BoChang Thread

>>33274474
I am also interested in learning more.
I bought a Baofeng UV5RA Ham Two Way Radio on amazon as a gift from my uncle, and I have no idea how to use it.
Any info is appreciated.

>>33274474
How far can these transmit to each other? I just looked at them on Amazon and its mostly five star reviews. Why all the hate from k?

>>33274474
What are you going to do with it?

>>33274516
An HT on a rubber duck antenna to another HT on a rubber duck antenna is pretty limited. Maybe a mile over suburban flat terrain. More with some elevation and less if you're in an urban setting. At 5 or 6 watts and a compromise antenna it's not great.

>>33274506
what are you planning on doing with it?

>>33274574
Seducing truckers and listening to the cops when the shtf.
Yes, I know talking to the cops is a no no.

>>33274655
>Seducing truckers
So that would be a problem. This is an FM radio, truckers use AM. Truckers also use CB which is 40 defined channels that are 26/27Mhz. Most public safety systems have gone to a digital trunked system, these chicom radios don't do trunking nor do they decode P-25 digital.

>>33274692
Darn.
Then how would I listen to the police when there is an emergency in my area.

>>33274730
They went to digital systems for that reason, to stop people from listening in. Even on the open standard p25 systems many of them are running fulltime AES encryption.

>>33274730
Check out radioreference and see if there are any local scanner feeds and see what system/freqs your public safety system is using.

>>33274730
>would I listen to the police
by turning 500 dollery doos into a P25 police scanner

>>33274743
>>33274759
>>33274760
Okie dokie.
How do I communicate with others in an emergency situation?

>>33274743
things that arent true.jpeg


Im literally listening to a major cities pd right now on my scanner almost no one uses encrypted channels

>>33274775
signal flares if in a marine craft

911 if on land

>>33274790
You're basing that one that you're listening to. 15 years no one was using digital system and few were using trunked systems. Today analog VHF/UHF systems are being mothballed and it was driven by the FCC narrowband mandate from the mid 1990s that took effect a few years ago. Most PS systems evaluated the options against the challenges of an analog system and they spent the money on either a motorola P25 system or a Harris (MaCom) proprietary digital system. There is no scanner that can decode the Harris (MaCom) systems.

Your mostly likely listening to an early adopter of Motorola phase 1 technology and they haven't yet upgraded to phase 2 or P25.

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>>33274797
>implying you can rely on 911in a personal emergency much less a widespread disaster
People died on 9/11 because 911 was busy. Same for many hurricanes and riots. And I happen to live right in the middle of DC and Baltimore.
Also, I have signal flares.

>>33274883
you could try emailing them

>>33274912
>what is a black out or a brown out

>>33274951
POTS works in both

>>33274743
SOME do full encryption, not most, and it's fairly rare. Those who have been pressed on the point pretty much admit that it's so they don't end up on YouTube; there really is no valid reason.

>>33275010
The only reason to do Harris or full encryption is to hide from the public. I've been a radio geek since 1993. Full encryption is moving towards the norm. As the Motorola type I system age out and type II become the prominent system, the processors in the handhelds are now or will be with replacements fast enough to do full time encryption without the hiccups that have been there in the past.

>>33274994
Almost no one has a simple line powered phone anymore.
And even if I and whomever I want to call do, they only work if the phone company still has power.
and of course I can only use them if I'm at my house and the other person is at their house.

>>33275086
the phone company has a battery backup at your neighborhood switch, and yes you have to be home to use your home phone line

are you retarded?

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>>33275202
>agrees with me
>misses the point
>asks if I'm retarded
If I'm retarded, what does that make you?

Does anyone know what frequencies I can broadcast on without a license in Canada, if any?

>>33275265
I have enough radio equipment stockpiled to talk directly to Cambodia at will. Your point is invalid.

>>33274730

Get a scanner app on your smart phone

>>33275317
But do you have antennas both up and ready and stored for backup?

>>33275326
Any specific one?

>>33274775
Basically, you're finding out that your ching chong dong radio isn't really useful at all and certainly not useful in an emergency. The wide transmit range of these questionable type accepted radios means you're most likely to be tuned up and keyed up on a freq that's either between channels per the band plan or there's no one listening. The place these things are most useful is if you're convoying out of a coastal area to avoid a hurricane and it's the way you'll communicate with the others in your convoy.

Jang Dong Wu Tang radios are a meme here, like gas masks. A bunch of dudes buy them and don't know why, don't know how to use them, and don't even know what to do with them. At least they're cheap.

>>33274743
While police channels are often encrypted now, the emergency services coordination isn't (ever?) because needs to be lowest common denominator.
Its a bit like police lite, for happenings.

If you want to contact people in an emergency the get something like a 10 meter.
If you are somewhat close to others that you want to communicate with but want to keep it low budget then I would recommend a bearcat 980 SSB. Be sure to get a decent antenna like a wilson. Entire setup will be less than 200 bucks if you know how to shop correctly.
Standard VHF radios are 25 watt and do pretty well. I don't believe they are legal for land to land use in the USA. More $$ too.

>>33274883
>get into car accident
>911 is busy due to terror shit
>fire off flare into the air
>get Jayhawked out by USCG

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>>33275430
>After a tornado/hurricane/flood/earthquake
>Helping clean up, check on family
>Asbestos and sewage everywhere
>Sure don't need a respirator
>This shitty BoFango doesn't pick up anything but the local fire station.
>Throw that shit in the trash.

>>33274951
>what is a black out or a brown out
A temporary emergency until they catch him.

does bochange shill on this board or do people just buy these things for no reason?

>>33275616
Just making shit up there champ. It's obvious.

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>>33274516
These radios are similar to MURS/GMRS band radios.

>>33276389
I can't think of his name but there is a YouTuber who tells people to buy this shit.
It's some weird dumbfuck who obviously does a lot of drugs and is suffering from mental illness. Reminds of a manic/bipolar/borderline personality disorder kind of guy.

>>33276389
vhf/uhf capability wasn't affordable until baofengs came along, which is why people like them

>>33275326
That'll work. Until cellphone service gets overloaded, like in a major emergency.

so what radio should I buy for the family, I need at least 2 walkies. good for mountains perhaps as that's where we'd spend shtf at a cabin in the PNW

>>33276389
Basically until baofengs came along even an entry level handheld VHF/UHF radio was like $120-150 which kept a lot of people away. It's kind of nice to have cheap equipment available, but at the same time they're total crap and the RF output is shit. Also, having them unlocked means anyone can buy one and punch in a random frequency which has been a problem for the FCC. Until baofengs, to do such mods would require a good deal of electronics skill which meant there weren't total dumbasses going on frequencies they don't belong on.

>>33276529
inb4 baofeng

>>33276529

go on amazon, look for 2-way radio and sort by most reviews

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>>33274474

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>>33275430
That's pretty cool man. Sounds like you were too dumb to watch a 6 minute YouTube video. Or maybe too repotaoed to understand it. The cheapest baofeng has a series of functions from FM/am radio. Noaa weather report and strobe light. All of these things are mega simple and thanks to rechargeable and spare batteries, quite practical. Even if you are too potato to get your ham op permit. Or to even learn to operate the device for emergency. Go shoot ur mossberg at some stuffed animals jonboy.

>>33274474
At what range can you contact EMS with a handheld? I like to drive and hike in some areas with spotty cell service and it would be nice to have a backup plan to get help in the event of an accident. Also, do handhelds typically have an autopatch feature?

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>>33277089
a handheld with an autopatch feature is called a cell phone

>>33277143
No shit, but cell phones tend to have limited battery life and are relatively fragile compared to a handheld radio.

>>33276449
Sort of got me there, I've programmed this disaster coordination/major event frequency into my radio, but haven't heard anything on it yet. That said, it is meant for emergencies, and there have been none of note.

>>33276755
amazon reviews are unreliable as fuck, majority of them are fake posts by bots and screw with the rating putting shit products at the top.

>>33277089
Virtually all radios are capable of autopatch, but the autopatch isn't dependent on the radio's hardware. Autopatches just listen for DTMF tones transmitted from a radio, and use that to place a phone call. The radio does nothing but transmit the DTMF tones (those tones you hear when pressing a button while transmitting). On the receiving end there needs to be an autopatch. Autopatches are no longer used by EMS for their own communications, so the only ones you can use are amateur radio autopatches, of which there are very few. Unless you set up your own autopatch system, there's very little hope of you using one.

There are, however, many instances of ham radio operators requesting other hams to call 911 and relaying information through the other ham operator. I tend to always have a few local repeaters wherever I'm traveling where I know I'll lose cell signal so I can contact a ham to relay my information to the relevant emergency service.

One nice function on radios is to use the built in autopatch functions to access ham radio related stuff like echolink of IRLP. I have a Motorola MT2000 set up with phone settings in such a way that I can hit a couple buttons and it will automatically link my university campus's repeater to UCLA's repeater so I can talk with friends.

>>33274516
With a 15" antenna we get maybe 3-4 mi in city

>>33274506
>>33274574
>>33274655
The Baofeng radio requires you to have at least a ham radio technician license. The study materials are about $15 and the test is $25. Takes about 2 weeks to study and then 30minutes for the test.
If you pass technician you can take the general test for free while still at the testing center, and if you pass the general you can take the extra test for free as well. There is no reason why you shouldn't get one.

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Poor hamfag reporting in.

>>33277143
>>33276500

>>33276360
Lol, thats my hometown

I'm a licensed ham and I use my UV-5R to talk on the local repeaters here in MN. It's a reliable radio with good battery life. Don't bother with any accessories.

Anyone interested in passing the entry-level exam, listen to this a few times when you're out and about
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gljU__v09Hs&t=24s

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>>33274474

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>>33274474
Channels 31-38, the PMR channels can't be programmed into these radios. You can get close, but if you don't have a U.S. Technician license or better, you can' transmit on them anyway.

In the absence of a license, stay away from transmitting in the ham bands, marine band, and most certainly public safety bands (generally 153-157 & 453-454 & 460-461MHz), don't purposely interfere with anyone (there are no "private" channels), remember that if you can hear them, they might be able to hear you, and you should be okay.

>>33284004
Oops... Ham bands: 144-150 & 420-450MHz. Stay away from the military bands too; 136-144, 150-151, 400-420MHz.

>>33284360
>144-150
You mean 144-148

>>33274655
You cant talk to cops on a baofeng

>>33286727
Hell yeah you can. It's actually the one reason I've used it over my yaesu handhelds since a police stuff goes above 470MHz where my ham gear won't reach. I eventually got a motorola MT2000 which is much more rugged than my ham gear, and was made for police, so it doesn't complain when I use it for both ham and police stuff.

Of course P25 is a bitch to deal with, but a good amount of police shit can still be accessed with analog. You just need to know the PL or DCS code that they're using and you can talk pretty freely. There's equipment out there to intercept that stuff, and you can also fin some information about PLs/DCS on sites like radioreference.

>>33274840
ding ding, a fuckton of depts in PA started trunking when 12.5khz narrowbanding took effect and again recently thanks to state initiatives after san bernadino

>>33274474
Don't these things have really nasty radio emissions?

>>33274506

They're stupidly cheap for what you get, well loved, and totally worth it. Yeah, it's signal is a bit dirty compared to a Yaesu or Icom. It meets every FCC standard in the most minimum passable kind of way. And yet you have a fully functional and actually pretty darn good VHF/UHF radio for $20-30, when similar equipment cost $200+ just 10 years ago. All that electronic miniaturization the silicon fabs put out these days results in fun toys like this.

>>33274516

Anything in the VHF/ UHF range is going to be 'line of sight' only. For the average 6 ft American, that's about 3 miles, on flat ground (think over an ocean). For two people talking, the RF horizon will be about 6 miles, line of sight. This is before factoring in things like terrain and obstacles; 3-5 miles is a good bet for an HT.

>>33277143
Autopatches were hot stuff in the 80s and 90s, before cellphones were cheap. Cellphones don't do a whole lot when overloaded or off-line, think 9/11 and hurricanes. Katrina comes to mind, some places were out of service for literally months, and that was with the entire country dedicating resources to rebuild the area.

>>33288801
Yes they do. The FCC rescinded their approval for the UV-5r, so they're technically illegal to use now. The FCC has yet to ban the more recent versions of the UV-5r, so you can still use them, even though they're just as shitty.

>>33274516
I've built an antenna myself, very similar to the well known N9TAX or Nelson Antennas Slim Jim portable antennas. I've managed to get 5+ miles out of it, one way messages only. (from the Baofeng w/ Slim Jim antenna to another normal Baofeng). I'm very confident it goes a lot further, but I wasn't able to test it. Building your own antenna's requires you to have an SWR meter. I bought one because I wanted to build a PMR446 (European FRS thing) antenna.

MURS/GMRS antenna by N9TAX
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Authentic-N9TAX-VHF-UHF-Slim-Jim-J-Pole-For-HT-MURS-GMRS-Antenna-10-Coax/221840464026

VHF/UHF Antenna by N9TAX for Ham radio bands
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Authentic-N9TAX-VHF-UHF-Slim-Jim-J-Pole-For-HT-2m-70cm-Antenna-10-Coax-/321819896093?hash=item4aedf5e91d:g:IEIAAOSwPcVVuraZ

VHF/UHF Antenna by Nelson Antenna (Ham radio bands)
http://www.ebay.nl/itm/DELUXE-MODEL-ROLL-UP-2M-70CM-ROLL-UP-J-POLE-SLIM-JIM-ANTENNA-WITH-10FT-COAX-/190898779511?hash=item2c72743577:g:Vs8AAOSwcUBYQI8F


>>33274655
You want an wide band receiver covering 25MHz up to 1300MHz. If you are able to use your laptop/computer during SHTF, an RTL-SDR dongle might be the right stuff. You can receive 27MHz CB, decode P25 with special software, (unless it's encrypted), decode pagers, receive Weather Sat images, listen to hams and a lot of other good stuff.
Best antenna is a Discone antenna to the side of the house, with good quality (LMR400) coax

>>33274994
It ain't POTS nomore. It's all digital, out-of-band signalling requiring lots of telco switches.

>>33276500
This.

>>33275430
I wholeheartily disagree. They can easily serve a very useful purpose when SHTF. But if you don't put in the time and effort learn about using Baofengs and learn about the real-world practical limitations of radio equipment, you'll end up disappointed big time in it. They can receive so much, and you can put in a lot of frequencies. That doesn't make it so that you can listen to things 24/7 on it. For survival situations, if you're able to, the Fire Dept frequency can have great info on what roads are blocked or where bad things are going down. Where I live all emergency services are encrypted to hell and back, so I mainly focus on ham radio repeaters and frequencies, Red Cross frequencies, ARES frequencies and PMR446/LPD433 frequencies (Europe). Pretty useful if you ask me. Transmitting on the wrong frequencies is just user fault. People choosing Baofengs over Food storage or PPE, that's just their own fault in their prioritisation. That's not the Baofengs fault for being a cool wannahave gadget. It's the preppers' fault. See the image in >>33277143. They buy them, program a couple frequencies, maybe listen to the locals for an hour of two before it vanishes in the BOB. The user is in the first overconfidence peak. When (local) SHTF, the limitations are experienced through emergency use, wrecking confidence leading to people tossing them. Just spend more time to get closer to the actual confidence & experience peak. Not shilling Baofengs here. Just shilling value of comms gear for preppers. Don't get discouraged by the tiny learning curve.


>>33275720
10 or 11 meters SSB is a decent choice. For vehicle deployment I'd recommend 25 watt VHF or UHF FM though, since they have much smaller antenna's, and is a bit more reliable than high HF. And you can transmit to HT's that are deployed in a dismounted patrol or checking stuff out in a seemingly empty building. 1/4 wave whip on a groundplane (metal car body) does wonders.

>>33276529
A couple Wouxons are a large step up from Baofengs in quality. Get a portable antenna (see >>33290017) for at the cabin. That will act as a base station that can reach out to the HT's in the field.

>>33276360
Sounds more like bad priorities in making your preps

>>33287657
You can scan CTCSS/DCS with a Baofeng.

>>33276787
Am I the only one that misses Zed and SAO's shitposting?

>>33290207
Yes.

>>33290217
their chatroom is still up but nobody visits anymore..

I've added a section to the /k/ Prepping Pastebin about communication, based on this thread and my personal experiences with the Baofengs. Gonna expand it much further covering shortwave, RTL-SDR and a bunch more eventually.

Anyone with any feedback or additions, dump 'em, I'll add them.

http://pastebin.com/FhKXrmYh

I'd be more interested in getting a HAM license if there were more people to speak with.

Last time I listened in on a Friday night, it was senior citizens talking about the weather and surgical operations they'd received.

>>33274516
I can hit repeaters 7 miles away with mine
I live in a large city

>>33288982
What exactly do they do, if you know? I'm not much of a radio expert.

>>33276389
I bought 2 to fuck around with. And the long don't broadcast antennas. Come at me.

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>>33291259

>>33290120
No, baofengs, and pretty much any non-purpose-made gear can't scan PL/DCS. Your only option is to manually cycle through over 100 codes, testing them each time someone transmits.

>>33291018
Try finding repeaters operated by colleges or larger linked systems, those tend to be more active.

>>33291209
Basically the internal construction of the baofeng involves a tiny integrated radio transmitter and receiver chip, and the rest of the radio provides amplification to get to ~4watts output. The quality of the amplification circuit is just shit. It's rather poorly designed, and through some rf electronics wizardry that means it sends out a lot of excess noise which is above the tolerated levels as defined by the FCC.

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>>33291300
So why can I scan them with both my UV-82 and UV-5R then? It's a bit of hassle to find out how to make it scan through them, but I assure you, you can scan them. I wouldn't want to flip through 69 CTCSS and/or 250 orso DCS codes, but I never had to. If you want I can type you out how.

>>33291018
Same thing here. It's such a dull crowd. The main reason I'm still getting it is so I can practice using my gear while having plenty of people that are able to talk back/verify signal reports and what not.
If your goal is to talk to other hams during SHTF, you'd want to focus on simplex communication/frequencies and simplex nets, not relying on repeaters which use the electrical grid and sometimes the internet.
Nets are weekly events where people can check in, give/receive a signal report and pass the mike. They happen on UHF and VHF, but there is also a nationwide American Preparedness Network on the 80 meters band (~3.5MHz), which is HF for instance. That way you know if you can talk around on simplex, you can talk around when SHTF, and like I said get more information from outside the Area of Effect. Right now I could never talk on the ham bands in peace time, because if you aren't using a call sign, they chew you out and use Direction Finding to catch you. Same when you use someone else's callsign. And they have every right to do so.

I also wouldn't want to talk about my preps to the radio during peace time, or SHTF for that matter. Any local yokel with a receiver can hear you and find out who you are using your callsign. The oldies will die off soon, time to bring a new generation of users to ham radio, with better topics in the meantime

>>33291035
That 7 mile range (with I assume is the rubber duck antenna) is probably due to the elevation of the repeater antenna. It can pick you up within the 7 miles and repeat you out much further. But using a simplex frequency (no repeater) would probably be a mile or 2 at the most.

Pic related

>>33291542
Huh. That's interesting. I know the rf chip the baofeng is based on is used in some scanners, but I didn't know the baofeng software actually lets you get the tone/code. Does it actually display it for you? Please do share, that's something I haven't seen before.

>>33291596
I'll start off that it does take a while to cycle through them. It's in no way instantaneously. It takes about 12-14 seconds to scan for CTCSS and 60 seconds for normal *and* reversed DCS codes.

I always do it this way:
[Menu] key -> Type in 11, go to [R-CTCS] -> [Menu] key -> [Arrow Up] key (so it displays 67.0Hz) -> [Menu] key -> [Menu] Key -> [*/Scan] key. It's so confusing because you first have to set it from the 'Off' setting to 67.0 Hz before you can let it scan.

The CT/DCS icon should now flash and it will start scanning when squelch is broken. It keeps quiet when scanning, until it finds the correct CTCSS/DCS code, and you'll hear what is being said/transmitted. The code will be displayed on the screen and pressing [Menu] once will save the setting if you're in VFO mode. In memory mode it will go directly back to the saved setting after closing the menu and go back displaying the channel names.

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>>33274474
http://pastebin.com/cFn6MMjv
download
rename extension to .csv
open in CHIRP

Does anyone have more noob questions with regards to Baofengs or communications in general?

All this input is also added for the pastebin.
http://pastebin.com/FhKXrmYh