This is a community for all things Amateur Radio. See someone with a radio? Introduce yourself and exchange callsigns. Got your ticket years ago but never been on-air? Make your first QSO with a friendly con attendee. You’d be surprised how many attendees are amateur radio enthusiasts and would love to share what they have learned. Who knows, maybe there is a flag for the hackers challenge somewhere around here.
Getting involved is easy! Find someone with a radio and introduce yourself!
Carry your radio on your belt / clipped visibly if you are willing to exchange callsigns and/or make an introduction. If you prefer to just have your radio and be listening along, put a red tag on your antenna so folks know not to bother you (look for people with the community patch, or swing by the Home Labs community to pick one up).
During the convention, we will be using these simplex frequencies:
447.800 MHz (primary)
446.500 MHz (backup)
Any amateur radio that supports FM on the 70cm band (420-450MHz) will work. If you don’t have a radio yet and are looking for a cheap option, we recommend the Retevis RT-85.
Want to give DMR a go? We will be running a duplex hotspot on 449.250(-) with Color Code 6 and Talk Group 31671. Make sure to request your ID well in advance so you are ready to go by the time the conference rolls around. (Any licensed ham can request a radio ID even if you don’t have a DMR radio yet.)
If you don’t have a DMR radio yet, we recommend either an Anytone radio or one that is supported by the OpenGD77 firmware. Many of us have the Retevis RT-3S and like it. Avoid the cheap COTRE or GOCOM radios unless you’re confident you know what you are doing.
Advanced Users
If you are interested in P25 radios and/or business band operation with encryption, reach out to @cleeb who plans to bring an experimental P25 trunked system and keyloader to the con.
