>-=> Bob Seaborn wrote to JIMMY ANDERSON <=-
 >
 >> Well, my wife and I are interested in the weather side of things for
 >> HAM,
 >> but I'm also interested in the CHAT side. :-) If CB's would give me
 >> morechance for CHAT it would be worth it. If it didn't, though, I feel
 >> like
 >> it would be a waste. :-)
 >
 >
 >BS> Get connected with D-STAR, there are numerous nets almost every day who
 >BS> are chat oriented.
 >
 > Yeah - Daryl mentioned that to me - pretty expensive though, right?
 > Pluswouldn't help me for chatting during a drive. :-)


     No, not at all.  I understand that the Icom ID-51A is on sale right now
for about $250 at some places in the US. If you are within range of a
repeater, no problem.  If not, a mobile hot spot is all it takes, using
wifi from your cell smartphone.

      My Home setup here consists of an Icom ID-31A (cost me $200 cdn 18
months ago), coupled with a DVMega interface, which is a Raspberry Pi 2,
with a small sub board added to it.  Everything sits in the Pi case, and
has a four inch antenna sticking out the top.  It sits on the corner of my
desk, and I get around 2 miles range out of it (TX power is approx 10 mw on
440MHz). Total cost of this was well under $200, also.  The big feature is
that I have world wide qso's, with NO outside antennae, and don't use any
repeater. Especially nice considering the state of HF these days.  :)  I
regularly chat with hams in Ohio, North Carolina, Ontario, the UK,
Australia, etc.

      My mobile is a 50 watt Icom ID-2820H, into a Larsen 2/70 maganatopper
antenna.

      If you wish, send me your email address, and I can send you pictures.
I can be found at "bob at fidonet.ca".  If anyone reading this
cares, I usually can be found on X-Reflector 005B.






                       .....Bob, VE5XEF


--- GEcho/32 & IM 2.50