Any recommendations

Hi just doing my foundation course hopefully pass my test just looking recommendations on a good handheld cant put any new antenna just now so its handheld for now Thx

Hello,i went for the yaesu Ft4XE, only used it for accessing the local 70cm repeater thus far, have had good reports with it, it`s cheap and chearful, easy to programme and has a better  quality feel compared to the baofeng handhelds. The down side is i can`t find a battery eliminator for it to use in the jam jar, i like it because it`s simple to use, but then i have not much to compare it with.

all the best

John

I had my very first QSO using my new Ham callsign with a VHF/UHF handheld! 

Not that it wasn't fraught with difficulties....


I had use of an Intek K890, pretty much a Baofeng under a different brand. It's standard audio is quite poor but an external mic improved that to the point of people no longer being able to 'guess' that it's a 'Chinesium', (or in other words not a Yaesu/Icom/Motorola etc...!?!)

My broadband router would open the squelch and wipe out reception on the damn thing! Poor radio front end? Maybe, but a Yaesu didn't prove much better in the vicinity of the router either. The final solution was upgrading the router cables from the poor ones supplied by the provider to decent Cat5e cables and then that particular source of interference went away!

With the standard mounted short antenna reception/transmission was difficult, to the point that I could only get reliable transmission hanging out of the back bedroom window, (how I eventually achieved my first QSO!) It was great in the outdoors such as my back garden but at that time with winter rapidly approaching and constant rain it was an uncomfortable experience. With a leg disability it was none too practical to get out of the house anytime I wanted to try VHF/UHF either!

I did try harder, especially after some offers of making contact by Charlie Tango members, (Hi Trev!  Thanks for trying mate and my apologies for always seeming to miss you!), but had poor experiences. On one occasion another Ham answered my calls, despite calling for someone else, then went on to make a multiple repeater time-out twenty minute over! It had started to rain during that, ahem, QSO(?), so I signed off and went back in the dry of the house. On another occasion I 'joined' a net, sat in the cold listening to every over and despite freezing my butt off was never called in?!?! Perhaps they 'forgot' me? But it wasn't a great experience either.

So after all that I pretty much resigned myself to the warmth of my shack and the HF set....

I may try VHF/UHF again in the future, but only with a decent homebase antenna or until our local repeaters ever get back up and running again. There are digital 'modes', some of the local repeaters are unfortunately digital only, so you'd require a digital mode radio although some of those modes are voice based. Weird when GB3PI's female voiced computer announces a 'node connection' and someone from a different part of the country or even different part of the world starts talking! Maybe of interest to some, but not for me personally.


You may have better luck than I did, if you go that route I do hope you get to enjoy it better than myself. You might appreciate the 'repeater' world, but could also find it a little lacklustre, who knows? Personally I'm glad I didn't splash out money on something I didn't find, for me anyway, very radio rewarding.

My own future inclination may be a homebase setup or a transvertor for my HF rig to try out 2m SSB.

In the meantime the handheld sits in its charging cradle.....probably for the next time my Grandson can visit and brings his walkie


Good luck with your exams! 
Although my own experience may seem a poor example you do get a lot of radio world to explore once you're a Ham. You can try out different bands, frequencies and modes and settle on something you enjoy.


All the best,
Victor

Unless you want a HT anyway, I would try and go a mobile radio and sort an internal antenna....a home made or bought 1/4wave, or a delta loop, or similar....nice and small on 2m.

Even if you get a HT, I'd still make a better antenna for it, otherwise unless you live on top of a repeater, a HT inside a house is going to be as frustrating as Victor's post would suggest!  With a HT, a home made slimjim type antenna from a bit of ladder line is also an option, and would hang nicely when in use, and roll-up when not.

Here in the house or garden, I cannot get a single repeater on either band on any of my HT's....but plug them into the x.6000 on the roof, and I can hit repeaters 40km away with ease.

HT wise, grab an analogue iCom or Yaesu (Or Kenwood if you can find one) to start with.  I know this will upset people, but unless you're after DMR, don't bother with the Chinese stuff.  False economy, IMHO.

Nice info there Jeff.

I've got to admit I did have better luck with my experiments with a slim jim and 1/4 GP, (so easy to make yourself from bits of wire), and then could hit the repeater easier indoors. By then the 'allure' of repeater work had died unfortunately.

If I do ever re-explore that path myself it would probably be a mobile radio as you suggest and just use it as a homebase setup.

Some nice info for you there John. Again, best of luck with your exam, a whole world awaits you!

why not QRP like Yaesu FT-817? they have indoor antennas for it, its for HF/VHF/UHF, you can use an indoor LOOP antenna or MFJ 1899T for example.

good luck with the exam!

Always good advice guys something to look in to