Tacomas with 300W power inverters
MilSurp brick satcomms with hand radios
1990s ideapads running CHIRP
Etrex Garmins on wrist straps

Byah

I may have to look into getting the amature license now i was interested in it before but you all sold me on it now. I know this one is a two-way comm but does anyone use Luiton walkies for communication or practice with them or is it just better to use HAM

I got them for bug-out bags because I was expecting March and most of April to be much worse than it actually was

All I have is the beofang 5

i want the UV-5R really badly I have seen nothing but great reviews on it

but I also want a dual band radio too ( i know those boxes will typically be more expensive but I feel like I'd enjoy learning with that a bit more)

@KaiBran - definitely look into a dual band radio. The more spectrum you can carry in one rig the less you have to carry (one radio instead of two, or three).

I mean just looking online Im also thinking about them being portable and it doesnt look like it matters either way as long as you have a power source for the dual band on the go or at your F.O.B

Anyone know a less expensive alternative to the peltor comtac hearing pro? Don't wanna drop a grand on ear muffs

Safariland headphone adapters under your normal ear pro

Ty

Got the invite from the comms group. Sup y'all?

Nice to meet you

Same to you, glad to be here

Awesome. Make sure you head over to <#704856167318552647> to get situated with your states

@SimpleRiver @boo radley ^

What’s up

Oh hey simple

Hey crye

How ya been

Straight vibin chief

I hear that

Got a steal on a peltor comtac3 set, only rub is its set up for 6 pin, what radio would y'all suggest? Or should I get a different ptt adapter

6 pin is the most common plug??

Wait. 6 pin would be the ptt. Is it a TP120 or NATO downlead

Nato

Some day I'm gonna know what that means

NATO plugs are pretty rare stateside. Thats a TP120, which almost all PTT’s interface with

The NATO plug is more like the old school MSA plug

This is what I have coming

That’s TP120

You can either get a different PTT, or get a 6Pin>baoefeng, etc adapter

Roger that, thanks for clearing that up for me. Heard bao was kind of poopoo, what's a good mid price range piece?

Uh I’m not the most knowledgeable on that one. I have work radios and then run UV5R’s for short range civ comms, but I treat those are temporary/throw away comm

They gonna hold up to getting wet in the field?

I mean wet is relative. Can’t take them shits diving for sure. Probably not as good as something like a 152 or a kenwood

Talking more rain and the occasional puddle submersion

So I have an Earmor m31 headset but it doesn’t seem to have microphones compatibility. Anyone messed with this before? I usually use a standard PTT

If I was taking a baofeng into the jungle on a chest rig, I would probably put it in a ziploc bag

I dropped my uv5r in standing water and it stayed there for about an hour, went out and found it, took the battery out ahd shook all the water out and it was fine. Granted it was not turned on.

Well that’s what I have so that’s good to hear Reno

Good 6pin radios are the 152 clones, they take all the real steel headsets. If you have real peltors and a baofeng you need an amplified PTT.

www.disco32.com

They have all the good comm stuff

https://www.ebay.com/itm/264436870432

That particular seller on ebay uses DHL to ship so they never get caught in customs

Basically still a baofeng in terms of functionality, but uses real Harris batteries, and legit military accessories

Here's a Facebook group dedicated to the clone market...

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1687000848242078/?ref=share

So what is the practical advantage of it over a $30 UV-5R, besides not being made in China?

It's still made in China.

The advantages are great... it's waterproof, billet aluminum shell, takes all real military accessories, doesn't need amplified PTT for peltors, is 10 watts, much better reception, better antenna options.

Oh, also takes real Harris batteries or an 18650 pack, so it will last for days on end with actual use

https://outdoorempire.com/best-handheld-ham-radios/#ftoc-heading-1

I found this to be pretty helpful

Nice

Sweet, guess I need to get back to practicing the tests

Oohhh I love that.

Anyone have a book they can recommend that teaches me everything about HAM? Preferably an eBook.

Got a 40 min ride, gonna be in voice if anyone wants to talk

I'd chat with ya, but I'm working.

@Bogs_Bunny - here is a website to start: https://theprepared.com/survival-skills/guides/beginners-guide-amateur-ham-radio-preppers

Murs worth fucking with?

Stick to ham has the longest range if you change your mind you can always convert your radio to work on any band. It’s illegal but who’s gonna know

FRS is way more common anyway

You can also convert even the cheapest ham to that rather easily

Yeah, exactly

Im fairly familiar with comms on the 10 and 11 meter band. However for simplex base to movile am transmissions in my area of southeast ky it takes 500+ watts to talk more than 5 or 6 milea because of the terrain. Im mostly looking for something that can do this without so much power

The lower the frequency the better the simplex propagation, but by nature the more power you'll need... physics is a bitch sometimes.

But, with a few cheap baofeng radios, a Tupperware container and a decent solar panel you can make yourself a nice cheap repeater to drop on a high peak and rock out.

What did I just listen to?

(Not mine)

I don’t even know

@Phill - MURS is good to have loaded into your radio if it is VHF capable. Just think of it similarly to FRS in the UHF spectrum.

I think I recognize one of those voices @Logic44

Anybody in here owns UV 3R plus? Can this radio charge from the uv5r deck?

Howdy

Anyone got common freqs for cenCal?

Just started getting into radios, got a Baofeng UV-5R

Been listening to fire dispatch and scanning through FRS, but not really picking up anything besides static, random beeps, and the very rare Morse code

www.radioreference.com

You're probably gonna need a trunking scanner, they are most likely on the P25 system from the sounds of it

Oh I see

Honestly didn't know the UV-5R was analog only, whoops.

To be clear, I DO receive signal from EMS and Fire dispatch, it was only the FRS frequencies that seemed dead

FRS is not what you think it is... those are the cheap walkie talkies you get from Walmart

What you are probably getting is UHF rebroadcasts of fire and EMS, they do that around me, but the main channels are up in the 700 and 800Mhz range and digital.

Use that website and look at your area and you'll see what frequencies you need to tune into for everything and if they are encrypted or not, which most likely they are out there.

Sure thing, I'll take a look, thanks

And yeah, I realise that FRS was the walkie-talkie freqs. I'll look through GMRS next time I can.

I guess I was just hoping to just catch non-professional chatter on those freqs

GMRS is the same thing, you're not gonna find any government agencies using those channels.

And any of the "side channels" formally known as talk channels are typically encrypted for the very fact that they don't want us plebs hearing their chatter.

Right, I'm not trying to find government channels on FRS or GMRS just local people who also happen to have radios


Lol gotcha, alright thanks

I'll keep tinkering with it.
My my programming cable arrives, I'll try to program into my local repeaters.

By chance, if I set my freq to listen to the repeater offset, I should be able to RX traffic through it, right?

Ah, got ya... yeah, if you're just listening until you get a callsign then yeah if programmed right you'll be able to listen.

You're not gonna catch much of FRS or GMRS except families on vacation and possibly some small businesses. But you're gonna get less than a mile of range out if them because they are super low power.

That's the plan.
I figured if I happened to catch someone on FRS GMRS, I would attempt to talk to em.

I wont attempt to TX on 2m till I understand what I'm doing a bit better

Ypu mean until you get your license and have a callsign.... don't make the fudds mad and make it harder for the rest of us. They just finally made remote testing possible.

It's a super easy course, you'll learn alot, and then you can do whatever you want in the radio and even talk around the world.

Sure thing, I'll do that

Finally got this base station mobile up and running this evening. Using it right now to listen to a Patriot leaning Net on a local Ham repeater, so far so good. That makes two mobiles I have set up now.....one to remain stationary at home and one in a Pelican that I can take anywhere and be on the air in minutes. Next will be one actually installed in my truck for true mobile use.

Nice... Harris too

I got my first ham and chest rig today

You're running a .22?