On the way home today I listened to a radio net on the Mt Taylor repeater. Busy morning with lots of folks calling in. Anyway, there was a QST of a swap meet at Del Norte HS on April 26. I haven't had a chance to look up any details, but thought I would bring it up.
On the way home today I listened to a radio net on the Mt Taylor repeater. Busy morning with lots of folks calling in. Anyway, there was a QST of a swap meet at Del Norte HS on April 29. I haven't had a chance to look up any details, but thought I would bring it up.
I have been looking at Hams lately and noticed that handheld can be had for $130. I think that it would benefit the club greatly in emergency situations to have a handheld. I know the operator must be licensed, but it would be a great thing to have in the community tool bag.
I think Ron bought an HT as his first rig and I know that Kevin (K5ODO) bought a HT. I am thinking about the 'submersible' Yaesu VX-170 ($117 new from Ham City) Welcome to Yaesu.com
The VX-150 is $110 and until 4/30 they are including a 2nd NiCad battery. Both radios are 5W 2M only rigs and get good reviews though they are larger than the more expensive HTs like the VX-7R.
I was thinking of buying one as well, with the thought, it would be good for hiking, hunting etc, to communicate to a the "base station" when I eventually install a 7800 or 8800.
The VX-150 is $110 and until 4/30 they are including a 2nd NiCad battery. Both radios are 5W 2M only rigs and get good reviews though they are larger than the more expensive HTs like the VX-7R.
Would that be a 2nd NiMH?
Sounds like a really good deal. I've never even used the uhf side of my radio - 2m is plenty.
As far as subjects, maybe purchasing a small handheld for runs, and getting access to the ham to telephone interface for $30 per year. Anything else like that too.
I've felt the same way with occasional exceptions. There are a few repeaters in Baja, with one on top of the Sierra San Pedro Martir. The repeater on SSPM is 70cm. It should have great coverage.
No, I don't think so. The VX-150 comes with a NiCad (700 mAh) and the NiCad 'trickle' charger. Until 30-Apr the VX-150 will come with a 2nd NiCad in the package. Yaesu is phasing out the VX-150 which has been replaced with the VX-170. The VX-170 comes with a NiMH (1400 mAh).
The hamcity.com web site is down right now. I think I broke it.
I think I saw the VX-170 for $119 - personally I'd take the NiMH over the NiCad. I didn't even know they made NiCad batteries anymore. They might be hard to find as replacements soon. My old cordless phone used a NiCad - I replaced it with the NiMH of the same physical size and it's worked for over a year now...
As I posted above, the VX-170 is $117 at Hamcity. That is the HT that I am considering though I have a shot at a used VX-6R and a couple of FT-530s. If those don't pan out today then I will probably go with a new VX-170.
There are NiMH batteries available for the VX-150 but all of them (for any radio!) are expensive... basically 1/2 the cost of the complete rig!
Example: The NiMH battery for the VX-150 (1500 mAh) is $47.
For $110 you get 2 batteries (albeit NiCad @ ~$35ea), a 110v charger, and the VX-150 radio... Pretty good deal really.
The problem with NiCad's is they are persnickety - they develop a "memory" so if you don't discharge them to the right level they lose their storage capacity - which means you can't just leave them on a trickle charger or charge them after every use, nor can you completely discharge them. NiMH's not only have much more capacity, they're more resilient as well.
I have read several reports that say you cannot use the radio's built-in charger when you are using the "AA-pack". I do not know if that applies to the VX-170.
Seems the issue is that the built-in radio chargers will not over-charge a standard battery pack but the built-in charger does not stop charging when you put on a "AA-pack" (hope that makes sense...)
Jon's method seems the safest. Take an external charger for the AA-NiMH batteries and charge them outside of the radio.
HT's are handy, no doubt. But, they are only 5W, compared to 50W or 65W for a mobile unit. I'm not sure they would be too useful in an emergency unless you were within range of a repeater. But then, the mobile would be too. It isn't often we need to communicate when we are outside our vehicles.
I seem to recall that with the right equipment it was possible to use a mobile station as a repeater with a HT. I think you need a dual-band radio with cross-band repeat capability. The FT-8800 comes to mind. Mike, you know anything about this?
Basically, you would need not only a dual band radio but one with dual radios (my 7800 is dual band; the 8800 is dual radios). Basically you would tune one section of your mobile rig to a 2M repeater and the other side of the rig to a simplex 70cm simplex frequency. You would tune your HT (handheld transceiver) to the same 70cm simplex frequency and set the rig up to be a repeater (your mobile) going into a larger repeater (e.g. Megalink.)
This setup would enable you to use a 5W HT while hiking, backpacking, hunting, or whatever and you would have coverage over hundreds of miles (via Megalink) as long as you stayed within range (30 miles ?) of your mobile rig.
I have heard this described a few times; however, I have not heard anyone claim they actually got this to work and told a story on how it helped them in some way. I also have not searched out these stories because my mobile won't do this and there is already way more for me to learn before I get to things that are just 'interesting.'
That being said, I am very interested in APRS and someday I will have this working in my truck.
