Amateur (Ham) Radio BS and Callsign Thread!

What is 600? A baofeng is less than 50. Can be set to dual monitor with chirp

 

Scanner is $450-$500, 2M for vehicle is $100.

I think I want the ability to listen to both channels at the same time.

 

Uvr5 for 26
Antenna and coax for about 30
Chirp is free and the cable for it is about 12 bucks

Amazon has it all

 

I went ahead and got a

$19 UV-5r VHF/UHF Dual Band Radio 144-148MHz 420-450MHz Transceiver

UV-5r with an upgraded antenna, and a programming cable for it.

 

So many acronyms

 

I belong to the AAAAA - American Association Against Acronym Abuse

 

Done about 2 hours of studying and average 65% on the practice tests.
Gotta study more (mainly the technical, wavelength and antenna questions) and I think I'll be able to get my license when I get back at the end of January.

 

Here's a little review I gave on an overland forum for APRSdroid after traveling from Texas, to Indianapolis, then Milwaukee, and finally back to Texas.


This feels like cheating, but during our Christmas trip back to the Midwest we took my wife's car. She has a Yaesu FT-8800r in the car, and we brought a Yaesu VX-7R with us as well, but I don't have an APRS unit for her car yet like I have in the truck.

I wanted a way for my dad to track our progress, so I installed APRSdroid from the Android App Store. After generating an APRS-IS code for my callsign, and configuring the software to use W9ZEB-5 (for phone, and to not conflict with my truck W9ZEB-9) I had a working solution.

The cheating part is there's no Amateur radio involved anywhere in this solution. However it worked brilliantly. In the image below you can see the 48h tail.



Now, If I had planned ahead a little bit better, I would have gone to the Mobilinkd shop, and would have purchased the cable for my Yaesu VX-7R. I would have then connected the radio to my phone, and would have used it's transmitter to send and receive APRS traffic, rather than just using the phone's internet connection.

All in all, for the $4.95 that APRSdroid costs, I think it's a good bit of software. When connected to a radio, or to the internet APRS-IS you can switch to map mode, and it will display other APRS stations in your area. A few HTs and Android Tablets (GPS Required) shared in a caravan could be very useful.

 

I'm toying with the idea of mounting a Kenwood TM-V71a under my seat and the head unit in the storage cubby below the USB Aux port with the remote mounting kit.
I think there should be enough room behind it for my little Motorola speaker I used in a previous vehicle.
Can anyone with a later model 2nd gen post pictures of the remote mounted radios in that location?
I'd also like to know if there is an alternative i can use to mount the radio without buying the remote kit. Im pretty sure the cable is no issue but I'd like to take the head unit with me sometimes.


below are photos of proposed location and speaker:

 

Like this?





I later moved the control head here because the cup holders were getting in the way.

 

Yes just like that. How did you mount it when you moved it?

 

two screws into the bottom of the stereo surround to hold the Kenwood Remote Face stand. (which was an aftermarket piece from Metra anyway.)

 

Just got my new Baofeng UV-82hp yesterday, I'm trying to sync it to my pc but I'm having a hard time finding a good software driver for windows 7. A windows vista driver should work as well. Baofeng's site only has WinXP drivers. Does anyone know a good place to source this software from?

 

Is it a cheap Chinese cable too? If so, it may not work with 7. You may need to buy a new cable. Check out Chirps, it's a great programming software, for free, plus they have info about the cables on their website.

 

The cable they send contains a counterfeit chipset (internal electronics). Buy

$23 BTECH PC03 FTDI Universal Plug & Play USB Programming Cable for BTECH, Baofeng, Kenwood Radios - Compatible with UV-5R, BF-F8HP, GMRS-V2, UV-82HP & More - Easy Setup, No Driver Needed

a legit programming cable, and you'll have no problems.

 

Try the FTDI driver website. There is a windows 7 driver. http://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/VCP.htm
Also check out http://www.miklor.com/ or https://baofengtech.com/ they support sections that may get you going. It's not uncommon for people to have issues with programming cables and drivers.

 

I bought the cable separately, its boxed on the end with the Baofeng logo plate on it. It 'appears' legit, does that sound correct?

@Chipskip I tried Chirps, I can only get the software to run, not the driver.

@jim532 thanks, I will give that a shot next.

 

I found my cables drivers with a trial and error on some downloads

 

See if this helps,
http://www.buytwowayradios.com/blog...eng_usb_programming_cable_and_software_1.aspx

 

I'm new to HAM and was not aware of this.. But I see your point. Makes feel a bit dirty, but its too late now.

I've been down driver hell before many times. Perhaps someone on here saved the legacy drivers I need or can tell me what version to look for?