Waterproof Ham Radios (2021)

[JR1572]

I picked up a used vx6 a few months back. I’m very happy with mine. I have RT systems software for programming duty with my Mac.

Some yaesu radios can have their transmit/receive range opened up with typing a code on the keyboard. Some need to be opened up and have some soldering done. I don’t want to say the B word but they’re ready to do that right out of the box.

[Sanch]

It doesn't make you a bad person, but it's kind of a pointless endeavor. It must be a prepper thing to want to transmit on all the frequencies. If you're really worried about emergencies, get a Spot or one of the satellite-based emergency communicators. You're more likely to reach someone with those (as someone who does a lot of backcountry amateur radio work...).

Chris

Hi Chris,

Maybe it’s a bad analogy but suppose it was legal to install a full auto firing pack in your AR, but illegal to shoot it full auto, except in emergencies. Would you think that’s pointless? It kind of is, full auto out of an AR15 is kind of useless nearly all of the time. But I could imagine some emergency rare situation where flipping that full auto switch might save the day.

I imagine there might be some scenario where I’m LARPing Red Dawn and come into a group of backwoods PD or FD who isn’t using trucked radios. And they allow me to join them so I plug their Motorola freqs into my radio. Ridiculous, yeah, for sure. But it’s also relatively ridiculous for me to have a ham radio at all for preparedness.

I don’t really see the downside except I might accidentally transmit on one, for a split second, and I doubt anyone will take me to prison for transmitting 1 second of dead air by accident. Every professional group is using trucked radios in the 800 band anyway.

As far as waterproof desired, the more the better. My LARPing fantasies know no bounds and there doesn’t seem to be much of a downside. I do like the sound of “glock 19 of the ham radio world” so I may buy one of those anyway just to have around since I’ll wind up with a handful of radios over the next few years probably as backups and such.

[mtnbkr]

Hi Chris,

Maybe it’s a bad analogy but suppose it was legal to install a full auto firing pack in your AR, but illegal to shoot it full auto, except in emergencies. Would you think that’s pointless? It kind of is, full auto out of an AR15 is kind of useless nearly all of the time. But I could imagine some emergency rare situation where flipping that full auto switch might save the day.

I imagine there might be some scenario where I’m LARPing Red Dawn and come into a group of backwoods PD or FD who isn’t using trucked radios. And they allow me to join them so I plug their Motorola freqs into my radio. Ridiculous, yeah, for sure. But it’s also relatively ridiculous for me to have a ham radio at all for preparedness.

I don’t really see the downside except I might accidentally transmit on one, for a split second, and I doubt anyone will take me to prison for transmitting 1 second of dead air by accident. Every professional group is using trucked radios in the 800 band anyway.

As far as waterproof desired, the more the better. My LARPing fantasies know no bounds and there doesn’t seem to be much of a downside. I do like the sound of “glock 19 of the ham radio world” so I may buy one of those anyway just to have around since I’ll wind up with a handful of radios over the next few years probably as backups and such.

Even the illegal aspect is of minor concern (aside from the ethics of willingly breaking a law). You're not likely to be caught unless you make a real nuisance of yourself. It's just not going to provide much, if any, value. Most times, radios opened up to transmit on frequencies they're not designed for doesn't work as well as native radios on those bands. Mars/Cap seems to be an exception, but I know from testing using my VX-7 on FRS/GMRS frequencies didn't work well. My audio was weak and slightly garbled on the other end. It might work a bit better on a Baofeng due to their architecture, but that's another can-o-worms.

Ultimately it's your choice, but in 15 years of using amateur radio in the wilderness for simplex comms, I've never had a need for those mods. I tried them all early on and ended up reversing them either due to non-use (Mars/cap) or quality of outcome (FRS/GMRS).

There is a bit of a downside to "waterproof". My VX-7 is legitimately waterproof. The membrane over the speaker can sometimes cause muffled audio. Leaving it in a hot car causes pressure to build inside the radio that causes the output audio to drop to virtually nothing (as in turn the audio all the way up to hear anything). You have to remove the battery to "burp" it. I can't think of any other radio that is listed as "waterproof". Most these days are "water/dust resistant" to some IP rating.

Chris

[Clusterfrack]

Is the Ham part of that group or someone who happened upon our plucky long range shooters?

If the former, where is his GMRS radio? If the latter, why is he wondering around a range?

Or were you implying the Ham would relay between the disparate groups?

A guy I know had to relay comms because his HT had dual tranceivers and some of his buddies can't figure out how to use their GMRS radios. He told me that his VX8 and Baofengs are crystal clear on GMRS frequencies. Obviously the best solution is simplex and everyone having a ham license.

[Sanch]

Ultimately it's your choice, but in 15 years of using amateur radio in the wilderness for simplex comms, I've never had a need for those mods. I tried them all early on and ended up reversing them either due to non-use (Mars/cap) or quality of outcome (FRS/GMRS).

Chris

What’s the downside of the Mars/cap mod? You mention reversing for non-use. It seems like if you put in the effort to do it, even if it was unused, then putting in more effort to undo it as compared to simply ignoring that it’s there, doesn’t make sense unless there’s a downside to having it.

The only downside I can think of is if you’re changing freqs based on rotating the knob and now there’s a lot more rotations you need to do. But I don’t know what I don’t know so please advise what the downsides are.

[mtnbkr]

A guy I know had to relay comms because his HT had dual tranceivers and some of his buddies can't figure out how to use their GMRS radios. He told me that his VX8 and Baofengs are crystal clear on GMRS frequencies. Obviously the best solution is simplex and everyone having a ham license.

They didn't do a radio check before splitting up? Even back when all we used in my hunting group were those little blister pack FRS radios, we never left camp without doing a radio check. We still do that today.
I never delved deep into the GMRS thing since I had an GMRS radio too. The other guy said I was hard to understand, so I switched to the other radio. In hindsight I wonder if the deviation was different. This was around the time that standard was changing. The GMRS radios would have dated from roughly 2000 and my VX-7 was purchased in 2006.

Chris

[mtnbkr]

What’s the downside of the Mars/cap mod? You mention reversing for non-use. It seems like if you put in the effort to do it, even if it was unused, then putting in more effort to undo it as compared to simply ignoring that it’s there, doesn’t make sense unless there’s a downside to having it.

The only downside I can think of is if you’re changing freqs based on rotating the knob and now there’s a lot more rotations you need to do. But I don’t know what I don’t know so please advise what the downsides are.

None other than what you mention or possibly transmitting on that frequency "by accident". Using the VX-7 Commander, enabling or disabling Mars/Cap is as easy as checking a box. It's actually less effort than adding a repeater to memory.

A friend of mine was actually in the Mars program and found it so useless he quit.

But, if you find value in having those frequencies at your disposal, go for it. If it were me, I wouldn't let that influence a purchasing decision.

Chris

[Clusterfrack]

They didn't do a radio check before splitting up? Even back when all we used in my hunting group were those little blister pack FRS radios, we never left camp without doing a radio check. We still do that today.
I never delved deep into the GMRS thing since I had an GMRS radio too. The other guy said I was hard to understand, so I switched to the other radio. In hindsight I wonder if the deviation was different. This was around the time that standard was changing. The GMRS radios would have dated from roughly 2000 and my VX-7 was purchased in 2006.

They did a radio check, and had primary, secondary, and alternate frequencies. The primary frequency was interfered by kids transmitting at high power from a farm. So they issued the command to go to secondary. One of the guys' GMRS battery had died so he had switched to his spare radio, but discovered it couldn't access the secondary frequency. It would be awesome if GMRS handhelds had dual frequency capability. The scan features are ok, but don't always work well.

[mtnbkr]

They did a radio check, and had primary, secondary, and alternate frequencies. The primary frequency was interfered by kids transmitting at high power from a farm. So they issued the command to go to secondary. One of the guys' GMRS battery had died so he had switched to his spare radio, but discovered it couldn't access the secondary frequency. It would be awesome if GMRS handhelds had dual frequency capability. The scan features are ok, but don't always work well.

Gotcha. That's cascading failures, not a simple case of not having the initial plan in place.

Chris

[JR1572]

I just recently snagged an Icom 718 for HF. I’m getting closer to trying out HF, but still need an antenna tuner and some type of HOA proof discreet antenna.