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yet another ham radio discussion, OR: anyone else have a UV-5R HT?

TurboMinivan

TurboMinivan

Still plays with cars
Location
Lehi, UT
After months of having a ticket but no radio, I just received a Baofeng UV-5RA as a gift.

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Yes, it is Chinese. Yes, it was insanely cheap. But, who cares--it seems to work just fine for what it is. This little HT operates on 2m as well as 70cm, which I really adore. No, it isn't the be-all, end-all of ham radios... but it sure beats having nothing at all. (And don't fret--I'm still going to buy a 'real' mobile radio for more regular use.)

The manual suggested cycling the battery 2 or 3 times before beginning 'regular' use of the radio, so that's what I've been doing. At times I will have it on the desk with me while it scans through frequencies, hoping to listen in on a conversation so that I can get a feel for proper etiquette. I haven't actually made any contacts yet--I haven't even attempted it, in fact.

A few times so far while scanning, I have happened upon a discussion in progress. My radio will (obviously) tell me what frequency I am hearing, and I've even started a log book and have made notes about it. But here is the big question: as I listen, I have wondered if the conversation is happening on simplex or if I'm listening to a repeater's output. Is there any way I can tell? Will my HT indicate this in some manner? If my HT does not, is there any radio that does?

Can any of you more experienced hams clue me in?
 
phatfoto

phatfoto

Giver of bad advice
Location
Tooele
I have one, but no ticket yet. Its a backburner project to figure the programming out, and use it for listening only till I get my ticket.
 
gijohn40

gijohn40

too poor to wheel... :(
Location
Layton, Utah
on two meter and 70cm you are most likely listening to a repeater... unless the operators are in your neighborhood... another thing to listen for is either what they call a rodger beep which signals the repeater is ready or about every 5 mins most will do some morse code to give the repeaters call sign. You can find a list of repeater frequency at arrl.org or just do a google search for it. some repeaters require you to send a subaudio tone that keys the repeater and most lists that you pull down will have that tone included.

There is a little book out that has all the repeaters in every state that can fit into your glovebox and has all the info you will ever need. I think the arrl site sells them for 8-10 bucks.
 
TurboMinivan

TurboMinivan

Still plays with cars
Location
Lehi, UT
gijohn40 said:
on two meter and 70cm you are most likely listening to a repeater... unless the operators are in your neighborhood... another thing to listen for is either what they call a roger beep which signals the repeater is ready or about every 5 mins most will do some morse code to give the repeaters call sign.
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Okay, I have picked up on this at times. Thanks for the tip, no matter how obvious it should have been to me. ;)

And yet I am still confused. I know the UV-5R is tricky to program manually, so I will be buying the interface cable and downloading software to assist me. But in the mean time, I thought it would be nice to manually program even just one local repeater. Over the last day or two, I've heard a lot of chatter on 146.750. This is clearly a repeater output signal, as I routinely hear the morse ID as well. This might as well be the repeater I use for programming, I figured.

As I consult my repeater list printouts looking for the appropriate tone, I see nothing listed for this exact frequency. Okay, fine, maybe the repeaters are listed by input frequency rather than output frequency. From what I have read, the input and output should be 600 kHz apart for a 2m repeater. Sounds easy enough. But when I consult my lists for 146.150, I find nothing... and when I look for 147.350, I also find nothing. What gives?

I guess I'm not as smart about this stuff as I thought. :(
 
gijohn40

gijohn40

too poor to wheel... :(
Location
Layton, Utah
if you look at the list of repeaters you will see that they are on even frequencies (146.74/146.76) and not on odd ones. except the 145 which are all on odd... don't ask me why...
 
cruiseroutfit

cruiseroutfit

Cruizah!
Moderator
Vendor
Location
Sandy, Ut
146.76 is the Lake Mtn Repeater, often called the 76'ers. I lurk there when I'm driving, particularly in the south end of SL Valley/Utah County.
 
Maverick

Maverick

old-school
Location
Anywhere, thanks to my geeky droid
cruiseroutfit said:
146.76 is the Lake Mtn Repeater, often called the 76'ers. I lurk there when I'm driving, particularly in the south end of SL Valley/Utah County.
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That's on the Sinbad system, right? I listen to their Tues net when I remember.

Dempsey, I'll email you the file I used for Noah's if you want. The program is a free download, and the cable is the same as for the wouxun (I have one).
 
TurboMinivan

TurboMinivan

Still plays with cars
Location
Lehi, UT
Okay, I got home and tuned in until I picked up a signal. I then switched up to 146.760 and--what do you know--there was the same signal. Mystery solved. At least now I know what to program.

Maverick said:
Dempsey, I'll email you the file I used for Noah's if you want. The program is a free download, and the cable is the same as for the wouxun (I have one).
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That would be awesome, thanks.
 
TurboMinivan

TurboMinivan

Still plays with cars
Location
Lehi, UT
This morning I thought it would be wise to program that repeater into my HT, then take it along as another backup communication device in case of some emergency. With the size of today's crowd, the chances of actually needing it were extremely small... but I've got to start somewhere and I might as well be prepared, I figured.

While a bit complicated, the programming itself wasn't as awful as I feared--it only took me three attempts until I had everything figured out and properly set up. After that, I obviously needed to test it. There were two guys chatting away on the repeater (for which I was grateful), so I waited for their conversation to come to a close... but it didn't. It was past my time to leave, so I politely and properly interjected during a break. They kindly acknowledged me, confirmed my radio check and commented on my signal. I did mention it was my first contact, and they invited me to tune in to their usual Thursday night ragchew on this repeater. I thanked them both and then excused myself, at which point they resumed their former conversation.

So my first contact was very brief and matter-of-fact, but at least I have now crossed that hurdle.
 
cruiseroutfit

cruiseroutfit

Cruizah!
Moderator
Vendor
Location
Sandy, Ut
Just throwing this out there as there seems to be a lot of renewed interest in HAM amongst the local 4x4 community as of late. What about a 4x4-centric weekly or monthly net? I know some Cali folks do a similar net. Have a few people present trip reports or similar. I'm not sure there is in fact a need to share the info so much as an opportunity for people to get comfortable with their gear, use protocol, etc. Could take a lot of pressure off of those wanting to get their ticket or having recently received theirs and not quite comfortable with getting vocal yet.
 
johngottfredson

johngottfredson

Threat Level Midnight
Location
Alpine
I also picked up that same baofeng radio, as well as my license recently. Just because I passed the test, does not mean I know what I'm doing! I would love to have a regular net to get comfortable with my radio, protocol, etc. plus, I can't justify upgrading to a sweet radio for my cruiser until I prove that I'll actually use it...
 
Unimog

Unimog

Eric
Location
Stansbury Park, UT
cruiseroutfit said:
Just throwing this out there as there seems to be a lot of renewed interest in HAM amongst the local 4x4 community as of late. What about a 4x4-centric weekly or monthly net? I know some Cali folks do a similar net.
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I'd be in on this on a 2m repeater, given a convenient evening. It's not that my license is recent or that I've never used it. I just don't do it enough to stay familiar with the equipment
 
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