Thanks to all of you for the info. In a perfect world I wouldn't need to RDF the rocket at all. I'd get the last GPS location and drive right to it, right? I think I may try one of the cheapie radios. Someone has generously offered to let me use their antenna and Teledongle so I've put off spending a few dollars for the time being.
On Tue, Jun 16, 2015 at 1:11 PM, Max McHatton <[email protected]> wrote: > I’ve been DFing and RFI locating professionally for more than 30 years; > and Terry’s method is sound. The commercial DF/RFI Kits have a built in > analogue signal strength meter, that helps you determine left or right. > The human ear, if in good condition, is far more sensitive to variations > than all but the most sophisticated and expensive meters. > > Two things could possibly help to refine the method: Loop Antenna, and > stubby antenna (1”) for when you get very close. Arrow does make loop > antennas in both VHF and UHF. I haven’t tried them yet, but I intend to. > As for the stubby; the ones I have used were supplied with commercial DFing > Kits. I have yet to identify a commercial source for them. I suppose I > could make one easily enough with a BNC connector and a piece of solid > wire.. > > > > Max > > > > *From:* altusmetrum [mailto:[email protected]] *On Behalf > Of *Terry W7AMI > *Sent:* June 16, 2015 10:56 > *To:* Altus Metrum > *Subject:* Re: [altusmetrum] RDF on the cheap > > > > I guess I do DFing differently than most people? I don't use the signal > strength meter at all. I open up the squelch and listen to the incoming > signal. You can hear a weak signal, even using FM, long before the > squelch will open or the signal will show up on the S-Meter. I move the > beam antenna around until I find the direction where the signal is the > least noisy. When the signal is stronger I switch in attenuation to > reduce the signal strength so the signal becomes noisy again. > > Terry > > > > > > On Mon, Jun 15, 2015 at 10:43 PM, W7AMI <[email protected]> wrote: > > The problem with the Baofeng UV3R that I have is ease of use, or rather > lack of. If you want to set it up with a Mobilinkd modem it's good. But > for general use it cumbersome. To DF you will want to turn off the > squelch. To do that you have to hit the Menu button on the front panel > and use the selector knob on the top of the radio to scroll through the > functions to the squelch function. Then hit the U/V button to select the > squelch feature and then rotate the selector knob on top until the squelch > is set to zero. It works. It takes longer to read than to actually do it > but it isn't convenient. Even the volume control is primitive. Hit the > Vol button and rotate the selector knob to turn the volume up or down. > The entire volume range is only 9 steps. I find I only use the first two > steps. The big feature is that is is cheap. I mostly use mine to > monitor the launch channel on the FRS service while hunting rockets away > from the launch area. The launches are almost cooler 1/2 mile away from > the pad! That's my experience your mileage may vary. > > Terry > > > > _______________________________________________ > altusmetrum mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.gag.com/mailman/listinfo/altusmetrum > >
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