Official Colorado HAM and cheese thread

anyone on the air tonight?

 

Anyone up for dinner this evening? Independent of whatever happens on Thursday night?

 

@ebbs15, @chenbro, @teamhypoxia, @odomandr etc.... ^^^

 

I would love to, but I live 2 hours away from Denver in a region that's under a tornado watch

 

I live an hour north of where you're at and this weekend is pretty crazy. I'll be at RT though

Also sitting in the truck at the boys baseball practice if you want to try radio contact.

 

Sorry just saw this, just got home from work. I can't tonight... we'll have to connect in Moab as my plate if pretty full with the new section I'm working and getting the last few loose ends tied up before Moab.

 

My new job has not been conducive to checking here sorry @Lars. Thursday for sure as I work late again tomorrow

 

Hey @Lars or @odomandr, Looking to run wire for CB and future dual channel radio into cab. Can I go with just "one" run from battery for both? Also should I use 6awg or 10awg (snooping around I have seen both used).

 

Wire size would depend on the amperage requirements of the radios.

 

10 should be fine but I'd run individually

 

Yep, but I don't even own the Ham radio, I was going to go ahead and run power for. That's why I was asking those who do have those radio's.

 

The current carrying capacity of a certain sized conductor is affected by a number of factors including ambient temperature, type of insulation on the conductor, and number of conductors in a single conduit. With that said, a #10 can carry 30-40A at an ambient temperature of 85F and 3 or less conductors in a conduit depending on the insulation type. A #6 is capable of 55-75A in the same conditions. Ampacity decreases with higher temperatures or more conductors in a conduit. If you know the power requirements of the radio you should be able to choose the appropriate wire size. Hope that helps!

 

This is how I power the 4 radios in my truck. The 4AWG from the battery into the cab is overkill, but I had it on hand. Dual Distro Block (Power and Ground) is under the center console next to the shifter.

Master 4awg is fused under the hood 4" or so from the battery. Then each individual output is also fused.

 

The picture worked for me. I can see it just fine.

 

It's been a while since I've read a circuit diagram but I was able to build a phone-to-uv5r cable and send/receive APRS packets today.

 

Think I spent about $20-25 on one from Baofengtech.com when I bought my

$63 BF-F8HP (UV-5R 3rd Gen) 8-Watt Dual Band Two-Way Radio (136-174MHz VHF & 400-520MHz UHF) Includes Full Kit with Large Battery

BF-F8HP, also got the remote speaker mike and battery eliminator all for good price. Works lots better than just the rubber duckie it comes with (that's not all that bad though). Been pretty happy with my radio so far for the price especially.

 

I ended up going with this 12v adapter:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0170ZZUA2

This speaker/mic:

$25 BTECH QHM22 Platinum Series IP54 Rainproof Shoulder Speaker Mic for BaoFeng, BTECH, Kenwood Radios

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00Z4X3MM6

And this antenna:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0045EQUBK
With one of these adapters
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00L11D7AM

Would like to mount it up off the roof of the truck, maybe on the roof rack and run the wire down the back of the cab, up through the floor and to the radio.

 

How is the 12V adapter? The reviews seemed to be all over the place on it so I've held off on getting it.