Tytera GigaParts Explorer QRZ-1

[alcahuete]

Sounds like you were fortunate to receive on as a gift from someone who felt that you needed a radio to get started in the hobby?
Sounds like you were fortunate enough to have a job and could eventually afford an HF radio, and an antenna.

It has nothing to do with being fortunate. It has everything to do with working hard to get something you want. Everybody has the opportunity to get a job, wash cars, mow lawns, etc. My FT900 cost more than my car at the time, and I worked extremely hard to get it, a power supply, antenna, etc. It took me a long time to save up that money.

My doctor (who owns 2 brand new Rolls Royces) worked 16+ hour days in the fields in Nepal to be able to buy a plane ticket to come to the US. He worked 3, sometimes 4 jobs here to put himself through college and then medical school. He also made the mistake one day of telling me he was fortunate to be able to come to the US and go to medical school. I corrected him too.

The opportunity exists for everybody, you just have to be willing to work hard to get what you want.

I think the idea was to help those where the cost of a radio was the stumbling block.

There is no new ham out there...none whatsoever, who can't afford the $30 for one of these radios. And if there was, and it was either a radio or putting food on the table, they need to be working on their life choices, not getting into a new hobby.

Sorry, but I'm just not a fan of the program.

 

[dmaria]

After reading several of these reply's, I just couldn't stop myself from responding. First of all when the OP put up the post I went to the website to read what it was all about. I did not jump in here with crass remarks and being ignorant of the what was happening.

Our local club had a member pass away and he left a generous donation to the club. I am a board member with that club. We had a discussion about what to do with that donation, and the idea was put forth to buy and donate a new HT to every new Tech when they passed their test (I am also a VE). No stipulations. If you passed, you received a radio.

Some were very young, some were older and some were college students. I don't know what their financial situation was and I DON'T CARE.
the look on their faces was worth the effort. Yes, these were Baofengs. That was a choice we made. Potentialy make 40 new hams happy, or buy one of the "Big Three" and make 6-8 new hams happy. No brainer.

One day they may decide to stay with the hobby and get better equipment along the way, or throw it in box to gather dust until the universe dies. Maybe they will keep it because the color goes well with their new yellow vest. Again - I DON'T CARE.

To have commenters spit upon the efforts of others to further the hobby and make a young person happy puts me in mind of Uncle Scrooge to be blunt, and disheartening to say the least.

 

[mmckenna]

Uncle Scrooge to be blunt, and disheartening to say the least.

Try not to take people too seriously. Some of us like to vent. I might come on here one day and be pretty snarky, and the next day be all sunshine and rainbows.

Good on you and your club for doing something to help new hams without any strings attached. That's a good way to do things. If you read some of my posts, you would see where I specifically mentioned that I've given radios away to new hams who needed them.
Sounds like your club is taking the hobby seriously and doing all you can to help it out.

 

[WRQS621]

After reading several of these reply's, I just couldn't stop myself from responding. First of all when the OP put up the post I went to the website to read what it was all about. I did not jump in here with crass remarks and being ignorant of the what was happening.

Our local club had a member pass away and he left a generous donation to the club. I am a board member with that club. We had a discussion about what to do with that donation, and the idea was put forth to buy and donate a new HT to every new Tech when they passed their test (I am also a VE). No stipulations. If you passed, you received a radio.

Some were very young, some were older and some were college students. I don't know what their financial situation was and I DON'T CARE.
the look on their faces was worth the effort. Yes, these were Baofengs. That was a choice we made. Potentialy make 40 new hams happy, or buy one of the "Big Three" and make 6-8 new hams happy. No brainer.

One day they may decide to stay with the hobby and get better equipment along the way, or throw it in box to gather dust until the universe dies. Maybe they will keep it because the color goes well with their new yellow vest. Again - I DON'T CARE.

To have commenters spit upon the efforts of others to further the hobby and make a young person happy puts me in mind of Uncle Scrooge to be blunt, and disheartening to say the least.

I agree with you. My dad is a silent key, one of the proudest days of his life was when both of his son's passed their Novice and Technician (w/ code 5 WPM). We went to the Shelby Hamfest and got our first HTs. If it wasnt for the older HAMs there would be no new HAMs. I give away my old radio's all the time. People today dont realize that you can set your clocks to perfect time using a SW radio. The L33t that brag and put down others constantly on this forum are lonely, jealous people. I have been reading their filth for years. Ignore them.

 

[WRUS664]

Only $25 more than the TYT. SMH... Doesn't surprise me with the QRZ.com crowd. They push this CCR crap all the time.

Its free if someone has just gotten there license.

 

[i-Scan]

But, do they have a flashlight?

Made my day!


I'm failing to understand something here.....why do we have to buy equipment or give equipment to new hams? These kids are literally walking around with $1200 phones, spending $20/day at Starbucks, etc. I know, I know....not all of them, but you get my point.

My HTX-202 was a Christmas present, but I worked my behind off to buy my first HF radio, as a high schooler. FT-900AT. I either bought my antennas from HRO, or built them myself. I get that we want to get new people into the hobby, but are we really so desperate that we have to buy new people their radios?

• Paul - KY4XJ here, passed the Amateur Extra Class (upgrading from no license at all) nearly 3 weeks ago. Walked out of the exam room with only a proud smile and a promise that I would receive two email messages one inviting membership in the Raleigh Amateur Radio Society (club) Treasurer with application to join and announcement to use the application for QRZ/Gigaparts Jumpstart Program--$79 or something start-up radio Explorer QRZ 1 a VHF/UHF portable transceiver, programming software and cable, battery and charger for a reduced $29.or something; and another email from the FCC inviting me to pay the new $35 license application fee. (There's an additional $35 license application fee, if you don't like the call sign they robo-assign. And, I doubt you see that returned when, if none of your wish list vanity call signs are actually assigned, you get to keep the robotically assigned model.) So, I agreed with DMARIA about just getting anything as a token gift for the hard hours required to do something you might have put on your bucket list while you were only a 10-year old not knowing what a bucket list was for. About three weeks later here and pieces of a plan coming in mind-numbing orders from four different sources and the ONLY thing that might work is.... that dumb Explorer QRP 1! I have funds for other REAL rigs. But the slightly disheartening thing is that I am out in the boonies where analog TV will begin to arrive in a few weeks. And there are no repeaters. Or even a peater to hear on the nearest input frequency for that matter. I have HF equipment, made my own EFHW Dipole antenna, correctly acquired NANOVNA (SAA2N) for Male N-Type with test kit for SMA, Co-AX of lengths to reach antenna altitudes, Connectors, adapters, and jumper cables for a gosh-awful number of potential mismatches, and and... Heck I got Rail signals using a BaoFeng UV-5R like a scanner and trunked system signals from three RTL-SDRs and an AirSpy on my computers sound card! I am focused mostly on setting up a field station on a 12 Volt-powered by solar panels and storage batteries.
• Nobody has to give anything ever. It's all about a giver choosing to provide something that they want to give to a receiver. You are right; homeless ppl stand on the roadside with a cell phone asking for a handout every day. Somebody give me a rig; that's not what went through my mind walking out of the exam room having passed their three Elements! I got a hope for free application for a year from the local club, the hope for $twenty-something Jumpstart Program discount, the sure hope for the FCC message, a certificate that I'd just passed every exam the VEs had administered, and a well -deserved proud smile.
  
• Gifts are to help someone else feel happier, maybe to provide a need. Not that they couldn't afford or do for themselves but to express feelings of a grateful giver who is happy to provide for some need-maybe something the person wouldn't know about getting or wouldn't want to buy for themselves. For me, it was a little encouragement to wait a few days or a week for my callsign on the license database. It was a happy thing to make for my first order.
  
• Got the Explorer QRZ 1 (HT) came with programming software, cable, battery and a charger at a discount. Somebody got about a three-thousand-foot tower and its own thirty-year maintenance package they want to give me? I won't likely live thirty years and don't like going up any more than forty-seven feet, five and three/quarters inches!--Gets me feeling unusual inside! ;=)
• The subject? I'm too busy ordering receiving and fitting and assembling, So... Does anyone know why the thing don't work?

Reactions:jeepsandradios and AK9R

 

[MTS2000des]

Made my day!


I'm failing to understand something here.....why do we have to buy equipment or give equipment to new hams? These kids are literally walking around with $1200 phones, spending $20/day at Starbucks, etc. I know, I know....not all of them, but you get my point.

Because in today's world of entitlement and instant gratification, this is what the "app generation" expects. Those kids didn't actually pay a dime for those $1200 phones, mom and dad paid for them. Mom and dad give them an allowance to hang out at Starbucks. Those kids live on their phones and learn from a young age that all they have to do it tap a screen and something appears. Work for something? You got jokes!

 

[WRQS621]

Here we go again with the Motorola/Harris/Big 3 vs. CCR debate again. Is their some kind of points system for trashing Baofengs within the L33t?

 

[KevinC]

Here we go again with the Motorola/Harris/Big 3 vs. CCR debate again. Is their some kind of points system for trashing Baofengs within the L33t?

Yes, but only the entitled are allowed to see the points. Be advised the points can be negative if you continually speak well about CCR’s.

 

[mmckenna]

I've almost reached enough points to upgrade to "Luxury Premium Subscriber" status.

 

[mmckenna]

Mmmmmm, hamsexy:

xinlizp XL6500 POC+UHF Two-way radio long range phones telecommunicati - fontool

POC support 72 countries: Europe: Britain, France, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Finland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Belarus, Belgium, Persia and Hesevine, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Republic of Denmark, France, France, France Luo Islands, the Ca

www.fontool.com

*not an APX, but looks are close enough if you want to impress your friends.

 

[MTS2000des]

Only appealing if it does CopSounds™

 

[mmckenna]

Only appealing if it does CopSounds™

I thought that was covered by the "Hamsexy" heading.

 

[dwhit29689]

Elmer-ing is rampant on FaceBook Baofeng Owners Club. Many new radioheads asking questions. Much creativeness going-on as well. They're talking on the bands, joining clubs, sending dues, participating in discussions and ideas...it's great. The old man at the club with cigar-breath is now the entire radiohead population on social media.