Amateur (Ham) Radio BS and Callsign Thread!

for the D710 does it matter what side of the radio for APRS? asking for a friend

 

I don't think so. The A side has a larger frequency range you can tune so it might make sense to run APRS on the B side. That said, I run mine on the A side because that's what I initially set the TNC to use.

 

Thanks. It’s an exciting time as I figure out how to use my

$205 Yaesu ft-60r DualBand Handheld 5W VHF/UHF Amateur Radio Transceiver - Dual Band

Yaesu ft-60r HT. Been trying to listen to local repeaters, but no luck from inside my house. Ill hookup my mag mount and will listen in until my call sign shows up; hopefully by end of the week.

 

Also, keep in mind for smartbeacon, you need to be moving

 

Yessir, I figured that part out in the beginning of this learning process.

My next step is seeing the map and who is out there , including me.
Then I hope to figure out how to send messages and recieve them.
I have to learn about these "nodes" things

 

Passed my tech test on Saturday. I'm legit! Pending ULS posting of course...

Took the general test on a whim after passing tech, and got 22 right. So close...

 

congrats, the General test has a bit of repeat material. If you have the time I would upgrade to General and then Extra while a lot of the material is still fresh in your head. When I passed my General I declined to take the Extra class exam because I didn't want to be "licensed by chance". I wanted to know the information. Every once in a while I regret not trying though. About once a week I tell myelf I'm going to pick up the book and start studying again.

 

You might have luck with the rubber duck outside. I can hear reapeaters 40+ miles away on my ft60.

 

Thanks. I listened in last night (Sunday) and heard lots of Nets in progress so I think I’m good. Just got my call sign today so will try my first transmission when I can get home.

 

Been 2 weeks and no callsign yet. I'm dying .

Gonna pick up a FT7900 soon though, unless anyone has a better recommendation... I am looking a dual band (at least) with the capability for air and milair band freqs and definitely a remote head.

 

Did you go here and search on last name?

 

Mine took a few weeks back when I passed - it also depends on how quickly your club submitted it. If they sat on it for a few days it could take a little longer.

If I remember correctly the 7900 is a single receive radio- for just a few bucks more you can get the Ftm-100dr and get digital and aprs. Radio comes with everything you need to mount the head remotely including a 10ft? (I think) remote face extension cable along with a radio body bracket and a faceplate bracket.

https://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=71-002024

I ran mine on a panavise mount for a little bit before moving up to a scan gauge mirror bracket.

I havent really played with the aprs (been meaning too...), but over all been very happy with the 100dr. Great feedback on the sound quality. Install and set up were quite easy. I bought the RT systems software to program it which is very easy to use. As of a few months ago chirp still didnt support the ftm-100dr.

Only thing I will say about the 100dr is the white screen can be tough to see through polarized sunglasses. With it mounted up by the mirror its hasnt been too much of an issue for me, and I only wear polarized sunglasses, but it was tougher when it was mounted low on the panavise mount, I also didnt like how that took my eyes off the road. Up on the mirror mount its nicely in my peripheral.

 

Oh also for reference I am running the Diamond 770nmo antenna on a Bamf Tailgate mount

https://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-000061

Also forgot to mention that the 100dr has a micro SD card port. This allowed me to program the card from my computer in my apartment and then take the card down to the truck, plug it in, push a couple buttons and copy the info and be ready to roll

 

Hourly LOL

 

Ill have to look into this one. I like the specs a little better, esp the APRS bit.

 

I was trying to decide on a number of radios... I wanted to potentially be able to use APRS which was a big factor

Kenwood 71a, 710g
Yaesu FTM 100dr
Icom D-4100 , 2730

The Kenwood 710g, Yaesu FTM 100Dr and the Icom D4100 all have built in APRS - The kenwood is the only true dual receive so it can transmit APRS while listening to another frequency at the same time... but was way out of my $ range.

I really liked the Icom D-4100 as it has built in APRS and has the ability to add a bluetooth board that connects to an app on your android or IOS phone, it also allows you to import repeater info with gps coordinates and will use your gps location to find the nearest repeaters (great for road trips or out of area driving)... the downfall is you need to purchase all the extension cords and brackets and the bluetooth chip. --- if this radio was dual receive like the 710 I would have bought it

I was lucky and able to run to the HRO nearby and play around with all of the above radios.

For me the 100dr was the best bang for your buck to allow me to dable in pretty much everything. The head is also fairly small so it mounts easily. If I need to look up a random repeater I can use the repeaterbook app on my phone - no service required.

Hope that helps - Lots of info to digest on it all and plenty of mind numbing research to do online about each.

Here is a photo of the head up above my mirror --

 

I recently got the TM D710 after months of comparisons between that and the FTM 100DR and the FTM 400XDR. All are great radios which made it hard to decide.

 

The 710G is extremely capable and if you want a true dual receive, APRS, cross-band repeat radio that can also monitor frequencies outside the ham band you can’t do much better.

 

It's also the easiest radio to program, no need for software and a PC.

 

True, but software is a great backup system, as well as something fun to play with. Does the 710G come with free software like the D72a did? If not their is always chirps for cheap or I finally upgraded to RT Systems for all my radios.

I was meaning to ask you, the 8800R has "Hyper" channels, they are hot buttons that you can basically program as different radio configurations (ie #1- normal; #2- X-band repeater; #3- ISS; etc; etc). Does the 710G have something similar? Yes, I now turning these features on is very simple, but having a "hot swap" key and everything already done is a nice feature.