Ham & CB Radio enthusiasts

Just wondering if anyone else on here uses radio??

I've got a ham licencehere in the UK

I have CBs in all of my vehicles, no ham license though. I listen but don't really talk on them since I don't know anyone else with one in the area, most truckers have illegal amps (legal power limit here in the US is 4w, but 250w+ linears are common) and just walk all over you, and there's a lot of foul language. It's unfortunate and ruins the hobby :-/

mike said:

I have CBs in all of my vehicles, no ham license though. I listen but don't really talk on them since I don't know anyone else with one in the area, most truckers have illegal amps (legal power limit here in the US is 4w, but 250w+ linears are common) and just walk all over you, and there's a lot of foul language. It's unfortunate and ruins the hobby :-/

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yes, i concour, its the same here in the uk too but its not just the "truckers" that are pushing the power and swearing etc...
lonnnng time ago when i used to use cb i had to use 80w to talk to people 3 miles away because of the idiots, then i got a ham radio that was opened up to talk on there....
because of the idiots we (the net) decided to try other ways of communications (other modes) some of us tried to learn CW (morse code) and we even used digital data where we could type on the keyboard and would scream noise over the radio that the idiots couldnt do much to sabatage with lol... in the end when it was one to one talking we would program our ham radios for split freq, upper sideband, 100w and5kc off the calling freq both ways... well we know where the idiots talk most the time and when they dont talk they piss everyone else off... so we killed 3 channels and had many moaning idiots..

the group decided to die sadly (3 members passed away) one left the cb alltogether and 2 of us became ham, sadly where he loves using HF,low freqs i got board of that as i pirated the HFham bands lol and wanted to concerntrate on UHF+ and microwave is so much fun but has its own sets of issues....
at the moment i have decided to play with a digital mode called DMR, its digital voice and the baserepeaters and hot-spots are internet linked so you can talk all over the planet without the hash, crash and noise of fading signals

the one group i go to loves microwave, one set of Freq'y is right on the 2.4G WIFI but during contests they use the lower Freq in the 2.3Ghz... we get interconternental contacts(about 1,500KM)

I do 11m dxpeditions during the summer. Enjoy climbing rocky knolls in the Swedish west coast archipelagos, bringing a small QRP rig and a simple dipole. Almost always great conditions to somewhere in the Brittish isles, but have over the years been getting QSOs with pretty much everything but Oceania from there.

Really enjoy contacts on CW and various digital modes, building my own gear and what not, but never got around to get the HAM certificate and I probably never will.

Here's a question for you... I just installed a Uniden PC78LTD in my truck with a Wilson FGT-3 Antenna. The antenna coax is properly routed, not running with any power cables or anything. I hear loud engine noise on the radio that changes tone when I accelerate, the more RPMs, the higher pitched the sound. Any ideas? I was reading people recommend wiring the radio directly to the battery rather than the fuse panel? It's a diesel truck if that makes any difference. I don't have this problem in either of my gas cars and both have radios.

I've just joined and am G7BSK but have been 9V1AM for many years (Singapore). Just recently moved to Malaysia so will be chasing up a 9M call but its not a top priority right now.

Due to being on the equator, HF is just a noisy nightmare until 10pm onwards which means only late night time working, but I do a fair bit of low power PSK and hope to get 6m permission with the new 9M call so once my powerwall project is sorted that might be next

Hi I'm M0VKK (Richard)

I generally do 2m moonbounce over the winter - in the summer I tend to do other hobbies as my wife goes in the garden and hates the big aerial array - So it gets packed down.

The battery bit is a bit out of curiosity for me, I can't fit solar as I have the array on the roof, but I do like designing things so I'm lining up my 'next' project which is PCB's for quick to assemble battery packs for powerwalls and built in BMS. I probably won't even start till after Xmas as I'm too busy - but I thought if I start now I can start collecting cells.

m6yru said:

Just wondering if anyone else on here uses radio??

I've got a ham licencehere in the UK

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Im a Ham here from Michigan USA. Bryan kc8hps on qrz.
Just starting this powerwall adventure. Ive been a Ham off and on for many years. Big Electric buff here. Nice to meet you.

B

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mike said:

Here's a question for you... I just installed a Uniden PC78LTD in my truck with a Wilson FGT-3 Antenna. The antenna coax is properly routed, not running with any power cables or anything. I hear loud engine noise on the radio that changes tone when I accelerate, the more RPMs, the higher pitched the sound. Any ideas? I was reading people recommend wiring the radio directly to the battery rather than the fuse panel? It's a diesel truck if that makes any difference. I don't have this problem in either of my gas cars and both have radios.

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Hello Mike, I have a diesel VW, I get popping sounds at times mostly in the past. It is a static charge that builds up. The only way to reduce it is through grounding/bounding. Typically using braided mesh/wire you ground all the car elements to the main body.. engine, exhaust in several places. Hood, trunk etc. yes wiring straight to the battery is good too. Some auto stores carry an inline static suppression device. It wire in the + line of your power lead from battery to radio.
One place to read about this and related subjects is k0bg.com
I hope this helps some. Bryan s.w. Michigan

I am also a ham radio operator!

I've actually been building portable storage for my radio setup using 18650 cells.

Also put together a small 3S1P pack to charge up my Yaesu VX-7R recently.