Ham Shack

PearsonArtPhoto

00:28

Wonder why the down-vote on the ITU zone question. It seems perfectly legitimate to me...

Seth

I was wondering about that too.

PearsonArtPhoto

I hate to be the whiner to complain about a downvote, but when it's a +1/-1...

Seth

IKR

PearsonArtPhoto

???

Seth

I know right.

;)

You say. I agree.

PearsonArtPhoto

00:42

Ahh, never heard that one before.

Seth

00:52

We have a question on my home meta about these:

45

A: I saw something in chat I don't understand

Expressions: -.- - sarcastic, can mean fail, you don't say... or any derivations of not sure if / can not believe in this o/, \o - Waving either hello or goodbye \o/ - excitement, exclaiming "yay!" /me - it's like "insert my name here" ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ - Shrug, I don't know ;P - Almost anyth...

Quite a few I didn't know there either lol.

Seth

01:24

Is it a good idea to generalize in an answer?

i.e. Should I just refer to line A in this answer or include the other information too?

PearsonArtPhoto

01:38

It usually doesn't hurt to include more related information.

Amber

Yeah, I think you're fine there.

@PearsonArtPhoto: you've got my upvote on the ITU zones question; I think it's perfectly legitimate.

PearsonArtPhoto

I think I'm starting to get all of the pieces together for my upcoming program. Should be fun when it's all said and done:-)

Amber

Hm. I'm gonna fill in some descriptions for some of these tags that are missing them.

in another 265 rep I'll even be able to approve them o_O

PearsonArtPhoto

01:58

I'm the first non-SE employee to be able to approve them;-)

Amber

you're up to 750 now?

PearsonArtPhoto

Wait, can't approve tags yet, you're right. Sigh.

Just normal edits.

I see you'll be there soon.

Amber

Heh, yeah. It's a little bit of a disorienting feeling coming to this SE from where I normally hang out (SO)

given the drastic drop in privileges

PearsonArtPhoto

LOL. Just wait until we hit public beta, and your privileges drop on the same site.

I'm used to working on sites with 4-5 different privleges.

Amber

yeah, I know. I'm familiar with the beta process, but it never ceases to disorient me :)

PearsonArtPhoto

02:07

The thing that I always hate is not being able to click on a number and see how many up/down votes there was.

Everything else I can get used to.

One thing that's nice about private betas is if you are active at all, you almost don't have the drop in privileges, at least, not most of them.

Seth

03:15

I really miss the editing privilege >.<

Hmm. What about this question:

2

Q: How to build a portable 2m yagi for meteor scatter use?

How could I build a portable 2-meter yagi for meteor scatter use?

meteors

Isn't that a little ambiguous?

If yes, should we edit it or close it?

Amber

In general, always favor asking clarifying questions to the OP

in this particular case, Timtech kind of shotgunned a bunch of not-very-fleshed-out questions

I think possibly from the commitment phase

Seth

Yeah, I noticed that ;)

@Amber So in this case what would you do?

Amber

Well, in this case Timtech has already already responded to comments once

so I'd follow up with more comments if you think it needs clarification

and ask Timtech to clarify it

Seth

03:32

Hmm. Okay.

Everyone

06:08

Anybody care to write-up the tag wiki for power-supply I just created?

Amber

looks

Everyone

@Amber Edited the question. Better?

Amber

yeah, that's somewhat better

Everyone

Somewhat? (+:

Amber

it's still a little open-ended in terms of "yeah it happened for me" "no it didn't happen for me" and so on, but much more reasonable

Everyone

06:14

Ah "How should I prevent hum bleeding into the txcvr when using a computer SMPS?"

Amber

Ideally you want questions that "experts" will agree on the answer to

rather than just anecdotal evidence

I'm fine with leaving it as it is now

I think it's narrowed down enough and clarified to the point where it could get a reasonable answer

Everyone

'k... yes, 'how' delves directly into RFI/EMI - might be a little broad

Amber

heh, just noticed that chat lists my total rep in here, regardless of which SE it came from >.>

yeah, I'd avoid "how" for now

that'd broaden the question rather than narrowing it

Everyone

134k ... ouch.

Amber

yeah, but 133k of that is from SO

Everyone

06:19

Why does SE show my base-profile handle in here rather than the custom handle for this site?

Amber

I think chat is site-agnostic

hence why it's just chat.SE

Everyone

@Amber Even worse (+: lol I'm not even 1k on SO

Amber

added a short wikitext for power-supply

Everyone

TY (+: Much appreciated

Amber

actually you are 1k on SO :) 1007

Everyone

06:21

That's actually 1 - 007 ; from the MI (+: but don't tell anybody

Amber

;)

I do hope ham.SE takes off - I'm honestly just a very beginner-level ham

having a place to ask questions and get quality answers would be nice :)

Everyone

I'm practically NHW *N*o *H*ard *W*are aka QRU ... for now

doesn't chat recognize wiki tags?

Amber

As per ham.stackexchange.com/questions/23/… all I have is my little UV-5R :)

Everyone

Don't even have that; a fellow ham here took pity on me and gave me his refurb man-pack which I promptly blew up

brb

Amber

haha

Everyone

06:27

Hm. What measuring instruments are necessary before attempting home-brew? Multimeter? Oscilloscope?

Amber

I mean, technically none of those are required before attempting. :)

Succeeding, on the other hand, might be far simpler with at least one or two.

Everyone

pedantry q+: but you're right - might need to be phrased a little better

Amber

Perhaps something along the lines of "What basic measurement devices will be useful when constructing a home-brew radio?"

Everyone

Sounds good. Want to build it? (+:

Amber

heh. I'm mostly just restricting myself to questions I actually have at this point

don't let that stop you, though, if you're interested in the question

Everyone

06:34

In the answer certainly, only most of those answers will probably come from outside VU land where instruments are much easier to come by

Amber

I remember building my own multimeter in school :)

Everyone

Nice (+: Got it on your blog, or something?

Amber

Heh, I didn't have a blog at that point

this was nearly 10 years ago

Everyone

Quite a while ago

Amber

Yeah. I built a multimeter and a lab power supply, in fact

used a similar circuit from the meter to build a voltage display into the power supply, and made it adjustable

Everyone

06:42

lab PS is right up my street. that's what caused trouble with the rig; it's so annoying to have the tx, and no rx lol

@Amber clever (+:

Amber

wow, you can buy led meter boards for really cheap nowadays o_O

eg amazon.com/HOSSEN%C2%AE-Digital-Voltage-Voltmeter-Three-wires/…

Everyone

Relatively cheap ; different exchange rate/rules

Amber

yes, that is true.

Still, far cheaper than when I was looking at similar components a decade ago.

Everyone

06:57

That too (+:

Amber

Okay. I should head to bed since it's nearly midnight here. TTYL!

Everyone

ciao. rise refreshed.

Everyone

10:20

Hmm. Can I work a satellite repeater with just the rubber ducky?

Johannes Kuhn

11:51

@PearsonArtPhoto I can click on the numbers and it displays the number of up and downvotes. I don't have any greasmonkey/whatever script loaded.

PearsonArtPhoto

12:15

I think the reputation requirement is quite low for that in private beta, but it goes up quite a bit in public beta, and even more for a graduated site.

I finally asked the question that I've been dying to know the answer for for a long time.

0

Q: Why is an exemption for music given to NASA broadcasts of manned space flight missions?

FCC 97.113 Prohibited transmissions reads: (e) No station shall retransmit programs or signals emanating from any type of radio station other than an amateur station, except propagation and weather forecast information intended for use by the general public and originated from United St...

united-states legal music space-station

PearsonArtPhoto

14:29

I've got a start of a question which I can't quite figure out, but could be interesting.

How much are the bands really used over 70cm?

PearsonArtPhoto

15:01

@Everyone Possibly. It might be interesting to ask a question about a specific satellite, asking what the requirements would be. Hmmm...

0

Q: What gain do I need to talk to SO-50 with my HT?

My HT has 5 W of power, a sensitivity of about 0.2 uV, and I would like to talk to the SO-50 with it. How much gain do I need in my antenna to make this work?

antenna space-station amsat so-50 gain

Everyone

16:18

@Peter KB1AVL Updated the antenna description

@PearsonArtPhoto Perfect (+: Upvoted!

Above 70cm they probably need special equipment ... good question except asking it may just get the attention of anyone looking to have those bands deallocated from the amateur spectrum. It was after all the amateurs who discovered & developed HF; perhaps something similar is awaiting discovery in the millimetRe bands reserved for amateurs (+:

Why does chat.SE insist on milli-metEr instead of milli-metRe as it should be?
*sulks*

Rory Alsop

@Everyone Merkin

Everyone

eyes @RoryAlsop auspiciously

Explain yourself!

Rory Alsop

@Everyone auspiciously? :-)

Everyone

erm

Rory Alsop

surely suspiciously

Everyone

16:28

right

Seth

Oh hi @RoryAlsop :)

Rory Alsop

I meant it is an American site, so US English,, not British English

@Seth afternoon

Everyone

I've got to stop typing with food nearby

Rory Alsop

@Everyone well sure - food should be inside

Everyone

inside?

Rory Alsop

16:29

yep - eat, then type

Everyone

So it should (+: I agree whole-heartedly

Seth

And so does your keyboard :P

Rory Alsop

@Seth this ^

rotting food in keyboards is the 3rd biggest cause of stomach upsets in programmers

(probably)

Seth

LOL.

Everyone

Not this keyboard! Why'd'u think the keyboard is wrapped into the anti-static plastics it came in?

Seth

16:34

Well don't let you keyboard get this bad i.sstatic.net/vOjrl.jpg

Everyone

Right. I'm away now. Sir D needs me

Seth

Hmm. Do we really consider this too broad?

-2

Q: What are amateur radio bands?

I'm new to radio and would like to know what amateur radio bands are. I'm also wondering the range of these bands/how many there are.

radio amateur-radio radio-band

Rory Alsop

@Seth I have seen much worse...

Seth

@RoryAlsop I'm sure you have. That one's bad enough though ;P

Rory Alsop

@Seth It makes the skin crawl, doesn't it

Seth

16:39

@RoryAlsop Yes indeed.

Everyone

16:54

abck

Definitely broad... where is the OP for that from anyway? or does s/he desire to know what bands are?

Rory Alsop

@Everyone it looks like just an example question and answer (The OP also posted the first answer) as it is likely to be a googled question

Everyone

How much duration between posing the question, and posting the answer?

Rory Alsop

@Everyone about 3 minutes if I remember right :-)

Seth

I personally think it would be fine with just a little rewording. I don't see how explaining what bands are and what bands Amateurs can use is too broad..

Everyone

@Seth Which bands? The IARU bands, or the ones in the nation where the OP is based/wishes to operate from? (+:

@RoryAlsop A little quick methinks

Seth

16:58

@Everyone Oh duh. Forgot this isn't a US only site >.<

Everyone

no worries (+:

Seth

@Everyone When I answer my own question I post them at the same time :P

Everyone

@Seth That makes you a perfectionst q+:

or is it concussionist? (+:<

Seth

I am a perfectionist, yes :P

Everyone

What kind of power are you allowed on the millimetRe bands anyway?

Seth

17:01

Gonna take some getting used to these blue links.

Everyone

lol. nice link.
p.s. yes, perfectionist shows

Seth

17:12

@Everyone If you're in the US Part 97.313 says nothing about the millimeter bands..

Everyone

In India (+:

Seth

Ahh, I don't know then ;)

Everyone

(+: 115 channels in the milli-metre band

Everyone

17:25

@Seth: It's public domain (+: wpc.dot.gov.in/DocFiles/amateur_new_guidelines.pdf

@Seth QRZ?

dcaswell

20:48

I have no talent for thinking of good questions. Is this well-phrased? How can someone listen to amateur communications using their internet connection?

Dan

21:06

Trying to determine if this is bad juju or acceptable: ham.stackexchange.com/questions/283/…

LaTeX was best medium for me to answer

Amber

21:22

@dcaswell - if I were asking that, I would probably phrase it as "Is there a way to listen to amateur radio communications via the internet?"

dcaswell

@amber Thanks!

Amber

And then expand upon what exactly you're looking for in the body of the question [namely, resolve the ambiguity between "listen to (amateur radio communications via the internet)" and "(listen to amateur radio communications) via the internet"]

I'm assuming you're wanting to ask a question about the latter

dcaswell

@amber Right. It's the latter.

@amber and with HF and internet tags?

Amber

21:59

hm. hf tag only if you're specifically wanting to listen to hf contacts

as opposed to other bands

dcaswell

I narrowed it down to HF so we wouldn't be too broad with echoLink, etc.

Transcript for