HAM Radio Discussion

[rbeau30]

Thorodin Mountain is pretty close. Sweet - thanks!

If you are not sure about wanting to get into the hobby. Get a Baofeng radio for 30 bucks on Amazon. They are very capable, and can get you a feel for it before you go spending money on some serious radios. Your License is going to be 15 bucks. So all together you can get into the hobby for way less than $100 bucks.

This is the one I bought (UV-5R):
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[Irving]

I was listening to my Baofeng just today.

[rbeau30]

I was listening to my Baofeng just today.

I have several stashed in strategic places.

Going to eventually set up my Baofengs to transmit to my car or bug out Trailer which is set up as a cross-band-repeater to transmit to a repeater on one of the mountains.

I know my car radio is capable of it It is just one of those "to do" items.

[Singlestack]

If you are not sure about wanting to get into the hobby. Get a Baofeng radio for 30 bucks on Amazon. They are very capable, and can get you a feel for it before you go spending money on some serious radios. Your License is going to be 15 bucks. So all together you can get into the hobby for way less than $100 bucks.

This is the one I bought (UV-5R):
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Great advice. Give it a try with little investment. If you find its not for you, not much invested. I had my Baofeng for a year before deciding I wanted to get more into it and joined ARES. Got an Icom ID-51 for Christmas last year, and its an incredible radio. Better then the Baofeng in all ways except cost. But now I have the Baofeng as a backup, and it goes with me on daily walks.

One thing to consider, Gilpinguy, is to get some local height on an antenna - makes all the difference in the world. I only have 4-5Watt HTs that I use from my basement study, but have 60' of good coax to an attic mounted Diamond X-50AN 2M/70cm antenna. Sounds fantastic and I can hit other HTs 10 miles away on simplex (no repeater) without a perfect LOS.

A technician level license and an inexpensive dual band HT ought to be considered mandatory survival gear.

[buffalobo]

If you are not sure about wanting to get into the hobby. Get a Baofeng radio for 30 bucks on Amazon. They are very capable, and can get you a feel for it before you go spending money on some serious radios. Your License is going to be 15 bucks. So all together you can get into the hobby for way less than $100 bucks.

This is the one I bought (UV-5R):
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Great advice. Give it a try with little investment. If you find its not for you, not much invested. I had my Baofeng for a year before deciding I wanted to get more into it and joined ARES. Got an Icom ID-51 for Christmas last year, and its an incredible radio. Better then the Baofeng in all ways except cost. But now I have the Baofeng as a backup, and it goes with me on daily walks.

One thing to consider, Gilpinguy, is to get some local height on an antenna - makes all the difference in the world. I only have 4-5Watt HTs that I use from my basement study, but have 60' of good coax to an attic mounted Diamond X-50AN 2M/70cm antenna. Sounds fantastic and I can hit other HTs 10 miles away on simplex (no repeater) without a perfect LOS.

A technician level license and an inexpensive dual band HT ought to be considered mandatory survival gear.

Gotta love when the most recent posts have the answers/advice you are looking for.

Time to go back to the beginning and read entire thread and pull the trigger.

[rbeau30]

Gotta love when the most recent posts have the answers/advice you are looking for.

Time to go back to the beginning and read entire thread and pull the trigger.

Meh just go for it, get to the practice tests online. I put the bookmark on my phone, and every time I had a few extra minutes I would go through a few questions. All of the questiuons are published so you will not get a surprize.

Ohh and before you take the test... go through the General test questions too... Whhen you pass the Tech, you can go ahead and take the General (and extra if you then pass the General) for no extra money. Worse case scenario it is a free look at the test.


If you can't get licensed for whatever reason right now. Get a cheap radio like the baofeng. You can do everything except transmit. So why not?

If you don't like it I will buy your radio from you LOL.

[rbeau30]

Would someone please post a link to amazon or ebay with the correct part to go from the baofeng to the magnetic car mount antenna? I used to have the link but I can no longer find it.

Any other helpful parts links would be good to.

Thanks

Do you mean the adapter? The baofeng needs a SMA-Female: Here is a mag antenna that should work.
http://www.amazon.com/Baofeng-BF-S11...xgy_misc_img_z

Here is one for SMA to BNC (My Scanner Antenna has a BNC)
http://www.amazon.com/Etekcity-Conve...rds=sma+to+bnc

Many Magnetic antennas require different connectors. Here is one that will attach a Baofeng to a PL-259 (Like a CB connector.)
http://www.amazon.com/Reverse-PL-259...pl-259+adapter

The two best upgrades I have done to mine is the 14" whip antenna:
http://www.amazon.com/ExpertPower%C2...=baofeng+14%22

and the speaker mic thingy:
http://www.amazon.com/Baofeng-BF-S11...xgy_misc_img_z

They also make a AA battery pack which is useful.

[rbeau30]

For some reason the Speaker mic seems to make everything sound better.

The 14" whip antenna upgrade seems to work for me even in a moving vehicle.

[rbeau30]

The programming cable makes things really really easy. I should have added that to the suggested upgrades. However I could not imagine programming it without the cable. LOL

I like the extended life battery as well, but it makes it considerably longer but easier to grip. If you like the compactness of the baofeng I wouldn't get the extended battery. But it does make the run time longer.

[gnihcraes]

Did we have a backup power/solar thread? emergency charging of devices like cell phones?

I'm getting back to work on my portable solar power project. If there isn't a thread, I'll start one.