new ham, interested in digital modes

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fordfasterr

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Apr 16, 2014
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Hi folks, my name is Steve, KM4AIJ from Fort Lauderdale FL.

I am fully green at ham radio so you have been warned.


I am using a boafeng uv5r+ (bang head on desk..) and a vertical whip antenna outside at about 20 feet.

So far I have basically no qso's except for a friend of mine from his mobile rig on simplex.

Anyway, as the title suggests I am interested in digital modes, so today I ordered an easydigi kit including the cables, etc for this specific radio. For now I will be waiting for that to arrive so I can test it out.

Otherwise, I hope I can make some friends on this forum to help me fix up the learning curve.
 

KD8DVR

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Columbus, Ohio
Well, almost all the digital activity is on HF. SSTV works very well on VHF; but that is about it. Finding someone locally could be a chore.
 

fratermus

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Hey, Steve.

I'm mainly interested in digital modes, too.

Perhaps a local ham club could put you in touch with another member who would be willing to help you get your feet wet in digital. I know the narrow bandwidth aspects of the modes are rendered moot by FM, but it would be fun anyhow.

My gear (2m mobile and rigblaster) is still packed up from a recent move at the moment. :-(
 

popnokick

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Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 7_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/537.51.2 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/7.0 Mobile/11D167 Safari/9537.53)

Huh? What about D-Star? APRS?
 
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fordfasterr

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Quick update, I received my easy digi kit and hooked it up. I installed HamScope to test it out and from what I can see the software reads the incoming audio stream. Of course, I have not been able to zero in on any traffic so all I've seen is garbled up characters...

As fratermus suggsted, I'm going to ping one of the local clubs and find out if anyone uses digital modes.
 

khooke

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Feb 19, 2013
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Davis, CA
If you're interested in digital modes, it's worth looking in to upgrading to General, because you'll always find some digital activity somewhere, on 20m PSK on 14.070, JT65 on 14.076 and some RTTY now and then between 14.080-14.090.

I've only had my license a year so far, but have had plenty of luck with digital modes on HF. I have played with some packet on VHF (using a HT) as there's a club packet BBS within range of my location, but it's not like digital on HF where you can easily get 1000-3000miles on 20m with just 10 watts (depending on propagation conditions).
 

wv8mat

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Letart, WV
Find out if anyone around you has 2 meter or 70 cm NBEMS nets or if there is anyone who is playing with MT63 or PSK31 on those bands. Our group is getting ready to start a 2 meter NBEMS / PSK net using FLDIGI software suite. Its a fun thing to do. Good Luck.
 

autovon

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Jul 10, 2008
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There really isn't any regular digital (other than DSTAR, TRBO, P25, which your radio won't do) on VHF aside from APRS and packet.
 

n2nov

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Dec 18, 2002
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Location
Staten Island, NYC
There really isn't any regular digital (other than DSTAR, TRBO, P25, which your radio won't do) on VHF aside from APRS and packet.

Digimodes (text/picture transfers) vs digital voice that you mentioned needs to be clarified and not just lumped together as "digital". I have run the NY-NBEMS and USeast-NBEMS nets on 40 meters for three years and we are also using the wider digimodes on VHF/UHF in NYC. If using digimodes on VHF/UHF repeaters, first get the permission of the repeater owner by providing a demo. Then, make sure that the lower edge of the waterfall waveform is above the PL decode filter (we use 500 hz as the lower limit). Also, make sure that you provide a longer leading tone to open up the repeater before the data starts and keep the entire transmission under the timeout timer (typically 2 to 3 minutes). FEC capable digimodes are not needed in most cases as a clean signal into the repeater is easily transferred. Of course, if the stations are in simplex range of each other, then a repeater should not be tied up if it is needed for other voice users.
 

Mark

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Yaesu has been handing out some new DR-1 digital repeaters to various area clubs.
One has even started a Yaesu digital net after their normal open RACES net.
Yaesu fighting back against D-Star repeaters.

Also have just got into myself FLDIGI on UHF with NBEMS net that meets on air every Thursday after
normal RACES Net.
Software available on w1hkj.com
We swap photos and text files in various formats. Added a Signa Link USB with proper optional jumper block
for Yaesu FT-7900 radio and works well.

Lots of Ham digital options available..

Mark
N3MRK
 
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