[Linux-ham] cary hamfest

[Mark Turner]

Robert Rousseau wrote:

> I'm going to the Hamfest in Cary this coming Saturday to see if I can find
> a decent HT.   Any suggestions?

Congrats, Rob!

You're gonna get a million different opinions on radios. Here's my advice:

1. Power. There are all kinds of handhelds now, some smaller than your
cellphone. A lot of them don't put out decent power, though. I say don't
look at anything under 5 watts for an HT. I wound up returning my first
Yaesu HT because it could only muster a few watts.

2. Price. Hams love used stuff. Hamfests are the way to go for bargains.
Particularly if you're hanging around near the end of the fest and
someone wants to clear his table quickly.

3. Dual bands. There's no point in buying an HT that won't cover at
least two bands, 2m and 440. 220 or 1.2GHz are nice bonuses if you can
find them.

4. Wide reception. I love my HT's ability to receive beyond the ham
bands. Great for listening to air frequencies and the like. Not a
must-have for ham use, though.

I chose a Yaesu FT-50R for my HT and have been very happy with it. It's
built to MIL-SPEC standards, so it's tough. I've dropped it a number of
times and it has nary a scratch to show for it.

You'll want to take your HT into many different environments, so you
want to make sure it's up to the task.

Now, I'll turn the soapbox over to others and let them tell you their
thoughts. :-)

73!
Mark
N4JMT