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Adarcy

Adarcy

SILVER Star
Joined
May 10, 2018
Threads
30
Messages
260
Location
Carlsbad, CA
Working on the last bits of getting my 40 ready for the desert season and am wondering what the group primarily uses for communications out on club runs. There are a ton of opinions out on the general forum. CB, GMRS, HAM, or a combo? I'd like to permanently mount something.

Thanks! See everyone tonight

Andy
 
For Ham, are people using those Baofeng units from Amazon? They seem to get a lot of good reviews.
 
Hams... 146.490 primary with 146.505 as secondary with CB, FRS and GMRS as back ups
 
@leucadiacruiser has a quick setup for the baofeng... He set mine up and it is great. Next up getting an actual license. 🤭
 
BreckenridgeCruiser said:
@leucadiacruiser has a quick setup for the baofeng... He set mine up and it is great. Next up getting an actual license. 🤭
Click to expand...
There are three classes of ham radio license, but only the technician class license is needed for VHF/UHF radio comms. The ham radio technician class license is pretty darn easy to get and I've seen many a person literally start studying in the morning, then take the test and pass that same evening. Generally though you need to plan on studying for a few days. As with the written DMV exam, it really is a matter of wrote memorization... While for the last 8 or 9 years the FCC ham radio license has been free they are now charging $35 for a license that needs to be renewed every 10 years (no retesting, just fill in the renewal and pay the going fee at the time). Compared to a fishing license it's pretty cheap! For studying there are numerous free sites on the internet; one of the best though is HamStudy.org: Cutting edge amateur radio study tools - https://hamstudy.org/ which has the online study classes. The Hamstudy system is also used by the online local volunteer exam folks at GLAARG (Exam Sessions | GLAARG VEC - https://glaarg.org/exam_sessions/) which has online testing sessions weekly for about $10.
I personally used the HamTestOnline - Study for your Ham Radio License Exam - https://www.hamradiolicenseexam.com/ system for my license study some years ago and before Hamstudy existed and found their system to work well for me, it isn't free like Hamstudy though and costs $25 for the technician class course.
 
Thanks everyone. Sounds like ham is the way to go. Any recommendations on a radio to buy?
 
Get the cheap baofeng handheld to start... Nice to have something not permanent while learning .. and my wife and I use ours when hiking in case we get separated while out of signal.
 
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If you get on the road with ham and some one has gmrs or frs... this might help..

So you get on the same wavelength

solvefunction.com

Frequency Sticker or Magnet

Frequency Sticker so you can "Listen" to GMRS or FRS devices while on the trail. Every time I sync my ham to my buddies FRS or GMRS devices they take photos of my cheat sheet, so now I and you can pass it out.
solvefunction.com solvefunction.com
 
You can also program the frs frequencies and name them into a baofeng memory, at least the older ones. Note though these frequencies are not allowed to be used at higher power levels so technically not legal, but useful in an emergency.
 
The Anytone AT-878UV handheld (~$200) and AT-578UV (~$400) mobile radios can be programmed for receive and transmit on conventional ham radio (2m & 70cm), FRS and GMRS frequencies. As well they can be programmed for the marine/maritime radio channels if you play around on boats... I also have mine programmed with all of the the USFS Forest Net frequencies for the national forests within CA; this can be handy during fire conditions which seems to be all the time anymore...

The only downside of these radios is that they can be a bit complex to program. However, I know the programming on these radios well and can help people with programming them if needed.

In addition to the above features, the radios also include GPS and the APRS (automated packet reporting system) which allows you to get a position fix and broadcast it automatically so others can see your location on a map (Google Maps APRS - https://aprs.fi/). This of course presumes you're operating in an area where your APRS broadcast can be heard by other stations to relay it...

Lastly (and why some ham radio operators get them in the first place) these Anytone radios also support the DMR (digital mobile radio) mode. DMR is a relatively new mode and an entire subject unto itself that I'll not bore y'all with in this post. Suffice it to say that DMR is probably of little use or interest for off-road comms purposes.

Bottom line, while perhaps a little expensive as compared to conventional ham, FRS and GMRS radios, these Anytone radios provide coverage of pretty much every frequency band you'd ever need in one unit.
 
A proper disclaimer however...
While these various radios can be programmed to receive and transmit on frequencies that are outside the ham radio bands for which they are FCC Certificated, doing so invalidates the FCC Certification and using them to transmit outside the ham bands is illegal according to the FCC... Ultimately, as an FCC licensed amateur (ham) radio operator you are permitted to build your own, modify your equipment and it is up to you to follow the rules on what bands you may legally use your equipment to transmit on.
 
I was just going to start a post to attempt to get the club to go GMRS. Theybmake the most sense really. 50w. No test for the license. I have two sources we could use to get a group buy.
 
Phulcrum said:
I was just going to start a post to attempt to get the club to go GMRS. Theybmake the most sense really. 50w. No test for the license. I have two sources we could use to get a group buy.
Click to expand...
GMRS is UHF though (~450MHz) and performs much worse in mountainous terrain than does the VHF 2m ham band (~146MHz)... Just a consideration.
It's fine for talking truck to truck in the highway or in the desert where everyone is more or less within line of sight of one another; however in mountainous terrain such as the recent trip to Coyote Flats where we had trouble communicating from my flat tire site and your rear spring breakdown site to others on the trai or to camp with VHF, comms would have been even worse with GMRS.
 
I'm not suggesting we do away with HAM. I am saying we use gmrs instead of cb or frs. For casual conversation and such
 
I used the GMRS during CruiseMoab. Nice little hand helps but ham was much better on sending and receiving.
 
Technically you still need a licensee to operate a GMRS radio per FCC rules. $35 bucks for 10 years, no test and online application. And conversely a ham license does not allow you to use GMRS frequencies without a GMRS license.
 
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