I’m going to be heading across the pond in October and plan to do a bit of SOTA along the way, but from previous experience several bands in that region don’t align too well with our European equipment. What to do?
Buying a handheld locally in the US for 2 & 70 might be an ideal excuse to upgrade to the latest ID-52 Plus, but while I can remember to stick to European band edges when I’m home I’m not sure if the tuning steps will be the same. Not sure that I can justify the same approach for a HF rig though. Take my European IC-705 and risk being left out in the cold on 40? Have it widebanded? Hmmm.
Last resort would be to just throw a Quansheng handheld in the bag, re-configure it for US bands and hope for the best? At least I wouldn’t be worried about it getting confiscated or stolen …
I bought a Yaesu 2m/70cm 5W FM HT in the 1990’s whilst in the USA and had no problem using it once back in Europe, e.g. one could program its memories for any separation of repeater input/output frequencies, it has the same CTCSS tones, etc. Their modern HTs will be the same.
In fact I believe many manufacturers have all the regional variations (e.g. US, Europe, Japan) in the same firmware and a few links are scanned on power up to select the appropriate ‘regional model’. Brave-hearted types could resolder the links to select an alternative default region but I didn’t see the need.
I bought a cheap Yaesu FT-4X for my last US trip. The EU version can simply be widebanded by just entering a code, so I didn’t have to tamper with my other handheld, which was still under warranty back then.
Hi Mark. I guess it also depends on WHERE you plan on activating. In the eastern US, 40 and 30 meters can get you a lot of contacts because of the dense population
But in Wyoming and Idaho, you’ll only get a few contacts on 30/40 due to the sparse population. And UHF VHF probably not even worth trying unless you’re near a big city (a rare occurrence).
15, 17 and 20 are the best in this area, and 10 and 12 if open.
I used 20m - 10m on my trips to that part of the world, for the reason that Pat mentions. A 2m handheld was great in the front range of the Rockies, overlooking the massive strip of population that stretches from Denver to Colorado Springs. Otherwise, HF only activations.
The US still uses 25Khz (FM wide) deviation on 2m. I was lucky to pick up a cheap US spec Kenwood in the UK. Otherwise, just take your Quansheng or whatever and set it to FMW. I always carried my one as a back up. No need for paperwork. No-one ever checks your bags on the way into the country. I always have a printed copy of my license but have never needed it.
This is what I did, although I only used it once and mostly used my FT817 on HF.
Neither my Kenwood TH-K20E or Yaesu FT-3D could be altered to transmit on 146 MHz - I’d be surprised if there isn’t an easy way to convert a FT-3DE to an FT-3DR but I couldn’t find anything and Yaesu said it’s not possible.
Many thanks for all the replies folks, I appreciate it very much. I’m still on the fence with this one and may simply end up buying an ID-50 from HRO in Boston when I arrive - I don’t need bluetooth and dual DV receive so this could theoretically replace my ID-52 as the default travel radio seeing as it’s a tad smaller and charges via USB-C. That doesn’t get me on HF however, but as it’s a road trip with my wife perhaps I shouldn’t be aiming for too much SOTA beyond the occasional cheeky activation with a handheld.
To come back on a couple of specific points:
Batteries not a problem, I’ve travelled with Bioenno LiFePO₄ cells a fair bit and know what to expect and do, but the FCC thing is a new one for me. None of my gear (from radios to smartwatches) is externally marked as FCC certified, I don’t have certificates, and I’ve never been challenged to date. Come to think of it, I’ve not been asked for my license document, the CEPT agreement, or the various carriers rules for batteries in carry-on. Have I just been lucky all this time?
I wondered about this too - why have a region-specific part of the hardware production line when we can regionalise quite effectively in firmware? Maybe they want to avoid a situation whereby too many people are able to easily modify the product and cause out-of-band chaos, bringing the manufacturer into disrepute. That would explain why Quansheng handhelds are so easy to abuse; one production line, no preexisting reputation to damage.
Exactly this Jens, bingo. And the FT-4X is cheap enough within the scope of the entire trip to not worry about re-use when at home, damage while hiking, etc. My only gripe would be having to schlep around another charging cradle and region-specific charger when so many other cheap handhelds are happy with USB, but I guess the quality of the Yaesu’s receiver (versus Baofeng et al) could make up for that.
On the next rip we’re heading into Boston MA and then through New England for fall, so I’m guessing 40m will be my go-to band, but my European IC-705 tops out at 7.200 so that could be very limiting for me. I’ve not used 30m because it’s for narrowband modes only in my region and I don’t (yet) do CW. Are 20 - 10m the same band edges with you Pat? No need to answer, I’m just thinking out loud and will research if I do go down the HF route.
Thanks Fraser. Were your HF activations using a European HF radio? I’m leaning towards 2m because I like to travel light, and because I don’t know how far I can push my XYL’s patience on what’s supposed to be a road trip to look at some colourful leaves. To be fair she loved accompanying me on all the SOTA outings we did on a recent trip to EA8, but if I use the HF gear enough to warrant taking it all that way then it may not be good for me in the long run …
My FT-5D would be great for this trip if only it could be widebanded, and if it would charge from USB. I still haven’t ruled out the Quansheng route, nor buying a local FT-4X, nor widebanding my ID-52 via the MARS mod. But I love the ID-52 and would kick myself if it went wrong. Hmm.
Yes. Apart from the extra 100Khz that Americans enjoy on 40m (which I didn’t use anyway), everything else matches up. You just need to be aware that tech licenses in the USA only have access to some of the 10m band, but a quick check of the ARRL bandplans will reveal all.
I doubt that’s the reason. As an old cynic, I suspect by selling trivially-different product variants (containing the same basic hardware & firmware, e.g. Yaesu FT1D in the US, but my European one is FT1DE) and which are not easily reconfigurable (e.g. by using certain button presses or sequence on power up) allows the manufacturer to increase the profit margins in some regions.
Lovely. In the 80’s [during the Reagan presidency] my (young, then) family and I lived a bit west of Boston and enjoyed trips to the Berkshires in the Fall.
There was FCC pressure over the 817. At one time you could change the coverage using just software. 817-ND read the coverage options from the diode links so whilst you could make a sofwtare change to an 817-ND, the coverage reset to the links settings next power up. You had to change the links to get full TX capability.
Now, changing hardware to configure such options requires bigger PCBs to hold the links. It also requires more knowledge of how many US models to make vs. EU models. Much simpler is to make all units have the same hardware and then program the firmware when the destination market is know. So make 10000 radios and when an EU order for 1000 comes in, program with EU firmware and package with EU manuals etc. Pain for people who travel worldwide.
Probably some truth in that, but it’s not always easy to weigh up the anticipated profit against the layout necessary to accommodate regional variants in the production line.
As someone who worked 35 years in the electronics industry (mainly for Motorola) I would be very surprised if the big successful companies did not have good evidence of what the market will bear - w.r.t. price - in the regions of the world they sell to, and how best to design and manufacture to create regional variants of the same basic product at minimum cost to them.
Hello Mark, I might be biased after getting skunked recently trying a 2m FM activation but I think you might have a rough time relying only on 2m for this trip. Only a few days ago my wife and friends left me on a summit calling CQ into the ether and regretting not bringing a small CW HF rig. This was on a weekend in Shenandoah National Park, admittedly on a rather low summit, but with a spot posted and in what I’ve long thought of as a good area for a 2m-only activation.
Although the US east coast is relatively densely populated, I don’t think most of the SOTA summits have anything resembling a good line of sight to large population centers. If you have candidate summits in mind, of course you can check (for example on sotl.as) to see what bands/modes have been used on activations.
