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Turn your Android phone into a modern ham radio transceiver

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Re: Turn your Android phone into a modern ham radio transceiver

#171

Post by EasyMark »

hn72774 wrote: post #159
dekhn wrote: post #63

how the turntables. Back in the 80s my grandfather (N4MDB RIP) had a ham radio in his car and used something called an "autopatch" which could dial phone numbers. He'd call my grandma and say we were going shopping or whatever. Everybody from the shack could listen in with their radios. He tried to get me interested in ham radio but at the time I was exploring the internet and ham seemed... boring? Overly fussy with…

No more morse code on the exam. Hamstudy.org is a great study aid.

Danke! I will be checking this out tonight.

Re: Turn your Android phone into a modern ham radio transceiver

#172

Post by tonymet »

The key selling point is the single power source. Most average consumers carry charging tools for their phone, and don't want to manage another device like a radio.

I personally prefer standalone handy-talkies, but powering them is still a pain. I wish a company would redesign the baofeng to run off of 18650 cells

Re: Turn your Android phone into a modern ham radio transceiver

#174

Post by dekhn »

hn72774 wrote: post #159
dekhn wrote: post #63

how the turntables. Back in the 80s my grandfather (N4MDB RIP) had a ham radio in his car and used something called an "autopatch" which could dial phone numbers. He'd call my grandma and say we were going shopping or whatever. Everybody from the shack could listen in with their radios. He tried to get me interested in ham radio but at the time I was exploring the internet and ham seemed... boring? Overly fussy with…

No more morse code on the exam. Hamstudy.org is a great study aid.

True. Honestly, if I was going to do this (I won't) I would probably just set aside a couple weeks to train a deep net to parse and generate morse code (a near-perfect example already exists: https://github.com/f4exb/morseangel) and in the process of debugging the model, will end up dealing with so many audiovisual examples I'll end up knowing morse without actually studying.

Re: Turn your Android phone into a modern ham radio transceiver

#175

Post by dfc »

drewnick wrote: post #94
dfc wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is this battery free?

It uses the phone's battery, which is assumed to be something that is already managed.

So just assume your Baofeng battery is also managed. Tada! Two battery free solutions.

Re: Turn your Android phone into a modern ham radio transceiver

#176

Post by myself248 »

capitainenemo wrote: post #59
cactacea wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Generally speaking, line of sight. Assuming you're in the US, the FCC wouldn't come after you for using this in an emergency situation unless you were being absolutely egregious about stomping on other emergency comms, even then I seriously doubt you'd see a fine. Having said that you're basically going to need enough knowledge to pass the test to make use of this anyway. Why not just take the test and be legal?

Don't you have to register with your personal address in a public database?

Yes. You can use a PO box, but since all past addresses and changes are visible in the database, you have to get the PO box _before_ you get your very first license, in order for it to be meaningful.

Re: Turn your Android phone into a modern ham radio transceiver

#177

Post by semi-extrinsic »

RenThraysk wrote: post #68
sciencesama wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do they need a simcard with an active plan or aNy simcard just works !!??

Don't believe it needs a simcard for UHF/VHF. Even without a simcard, emergency numbers should still work if in range of a cell tower. IIRC that's a requirement of all 4g devices.

What's even more amazing, the local search and rescue helicopters have been outfitted with special 4G/5G base stations. So if they are flying a rescue mission in the mountain or other remote areas, and they come in range of your phone, not only does your phone suddenly have coverage, but they can see you connect, triangulate your position, and call/text you directly.

Re: Turn your Android phone into a modern ham radio transceiver

#178

Post by godelski »

hn72774 wrote: post #159
dekhn wrote: post #63

how the turntables. Back in the 80s my grandfather (N4MDB RIP) had a ham radio in his car and used something called an "autopatch" which could dial phone numbers. He'd call my grandma and say we were going shopping or whatever. Everybody from the shack could listen in with their radios. He tried to get me interested in ham radio but at the time I was exploring the internet and ham seemed... boring? Overly fussy with…

No more morse code on the exam. Hamstudy.org is a great study aid.

For any one interested in doing this, getting your Technician (lowest level) is pretty easy. If you're already familiar with very basic circuits and electronics you could probably go in blind and have a >50% chance of passing (there are questions you'll need to memorize). Go through the practice exams, you'll see.

But here's the thing, you don't need any time to wait to take the General test (mid level), and there are a lot of benefits to General. (Here's the chart for frequency allocation[0]) You can take the test the same day and won't have to pay an extra fee. (I've seen a few do all 3 in the same session, but time is probably an issue) So even if you don't get the General, it is worth the shot. You'll definitely need to study for the General though.

Your license stays with you for 10 years, so it can just be nice to have in your back pocket (and with this kit, quite literally)

[0] https://www.arrl.org/files/file/Regulatory/Band%20Chart/Hamb...

Re: Turn your Android phone into a modern ham radio transceiver

#179

Post by amelius »

londons_explore wrote: post #127
amelius wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> When I saw the headline I was hoping someone had hacked the qualcomm modem and turned it into a software defined radio. If anybody could do that, that would be a nightmare I suppose.

Such a thing is clearly possible - various debug and calibration modes for these modems make them output the raw I/Q values needed for a software defined radio. Unfortunately, in a locked down production phone, those modes are unavailable.

I mean, if they could be hacked easily and used by malware then it would quickly become a national security risk.

Re: Turn your Android phone into a modern ham radio transceiver

#180

Post by rtkwe »

tonymet wrote: post #172

The key selling point is the single power source. Most average consumers carry charging tools for their phone, and don't want to manage another device like a radio. I personally prefer standalone handy-talkies, but powering them is still a pain. I wish a company would redesign the baofeng to run off of 18650 cells

The UV-9R Pro takes batteries that have a USB-C charging port on the back. I have a couple I setup as my disaster radios because of that and them being water proof(ish, better than other models at least). Programmed them with the local repeaters, weather channel, and the 2m and 70cm simplex calling frequencies plus whatever the default channel setup was.
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