Help me pick out HAM gear? (4 Viewers)

[swhme]

I had been planning to install GMRS in my 200, but it turns out my local club uses ham. Slee is going to have my truck pulled apart next month, so I need to sort out the comm gear for them to install.

I don’t have my ham license yet, but I’m going to work on that, but I need your help on figuring out which radio and antenna to get.

Points of consideration:

• I’m planning to mount the head on my gamiviti dashboard mount, so there needs to be a way to mount via RAM
• Bonus points if I can use one radio for ham and gmrs, but not a deal breaker if I still need the gmrs
• I’d like an antenna that will give me as much range as possible, but still allow me to go through an automatic car wash (either removable or stubby that can mount to the hood)
• Equipment budget is flexible — I don’t want to cheap out and wish I’d done something different in 18 months

Any suggestions?

 

[1911]

I had been planning to install GMRS in my 200, but it turns out my local club uses ham.

...

Any suggestions?

Buy a radio that most or many of your local club uses, it will make it much easier for them to help you program it, tune the antenna, and etc.

"Ham" is a large umbrella that covers many different frequencies/wavelengths for different uses. Most 4WD/Land Cruiser clubs are probably using 2M or 70 cm radios, because those are well-suited for shorter-range communication. It may depend on what repeaters are available nearby in those bands. But start by asking them what they like and use. I see that you are in Santa Fe - when I used to belong to the High Desert Cruisers club, they used 2M radios, but that was 10-12 years ago. Ask Ali what they're using now (if that's your club).

There are some good sales going on now, so in general a good time to buy.

Good luck with your Technician license; it's well worth doing.

 

[swhme]

Thanks! @alia176 can you remind me which units you and John are running?

 

[donj51]

I use a hood mount for my antenna and ran it through an unused opening below my master cylinder. I use the IC-7300, I use it with Tall Corn and Black Hills events on my 01 LX470. Use the center counsel to remote mount the unit.

 

[alia176]

Thanks! @alia176 can you remind me which units you and John are running?

Quite a few of us are running this radio due to the small remote head that can hide anywhere: Yaesu FT-8800R Yaesu FT-8800R Dual-Band Mobile FM Transceivers | DX Engineering - https://www.dxengineering.com/parts/ysu-ft-8800r

We're not the geeky types so we don't have a need for APRS and all that. So, if that's your thing, you might want a radio with that feature built in.

 

[midknightc3]

I'm currently looking at an Icom IC 2730. Had been wanting the FT-8900R as my other two radios are Yaesu (FT-7900 and FT-857D), but it appears the faceplate of the Icom will be easier to mount for my applications. Will be looking at one in person Thursday when I pick it up for a buddy, but it appears the back of the face plate is flush, meaning I should be able to put some magnets on the back and slap it on the dash of any of my three vehicles (FJ40, FJ60, and VW Vanagon). Currently doing this with my other two Yaesu's, but they require a mounting bracket that I then glued the magnets to.

For your coax and antenna mount, I have receintly become a fan of the Comet Japanese 3.5 cable, much lower loss than the Diamond RG316 I have been using previously...though much thicker, which is a factor for newer vehicles. I'm running 16' coax, and at that length I believe I'm somewhere in the 1.5Db loss, as opposed to the 316 which is nearly 3Db of loss for the same length. Maybe someone else can chime in if that's even a meaningful amount of loss difference, but for the same price I'll take what I can get as I rework my setups.

Clark

 

[swhme]

I ended up ordering the Yaesu FTM-500DR — reviews seemed good, and it seems to have everything I could imagine needing

 

[midknightc3]

Very nice! Those are damn good looking radios. If it's your only radio then programming is probably simpler, but I use Chirp. It's free, supports all common radios, and really isn't too hard to use. Easier for me than having a separate program for every radio, and MUCH easier than hand programming, especially when it comes to repeaters.

 

[swhme]

Very nice! Those are damn good looking radios. If it's your only radio then programming is probably simpler, but I use Chirp. It's free, supports all common radios, and really isn't too hard to use. Easier for me than having a separate program for every radio, and MUCH easier than hand programming, especially when it comes to repeaters.

Thanks! I’ll check it out.

Now to start taking my classes…

 

[alia176]

Very nice! Those are damn good looking radios. If it's your only radio then programming is probably simpler, but I use Chirp. It's free, supports all common radios, and really isn't too hard to use. Easier for me than having a separate program for every radio, and MUCH easier than hand programming, especially when it comes to repeaters.

CHIRP is a good one, I agree

 

[1MOA]

Pick something that your local club/whoever you wheel with has a CHIRP file that will work with. Otherwise you are spending time programming the channel(s) and offsets in the lot before any event. In total honesty a cheap baofeng and the right CHIRP file will take care of 99% of trailcomms.
I will put in my .02 that a good 2M radio can be a literal life saver off the cell grid. We had a club member hole his oil pan and we were able to pull him to a area where a wrecker could get to him and a 2M radio ( Yaeseu 2980, no moving parts in it) was able to hit the local repeater 22 miles away and was able to line up the tow truck.