Tacomas in Minnesota?

@PoweredBySoy

Where was the snow picture taken? Looks like fun.

Anybody running HAM for comms? Thinking about getting into it.

 

Anyone that's gone on a trip with me is running ham, maybe some others i haven't met are. I think I'm the only one with a license in the circles i run in though...

 

Cool. I'm really close to pulling the trigger on a hand held. Helps the decision knowing some local guys run it.

 

BTW that pic was in Finland State Forest in January (i'm the lead truck).

Ham is definitely superior for range/clarity vs CB so as is possible we try to steer people that way and also try to push people to get licensed/legal. Depending on how hardcore you want to go, it could be worth getting either a nicer handheld or a mobile (full/mounted) radio. If you go the baofeng route, copy Soy's setup. I can't understand half of the baofengs but he's crystal clear, the external antenna helps quite a bit.

 

Thanks for the info and the advice. A big reason for me to get out of CB is just the fact that there are so many idiots on there today. It's just ridiculous. No where near as useful as it was 20 years ago. Damn that makes me feel old. Haha.

APRS is also a huge benefit in my mind. Just a nice little benefit if shit hits the fan out there.

I've been in MN for 20 years and still have no idea where to wheel except the OHV parks. Haha. Way too crowded for my liking.

 

Yes do APRS!! It's not foolproof like SPOT or Garmin (Delorme) but it's a cool tool. There's 1 other guy in MN I know that uses APRS but doesn't get out much, and Chris has an APRS capable radio but you really need to be licensed to use it.

Right now the use has been for others to track me on trips and I've pulled the gpx log off of aprs.fi before too, but any GPS can record that for you. If I were to go and buy another APRS radio it'd be their TM-D710GA. I have a yaesu FTM350AR and it is a beast of a radio 5 years ago. The FTM400DR is a really great radio but from what I've read I'm convinced the Kenwood is a more feature-rich radio, if not a bit more complicated b/c of no touchscreen.


If you're looking for the hardcore offroad/crawling stuff you're pretty much limited to Gilbert and the local private parks: Atwater, Appleton, Dresser, etc. Beyond that you can find a lot of tight trails in state and national forests if you don't mind pinstripes. Maybe @DblCabMN knows more being more involved with the north shore scene.

 

forrest, that tablet you used for gps, did that have cellular connection or did you piggy back off your phones connection? Didn't you use an ipad? Reason I ask is I have a 10" galaxy note tablet I want to put to good use, it has 4g support but i really don't want to pay $20 a month to add a line to it.

edit: actually it would be more than $20 a month because I am on cricket, I would just have to add a new plan.

 

I have a cheapish asus zenpad 8" thing. It has a GPS but no data. If I ever needed to download something I would hotspot with my phone, but I had all my maps and sat imagery downloaded for offline use so i really only did that when searching for food or something. Now I have the verizon unlimited thing so I can hotspot all I want *until I reach 10gb, at which Verizon Wireless restricts hotspot data usage to 3G.

 

That's exactly what I want APRS for.

I have a friend that was basically born with an operators license. He absolutely loves Kenwood. I'll probably go the BaoFeng route to start. Just to get my toes wet. See how much I use it after that. I have a bad habit of going all in on a hobby and sitting on shit after I lose interest.

No hardcore wheeling here. Those days are over for me and daily drivers. Just looking for nice trail rides.

 

oh so you can use its gps without cellular connection? i was under the impression android tablets require cellular connection to use the gps still. quick google on my tablet looks like i might be able to use the gps without wifi/3g/4g.

 

Actually the baofeng is probably a better way. I know some guys on TW running APRS do so with the baofeng and a TNC. The big annoyance to me is my radio doesn't receive when it's transmitting APRS, so I'll miss half of someone's message from the APRS beacon. Doing the baofeng as a dedicated APRS unit would fix that niggle.

Right, your phone can use GPS without network as well. Having network just helps it lock on faster.

 

Here's the video from the trip.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1h1K-uRsi4

 

That's a great video and exactly what I want to be doing a couple times a year. Love the camp fire ending. Very cool.

 

Do you guys know anything about Retevis? I found this one last night. Looks like it has APRS built in and has decent reviews.

I don't know anything about the specs. Any good?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00P7P5F2...TF8&colid=3FW0F7WHK60QB&coliid=I1QWL5Q4FMX9MX

 

Nope, never heard of them. I can't really comment on the specs, they don't mean much other than the 5W of transmit power which is really just par for the course, similar to the UV5R. Try posting up here.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/amateur-ham-radio-bs-and-callsign-thread.260643/page-142

 

I'm not awake yet. Just spent about 3 minutes trying to figure out why I couldn't edit a post. Then I realized it wasn't my post.

 

Henry has an external and he sounds the worst, imo.

I could try to find the antenna I ordered....

 

It's a bit like Schrodinger's boxcat or the observer effect, I think a part of that is talking too loud and too close but we never get to see it cause we only hear him in our trucks. Another piece might be your external mic is actually just that much better (or his stock one is defective). I give up trying to understand him.

 

https://youtu.be/bIaUfBjHjpI

 

k found it.

http://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-001562

I attach this to a 5" mag-mount on my roof, which has about a 20-foot cord that I plug directly into my Baofeng. I run it through my back window. The bendy antenna along with the mag-mount can take hits from branches really well. It's only popped off once so far.

I think Henry is talking fine, so I have to imagine it's the antenna. Or maybe settings in the handheld..?? No clue. But my setup, for whatever reason, seems to work pretty damn well. And it's all fairly cheap stuff.

loll