(19 November 2012, 22:01)Destiny Wrote: [ -> ]I'll be honest and say i dont have the slightest clue what you're on about
Hi Destiny.
Thanks for bringing us back to earth.
The idea here has been to find a universally viable hand held two way radio. ( we've been considering a product from the Chinese manufacturer Baofeng called a UV5r. It seems to meet a wide range of prepper needs
Trouble is that if you buy one from e-bay, you'll receive a highly complex piece of equipment. Its not ready to use straight out of the box like a mobile phone.
The solution we've developed is to use the UV5Rs program through computer capability. If preppers decide thatthe radio is right for them, and purchase one with the necessary programming cable and software, we have written a program that can be downloaded into the radio that will set up all participating Preppers radios on the same channels and frequencies. Why is this important? Well, lets move forward in time to a point that we have a lot of preppers using these radios with the proposed channel set-up, then if a major event occured that knocked out the electrical grid and telephony, we could agree to use , say< Channel 11 as out universal calling channel, knowing that eeryone else who has prepped in the same way as us will be listening for communications on that channel. Its a way of simplistic coordination of everybodies equipment to ensure compatibility.
TLN is describing that different versions of the same radio have different operating systems ( like computers) and that the program (IMAGE) files will not be compatible with all versions. We will need to prepare image files for each version.
Does this make more sense?
(15 November 2012, 21:49)Paul Wrote: [ -> ]TLN, you mention MARINE VHF.
Which one, UK or international aka American?
It should be UK as we're a UK specific group.
Yesterday I crossed the Channel and can confirm that a number of the channels Garry specified were very active. (big gales in the channel and many vestles having difficulties)
(16 November 2012, 21:38)The Local Ned Wrote: [ -> ]Just as a point to note - I am nowhere near coastal.
Marine comms traffic is not within my current comms capability at my location.
What I meant was ,the radio accepted the channel freq and was able to transmit on all.
Sorry for any confusion.
Even if not coastal, remember that Marine Ch16VHF FM is used for air se rescue, who venture inland as well.
The same channels is also used by Mountain rescue.
So it fairly handy to have programmed in.
I use 99 as its easy to remember.... probably your logic about 999 calls is invisibly behind this thought process
(15 November 2012, 19:54)The Local Ned Wrote: [ -> ]Ok , here's my take on the list after trying both images on my handset.
They both work fine.
One thing I did notice was , although all the 'naughty if caught on them' , channels were disabled on the pre SHTF image , there was a few channels with high power already enabled ?
Also - on my own handset I had the SOS / CGRD freq on CH99 , just as a nod to the '999' service , in an emergency pressing '9's seems the right thing for me...just a quirk of mine.
CH16 - 'RF noisy' for me , CHS' - 20,50,70,80 and 81 likewise.
CHS' 92 and 99 were 'busy' also , with faint RF.
One question - It seemed as though there was a split with the deviation between the bands - Narrow on 70cm and Wide on 2m ?
-I have all of mine set for narrow , as I thought that the wide setting was for channels that required extra bandwidth for 'broadcast' comms ?
All in all , a good effort from ALL involved.
On a side note - I'm just looking at CHIRP , and it has options for -
-EU , LPD and PMR.
-MARINE VHF.
-NOAA Weather Alert ( USA - I know ).
-U.S - 60m
-U.S - FRS GMRS MURS.
..and U.S calling frequencies already setup as options to load.
Might be worthwhile keeping an eye on that for future developments.
Hi TLN,
Re Narrow / Wide deviation:
Intention was to put the PMR channels and near to compliant as possible, which means narrow.
For everything else Wide should have been the choice to give maximum bandwidth and readability.