Thanks to everyone who shared their opinion of my dual UV-X4 full duplex project. It was very interesting to read the variety of opinions people have. Back in the day we used to say that if you had a room with 10 hams in it there would be at least 20 strongly held opinions on any topic. Glad to see that is still true today. The first UV-X4 is great and has worked out so well that I ordered the second one and hope to work you with the full duplex setup someday soon.
73 W9KE Tom Doyle
On Thu, Jan 12, 2012 at 9:49 AM, Thomas Doyle [email protected] wrote:
This may have been discussed previously but just in case it has not.
I purchased an interesting radio that might be an inexpensive way to operate full duplex on the FM sats. The radio cost $65 including shipping and all accessories. It runs 2W on both 2M and 70cm. It has almost all the bells and whistles you would expect on a dual band handi.
99
memories - tone squelch ...
In addition to the low cost the radio is very small. See pic - I have fairly normal size hands so you can see how small it is.
http://www.tomdoyle.org/UV-X4.jpg
I purchased it expecting the worst. Much to my surprise it actually works quite well. The menu system is the most intuitive I have found on any radio. The only negatives I could find were
- no channel lockout when scanning - I put the local weather station in
one
of the memories. Since it is always on you can not use the scan function.
- I fully expected a radio of such a small size would not have adequate
sound from the speaker. In fact the sound from the speaker is really loud. Everything is set using a rotary digital switch with detents. This works great for selecting channels and using the menu functions. There are only 9 detent positions for the volume. The lowest volume setting is mute, one click up and it is loud and it keeps getting louder as you go up. There was nothing wrong with my radio - they all do it.
- no DTMF pad
None of these negatives affect the use of the radio with an FM sat. You could buy a pair of these for $130 including shipping. Add a diplexer and Elk/Arrow antenna and I think you would be good to go with a very compact low cost full duplex portable FM station.
I bought mine from http://www.maintradingcompany.com and received
excellent
service. In case you were wondering what the goofy looking LED between the switch and the antenna is - it is for the flashlight function the radio offers as a feature. The flashlight feature is invaluable :-)
Sent from my computer.
W9KE Tom Doyle