Amateur (Ham) Radio BS and Callsign Thread!

I like QRZ.com for practice tests. Really helped me when I was going for my General.

Sorry, My gifted book is sitting on my wife's nightstand... it's a great dust collector... one day she will get it.

 

lol, no sweat, I'm happy to receive such good advice!

 

Wutchu guys think of this meter? Any good?

 

From the start to finish ive used the Gordon West Books and Audio CDs.
Ive payed for Hamtestonline.com
Ive used QRZ testing.

But by far i liked the Books, CDs and www.hamstudy.org the BEST...

 

Wow, Hamstudy.org is pretty nice! All questions organized by section and sub-section with explanations as well. Thanks for the heads up!

 

I bought the only one I could find locally. I got it at Frys or Radio Shack, I can't remember which. They should all work fine. I'd get a cheap one since you will only use it a handful of times. Or you can do what every Dallas member does and find someone in your area who can let you borrow one. I seem to be that guy for Dallas...No big deal though. I don't mind

 

Hamtestonline = 100% on technician and 100% on general for me, your mileage may vary. Also it only took about 8 hours of studying with that resource for me.

 

@BenMara I ended up buying one of those to check it out. They are Heyco Grommet & Liquid Tight cordgrip. It was $6 delivered. Appears to be good quality Nylon construction.

They certainly would work for passing feed line through sheet metal.

Thanks again.

Another option I learned about is the Scanstrut DS Multi. It appears to compete with Blue Sea's cable clam.

I like the rectangular shape.

Pic seen in this thread here


Searching around I found another forum member who installed one here.

 

Oh, I like that!

 

I can't decide what sort of HT to get.

I am very happy with this radio now that I have it on line. I have had a few frustrating sessions working out the menu but I should not complain as it all has come together fairly easily.

Cross band repeat mode seems like it would be very usfull to me on my bush trips. I suspect that the Kenwood talking to a Kenwood might provide the easiest implementation.

Friends who favour the Chinese stuff assure me that all my needs can be met with the cheaper units, with a bit of fiddling.

Then there is the APRS issue. I did not get this for my mobile in the truck rig. The smallest Kenwood is truly tiny and I see whatever I buy comming along on hiking trips. The slightly larger one has APRS and a built in GPS.

Does the APRS replace my Garmin for GPS duties? Can one navigate using the radio?

Any insights would be appreciated.

 

I have a Kenwood D72a and drove it.

-Kenwood talking to Kenwood= sky command, it lets you control you mobile/base rig.

-APRS for a hiker is awesome. I doubt I would use it to replace my GPS unit, but it can navigate for you, guide you to waypoints, and even other APRS signals. Think putting a tiny APRS transmitter on your vehicle or dog, makes finding them easy.

-I have owned a Chinese radio, not the popular one, but one of the others. It was a decent radio, if it slipped of my gear and tumbled down a hill, I was only out $80. However, I would always avoid any situation were my life might depend on that Chinese radio. I have watched tons of YouTube video with adventure bikers and hikers, they love their Chinese radios, but they always carry two or three of them, as one will almost always fail on them during a trip.

-The D72a has a very easy menu to navigate. Comes with Kenwood's free software, very easy to use.

 

Keep your Garmin. If you can afford the Kenwood, I'd get that...

I have three Baofeng UVB5 radios. Two bought in 2013 and one bought this year. The last one has better components than the others and works better.

At the time, the receiver in them was much better than the very popular uv5R variants.

They have performed really well for the cost. Only once has one malfunctioned, and that was cleared be resetting it.

I've been happy with them and glad I have them. They have been used all over California. One day I'll buy a big 3, branded HT, but for now I'll keep rolling with what I got.

 

Ok, after considering for the past couple weeks I think I'm set on getting the Kenwood TM-V71A. Just wanted to ask if any of you that remote-mounted the faceplate, did you get the expensive separation kit or make your own cable (which doesn't look too bad)? I'm thinking I'll put the main body of the radio under the driver's seat, so I think I'll want an external speaker, any recommendations on what speaker to get or where to mount it?

 

I bought the expensive kit. It includes a convenient mounting bracket that makes it easy to unmount to hide it.

Many have had good luck under the seat. I elected to mout it in place of the inverter. Well out of the way and I think good for cooling. But you loose the inverter.

Btw the radio is very easy to program and use. So far I am very happy with it.

GOOD LUCK.

 

Ok better late than never...

Power is directly off the battery through a 40A breaker.


Feeding the RigRunner via 60A relay.


Which is controlled by a center off switch on the dash. Up (red) is ignition switched.


Down (green) is an override that lets me turn everything on when the truck is off.


The bodies of the FT-857 & FT-8900 are behind the rear passenger seat along with the diplexer to split the output of the 8900 (10M/6M,2M,70CM).


Behind the drivers side rear is the BCD996XT Scanner and the APRS beacon consisting of a TinyTrak4 feeding a hardwired FT-23R and a RadioShack 2M amplifier. The GPS for the beacon is split to provide GPS to the scanner also.


Up front are the control heads, the scanner head fit perfectly in the lower pocket in the dash, the '857 & '8900 heads and GPS are on a Tech Deck from Bird Dawg. The Motorola W3 HHCH is for an XTVA that is sitting in the back floorboard waiting for me to have time to permanently mount it, this is for the XTS5000 that I carry for work, public safety monitoring and analog/P25 ham.


The mics for the '857 & '8900 are run through the dash through switch blanks.


The '857 is connected to a speaker in the sunglass holder of the overhead console.


The '8900 and scanner are connected to speakers in the rear of the center console. This is not working as well as I had hoped and I am in the process of multiplexing all three radios on to the speaker in the overhead console.


The antennas:
MFJ-1402, the beacon and XTVA are both hooked to this via MFJ diplexer.


Larsen NMO-150/450/800 for the scanner.


On the roof, Maldol EX-510NMO for 6M/2M/70CM and a Larsen NMO-27 for 10M. For HF I am using "hamstick" type antennas on a BAMF mount.

 

That looks awesome!

 

Pulled the trigger on my order this morning, after finding that hamcity.com had the TM-V71A listed for $335 ($20 less than everywhere else). I did also get the DFK-3D mounting kit, mostly just for the mounting bracket. Have yet to choose a speaker, I think instead of the $40 Kenwood one I'll try a cheap knock-off from eBay or Amazon first.

Anyone have a recommendation for a good external speaker under $20?

 

I used this one in my Land Cruiser on the Ft-8800. It works well.

$13 Roadpro RP-108C 2-3/4" CB Extension Speaker with Swivel Bracket

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B001...cb+speaker&dpPl=1&dpID=51M55gqlK0L&ref=plSrch

 

Thanks, I might try that one.

 

Hey guys, I got most of the stuff I need for install. The stud I'm using is a Wilson heavy duty stud. Like this one.



Just to double check the install order, it would go from bottom to top looking at the stud from the side... bottom half of stud, mounting bracket, plastic insulator, then top part of stud.

Also I've heard some people having trouble with coax connection on this stud. One guy mentioned that he re-soldered the pin to be more round on his coax plug. Here's what mine looks like, you guys think there's anything wrong with it? Could it be lightly filed to eliminate sharp edges?





The connectors say ASTATIC on them. Cable was $16 on ebay.