Mobile, vehicle radio question and suggestions

[Jake Tyson]

Hey all, as some of you may know from my thread in the education forum, i am trying to peice together my equipment for chasing next year.

anyways, i am trying to find a ham/cb(which is better) radio for my jeep, and how to go about gettting a license and proper etiquite for these systems.

 

[Ric Burney]

Take a look around for your local ham radio club. They will help you get familiar w/ radio ops and get your ham license. In the mean time, check out http://www.qrz.com for information and practice (free) license exams. Also check out http://www.arrl.org
I wouldn't be too concerned about CB for chasing because of limited range however truck chatter can be useful at times. There are models that have built in WX radios which is also handy.
In another thread there is discussion on the use of MURS which is a license-free VHF radio service. I recommend this for vehicle to vehicle comms using mobile units w/ external antennas. Handheld radios just don't do well inside a vehicle unless you are really close.

 

[Andrew Ryan]

Ham radio hands down. Most chasers that have a radio are on the ham radio bands. Licensing is easy. All you need is to pass your test for the technician class.

You can find a location that is given an exam near you here: http://www.arrl.org/arrlvec/examsearch.phtml

Study for the exam here:
http://www.qrz.com/p/testing.pl

I just got the Yaesu Ft-2800m and it works great and is cheap (~$130). Pretty much any radio on the market will work just fine.

Good Luck!

 

[Scott Bennett]

I have a Ft-2800m and agree it's a great mobile for chasing, uber high power and gets the job done at a good price. Looks like it has been upgraded to the ft-2900... too bad because I got my Ft-2800m at Christmas for about $100

 

[Rob Wadsworth]

I have both a 2m radio and a CB. CB's are great for local talk and truckers. Grat way to talk to locals. Truckers are great for road info; they know them very well. They also know where every greasy spoon restaurant is, not to mention gas stations, etc.

With a 2m radio, you may find it necessay to get a current repeater handbook. This way, you can always make decent contacts wherever you may be chasing. I have yet to use my 2m on a chase. This year I am hoping to do that. But CB's are great for on-the-road too...

 

[Wes Carter]

I agree with everyone else, HAM radio is the way to go. Here are a few reasons I got my license:
1. You can hear the SKYWARN spotter nets.
2. You can go to 146.550 and talk with other chasers if any are around.
3. There are numerous repeaters that greatly extends your range.

I also have a Yaesu FT-2800 and have no complaints with it. It's cheap, powerful, and rugged. Plus, it doesn't have a fan so it runs quieter than radios that do hae a fan.

You can go to Eham and read user reviews on radios you might be interested in.

 

[Jake Tyson]

so i guess ill go with the yaesu ft-2800, since most of you seem to have that.

uh any ideas for antennas or anything lse i may need for it?

what would you recomend for a cb with weather radio? (i found one, a cobra 75?)

and anyone know where there are manuals on how to use HAM that are free?

 

[Kevin Cramer]

and anyone know where there are manuals on how to use HAM that are free?

It's worth shelling out the bit of change for an ARRL Operators Manual... they are full of pretty useful information. Other than that, I like the qrz forums that can be found online.

As for antennas... the ones where you drill into the car are superior, however, I don't have that option and went with a Diamond MR77 (mag mount), which gives decent performance and is under 40 dollars (and I'd assume that's a good thing since it seems like you are on a bit of a budget/trying to save as much as possible for the actual season)

 

[Jake Tyson]

yea, im tryin to save as much as i can for the season, but ill go and shell out the cash for the manual.

any body else have opionions on antennas, if not ill get the mr77.

and i have heard alot about mobile hams having signal/antenna issues?

 

[Jesse Risley]

Permanent mount NMO antennas are the best way to go as far as grounding and performance are concerned. If you are absolutely opposed to drilling a hole in the vehicle, I would at least recommend going with some sort of a trunk or hatch mount antenna. A magnetic mount antenna would personally be my last resort, although that's not to say they don't work at all either. You will probably want to purchase at least a VHF 5/8-wave antenna with 3 Db gain for the best performance on two meters in rural areas.

I would strongly recommend that you hard wire and properly fuse your ham radio, as powering from the cigarette lighter is not recommended for anything over 5 watts PEP. Some of the newer ham rigs have weather bands with weather alert built right into the radio, negating the need for a CB radio for weather reception.

QRZ is a great site for taking practice tests, but I always recommend that you purchase the licensing manual (i.e. Now You're Talking from RadioShack) and actual read the relevant portions. This will make you a more knowledgeable operator and it will explain radio etiquette in greater detail.

 

[Rob Wadsworth]

so i guess ill go with the yaesu ft-2800, since most of you seem to have that.

uh any ideas for antennas or anything lse i may need for it?

what would you recomend for a cb with weather radio? (i found one, a cobra 75?)

and anyone know where there are manuals on how to use HAM that are free?

I have the Yaesu FT-8800R; a bit pricey but loaded with features.

Antennas are EVERYTHING to radios.
Believe it!
For the 2m, I have the Diamond NR-770.
For CB, I have the Wilson 1000 magnet-mount.

Cobra radios arr just 'OK' anymore; they used to be the best 15 years ago. They are pretty junky these days. I would steer clear of them. Get a older one if you can - like an older Cobra 29LTD or a nice old Cobra 148GTL. Or any new Galaxy radio is nice -too- if you want to buy new.

Just because the Cobra may have the weather feature - I surely wouldn't buy it. As mentioned previously, some 2m radios can scan weather channels, police channels, fire dept channels, etc. I went that route myself...

 

[Wes Carter]

so i guess ill go with the yaesu ft-2800, since most of you seem to have that.

uh any ideas for antennas or anything lse i may need for it?

what would you recomend for a cb with weather radio? (i found one, a cobra 75?)

and anyone know where there are manuals on how to use HAM that are free?

The FT-2800 has the NOAA weather bands programmed in and you can access them with the touch of a button. Plus, you can set it up to alert you if a severe weather warning tone is broadcast on NOAA Weather Radio. Here is the text from Yaesu's website:

A special 10-channel Weather Band memory bank is provided in the U.S. version, allowing quick access to NOAA weather broadcasts. When the 1050-Hz “Severe Weatherâ€￾ alert tone is transmitted, the FT-2800M may be configured to emit an alarm tone to get your attention quickly. With the “Weather Alertâ€￾ feature enabled, the FT-2800M will scan the ten Weather memories, stopping only if the 1050-Hz tone is received.

And as far as studying for the technician exam, there are a few resources on the internet where you can find more information. But first I would get this manual and study it. Then take practice exams at the following sites to test your knowledge:

Eham practice exams
QRZ practice exams

Getting your license and operating on the VHF and UHF bands is not a difficult task at all. And you have plenty of time to do it before the primes season starts. You could order a book now and study and take your exam when you feel comfortable with it. You could get Santa to bring you a radio, antenna, and mount. Then you could practice on the radio between Christmas and Spring and you'll be plenty well practiced to do most everything you'll need to do.

I would spend more time learning storm structure, forecasting, and reading posts in here than I would learning radio. I've been chasing since 2006 and made the mistake of thinking I had to have the right gear and pretty much wasted 2006 and 2007 trying to get caught up on radios, computers, software, and all of that stuff and missed about 1 1/2 years opportunity to be studying forecasting and storm structure. Even though I've been chasing for 3 years, I'd say 90% or more of the active users on Stormtrack have more knowledge about the weather than I do. I'm catching up, but I thought that I'd let you know my biggest mistake so you could avoid it.

 

[Jake Tyson]

thanks, the reasearch is definently something im doin as well.

 

[Rob Wadsworth]

http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/8281
The Yaesu 2900 got better reviews on eham than the 2800 did.
Go figure...

http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/3077

 

[D. Hayes]

The FT8900 covers your entire tech license. Love mine.