Reply To: What radio?

[M0PWXParticipant]

Hi John

you can get Quansheng UV-5R+ which with the custom opensource firmware is not limited to ham bands only, with the opensource firmware they can receive from about 25mhz up to 1ghz, but best performance is around the 100-500mhz range as designed for 2m / 70cm ham bands, they are cheap (less than £30)so for listening they are ideal

the other thing to watch is even though you may get a ham band handheld to transmit on the 156mhz frequency as the antenna is not designed for that band you risk damaging the output transistors of the radio due to high SWR

i have one of the Quansheng UV-5R+ with the opensource egzumer firmware on, but only use it within ham bands for TX, but it is fully open for RX from 25mhz – 1ghz+ which is useful for general, what is about / how active the bands are

BUT ALWAYS CHECK LICENSING BEFORE TRANSMITTING as Pete said above

there are some oddities with licensing as well, as although some ham radios (with a mars mod) can transmit on for example CB radio frequencies, because they are not type approved for that band i believe you would be in breach of licensing if you did use a ham transceiver to transmit on CB frequencies

Peter
M0PWX