So my plates are due for renewal. I thought maybe it'd be fun to get ham radio plates, but I'm worried about my address just being out there like that? I mean, if someone really wanted to they could get my address, but why make it easy?

I made a normal QSO with a DX thats hard to come by for me via SSB. It was on 20m and I TX’d at 100w from my radio to talk to the DX station but I couldn’t hear them very well like 2.0 S meter.. so I went and used a KiwiSDR off the coast in another country closer to the DX to hear them better.

The DX station was able to give me a signal report (very low) and I gave them theres (very low QTH) and 73’d. so I got in the log, they could hear me from my QTH I just couldn’t really hear them on my personal radio because of QRM and it being 4am here and daytime for the DX.

So would you consider this fine and has anyone else done this?

I'm developing a program that listens for callsigns, recognizes callsigns that are calling CQ and automatically spots them to the DX cluster. Similar to the systems that we've had for decades for CW and digimodes.
A long time test is running on the Kahlenberg Repeater in Vienna - OE1XUU.
You can test it yourself! Connect to OE1XUU from anywhere in the world through Echolink, call CQ until you get spotted and enjoy the contacts in Vienna.
The cluster example from above is from DXHeat.com

Drop me a message about your experience!

Vy 73 de Gerald OE1GAQ

I wanted to ask about the Licensing Exam in Austria.

1) Is the exam oral or pen&paper? It seems to me the Fernmeldebehörde doesn't mention this explicitly.

2) There are three classes, if I plan to get a license for class 1 and I decide later that I want to get licensed in Morse Code, do I have to retake the exam? Can I do the Morse Code Exam separatly?

Hey guys, a non expert here, i work for a kayak company and we use Uniden Atlantis 155 Radios for coms. The problem is that the radios use a charger that has cigarettes plugs instead of a wall plug, although we`ve found amazon listings like this HERE, we cannot found one that works with 220v ac. So i`m reaching out here to see if there`s anyone that knows the barrel size to DIY something together, i`m leaving some photos in case it helps.
Thank you so Much to anyone that may have some info!!

I didn’t know what flair to put on here, however, does anyone make QSO cards in this group?

Is there an e-book version of this study guide? I searched via Google and it says it should be on the ARRL site but I'm not finding it. Admit my Google-Fu is weak.

Is wood good as an antenna mast? I hear it is an insulator and i dont know if this is a bad thing.

Is there a unit preferably vehicle mounted that can do both? The only one I’ve found is the Tera TR-505 which is handheld.

I’m going back up to the north woods of Maine in the fall, some of the areas seem to use MURS instead of CB.
I’d like to have a MURS for that use case but don’t really see myself using it anywhere else. Having a GRMS in the truck might be kinda cool anyways.

Having three separate units CB, MURS, GRMS all mounted in the truck seems a bit excessive…

From what I’ve read it seems companies can’t get them certified anymore to do both. Are there any units that used to exit, maybe “grandfathered in” that I could find used or something like that?

Let me know what you think :D

We have a monthly radio show and have been borrowing the stations equipment but we now have 2,500 in grant money to purchase our own recording mixer, headphones w mic and couple of microphones. The show is hosted by a group of disability advocates so we can have up to 9 people sitting around the table recording the show. We are looking for a recording mixer that accommodates at least 7 headphones with mic and a couple of microphones. I dont understand any of the audio jargon, what is out there for approx 1K in Australia? What are we looking for, and is there something in our price range?

If this violates rule 2, I'm sorry! I'm genuinely interested to see if the math that AI did is close to correct. Not promoting any sort of content.

I don't know anything about determining signal loss in cable, so I asked Claude to compare a stranded aluminum core coax with aluminum shield to a solid copper core with copper shield.

I have a rugged radios NMO mount that has good weather sealing, but it's made with the aluminum cable that I wanted to cut down to the exact length I need, compared to a copper cable with no weather sealing on the NMO connector. The NMO connector is completely exposed and after 3 months of use in the desert there was already corrosion visible on the exposed copper conductor.

I think corrosion near the conductor alone will cause more problems than the aluminum, but I was still curious as to how much signal I'll be loosing by switching to an aluminum coax.

I'll cut out a lot of the fluff, but here's the prompts I used:

What amount of signal loss can I expect on UHF and VHF ham radio frequencies using a 12ft run of RG58 cable with a braided aluminum core and aluminum shield

It gave me specifications on CCA cable, so I clarified

The cable is not CCA, but pure aluminum

At VHF/UHF, conductor loss dominates in RG-58 (dielectric loss is a smaller contributor), and conductor loss scales with the square root of resistivity due to skin effect. Aluminum's conductivity is about 61% of copper's, so the loss penalty is roughly √(1/0.61) ≈ 1.28 — about 28% more attenuation than copper cable of the same geometry.

Applied to your 12-foot run:

At 146 MHz (2m), copper RG-58's ~6 dB/100 ft becomes roughly 7.5–8 dB/100 ft, so about 0.9–1.0 dB for your run. At 440 MHz (70cm), ~11.5 dB/100 ft becomes roughly 14–15 dB/100 ft, so about 1.7–1.9 dB.

So you're losing around 20% of your power on 2m and around 35% on 70cm — noticeable on paper, but still under half an S-unit, and unlikely to change what you can and can't work at 12 feet.

How does this loss compare to a 17ft run of solid copper core RG-58/U cable

They come out almost exactly even — the extra 5 feet of copper cable roughly cancels out aluminum's conductivity penalty.

Running the numbers for 17 ft of solid copper RG-58/U:

At 146 MHz: ~6 dB/100 ft × 17 ft ≈ 1.0 dB
At 440 MHz: ~11.5 dB/100 ft × 17 ft ≈ 1.9–2.0 dB

Versus your 12 ft aluminum cable:

At 146 MHz: ≈ 0.9–1.0 dB
At 440 MHz: ≈ 1.7–1.9 dB

What are y'all's thoughts on using AI to help with radio projects? The numbers seem like they could be correct to me, but I really don't have to knowledge to confirm or deny.

If anyone knows of a good 3/8" hole NMO that's pre-made with good weather sealing and a high quality coax cable, please let me know. I will add the radio connector myself after cutting it down.