Radios and walkie talkies

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hedgerowpete
Posts: 75
Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2019 9:18 pm

Re: Radios and walkie talkies

Post by hedgerowpete »

Arzosah wrote: Fri Apr 12, 2019 8:39 am This thread is gelling with a conversation I had with a neighbour over the weekend - he's just bought a new ham radio base, over £4k, so I presume it's a good'un. He was helping people in the Netherlands mark off the UK during a competition they were having, so it's got good range.

Not that I'd say anything to him right now, because it's a bit apocalyptic, but if I wanted to buy a handset that would be useful to contact him on, what model/dosh would I be looking at? Is there an answer, or is it a stupid question?

to contact locally a baogeng for £20 will do. not get hung up on the money side, its not so much the £4k for the radio its what antenna he has that does the real work. mine was £400 second hand and is twenty years out of date, it could do digital and computer stuff but i choose not to, " its a radio- i talk into it" very old school!!

a bad radio with a decent antenna will outclass a brilliant raido with a bad antenna, its like TV's a 60 inch plasma telly is useless untill you connect that aerial lead into the back of it, or the internet plug

with radios break it down into these groups of useage and see where it gets you

Mobile
not just car related CB but ham radio and VHF sets in these out of house uses are very very good, i use a lead acid battery and a cb radio from a rucksac and i also use a HF radio from a rucksac too. range is irrellivant, in fact for me i get better and further away from home than at home as there is less interferance to the radio sets. costs, we can go from a new hand cb set up, radio( grant two £160), antenna ( springer £20), leads (£20), small amp ( they call them burners for some reason£70) and a magnetic roof mount(£30), all singing and dancing can be yours for £300 ish add a decent stand alone antenna like a TL2 (£30) and your into europe and a good 100 mile radius you can do a 2m vhf set up for the same sort of money but second hand, again with the range of a 100 miles on a good day but better at 30 miles or less for 5 watts of less shouting out is easy and reasonably cost effective but it really makes the difference with what antenna your listening to, i have a x50 at home( big white fibreglass stick) its ten foot in the air and does a good job. when i do competitions its not as good as listening as i want it to be so i change to a yagi uda ( think flat tv aerial but bigger and longer)

if you stand in front of a crowd and hundreds of people infront start shouting at you and waving their arms you cant really see or hear anything expect for the loudest two or three people in that room. by changing the antenna style and type its like looking down a loo roll what you get to see is a far smaller focused group, this time maybe two or three people, the longer the loo roll or the antennas focus the less you see around the person you want to talk to. my x50 hears everyone and every thing and every thing you dont want it to hear which is good and bad at the same time, the focused loo roll - uda yagi antenna only sees the people i want it too in the area i am looking for,

for basic ham use a x50 is the better option to go (£40)

HAND HELDS.
here you have two choices, Baofeng 5R (£30) or anyother make from any other supplier (£200), Baofengs sort a purpose as they are cheap and work and work reasonably well, but have a few hang ups, but hang ups only really kick in when your trying to be fancy, think really basic small car, it has four gears, four wheels and goes forward and backwards, you can drive to work or drive on holiday, but your doing so at 45mph flat out, the seat is uncomfortable after a few miles, the fuel is fast to use and its not as clean and tidy as everyone elses car, you cant buy spares to mend it and you cant change or upgrade it and theres no lights or windows or a back seat, but it does the job and will do for many years to come. but say you want to go off road, or go faster or go in more comfort, or want a car you can buy spare parts for or upgrade or has lights so you can drive at night or windows to keep the rain out. your better off going the other route of a decent makers brand, ICOM OR YAESU KENWOOD etc, even a cheap second hand one is repairable and upgradable to a certain limit, more bells and more whistles, i only own baufengs either 5r or 888 and would not replace or swap for any other make or brand as i dont need the extra costs or the extra bells and whistles, range in a town is a mile, outside of town in the countryside its nearer 5miles,

Base stations
Here are those big black boxes you see or the ham radio guys have. prices are hard to nail down but if you went middle road basic set up Yaesu 1200, its a big black box thats going to do anything you want from listening to transmitting on all the HF bands, new its roughly £1k second hand £500, i have similar and i still dont use all the knobs and dials and buttons on mine and i have owned it for 5 years, you can go smaller in size FT450 but same sort of money or top of the range money no object £10K FT9000 big radio with a shed load of lights and buttons and bells and whistles.

you can use the smaller ft 450 as a mobile set as well as a base set, but your struggling to use a FT9000 out of the house unless your a real radio nut hard core mobile set up


decide where you want to use it the most, car, walking or home
decide on the budget for each set, 1/3 radio costs, 1/3 antenna costs, 1/3 amplifier costs or leads and cables and batteries and ancillaries.
hedgerowpete
Posts: 75
Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2019 9:18 pm

Re: Radios and walkie talkies

Post by hedgerowpete »

my radio set up is at the moment

none paper work
in car grant 2 cb and 50watt amp, sirio 4000 on the roof and gum drop mounting and its nailed into the dash to never move, out of all the radios i use, i spend so much time in the car that this gets used the most. i use it all over the uk and in europe as well, if i travel with others its the unit we use for comms , its the main unit

at home i have a cb radio, it used to be in the kitch and it had an anton 99 outside in the garden i also had the same set up at the alotment too, this was before mobile phone plans became cheap,
I also use a set of six hand held raidios baofeng 888 for the kids to use and inside cars to none radio people as everyone gets to chatter with out the phone costs or phone coverage problems

vhf set ups.
i own a hand full of 5rv+ and a lot of new, better antennas fitted and the larger battery packs and alternative battery packs. if i ever want to grab and go its is this i will grab

I also own an FT817, its a multi band vhf and hf radio that does everything i could every want including cb as well as every thing else, it was £300 second hand and i suggest that it or the larger ft818 or 857 is considered, they are brilliant pieces of kit and as a starting block have an outstanding reputaion. this is what i use when out and about, i can fit it into the car or the rucksack and its been up quite a few mountains and hills
power is cheap heavy lead acid 7amph bricks from toolstation and a cheap recharger unit, FAULTLESS set up!!!!

at home we own an FT950, big black box radio, it is old and still in perfect condition and does every thing an idiot like me can do £450 second hand and worth every penny, it was either that or a ft1200 or a 450 and do more mobile stuff, in the back garden is a cb fibreglass pole and a vhf fibreglass pole, and a long piece of wire from chimney top to garden fence GRV5, none are perfect they are all compromised and all want replacing with big shiney toys which i cant afford , cant fit in the gaden, cant get planning permission for and the wife would deffinatly cut my googlies off if they suddenly appeared over night, all were cheap or new or second hand and in total the whole lot at home is easily under £650

for that money i can listen to every frequency and every radio channel i could ever want, if i wanted to or had permits to i could change antenna and talk down them as well

where next for me?
Antennas, every penny i own now only goes on antennas, the radios are brilliant and easily outclass me, but they all need better ears to listen with, i have no intention to change a single radio but have changed all the cables and now own a considerable amount of aluminium tubes and books on antennas
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korolev
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Location: Land of the South Saxons

Re: Radios and walkie talkies

Post by korolev »

Pete,
sounds like you know your stuff, what do you reckon to a handheld CB (midland Alan) ? Are they ok for a bit of messing around whilst out and about ?
ian2509
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Joined: Mon Aug 15, 2016 10:19 am
Location: Area 6

Re: Radios and walkie talkies

Post by ian2509 »

Hi guys, sorry to hyjack your post but I had a quick question and you guys seem to really know your stuff. I have a Baofeng GT3 MK2 and a UV-5RD. Do you need a licence for these?
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Arzosah
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Joined: Fri Jun 22, 2012 4:20 pm

Re: Radios and walkie talkies

Post by Arzosah »

There's a lot of people just like me, who *want* to know/ understand comms, and may even have a little bit of equipment, but can't quite take the last step. This forum and it's members are really great for sorting out situations like that :) thanks guys.
jansman
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Re: Radios and walkie talkies

Post by jansman »

Arzosah wrote: Mon Apr 15, 2019 4:39 pm There's a lot of people just like me, who *want* to know/ understand comms, and may even have a little bit of equipment, but can't quite take the last step. This forum and it's members are really great for sorting out situations like that :) thanks guys.
I have a basic , three channel 3 km range two way job. I am not into radio comms, but I got it for ‘local’ communication in case of a breakdown ( me out scavenging and telling family it’s me coming in etc. ). Highly unlikely. However, when we had the holiday place, the kids used it so we could keep tabs, and it worked.
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Covid 19: After that level of weirdness ,any situation is certainly possible.

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Arzosah
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Joined: Fri Jun 22, 2012 4:20 pm

Re: Radios and walkie talkies

Post by Arzosah »

That's really good, jansman - your "highly unlikely" scenario was about keeping tabs, and then your family used it for present day keeping tabs. Win-win :)
easy rider
Posts: 71
Joined: Fri Jul 24, 2015 9:11 am

Re: Radios and walkie talkies

Post by easy rider »

ian2509 wrote: Mon Apr 15, 2019 1:25 pm Hi guys, sorry to hyjack your post but I had a quick question and you guys seem to really know your stuff. I have a Baofeng GT3 MK2 and a UV-5RD. Do you need a licence for these?
I believe if these two radios are in factory or 're programmed to 446 pmr form you would need a licence to legally transmit on ham unless in a emergency only .
Pmr requires a output of no more than 0.5watts and both have removable antennas in any case which doesn't meet directive 2014/53/eu.
So if on 446 pmr would not meet licence specs in any case .
In ham form yes a licence is required to transmit ,not receive .

I am unable to make out the frequencey in the two radios displays ,my guess is their still on factory set frequencies so are very usable for monitoring between frequencies 144/146 where most the locals may chatter on .

As I believe already mentioned in posts above this it would seem many of these are used illegally anyway and many don't get noticed as they remain respectful and replicate ham radio lingo .

Good little radios ,can be improved on transmit receive by adding a strip of wire at right length to frequencey to ground .
They also have a fm radio but squelch needs to be engaged to use .
Don't be tempted to fit headphones plugs or extension mic .as pins go in after time
They are known to break a contact on the boards loosing transmit audio out.
Can be fixed with a quick simple solder blob which also serves as a prevention.
See YouTube no audio fix baofeng uv5.

Very usable radios , better than most make them out too.
easy rider
Posts: 71
Joined: Fri Jul 24, 2015 9:11 am

Re: Radios and walkie talkies

Post by easy rider »

korolev wrote: Sun Apr 14, 2019 11:42 am Pete,
sounds like you know your stuff, what do you reckon to a handheld CB (midland Alan) ? Are they ok for a bit of messing around whilst out and about ?
Hedgerowpete knows his stuff for sure and a good guy too.

Nice to see you online posting hedgerowpete .
Catch up soon hopefully for a balti at the usual little B .

Atvb
hedgerowpete
Posts: 75
Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2019 9:18 pm

Re: Radios and walkie talkies

Post by hedgerowpete »

korolev wrote: Sun Apr 14, 2019 11:42 am Pete,
sounds like you know your stuff, what do you reckon to a handheld CB (midland Alan) ? Are they ok for a bit of messing around whilst out and about ?
to be honest, never used a cb hand held on a car type on and a lead acid brick. i am sure if you ask on the facebook cb radio pages someone will have, some of the car radio ones are tiny anyway