Cheap Comms - Baofeng Radios

[Grant H.]

Amateur radio is mostly self policing.... There is a "sport" called "fox hunt" they will find you and they will.... probably do nothing unless you are being a jerk, but it is still far better to be licensed.


No code required for tech or general license... but I do think you have to have a current tech to get the general...

You're going to have to REALLY piss some of them off to get them to hunt you down.

Fox hunts are great fun, and a great learning tool, but aren't targeted at unlicensed users. I built a "fox" for the BARC Jr club. Used a cheap 2M handheld and a home built timed audio player that played my call sign in code and then transmitted a string of morse code that read "This is a fox hunt, come find me, and win the prize"...

Great fun to hide and then watch the rest of the club go chase it down using their handhelds, directional antennas (or shielding their omni antenna with their body and turning to try and detect the direction it's being transmitted from).

I got told I couldn't hide the fox anymore when I used an extremely directional antenna (home made, very tight, and isolated in all other directions) and bounced the 2M signal off one of the flatirons... The leaders of the club were not happy when they had folks swearing up and down that the radio was up on the flatirons and they needed to drive up there.

[Fentonite]

I didn't say this, but... (it's the anonymous internet, right?)

The FCC enforcement division won't give a rat's behind about you playing around. They have much bigger fish to fry (read corporate interests having them pursue license offenses that generate fines, payable to the FCC, to the tune of $10,000/site/day of offense (including retroactively)...)

The FCC relies on repeated complaints of offense before chasing someone down, and that list gets prioritized by potential risk to life, then monetary motives, then when they have time, (which was back in oh, 1803) they go after small potatoes...

That?s about what I figured. (Not that I?ll violate any rules, of course)

[Vitesse304]

Is there a need to purchase the cable for programming if you're just going to use the FRS frequency? I guess I'm asking if they're ready to go right out of the box with FRS frequencies?

[Irving]

You can manually program them just fine without a cable. The cable just makes it easier to do a lot of programming all at once.

Example: With some HAM frequencies, you broadcast at one frequency, but listen at a slightly different one. The settings for the frequency ranges needs to be programmed, then each frequency individually programmed. It's a lot easier to type all the info into a program on the computer and send all the info at once, then it is to go through the motions of entering menus, selecting, confirming, exiting menus, etc. Think of the difference between texting back when you had to push a button three times just to get to a certain letter, compared to just typing on a keyboard.

Don't NEED a cable, but it's easier.

[thedave1164]

That?s about what I figured. (Not that I?ll violate any rules, of course)

All you need is a Technician license, takes a couple hours of your time and about $15 to get you legal.

There are study resources on the web that have the question pool with the actual questions and actual answers you will have on the test, some are even set up to simulate the test.

You can usually find a test being given every month within driving distance, find out the local ham radio club and inquire.

If you are good at test taking, you could study for the General and even Extra, you can keep testing until you fail

[.40isthenew.45]

Is there a need to purchase the cable for programming if you're just going to use the FRS frequency? I guess I'm asking if they're ready to go right out of the box with FRS frequencies?

If you don't expect to be traveling and/or exceeding the number of memory locations on your radio, you probably won't need to change things very often. Borrowing a cable, or just meeting up with another member to program the radio the first time is a good option. I would offer, but by the time you drive to Pueblo, it may be cheaper (and faster depending on traffic) to just order a cable of your own...

If anyone else needs the use of a cable, I have one for the handhelds and one for the btech mobile that I would gladly make available.

[thedave1164]

Is there a need to purchase the cable for programming if you're just going to use the FRS frequency? I guess I'm asking if they're ready to go right out of the box with FRS frequencies?

as long as you know what freq the channel you want to use it, you can simply punch in the freq while in VFO mode

[DenverGP]

A few resources I've been using to study for the technician license:

Older (third edition) of the ARRL manual:
http://w2sbp.weebly.com/uploads/6/5/...nse_manual.pdf

Very concise study guide:
https://www.kb6nu.com/wp-content/upl...guide-v1-1.pdf

Practice Exams (free registration required):
http://arrlexamreview.appspot.com/index.html

And other practice exam / study site (free registration required):
https://hamstudy.org/

[O2HeN2]

Off topic, but I got sidetracked on CTCSS frequencies. I find conflicting information, which I didn't expect.

Take tone 13. I've found three different frequencies for CTCSS 13:

https://www.ailunce.com/blog/what-are-the-ctcss-and-dcs (97.4)
http://www.repeater-builder.com/tech...wood-ctcss.jpg (100.0)
http://missionspec.com/oe/MissionSpe...eatSheet02.pdf (103.5)

Please don't tell me that different manufactrers decided to use different frequencies (but I think you will )

O2

[iego]

I'm in. I bought 4 radios and 1 car radio. USB programming cable, and antenna upgrades.

Thanks for the heads-up on this.

-John