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Thread: Baofeng UV5army
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May 23rd, 2020, 02:43 PM #141
Re: Baofeng UV5army
Last edited by PA86; May 23rd, 2020 at 03:08 PM.
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May 23rd, 2020, 03:26 PM #142
Re: Baofeng UV5army
Ok... I successfully made my first contact on the Roxboro repeater!
Thanks for the help thus far guys, I am sure I will have many more questions as we go.
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May 27th, 2020, 12:55 AM #143
Re: Baofeng UV5army
Looks like you've already figured it out, but I have found that it's best to not program a receive tone unless you know the repeater. I helped another forum member set up his radio for his local repeater and it drove me crazy until I figured out to turn off the receive CTSS (I don't use FM on 2M or 70CM much at all; my radio interests are a bit different). CTSS doesn't enable anything in the receive mode, it only excludes signals without the right tone. Once you get a repeater set up and working on your radio, you can try putting in a receive CTSS and see if it works. You only really need it if there are others you don't want to hear transmitting on the repeater's output frequency. Even so, the station not sending the tone will not open your squelch, but will still interfere if the repeater opens it. Without the receive CTSS the repeater can open your squelch with a lower signal level if you have the squelch set close enough to the noise edge (I turn it off completely in weak signal places).
Also, realize there is no security in this. I don't remember if a Baofeng can do it, but almost all FM radios that work on amateur frequencies can tell you what tones are being transmitted by others, and any transmissions you make with a tone can be heard by anyone who has no receive tone programmed. They can easily pick off your tone and transmit into whatever "private line" you're using if they want or need to.
Seek out forum member Royinmontco. He is way more knowledgeable on the FM stuff than I am. He can probably tell you how to make an antenna and use it to legally talk to astronauts on the ISS or talk to other amateurs through other satellites with a Baofeng.
Congratulations on your license and first contact.
BTW, if you aren't getting Chirp to work, first make sure that it's looking at the comm port your OS has assigned to your usb connection to the radio, and also make sure you have the cable with the right chipset (this probably is not an issue unless you bought a bargain cable from a Chinese shipper). My bet would be on a comm port issue. I don't remember what the issue with Chirp was, but that and the receive CTSS thing turned a planned 15 minute job into 2 hours at another forum member's place (WH, please jump in if you remember what we did to make Chirp work).Boy, I say boy, you're reaching the limits of my medication!
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May 27th, 2020, 11:12 AM #144
Re: Baofeng UV5army
Ok, so now that I know how to program a repeater into the radio... there's probably dozens of repeaters that I can hit from my area. Heck, there's a dozen in Philly alone.
Is there any way to know which ones are busier, or do I just have to spend days and days weeks and weeks monitoring for activity and methodically eliminating the dead ones?
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May 27th, 2020, 12:00 PM #145
Re: Baofeng UV5army
Long answer would be to set those up and scan for a couple of days. Shorter, faster, there are several here who are in your neck of the woods who've already replied to this thread, giving input, you can take that and when you have your new call, jump on one of the repeaters and ask people for their preferred repeater. Some guys have multiple repeaters in scan mode all the time, others camp on one repeater, it's going to be your choice.
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May 28th, 2020, 07:36 AM #146
Re: Baofeng UV5army
Look at the clubs that run them. If the club looks active and has events, the repeater is probably busy. All you really have to do is listen during the morning and evening drive times. In this area, I doubt that you will find many working repeaters that are not being used. Once you identify the repeaters you can hit, you still need to spend time listening, as you may find that some are inhabited by personalities that are toxic to you. (Most are good though.)
Without a better antenna, you're limited in which machines you can use reliably. If you don't hear a particular machine, it doesn't necessarily mean it's dead. You just might not have a good path to it. Sometimes it's fun to drive to the top of the highest hill you can find and see what you can do from there.Boy, I say boy, you're reaching the limits of my medication!
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May 28th, 2020, 08:39 AM #147
Re: Baofeng UV5army
Unfortunately I can only hit 1 repeater from my home. I live in this strange dead zone. ShadeMnt repeater is just high enough to ping.
I can hit others if I drive up the mountain. I can actually ping a repeater 40miles away if I’m on the one mnt near LaporteΑΣΦ
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May 28th, 2020, 09:28 AM #148
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May 28th, 2020, 09:56 AM #149
Re: Baofeng UV5army
Thanks for the advice. I upgraded the stock antenna to the Nagoya 771 (seemingly an authentic one too) and am suuuuper disappointed with it. It frequently cuts out where the stock antenna still picks up a signal.
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May 28th, 2020, 05:34 PM #150
Re: Baofeng UV5army
I never tried to see with a Baofeng and rubber duck antenna. I can hit a lot of repeaters from here with other radios and outdoor antennas or the radio in my truck. I have no problem with a repeater that's 18 miles away with a Baofeng and standard antenna.
Find the hill you want to try on Google maps and send me a link or approximate address and I can give you a bunch of repeaters to try plus links to the resources. https://www.solwise.co.uk/wireless-elevationtool.html is the first resource I'd use to see what directions to look for repeaters in.Boy, I say boy, you're reaching the limits of my medication!
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