Amateur (Ham) Radio BS and Callsign Thread!

Hit me up when you come through. I don't mountain bike and will probably be busy training new pilots but we could get a beer and burg at the brewery.

 

I'll keep you in mind this spring.

 

Anyone use a yaesu ft-817 or 818? Looking at one but not sure if it would do for my needs. I am looking at the army mars program and not sure if it would have enough wattage.

 

Id just go with an ft857 if you need power.

 

Cross reference from another thread so hopefully I can get more responses.


Glad this thread came up. I’m taking my test this weekend after missing the last two and making the best of my time and continuing study. I decided since there’s no extra cost Im going to go ahead and go for my general license just because why not. I still have a lot of learning to do. I currently have one of the baofang Hand helds just so I can get used to the radio.

can some suggest another unit for my truck? I don’t want to spend big bucks for something like the Kenwood 710 but something comparable would be nice.


Also second part is I want to go a hard nmo mount in the roof of the truck but I have a roof rack similar to the prinsu. Am I going to run into any issues with that ? I really don’t want to tell my wife, “hey you know that really nice roof rack we just installed..... it’s gotta go.”

 

Are you operating portable? AFAIK, MARS operates from their homes. I'd definitely stick with 100w. The ft-817 is.... Ok. I own one. It's deaf compared to better rigs. I use it for SOTA. I do lots of other portable operating, and I stick with 100w if the car is remotely nearby.

 

No I would not be portable. I think I will stick with the 100w. I was just looking at options

 

D710 is difficult to beat. The TM-V71A with a Mobilnkd is a good option for APRS.

I'd bolt a bracket to the room rack and install the NMO in that. Get a "high frequency" NMO as they're weather proofed better on the bottom since it would be exposed.

 

Kenwood TS-590SG. Has a better receiver then the ic-7300. Since MARS is channelized, the waterfall does nothing for you.

 

So you drilled into your roof rack instead of the cab ? If that’s so I’d rather do that then the truck cab. I didn’t know if the breaks in the bars would limit the ground plane

 

I drilled the cab. I don't have a rack.

Check for DC continuity. If the resistance is low it will work fine. If it's high, then add ground straps.

 

That's what I did and I have no issue hitting repeaters or simplex use even way out in BFE.

 

That’s exactly what I would want to do. Did you just buy a plate and drill
It or did you find a pre drilled plate?

 

That's the plate backer from an ARB air compressor I had laying in the scrap / spare parts bin. But it's just a piece of 1/8in steel about the size of a playing card. Drill an NMO sized hole in it and good to go. It was handy because the bolt holes in the corners were already 1/4 inch.

 

Awesome. Thank you.

 

You can also just get a lip mount for the side of the rack if you have a prinsu. Allows you to easily rotate the antenna down if need be

 

I wished I would have had my roof rack before I drilled into my roof.

 

Anyone running a yaesu ft 400? I know at that price point I’m starting to get into Kenwood 710 but I really like the lay out of the yaseu after watching a bunch of videos. And some retailers including Amazon have some that pop up around 349-419.99

 

It's a sweet radio with the digital modes as well. Good rag chew audio is a plus

 

There's a few things irritating about the FTM-400. Its not full duplex while the TM-D710G and TM-V71A are both full duplex. This means you can continue to RX 70cm repeater while the APRS is in transmit. Also useful if doing satellite work. The TNC in the TM-D710G has an exposed serial port. So it can be used for other functions such as Winlink, packet, or an external computer for APRS. Last thing that irritates me about both the FTM-400 and FTM-100 (and every other YSF radio) you can't program mode into a memory channel. So if you're yakking on a YSF repeater and change channels to an analog repeater, you must remember to change modes to FM. And Vice Versa.

There are a couple other little things, but those are the big ones for me.