Amateur (Ham) Radio BS and Callsign Thread!

hey i was wondering where you guys go through the firewall at, i was in my truck looking for the ports today and completely striking out. im trying to install a kenwood TM 281 and id like to go though the firewall on the drivers side. i have a 2014 TRD sport if that helps at all.

 

If you look on the drivers side (might be easier to see from the engine bay) you will see a thick bundle of wires going into a rubber port. That is the passage between the firewall you can use ; specifically, look for a long rubber nipple on the bottom - cut the tip off of that, and you can run the power lines through there.

 

You can use chirps with any usb cable for programing, it runs on all OS and is free. I finally broke down and the RTsystems software. Mainly because I wanted to use more of the features that the free ones don't allow you to program. The only downside is that RT requires you to use their cable. However, RT offers programs for almost every radio on the market, so I don't have to remember how to use 3 different types of software, and it is easy to copy and paste entries from one radio to another. It is worth it IMHO.

 

congrats on your install!

p.s. assuming your working with standard 12 volts, it's much safer than you may realize. very low voltage, will not conduct through dry human skin. I think you need to go up to at least 50v for dry skin...

 

soooo how many have a Hf set-up??

My mobile Hf is just about ready and wanting to get my mobile base station set-up

 

I used to do mobile HF a long time ago. Had a screwdriver and 857D. Ended up operating on 40 quite a bit, and did some DX....

 

He's a "rover" he goes from grid square to grid square making contacts very popular during contests. Probably does MT topping too. Looks like he's mostly VHF/UHF
He's from Downey CA.

 

706MKII G Little Tarheel over 60 countries mobile.

 

only do V/Uhf in mobile, have base station.

 

We'll still studying haven't had a chance to take a test yet but I did get to go to the local Ham Radio Outlet, picked and poked, twisted and turned and decided to go with the same radio. The Yaesu FTM 400 is a really really nice radio. What sold me on it was the sd card feature and the ability to send pics after taking a snap shot with the optional mic. Really cool looking screen as well. Plus I love the size of the control head, heck I can mount that sucker anywhere just about. Plus what I want to do with the APRS this really seems to me the way to go. I feel I made the right choice.

 

There is one thing you need to remember about cross band it is 100% duty cycle it is a very good ideal to reduce your power if you cross band.

 

You put the "local" side on low power. The "dx" side is ok on high power. It's no more TXing than you'd normally do unless a handy talkie makes you long winded

 

For events around here we use the crossband Transmit Boost setup instead of full crossband. This is ideal for dealing with repeaters. If your HT can receive the signal and only needs the Tx boosted to hit the repeater or the others in your party, than this method can cut down on duty cycle.

Here is a link to a file that covers how to set this up.

 

Why would you do that? Dial right side to repeater pair, put left side on simplex freq in opposite band, put HT on same simplex freq. Why screw with programming an odd splt and getting possible scratchy copy from the machine?

 

true crossband repeater can really mess with a linked repeater system, it is actually banned from the use for our public service events. This prevents the repeaters Tx signal from getting sent out again. The delays are annoying.

Also mentioned was duty cycle, with this configuration, only the HT's Tx signal is re-transmitted. using less power from the mobile rig.

For simplex, regular crossband will work just fine, maybe better depending on the distance. But for trying to hit a repeater, the Tx boost can help without annoying the others around you.

 

Duty Cycle. Unless you're talking more than you normally would, the high power side isn't being used more than normal. The low power local side, isn't hurting anything.

The repeater shouldn't know a difference between a HT going through a crossband or direct. If you're having problems with delays with the links, it's a repeater problem or a user problem. (And sometimes a CAT controller problem, I love CAT controllers, but they tend to flake out when the systems get complicated... It's mostly the addition of the delay board and having squelch tails..)

 

I found this on the 4x4ham.com website, I have gone over this is in a class and have had it mentioned in several comm plans for events around here. However, I don't think I was explaining it properly.

 

*sigh* The repeater is still getting repeated audio on it's input in either setup.


Nevermind, you do what you want. There's a whole lot of misunderstanding going on there.

 

The cross band ID issue has been set aside by the FCC. If you don't want some one else getting into your set up just use DCS bottom line as far as the cross band radio is concerned it is full duplex so as long as there is noise in either direction it transmits. So what I said was turn down the TX power to it lowest usable power to protect the cross band radio.

 

This. (And I usually leave the repeater side on mid or high power and the HT side on low, that gives the finals a rest...)

Also: When the repeater ID's it comes across the link, IDing the "link" radio.