Congratulations!Just passed my Foundation side of things. I intend to focus on the HF side of life initially.
Congratulations!Just passed my Foundation side of things. I intend to focus on the HF side of life initially.
Congratulations x2! I was looking at the Intermediate but it’s a bit too much electronics for me for now anyway. (I have the handbook for when I change my mind.)Haven't been on BCUK for some time and just noticed this. Took my foundation in summer and my intermediate in autumn. Will do full in spring. Would love to try SOTA but I live in the fens! I have experimented with a portable 25w UHF VHF rig running on old laptop battery cells. With the right antenna it's very good indeed.
Nice!I ended up getting a FT-70D and a FT-818. Spend most weekends on a hill now !
I passed the foundation a couple of weeks ago.
looking forward to seeing if i can pick up the repeater at Bridgend from the moot site.
This might help (What affects range)Good Morning All,
Just wanted to get an idea about some radios I'm getting hold of. I've managed to get hole of a couple of Entel HT446 UHF radios, I remember using them in my last factory as part of the emergency response and they worked well internally through buildings but I'm thinking about using these for scouts so the leaders can keep in contact whilst roving about.
While I get that ranges change massively depending on where you are and the local geography what would be an expected range for these radios in a rural environment with low hills?
We use UHF radios on 446 for scouting events in wooded rolling hills. Most of our radios these days are 4/5w TX and cope just fine over approx a 2km area. In the old days using mainly 0.5w TX 446 radios, we tended to find that useful range was restricted to approx 1km in the same terrain/site. As per the link above, lots more affects the range than just the transmit power. In my experience, one of the biggest issues with a radio net using non experienced users is people holding handhelds sideways on whilst transmitting - that makes a huge difference!Good Morning All,
Just wanted to get an idea about some radios I'm getting hold of. I've managed to get hole of a couple of Entel HT446 UHF radios, I remember using them in my last factory as part of the emergency response and they worked well internally through buildings but I'm thinking about using these for scouts so the leaders can keep in contact whilst roving about.
While I get that ranges change massively depending on where you are and the local geography what would be an expected range for these radios in a rural environment with low hills?
Good Morning All,
Just wanted to get an idea about some radios I'm getting hold of. I've managed to get hole of a couple of Entel HT446 UHF radios, I remember using them in my last factory as part of the emergency response and they worked well internally through buildings but I'm thinking about using these for scouts so the leaders can keep in contact whilst roving about.
While I get that ranges change massively depending on where you are and the local geography what would be an expected range for these radios in a rural environment with low hills?
You will probably be surprised just how effective the radios are - we run a large scout event each year over an area of forest about 2km x 2km - and 15/20 yrs ago when we first started running it we maintained an effective radio net just with the 0.5w PMR446 handhelds (with 20 to 30 adults using them). Comms weren't always clear (but whenever are they), but we were always able to get messages relayed through to whoever we were trying to reach. Indeed, now we are all using 5w handhelds, we do still need to get intermediate leaders to relay through messages.Thanks all for the responses, it looks like I'll have to give them a shot around the local area to try them out, if nothing they will be good for training RP. We may have to stick with network nokia as our emergency comms for now.
I did something similar with the 88" Lightweight - with a clansman antenna arm bolted onto the side at the rear (in a removeable manner) and a large black fibreglass antenna poking through a slightly modified clansman rubber antenna base. Mobile radio mounted down in the passenger footwell, with the fist mic on the dash.I still haven't dusted my gear down but, re-reading through this thread has given me an urge to do so.
I have an FT-8800 so I'm planning on putting a mobile installation in the back of my Series III 88" and turn it into a civvy FFR truck There are plenty of green lanes around here that go quite high up in the hills (even the top of my wood is at 263m with clear views in all directions!).