Amateur (Ham) Radio BS and Callsign Thread!

I have the Kenwood D72a for aprs only. It’s nice to use it as a handheld when I need a backup. But that is pricy, but is cheaper since the D74 came out.

The same folks that make the tinytrack4 make a stand alone tracker. Designed to put in bags, on an animal. I know our local group uses them for fox hunts.

 

I was using a Wouxun UV3D, Mobilnked bluetooth TNC with the APRSDroid App connected to a roof mounted antenna. Worked great, but eventually got a D710. Can't beat a unit with APRS built into the radio.

 

http://www.bigredbee.com/blgps_2mhp.htm

 

hadn't seen that one before. Pretty neat, looks similar to the microtrak that bionics makes. Thanks for the info.

 

This looked interesting: https://www.reddit.com/r/hamfest/comments/8c7s6q/_/

Either purchased used from this guy or new from byonics. I was considering the exact same setup as you. Full time tracker, and only connect a phone/tablet occasionally when I want a map. The above linked device should do that. Should?

I want to get a cheap Win8 tablet. There are some ~$80 tablets with an Atom that run x86 Win8. Then I would run APRSCE32 instead of APRSdroid. I was trying to figure out what to use for TNC / RF. VHF motorola radius and cdm750 are generally pretty cheap on eBay. Don't really need to remote a control head. It will never change frequency.

While i dont need a control head on the dash, i'd really like to be able to stop beaconing from the drivers seat for incognito mode. I was thinking about wiring up a rocker switch mounted inside the center console cubby. Either to power up/down the rf deck. Or possibly draw a pin up/down on the TNC as a beacon enable/disable. Most TNC have a carrier detect, so they don't beacon on top of another station. I'm not sure if they use a COR pin from the receiver? Or if they're looking at received audio modulation? I think it varies per TNC. If I could draw a COR pin up/down, that would keep the TNC receiving packets, but stop beaconing. More ideal then powering up/down the entire RF deck.

If you monitor 2m repeaters, separate RF will desense 2m receive. How badly depends on the front end of your 2m FM phone receiver and antenna placement. It's only brief while your beacon goes out. But it can be annoying.

 

I think that would generally work for this, but you would need the version with the bluetooth adaptor to connect to the tablet, which is the MTT4BT, looked like his version that he's selling is the non bluetooth. I like the idea of a rocker switch for the on/off of the beacon as well, I was initially just thinking about a power switch, not sure if using the pin up/down approach would be better. I don't need it on all the time while I'm driving around town, but it's more for when I'm out in the wilderness for somebody to track my location as well as potentially as an emergency messaging backup to cell, so it would probably only get switched on and off when I would get in and out of the truck on a longer trip.

I was actually thinking that I would bury this setup behind the back seats so that's why I was initially thinking of just getting one of the cheap chinese transcievers, and then if I ever wanted to pull it to use it for a backup HT, I would have it as an option as well.

 

Old Android phone with GPS receiver, a Baofeng or Wouxan and a Mobilinked Bluetooth TNC is all you need. The Android phone runs the APRSdroid App and gets the GPS signal. You can use it for Smart Beacon or just have it transmit your location periodically.

 

I recommend avoiding these entirely. Especially for APRS, but also for everything else. The squelch is slow to open, and they can miss the first part of the packet. Which means the entire packet is dropped. The baofeng that I tried for APRS was decoding approximately 60%-70% of packets due to this issue. On top of that, the receiver front end is wide open. There is a paging site on my daily commute that would always overload the receiver front end. Didn't matter if you were running tone guard on receive. It wiped out the receiver entirely starting about 2 miles away.

I also wrote off the inexpensive Chinese radios for talking, once I found out about the spurious emissions. They're really awful. Anyone that wants to see it in action: try tuning any 2 meter simplex frequency. 146.55 for example. If you have access to a spectrum analyzer you can see all the spurious emissions. Generally there is a large spur on the 3rd harmonic. But sometimes they are elsewhere. You take the channel you are tuned to, and multiply that by 3 to find the 3rd harmonic. So the 3rd harmonic of 146.55 is 439.65. Tune any receiver to 439.65 and see if you can hear a signal. You may have to tune up and down a bit to find the spur, it might not be exactly on that frequency. You also need to be at least 10 yards from the transmitter to make certain you're out of the near field overload. Sometimes the largest spur doesn't live on the third harmonic. It's amazing how irregular they are. If you can find the spur, ask someone to transmit on 146.55 while you walk / drive away listening on 439.65 (or wherever the spur is actually living). I was amazed how far away I got!! I started walking and got frustrated how far away it was still full quieting, so I just came back. Got in my car and started driving. I got approximately 3/4 mile away before I started to lose the signal. Further when I was on top of a hill.

When you look at these things on the Spectrum Analyzer, you can see spurs all over the spectrum. That scared the hell out of me, that I might be interfering with public safety or even a commercial user in a completely different band. My baofeng went into a drawer that day, and I have not used it since.

I'm not the radio police, so I don't go around chastising people for using them. I just try to spread some facts around about them. What equipment you use is your choice, it's not up to me. I'll still have a QSO with you on your chinese equipment. I laugh at repeater owners that try to ban them. Like you can tell what someone is using? lol. Roughly half are compliant with Part 97 anyways, so roughly half of them are completely legal to use in the ham allocation. You just need to test to see if yours is compliant. Banning certain equipment, chastising people, and berating people on the air about their equipment choice is not really helping anyone. I hope the chinese start adding filters. The cost is a couple dollars at most. I think inexpensive radios are really good for the hobby. As it gets more people involved.

Anyone in Cleveland, Ohio area that wants to see any radio on a spectrum analyzer, I'm happy to demonstrate.

 

That's a bummer to hear. I've heard of a lot of people using them so I'm somewhat surprised to hear that, but then again, I've also heard that they're terribly inconsistent, so you may get a good one, and the next one off the line may be bad. I have a

$125 uv-25x2 (second gen.) mini mobile 25 watt dual band base, mobile radio: VHF, UHF amateur (ham)

uv-25x2 in my truck right now because it was cheap and easy to get started. I mostly use it for listening, and keep it around more for emergency backup to the cell phone, but I'll have to play around with the spurs now that you've mentioned it.

I think this is spot on. I certainly would have thought twice about spending $500 right off the bat if I didn't know what I wanted to do with it, but spending $125 on a radio and realizing that I really want to get into the digital modes more was worth every penny.

My grandfather recently gave me his Kenwood FT-7800R since he doesn't drive anymore, so I may just pull the baofeng and use that instead and set it up for both voice and aprs since I don't use the voice very often.

 

First Amateur Radio i owned was a Icom IC-v8000, at one point i own 2. First HF radio was Kenwood 480HX. Other radios ive had Yaesu FTM-350AR, 2 of them at one time even. Even had 2 China made HTs.. a Baofeng and Wouxun.

Now i only have 1 Ic-v8000 in the house, Ftm-350ar in the truck, Elecraft K3 and KX3.

 

I've never tested a Chinese designed mobile. All my data is from portables. The

$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 being the biggest offender. It's also the most popular, so that goes hand in hand. I'd love to get a mobile on my bench to see how they compare.

My first radio was a uv-5r. The low cost made it easy to get into ham radio. I'll never forget that, and remember it fondly for that reason. It was the gateway drug to what has become a very expensive habit!

Icom, Kenwood, and Yaesu can thank that Baofeng. As I've purchased all three since the Baofeng got me into the hobby.

 

I can get the

$125 UV-25X2 (Second Gen.) Mini Mobile 25 Watt Dual Band Base, Mobile Radio: VHF, UHF Amateur (Ham)

UV-25X2 in my truck to do SSTV just fine but I can't get it to do Winlink at all. But I can do Winlink or SSTV with my UV-82HP radios no problem. Btech said they had a special data cable coming out this Summer to take care of the Digital issues. Can't wait to see what they were talking about. N5WOI.

 

Finally toying with the idea of installing a mobile rig in my truck. I saw a post a while back with a really short dual-band antenna (maybe 6-8 inches...?), might have even been a mag mount. I've attempted to scroll through a year's worth of history on this thread and can't seem to find that post.

It is highly likely that I've completely made that memory up (thanks, failing memory!) and no such antenna exists. If it does, and you know which antenna I'm referring to, I'd appreciate a link or make/model. Thanks.

 

MFJ-1724B is what I use.

 

Shortest dual bander of which I'm aware is the Comet B-10NMO.

https://www.dxengineering.com/parts/cma-b-10nmo

 

Hello everyone a few weeks ago I passed my tech exam with ease. I'm currently studying to pass my general and possibly my extra. I took the General without studying and missed it by 3. I was hoping that some of you more experienced HAMer's could help me out. I want to put a mobile setup in my truck. I live in central california and will be using it mostly in the mountains. We live in an area where there are lots wild fires in the summer time so it would be nice to be able to scan and listen in if there is any danger looming while we are out and about. So do you think the kenwood TM-D710GA is a good choice or should I look at something else. I welcome all suggestions you guys have.

 

I use the yaesu ft 857D it has to Mars mod done. My Radio Club works with the County Emergency Management here in New York state. So I have the comet antenna on one side of the truck for 2 meters and 70 centimeters. And the Atas 120A on the other side. Which can do 70 centimeters through 40 meters. With the mars mode I can talk to Conservation , Forest Rangers and police if emergency situations occur.

 

Dang that's pretty cool. I dont think I need to be able to talk to them I just want to be able switch over to or scan there channels to listen and see if there is anything going on we need to be aware of while camping.

 

Congrats on the Tech and almost the General.

A roof mounted 1/4 wave would work really well for that scenario.

Can't go wrong with that Kenwood.

Like TX said, the 857d is a great radio especially if you're getting your General and want to explore HF. A few hundred bucks more but well worth it.

 

It's a fantastic radio. It has a very wide receive range, so you can scan frequencies outside the amateur allocation. It's not the world's best scanner, but it will work.

I still believe it's hands down the best APRS rig out there. At least it's the most simple to get up and running with APRS. Even if you never use the APRS, the control head is more simple to use then the TM-V71A.

The TM-V71A is another option. Couple it with a mobilinkd and an old Android phone and you have APRS with a color mapping display. It takes some fiddling to get it all working. The TM-D710G is more straightforward out of the box.