Newbie Questions

[questionful]

Hello. I know almost nothing about radio.

My local CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) relies on radio heavily. Radios would indeed be very handy in emergencies. So I am considering getting a radio.

- I would like a radio that can do all of the following:
- send and receive on FMRS frequencies, because that's what my local CERT uses.
- receive emergency broadcasts from AM and FM stations
- receive "police scanner" frequencies because my sister uses one for that
- be able to run on battery or power adapter, so that I can charge or bypass the battery by plugging it into a wall (120V AC) or car (12V DC), or by a hand-crank device.
- anything else that would be a useful feature for a radio
- low price

I know that's asking for a lot, so if that's unrealistic I would really like to be told what in particular is realistic and unrealistic.

Thanks for reading,
- Diego Hemken

 

[unit248]

I'm not exactly sure what the FMRS frequencies are. I'm assuming they're in the UHF range. If so, then what might work for you is the Kenwood TH-F6A handie talkie. It's a tri-bander for 144, 220 and 440Mhz, with a receiver than works from .1 to 1200Mhz (with a chunk of the 800Mhz band blocked, sadly).

There is an extended transmit mod for it which will allow it to transmit on 137-174, 216-235 and 410-470 MHz.

I think they can be had for about $300 these days. It comes with a 12v adapter cable to run it off a power supply or external battery, as well as the standard battery pack.

Note: when you plug in the "wall wart" AC battery charger that comes with it, you can turn the radio and receive with it while it's charging, but you can't transmit. When connected to a 12v regulated power supply, I think it will charge the battery and allow you to RX and TX at the same time.

The radio has two separate receivers (A and B) which can be tuned independent of each other, and which can be active simultaneously. This means you can listen to two frequencies at the same time.

It does receive both AM and FM broadcast with no problem.

It also has a various scanning features.

The transmitter will do 5 watts max, down to .25 watts on extra low power.

You can also program channels in it using a computer if you buy the optional computer interface cable, though this is not required (you can program everything from the keypad on the front of the radio; it's just a little clumsier than using the computer software).

The one possible downside is that when it comes to listening to police/fire frequencies, it doesn't do trunking. The police and fire departments in most big cities these days have switched to using trunking systems which are difficult to follow with just a plain scanning receiver: you need a scanner that supports the particular trunking scheme being used (Motorola, Ericsson, etc...). I'm not aware of any ham handie talkie that includes trunking capabilities. You may also be out of luck if they use digital instead of analog radios, and if they use encryption then you can pretty much forget about it entirely.

Anyway, aside from the potential scanner issues, the TH-F6A is a nice little radio. I've had mine for several years and have never had any problems with it.

-Bill

 

[RatsoW8]

Have you been watching Doomsday Preppers again? op:

 

[Need2Know]

Here is a handy guide to FRS and GMRS radios by Best Buy. There is a difference between the two types. One you need a license for; the other you don't.

These are simpler to use than the F6. No ham license required to transmit, either. But eventually you will want your ham license to get involved in SkyWarn, ARES, or other ham-based emergency/disaster communications services.

 

[KingCobra_CDX882]

Although the TH-F6a is a Great HT ( i have 2 of them )
I do instead suggest ( although more expensive )
Icom ID-91/92AD ..
They do all the TH-F6a does... But adds both DStar (has excellent Emergency uses ) as well as ability to scan from 400 all the way up ( un interupted like the TH-F6a ) to 1 or 1.2 Ghz (recieve only past 540 when so modded )

This will enable to talk/receive GMRS/FRS 2 meters & 70cm as well as MURS (like the THF-6a ) but also data digital and data or DStar