Baofeng 888s. I own three of these. Why not? You can buy 2 on amazon.com for under $30. I admit to being fascinated by them. This product occupies some shadowy zone that cuts across ham radio, GMRS, and FRS. Depending on where you live and how your local police/fire/public safety systems work, it may be worth having one of these just to serve as a scanner.

Ok, so what is it? It’s a UHF HT with 15 pre-programmed channels. Seems to put out about 3 watts. It’s got no display. Just your basic walkie-talkie controls.

A few pros: It’s reasonably solid. Not fragile. I think really good audio coming out of the speaker. Very, very good battery life. Includes a drop-in desktop charger. I mean, look, this is a bargain. And, of course, it’s practically disposable at about $13 each. Crazy price.

You turn it on. A voice tells you you’ve powered on. And that’s your volume knob. The other knob switches across 15 pre-programmed frequencies. A lady tells you what channel you’re on. The 16th position causes the radio to scan across the 15 channels. Squelch is pre-set and can’t be adjusted except via software/cable. I always hate that. Gimme a squelch pot. Please.

As programmed, using most of the pre-programmed channels would be illegal. (Went to a movie recently and noted the theatre staff were carrying these around. I suspect they’re crossways with FCC regs.)

So, you have to reprogram the unit, which you can’t do without software and cable. You can download the software which is free.

So, here’s some stuff you can do.

You can program FRS frequencies, making sure to set the power output at the legal limit. Maybe no real advantage to the FRS radios you can buy anywhere except, again, low price and good audio.

You can program in GMRS frequencies, cranked up to the full 3-ish watts the radio can do. Of course, you gotta buy that GMRS license. $90 I think. I have one. But, it’s that wacky license that allows anyone in your immediate family to use the radio. So, we take ours to the beach.

You can go ham with it and program in UHF frequencies for Simplex or for UHF repeaters.

Or, if you’re in a place where the local fire department or police department has open UHF frequencies (no trunking, of course), you can stick those frequencies in. Then, you get a really cheap scanner.

You don’t have to pick one of those approaches. You can program in some UHF repeater frequencies in some channels, GMRS in others (if you have the license), maybe a couple of low-power FRS frequencies. And so on. I got mine programmed the way I want, then I made labels with a label maker to show me which channels or what and stuck those on the back of the radio.

Anyway. I like the peculiar little things. For more details, there’s an excellent amazon.com review of these radios which is very useful. This link ought to get you to it.

We’ll be adding this to the calendar and list of local nets.

ARECA Net (Amateur Radio Emergency Communications Association)
Thursday 7:00 PM
Repeater: UHF 444.725
PL: 156.7

The Health Club Amateur Radio Club (HCARC) has installed a new Fusion system repeater at 444.100 with a PL tone of 162.2. That is now the important club’s back-up repeater including for their Monday night, 8pm net on the 146.76 repeater system here in Birmingham’s metro area.

Thanks again to Grady, W4GLE, for pointing this out. The NWS offers several online versions of Storm Spotter training.
Check out their Facebook page for details.

https://www.facebook.com/NWSBirmingham

From the Helena Hamfest folks:

I am writing to personally invite you to the next Central Alabama
Hamfest, The Helena Hamfest, Which is scheduled for Saturday, October
10, 2015 from 9:00 AM until 1:00 PM. We would like to see you and your
friends (Club members) at the Helena Hamfest. Please forward this
message to your Club members and announce the hamfest on your local
nets, at your club meetings and on the air qso’s.

Why should you come to the Helena Hamfest?

– Admission is only $5.00.

– We have over $1,600.00 in prizes to be given away. Prize tickets
will only cost $0.50 each if you purchase $20.00 or more. The top prize
is an Elecraft KX-3 transceiver which has a built-in auto-tuner; it
works 6 meters through 80 Meters and all ham bands in between. Hourly
prizes at 10 AM, 11 AM, 12 Noon, and 1 PM will be an 800 watt portable
generator; excellent for a serious go-kit or a day of operation in the
Park. A total of FOUR of these generators will be given away.

– This year, as in previous years, MFJ will bring a big truck load of
goodies from their factory. We expect to have several MFJ vendors also
attending the Hamfest. The vendors will have access to almost
everything MFJ makes.

– The event is sponsored by the City of Helena and The Shelby County
ARC. The event is located in an outdoor Amphitheater. Check it out
here: http://www.cityofhelena.org/helenaamphitheater/

– Although the Helena Hamfest is fundamentally a tail-gate event, and,
we have invited many vendors who plan to attend.

– We expect to have many tail gate vehicles. Please note that the best
parking spaces are reserved for the tail gate vehicles.

– The Amphitheater is located beside Buck Creek in downtown Old Town
Helena, AL – just 18 miles South of Birmingham.

– The Amphitheater has over 100 Vendor areas each with a 120-Volt
electric outlet.

– This is a family event. A big Kiddy Playground is located in the
middle of the park.

– This Hamfest is supported and sanctioned by the ARRL
http://www.arrl.org/hamfests/helena-hamfest

– Additional details can be found at www.helenahamfest.com.

From Fayette County ARC:

Ham Cram Jam Oct 17th (This is the same weekend as the Alabama S.E.T. and the Boy Scouts J.O.T.A.)

Please sent your email reservation request to

k4***@co*****.net

Full day 8 am to 5 pm. Workbook study from 8 am to about 2 pm and then testing for about 2 hrs or longer if needed. With football away and no UA parking ticketing on weekends, location will probably be on the UA campus … details later.

The current calendar I’m using is really tricky. Trying to find another! Currently experimenting with a Google Calendar based thing.

From JVann Martin:

We will be setting up a central comm at the Jefferson Co EMA EOC (Emergency Operations Center) to track and monitor the progression of the patients moving from the old Trinity Hospital to the new Trinity Hospital on 280. We will have operators at both old and new hospitals and have operators set up as check points along the route to call in to NCS when the convoys pass each checkpoint.

I’ve picked up a little bit of experience calling local nets. I’ve called the HCARC net twice, the Sunday night ALERT net maybe 4 times, the Tuesday night BARC net twice now. Even got to call the Trader’s Net once.  I’ve had two funny things happen. The first time I ever called a net, the Sunday night net, I am told that night tied the record for the largest number of check-ins ever. (62 or something like that.) That was a trial by fire.

Here’s my confession for the last time I called the Sunday night net. I watched the clock and keyed up to start the net at exactly 7:00 pm. I’m talking 7:00:00 pm. Started on the preamble. No one came back to volunteer as an alternate net control, but that’s not too unusual, so I didn’t think anything of it. Then, I finally got down to call for shorttime, portable, and mobile stations…and I get nothing back. Nothing. Hm. At this point I glanced up and noted my radio was sitting on the Shelby County 146.98 repeater. That’s, like, totally the wrong repeater. That explained it. Whipped over to the correct .88 repeater and started over, just maybe 2 or 3 minutes late. I keep wondering if someone might have been listening on .98…just letting me twist in the wind! Oh well. This is how we learn.

I hope I get to keep calling nets here and there. I’m on the rotation to call Tuesday’s once a month. I enjoy being useful.

Sorry to hear that the Young Ham’s Net has been suspended for lack of participation. Thanks to Jackson (KK4NGD) for his efforts. Hope that net comes around again.