Ham Radio - other communications

[TDH]

If you want to get into it cheap pick up a Baofeng uv-5r($40ish). Caught my last antenna in the car door so I bought another new one for like $15 on ebay, and a magnetic roof one at Radio Shack($35ish). they are way better than the stock one, with either of them I can pick up the Salem PD and Marion County Sheriff freqs from Beaverton/Bethany area. I can hit a ton of repeaters with it too.

You get the 2m and 70cm bands - when you're ready to spend more get something better. I'm looking at getting a new Kenwood TM-V71A, but I'll keep the Baofeng.

 

[knuckle Head]

Yeah I have reading a lot of the great posts, and see there is HAM get together near me next month, so I am going to take a lot of notes from posts here and go to it and ask a lot of questions and make lots of observations

Thanks everyone for your help

 

[bwchase]

1+ on the vx-r7. Had one for several years. Programmed most of the repeaters in oregon and washington in to the memory. When on a hike, can use radio in the truck as a cross band repeater to take the weak vx-r7 signal and amplify it to reach the big repeaters. Has to be a cross band capible mobile radio to work.

K7LLL

 

[AMProducts]

If your looking at VHF/UHF, a hand held (HT) will work fine. You should be able to hit a repeater from just about anywhere. The Yaesu VX-7R & VX-8R's are great HT's with great features & accessories.
I posted a couple other suggested setups & sites

Here's the problem with both of those radios... the batteries in them are small, and take forever to charge. I really don't know wtf the issue is with the yaesu radios, but at times even leaving my VX7 on all night I wake up in the morning and it's still charging.

I do like my VX7, and spend a fair amount of time using it for 6m (my favorite feature). However it has too many menus, the interface is horrible (as with all yaesu products, oh yea, and each one is different).

I think I've said it before, but I'll say it again, what I want in a radio:

2m/440 - 6m is a huge plus
Waterproof
Wide-band receive
long battery life
Intuitive/utilitarian interface
Comfortable/useful form factor

Of these, the VX7/6/8 get 3 right, they are waterproof, have wideband RX, and do 2m/440/6 (and sorta 220), but the really "useful" features that matter... having a big battery, and being in a package that i can set on a table without falling over, stick in my pocket, clip to my belt, these radios completely fail at.

My EDC radio is actually the baofeng UV5R, I have 3 batteries (I bought one of the new 3500mAh batteries, which lasts about 4 days when using it as a fm radio), it has a comfy form-factor (it's long, and relatively thin, wide radios cause all kinds of problems, and tend to fall out of/not maintain orientation in pouches) also, even when a big whip antenna is attached it stands upright on a table, the interface isn't great, but consists of 38 options, most of which you will never need to use. However, the lack of the wideband RX kinda kills it for being the only radio I would ever carry, and it would be awesome if it were waterproof. However, I have yet to take my VX7 into the pool, and I'm fairly convinced it would probably leak at the first opportunity.

Also, the wouxun KG-UV2D is pretty much the same thing as the baofeng radio, however for some reason people will pay over $100 for it, even though it's electrically the same radio. The Wouxun takes the same programming cable, same antennas, only difference: the battery.

They also came out with a new model of the UV5R, which now supports T-band, (470-520mhz) so the UHF band goes from 400-520, I'm not really sure what this is good for on the transmit side, however it does open up some new possibilities for listening to T-band (mostly commercial/gov/muni) users. And that new 3500mAh battery... it is awesome!

 

[HenryJ]

Looks like the baofeng UV5R is 4W VHF and the Wouxun KG-UV2D 5W VHF. Not a very big difference.

Can you "unlock" the Baofeng transmit range? That can be done for the KG-UV2D and VX-7R. That would be a bonus for use outside the US, among other things.

I do like having a knob to change channels, but I can get used to the buttons.
The Baofeng antenna looks a little more durable than most. I like that. Those always seem to be turned into the grab handles.

Jim Mitchell's software is a huge plus for the KG-UV2D and VX-7R radios. That alone is worth quite a bit. What software is available for the Baofeng?

I have AA battery packs for the Wouxun KG-UV2D and Yaesu VX-7R radios. Is there one available for the Baofeng? In a SHTF scenario, having the option to use AA batteries might be an advantage. I always seem to have some around.

I have quite a few years of extreme duty testing with the KG-UV2 radios. That has convinced me of their value. I have yet to see one fail...Well at least it still works duct taped together, and I did not consider the damaged antenna a failure as a new antenna got it going again. I have a couple dozen in service now. Four different entities

Personally an extra $50 is well worth it a radio that I trust, however I am open to saving that for something else when the next best thing comes along

I am watching the Baofeng. There are getting to be a few good reports for them now. From reputable real world users. Be sure to keep spreading the word

 

[amcardon]

CHIRP seems to be the most common software to use on the baofeng. extensive discussion on the baofeng uv5r yahoo group page...