My First Radio(s)
Posted By Leo On July 20, 2011 @ 6:48 pm In Ham | 5 Comments
[1]My new HT radios have arrived from HRO [2]: The Kenwood TH-D72A [3] and Icom IC-92AD [1]. I’ve turned them on and off a bunch of times but am too afraid to do anything else.
[3]These handy-talkies are dual-band: VHF/UHF, the frequencies most suitable for Technicians. And since there are lots of FM repeaters in the mountains near Petaluma, there’s lots I can do with them. Not that I have yet.
I bought the Icom because it does D-Star [4], a packet-based digital voice and data protocol that’s new and gaining popularity. The Kenwood was Gordon West WB6NOA’s recommendation because it supports APRS, IRLP, Echo-Link and other popular digital technologies.
One of these days I’ll actually give them a try.
5 Responses to “My First Radio(s)”
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Article printed from LOL: The Life of Leo: http://leoville.com
URL to article: http://leoville.com/the-handy-talkies-are-here
URLs in this post:
[1] Image: http://www.icomamerica.com/en/products/amateur/handheld/92ad/default.aspx
[2] HRO: http://www.hamradio.com/
[3] Kenwood TH-D72A: http://www.kenwoodusa.com/Communications/Amateur_Radio/Portables/TH-D72A
[4] D-Star: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D-STAR
Click here to print.
Key it up, and say, Hellow from w6twt
Nice radios, Leo. You don’t mess around.What I wouldn’t give to be near a repeater you’re using and be able to chat with you. When you go DX, I might finally do it too, just to be able to say “Hi”.
James
KC8ENL
I started out with an HT. Here in the flatlands I quickly found out I needed a good dual band mobile antenna (5/8 wave). Made really good use of the measley 5W of the HT. Of course, after a few months of that in the car, I really had to move on to a mobile dual band at 50 watts. Dont forget, you can then set the mobile up as a cross band repeater and increase the range of your HT as you walk around oshkosk or some car show or even inside a building, You “cross band” out to your car and talk like you got 50 watts!! N9AOK (Todd Snyder)
I started out with an HT. Here in the flatlands I quickly found out I needed a good dual band mobile antenna (5/8 wave). Made really good use of the measley 5W of the HT. Of course, after a few months of that in the car, I really had to move on to a mobile dual band at 50 watts. Dont forget, you can then set the mobile up as a cross band repeater and increase the range of your HT as you walk around oshkosk or some car show or even inside a building, You “cross band” out to your car and talk like you got 50 watts!! N9AOK (Todd Snyder)
Dont forget, you can usually hack those HT’s to open up the restricted bands for receive (and transmit…which you would never do).