What Ham Radio To Get?

[firewallsrus]

Thats kind of what I thought. The purpose for my question isn't for idle chat with someone but for my wife and i to stay in contact with each other here on the ranch. She gets worried when I'm working in some remote area and she can't contact me on our cheap hand held radios. On a good day they're good for maybe 3 miles, bearly enough to reach the mail box.

Excellent point. If you have a high spot or tree on the property that has line of sight, you can get creative with two handhelds and some wire to make a repeater. Purchase of a Wouxon KG-UV9D will simplify it. Add a solar panel to keep the battery charged up, put the radio(s) in a weather tight box and swing a homebrew wire antenna up as high as you can. Now you have a repeater. Without any height advantage, you have doubled your range. How much of an increase is going to depend on height. There are ID requirements to make it legal, but I can explain how that is done on such a setup.

If you need more coverage, you can set up more cross-band repeaters. There are a few things to work out with such a system, but it isn't difficult to do and not terribly expensive either. BTW: The reason we would use a cross-band repeaters here is dual band radios can work with it and a very expensive cavity duplexer is not required due to the wide difference between input and output frequencies.

 

[Digout]

I think your lower Circuit should be Radio 2 Speaker Out - Radio 1 Microphone In.

How do you control the switching to transmit?

 

[firewallsrus]

I think your lower Circuit should be Radio 2 Speaker Out - Radio 1 Microphone In.

How do you control the switching to transmit?

Absolutely correct. Thanks for not slamming me. The labels you suggest are correct. As long as I have been noticing that you would think I would have corrected it long ago. It is a .PNG file and I need to dig up my original .PPT file to correct it. Transmit is controlled by VOX on both sides (there is a bit of tweaking of VOX trigger levels), Whichever side receives a valid signal/tone first takes precedence until either released or the timeout timer runs out. I have demonstrated this circuit without the matching audio transformers, but using them means you can safely use different brands of radios on each side.

 

[Captjim_NM]

Good solid design, well thought out. Antenna height is what gives you range on VHF and UHF repeaters. de KA5SIW

 

[Outfitterbm]

Hoping someone can guide me in this prepper question:

I am looking for good communications in the event we lose our standard way of communicating such as an 'end of the world' scenario. In case we get hit with an EMP strike, or a massive solar flare, or a rogue government takeover and all cell phones, the internet, land lines, everything gets taken down, how can I ensure I know what is going on in the world and whom to align with (other than those I've already aligned with)?

I have a battery powered Shortwave, digital. I know I'll be able to HEAR anything broadcasting that hits my antenna, but how do I communicate back with them to locate them? Is HAM radio the way to go? If it is, I'm looking for something worthwhile to use frequencies that I might hear. But I know nothing about Ham radio. I realize to get licensed you have to take a test, but I'm told it's pretty common sense simple. Of course, in an emergency such as I mentioned, it'll matter not, but still, I do plan on acquiring that lisence.

So the real question is, what Ham radio do I get? Handhelds are nice if I'm on the go, but if I'm in my home (which is designed somewhat as a defendible fortress), are there good base stations worthwhile?

I like what I read about the IC 718 but I have no idea if it's any good.
I am told the ICOM 705 B/C is excellent but it is a bit pricey at around $1300.00.
Are either of these worth looking into more? Is there a steep learning curve to being able to use them? I'm so used to my old National analog shortwave where I can just tune the dial slowly to come across a broadcast to listen to (I'm an old Tom Valentine listener) a digital tuner may be cumbersome at first.

Then there's the antenna issue -- what do I get? what will work best?

So many questions and I want to do this right.

Constructive advice, please.

Thank you.

For my money, (I do hold a ham certificate) is GMRS (General Mobil Radio Service). For the purpose of general communication this group of frequencies fits the bill. And, you can also use the radio to monitor ham and public services bands as well. I have a station license due to the fact that I operate a high power repeater station that I allow other preppers use for daily communications. Radios cost between $50 and $250 depending your application.

 

[Outfitterbm]

I think your lower Circuit should be Radio 2 Speaker Out - Radio 1 Microphone In.

How do you control the switching to transmit?

You are on to something there, how does one trip the transmit relay? Honestly, even though I like to build my own stuff, the little device that turns two Kenwood or BaoFeng portables into a repeater is way too cheap to mess with. They also work right out of the box with no set-up woes.