really more of a ham question but... question for the Quad 5 guys and ham operators.

[niceguy71]

ok if you know my screen name you know I'm trying to learn this hobby and it's been a lot of work so far getting everything set up. (your also probably sick of me) but I really genuinely appreciate the help.
my base antenna is up and working well... no long distant contacts yet... ....on side band I get 20 to 25 miles away and have talked to a few locals..
I had my cobra 148GTL sitting on my desk in every house I've lived in for 33 years waiting for a house / and time to put up my base antenna. I figured I work out in my heated garage/warehouse every day and if the CB sat on my work bench I could listen and use it there.
well, that darn thing has been there for 3 months and it's ALWAYS in the way!
I lay a lot of work on my 6 foot bench and losing 15 or 16 inches really seemed to hinder my work.... so I thought I could hang it from the rafters or do something to get it off the bench.... I saw a guy that put a computer monitor arm on the side of his desk and mounted his radio on it... it was truly BRILLIANT.... but if I did ...how would I keep my big dosy watt meter... I need my little 50/75 watt amp I like having a SWR meter on top of my radio to check it every day..... all this takes up ROOM!.... so a couple guys REALLY love those Quad 5's (Slow mover PRCGUY) the more I read their posts about them, they really talked me into it... if I sold the Cobra 148 and the Amp I could mount one above my work bench.. that would give me my four watts and I could turn it up to 20 or 30 ( all I need to talk around to the surrounding towns on AM).. it would have a built in SWR meter that is easy to see ( the 148 was hard for me to see)... it shows watts so I don't need a SWR meter or a watt meter or an Amp...... so I bought the Quad 5
and mounted it to the side of my bench today.... it's going to take a LOT to get used to.... if I sit down in front of a CB I can do anything I need to do.... not this thing! I have not done the 11 meter conversion yet and want to make sure it works first... so it took a little just to figure how to turn it on ha ha.... then the squelch???? I turned it all the way down to 1 and got no static? so I had to adjust the RF gain and then only got static from SQC 01 to SQC 10... I know my antenna is not configured for this... I put it on A band and put it on Scan.... let it go for a few minutes and never heard a sole??? so I tried band B and then C... I never heard anyone then saw I was on FM!!!! DOG GONE IT! ...so I put it on AM and did the same thing..... from 9PM to 9:30PM I never heard a sole....
so is there a station that I can turn it onto that I have a good chance of hearing to see if it works???? I hate to void the warranty /return option until I know it's working... but right now it's not picking up anything.... my GTL on the same Antron 99 was unbelievable today!!!!! people from all across the country walking all over each other and they sounded like they were in the same room as me!!!! but these ham bands????? nothing????? also I get so little squelch I do wonder if it's working???? I read all the reviews on the Quad 5 and 90% are fantastic... but their are many that can't seem to get it to receive???
any help would be greatly appreciated.
my President Grant Export I always turn on 27.415 or 27.425 and always hear people.... 27.555 was always good too and then they go off to their own channel.... this thing goes from 28.000 to 29.000 but NO ONE IS ON IT????...
HELP

 

[merlin]

Maybe like me, there are practically no HF hams locally, I have heard. 10 meters is flat dead from late afternoon to after sunrise.
Even then, I may catch some DX CW or FT8. What SSB I get is below the noise floor and uninteligable.
Quad 5 seems a very decent 10 meter rig and receive should be decent on an 11 meter antenna.
I don't know about 11 meter mods or if it can be mod.
My setup is a Barrett 980 and EFLW. 1.6 to 29.999 Mhz. About 10 AM I get the blasters on CB channel 6 but scanning 10meters, maybe a little FT8. IF there are any 10 meter contests, you can find a lot more activity. Check with ARRL or QST magazine.
[roger beep]

 

[niceguy71]

Maybe like me, there are practically no HF hams locally, I have heard. 10 meters is flat dead from late afternoon to after sunrise.
Even then, I may catch some DX CW or FT8. What SSB I get is below the noise floor and uninteligable.
Quad 5 seems a very decent 10 meter rig and receive should be decent on an 11 meter antenna.
I don't know about 11 meter mods or if it can be mod.
My setup is a Barrett 980 and EFLW. 1.6 to 29.999 Mhz. About 10 AM I get the blasters on CB channel 6 but scanning 10meters, maybe a little FT8. IF there are any 10 meter contests, you can find a lot more activity. Check with ARRL or QST magazine.
[roger beep]

Thank you Merlin

 

[paulears]

The thing is that you know the radio works, because you do hear people on CB. With hams, they have a choice of bands that perform benter at certain times of the day, season and year. If there are hams locally, when conditions are flat, they wont be chatting on 10m, they’ll be elsewhere where more people are. All perfectly normal. CB folk get frustrated sometimes by lack of range when it’s flat, so do the hams, but they can clear off somewhere else. All perfectly normal. In my office, location is poor, surrounded by buildings and rising ground in all directions bar the sea. I took an HF radio down there and the only band I had access to with the antennas was 10m and 6m. Never heard a peep. Took the radio back home.

 

[niceguy71]

The thing is that you know the radio works, because you do hear people on CB. With hams, they have a choice of bands that perform benter at certain times of the day, season and year. If there are hams locally, when conditions are flat, they wont be chatting on 10m, they’ll be elsewhere where more people are. All perfectly normal. CB folk get frustrated sometimes by lack of range when it’s flat, so do the hams, but they can clear off somewhere else. All perfectly normal. In my office, location is poor, surrounded by buildings and rising ground in all directions bar the sea. I took an HF radio down there and the only band I had access to with the antennas was 10m and 6m. Never heard a peep. Took the radio back home.

Thanks for replying Paulears.... The radio doesn't have the cb band so I don't know the radio works .. if it had the cb band I would turn on a handheld and test it .... I would call my friends that have cb and have them talk to see if I could hear them... But I hear absolutely NOTHING! I hardly hear static .. I know these radios have the noise reducing filter so maybe that's why I don't hear anything...I only have an hour on the radio after 9PM east coast time... So maybe I need to spend more time with it..... It may be because I'm used to cb but on cb if I turn down the squelch.... I get static for the first 1/4 of the dial.... Then as it gets near the middle I may not hear static... This radio (I don't remember) goes from .....say 1 to 100 on the squelch but I only her static from 1 to 4.. Again I don't remember what the numbers were..... But thank you for sharing that you get NOTHING in certain area's with your ham.. I hope that's just my case.... It would be so much easier if the ham band had a station like 19.... I can turn 19 on in my area and hear something most of the day ... PS you said you brought a radio to work by the sea and got nothing.... I live by the sea ... So wonder if that effects it too ... My neighbor is a ham operator I'll call him this week and see if he can turn it on for me

 

[slowmover]

Band D (Citizen Band).

— Use Scan feature in either of its protocols to check AM or USB or LSB.

My “go to” is:

SQ at from 4 to 8,

RFG backed minimally (show about 3 db on S-Meter),less than a quarter-turn.

Volume at 32 or so (44 when moving).

NB on (engine run)

Hi-Cut on

RX NRC at 3

TX NRC at 2

RF power barefoot all the way up.

DRX-901 speaker mounted above left ear such as to use two reflective surfaces.

I have Palomar Engineer Coax Choke at feedpoint and Filter at Radio.

12V power wrapped thru fat toroid (direct to battery feed).

For roughly the last year we’ve been bombarded with heavy Skip, so most days unfortunately feature that (AM-19 travelers use), but it’s “fun” otherwise especially on Sideband.

After 0500 local is when I hear local drivers getting on the road.

After sunrise it’s a crapshoot hearing locals vs the Skip monkeys operating 24/7/365 jamming 19.

.

 

[paulears]

sorry - I read the bit about the President Grant hearing things. If you swap the one that doesn't things for the PG, do you hear the same things?

 

[paulears]

sorry - I read the bit about the President Grant hearing things. If you swap the one that doesn't things for the PG, do you hear the same things?

 

[niceguy71]

sorry - I read the bit about the President Grant hearing things. If you swap the one that doesn't things for the PG, do you hear the same things?

Paulears..... I was only asking what channel all the 10 meter guys hang on as I didn't hear anything on 10 meter and I hadn't done the 11 meter conversion yet and didn't want to convert a brand spanking new radio and find out I need to send it back for *blank* reason... but it's working fine...

 

[paulears]

They have a band plan that has CW, SSB and other centres of activity, but generally they tune around it, rather than have go to channels? Or at least that’s what happens here in the UK

 

[niceguy71]

ok if you know my screen name you know I'm trying to learn this hobby and it's been a lot of work so far getting everything set up. (your also probably sick of me) but I really genuinely appreciate the help.
my base antenna is up and working well... no long distant contacts yet... ....on side band I get 20 to 25 miles away and have talked to a few locals..
I had my cobra 148GTL sitting on my desk in every house I've lived in for 33 years waiting for a house / and time to put up my base antenna. I figured I work out in my heated garage/warehouse every day and if the CB sat on my work bench I could listen and use it there.
well, that darn thing has been there for 3 months and it's ALWAYS in the way!
I lay a lot of work on my 6 foot bench and losing 15 or 16 inches really seemed to hinder my work.... so I thought I could hang it from the rafters or do something to get it off the bench.... I saw a guy that put a computer monitor arm on the side of his desk and mounted his radio on it... it was truly BRILLIANT.... but if I did ...how would I keep my big dosy watt meter... I need my little 50/75 watt amp I like having a SWR meter on top of my radio to check it every day..... all this takes up ROOM!.... so a couple guys REALLY love those Quad 5's (Slow mover PRCGUY) the more I read their posts about them, they really talked me into it... if I sold the Cobra 148 and the Amp I could mount one above my work bench.. that would give me my four watts and I could turn it up to 20 or 30 ( all I need to talk around to the surrounding towns on AM).. it would have a built in SWR meter that is easy to see ( the 148 was hard for me to see)... it shows watts so I don't need a SWR meter or a watt meter or an Amp...... so I bought the Quad 5
and mounted it to the side of my bench today.... it's going to take a LOT to get used to.... if I sit down in front of a CB I can do anything I need to do.... not this thing! I have not done the 11 meter conversion yet and want to make sure it works first... so it took a little just to figure how to turn it on ha ha.... then the squelch???? I turned it all the way down to 1 and got no static? so I had to adjust the RF gain and then only got static from SQC 01 to SQC 10... I know my antenna is not configured for this... I put it on A band and put it on Scan.... let it go for a few minutes and never heard a sole??? so I tried band B and then C... I never heard anyone then saw I was on FM!!!! DOG GONE IT! ...so I put it on AM and did the same thing..... from 9PM to 9:30PM I never heard a sole....
so is there a station that I can turn it onto that I have a good chance of hearing to see if it works???? I hate to void the warranty /return option until I know it's working... but right now it's not picking up anything.... my GTL on the same Antron 99 was unbelievable today!!!!! people from all across the country walking all over each other and they sounded like they were in the same room as me!!!! but these ham bands????? nothing????? also I get so little squelch I do wonder if it's working???? I read all the reviews on the Quad 5 and 90% are fantastic... but their are many that can't seem to get it to receive???
any help would be greatly appreciated.
my President Grant Export I always turn on 27.415 or 27.425 and always hear people.... 27.555 was always good too and then they go off to their own channel.... this thing goes from 28.000 to 29.000 but NO ONE IS ON IT????...
HELP

I didn't want to do the 11 Meter conversion on my new radio for a couple weeks.... figured I'd get used to it and make sure it was a better radio than my Cobra 148.... if I really hated it I could return it to Amazon for free and keep what I had...
I heard a lot of people on the Ham band today.. all over the world... lot of UK and Europe.... well it's been less than 24 hours since I got the quad 5 set up.... I did the conversion already... hey I waited 19 hours!
it's a keeper!
I turned on 36 then 37 then 38 LSB but all had multiple conversations walking all over each other.... no one was on 39 LSB so I set the power to about 30 watts and gave out a call... 616 out of Dallas Texas came back... talked to him for a few minutes and nodded my head oh yeah this thing WORKS!... my Cobra 148 on AM would dead key 4.5 watts and when I talked it would swing up to 10-12 watts.... ( no good for an amp) on SSB it would swing from 12 to sometimes all the way up to 20 watts.... but it just never got the long distance contacts ..I've tried for a week... I can't get any long range... lots of locals 20 -30 miles away on SSB ...but nothing father.......... the Quad 5 did it in a few seconds!!!!! so I'm all set up!!!! and think I'll buy a Quad 5 for the pick up truck

 

[jwt873]

Other than the FM repeaters, there are no channels on 10 meters. ARRL has the amateur band plans here --> Band Plan

The allowed emissions by license class are shown here. --> http://www.arrl.org/files/file/Regulatory/Band Chart/Band Chart - 11X17 Color.pdf

 

[radioman2008]

ok if you know my screen name you know I'm trying to learn this hobby and it's been a lot of work so far getting everything set up. (your also probably sick of me) but I really genuinely appreciate the help.
my base antenna is up and working well... no long distant contacts yet... ....on side band I get 20 to 25 miles away and have talked to a few locals..
I had my cobra 148GTL sitting on my desk in every house I've lived in for 33 years waiting for a house / and time to put up my base antenna. I figured I work out in my heated garage/warehouse every day and if the CB sat on my work bench I could listen and use it there.
well, that darn thing has been there for 3 months and it's ALWAYS in the way!
I lay a lot of work on my 6 foot bench and losing 15 or 16 inches really seemed to hinder my work.... so I thought I could hang it from the rafters or do something to get it off the bench.... I saw a guy that put a computer monitor arm on the side of his desk and mounted his radio on it... it was truly BRILLIANT.... but if I did ...how would I keep my big dosy watt meter... I need my little 50/75 watt amp I like having a SWR meter on top of my radio to check it every day..... all this takes up ROOM!.... so a couple guys REALLY love those Quad 5's (Slow mover PRCGUY) the more I read their posts about them, they really talked me into it... if I sold the Cobra 148 and the Amp I could mount one above my work bench.. that would give me my four watts and I could turn it up to 20 or 30 ( all I need to talk around to the surrounding towns on AM).. it would have a built in SWR meter that is easy to see ( the 148 was hard for me to see)... it shows watts so I don't need a SWR meter or a watt meter or an Amp...... so I bought the Quad 5
and mounted it to the side of my bench today.... it's going to take a LOT to get used to.... if I sit down in front of a CB I can do anything I need to do.... not this thing! I have not done the 11 meter conversion yet and want to make sure it works first... so it took a little just to figure how to turn it on ha ha.... then the squelch???? I turned it all the way down to 1 and got no static? so I had to adjust the RF gain and then only got static from SQC 01 to SQC 10... I know my antenna is not configured for this... I put it on A band and put it on Scan.... let it go for a few minutes and never heard a sole??? so I tried band B and then C... I never heard anyone then saw I was on FM!!!! DOG GONE IT! ...so I put it on AM and did the same thing..... from 9PM to 9:30PM I never heard a sole....
so is there a station that I can turn it onto that I have a good chance of hearing to see if it works???? I hate to void the warranty /return option until I know it's working... but right now it's not picking up anything.... my GTL on the same Antron 99 was unbelievable today!!!!! people from all across the country walking all over each other and they sounded like they were in the same room as me!!!! but these ham bands????? nothing????? also I get so little squelch I do wonder if it's working???? I read all the reviews on the Quad 5 and 90% are fantastic... but their are many that can't seem to get it to receive???
any help would be greatly appreciated.
my President Grant Export I always turn on 27.415 or 27.425 and always hear people.... 27.555 was always good too and then they go off to their own channel.... this thing goes from 28.000 to 29.000 but NO ONE IS ON IT????...
HELP

i see that TRC216, i had one in 1988! even had the mobile mic attachment.

also, Nice guys finish last.........

 

[niceguy71]

i see that TRC216, i had one in 1988! even had the mobile mic attachment.

also, Nice guys finish last.........

it always takes me a while to finish a project.... your right! but this one came out really nice....
I have a terrible addiction to HandHeld CB's... when I was a kid all the disaster movies and TV shows made it seem like you had to have a walkie talkie or you would die!.... darn that Irwin Allen... he wrote and directed a tv series called "Land of the Giants"... 7 people in a future plane (nuclear powered of course) that goes just into orbit and orbits the world at 20,000 miles an hours... then takes the passengers back down to whatever airport you want so it takes minutes to go anywhere in the world!!! his fiction always made sense to me... but they went into a black hole and landed on a planet filled with giant people.... so the Earthlings were only 6 inches tall .... the airplane had a base radio that could talk thousands of miles and they had 10 walkie talkies that talked all across the Giant city... all rechargeable from the nuclear airplane........ EVERY week for 51 episodes they used their walkie talkies to save their lives EVERY EPISODE!!!.... so I think Irwin Allen liked Radios too
all my life I said I'd like to get a few of those walkie talkies too... when I did little jobs as a teenager I saved up and bought a handheld CB... it was terrible 3 channels 1 watt!!!!... it didn't transmit 200 feet!!! later I bought another and another but could only afford the cheap ones that didn't work well.... every Christmas I would drool over the Radio Shack or Sears catalogs that showed all of this years models. now I'm retired and have a little money... I'm buying some good ones... and want to test them all on YouTube to see how far I can get then to transmit to my base station...... been waiting for my base station to be done for YEARS and YEARS.... so now I'll start testing them.. I have over 30 different models and close to 50 handhelds now.... ( I just can't stop myself, if it's on E-bay and it says it's working and only goes for $20 bucks... I buy it!) if it doesn't work I tell the seller to pay the shipping back and I'm returning it as they said it was tested... they always say that they have no way to test transmit with only one CB and thought it worked.... they give me a full refund and tell me to throw it out.
I am also a little bit of a prepper, so I keep 120 AA rechargeables on hand with enough chargers to charge them all...I have two propane tanks on the property that run my whole house Generator... so I have enough to run my generator a few hours a day for a year or better..... the Gen can charge all my walkie talkie batteries in a few hours ... then I can use one of the battery operated handheld's plugged into my Antron 99 to run my base station probably the TRC 216 with mic plugged into it..... it does 3.3 watts and swings up to 7 or 8 when I talk on it
.... I can make sure every neighbor around me has one they can leave on channel 14 we can send the younger teenagers a 1/2 mile down my street in each direction ( only two ways onto my street),,,, so when Ubeckastan invades us .. or the power grid fails or the nukes go off or a plaque takes over or the big earth quake hits New England ( supposed to happen someday) or Plymouth nuclear power plant blows up ( I'm about 20 miles from there) ...things will get crazy and people from the big cities will come out to the woods where I live and drive down listening for generators... .. I'm in the woods... we lose power for 3 to 5 days every New England storm without fail... some winter we have had several storms.. my Gen is 6 years old and has over a 1000 hours on it.....so all the people on this street have generators and keep plenty of food and needed items as the roads are unpassable for the same 3 to 5 days.... the thugs, if they hear a gen they will stop and try to steal it... not much you can do against 7 or 8 thugs from the gangs in the cities.. but if the people up a 1/2 mile and down a 1/2 mile see them coming they can alert all of us to shut off our generators stay out of sight and stand by with our rifles.. I have 6 neighbors that are crazy guns nuts and have arsenals.... we will also have to venture out and will need communication... for the neighbors that don't have CB's in their cars they can take a handheld and a magnetic antenna..... we will also need hunting parties... all my neighbors are pretty good hunters but you need handhelds to help flush out the deer.... so I like to think I'm not a crazy addict to the handhelds... but it's a practical reason to have them.
I love this guy's video's and plan on doing something similar on every one of my handhelds.

 

[radioman2008]

it always takes me a while to finish a project.... your right! but this one came out really nice....
I have a terrible addiction to HandHeld CB's... when I was a kid all the disaster movies and TV shows made it seem like you had to have a walkie talkie or you would die!.... darn that Irwin Allen... he wrote and directed a tv series called "Land of the Giants"... 7 people in a future plane (nuclear powered of course) that goes just into orbit and orbits the world at 20,000 miles an hours... then takes the passengers back down to whatever airport you want so it takes minutes to go anywhere in the world!!! his fiction always made sense to me... but they went into a black hole and landed on a planet filled with giant people.... so the Earthlings were only 6 inches tall .... the airplane had a base radio that could talk thousands of miles and they had 10 walkie talkies that talked all across the Giant city... all rechargeable from the nuclear airplane........ EVERY week for 51 episodes they used their walkie talkies to save their lives EVERY EPISODE!!!.... so I think Irwin Allen liked Radios too
all my life I said I'd like to get a few of those walkie talkies too... when I did little jobs as a teenager I saved up and bought a handheld CB... it was terrible 3 channels 1 watt!!!!... it didn't transmit 200 feet!!! later I bought another and another but could only afford the cheap ones that didn't work well.... every Christmas I would drool over the Radio Shack or Sears catalogs that showed all of this years models. now I'm retired and have a little money... I'm buying some good ones... and want to test them all on YouTube to see how far I can get then to transmit to my base station...... been waiting for my base station to be done for YEARS and YEARS.... so now I'll start testing them.. I have over 30 different models and close to 50 handhelds now.... ( I just can't stop myself, if it's on E-bay and it says it's working and only goes for $20 bucks... I buy it!) if it doesn't work I tell the seller to pay the shipping back and I'm returning it as they said it was tested... they always say that they have no way to test transmit with only one CB and thought it worked.... they give me a full refund and tell me to throw it out.
I am also a little bit of a prepper, so I keep 120 AA rechargeables on hand with enough chargers to charge them all...I have two propane tanks on the property that run my whole house Generator... so I have enough to run my generator a few hours a day for a year or better..... the Gen can charge all my walkie talkie batteries in a few hours ... then I can use one of the battery operated handheld's plugged into my Antron 99 to run my base station probably the TRC 216 with mic plugged into it..... it does 3.3 watts and swings up to 7 or 8 when I talk on it
.... I can make sure every neighbor around me has one they can leave on channel 14 we can send the younger teenagers a 1/2 mile down my street in each direction ( only two ways onto my street),,,, so when Ubeckastan invades us .. or the power grid fails or the nukes go off or a plaque takes over or the big earth quake hits New England ( supposed to happen someday) or Plymouth nuclear power plant blows up ( I'm about 20 miles from there) ...things will get crazy and people from the big cities will come out to the woods where I live and drive down listening for generators... .. I'm in the woods... we lose power for 3 to 5 days every New England storm without fail... some winter we have had several storms.. my Gen is 6 years old and has over a 1000 hours on it.....so all the people on this street have generators and keep plenty of food and needed items as the roads are unpassable for the same 3 to 5 days.... the thugs, if they hear a gen they will stop and try to steal it... not much you can do against 7 or 8 thugs from the gangs in the cities.. but if the people up a 1/2 mile and down a 1/2 mile see them coming they can alert all of us to shut off our generators stay out of sight and stand by with our rifles.. I have 6 neighbors that are crazy guns nuts and have arsenals.... we will also have to venture out and will need communication... for the neighbors that don't have CB's in their cars they can take a handheld and a magnetic antenna..... we will also need hunting parties... all my neighbors are pretty good hunters but you need handhelds to help flush out the deer.... so I like to think I'm not a crazy addict to the handhelds... but it's a practical reason to have them.
I love this guy's video's and plan on doing something similar on every one of my handhelds.

thank you for responding with such detail. im gonna have to check out the land of the giants to see the radio usage. when i was a young kid in the 70s I watched chips and saw them using the Motorola radios, that started my interest in radio, specifically Commercial radio. ill check out your demo vid aswell.

 

[slowmover]

No plastic participation trophy walkie-talks during my hairy-chested young years (we were all shaving by age 12), no sirree.

 

[niceguy71]

No plastic participation trophy walkie-talks during my hairy-chested young years (we were all shaving by age 12), no sirree.

View attachment 150202

NICE!!! I'm going to have to look for one of those!

 

[Benkasey]

I hear a good number of hams in the SF Bay Area on 10 meters and 70 cm. I think it's because we have a lot of people who are, or were, in the tech field. It probably skews older age, say 50s and up. Some of them have rigs in their cars. They use repeaters. Many use digital transmission equipment. I've heard some multi-way conversations between, say Australia, Japan, and New York tied together through repeaters. The international hams talk about their countries and the weather. During Covid there was a lot of talk about conditions in their respective countries. The local hams usually talk about their equipment, radio tech topics, the weather, and what they are having for dinner. I enjoy the conversations. I monitor using a few SDR dongles, various indoor antennas, and DSD+ to decode the digital transmissions.

 

[niceguy71]

I hear a good number of hams in the SF Bay Area on 10 meters and 70 cm. I think it's because we have a lot of people who are, or were, in the tech field. It probably skews older age, say 50s and up. Some of them have rigs in their cars. They use repeaters. Many use digital transmission equipment. I've heard some multi-way conversations between, say Australia, Japan, and New York tied together through repeaters. The international hams talk about their countries and the weather. During Covid there was a lot of talk about conditions in their respective countries. The local hams usually talk about their equipment, radio tech topics, the weather, and what they are having for dinner. I enjoy the conversations. I monitor using a few SDR dongles, various indoor antennas, and DSD+ to decode the digital transmissions.

I've heard a little chat on it now that I've had the radio a couple days... That first hour I played with it and heard nothing was making me think the radio wasn't working.

 

[slowmover]

NICE!!! I'm going to have to look for one of those!

MOTOROLA PT300 Handie-Talkie FM Radiophone

Kinda got in trouble as a kid “playing” with it in late 1960s as they operate on the VHF range of 136 to 174 mHz with 8 watts of output power (not one single configuration; see differences).

11 or 12 D-cell batteries as I recall. Or other options available (Dads had the lantern battery setup; must’ve been 10/lbs each).

Get the canvas case. They're heavy as hell.

.