doctor_fungcool
TB Fanatic
The reason I asked is ...I am looking for a top of the line handi talkie for ham ram radio. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
The radio you have is a minor factoid. The important part is knowing your fellow hams and preppers in your area. A radio with no one to talk to is worthless.
The radio you have is a minor factoid. Thesnt the question.
That was not the question..important part is knowing your fellow hams and preppers in your area. A radio with no one to talk to is worthless.
Tnx Lou...I will study your reply.Ok, I assume you already have the license. The question I would ask is what capabilities are you looking for it to be able to do? Just analog, or some digital voice modes (DMR, P25...)? Do you want dual band (2M and 70cm, or would you want more capabilities than just those 2)? There are more questions, but to just look into those choices, here is what I use:
For analog, I like the Kenwood TH-F6A. For DMR, I like the Anytone AT-D878UVII Plus.
The TH-F6A is an older model, so you will be looking at places like eBay for that one, BUT it does 3 bands (2m, 1.25m(220MHz) and 70cm) VERY well. It is a physically small, but rather robust radio, and it has a receive range from .1MHz to 1,300MHz (1.3GHz), including SSB, so shortwave is not a problem.
The Anytone AT-D878UVII Plus is a commercial radio that handles both Analog and DMR (digital voice) modes very well, and while plastic, is a rather tough radio. I have had mine for about 4 years now and have had no problems with any of them.
There are others, but just remember that there are a FEW digital voice modes out there so you need to do some homework to make sure that the other people that you want to talk to can also use those modes. I do have radios that work the P25, as well as NXDN and D-Star, as well as one Yaesu Fusion radio (don't use much, and gave the other one away).
I can give you a list of others that I would suggest if you want...
Keep silent when necessary.It is very useful at times to just listen to the opposition and not engage.
if you think a repeater is going to magically make up people to talk with, perhaps you need to school yourself on repeaters. Don't be so damned snarky.That was not the question..
.school yourself on repeaters.
I've got some damn good motorola radios...mine are vhf/uhf though and I don't know much about ham-ham.
LOL..Do you need a "top-of-the-line" ht? Your title was "(or adequate)" ... what do you hope to accomplish? A radio with P25, DMR, DSTAR, or any other digi mode is a waste of money if noone else uses that mode.
For day to day I just use a Yaesu VX-170...if going to an area where loss of the ht is likely (flood, hurricane recovery, etc.), a cheap Baofeng uv-5r.
if you think a repeater is going to magically make up people to talk with, perhaps you need to school yourself on repeaters. Don't be so damned snarky.
Agreed..I've heard that Baofeng is the radio of choice for the domestic terrorism in-crowd.
The internet is full of rumors though. Lol.
LoupGarou is our resident professor of all.. things radio.
Do what he says.
Lots of hams use it. It's a cinch to program with Chirp, and we have our freq plan for downloading so everyone's all apples and apples.I've heard that Baofeng is the radio of choice for the domestic terrorism in-crowd.
Right now I have an old Icom...works fine but need something more up to date.Lots of hams use it. It's a cinch to program with Chirp, and we have our freq plan for downloading so everyone's all apples and apples.
Voice scrambling feature can be had on certain talkies.consider creating a conlang for your tribe such that any compromised messages are heard as gibberish by those intercepting
And while I have many different models of radios form a lot of manufacturers, I do have a "bunch" of the Baofengs because LOTS of groups have them, so any "fingerprints" will look a lot like many others. Plus, you have all sorts of hacks that you can use with them (and with Kenwood handhelds since they share the Mic/Spkr connection setup)...Lots of hams use it. It's a cinch to program with Chirp, and we have our freq plan for downloading so everyone's all apples and apples.
Just remember three things about voice scrambling/encryption (even the "good" stuff):Voice scrambling feature can be had on certain talkies.
I dont want to talk to people now, much less during the apocalypse......
Do what he says.
The VX-170 is a good radio, Baofeng makes an 8W and 10W, and check out the Yaesu VX-6. Any of these maybe what you are looking for, but you will also need to buy an aftermarket antenna to replace the rubber duck antenna that comes with the radio. Plus go to Eham.net and click on REVIEWS and see what other Hams are saying about any equipment that you may want to purchase.For day to day I just use a Yaesu VX-170...if going to an area where loss of the ht is likely (flood, hurricane recovery, etc.), a cheap Baofeng uv-5r.
Wonderful post..A couple more notes...
Keep in mind that most "commercial" radios (motorolas, Yeasu Vertex, Icom...) can be used on the non-commercial (and non-govt/non-military) frequencies, they often have features that could be used against you in times of "not good". This is also true for MOST chinese radios, including the Baofengs. A good example of this is "Stun/Kill/Revive", which allows another radio (or radio system) to transmit a set of codes out (some are digital bursts, some are just DTMF digits), and your radio either loses the ability to transmit, or to both transmit and audibly receive, or stops working altogether. And the only way to revive it from a "Stun" is to have the "Revive" codes sent. The "Kill" command usually can not be undone without actually putting the radio back on the bench and reprogramming it with the right programming tool, OR in some manufacturer's version of the "Kill" command, sending it back to the manufacturer (Motorola is famous for this). In "Good" times this allows the leader in a group of radios or a radio system to "stun" or "Kill" a radio that has fallen into the wrong hands. In "Bad" times, it would allow an enemy to disable large amounts of their opponents radios in a few minutes of "walking" the codes once the receiving frequencies are found for the desired target radios. The Ukrainian "military" has already found this out the hard way with the Baofengs they were using earlier as the Russian military found that they could walk the DTMF codes down the list in short order and nail 95% of the Ukrainian radios in a matter of a few minutes. Killing the ANI-ID features of the radio (at least changing the ANI-ID code and not allowing it to be transmitted over the air either will keep the Baofeng safer, or at least slow the process down for the opposing team. Otherwise they found out that if they hear a slew of DTMF tones being transmitted, changing the channel or turning the Baofeng off usually prevented the "Kill" from happening on their radios.
On the topic of range and receive, especially with the chinese radios... The chinese radios have minimal filtering on both receive and transmit. This can be a blessing and a curse... Often they can receive signals that others find too faint since those signals are often lost in the better radio's filtering networks. BUT, if the chinese radio is in a noisy RF environment, they can often seem "deaf" compared to the better radios due to their receivers being overloaded by the "not on frequency" RF signals swamping out the ones that you want to hear. Out in the country where I live, my Baofengs have no problem picking up weak signals, but if I add in something as simple as a Inkjet printer or other wideband noise source (or certain other RF devices that are not wideband, but their signal gets picked up by the Baofeng as a spur), then the radio gets nearly "deaf" on the signal that I want receive. Likewise, on transmit, there are spurs (Harmonics) that are fairly noticeable up and down the band from where I was trying to communicate on. All of these spurs will lead someone that detects them back to the main frequency, so just keep in mind that in a "not so good" time, anyone with a good scanner or a Spectrum Analyzer (Tiny SA Ultra...) will not only be able to find one of those spurs, but with a quick calculator, find your signal even if not looking on that frequency. Just something to keep in mind...
On the topic of distances, even if your radio's receiver is sensitive and selective, on VHF and above frequencies you are also having to fight the curvature of the Earth. On "flat land" you can calculate the "Radio Horizon" (how far your signal will go before it gets blocked by the horizon) by taking the square root of your antenna's height above "ground" and that will be close to your signal's radio horizon. For handhelds that have the antenna about 6 feet off the ground, you are looking at around 2.45 miles. Now, if you are talking to another person that also is using a handheld with built in antenna, then that person also has about 2.45 miles radius to play with. As long as your radio horizon is touching or overlapping their radio horizon, you "should" be able to talk if there are no other obstructions (2.45+2.45 miles = almost 5 miles). Hills and mountains help, valleys and ravines hurt that distance. Likewise, having a 25 to 50 foot coax jumper and an antenna that you can temporarily put up in a tree (j-pole or slim jim antenna) REALLY will help the range issue. At 25 feet up, you are not looking at a radio horizon of around 5 miles, and 7 miles of radio horizon if you can get the antenna up 50 feet. This is why repeaters that have their antennas up hundreds of feet on a tower, have a radio horizon of 30-50 miles or more. And having additional wattage is not going to help you much at all if the ground (or other objects) are blocking your signal...
Another issue is if you are using UHF or VHF. UHF works great around buildings as the signal bounces off hard surfaces. VHF works better outside, especially if you are having to cut through vegetation to get to the other person. If you are using GMRS/FRS frequencies (462-467MHz UHF) and the signal is not making it, try MURS on VHF (152-154MHz VHF). Antenna types also can "fix" a lot of signal issues. 1/4 wave antennas have a lot of "loft" left in their distribution of signal, you might try either a Yagi (very directional so you can "point and shoot" where you want the signal to go), or a 5/8ths wave so that the "doughnut" is compressed more towards to the ground so the signal goes farther. Speaking of antennas, the antennas that your handheld came with (especially the chinese radios) is usually a poor performing one. A lot of times you can help your signal levels on both receive and transmit by using a better made antenna. For the Baofengs, I would suggest something like one of the Nagoya antennas. I use the Comet SMA-24 for my Kenwood TH-F6As and they make a SMA-24J version for radios like the Baofengs that have the SMA-Male connector on the radio. They work well, and are very flexible so they don't but the stress on the radio's connector as bad as a stiffer long antenna.
Another thing I would look at if you use the UV-5R series of Baofeng radios is to make sure that your Squelch levels are actually setup right. This is especially true for the older (earlier) UV-5R series. Having the Squelch set on them at 9, acts like it was set on 1 or 2 on a normal radio. Newer radios can have this trend reversed, leaving the radio "hard of hearing" at anything above a squelch level of 3. This can be fixed, but it does take some playing with software and settings. A good place to start on this is looking at: https ://www.miklor.com/COM/UV_Squelch.php
The biggest thing that you can do to improve your radio comms capability is to get out and practice with them often and in various places so that you know where you can (and can't) get a signal to go through, AND what antennas and heights will improve that capability. Knowing it now beats guessing on it later.