ham radio?

I ordered the study book yesterday. I am going to self study. I took the practice test and got 1/4-1/2 the answers correct with common sense and educated guessing. I only tried about 50 questions of the pool so far.

I'm trying to decide on a first radio. I'm thinking either handheld or a mobile that I can also use in a pack via batteries. I'm interested in participating in emergency communications, so a portable radio will be essential. I don't want to mount a radio in the truck per say as I potentially will slip seat. I have multiple repeaters near that I should be able to hit on 2m.

 

Regarding ARES, you need to contact either your regional or local coordinator for information. But, unless you're home a lot, there won't be much you can do in that regard. I know that because I just had that conversation with Arizona's regional coordinator. I am getting my weather spotter credentials and training so maybe I can do some good there.

As far as a very decent low priced starter radio, look at wxoun ( probably mispelled that badly). It's under $200 and has a lot of great features. Otherwise think used. I just replaced my APRS equipment- $450 for the ThD72A handheld and $775 for the TmD710A- so you see what I mean. These are high end radios and there is no need to get that far in depth when just getting your feet wet.

Mark

 

Im home two days every week. And next year when I'm in the situation to do so I will be home 2.5 days or so and every other day for little more than my break.

I'm also going to check into joining my VFD again, they told me I couldn't right now due to my days off.

 

Kudos for getting in line for both the ham ticket and the VFD. I started out my public safety career as a volunteer on a rescue squad in Noo Joisee when I was 16. And as Mark suggested, Wouxun makes a nice line of dualband ham handhelds that have the advantage of being FCC type accepted for "Part 90", meaning typical business and public safety users. As long as your FD uses either the 150-174 or 450-470 band, their KG-UVD6 (I think that's the model #) does 2.5 KHz channel spacing, selectable bandwidth per channel, and nearly every kind of signalling you're likely to need, as long as it's analog. So far they don't have a P25 or any other digital rigs, but for ~$160, pretty sweet. And it covers the adjacent 2 meter and 420-450 ham bands, too. I got one of that version, and one of the 2 meter/220 dualbanders, but there are only a couple of 220 machines near where I live. You can program it from the keypad with a little practice, or with a USB cable and free software.
There's a simple SMA adapter for an external antenna when you're mobile, and the battery eliminator is like $15. If you get a dualband magmount gain antenna, you can be on the air on two bands in two minutes, or put it on your belt, for less than $250. www.importcommunications.com is here in NC and is where I happened to get mine, but there are a couple of other distributors. They've also got a Part 90 handheld the size of a deck of cards for $55 or so, also dualband, from Baofeng. I've got a couple for "She Who Must Be Obeyed" and myself. Lotsa options.
You'll have to get used to the funny looks you get when people see you running *into* burning buildings, though.....
73,
Handlebar

 

I'm going to go against the advice of the others and say you do NOT want to get one of the cheap Chinese radios (CCRs) as your first rig. They have two major faults: they are made cheap to sell cheap, and they are a pain in the ### to program without using a computer.

Cheap: These radios have little to no filtering in the receiver. Someone else fifty feet away keys up on another frequency, and the signal you were listening to simply disappears. This usually isn't an issue in casual operation, but you start working EMCOMM (emergency communications) at a control point or a shelter, and there will be several other people on radios nearby. These radios do have their place; I have a Baofeng UV5R in my bag or in my pocket pretty much all the time. If it gets broken, lost, or stolen, I'm out all of $50.

Programmability: These radios are effectively commercial radios with keypad programmability enabled. They are designed to be programmed by a computer, and are not at all intuitive to program by the keypad. This is not unique to the CCR; the Icom IC-T2H was a modified IC-F3 commercial radio, and it's also a pain to program.

So... what should you get? I'd go with used gear from the major manufacturers: Icom, Kenwood, Yaesu, and Alinco. Some (OK, more than a few) will bad mouth Alinco. I've owned some Alinco gear; it's definitely on the budget side, but it works well. I've owned gear from each of the manufacturers. It all works just fine.

FWIW, I would lean toward getting a used mobile radio first. Obviously a mobile rig has more power, but it also has a better receiver in it, as well.

 

To piggyback what Ms. Jamie has said, yes the Baofengs are by far your cheapest HT's at $55 new, you will want to invest in a good antenna as the stock rubber duck antennas flat out suck. Also the Baofeng like mine (UV-3R) has only 2 watts of power so it will work if you're 10-20 miles from the repeater, but IMO the receive on it sucks. The good thing is it's smaller than a pack of smokes. Definitely look into an Icom, Yaesu, etc if you can spend the coin.

As for the mobile, I also agree on the TX and RX. How often will you slip seat? Perhaps you could get a slip seat box and put it in?

 

I shouldn't slip seat too often unless I breakdown, maintenance, etc. A city guy will likely run the tractor on my down time.
I plan to leave antenna on mirror and simply unplug the unit and take home. If someone takes my cb, not that I'm too worried about theft, I'm not out much. I would be more concerned with unauthorized use or another driver just messing with it.

I don't have a firm budget.

Where is a good place to pickup used radios other than eBay? Not had the best luck with eBay, I've receives knock offs a time or two. Besides with eBay you can't test it before buying it.

It appears there are about 3 repeaters within 5 miles and at least 6 within 15 miles, probably more.


The main 2 radios I've been looking at so far are the Yaesu VX-8GR & VX-8DR. Also looking at Icom IC-2820H or t Kenwood TM-V71A, he removable faceplate seems like a good idea for a mobile radio that I can use as a pack radio also.

 

MsJ & Turbo are spot-on about the price/performance on the radios I mentioned, and the advantages of the better known YaeKenAliWood products. A big advantage of the better known brands over the CCRs is that when something goes T.U. (a technical term that I believe crosses into the trucking industry, too) on a CCR you can either log onto a Yahoo forum and hope to find someone who may have seen the same problem and found a fix. The fix will entail having a ready supply of surface mount components the size of a ¤ or so, a precision soldering iron and the requisite skillls to use it on a busy circuit board, the eyes of a fighter pilot (or a really good bench magnifier) and a fair amount of patience. Or a dealer who's willing to exchange the radio; as far as I know, there are no U.S.-sited authorized repair facilities for any of the CCRs; but a tech who is current on this type of gear might be OK; just forget about warranty coverage with this route.
When a problem arises with YaeKenAliWood radios, OTOH, a phone call to Bellevue, WA or Compton, CA or the environs will let you talk to someone at the U.S. office of the four Japanese manufacturers (I think they're all Japanese still), and often a factory tech can guide you through a fix on the phone, or advise you to send it in for factory level repair.
Some years ago I spent a week at Icom's U.S. HQ in Bellevue on my way home to AK after attending a comms industry convention. I'd arranged with the service manager to observe the guys doing the day-in, day-out repairs on land mobile and marine lines that I was selling and supporting in my shop, so I could get a good idea of what fails most often, quick tips to diagnose, which parts to stock, stuff like that. Time well spent.
So this week, 20 years later, I called to order parts for a couple of those radios that I've *still* got, and they arrived just now in the mail.
Kenwood makes some very high spec gear for "da gummint" to be used in very harsh environments, as does Icom. Alinco's ham gear has always been popular and easy to fix; my first dualband radio was an Alinco handheld, long ago. Yaesu has been around seemingly forever, through a couple of name changes with their product divisions, but always well respected. Well, except for their FTH-2070 (I think that was the model number) of their rushed-to-production dual-band Part 90 handheld, the size of an HT-200 (brick) and *lotsa* wires with top controls. Wearing it on the belt needed something like Borat's mankini.
As for sources of secondhand gear, your local club (and hamfests) can be reasonable sources, but keep in mind that hamfests exist so that people can get rid of stuff that they don't want. It might be because they want that new $15,000 Icom HF rig and need the $$$ Or because they thought they could revive that old National receiver and Hallicrafters transmitter until they realized all the blown parts are made of Unobtanium, and are looking for someone who doesn't know that yet.
With the exception of this last handful of CCRs, and my trusty Icom IC-730 that I got from a fellow ham who told me what was wrong with it, all my stuff came from eekBay. Everything that was advertised as working actually worked, and the stuff that said "Needs work, low TX output" or whatever I just didn't buy until I checked availability of the usual parts suspects.
In the mobile, my main 2 meter mobile is an aging Icom IC-2100H. 100 channels, tone PL only (no digital PL), will scan, will scan for PL, and let you put in alpha channel names. 3 power levels, remote mic with DTMF, 50 watts on high. ~$100 used, and I got mine 15 years ago. About the size of a Cobra 25.
On eekBay I try to buy from hams rather than estate liquidators; some places won't even plug in a piece of gear.
Sorry, I got kinda long-winded again. But yeah, you'll be better off performance-wise if you stick with the YaeKenAliWood products, and will be able to keep them running if you can't do it yourself. If price is an issue at first, the CCRs will get you on the air, or as a spare pocket radio.
73,
Handlebar

 

Just fyi- I mentioned the apparent " W" cuss word on account of price- I do not own one and can't speak to field operations personally. However my understanding from the reviews in QSL and others I know personally that bought them is that they are good decent low budget radio.

Mark

 

My Kenwood TH-D72A

Mark