4x4Wire's TrailTalk Forums: HAM radio questions

Ham radios make very good scanners if you get one with the right features.. The Standard C5900 shown below is unfortunately out of production, but Yaesu who bought out Standard, has come out with a new one the FT8900 that has all the key features of the 5900 plus some.. I paid close to $700.00 for the Standard and the new FT8900 has come down a lot to about $450.00. There's lot of other radios that have the right features, but it would be good to know what to look for. Most can be remote mounted as what you see below is just the control head, with the rest of the radio below the passenger seat.

Now for the features you need.. All ham radio these days have lots of channel memory for example the 8900 will store up to 800 different channels, and most have multiple types of scan options..for example scan a bank of 10 channels, scan a range of channels, scan range of frequencies, and many more.. By the way the above radio starts receiver coverage at 40mhz and goes up to about 1019Mhz with exception of cellular and two other small gaps in coverage.

One great feature of the 5900 shown above and also carried onto the 8900 is what's called hyper memory.. That's the eight buttons 0 - 7 around the ends of the display as shown above. What these allow you to do is set up a customized scans in both the left and right channels and save that scan to a hyper memory button.. left and right scans are two totally separate scan rings running in parallel, as this radio has two separate receivers and two separate transmitters, that can be active at the same time (with certain limitations)..

For example I use buttons 1 -3 below for ham frequencies, 4 is a crosslinking setup, (ham class will teach you what this is).. aviation frequencies in 5 (tower, ground control in left side), (departure, approach,enroute frequencies on the right side) local law enforcement in 6 right side, highway patrol in 6 left side, and 7 is for on the road frequencies (a combination of ham, law enforcement, etc).

It is handy to have all this set up ahead of time. For example, when 9/11 happened I went out to the vehicle at work and listened to the aviation frequencies as they were working to get everything out of the air quickly.. Public safety frequencies are also handy in this regard..

One key point about having this capability in your vehicle. Some states outlaw having scanners in vehicles, but must exempt licensed operation of amateur radio equipment (which can have scanner capability). No state or local jurisdiction can pass laws regarding use of amateur radio equipment, as federal law which does regulate its use, specificly pre-empts states or local jurisdiction rights to pass such laws. This one example of why the license requirements and getting your license is so important so you know this stuff..

States actually encourage hams to have mobile equipment for emergency operation for example, as a condition (not to mention having my ham license, which they verified in the FCC records database) for getting a state license plate with my ham call, I had to sign a statement that the vehicle has the above equipment.

This quite long, but felt important that you know about some of the features, and the legal considersations of scanner in a vehicle.. You might want to check your particular states laws if you don't go the ham radio license route.

Hope this helps.. and good luck.. If you can find a local ham club, I'm sure they be more than happy to help you study and get the license...

[ October 21, 2002, 08:12 PM: Message edited by: Dandeman ]

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2000 4Runner,V6,Auto,31's, Sliders, Skids, On-Board Air, Air Shocks
Related Interests: Welding, Ham Radio, Road Tripping (Blue Highways), High End Video/Audio Systems





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