Getting back into amature radio, (have tech. lic) looking for a handheld and my budget is in the 100 to 150 FRN range. I'm overwhelmed by choices. Not looking to start modifying cell phones, just want a reccomendation on an easy to use radio. My home is about 1350 ft in elevation with a clear line of sight to several repeaters. Any advice is appreciated.
For that kind of money, you can get a PAIR of Baofeng Dual-band VHF/UHF Handhelds with ALL the Accessories. They aren't the Greatest Radios, on the planet, but they will work, just fine, for a Starter Tech Licensed Radio.... Then after you have had a chance to operate for a while, and see what else is around, you can upgrade to something better, and put these two little HTs in the BOB, or Setup as Backup Radios.
If you go the Baofeng route, be sure and get the software to program them. "The Word" is that doing it manually will take longer than it should. You might read the threads here - Prepared Ham - Index for some insights. There is another, an Asian mfr (starts with W, can't remember) makes inexpensive hts that might do as well. See also eham.net to flood your mind with choices in all price ranges.
The "W" brand is Wouxun. I personally have a Wouxun KG-UVD1P and I like it for what it is. Keep in mind that all of the HTs will be in the 4-5 watt range on VHF and 3-4 watt range on UHF. The Baofeng is cheaper than the Wouxun but 1w lower in power on VHF. For a Baofeng, here's a link to a US seller for a pair for less than $100, shipped, buy it now (no programming cable): 2X 2013 Latest Version BAOFENG UV 5R Plus 136 174 400 480 MHz Ham 2 Way Radio | eBay For a single Wouxun KG-UVD1P, here's one, Buy It Now for just over $100 (programming cable included): MTC WOUXUN KG UVD1P VHF UHF HT Free Programmming Kit Priority USA Shipping 489239630040 | eBay Here's the site I bought mine from (not eBay). Ed's (Greeney) a great guy to work with and his prices are better than the other Ed, although I've heard he's great to work with too. I got the radio in 2 days even though he's in California. Inventory Catalog - Radio Resource Center If you decide to go with the Wouxun and Ed, email him and he has more "package" deals than are on the site. Finally, you WILL want a different antenna than the rubber duck that comes with either one as they are junk. It's worth the extra $20 or so to pick one up on Ebay, whether it's a Comet or a Nagoya or even an Re-Tech (which even uses the same stock number as a Nagoya and costs 30% less....hmmm). I also built a sleeve di-pole for about $10 (minus the cost of cable...that stuff is spendy) and increased my range by almost triple. Hope that helps.
I picked up a couple of the Baofeng UV-5R radios and for the price have found them hard to beat. Put one through it's paces as net control for our weekly 2 meter net...no problems, although it did get a bit warm (as do my Kenwood and Standard.) Get the programming cable...not only does it make programming faster and easier, it also allows access to funtions that are not available through keypad entry. ETA...C.H.I.R.P programming software provides more options than the OEM software - and is a free download, too. The "daily build" has the latest updates, and will work with many other radios (however I cannot speak for those applications.)
Finally received my UV-5RA this week. Now I'm slowly going insane trying to program it. Yes I discovered the mini DVD is worthless and installed CHIRP off the Milkor website. Have several local repeaters loaded not it won't load when I try to add additional repeaters. Is there any way to lable the channel the repeater is on ? They're listed by call sign and I'd like to sort them by towns as I'm on the road a bit.
Not sure which version you are running but they should all be similar... First, I would suggest always download from the radio before make any changes. This allows the program to get all the data that your particular radio needs. Then make your changes and upload to the radio. As far as labeling channels, read the radio and then in column "Name" enter the label you want. After doing that, click the "Settings" tab on the left side of the screen. Go to "Basic settings and you will then see "Display Mode (A)" and "Display Mode (B)"...choose "Name" from the drop-down menu, then write the file to the radio. The radio will then display the label you entered. Hope this helps! ETA: Changing the display mode will change ALL channels to the selected mode: Frequency, Name, or Channel #.
150 FRN? Francs? Sorry for the offtopic. OnT: Thanks for this thread, I'm also on the market for something a bit more modern than the ones I got now, maybe even something that toy can carry without to much discomfort.
