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New ham wants advice on a good 2m/440 HT for a first radio
On Wed, 01 Sep 2004 02:56:51 GMT, Andy Entrekin
wrote: I passed my Element 2 exam last week and am eagerly awaiting the posting of my Tech ticket on the FCC site. In the meantime, I have been doing research on radios. I have considered as many factors as I know of, including TX power, physical size, and portability. My needs have led me to look for a good handheld unit. Before anyone chimes in with a recommendation to go for a mobile, let me say that being able to carry the radio with me wherever I go is a must, which rules out mobiles. I am looking for opinions about HTs that cover the 2meter and 70cm bands and have at least 5 watts output. I value the opinions and experiences of other hams, so I figured that these newsgroups would be a good place to solicit them. Whatever HT you choose -- I'd recommend a couple of things. Put up a decent outdoor antenna at home -- a j-pole or 1/4 wave vertical at a good height. That will give your HT greatly expanded range around the house. Another thing, make sure your HT will run on an external 12-volt dc power supply. Buy a small power supply, and at home, you'll be able to use your HT for long periods of time without running the batteries down -- and you'll have more signal output than you will with partly discharged batteries. Save the internal batteries for when you're on the go away from the house. Bob k5qwg Please either post your opinions here, or feel free to email me at "entrekin-at-iname-dot-com" with the appropriate symbols (low-tech anti-spam measure). I look forward to getting lots of input! Thanks, Andy Entrekin Bedford TX USA For any of you who frown on cross-posting: Sorry for the cross-posting, but I wanted to get as many responses as possible. If I hadn't cross-posted, I would have just copied this same message in to each post to a single group. This just seemed smarter. |
#2
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On Wed, 01 Sep 2004 02:56:51 GMT, Andy Entrekin
wrote: I passed my Element 2 exam last week and am eagerly awaiting the posting of my Tech ticket on the FCC site. In the meantime, I have been doing research on radios. I have considered as many factors as I know of, including TX power, physical size, and portability. My needs have led me to look for a good handheld unit. Before anyone chimes in with a recommendation to go for a mobile, let me say that being able to carry the radio with me wherever I go is a must, which rules out mobiles. I am looking for opinions about HTs that cover the 2meter and 70cm bands and have at least 5 watts output. I value the opinions and experiences of other hams, so I figured that these newsgroups would be a good place to solicit them. Whatever HT you choose -- I'd recommend a couple of things. Put up a decent outdoor antenna at home -- a j-pole or 1/4 wave vertical at a good height. That will give your HT greatly expanded range around the house. Another thing, make sure your HT will run on an external 12-volt dc power supply. Buy a small power supply, and at home, you'll be able to use your HT for long periods of time without running the batteries down -- and you'll have more signal output than you will with partly discharged batteries. Save the internal batteries for when you're on the go away from the house. Bob k5qwg Please either post your opinions here, or feel free to email me at "entrekin-at-iname-dot-com" with the appropriate symbols (low-tech anti-spam measure). I look forward to getting lots of input! Thanks, Andy Entrekin Bedford TX USA For any of you who frown on cross-posting: Sorry for the cross-posting, but I wanted to get as many responses as possible. If I hadn't cross-posted, I would have just copied this same message in to each post to a single group. This just seemed smarter. |
#3
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On Wed, 01 Sep 2004 02:56:51 GMT, Andy Entrekin
wrote: I passed my Element 2 exam last week and am eagerly awaiting the posting of my Tech ticket on the FCC site. In the meantime, I have been doing research on radios. I have considered as many factors as I know of, including TX power, physical size, and portability. My needs have led me to look for a good handheld unit. Before anyone chimes in with a recommendation to go for a mobile, let me say that being able to carry the radio with me wherever I go is a must, which rules out mobiles. I am looking for opinions about HTs that cover the 2meter and 70cm bands and have at least 5 watts output. I value the opinions and experiences of other hams, so I figured that these newsgroups would be a good place to solicit them. Whatever HT you choose -- I'd recommend a couple of things. Put up a decent outdoor antenna at home -- a j-pole or 1/4 wave vertical at a good height. That will give your HT greatly expanded range around the house. Another thing, make sure your HT will run on an external 12-volt dc power supply. Buy a small power supply, and at home, you'll be able to use your HT for long periods of time without running the batteries down -- and you'll have more signal output than you will with partly discharged batteries. Save the internal batteries for when you're on the go away from the house. Bob k5qwg Please either post your opinions here, or feel free to email me at "entrekin-at-iname-dot-com" with the appropriate symbols (low-tech anti-spam measure). I look forward to getting lots of input! Thanks, Andy Entrekin Bedford TX USA For any of you who frown on cross-posting: Sorry for the cross-posting, but I wanted to get as many responses as possible. If I hadn't cross-posted, I would have just copied this same message in to each post to a single group. This just seemed smarter. |
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