GME TX670 Portable radio
The first radio to come into the house arrived last year and did quite a good service allowing me to get to know other UHF radio users on the local channel three repeater. The house is close to the repeater and even from inside the hand-held radio got out without a hitch. After running the radio for a couple of months the charger began to make a strange whine during charge and was taken out of use in case it was a fire hazard. Ryda, who supplied the radio immediately offered support and were geared up to assist me through the process when I changed my mind and decided to use rechargeable AA batteries. This portable came with a battery pack but I decided it may have been the problem. The rechargeable batteries work very well and there are always a few spare high energy batteries as a second backup. The little portable is good enough that I can use it as a monitor for my other radios on 477Mhz CB Band. It has begun to make scratchy sounds when it sits on scan for any amount of time and while it is very rugged the way it was constantly on as a CB scanner over months may not suit it. I trust it though.
The second UHF CB radio to come into the house was a mobile unit. An Oricom uhf380. It was obtained from Selby Acoustics via the medium of Ebay. It was delivered quickly and with no fuss. I struggled with the idea of buying another UHF radio when I had the portable but there had been a few problems that hand-held radios have for people who talk a lot and often over the radio.
Oricom uhf380
The first problem was the battery longevity. The GME has a good stand by time and lasts well on transmit but it does run out and needs that second set of batteries. During the lag after buying the GME a Baofeng was also obtained to extend the tx time and give me access to other bands on rx. That radio too ran out of batteries and in a long conversation the radiated heat became a problem.
Everyone who heard the Oricom complimented me on the audio and it had a clear signal even some distance away on simplex. It scans faster than the hand-held radios as well. After about a month the Oricom began to crackle when it was keyed. A few people suggested it was dying so it was tested using the GME as a monitor and appeared to have a problem with the Push to Talk key .
An email was sent to Selby Acoustics who immediately posted a new radio. They also generated a document that could be scanned by the post office and would pay for return post and cover all the details. Two days later I had a new radio and was back on the air.
The second radio was on air for a few weeks when it began to do the same thing as the first. Radio operators here suspect a little microphone key fault with that model radio but Selby talked it over with me and they sent the first radio back. It had been repaired and was working well. Oricom (via Selby) had suggested that the fault was in my antenna rather than their radio but as the radio sent me the third time had no static I can only guess they found it and fixed it. Selby asked me to test the radios to be sure and a number of tests using various antenna and monitoring with the portables again indicated that the problem was in the PTT again. I kept the repaired radio and sent the second one back. The Oricom has nice sound. The mic features are a blessing when I am not well enough to get up to change channels or use some feature and they work well. I think the microphone feels a little fragile and I would not use it in my old 4×4 rig but then I would find most radios available now to be troublesome in that truck. It got hammered and it was brutal to travel in. Most of the rigs about today that are not hard core rock hoppers would probably be alright with it. Selby has been great!
The 27Mhz CBs are all off the air and have been for some time. The main radio of that group was an old Cobra 148NW and I was really enjoying using it on side band. Other users started to tell me that there was frequency swing. These radios are known to do that when they get hot or before they warm up but this was right off the channel. I began to look for another radio and it was really going to hurt. At this point I feel like I am bleeding money and just staying on air a little. I made the commitment that I would study for the Foundation Amateur License and bought a 10M radio instead of another 11M (27Mhz) That was when it became evident that the problem was in the stationmaster I had obtained on Ebay through Shockwave. It had a few screws holding the aluminum tubes together. The screws were just down one side and I had commented when it had been erected that they could not survive the strain of wind currents in the air. Everyone assured me that Shockwave knew their stuff so I bit my lip and put it up anyway. To be honest I did not have tools or parts to refit it. After the Cobra started playing up one of the operators I was speaking to suggested it sounded like my antenna SWR was way out and changing. He told me he had experienced problems like it and that I may have antenna problems. A photograph in close-up may indicate that one of the tubes has fallen into the tube beneath it which would mean the screws have failed. It is difficult to tell.
It angers me that the guy sent me an incomplete antenna. He didn’t even put enough screws in the package for the configuration he had sent. There were no instructions and I still really am guessing when I make adjustments to correct the SWR. I suspect that inadequate connections is the basis for the high SWR when it first went up. I suspect Shockwave has dropped the stationmaster from their range for some reason like this.
Over a few months I have obtained worm clamps off Ebay as well some cutting bits for the ancient Dremel multi-tool. There is a tube of waterproofing adhesive as well. The parts are in hand to pull the whole rig down, cut slices in the ends of the tubes and raise it again with everything properly clamped and waterproofed. I need to find a handyman and get it down. It makes me tired looking at it right now. I guess I am a bit upset that I didn’t have a chance to get much use of it over the summer after all that pain in erecting it before and I am too ill to do that again. I was too ill then!
The Handbook for the foundation ticket has been ordered and I hope has been mailed. So far my attempts to get into the data have been a little worrying. The amnesia increases with stress and so far my test scores have been dropping steadily on the online versions you can try. I suspect I may fail this no matter how much work I put in. They need me to go to a place of testing and that effort alone will exhaust me. By the time anyone gets a paper in front of me I will be free wheeling mentally from the strain of travel. My mind unravels as I get tired and I tire fast these days. I can exhaust myself putting my shoes on. I want this though. Perhaps the other problem is the $80 fee. That is not a big deal if you can stand a test but I face failure just because there is no special consideration for people in my condition. I will have to work on that last bit. Maybe I can push for special consideration somehow. I am certain my rise to the ranks of the licensed radio elite will stop here. No amount of wishing would keep me alive long enough to prepare for the next level and my mind is just cruising till I finish with it anyway. I need to sleep now. I hope you are well and free from damage of earthquakes, volcanoes and big storms I see in the news right now.