[Linux-ham] cary hamfest

[Tanner Lovelace]

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On Tue, 2003-07-15 at 11:44, Mark Turner wrote:

> Congrats, Rob!

Definitely congrats. :-)

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

Yep.  My comments are below...

> 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.

Especially somewhere around here.  You might be able to get away with
only a couple of watts if you the repeaters you use are nearby, but I
go around a large amount of the triangle (and I assume others do too)
and you really need a bit more than a couple of watts.  5 watts should
work fine, but consider it a minimum.

> 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.

Definitely.  Last year at the Cary Swapfest I was able to score a
dual-band mobile rig for less than half of what it was worth.

> 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.

1.2Ghz isn't used at all around here, but I'll still suggest getting
it so I can have someone else to talk to on that band. O:-)  Definitely,
though get 2m (146Mhz) and 70cm (446 Mhz).  If the bands we're allocated
aren't used we run the possibility of losing 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.

+1 on this.

> 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.

Most radios from Yaesu, Icom, and Kenwood will all be mil-spec.  I know
my Icom T81A is and even my old Icom 2AT was too.  If your radio doesn't
work after dropping it's not worth much.

> 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. :-)

One thing that Mark didn't mention is extra batteries for the HT.
If you're buying new, don't buy the fast charger and batteries from
the same manufacturer.  Go to something like
http://www.batteriesamerica.com/ and get theirs.  It will be *much*
cheaper and will work just as well (and they often show up at hamfests).
If you use your handheld often, I suggest getting an extra battery
and possibly a case that will allow you to use double-A's.  They won't
give you as much power as a NiMh battery but they'll at least let you
operate.

I'd suggest starting with a handheld and then after getting your feet
wet there move on to a mobile or base station rig.

Tanner
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Tanner Lovelace | lovelace(at)wayfarer.org | http://wtl.wayfarer.org/
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