Amateur (Ham) Radio BS and Callsign Thread!

what does the beige X pattern antenna do for you?

 

It's a secret but it's named after a star wars fighter...

TX-RX upper 1.25m through lower 70cm quite well.

 

Joined Los Angeles Fire Department ACS recently. Getting my Tacoma ready for any occasions. now with toughbook with internet connection. Yaesu FT8900, Toughbook, and Uniden Scanner...

 

interesting that it is horizontally polarized vs vertical.

 

Well, it's made to recieve and transmit to things above you (SATCOM). It does do UHF LOS out the ends, but there are better options, hence the 42 inch antenna next to it. A friend of mine fried a baofeng talking on VHF through it. Ran an SWR meter on it and at 10W on 146.XXX logged an SWR of 10!

 

What do you use it for? Haven’t seen anyone walk away with one of those before.

 

@tacoma16 @Joe23

 

LOS comms and getting funny looks. They are ITAR restricted, but you can buy a DRMO'd one. Frankly, there are much improved models out there now that are COTS anyway. Honestly, I'm still sourcing the cable for the high angle array, but I'm more just curious what I can hear.

 

Hey guys. I'm a fairly recent addition to HAM community, KD2QIW.
I've been scoping this thread for a short while trying to figure out equipment answers without asking silly questions, but you guys are so all over the place, that I just can't avoid it.
So, to make a short story long, due to recent FCC ruling I'm legally not allowed do use 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, so I'm looking for a replacement/alternative, and I could use some suggestions. I'm trying not to spend too much money, especially that I'm just starting out here. Also I'm not thinking about a HAM shack, but something portable or mobile (I have a dual band antenna and choice of vehicle mounts).
OK so, how much sense would it make to just get an analog handheld dual band transceiver? Or should I think more about tri-band one? Digital?? (which system and why?)
OR... For moar power, would it make more sense to get a mobile setup like Icom 2730 or Kenwood v71? (I'm thinking Icom because if eastetics, #3rdgenproblems). Not even sure what Yaesu has to offer in that price range.
Somehow I'm afraid that it's not really either /or thing....
I tend to overthink stuff a lot and make somewhat impulsive decisions but I'd rather make more of an educated one, hence I would like to get your opinions and suggestions.
Thanks in advance

 

A V71 or the Yaesu 7900 (I have this) would do well for a mobile setup. The Yaesu FT60, or the new model they just released get good marks. Icom does good HTs as well.

I'm sticking with my loaner/spotter Baofeng HT personally. 1. there is no real way they could ever enforce that ruling after they allowed free reign of those radios for years. They're everywhere. and 2. The responsibility is and should be on the operator to stay within their allowed allocations, as it has been understood for years. Maybe it's just me, but what's to stop me from buying a radio that can Tx on bands reserved for higher classes? It's the same principle.

 

To better answer your question, sans soapbox, I'd get both. A fully legal HT (props to you for following the letter of the law ) and a mobile 50W rig.

I had my 50W VHF/UHF rig first, and decided that there was enough reason to get a HT. 1. If you are away from the truck even a little, you can't hear the truck radio, 2. You can hand it to a spotter or use as a loaner, and hear the other party, and 3. I'm starting to look at the more expensive radios that can do repeater type functions, so being able to run ahead to scout a trail, get out to poke around and being able to relay all the way back to main is a benefit to me.

 

Yeah, the more I overthink it, it makes more sense to do both.
From what I've seen so far, some of those $350ish mobile rigs perform as cross band repeaters. Cool feature. Is that what you're talking about?

Another question... Would it make sense to connect external antenna and microphone/speaker to one of those handheld units while in a vehicle? I mean it makes sense in my head, but....

 

I also usually recommend a good quality mobile first. I dunno why the HT is the first thing everyone buys. Maybe it's a throw back to when we had walkie talkies as kids, I dunno. For using in a vehicle the extra power, the solid mount, easy to see face and operation are safer. You won't have a mess of power, antenna and eternal mic cables to fumble around. Plus as (or maybe if) you stick with the hobby having a decent single band mobile radio is so handy for a go box, mounting at home, building an APRS station. You'll always find a use for it.

Agreed. There's no rule or regulation that says a radio you have in your possession must be locked to frequencies or approved by anyone to use for amateur radio. It probably shouldn't have been sold in the first place but after the fact there's no way to punish a ham for using it on ham bands.

There's doesn't seem to be really be precedent for punishing the ham equipment manufacturer or reseller for it either as far as I can tell. The cases the FCC cites are for Part 95 violations, like the truck stops knowingly selling a ham radios that can be modified for CB, or Part 90 for selling a non-type approved radio that doesn't meet the technical rules for Part 90.

I don't think a ham should feel scared to keep using their Baofengs for ham. It's certainly good to be a example for the hobby and try to follow the spirit of the rules. But I wouldn't just throw away a radio either.

 

@Bastek you mention yaesu- I still think the yaesu 100dr is one of the best bang for your buck mobiles. Only single receive... but does have a dual watch similar to the baofeng ... but it has a nice modern screen, yaesu system fusion digital, and a built in "tnc" for aprs use. Also comes with everything needed to mount it up including the face plate extension cable, all for around $300.

 

I think it is. But to make a point about this, since it comes up a lot over the years. First, the radio to be fully legal needs to be able to identify itself, which only the Kenwood radio can do. The Yaesu radios aren't capable of a self ID.

You can still use the cross band if you identify the radio in the path. So as a range extender it can be done, e.g. you transmit, the mobile receives and transmits on the other band.

It would go something like "K1ABC using 145.400 simplex cross banding to 449.450."

The problem is the repeater doesn't know to say "W1CBA repeater transmitting on 444.450 cross banding to 145.400." So technically your mobile would need to add your call sign.

If it doesn't then you can only use the radio to bump your transmit range and your HT would have to hear the repeater directly.

Whether this is important or applies in the backcountry, well, if a ham transmits in the forest and no one is around to hear him does he break any rules? I dunno, morality is doing what's right when no one's around, as they say...

One other point, when you cross band the radio is transmitting constantly (what we call 100% duty cycle), so you have to be really careful about heat. Usually to keep from burning themselves up you have to use the lowest power setting, which is typically the same 5 watts as your HT. So the real benefit to having a vehicle with cross band is being able to park it in a better spot than your HT and probably having a better antenna. But I usually find the opposite problem, that my truck is parked in a valley and I'm hiking up a hill so the HT is probably in a better location.

That's what many people do. An external antenna is definitely helpful and a hand mic makes it easier.

 

External antenna? absolutely. External speaker? I wouldn't worry about it.

Yes, crossband is what I was talking about. Looking at moving to a D710 for a few reasons, that being one of them. If you wanted to scoop up my Yaesu 7900 and MLS-100 external speaker, PM me and maybe we can work something out.

 

I bought that small Baofeng because it was on sale, and figured it'll be the "foot in the door" thing for my HAM adventure... Lol. And at the price point seemed like a good idea at the time.

I didn't notice how was it marketed previous to FCC statement, but now days they are being sold as "two way radios" not HAM transceivers (at least on Amazon).
Also you're absolutely right about operator's responsibility to transmit on proper band plan, but apparently not everyone adheres to that.
I'm planning on keeping the radio, hopefully there might be a software update that would bring the radio up legal operations.... Or a backup radio, and hope that I'm not going to get reported. Lol

 

You can run a setting on chirp to lock it in to legal status...and you can unlock it back whenever you want.

 

I understand the concept of it, but at this moment it's still way above my pay grade, lol

 

Not trying to argue, and it would make perfect sense, but that's not what they want. FCC doesn't want operator to have an access to modify / lock and unlock frequencies.