Category Archives: HAM Radio

Articles that pertain to HAM Radio such as HF operation, contests, new equipment, etc.

Ultra Cheap 440 MHz HAM Radio Yagi

I’ve recently been playing with a pair of low-power 440MHz UHF data transmitters (side note these are very cool and ultra cheap 100mW UHF radios) and needed to build a pair of 440 MHz directional yagi antenna to extend the range.

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I stumbled upon this write up on Radio Reference about a guy who built a yagi antenna from old clothes hangers and a broom stick.

Continue reading

Eastern Iowa Yeasu FT7900 Programming

Hello everyone, please find attached to this post my latest 2015 Programming File for the Yeasu FT7900 / FT8900 Radio.  This is in Chirp format.  This includes all repeaters I am aware of in eastern Iowa and western Illinois.

Covers Washington to Waterloo, Van Horne to Joliet.

Separate memory banks are used to keep each service and location separate for scanning.

Bank 1 = FRS / GMRS (RX Only)
Bank 2 = Air & Train (RX Only)
Bank 3 = Ham Simplex and Cedar Rapids/IC repeaters (incl Muscatine and SE Iowa)
Bank 4 = Ham Simplex and Quad Cities Repeaters
Bank 5 = Ham Simplex and Waterloo / NE Iowa
Bank 6 = Business and Hotels (RX Only)

Download 2015-08 FT7900 Programming KC0AKY

RTL-SDR Based LTE Signal Analyzer

Have you ever wanted to detect what network is installed at what tower?  screenshot_01Interested to see how a network upgrade or overlay is progressing?  Or, maybe you are interested in getting a better idea of the relative signal strength of multiple LTE networks, with a passive receiver?  If so, this is the blog post for you.

This post will explain how to build a custom application for the Kali Linux system which will allow you to use a RTL-SDR DVB TV tuner chipset to perform spectrum analyzer functions on LTE signals.  Using the E4000 chipset, I have decoded LTE signals in 700MHz, 800MHz, 1900MHz (PCS) and 2300MHz (AWS) frequencies. Continue reading

Hamming it up in the Toyota Prius

With the warm weather I took a few days to fix up the ham radio install in my Prius.

Equipment:
Radio: Yeasu FT7900R 50w VHF / 40w UHF Radio
Antenna: Diamond NR770NMO (for trips) and/or Comet SS-460NMO (for urban)
Mount: Diamond K412CNMO

Hatch Antenna Mount

Hatch Antenna Mount

The Prius is a fairly straightforward car to install a radio in.  Obviously as a hatch back, a special hatch antenna mount must be purchased.  I opted for the K412 from Diamond as it adjustable on 3 axis, so I was certain I could get the antenna exactly vertical. The manual suggests this mount is good for antennas up to 42″ in height.  The mount attaches to the car by the use of two “set” screws.  Make sure to read the instructions for the antennas you are using.  If your antenna requires a ground plane, make sure that the set screws make it through the paint and are touching the metal of the car chassis itself to form an electrical connection to ground. Continue reading

Updated Pro-96 Scanning on Linn County

Hello All!  Back again with an updated Arc96 file ready for you to upload to your Pro92/Pro2096

–> Download Cedar Rapids P25 August 2014 Here <–

In this revision I have broken out the banks in such a manner to easily allow the user to switch between scanning CRPD/CRFD/County and Fire.

Bank 0: Linn P25: CRPD
Bank 1: Linn P25: Sheriff
Bank 2: Linn P25: CRFD
Bank 3: Linn P25: County Fire
Bank 4: Linn P25: Ambulance
Bank 5: Linn P25: Johnson County All
Bank 6: Johnson P25: Johnson County All
Bank 7: HAM Radio
Bank 8: FMRS/GMRS/Etc
Bank 9: IP&L Line Crew