Amateur (Ham) Radio BS and Callsign Thread!

Ran my third net in 3 nights, the second with new radio (Yaesu FT7900 mobile rig) and new antenna. They heard me via simplex over hill and over dale, up and down the dusty trail--including downtown Portland, 12 miles away. Amazing what power and a big stick can do for you. Still working on programming the alphas into the memory, 100 freqs to go. It's warm here in P town, upper 90s through Thursday, so sitting in the rig programming is not pleasant. Guess I'll just have to remember the freqs for a while instead of dialing by name.

 

Probably, I'm a member on that one. I'm usually on it every morning on the way to the gym (510 to 545 or so) and then again 7 to 730. Afternoons are less predictable, but it's my go to repeater. I'm in Amesbury, but I work in NH and spend as much time as possible in Maine. This weekend I'm doing a float trip down the Connecticut, I'm thinking about bringing the KX2 and making some maritime mobile contacts. What's your callsign? Your name doesn't sound familiar, but I may remember a callsign.

 

Yeah. It's the K1CA repeater, right? I work third shift and travel home at 6:45 am. Some of the morning convos crack me up. Especially that Wayne character. Always seems like a full room on there and I'm normally such a zombie at that hour so I just listen for the traffic updates and entertainment. I'll hop on there some day

If you're doing the CT river this weekend, I hope you're aware of the harpoon BBQ festival that takes place in Windsor Vermont. The property is right on the river. It's our 5th year camping out there and it's always some of the best food. Not sure if I'll have my truck up there but i might bring the HT. Have fun on your trip.

Max
KC1JXQ

 

Yea we knew about the BBQ. It kinda sucks because I would love to go to it, but we sort of randomly select a weekend that works for everyone involved and the past two years it ended up on BBQ weekend. Who doesn't love meat and beer?

The Claremont repeater is kind of a poke with an ht from there. I'm going to bring my DMR HT and listen to the Mt Ascutney repeater.

 

Bet the fella who lives on newfound could hit you guys on simplex with his portable yagi setup he has which he brings on his paddle board. Haha. I've heard him all the way out in Dartmouth.

We will see. I've been dragging my feet on DMR. My birthday just passed and I think I might treat myself to an HT with APRS. That might be first .

 

Finally...

http://www.arrl.org/news/fcc-cites-baofeng-importer-for-illegally-marketing-unauthorized-rf-devices

 

I read that this morning on ARRL. I have the BaoFeng F8HP and I'm surprised how well it actually works. I have a 1/4 wave antenna on it and it'll reach out to the repeater a healthy 7-8 miles and that's from inside the cab. We'll see how much more I can get with a mag mount 1/4 wave that is coming from Amazon (doesn't everything) today. Combine that with a handheld mic, this is a decent radio. Got it on prime day for 40.00 too.

 

Does this impact BTech as well?

 

We have a couple here that we use as spares and they work fine but the marketing of them has been ridiculous and I'm grateful to see this action.

 

You're right. They shouldn't be encouraging out of allowable frequency transmission.

 

Does anyone have an opinion on ICOM ID-4100a?

 

Looked into it a lot. But ended up going yaesu 100dr. Would probably go kenwood 710 next.

 

Those are the 3 that I've been looking at. The Kenwood is a nice radio but pricey.

 

That's why I ended up with the yaesu... price point was right and it allowed me to do everything I wanted... just not all at once hahah...

The biggest thing i liked about the icon 4100 was the GPS based repeater search. Is you could load every repeater for 500 miles into it and it would use the GPS in the unit to pick the closest one... but it's still a single receive radio... and from what I remember icon doesn't play super nice with aprs... they use a similar dstar version of it but the tnc radio does not directly connect with the aprs network (do some digging cause I could be wrong...)

But yea for the price the yaesu 100dr did the same thing as the icon 4100 (except the GPS repeater locator) and included the mounting brackets and the head remote cable ... where as the 4100 didnt.. so by the time I got everything for the 4100 I was at the base price of the kenwood 710... but then I needed the cables and whatnot and it was out of my budget...

I decided at that point I wasnt sure how much I would use it and the yaesu was the best $ for value



Now that I've used it a bunch... I value aprs more then anything so I would go with the best aprs radio and that's the kenwood 710

 

Excellent review! Thank you

Being new to the amateur radio hobby, I'm still learning and trying not to make a choice that I'd really regret later.

 

Another way to get APRS on a budget is the TM-V71a and add a TNC, such as the mobilinkd and an Android phone running APRSdroid. You end up with similar functionality of the tm-d710g but add a color touch screen map. Mobilinkd sells a cable with a 6 pin mini din, so the hookup is painless.

 

Bingo

That's the route I'm going. I got a mini tablet with on Amazon prime day just for that. Going to use the Mobilelinkd when I get the chance. So far anywhere there's a digipeater I also have LTE and just use the AP instead

 

Yea I considered that route at the time I got my yaesu... but every thing I had was apple so the mobilinked wouldn't work with it.

The biggest thing that annoys me about the Kenwood and icon units is you have to buy all the accessories ... like control head cables and mounting brackets.

That may have changed now not sure.

 

I run iOS so I need something that supports Apple

 

The TM-D710G comes with the remote mounting parts, nothing more to purchase. The TM-V71A does not. However, the cable is just a commodity 6 conductor cable. I used ethernet cable. Just duplicate the pins on the small stub cable that's included. With a 6p6c connector on one end and 8p8c on the other. It's cheap and easy to remote yourself.

For the Apple users: I own an Android phone. However, I purchased a second phone just for APRS. It's on 12v all the time, so battery condition is not relevant. Pick up a used phone on eBay for ~$30. I wanted a phablet, but couldn't find one that fit my budget. Another alternative is a brand new pre-paid phone from Walmart for $20-$40. Just don't buy any minutes.