I have win10 on a separate hard drive for video games, but yeah Linux is my every day.

Vidya is the only reason I'm still using this crap haha

Do you think apple "refusing" to help feds break into encrypted phones was an act?

Yes. I would wager it was to make people think that their phones are safe.

Let me get started on the comms faq. Entry #1, buttfangs are shite.

Gib me one on far left plz

I love Motorola’s

I’m happier with the APX 4k than I thought I would be. I used to have a 7000XE and loved it.

All but one of those has AES-256 encryption. 4th from left has NVG compatible display and its too dark to see on camera.

@redbeard I've been looking at the APX series, but I've always held off because I have 25 licensed UHF channels from the FCC and most of the people I work with use standard UHF channels.

And I'm not really trying to buy a bunch of them, lol.

@redbeard why are baofengs bad I’m still a newb working towards my license and have a GT3TP.

They aren't bad, they are cheap... 99.9% of people will be just fine with them or a standard HT from another Chinese or Japanese manufacturer.

Getting even business band channels licensed is expensive, and P25 digital even more so. If you're just talking with your crew, the FRS bands tend to be fine for most.

I programmed mine with a variety of things repeaters FRS MURS and simplex

NOAA too

Yeah, that's what most people do... with any HT you're limited in range anyway unless you setup your own repeaters, or have some local to you. But you're still on open airwaves anyway.

I guess so as long as you’re talking to people you know you can always talk in code

The ones redbeard has there are expensive digital radios that require existing infrastructure, or are just as limited as a standard ham HT, with the addition of *legal* encryption.

Do you need your general license for that right

Yeah, codes would be best anyway

It would be advisable to have your license for ham channels and definitely for repeater use, yes

Fuck the government and all, but the ham ops get their panites in a bunch over it, and things have been getting better and not worse over the years for that

Well small team use aside the hobby interested me in general. I got a 8watt HT figured it was a good place to start

When do you need a license? I'm getting a BaoFeng but not familiar with any of the legal crap

That's what I ended up getting too

But in truth, there is no radio police, and rarely has there ever been prosecution resulting from illegal frequency use. You could probably get away with faking a callsign if you know all the rules and regs... but at that point why not take the cheap ass test

@[CA] SoyBoi technically you need a license to use a ham radio period

That's fucking stupid

But..... many just use the FRS channels because they are unlicensed and absolutely not policed

Whata FRS? I'm new to all this crop

It's only slightly stupid

Just know a phone won't be a viable options, so need a radio

Only in that the government shouldn't be involved.

Just google FRS radio frequencies... much easier than me explaining it.

But they are the same channels the cheap radios from wally world use

I knew i should have boosted some xts5000's when i had the chance lol

But the china radios can be programmed for them and have much higher power than you're legally allowed to use so you get a little more range

@Yeetasaurus Rex you'd still need infrastructure and the programming software

Otherwise just a really expensive baofeng