The Golden Triangle (Beaumont, Port Arthur, Nederland)

Zing

 

Pm me the link

 

I would like the link as well please.

 

Just post it @fajitas21 I'd run one in the truck if some of y'all would

 

The website is HamTestOnline.

The URL is http://www.hamradiolicenseexam.com

It's like $24.95 for 2 years of access and they refund your money if you don't pass. The course for the Tech took about 10 hours of study, I just did an hour a night for a week and a half or so and took the test right afterwards since it was fresh on my mind.

The nice thing is that the questions and the answers are the actual ones that appear on the test, so even if you don't 100% understand a particular concept you can just memorize that answer and move on. That might sound like a cop-out, but there are few times where you're going to need to build an antenna on the fly and need to calculate the length based on the frequency you're targeting.

I'd say the site works, I made a 33/35 my first try.

 

I never tried for my licence as I do not understand why I need it.

 

The main reason really is simply to join the ARRL and have the FCC issue a callsign to you, which you can then legally transmit on those bands to help in case of emergencies or your own particular reasons such as communications for any reason you like.

I'd be more apt to use it if others had it, as the 2m band on FM is going to be wayyy clearer than CB radios which are AM, while travelling much farther than 70cm (440 - 470) like a GMRS, FRS, or MURS radio.

If we all ended up on the 2M band a handheld 5 - 10 mile range via simplex shouldn't be too difficult to achieve.

 

Good to know! Will look into that one... I have a small handheld Ham radio that I won, but have no use for it.

I have a local club that does the test every second Sunday of the month, so won't be able to take it until May the weekend after Jambo.

 

I'm in, if only I can find a two way antenna for the midland two way and ham

 

Actually, while not 100% technically legal due to power constraints, a dual band (2m and 70cm) radio would work on the GMRS channels, meaning you'd need just 1 radio capable of both 2m and 70cm. Essentially, the GMRS resides in the 440 band (70cm).

For example, the channel 16 on GMRS is really 462.5750 with no offset and no tone.

This is the antenna I run on my truck for my Ham radio, and it would work just fine with the MXT radio or the ham all the same.

$30 TRAM 140MHz-170MHz + 430MHz-470MHz Dual Band NMO Antenna (1181)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IDTJ2KE/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

So your running the two antennas? If so pics please or radio and antenna

 

Will provide pictures of all of it shortly when I go out to the truck.

 

Working on it. Kids....

 

The left (lower) antenna is the

$279 MXT105 - 5 Watt GMRS MicroMobile Two Way Radio - Off Roading Outdoor RZR Farm Trails Radio - External Magnetic Mount Antenna - NOAA Weather Alerts

MXT105. The upper roof mounted via MagMount is the Dual Band 144 - 176 / 440 - 470 antenna for 2m and 70cm (440).




The MXT105 is mounted and power is fed from the driver side. The passenger side feeds the dual band and I converted it to a SMA connector in side and hid it under the console so I just have this little nub sticking out. This screws into the antenna port on my

$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 radio.

 

What I was saying earlier is that you could get a TYT TH-9800 radio or something like that and get a quad band antenna, or just run the dual band and only do 2m and 70cm bands to just that 1 antenna up top, which would work for GMRS and 2m Ham.

I'm probably going to do just that, and since that will free up a spare

$279 MXT105 - 5 Watt GMRS MicroMobile Two Way Radio - Off Roading Outdoor RZR Farm Trails Radio - External Magnetic Mount Antenna - NOAA Weather Alerts

MXT105, 'll build a base station that runs off a small battery so we can leave a radio at the base camp and anyone who's there can communicate with us out in the parks.

 

But you choose either one to use right? So if your on a trail and some have ham and some have gmrs will it intercept to both, how would that work? Or better two have two seperate radios?

 

For now I'll keep both, and have the ability to have 2 going at once. In a way, it's like area chat (Ham) and group chat (GMRS - Walkie-Talkies).

But in essence, with better radios, such as a unit like this:
http://www.buytwowayradios.com/products/tytera/th-9800.aspx

It features Dual Watch.

Notice there's room for two inputs, a left and right side? You can setup Dual Watch on the radio, and it monitors two frequencies at the same time, and defaults your PTT (push to talk) to the last incoming frequency.

So it would work like this...

- Your TYT TH-9800 goes to just 1 antenna on your truck, the dual band one capable of 2m and 70cm freqs.
- You Setup your left side with 146.250 (or whatever 2m freq you want)
- You setup your right side with 462.575 (or whatever GMRS freq you want)

Jake radio's in on a walkie, the unit senses 462.575 and I hear Jake. If I key the mic up, it talks back on 462.575.

Meanwhile, Chris hits me up on 146.250, I key the mic and Jake can't hear me cause it switched to output on the last freq it heard, which was Chris on 2m.

--

If both people were speaking simultaneously, the "strongest" signal would likely come thru, which is probably going to be Chris on 146.250, unless he were really far away, and Jake was close (therefore transmitting a higher power into my receiver).

So, for now, the MXT100 / MXT105 are excellent, simple, and preferred for just straight up trail comms. Easy to work, easy to use, and I can toss a walkie at someone and they are instantly in the network with us.

I'd say having the ham, and being able to use vhf bands such as 2m would be beneficial in a convoy kinda situation, where we could get 10 miles apart and still have good communication.

 

Oh, and to answer what I think was your question, the way I will have it setup for now is:

My

$279 MXT105 - 5 Watt GMRS MicroMobile Two Way Radio - Off Roading Outdoor RZR Farm Trails Radio - External Magnetic Mount Antenna - NOAA Weather Alerts

MXT105 will do all GMRS comms, and I'll intentionally set my ham radio to NOT scan those frequencies. Otherwise you'd get a gnarly feedback when someone radioed in.

But would the antennas interfere with each other? In the scenario listed above. No.

 

I'll just call you on my cell..