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Thread: communication equipment

  1. #41
    Team GunsNet Silver 03/2014

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    I agree with HDR regarding the daily trash being fed to us by our media. What we hear on shortwave from other countries is biased, as well, but at least some of it is not leftist motivated.

  2. #42
    Quote Originally Posted by az_paul View Post
    I agree with HDR regarding the daily trash being fed to us by our media. What we hear on shortwave from other countries is biased, as well, but at least some of it is not leftist motivated.
    True, there is plenty of trash (Radio Havana LOL)

    Sometimes it can be funny, in Sweden 88% of the population believes communism is a form of democracy. The result of educators focusing so much on WWII fascists they ignored the communists. LOL

    All in all the news is better; for example the China's Radio understood the reasons the US in Iraq better than the average American.

  3. #43
    Member BigDumbGerman's Avatar

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    I just landed me a Rino 120 GPS/GRMS/FRS to replace my aging (dying) Megellan Sportrac GPS and interface with my existing Midway and Motorolla GMRS/FRS radios. I've heard the GPS is great for the price, but the radio sucks. We'll see. The price was right.

    BDG

  4. #44
    Senior Member Penguin's Avatar

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    I have quite a few 2 way radios. I have gone through several others. There are others I would love to get but haven't yet.

    I have had many FRS/GMRS radios. The FRS ones aren't much good out side of your neighborhood. And even then depending on that they may not even get that far. They are low power, half a watt if I remember right. Also you can't legally have a detachable antena. I think repeters are also not allowed. I am not sure on that though. Most of them are about the same quality wise that I have tested. Range is very limited but, that isn't nesseraly bad. If you just need short range comunications that means it is hard for any one at longer ranges to listen in and you won't pick up interference from longer ranges. The privacy codes are a joke. They offer no privicay, that is a marketing gimmick. What they are good for is filtering out un wanted transmissions. Most of the ones I see now do both FRS and GMRS. Be aware that certian chanels on those are actually GMRS and as such you need a license to operate on those.

    The good news on FRS is the radios are relitivly inexpensive and work well for short range comunications. Also no license is required. Lots of people have them, that can work for or against you depending on the situation. Most come with a rechargable batery or run on 3 double a bateries so keeping them running is fairly simple.

    On GMRS it is about the same as FRS. The radios are usally the same. The difference is with GMRS you can run higher power ratings so you get better range. My experince though is it is still not good range. Don't belive what the package claims. You can also use a detachable antena if I am not mistaken. I don't think repeters are alowed but I am not sure. Again these are real common. About the same advantages and disavantages as FRS just with better range, with one amjor difference, you need a license. Which is no big deal you just send a check to the FCC and you get a license, that alows you and pretty much you group to run them. Not tests or anything like that just basicly pay the tax and you are good to go.

    I have some Moterola radios that run on the 900mhz range. They are rather fancy and were expensive. They run digital signals as opposed to analog. Also they supposodly hop chanels and such so they are supposed to be hard to listen into. How hard I don't know. The bateries last quite a while. They take a special batery though. I like these a lot they have worked quite well for me. I don't know what there range is, I haven't tested that but, not problems so far though I have been using them for short range work. They will even send text mesages. The good news is they are some what secure it is less likely that some one will be listening in if you program them right. The bad news is programing them is a pain. Also keep in mind these radios aren't all that common. While the battery lasts long it is an odd ball one. They are also larger than you average FRS radio though not as big as some of the other ones I have delt with. No license is required for these. If I remember right they are 1 watt and you can use detachable antenas. I dont' think you can use repeters though I am not sure.

    I have also had some that operate in the same range made by a different company. Again digital and supposodly hard to listen in on. Tri Square was the company that made them. Same principle as the moterolas just different operating system so they aren't compatable. These I think were much easier to use and supposodly had an insane number of chanels. They could also do test mesaging and were really easy to program. Durablity was not as good as I would have hoped which is why I replaced them and went with the moterolas. They were much smaller and lighter though. The same size as your average FRS radio. They also ran on 3 double a bateries or the rechargable ones that came with it. I had relblity problems also with the two radios being able to comunicate with each other. I belive that one may have been defective when I got it, it apeared to perhaps be a factory referb repackaged and sold as new. I say this as it had problems from day one and when I first fired it up it was already programed and not on factory defaults. It was the one of the two that kicked the bucket. Radio transmissions didn't come in as clearly as they have with the moterolas. These were more than FRS radios but, much cheaper than the motorolas.

    I also have a motorola MURS radio. I have not really had a chance to test this one. No licinse required. 2 watt power range, repeaters not alowed. It takes a specal batery that is supposed to last a long time. I haven't really had a chance to test the reality of that though. Bad news is you are limited to 5 chanels but, they are chanels that aren't comonly used. Good or bad news depending on how you look at it is these radios aren't that common. My particular radio can also scramble transmisions. This feture is dependent on having two radios of the same type. A little larger than the 900mhz motorolas but not buy much. It wasn't cheap.

    I had a couple of CB radio's from cobra. They were hand helds and were crap. They were so crapy in fact I can't report on how well a CB radio proformed. Based though on my reserch though I suspect it is about the best you will be able to get with out a license. I need to remedy my lack of ablity on this range of comunications given how common it is.

    I would love to get my ham license one of these days. I truly belive as far as preparing for a SHTF scenerio this is the way to go. I have the book and got about half way though it before I got side tracked with other projects. I belive they have since changed the test so I don't know how much point there would be to finishing the book at this point.

    I have used in the past other radios that were run by a buissness that had a licese to use the chanel they operated on. They also had a repeater. Proformance was impressive. I don't have the resources to make buying the licinse to have a chanel and getting a repeater and all the other things that go with that route posible though sadly. I wish that I did.
    Doobie Doobie Doo..

  5. #45
    My transistor ham rig runs on 12VDC; it has a general coverage (500 kHz to 30 MHz) receiver and if I snip a diode and it will transmit where it receives.
    Power output can be varied from about 10 to 40 watts on AM and ~10 to 100 watts on CW or SSB. Local transmissions and depending on conditions as far away as Australia are easily possible.

    If I lose my antennas; I have plenty of copperweld to build some.

    http://www.radioworks.com/cwire.html

    Quote Originally Posted by az_paul View Post
    I agree with HDR regarding the daily trash being fed to us by our media. What we hear on shortwave from other countries is biased, as well, but at least some of it is not leftist motivated.
    True, when our media was whining and gnashing their teeth China Radio International agreed with Bush for nailing Afghanistan and Iraq.

    It appears real communists see things more clearly than our leftists and communists. LOL

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