Radio Frequencies

[BadSquatch]

I use the 8-watt Baofeng handheld with the long antenna and it works pretty good. But on our Saturday run we had 38 (!!!) rigs so we were spread out over several miles, around bends and over peaks from one another, so I sometimes couldn't reach all the way to the back from the front. But Steffie was right behind me in Coco, and we have a 50-watt Rugged hard-mounted in that one, so I would occasionally need to walk back to her when I needed to coordinate something with the tail. I'll have a hard mounted mobile in Chanel soon too.

Yeah, I had the same problem with only 26. I had designated a "center" and a "tail gunner" so sometimes I would have to call the center and have him relay the message back. Hence my desire to move to a mobile. I'm just trying to figure out the best antenna location/mount/type and where to mount the radio itself. I'm looking at the BTECH Mobile UV-50X2 50 Watt Dual Band Base, Mobile Radio: VHF, UHF right now. BTW, having the hand held DID come in handy (no pun intended) when I had to walk back to talk to someone (like an overheating EB ). Fortunately I had two, so I could leave one with Lucia back at the Bronco.

 

[ntsqd]

It bugs me that you can get a dual or triple band mobile with a detachable face, but not a simple single band radio. The detachable face option opens up many more mounting locations while allowing the radio itself to live under a seat or somewhere out of the way. I'd likely have the face-plate mounted just under the RAM mount for the ipad Nav system if I could get a single band radio with this feature. Just need to be able to route the rough equivalent of a CAT 5e cable between the face-plate and the radio.

I keep an HT in a charging cradle where I can grab it on my way out of the truck just for that sort of thing.

In these radios you buy the antenna base that works however you need it to (i.e. lip mount, thru-hole, clamp-on, etc.) and the antenna separately. The default standard antenna mount in desert racing is the "NMO" type base and these can be had in a range of different mounting types. With this base you can easily remove the antenna and cap the mount when not in use. Can also change to different antennas for different uses. I have one vehicle set-up with both a 2M and a cb and carry an NMO antenna for each radio. Swap the antennas and the coax to the other radio and it's GTG in that band. As I've never used the cb I won't be doing that again, but I mention this to show how wide the options can be. That vehicle also has a shortie 2M antenna that is normally in place when in DD mode.

I will suggest that a mobile be from a ham radio name brand. Some sources, by no means a comprehensive list:

The Antenna Farm, Your two way radio source

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theantennafarm.com

Ham Radio Outlet

World's Largest Supplier of Amateur Radio, Ham Radio, and Communication Equipment. Sales, Supplies, and Service.

www.hamradio.com

GigaParts - Amateur Radio, Computers and More! GigaParts.com

GigaParts - Your trusted source for Amateur Radio, Computers and More!

www.gigaparts.com

I've used Kenwood, Icom, and Yeasu. My first was a Kenwood and it's programming method was horrible. I replaced it with an Icom V8000 and never looked back. I recently bought a 75W Yeasu to try, but I haven't set it up yet.

 

[KD6TAV]

The Beofeng BF-F8HP which is advertised as the "next generation of the UV-5" that I bought a couple of months ago allowed me to use CHiRP to program both the SCB and the GMRS frequencies in both RX and TX no problem. For $70 on Amazon, I thought that was a pretty good deal. My next step is to eliminate the hand held, and get a mobile. If for no other reason than the handheld on has 8 watts, and the mobile will do 50. Also, have a better antenna should help as well.

Yeah it’s almost all about the antenna. Get yourself a good antenna with really good gain and mount as high as possible. Hard to do when we drive under low branches. I have the comet SBB5 it’s worked great fir me but even with 50 watts and a good antenna you can go then or around mountains…. But i can talk thru repeaters from big bear to pasadena with no issues.

 

[ntsqd]

Found the UV-5R TX unlock mod. Hold down all three of these buttons while the radio is off: "PTT", "MON", & "VFO/MR"; while holding those down turn on the radio.

I have a couple of the "NGP" ("No Ground Plane") antennas, that when given a ground plane go from zero gain to about 3dB gain. At a crucial time on one trip we had comms at a little over 50 miles in some mountains, simplex. I was using an NGP antenna with not much of a ground plane (zoom in: pic) and the other guy was using a mag base set on the hood of his EB.

The singular most common antenna to see on a desert racing buggy is the PCTEL ASP7455. Not really sure why it's so common as there are other antenna's with similar specs, but on top of being a 3 dB gain antenna it does have one interesting feature that may be the reason for it's popularity. The coil spring on the base is encased in rubber. One source for it: https://theantennafarm.com/shop-by-...gh-gain-vhf-antennas/746-pctel-asp7455-detail

FWIW if you are building the coax rather than buying it I'll further the suggestion that was made to me by an esteemed member of the larger EB community who happens to also be an Experimental Aircraft builder, use RG-400 coax cable. It is expensive, but if you do a good job you'll likely never have to replace it. The much more commonly used RG-58 coax is known to degrade with just time and if you're flexing it regularly the life-span will be short. It is also no longer legal for use in aircraft. RG-400 replaced it. Some people in the communications biz think that RG-400 is a myth. They maintained this belief even after being presented with the Mil-Spec for it and an example seller.

RG400 Coaxial Cable - B&C Specialty Products

The RG-400 is sold by the foot. To purchase 50 feet or more use the product number of RG400/50. This is the product of choice for antenna feedlines in modern aircraft. This is equal in performance to often recommended RG-142. RG-142 has a solid center conductor while the the center conductor of...

bandc.com

 

[BadSquatch]

Found the UV-5R TX unlock mod. Hold down all three of these buttons while the radio is off: "PTT", "MON", & "VFO/MR"; while holding those down turn on the radio.

I have a couple of the "NGP" ("No Ground Plane") antennas, that when given a ground plane go from zero gain to about 3dB gain. At a crucial time on one trip we had comms at a little over 50 miles in some mountains, simplex. I was using an NGP antenna with not much of a ground plane (zoom in: pic) and the other guy was using a mag base set on the hood of his EB.

The singular most common antenna to see on a desert racing buggy is the PCTEL ASP7455. Not really sure why it's so common as there are other antenna's with similar specs, but on top of being a 3 dB gain antenna it does have one interesting feature that may be the reason for it's popularity. The coil spring on the base is encased in rubber. One source for it: https://theantennafarm.com/shop-by-...gh-gain-vhf-antennas/746-pctel-asp7455-detail

FWIW if you are building the coax rather than buying it I'll further the suggestion that was made to me by an esteemed member of the larger EB community, use RG-400 coax cable. It is expensive, but if you do a good job you'll likely never have to replace it. The much more commonly used RG-58 coax is known to degrade with just time and if you're flexing it regularly the life-span will be short. It is also no longer legal for use in aircraft. RG-400 replaced it. Some people in the communications biz think that RG-400 is a myth. They maintained this belief even after being presented with the Mil-Spec for it and an example seller.

RG400 Coaxial Cable - B&C Specialty Products

The RG-400 is sold by the foot. To purchase 50 feet or more use the product number of RG400/50. This is the product of choice for antenna feedlines in modern aircraft. This is equal in performance to often recommended RG-142. RG-142 has a solid center conductor while the the center conductor of...

bandc.com

Thanks for the advice! I'm thinking a spring loaded antenna is the way to go. I know that mounting it as high and as close to the center of Bronco as possible is the way to get the best performance. However, I think that would have some definite difficulties involved with it. Mounting it on the tailgate, however, would probably be the most convenient location, but I worry about performance there. Maybe a lip mount on the hood? I think that attaching it to the trail sight at the front would have the same/similar issues as mounting it on the tailgate? I have seen someone mount one of those short stubby antenna's to the roll bar on the inside. That would at least put it in the centerish of the truck, but what about having 50 watts of RF right behind your head? If it's just 4 or 8 watts I wouldn't worry as much. So, I'm wondering what you guys would do? Am I over thinking this?

 

[ntsqd]

Was it me and I didn't want a hole in the roof (or there is no roof to put the hole in), I'd put it at the rear and mount it such that as much of the whip as can be tolerated is above the roof line. I'm sure that the TX signal strength map will be influenced by the shape of the ground plane around the antenna, so a rear mount is going to TX better forwards than rearwards, but several of the guys that I'm regularly with in BFE have their antennas in this location and we've yet to have a problem that could be traced to that.

If you zoom in on the pic that I linked above you can see what I did with an NGP antenna, and the damage that the branches did to the mast in getting to that particular spot above Funnel Lake in Coyote Flat (that truck had no business being there, but my Mom wanted to see the lake). That antenna has no spring, the unit that replaced it does.

 

[JediMcMuffin]

Trying to use FTM-400 to program my Yaesu, it tells me to pound sand on SCB-2, and only accepts SCB-1 as 146.40625. I'll move these over to the radio in the truck later today and see if the radio itself will let me save SCB-2 in. I don't think some of these frequencies line up with the standard band planning and increments, which is why some software is rejecting them.


Hopefully my UV-5R via TID programmer has no issues, programming on the device itself is for the birds.

 

[Dusty]

Trying to use FTM-400 to program my Yaesu, it tells me to pound sand on SCB-2, and only accepts SCB-1 as 146.40625. I'll move these over to the radio in the truck later today and see if the radio itself will let me save SCB-2 in. I don't think some of these frequencies line up with the standard band planning and increments, which is why some software is rejecting them.


Hopefully my UV-5R via TID programmer has no issues, programming on the device itself is for the birds.

Yeah I think those two channels are AFU. I've had similar struggles trying to program them. Those came from a list one of our SCB brothers passed around a few years ago, but I think those two have always been problematic. We should probably just dump those from the list. Or move them to the nearest frequency ending in 0 or 5, which seems to be what the software and the radio expect.

 

[ntsqd]

Those freqs have to be a misprint, the Hertz increments are wrong. They *might* be 146.405 and 146.430, but they could never be what is listed.

 

[Dusty]

Those freqs have to be a misprint, the Hertz increments are wrong. They *might* be 146.405 and 146.430, but they could never be what is listed.

I've gone ahead and changed those on the list. Yeah, not sure how that mistake was made originally but there's no sense in leaving it that way. When I get a chance, I think I may add the GMRS frequencies to the list, for those who have radios that can be programmed for them.

 

[BadSquatch]

I was able to get them in my handheld via Chirp. It wasn’t easy though.

 

[BadSquatch]

Folks, I corrected my radio based on the changes that Dusty posted above to SCB-1 and SCB-2. Attached is a zipped file that has a CSV export of the frequencies in it. I exported this from CHiRP, so if you're using that, you should be able to just import that file. Mine includes, all of the above SCB frequencies as well as all the GMRS, and FRS frequencies along with some repeaters as well.

 

[Dusty]

Folks, I corrected my radio based on the changes that Dusty posted above to SCB-1 and SCB-2. Attached is a zipped file that has a CSV export of the frequencies in it. I exported this from CHiRP, so if you're using that, you should be able to just import that file. Mine includes, all of the above SCB frequencies as well as all the GMRS, and FRS frequencies along with some repeaters as well.

Thanks for setting that up Joerg! Can you post that file in the "Resources" section too? It's a feature of this forum software that is supposed to be suited for hosting and downloading files like these. I've created a category "Radio & Communications" that this would go into. Thanks!

 

[BadSquatch]

Thanks for setting that up Joerg! Can you post that file in the "Resources" section too? It's a feature of this forum software that is supposed to be suited for hosting and downloading files like these. I've created a category "Radio & Communications" that this would go into. Thanks!

Done!

 

[sLopeFx]

Folks, I corrected my radio based on the changes that Dusty posted above to SCB-1 and SCB-2. Attached is a zipped file that has a CSV export of the frequencies in it. I exported this from CHiRP, so if you're using that, you should be able to just import that file. Mine includes, all of the above SCB frequencies as well as all the GMRS, and FRS frequencies along with some repeaters as well.

Thanks for sharing this. I'm a nuub and just programed the SCBs via CHIIRP for the first time yesterday, but to no have all the other freqs..? Great!

 

[ntsqd]

Most, but not all of the other frequencies listed are desert racing or competition related. If you ever go to see a desert race you'll likely want that promoter's main freq. For most that means that you'll want the "WX-MAN" unless you're at a Best in the Desert event where you'll want the "BITD" frreq. or at a King of the Hammers event where you'll want the "KOH-OPS" freq,

The SAR freq might be handy to have in an emergency, dunno. Not sure whose it is.

If your radio has "banks" of freqs you may want to organize and categorize these freqs to keep it simple. Put all of the SCEB freqs in one bank, the race stuff in another, and any Law Enforcement/SAR freqs in yet another bank.

In CHIRP you can open a pre-existing file that already has all of the FRS & GMRS freqs in it. File > Open Stock Config > select option. Have a look at all of those options!

 

[BadSquatch]

Most, but not all of the other frequencies listed are desert racing or competition related. If you ever go to see a desert race you'll likely want that promoter's main freq. For most that means that you'll want the "WX-MAN" unless you're at a Best in the Desert event where you'll want the "BITD" frreq. or at a King of the Hammers event where you'll want the "KOH-OPS" freq,

The SAR freq might be handy to have in an emergency, dunno. Not sure whose it is.

If your radio has "banks" of freqs you may want to organize and categorize these freqs to keep it simple. Put all of the SCEB freqs in one bank, the race stuff in another, and any Law Enforcement/SAR freqs in yet another bank.

In CHIRP you can open a pre-existing file that already has all of the FRS & GMRS freqs in it. File > Open Stock Config > select option. Have a look at all of those options!

Personally, I'm a big fan of CHIRP, it just took a minute to get used to since I was still learning about the radio, etc. Another cool feature of CHIRP is that if you import that file you can map those frequencies to any memory location you want. You don't have to use the same ones as I did. So, if you want to reorder things, or just not overwrite something you already have there you can do that. You can also pick and choose what you bring in. So, for example, if you already have all the GMRS and FRS freqs set up, and just want to pull in SCB-GEN through SCB-2 you can do the as well.

For me, I don't have banks, so I did try to group "like" things together. All the FRS are together, all the GMRS are together, and all the SCB list are together. Then I have some others like some weather freqs, followed by some of the LA repeaters. I also keep a copy of the list in my "go bag" along with my spare radio in case I need to reference it for some reason.

Last, but not least, keep in mind that this would only program the memory, settings on the radio are not effected.

 

[Arrowbear Rider]

My head hurts, there is so much info and after the Bronco Safari I thought I knew what I wanted and yet, now I see that different clubs use different radios/frequencies. The link above to a Baofeng said not available, Joerg's link is available. So, is the "dual band" the 136-174/400-480Mhz the important part as far as using with both clubs?
Am I correct that SoCalBroncos.com members use 136-174Mhz (aka racing feq) and the Safari used 400-480Mhz?
The radios with dual range and number buttons seem to be the best ones? Other bands like Midland are only 400+Mkz?

Also, my girl just found a pair of hand held CB walkies in her stuff from 5 years ago, new in the box, I wasn't going to keep, but now I'm thinking of why not?
I told you my head hurts!

I have some return credit at Amazon, not enough to pay $150 plus, but maybe half so should I just go with a mounted radio in my rig?

I just found this off the out of stock link:

https://www.amazon.com/Baofeng-UV-5R-136-174-400-480Mhz-1800mAh/dp/B074XPB313/ref=psdc_912322_t3_B095P825H1?th=1

Looks way cheap price wise, is this really all I need?

 

[BadSquatch]

My head hurts, there is so much info and after the Bronco Safari I thought I knew what I wanted and yet, now I see that different clubs use different radios/frequencies. The link above to a Baofeng said not available, Joerg's link is available. So, is the "dual band" the 136-174/400-480Mhz the important part as far as using with both clubs?
Am I correct that SoCalBroncos.com members use 136-174Mhz (aka racing feq) and the Safari used 400-480Mhz?
The radios with dual range and number buttons seem to be the best ones? Other bands like Midland are only 400+Mkz?

Also, my girl just found a pair of hand held CB walkies in her stuff from 5 years ago, new in the box, I wasn't going to keep, but now I'm thinking of why not?
I told you my head hurts!

I have some return credit at Amazon, not enough to pay $150 plus, but maybe half so should I just go with a mounted radio in my rig?

I just found this off the out of stock link:

https://www.amazon.com/Baofeng-UV-5R-136-174-400-480Mhz-1800mAh/dp/B074XPB313/ref=psdc_912322_t3_B095P825H1?th=1

Looks way cheap price wise, is this really all I need?

That is the hand held that a lot of folks use since it's "dual band". Unfortunately the FCC slapped Baofeng's hand and they "locked" transmit on the radio for one of those bands. However, there is a way to easily "unlock" that radio. At least that's what I read. I haven't tried this myself, so buyer beware. Here are the steps needed to "unlock" that radio I found on the web.

• Switch off your UV 5R with the turn knob on the top.
• Press the “Push to Talk,” “VFO,” and “Monitor” buttons at the same time while simultaneously turning the device on with the same knob you turned it off with.
• You will notice a “Welcome” message on the screen followed by the word “Factory.” This indicates that the device has been rebooted and the frequencies are unlocked.

 

[ntsqd]

Arrowbear, your link goes to the HT ("Handi-Talkie") radio model that I use as loaners. If you buy the large battery for them you should be able to get a weekend out of it easy so long as it gets turned off each evening. In Big Bear it's hard to get spread out enough for it to matter, but in other locations I think that you'll want the better antenna as well. I've yet to really test them, but I bought a couple magnetic antenna bases to try out with these radios.

My loaners have only 4 frequencies programmed into them. It's easy to want to fill up the memory bank, but then finding the freq that you used to be on before the knob got bumped can be a challenge. The "Lock" function is good, but I've had that get turned off by accident too. Finding the freq that people are talking on is a whole lot easier with 4 options than it is with 100 options. Make it simple on yourself and everyone else in the rig with you, keep the number of programed freqs low until you gain some experience with the radio.

Ultimately you may be using the radio enough to want a mounted mobile in the rig. You get much more transmit power from them. I've held a conversion radio to radio between two mobiles at about 50 miles thru a canyon. Can also connect a remote speaker to a mobile. This I highly recommend doing, they make understanding what is being said a LOT easier. I'm using this speaker: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AR09TLO/ and what I've found with these is that you definitely get what you pay for.

I still use my HT's for a lot of things. It hasn't been a case now that I have a mobile that I never use the HT. I take one with me when I go walking the route or just hiking around camp. I've seen spotters using one to talk to the driver, both on the trail and when backing up the motorhome.