JackbyDev

Sorry for the horrible picture. It's hard enough to see with my eyes, let alone get a pic.

Using one of those FTDI kenwood adapter programming cables. My gut feeling is no. It would be nice for things like sending/receiving SSTV images.

I am able to transmit if I use a double ended male 3.5 mm cable in the microphone hole of the radio and the headphones hole in my computer, but I have to hold down the PTT button. Also I have to turn the volume on my computer down a lot or else it is distorted. I suspect this has something to do with "line out" versus "headphones" voltage levels (I recall seeing some YouTube video discuss this).

Is there just a gallery of various antenna types/lengths and their radiation patterns anywhere? It seems like there are some programs to make them, but I can't seem to easily get them for Mac and I also don't need something super advanced. Just something showing various "standard" antenna types and their patterns for various wave lengths.

I'm still pretty new to radio stuff and still learning. I have my technician license and have made a handful of contacts. For Christmas I got the RTL-SDR. It has a warning saying "DO NOT use near strong transmitters. Max input: +10 dBm." I am having difficulty understanding exactly what that means and whether I can use my handheld radios near it. These are cheap ~5W radios.

I'm curious about the practical and theoretical both, here. So a simple yes-or-no would be helpful, but I'd also like to know the math.

• Right now, I have a vertical half wave dipole (each leg is 48.8 cm, which I believe makes this a half wave dipole antenna for 146 MHz?) attached to my RTL-SDR. I've been trying to understand gain, but it seems tricky to find and understand the charts. This antenna came with the RTL-SDR, but it's telescoping and that's the length I have it at.
• My radio is 5W and uses a knockoff NA-771 type antenna.

I don't have any other sort of tool to measure the output of my handheld radio. I am curious how close I can be to the RTL-SDR antenna when transmitting. I am also curious if I can transmit near the RTL-SDR when there is no antenna attached (I assume I can be a lot closer, but I still don't know how close).

Mostly, I don't want to break a new toy lol.

I'm not sure if this is a weird bug with the search or there's something weird in the database. It's also odd that they show different subscriber counts. Both link to !til@lemmy.world.

Edit: This is related to a known problem as Ategon mentioned. Disregard! :)

Update: Turns out I was too concerned. The manual actually says to use the top rack.

UPDATE: Stopping and reopening the app fixes this. It needs to actually stop though, you can't just switch apps and reopen. Either wait for it to close on its own or force stop. I did not try the main menu method as suggested, though. It may be easier.

Cross posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/20469568

There is a promotion for new hams to get the Explorer QRZ-1 for $22 (along with some software and a cable, but I already have a cable and CHIRP is free). It is normally $60. Is this a good deal? Is this radio worthwhile?

I currently have a Baofeng UV-5R (Baofeng #1 radio! Wooo!) and a TIDRADIO TD-H3. I haven't really made contacts with either and don't know how well they perform. Is this QRZ-1 substantially better?

How poorly would an attic mounted antenna perform? Obviously worse than something outside, I'm guessing, but how much worse?

My office has one of those "side attics." It has a half sized door. Mounting a long antenna in there is very tempting because of how much easier it would be than doing anything outside. It's on the second floor as well.