Mobile HAM/Amateur Radio Choices

[Shadow-Warrior]

Great Thread topic, I have been looking myself lately for a radio. I have purchased the books for testing...I keep coming back to either an ICOM or the Yaesu FT-2800m 2m radio...any thoughts on the 2800m?...I don't know anything about Ham's...been around CB's my whole life, I have an uncle that has had his HAM license for 40 years and loves it, talking to people from all over the world and they send each other Frq cards, he has books filled with them from the people he has talked with...Anyways great thread Spincycle...I'm in the same boat as you buddy...I'll be watching this thread closely..Thanks in advance everyone.

I just checked out YAESU - FT-8800R, it looks like a great radio also...humm

[KD7NAC_07FJ]

spincycle previously said:

About antennas - are antennas available (magmount or otherwise) that have the CB style spring loaded base? So that if I put it on the roof, it'd bend rather than break or come off if I went under a low hanging branch? Also, if I were to get the 8900 (quad band) or a dual band rig, how difficult is it to find an antenna that's going to perform reasonably well on all the bands supported by the radio?

I have a spring on my 10m antenna because it is very long and for the same reasons you are asking. So yes, if you can imagine it you can pretty much do it. I would recommend staying away from Mag mounts if at all possible. You can't use a very long antenna (I typically go for a 5/8 wave on 2m) and the ground plane isn't very good.

Diamond antenna makes an antenna specifically engineered for the 8900 quad band. It works very well but is a bit expensive, heavy and long so I don't tend to use it often. I typically use a 2m/6m dual band antenna on the 8900 because that is my typical operating profile.

Shadow-Warrior previously said:

any thoughts on the 2800m?

I just checked out YAESU - FT-8800R, it looks like a great radio also...humm

Well the 2800 is a 2m rig and you are back into what are your going to use it for and how fast will you out-grow it?

The 8800 is a very nice rig with dual watch but in my opinion is going the wrong way for a dual band. 2m and 70cm (440) I wish they would make a dual band with 2m & 6m. That would be perfect for a lot of people but for some reason nobody wants to make it???

[radiorobwalker]

It's good to research the radios and decide what you want to do with it right now, and a year or two down the road.

When I became a ham, I only wanted to talk on 2 meters and bought a small Icom VHF only radio.

Later, I decided that I wanted to do more, like APRS (vehicle tracking and locating with GPS and Ham radio) so I upgraded to a more involved radio, the Kenwood TM-D700.

Think about what you're going to do with it and buy accordingly.

If you are only going to use it to talk on a repeater or two... or chat on trail runs, a small, inexpensive radio will work fine.

If you plan to upgrade, go on week loing trips into the wild and want to talk to the world, think about a multi-band all mode radio like the Icom 706mkII.

If I had to pick one... my vote would be for the new Kenwood TM-D710.

[Shadow-Warrior]

KD7NAC_07FJ previously said:

2 meter is by far the most popular "local" band. Dual band is a very good idea but you have to determine what type of communication you will be doing.

70 cm or 440 has less range then 2m but is clearer and more resistant to interference. But I have yet to find anyone chatting on 440 and I've been a Ham a LONG time.

6m has much a much better range and even has better propagation then 440 and I often make contacts on 6m and there tends to be more 6m repeaters then 440.

It is also very nice to have a "dual watch" capable radio. Dual watch is where you can monitor two frequencies on the same radio at the same time.

As far as radios go some might call me a Yaesu evangelist but I do have 5 Yaesu radios (3 mobile & 2 handhelds). I had a Kenwood but I sold it a while ago.

My mobile radio recommendations;

FT-7800 runs about $255, dual band 2m/70cm
FT-8800 runs about $355, dual band/dual watch 2m/70cm
FT-8900 runs about $400, quad band/dual watch 10m/6m/2m/70cm

I have the FT-8900, FT-857 and an older FT-7100 (2m) and I have tortured them from one end of my county to another and they have never let me down.

If you looked at the 8900 and are the least bit interested in it - get it. It may have more capabilities you will use initially but you won't out grow it. That is why I have a 7100 sitting on my bench doing nothing.

Thanks Wayne. I like the YAESU FT-8900R, it looks like a good radio that you could "grow" with too. I found I can take my test at the local college. I had to have my CB worked on today and the guy was very helpful about becoming a HAM, gave me some web sites to check out along with the type of towers in our area here.

[KD7NAC_07FJ]

Shadow-Warrior previously said:

Thanks Wayne. I like the YAESU FT-8900R, it looks like a good radio that you could "grow" with too. I found I can take my test at the local college. I had to have my CB worked on today and the guy was very helpful about becoming a HAM, gave me some web sites to check out along with the type of towers in our area here.

Cool and welcome to the fold I can send you, in fact anybody a list of repeaters for any area. I have the software version of the Repeater directory and I cal look up just about anything.

[spincycle]

A question about FM vs other modes...was at a local shop recently, asking questions, and the (fairly crusty) old guy behind the counter said that he'd stay away from the 8900 because it's FM only and he "didn't know of anything interesting" on some of those bands that was FM. Any thoughts? How about SSB stuff?

I feel like such a n00b...there's so damn much to take in.

[fourwheeldave]

Simple answer: FM is generally used only on UHF/VHF bands, SSB and AM on HF bands.. read on..

You're more than likely to find the standard "Old Fart" amateur radio operator at the local ham shop. There's still a lot of "old school" crusty types out there that aren't happy with HF SSB out of their tube amps.

The fact of the matter is amateur radio was invented to propagate the advance of radio technologies, so the idea of sticking purely to "old school" radio is a bunch of hokey IMHO. There is something to be said about learning CW and knowing how to operate an HF rig; in cases of emergency or wide-scale power outages is may be the only existent form of communication available for reliable long-distance communications.

I started out as a Technician No-Code back in 1993, later advanced to Technician Plus, then to General, and most recently became an Extra Class. I have some HF rigs and before my most recent relocation I had a decent station set up at home, but honestly, the idea of mobile HF really has me on the trade-off between vehicle appearance with all those huge antennas.

Bottom line is this; To me at least a dual band 70cm/2m radio is a must. I really appreciate having dual receive on both bands (I have a D700 that does UHF/UHF VHF/VHF and VHF/UHF.) Most of the time my D700 runs APRS, so one "side" of the radio is always occupied on the packet radio frequency. You can track your own vehicle (family members appreciate this) among other benefits. (See http://aprs.fi/?call=AF6HO-2&mt=m&z=11&timerange=43200 ) Or try www.aprs.fi and use AF6HO (my call) and fiddle with tracking details.

I have my d700 connected to a Garmin GPS V, and any other APRS stations appear as waypoints on my GPS, as well as my mobile transmits my location every few minutes as I move about.

As far as HF goes there are several options for screwdriver and other type antennas to fit a "smaller" antenna to your vehicle and be able to operate low bands, but the physics of the matter is that you must have something equivalent to a really long antenna for HF to work.. So begins the huge antenna nastiness on your vehicle.

Remember the closer you get to the frequency of light waves, the closer you get to line-of-sight only communications. UHF/VHF (2m/70cm) work great for local area communication especially with local repeaters. HF frequencies for the most part rely on atmospheric conditions to propagate the signal, so when conditions are right you might talk around the world, if they're not right then you might not be able to talk to someone in your own city. Or vice-versa or any combination of both, basically it depends on which HF band you're using and what the conditions are.

So you should decide, do you plan on driving up to a mountain top and sitting there a few hours at dusk/dawn or other specific hours to talk to people elsewhere in the world? Or do you just want to be able to talk to your buddies in/around your neighborhood or on the trail? That will answer your question to if you should have HF or UHF/VHF or both.

Also keep in mind systems like IRLP and Echolink allow long-distance hopping via the internet using UHF/VHF repeaters. So there is also the good chance you can communicate around the world with your UHF/VHF radio assuming the local infrastructure is there to give you the internet-jump.

Lots to think about, good luck!

spincycle previously said:

A question about FM vs other modes...was at a local shop recently, asking questions, and the (fairly crusty) old guy behind the counter said that he'd stay away from the 8900 because it's FM only and he "didn't know of anything interesting" on some of those bands that was FM. Any thoughts? How about SSB stuff?

I feel like such a n00b...there's so damn much to take in.

[fj4baja]

Thanks Guys, After reading this thread i went out and purchased a updated study book and found my YAESU FT-8800R in storage. I too was talked out of buying the 8900R by the local HAM store. His was swaying me towards upgrading to the YASEU FT-857D. Any thoughts on that radio? I noticed on the rear of that radio it had 2 antennae ports. Will i be able to find antennae's short enough to do the job without looking like a N.A.S.A satellite tracking vehicle? Thanks in advance for sharing your wisdom with us newbies. Looks like i will have a fairly new 8800R for sale,cheap.

[Radio]

Wow... that Kenwood D710 with gps attachment... now there is more stuff that I want. I purposely don't look at ham radio porn for that exact reason! I am going to need another job!

[spincycle]

Radio previously said:

Wow... that Kenwood D710 with gps attachment... now there is more stuff that I want. I purposely don't look at ham radio porn for that exact reason! I am going to need another job!

Yeah, the D710 is something else.

I'm grateful for all the responses here, and I suspect folks will continue to find it interesting in the future. lots of good info, and thanks everyone.