Handheld or Permanent HAM?

[Weim.Runner]

I’m learning about Ham radios and I think I eventually want to get one. Is a handheld sufficient or do I need to get one that can be permanently mounted in my 4Runner?

Anyone have any recommendations for specific radios to consider purchasing?

 

[WareWolf MoonWall]

I think it would help us offer advice if you told us more about what your expectations from the radio are. Either mobile or hand held radios are great tools, but you want to make sure you get one that aligns with your plans.

Second, you have to do some soul searching because more than likely you will realize you need or want more than one :)

 

[JeepingMike]

Depends on your expected uses/needs. Handheld is a bit more versatile, but mobile with exterior antenna provides further distance reach. Odds are you'll end up with at least one of each...

While a lot of folks are good with the cheaper radios, I personally am ok with paying more for more quality and reliability. Recent years that has been Yaesu radios, FTM-400 in the Jeep and FT-5 handheld (replacing the VX-7 after many years). Both have much capability, some of which I don't even use regularly. I also have the FTM-300 as my home radio and would seriously consider that in my Jeep as well.

 

[Sparksalot]

If I was going to do just one, I’d chose a mobile rig. Handhelds have their place, especially for spotting or around camp, but the ability to use more power to meet up with a group, or reach a convoy that’s become separated is useful. For either option you’re going to want an external antenna mounted on your vehicle.

 

[KonzaLander]

I agree with @TahoePPV . If you are only going to get one radio, make it a mobile (permanently mounted) radio. More power, easier to use, more adaptable, you are more likely to spend $$$ on a good antenna, etc.

I would also add that a Baofeng HT (handheld) can be bought for dirt cheap and makes a great addition to your radio kit since they are so versatile.

 

[Speric]

I just bought a mobile Icom radio and installing it my Jeep. Besides the added power and range, it's also has power as long as my vehicle has power. I also have a Baofeng HT and it's worked fairly well, but on my last trip I ran out of battery and forgot the charger at home. Fortunately someone in my group had a spare battery for it.

 

[Uniquely Us Adventures]

My two cents is start with a mobile one. Get a good antenna that mounts to the roof. It will perform amazing for the cost. But it also allows you to detach and use it at home more often. Ham radio is a SKILL and a TOOL you need to use often to really understand. It’s very frustrating to not be able to communicate because you didn’t know the right channel or offset or what ever for the area your in. I bring mine in my car, work truck or what ever and practice making contacts on a regular to better understand how to use it and where it can be used. My handheld has made contact in almost every location I needed it to. I want a base station for communications but I’ll always have the portable to back it up if I need to leave my rig… anyways you can go wrong with either choice so go HAM!!

 

[ProtonDecay]

We're perfectly happy with two handhelds, one of which connects to a 12v power cord (replaces battery), an externally mounted antenna tuned for both 2 meter and 70cm, and a corded speaker mic. The handheld with these extra bits can come out of the truck when needed, but typically stays there while the simple handheld gets outside duty. Here are some links:

Radio: BF-F8HP - BaoFeng
Programming cable: PC03 Programming Cable - BaoFeng Radios (saves time setting up channels - and once you do one radio you can clone the other one)
Antenna: Nagoya NA-771 - BaoFeng Radios
Speaker/Mic: QHM22D Dual PTT Speaker Mic - BaoFeng Radios
Cigarette Adapter: BL-5 Battery Eliminator - BaoFeng Radios

This setup works for us to keep us in contact with others in a convoy (spread out over a couple of miles) or whenever having a handheld outside the truck makes sense. We have friends who have more powerful radios and better antennas, but rare is the instance where they can get out but we can't.

Here's my $0.02....Ham and two-way radios in general, and one-trick devices like InReach are going to be increasingly replaced by more user friendly and broadly featured technologies, like LEO satellites and Smartphones. Radios will still exist, for sure, but kind of like we still have horses compared to the 1800's, where the proportion of people using them for work fell off rapidly with the advent of automobiles and continues to decrease (heck, even ranch hands mostly prefer quads these days to saddling up). That transition will happen fairly quickly now that the infrastructure is getting in place. So, unless you have a hobby interest in learning how to properly EME QSO or getting APRS to work faster than 2400 baud, why put more money into this than absolutely required? Most of the propeller heads in my network are off of Ham and instead are trying to figure out the best 12v POE injector for their Starlink setup.

One final link:

 

[oldsoldier181]

HTs (handhelds) are limited by their power, which is 7 watts I believe (I think they just changed it to 7, anyway). At best, in ideal conditions, you will MAYBE get a couple miles out of it. A mobile radio, you can get 50 watts, which gives you a MUCH better range to hit repeaters-15-20 miles, depending on other conditions.
I am assuming, of course, you are going for your tech license (the first step). I would like to give you some advice: Go for your general (second step) as soon as you can. Tech is good, but general is gooder!!! Seriously, general opens up the HF bands for you. Granted, there arent any mounted HF radios (well, you CAN, but you need a long antenna), but you build a portable station that you can always take with you and set up at the end of the day. I am working towards that myself.
I am still new, having just received my tech and general back in Feb of this year. I havent played radio for a while, but winter is coming, and I will be shut in, so, I will be more active then.

 

[FalconPunch]

The Kenwood TM-D710GA is a great mobile radio. APRS is done very well. Besides SMS messaging and position reporting, you can also use it to send emails because it's one of the few radios with an open TNC. You are going to have to find it on the used market though. You can join Groups.io and post a wanted ad in the Kenwood section.

 

[M Rose]

We're perfectly happy with two handhelds, one of which connects to a 12v power cord (replaces battery), an externally mounted antenna tuned for both 2 meter and 70cm, and a corded speaker mic. The handheld with these extra bits can come out of the truck when needed, but typically stays there while the simple handheld gets outside duty. Here are some links:

Radio: BF-F8HP - BaoFeng
Programming cable: PC03 Programming Cable - BaoFeng Radios (saves time setting up channels - and once you do one radio you can clone the other one)
Antenna: Nagoya NA-771 - BaoFeng Radios
Speaker/Mic: QHM22D Dual PTT Speaker Mic - BaoFeng Radios
Cigarette Adapter: BL-5 Battery Eliminator - BaoFeng Radios

This setup works for us to keep us in contact with others in a convoy (spread out over a couple of miles) or whenever having a handheld outside the truck makes sense. We have friends who have more powerful radios and better antennas, but rare is the instance where they can get out but we can't.

Here's my $0.02....Ham and two-way radios in general, and one-trick devices like InReach are going to be increasingly replaced by more user friendly and broadly featured technologies, like LEO satellites and Smartphones. Radios will still exist, for sure, but kind of like we still have horses compared to the 1800's, where the proportion of people using them for work fell off rapidly with the advent of automobiles and continues to decrease (heck, even ranch hands mostly prefer quads these days to saddling up). That transition will happen fairly quickly now that the infrastructure is getting in place. So, unless you have a hobby interest in learning how to properly EME QSO or getting APRS to work faster than 2400 baud, why put more money into this than absolutely required? Most of the propeller heads in my network are off of Ham and instead are trying to figure out the best 12v POE injector for their Starlink setup.

One final link:

Except in most states it’s ileagle to talk on the phone while driving , but you can still talk on a two-way radio… secondly even with the advancement of technology, armature radio isn’t going away.

 

[M Rose]

The Kenwood TM-D710GA is a great mobile radio. APRS is done very well. Besides SMS messaging and position reporting, you can also use it to send emails because it's one of the few radios with an open TNC. You are going to have to find it on the used market though. You can join Groups.io and post a wanted ad in the Kenwood section.

I highly second this advice…

 

[Sparksalot]

The Kenwood TM-D710GA is a great mobile radio. APRS is done very well. Besides SMS messaging and position reporting, you can also use it to send emails because it's one of the few radios with an open TNC. You are going to have to find it on the used market though. You can join Groups.io and post a wanted ad in the Kenwood section.

Here’s one.

Kenwood D710-GA For sale - Used

Hey all, I have a D710-GA in my 4runner, and just haven't used it at all. can probably downsize ham radio to a more simple unit. So mine is for sale. prices are all over the place since they don't make it anymore, so HMU with an offer. thanks!

www.overlandbound.com

 

[Dilldog]

I'm going to buck the trend a bit here, get an HT and a mag mount antenna. To be perfectly honest, most of the time working FM you don't really need much more than 5watts into a decent antenna. If you really think you will be needing to talk direct over more than a few miles with poor lines of sight, then a mobile rig will be your best bet.

As far as gear, I am not a fan of Boafengs. I have had/seen some that are great and some that were not so great. Boafengs biggest problem is consistency, also they are a pain to program from the radio and they are not very durable or dust and water resistant. For $40 you can get into a TYT UV88 which is infinitely more durable (I had mine fall out of my top bag while I was riding my bicycle, hit the pavement at maybe 20mph, was run over by a car and is still working great to this day), is dust and water resistant (not submersible, just good to go for rain or a drop in a shallow mud puddle), is much easier to program from the radio and is made with much better quality control. These are the radios that I outfitted my family with for emergencies and I am quite happy with them. One of these is also my primary everyday radio and I just run a mag mount when I'm driving around town and I use it to chat simplex with a few other operators. Distance for simplex is about 4miles in an urban environment (we typically run 70cm but 2m works too) and the antenna is simply a mag mount that is stuck onto my old National NC57 receiver inside the house. Its an improvement over just an antenna on the radio, but far from a good setup. I also use this set up to check into weekly nets on 3 different repeater systems, the receivers for them are anywhere from 3 to 20 miles from my house. Another thing I like about the TYTs is they can be easily unlocked allowing you to utilize them as a GMRS, FRS and MURS radio in an emergency.

 

[KyleGrant]

I'm going to buck the trend a bit here, get an HT and a mag mount antenna. To be perfectly honest, most of the time working FM you don't really need much more than 5watts into a decent antenna. If you really think you will be needing to talk direct over more than a few miles with poor lines of sight, then a mobile rig will be your best bet.

As far as gear, I am not a fan of Boafengs. I have had/seen some that are great and some that were not so great. Boafengs biggest problem is consistency, also they are a pain to program from the radio and they are not very durable or dust and water resistant. For $40 you can get into a TYT UV88 which is infinitely more durable (I had mine fall out of my top bag while I was riding my bicycle, hit the pavement at maybe 20mph, was run over by a car and is still working great to this day), is dust and water resistant (not submersible, just good to go for rain or a drop in a shallow mud puddle), is much easier to program from the radio and is made with much better quality control. These are the radios that I outfitted my family with for emergencies and I am quite happy with them. One of these is also my primary everyday radio and I just run a mag mount when I'm driving around town and I use it to chat simplex with a few other operators. Distance for simplex is about 4miles in an urban environment (we typically run 70cm but 2m works too) and the antenna is simply a mag mount that is stuck onto my old National NC57 receiver inside the house. Its an improvement over just an antenna on the radio, but far from a good setup. I also use this set up to check into weekly nets on 3 different repeater systems, the receivers for them are anywhere from 3 to 20 miles from my house. Another thing I like about the TYTs is they can be easily unlocked allowing you to utilize them as a GMRS, FRS and MURS radio in an emergency.

I'm number two here with Dilldog.

If you're only going to invest in one to start - go portable. Much more flexibility, here's some points to consider.

• Identify your portable. I'm personally a Yaesu fan, hard to beat the quality (ICOM, Kenwood, etc. are all great). I'm just not a Baofeng guy. They work, yes; but you do get what you pay for and comms isn't an area I like to skimp on. You can snag a nice Yaesu FT65R or FT4XR typically for under $100.
• Purchase an SMA to BNC adapter for use on the portable, which allows for easy antenna swaps (going portable or using 'mobile')
• 
• Install an external antenna on your rig, terminated to BNC on the interior. Focus on high-gain if you can muster the length. I recommend a proper NMO or permanent mount, this typically results in the best ground-plane. Higher-gain antennas will 'amplify' (of sorts) that 5W portable to a higher effective radiated power (ERP).
• Purchase an aftermarket BNC antenna for the portable.
• 
• Snag a nice clip mount for the interior, RAM makes a nice portable mount you can use the belt clip with. This is what I use on my F800GS, but it's a typical RAM ball-mount and can easily be used in a PC.
• 
• 
• Additional items for use in a vehicle to consider; snag a power supply of some kind and RSM. I found a USB adapter for my FT2, with a powerful enough USB port I can run this portable entirely off USB, I can also charge the battery. Other options include battery eliminators or 12v AUX to radio adapters. Another item is a remote-speaker-mic (RSM) for the portable so you aven't having to articulate the portable itself to transmit.
  
  With all these items you now have the most flexibility for your money (in my opinion). Use this radio on a hike, around camp, in the rig on the trail, in a rental on a trip outside your normal rig, in the house, etc. All told I still have dedicated radios in my vehicles (FTM400XDRs) but this portable is part of my EDC, I run it on the bike as my primary and I know I can always use it portable if need be for in-camp or if I dismount from the rig.

 

[GFB_Steve]

I'm going to buck the trend a bit here, get an HT and a mag mount antenna. To be perfectly honest, most of the time working FM you don't really need much more than 5watts into a decent antenna. If you really think you will be needing to talk direct over more than a few miles with poor lines of sight, then a mobile rig will be your best bet.

This is not a bad way to go. It's certainly more versatile. I have a lot of customers that use a handheld in vehicles , connected to a roof-mounted half wave antenna with great results.

 

[mtn]

Nicole, you haven't said much about how you plan to use the radio, so I'll offer my $.02 from my perspective...

I'm firmly in team mobile + hand held.

The mobile will have a higher output, which will some times make it easier for others to hear you. I always run my radio on the lowest power setting (5W) when I can, but I have been on trail runs where others have asked me to increase the power so that they can hear me better. If I was on a handheld I would not have that option. Might not be an issue where you are, but in the woods in the PNW power can make a difference.

I have a Kenwood TM-D710, but that one's not available new anymore so I'd probably take a good look at something like the Yaesu FTM-300. With these radios you mount the radio unit away from the head unit. I have the head of my radio on a proclipusa.com mount. The main radio part can go underneath the front seats. I have 2 antennas, a 1/4 wave for everyday use, and a 1/2 wave that I use on the trail. My Larsen NMO 2/70 1/2 wave will bend at freeway speeds, but works really well when I want better range. I have it sitting on a mount that Gamiviti makes for Toyotas, one that bolts on to one of the fender bolts so that I don't have to drill any holes. Here's what the radio looks like in my 4Runner: Kenwood D710GA Mounting Solutions

With a good mobile setup it's ok to cheap out on the hand held. A Baofeng is fine, or you can go a half-step up to something like the Yaesu FT-4X. Not the best radio out there, but compact and cheap for a name brand radio. Either option works for fine around camp or when spotting and such.

While the idea of having a handheld in your vehicle, mounted and connected to an external antenna is nice this also means you probably won't take the time to disconnect it when you step out of the vehicle. Better to just have a separate unit that you can quickly grab when you need it.

 

[4X3Lander]

I’m going to buy handheld and then add a COMPAQtenna to it from the outside.

 

[rtexpeditions]

We're perfectly happy with two handhelds, one of which connects to a 12v power cord (replaces battery), an externally mounted antenna tuned for both 2 meter and 70cm, and a corded speaker mic. The handheld with these extra bits can come out of the truck when needed, but typically stays there while the simple handheld gets outside duty. Here are some links:

Radio: BF-F8HP - BaoFeng
Programming cable: PC03 Programming Cable - BaoFeng Radios (saves time setting up channels - and once you do one radio you can clone the other one)
Antenna: Nagoya NA-771 - BaoFeng Radios
Speaker/Mic: QHM22D Dual PTT Speaker Mic - BaoFeng Radios
Cigarette Adapter: BL-5 Battery Eliminator - BaoFeng Radios

This setup works for us to keep us in contact with others in a convoy (spread out over a couple of miles) or whenever having a handheld outside the truck makes sense. We have friends who have more powerful radios and better antennas, but rare is the instance where they can get out but we can't.

Here's my $0.02....Ham and two-way radios in general, and one-trick devices like InReach are going to be increasingly replaced by more user friendly and broadly featured technologies, like LEO satellites and Smartphones. Radios will still exist, for sure, but kind of like we still have horses compared to the 1800's, where the proportion of people using them for work fell off rapidly with the advent of automobiles and continues to decrease (heck, even ranch hands mostly prefer quads these days to saddling up). That transition will happen fairly quickly now that the infrastructure is getting in place. So, unless you have a hobby interest in learning how to properly EME QSO or getting APRS to work faster than 2400 baud, why put more money into this than absolutely required? Most of the propeller heads in my network are off of Ham and instead are trying to figure out the best 12v POE injector for their Starlink setup.

One final link:

Sattelite comms have their limitations.
They do not work well when mobile (yes I include handheld sat phones in that).
They might connect you to anywhere, but what you really need is someone local.

For overland convoys and travel, nothing beats the humble 2-way radio, be it HAM, CB, GMRS/FRS

 

[krzyaz]

First, congratulations on getting your ticket.

Start small. Figure out what you feel your needs are, then build from there. Along the way you will find your 'next step'. A simple baofeng with a magnet mount antenna can be had for around $50. I've reached over 7 miles line of site with that set up over 70cm simplex. I've seen 3 miles with just the stock antenna with a bit of elevation. Pushing beyond that will require repeater information, bigger antennas, more power, etc.

Too often people focus on brands and I certainly have my preferences. I recommend you start small and find what works for your needs and budget. What is best for someone else may not be best for you.