Navigating the Technical Terrain of Mobile Ham Radios

So , whether you're a regular listener or a first-time guest , we're excited to have you here and we appreciate your support and thanks for tuning into this week's episode . So let's get into today's show . I'm your host names Eric call signs N1JUR , and my co-host joined me Paul KF4 .

It's a Surefire recipe for a great time and it's obviously a great t-shirt . Paul is wearing our favorite camo cap there , so that is also in the store . And then we've got our original OG hat and a number of other great stuff in there .

So feel free to head on over there , show some love and pick up Live Free in Ham swag , and we'll be very much appreciated . Thanks for showing it in the show . And so , also , as always , we will be doing our usual scheduled once a month live stream . So make sure you subscribe to our YouTube channel and we'll host it .

And remember , as always , if you do subscribe , you'll get notified when we go live . And so , without further ado , let's dive into our regular . And now for something a little extra with Todd W1STJ .

All right , so this is , as always , our little segment here called Little Something Extra with Todd , where we help Todd review the extra test questions on his road to getting his test for his extra , and so , without further delay , take it away , paul , our VEMC for tonight .

So the Q of an RLC series resonant circuit , how would you calculate that ? Is it A reactance of the inductance multiplied by the reactance of the capacitance ?

B reactance of either the inductance or capacitance divided by the resistance , or is it C resistance divided by the reactance of either the inductance or capacitance , or D reactance of either the inductance or capacitance multiplied by the resistance ?

The relative time is not correct . Correct answer is D the port or ports at which the measurements are made .

I guess we should probably just go back to section one and let me get that one under the way to you quiz master , we'll , we'll go back to tell sub element three , and that should be a little easier for you all right , and if you struggle with that one , we'll go to two , and then we can take your license over .

So you know , if you're in the middle of testing for your you know upgrade or maybe you're trying to go for your technician , you know , keep , keep working at it , keep , you know , finding people and resources around you that you can definitely lean on and , you know , help you through the process , because once you get through it , it's really just a license and

a you know a ticket to to let you experiment . So you know , know that you know , when you , once you cross over and you get your ticket , you're all like the rest of us , it's a ticket to talk to the cool people come on .

And then when I , when I upgraded to extra , like that's when I started seeing all the different experimenting things , and it's like wow , yeah , okay , I want to , I want to play with that , so you'll get there yeah , yep , you will , I am .

So it's yeah , that was really cool , but otherwise I've been spending the last 24 hours playing with the FX4CR and I'm excited to get that out little park this week so I worked out we're gonna state this , so it's physically documented on , you know .

So when I get back I'll know I know what I have to do watching this video .

I want to see if I can activate the one that has never been activated . It says it says it's an eight mile hike , you know , through , through the remote part of the island , but it has never been activated it's an eight mile , yeah one way , one way all right , hope you're sun tanning honey .

So anything else going on your non-ham week well .

We've it's been like six months since we've gotten together , so I've been playing Baldur's Gate 3 and that's that's been sustaining my , my D&D fix .

Every time my computer kind of goes into safe mode , that dimension 4 has to be re program , restarted , and I didn't before I left so I couldn't play FTA . Your time was that far back to me . Yeah , if it's off , it it's . They don't get you so and I was remote , so not a big deal .

But what I was gonna say , I might add some delay , especially remote yeah , so I gotta figure out how to keep that , as this probably a way to make it like the permanent clock .

I was gonna do some quota , but the days that it was nice and warm , I was swamped at work . And it looks like now the warm weather looks like it's gonna be warm but it's gonna be raining . So I'm like , yeah , so I'll get there , but that's about it for me .

I , I'm getting prepped for a five-day , you know , follow trip with my son's spring training baseball college program and so we're gonna be just driving , you know , all the way down , leaving probably beginning of the week , and we're gonna drive straight through and , lo and behold , before I even got a chance to sort of elude that I would be maybe interested in in

, you know , hunting parks , my wife turned to me and said , well , you know we're gonna have to stop . So what parks do you have planned out , map ? And I'm like , yes , is that the green light ? I have to go . My daughter turned to me in the same set , like we better activate parks . I'm expecting , you know we do that .

I'm like she's like I want to do it under your call . I'm like , well , you got your own call sign . We can do 10 meters from any park . So you know , maybe she might activate her first park . So you know , we'll see how it goes .

So you know we'll have to get me on him alert and you know , hopefully get KC1HWB as my daughter's call and I'll see if you can get her on the air . I mean , obviously once this episode airs it might be a little too late for that , but you know , hopefully you guys get a chance to work her .

And so we're gonna travel and you know , we're gonna activate parks and you know , and we're gonna be on Myrtle Beach and I think we're literally right on the you know , one of the coasts and I think there's either a park walking distance from there or it's , you know , part of the beachfront . So I'll have to do a little further investigation on that .

But my , I'm gonna have a radio full of baseball . I'm gonna have a week full of baseball and a week full of radio . So I think I'll be quite happy and and it'll be a good week for sure what are you bringing for ? a new antenna . Oh yeah , so there I I'm probably gonna end up bringing . I mean , obviously I have my ATAS on the truck .

So if it's raining or whatever and I want to be able , you know , activate from the vehicle , I can do that . But if you know it's nice and so far the weather's predicted to be so , I'm going to probably bring my Wolf River .

I mean , that has been my go-to I , you know I want to bring the buddy pole pro , but I'm just , like you know , the Wolf River calls going to work perfectly fine for me . So , you know , and I got my bug out . I mean , that's the . I should say I have the bug out in the backup because it's so small and easy to .

You know , carry with me , I'll have it .

I've been , you know , busy trying to get a couple of episodes in the hopper there , and so I just finished releasing one on my top five hammer radio apps , which I you know pretty fun and looking forward to seeing how that goes as my next premiere .

But outside of that , you know , just been , you know , going with emotions and doing work , as they say , so cool , all right . Well , with that , you know , let's kind of dive into tonight's topic .

You know we started our last episode talking about HTs and and the conversation kind of evolved around , you know , pros and cons of HTs and some of our dream radio . So we're just going to roll right into this , this next kind of phase , and we're going to talk about mobiles and and we're hoping by maybe the end of this episode .

You know , especially if you're a new ham and new technician and you've been using HTs in your car for a while and you've been hearing people encouraging you to go get mobile or start to think about looking in the mobiles , you know , with what we provide for you know , info , maybe it might guide you to want to get one for your car .

You know , obviously we can't provide installation tips and techniques because we all are , you know . You know different vehicles , different walks of life . Some of us don't mind drilling holes . Some of us , you know , are two left thumbs , it's all . It's all good either way .

But you know , we're hoping , you know , with some of our experience that you know we'll share here tonight , that we'll be able to give you , you know , some direction and we're going to kind of open this up a little wider and include HF and some of that stuff , because I've got HF that I want to put in my truck and , and you know , I'm considering , you know

, mountain the 891 in there permanently , so we could talk a little bit around that and go from there . So I guess who kind of wants to kick it off ? So let's start with , I guess , the first question . You know all of us had bought a mobile at one reason or another time . And what was your compelling reason to buy that mobile ?

Was it , you know , was it because you were forced by someone , or is it just you were fed up with a certain you know ? You know current configuration you had . You know . Let's kind of start there .

Yeah , and so that was my base station as a tech after I had my HT , and my goal back then was I was going to get the 991 a and move that to the car , and I never got the 991 a , so that one stayed in there . And then Eric suggested the 300 , which was the best recommendation that he's probably ever given me , because that radio is awesome .

If I had to do it again , I would have had two 300s . To be honest with you , even though it's not touched oh yeah , even though it's not touch screen and everything it just and maybe , maybe it's because I use it more , because I'm in the car a lot and that's most of the time when I'm on two meters and 440 , but it is really a great little radio .

It's nice and compact . It fits perfect in my Jeep , it doesn't take up too much space . It just works really well and it's very easy to navigate through everything . So highly recommended , and I know it's not the newest one out , I think what's the new one ? That they have a 200 , which is a 500 .

So the 200 , basically the difference between the 300 and the 200 is , I think , is that the 200 is a little bit less money , but it can only do one band or you know , one when it's not a dual VFO , right , so you can have . It has two , but you're either on one or the other where the 300 , the 400 , the 500 , you've got two .

So in my car and at home I have APRS on one channel and then I have whatever I'm talking on on the other . And that's how I kind of operate . And then if I if I'm doing something else or I want to hear another station or whatever , I'll turn the APRS off and switch to that one . But it's a great little radio . I love it . It's a .

But I was talking before we started here that my mic , something wrong with it because the buttons don't work . The push to talk does , but I use that mic button . I don't even need to look at it , I just know where the buttons are so I can hit it to scan and go to .

I have it set up for like the weather , so I can hit a button and then the weather , you know the , the weather service comes on . I can switch another button to go , you know , to offset it . If I want to go direct , you know , to the repeater and for some reason over the weekend those buttons just aren't always working . So sometimes they work .

Sometimes they don't , so I got to take it apart and if I can't fix it then I'm probably going to have to get another one . And I was informed that it's like $70 for a mic , like , oh , like , come on , but there'd be like 30 , 40 bucks $70 for a mic .

Yeah , that , and there's one other one little small player . Does it receive both though ? Yeah , it has separate . It has basically the no it . You're right . So this is the only one that actually has the single volume knob , so you can only hear one band at a time . So the right right , that extra capability .

So if you want to hear both bands , that's where the 300 might shine better . If you're trying to do like FM satellites , that type of stuff but same form factor .

And you know , since we talked about HTS , we all know that it's the , the bau fang , you know . But TYT makes a mobile radio , and so my first , my first mobile radio was the TYT and I put it in the truck and I hated it . It didn't last 24 hours . I took it out and I returned it .

And then I ordered myself a FTM 400 XDR because I wanted the best of that model .

And the initial , the initial thing was is I had , I had a RAM mount and I could very easily , just , you know , slide the radio off the mount and I could bring it in and I could put it on the shack , and so I had dual connectors you know for for it , so that I had all the connections at the shack .

I could easily just plug and play and then throw it in the truck and do the same thing . And then , after my first trip to Florida , I said you know what , like the Ram Mount and everything's kind of it's in the way of the passenger seat , and I know my wife's gonna be in the truck with me for four days as we go down these coasts .

She's not gonna want that radio banging into her knees . So I mounted it a little bit more permanent , but it's still easily accessible if I wanted to undo the side screws and pull it off . But that's where it sits now is it's kind of just permanently mounted there ? I like the full color display .

I like the dual VFO where I can listen to two different frequencies , two different bands at the same time . You know , a lot of times I'll have the local repeater on VFO A and I'll have simplex calling on B or I'll do a 70 centimeter calling on the B and , however it is , I'll just listen to the calling , but I'll have the repeater as my primary .

Going down to Florida and any of the cross country trips that I've done , I'll put APRS on the B . The only downside to the APRS running is then when I go to talk on the A , like the APRS will sometimes cut out what the other person's saying . You know .

Yeah , like so if the other person's talking and it's time for APRS to beacon , it'll beacon and it'll just cut out the . You won't hear the A anymore because you're transmitting .

Or you know , like if I got APRS running and I wanna have a conversation with somebody , like when I was down in North Carolina last year , I was talking to a guy . He was in a dentist's office and I don't know how he was in a dentist's office with a radio .

I didn't ask , but I was on the highway and I was like , hey , you know calling CQ on the on the on two meter calling , and he answered me back and he was like , yeah , I'm at a dentist's office and I got to talk to him for about three minutes before I lost him . But you know it was , it was cool .

He sent me a QSL card and he was like it's like I'm about to get my camera , yeah . I just wanted to play radio before they put me under Wow .

I think when I started back into the hobby and about three years or four years ago , my first radio mobile radio was something I bought off of eBay I ran out and found like the most non-expensive Yezi radio , because I had Yezi radios when I grew up and when I got into the you know environment so I knew no different and I wasn't surrounded by you guys so I

wasn't exposed to ICOM and things of that nature and whatnot . So I started to scour eBay and I found an 8,500 , I think it was , and that was their dual band radio back in the 90s or whatever . And when I saw that I was like , oh man , that was one of the radios I wanted .

When I first got my official radio for the truck when I was , you know , in my early 20s . That was a Yezi FT 1500 . And that was their big metal . It was literally built like they carved out a piece of aluminum and then inserted all the electronics in this thing . This thing was like you could literally run it over , and I think I did almost .

At one time ran it over by accident by my you know my truck because it had fallen out and the thing was just like perfectly fine , because there was a big giant hunk of metal . It was only two meters and it had like a max of 25 watts , if you can imagine that .

And I was just like so that was all it was in my truck when I got rid of it and got back in the hobby in 2000 . I ran out and said , oh you know , I'm gonna get the 8,500 . Well , I got an 8,500 off of eBay and , as we all know , it's a hit or miss with that type of stuff sometimes and this one was no different it would .

I had it mounted in the truck and I was super proud of it because it was before the detachable face kind of came out in that you know era .

And so I had the full body radio mounted and little by understanding and lack of you know reading the fine details , found that the radio , when it was listed , the owner had listed a note in small little print that says this radio will cut out when it overheats and I just kind of was like whatever , and I was like it can't be that bad .

So I had it in the truck and I was going to and from you know my jobs , and I'd be talking and all of a sudden , like not even like you know , five minutes into talking a conversation , the radio's go cut it right out . And it was like they'd be like where'd you go ?

And it was like my radio cut out and so we come back on again , you know , and then it would get to that certain temperature level and cut every time . It literally shut off . And I was like , so at that point I got tired of it and my wife had realized at that point I was probably a hobby , I was going to be staying in for a while .

So I was on the hunt for , you know , picking up a radio , and the 400 was on my you know top , you know three , and I was like this is the radio I want . I want the touch screens , it's got all the great features . And then , shortly after , the 300 came out and I kind of looked at it and said , okay , it's fine , but I still want the 400 .

I want the APRS and the typing and all that capability . And so I , you know , I told my wife I'm like , yeah , you know , if you want to get something for Christmas , well , this is the way you can score extra bonus points . Get me something you know from Ham Radio Outlet . Well , you know she didn't like .

I told her what I wanted , which is the 400 , but you know how that translates when they actually go into the store . But what you are , the guys at Ham Radio yeah right , the guys at Ham Radio Outlet in you know , salem there and their infinite wisdom wooed my wife away from the 400 and bought me the 300 .

Well , you know , I didn't know , this Christmas shows up and of course they threw in a whole bunch of like extra swag just to sweeten the deal for her . So she came with like Yezi hats and stickers and all of the connectors galore . I mean she literally came out with probably a hell of a lot more .

I mean she was sold the farm plus , you know , and she was like she's still paying it off ? Hopefully not , yeah , at this point . So so , yeah , she , christmas shows up . I open up the box . I'm thinking , oh my , if I finally get the 400 , open up the box is the 300 . And my face sank and I don't , like I was .

It was probably the meanest thing I could have done and to this day I'm still head over my head why I you know why I was like not super excited about the radio and I'm like I sort of was like , oh , I really wanted the 400 . And you know , after I said , no , I'm . This is a great ratio .

The guys , like the guys at HRL , told me this is like the cutting edge radio , went on and on about how great it was and everything . And I'm like , all right , well , okay , fine , I'll try it . And so she saw obviously the disappointment . But I still put it in the truck .

And you know , from this day , once I got over the fact that I wasn't the 400 , I was like , wow , this is a fricking awesome radio and it's worked like a champ , flawless . And when I had it in my pilot and then moved to the truck , and you know , long story short , you know , it obviously convinced Todd to go run out and buy him a 300 .

No , no , he was a freshman or sophomore and we were just hitting it off and he was like super excited about ham radio , telling me about , like you know how he's been saving his money and stuff like that , trying to get , you know , a mobile rig . But he didn't know quite what he wanted and he hasn't .

You know , he's still trying to pay for his car and I like that one . I felt really bad . I'm like I've got a 300 sitting at home . I'm like . So I blurted out like right across the town , I'm like , are you looking for a radio , like a mobile radio ? And he's like , yeah , sort of why . And I'm like , well , let me make you this deal .

And then , you know , we kind of talked it over and I basically said I'll give you this 300 for free . You know , at that I think his dad , because when I gave it to him at the Ham Expo the next day his dad showed up with him thinking , like you know , is this going to be a scam deal , or you know ?

I'm like , oh , you know , hey , you know , here , take this 300 , I don't need it . And then , you know , then I was short one radio for my satellite stuff , which you know it's been an ongoing project as Paul and I were talking online . So yeah , shortly after that then you know someone else was selling their 300 and I said , oh well , I need another 300 .

So that one up . So yeah , I can't get enough of them , I guess .

And then it's like , well , I should just mount the 891 in there . And then I swore to myself and this is you know , it's taught as my witness that I would I would mount the 891 in the truck after Dayton this year if you know Yezhu never releases another 705 killer then I would put it permanently in the truck .

So that is eventually coming and we'll see what happens .

I like being able to listen to the truck traffic and , you know , at least get a warning if there's an accident coming or if there's , you know , something up ahead in the road that I should worry about . In that regard the CB is still a useful tool , but otherwise , you know , I mean it's also a good propagation device .

You know , like I'll put it on channel 6 and depending on how well I can hear , it's like all right , you know propagation is good , so 10 meters is going to be great .

But what I want to know is I've noticed a lot of rigs have ham radio antennas on it , just because I'm kind of familiar with the antennas because I looked to buy them and that kind of stuff , and I think there's a lot of truckers out there that have gotten their technician license and our hams and , who knows , maybe they even go further .

I want to know what frequency the truckers like , isn't it ? What is it ? Channel 9 is what the , what they normally are on ?

I mean there must be a lot of people on it because that thing is dead on cars on the side of the road , cops , hidden cops there , cops . I mean it's crazy . And you know , very rarely , is it not ? It'll come up on my thing . It'll say like , is the police still there ? You know , and you hit , you click if yes , or you say no and it takes it off .

But that thing is like dead accurate . I mean it'll show you exactly how far . Remember that one time , paul , you and I were talking .

What , like one feature , like so when you set it up let's talk about ergonomics is I think that's an important thing , obviously , when people are starting to get mobile rigs up in your car , how do you have your radio set up for you ?

Is it more of a in your face kind of like I want to see the display upfront , or do you have a tucked away , more hidden from a prying eyes type thing ? Or you know what was your kind of thought process and mountain some of that stuff and and talk a little bit about that and then you know we can kind of go from there .

Well , they make one for the Jeep where the plate actually you rip out the rubber thing that is in the thing and there's screw holes and it actually mounts perfectly into those screw holes . So I put that on and then you buy the , the arms , which are like what ? A carbon fiber round tubes , and then at the end of those tubes is a is the different mounts .

So I have my 300 mounted just above my car radio . Okay , wash with it , I mean it comes out just a little bit but it's flush , so it looks like it's like I got my car radio , you know , with the screen and everything , and then right above that is the 300 and then next to that is where I mount my phone when I'm driving . Now where's the microphone ?

And I just bought one of those what a plastic mic holder , like one of them . Yeah , I found it on Amazon . It was like a couple of bucks , but it I just put it on with that double sided tape and it mounts to the thing and it just sits there so I can pull it up , grab it , no problem , talk whatever , and it's just all right there .

So it's pretty clean and it's really out of the way Most people get in the car and they don't even know . The only complaint I have is I got a little speaker that I mounted . I was going to mount . I didn't know where I was going to mount it , but I was going to mount it somewhere . But it actually fit perfectly in the headrest on the side .

So I took the headrest off and it's got a little bracket . I mean it literally fits perfect . So I just stick it in there . So on the passenger side . It's like it's right in my ear , so when I'm driving I can hear it much better . I mean not that I needed to , but if I had the windows down or something sometimes it would be hard to hear .

So this little speaker works and the only problem is is like if people don't know about it and they're in the passenger seat and it's black . So my jeeps black in here . They don't really see it and then all of a sudden , like Eric , will get on N1J . You are jumping like whoa . That's my buddy Eric .

I ran it along the door and then it goes through almost through , like my glove box , and then around the back . So there's a little bit of a wire showing that goes from the radio to the 300 , but you know , unless you're looking for it , you really don't see it . So I'm pretty happy with it , okay .

It runs underneath that and then it comes up through the back , through the , and then what I do is I have it through the uh , what do you call it ? The glove box , and then from the glove box it just kind of comes out and up it in Pretty , pretty neat , clean , yeah , and the wire is like a , it's a black , black wire .

It almost looks like a , like a telephone wire , but it's black and so you really can't see it that much and it works great and it just says on the only . The only issue and I haven't figured out why , and I just think it's the voltage thing is my Jeep has this automatic . I start , stop .

Yeah , I hate it , I'd never , you , I'd never , you know , and it has a button that you can just hit it and then it lights up and it turns it off . So it won't start and stop Now , periodically it'll just shut my radio down and then sometimes it'll turn it back on and other times it won't , but it always seems to happen when I'm talking to someone .

Never happens when it's just hanging out there . But if I'm , if someone's talking to me , I'm doing them over car , you know Qso , and all of a sudden I come to a stoplight and if they have things shuts down , and then I Get going again and things just shuts down the radio . So , eric , I think you found it . What was it like ? A hundred bucks to like ?

Yeah there's a .

I think you know Paul and I were talking about like solar panels on the on the roof of my Jeep , you know , because now they make them flexible and then I could like , probably just put , like a regular , you know , you know , bio-eno battery in there running , charging off the solar panels , plugging into the thing .

And , like I said , the yes you stuff for me I mean it's never , you know . Okay , the mics might be broken , maybe not , I'll figure it out but the radio itself great , and the customer service which I can say with the asu is phenomenal . When I when field day , when I lost my , what did I lose ? Erica X10 ? Yeah , you do .

X10 finals , yeah , the finals went and I , I literally just they guys like just send it back and just write in what you , what's the problem , and within like Two weeks I had it back ready to go like that quick . So it was pretty , it's pretty intensive and and they did and you ship it out to California and they send it back to you .

So it was I like their customer service , so very good .

So if , if you got a you know not skinny person like you're gonna , you're gonna bang your knee on it , but the yeah , that's a body , yeah , the face is obviously it's , it's always detached , but I get the long cord for that .

And so what I did was I routed the cord in through the dash and around the console and everything , and then it comes out and and I've got probably three and a half feet of kind of play with the with the cord .

And so I I used indoor outdoor Velcro like the really industrial stuff , and I stuck it to the top my dash , right above the steering wheel , so as , as I'm gripping my steering wheel , my hand , I can easily rotate the knobs with my finger and it's , and it's in my line of sight .

But if I'm parking in a city right , I hate cities if I'm parking in a city , obviously the radios themselves are visible . Right , the CB is visible , the FTM 400 body is visible Somebody was to look in the truck , they would see it . But I take the , the head unit , the face unit , and I and I take that off the dash and I put it in the console .

So at least it's not as obvious . Right , there's not a big display sitting on the dash , you know like , hey , look at me . But then I've got my . So I've got my microphone hanging Just to the right of the steering wheel , on the dash with a with a metal , mike hanger . I , I don't mind putting screws . My dash , the trucks , the trucks , mine .

I'm never gonna get anything out of it reselling it . I got almost 250,000 miles on it . It's , it's just a great truck . I'm gonna run it till it dies . So I don't . I don't mind putting the screw holes in the dash and then the the passenger side . I did the same thing . I screwed a mic holder into the dash and that's where the CB , mike , hangs .

So I wish I Tucked the CB in a in a little cubby in the , in the dash , and I and I , I would have had more space how to put it vertically in the center console .

And so if , if I hadn't , you know , cut apart the dash to make it fit , then you know , hindsight's 2020 , right I do want to mention that this is very , very important for every mobile installation Always fuse the negative . Okay , people don't understand the reason why . And okay , your car is your grounding system and so everything is grounded to your vehicle .

And if there's a short somewhere , then it's very easy for that electrical current to travel through the ground and back into everything else . And if your radio isn't grounded or , I'm sorry , isn't fused on the negative , then you run the risk of potentially something shorting and running Electricity into the negative side of your radio .

So , yes , always fuse the negative .

And so one of the tip I guess we throw in there when you're going to wire your radio how I mean everybody's got , I assume , are all your radios wired directly a battery , okay , all right .

Good , so that that is a tip and a almost a command , I think , when you're running mobile rigs , is that you will , you're not gonna have to worry about draining your battery because nine times out of ten you can set your radio to do , you know power off features after you know five or ten hours running or whatever , so your battery doesn't go to crap .

But at the same time , most of the you know , by not going directly to battery you are going to constantly get RF interference . You're gonna get you know hums , you're gonna get all of these things . You might get your audio from your mic in your radio System .

There's just too much electronics and too many vehicles these days , especially in the past 20 years , so you know you can get varying degrees . So always go straight to your battery , no matter how difficult it might be and how you know struggle it's going to be to try to find a hole to go from your firewall into your cab of the vehicle .

But you know , do the due diligence , do a little research , figure it out . There's definitely plenty of a lot of resources out there for that .

You know fuel saving stuff , so that secondary batteries kind of there for that starter and only no , but I I want to say that my wife's truck , which is the same when you have , I'm almost positive she has a battery Under one of the seats she does and it's part of that whole .

So your car is dead and no matter how much you jump the regular battery , you're still . You got to find that other battery .

But I kind of wanted to get away from Having to constantly turn on the radio and turn off the radio when I got in the truck .

So I bought one of those typical , you know , basically touch panels that you see in a lot of the jeeps and overlanding vehicles where you can mount Through a central control panel , you know , in the vehicle you can control multiple outlets , lights in the whole nine yards , or is that whole ordeal ?

Or if I am starting up the truck on auto start to warm up in the winter times around here in New England , I don't have to worry about the radio . You know , getting a surge or anything like that right off the battery Not that that really happens , but you know it could .

And so by having this little panel I do is just start the truck and because it's wired to ignition , when it actually finally gets that 12 volts from the actual True ignition , then the actual console you know touchpad will Allow me to engage the device . So if it's in auto start , someone can auto start the radio Until the vehicle is actually physically running .

So it's nice . So I've got that set up on a button . I've got now my 891 eventually to be wired to a button .

I've got some other lights and stuff like that and it's really nice because it's like being able to turn on and turn off stuff From one little small little dash console , it's kind of tucked in over by the steering wheel , makes everything kind of yes , you know kind of clean and and nice and you know that's .

You know what I like , you know when it comes to you know , throw in accessories and toys at my truck . But From a setup perspective , my microphone is very much you know Like and where Todd's that has his mounted kind of down by the bolster on the right you know leg there and and you know I hit it from time to time and it's taken in a beating .

But I'm sure I mentioned I'm gonna run the same problem Todd's running into now where the microphone is just , you know , misbehaving and gonna be a problem , you know , in the up and coming future . But we'll see how that goes . So , like , let's kind of put a little , you know , wrap this up a little bit .

So I mean , obviously , the reason why we chose the radios . We have what one feature or a couple of features in them that you liked about it , that kind of draw you towards them and that you know why . You kind of keep it in the vehicle you have now and and maybe touch on those and then we can kind of wrap it up with you know .

One last question , but that you , so you know , paul , go ahead and take it . You know what ? What , what kind of led you to go for ?

And the other , the other big seller that I haven't taken advantage of at all is the fact that it does cross-band repeat I . You know it's an amazing feature , it was a feature that I absolutely wanted .

You know , on the off chance that , like I parked my truck and I left the radio on and then I could take the HT with me hiking , you know , and I could radio to the truck to then get a bigger signal out . But yeah , I've yet to play with it . So Eventually , one of these days , it's on my to-do list .

You know , if it's nice out and I'm having a bonfire , I could run the net from from the backyard . You know , from the backyard , yeah , especially when the weather is nice . So definitely got to get that up and running for me . You know I I'm pretty simple with the radio . I mean I use it to talk to , you know you guys .

On our club repeater , I have been having some fun with it . On the Epsom repeater , which one of our guys had told me about it , it's actually a crazy repeat . It works everywhere . Like I was up in Plymouth , really no problem . I was out in Warren , hillsboro , no problem . It works all the way to the seacoast and sat , I mean it is .

It is a big , strong repeater that has a lot of weight , and you know I tested all the way down .

Ralph and another guy were having a queso and I was coming down from Plymouth all the way , you know , into conquered and I could tell , like you know , when you get into those where they cut through the mountains to like make the highway or the rocks or whatever you know you , it get a little static here , whatever .

But once you got past that it's super strong and I'm almost positive that if you were out , like up in the Plymouth Rumney Warren area and you got on top of a mountain with an HT get it no problem . So it's . It's yeah , I think it's on top of some hill in Epsom , but it's , it's an awesome repeater and it has huge rame . It does literally .

I haven't gone north of Plymouth yet but when I do , you know I'm gonna keep testing it and seeing how far it goes . But yeah , la Conia , yeah , north of conquered conquered Manchester . Even in Manchester , like in the crap zones , like with the building , the stuff comes in super strong .

So the only thing that I don't like about is it has a long delay , like a tail . A tail , but you don't need to wait , but people don't know that . So they wait like you can just Go start talking .

But besides that , it's a , it's a and it's kind of been an unknown repeater , but now it's getting a little bit more traffic because people keep spreading the word . So it's kind of good , but it's definitely it's kind of like the Westford repeater in mass .

So I really want to go up for a hike and just bring an HT and see how far , how far , what mountain can I get on . Like can I , can I go up Mount Washington and hit my HT and hit the repeater ? That'd be pretty , it'd be pretty amazing . But it's a good one .

And I guess the guy , his call sign is it's kind of a funny , it's W1ASS , but I know I was like , I'm like , is that a ? Was he given that or did someone call on that ? And he's like I'm going to get that as a as a call sign . But I guess he , he , he was a radio guy , worked in the area on a radio station and he now doesn't even live up .

I think he lives , I think he might even live in Connecticut but he goes down to Florida , for this is what they're telling me on the thing . But yeah , he was a radio , he worked in radio , he was on the air or whatever was a broadcast or whatever , and he got this repeater up there and yeah , it's pretty awesome .

So but yeah , that's , that's basically what I use , my , that's what I mean , and for me , the 300 , it's just the way it looks at my Jeep , the simplicity of it , but it also has a lot of features , so you don't need to use all the features and you know , being that in this area we have fusion , it's really nice to to be able to kick into the digital

mode when you know if you're like you know Eric and I have done in the past , I think I was out and huts and we started to lose each other . I said I just switch over to the digital and then we could finish our conversation because we could get a little bit farther .

And I think another guy in our club I was heading down south to like Worcester and I was losing the repeater , club repeater but we switched to digital and I got a little bit farther distance . So so that's another bonus to it .

You know the , the , the right amount of knobs with it is always a plus Like there's not like a button or sub button or a multiple like multifunction button , it's always there's a knob for the VFO for volume , there's a knob for VFOB volume . You know the squelch buttons very easy . Everything is very well like one button away .

So if you're driving you don't have to like even glance over . You know where the button is . You can do what you need to do if you need to , or you can do it right from that . The , the actual mic itself for most of the steps .

I can take an SD card , pull it out of the you know the face , the faceplate part of the radio , bring it over to my computer , throw it in the reader , program it and then bring it . So , like we're going away , like I said , next week , I have three memory cards with me .

One's programmed for four to five repeaters going down the main thoroughfare of 95 and stuff , and then a bunch are just a few others that recommend , and so I'm just going to pop the card in , load it , reboot it and you know , or off to the races and everything's been programmed .

That , I think , alone is , you know , way easier than having to , you know , worry about whether or not your repeaters . Like a D star which you know , granted , I love that feature where , like you know Kenwood's icon that does it .

Right , they have that whole scan , yeah right , so they , they can program repeaters and scan , which is great and probably very accurate for most of the you know repeaters that are out there , but you know . But then you know it programs all of these channels in there and you may or may not know what repeater it is and where it is and whatnot .

Well , I have more control and I think that SD card is a big plus . So when you're shopping for radios , that's something you might want to consider , because you know we can't program thousands of repeaters in into your memory card . Well , there are people that do that . I should say that they're . You know that , that that old dinosaur is still there .

But you know , now you can be more selective about how you program your memory banks and channels and all the other stuff and features and functionality . And my last piece of that is APRS .

I love APRS , although the implementation of it on the Yehzu world is , you know , a little bit half baked , but I would say you know it's , it's definitely a great functionality and love that service and have it running all the time on my B band because you know , I don't know about you , but my , my five two experience here in the New England is , like you

know , very rare , unless you want to talk to Dale . I can remember his call sign AC , yeah , yeah , and no AF1T , right , AF1T , yeah , he , he's a big five two guy , so he'll be the always wanting to respond back to you .

But there's not a whole lot of five two traffic , at least from my experience , or at least people respond , and I'm sure I'll probably hear a lot more when I go down south . So I'm looking forward to , you know , making some contacts and you know so I guess , with that . So let's kind of wrap this up a little bit .

So we didn't really talk price and I didn't want to kind of get into that , because with mobiles you know there are a lot of features and functionality .

I think the best recommendation that I can offer and you know I'll throw it out to you guys , to throw you know your last final thoughts , when you're shopping for a radio , you know , look at price , look at features , look at functionality and do a comparison against all three .

Don't worry about the brand , the type , because most of the menuing systems when you get into mobile radios are roughly the same .

You're not going to see a major difference , like you see in the HF space , but you know , from a standpoint you're going to get a lot of the same functionality to for power , for you know features and you know it all just depends on what your budget is when you go in .

And if you're running an HT currently your car and you're struggling with it , this might be a good sign to think you know , hey , let's move towards a mobile rig and your experience will be much more better on that side . So , Paul , what do you ? What do you ?

It's just like any any of the other hobbies . You know guns , kilts . You know you don't want to ever remortgage the house to feed your hobby .

Yeah , you know , I think I think my biggest thing is I used to have an HT with a mag mount before I had my Jeep on the car and you know it worked , but it was annoying A lot of static , losing people and then once I put the mobile rig in , it was like whoa , like this is awesome .

And so if you don't have a mobile radio and your question about should I get one ? Or I'd highly suggest you get one because you'll use it a lot , especially with us , with our club is very active on our repeater . We get more and more people on it . We do the net every pretty much every night , and it's just really cool to be able to just monitor it .

And then you know , you get in the car and you hear someone call out and you're talking to them , you know . So it's definitely a . It's a no brainer . If you need to , if you're thinking about , like I'm on the edge , like do I get it , Just get it and you won't regret it .

At least that's what I thought , because I found it to be a huge difference from an HT to a mobile rig , just with the amount of the wattage . It's just , it's way better , Yep .

I appreciate all your input and that was really fun to kind of see . You know your iterative process and all of us getting mobile rigs set up and in our daily lives I know I benefit and enjoy , you know , having that always in the truck . It's always the first thing to go on before even the radio and talk about really car radio .

If you know there's like , well , okay , xm , serious XM . I will say car radio because I don't think I've ever listened to a car radio in a long time . But you know all said with that , we always thank you for watching and listening to live free in ham .

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