New gear day.

[N7YA]

So i went the economical route.

For our trip across country...whenever that happens...i went ahead and ordered a Baofeng UV-5R HT, the USB data cable so i can program it, the external mic/speaker and a Comet SMJ24A whip antenna because i dont want to rely on the ducky that comes with it. But hey, all for 70 bucks, shipped!

I havent been on 2 meters in about 30 years, and have never been on 70cm. Eventually, i will get one of those fancy handheld yagis for sat work. But first things first, i just hope the items i ordered arent lemons. Thats the gamble with Chinese stuff, when it works, it works great...when it works.

I really hope it works.

[NQ6U]

QC on the Baofengs seems to be pretty good. Ask Janet—she's got like two dozen of them, all in different colors.

[N7YA]

Wow! This will be my first. I had to get the Comet whip because i figured a good antenna will make it worth it...that and the USB cable so i can program repeaters and sat uplinks from Chirp. All in all, for $70, i dont think i could go wrong.

[W2NAP]

should have got a FT-60R, I got one last week. very nice ht

[NQ6U]

They're surprisingly good little radios for the price, an SDR with a classic user interface. Most of the work is done by a single chip. I think I spent like $36 on my mine, plus maybe another $10 bucks for a better antenna and just a few bucks for the programming cable. I also bought the speaker mic for around $8.

[WØTKX]

My VX5 works just fine, but I keep thinking about getting one to goof with. However, a Mototurbo or D-Star would be fun as well.

[KG4CGC]

They're surprisingly good little radios for the price, an SDR with a classic user interface. Most of the work is done by a single chip. I think I spent like $36 on my mine, plus maybe another $10 bucks for a better antenna and just a few bucks for the programming cable. I also bought the speaker mic for around $8.

Wat Pope sed.
cept sted of 36 it waz 22

[WX7P]

I do have Dolly Parton Baofengs. A RF spectrum of many colors. Even Camo!

They all work great and are easy to program. If you lose one, no biggee!

[KG4NEL]

should have got a FT-60R, I got one last week. very nice ht

Curiously enough, FT-60Rs are also Chinese in manufacture now.


My VX5 works just fine, but I keep thinking about getting one to goof with. However, a Mototurbo or D-Star would be fun as well.

I had a VX5R, was my first radio that I owned. Should never have sold it, although I heard there was a filter issue that made some go poof.

[w2amr]

I do have Dolly Parton Baofengs. A RF spectrum of many colors. Even Camo!

They all work great and are easy to program. If you lose one, no biggee!Yeah geez, for that price you can throw them at people.:mrgreen:

[NQ6U]

Yeah geez, for that price you can throw them at people.:mrgreen:

Call it an assault radio.

[VE7DCW]

I still use a 22 year old Yaesu FT-470 for my handheld 2 meter and 440 Mhz needs.......mind you only sparingly at that! :yes:

[KG4NEL]

Call it an assault radio.

Tactical, man, tactical.

[KG4NEL]

I still use a 22 year old Yaesu FT-470 for my handheld 2 meter and 440 Mhz needs.......mind you only sparingly at that! :yes:

I always wanted one of those big full-duplex Icoms, the W-32A or whatevers. If the repeaters went down you could always bop squirrels for food with it.

[N8YX]

For the money I paid for a VX6/VX7 pair plus accessories and extra batteries, I could have bought a lot of Baofengs. However, the Yaesus are waterproof - and since I spend a lot of time afield with an HT I felt them to be a better choice for my intended application.

Still might have to get one or two for 'DSG as a purse rig.

[N8XE]

Yeah geez, for that price you can throw them at people.:mrgreen:

Yeah, I went through a couple of those that way.

Seriously though, I have one of the Wouxan's and they are nice little radios.

Jason N8XE

[w2amr]

I just ordered one . Now to find a target.:snicker:

[N7YA]

The microphone arrived yesterday. Not all that exciting...hopefully it works!

[w2amr]

The microphone arrived yesterday. Not all that exciting...hopefully it works!I bought the radio, speaker mike, programming cable & software for $37.36 from Amazon.

[N7YA]

I bought the radio, speaker mike, programming cable & software for $37.36 from Amazon.

Amazon is great. I ordered all of this stuff from them, mine came to just under $70 because i got the Comet antenna for it...the difference between hitting 10 repeaters instead of 2.

[KG4NEL]

For the money I paid for a VX6/VX7 pair plus accessories and extra batteries, I could have bought a lot of Baofengs. However, the Yaesus are waterproof - and since I spend a lot of time afield with an HT I felt them to be a better choice for my intended application.

Still might have to get one or two for 'DSG as a purse rig.

I've thought about the VX6. I'm planning on some weekend-length backpacking trips this fall, and would like something to carry...I haven't owned an HT in years. The Kenwood TH-F6A is tempting too...although I wonder how that would do paired up with an antenna at home.

[K0RGR]

My UV5R is sitting here doing it's intermittent squelch pop thing right now. It should settle down in a few minutes. I have an aftermarket battery for it that I have never yet drained.

What route are you planning to take East? I've scoped out a lot of the radio stuff between the upper midwest and Vegas over several routes. If you go up I15, you can use the Intermountain Intertie System, which also covers Vegas. In fact, it covers I-15 from Barstow up into Idaho. Last time I was there, I heard several UV5R's talking to each other through the big linkup.

There are linked repeater systems that cover most of the routes from there, until you get out in the 'flatlands', where they are less common. I don't know beans about New England, other than a couple weeks in a hotel in Boston. From the top floor of the Omni, I didn't work anybody on two meters, heard lots of dead repeaters. All the real traffic seemed to be on UHF. You will find that in many places in the West, too.

[N7YA]

So here it is, the UV5R. Tiny little feller! But it seems really robust and well built, i wasnt expecting that for a $30 radio. :)

14071

[N7YA]

My UV5R is sitting here doing it's intermittent squelch pop thing right now. It should settle down in a few minutes. I have an aftermarket battery for it that I have never yet drained.

What route are you planning to take East? I've scoped out a lot of the radio stuff between the upper midwest and Vegas over several routes. If you go up I15, you can use the Intermountain Intertie System, which also covers Vegas. In fact, it covers I-15 from Barstow up into Idaho. Last time I was there, I heard several UV5R's talking to each other through the big linkup.

There are linked repeater systems that cover most of the routes from there, until you get out in the 'flatlands', where they are less common. I don't know beans about New England, other than a couple weeks in a hotel in Boston. From the top floor of the Omni, I didn't work anybody on two meters, heard lots of dead repeaters. All the real traffic seemed to be on UHF. You will find that in many places in the West, too.

I am going to scout out a final route, then program the radio from there. Im still waiting on my Comet antenna, i just think it would be better. So far, what i have laid out is...

Day 1) Vegas, I-15 north into Utah, right at the I-70 and head east through the Rockies and try to make Denver for the night.
Day 2) Denver, I am going to take a couple of photos of the last remaining hanger at the old Lowry Airfield (right off the 70), then hit the 70 across the two-tone landscape for an all day trip to ol' Mizoo!
Day 3) Columbia, MO. From here, i calculate our next stop should be Cambridge, OH. We factored in a stop at my moms house in Carlisle, PA, but they dont like cats...we will have 4 of them with us, thus hindering any really cool side excursions to see stuff. So we will pass them by. It would have been a 3 hour trip from MO to Carlisle, but i am going to find a spot 6 hours beyond there and get a hotel.
Day 4) Anyones guess...i will solidify this down to the finest detail before we go because i am like that. I even have a "Navigators folder" for Devie that outlines each road, ramp, landmark, town we will pass through, hotel info, repeater frequencies, phone numbers and facilities as they appear along the way. The trip will be calculated by speed, time and tolls, gas is a whatever, we will just buy it when we need it. Day 4 should get us into either NY, MA or CT for the night.
Day 5) The final push to Maine. We may stay overnight in Camden just to make our phone calls and arrange meetings for the following day...we also want to check out Camden.
Day 6) Rent a U-haul and go get our stuff from the POD in Portland, then back to Belfast to unpack, shower, yoga, dinner and sleep.
Day 7) ....a week from the day. We celebrate with a lobster shore dinner at Youngs on the water! Then start our new life....just have to sell this house first.

We will do the 15 up to Utah, then its mostly the I-70 until we get out east. I will have the rig on for most of it.

[w2amr]

So here it is, the UV5R. Tiny little feller! But it seems really robust and well built, i wasnt expecting that for a $30 radio. :)

14071I should be getting mine next week.

[W2NAP]

since you are taking 70, avoid indianapolis during the stupid hours 6-9a and 3-6p m-f

[n0iu]

The best way to get around St. Louis is to take I-270 North from I-70. This is just past the Earth City Expressway/Hiway 141 exits. I-270 will eventually meet back up with I-70 after you get into Illinois. If you stay on I-70, this will take you through downtown St. Louis and into East St. Louis, something I do not recommend for the feint of heart! All I can say about that is... National Lampoon's "Vacation"!

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-10JTyQ5u4c4/UnswvuODi_I/AAAAAAAAh-k/9oqBp3ZQXl4/s1600/St+Louis+4.jpg

[N7YA]

I should be getting mine next week.

Did you do Amazon?

[N7YA]

since you are taking 70, avoid indianapolis during the stupid hours 6-9a and 3-6p m-f

Duly noted! In fact, we will be zipping around the outskirts of any major city we encounter if it falls on rush hour...i've simply had enough of that dung. :snooty:

[N7YA]

The best way to get around St. Louis is to take I-270 North from I-70. This is just past the Earth City Expressway/Hiway 141 exits. I-270 will eventually meet back up with I-70 after you get into Illinois. If you stay on I-70, this will take you through downtown St. Louis and into East St. Louis, something I do not recommend for the feint of heart! All I can say about that is... National Lampoon's "Vacation"!

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-10JTyQ5u4c4/UnswvuODi_I/AAAAAAAAh-k/9oqBp3ZQXl4/s1600/St+Louis+4.jpg

Sooooo, you dont recommend staying overnight in Ferguson?

[W2NAP]

Duly noted! In fact, we will be zipping around the outskirts of any major city we encounter if it falls on rush hour...i've simply had enough of that dung. :snooty:

good luck trying to zip around the outskirt of Indianapolis during rush.. a good majority of the rush traffic is coming in/out of Indy from the outlaying areas. makes a mess of all the Interstates during stupid hour.

[suddenseer]

good luck trying to zip around the outskirt of Indianapolis during rush.. a good majority of the rush traffic is coming in/out of Indy from the outlaying areas. makes a mess of all the Interstates during stupid hour.I have been caught in the middle of the "stupid hour" there. It is as bad as Washington D.C.

[W2NAP]

I have been caught in the middle of the "stupid hour" there. It is as bad as Washington D.C.

I-69 in Hamilton County is the worst.

[w2amr]

Did you do Amazon?yep

[N7YA]

My Comet dual band whip arrived today...in a huge box. The thing would have fit into a padded envelope. But now i have everything, and it all appears to work fine. Time will tell, but i think im lucky.

[w2amr]

My Comet dual band whip arrived today...in a huge box. The thing would have fit into a padded envelope. But now i have everything, and it all appears to work fine. Time will tell, but i think im lucky. Adam check this out. http://www.vhfclub.org/downloads/BAOFENF%20Final.pdf

[N7YA]

Adam check this out. http://www.vhfclub.org/downloads/BAOFENF%20Final.pdf

Printing ALL of that! Thanks George. :)

[N7YA]

Adam check this out. http://www.vhfclub.org/downloads/BAOFENF%20Final.pdf

Printing ALL of that! Thanks George.



(sorry, dupe)

[w2amr]

Printing ALL of that! Thanks George. :)It's a lot easier than trying to figure out the manual.

[w2amr]

This thing is awesome! Duel band HT with extended receive, including the FM BC band. With all kinds of bells and whistles . Best $38 I ever spent.

[NQ6U]

This thing is awesome! Duel band HT with extended receive, including the FM BC band. With all kinds of bells and whistles . Best $38 I ever spent.

And you'll be surprised how often you use what I thought at first was an unnecessary feature—the flashlight. Assuming, of course, you can remember how to turn it on when you need it.

[W3WN]

< snip >
Day 3) Columbia, MO. From here, i calculate our next stop should be Cambridge, OH. We factored in a stop at my moms house in Carlisle, PA, but they dont like cats...we will have 4 of them with us, thus hindering any really cool side excursions to see stuff. So we will pass them by. It would have been a 3 hour trip from MO to Carlisle, but i am going to find a spot 6 hours beyond there and get a hotel.
< snip >I-80, or I-70/76 (Pa Turnpike)?

I know, you don't know yet... but if it's the I-70/76/Turnpike route, I can arrange to meet up with you guys for a quick stop (if you're up to it, of course) anywhere from the WVa line through New Stanton (where I-70 merges into the Turnpike)

I-80 most likely won't be practical, too far north. But if you're planning on going through or near Carlisle, you most likely aren't looking at that route across the state for the same reason.

Now, if you'd be coming across OH on the OH Turnpike (I-76), then down the Pa Turnpike, something around the Wexford/Warrendale exit could work as well. Or you could swing down I-376 and actually cut through Pittsburgh... but that probably wouldn't be practical anyway.

Just a few thoughts.

[K0RGR]

I am going to scout out a final route, then program the radio from there. Im still waiting on my Comet antenna, i just think it would be better. So far, what i have laid out is...

Day 1) Vegas, I-15 north into Utah, right at the I-70 and head east through the Rockies and try to make Denver for the night.
Day 2) Denver, I am going to take a couple of photos of the last remaining hanger at the old Lowry Airfield (right off the 70), then hit the 70 across the two-tone landscape for an all day trip to ol' Mizoo!
Day 3) Columbia, MO. From here, i calculate our next stop should be Cambridge, OH. We factored in a stop at my moms house in Carlisle, PA, but they dont like cats...we will have 4 of them with us, thus hindering any really cool side excursions to see stuff. So we will pass them by. It would have been a 3 hour trip from MO to Carlisle, but i am going to find a spot 6 hours beyond there and get a hotel.
Day 4) Anyones guess...i will solidify this down to the finest detail before we go because i am like that. I even have a "Navigators folder" for Devie that outlines each road, ramp, landmark, town we will pass through, hotel info, repeater frequencies, phone numbers and facilities as they appear along the way. The trip will be calculated by speed, time and tolls, gas is a whatever, we will just buy it when we need it. Day 4 should get us into either NY, MA or CT for the night.
Day 5) The final push to Maine. We may stay overnight in Camden just to make our phone calls and arrange meetings for the following day...we also want to check out Camden.
Day 6) Rent a U-haul and go get our stuff from the POD in Portland, then back to Belfast to unpack, shower, yoga, dinner and sleep.
Day 7) ....a week from the day. We celebrate with a lobster shore dinner at Youngs on the water! Then start our new life....just have to sell this house first.

We will do the 15 up to Utah, then its mostly the I-70 until we get out east. I will have the rig on for most of it.

From Vegas to the I-70 turnoff on I-15, you are in range of the Intermountain Inertie System. http://www.utahvhfs.org/snowlink.html I've found it to be
very impressive - the repeaters are mostly RF linked and have tremendous coverage. Once you start up into the mountains, the Colorado Connection
repeaters start to appear. http://www.colcon.org/repeaters.html The one in Grand Junction and the one in Glenwood Springs will cover the canyon
pretty much all the way to the summit. Once there, you can start picking up the Denver area machines. The Colorado Repeater Association also has a
nice network of linked machines covering the Front Range, and quite far out onto the prairie. http://www.w0cra.org/new/

Things get sparse in Kansas, but I've found activity in most of the larger cities along the route, particularly Topeka and Manhattan. Once you approach Kansas City,
there are tons of repeaters. Activity there is up and down. On my last trip through, last February, there was a lot of activity on several of the repeaters, but in many previous trips, I heard little to none. KC is where I turn left to go home.

The way I do these trips is to have a mobile rig with 1,000 memories that I can divide into scanning banks, and have banks of 100 set up for eachof the regions I'm passing through, and I also have the ability to change it while I'm on the road by use of a programming cable and a little netbook. I have one 100 memory bank programmed with all of the two meter repeater frequency pairs along my route, so I can scan them all if I'm in an area where I don't know where to listen. With 128 memories, you could do that too, and have 28 left over for important repeaters you know about along the route.

[w2amr]

And you'll be surprised how often you use what I thought at first was an unnecessary feature—the flashlight. Assuming, of course, you can remember how to turn it on when you need it. I was fooling around with it, and somehow I turned on a siren, and the flashlight was blinking on and off.:lol:

[w2amr]

Push and hold the orange call button.

[NQ6U]

I was fooling around with it, and somehow I turned on a siren, and the flashlight was blinking on and off.:lol:

Just FYI, unless you flip a bit via CHIRP or some other programming software, that siren goes out over the air on whatever frequency you happen to be tuned to.

[WØTKX]

Make sure you let me know when you are driving through Denver. :stickpoke:

[NQ6U]

Make sure you let me know when you are driving through Denver. :stickpoke:

You'll know he's in town by the siren on your favorite repeater.

[W2NAP]

I was fooling around with it, and somehow I turned on a siren, and the flashlight was blinking on and off.:lol:

oh lord you found the whirligiger

[N7YA]

This thing is awesome! Duel band HT with extended receive, including the FM BC band. With all kinds of bells and whistles . Best $38 I ever spent.

No kidding! Its a trip how solidly it appears to be built. For the price, you cant beat it. The flashlight is cool too. I notice the PDF you sent was for the UV5RA, i just have the UV5R, will it still work?

[N7YA]

I-80, or I-70/76 (Pa Turnpike)?

I know, you don't know yet... but if it's the I-70/76/Turnpike route, I can arrange to meet up with you guys for a quick stop (if you're up to it, of course) anywhere from the WVa line through New Stanton (where I-70 merges into the Turnpike)

I-80 most likely won't be practical, too far north. But if you're planning on going through or near Carlisle, you most likely aren't looking at that route across the state for the same reason.

Now, if you'd be coming across OH on the OH Turnpike (I-76), then down the Pa Turnpike, something around the Wexford/Warrendale exit could work as well. Or you could swing down I-376 and actually cut through Pittsburgh... but that probably wouldn't be practical anyway.

Just a few thoughts.

We will likely be passing through the area, but with 4 cats in a sedan, we will likely be pushing straight through...we are even passing my dear old mom by! But all this info is helpful and will be considered once i get down to making the route. I appreciate it, of course. Once we get settled in, we will be headed back to PA to visit mom and see some sights, at that point, i think some of your experience with local eateries could cause a meetup and some lunch. Right now, we just need to hunker down and get out of here...we also need to defrag from people for a bit. Once we have the beauty of Maine in our souls and fresh air and kind people around us, we will be able to make a "people trip" again. :)

[N7YA]

From Vegas to the I-70 turnoff on I-15, you are in range of the Intermountain Inertie System. http://www.utahvhfs.org/snowlink.html I've found it to be
very impressive - the repeaters are mostly RF linked and have tremendous coverage. Once you start up into the mountains, the Colorado Connection
repeaters start to appear. http://www.colcon.org/repeaters.html The one in Grand Junction and the one in Glenwood Springs will cover the canyon
pretty much all the way to the summit. Once there, you can start picking up the Denver area machines. The Colorado Repeater Association also has a
nice network of linked machines covering the Front Range, and quite far out onto the prairie. http://www.w0cra.org/new/

Things get sparse in Kansas, but I've found activity in most of the larger cities along the route, particularly Topeka and Manhattan. Once you approach Kansas City,
there are tons of repeaters. Activity there is up and down. On my last trip through, last February, there was a lot of activity on several of the repeaters, but in many previous trips, I heard little to none. KC is where I turn left to go home.

The way I do these trips is to have a mobile rig with 1,000 memories that I can divide into scanning banks, and have banks of 100 set up for eachof the regions I'm passing through, and I also have the ability to change it while I'm on the road by use of a programming cable and a little netbook. I have one 100 memory bank programmed with all of the two meter repeater frequency pairs along my route, so I can scan them all if I'm in an area where I don't know where to listen. With 128 memories, you could do that too, and have 28 left over for important repeaters you know about along the route.

Thanks Bill! Great info. I was wondering about the Rockies, i will be taking all of this info as we will be going through there.

All you guys basically kick ass! :yes:

[N7YA]

I was fooling around with it, and somehow I turned on a siren, and the flashlight was blinking on and off.:lol:

I found the flashlight...but theres a siren that broadcasts on the air?

I think the Chinese are up to something. :chin:

[N7YA]

Make sure you let me know when you are driving through Denver. :stickpoke:

I'm likely going to be updating on here from the laptop in the hotel while en route....and trying to figure out how to program an HT from it too. I may have to make up a few eyeball qsl's for this trip.

[w2amr]

No kidding! Its a trip how solidly it appears to be built. For the price, you cant beat it. The flashlight is cool too. I notice the PDF you sent was for the UV5RA, i just have the UV5R, will it still work?It seems to.

[w2amr]

Just FYI, unless you flip a bit via CHIRP or some other programming software, that siren goes out over the air on whatever frequency you happen to be tuned to. I guess the bit has been flipped on this one cause it doesn't do it.

[NQ6U]

I guess the bit has been flipped on this one cause it doesn't do it.

That's good. Maybe enough repeater operators complained about it so the radio comes from the factory like that now, but mine sure didn't.

[wa6mhz]

I am trying to get my MONEYSWORTH out of a Yaesu FT1DR! that cost me around $300!!! and add to that a drop in Charger and spare battery and we are towards $400!
It's all cuz our Radio CLUBS are ditching the war surplus MOTRAC REpeaters and installing new Yaesu DR1-Xs Digital and Analog repeaters So far almost every club in town has gotten these. Our ARC of El Cajon bought TWO of them!
So FT1DRs are selling like Hot cakes!! Yaesu was very WISE in discounting the repeaters to only $500 for clubs! They are making MILLIONS off of users buying new HTs!!

[W2NAP]

I am trying to get my MONEYSWORTH out of a Yaesu FT1DR! that cost me around $300!!! and add to that a drop in Charger and spare battery and we are towards $400!
It's all cuz our Radio CLUBS are ditching the war surplus MOTRAC REpeaters and installing new Yaesu DR1-Xs Digital and Analog repeaters So far almost every club in town has gotten these. Our ARC of El Cajon bought TWO of them!
So FT1DRs are selling like Hot cakes!! Yaesu was very WISE in discounting the repeaters to only $500 for clubs! They are making MILLIONS off of users buying new HTs!!

Hell I could have saved the club $500, should have just got 2 gm-300's and slapped them together as a repeater. that is all the damn yaesu repeater is, 2 mobiles slapped together. totally not worth the $500 they want for it.

[WØTKX]

I am trying to get my MONEYSWORTH out of a Yaesu FT1DR! that cost me around $300!!! and add to that a drop in Charger and spare battery and we are towards $400!
It's all cuz our Radio CLUBS are ditching the war surplus MOTRAC REpeaters and installing new Yaesu DR1-Xs Digital and Analog repeaters So far almost every club in town has gotten these. Our ARC of El Cajon bought TWO of them!
So FT1DRs are selling like Hot cakes!! Yaesu was very WISE in discounting the repeaters to only $500 for clubs! They are making MILLIONS off of users buying new HTs!!

14086

[KG4NEL]

The '1DR does nothing for me. I'm looking at the VX-6R, though. Seems like a nice hiking radio.