[OZAPRS] ebay HT

[Andrew Errington]

Do you have a particular model in mind?  There are quite a few appearing now.

Here in New Zealand we have an importer for Feidaxin handhelds, rebranded
as ZARES (www.zares.co.nz).  I have two (one UHF, one VHF).  APRS works ok
on the VHF, and I haven't tried it on UHF.

In Australia I notice that Andrews Communications is listing six different
Chinese model handhelds, all roughly the same in terms of features and
price.  I have no doubt they will perform adequately for APRS.  Perhaps
these are the same models cropping up on eBay?  If so, maybe it would be a
better idea to buy from a dealer than from eBay?  (I am not affiliated
with Andrews Communications, despite the fact my name is Andrew)

Probably the important points to look for are:

1) Output power - is it adequate?
2) Duty cycle (and "can the HT be easily cooled")
3) Mic/Speaker plugs easily accessed.  Plug assembly easily built/cheaply
bought.
4) Antenna connector
5) 12Vdc battery eliminator

My observations for the ZARES handhelds:

1) 5W is adequate
2) Duty cycle is important.  They get warm if you beacon every 10 seconds,
but this was for a Scout Camp, so normally it wouldn't be necessary.
3) Mic/Speaker plugs are 'expensive' if you want to hack the end off a
pre-made one and they don't match Kenwood/Motorola.  You can make your own
but the sockets are close together, so you have to file the flanges on the
plugs to get them to sit next to each other.
4) Antenna connector is an odd reverse SMA thing, but adaptors to BNC can
be found.
5) Yes- a 12V module clips into the HT instead of the battery, so you can
power it from the car, or a gel cell.

You can see the parts and accessories on the ZARES site.  If you buy some
other model make sure you can buy/build the extra bits you might need,
either specific for that model, or compatible with Kenwood/Yaesu/Icom etc.

HTH,

73,

Andrew
ZL3AME


On Sun, January 4, 2009 11:25, Andrew Rich wrote:
> Anyone had success with these cheap handhelds on ebay for APRS ?
>
>
> Andrew
> _______________________________________________
> Ozaprs mailing list
> Ozaprs at aprs.net.au
> http://aprs.net.au/mailman/listinfo/ozaprs
>
>


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