Connunications update following Polls:

[NorthernRaider]

(31 October 2012, 16:38)gary5wift Wrote: Thanks for all your responses and info - all good stuff and all very welcome.

There is no one size fits all solution. My plan is to have a wide range of options as cheaply as possible.

Already have a marine radio - had it years from when I used to go sailing before wife had a stroke.
Already have an old CB - had it about 20 years but it still works ok.
Already have 4 PMR446 sets from when we used to take the kids walking and camping
Already have a Baofeng Dual Band transceiver (VHF/UHF) - cost me £30 off ebay a couple of weeks ago
Want to have a go at building a HF set for CW/morse eventually. I've been told that a functional set can be built at little cost.

Getting the Ham license gives me the opportunity to learn more about radio comms and the option to practise using the Baofeng and eventually the CW/morse without incurring the wrath of Ofcom etc. I know that I still have a lot to learn

This is a good thread with lots of useful info - thanks for all the hard work you guys have put into it. I'll keep reading and hope to learn as much as possible.

Cheers
Gary

Our new friend from UKP makes a couple of points I find very interesting and the most important one is

"There is no one size fits all solution. My plan is to have a wide range of options as cheaply as possible."

Tother one is less important but worth note that in a completely seperate forum and without involvement from this forums radio geeks Gary has reached the exact same chopice of kit independantly as our guys did in getting a couple of cheap PMR 446s AND more notably settled on the Baofeng rigs our guys also went for.
AL from the Scottish islands actually walked into my house yesterday with his Baofeng.

I find this highly satifying and reassuring to see Brit preppers reaching the same choices independant of each other, that shows me the multiple forums share more in common than hold them apart.

But remember theres no one size fits all guys, so respect each others choices.

---

Now I wonder / hope you forum hoppers can come up with a standard set of calling frequencies for the CB, PMR 446 and Ham units that would be acceptable across all the UK forums radio users?