amuck-landowner

The cesspit / chat thread.

MannDude

Just a dude
vpsBoard Founder
Moderator
How tough is it to get into HAM? I'd love to get my license.

Not hard at all. The Technician Class license, which is the bare minimum requirement for transmitting is pretty easy. Go to HamStudy.org to study flashcards.

There are 35 questions on the exam, but the question pool is 400 questions. Use that site I mentioned to study and take practice exams and you'll do fine. I tested out with a 32/35.

I'm studying for my General Class license now so I can open up more HF bands and will eventually get my Amateur Extra license which is the final and most advanced licensing the FCC offers.

Today I took the handheld yagi shown above and was hitting 2M repeaters in Cincinatti and Columbus, Indiana on a little 8w hand-held radio without much issue. Both locations are about 40-50 miles from me. I also have a Diamond x200a omnidirectional antenna that I need to install on a mast. It's 8' tall and will be mounted about 20' in the air... would be higher (and may be in the future) but that'll give me good coverage. I was using it as a 'handheld' yesterday and was hitting a repeater clear as day 60+ miles away. I assume once it's properly mounted and I get a proper base station radio I'll hear further and be heard further on 2M/70cm bands.

Of course, if you want to talk real far get into HF stuff and track sun activity :)

I'm tracking a few satelites now and plan on trying to make contact. There is a passing of the SO-50 that will be low on the horizon later today and I may try to see if I can QSO with anyone.
 

MannDude

Just a dude
vpsBoard Founder
Moderator
When you're moving out to the country and find out you can only get 1Mbps internet from the only provider that services the area.

Oh well. Maybe I'll read more books since I doubt I'll be able to stream media like I do now. Not a bad thing, really.
 

earl

Active Member
Last week i put in a cancellation request for my dsl service which is 25/25. So yesterday i got an email from my ISP stating that they upgraded my download to 300 mbit at no additional cost, just because this service was available in my area. This is 2 days before the service gets terminated! and Ive had this service for over 8 months.
 

xBytez

New Member
Just got 350 meg at my new house :) Nice upgrade from my old 12 meg DSL.

Nice! I'm still at 300Mb/s down and 30 up. I'm looking to get a higher upload at home but I doubt that's happening anytime soon unfortunately.

Offtopic: Glad to see my thread from 2013 is still alive!
 

Jared

New Member
I stay at work for so long that I get yelled at to leave. They don't know its because they have much better internet here.
 

Lee

Retired Staff
Verified Provider
Retired Staff
Our local and fairly basic priced broadband is decent in Scotland.

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Rocketrix

New Member
Living in the sticks has it's perks. If I could get in the sticks without having such a long drive to work, I'd be there in a heartbeat and take slow internet.



That's pretty solid for full duplex!

I remember at my visit to Amesterdam, 200mbps was like 75€/month and at first you had to pay like 49€ for the setup and technician fees to connect you to their fiber.
 

MannDude

Just a dude
vpsBoard Founder
Moderator
Uhg. Your speeds.

I don't even know what all is possible with 1Mbps down. Guess I'll find out soon enough.

Now I know why there is a HughesNet internet satellite on the property... but gross. Capped data and still poor speeds.
 

Jonathan

Woohoo
Verified Provider
Now I know why there is a HughesNet internet satellite on the property... but gross. Capped data and still poor speeds.

...and the latency! Don't do it!

Take the 1Mbps over whatever HughesNet is offering. Trust me.

Been there done that.
 

Jonathan

Woohoo
Verified Provider
My 300/5 cable at home is $80/mo. I can regularly pull 350 down. Supposedly I'll be getting a bump to 25 up here soon....
 
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