Leaderboard

So after reading your woes about space and such, I hear these questions daily here in Hawaii. Between the space limits and those bloody HOAs there comes unconventional solutions. First off... If your looking for a go everywhere do anything radio, it is by far the Yaesu 857. HF -70cm and in a much smaller package than the 897. Not legal on GMRS, but hey... You can't have everything. Although I did easily modify mine for my MARS work and it has continuous TX and Rx from 1.0mhz to 500mhz. OHHH... And it does 100wats on HF and 50watts on VHF and 35 on UHF. Another nice thing is it's a very sturdy radio and is easily mounted mobile if needed. I even have a buddy who purchased a second control head, and just moves the radio body from his truck to the shack and plugs it into that head. If your roof has metal rafters, youre kinda screwed on interior antennas. BUT people are having GREAT success with mag loop antennas in small spaces. If your rafters at not metal, you can string an end fed wire with match box through them and actually work a lot of stations. As to V/U antennas, we do a lot of mag mounts on metal pizza pans around here. Mag mounts on fridges, even sticking them on the top of window AC units. Power amps are great on HTs, but the receive seems to not be as good as a mobile. As to the 9D?? LOVE mine. GREAT radio! Too bad it is not 95 approved. My station is actually mounted in a gator box. Reason being, we have to move like every three years, and it makes life SO much easier. I will also take my gator box to field days and scouting events. So it is TOTALLY portable. There is no limit to what you can do. The only limit is money. But that's half lthe fun in this hobby, making stuff work on the cheap! 73 James WQUL457 W8JVF

Its up and running, tested range and found it to be way better then expected. Portable's worked 15+ miles and mobiles 30+ with full quieting. If your in the area use and enjoy! Corey