The straps are pretty convenient, but for something as small as my baofeng I'll just clip it on my belt. If you're looking for it to be more secure/protected you can use a pouch. Fun fact: my VX5R is currently in an old pouch that I used to use for my Nextel ( sometimes being a packrat has it's advantages).
My radio strap was made by a guy I work with, but some of my coworkers have straps from here:
https://www.bostonleather.com/products/firefighting/
Note that the strap and holster are sold separately. I did a quick look and I think some of those might fit a Baofeng with a big battery.
Also check https://www.thefirestore.com/Radio-Straps-and-Accessories for other options. I didn't check amazon, but if you search it for firefighter's radio strap you will probably come up with something.
'Nobody ever called the fire department because they did something intelligent'
Another FWIW.... When I took the test, the group that administered it gave you 2 chances to pass. If you passed on the first try, you could take a shot at the General test (or AE of you pass General on first try). I missed on the General by 1-2 questions. Had I known that I could take both the same sitting, I would have studied more of the General test questions in advance.
NERD! (JK!)
Suggest you talk with your local CERT. Whoever can talk about the channel list they post on the website. It's very likely that thought went into making this list. Frequently used stations. Other stations important in a wider emergency, etc. I would wager that loading that list will cover 99% of your needs... and not waste channel spaces.
Also.... it will be a HUGE time saver when you are out with CERT... When someone says "we'll be communicating on 444.600, channel 5", it HUGELY faster to find channel 5 when you are using the same channel load as everyone else, than it will be to find which channel you programmed for the 444.600 repeater. Maybe that's channel 92 on your radio? Are you going to scroll through every pre programmed channel until you find it, or pull out your paper list? Big waste of time. Don't be THAT guy.
When your CERT is out doing CERT stuff, it's very likely that you'll be wearing a hi-viz safety vest..... ??
I prefer to just drop my radio into a vest pocket and clip my external mic somewhere convenient. I rarely use the belt clip.
Also, I often find myself carrying a City (trunked) radio to be able to cross communicate with ham folks and City EM (Incident Command). That thing is BIG and requires belt space. Or... Amazon LINK.
"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." - Thomas Jefferson, Virginia Constitution, Draft 1, 1776
I have this mounted on my backpack shoulder strap:
https://www.amazon.com/M1SURPLUS-Tac...1N33E4VF&psc=1
Thanks again...Our CERT Team is having a drill on 3/16. I volunteered to help set up the radios. Now that I passed the training, I am also supposed to be issued one of our community hand-helds, which I am presuming will be already set up for the net(s) we use locally.
To practice, I used the SRQ ARES Frequency list to set up a custom channel mix on the Baofeng, so far so good. I am still a little unclear on the use of Tone/NAC settings. The CHIRP software has two options, one is "tone" and one is "TSQL" which I interpret as being on the R or TX sides for tone squelch. I entered all the repeater freqs from SRQ ARES and setup the tones, but so far haven't caught a lot of traffic to see if this works or not. I expect to get more familiar with this as time goes by. (I know the radio works because I can hear if I transmit from my Motorola FRS radio into the Baogeng channel set to monitor my FRS band I use for the RV comms).
I'm going to start carrying the radio in the truck, so now I'm mag mount antennas and radio mounts for inside the cab. I saw this setup, but it might not be adequate for my needs, any thoughts?
Heh. Sorry, could not resist. I think I'm going to send that to my wife and freak her out.
Do you know what kind of radio this is? Will you be able to communicate to local PD and Fire on it?
The cost of the radios used here make them a shared resource. Too expensive to issue one to everyone.
Also.... lots of HAM people like to hear themselves talk on the radio. Not a good idea to give those folks the ability to talk on the PD/Fire channels.
https://www.twowayradioforum.com/t/tone-or-tsql/7198
"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." - Thomas Jefferson, Virginia Constitution, Draft 1, 1776
I think I found my new Avatar.
1) Not yet, and 2) I seriously doubt it; at least, not at my CERT level (Operations Section participant/gopher).
Thanks for the info on the tone/SQL. Channels set up to use CSQ R/T come through ok when keyed, both ways, which makes sense. But the repeater freqs indicate NAC tones (100, 82.5, etc.), so I wasn't 100% sure what to put in that CHIRP column. I will keep tinkering with it; setting up a *.img file with different channel loads seems to be easy/straightforward.
EDIT: Looks like it should be Tone; I just copied a two way conversation taking place on the local SAR-11 channel 442.4(+) 82.5, so it looks like to unlock Squelch for the channels with tones I have to set it up this way:
There is a local SRQ ARES drill coming up in March on the 146.73(-)/100 repeater that I plan to monitor. And they have monthly meetings at the local Red Cross building so more than likely I'll find out more soon.
Last edited by RJ; 02-23-2022 at 09:26 AM.
Here's a more nuanced discussion...
https://forums.mygmrs.com/topic/1321-tone-versus-t-sql/
Quoting Hans... about half way down the page...
The tone is the "squelch code" your radio is sending out. T Sql is "squelch code" your radio is listening for. If your radio doesn't send out the correct "squelch code", the receiving radio will not play the audio through the speaker.
Simplex, radio to radio, the transmitting radio would send out a tone while the PTT button is pressed and this would tell the T Sql receiving radio to open the speaker. This is useful in an environment with some considerable radio noise on the frequency where constantly adjusting the squelch knob would be a real pain.
In the case of two repeaters near enough to each other to interfere, a different tone sent out by the respective repeaters means that the user can select which repeater will open their speaker. We have two repeaters here, in two different cities, but they are close enough to be heard between the towers. When we want to use the northern repeater, we use T Sql set to the tone that the northern repeater is putting out. Likewise if we want to use the southern repeater.
"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." - Thomas Jefferson, Virginia Constitution, Draft 1, 1776