point of ham radios??

[Briggs 2.0]

From a prepping point of view, I'm really impressed with the Plessey Clansman RT320. I weighed up the pros and cons and I'm glad I went for one And the more I use it the more it grows on me. The ground wave HF is a real bonus.

If you're thinking of dabbling in radio I'd say the 320 is a relatively low cost prep radio. Nothing fancy but it works well.

[metatron]

From a prepping point of view, I'm really impressed with the Plessey Clansman RT320. I weighed up the pros and cons and I'm glad I went for one And the more I use it the more it grows on me. The ground wave HF is a real bonus.

If you're thinking of dabbling in radio I'd say the 320 is a relatively low cost prep radio. Nothing fancy but it works well.

There are a few mods for the old Clansman's, but if you are investing in HF kit, you are going to be getting a licence and you are better talking to other hams at the club, someone will have an older radio or two their be willing to sell you for a good price. I like the Clansman kit, I even own a few of their radios, but there not really user friendly and are frankly very hit and miss on quality when buying of eBay, not to mention the prices have rocketed over the last two years.

If you are a collector clansman's are nice to have, but if its your first HF radio, or just want something portable buy a used YAESU FT-817 as their HF/VHF/UHF and you can get one used with a battery pack and antennas for around £300, complete clansman 320 that are tested as working go for more and do a lot less.

[Briggs 2.0]

From a prepping point of view, I'm really impressed with the Plessey Clansman RT320. I weighed up the pros and cons and I'm glad I went for one And the more I use it the more it grows on me. The ground wave HF is a real bonus.

If you're thinking of dabbling in radio I'd say the 320 is a relatively low cost prep radio. Nothing fancy but it works well.

There are a few mods for the old Clansman's, but if you are investing in HF kit, you are going to be getting a licence and you are better talking to other hams at the club, someone will have an older radio or two their be willing to sell you for a good price. I like the Clansman kit, I even own a few of their radios, but there not really user friendly and are frankly very hit and miss on quality when buying of eBay, not to mention the prices have rocketed over the last two years.

If you are a collector clansman's are nice to have, but if its your first HF radio, or just want something portable buy a used YAESU FT-817 as their HF/VHF/UHF and you can get one used with a battery pack and antennas for around £300, complete clansman 320 that are tested as working go for more and do a lot less.

Hmmm, I'll agree to disagree. I've owned an 817 and as you probably know it's limited to 5 watts on max power and only 2.5 watts in power conservation settings. There's no built in tuner and one is definitely required to get SWR to reasonable levels for the 2.5 watts to be effective. The rubber duck antenna is nice but very limited.

I'll agree that the Clansman's lack of digital display and array of knobs are not very novice user friendly but as I said in my post its an excellent prepping radio because it's water resistant, EMP proof, it has a built in tuner with instructions printed on the radio and it works using the most basic of wire antennae. The battery lasts for days on receive only, plus it can be powered and recharged from a wind up charger.

[metatron]

From a prepping point of view, I'm really impressed with the Plessey Clansman RT320. I weighed up the pros and cons and I'm glad I went for one And the more I use it the more it grows on me. The ground wave HF is a real bonus.

If you're thinking of dabbling in radio I'd say the 320 is a relatively low cost prep radio. Nothing fancy but it works well.

There are a few mods for the old Clansman's, but if you are investing in HF kit, you are going to be getting a licence and you are better talking to other hams at the club, someone will have an older radio or two their be willing to sell you for a good price. I like the Clansman kit, I even own a few of their radios, but there not really user friendly and are frankly very hit and miss on quality when buying of eBay, not to mention the prices have rocketed over the last two years.

If you are a collector clansman's are nice to have, but if its your first HF radio, or just want something portable buy a used YAESU FT-817 as their HF/VHF/UHF and you can get one used with a battery pack and antennas for around £300, complete clansman 320 that are tested as working go for more and do a lot less.

Hmmm, I'll agree to disagree. I've owned an 817 and as you probably know it's limited to 5 watts on max power and only 2.5 watts in power conservation settings. There's no built in tuner and one is definitely required to get SWR to reasonable levels for the 2.5 watts to be effective. The rubber duck antenna is nice but very limited.

I'll agree that the Clansman's lack of digital display and array of knobs are not very novice user friendly but as I said in my post its an excellent prepping radio because it's water resistant, EMP proof, it has a built in tuner with instructions printed on the radio and it works using the most basic of wire antennae. The battery lasts for days on receive only, plus it can be powered and recharged from a wind up charger.

Sure its nice to have a cheap LDG Z-817 turner, but if you are getting into HF, digital modes are a massive draw. You also don't need a lot of power for HF, I'm in Newcastle right now and I'm hitting my house in Brighton using a length of wire from the 8 floor of a hotel.

[Hamradioop]

From a prepper standpoint you can just buy a bunch of chinese 5 watt hand held radios and just use them if it all goes tits up. Their cheaper and better built then most walky talky.

Very easy to use, type in the same number into all the radios and boom you have it working. Ofcom is not going to track you down if the countries burning.

Now every time I mention something about ham radios, some one wants to sound all expert and says that you don’t need a ham radio license during an emergency.

No sh*t, Sherlock.

Ham radios aren’t very user-friendly, however. If you’re expecting to pull one out and use it for the first time during an emergency, you’re probably not gonna get through to anyone any time soon.

You NEED a license to transmit now so you can learn how to use them when the time comes. You’re going to feel like an idiot if your friend is bleeding out while you try to figure out how to adjust your offset freqs to hit the repeater so you can call in for rescue. taken from

http://graywolfsurvival.com/

[Kellankelloggs]

You won't last very long if you're going it alone mon frere, Bear Grylls has his hotels & camera crew, and Rambo is fictional.