Stonerman33 are you studying for general too? I am looking at getting a mobile as well but have seen people put them in ammo cans I am thinking of going that route.
Yeah, I'm hoping to knock out tech and general in one session. I went with a mobile so I can set it up in the car or on the go. I don't have the desk space for a true "base station" right now, but I can probably find a home for this little guy. Sent from my iPhone 6 Plus using Tapatalk
For the people that are curious about Baofeng radios, I'll throw in my two cents. I'm still fairly new to radio (only have the UV-5RE+ and an old Kenwood TM-201A (with a nicely patinaed Astatic D-104 running, as far as I can tell, the original element, which sounds great) as home base at the moment) but I've never had an issue with the Baofeng. I've never heard of anyone having huge issues with them either- it seems like a lot of hams are buying them just to see how good a $25 radio can be and leave the encounter impressed with how good this particular $25 radio is. It's no Yaesu or Icom (I'm not a fan of Kenwood HTs- family bias) but it's a great first radio or beater in the eyes of many of the hams I've talked to. For the money, it's good stuff. Ditto with Nagoya antennas. Nowhere near the quality of the high-end brands, but for a dirt cheap rubber duck it works surprisingly well.
Update: Received the RT system software and loaded it onto laptop, and it worked! Radio now uploads and downloads programming properly! Got the radio programmed with all my local repeaters, and a few fire and sheriffs frequencies (Receive only) I'll agree with what Thatotherguy mentioned, as these radios being "Beaters" I will attempt to not "Beat" my new UV-82L,too badly, but am I going to baby it like I would a my old Yeasu FT530? Nope! I'm not going to worry too much if the 82L get a little rain on it, (Not Like I would if the 530 did! it was a $400 HT!) I think I may still have an old better antenna for my 82, stashed away in my radio gear, I have searching for it stashed in the grey matter to look for later.
Sorry to be Johnny Raincloud again but note the connector on the BF? It is different than other antenna connectors of course!
You can just get an adapter, $5 and put whatever antenna you want on them. (I have a hand full of them laying around from my Baofeng craze, actually going to sell two here in a few days, with all the trimmings)
True but then it is kluged together pretty much too. Using an adapter makes the antenna not seat well and feels like it will break off too easily on mine. Just stupid design to me as is the lack of any way to directly charge or power the radio itself.
I agree about the antenna fitting but we aren't buying perfection (or even close to it) for such an inexpensive radio. I think most people including myself know what we are getting for the price. I wasn't expecting anything close to my VX-6r/DJ-G7T when I got mine, but was also shocked at how well they actually perform.
SO I got to use my new Portable Tower Setup last Week and though it is not exactly EDC for most it does go right into my Sprinter so I can consider it EDC for me when I need it! It goes to 30' by itself and I had 15' of Mast on top of that. A Diamond X3200 for VHF and a Comtelco UHF Yagi pointed at our Club Tower 15 or so miles away with a Cross-Band repeater at the base of my Tower to Net Control on the other end. MS Bike Ride,Good Times!
Nice set up, if yo ever have to split for some terrible reason you can get a repeater set up going for folks whom might share your same principles and that have HAM.
I've been licensed since 1968, first as a Tech in California, and now as a General in Colorado. I have an Icom 706 Mk II G.
I've started studying for my General in the past few days. After consulting with my elmer over workable study procedures, I've decided that the best fit for me is to use QRZ's practice tests in conjunction with the 2014 ARRL Centennial Handbook I have instead of buying the study guides right off. If I can't get to a consistent 85-90% with that method, I'll buy the books. I'm hoping to be able to pass General and Extra in the same session. Even if I'm too impatient to take the time to master them both before signing up for my test, I'll certainly sit for Extra when I take my General. If I get it, huzzah. If I don't, which is much more likely if I don't study for it beforehand (I got around a 40% on the first General practice test), no harm done. I think I'll study for them both, though
Is that kinda like how drawing for fun was no longer fun by the time I got out of architecture school?
