WOULD LOVE TO MAKE IT TO THE EAST LANC RADIO CLUB, BUT A WEE BIT LONG FOR THE DRIVE... I'M IN MINNESOTA. THANKS! 73!

You are right. FT8 has its place. Just not in the CW section of the band plan. It seems to stray well into the already limited CW section of 12m on busy contest days.

I tried it and lasted 15 minutes - boring as batshit.

I collect Grid Squares,,

The mode is fully automated, that is, 100% automated these days. Set and forget, with the propagation we have these days, you could probably get 100dxcc in a day, certainly less than a week with out every looking at the radio. 😲 I deleted my ~300 q's once i found out. Now i see it similar to wspr. Good for propagaion testing/antenna testing.

Great idea sir! Thanks for sharing! Love and respect from the Netherlands!

Bad?? No, but it's not real amateur radio as far as I'm concerned.

I use FT8 FT4 WSPR JT64, AM , FM ,SSB .. CW all modes ..It is a joke to me when others say its ruining Ham Radio ! What a joke, It is all good and I will continue to use any mode I please , If you dont like that then take up stamp collecting !

80 watts on ft8? wow just wow.

its a Hard sell NOT proper Radio your only fooling yourself

As a fairly new operator listening to someone calling out for a contact one day, I was shocked when the operator received a reply from someone who wanted to strike up a conversation and was rudely told, "I don't have time to talk with you. Need to get this done!" What happened to the friendly operators who enjoy making new contacts and friends? That wasn't one of them! To him, winning a contest was more important. Unfortunately, this is not an isolated situation. So I understand that amateur radio has many different interests and uses, the study of propagation being one of them. If FT8 is an automated computer to computer communication system, which it sounds like it is, I can see where it would be very useful for DX'ing or the study of propagation, or even contests. FT8 now has my interest, but only for that purpose. Considering the way some people are using QSO's ONLY for DX'ing, maybe FT8 would be better. I enjoy doing both so will pursue FT8. Does it run on either Android, MacOS or IOS?

Pmr is similar to frs/grms.

FT8 isn't bad, that's the wrong approach, but it's definitely not for me and you couldn't change my mind vy 73 dc5ly

I like rattlegram. Unfortunally brazilians hams are not using it. I can see you using FT8 on 2 m band (with a lot of actiivity!) that are almost inexistent in my country. I am studying ways to communicate offgrid in a situation that the grid is down, and Rattlegram, FT8, JS8Call, SSTV for small texts or maps are great! It´s fundamental to be easy to go on offgrid comms, we will not have time to learn quickly when it´s needed. 73 from Jean PU2PQQ.

Interesting arguments you put forward. I tend to agree with you, I use FT8/FT4 only as a last resort, preferring CW/SSB. But. you are right, it is a good propagation tool and is very useful as such. Thanks for your video.

You start the video like you’re working for the gustapo. It’s not exactly the best welcome to newcomers. Try and come across in a positive light in order to help more people into the hobby. Remember it’s not your pmr. It’s everybody’s. Same goes for cb radio. As well as ham. To many people thinking that they run the show. Stop ✋ it makes you sound like a twat

I listen in on PMR it's intersting to throw in the car if I'm out, I also use network radio (zello ect) and one channel is actualy hooked through a repeater into a PMR network so you have folk on PMR's local to the repeater and network users from around the world all chatting together....how legal is this? But the alternative is CB, expensive and very quiet in a lot of areas whereas the PMR's are cheap and once you start to listen and tune around theres a lot of people using them, is it a gateway into Ham? absaloutly for some, you get the bug and want to move onward with it much like CB saw a lot of Ham guys coming from that. Great video, would have been a help for some if youd touched on the pmr licence, cost and what restrictions it lifts and and new limits it sets :)

My take is this, there is an organised net which takes place in the south east region of the U.K on channel 8 around 7pm on a sunday evening. Its well organised and brings in many many radio users. Some are previous C.B users, some are hams, and some are neither. 2 meters and 70 are little used round my way, and sadly thise that do use those bands are often clicky groups with little interest of chatting to anyone else outside of their own group, or they aren't around enough to make using the bands worthwhile. PMR seems to have thrived and its relatively easy to get started off with, and cheap handheld and you can make some pretty good local contacts with little outlay. Obviously they are those that use modified ham radios along with extenal antennas up high and they are often the stations you hear day and night easilly. People often forget, years ago we have a C.B allocation of 934 mhz UHF which was taken away due to the popularity of analogue mobile phones and was never replaced, 27mhz C.B isn't something to compare it with, and I think in some ways the 446mhz PMR band has taken on a life of it's own. Whether it eventually officially migrates into a fully fledged UHF C.B equivalent remains to be seen, but theres enough users to make it just that.

Our radio club did some range testing earlier this month, and GMRS 50W Mobile was able to reach a base unit at 40 Miles ( 64km ) with near line of sight. And while it was barely usable, we tried HT to HT, one end being at some elevation, and were able to communicate at that distance. When you are crossing water, there wouldn't be much in the way of obstructions, so should make for some great distance.

PMR is great, but not to many people seem to be using it here in The Netherland. I hear kids here and there, some businesses and once in a while some other people. I have all kinds of radios like the QYT Kt-8R, all versions of the Quansheng and the Baofeng UV-25 and UV-5R. Fun stuff. My wife and I use the all the time around the house and on city trips. Nice video by the way!!

11metre ssb CB radio is the best start a lesrned one could have

All three messages received. Thank you for this video. Question: Is there a way to turn off the microphone used by Rattlegram and only turn it on when you want to use it? I am unable to find a setting in the Rattlegram app

I have two radios. a GT-5R (the clean one) and a UV-K5 Plus. If I use them set to low or mid on PMR then the GT works very nicely But if I use the Plus...it will bleed across to the to channels either side. Messy. So I just use that for listening in.

Nice video. We live in the US but we have a pair of PMR446 radios we use for outdoor activities and estate sales and such. Don't have to listen to other people's FRS chatter that way, and they can't hear us. We have never been challenged. BTW I've been a ham since 1980. Over that time I have never heard anybody actually talk on the 70cm calling frequency. Not much to interfere with there...

There are not many choices for Personal communications and fewer that are low cost. Cell phones only talk to one number at a time and are useless in a disaster. Except for high power on a hilltop, UHF don't go that far and newer radios including CB have tone squelch, so you only hear your mates.

I hate to nick pick but PMR in the UK radio world is Private Mobile Radio and has been for many years. What you are discussing here in PMR446, a totally different system in licencing terms

I’ve never heard of pmr something new to me. As a ham I don’t want to loose my license just to be naughty 😀

I’m a licensed ham and do all my main stuff by the book - but if I’m doing experiments or if I’m doing stuff with non licensed people I do it on PMR frequencies. You’re not really bothering anyone over there and the UHF kit is very affordable compared to the alternative which is CB. You can scramble the audio for basic privacy and as you saw you can get loads of range on UHF if you have the right environment/equipment. They should give us the same rights on PMR as the yanks have on GMRS it would let us get more done legally and get more people into HAM.

It’s all of those headings. I use PMR, it’s good just to listen as I’m driving long distances though still very quiet. I’m not a licensed ham by far, I use an 8w hand held obviously with the best antenna I can, be that a standard 7” job or a 7’ whip type (sizes just for example, not tuned to frequency), because I don’t think it’s doing any harm whatsoever. I’m sure there are foundation amateurs that step over the wattage sometimes, but it’s not a huge crime at all All in all I think it’s good for radio, it gains confidence, knowledge, and promotes it more The CB side, well yes for kids it’s a bit like that, but if they do only have half a watt sets, it’s literally street to street just about A great video, good questions

You mean pmr446

You mean pmr446

You mean pmr446.

@G6PNH hi do you have a copy of a programed frequancy list for a beofeng uv 5 rh i am struggling to get sort a list out so i can install that list as i am just struggling to do it all my self

Thank you for your video, very helpful

Hi Daman thanks for a great video. I’m an old CB’er back in the day late 70’s onwards and now using a quansheng UV5 6 modded and a Baofeng UV-5RH unlocked which I use for Airband mostly but it’s 8w and some channels a little more.

It will be ruined by the music players, mic keyers and the brain dead mentality, just as CB has.

That would be me at Ilkley 👍 Fantastic video and a new sub earned

Sounds like they’re going through a repeater because of the tail squelch.

It’s very similar to the FCC FRS radio when it was limited to half a watt. Very similar regulations. Just for different frequencies is all.

We use pmr 446 in yorkshire for informal chatter using co linear antennas and radios running approximately 5 watts. Its much more suitable as a modern cb alternative l due to the smaller wavelenthg allowing smaller and more discreet antennas to be set up compared to 11m, additionally less qrm/noise. Also in some areas gateways are set up to link zello to pmr 446 channels. 73.

My friends and i had issues with our UV5R radios where the volume would get turned all the way down because the radio in a shirt or jacket pocket. We found neoprene "O" rings that fit perfectly on the volume pot. Creating a drag preventing the radio being turned off or turned all the way down. Perhaps you can do something like that see if it helps. I haven't had any issues with the Quansheng pot because there's a guard on the model i have. If you could see if you could create a drag on your model of radio?

Really cool video, im in the uk and thinking about taking my foundation licence

It's more used by shops and businesses, and kids

In the late 90s I worked at Motorola who produced pmr hand held radios. I was part of the UK development team. I can recall range tests where we achieved about 50 miles hilltop to hilltop. Our receivers were quite sensitive -118 dBm for 20dB SINAD

Love PMR!

Same as you English England

Thanking you most kindly I'm new 🆕 too you're KZbin channel I'm from England

The new woke by powers that be, it makes one sick

frs in the stat is 2watts but dmr are not allowed on frs.

Sounds very similar to the FRS radios in the USA - low wattage, channelized, fixed antenna. Except our FRS runs on 462 MHz, and overlays our GMRS band. No license is required to use FRS here. FRS is mostly used by hunters, trail riders, camping, kids, traffic flagmen, and people who don't want to learn radio theory or electronics. FRS radios can be bought cheaply in most department stores with an outdoors section - or sometimes you may find them the toy department. I'm not sure of your band plan over there, but 446 MHz falls within our 70 cm ham band... so American radios could blast hundreds of Watts on 446.