Intro to Radio Communications

[QuietShootr]

Any advice on the capacitor install? Link me, baby!

Try that link I posted above. If you want to try just the cap, go to Radio Shack and get the one pictured on the link, and connect it across the power cable as close to your radio as you can get it, and observe that the capacitor has polarity (put the + on the correct side of the power cable, iow.) See if the noise disappears. If it does, come back here and I'll talk you through installing it permanently.

[Logicalpath]

WOW!!! This is way more than I bargained for to say the least. While these forums are very informative they're also trying to guide me towards bankruptcy.

On a serious note, I don't think what you all are describing is practical for my set of circumstances. I live in a town house surrounded by morons in the middle of Miami. If there is a survival situation what I would want is a way to communicate quickly and on the move. I figure we're going to have to get out of dodge quickly & would need to take my gear with me. I'm not sure if there is anything that would serve a dual purpose but ideally I would want to have walkie-talkies(about 4) to be able to communicate among the group and if at all possible to communicate with family in West Palm Beach(80 miles away).

Does that sound terribly unreasonable? Any guidance is appreciated, thanks.

[QuietShootr]

WOW!!! This is way more than I bargained for to say the least. While these forums are very informative they're also trying to guide me towards bankruptcy.

On a serious note, I don't think what you all are describing is practical for my set of circumstances. I live in a town house surrounded by morons in the middle of Miami. If there is a survival situation what I would want is a way to communicate quickly and on the move. I figure we're going to have to get out of dodge quickly & would need to take my gear with me. I'm not sure if there is anything that would serve a dual purpose but ideally I would want to have walkie-talkies(about 4) to be able to communicate among the group and if at all possible to communicate with family in West Palm Beach(80 miles away).

Does that sound terribly unreasonable? Any guidance is appreciated, thanks.

The 80 mile link isn't going to happen without a pair of HF radios and a couple of competent operators. The only way around this would be to spend a LOT of money (like $5000 per end) on some commercial/military HF rigs that have Automatic Link Establishment and have them set up by someone who knows what they're doing.

The local communication can be easily handled with MURS, GMRS, or FRS handhelds.

[Logicalpath]

The 80 mile link isn't going to happen without a pair of HF radios and a couple of competent operators. The only way around this would be to spend a LOT of money (like $5000 per end) on some commercial/military HF rigs that have Automatic Link Establishment and have them set up by someone who knows what they're doing.

The local communication can be easily handled with MURS, GMRS, or FRS handhelds.

For practical reasons, if there ever was an emergency situation I think we would have to leave our house. So having any kind of system which would be considered "static" is not ideal for me. Not to mention the money those systems would cost is way out of my budget(at least for the time being).

Do you have any suggestions as far as FRS handhelds are concerned? Thanks for your input, more than one person has suggested I discuss this with you. Again, my circumstances are less than ideal because of my geographic location, holding the fort seems like a less than desirable option.

[QuietShootr]

For practical reasons, if there ever was an emergency situation I think we would have to leave our house. So having any kind of system which would be considered "static" is not ideal for me. Not to mention the money those systems would cost is way out of my budget(at least for the time being).

Do you have any suggestions as far as FRS handhelds are concerned? Thanks for your input, more than one person has suggested I discuss this with you. Again, my circumstances are less than ideal because of my geographic location, holding the fort seems like a less than desirable option.

I would avoid FRS if possible, I just mentioned it for the sake of completeness. Your best bet would be to spend about $100-150 per handheld on some commercial Motorola VHF units off of eBay and have them programmed to MURS frequencies by the dealer.

[Gatorbait]

Logicalpath....You are in Miami? Have you checked out page 2 of this thread? It looks like (to me at least) there is a fellow member here who is involved with a 2m repeater in downtown Miami.....?

If I read it correctly, it can even be hit from West Palm Beach...........

[Logicalpath]

I would avoid FRS if possible, I just mentioned it for the sake of completeness. Your best bet would be to spend about $100-150 per handheld on some commercial Motorola VHF units off of eBay and have them programmed to MURS frequencies by the dealer.

Thanks for the input, I'll get on that. Would THIS be an example of what you're talking about?

Logicalpath....You are in Miami? Have you checked out page 2 of this thread? It looks like (to me at least) there is a fellow member here who is involved with a 2m repeater in downtown Miami.....?

If I read it correctly, it can even be hit from West Palm Beach...........

Maybe my settings are different but I didn't see that post on pg2. However I'm going to re-read the entire thread in an effort to learn more about the subject. Thanks for pointing that out to me, I'll keep an eye out for it on my re-read.

[QuietShootr]

I saw something hysterically funny in Dick's yesterday. Bubble-pack FRS/GMRS radios with a big 36 MILE RANGE! printed on the front.

[Heavy Metal]

That should read .36 mile range.

[MeanStreaker]

I definitely need to upgrade my Comms.

I got my Tech ham license a few years ago and picked up a Yaesu FT60R radio. It's a great little HT. I listened every now and then but never really got into it as I can only take so many 2m conversations about an 80 year old's last doctor visit.

I studied for a few days and upgraded to General in June on a whim. Now I'd really like to get an economical HF rig to be able to monitor further out.