Amateur (Ham) Radio BS and Callsign Thread!

Madness!

P.S. Both my Toyotas have NMOs through the roof.

 

It's only 3/4". I have two!

 

Nitinol. It's a nickel titanium alloy.

Sti-Co also has a nitinol NMO whip. I don't have any experience with the Signal Stuff NMO. The Sti-Co Nitinol whip had some great flexibility, but it would droop over in the cold. It was fine in the summer, but ohio winters had it looking like it needed some viagra.

 

How do y'all use your radios on long road trips, I am running from NC to CO (primarily 2m/70cm but want to hear from all). I have the FTM-400xdr, figure I will have APRS running to track location, and a call channel on A-band? Would you load up every repeater within X-miles of the highway, and "ping" them to see who's out there? Is there a way to find the more actively used repeaters? Use APRS to find people to talk to, but that seems like distracted driving.

 

For road trips, you'll almost always have cell service. I run repeater book on my phone if I need something. Otherwise I stick to a few dedicated channels I have saved because I'll usually have a buddy tagging along that we'll chat back and forth to pass the time.

 

So just use repeaterbook and punch in rendom repeaters, "ping" it, and try again? Again seems tedious and very distracting. Anyway to tell ahead which repeaters are more actively used?

 

The active repeaters I have no idea.

 

if the radio has BT can just send data to program radio

 

If by "ping" you mean say you are listening and not just kerchunk, then yes.

I don't have programming software so I just enter a repeater when I'm near a new one I want to try. Most are quiet. Some are active. The Megalink in NM was real active for me. On my October trip to California, I programmed in repeaters on my drive and made a few contacts. Kept 2m Call on the scan too. APRS running on band B and a tablet for the map.

Just be smart and don't program in a congested area. I used my mic to enter the freq and I have those buttons memorized.

 

Yes checking in, looking for responses. I'm an it guy, same idea as pinging

 

Except if the server on the other end hears you, it will respond and give you useful rountrip info. In ham radio, 50 old farts can hear you and you won't get a peep. At least the squelch tail of the repeater is courteous.

 

There ~76 pairs in 2m. I program all those pairs into one bank and scan the bank. If I hear traffic, I tone scan for the PL. > 9/10 times the output PL matches the input PL. Than you can talk on the repeater.

It's more difficult on 70cm. I think there are 240 pairs? So I only scan the 2m pairs.

Also google APRS voice alert. Even if you don't have APRS. Just monitor 144.39 T100.0. if you hear APRS, then attempt contact. I've made more QSO's using APRS-VA then calling on 146.52.

 

Yup that is it!! Thanks for chiming in!

 

I'm currently driving right now so I'm not fully following the pairs you're talking about. But it looks like voice alert might be handy, got it turned on on my ftm-400xdr. We'll see how that goes. Does this disrupt aprs tracking/messaging/beaconing?

 

Repeater inputs/output are the pairs

 

It looks like yes APRS(100) voice alerts nixs beacon tracking, if set in the settings and used on band b not just a Programmed station.

Maybe.... The jury still out, or my radios being funky

 

The fancy repeaters have voice output that usually say Freq, tone and offset. but have to listen to output freq

 

The answer is (or should be) no. The data will still be sent to your radio for tracking even without a 100hz tone but you won't hear the audio through the speaker unless the tone is present. My TM-V71A works that way and the FTM-400 does also though I don't know if I set it up that way yet. I

 

Newest addition to the Taco. I swapped out the ICOM 2730 for a Yaesu FTM-300. After the last solo overnight trip I realized it would be a good idea to have full time APRS function in my rig. The Yeasu FT-3DR and its 5watts was not cutting it. So now I have the Yeasu FTM-300 and the APRS works great! With a much larger antenna and a 50w radio I should be able to get into way more repeaters so my off-road progress can be tracked.
A big plus is that this radio is smaller then the ICOM. Where I have the radio mounted the ICOM would constantly be in the way of my leg and always rubbing on it which after 70 miles a day driving to and from work and long overland trips that gets freaking annoying! I am happy to say this radio is slim enough to tuck out of the way. I wanted to mount on the floor but I have seen too many vehicles that suffer from water ingress during a water crossing which would in my mind fry the radio on the floor of the truck. Where it is at now works very well! And.... The mic only attaches to the radio body and this way I would not have to get an extension cable.

 

@tacocart762 Why not mount the Main unit elsewhere? I have mine mounted on the rear firewall. Or under the pass or driver seat.