Fresh up today:
The Prepper's Signal Kit: Line of Sight Equipment Suggestions Based on Requests
Kind of like the title says, gear recommendations for VHF/UHF radios.
Just to pick out one item among many for comment, I was a little curious about the recommendation for the Yaesu VX-6R for the HT over the "old reliable" FT-60R. Looking up specs & features, with a lithium battery, tri-band (2m, 220, & 440, and with MARS mod, 6m) capability, and AM MW/SW receive, yeah, it's a better radio. Time marches on.
Good all-round read even if you've been radio for a while. It's especially good if you just got your Tech license and are looking around at gear. It is a gear post, and while skills are in general more important, it's still good to look around at gear occasionally.
This one was an answer (actually three answers) to several emails I've had. Much of my own focus is on getting the new folks on the air or more capable than they are currently, and they keep asking about gear. My opinion, and something I state in class, is that no matter what you have, one 2m radio is pretty much the same as any other while transmitting. The real difference comes down to build quality and versatility. I mean an FT-270 or IC-80 are absolute tanks, but are limited in being one band only. Yaesu's VX series are built very rugged and are DC to daylight, so I tend to favor them. That's not to say other options are no good, because that's definitely not the case.
I didn't mention the old standby, the FT-60, because one of the questions I had was regarding current production gear. From my source at Yaesu, the last of the FT-60s are on the shelf now. The FT-65 is phasing it out, much like the FT-891 will eventually for the 857. It's unfortunate, because a local friend here has one and it's been nothing but problems. Motorola owns a large chunk of Vertex now (which is the parent company of Yaesu) and amateur radio takes a backseat to public service equipment.
For the moment they have no plan to discontinue the VX-6R, so I mentioned it for a couple of reasons- the stated versatility and durability (it's mil-spec rated for IP and shock resistance) but what I didn't say is that aftermarket batteries- the FNB-80 -have been around a LONG time and can be found very cheap. They work for the VX-5, 6 & 7, so you can stock up inexpensively and each of those radios can be run via a SLA battery the same way you can with a Baofeng UV-5R's extended battery. Believe it or not they all use the same plug as the Yaesu 817- so if you've got a power cable rigged for one you can run them all off-grid. That's another idea if you're building a solar power QRP repeater...but that's a whole other topic entirely.
The VX series also have great receivers for their size. A lot of handhelds, even dedicated communications receivers, have marginal performance on the lower end of the spectrum, but each of the VX models do pretty well, even receiving WWCR and Radio Havana with the stock duck. With the addition of a loop you can do some nice RDF stuff if you're into foxhunting. They are somewhat complicated to use though, especially if you're coming from the relatively straightforward Baofeng menu system.
Based on y'alls needs for Ares, doing simplex on the output frequency is a quick solution. The only thing I'd worry about is if you get some jackwaggon wanting to QSO on the repeater in the middle of your transmission. It may or may not be an issue, that's a local thing, just know it *could* happen. What you might want to do instead as a group is build antennas you can string in a tree at your positions.
https://brushbeater.wordpress.com/2015/10/15/the-jungle-antenna/Build it for the input frequency and it should have no problems hitting the repeater. Even if you just build a dipole and suspend it vertically, you're averaging 2.15dB of gain which is a huge advantage over the stock duck on that HT. Some folks like roll up J-poles for the same purpose, but you can build your own for much cheaper than what they sell for and learn quite a bit in the process.
Anyway, running long here but I hope the ARES event goes well. God bless.
