2 meter VHF or HAM radios

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K, I'm a neophyte to the world of Ham. For those of you who have Ham radios in your rigs, what radios do you have? What’s a good quality, inexpensive radio for my pig? Please give me a few suggestions so I can research this more fully. Thanks!
 
Congrats Desertdude and girl! Are you guys in California yet? I heard you were driving to SLO soon. See you, and talk to you on 2m, in DV. PM incoming
 
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thanks you two :)
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a couple bad photos of the CP5 NMO hood mount from Comet - comes as a kit with the coax ends ready to go for the larsen antennam - on the radio end it comes off so you can slide it through the firewall grommet easy -
 
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Thanks Desertdude,

Keep those photos coming folks. BTW, I'm going to order a catalog from Amateur Radio Supply today so I can get further ideas.

Best regards,
 
Comet antenna Icom 2720H

Here you can see the radio "control head" under the aash tray.


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Here is the NMO mount for the Comet dual band black 37" antanna.


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Here is the antanna mounted on the ARB

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Next will be an external speaker, the existing speaker and radio are under the driver's seat.

I just got licensed no problem, and have yet to hook up with anyone on a repeater. A side note not yet mentioned is that HAM radios can be used on the FRS/GMRS frequencies, :ban: not legally, but just another safety option on the trail.

73

KE5HJK
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Thanks KE5HJK. I'm thinking about mounting the antenna to either the front or rear bumper.
 
Ron (ParadiseCruiser) is the man. I got my install done and got on the air this morning. Ron coached me through access on his local favorite repeater which is 90 miles from me. I had decent signal output(could trigger the repeater and activate the transmitter) at 5 watts and really clear output on 10w. I even got to talk to a few of the guys that seem to hang out there. It's a community the same way IH8MUD is a commmunity. Cool stuff. A current copy of the ARRL repeater directory is crucial as you arn't talking to anyone without the right PL code!

It's interesting, the on-line repeater directories are hard to find, hard to navigate and even out of date. It seems like there should be a central repository of this info, but ARRL wants you to buy their book. I would pay the book price to be able to download it.

The next step will be playing around with the simplex modes since that's what we'll be using in DV. Cool stuff, if you go "out there" in your cruiser 2m radio gives you way, way more choices than CB for not much more $. I'm sure other frequencies would do even more, but things start to get more complex and expensive as you move up the ladder.

Thanks again Ron.

KI6CXS
 
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My pleasure, Andy. And when we get a real antenna on that truck, you'll be talking to the International Space Station :D

Don't laugh: They really do have 2 meters up there... and a repeater. Sorry guys, but no CB.

Cheers, R -

PS: All U.S. (and most Russian) astronauts have ham licenses. The call sign of the station they all use up there is NA1SS.
 
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I always like listening to the Space Station call to "this is Juliet Yankee One, Juliet Yankee One"...I guess when you run the country, you get to have the best call sign!

Do an internet search for the audio, it's quite cool!
 
I posted this way back in Nov. and thought it would better be suited here.

I got an Icom IC-T2H Sport 2meter to get the feel for Ham. Put a Diamond RH77CA antenna on it to replace the duck it came with. The T2H is a really nice radio. I'm picking up repeaters about 30 miles away. It's gotten great reviews and is tough as all get out.
 
LoveTractor,

Where did you end up mounting your Diamond antenna?
 
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