What Radio do you use

[00111001]

Hi All,

looking into getting a hand held HAM rig. Good reviews on this one

I'm not bothered about licenses etc, cause it'll be a SHTF comms unit anyway. Looking at getting 2, one for the missus.

anyone have a rough idea what the expected range on these would be? Transmitting at 5W.

[bigpaul]

it says LOCAL 2 way coverage, anybody know what the range is?? or are we talking a glorified walkie talkie??

[Nemesis]

To give you an idea I use 5w (UHF RADIOS) and from my home to the local coop it is about 2 miles, now as long as I stand outside my house I can keep comms, with at times some interference.

When used on open land they are clearer at that range.

I don’t know much about radios and do want longer range.

One thing I would point out, I think having the option of powering radios with an AA converter type box is something to consider.

[bigpaul]

if that is the case i dont think this is for me. i think if i did want a 2way radio i think i would be looking for something more long range-i suspect this would be expensive??

[Skean Dhude]

Lightspeed has done some work on this and posted some stuff on the main site.

He is a ham and we are looking at setting something countrywide up.

[Lightspeed]

This looks a very good radio.

Its new to me. If it uses the same menue system as its little brother the UV3R, it'll be a winner.

It'll cover Marine Band VHF, 2m Amateur Band, PMR446 band, and 70cm Amateur Bands.

Be VERY careful though. Don't just start using any old frequencies, this will bring you to the attention of the authorities mighty quickly, especially operating in sections opf the UHF band taht are reserved for military and london security applications. Likewise do not transmit on any of the Marine / Mountn rescue/ Air sea rescue frequencies on the VHF band. After a SHTF event of course anything goes, but for the time being be very careful.

For testing I'd suggest you restrict activity to PMR bands, and listening to the Amateur bands.

Great battery capacity means that it'll have excellent standby time.

Range: Of course variable depending on location. But in good conditions you'll be surprised. My first ever attempts at long distance on VHF vere made using a Chinese 5w hand held of very similar specifications....From the headland above Croyde in Norh Devon, I had a conversation with a guy up in the Brecon Beacons more than 60 miles away.

I'd recommend that you get a 12v power adaptor, BNC antenna adaptor and one of the little dualband mag mount antennas which are also sold on e-bay. These will allow you to keep the units charged in grid-down conditiond ( assuming you have 12v batteries and charging systems?) and the external antennas will help increase range.

FOR INFO: I recently purchased a similar 5w/1w Chinese radio. Mine's a Fedaixin FD880 it works well but programming and operating is excessively complex. If I'd known about this UV5R radio beforehand, I'd have purcased this unit in preference, hoping that the memories could be alpha tagged and that the operating and programming on this UV5R are the same as the UV3R. For non-amateurs, the UV3R programming allows the radios to be set up to be fully functional for future requirements, while remaining demonstrably "innocent" as scanning recevers if challenged by any curent day authorities.

Hope this helps? If you do buy a pair, can you let us know how you find them? Maybe you ca write a short review?

[Lightspeed]

I just downloaded the UV5R operating manual.

Boo hoo.... I wish I'd purchased one of these, the specification is excellent.

Confirmed features that are of use

1. Programming APPEARS to allow the trick programming that I mentiones above. Specifically it supports 0 to 69.990 MHz offsets.

2. Supports Alpha name tags on memories

3. Teue Dual watch dual display = you can listen for activity on two frequencies atthe same time

4. Reverse function: Allows you to swap transmit and receive frequencies when operating split frequency. ( this is for amateurs wishing to listen to hear if other stations are reachable simplex when operating through repeaters

5. Voice prompt... maybe handy for operating the unit covertly with an ear-piece.

6. DTMF dual tone code sets are supported. These are of possible future use on closed network repeaters.

Hope this helps.

---

Hi Big Paul,

Yes its a 5w / 1w FM walkie-Talkie, with some enhanced operating and coding features.

Range should be as good as any other 5w device, eg CB 27/81

[00111001]

Well mine arrived yesterday. Just bought one for now to see how I get on and what I can pick up. Had a play last night, and I appear to only be able to pick up local taxi stations at the moment. My local repeater is off the air (don't know why though).

Managed to access the Newbury repeater, but apart from someone transmitting morse code there's not much happening

I was expecting the airwaves to be a but busier!

[00111001]

Anyone able to access the Portsmouth repeater (GB3PC) on 2m? I'll be online tonight trying to pick something up!

[bigpaul]

is there anything a novice could use, maybe a bit more than a walkie-talkie but a bit less than a ham radio...something in between??