There is certainly a lot to learn, and you would benefit greatly from joining the hobby officially. If you are US-based, you can take the amateur radio exam after memorizing the answers for the exam (a legal and encouraged practice), the exam itself can be administered remotely via Zoom.
I am beyond my technical knowledge if I tried to explain why we use transformers to get an impedance match; I only know what we do.
Great questions, one which highlights my own knowledge gap beyond knowing that for a given feedline and antenna combination, you’ll have some measure of impedance. At the most basic level, your radio will “see” some impedance value. In the amateur radio world this is generally 50Ω. If our antenna system (feedline + radiator) presents 450Ω (quite common), we use a 9:1 transformer to get it to match. This allows us to use our radio on that system without (1) stray current returning to the radio and damage our transmission circuits, and (2) at full power but with inherent loss of signal owing to antenna inefficiency.
Case in point, I have a commercially-purchased multi-band EFHW antenna which presents varying amounts of impedance to the radio. This system includes a transformer (I think it’s 9:1) so that on the bands of interest, there’s a resistance match and as a result an SWR that’s suitable to make decent transmissions on.
As a tangential example, J-pole antennas have a built-in matching system which uses no special parts. It’s composed of a matching section and radiator. The combination of matching section, radiator length, and physical feedpoint allow this type of antenna to sort of self-manage impedance.
The difference here is that a j-pole is a monoband antenna, and a long wire with transformer can often be functional on many bands, depending on length, where the lowest useable frequency is the inverse of its length.
TIL my toilet is sentient, and very unhappy.
What challenges are you facing? It’s a small mercy that antenna fundamentals are basically the same across all frequencies. The resonant element must be sufficiently long as to present an impedance match (or be brought down through via a transformer; 9:1, 49:1, or whichever flavor you need).
On 40m (~7Mhz) a dipole would need to be ~67’ long. You can get away with shorter, bearing in mind the compromises which come with that.
Nice try. I’m not falling for yet another hidden Saddam.
I appreciate your post because although I don’t worldbuild, it reflects a broader sense I also have about the fediverse in general.
Keep in mind that as far as platforms go, the fediverse is quite young and it takes some time for things like this to reach a network effect. Reddit benefited from a large exodus from digg, just as the fediverse benefited from the reddit exodus.
It’ll get there.
Langoliers vibes.
You’re facing an extra tough time right now because computing has optimized the hiring process so much, it’s difficult to get your foot in the door, and geopolitics are complicating things.
You’ll need to keep in mind that 21 is still quite early in your life, and the world and pop culture really pushes an “instant success” mindset that sets all the wrong expectations.
You’ll need to do several things, unfortunately all at once. First, deeply understand personal finances. Understand that you need to “pay yourself first” (savings/investments) and then what’s left over is what you have to manage expenses and debts. If you keep yourself out of debt you’re better off. Bogleheads Wiki changed the way I viewed my money: https://www.bogleheads.org/wiki/Main_Page
You’re going to have to continue school. You need an Associate’s at a minimum. Go to a public community or municipal college. With an AA from here, most states will grant you automatic admission to public state universities. Research this. Regardless of what your views are on the utility of college degrees, you have to play the game. A college degree is a clearing house to larger companies. Trade school, is another option.
You’re going to have to work, to finance your costs of living plus your education investments, unless you’ve got someone or some financial instruments which let you focus on school.
With respect to college specifically, you’ll get out of it what you put in. Many folks will say it’s a waste, that “they didn’t learn anything new” while they went through. Well, that just signals to me they phoned it in; maybe they got lucky and got a break on their job, too.
From there, you’ll have your personal finances on lock, and one or two degrees (AA and a BA, and maybe a certificate or two) and you’ll be much more competitive.
The real game changer after all this is networking. The saying goes: It’s not what you know, it’s who you know. The best jobs don’t get posted to corporate websites, or if they do, they’re posted for labor law compliance and they already have a candidate in mind. Become a master at socializing (≠ partying), hint: it’s mostly just listening to other people.
It takes time. Be patient. Stay focused. You’ll get there.
There’s all sorts. Not all of them are old curmudgeons, either. A buddy of mine proclaimed that he let the poor person on the end of a VA line have it and I scolded him for it.
I’ve always tried to be calm and courteous, and I feel I’ve always received respect in return. I always try to be an advocate in my own care, so I spend some time studying my issues and try to use the same language with the doctors and nurses; they seem to appreciate that because medical terminology is so precise, it helps them to understand what I mean without them having to figure it out and provide care.
You seem like a good one. Keep it up.
Not Front Range, but I’ve been around. The most helpful advice is two fold: always be kind, and call every couple of days to ask for any last-minute cancellations you can slip into.
I moved an appointment up from 90d to a little over 30d by calling every day for last-minute cancellations. By the start of the second week of calling they knew my name and number and called me for the opening.
It’s a system like any other, one which deals with people in the middle who get yelled at far too often. Be kind and be persistent, and you’ll get results.
You can hook all of it up and do receive only while you are preparing for your exam. Once you get your license enjoy the fruits of your labor!
Getting setup, turned on, and receiving is 70% of the work.
I’m going to try and hop on 20m in my high-noise floor area (lots of EMI) and try to QSO on 10-12W.
I suppose I should practice Morse code, too.
How about you?
E: Fediverse PSA: Getting your (US) license has never been easier—there is no Morse code requirement! Just memorize the answers to the questions (perfectly legal) and take the test, I did all three of mine online, one of which was from a beach on a Pacific island during the pandemic!
I got it into my head that I would like to see a spherical depiction of my QSOs. Azimuthal and other representations weren't cutting it for me.
I managed to coax an LLM to output my ADIF into a KML so I could better visualize the reach of my QSOs, and I am quite stunned. 20m has almost complete global reach, as you'll see below. Admittedly, on CW it probably does. In these visualizations, the vast majority of contacts are on FT8 20m, but there are a few dozen SSB contacts as far as Indonesia. Usually I made these contacts well before sunrise.
This is a representation of my entire logbook, so any QSO not from the SW US are 10m.
Setup: IC-7300, barefoot, 15m mast, and a 20m twinlead j-pole. Having been temporarily based in a residential area, I had quite a high noise floor from various EMI sources, and could have probably done better with weak stations had my noise floor been lower.
Moving to the west:
More west, Australia prominently visible:
Antipodal view:
Looking toward the east, the west coast of Africa coming into view:
Africa; the lonely QSO east of Madagascar is Reunion Island, got this one on FT8:
You can see a sharp decline in activity about mid-screen.
About 1m 15s remaining:
45s after 1200Z:
Granted, this is the IARU Championship. But that's a lot of people on the radio.
20m at 1500Z.
Side note: for the last three days I’ve enjoyed nearly bottomless noise floors; been making SSB QSOs to Japan, Indonesia, and even Rarotonga. Then–today of all days–the AirBnB beside my house has turned on their aircon and it’s completely wiping out all but the strongest signals. My waterfall looks like college ruled notebook paper:
1830Z Update:
1900Z. This is wild.
Man, what an amazing day which will be long–if not impossible–to forget.
In the late 90s, I observed my first partial eclipse from South Florida. Then and there I decided I needed to see a total solar eclipse. Nearly 30 years later, I made good on that little personal promise. The moment I realized I would be in position to get along the path of totality, I made plans with my spouse to do so. We saved the date and planed the logistics.
I, of course, ensured my radio was packed and fully functional; charged the battery the night before. We left Del Rio, the closest place we could find reasonable accommodations, at 0400L. By 0700L we had hoisted and strung the OCF dipole and we were ready to go in DL98rv, just under the central path of the eclipse on the side of Hwy 131 in Texas just beyond the US-Mexican border.
The Tech section of 10m was silent that early, but I kept calling CQ until I started getting QSOs, pretty much went ten in a row in nearly the same number of minutes once the band came alive.
I had wanted to participate in the research project contest, but the instructions and bonuses were a little overwhelming, but I did manage to make one QSO during totality. On the one hand, I was expecting propagation attenuation, but the QSO I made was over 1,500 miles away.
I've read over and over about experiencing totality. Photos will never do it justice. Words doubly so. If you've ever been on the fence about traveling to see totality–just do it.
Lessons learned or confirmed:
I am eager for your questions and feedback!
Let’s QSO!
18:05Z QSY to 28320khz
19:30Z QSY to 28315khz
In the era before the average net worth of a Congress person was in the tens of millions, it made sense because it prevented them from their wages being held hostage.