Orange County CAF's: up to no good

I have a 2900. It is ok. Cool you can change the channel in the mic. The range is killer far. I can talk to Hesperia from out at Johnson Valley. Had it for 5 years and rough off road. I use a 3db 5/8 antenna.

The Kenwood that pci uses or that rugged radio one is sweet.

Just going off memory.

 

@itaro sent me the pics

 

Yeah Mike, the main complaint, at least with the 1900 is the squelch. I'm almost FULL squelch and it acts as if it is open??? Even messing with the "digital" side of it, I forget what they call it, but anyways, I've dialed up/down on those settings to see if I can get better squelch capability only to find out that that is one of the main complaints for that model/unit. I just don't know if it followed through with the 2900? Other than that, it works VERY WELL and I have no real "complaints", in that sense!!! Very easy to change settings once you get the hang of it. Again, for my 1900.

Regarding the full wattage setting, I almost NEVER go full wattage unless I have to. You're doing your radio a favor in doing that as well.

 

SOOOOOO.....your sayng stay with the one I have?? the B-tech one?

 

I leave my squelch about 75% or higher. Yeah only transmit full blast a few times to get some friends really far away. 5 watts on top of idyllwild i talk to San dimas. If I'm too close to a bunch of radios I'll get some interference on rare occasion.

 

That or go with the mini? The mini is NOT a bad way to go due to its size. I just don't know if it will fit where you want it to go height and width wise? As far as depth for the mini's, unless your firewall is up to your knees, then you have quite a bit of depth to play with from what I'ver personally seen with Madison's and Mike's radio (a.k.a. their mini's or versions of it).

Also, if you are pretty much at max depth with the radio that you have, I HIGHLY recommend you get that RF 90* adapter because it will save you SOME room as far as depth. Remember, you have to think about your RF cable and it is going to add even that much more depth because they are typically STRAIGHT cables! You NEVER EVER want to KINK an RF cable!!!

I'm noticing that you are going for higher wattage, which, I can understand, but 10W and 25W will take you quite far out there. I can connect to the 2m repeater near Big Bear from HB area without ANY issues. Even on LOW wattage on my Baofeng HT!!! From the foothills or very near the Azusa foothills, I can connect to the HB RACES repeater with very little to no problems. The valley areas, it tends to cut IN/OUT, but I expect certain areas to do that as that needs to be taken into consideration anyways. Yes, there are times when you need to up the wattage a bit, but very rare and in this example that I give, these are units that are putting out about 1W on LOW and roughly 5W on HIGH. For the mini's, now you are getting into the +10W range, which is starting to get pretty healthy transmit wise. The one thing that people don't get or understand at first is that they think that wattage is everything? Well, hate to break the bubble, that is NOT always true and I think alot of HAMs would agree with me. The main key is the antenna and how good your antenna system is setup!!!!!!! Magmount is okay, hard mount is even that much better!!!

Regarding the "unlocking", I honestly do not know if you need or not need to do that for those mini's? Heck, for all I know, you may need to do that for the one that you already have, unless you have already semi-connected it and TESTED for that??? From my personal experiences, it all depends on how they shipped from the factory. Even when you think you have the latest and greatest, you may get a unit that has older firmware in it just because it's been sitting on the shelf longer for whatever reason?!

So, with that said, for certain situations, they will tell you to look for the firmware version of your radio to be able to connect to the appropriate CHiRP software.

Just telling you about my experiences with my radios and what I know and what I have read and what I have had to deal with.

 

That is about where I have my squelch, maybe a little higher. I would rather have it so that it sits at around 50% or a little lower to have "room to play with", if you get my meaning.

Also, F'ME, "5W" and you can reach San Dimas!!! That's still pretty krazy far! Just AWESOME! But, are we talk'n through a repeater? Or NO repeater? That's gotta be through a repeater?!

 

The Of Randy

 

Hey, my last post was short! LOL!

 

I have one but it has a small dent. Yours if toy want it.

 

I figured you were looking for a rear bumper.
It's not the straightest rear bumper but you can have it.

 

Just a tad. I backed into a low pole a few years back. It's just been siting around.

 

Only 1 class then I'm done today

 

Nice. Im in coto de caza today

 

Engles por favor

 

I suggest going to Board and brew for lunch then! Its right next to coto

 

Seconded.

 

I have both the CB and HAM. Haven't set up the CB yet (too lazy to run the coax under the truck). I have a uniden CB and a kenwood TM-281 HAM. Both have firestik and fire ring setups with the HEAVY DUTY stainless steel springs.

 

Lol thats where i went yesterday!
There sandwiches are on point!