Swords

Bud, i just took the Technician test last week and there were only two impedance calculations on my version of the test. Very, very basic math. And if that still gives you fits, you might be better off memorizing the answers for the handful of math questions from the 400 questions in the current bank of test questions.

I'm waiting for my Technician ticket to be issued this week. I live in a renovated 100 year old warehouse with southward facing views of Jersey City and downtown Manhattan. I have no balcony or roof access, but I do have very high ceilings and 10 ft tall windows at about 160 ft above sea level. Up until now, I've tinkered with HTs including a Yaesu FT-60r, a Wouxun KG-UV9D, and a Baofeng UV-82HP. I've done the replacement antennas including a Diamond SRH77CA and others. The Wouxun UV9D seems to have the best receive and transmit with the SRH77CA, at least on GMRS where I can legally transmit, from inside my apartment. My goal is to do HF/VHF/UHF from one or two radios. In addition to my HTs, I'm thinking of these options: 1. Semi-portable -- Buy something like a Yaesu FT-897 (used) or FT-991 (new) that's not a full size base for living in a shoebox apartment. I like the FT-897D because it has the option for built in power. But maybe these are overkill because of my height and safety issues of running high power inside? If I get this, I'd have to rely on the Wouxun KG-UV9D HT for when I travel or something else. 2. Backpack portable - Get something like the Yaesu FT-817 and figure out something for an antenna that doesn't drive my wife crazy ("honey, think of it as an art installation!"). This would be the kind of rig I could see myself taking on trips and setting up outside at my destination. Would easily fit in my carry-on bag. 3. Boost the power on an HT when I'm home - I guess I could get a linear amp for my Wouxun, but I think it could get tedious using the HT interface for working. 4. Software defined radio - I keep seeing stuff about the Elecraft KX3. SDRs are very interesting to me being a techie. 5. Pay for a repeater rig / antenna on a skyscraper in Manhattan that I can control remotely. Somehow I feel like this might be more than a $5K investment, which makes it less likely I'd spring for it. Thanks in advance for your feedback! Swords P.S. - If using an HT with accessories solves some of my woes, I'd love recommendations on an antenna or amp, whatever might make it more formidable for repeaters. I don't want to be that guy on an HT hitting a repeater that nobody wants to talk to.

John, I hope you reconsider! Please let me know if there's anything the community can do to help.

I hear ya. I live and work in NYC, almost never drive a car, live in a shoe box and look for optimizations of size and functionality in almost everything. If there is a mobile unit that would suit my needs and be easy to power without hauling around an inverter and battery pack, I could probably make it work. If you were me, would you just carry two HTs and have a base at home or something else altogether? Thanks for the perspective.

I have a Baofeng UV-5RTP and its a great value (not Part 95), but the keys are noisy, doesn't have an FM tuner, multi-band scanning, dual PTT, etc. I really like the AnyTone NSTIG-8R but it isn't CHIRPS compatible and their programming software is quirky and Windows-only. I'd like to get a quality HT for HAM and FRS/GMRS but it seems like I need two HTs. Any advice?

Well that's no fun. I naively assumed it could be reprogrammed to work. Is there a great HT that supports GMRS?

Anyone have one? Best handheld out there this year? It looks packed full of features.