I am Jim, WT1W, and I'm passionate about amateur radio, technology, and gadgets! Get ready for comprehensive coverage spanning HF/VHF/UHF, HT's, Pi-Star, oscilloscopes, spectrum analyzers, cables, wires, and more. Expect in-depth reviews and demos of various gear. Join me in exploring the exciting world of amateur radio - let's dive in together!
Prolific has had not just counterfeit issues but really badly made counterfeit issues for over a decade. I remember boafeng and plain TTL adapters being a problem at least as far back as 2012.
The meter is definitely the way to go with tracking power consumption. The math on draw vs amp hour isn't quite right. The amp hour rating isn't linear in relation to current x time at all current draw rates. The battery will become far less efficient as larger amounts of current are consumed.
nice job ! hard to do math ! so many things with TX amps from radio. your settings makes a difference on power draw and your talking style . with CW your speed has a lot to do with power draw . just get a inline meter . better ones are bi- directional and can take account for solar as well. 73's
It would be nice to have a monitor that would keep track of the power used and store it so you could have a total consumption of power over time so you know when to charge the battery. The batteries BMS probably has that but in many cases you cannot get access to that data. Thanks for the video Jim!
@Frank_K4FMH I saw that one. His is rated for 100A, whereas others are rated for 150A, 200A, etc. I hadn't noticed until someone pointed it out to me. Just something to consider.
Indeed! They vary quite a bit. I have more than a dozen of these inline wattmeters, ranging upwards of 200A. I routinely out them in battery boxes I build. Kevin’s YT video was a variant of the one Jim illustrates here. 73 de K4FMH
I've been licensed for almost 30 years and using CW for all of that time. Only recently have I decided to start looking for something besides my trusty Speed-X if I'm going to use a straight key. Thank you for your excellent summary on the J-38, especially the shorting bar. I thought it was for tuning up, and of course it can be used for that, but your explanation gave an option I hadn't thought of. Many thanks!
Useful video. I had to work out how to do exactly this for my Tarheel which uses the same size stud mount. I ended up using mounts from a US company called HiQ. Took a bit of research to find a robust solution.
some ham sticks use same 3/8 mount. radio been bad the past few days. got a outher X class solar flair today. effected 20 meters. CB no DX just back ground noise and some local 19 traffic. getting plenty of NOAA alerts. CB is great when on the go. 73's
so you’re asking me to carry around a laptop to be able to make it go portable. That’s just as bad as using wire X. they expect you to carry around PC in order for it to connect up it’s not worth it. Go buy an open spot or a ClearNode.
Quick correction: absolutely NO computer whatsoever is required to "run the radio" [@35s]. And that's important because in the past, and currently with all PowerSDR based radios, a computer IS required to "run the radio". In those cases radio processing is performed BY PowerSDR on the computer. The Flex Signature Series performs all processing in the radio itself which is actually not exactly a "radio" at all but really a "radio server", running Linux. One normally connects to this with client software which can run on anything in principle and is currently supported on Windows, iOS, iPadOS and MacOS. It also looks like an Android client is on the way as well. In principle, some device you may have designed to interface with a radio could connect to a Flex which is operating entirely stand-alone. An API exists to implement an interface to do this as well. The radio would be "running" in that case with no computer involved at all.
Using that for CB is illegal, the law should allow hams to use the CB bands with all our privileges. The prolific scam should be grounds for banning Windows forever, I have a couple of nice import radios, but the Icom M700Pro is my go to base CB and the Yaesu 891 is great for mobile use.
Okay but a lot of radios do 11 meters , that’s a 10 meter radio not a CB .. THATS A GOOD RADIO IT DOES A LOT BUT IT’S NOT A 4 watt CB , BUT YOU ALREADY KNOW THAT
neat radio ! I have the Radioddity QT 60 10/11/12 meter radio and has same programming plug. mine program windows 11 just fine with anytone software. same radio. I set my radio all up threw laptop. has CTCSS/DTS . with Digi rig it will do digital modes like FT8/JS8CALL /SSTV . but need to keep power down on digital. 10 and 12 meters been bas the past few days . even 11 meter band. The first thing I did to mine is put ferrite on power cable and Power pole. my SWR protection I set at 3:1 . I think you can set that threw the PC. I got voltage protect as well. I hear that radio on CB. some sound bad. but that the user not the radio. golden screw driver got in side. good clean RF gets you out. I can talk from NY to England on 10/12 meters just fine with my QT60 when band is good. and that around 25/30 watt PEP. I run 50% . same on my 7300. longer battery run time. 73's
A video by a guy who calls himself the technogypsy on a channel called Technog he demonstrated that the real difference came only when you shortened the counterpoise by 1/2 inch increments until it was tuned at the test frequency. With untuned counterpoises he got very similar relative outputs as you found. He used a Nano VNA to test the tuning. The difference in performance that he got was going from microwatts uW to mW milliwatts effective radiated power. It was a big difference so maybe you want to try your test again with tuned tiger tail counterpoise length. His testing indicated, rather convincingly I thought, that the counterpoise has to be tuned to the particular radio and antenna. That makes sense to me. Tom W3TDH
Javier, I don't remember enough about it to tell you one way or the other (I don't have it any more). If you're using an Android mobile device, it seems to work pretty well. At the time, I never had tinkered with APRS enough to get a good feel for that functionaility.
Friend, tell me, do you have a program for flashing channels? Using "chirp" it is not possible to enter both Rx and Tx frequencies at once. The radio is good for beginners. I was pleased with the frequency capture.
What it did in the day was capture cell phone frequencies. Then you could use a scanner and listen in to cell phone conversations. It was a spy tool used in PI work....before the FCC blocked cell phone frequency ranges on scanners...pretty much obsolete tech today..if you got close to someone on a cellphone in the 90's you could grab that phones frequency and tune in to it on the scanner.
It's not designed to test thru walls, they call it a non-contact scanner, as in you don't need to touch bare wires (like with a meter), but you gotta have it pretty darn close to the hot wire to detect it. More of outlet usage is what they're used for, or in a service panel.
Jim, I finally got my AIOC from China(yay) but I have to source an LED before I can use it(boo). I noticed your board--and mine--don't have that tiny little smd chip on the right edge, up from the usb c. Is that no longer needed? I am worried I need to go get that too
