PA141

Do a bit of shopping in the used market and there are some 80's/90's HF radios that you can get for around the same price. It is best to have someone experienced shopping with you. There are a couple of monthly (?) ham swaps in Socal. Radios such as Kenwood TS-120/130 or Icom 730/735/740/745 would be something in that range. I picked up a Alinco HF mobile for a friend for $125 at a swap. Just have to be patient. Will these have the latest features like soundcards, etc..., no, but still solid radios if not abused. Having a "real" ham radio will typically outperform newer 10M / import CB radios and you aren't limited to just 10M propagation. If you can open up your budget a bit to $4-500, the Icom 706mkII or IIg will give you HF plus 6,2M and 440 with the G model. They Yaesu FT-100/857 might be found in this price class. Get on one of the west coast web SDRs and listen to the swap net on 7240 kHz on Sat/Sunday around 1PM PDT. Also the online swaps on qrz.com or qth.com. Use those for reference on radios/prices. Best to stay with local sales unless you are experienced.

Park Ridge covers down to Bakersfield (at least) for base stations. It is at 7500' so a good mobile will probably make it also. I have HT coverage at 50+ miles, but not full quieting with 5W. Full quieting with vertical at 20'. Joaquin ridge is up and I suspect will cover there. It used to be linked to some other repeaters back east, but I think there were jamming issues and the link was shut down. Auberry may be stretching it to Delano. Not familiar with the repeater specifics, but that area is probably only 2-3000' peaks in the foothills. There is a private system on Mt. Bullion (Mariposa), that might reach that far, but I have not had any response to access requests. Haven't heard much activity on Joaquin or Auberry the last few weeks. Mariposa and Park ridge have the most activity.

Pretty long shots but, the Tulare ARC repater (.700) is high level and might get over the ridge into that valley. Joaquin Ridge (.575) is closer, but will be probably be scattering off of the coast range along the path. 700 would be the best shot. Possible mobile coverage. Base stations in Bakersfield can access it, but they are not behind the ridge.

Lower profile than a tape measure yagi. http://wa5vjb.com/yagi-pdf/cheapyagi.pdf

I am not aware of all of the product offerings for remote coax switches, but most of the ones that I have seen top out around 50 MHz with maybe a couple to 150 MHz. There are some military surplus coaxial switches that will go higher. They require 28V and you would have to build your own switching network. A diplexer/triplexer may provide some of the functionality that you need with a passive device.

Old video, but creative idea:

No affiliation with this repeater and have never used it. Just notice this browsing the repeater listings. https://mygmrs.com/repeater/243 Welcome to Bay Area Repeater Net!! UPDATE -- August 5, 2023: We are shutting down the BARN-R1 system. The battery backup system, rack, and primary duplexer (Sinclair BpBr) are for sale. We are also leaving the hardline (1/2"; 1.46 dB loss total run) on the tower, which is perfect for someone else to hop in and take over. Thank you to those who have helped us financially over the years. We are still behind on rent, and being that no one has stepped up to cover the financial costs of keeping the system on-air, we are officially forced to shut down and move. We are still accepting financial support if there is a person/entity who would like to sponsor BARN-R1. More info on the link above. If you live in the south bay, you may want to help keep this alive.

A General class ham license could be quite helpful in the back country in an emergency. With NVIS propagation on 40 or 80 meters you have a good chance of getting a signal out of a canyon or where no ham or GMRS repeater coverage exists. Even 40M during the day with a hamstick antenna has provided a surprising amount of signals deep in the Sierra Nevada on various trips. Regardless of if you want to just chat, having at least one person with HF capability in your group is worth the effort to pass a couple of tests (even more so if traveling solo).

Thank you. This works on a radio received today. The offset on the radio displays as +- above the frequency and disables transmit.

Thanks. I don't see VFO TX either in the latest Chirp-next. Will test the non-standard split option when his radio arrives. This will hopefully be adequate to remove the possibility of transmitting on a public service frequency.

I have a co-worker that purchased a UV-5R with the intent of getting his license. My base image also has public service and other channels programmed in. Since he is new to radio, I want to eliminate any chance of accidental transmission outside of ham frequencies. I have not found an option to selectively disable a transmit frequency. There is an option to disable TX on VHF and/or UHF in general. There are also settings for the frequency limits, but I suspect that will remove RX capability also. Is there a setting that I am missing somewhere in Chirp? Obviously I could remove all the non-ham frequencies, but it would be nice for him to be able to receive other services. Worse case, I could enter a manual split frequency set to some oddball 2M simplex frequency, but that would be a major PITA.

I would clean the threads (just because). Can't say if it will have any electrical impact, but it could bind up the threads. For anyone using considering Coax Seal or similar products do yourself a favor and put down a "courtesy wrap" of electrical tape or heat shrink. Then you can goop away with just about anything you want and be able to remove it without crap getting in all the nooks and crannies.

Glanced through a couple of ham radio tropo reports from the weekend. Many of these were on UHF or higher frequencies, so GMRS reports would not be surprising. CT -> FL & IA ME -> IN, OH, WI, IL, NC, MI, NE, LA, SC, MO, KS, VA and Ontario, Canada. For real radio geeks this would also include FM broadcast and TV signals from outside of your normal reception range. Another subset of the scanner hobby.

There was a widespread tropospheric ducting event over the weekend. I haven't looked into the details but it was covering areas of the northeast. If you were not connecting to a linked repeater system, this is the likely source.