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Old 03-18-2016, 09:28 AM   #26
wa8yxm
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Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Mobile, on the road
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1st Radio and antenna depends on many things.

First what band: VHF/UHF
For VHF/UHF a good NO GROUND PLANE antenna, Diamond, Comet, Single or dual band (Depending) works well. Mine is mounted on the Mirror arm, but a second one can be mounted... in other places. (long story).

These antennas do not need a metal surface.

Radios: There are some very cheap China made hand healds like the Baoefeng (Which I happen to have one of) I'm not very impressed with it.. Though many say it is hard to "program" I've not had that problem,, But it flat does not perform as well as I'd like. I think I paid 50 bucks.

Yeseau, Kenwood and Icom all have very good radios, both hand held and "mounted" single and dual band, and some of them offer advanced modes like Digital. Hand healds can sell for as much as 500 dollars or more... Generally mounted radios are lower in cost. (You can get a decent used one from HRO or some such for as low as 100 bucks if you are lucky, perhaps less at a swap meet).

HF, I Picked Kenwood (TS-2000) back when the model number was the price, along with a KAT-1 Auto tuner and a long wire (Currently 50 feet) and a few fishing poles and a flag pole to hole it up.. (I really like a longer wire)

ICOM also makes some great stuff as does Ten-Tec, Yesau, Elecraft and a host of other companies.. I actually would hesitiate to recommend any of them over the others.

OH, so why did I pick the TS-2000... Well I measured the space where I was going to mount it, and I measured the TS-2000 (And a few others) it fit, the others did not.
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