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Speaking of PORTABLE base station aerials ??
7 August 2012, 16:18,
#31
RE: Speaking of PORTABLE base station aerials ??
(7 August 2012, 03:16)The Local Ned Wrote: Hi Paul.

Yeah mate , its kinda technogeekery , but it's an idea I've been batting around using LS and yourself as a soundboard.

I think its workable if I use basic handsets like the baofeng bf888s to act as repeaters.
Simplex vox will be fine for me LS ,I've no real need to have simultaneous comms a la phone line.

Also been checking out FRN gateways....

Aren't you concerned that the FRN gateways will shut down as the countries I.T. network and phones shut down?
After all most internet hubs only have standby power for as long as it takes to back up the systems.
I know the Internet is built round redundancy and auto rerouting round problems BUT it still needs power and phone lines.

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9 September 2012, 16:29, (This post was last modified: 9 September 2012, 17:28 by The Local Ned.)
#32
RE: Speaking of PORTABLE base station aerials ??
(7 August 2012, 16:18)Paul Wrote:
(7 August 2012, 03:16)The Local Ned Wrote: Hi Paul.

Yeah mate , its kinda technogeekery , but it's an idea I've been batting around using LS and yourself as a soundboard.

I think its workable if I use basic handsets like the baofeng bf888s to act as repeaters.
Simplex vox will be fine for me LS ,I've no real need to have simultaneous comms a la phone line.

Also been checking out FRN gateways....

Aren't you concerned that the FRN gateways will shut down as the countries I.T. network and phones shut down?
After all most internet hubs only have standby power for as long as it takes to back up the systems.
I know the Internet is built round redundancy and auto rerouting round problems BUT it still needs power and phone lines.

Sorry Paul , just noticed this reply.
Yeah mate - I understand fully that as TSHTF the net will probably fold , but I mentioned it as an aside only , it's something I was looking at just to increase my understanding of recent tech capabilities.

I've been playing around with the Baofeng UV-5R for a couple of weeks now , and am also busily researching portable power solutions for it , and will soon post up , hopefully with either a youtube link or with a doc , regarding the simple ( or so I thought ) finished ruckstool project.

I'm doing this to help the community out , in as much as - I'm familiar with all the radio-techno geekery malarkey , and the choices and issues I had to make and somehow overcome were quite overwhelming at times.

One solution usually led to another problem etc etc.
But I'm now on the home straight with this and once I've had a chance to test the viabilty of the ruckstool out I will post accordingly.

I'll give my initial findings first though.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

The UV-5R.

Not what I expected , which was something along the lines of an action man walkie talkie.
It is a tiny handheld unit , very compact , and similar in height to my ZTE blade phone.

Quite sturdy , looks well made , accessories look ok too.
The manual is usual eastern stuff , but in its own way does what its designed to do.

Programming the channels

Once you've overcome the driver issues with windows 7 ( XP and vista work fine right out the box ) then you are good to go - there are links online that show you how to get the drivers working and the downloads needed too -

Driver Issues ? - read this !

The software is very easy to use , and there are .dat files available that have all of the useful channels for the UK PMR and repeaters already setup on them. -

UV-5R UK setup

Now please dont go expecting anything highly sophisticated regarding this ruckstool thing , we've all seen these in shops , and it looked an easy way of mounting a MOBILE antenna in a PORTABLE form.

It's a basic idea , and it should work , if not well for transmitting , it will surely extend the range you can receive from , please also bear in mind I will be using this on PMR446 freqs , but the method should easily transfer onto CB as well , although most likely there will be greater SWR issues to overcome on that freq.

Sitting in the house , next to PC using a portable antenna on the UV-5R ( the Nagoya NA-771 ) the PMR channels are all quiet , every one , with some RFI on channel 8 and some other RF scattered around.

On the HAM bands however - I could not believe I am receiving stations beween 17 and 20 miles out....and with another ( barely receivable ) contact out at 25 miles which was mobile. They were all using a repeater out in Paisley in Glasgow , and were discussing 2 other local repeaters which they knew were getting upgraded to wind/solar power backup by the amateur clubs involved. I managed to open the repeater up using the tone-burst required ( a 2 button press on the UV-5R ) so I am at least hitting 12 miles out with the portable antenna.
As I said - once I have the ruckstool finshed and tested I will post the results for that too , at the moment I am very happy with the UV-5R , it does have slight niggles using its twin jacks for mic and speaker ( but they are easily rectified with a re-insert of the jacks ) , battery life on standby was exceptional too ( 2 days for me ).

TLN

Smile Good news for me.


Trying very hard not to be paranoid.....and it aint getting easier.
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