My trusty Chinese Wouxun has failed me on my last activation. It tends to reset itself, the final amp for 2m is dead completely so I consider it trashed.
I’ve been looking at the rugged Yaesu VX-6, which seems to be just ideal for SOTA - it is waterproof and it looks like it can take a beating.
The only downside is, that it is missing a 6.25 kHz frequency step, so I wouldn’t be able to program the basic
8 PMR 466 channels into it. I would expect this is something they would think of when they design a radio aimed at hikers.
I don’t want to have to carry 2 devices, to talk to people using PMR and it’s difficult to believe that a $30 Chinese Baofeng would give me more usability than a top of the line branded radio.
Is the frequency step something that you are stuck with or can these things generally be done by aftermarket software modifications? I know that vendors typically offer out-of-HAM-bands frequency TX unlocking. But no one talks about the frequency step. Some other Yaesu HTs do have that step available so
I was wondering if this is a software thing or its’ “built into the radio”.
I don’t know about your country, but in the UK that would not be legal. The PMR446 frequencies may only be used without licence with a radio specifically type-approved. Amongst other things, the type-approval mandates a non-removable antenna.
Yes same here. Non-removable antenna, no TX outside the designated 8 channels. That makes using all Chinese HTs for PMR technically illegal. Except no one cares if you don’t overdo it with power and don’t transmit anywhere you shouldn’t. Until now, I used to have a Wouxun UV-6D v2, had those frequencies programmed there and haven’t used them for PMR once. But I do want to have that ability for emergency purposes and not have to carry one more radio to do that.
Does yours have the PTT button issue? My microswitch is properly broken. Got a shoulder mic now for it. One of those 4 pound Baofeng ones. Really good.