New antenna

Archived-1

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The other day I went to install a ham radio antenna, whilst I was there installing it and speaking to the gentleman about his hobby, I found if very interesting, bouncing signals from satellites ATV etc, being an old CB dxer and still having my old rig I started to get the bug,

So I went out and bought and fitted an antenna, and I am going to take my ham licence, the ATV bit sounds very interesting has anyone had any success with it please.
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PaulR

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Good on you Martin. There are plenty of licensed members here, some more active than others. There is a thread about it here, somewhere...

Never done any ATVing myself, unfortunately. Maybe some of the others?
 

Archived-1

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Good on you Martin. There are plenty of licensed members here, some more active than others. There is a thread about it here, somewhere...

Never done any ATVing myself, unfortunately. Maybe some of the others?
Thank you Paul, I will have a look and see if I can find the thread.
 

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I did ATV back in my Apprenticeship days (Errm, 40 years ago!) as, being a Marconi boy, we got loads and loads of old Broadcast gear, including massive Cameras. Not done any since.
 

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Closest thing to Satellites I've picked up on a radio was Brazilian Pirates using an American Military Satellite on my radio receiver on 255.550Mhz

I've never had any 13CM gear to have a dabble at ATV (it is 13CM I'm thinking of isn't it, around WIFI/Wireless CCTV freqs) but I've picked up SSTV from across the pond and used to hunt for WeFax and RTTY between hunting down numbers stations/listening to the Buzzer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UVB-76)

To be honest I really want to go and sit the foundation test and then work my way up but I'm a bit put off by some of the well established G calls who "allegedly" look down on M3 call holders
It's a natural progression as I started way back when on CB (I've still got an Antron A99 antenna in the shed), worked my way onto freebanding/pirating on the tripple nickle (27.555 Mhz USB ) then dabbled in PMR and now I'm in a taxi office fiddling with radio equipment and I've passed a few mock ham tests online so I know I stand a chance with the Kellogs license lol
 

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ATV is fun, we hams were the first to have so called "video phones", as we could have a true face to face chat with whomever we were linked up to.(well as best as we could back then)

My ATV days are over as I now live in an area far from the ATV repeaters we setup down in the SF bay area, and there is no one local (or close enough) to make up a link to, but it was a fun project.

All you need is a video/audio feed from a camera, and a good ATV transceiver, I would also recommend a good yagi antenna mounted on a rotor, and look on the local ham sites in your area to see who has an ATV repeater, this way you can link up in a broader coverage area.


Here is a good read through on ATV,
Code:
http://www.hamuniverse.com/atvfastscantv.html
 

PaulR

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To be honest I really want to go and sit the foundation test and then work my way up but I'm a bit put off by some of the well established G calls who "allegedly" look down on M3 call holders
Well, if they do they're pratts. Ignore them and go for it.

My wife, who has no technical background whatsoever, gained her foundation licence with relative ease. And was able to keep it mostly secret from me. She then went on to do her intermediate, which was a bit more difficult, but managed it with a lot more work.

She's now trying to get the advanced level. The jump from foundation to intermediate is a lot less than the jump between intermediate and full though. She's taken the test once already without success and is retaking it in June. It's very hard going though.

The intention is that when (!) she passes her advanced she will take over my old G6 licence whilst I continue with my G0 that I changed to after passing my morse test. Ironically if all that comes to pass it'll look like she's had her licence for five years more than me!
 

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699 pounds for a 'play around' ?
 

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699 pounds for a 'play around' ?
Well I can have a play about on 11m CH, and listen in on the ham bands while I am studying for my licence,
I have a couple of cheap transceivers and they just run in and out of frequency and are rubbish,

Kenwood seem to hold there price, I should not lose much money when I get round to upgrading when I get my licence, that was my thoughts CH.
 

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TBH, Martin, there's not much to choose between Kenwood, Icom, Yaesu et al these days.

Just go for the best "Buttons per Pound" ratio!
 

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Hi martin-f

I think that you will find that it will only be usable for TX in the amateur bands.

160 m ~ 10 m amateur band operation
100 kHz ~ 30 MHz general coverage receiver

regards
 

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(Note to self - must dig out my Trio TS430 which hasn't seen the light of day for twenty odd years.)
 

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If it is just for HF I wouldn't buy anything new. At least not straight away. Rather have something like a Yaesu 902 DM.

For me an HF Ham radio should look like an HF Ham radio, not something a kin to a smart phone. Not that I'm an old boy like the rest of them, just nostalgic.
 

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Or if you just want an HF receiver for the time being something like a Sony 7600 gets you AM/FM and shortwave with coverage of all HF bands in USB/LSB.
 

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Thank you all, I had a think about it this morning, and decided to go for something a little smaller and cheaper to start with, so I have bought an icom ic-718, its been wide banded so I am ok for 11m,

It appears to be a nice little transceiver I have had brazil on it all ready:),

It was second hand with a brand new power pack £500 all in with 12 month warranty, I can keep this when I get my licence and use it for the car, and upgrade to a nice home base transceiver:).

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I had a 706 with the wideband mode. Still in my mum's loft I think.
 

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Thank you all, I had a think about it this morning, and decided to go for something a little smaller and cheaper to start with, so I have bought an icom ic-718, its been wide banded so I am ok for 11m,

It appears to be a nice little transceiver I have had brazil on it all ready:),

It was second hand with a brand new power pack £500 all in with 12 month warranty, I can keep this when I get my licence and use it for the car, and upgrade to a nice home base transceiver:).

View attachment 64971




Excellent Button per Pound Ratio there, Martin.
 

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Excellent Button per Pound Ratio there, Martin.
Thank you G, its the best bit of transceiver I have ever owned, what's the best places to listen into please.
 

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Depends upon your interests - and upon the state of the Sunspot Cycle: Personally, I used to like 15m and 17m which never seemed busy but which could offer up some decent DX at times, even with a simple Antenna like a G5RV.

If you just want to listen to folk rabbiting on, then 80m, 40m and 20m would be the thing.

Nice summary here
 
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