ICQPodcast Episode 479 - Baofeng UV-5R Mini

iCQ Podcast Episode 479, Baothang UV5R Mini Reviewing.

Well, hello fellow Amateur Radio enthusiasts and welcome to Episode 479 of the iCQ Amateur Radio

Podcast, supported by a monthly and annual subscription donors. In this episode, we join Martin

M&MRB, Dan Kilo-Bravo 6th November Uniform, Karen KD2, Golf Uniform Tango, Edmund Mike

Zero, Mike November Golf, and Ed, DD5 Lima Papa to discuss the latest Amateur Radio news.

Myself Colin M6Biawai rounds up the news in brief and this episode's feature

is a review of the Baothang UV5R Mini. Well, as always, it's your very kind support

to keep your iCQ Podcast advert free and we love the way you show the value of your iCQ Podcast.

So please do consider us if you get value from today's show or any previous shows by visiting

icqpodcast.com forward slash donate was to say the donations you send away go towards the running

cost of the show and keeping your show advert free. So we do hope you take the time to check that out.

While we're here as well, please don't forget our next iCQ Podcast digital talk group net

will be on the 4th of April. So check out icqpodcast.com for the times there. So there's always

presenters and listeners on that talk group throughout the day anyway, but let's say there'd be an

official talk group net on the 4th of April. So do check that out, say dates and times, etc.

for all the talk groups for 2026 on the iCQ Podcast webpage. Right, now we're going to join

Martin Dan, Karen Edmund and Ed to discuss and generate thoughts about the latest Amateur Radio

news including FO29 renews activity and protection for antenna towers. As always hope you enjoy.

The icq podcast come for a moment. Stay for an hour.

Well hi guys and welcome to the usc podcast episode 479 and tonight's news round table for

that episode. Tonight I'm joined by Mr Ed Ren, DD5LP, hi Ed. Yeah good evening everybody,

nice to be back on again. Yeah, I thought I'd announce you all in different orders today,

just for the fun of it because we'll let's go with it. But I shouldn't unladies first. So

we have Karen Eve Murray, Katie, 2GUT, hi Karen. Hi Martin, good evening everyone and it's fun

being out of order. I'm always out of order, yeah. I got asked today, we went out for lunch,

Colin and I and the nice lady in the cafe said, say you keep him. I said, well I'm trying to keep

out of trouble, but I'm failing miserably. She looks at me and get you out there. From your side

upon we have Mr. Dan Romacek, KB6 and you, hi Dan. Yeah, hello everybody. Yeah, good to have you

mate. And last but not least, not that far from me compared with the rest of you is Mr.

Emma Spicer, M0 MMG, hi Edmund. Hello Martin, hello everybody. Yeah, good to have you mate.

Let's say I'm sure we'll have some fun tonight with some of these news stories. First news story,

I quite like this one. F-O-29 enters full sunlight. All but it's now, it's a veteran satellite

and it was launched in August 1996. Yes, 1996. It's 30 years old, it's batteries have died,

but while it's in Poland at Sunshine, it's usable. Ed, you want to go first on this one? Yeah, come

do. I actually remember F-O-29 trying to listen for it back in the in the 90s, not successfully

but yeah, you get from the number 29. It was the 29th amateur radio, a satellite put up there.

We're now up, what are we 110 or something? I'll certainly over 100 with the Q-O-100.

So this is a 30-year-old satellite. Not only that, it's actually a satellite as a transponder,

so it's not just an FM mode, it's actually multi-mode, so mainly sideband and CW and cos it'll do digital.

So really a good example of when you build something right and you build it well, it will last.

The only thing that's failed on it is the batteries and it's been on and off operations over the

last few years because of where the orbit is. Now as it's orbit is now slowly moving around the

earth, in other words, its position relative to the earth, it's now got into a path where it is

actually in sunlight the whole of the time. So now it's on for the for the X, I think two to three

years, the reckon, where it will be fully operational, fully available once you're in the shadow of it,

so once you're in range of it. And that's that's blooming fantastic. It really is nice to see that

things that are made 30 years ago are still working as well as things that are made 30 days ago.

Back to your Martin. Yeah, you're right and some of the things that I've seen about 30 days ago,

I question, but quality, quality. I'm going to go to Edmund next. I know you're not a big satellite

person, but yeah, 30 years of technology. I mean, not many of us have got things that are 30

years old in our house that still work, have we? Yes, things are made to last in the decades gone by,

weren't they? You're speaking to someone here who shamefully is still yet to have his first QSO

through even one of the FM easy sets. So it goes out saying, I've not used this one or have ever

heard it, I don't think, but as Ed has said, the fact it's in constant sunlight now for a while,

means it's fully operational. It's an inverting satellite. So it's a transponder rather. So I don't

know if FM would work through it. SSB or CW would. And the bandwidth is 100 kilohertz. So it's as

wide as a couple of the HF walk bands, which is quite something that seems rather a lot to me.

I thought mostly near transponders were a bit narrower than that. So yes, listen out for us,

and if you have a go at putting a signal through it, then the very best of luck, but I don't think

it's going to be me putting a signal through it, Martin, back to you. Edmund, let me just jump in

there quickly. While technically an FM signal will go through, it's frowned upon because it actually

flutters what's left in the batteries a lot quicker because it's constant carrier. And the

descents is the whole range if you put a carrier signal into it. So while technically it is

any mood, it's frowned upon if you put FM through any of the linear satellites. That's why there's

so many other alternatives. Oh, okay. But wouldn't the inversion side of it completely mangle the FM

signal, notwithstanding? Good technical question. I don't think so. And it costs it'll depend

whether you're frequently modulated or first modulated. If you're first modulated, it might.

Anyway, that's too deep of a rattle to go into this evening, Edmund.

Well, I'm with the way I'm not going to try it. But there you go. There you go. So Karen,

wish your thoughts on this. I mean, I think it's really good that it's this 30-year-old satellite

that's still working. Well, you know, in our in our discussions before we we began the formal

part of the program. I was delighted and kind of joke that how many of us will be working in 30

years, much less any technology. But I think I'm not a satellite users and I've never tried a

satellite for a QSO. So I want to say that upfront. But just in a general sense, I think that the fact

that something launched so long ago, that it's functional, that it's gotten a new a new breath in

its lungs and can can bring great enjoyment to people and great communication is a good thing.

I mean, think about all of the rigs that were made 30, 40, 50 years ago. The fact is that

many of them endure, whereas think about the cell phone you were using five or six years ago.

I'm probably the only person on the on the planet or one of the few. I still have the same cell phone

now for I don't know how many years I want to say eight eight or nine and at some point it's it is

going to become obsolete. So let's celebrate the good old veterans of the sky. Let's celebrate them and

I hope as many people as possible make good use of this satellite and enjoy it and I hope there will

be a lot written about it and plenty of logs uploaded. So we can see who's talking to who.

So I'm I'm happy about this story Martin. Back to you. Yeah, well you weren't the only one who's

to let a very old phone. I had a Samsung S8 and I was quite happy with it, but my daughter upgraded

her phone. Carol and my daughter upgrade their phones and I ended up with my daughter's old phone

which was a major update for me. So I don't I don't know if I can't see any benefits to me yet,

but I know I'm being negative on this. Dan, do you remember this one going up or have you

thought any thoughts on this one? No, you know, I wait, I can tell you, true, that wasn't even very

active in 1996, but like the others, I think the fact that it's still working is fantastic.

And I'm, you know, I've I've joked about this in the past. I've only made one satellite contact

with my whole career here in him radio, but maybe I'll try and find somebody that's got a

an IC 9700 and take my satellite antenna over to their house and see if I can work this thing

because I think that would be kind of cool. Well, you have to come along white to use my

9700. Yeah, I mean, I probably won't get there, but I think probably a guy or two around here

and in Arbor has one. Yeah, I'm sure I'm sure it's quite a popular radio, but all in all,

I think the really good thing is it's technology that's carried on working. Okay, it's batteries died.

They were never intended to take that many charges and recharges through them and the technology

of the batteries died. The batteries will probably die in most things, but while it's running

in sunlight, the solar panels will make it useful again, which is good news. Right, move to our

next news story. New Indiana law protects ham radio antennas and towers. Now, I've got quite

excited about this. And then I realized that it's kind of only for new things, a new

NOAs going forward. And you point this one out to me, Karen. Do you want to go first on this one?

Absolutely. Like you, Martin, when I saw this story, I said, wow, this is great. The states are

doing or starting to do what we're still waiting for the federal government to do, which is to

protect ham radio operators and their equipment in living in residential communities with these

restrictions. So I immediately went to the website for the government and looked at the language

and my heart sank. And I realized, yes, this is protection, but this is not quite what it seems.

It is only, as you said, for the newer, newer language that is put in for HOAs that didn't

already restrict or for new HOAs forming that intent to restrict. So this is protection for people

going forward. Not quite the same thing. And I'm, gosh, I'm really hoping, really, really

hoping that when the federal measure passes, and I hope it will, sometimes soon, that it does not

have the same wording, I'm hoping it will be a retroactive, that it will be binding for

communities that now restrict, that it tells them you can't do this, you must allow it. Is it

totally just a, is it useless? No, no, it's not useless. It's still good to have. It sets an

example, first of all, it will be helpful for people in the newer communities or those with newer

language that's being worked on. It draws attention to the issue and any action in that direction

is still good. So I'm glad to see it. I'm just disappointed that it didn't protect those who are

still, you know, trying to hide their antennas in a bush or a flagpole back to you Martin.

Yeah, I know what you mean, I know what you mean on that, but the thing I thought was good about

this is that it's a start in the right direction. It's, as you say, if people in Indiana are

sensible, then other states will look at what they're doing and potentially put in similar

operations and then hopefully central government will sort it out. And the other thing is

those that have had the ban on antennas, if it's not deemed as a complete eye saw, then maybe

they'll come around to change their rules. I don't know. Dan, my sure thoughts on this one.

Well, I was surprised that it was Indiana actually because Indiana is considered to be quite a

conservative state here in the U.S. But like you, Martin, I'm a half glass half full kind of guy. I

think that, you know, any movement in our direction, so to say, is a good thing. So, you know,

might be a little bit disappointing, but, you know, we have to temper our expectation.

I think you're right, Dan. But, you know, once we get good news out there and we can show that

these are not eye saws and one thing or another, then I think more people will probably come around.

Well, yeah, that's what I say. I'm with you. You know, I'm a glass half full on this one.

Yeah. Well, my antennas have been up so long now. All the neighbors have moved in around me.

And if I'm totally 150% honest, I have a HF vertical at the bottom of the garden that's been there

20 years. What nobody realizes is it's a 40 antenna that I've bought for the square root nothing.

And I've put it up so that when I change it, it's been there. There's always been an antenna there

and nobody will complain about it. And I haven't got around to replacing that one yet. Bit of an

naughty on my part. Edmund, what's your thoughts on this, you know, I know we don't have it quite

so bad in you, okay? No, well, it's H.O.A. isn't it? What's it stand for? Homeowners Association.

Well, no, we don't have a direct equivalent, although I think if you live in a house in an area

of outstanding natural beauty or something like that, there can be restrictions imposed on what

you can do. But the point I was going to make, Martin, you actually put very succinctly a couple

of moments ago, which is that even if somebody lives in an existing H.O.A. with rules in place,

if going forward, these new H.O.A.s happen where antennas are allowed to be put up and they don't

end up turning into ISOs or being covered with massive great towers with huge yogis on top of them,

then maybe over a passage of time that might persuade the existing H.O.A.s to reconsider their

stance. And of course, whilst I would never encourage anybody to do anything that they shouldn't,

don't forget that any antenna will look considerably smaller when it's up on your roof than when

it's sitting on the floor at your feet. And a Yagi for the 2 meter or 1.25 meter bands

probably would look very similar at rooftop level to a VHFFM band to broadcast antenna.

And a 70 centimeter Yagi would be virtually indistinguishable to a terrestrial TV aerial.

So, I'm not telling you what to do, but you might want to bear that in mind if you know what I mean.

Yeah, yeah, well, that's another opportunity, as you say.

Where does it say? My feeling is, in fairness with an H.O.A., H.O.A.s don't want to have

a lot of amateurs, don't want to live in on an H.O.A. with lots of other amateurs because we've

been interfering with each other. You'll probably, you know, at H.O.A. standards, you're probably only

going to have one amateur or only one amateur will want to be on that anywhere near another amateur

because when we're transmitting, we don't want to, uh, suddenly find, I can't use 40 meters because

fret up the road is running 80 meters or whatever, you know, it's, um, I'm an interfered

amateur, I'm a so, uh, yeah, hopefully it'll all get sorted fairly soon. Moving to our next

new story, and this is an interference, and it says radio interference has landed US airlines

with an 8 million pound or dollar bill to fix 40 equipment on Boeing 787s.

Now, uh, there's a lot about this new story. It's, um, these sensors seem to be affected by CW or

military, uh, transmissions. So it's not only amateurs, it's not saying it's amateurs, but it starts

to worry me that, uh, the times girls, they're sort of at fixing and why should the airlines pay it?

Ed, I know you, um, I know you had thoughts on this one over to you. Yeah, okay. Yeah, just to say,

this is part of the aircraft that actually signals where it is, and as well as it being used to track

where an aircraft is, which is useful if anything ever happens, it's also used by systems that

automatically ensure that two aircraft don't suddenly appear in the same place at the same time,

which you also want to avoid, obviously. It appears that the, um, the units in use in the dream

liner, the Boeing dream liner, have a design fault. We had a story on this about a year ago, I think,

come around again. What surprises me if you read the story on the website is that the FCC is ordering

the airlines to take care of this. Well, I would have thought a fault on an aircraft, certainly a

fault of severe as this. Surely it should be the aircraft manufacturer who is doing a, um,

a pullback of them and repairing them. In any case, uh, towards the end of the text, it says,

it's expected to take four years, uh, while this is a safety item on the aircraft.

I think four years is a bit of a long time, and I just don't understand why this isn't something

that a Boeing are doing. Uh, and basically, these aircraft do have to have maintenance on a regular

basis, and such should be part of just put into the next maintenance, replace this unit with one

that, uh, there isn't fault here, isn't, uh, susceptible to interference. Yeah, there's so many

things about this story where I go, eh, since it's been around for a while, why hasn't it already

been fixed? And B, why are the airlines been asked to pay the bill, not the aircraft manufacturer?

Anyway, that's probably above my pay grade to, uh, to know that kind of information.

But yeah, let's hope it gets fixed quickly. Um, in the meantime, uh, yeah, I probably will be

avoiding flying on any seven 87 dream learners, but, uh, those tend to be the more expensive

room, so I wouldn't be flying those anywhere. Back to you, Martin.

Well, yeah, I understand it, but the other thing is, if the airlines are having to pay this

or stomp up the money, guess what's going to happen, guys? Your tickets are going to go up in

price because they can have to recover this money from somebody. So we're being hammered for a fault

that, uh, shouldn't exist. And I think this should be a Boeing issue, like you read,

and four years is far too long to wait for things to be fixed. Dan, most of your thoughts on this one.

Well, so I was just looking at the, uh, the, the thing from the FAA called the Airworthiness Directive.

And I, I'm not sure that it says that the, the airlines must pay that, but, uh, getting,

talking about the four-year period, well, you know, that's maybe not so unreasonable in that

A, the, uh, the manufacturer of the transponders, which by the way happens to be Collins,

aerospace, Collins, uh, of the Collins Amateur Radio Line fame, you know, they'll, they'll have to

come up with some fix for this. That, that'll certainly take some time. And then the, uh, the new

transponders will have to be manufactured and then they'll have to be installed. So, you know,

four years, uh, you know, maybe four years before they can get around to all, uh, fix, you know,

fixing all of these, uh, the airplanes. I think, I think that if it was an incredibly important

safety measure, they, they would, they would move up the timeline, but probably it's not that

critical. Uh, so, uh, you know, you, you guys can decide not to fly at 787s, but I, I don't think

that I'm quite so skittish about that. Yeah, I guess, I guess that's my comment. Uh, you know,

it's kind of, kind of funny, funny that they didn't find this in the initial design and

production of these, uh, these units, but now that they know they can, uh, hopefully add that to

the test, uh, protocol for, uh, for new designs. Yeah, well, that's a good, uh, good thought down

and, you know, I know you're a CW operator. You can't take the blame for it, you know,

the only CW operator in the world. Well, listen, and you know, that's the other thing. I don't

think my hundred watts is, uh, is going to affect any airline or even if they're flying directly

over, over my house. And so fortunately, I'm not in, I'm not in the flight path usually for

Detroit, the Detroit airport. So that, that's usually not a problem, at least where I am so.

Yeah, I was, I was being naughty then, but as you were, so an interesting, uh, new story, um,

hopefully it'll get fixed pretty soon. And, uh, to me, safety is important. And I, uh, Dan's not

sure he's saying that yes, it is a safety issue, but they're not deemed as a mega safety issue.

So, uh, they haven't grounded the planes, put it that way. Right. Ed, once again, I'm going to go

first with you. This is a terrific new story. Uh, Tennessee approves credentials for amateur

radio technician licenses. So nice one gives people a bit more credibility on getting an amateur

regular assistant. Yeah. Um, what it really does is what's happened is that in Tennessee,

they've got the technician class license, uh, recognizes a tier one qualification. And so a

technical qualification. And the people looking, for young people looking for jobs, my point on this

one is that if you have somebody that's applying for a job, uh, having just left college, um,

or school, now the case, uh, and they have an amateur radio license, it would previously look

on us, yeah, nice, it's an extra thing you've got. And you've got some practical experience,

perhaps in electronics or in space communications or in radio in general. But in this case,

not only is it that it then goes and ticks a box that says this in Tennessee is actually

considered a, you know, a valid qualification similar in some ways to what you might get from a

training college. And it, it's a benefit. And it's a benefit for the person having the license.

It's also a benefit for amateur radio because if you're competing again, somebody who's got

this one extra qualification on the CV, you're more like to go and get it yourself as well. And

maybe you'll then stay in the hobby. I think this is something that should be promoted more. I mean,

this is the kind of thing that once this is happening, one place, in this case, it's the state of

Tennessee. Perhaps they should be in the case of the A. W. R. L. Pat. We always go back to the

national body, but let's just say the A. W. R. L. at this count, it might be the RCA, it might be

another group should be actually trying to get this happening in other states of the U. S. as

well. And not only that, but the equivalent, if it's possible, in other countries. So in the UK

and Germany and in Australia and India, wherever, the amateur radio license is a technical training

to a certain level. Obviously, the full license is a higher level than the technician, but let's

start off with the technician. It does give a basic introduction to electronics, to the electronics

safety and to technology in general. And since people are currently young people having to put

the effort in to learn that, to then pass the exam. If they can then use that on their CV when

they're looking for a job and have, if you're like an advantage over other people, then good on them

and the more that can do that, the better. So I think this is a really great story and a really

great sign that perhaps, you know, all those people that are saying, well, we've tried this to get

new people into the hobby. We've tried that to get new people into the hobby. This is something that

actually will give a payback for all the effort that's needed to get the license. That's what I

think, anywhere Martin, back to you. Yeah, well, I think it's a good thing. And as you say, we have to

study the license in the UK and I'm pretty sure it is the same similar parts in the world,

but it is for gaining technical knowledge, you radio and radio communications. So

yes, you learn a bit of electronics and as you progress up through the grades, but you become

far better at understanding worldly problems. You know, if you understand how things work,

then you have much clearer mind going forward. And I think it's quite a good thing.

Karen, what's your thoughts on this? Well, I have to say, Martin, I love this story.

I think this story is fabulous news. Not just for the reasons that you and Ed have pointed out,

but I just want to add to that, you know, when I got my technician license, 2014,

there was this great push to upgrade, upgrade, upgrade as if your technician license,

as if it weren't real, as if it weren't a point of pride. And like, oh, well, you know, not

that you had to be ashamed of not being a general or an extra, but it was like, oh, well,

you're just a technician. Well, a lot of people get their technician class and stay

happily as technicians. And that's absolutely fine. This is validation for the value of

technician. Why not be proud? And why not formally recognize the value that this brings a lot of

people who work in the MCOM sector, either as volunteers or for pay, have their technician's

license. And that serves my goodness, that saves lives and in times of disasters and chaos.

And it helps public service events to prevent accidents or rescue. This is what a technician's

license can do. They can do a lot. So I'm, I'm so pleased. I'm so very pleased. Now,

let's get the other states on board if they're listening. And let's give some love to the technician

license back to you, Martin. Yeah, I think you think you're right. I've come across technicians

and the equivalent of foundation license holders. Sometimes the person doesn't want to go that

past that because what that gives them is the license to do a bit of experimentation with antennas

or whatever and they allow to transmit. What I think a lot of amateurs do fall into the

thing of our technicians don't know what they're talking about or foundation license holders don't

know what they're talking about. Guys, I've met some very clever ones, you know, listen, I might hold

the extra in the states, but I've never needed power wise. Normally, when I go to the states,

I take a handy talkie, five watts max. I could do all that with a technician license.

Okay. But there are a lot of people that I've met that don't want to go any further, but they do,

let's do very technical. When you ask them by things, they're not

syncing violets there. So I would say, you know, this is a good one. Dan, what's your thoughts?

Well, like the HOA story, I think where our enthusiasm needs to be tempered a little bit.

So I did a little research on this and in a presentation describing these

Tennessee industry credentials, it says, let's see, I'm trying to find where this is. It says,

there's three tiers, tier one, tier one, tier two, and T three. And you might think tier one is

the best, but actually it's the lowest. Tier one is the lowest value credential, while valuable

employers in industry value these credentials, least of the credentials on this list. So

again, just like the HOA thing, while it's a good thing, I mean, in the overall scheme of things,

it may not be as great as we were hoping for. Yeah, but Dan, at least it's something where

somebody else didn't even have that lowest grade. Well, yeah, no, I'm saying, I agree with that,

and so for a while around here, I was talking with, took part in some venture capital kind of

meetings, where they're entrepreneurs and all. And one of them I mentioned, yeah, I'm a HAM

radio operator. And the guy says, oh, I love hiring amateur radio operators because they know how

to do things. And that's true, HAMs know how to do things. So I'm not poo-pooing this,

but again, we have to take this with a little grain of salt. Yeah, I mean, I agree with you,

it's not a university degree, but it's something, it's something, especially if somebody's perhaps

not going to university and leaving school directly, as well as the exams that they do at the end

of the normal school or college or training, training college, you know, it's one more that,

you know, it could just be, it could just swing a job for them. Oh, you know, I agree, and I

always, if anybody ever asks me, I always say, you know, make sure you put on your resume that you

have an amateur radio license because that's, that is an achievement and it does say something about

you. Yeah, and if an employer that knows absolutely nothing about radio now says what's

amateur radio license in Tennessee, you can say, well, it's on your list of tier one qualifications.

Right. Right. Yeah. Yeah, but equally, if a technician is tier one, and this works, and

then they may look at and say, well, you generally become to tier two, and you're extra

become to tier three. Let's be honest about you've got to start somewhere and it's one state

at least dipping their toe into the water and trying to make it, it makes sense. And as you say,

amateur radio people seem to have a, let's do it attitude rather than a sit back, oh my god,

that's too difficult. We tend to get an angstirty. Ember, what's your thoughts?

Well, I'm not sure to what extent I get my hands dirty. Yeah, echoing what's been said already,

this is good news because if you're a young person going for a job, then even if the role you're

applying for, even if amateur radio is not directly relevant to it, the very fact you've gone out

to your way to study and get the license when you didn't have to, but you've taken it upon yourself

to do it. And I've succeeded in getting the license. That demonstrates an ability and a willingness

to learn. And that will always stand you in good stead with a potential employer. And it could be

that that's the one degree of separation between your application and somebody else who hasn't done

it. So good news indeed. And going off topic slightly, talking about the various levels of licenses,

I would always encourage everybody to upgrade your license if you possibly can,

even if you think you're completely satisfied with the privileges that your current level of

license brings you because if my experience is anything to go by, the extra privileges at the

higher level that you will end up valuing could be entirely different to the ones that you think

you're going to value, if that makes sense. So in my situation, I wanted to upgrade to the full

license for two main reasons. Number one was that I could then legally transmit on the 60 meter,

five megahertz band in the UK, which currently anyway is a privilege reserved for full licensees

only. And the second benefit was that I wanted to be able to transmit whilst abroad in reality since

I upgraded it in 2013. I've not really done very much of either of those things, but the thing that

I have really valued the full license for is that it allows me to hold notices of variation.

So I can hold special events, call signs, and I'm also able to hold club call signs.

Back when I upgraded, I don't think the idea of either of those things had even crossed my mind.

So my advice is if you can do it and I appreciate not everybody will be in a position too, but if you

can do it, it's always worth upgrading because you may ultimately be pleased you did not for reasons

that you think you'd be pleased, but for reasons that today haven't even crossed your mind back to

you Martin. Oh yes, and one of the things I'll close up this on, I always say to people, any knowledge

is good knowledge. You put it in the back of your mind and when people start talking about all

sorts of things, if you have an appreciation of what is going on, then you can spot the people

that are talking rubbish and avoid them. I don't pick the fight with them, but you avoid them,

but knowledge is something that you take with you and I think you take to a new job.

And if somebody is saying, oh well, something rubbish about Wi-Fi. Well, Wi-Fi is just another

version of radio. And if you understand the principles of radio, then you're already a head of half

the IT people put in Wi-Fi. So that's my fairy, because if you get more knowledge, the more knowledge

you've got, the better it is for you. And you can bring some really good things to your employer.

So that includes a new story, isn't it? Anybody wants to say any more on that one?

Right, let's find out what the team went up to since the last time we sat round at the table here,

or the virtual table. And we always go ladies first, Karen, so we've been up to since the last time

Well, Martin, I've been making up for lost time. The last time we got to this segment of the podcast,

I said, I haven't been doing very much. It's been snowing. I've been getting on the air.

I've been dealing with bad band conditions. Grumble, grumble, grumble, grumble, grumble. You know,

one of those, one of those reports, well, this week, let's see, I completed my first Hoda

activation of the season about a week ago was, as Ed and I call it, it was Plota parking lots

on the air. I did sit in my SUV, but God, it felt good. It just felt good to be out there.

Secondly, two things we completed. There was a seven-day event, the World Wide Award for Why

Ls, which is a magnificent activating event, not a contest, but an activating event

for Why Ls, literally around the world. And it was really fabulous. I did it entirely,

as a CW op, I heard some amazing fists, some days under terrible conditions,

some days under good conditions. I worked more countries than I ever thought I might,

even though that I don't think any of the contacts pushed me closer to DXCC. I am stuck at 86,

but we're working on it. But it was just fun and to be part of a community of people around the

world all doing this. I joked with some of the women in our chat group. I said, I've never,

ever been chased by so many men. So that was kind of neat. And again, all very, very good

ops, a very excellent operating experience, a very positive experience. And I would encourage anybody

who has doubts about whether they could do something like this and enjoy it. I almost

did not sign up for this because I thought it was going to be too much like a contestant. I'm not

a contestor. This is not about that. This is not about competition. This is about community

and communication. And I would do it again in a heartbeat. So big thanks to the organizers and to

my fellow activators and those wonderful hunters. Moving right along, Akilo Oscar DOG,

which is the Dog Day Radio Amateur Radio Club formed as a result of team activations for

international dog day. We are in full swing with different events. We just completed the

Canine Veterans Day event earlier this month, activating in recognition of all dogs who have

supported troops in the military throughout history in any country. We are very

proud, very appreciative. So we did that just for two days, just to see how it went, very bad band

conditions. But again, we're not about numbers. We're about communication. This coming weekend,

which will be the Sunday that this podcast comes out. And the following day is national

puppy day. And I want to thank D-D-5 LP. I want to thank Ed for finding this holiday. We are

activating once again. Please, please work us. Kilo zero DOG. Kilo zero DOG. We are advocating for

humane and fair breeding of dogs or rescue of dogs. We are advocating against the horrible

practice of puppy mills. And just general appreciation of what little puppies can do

to bring joy to our lives. Please visit the QRZ page for Kilo zero DOG and see what we're all

about. Okay. And finally, finally, finally, soccer is coming to North America. And I was asked

if I would help with the home team. And I'm not being asked to play. Okay. My athletic talents

are definitely overstated in that department. No, I was asked if I would help organize with

W2C for the New York New Jersey area. Okay. We really need activators. We're desperate to get people

on the air for this. It is not going to be a two month long activation. We're only getting on

the air when the games are being played in the New York New Jersey area. W2C is the call sign.

And again, activating in support of international friendship, in support of friendly competition

on the pitch and just in general being together as a community. So that my great challenge right now

is finding activators. So please people, I'm not a sports fan. And I have agreed to be a part of

this because it's important. And who knows? Maybe I'll watch a game. Hey, you never know, right?

That's it for me, Martin. I will send it back to you. Well, Karen, you hit a spot for me, didn't you?

Because Colin was over at the weekend and he took me to soccer on Saturday. And I watch his team lose.

And he took me to soccer on some Patrick's Day yesterday on the 17th for a night match.

And his team had a draw. So, okay, I've been to two soccer matches in the last few days.

And I'm not a football fan, but there you go. So nice one, Karen, you've, there you go. You

might enjoy it. If you like me, you sit back and just take the atmosphere. Great. Dan, what you

went up to since last time we spoke. Well, before I get into that, I have a kind of a, at least I

think it's humorous World Cup soccer story. You know, my wife is Mexican. And all her family lives

in Wala Hada. And one year, I forget what the year is. It's been quite a while. We were down

there during the World Cup when the World Cup was going on. And, you know, my Spanish is not

that great, but we were sitting there watching the game and the game was Russia against somebody.

And they said, Oh, Dan, you're, you know, you're, you're Eastern European, you know,

pronounced the names for us. So I would pronounce the names for him of the Russian team. And they

got a big kick out of that. Anyway, I've been up to my usual, usual here, always busy, busy,

busy with him radio. A week and a half ago, two weeks ago when this gets released, I tied a couple

of classes at the Southern California Linux Expo. And this first time I tied two classes in a row.

And I tell you, by the time the second class was over, I was pretty tired. But the first day went

pretty well. We had 22 people in the class, 19 that got licensed past the test that day. And one

came back and passed the test the next day. So 20 out of 22 for the first session. I didn't do

quite so well in the second session, only 12 of 18. But I'm going to follow up with those folks that

didn't pass and see what I can do to help them get their licenses after all. But that was fun.

You know, it's again, teaching a class and add a venue that you don't traditionally associate

with him radio. I'm also working on my books. I have to update the text study guide. I'm hoping

and I'm updating my CW book too. I'm hoping to get these done by Dayton so I can have something to

show at Dayton. And speaking about Dayton, they approved my proposal for a talk. So I'll be talking

at Dayton about teaching one day tech classes. And I'm going to throw in some about my,

something about my experiences teaching the classes at these hacker conferences. So that'll

be fun. And last but not least, I thought I just mentioned this, but the Linux and the

hamshack podcast is back on the air as you might say. They've released two, two new episodes. And

if you were a fan of that podcast, you might go to their website, LHS podcast. Info and

pick up again where where it was left off. Yeah, that's it. Back to you, Martin.

Well, sounds like you've been busy, Dan, and enjoying yourself, which is a good thing. And

shame, I'm not coming to Dayton this year. Can't I say an only talk seriously on that one,

I would love to send that, but good one for you, Dan. Okay, Ed, we've been up to since the last time

we spoke. Well, actually, something that you get into quite a lot, Martin, circuit fault

finding. In my case, it's been some of the Chinese amateur radio board. Last time on the show,

I mentioned that I'd been pulling my hair out, trying to sort out and successfully sorted out

in the end, a little pass filter board where the wrong components had been put in in the wrong

number of turns, et cetera, on some of the Toroids. And now I moved on to that to the amplifier board.

So I have an amplifier board that's an RF amplifier, 30 watts HF. And it doesn't want to amplify.

You turn the power off and you get 2.5 watts in and 2.5 watts out. You turn the power on,

you switch it into transmitting, you get zero out. So, you know, that's my puzzle at the

moment, brand new board. And yeah, I'm just trying to sort out what it is. But of course,

you hit this issue now, say, for the cost of the board, my term is actually worth more than the

cost of the board. So, logically, you'd throw this into the bin and just buy another one that

hopefully from the next batch works fine. But like, where's the fun in that? You know, it's,

it's actually good to find the faults on these boards and fix them. I think Martin, you've

said that before, you get as much fun out of fixing a faulty board as when it comes in its work,

or less fun when it's working. And yeah, as always, something on the antenna front, I've actually

put up my 20 meter VP2E. That's not the call sign of somebody in Barbados or whatever,

all the way it actually is. It stands for a vertically polarized two element. And it's a directional

wire antenna. And so, I put the 20 meter version of that up at home now. And I'm testing that to

see how it performs compared to my main antenna, which is a 40 meter sky loop, which also works

on other bands. Interesting. Being vertically polarized, the noise levels are higher. The signals seem

to be out the same, but conditions at radio conditions are a bit a bit weirder the last few days.

So it's a bit too early to say whether it's better or not. The radio weather's been strange,

but the other weather has improved. So I've actually managed to last to get out and do a,

what I would call a real portable activation and field. I even did that with my little G1065,

what QRP radio with its new microphone. I bought a different microphone for it and wired a new

cable into it and it gives it a lot more drive. And part of that, there are 15 contacts in about an

hour on 20 meters side, but one of which was into Australia. So, and just using the dipole about

five, six meters high. So, sure as what you can do when you're out with more the metro noise

on the right time of day, which for me over here is about seven or eight o'clock in the morning.

Oh yeah, and I'm still editing busy editing books as well. So yeah, I've been quite busy Martin.

Back to you. Yes, certainly sounds it. Edmund, what you been up to since the last time we spoke?

Well, if you're listening to this on the morning of release, which is Sunday the 22nd of

March, then if you're in Kent and particularly if you're in the east and half of the county,

the next edition of the Dover Radio rally is happening. And I'm planning, hopefully, if everything

goes to plan being there, doors open at 10 o'clock in the morning and officially it runs through

until they're two o'clock, although I would suggest not leaving it till the very end if you're going

to turn up. And it's in a new venue this year compared to previous years. It's in the village of

East St. I think that's how it's pronounced. So looking forward to that, so I haven't got anything

in particular in mind to buy. I've always find it best not to have a shopping list in mind,

because I'll invariably be disappointed, but I always like to wander around rallies and see what's

on sale. In terms of actually being on the air, I have been trying to have at least one contact

every day on two metres and that's going quite well. I've been keeping a list and I've managed

27 days out of the last 31 and so far haven't had any duplicates either. Most of those contacts have

been simplex rather than via repeaters, but the very noticeable thing is that almost all of the

contacts happened because I called CQ first. There have only been about three or four days where

I've responded to somebody else who called CQ first. So I know we've said this before about

lots of different bands, but it's certainly true in my experience. If the band is very quiet,

then don't wait for somebody else to call CQ first because otherwise you could have loads of

license listeners. All of them saying to themselves, the band is dead, but if all of them

don't call first, then no voices will be heard on the band. I'm still trying to learn CW getting

there slowly but surely, time, my brain and not sometimes, the letters L for Lima and R for

Romeo, I do seem to get confused with each other quite a lot because they are quite similar,

and I've been playing around with my Zygoo X6100 and there has been a new release in the last

couple of days of the unofficial R1CBU firmware. So I've got the latest version on my Zygoo. I don't

think it's radically different to its predecessors, but the team behind that are up to version 0.33 now,

so if you're running an earlier one, you might want to have a play around with the very latest

version of that, and last but not least, coming up in the next few weeks Saturday, the 18th of April

is the next edition of 1-4-5 Live, and because that is the third Saturday in the month,

it also coincides with the support your parks weekend, so on that day, assuming the weather's

alright because I'm very much a fair weather operator, you see, assuming the weather's okay,

I'm going to go somewhere in the south-downs and be active both as a poater and for 1-4-5 Live,

and support the support your parks weekend into the bargain. But beyond that, Martin, I've not really

done very much at all, and certainly not on HF, but I hear that the bands haven't been particularly good

the last few days, so maybe I haven't been missing out too much, Martin, back to you.

Yeah, Roger, Roger, well, they weren't particularly good yesterday, but I'll come on to that in a minute.

Okay, what have I been up to? Well, Collins been over and apart from taking me to soccer matches.

Collins owns an I-D-52 Plus, and because he's in Ireland, he can't use it, but we've been trying

to work ways around it, so I got to told that you could set up pi-star and on a Raspberry Pi

without the hack on it, the MMDV hack on it, and plug your I-D-52 in in terminal mode.

Well, I spent over eight hours on it while he was there, I couldn't get it to go. I also managed

to get him to register for D-Star, so that was some of the problems, and I have had his I-D-52 Plus

working through my hotspot, both as Michael Sine and his co-sign, so some of you might have seen him on

over the weekend in the UK using his proper radio with RF. However, late Tuesday,

we were messing around with a piece of software called Doosie, and that turns, you can turn

your radio, your 52-D, sorry, 52-plus into a terminal mode, and use this piece of software Doosie

written by a Dutch gentleman, and I got that working and Collins appeared on the talk group,

and Phil Danny was in Australia worked him, so that configuration does work, so hopefully

Colin will be online via terminal mode from Ireland. The only thing is he's got to dig out an old,

one of his old Android phones, because the software doesn't run on the Apple phone,

he's got, but it certainly worked with my Android phone, so Collins got to do that.

We did do a bit of operating at the club, I took my Zygo G90 there, and

there's pictures, and I didn't realise Colin was doing this, but there's pictures of me operating

Tuesday on the ISCUE Facebook page. With my Zygo G90 from the car, and my 17-foot mobile

whip, it's one of these pull-up whips, so that works. I have been involved in getting GB3X

speed back on the air with Martin Ruffwell, that was off for a little while, it's now working again.

Did a talk for Penn Iron Hams last week, so I think worked down very well. I've also been given

by Colin Bortman, anyway, one of these do you, Belfang, UV5R minis, the little baby thing that's

written quite small, ideal size for a youngster's hand, and quite interesting radio,

seen it work quite well. The other thing is, we did do the ISCUE podcast, a digital talk group

on the 7th of March, and we have 15 people join us. Countries involved, the US,

I saw call signs in the US, Germany, Italy, Australia, and Thailand,

gentlemen Bangkok called in, I said he's going to try and do it again, so if you want to work

some interesting people with a digital radio, then join us on our talk group. The next ISCUE

podcast digital talk group net is on the 4th, Saturday the 4th of April, which I believe is

the Saturday, probably not the best day, but it's the first Saturday the month, and you need to check

times, they'll be on our website, I should have brought it up, but I'll send a notification out

over the internet. So that's probably most of what I've been up to, and quite a few other things as

well, but the major things have been up to since in the last couple of weeks. So I think we've all

been pretty damn busy, which is a good one. So I was left to meet doing the guys for turning up

tonight, and we'll move on to the next part of the podcast. I'd like to thank Mr. Damro,

I'm a Czech KB6, ain't you? My pleasure, Ben. No problem, Stan, no problems. I'd also like to thank

Karen E. Murray, KD2, GUT. It's always fun, Martin, I'm looking forward to that QSO with Edmund.

Yeah, one be long now. I'd like to thank Mr. Edmund Spicer, M0MG.

Thanks, Martin. Great to be on. Yeah, good to have you as always. And last but not least,

I read Ed's rank there over in Germany, IDD5 LP. Thanks for joining me.

Yeah, thanks, Martin. Always fun. Yeah, okay, guys. I'll say 73s, and we'll move on to the next part

of the podcast. 73, guys. 73.

Keep your amateur hand radio podcast abirt free by donating less than a length of

current. Visit www.icqpodcast.com for slash donate now. For all the news, links and information,

visit www.icqpodcast.com. And that's time to have a look at the news and break from me,

Colin M6BIY. We start off the news and break section here with a item for us to buy Bill Baker.

Bill tells us about exciting news concerning 630 meters at Data Handvention. And there'll be

a forum entitled Introduction to 630 meter operation moderated by Paul Dobosky, Kilo 8 Papa Delta,

who designed the low down antenna and many of the products that are offered for the 630 meter band.

As a result of Paul's article in a recent issue of QST magazine, there's heightened interest

in operating the band. The forum is scheduled for the Saturday afternoon. So if you're planning

to be at Handvention, I hope you will attend the forum. Paul is looking for one or two active

630 meter operators who will be willing to share their experiences on the band with attendees.

So if you let Paul know your plan is to go to the event, he'd appreciate it from there. You can

get Paul's details on QRZ and we'll also say pop his email address for you on icqpodcast.com.

So say if you're attending at Handvention and you've got an interest in the 630 meter operations,

certainly could be an interesting forum to check out.

In the UK Icom UK have equipped the National Radio Centre at Bletchy Park with an IC 905

almost transceiver as part of his ongoing support of the RSGB and Amateur Radio community

and the latest addition to the Radio Shacklet Insurance that visitors and volunteers

to Bletchy Park. So you have access to the latest VHF UHF and SHF technology.

So it's going to be covering sort of 1,4,4,4,3,2,2,4,5,600 MHz and 10 GHz bands for everybody there.

So say praise there to Icom, say for passing over that transceiver for say that important

method of promoting the hobby there at Bletchy Park. And I say I'm sure there's still availability

that if you're an RSGB member I think you can get free access still to Bletchy Park in the National

Radio Centre by contacting the RSGB. So say check that out if you're a member is one of the member

benefits that you can avail of from there. The AWR suggesting that everyone starts planning

fulfilled day. It's only a few months away. It's going to be taking place on the 27th and 28th

of June and it's aiming to bring more than 30,000 amateur radio operators together for the most

popular on air event in North America. This year's theme is amateur radio and national resource

and I say it's combined with AWR at the club. So it's a perfect opportunity for radio clubs to

select stations in public places and demonstrate their radio science skills and service to communities

and the nation at large. The overall objective for all days of contact is many stations possible

on 160, 80, 40, 20, 15 and 10 meter HF bands as well as all bands of our 50 megahertz

so I say lots to get organised for. There is a special page on the AWR website that we will post

on iccbookus.com for you that you can check out for resources to help your field day go with a

bang so hopefully you'll take a part there. News are coming from Columbia in the states that a

judge in a district called Hans reverse decision taken to shutter the voice of America radio service

and has ordered the journalists to return to work to the new service and museum broadcasting

judge Royce C. Alambuff had earlier ruled that the appointment of Kerry Lake who was in charge

of the layoffs and the shutdown was done illegally and effectively avoided all the layoffs.

Voice of America was founded in 1942 to combat Nazi propaganda in WWII and has been broadcasting

in 49 languages to over 360 million people around the world when it was shut down. The judge's

ruling stands and the vehicle's voice of America's goal is to return back to that level of output.

Now it's like this doesn't affect at all the Voice of America museum and amateur radio club in

Westchester in Ohio which is a popular attraction during the Hanvension. Go ahead if you get to

the Hanvension you've got to go and have a look at this museum is a fantastic opportunity to see

say the history of our hobby so I say that is still open and not affected by the judges

ruling in any way. And we finish up with news from WRTC and it's a confirmation that say the

WRTC 2026 will be continuing the approach of the last event in 2023 in Bologna Italy by

not permitting national flags or symbols around say the teams. This is basically to create

a sort of fairer competitive edge where people aren't necessarily contacting a station just

because they want to try and get points to their own country etc sort of thing and to I suppose

you know to create as possible as even a field as possible so as I say it's nothing

serious at all well on those lights as this can be with some of these sort of contesting

events so going on different sports and hobbies it says just really to keep things on a nice

level playing field so say if you're looking out for a certain country etc say it won't be

evident by national symbols far from that point of view from there but that's just to let you know.

Right we're going to head over to our features episode and this episode's feature is a review of

the Belfang UV 5R Mini as always hope you enjoy.

And now for this episode's feature from the iCQ podcast.

Hi there it's Chris and zero TCU. I thought I'll talk today about a new handheld

radio from Belfang the UV 5R Mini. Belfang have now been around for a little while I believe

it or not they actually started in 2011 and I've got a video on YouTube going back to then from

the UV3R radio and they then released the UV5R back in 2012 and this new radio is dual bands

and FM just like the original. It has 999 memories which is actually a lot more than the original

and and they claim it has five watts of RF output in reality I found it was slightly less than that

it's also got a low power mode it's got a two watts of output in the hand it's quite a nice

size it's around about three and three quarter inches high it's about two inches wide and it's

about one and a half inches thick in metric that's nine and a half centimeters high five centimeters

wide and about three and a half centimeters thick so it's a little bit small the original UV5R

but it's a nice size it'll fit in your bag and yeah it's it's quite a nice fit in the hand

certainly it fits in 900 very well it comes with an aerial that's about three and a half inches on

nine centimeters on top of that and it's got a reverse SMF connector you got a choice of colors

or the front fascia comes out of the green orange black or gray comes with a little flush light

or torch on top is a button you can press and it will either go into steady or flushing modes

and the main to suppose the main thing is this is extremely cheap I bought mine from AliExpress

and I think I paid about £21 I've actually seen them since down to about £15 so very very

good value for money I don't think this is actually badly made that the plastic seems to be reasonably

thick it seems to be certainly from feeling it like a reasonably robust radio the front the

front of the radio has a keypad which has got rubberized buttons they're quite small but I can

certainly my hands I can press the buttons of that without too much problem and then above that

you've got a one and a 1.44 inch display which is colour and backlit which is an improvement the

original UV5R had a two-line monochrome display this has got now a proper full core display

a lot I don't suppose you need really to have colour on the radio but it's nice to have

on top you've got a volume knob like I say it's got the the flashlight or torch like an LED

on the side on one side you've actually got two pqt buttons I'll come onto that later

and another function button as well and the other side you've got a connection there for a

Kenwood type 2 pin speaker mic as well so yeah that's the sort of basics of the radio in terms

of using it the basic operation so you've got the usual VFO mode and memory modes there's a Vm

button on the front to change between those to change fringes you either type the fringes in the

front or you can use the up and down arrow buttons to change fringes there's no knob to change

fringes unfortunately it's all done via buttons the the the bands will work on so it will work

on the two meter band but it'll actually go from 136 to 174 megahertz so much wider than

we're allowed to use you've got me a little bit careful you don't stray out of the amateur bands

you certainly don't want to transmit outside of those frequencies on the UHF or 77's bands

this goes from 454 to 470 megahertz it will also receive on air bands it will

transmit on air bands which is a good a good thing in my opinion and it will also receive

on FM broadcast bands as well so you can listen to FM broadcast have to say

for the air bands the AM receiver is not very good in my opinion it's I wouldn't bother with it

if you're going to buy a radio for listen to air bands this isn't the radio to buy it's got

some nice convenience features so you can do a frequency scan so if you've got a radio on nearby

you'll want to figure out what's fringes so it's on you can scan for that and it will pick it up

it's not immediate it takes a few seconds for it to run but it will pick up the fringes

so you have a very nearby transmitter and it will also do a turn scan so if you want to find out

what CDs is it's easy it's until it's been used then it will also find that as well and it will

do that on both of the native and UHF fringes range that I mentioned there it supports DTMF

turns so if you're using that for something like echo link you can use that on us as well

it has a voice option I always turn it off but if you visually impaired that might be quite a

useful feature it also has vox so if you're seeing a headset or something you can actually

do that without press the PTT you it'll just work off your voice you can set different levels

I believe for for that my impressions it's a nice radio I've used it a few times now I've used it

through repels over it in the Norfolk area a few weeks ago and I put it on test I work to

few people through a couple of different repeaters in the area got some nice reports so the audio is

good the range the people I've heard other folks given reviews of this saying it's not got a

particular aerial it's only quite short but it seems to work care for me you might want to think

about changing often stock aerials that come with radio's aren't aren't brilliant but I've

certainly found it worked for me but I guess it depends on the situation and the range that you are

to a repeater or to another statistician something else that this radio comes with it's a bit different

is you can program it using Bluetooth so the there's an app you can download and there's a

version both are Android and for Apple iOS the version that I've got Android phone so I downloaded

that from the Google Play Store so it's not some dodgy down download it from somewhere else

scenario and I have to say that works pretty well you can download an upload configuration to the

radio from your phone and that can actually sometimes be a bit easier than on the radio itself

well I have to say though this has got a very nice menu system if I go back and think about

the original UV5R the menu system on that was wasn't very good trying to find the right setting

and trying to program a repeater in was very difficult I found unless it's actually really easy

and so you can actually program it from the front panel or by your phone or of course you can plug

in a programming cable and use them in like chip to do it and chip to support the UV5R mini I

also quite like the fact you can charge it via USB this does not come with a charger it comes

with a charging cable or the USB cable but it is USB-C and that plugs straight into the battery

and the battery I should also mention is 16 100 milliamp hours so 1.6 amp hours which is

pretty decent but yes it comes with a USB-C charging port it can't use that for anything else

just for charging the radio you can't program it using that but yeah I like that because it means

I don't have to have a yet another charge you just for this radio I've got lots of other radios

that have all got specific charge and then you leave the charger or you just got a big box or a big

drawer somewhere full of chargers and standardise it on USB-C I think is a great idea and it seems

to be coming more popular especially on some of these Chinese radios so that's something I do like

one of the areas that's confused me slightly and maybe people can comment on this is the fact it's

got two PTT buttons so on the radio you've got an A and a B display for different frequencies now

it's not a dual receiver radio you can't listen to two fringes at once it can do dual watch so it

can check on a regular basis the other fringes you imagine listening on fringes e air it will go and

check on fringes e B and it will change to that fringes if it breaks well so if you can sort of

do that but it's not a true dual receiver radio but what the PTT buttons do is an A and a B

let's transmit on on either of those frequencies depending on which button you press now I'm not

entirely sure why you want to do that I'd be slightly concerned about pressing the wrong PTT

and transmitting on the wrong frequency so that's one to watch out for maybe I'm missing the

point maybe there's some really good reason to have that and maybe that's something that people

can tell me where I'm got that wrong but I'm not really sure what the point of that is all in all

I quite like this radio it's pretty well built it's extremely cheap it's nice and easy to use

so it's got a good mini system and certainly when I've used it it's worked very well and I was

sort of thinking about other radios that we've recently had that are similar and trying to do

the comparison so the quantishing UVK5 is another radio that's quite similar in terms of its

spec its dual bands so I thought I'd do a quick comparison because if you were thinking about which

ones are vying this might be useful so the the quantishing radio is about slightly lower power

it's approximately 3.3 watts on VHF on on on on on high power and 2.2 watts on the UHF is

slightly lower slightly lower power similar in terms of the frequencies operates on it does air

band it does the same range around the amateur bands and slightly outside it also does the

broadcast bands as well so similar also the quantishing has got an equally bad in receiver so

again dot by one for that the quantishing comes with a monochrome display which is also back to

it whereas the bound thing comes with a cool display the the quantishing you can't program via

bluter don't believe it has to be done via a programming cable if you want to program it from a

computer the build got similar battery size the quantishing can also be charged via USB

but it also comes with a drop in charge which you don't get if you buy the bound thing you

v5 are mini then a number of channels on the the quantishing radio is 200 whereas the bound thing

is now 199 the build quality certainly from how it feels to me the bound thing I think wins on that

one I think it feels like it's a little bit more robust the quantishing feels a little bit less

to me just feels a little bit less strong I suppose even if you dropped it you might break it

the less likely to break I think the bound thing I think the one difference between the

biggest difference I think between the quantishing and the bound thing is the quantishing you can

download all the software to it people have written firmware to I guess to give it other features

so if you're a bit of a tinkerer and you like to update the firmware or change the firmware

and be able to do all the things with it or you want to write your own then the quantishing is

quite hackable it can be it can be updated and it's the similar sort of price to the bound thing

the bound thing I think if you're not bothered about tinkering and updating it with different

software then actually they think the bound thing is probably a better a better match it's got the

wireless programy it's got the call display I personally not bothered about a drop in charger

because you've got the USB to charge it but that might be something that's important to you

all in all then I think this is a nice radio the EV 5R Mini's is a perfectly good radio it's

a budget radio it's not got the features you're going to get on a a certain radio that costs hundreds

of pounds from the likes of Kenwood or Icom or Jesu but for the price it's extremely good value

and I would certainly recommend it if it's something that you want if you want a handheld

haven't already got one and you want something that or maybe it's a back at radio to

chuck a new bag so you've got the option to use it if you're innocent about when you want to

then I think this is the great choice so that's it for me hope for that was a of interest

the iCQ Amateur hand radio podcast serving the Amateur hand radio community

Fortnite license 2008

well many thanks there to our friend Chris Harrod make zero tango Charlie hotel

but you could call something like Chris for your feature on the bell fang

UV 5R Mini and as I say dad so good and we got to listen to his feature ahead of time that

we were on out and brought ourselves the exact same radio as well didn't we?

yeah you brought it behind over from Ireland because Ali expressed for some reason got my

details all screwed up but okay now sorted nice little radio doesn't cost a fortune

I would suggest it's an ideal radio for a youngster because it's smaller so close with big hands

yeah it's not it's not a problem I mean I've used it quite okay but it's a nice little radio

works well from what I've seen and it's got some nice functions on it that through a low price

radio is not bad thousand memories is one thing going I don't think I'll be able to fill it up

just yet I don't even think I've got a thousand memories in my own head I'll say there you go

but now as you say it's nice it's quite well built isn't it for the the value of the radio

it's certainly a radio that I see to be a radio that I'd like to travel with a lot

you know could throw it in a bag quite quickly won't have to worry about too much

and if I lost it would not set me as much as if I lost some other radios so no I think it's

it's a great great little purchase to be nice you and I know bell fang we've always spoken a lot

about some of the radios filling that gap and this one sort of again hits another sweet spot

for them so no fair play time for doing that and really appreciate Chris's review obviously

guys you get them from your usual places you get Chinese radios from you know a bit be a local

dealer or waiting over a little while for the incentive to deliver it to you I think as took

roughly about two weeks to get to Ireland if I remember rightly might have taken a little bit

quicker if we'd sent you a London address apart from they thought you were in Albania that time

but other than that as I say there was a very very easy purchase so yeah check out guys hope you

enjoyed that that feature for now so as I say we've been doing that for now I got on the air this

week which was a great news so we were out on the south downs on my gate hill and I say we were

doing some work on 20 meters really enjoyed that data thank you very much for helping facilitate

that that contacts for me I think we worked at Italy remaining in Bulgaria if I remember off the top

of your head so that was a great opportunity to be out and about so thanks for sort of that for us

and kudos to you you're a man who can change an area really fast on top of your car I give you

I give you credit for that well it wasn't only on top of me car was it I mean I mastered me I

did put my 17 foot mobile telescopic whip up and on the ground and that worked well as well

shame the bands weren't that great and though most of the people were on that afternoon

just weren't listening they it was almost like they were broadcasting they must have been

heroes but they obviously there are if going to end up so high that unless you were sort of

s9 plus 20 or 40 dB they didn't hear they lost but we had fun anyway exactly exactly in a nice

spot as well for coffee so we have coffee and radio for an afternoon it was a great spot

well talking about radio and coffee of course we need to let you know the next

iCQ podcast digital talk group net will be on the 4th of April more information at icqpodcast.com

so check out there for the times that we're running that event on the 4th of April

as always check out our website icqpodcast.com for latest amateur and radio news and for

always feel free to contact us via that website or our twitter handles i linked in handles

from there we really would appreciate hearing everything you got about the show etc

we'd also like to of course thank our monthly inscription donors for helping us out for our running

costs along the way we haven't had any one off donation any new donors recently so please

guys if you've seen some value in the show please do check out icqpodcast.com for says donate

was to say everything sent our way as they helps us out we're keeping your show advert free

and producing the shows that you've been asking for and listening survey going forward so please

guys do consider us right well that just wraps out episode 479 of the icqpodcast.com

of course our most important job probably of the week now is to make a cup of tea for Mrs B

and hopefully there's a treat or two left over and I didn't eat more when I was over last weekend

yeah there's still a few those treats left that she bought for you actually you didn't eat more

so I'll let her eat some of the nice cup of tea for your mum in a minute and she'll be happy

one last thing the talk group is available to everybody not just when we're on it's available

for you to talk to other icq listeners I will try and get a bit more but you don't only have

to talk to me guys there are other people on there to talk to as well yeah including including me now

yeah including you now and the other thing is is you know it's like everything if you don't

put a call through then people won't come to the group so you're all right just flipping it

and listening but if people don't know you're there you may not hear anybody so put a call for

every now and again and people will come and join us exactly well guys we're going to say 73's

and hope to catch you again in the fortnight's time 73's yeah 73