Hams: Mobile Unit?

[AZRedhawk44]

I'm wanting to put a mobile unit in my Jeep.  Objectives are:

1. UHF/VHF dual band
2. cross-band repeater capable
3. Remote head, no larger than 2" tall (smaller dimensions than 1 DIN radio dash space)
4. Capable of utilizing APRS, even if by means of mobilinkd/android add-ons.
5. Capable of tx/rx on both the APRS tuned freq as well as a voice/mic freq.

Lots of APRS rigs, but mostly I'm limited by either no cross-band repeater, too large of a remote head, no APRS or data port for mobilinkd, or the unit is monopolized by APRS operation and no voice use is capable.  Clarification about the cross-band and APRS:  there's no intention of running cross-band repeat while APRS is active.

Intent is for this rig to be useful while wheeling with friends in my Jeep, keep tabs on everyone's position and send mine out to the group, and maintain voice contact while doing so.  Another application is to park the Jeep remotely and hike with an HT, using the Jeep radio as a repeater (while power is isolated to a battery other than the vehicle primary one).

So far as I can tell, the only unit on the market that meets all of my objectives is the Kenwood TM-V71A.  If anyone here has experience with another radio that can do all of the above, I'd sure love to know, just to have a second option for price comparison.  The TM-V71A is about $350 around the innernetz, and I'd love to have an option closer to about $200 if at all possible.

[AmbulanceDriver]

One of my coworkers is a big fan of the AnyTone line of radios.  Not sure if any of them meet your requirements, but they apparently are on the high end of the quality spectrum coming out of China, and usually 2/3 to 1/2 of the price of a comparable Kenwood/Yaesu/ICOM unit.

[AZRedhawk44]

Those are 5w HT units. I'm looking more at 50w vehicle mounted mobile units.

[Brad Johnson]

If you have the chance to snag a V71A in good condition for around two bills, snag it now.

Remember to get a good stick. Cheaping out on an antenna is like hanging cheap glass on a quality camera body. I made that mistake when I first got into HAM radio and it ended up almost costing me a radio (along with the inordinate amount of money I spent dancing around trying to not admit I screwed myself on the antenna).

Brad

[RocketMan]

There are several hams down toward Gastonia and Charlotte that really like their V71A radios.  I haven't heard a negative word from anyone down that way about the V71A.

[AmbulanceDriver]

Those are 5w HT units. I'm looking more at 50w vehicle mounted mobile units.

They do make mobile units as well.  Check the AnyTone 5888UV:

https://www.amazon.com/AnyTone-Transceiver-AT-5888UV-Amateur-Radio/dp/B00B1F7IEE

I think the only check box it doesn't tick is APRS, but couldn't tell from the description to be sure.

[AZRedhawk44]

They do make mobile units as well.  Check the AnyTone 5888UV:

https://www.amazon.com/AnyTone-Transceiver-AT-5888UV-Amateur-Radio/dp/B00B1F7IEE

I think the only check box it doesn't tick is APRS, but couldn't tell from the description to be sure.

Wow, their website only lists HT's. 

https://anytonetech.com/

I get the feeling from the brand that it's a rebadged Wouxun or similar, and that different Chinese importers of different products will borrow the name for unrelated products.  Because now that I google "Anytone mobile" I get several very different products, and some of the listings on Amazon are quite blatantly from chinese sellers.  Like this one:  https://www.amazon.com/AnyTone-AT-778UV-Transceiver-Mobile-Amateur/dp/B071DQPNCW

But, regarding that 5888UV... it ticks most of the boxes, but I don't see any data port or accessory line-in that I'd need for APRS via mobilinkd or direct Android connection.  There is a "TV/AV port" but it doesn't seem to indicate if it is input or output.  I can't find any manufacturer/distributor website to locate a manual to answer that question.

[dogmush]

YMMV of course, but after getting burned (heh) a few times, I have made it a policy not to buy communication gear or anything that radiates potentially unsafe radiation from China.  It's not that their QC is lacking, It's more that their give a *expletive deleted*ck is.  I've found green lasers that contain harmful amounts of IR wavelengths in them, I've found radios that radiate on freqs pretty far from what they are rated for, I've found that they will slap FCC and CFR compliance stickers on any damn thing regardless of actual compliance.  Cheap Chinese transformers tend to be better as RF noise generators than power supplies.

For something that you are going to mount within a couple meters of your head and supposedly radiates 50W, I'd spend the extra money on something you know actually meets the specs it says it does.

Failing that I at least try for known reputable companies that enforce some QC on the factories.

I know jack all about hams, but I've dealt with some cheap Marine MF/HF radios that were dangerous in their shoddy construction.

[AZRedhawk44]

Yeah, this'll be a pretty critical piece of safety gear.  It's going to get SWR analysis on installation to ensure I'm not going to reverse-fry the radio due to too much resistance or reflection due to a poorly constructed antenna.

I'm still kind of in denial that the only radio that fits my desired specs is this one Kenwood.  So I'm in a holding pattern on the actual mobile unit, but I'm ordering the peripherals, which should be platform agnostic and will even be useful with just my little HT's I have right now.  Antenna mount and dual band antenna, cabling, the actual APRS TNC.  One of my HT's is even capable of working as a cross-band repeater on its own (a Tytera TH-UV8000D), though it's only an 8 watt unit at highest power.  I'll prototype everything with the HT's before getting the Kenwood or any other model I come across that meets the objectives.

[AmbulanceDriver]

Got any good sources for a primer on APRS.  I haven't really gotten much past the basics of voice on my truck mounted mobile (an older Kenwood TM-742 dual band that I got off a coworker for a great price).  Would love to read up on it more...

[AZRedhawk44]

Basics:

https://www.instructables.com/id/APRS-and-the-UV-5R/

APRS will work in a peer to peer capability, but is greatly improved by the use of digipeaters.

http://www.aprs.net.au/vhf/aprs-digipeaters-101/

From what I gather, digipeaters will deprecate the hops a packet is allowed to be relayed, and a source APRS packet will never go more than two repeaters away.  Keeps your information base neat and reduces unnecessary transmissions of APRS data from 500 miles and 5 relays away from cluttering the waves and your attempt to get meaningful local info.

Then, there's IGates.

https://wcares.org/special-interests-3/aprs/build-an-aprs-igate/

With IGates, you get a glimpse of APRS traffic all over the world.  If the digipeater that relays your data is attached to an IGate, your location data is being submitted to a publicly readable map site, https://aprs.fi, with your data packets, letting the world know where you are or what your packet data might say (your text message, etc).  Makes for a neat alternative to something like a SPOT satellite messenger.  If you've got a significant other that has no interest in amateur radio but would like to be able to find you while you're doing outdoorsy things in case of an emergency, it makes for a good solution.



I will probably go so far as to build a fill-in digipeater that I can deploy at camp or a desirable location (strapped to a tree on a mountain ridge, something like that).  Probably won't make an IGate, especially not a mobile/remote one.  I'll be using APRSDroid and Open Source Maps to get meaningful information out of the system, and to be able to send/receive text messages with it.

[AmbulanceDriver]

So talking to my coworker who is our radio guy....  Looks like the Kenwood is gonna be the one you need to do what you want. 

[AZRedhawk44]

APRS has been disappointing with an HT, thus far.

I received my mobilinkd yesterday and I've had it synced to my phone with the OSM variant of aprsdroid installed (local map store instead of relying on google maps and their API's).  I plugged it into my TYT UV-8000D handheld, and I can hear it send squawks on 144.390, listening with my Baofeng.  I think I heard one other contact, which aprsdroid reported, all day (sitting on my desk while working).  It was about 3 blocks away.  Aprs.fi didn't register any of my location packets, which means that no digipeater heard my location announcements.

After work, I installed my antenna mount and antenna into the Jeep, in preparation for the Kenwood mobile I'm strongly considering.  I tested installation with my 5 watt Baofeng handheld, and got clear signal reports as far as repeaters 50 miles away.  Amazing what a good antenna can do, even for a terrible radio.  I'd struggle to get reliable reception of a repeater about 15 miles away with the stock Baofeng antenna.

I have errands to run tomorrow morning, so I think I'll slave the UV-8000 to the task of APRS while driving around, attached to my Jeep antenna.  See what kind of traffic I pick up with a better stick.

[RocketMan]

After work, I installed my antenna mount and antenna into the Jeep, in preparation for the Kenwood mobile I'm strongly considering.  I tested installation with my 5 watt Baofeng handheld, and got clear signal reports as far as repeaters 50 miles away.  Amazing what a good antenna can do, even for a terrible radio.  I'd struggle to get reliable reception of a repeater about 15 miles away with the stock Baofeng antenna.

I managed to find a genuine Nagoya dual band antenna for my Baofeng UV82 on Amazon a while back.  I was quite pleased with the improved performance of the radio after installing the Nagoya antenna in place of the stock unit.  It's been a lot easier to hit area repeaters with the radio.
One has to be careful when ordering antennas on Amazon, however.  Lots of counterfeit junk "Nagoya" antennas for sale that just flat don't work.

[AZRedhawk44]

Well, the farthest station I heard from was 298km away (software reads in km).  I'm pretty amazed by that, though I suspect that came through a couple of digipeater hops to hit me.  Still, it's a very potent system if I can see stations 300km away.

Now I kinda want to see if I can hit some of the APRS satellites in orbit with this tiny setup.  My guess is I'll be able to hear them with my antenna, but the little 8W UV8000D will be underpowered to send packets to it.  Also, this antenna has a donut radiation pattern, so it won't send vertically well.  I should be able to hit on the horizon, but that makes the distance longer than overhead.  Or, I can rotate the antenna mount so it is parallel to the ground and try to hit a satellite directly overhead.  but I'll probably end up needing the 50w Kenwood to really make that happen.