I've just bought a couple of UV-5R's....

Hi Simon,

Great to hear about your continued radio adventures and the interest as well as excitement for it all.

I have to agree with Alan's statement and can see you going for that Foundation licence soon.   


The 1.25m or 220MHz band is not an Amateur Radio band here in the UK but is in the US. Ofcom hold the details of the UK frequency allocation table (UKFAT) at the following link :-

https://static.ofcom.org.uk/static/spectrum/fat.html


There's also a PDF version available but it's 178 pages long. (Take some ink/toner to print that lot off!  )

Continue having fun there Simon and definitely look further into that Foundation licence. If you think you're excited 'listening in' imagine how you'll feel being able to transmit and truly join in.


All the best to you,
Victor

Glad you're enjoying it Simon. The net you listened to is the same one I have done the last couple of weeks whilst walking the dog.

My UV 5R is the III too. I only bought that one because it was the cheapest I found from a UK supplier. I haven't heard anything bar a few odd noises on 1.25m. I bet there's a good chance that a few people will be using that band in the UK illegally as this model is so freely available (at the moment), so worth a scan through now and then to see if you do catch some action.

Interesting and useful info posted on your findings of the "fake" Nagoya NA771s. Today my UV 5R has been joined by a Retevis RHD771 plus a homemade 1/4 wave pigtail for 70cm. Receive so far seems exactly the same for 70cm but notable improvement for 2m. I feel a bit dirty though as I have broken my streak of only using homemade antennas since coming back to radio this year, but streak stays maintained for HF I blame my better half.. apparently my plans to walk around with 2' of copper pipe sticking up out of a backpack is embarrassing. Glad she told me otherwise I never would of known

Look forward to catching you on air some day on the pmr channels, or one of the other frequencies if you decide to take your hobby/interests further 

Hi Neal

Take a look at this video by Jason CT 965



If you start it at about the 11 minute mark, you will see Gary with a homemade portable PMR antenna sticking out of his backpack, which, in my opinion, doesn't looking embarrassing.

73
Ray
CT 2290 or CI 2290

SangueG wrote:

Glad you're enjoying it Simon. The net you listened to is the same one I have done the last couple of weeks whilst walking the dog.

My UV 5R is the III too. I only bought that one because it was the cheapest I found from a UK supplier. I haven't heard anything bar a few odd noises on 1.25m. I bet there's a good chance that a few people will be using that band in the UK illegally as this model is so freely available (at the moment), so worth a scan through now and then to see if you do catch some action.

Interesting and useful info posted on your findings of the "fake" Nagoya NA771s. Today my UV 5R has been joined by a Retevis RHD771 plus a homemade 1/4 wave pigtail for 70cm. Receive so far seems exactly the same for 70cm but notable improvement for 2m. I feel a bit dirty though as I have broken my streak of only using homemade antennas since coming back to radio this year, but streak stays maintained for HF I blame my better half.. apparently my plans to walk around with 2' of copper pipe sticking up out of a backpack is embarrassing. Glad she told me otherwise I never would of known

Look forward to catching you on air some day on the pmr channels, or one of the other frequencies if you decide to take your hobby/interests further 

Thanks for the reply, and I'm with you on embarrassing antenna situations!! I want to give these little radios the best chance for receive and transmit, so the Retevis is now on my list.  I also LOVE the idea of making my own antennas and, rightly or wrongly, I see the VHF bands as the ideal for cost effective experimentation.  We'll definitely catch-up on the frequencies soon chap!!

Razz229 wrote:

If you start it at about the 11 minute mark, you will see Gary with a homemade portable PMR antenna sticking out of his backpack, which, in my opinion, doesn't looking embarrassing.

I very much agree, looks very well done. My better half does not share our outlook of such a setup though