Zero Retries Guide to Getting Started in Amateur Radio
Before publishing, expand “ZRG “ to Zero Retries Guide to “
Merideth KK7BKI
How to progress as an Amateur Radio Operator
For at least one year, join the ARRL and elect for the print version of QST magazine.
Listen, or read, Amateur Radio newsline
Getting Started in Amateur Radio Data Communications
I received a nice email from a new Amateur Radio Operator, and now Zero Retries reader, who saw Zero Retries mentioned on Reddit. He explained that he’s very comfortable with single board computers such as Raspberry Pi, Arduino, and ESP8266. He has a good 144 MHz / 440 MHz portable radio, and he wanted to know if it’s possible to get started in Amateur Radio data communications such as I discuss in Zero Retries with his existing equipment. I corresponded with the new ham, and he explained to me that he’s outside the US, so “inexpensive” solutions that I suggested were terribly expensive (to him) by the time duties and shipping were added.
In my suggestions, I’ll assume a few other constraints of my new reader, because I’ve heard these constraints from others in similar circumstances:
That they don’t have a lot of discretionary income to invest in expensive equipment (and they’re not sure they’ll stay active in Amateur Radio).
They’re primarily interested in VHF / UHF operation because they have a basic license (Technician in the US) and putting up HF antennas (or affording a typical HF radio) isn’t an option.
They’re not that interested in taking a chance on used equipment from online vendors like eBay, and they don’t have the knowledge to know what’s good used equipment, or what’s bad used equipment at a Amateur Radio flea market (hamfest).
They live in an apartment or condominium and thus are very constrained about antennas (as in nothing external, or carefully concealed).
They’re frustrated with incomplete details like “just use some coax from your junkbox” or “easily obtained connector”.
They’re “data natives”, more comfortable texting, etc. than talking, especially random chatting with strangers, which dominates Amateur Radio.
Joining a club is problematic for a variety of reasons.
With the above in mind, here are my suggestions for having some Amateur Radio data communications fun.
Hackaday Cheap Ham Series
Hackaday.com has a good series of articles about radio hacking in general, and occasionally touching on Amateur Radio. I’m especially impressed with The $50 Ham series by Dan Maloney N7DPM, which he started in 2019. I think N7DPM captures the spirit of this article well:
Today we start a new series dedicated to amateur radio for cheapskates. Ham radio has a reputation as a “rich old guy” hobby, a reputation that it probably deserves to some degree. Pick up a glossy catalog from DX Engineering or cruise their website, and you’ll see that getting into the latest and greatest gear is not an exercise for the financially challenged. And thus the image persists of the recent retiree, long past the expense and time required to raise a family and suddenly with time on his hands, gleefully adding just one more piece of expensive gear to an already well-appointed ham shack to “chew the rag” with his “OMs”.
Better Antennas
One of the best things about being an Amateur Radio Operator is that you quickly achieve an intuitive understanding of the importance of antennas in radio technology. If you have to choose between a good radio and a poor antenna, or a poor radio with a good antenna, the latter will generally perform better. (There are, of course, exceptions - mobile phones are a perfect example.)
The “rubber duck” antenna the comes with a portable VHF / UHF radio is a compromise for usability and portability. It’s not meant to perform well, but rather to be sturdy enough to survive a lot of abuse. You’ll be amazed at how much more you can hear, and the improvement in transmit range, from using a better antenna.
Thus, one of the first things you can do to experiment is to improve your antenna situation. Here are some inexpensive antenna suggestions for VHF / UHF:
Ed Fong WB6IQN - Ed’s Antennas - WB6IQN sells assembled (and thoroughly tested) antennas, but provides the original articles on how to build your own versions.
A word of caution about “constrained” antennas. VHF, UHF, and HF radios can transmit at high power. The only reason that transmitting 25, 50, or more watts from a radio is considered safe is that it’s assumed that the output of the radio will be coupled into an antenna that is safely removed from close human exposure, such as an omnidirectional antenna on a pole or tower. Transmitting at those same power levels in a vehicle is safe because most operations are with the operator in the vehicle, and the antenna outside the frame of the vehicle. Amateur Radio Operators (and other two way radio users, such as police) used to not care about exposure to high power VHF, UHF, and HF transmissions - it was assumed to be “safe” because no near term ill effects were readily apparent (unlike with high power microwave transmissions). But, we know better now, and cumulative effects to high power transmissions are now much better studied.
Thus, if you’re going to use an antenna on, for example, an apartment or condo balcony, transmit at low power levels such as the 5 or 10 watts “low” setting on a mobile radio.
If you’re constrained about external antennas either in an apartment or living in a community that doesn’t allow external antennas, you’re not doomed to never work HF… you just have to get creative. This book - Small Antennas for Small Spaces 2nd Edition, by Steve Ford WB8IMY may help.
Fully updated, the second edition of ARRL's Small Antennas for Small Spaces is a valuable resource for radio amateurs who live in apartments, condominiums, or houses on small lots. Filled with practical advice, this book guides you to finding the right antenna design to fit whatever space you have available. In Small Antennas for Small Spaces you'll find ideas and projects that will get you on the air regardless of where you live!
Another constrained space HF antenna is the Small Magnetic Loop Antenna. Steve Yates AA5TB offers a good explanatory article. “Mag Loops” aren’t conceptually hard to build, but they can be fussy. There are many Mag Loops available commercially such as Alpha Antenna. I have no idea what justifies the $hundreds pricing of a Magnetic Loop antenna for HF, but that seems consistent with other manufacturers.
WSPR on Raspberry Pi
One of the more amazing things, to me, has been the performance of the Weak Signal Propagation Reporter (WSPR) mode. Basically, WSPR uses digital signal processing techniques to achieve long range transmissions with very low power and / or very constrained antennas. You can start to get a sense for how amazing WSPR is by viewing the maps on WSPRnet.org. WSPRnet is the secret sauce of WPSR - a worldwide network monitoring for WSPR transmissions, providing automated reception reports. You transmit on WSPR, and you can see your transmission being received in realtime around the world. Knowing the low power levels you’re transmitting with, WSPR seems magical.
Even more amazing is that WSPR was implemented successfully, on a Raspberry Pi computer, apparently because a specific General Purpose Input Output (GPIO) pin on the RPi could be modulated sufficiently fast to create a radio signal in the HF bands. Disclaimer - I haven’t researched this topic very deeply. The original implementation of this concept seems to be WsprryPi - Raspberry Pi WSPR transmitter using NTP based frequency calibration. This is as basic as it gets - a Raspberry Pi, and connect a feedline and antenna to the GPIO pin.
There are issues to this approach. The GPIO pin generates square waves, which include undesirable artifacts on radio such as harmonics. Also, the GPIO pin’s power output is very, very weak. Thus this series of WSPR Pi HATs (Hardware Attached on Top) from TAPR are a better approach than using the “bare” Raspberry Pi. These HATs provide filtering (the harmonics don’t get transmitted) and power amplification (reasonable power levels).
Begin Listening
dmr, d-star, allstarlink,
In the US, it’s completely legal to listen to any radio transmission, other than 824-849 MHz and 869-894 MHz which are, per FCC requirement, blocked from consumer scanner radios to protect the long-obsolete FM signals of Advanced Mobile Phone Service - AMPS. That restriction only applies to scanner receivers.
Software Defined Receivers
Start listening
https://www.pa7lim.nl/bluedv/
https://hose.brandmeister.network/#/
Find an interesting DMR Talk Group
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/buster/id1060175273?mt=12
Co-conspirators
You can certainly do experimentation on your own, but it’s a lot more fun with co-conspirators. If at all possible, find someone physically close to you that might be within simplex range.
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I recently subscribed to "Zero Retries" after seeing it mentioned on Reddit.
I am a relatively new Ham and know just enough to understand the basics of what you're discussing, but find the idea of amateur "digital" radio (text chat) to be intriguing.
Is it possible to get started with digital modes using very basic equipment? In my case, like many newbies, all I have is an HT (Yaesu FT-4X).
I am planning to build quarter-wave ground plane antennas for 2m and 70cm to get more reach vs. the rubber ducky the HT came with. I am also handy with Raspberry Pi, Arduino / ESP8266, etc. and have a bunch of them lying around (I can write my own basic scripts, no problem loading and running pre-baked code, can set basic circuits up on perfboard).
Is there anything interesting in the digital world that I can do with a very basic setup like this?
RPI tx
rtl-sdr
basic antennas - twinned, ground plane
better coax does kind of matter - just don’t buy the crap stuff
tapr kit for wspr
reverse beacon network
hardest part is finding co-conspirators
https://allstarlink.org
https://secure.echolink.org
dmr linking like
hotspot
SignaLink USB updates
http://webclass.org/k5ijb/antennas/Small-magnetic-loops-K5IJB.htm
It’s a big “hobby”. You don’t have to do it all, or even the things that others tell you is “Real Ham Radio”.
Not “advice”, just pointers
Buy a portable that’s better than cheap Chinese. Their primary design goal is cheap, not usable, not good. They work, but it’s hard to get them to do anything other than push to talk.
Better antenna - Ed fong
Low power if you’re int he same plane as the antenna
Winlink
WebSDR
APRS
AREDN
Raspberry Pi
DMR
backup power supply
Software defined receiver
TAPR 10m WSPR
ARRL for a least 1 year - see QST and Now You’re Talking back issues
Check out Skywarn
10 meters in general
Amateur Radio at the moment is mostly old guys in basement tapping on a Morse Code, or talking into a microphone, contesting, DXing, or just yakking.
It’s changing (they’re dying off) and new younger folks are coming in for EMCOM and for experimentation.
Peaks on the Air
Field Day
Hack Camp
Some Makerspace
There’s SO much more than that, bu
Not Amateur Radio
GMRS
Hello App
FRS text
LoRa
Receive only
GNU Radio