Amateur (Ham) Radio BS and Callsign Thread!

I really haven’t had much luck with it

 

I run 20, 40, 80, some times 15 and 10 meters. We have a club here on 10 meters. But I only do DX overseas.

 

@mwc273 that was quick. Who did you test with? I'll be a week tomorrow. But I've been warned Arrl can drag their feet.

 

I have. Nothing yet. It's alright though. I heard another guy on here who tested with ARRL got his in six days or so. It'll show when it does I guess.

 

Not for another 2-3 years. 10m pretty useless at the bottom of the cycle.....

 

What's the general take on quadband mobiles? I remote camp and travel to no where a lot and to places of high elevation. Would a quadband mobile be justified or would it be better to do a portable hf rig?

For what it's worth I already crazy a 97AH DC battery with me as it is for the canoe and only use 1/3 of it's usable power. So I'd assume that be enough with it getting recharged daily

 

The quadband mobiles are FM only. While FM can skip, it's generally not used for skip. I'd only suggest a quad band mobile if you know 10m / 6m repeaters that are active in your area. We have two 6m repeaters that are very active, so that's why I have an ft-8900. I hardly ever use 10m FM. I have two Motorola HT's that I reworked down to 10m. So I play around with those once in a while. But it's really not useful in any pragmatic sense.

Also, I recommend avoiding the Chinese quad banders. I had a th-9800, and I was not happy with it. Power output was all over the place, and the receiver front end was constantly overloading. Sold it and bought the ft-8900 and it's so much nicer.

 

Yes the yaesu ft-8900 is very nice radio. I have one for when I use my truck for cross band to get to the repeater. My 2 meter club is also Race and Aries. I also use the yaesu ft 857D. I have two of them. One for back up and as a go box.

 

The xband use was the number 1 consideration for the ft-8900. Currently I'm between that and the ftm-100 and 400. Ultimately I'm going to chat with some of the guys in my neck of the woods for their input for real world usage.

Not 100% sold on digital and fusion, but in an emergency situation if no one is monitoring a local repeater and no one is in range for simplex, I'm assuming I'd be at least able to find someone stateside on wires x for assistance. I've already checked and confirmed fusion repeaters in a good amount of areas i spend time in.

So basically my choice that I'll have to make is basic digital/ APRS with no xrepeat dual band, quad band with x repeat but not digital, or the most expensive digital with xrepeat and better operation of APRS.

And there's also group monitoring as well.

All considerations made with traveling and safety being a main focus. New tech here and I'll be following up with my general soon. Looking forward to adding another tool to the belt. Thanks for all input so far. Appreciate it.

 

Kenwood's 710 does cross band repeat also.

 

Anyone successfully doing APRS using a generic moble or HT and an old iPhone or iPad with APRSPro app?

Trying to save money and use what equipment I already have, so I bought APRSProUltimate to control basic mobles and HT’s for APRS RXing. Also, I wanted to set up a small waterproof APRS rig to take camping, hiking and sea kayaking, and have an issue with getting it to work correctly with my Yaesu FT-270r (my waterproof HT).

Any success with the APRSPro? I know about APRSDroid, but have 2 unused iPhones and an iPad so thats out.

Thanks for your reply. 73,

KC6OXY

 

yaesu ft 857D has Mars mod done. My Radio Club works with the County Emergency Management here in New York state. So With the mars mode I can talk to Conservation , Forest Rangers and police if emergency situations occur. And whit the FT 8900 I can cross band back to the truck from my HT when on foot.

 

Even though the manufacturers have made it easy to do, the issue is that MARS/CAP modified general frequency 2m Radios are not legal for anyone to transmit with in those bands.

 

I haven't tried this yet, but the FT-8900 should be able to do APRS, better then the FTM-100. The FTM-100 can not do APRS and phone at the same time. I can't really think of an application, where'd I leave APRS running, and not be able to speak with anyone.

If you connect a mobilink TNC to the 6 pin mini din on the FT-8900 it can send out APRS signals. There is a menu setting to lock the data port to one side of the radio. The default setting allows the data port to follow which side is currently active. So this setting must be configured or you will blow APRS through the repeater which will not make friends. lol.

I haven't tried this, but it should work in theory.

 

I doubt anyone will care if it's used on an emergency.

 

Please don't. First, this is illegal with this radio. Second, it's most likely to delay or impede any response. Call 911 or follow regular procedures for any emergency. Anything else is more likely to cause confusion. Third, this generates a poor impression of hams.

 

This is only under Race and Arecs County Emergency Management when we are asked to. Just like 911 in New York city.

 

Just as they sell HAM radios to many who have no license. Maybe we should register mics.

 

If there are Souls to be Saved as in SOS they would rather you live than die. If it's not an emergency that's a different deal.

 

Sorta like taking the yoke when the pilot dies and nobody else on board is licensed.