Dave, 146.52 is the 2mtr calling freq. Also antennas should be built for the center of the band you want to operate on. Antennas like you are building are broadband enough so you would be able to use almost any freq in the band. Welcome to HAM radio.
Dave 144.200 is the SSB calling freq not the FM calling freq which is 146.520 your HT can’t do upper side band. All that said keep doing the radio series we need more HAMs on the air!!!! Im close enough we could link up on a repeater 73 N3EJ
Hey Dave, I read a a book a while back called Alas, Babylon. The book is basically an apocalyptical story, but the main character learns so much about the world beyond with radio. I really enjoy how you get into new things, then break them down for the common man to enjoy. Keep it up, we as a community really like learning from you.
Antenna is everything. It hit home for me when I setup my 20m dipole at home at 15 feet high. I ran it 3 weeks and enjoyed my time. When I moved it up to 20ft high this weekend, it blew my mind. It opened up a whole new world! I got better SWR and ALOT less noise. A lot less. I was S7 noise and went to S2 noise. My 2m/70cm antenna at home is 20ft high and I can talk 60 miles reliably all day simplex. My antenna on my truck only goes 20 miles at best. Drive up a mountain or hilltop and you'll be able to talk a hundred miles on 2meters. It's fun. Glad to see you found Ham radio. Remember to enjoy the process. You don't have to have everything perfect at first. Any antenna is better than no antenna. Improve over time. 73 buddy
For a new HAM you’re doing pretty great Dave. A lot of HAM operators don’t get this much into the hobby and try to understand the theories. Keep the videos coming. 73 K2FSU
Thank You for taking the time to make this educational video. I am NEW to HAM and still learning. As my starter radio, I have a Baofeng BF8HP. Looking to learn more as I go and get the most that I can out of my radio.
Not a HAM but was a field radio operator in the military. Did a lot of HF for shore to ship comms and had a lot of “field expedient” antenna set ups I saved in my notebook. Thanks for the flashback Dave!
Awesome job Dave. You've been paying attention lol. I'm so excited to see you inspire many more new people to get into the hobby. See you in a few weeks buddy.
I just got a heads up from a crazy podcast with a lovely lady and a guy who were supposed to talk about ham radio. Closest they got was talking about you. Congrats on your license. I was hoping you'd have your ham radio stuff in a playlist but they said you just got your license.
Congrats on passing your General license test…NOW THE FUN STARTS! Been a HAM since 1978 and everything keeps growing and getting better…so many ways of communicating from CW to DIGITAL to Talking thru SATELLITES or BOUNCING YOUR SIGNAL OFF THE MOON! HAVE FUN DAVE AND HOPE TO HAVE A QSO ON DAY…73
So very awesome to see you getting into Ham Radio. There are so many survivalists that don't realize the importance of being able to communicate during an emergency, not to mention just for fun. 73. KI5ODV
For the baofeng you can also get a cigarette lighter converter that replaces the battery. Why? Hook it up to the Jackery and you have 1500 watt hours of power. Hooked up to the JPole and you have a 5/8ish watt base station that could operator for a month without charging. When I first started with the speaker mike, baofeng radio, adapter, and 2m/70cm magmount I had a mobile radio that worked fine. Keep the videos coming and I still love the Bushcraft Videos! de KE5ES Steve from Texas
When I was a kid I had some old walkie talkies that had been my dads as a kid. We didn't know about radio Theory but we picked up all sorts of old radio transmissions. At one point we even picked up what sounded like airplanes when we put our antenna on a long chain link fence
Love this video, appreciate it very much. I am a moron, and have had my baofeng sitting in a bag for a year, this is great inspiration to get my butt going! Thank you for the simple, direct and easy to understand info!
nice man. Once you get into CHIRP programming, it's far easier to make changes. Like kill the beeps and the menu voices, label all your channels, etc. Here in S Idaho, many bring these radios to me at my biz and I flash them with the 100ish channels, all local repeaters, frs, gmrs, murs, etc.
I have a tip to get that devise in the air 14:25. Arborists use what we call a throw line and you can buy throw bags. Throw that over a limb in a tree and you attach your climbing rope and pull that into a tree. This arborist throw line is not like 550 paracord. It's very stiff, slippery, thin and even 40 meters doesn't tangle in a bag. That's what you need if you want to get that equipment high up in a tree.
Some guys are using DIY slingshots to get their throw lines + throw bags high in a tree. I think this way 15 meter+ / 45 feet+ is possible. If it necessary to get that high up.
This is such an inspiring video, Dave. Thank you. Just got back from wildland fire fighting and I use videos like this to help me readjust. Thank you sir
Great video. I have been a ham radio operator for about 3 years and I am also an electrical engineeer with a lot of antenna design experience. Everything that you have said in this video is valid and accurate. I have found that using cheap devices like the nanovna is super useful to get your antenna perfectly tuned. They basically allow you to see the performance of your antenna in a whole chunk of the rf spectrum, and as you trim your antenna you can see live how the tunning changes. It is indispensable for tunable hf antennas as well. For HF I would recommend end fed half wave antennas because if you build them right, they can perform well in multiple bands with just one long wire.
Great video, im a new ham with only a few months of experience. Great illustration and info. I thought the counter poise was to basically act as a ground plan. But they eay you described it makes way more sense.
Dave, This is awesome! I have been a ham since 2011 / General ticket in 2013 / Extra 2016 I started Practicing bushcraft in 2018. I have learned a lot form you and the corporal. Now you are bring the two together is so awesome. Good Luck in September. Sounds to me that you got a great Elmer. KF5NHE 73
Awesome sauce boss. Ham radios a lot of fun. Especially building antennas from random junk you find laying around. You can make a coax di pole in a situation if you needed to just by stripping it and taking the shield and center conductor and separating them in opposite directions. So many little fun things in the hobby. 73 Dave, hope to catch you on one of the area repeaters
I love your enthusiasm Dave. I'm sure that someone else has commented by now, but just in case, remember that ferrous metals like rebar and steel cable have a greater resistance than copper or brass or aluminum. You can always use what you have, but if it has poor conduction to begin with and then corrodes easily like rebar will your antenna will effectively become a resistor.
Still watching in 2022! I've "recently" gone down the amateur radio rabbit hole myself. The MAIN thing I wish I had done out of the gate on my HTs (including the Baofeng UV-5Rs I have) is get SMA-F to BNC-F adapters for them and buy all BNC-M antennas. The BNC-M connection type is just SO much quicker to swap with no chance of stripping threads. Plus, it seems to be more common in higher-end equipment/antennas.
Nice video! Definitely keep this series going.. I think general rule is that you would have to double the antenna height to gain much more tx/rx capability so adding say.. 5 more feet of mast would likely not be anymore advantageous.. 10 more feet would.. Love all your gear especially the knives! Have 3 of them now!
In a grid down situation, radio will probably be the only means of communication. It's best to get into radio now, know how it works, and get familiar with it before you need it.
A simple bracket on the side of your Gladiator could add another 6 feet or so pretty easily. I am loving this series, I have wanted to get into HAM for a while but haven't taken the time. That might change...
Interesting video. Loved how you explained the miracle of radio 📻 science. Ten four good buddy, looks like you have a mighty convoy. Cheers 🍻 from East Coast Canada 🇨🇦. Take care and stay frosty.
I use a found plane antenna made from hangers, an SO-239 and some hardware, less than $10 total. I have no problem hitting local repeaters and serving as net control for our club net. N6###
You had better scoot out of there before Sherriff Justice shows up Dave. In all serious I have recently aquired a Bao-Feng and I have been learning how it works so this series is very much appreciated. five by five.
Dave, I've had a pair of those radios for over a year and a half and I haven't even unsealed the boxes yet and I had no plans to get a license. In a SHTF scenario, who would be worried about enforcement of those rules, right? Your last couple of videos have convinced me that I want a HAM license. I've been a straight up law obeying citizen in all other aspects of my life and I don't know why I even considered bucking the rules on this radio thing. So thanks for giving me the reasons I needed to stay true to my nature. If I understood you correctly, the wire that you intend to attach to your radio, under the screw, will replace your body as the other half of the dipole. Instead of a limp wire, would it work better ( or at all ) if you used an old telescoping transistor radio antenna. Maybe flatten the open end and drill a hole the size of the screw you'd be putting through it. You could still change the angle between it and the radio's regular antenna and, in addition, you could change it's length be telescoping it in or out. Collapsing the whole thing after removing it from the radio would make it portable. Or am I misunderstanding what you made your short wire antenna for?
The Baofeng's are great to start, but they have some drawbacks. If you want a radio that's a little bit more money, but takes care of some of the draw backs, look at the Yaesu FT-65r and FT-4xr. I'm really glad to see Dave covering this!
Another thing Dave, if you want to get it up higher, you can weld up a drive on car plate, with a pole that slots into it and attach a 10m fiibreglass telescopic roach pole. As long as you get a, low loss coax, you can get that extra height on 2m and 70cm and over here we use PMR446, which is your equivalent of FRS. Height is might with the Baofeng radios and on those bands. We hold Sunday nets on PMR here in the South of England...8pm on Channel 8....great fun taking part in a network and seeing how far you can work. I take the hammock out and rhe radio and depoly a wire dipole in a tree and have a weekend out...best of both worlds. 73s buddy. 26 DRX901 Kent, England
Ok, I'd be interested in an audio report of the difference between the rubber duck and the j pole. Antennas really are the first point of improvement inch a radio system. Thanks for the clear and well planned demonstration.
Funny, I am working on acquiring radios and antennas also. I decided against installing my HAM radios in my vehicles in favor of GMRS. In a survival situation all I will mainly care about is local communication between radios and local repeater. GMRS will work out great for that and are way cheaper and easier to use. I can also purchase cheap hand held units from a Walmart if I needed to scale for other community members that I maybe teaming up with. The biggest hurdle with prepping and radio communication is the lack of knowledge most people have so I dumbed it down for my preps.
Hey Dave, I live just north of Cncy but our family is in Jackson and we are there all the time. If you ever need a second to go our wheeling give me a shout! My wife and I would love the company! Last weekend we went to redbird and had a blast and want to go more places like Windrock, Rush, Rausch creek etc.
I have many of those same radios, great little unit, I also have a headset and throat mic that utilizes the VOX feature, leaves you hands free and works very well, everyone says im really clear despite me being skeptical of throat mics, but they seem to work well, thanks for the tip on extending range, I will take in and use any information I can on these units ,the UV5R's
Simple ground plane antenna for 2m. SO-239 connector. Solder a 19.25" piece of #10 wire to the center pin. Cut four lengths of same to 21-22". Bend to 45 degrees, and attach with 6-32 hardware to the attachment locations. The bends should be from the SO-239 Portability, remove the ground plane wires, and reassemble later at another site. Antennas can be easy. Try it. It might outperform your dipole 6' or better up
Glad that your Jackery works. My first one (and the replacement that they sent me) was trash. Getting my Bluetti today. You’re explaining all of this really well. Congrats/good luck on your general.
Bring on the rabbit hole! Before you know it you’ll be making 20m yagi’s out of telescoping fishing rods and using homemade PVC pipe loading coils. Which is much more multifunctional in a bug out scenario, stronger in winds and much faster to set up in a mobile emergency QSO
Hi Dave, remember that 468 is for half wave and five eights wave is your best wave length. Dave there's a big difference between half and quarter wave signal. Remember that everything is measured in Meters. NOT 36 inches, but 39 inches, then after you get your total then you can convert to feet and inches. OLD CALL N8MJS, not active now. KB8EDA, old call sign. Use the terms driver and reflector, better for test knowledge.
ATTENTION ...... One of the best reasonably priced hand held 2 meter radios is the 5 watt YAESU FT-60R dual band VHF / UHF two way radio. It can use the optional AA alkaline battery tray. By the Diamond 14" inch extended antenna from GigaParts website to avoid the counterfeits sold often on Amazon .
Thanks for this video! I've been licensed since 1975 and I don't think I could explain basic antennas as well as you do. Impressive for not even being licensed yet. The freq you mentioned is way low in the 2 meter band and is for the less common mode of SSB. The FM calling freq is 146.52Mhz and is close to the center of the band. Maybe a better freq to cut an antenna to. The 468 to get a half wave dipole is divided by the freq in Mhz. You may have said that, I didn't catch it. The length I use for a quarter wavelength on 2 meters for antennas is 19.25 inches. Roger beeps are generally turned off for Ham. 73 de AF7FP (Best regards from AF7FP)
Be sure that you check your swr with the antenna inside the pvc. Being inside the PVC will change the swr. Put the T at the top and hang the antenna out side. 73's N0RNE
Hey Dave i have one a little different, i can program channels for logging roads in western Canada and pick up repeater towers. Good little radio can reach 2miles even in hilly terrain
I'm really fascinated by this project of yours. This is going to be really interesting. I would love to see some sort of vehicle portable long distance radio station in combination with some sort of man portable radio. Then you could set up your main base of operations and have other people move out to explore the area, but stay within communication distance from the main base. I like to carry an emergency weather radio with me while I'm out in the woods, mostly because it's fun to listen to the radio while fishing, but also because of that emergency weather radio capability. Can you access AM/ FM, and emergency weather broadcast with a basic HAM Radio?
Use waterholes! 146.520… or on HF… the QRP waterholes on each of the bands. The antenna is the most important component, then the receiver, then the transmitter… ergo transceiver…. 72! de W7UDT
Dave, I've been wanting to get my HAM radio license for quite some time, but just been LAZY! You said that J antenna setup would work for base unit as well? I've wanted to set a base up in my shed/office when I get my license and keep my portable with me and wasn't sure what type of antenna to use, that wasn't unsightly as well? (Discreet in my neighborhood....) Thank you for the videos so far in this series, as I have learned more from you, than any other video I've watched! You are my motivation to fulfill my dream, NOW!! Keep them coming Sir!!! Hope to hear you on the wave one day ~
Mongo, you could encase one of those ladder line J-Pole antennas inside a PVC pipe and use the pipe for a Flag Pole and not be noticeable. - Tony, W4WXR
hay dave,i m k3byy,near martinsburg wv,u can buy a realy nice j-pole from n9tax that rolls up like string,very well made bout 20 buks,i got 3 of um 1 in tree out back for 2meter,151murs n gmrs/fam very portable n small,i m a gen ham n hangout mostly on 3.895 at night,sometimes on 147.255 repeter
Dave, do a search for W3FF Buddipole homebrew antenna. Great, easy diy HE Miliband antenna. Also, dipole antennas can be more compact using wire coils. I like your design! Maybe consider using a fiberglass telescopic painters pole? 73s.
Good stuff Dave. One small error I heard though, 144.200 is the single side band call frequency. For FM, like your handheld, the call frequency is 146.520. No worries, just pointing that out my friend, I know you are taking in information on radio like it’s from a fire hose and it’s hard to keep all the nuances straight.
Great video Dave, once again very informative. Quick question for you. Looking online for a Baofeng radio and my eyes are glazing with all the different ones offered on Amazon. Looks like the best deal is the UV-5R high power 8W. Is there any advantage to buying the newer BVF-8HP for more money?
