Are you a Ham Radio Operator?

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(abq sfr @ Aug 24 2007, 09:21 AM) [snapback]501577[/snapback]</div>

KN6YU

 

Echo link, Eeeaauuu. Don't you mean I.R.L.P. ?? After all, every true geek knows, LINUX is WAY more stable a platform to base amateur software on.
Our area here in So Cal started the WIN system (Western Intertie Network). An open & friendly bunch, with 52+ linked repeaters, most by 440 mountain top link radios. Still, many states, like Idaho, AZ, Florida, AK, NY, and a few more, off & on (usually Australia, and the UK and often Mexico, and a few others! ) are parked permanently on channel 3 of the Dallas reflector, which is reserved for the win system:

http://irlp.g4eid.co.uk/status/all_reflectors.html

We were one of the first groups to use the technology. If you're not near a transceiver, you can listen here, via streaming audio, turning on what player you have:

http://www.winsystem.org/Downloads/Streami...ming_audio.html

The only thing is, they will make you feel welcome by kidding you. And they'll especially kid you about using 'radio jive' ... like, "back to you ... QSL QSL ... I'm going to QSY back to the kitchen", or saying your call after each time you take a breath ... or speaking in 3rd person (we're almost there) even though you're alone ... or using the made up words like destinated, or other hoaky talk, rather than talking like you're with your grandma at labor day dinner. The thread topic of hams, though, has already been written. The search tool is a wonderful thing but even so, nice to meet you. Gary w4abj - General Class, since WAY back when it took 13 DX words per minute, sending AND receiving. THAT test was a waste. IMO

 

Greetings from Tucson Arizona

http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/find.cgi?wb6rao*

 

CQ CQ PRIUS CHAT...DE KD6HDX - HI HI OM'S... HOW COPY?

Handle here is Dave. I have been licensed since 92. Became a slow code (5WPM) Extra in 2002. Currently working two Yaesu FT-100D's in the shack. I also have an old Icom 746. Crossband repeat radio at home is a Kenwood blueface. Active on 2 Meter SSB with a pair of loops at 50 feet and a TE Systems 1452G 400 watt amplifier. I am using an SG237 auto-coupler with some random length wires in the back yard for 40 meters through 6 meters. I will be building a 75-80 meter loop in the back yard again. I took down a delta loop for field day this year but have not built it back yet. I was able to build and operate a 500 foot loop of wire in the mountains. I worked 160 meters through 6 meters on it with the SG 237 auto-coupler.

I have echo-link installed on this laptop and I use it very little. At one time a few years ago I was very active on it. As for IRLP, I once worked a node from Juneau Alaska while on a 7 day cruise. Was able to have a QSO with an operator in Australia while standing on one of the Glaciers there. We flew in a Helicopter to the glacier and I was in QSO from the Aero mobile for a brief time with a VX5 Handi Talkie. Very cool indeed.

As for the tech details as which system is better, I will leave that to the techno geeks. I am merely a stupid end user. Once owned a 2 meter repeater here in Southern California (been there - done that - got the tee-shirt) for a few years during the infamous Jack Gerritsen days. He is now serving a federal sentence for interfering with emergency communications during a Maritime emergency from a sailboat in Mexican waters. He also jammed an ARMY military Crossband test net from Fort Huachuca AZ - and he also jammed emergency activation comm's for the Prado Dam flood basin emergency activation. Needles to say, he is in the GrayBar Hotel serving an 11 year Federal sentence. I like to say that instead of carving a handgun out of a bar of soap, he will carve a Handy Talky out of a bar of soap.

I am not ashamed to say I started in radio on 11 meters (CB) in 1972. I have a 40 channel sidebander in the shack and can use it if I want to. I still have many friends that I met in the 70's during the CB convoy days. Some became hams, some have gone silent key. 73 to all.

So now I will close by saying in third person radio jargon, We just woke up and we got out of the ol' four poster, were gonna step into the rain locker, and then strap on the ol' feed bag.


So anyway, hello to all of the Ham Operators here on Prius Chat.

 

Hi All,

I am a ham, and have been so since 1973. I was active at Univ. of Illinois Synton club station in college (even got a picture in the Daily Illini at looking down from one of the 150 foot towers). Was active on Packet Radio in the 80's and 90's. Ran the first W0RLI packet radio forwarding BBS in the Chicagoland area, using 8 inch floopy drives back then. Developed the mods for the K9NG 9600 baud modems used in the area (for Midland 13-509, MOTRACK, MITREK etc), and a full duplex 56 KB radio system (based on WA4DSY Modem) we would have liked to install as a backbone throughout the area, but it never happened. Have fallen out of Ham Radio since then. Chicagoland hams who have been around probably know who I am from that.

Latest radio projects have been a small loop antenna for HF (for SWL'g), and modification of a Drake TR-7 for DRM (Shortwave Digital Radio - Digital Radio Mondial) reception. Listening to Radio Canada International DRM as I type this. The tricky part was electronic crystal selection for the 8.05 / 8.062 MHz oscillator that mixes to make the BFO. PIN diodes are not really high impedance devices, whereas crystals are, yet it can be done. DRM software you run on the the PC needs a 12 KHz center frequency into the sound card. The antenna works quite well. Its amazingly better than the dipole I had up, that I worked Asiatic Russia back during the solar maximum a few years ago (last time I was on HF). There are many many web sites on the Internet describing these antennas. And the high conductivity soil here in Illinois is a good match for the vertical polarization.

 

I've been an amateur radio operator for almost 10 years. Not currently active here in FL. I purchased my Prius for the technology in the car and to save money on gas. I plan on keeping the car for a very long time. I'm not a tree hugger and have owned Toyota and Lexus products since 1972.

 

No I'm not but I wonder where you would fit a HF radio in the Prius?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(patsparks @ Aug 25 2007, 12:53 PM) [snapback]501981[/snapback]</div>

Hi Patsparks,

I do not have a HF radio in my Prius. But it would not be a problem. These radios come with seperatable control panels now. The ICOM 706 for example (HF/VHF/UHF mobile rig), has a control panel not much bigger than the usual UHF/VHF radio, and fits right below the stock radio controls. The bulk of the radio can then be put in the comparment under the trunk floor, with a short power wire over to the battery, very short. And then coaxes to the VHF/UHF antenna on the roof, and HF antenna on a rear fender.

Here is a link:

http://www.icomamerica.com/products/amateur/706mkIIg/

The HF noise is reportedly too high however. But VHF/UHF is reportedly straight forward.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(donee @ Aug 25 2007, 12:07 PM) [snapback]501990[/snapback]</div>

There are folks (see qrz.com articles) that can properly ground, choke, and filter, HF to the point that RF noise is nil, whether bare foot or using an amp. However, I'd hate to try to rig the car so you could generate 500-1000 watts from an amp off the Prius' electrical system. When I find THAT article, I'll bow down and say, "I am not worthy!" How lame would the Prius look with my Hi Q screwdriver (including cap hat) drilled & mounted through the roof?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(abq sfr @ Aug 24 2007, 01:21 PM) [snapback]501577[/snapback]</div>

Do HF "outbanders" count? I feel I know the answer to that question, but I have to ask.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(KD6HDX @ Aug 25 2007, 10:22 AM) [snapback]501952[/snapback]</div>

Puleeez Dave, tell me, I beg you ...
You ARE just making fun of the 35 different kinds of lids:

http://www.rcarc.com/lid.html

right? because only teapots have handles?
Please tell me you are
:lol:
The really goofy part is that I hear newly licensed operators (2 by 3 licenses starting with KI number and later) picking up lid behavior . . . just to sound more old timer "radio-a-fied".
I'm bad sometimes. I'll embarass newbie-nes by responding, "dit dit dit, dah, dah dah dah, dit dah dah dit. dit dit, dah.
When they say, "what?"? I ask, when you ask your grama to pass the potatoes, do you say, pass the potatoes - come on back? Or, pass the potatoes, over to you? Then they get it.

 

N4EOL

 

Your gear shift is back to front.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(donee @ Aug 25 2007, 09:07 AM) [snapback]501990[/snapback]</div>

NUTS!!! I just won one at a 10-10 convention and was hoping to be able to at least operate on 10 meters.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(abq sfr @ Aug 25 2007, 03:00 PM) [snapback]502102[/snapback]</div>

Hi Steve, nice install photos for your 440 rig. I was looking for the make of that rig in the photo but no success.

From Loveland, CO I'd be happy to try a HF contact sometime or yes, I can do Echolink via a local 220 repeater here. I've had my Prius for just over a year but no radios installed yet. I'm looking at a rear hatch lip mount for the antenna with a Diamond tri-band antenna for my Kenwood 641 with 2M/220/440. I thought about the same install you have, remote head behind the smoke color door but putting the radio itself under the passenger seat as the driver seat area already taken with the NAV CD box.

73 DE KN6VV

 

VA6DAB

Ant. mount can go here:
[attachmentid=10944]

This is a Larson NMO cast mount, originally made for high band cellular. I don't think they make it any more, unfortunately. Great mount, low VSWR, very well shielded - nipple coax connection. Excuse the black silicon rubber. I don't like leaks so I made sure I wouldn't have any.

Most mobile radios will fit here:
[attachmentid=10945]

This is behind the small bin in the hatch area. Just remove the small bin to see the space. The above ant. cable comes straight down to this area. Power comes across the back of the car directly from the batt. Use a relay on the power line and control the relay with power from the acc. plug (console).

I recommend using "plastic loom" and running the speaker, power control wire, and control head cable through it under the carpet along the center "hump" and under the console.

I used velcro to mount the control head here:
[attachmentid=10946]

I was lazy and didn't lengthen the control head cable so it ended up as seen. Not a problem, as I don't mess with the radio while driving. I just leave it on scan. That's an ICOM 2720 dual band with repeat capability. For "full" band use perhaps an ICOM 7000. I think it can display video, so perhaps adding a backup camera is possible.

I put hook side velcro tape on the bottom of a standard commercial mobile speaker and it sits securely under the drivers seat, stuck to the carpet.

As far as EMI goes, I just checked my car and it doesn't seem to raise the noise floor when it's on. Sometimes there is a burst of EMI but it's short and rare. I checked at 10 m, 20 m, and down at 5 MHz. Used a Kenwood handheld with a longwire ant. extended outside the car, through the drivers window and inside the car, so it should have picked up a lot of noise (but didn't).

 

de W6TWA

SK