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Comment by 0000011111 | Hacker News Reader

You can hit the space stations repeater with a $40 boafeng radio. Line of site baby!

Love my UV5R! I put a telescopic, 1 meter antenna on mine and was able to hit a repeater on Mount Diablo from the Twin Peaks in SF ~42 miles away!

PSA: we need more HAMs out there! Check out https://hamstudy.org and get your license https://hamstudy.org/sessions/remote

Let me add my favorite, https://hamexam.org

What antenna?

just get a legitimate nagoya and call it good, if you want 100% portable and "not likely to break if you sneeze while using it".

And if you want something that's often just as good, but you don't have to worry about breaking it, get a Signal Stick:

https://www.eham.net/reviews/view-product?id=13357

RH 660s. I was skeptical at first, but it has really held up. I get really good signal reports and people always say they're surprised when I'm using a UV5R. I did drill the microphone port open a little wider by the way and I think that helped get some more gain/clarity as well.

Note that the RH 660s is 27 centimeters collapsed (11 inches), and 1 meter fully extended. It is rigid so not one of the floppy antennas. Collapsed it can take abuse, but when extended, bending is a risk.

Yes though the issue with many boafend radios is that they get banned in countries due to the bleed over other frequencies with the harmonics that break the rules. Covered better here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0EdkdNqczk

Baofeng caught heat because their radios are "unlocked" and in the US you cannot sell a radio that can set arbitrary frequencies in the FRS or GMRS bands (i forget which and it's irrelevant) - that is, they can't have keypads for one thing. Another issue is the power, if your radio can transmit on those two bands it must use <=1000mW, and all of the baofengs claim at least 5W transmit. Yet another reason is FRS/GMRS radios (whichever) must have *fixed* antennas.

The hash is just a reason for people to complain about them. As shipped from the factory, they're below the minimum hash levels required. Now, if you connect them to a cheap RF amplifier, you might run afoul of your license's rules about hashing up the harmonics.

Personally i prefer quansheng, as their speakers are louder, but i've never had an issue with a baofeng, especially with an external speaker/mic/antenna.

for posterity, i am extremely tired, and i welcome all elucidations and corrections, because i'm probably misremembering something, here.

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