Cheap Comms - Baofeng Radios

[battlemidget]

Technician class test can be passed with a bit of self study for anyone with an electronics background. Pueblos West club has a weekly class for General license.

https://pwarc.com/events.html

This.

I got my first ham ticket when I was 19. Don't delay getting into the hobby, there are alot of different aspects; voice, data, hf, vhf, sat, dstar, aprs I can't even keep up with it all.
I've had my eye on https://www.verotelecom.com/VERO-VR-...g-p541441.html It's a mobile that uses a smartphone interface.
Supposedly they're coming out with an HT version after the Chinese New Year (end of Jan).

[Justin]

Technician class test can be passed with a bit of self study for anyone with an electronics background. Pueblos West club has a weekly class for General license.

https://pwarc.com/events.html

I've been doing self-study, but, frankly, nothing focuses my attention quite like having to drop $100-$200 on a class to learn something.

[clodhopper]

The test isn't magically hard. In fact, most of the flash card type study aids available are the exact questions off the test. If you have even a reasonable short term memory, you can read through the questions the night before and pass the test the next day. You wont really have learned anything useful doing that, but it does get you through the test.

http://www.arrl.org/question-pools

[Justin]

I logged back in to Hamstudy yesterday and found that you can sort the practice questions by subsection, which makesit much easier to practice, rather than just trying to go through all of the questions in a random order.

Going through the material by subsection makes it easier to make sense of each topic. Kind of obvious, I know.

[SSChameleon]

QRZ.com has practice exams under the resources tab. You can make an account for free. Take them over and over until you are scoring high enough to pass. This is the fastest and easiest way to pass the exam.

The downside is you don’t learn all the electronics or practical knowledge a formal class would teach you, so this is for those of us who want the license to use the radios for communication only.

[powerstroke79]

Late to the party. Cb radio in the jeep failed, so I was thinking about getting a uv-5r plus. Anyone have any input on using a fma to bnc adapter to uhf for antenna on my jeep. I was thinking about leaving the bnc adapter on the radio then using a bnc export power antenna when not in the jeep. My thinking is the least amount of screwing the antenna on and off the fma the less chances of damaging the radio. More newbie questions to come.

[battlemidget]

I'm not familiar with FMA and google wasn't helpful. Usually, CB installations are done with 18' of coax, which isn't necessary with vhf/uhf. Generally, HTs make poor mobile replacements. In my humble opinion, get a true mobile gmrs/frs radio. Midland makes one, and there are others. Every adapter has some loss, so stacking adapters really isn't ideal.

But, for wheeling I think you should stick with the CB. Channel 4 is still the goto in 4wheel parks and and CB is still widely used at big events. Plus, you can talk to the big trucks on channel 19. I had a vhf/uhf and CB in my jeep, and I used CB a whole lot more than anything else.

[crays]

Would this be a good start, or should I be looking at newer models?

AMAZON 5 PACK

https://www.amazon.com/BaoFeng-UV-5R...ct_top?ie=UTF8


ETA: This is what hung me up both previous times I started this process... Too many damned choices, and not enough knowledge.

[00tec]

Would this be a good start, or should I be looking at newer models?

AMAZON 5 PACK

https://www.amazon.com/BaoFeng-UV-5R...ct_top?ie=UTF8


ETA: This is what hung me up both previous times I started this process... Too many damned choices, and not enough knowledge.

I have that radio. Looking back, it would have been nice to have the 8w Baofeng, and waterproof, but for the money, the UV-5R cant really be beat.

[crays]

I have that radio. Looking back, it would have been nice to have the 8w Baofeng, and waterproof, but for the money, the UV-5R cant really be beat.

So the 8w upgrade uv-5r+hp (or whatever the model is/are) or the uv-82's? Only $6 bucks more for a 5-pak of UV-82's.