NewestNoob
Newbie
Kansas City Noob here...
I just started studying for my license but just received my first radio for Christmas. Its a cheap Chinese model (no negative comments, I know its low end). I got a Baofeng UV-5rPlus. After finding out the manual is pure garbage I spent 6 hours reading online and managed to figure out most of the features that I understand and wealth of new info on the hobby. I see this will be an endless search for information. I have figured out that I will need to get the USB cable and I already have CHIRP Linux live CD ready to go. However, since I am so new and I am having information overload from all the reading... I thought I would ask a few questions here.
I understand it is illegal to broadcast without a licence... What about listening? I found one place claiming that being in possession of this device without a license is illegal. That seems highly unlikely to me, but I have to ask.
An additional question about monitoring using my new Baofeng... I sort of expected to be able to use the scan feature to find something to listen to. After searching UHF and VHF for hours, I only found NOAA broadcasts and of course FM channels as expected using the FM feature. I tried to enter frequencies in my area that are listed in the database but heard nothing. Is the stock antenna just too crappy? Any tips?
I understand most police, fire, etc in KC have moved to systems I cannot access with this device. What similar or other interesting things might I monitor around KC with this device?
I just started studying for my license but just received my first radio for Christmas. Its a cheap Chinese model (no negative comments, I know its low end). I got a Baofeng UV-5rPlus. After finding out the manual is pure garbage I spent 6 hours reading online and managed to figure out most of the features that I understand and wealth of new info on the hobby. I see this will be an endless search for information. I have figured out that I will need to get the USB cable and I already have CHIRP Linux live CD ready to go. However, since I am so new and I am having information overload from all the reading... I thought I would ask a few questions here.
I understand it is illegal to broadcast without a licence... What about listening? I found one place claiming that being in possession of this device without a license is illegal. That seems highly unlikely to me, but I have to ask.
An additional question about monitoring using my new Baofeng... I sort of expected to be able to use the scan feature to find something to listen to. After searching UHF and VHF for hours, I only found NOAA broadcasts and of course FM channels as expected using the FM feature. I tried to enter frequencies in my area that are listed in the database but heard nothing. Is the stock antenna just too crappy? Any tips?
I understand most police, fire, etc in KC have moved to systems I cannot access with this device. What similar or other interesting things might I monitor around KC with this device?