personally, nmap.org is my ideal website, and it's worth taking a look at if you are considering creating your own.

>nmap.org
That's exactly what I had in mind

Anyone here have a wideband software defined radio?

I'm looking for a cheapish one,

ebay usrp

That tells us basically nothing about what you're looking for beyond you wanting an SDR.

Anyone listen to shortwave broadcast stations? I like listening to Reviewbrah's show every Thursday.

I got a shortwave radio around a month ago. All I've picked up so far is a Spanish station that I'm assuming was Cuban

Are there any places one can use Morse code without needing friends to participate other than the amateur HF bands? I'm interested in how extremely power efficient it is vs voice while still capable of being understood by a human and really want to mess around with it some, but can't motivate myself to learn it since I have no place to put up an antenna for any of the HF bands and I don't feel like needing to go out to a park or something to use it.

I use Morse code for typing in Rockbox

I-is that actually possible? That actually seems practical compared to the shitty keyboard I remember it using.

Yeah, it's an option in the settings

>google
Just use radioreference.com

the internet is full of offical and clandestine station frequencies, i'll bet the problem is your antenna. you can have the best reiciver in the world, as long as your antenna is shit, you can't tune in shit.

I'm sure the problem's my antenna, I just don't feel like walking through the snow setting up a decent one

just plug in a wire antenna and educate yourself on how to align it correctly based on your location. i did the same 12 years ago and had no problems with tuning into russian and chinese numbers stations and russian letter beacons in the pacific coast (i'm in central europe tho, reiciver was a sangean ats 909)

I'm a ham, I know how to set up an antenna. I'm just not going to bother till either the snow melts or I feel like freezing so I can set up a large outdoor one.

why does gnuradio have so many fucking dependencies. it has like five hundred billion dependencies

alright then, in the meanwhile you can just use some websdr to fuck around.

What's the state of aprs these days.

Will anyone notice me on the network if I'm using fake callsign?

There are neat stand alone chink aprs terminals for like $100 that I would like to try.

I need the basic gestalt on Ham vs SW.
What are their benefits and flaws?

I also have looked into SDR but that isnt able to transmit correct?

I love EE and CS like micro controllers and Linux so I assume I'd love RF and diy antennas.
Can any of these interface with something like GNU radio or w/e like SDR can?

I'd love a HT of a ham I can plug into my pc to use as a terminal input or something as a command base station.

HAM is amateur radio in general, shortwave is another broadcast band like FM and AM radio

>and have some fun
Have you given any thoughts to the consequences?

Well thanks!
I'm not sure how I missed that...

>consequences
have had some good lols messing with drive-thrus
what are these consequences you speak of?

That's what HAM autists do you fucking nigger

do tell, user:
what does HAM stand for?

Ham just scares away muzzies and judeans.

Not him but I posted a similar reply to the same post, it pokes fun at those who are poor at Morse code. It's also claimed to be an acronym of three radio pioneers' last names.