Amateur Radio on the International Space Station • Hacker News Board

Re: Amateur Radio on the International Space Station

#121

Post by CIPHERSTONE » Thu, Feb 15, 2018, 1:37 PM UTC

BenjiWiebe wrote: post #19

mseebach wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then why don't you just use the internet in the first place, and skip the license and expensive equipment?

Ya I agree (as a ham). No point in using internet linked repeaters as a reason to get into ham radio. If you have a ham radio, sure, play around with it, but it is kinda pointless. It doesn't exactly teach you how to communicate when the internet doesn't work. -K0COW

True, but you are not going to be able to use 2m/70cm/1.25 to talk to people over vast distances.

While EchoLink doesn't have the same visceral feel that a radio has in your hands, it can be interesting. By connecting those repeaters to EchoLink I can directly broadcast on them. Which is pretty fun.

The other day when it was snowing like hell in Chicago I had a nice chat with a mobile ham using a 2m repeater on the big island of Hawaii.

Re: Amateur Radio on the International Space Station

#122

Post by wepple » Fri, Feb 16, 2018, 1:43 PM UTC

CIPHERSTONE wrote: post #120

wepple wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any recommendations for a fairly inexpensive HF CW rig? Happy to build it myself

uBitx ( http://www.hfsignals.com/index.php/ubitx/ ) is I think $110 for a kit of the guts. People seem to be really enjoying building them. QRP Labs has a bunch of cool projects ( https://qrp-labs.com/qcx.html ). CW is something I haven't learned yet, but is pretty attractive for what it can do, how far it can reach on low power.

Thanks! It definitely seems popular on the subreddit. Totally agree, CW seems attractive given the possible range, and also being able to clock up contacts while avoiding awkward political chitchat I often hear.

Re: Amateur Radio on the International Space Station

#123

Post by pretendscholar » Sat, Feb 17, 2018, 3:44 AM UTC

lofaldli wrote: post #51

I actually recorded a contact between NASA astronaut Joe Acaba (KE5DAR) and students from Lithuania today as the ISS passed over Germany. https://soundcloud.com/lofaldli/ariss-contact-14022018 73, LB1IH

Why can't you hear the Lithuanians?

Re: Amateur Radio on the International Space Station

#124

Post by olfactory » Wed, Feb 21, 2018, 3:18 AM UTC

wepple wrote: post #101

olfactory wrote: post #14

I can't recommend amateur radio enough to fellow HN readers. There are so many things to do -- my favorite is HF CW.

Any recommendations for a fairly inexpensive HF CW rig? Happy to build it myself

I think it's a choice between one of the newer kits and just buying something from eBay that will get you on the air. Any transceiver manufactured in the past 20-30 years will be just fine, and might result in more on the air fun (at least initially) than a low power kit.

Re: Amateur Radio on the International Space Station

#125

Post by olfactory » Wed, Feb 21, 2018, 3:18 AM UTC

topspin wrote: post #110

jventura wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is so interesting about amateur radio, besides talking to other people? Could you expand a little bit on this? This is an honest question, as I used to be a licensed user of CB radios but the bad mood of truck drivers and mIRC (internet) led me to leave it eventually.

It's applied physics. A study of oscillators, mixers, filters, amplifiers, distributed elements, propagation and algorithms and how to optimize all of these in multiple dimensions. It's community. You can meet interesting people and prepare for and serve during emergencies or experiments. It's travel. You can travel to or contact people in exotic places and have your accomplishments recognized. It's technology. You c…

> It's applied physics. A study of oscillators, mixers, filters, amplifiers, distributed elements, propagation and algorithms and how to optimize all of these in multiple dimensions.

this