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Help with a radio setup

christopher

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While giving thought to the dipole thing..... I was wondering if the shovel and handle could be used as the elements of a dipole..... never really gave it serious consideration...:face-icon-small-win

I'm still considering the dipole thing....to busy riding to do anything about it....

Kg7otl
Wqsr556
If you pull it off, I WANT PICS!!!!!!
 

blastco2

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After talking to elmer, the dipole thing will be later in season or summer. I am going to do a counterpoise. Its easy and cheap..... then I'm concentrating on aprs. Lgv10, mobilinkd tnc, bff8hp. I've used it mobile in my pu and atv, now going to run it on the sled. There is a digipeater on relay ridge and another near alpine.

For those that may be following this and thinking of going the cheap chinese radio route, do not buy the baofeng speaker mics that are teardrop shaped. Choose the mics that have more of a square shape. They can be had for about $15. Much better tx audio.
 

blastco2

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Christopher and Drewd
I've been using a baofeng uv6 with a btech speaker mic and a diamond srfj40a. Works very well! So well that other members of my group are asking me to set them up the same. It is a bit more money than the 888 but works so much better.

Question for you. Will the cord of a speaker mic act as a counterpoise?

Story about a group without radios.
Near Bear Lake, a group of 6 good riders. These guys travel as lite as possible....nothing extra. Beacon, probe, shovel, avi pack, lunch. The 2 best riders dropped into a he]] hole. They made it back out with great difficulty. In the mean time, the 2 least capable riders decided to drop in also. They couldn't get out. Spent tne night. 4 very good riders dropped in the next day. Found the lost riders. Made their way out the bottom with very great difficulty. This event involved 30+ sar people. Many extremely worried friends and family. Ect. All the trouble can be blamed on lack of communication. The first 2 to drop in could have radioed to the rest of the group to, not follow. This would have never happened if, radios had been used.
 
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AMAX

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Dec 22, 2014
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I just picked up some of the Baofeng 888 radios with the cheap speaker mics and found out that night that my brother bought us a set of the BCLinks.

The BC Links seem like great quality and user friendly. The Baofengs work fine and should result in more range but our group is usually pretty close to each other so I think the BC Links will do great. I might grab some of the better Baofeng models to play with since they are so inexpensive and capable.

Programming the Baofengs takes a little bit, but not too bad. I couldn't get my Win 7 PC to accept drivers for the FTDI cable but it went pretty smooth on my Mac. I programmed them to normal FRS/GMRS on 1-15 and channel 16 to channel "F" on the BC Links. Channel "A" on the BC Links is the same as "1" so we have two options if one channel is busy. I used "CHIRP" to program with.

The cheap Baofeng speaker mics aren't very good so I'll be looking for a better quality option thats also waterproof.

Of course the Baofengs are for emergency use only since they don't conform to the rules :spy:
 
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blastco2

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I just picked up some of the Baofeng 888 radios with the cheap speaker mics and found out that night that my brother bought us a set of the BCLinks.

The BC Links seem like great quality and user friendly. The Baofengs work fine and should result in more range but our group is usually pretty close to each other so I think the BC Links will do great. I might grab some of the better Baofeng models to play with since they are so inexpensive and capable.

Programming the Baofengs takes a little bit, but not too bad. I couldn't get my Win 7 PC to accept drivers for the FTDI cable but it went pretty smooth on my Mac. I programmed them to normal FRS/GMRS on 1-15 and channel 16 to channel "F" on the BC Links. Channel "A" on the BC Links is the same as "1" so we have two options if one channel is busy. I used "CHIRP" to program with.

The cheap Baofeng speaker mics aren't very good so I'll be looking for a better quality option thats also waterproof.

Of course the Baofengs are for emergency use only since they don't conform to the rules :spy:

Go for the btech water proof. It runs a little less than 25.
 
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AMAX

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Dec 22, 2014
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I ordered two of the btech qmh22 & the NA-711 antennas
 
A
Nov 10, 2015
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Northern Utah
Me and my whole group have BC Link Radio's, work awesome. Defiantly won't ride without them. Sure makes it a lot easier to go find somebody that's stuck somewhere in the trees or to warn each other of anything. Not sure how waterproof the baofeng one's are, that would be my only concern. Been thinking about getting a baofeng one for using in the summer for the SxS's since they are cheap and you're in the dust and sand all day.
 
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AMAX

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Dec 22, 2014
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I'm sure the Baofeng 888 are not water proof. I think with radio stashed in the pack and a "waterproof" speaker mic they will be ok. We tested them with a BC link today and the Baofeng made it about 30% farther. The BC Link is definitely more purpose built and overall feels like it's more robust.
 
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AMAX

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Dec 22, 2014
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The Btech speaker mics Blastco2 suggested arrived and they work great with the Baofeng 888. We rode today and the BC Link worked fantastic and range was no issue since we stay pretty close. The Baofeng were also great as well.
 

blastco2

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I have been having issues with the bf888s. Batteries and radios dieing. So, I am now using the uv-6. It is a more robust built radio, dual band vhf/uhf, 5/4 watts, 2000mah battery, can be set to 1 watt, 128 channels in 8 banks of 16. It still has the same 16 ch selector as the 888. Uses the same mic. Programs with chirp and the same cable as the baofeng family uses. The vhf thing allows use of the 5 murs channels. Comes with a decent antenna. All that for $37ish. Does some other trick stuff that I will describe if there is interest... the best part is a higher level of reliability.
 
C
Jan 4, 2009
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sw montana
ok new to the communication but would like to get started was thinking of helmet speakers or buds and maybe voice activated or ptt i need input as to the best set up any comments are appreciated
 

summ8rmk

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I have the x1.
Really like it.
82c0e8be59a88bc3b38254f5aa5a73c1.jpg


 

HenryTheHammer

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The last couple of seasons we have been using the BCA Link radios with good success. They have a speaker port on the hand mike that I connected some Tork in-helmet speakers to. A couple of tweaks to the BCA radios: be sure to program all the the channel selector positions to the same channel, install frog skin over the mic/speaker, and install some type of helmet speakers.
 

Pickin’ Boogers

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Use caution with wireless in-helmet speaker/mics; like anything electronic, they can interfere with avalanche beacons - especially in close proximity to searching beacons.

This is one of the reasons BCA put the radio controls, including the power switch, onto the speaker/mic. That way, the user can put the radio itself into a backpack and farther away from the searching beacon to reduce interference, but can still easily change channels and adjust volume. Most importantly, it's easy to turn off the radio altogether when initiating a search.

The wireless in-helmet speaker/mic is one more thing you'd have to turn off if you ever initiate a beacon search.

And since the in-helmet speaker/mics communicate wirelessly with the radio from a short distance, there's even a chance one in use by the victim could interfere with searching beacons once they get close enough. This is just speculation. I'm unaware of any research on this specifically.

https://www.mtavalanche.com/sites/d...Issues_Concerning_Ava_Rescue_Transceivers.pdf

http://arc.lib.montana.edu/snow-science/objects/ISSW14_paper_P4.13.pdf
 

blastco2

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In chirp you can find freq lists for several different radio services. It is on of the pull down menus.

My scheme is the frs gmrs channels, then murs, then noaa.
I put a tsql on 6,7,8 and 21, 22. All tones are 100hz which is bca sub 12.
Can someone please share their Chirp program file, not the actual software just the build file/frequency list with me? adamsrk15@gmail.com Thank you

Sent from my SM-T700 using Tapatalk
 
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