What Radio do you use

[NorthernRaider]

Smashing I'm finally starting to get an insight into who LS is

[Lightspeed]

Oops I sent that before I'd finished.

Current project is to ruggedize and make portable some ofthe more critical long term radio kit. This includes dedicated HF gear capable of operating on CB frequencies, as well as VHF/ UHF.

I've found myself a surplus Warsaw pact manpack transceiver, the only bit of which interests me is the heavy duty man-pack alloy case, with all of its traps and harnesses. It is fully waterproof in an immersion for 30 minutes + kind of way, and has external waterproof mounts for antennas and speaker mikes.

Inside I have room for three 12v gell cells, Several rigs, spares , anennas, code books an op instructions. If I can find a suitable PV power supply this will be a very good off-grid portable station.

My intention is to keep the sation permanently housed in this pack, even when operating socially from my home. That way, the alloy can behaves as an excellent faraday cage, and the entire setup is good to go should an emergeny arise.

That reminds me NR, your comments about not minding big antennas..... My version 1 of this portable station was based on an old alloy framed ruck sack. I used a rotatable truck mirror antenna mounting and slim line feed coax attached to the frame. This was easily able to carry long, efficient antennas both while walking and even better, with the mount rotated, when the pack was laid on the deck. In both situations the ruck sack frame became the ground plane. Earlier this year, on 14Mhz and 28Mhz we achived more than 150 km range groundwave and international contacts with USA to west and Khazaksthan to the east. We werer also pulling in Hong Kong on 28Mhz at one point, but our peanut 10w power was not able to overcome all ofthe other stations on air at the time.

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(2 July 2012, 10:22)NorthernRaider Wrote: Smashing I'm finally starting to get an insight into who LS is

Now I'm worried!

[Paul]

Comms Gear.
Marine VHF Handheld
CEPT / UK CB Handheld.
Pair of PMR 446
A service handset for phone lines.
A wideband scanner

[The Local Ned]

(2 July 2012, 17:07)Paul Wrote: Comms Gear.
Marine VHF Handheld
CEPT / UK CB Handheld.
Pair of PMR 446
A service handset for phone lines.
A wideband scanner

Good thinking there mate - Service handset and a wideband scanner , I never thought about the service handset at all...I'll do some groundwork on that now.
Cheers.

Marine VHF could be a very very handy item also , if you hit a worse case scenario and are near a coastline - there is always a chance there could be a vessel nearby to assist or aid.

Comms equipment - Scots tongue and old CB27/81 handheld , soon to have a few PMR466 , lookiing at forum recommends here or for the radios ability to be 'adapted' for other freqs.

[James Jackson]

whats the best hand held radio to have for battery life and distance? my plans are to be able to move on foot, keep hidden and flexable till i find somewhere i feel will be more safe. Probably end up in scotland or find some kind of island to hide away on and dig down

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is http://www.amazon.co.uk/Midland-42-Handh...B000V9IXC2 any good, i cannot find the distance it covers though you can get an Antenna for it! would you need a license for it? I dont like the idea of being on another goverment list... The less they know the better

[NorthernRaider]

Cant get the link to work, may be my PC at fault, but if its a CB you dont need a licence, I've been checking out hand helds and both the midlands and Inteks are well liked, the midland gets the edge over its smaller vehicle mount connection. all these handhelds only come with short rubber duck so most folks appear to be buying Albrecht longer rubber ducks at 55CM for about 20 quid

[bigpaul]

i dont know ANYTHING about radio set ups and the like, so please excuse my ignorance, but dont you need a whacking great aerial for most of this stuff( i'm pretty sure you do for ham radio, not sure about CB) and wouldnt that give away the fact you have got all this equipment...especially in a post TSHTF situation??? sorry, just me thinking out loud!

[Skean Dhude]

Paul,

The antenna size is all to do with the frequencies. It has to be some multiple of the standing wave or whatever. PMR radios are 3 inches or so, CB is 3 ft and ELF are 100 miles.

Don't worry about that. If we look at Ham there may be an issue but the techies can tell us about that and then we decide what we can and can't do.

[NorthernRaider]

My radio came this morning, Its the Intek H 520 as discussed, also got a 1.5 meter magmount for the van, waiting for the Albrecht 2ft ft long rubber duck to come to improve the range when used as a walkie talkie.

Scanned UK and EU frquencies no traffic at all so far.

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(3 July 2012, 09:45)Skean Dhude Wrote: Paul,

The antenna size is all to do with the frequencies. It has to be some multiple of the standing wave or whatever. PMR radios are 3 inches or so, CB is 3 ft and ELF are 100 miles.

Mine is 8 inches and so is the OE rubber duck that came with the H520

[Martin200261]

(3 July 2012, 08:20)bigpaul Wrote: i dont know ANYTHING about radio set ups and the like, so please excuse my ignorance, but dont you need a whacking great aerial for most of this stuff( i'm pretty sure you do for ham radio, not sure about CB) and wouldnt that give away the fact you have got all this equipment...especially in a post TSHTF situation??? sorry, just me thinking out loud!

A dipole for CB only needs to be about 17 feet long, I've put a 10m long dipole up in my garden that looks just like a washing line, some people attach them to guttering or even put a loop antenna up around the roofline of the house, almost invisible unless you are looking for it.

As SD says, the size depends on the frequency - lower frequencies need bigger antennae.