Posted: 12/10/2012 8:02:44 PM EDT
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After ar-jedi opened my eyes to the fact that only HAM radio is going to meet my needs for two way communications for my wife and I, I have come to the conclusion that her and I will be studying for our technicians licenses. Now I am looking into what radios to buy and don't know for sure what would be my best option. I want two 2meter handheld transceivers, one for each of us. I am leaning toward yaesu. My budget is $200.00 each. What models would you recommend?
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YAESU FT-60
http://www.randl.com/shop/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=38350&osCsid=prei1c56pjfdgf03ioq9kj2pd1 $139 might as well go with a dual bander and get the UHF also. this rig is easy to use and covers lots of cool stuff, unlike most HT's it can receive AM airband, which is pretty cool when the Blue Angels are in town. 
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Quoted:
After ar-jedi opened my eyes to the fact that only HAM radio is going to meet my needs for two way communications for my wife and I, I have come to the conclusion that her and I will be studying for our technicians licenses. Now I am looking into what radios to buy and don't know for sure what would be my best option. I want two 2meter handheld transceivers, one for each of us. I am leaning toward yaesu. My budget is $200.00 each. What models would you recommend? Hey Dieselman! Check out the ARFCOM "HT THREAD"! and while you other posters are at it, howabout dropping into the HT Thread with a quick review of your favorite HT! 
and btw: welcome in! and be aware that AR_Jedi has that effect on even the most hardened minds....his fault-Yep! SCW |
| I like the FT-270R as a strict 2m radio. I rock mine with a Smiley antenna but I'm still fairly new to the game (I don't feel I have the experience with it yet to suggest it to the HT thread). Works great for me, should leave you room to each pickup a Baofeng UV-5R and 1 programming cable. Give you a rugged, what appears to me to be good, weatherproof (waterproof if you want to test it) 2m HT radio and a Chinese dual-bander which a lot of us have been playing with. A lot of the Yaesu HT's are rugged radios though. I just kinda picked one and went with it. |
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YAESU FT-60
This, and you'll have money left over for accessories. Yaesu FT-60R Product Reviews |
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+1 on the Yaesu. I also highly recommend getting the programming cable and software to enter frequencies and repeater offsets into memory. You can do this by hand using the buttons on the radio itself, but it's very tedious and more prone to error. The cable and software allow you to do this using your PC. Basically, you enter all the pertinent info in a UI that looks like a spreadsheet, connect the radio to your PC, put the radio into program mode, and upload all the info. Since you'll be getting two radios this will save you a lot of time.
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I also highly recommend getting the programming cable and software to enter frequencies and repeater offsets into memory.
I'm waiting on the 2-in-1 cable from 409shop.com so I can try CHIRP. I'll report back when my cable arrives. |
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Congratulations on your decision and good luck to you and your wife.
What distance and terrain is between you and your wife? Are you counting on repeaters? Are you sure HTs will bridge the gap if you have to go simplex? It weds you to you car but an FT2900 and a decent antenna is way more capable and still meets your budget. Besides that, I vote FT270 for 2m and the 60 for dual bander. |
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Quoted:
Congratulations on your decision and good luck to you and your wife. What distance and terrain is between you and your wife? Are you counting on repeaters? Are you sure HTs will bridge the gap if you have to go simplex? It weds you to you car but an FT2900 and a decent antenna is way more capable and still meets your budget. Besides that, I vote FT270 for 2m and the 60 for dual bander. The distance is about 20 miles. Unfortunately the terrain is very hilly. Without the use of repeaters, I would guess I may not be able to reach her. However the cascade mountain range is close by with repeaters staged a good 3000 to 4000 feet higher than us. So most often it will not be a problem. Not sure what the likelihood of all the repeaters going off line at the same time would be. |