Official Colorado HAM and cheese thread

i hope so. if theres a run from here (denver) to moab ill have to drive the taco instead of towing it. is there a plan for offroading it to moab? im down.

 

It's kind of weird sometimes I think; when I was waiting for mine it didn't show up when searching but once I was notified it was there and I looked up the call sign then it showed up. Never did figure out the why for that.

 

There's not really a run from Denver all the way to Moab. BUT there is one from Montrose to Moab (Rimrocker) and Grand Junction to Moab(Kokopelli)...

 

Got my callsign!

KE0IXZ

 

so which one of those are we gonna run?

 

I WAS going to run Rimrock with several people... Let me find a link to the thread, they're leaving the 28tg from Montrose. But I have to work the 30th. I ran Kokopelli last year. I won't be running either this year, but plan on doing hole in the rock or Lockhart basin the 31st-1st or 2nd.

 

Congratulations brother! Extended my streak to 40straight for passing score in the HAM test prep. And have officially seen every question (and mastered 80%)

 

Nice! Sounds like you're ready for tech and should move on to preparing for the general exam so you can use more frequencies

 

I will... but not this go. too much going on right now at work, my mind is going in a million directions and there's not that much to go around! lol

 

I just tried the General test 3 times and it's a wide azz guess on every question. Still somehow came out around 50% each time.

No Thanks, I will live with frequencies I can get with the easy test.

 

Now to see if I can get APRS working with the baofeng...

 

Good timing.

Came home to find this


Thanks @Lars !

 

So I just talked to @odomandr from my house in firestone on a repeater that he said was in evergreen.

I'll have to check it out but I'm guessing it should be about 35 miles in a straight line from me.

Sounded better than the cb does at 35 feet. So far, I'm pretty happy with my <$100 setup



Edit: ~41 miles straight line distance.

 

Congrats guys. 41 miles to repeater on a baofeng is impressive with how clear it was

 

@chenbro
Struggled a little bit with CHIRP maybe I can save you some trouble.

first off, the last time I did this with my UV-5Rs, I was running windows 7. Windows 10 automatically upgrades the driver for the cable and you have to manually downgrade it. Instructions for this are on the CHIRP website under the FAQ.

Secondly, you have to select "

$40 UV-5R 8Watt Ham Radio Handheld Long Range UHF/VHF Radio with 2 Rechargeable Battery, Portable Radio for Adults with Earpiece, GV-771 Antenna, Programming Cable (3rd Gen)

UV-5R" as the radio model even though it seems like

$63 BF-F8HP (UV-5R 3rd Gen) 8-Watt Dual Band Two-Way Radio (136-174MHz VHF & 400-520MHz UHF) Includes Full Kit with Large Battery

BF-F8HP would be the right choice. the BF-F8+ is actually more closely related to the UV-5R.

I'd definitely save the stock configuration before messing with it. If you want my configuration file (all FRS, MURS, GMRS, some fire, police, emt (non transmittable) and a lot of colorado/utah repeaters) I'd be happy to send it to you.

 

Got home and found a radio and cable on the front porch also. Thanks again, @Lars !

You're going to have to show me how all this stuff works on the radio in person the next time I see you. Right now all I that I know how to do with it is turn on the flashlight and change frequencies/channels.

 

Dialing in a simplex frequency is easy enough on the radio but for repeaters it's a pain to enter tones and offsets and all that crap. Much easier to do it on the computer with CHIRP and the cable @Lars sent you.

 

We should all share a file and set radios up where a is the name and b is the frequency and all the channels match

 

I think that's a great idea Andy. Also, maybe designate a few unoccupied frequencies for simplex communication on trails?

 

Seconded. This way if I have any issues you guys can't blame my config