Handheld Radio Equipment and Accessories

 7/17/22

These items and links are purely for information and for the convenience of anyone interested.

Baofeng UV-5R Radio

Baofeng UV-5R battery

Boafeng UV-5R extended battery 3800 mA-hr

Magnetic mount antenna

Whip Antenna

Folding whip antenna

RT Systems Inc. (Baofeng UV-5R programming software and cable) 

Handset for Baofeng radio

The Chinese Radio Documentation Project

Plain-English Guide to the UV-5R radio, "reverse engineered".

Amateur Radio Information and Outline

 NOTE- If you have questions or comments about one of our upcoming sessions or related to this material, please leave a comment on the appropriate blog post and I will try to address it here.  You're probably not the only person with this question, so having Q&A here on the blog will be helpful to others.  (As opposed to using email).

Study Guides for the Technician Class Amateur Radio Test

There are a number of guides out there. All of the ones I've seen are good, the best one for you may depend on which learning style works best for you.

 

ARRL Technician Study Guide

 

Gordon West study guide - More of a Cliff's Notes guide, with less explanation than the ARRL guide.

 KB6NU's No-Nonsense Study Guides (free PDF download)

Unlicensed Radio Resources (Re July 21, 2022 session in Winter Park, FL)

  NOTE- If you have questions or comments about one of our upcoming sessions or related to this material, please leave a comment on the appropriate blog post and I will try to address it here.  You're probably not the only person with this question, so having Q&A here on the blog will be helpful to others.  (As opposed to using email).

 7/13/22

Basic Radio Information

Suggested reading, sources of information, helpful facts

 

Amazon links (as of 7/13/22) for suggested radios.

Baofeng UV-5R with extra battery ($40)

 

Radio Frequencies (MHz)

 

MURS1      151.820

MURS2      151.880

MURS3      151.940

MURS4      154.570

MURS5      154.600

 

FRS1*      462.5625

FRS2*      462.5875

FRS3*      462.6125

FRS4*      462.6375

FRS5*      462.6625

FRS6*      462.6875

FRS7*      462.7125

FRS 8      467.5625

FRS 9      467.5875

FRS 10     467.6125

FRS 11     467.6375

FRS 12     467.6625

FRS 13     467.6875

FRS 14     467.7125

GMRS15     462.550

GMRS16     462.575

GMRS17     462.600

GMRS18     462.625

GMRS19     462.650

GMRS20     462.675

GMRS21     462.700

GMRS22     462.725

 

 

Basic Radio Operator Qualification Card

Rev. 062016

Equipment

Required equipment:

1) Baofeng UV5R or similar multiband radio.

2) Spare battery/batteries for radio

3) Ear bud and microphone for radio

Optional Equipment:

1) Directional VHF/UHF antenna

2) 15” whip antenna for radio

3) Magnetic base mount antenna for radio

4) FRS handheld radio, one per adult.

 

Knowledge Factors

1.  Explain the difference between the radio's FREQUENCY mode and its CHANNEL (memory) mode.

2.  List the 14 FRS radio frequencies.  This may be done from a “cheat sheet” carried with gear, from a reference manual, by memory, or by using frequencies pre-programmed into the radio's memory.

3.  Explain the practical and legal differences between transmitting on unlicensed (FRS) frequencies and licensed (Amateur, GMRS) frequencies, for an individual who is not licensed by the FCC.

4.  Describe the circumstances under which it is legal for an unlicensed person to transmit on licensed radio frequencies.

5.  Recite the ITU/NATO phonetic alphabet from memory.

 

Radio Practical Factors

1. Set the radio to a particular simplex FRS frequency (e.g. FRS Channel 7).

 

2. Using a Baofeng UV5R or similar radio, perform the following tasks:

a. Turn radio on/off, adjust volume.

b.  Replace the battery.

c. Switch the radio from CHANNEL (memory) to FREQUENCY mode, and from FREQUENCY mode to CHANNEL (memory) mode.

d. Make a simplex radio-to-radio contact on the FRS portion of the UHF band.

e. Use the radio to call in a training situation report to another radio station.

f. Monitor two radio channels simultaneously e.g. FRS Channel 1 and FRS Channel 7.

g. While monitoring two channels, use the A/B function to transmit on one frequency, followed by a transmission on the other frequency.

 

3. Set up a VHF/UHF radio for field use:

a.  Turn off radio backlighting

b.  Turn off radio voice confirmation

c.  Adjust radio transmit power from HIGH to LOW, and from LOW to HIGH

d. Turn off “Roger beep”

 

4. If supported by your radio, copy one radio’s memory into another radio in the field with a cloning cable.

 

5. Walk through/simulate using a USB computer programming cable to program your radio, using CHIRP or RT Systems software.

 

6. Wipe the radio (reset all menus, erase all VFOs and memory channels)   ->Menu # 40

 

Further Reading and Resources

Brushbeater RTO Basic and Advanced Classes

 Brushbeater - Squaring Away Communications Basics

Everyday Marksman articles

“Now is the time to get an amateur radio license”

 

Overview of all kinds of unlicensed radios of interest to preppers:

 

 

Tactical Wisdom

Website

Tactical Wisdom Books (recommended)

 

 

An Appeal To Heaven

Less well-known than the Gadsen flag.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pine_Tree_Flag

Inspiration from the past

"Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!"
Patrick Henry, March 23, 1775
-------------------------------------------------------------

“If you love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.” 

Samuel Adams

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Thomas Paine, The American Crisis

December 23, 1776

THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated.

Not yet time for the latter, no matter the provocation of the federal police deciding to let hillary's crimes go unpunished.

Let's Talk Digital Comms and JT65

"Digital comms" in the (amateur) radio world is analgous to a fax machine or radioteletype.  Everyone's used a fax machine before - it encodes an image of a page into sound tones that you send over the phone, and a machine on the other end decodes the sounds tones back into an image of the page.  Amateur radio "digital modes" are very similar, except that mostly, your machine (the TNC or terminal node controller, usually in the form of software for your PC and maybe a sound card) converts typed text to sound tones which you transmit over the air, and then decode into typed text again on the other side.

FLDIGI is a free download that will give you a lot of capability.  You can download it and just experiement with it, playing the sound tones over your computer speaker.  FLDIGI does PSK31 and CW (morse code), RTTY, and many other modes.

One of my radio friends recently brought up the JT65 mode.  This mode isn't supported by FLDIGI, but there is a free download, WSJT, which does.  After listening to examples of this mode, I realized I'd been hearing it on some of the shortwave bands like 20m and 40m, and just hadn't known what it was.
JT65 is intended for very low SNR type message passing.  Reading through it's help file, the QSOs they show as examples are very short!

HAM Radio In A Box, Cross Band Repeater projects

For future reference:

  Cross Band Repeater

 HAM in a box