Azrocks
Adventurer
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Yaesu 8900 / 8800 extended transmit mod
- Thread starter Azrocks
- Start date
gary in ohio
Explorer
WHY, You cant legally transmit on the extended frequencies.
gary in ohio
Explorer
ntsqd said:
SOunds good in theory, very impractical to do and still illegal if done.
The I can call the police is often used as an excuse to tx mod, however unless you know how the police system your trying to call into is setup, you may never get into it. Some police system operate repeaters on non-standard offsets, some use digital signaling not available on most ham radios. Also with many public safety going to trunking, 700mhz and digital the excuse will soon go away for the most part anyway.
If you do come up on a PS freq, make sure you have a true emergency with NO other option to secure help.
ntsqd
Heretic Car Camper
You've hammered away at this for some time. I think most of us get that it's a mod that is illegal if used and will do as our conscience guides us. Mine is quite alright with leaving myself the option should it be needed. Fits right into "Being Prepared." Sometimes breaking the law is the lessor of two bad things and is justified by the results it brings.
gary in ohio
Explorer
I also want folks to know that even if you have the mod, switching over to a public safety freq MOST likely will still not get you in contact with the police.ntsqd said:
It takes more than just a radio on the correct frequency. Peoples conscience are often poor guides. Last thing I want to see is someone with a moded radio getting caught on the wrong freq and ending up in the paper. "HAM RADIO used to jam police frequency.
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crawler#976
Expedition Leader
I modded my FT-7800 before installing it. With a little google time the correct offsets and frequencies can be found to contact your local LE dispatcher.
I'd rather deal with the legal problems that may arise if I absolutely have no other means of getting help. I guess it's similar to -I'd rather be judged by 12 than carried by 6
I'd rather deal with the legal problems that may arise if I absolutely have no other means of getting help. I guess it's similar to -I'd rather be judged by 12 than carried by 6
I understand the two sides of the coin here but, seriously...the last thing I'd want to read in the paper is "35 year old father of two died of hypothermia after nearly 2 weeks of being stranded in Oregon's Mountainous Wilderness. The man's body was recovered by search and rescue volunteers this morning who were stunned to find that the man had a VHF radio capable of broadcasting on a local police frequency but apparently choose not to do so because his transceiver was illegally moded. A memorial service for the man will be held this Saturday.”
To each his own....
Davis
To each his own....
Davis
DaveInDenver
Middle Income Semi-Redneck
Worth a read. Story about a $7000 fine to a CB shop illegally modifying radios. If someone complains, the FCC can and does enforce their rules.
http://www.eham.net/articles/18981
Whether or not you should or shouldn't mod your radio, up to you. Keep a couple of things in mind.
First, ham repeater coverage is way better away from towns than public service. Why would there be police and fire communications unless there are significant people? Many repeater clubs specifically have remote and linked repeaters to maximize wide area coverage in places not covered by other repeater groups. Personally I've been in lots of places where I could raise a repeater (maybe going as far as seeking a high point) and cell phones were useless paper weights. Anyway, if you are close to a town, village or city with emergency service, a cell phone will almost certainly be another option because they are often piggybacked with public service towers.
Second, it's best to practice and know the limitations and capabilities of things you can control. Are you absolutely sure that you have the right trunking frequency and protocol, correct decrypt key, DCS or PL tones and repeater offsets to get into that public service system? Public service generally uses nothing like the ham splits and tones. So if you are not sure, should you bet your life on it? Just something to think about. I prefer to plan and practice with what I have available. Know which antennas work best, what ham frequencies are available where I am, etc. You'd really have to break the law under controlled situation to know that your expected plan will work when the weather turns and you're stuck. Ham repeater coverage maps and info is published and available, so you know anywhere you are what repeaters are out there and what it takes to get into them. The ARRL publishes a little book of all of them every year. Public service information is out there, but it's based on guys scanning for it and who knows how accurate it is.
For me, I'm not sure how bad it would have to be before I cross that line, though I would expect that if the poo is hitting the fan, I'd key up where ever I might need to. But I will work through my preset emergency plan first before turning to untested procedures. When we're out solo, I leave an expected plan with our intended destination, what time I expect to be home and what frequencies I will monitor (generally 146.520 simplex). Even if it's as simple as a couple of emails or a note left on the kitchen counter. I'd stick to the plan as long as possible I'd think, because once you start band hoping and screwing around, you are introducing a lot of extra variability into the situation. If you are a ham and the people looking for you know that, then it's best to stick to that because SARs people will get what they need. Heck around here a lot of Sheriffs and SAR groups work closely with the ARES groups, so they'd have ham radios quickly during a call out.
http://www.eham.net/articles/18981
Whether or not you should or shouldn't mod your radio, up to you. Keep a couple of things in mind.
First, ham repeater coverage is way better away from towns than public service. Why would there be police and fire communications unless there are significant people? Many repeater clubs specifically have remote and linked repeaters to maximize wide area coverage in places not covered by other repeater groups. Personally I've been in lots of places where I could raise a repeater (maybe going as far as seeking a high point) and cell phones were useless paper weights. Anyway, if you are close to a town, village or city with emergency service, a cell phone will almost certainly be another option because they are often piggybacked with public service towers.
Second, it's best to practice and know the limitations and capabilities of things you can control. Are you absolutely sure that you have the right trunking frequency and protocol, correct decrypt key, DCS or PL tones and repeater offsets to get into that public service system? Public service generally uses nothing like the ham splits and tones. So if you are not sure, should you bet your life on it? Just something to think about. I prefer to plan and practice with what I have available. Know which antennas work best, what ham frequencies are available where I am, etc. You'd really have to break the law under controlled situation to know that your expected plan will work when the weather turns and you're stuck. Ham repeater coverage maps and info is published and available, so you know anywhere you are what repeaters are out there and what it takes to get into them. The ARRL publishes a little book of all of them every year. Public service information is out there, but it's based on guys scanning for it and who knows how accurate it is.
For me, I'm not sure how bad it would have to be before I cross that line, though I would expect that if the poo is hitting the fan, I'd key up where ever I might need to. But I will work through my preset emergency plan first before turning to untested procedures. When we're out solo, I leave an expected plan with our intended destination, what time I expect to be home and what frequencies I will monitor (generally 146.520 simplex). Even if it's as simple as a couple of emails or a note left on the kitchen counter. I'd stick to the plan as long as possible I'd think, because once you start band hoping and screwing around, you are introducing a lot of extra variability into the situation. If you are a ham and the people looking for you know that, then it's best to stick to that because SARs people will get what they need. Heck around here a lot of Sheriffs and SAR groups work closely with the ARES groups, so they'd have ham radios quickly during a call out.
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FWIW most of the race teams in Baja, along with all the race Ops, pit clubs, emergency Ops and Weatherman are on frequencies that require the mod. While in the States it's illegal to transmit on those freqs. with a modded radio as they are commercial band, however in Mexico all private radio communications are illegal, but transmitting on the Weatherman relay is the quickest way to get a medi-vac to your location, even on non-racedays most riders and pre-runners are monitoring either BFG pits or Weatherman, the Mexican version of the FCC also doesn't enforce any laws that they make, so broadcast away in Mexico.
gary in ohio
Explorer
Hltoppr said:
Volunteer Police Unit, SAR or CERT None of these have the rights to use ham radio radio on pubic safety frequencies.
Zam15
Explorer
Just picked up this raido, looking around and found this.... Good read:
Arguing with an attorney that specializes in communications. Don't that beat all.
Even after reading the then called Mobile Radio Technology magazine article suggesting that public safety agencies purchase amateur radios because they are very frequency agile, I sincerely debated whether or not to post the following information. Although those of you with negative opinions will resurface with unrelated arguments I am going to pass on how amateur radio saved the day during a search involving eminent life, limb or property.
A critical missing person was reported to the Sheriff's Department. The search area was massive (more than 50 square miles) and after very brief media coverage a couple hundred volunteer searchers arrived at the command post with FRS walkie-talkies in hand. Since volunteer searchers was nothing new they were embraced as a valuable asset.
The county fire department deployed a mobile command post fully outfitted with everything from HF to 800mhz trunking. The county SAR teams operate on both 800 and in the VHF public safety band using repeaters installed for their exclusive use. Along with the mobile command post were ARES-like operators that were all hams. Anything that can go wrong was about to go wrong.
As luck would have it the county SAR repeater on the mountain directly over the search area took a dump. Although the county fire mobile command post had ham gear, it had *not* been modified for out of band operation.
The two problems were that 1) the SAR team members could not effectively communicate over such a large area without their repeater, and 2) volunteers on FRS could not communicate with the command post over such a large area. Amateur radio saved the day.
Gun shots had been heard in areas known for the manufacturing of drugs and this represented a safety issue for the county SAR members and volunteer rescuer's alike. Additionally, rain storms occurring in the mountains above the search area caused a flash flood watch to be issued for the river area being searched. In spite of logistical inconveniences, the a critical missing person was counting on being found.
The SAR members had type accepted Motorola's; the civilian searchers had a combination of type accepted Yaesu and Motorola Talk-Abouts. There was easily over 100 radios there on two different bands. Add into the mix numerous ham radio operators that arrived to help search for the critical missing person. A ham repeater atop the same mountain as the SAR repeater was fully operational. The owner of the machine gave his blessing for ham use and a debt is owed to him as well.
§97.403 Safety of life and protection of property.
No provision of these rules prevents the use by an amateur station of any means of radiocommunication at its disposal to provide essential communication needs in connection with the immediate safety of human life and immediate protection of property when normal communication systems are not available.
An enterprising ham on scene had a modified FT-8900 with him, a crank-up tripod, and a discone. He drove up to the top of the commercial radio site that towered over the search area and cranked up a discone attached to a FT-8900 that even had intermod filters inline. He set one side to the FRS channel and tone used by the searchers, and the other side to the output of the SAR repeater and tone. Using a deep cycle marine battery for power he fired up the cross-band repeater. He later explained that at least if the SAR repeater came back online the SAR team members could communicate normally, but in the least "Control" could manage a simplex net.
It worked great! Ham radio operators stayed on their ham repeater but SAR personnel were able not only to communicate with one another line of sight, but most importantly, back to the fire department incident command truck that could talk on its type accepted radio, AND, to those on FRS through the FT-8900. The only radio not specifically type accepted was the Yaesu FT-8900, although "type accepted" just means that the radio was submitted for testing and certification. $$$
After 9 hours the search ended with positive results and communications played a vital role in the entire incident. Ham radio is still being praised for their efforts.
You make the call.
http://www.eham.net/ehamforum/smf/index.php?topic=55304.50;wap2
Arguing with an attorney that specializes in communications. Don't that beat all.
Even after reading the then called Mobile Radio Technology magazine article suggesting that public safety agencies purchase amateur radios because they are very frequency agile, I sincerely debated whether or not to post the following information. Although those of you with negative opinions will resurface with unrelated arguments I am going to pass on how amateur radio saved the day during a search involving eminent life, limb or property.
A critical missing person was reported to the Sheriff's Department. The search area was massive (more than 50 square miles) and after very brief media coverage a couple hundred volunteer searchers arrived at the command post with FRS walkie-talkies in hand. Since volunteer searchers was nothing new they were embraced as a valuable asset.
The county fire department deployed a mobile command post fully outfitted with everything from HF to 800mhz trunking. The county SAR teams operate on both 800 and in the VHF public safety band using repeaters installed for their exclusive use. Along with the mobile command post were ARES-like operators that were all hams. Anything that can go wrong was about to go wrong.
As luck would have it the county SAR repeater on the mountain directly over the search area took a dump. Although the county fire mobile command post had ham gear, it had *not* been modified for out of band operation.
The two problems were that 1) the SAR team members could not effectively communicate over such a large area without their repeater, and 2) volunteers on FRS could not communicate with the command post over such a large area. Amateur radio saved the day.
Gun shots had been heard in areas known for the manufacturing of drugs and this represented a safety issue for the county SAR members and volunteer rescuer's alike. Additionally, rain storms occurring in the mountains above the search area caused a flash flood watch to be issued for the river area being searched. In spite of logistical inconveniences, the a critical missing person was counting on being found.
The SAR members had type accepted Motorola's; the civilian searchers had a combination of type accepted Yaesu and Motorola Talk-Abouts. There was easily over 100 radios there on two different bands. Add into the mix numerous ham radio operators that arrived to help search for the critical missing person. A ham repeater atop the same mountain as the SAR repeater was fully operational. The owner of the machine gave his blessing for ham use and a debt is owed to him as well.
§97.403 Safety of life and protection of property.
No provision of these rules prevents the use by an amateur station of any means of radiocommunication at its disposal to provide essential communication needs in connection with the immediate safety of human life and immediate protection of property when normal communication systems are not available.
An enterprising ham on scene had a modified FT-8900 with him, a crank-up tripod, and a discone. He drove up to the top of the commercial radio site that towered over the search area and cranked up a discone attached to a FT-8900 that even had intermod filters inline. He set one side to the FRS channel and tone used by the searchers, and the other side to the output of the SAR repeater and tone. Using a deep cycle marine battery for power he fired up the cross-band repeater. He later explained that at least if the SAR repeater came back online the SAR team members could communicate normally, but in the least "Control" could manage a simplex net.
It worked great! Ham radio operators stayed on their ham repeater but SAR personnel were able not only to communicate with one another line of sight, but most importantly, back to the fire department incident command truck that could talk on its type accepted radio, AND, to those on FRS through the FT-8900. The only radio not specifically type accepted was the Yaesu FT-8900, although "type accepted" just means that the radio was submitted for testing and certification. $$$
After 9 hours the search ended with positive results and communications played a vital role in the entire incident. Ham radio is still being praised for their efforts.
You make the call.
http://www.eham.net/ehamforum/smf/index.php?topic=55304.50;wap2
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