r/amateurradio

I recently aquired FT60 so called holy grail of analog HT (plus pretty hard to get here in europe for decent price)

Unfortunately to my shock, the receiver is much worse than my Anytone D890.

Same conditions, basically the same antenna.

Anyone has any experience with this?

I got into amateur radio because I love the science, the tinkering, and the technical side of the hobby. But now that I’m licensed, I’ve run into an unexpected wall. I find myself nervous to actually chat with strangers. As someone who is used to only talking to established friend groups online, staring at the mic feels a bit daunting.

I know it’ll get better with practice, but right now I find myself freezing up, not knowing what to say other than my call sign and a few remarks after lol.

I know local clubs exist, but I kinda want ham radio to be a hobby I can enjoy comfortably from home. Also I'm generally a shy person, which I guess doesn't help? Does anyone else struggle with wanting to make contacts but being too anxious to key the mic? How did you break through it?

Edit: I wanted to thank everyone for giving their advice and thoughts! It's reassuring that many feel the same way and that many are encouraging to keep trying. I will try some POTA stuff for practice as some people suggested and I'm more curious to learn more about CW,FT8, etc as some have mentioned. I'll send out my call sign to the airwaves some more and see what happens. Thank you again everyone! 73 :)

Hello everyone

I have a Fnirsi LCR meter, the LC1020E, which I'm happy with but I'm wondering if there'd be a benefit of also having a transistor tester.

I'm very much an amateur trying to learn as much as possible so I'm not an advanced user. But I enjoy trying to salvage components from old kit sometimes and therefore wonder if a dedicated transistor tester would offer much I won't be able to do with the LCR meter?

Thank you very much in advance
Philip

Like, furrealz, I don't care about every new app that comes out that has some vague connection to ham radio. Maybe we need a hamradiosoftware sub. What do my fellow nerds think?

Hey everyone, I'm a rising college freshman on the east coast getting into HF with a Hermes Lite 2. I don't have my license yet so this is receive-only for now, but I'm building with transmitting in mind for when I do get licensed.

I'm planning to build a half-wave dipole for the 20m band as my first antenna and set it up as an inverted V in my backyard. Problem is my yard is small and sloped. I know the general advice is to keep the angle at 90 degrees or wider, but realistically how narrow can I go before performance falls off noticeably? What's the minimum horizontal spread between the two ends that you'd consider usable?

Planning to run FT8 at 5 watts once I'm licensed. For now just want to listen and learn.

This is my first antenna build so if there's something simpler or better suited for a small sloped yard on 20m I'm totally open to suggestions. Thanks!

I have put up a used great condition 30ft tower that I got for $300 but really have no clue what kind of antenna I would like to put on it.

Current rigs:

● Icom IC-7300 for HF

● Icom ID-5100 for VHF/UHF

Current antennas:

● DIY 20m/40m fan dipole about 20ft up in some trees nearly horizontal

● DIY 2m j-pole about 25ft up

About the area:

● No HOA (somewhat obvious) lol

● Almost 1/2 acre

● 4 or 5 good sized trees (40ft or so) around the perimeter of the property

I usually stay on 20m but would like something I could play on other bands with also. I would like to spend no more than $500 on the antenna itself. If the suggested antenna is directional, I don't mind having to buy a rotator separate from the $500 budget from the antenna. I really enjoy DIY-ing things so let's hear it.

Not sure if this is a good place for this question (I don’t post on Reddit much, but read here often). In the process of getting my general again.

I have an old SDR receiver that was given to me by an RF engineer at a previous job. It’s an AOR SR2200. It doesn’t have an I/Q output but does have an IF Out at 10.7MHz. I recently picked up a tinySA ultra and connected the IF Out to it. I tuned into local broadcast FM stations to see if I could make sense of it. I was surprised to find that the displayed spectrum was reversed. Meaning the high frequency stations (106.5) showed up on the low end of the displayed spectrum and low frequency stations showed up on the high end of the spectrum. When I tune the receiver to, say 106.5, it shows up on the TinySA at the IF frequency of 10.7 which makes sense to me.

My question is why is the spectrum reversed? I expected to tune up and listen to a higher frequency station, but that was not the case.

I have been planning to order an Alpha Delta Switch to put outside where the coax enters my house. I was looking at images online and there is a warning sticker on the back of the switch about not using if the SWR exceeds 2-1 at the antenna feedpoint.

I'm planning to experiment with random wire's, rybakov's, etc... and will require a tuner. Are there any switches that can easily handle these antennas and not have an issue? I don't want to have to go outside and unscrew the arc protector or replace the switch, because I wanted to use a random length of wire.

I'm only planning to run 100watts, but might as well purchase the best product for my usage.

Here is a link - not my site - that shows the picture. https://www.radioworld.co.uk/second-hand-alpha-delta-4b-4-way-coax-switch

Hey folks! I have a strange request. I'm currently outlining a short story about an alien species using radio frequencies to communicate, and I wanted to know if there was anyone I could ask about the basic science/components of radio in a speculative sense. I've done a bit of research about how radios in general work, but I have a number of specific questions and think it's best I talk to someone who has a background in it.

Hello everyone,

I am wanting a good antenna to work some dx/hunt some pota from my house. I currently have an Inv-L efhw cut for 40m with the horizontal about 25-30’ up and it works fine, but I can tell where it has nulls sometimes compared to a vertical when I put one up. So my question is this- are there any antennas out there that anyone has experience with that are 1:not insanely expensive (like under $500) 2: not on a tower 3:multibanded and finally would anything even be worth doing over my current setup?

I am thinking something like a 4/6btv or dx commander?

I mostly work 20 and 40m, but sometimes hunt on 30 for cw and 15/10 for the openings nowadays.

Please no arguments in the comments let’s be civil, and yes I understand every antenna is a compromise.

Thanks and 73!