New group of Baofeng radios

[Sailor]

Lol, I am the king of STARTING projects.

Kydex, wanted to learn it. Made several small holsters for odd little guns, still need to finish out 10 or so more.
Microgreens, I have all my seed to make sunflower, pea, radish, arugula etc, just need to set up my grow system.

Keep your eyes out for old tube radios, I have picked up a few old Swan 350's and Yaesu FT-101's Receive was great, little hard to learn how to tune up. Got them cheap gave them to team mates.

The have the added benefit of heating the man cave also.

 

[PistolBob]

I acquired one of these: Amazon.com : BaoFeng BF-F8HP w/Large Battery (2000mAh) - BaoFeng's Best TRI-POWER (1, 4, 8 Watt) (USA Warranty) Dual-Band 136-174/400-520 MHz FM Ham Two-way Radio, Transceiver, HT - With Battery, Antenna, Charger, and More : Car Electronics

Now I need to learn how to use it and get my license.

What part of the state do you live in?

The Midstate Amateur Radio Club of Franklin Indiana is having a FREE one day Technician test prep on March 14.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1npGYGBFLXtpztBYuSy7ZK2VdORfOnbXLKhpS5ViWmlQ/pub

The class will be held at the White Rover Fire Station at SR 27 and Smith Valley Rd.

You must register, seating is limited. testing will be available at the end of the class. Fee is $15 for the testing.

 

[Sailor]

 

[rhino]

Lol, I am the king of STARTING projects.

Kydex, wanted to learn it. Made several small holsters for odd little guns, still need to finish out 10 or so more.
Microgreens, I have all my seed to make sunflower, pea, radish, arugula etc, just need to set up my grow system.

Keep your eyes out for old tube radios, I have picked up a few old Swan 350's and Yaesu FT-101's Receive was great, little hard to learn how to tune up. Got them cheap gave them to team mates.

The have the added benefit of heating the man cave also.

I will!

What part of the state do you live in?

The Midstate Amateur Radio Club of Franklin Indiana is having a FREE one day Technician test prep on March 14.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1npGYGBFLXtpztBYuSy7ZK2VdORfOnbXLKhpS5ViWmlQ/pub

The class will be held at the White Rover Fire Station at SR 27 and Smith Valley Rd.

You must register, seating is limited. testing will be available at the end of the class. Fee is $15 for the testing.

Thanks! I am in Montgomery County. I think I've seen similar classes advertised at the Crawfordsville Public Library too.

 

[Sailor]

[video=youtube_share;wd8M5cdwrOs]http://youtu.be/wd8M5cdwrOs[/video]

 

[AngryRooster]

Looks good. I noticed they didn't mention the frequency hopping in the video. It is listed in the huge wall of text at the end though. Lower portion right in the middle. It also list a normal & fast scanning mode. Most of these things scan so slow, this will be welcome.

I'm looking forward to this radio. I'm the only ham in my group of family and friends. No one has any interest. My parents were interested in some kind of bubble pack radio at one time but that faded quickly. I have one friend that I gave a UV-5R with some local frequencies to. It's got the GMRS, MURS, weather, local scanner frequencies and a couple local repeaters in it. He knows he can't transmit on it but he can listen and maybe learn. Now if I could only get him to turn it on sometime. I gave a second one to another friend that lives in Kokomo programed similar for him. Again, not a ham. He listens to his all the time though. From my farm I can hit the Kokomo repeater with my Yaesu 8800 and he can hit it since he's there in town. He shows some interest in getting a license but hasn't yet.

This new radio may be just what I need to get people on the same page, if it's not stupid expensive. I'm not giving out $200 radios to everyone and they sure won't buy them at that price. I mean, why would they? They all have cell phones and email, besides the Wal-marx radios are cheaper. I'm sure I'd still have to play man in the middle and learn everyone else's routine. It's a step though and would simplify hardware.

 

[Sailor]

I have the perfect solution to your situation. Just need a few months to hash out some details.

 

[Trigger Time]

I have the perfect solution to your situation. Just need a few months to hash out some details.

Are you gonna have another coma class or do you have a video of the first one I could buy? I have a couple boafeng radios and 4 of the old wouxxun, that they might not make anymore? I don't understand the boafeng yet. Just got them a few weeks ago

 

[Sailor]

Look at the thread in my signature.

 

[BigMoose]

Lol, I am the king of STARTING projects.

Kydex, wanted to learn it. Made several small holsters for odd little guns, still need to finish out 10 or so more.
Microgreens, I have all my seed to make sunflower, pea, radish, arugula etc, just need to set up my grow system.

Keep your eyes out for old tube radios, I have picked up a few old Swan 350's and Yaesu FT-101's Receive was great, little hard to learn how to tune up. Got them cheap gave them to team mates.

The have the added benefit of heating the man cave also.

And your coffee warm too.

 

[caverjamie]

Connect Systems has some very discounted digital radios for hams, with a higher quality than Baofeng. But you have to call them to order at the discounted price. One style out is using DMR, but they are working on a multi-platform handheld that should be able to work on most digital modes out there.

After buying a MotoTRBO DMR repeater recently, I think I now have more money in radio equipment than guns. I'm hoping to get it set up down in my area and linked to the DCI or DMR-MARC north america network. There's even an Indiana statewide talkgroup - but the internet linking will probably fail pretty quickly in any emergency situation or natural disaster...

 

[Sailor]

I guess I did not know there were DMR repeaters in IN. Is the cost between DMR and Dstar still a wide gap? I know you can build your own Dstar repeater on the cheap and the last time I looked that was not really an option with DMR.

All these separate proprietary codecs are annoying

 

[caverjamie]

I guess I did not know there were DMR repeaters in IN. Is the cost between DMR and Dstar still a wide gap? I know you can build your own Dstar repeater on the cheap and the last time I looked that was not really an option with DMR.

All these separate proprietary codecs are annoying

And they will probably just keep coming up with new codecs, but that is one of the draws to a SDR like the CS-7000 I mentioned above. One radio for all digital modes, just update the firmware as technology changes. I'm a Motorola guy though, so I paid too much for my equipment. No homebrew repeaters with DMR yet as far as I know either. Moto DMR gear is higher cost than DStar, but the other manufacturers seem cheaper than Icom. Connect Systems has a DMR handheld for $180, and they are supposed to have a DMR mobile out this March. Moto gear is 450-600 for a mobile, and about 400-700 for a handheld depending on which model. Other manufacturers are Hytera, Vertex Standard, Baofeng, Kirisun, Lisheng, but I don't know much about any of those. Kenwood has equipment but not released in the US yet as I understand it.

I believe there are 13 DMR repeaters in Indiana right now, mostly on the DMR-MARC network. You can google their site and see a map of locations. Southern Indiana is barren, but Indy and north has pretty good coverage.

 

[PistolBob]

Indiana has numerous DMR repeater systems, and with the Yaesu Fusion deal they made to clubs ($500 for a repeater) we'll be seeing a bunch of new Fusion repeaters popping up between now and June. D-Star is still out there, the Fusion radios are expensive, and a couple of Chinese companies are talking about a mobile and HT that can do DMR, D-Star, and Fusion....seeing is believing though.

 

[Sailor]

They are up for sale now. At $138 for the Termin8r I think I will pass. The frequency hopping only hops when you push a button. The SW radio bands not needed for me. Other cheaper radios Xband repeat.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...ativeASIN=B00QMOA940&linkCode=as2&tag=at87-20

 

[AngryRooster]

They are up for sale now. At $138 for the Termin8r I think I will pass. The frequency hopping only hops when you push a button. The SW radio bands not needed for me. Other cheaper radios Xband repeat.

Amazon.com : TERMN-8R Dual Band (6 Band RX) (VHF/UHF) GMRS, MURS, Amateur (Ham), Commercial Portable Two-Way Radio : Car Electronics

Maybe once these drop to about $100 I'll try them out, if I can find a friend who is willing to get one as well. I'm not excited about buying two of them myself so I can try out the FHSS.

I looked at the manual on the Milkor website and the FHSS section. I not to familiar with it and may have read it wrong. It looks to me like you push the PF1/PF2 button to turn the FHSS on or off, not to actually make it hop.

1. Program PF1/PF2 to operate the FHSS Function
2. From your programming software or the radio insure that you set your optional signaling as MSK (and
choose the MSK decode needed for your channel)
3. From the Programming Software - Program your Encode and Decode Information.
4. Set up your frequency hopping. When you set a frequency it will have a frequency within 1 Mhz of
the base frequency. (Insure it is the same frequency on the radios you want to communicate on via
FHSS).
5. Ensure that the Encode and Decode information you want is correct and double check the decode MSK
group you set up.
6. You can now activate FHSS by the PF1/PF2 button you have set up and securely communicate on a
randomized frequency with your party.

It doesn't give any more details about it though.


I like the FHSS ability in radios as an option. It would also aid in convincing prepper friends to get their license and spend their own money on a radio.

 

[Sailor]

My understanding is it hops each time you press the button and updates all radios. I would rather have part 90 accepted rolling code speech inversion, in a cheap HT.

 

[AngryRooster]

My understanding is it hops each time you press the button and updates all radios. I would rather have part 90 accepted rolling code speech inversion, in a cheap HT.

Is there such a critter that would work better? I haven't really searched for anything different yet. I know there is a speech inversion chip for the Yaesu FT-270 but not for the FT-60. I've read some reviews that say it works well and others that say it sucks and is easy to defeat.

I'm hoping that there is something reasonably inexpensive, legal, and private that I can try out. It would go a long way in convincing a few friends to get a radio and license.

 

[Sailor]

Yeah, most of the speech inversion is simple to defeat but the average listener will not be able to. Puxing has some xband ht's with this inversion for around $80. Rolling code encryption I can not find cheaply.

All this is not legal in Amateur radio. You need to use this in the land mobile/business freq.

 

[Yeah]

not legal in Amateur radio

I have been told that the ham community is beset by bootlickers, do you know if that is true?