How to reduce two-way radio's power output?
On May 12, 2:11?pm, wrote:
Nowadays two-way radios are getting more and more powerful, coverage
up to 8, 10 12 or more miles. Ironically, it is even harder to buy one
with only 2-mile distance.
I want to use a two radio just for short distance, for example, only
within 1000 feet. How to modify the circuit (generally speaking) so I
can extend the radio's powerful consumption? As I do not need it to
communicate for longer distance, I want it to reduce power output, so
I can use it for longer time. I know it is difficult to illustrate
without a schematics, but just in general terms, what kind of options
or in what areas can I do the modification?
One of my applications is to use 2-way radio as baby monitor for
longer distance than normal baby monitor does.
The simplest modification is an attenuator pad between In/Out
and the antenna. If you have a "one-piece" FRS HT such as
the little Motorola my wife and I use at home, it is difficult to
wedge one in there. An alternative in that case is to use a
piece of conducting foam (typically for storage of CMOS digital
devices) to sit over the antenna stub. One has to experiment
with the size of the block of plastic foam.
A drawback to using an HT is the power drain on the internal
battery and forcing the PTT button into transmit all the time.
That will eat up battery charges and an external power source
would be needed. However, always on transmit can cause
interference to other users on that FRS channel and is a legal
no-no. It would be better to just get an old 49 MHz baby
monitor and use that directly.
73, Len AF6AY
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