What did you do for your comms setup today?

[airballrad]

Started fiddling with APRS and learning what it can do. Minimal investment to get up and running with a handheld, and the idea of being able to communicate and get weather reports even in an area with compromised communications infrastructure is neat.

[Skidjit]

Started fiddling with APRS and learning what it can do. Minimal investment to get up and running with a handheld, and the idea of being able to communicate and get weather reports even in an area with compromised communications infrastructure is neat.

I played around with APRS last year enough to get signals decoded using DireWolf and PinpointAPRS. Transmitting was a whole another issue. That's still a work in progress.

[airballrad]

I have been using both Pinpoint and Direwolf on my PC, but also the aprs.fi app on my phone. I am lucky enough to have multiple gateways and digipeaters nearby so I don't have to troubleshoot around that. I can get over 50 miles in two hops, so the chances of getting a message out that way during a disaster aren't bad.

I played around with APRS last year enough to get signals decoded using DireWolf and PinpointAPRS. Transmitting was a whole another issue. That's still a work in progress.

[NT2C]

Picked up a Radtel RT-880G handie-talkie.  I'll need extra batteries for it, and the flap over the USB C programming/charging port is the cheapest piece of crap I've ever seen on a radio, making the ones on Baofengs look positively first-class in comparison.  I've had the thing all of two hours now and already it refuses to stay locked down and sticks out just enough to constantly irritate your hand.  I'll probably tear it off at some point, possibly within the hour. But I do like the rig so far.

The radio does have a functioning APRS mode with a GPS, so it has that going for it.  My VGC HT will also do APRS but has to link to my phone to do it.

[airballrad]

Inverted V HF antenna I threw together last weekend. 23' painter's pole from Home Depot, 16ga speaker wire, cheap 1:1 balun, and knockoff Anderson Powerpole connectors from Amazon. Some paracord, S-clip biners, and zip ties I had laying around. Probably $100 all told for components (the painter pole was $40 and the balun was $30). It is segmented with the Powerpole connectors to work on 10m, 20m, and 40m (with bonus 15m). I was making contacts all over the US and DX contacts into Europe with it. It is also portable since it does not need a tree to set up.

[NT2C]

Picked up a Radtel RT-817A HT (18W), and a Radtel RT-950 Pro (APRS works on this one, unlike on my RT-880G)