New 2 way radios on market. Need a good 2 mile mountain range

[george_tlc]

No worries, quite a few of us have those radios for trail use (work well, reliable and are essentially disposable due to their low cost).

cheers,
george.

 

[Brentbba]

George - thx for taking up the need for license. Unfortunately, with the ease of purchasing ham radios like the one you mention and others on Amazon, there will be those that will flaunt the law because they don't agree with it to the determent of us licensed users. Now if Amazon would regulate those purchases to licensed HAM's like HRO, things would be much better, but they won't. It's not worth arguing with a brick wall. There is a 'pirate' repeater somewhere out in the San Fernando Valley that flaunts all the FCC rules and regulations as do it's users (foul language, etc.) and there's an element that uses that repeater. No doubt our poster here has and does frequent that repeater. The FCC just doesn't have the manpower to shut them down as they'd just pop up elsewhere.

Slickrock - I commend you for going about this in the correct manner for you and your son!

 

[Dubbinchris]

Drago, I'd like to use this thread as a resource in the future so I know where a lot of important info will be to help me get started. I plan on getting a lisence just because I will be using it along with the coastguard, marine rescue, and fishing boats around the island I live on in the summer. I will also be using it on my boat for communicating to other boats and for emergencies for myself and others and it might be important to know how to talk to those organizing rescue. It's small enough of a place that it won't be too hard to identify me. My son is the only youngster that has his name so knowing I'm unlicensed will be super easy and I've found its better to keep the year-rounders happy with me and keep tension and conflict to a minimum. I'd appreciate it if this would remain cordial since my 12 year old son will be reading these posts and I don't want him to blow off the studying because he doesn't see it as necessary. Thanks, Dan

Just an FYI, FCC doesn't permit ham radio use from watercraft. You're required to use a proper marine radio. The ability to contact the coast guard and other boaters for help is an added safety bonus.

 

[slickrock]

I have a 5 watt FM marine radio I have on my boat. The HAM is for a back up. The old two is one and one is none thought.

 

[slickrock]

Posting this here so I have the info in one place that I will need in the summer.
Campbell River Hosp. input 146.220 output 146.820 Tone 131.8 Hz.

 

[ChaseTruck]

Posting this here so I have the info in one place that I will need in the summer.
Campbell River Hosp. input 146.220 output 146.820 Tone 131.8 Hz.

Check out www.repeaterbook.com, or their corresponding app. I'd think they would have the repeater database you'd want...

 

[slickrock]

Thanks, I will. The info I previously posted was from an operator on the island. Phone lines get knock down by trees and the power is off more than its on in the winter so a lot of people communicate via HAM. That info was the primary frequency they use.

 

[slickrock]

Charged up the radios and did a quick test on an unassigned frequency. Good to go except accidentally resetting the language to Chineese. Took a bit to figure it out. Downloaded and printed the 70 page manual and need to print the 159 page study guide. Plan to take the test after the new year sometime. Till then, I have a lot to learn just to use the radios.

What do you guys think the range is of a 5w radio without repeater...like on the highway and in mountains on trails? I will upgrade the antennas too.

 

[george_tlc]

Range is so dependent on terrain and surrounding 'noise' that it's hard to predict specific numbers. Especially if you are in a vehicle etc (external antenna = good).

I can hit a local repeater about 10 miles away from INSIDE my house, which I consider pretty impressive given it's a typical neighbourhood with houses, power lines, stores etc. The repeater is not on a high hill, so definitely not line of site and clear. Anyhow, that's with the stock antenna, which really isn't that bad - most little rubber duck's aren't amazing at the best of times

Good luck on the study, new stuff to learn (both for you and your son - he may actually do better than you at the test...)

For camping, I have a reasonable antenna on my 80 and a mobile rig in it. That becomes the base station if my kids head off its better antenna system helps extend the range to the portable units.

Anyhow, you'll have to experiment in areas similar to your intended use and see what you can get out of them.

cheers,
george.

 

[ChaseTruck]

Just FYI, I've gotten Chirp to talk to both my Baofeng UV-5R and F8HP using the Prolific Technology PL2303 Mac OS X Universal Binary Driver v1.6.0; that's on a Mac running OS 10.11.2.

 

[Elbert]

FYI

eham.net has plenty of practice tests.... take it until you pass for a few rounds and then go take the test in person. ARRL has study material available. Test is not hard....review the study material a few nights, take the practice tests a few times...

Handheld radio range inside a vehicle will not be that good...better to have a mobile radio or external antenna for the HT. Mobile radio all around better on power/range..etc than HT.

 

[honk]

FYI

eham.net has plenty of practice tests.... take it until you pass for a few rounds and then go take the test in person. ARRL has study material available. Test is not hard....review the study material a few nights, take the practice tests a few times...

One good reason to be licensed is that if you ever find yourself in a situation where you need help the "old farts" of ham radio won't take you seriously without a callsign. Some still get really cranky about that.

The tests are much easier/shorter now and there's no more CW (Morse code) testing at any license level.

Eham.net has a place where practice exams can be taken as many times as a person might want. It's free and they don't require any kind of site registration. If asked I still send people to ARRL's practice exam and review pages: ARRL Exam Review for Ham Radio™ or to: HamStudy.org: Technician class Ham Radio practice tests, ham radio flash cards, and ham radio question pool.

ARRL does require a page registration of email and password. It's not their full permanent registration. The reason I think these are more helpful is their 'review' portions in which a person can select out areas of test coverage and take a practice exam using questions that pertain to the selected subjects. That way if a person realizes that they may be weak on electrical theory, for example, they can elect to have a 35 question (or more in cases where they've chosen multiple subject areas) practice exam focused where they need it most. The Hamstudy site has a 'flashcard' thing where you can select one of the question areas and get asked questions at random for as long as you can stand it or the answers come easy.

Although the sit down exam is just 35 questions randomly selected from a larger number for each exam there are 426 questions in the current question pool for the Technician license. So while it's considered easy it's not a test that anyone should take lightly unless they have a decent amount of experience working with electrical/electronics and radio stuff.

 

[TrickyT]

Just an FYI, FCC doesn't permit ham radio use from watercraft. You're required to use a proper marine radio. The ability to contact the coast guard and other boaters for help is an added safety bonus.

This statement, at least as written, just isn't true. If, rather, you mean that the FCC doesn't permit operation of radios licensed for amateur use to be operated on marine bands in non-emergency situations, then fine. But there are plenty of hams in the US and internationally that operate legally from both pleasure and commercial watercraft.