On Thursday evening I participated in my first net! I was able to connect to the Colorado Connection which is a repeater network over many parts of Colorado – especially where there isn’t cell service which is awesome. I think I only used the 1 up from the lowest power which is 10 watts. My antenna is a magmount in my window mounted to a pizza pan. I need to do a radio check and see what my signal’s like.
CHEAP CHINESE JUNK
I started returning all my Baofeng stuff. It’s cheap and I realized you get what you pay for. Typical Chinese stuff that matches the numbers of better (and more expensive) stuff.
ICOM RADIO
On Wednesday afternoon I ordered a high power mobile radio to replace the Baofeng 5 watt (yea, right) that can’t hit even a local Boulder repeater with an upgraded antenna. It’s an ICOM IC-2300H. It only does 2 meters (about 145 mhz) which is really the most popular band for VHF.
DMR
I ordered by first DMR radio. Its an Alinco handy-talkie dual band + DMR. I got a dual-band to replace the Baofeng that I returned to Amazon. I’m concerned because its not from one of the big 3 (Yaesu, Icom, Kenwood) but it is made in Japan and sold by Ham Radio Outlet so I have faith that its better than the Baofeng stuff I started off with.
CORONA VIRUS
Kristi has been feeling allergy symptoms including pressure in her sinuses for a week as well as a 3 day headache last week. Well she went to her MD on Tuesday and she tested positive for the antibodies. Her doc said that she’d been sick for about 10 days. We’re under official quarantine until Monday night which I think will be 2 weeks from her infection start date. We’re both doing fine with minimal symptoms. We’re assuming I have it, too.
ROCKY MOUNTAIN MONITORING NET
Tonight – I asked a question for the Rocky Mountain Monitoring Net – basically a gang of people that monitor airwaves and talk about it. My question was about listening with my SDR to USFS Dispatch. They mentioned RadioReference.com which I forgot about, that mentions good stuff to listen to. And then I realized my ICOM 2300 can tune to the frequency in question – 168.65. NOTE TO SELF: Don’t just select the repeater tone, TURN IT ON, TOO!
DENVER RADIO CLUB
At 8:30PM tonight, I switched to another net and joined in – the Denver Radio Club. There are a lot of hams on this one – 36 checkins! There were no questions – just some announcements. It would have been more fun if there was a question that everyone could answer to get to know each other.
Note: A month later, I would realize that there’s a place for “Cheap Chinese Junk” and ordered my old Baofeng Rx3 again and continue to enjoy it as my daily carry radio. Like others, I might not have gotten into Amateur Radio if it cost hundreds of dollars to buy a basic (but good) handheld, thinking it would cost too much to get started.
