- It's a new year and the mailbag is full.
So, please stay tuned for a Your Questions Answered episode
of Ham Radio Q&A.
(rock music)
Hi, I'm Michael, KB9VBR,
your host for Ham Radio Q&A.
I'm on a mission to inspire and educate
the amateur radio community,
so if this is your first time watching,
please consider hitting that subscribe button.
Well, 2019 is upon us and it's starting out
to be a great year.
I had an awesome time recently
at the West Allis Radio Amateur Club's Midwinter Swapfest
in Waukesha, Wisconsin.
Thank you to everyone that stopped by my table and chatted.
It was great to hear how appreciative everyone is
for these videos.
That's certainly motivation enough for me
to keep doing them so,
let's jump in to this month's questions.
Well, from my recent video on
the five best amateur radio product reviews,
13wapo asks,
I know zero about radios,
but was looking to get something portable, reliable,
and durable for the system crash, providing it happens.
Can someone point me in a direction?
Thanks.
That's a really big ask,
but your level of communication need
will really be dependent on
who you need to communicate with.
Be aware that portable,
handheld radios will most likely give you
a mile or so of coverage,
but are good for keeping your family together
and in touch.
GMRS, or the General Mobile Radio Service,
is really good for that.
If you're looking to get communications
out of an affected area,
you know, say after a natural disaster,
we're thinking like a tornado or a hurricane,
then amateur radio license would really be appropriate.
There you can use HF transceivers that operate
on a shortwave bands to communicate a 100
or a 1,000 miles or more.
But any choice you make will require training and education,
as you won't be successful unless you understand
the capabilities of your equipment.
Now this answer seems to be a little bit terse,
but I think what I'm gonna need to do is to make
a video to develop these concepts a little bit more further.
So, stay tuned and let me know
if you have any further questions
that we can address in a future video.
From my recent video on the introduction to APRS,
N9IBZED asks,
I would like to know what the difference is
between APRS and DPRS.
I'm thinking of maybe giving it a try
but I'm not sure which way to go or which one is better.
Well, DPRS is Icom's implementation of APRS.
Your D-STAR radio can beacon an APRS formatted message
but the D-STAR repeater needs to be bridged somehow
to the APRS data stream in order
for the packet to propagate.
If you already have Icom equipment,
this may be a way for you to send your location
to the APRS network.
But if you're just starting out with APRS,
I'd go with either a radio that's APRS equipped,
like one of the Kenwood or the Yaesu models,
or a simple two meter rig with an APRS tracker box.
You know, like the TinyTracker or the Argent OpenTracker
and a GPS unit.
In my video review of the Ailunce HD1 transceiver,
Tom Peach asks,
no mention of the antenna mismatch issue?
Well, you bring up an interesting point,
and this is really news to me.
I did not test the antenna,
nor was I aware that there is a mismatch problem.
There is some information about the quality of the antenna
and it appears that,
I found a little bit of information online,
that the transceiver may be putting out 40 Ohms
instead of 50 Ohms.
But that's about all I could really find
about an antenna mismatch issue.
In my video review,
I recommended that you do not use
the 10 watt high power mode basically for safety reasons,
and it appears that the mismatch really becomes apparent
when you do use the radio at 10 watts.
So, that recommendation will also stand
for any potential impedance issues with the radio.
Now, I do plan to research this further
as I'm sure that there are many users
that will wanna use this radio with an accessory
or an external antenna, so please stay tuned for that.
Now, with my Retevis RT52 review,
Ronny asks,
Michael, have you checked to see what VFO
the external jacks control?
You know, the speaker mic or packet cable?
Thanks.
Okay, so I checked this out.
I connected a 2-pin speaker mic to the radio
and I found that it will always key the A band.
You can switch between the A and the B band on the radio
but the speaker mic defaults back to A band.
It would have been nice to see the speaker mic control
whatever band is active,
but keying the radio with the speaker mic,
it always reverts back to A band.
So, I hope that answers your question.
And finally,
I continually get statements like this.
Wow, two watts,
or my Baofeng is eight watts and a $100 cheaper.
Or, my UV5R is 12 watts verified.
Well, my answer to this is communications
is not always about power
but rather suitability to the task.
More power isn't better.
All an eight or 10 watt handheld radio will do
is heat up faster and drain your battery.
I really don't recommend more than five watts
for a handheld radio as doubling the power
does not equate to doubling the distance.
If you need power and distance,
then do it with a radio and antenna system capable
of meeting those needs,
and do it in a safe manner.
Now, I'm not against high power,
I like to run my mobile radios at 50 watts.
On HF, I'm just as likely to run barefoot as I am QRP.
But a handheld radio is designed for portable,
short-range communications.
So, if the antenna is close to my head,
I'm gonna turn that thing down to five watts.
Likewise, don't try to shoehorn a radio or radio service
into a use that it's not suited for.
Low powered handheld VHF/UHF FM transceivers give
you great audio quality and low noise
that is resistant to electrical interference
and other noise.
So, it's a perfect solution for short-range communications
like in buildings, warehouses, and portable use outdoors.
But you're not going to get long-distance communications
with your MURS handheld or two watt GMRS radios.
They aren't equipped for that.
Well, that's it for this month.
Thanks for everyone that dropped suggestions last week
for upcoming episodes.
I'll try to work in as many as I can
into the production schedule.
It's winter here in Northern Wisconsin
but I still plan to get outdoors in a few weeks
for Winter Field Day,
so I hope to hear you on the air then.
For more articles and information,
please check out my blog at www.jpole-antenna.com.
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Well, I'm Michael, KB9VBR, have a great day and 73.