4 ms·

What band do you want (VHF, UHF, etc)? Do you need a radio that can be legally transmit on MURS or Part 90 frequencies (land mobile) or just ham radio? Do you

by Aloha 11y ago

What band do you want (VHF, UHF, etc)? Do you need a radio that can be legally transmit on MURS or Part 90 frequencies (land mobile) or just ham radio? Do you want a handheld or mobile? Do you object to hardware that uses DOS (preferably running either on a real older laptop/desktop, or perhaps slowed down in DOSBox to program) or needs funky interface cables? Do you object to something that must be programmed with a computer, and cannot be programmed by front panel inputs?

beezle 11y ago
- 2m/70cm seems best to start (?) - Not business oriented, just ham. - mobile or handheld, though mobile in the sense of base station, not for in truck use. - no serious objection to odd cables or dos as long as parts/software is not so obscure as to be frustrating to find or use - would like to retain front panel option Thanks again
- Aloha 11y ago
  If you just want a straight ham radio, I'd recommend a Yeasu FT-60R (~100 on ebay), having owned one, I find the build quality much better, I suspect it also performs better when it comes to adjacent channel interference, intermod, and desense too - for a mobile, a Kenwood TM-281A (~120 on ebay) - which is a 2m only radio, but one of the best (and easiest) I've used. For Commercial options (you generally loose the front panel programability) so long as you only need the ham bands - Motorola HT1000 (~20 on ebay) (available in VHF and UHF) or for a mobile (could be used as a base or in a truck) a Motorola Spectra (~40-150 on ebay) or GM300 (~50-100 on ebay) - as a note, when buying the commercial radios on ebay, you have to pay careful attention to the bandsplit of UHF radios, many of them are 450-482, rather than the 403-450 we'd want for ham radio. The thing is, as a radio, the Chinese units are not horrible, they're a world away better than what anyone was using 25 years ago - but they're essentially disposable radios, one drop - and you're probably buying a new one - to give you an example, I own a portion radio fleet that a group of us use for low cost rentals to non-profits, its mostly Motorola, but the Motorola hardware is expensive, so we were looking for a low cost analog only option, and we bought 10 woxun handhelds for our rental fleet, they made it three rental cycles (about 18 months) before all but 2 were dead - in that same period, we had no failures in the Motorola and Kenwood portions of our fleet. These experiences perhaps color my judgement a bit about the baofengs, woxuns and the like.

by Aloha 11y ago

beezle 11y ago

- 2m/70cm seems best to start (?) - Not business oriented, just ham. - mobile or handheld, though mobile in the sense of base station, not for in truck use. - no serious objection to odd cables or dos as long as parts/software is not so obscure as to be frustrating to find or use - would like to retain front panel option Thanks again

Aloha 11y ago
If you just want a straight ham radio, I'd recommend a Yeasu FT-60R (~100 on ebay), having owned one, I find the build quality much better, I suspect it also performs better when it comes to adjacent channel interference, intermod, and desense too - for a mobile, a Kenwood TM-281A (~120 on ebay) - which is a 2m only radio, but one of the best (and easiest) I've used. For Commercial options (you generally loose the front panel programability) so long as you only need the ham bands - Motorola HT1000 (~20 on ebay) (available in VHF and UHF) or for a mobile (could be used as a base or in a truck) a Motorola Spectra (~40-150 on ebay) or GM300 (~50-100 on ebay) - as a note, when buying the commercial radios on ebay, you have to pay careful attention to the bandsplit of UHF radios, many of them are 450-482, rather than the 403-450 we'd want for ham radio. The thing is, as a radio, the Chinese units are not horrible, they're a world away better than what anyone was using 25 years ago - but they're essentially disposable radios, one drop - and you're probably buying a new one - to give you an example, I own a portion radio fleet that a group of us use for low cost rentals to non-profits, its mostly Motorola, but the Motorola hardware is expensive, so we were looking for a low cost analog only option, and we bought 10 woxun handhelds for our rental fleet, they made it three rental cycles (about 18 months) before all but 2 were dead - in that same period, we had no failures in the Motorola and Kenwood portions of our fleet. These experiences perhaps color my judgement a bit about the baofengs, woxuns and the like.