Ham Radio: A new toy arrives

Wouxun KG-UV8D Handheld Transceiver

Receiver:

2 meter band from 136Mhz to 174Mhz

70cm band from 400Mhz to 480Mhz

70 cm operation can be widened to 400Mhz to 500Mhz with a software operation.

Monitor two frequencies at the same time, hearing either or both. Other inexpensive handhelds are "dual watch" meaning that they switch back and forth in the background and the first channel that meets the squelch requirements is the one you hear.

999 programmable channels. There probably isn’t a whole lot of need for this many, but it easier to separate channels into groups and keep things organized. I have different types of things in different areas separated by unused channels to provide for some growth. The first programmed channel in each area is set to receive only at an unused frequency and scanning is disabled for this channel. I use this "wasted" channel as an alpha-numeric label for the group of channels.  In my case, channel 800 is labeled "LamarScn" to denote these are the emergency channels I like to scan while at home.

Scanning of any contiguous channel numbers in 10 groups of any size are easily programmed from the keypad. Scanning all the channels is also available and individual channels can be set to not be scanned even if they fall into the range of channels of the current channel group. Certain channels (like NOAA weather) should not be included in scans because the carrier is constant and will halt the scan on every pass.

The top and bottom VFO’s can be configured to scan different groups, but only one will scan at a time since pressing a button to switch the main VFO from one to another stops the scan.

This receiver covers 2meter and 70cm HAM, NOAA Weather, Commercial, FRS, GMRS, Police, Fire, EMS, Marine Band and Municipal Frequencies

FM broadcast radio (automatically mutes during traffic on either of the receiver’s main frequencies and during transmit)

Transmitter:

2 meter from 136Mhz to 174Mhz (144.1Mhz to 148.0Mhz are legal for HAM radio operators)

70 cm from 400Mhz to 480Mhz (420Mhz to 450Mhz are legal for HAM radio operators)

70 cm operation can be widened to 400Mhz to 500Mhz with a software operation.

With the programming software, images can be maintained on your computer to easily “activate” the forbidden transmit frequencies in the event of a SHTF scenario.

Transmitting with this radio on GMRS, FRS, MURS, Police, Fire, EMS, Marine Band and Municipal Frequencies is forbidden even if you are licensed for that operation. For instance, if you have a GMRS license, you must have a GMRS “FCC Part 95 Type Certified” radio or face fines and revocation of licensing and forfeiture of the radio equipment.

Cross-band repeater:

Repeater modes are easy to change from the keypad. 2-way or 1-way repeater modes are available and can be selected even while in repeater mode.

Frequencies or channels can be changed while in repeater mode.

Speaker can be turned off or on when in repeater mode

Push-to-talk button can be active while in repeater mode

Allows operation of other hand-held units in low areas not able to reach a local repeater

Allows operation of other hand-held units using low power

In 2-way repeater mode, other hand-held units can use stubby antennas

Clandestine Operation:(for informational purposes only) Obfuscation of location by setting up the repeater as a sacrificial goat in a location you can see if someone discovers the “source” of banned transmissions In a SHTF situation, MURS, GMRS and FRS radios can be cross-linked to HAM radio frequencies If you are using this repeater to conceal your true location, you want to operate it in 1-way repeater mode because transmissions from the same location on a different frequency would be a dead giveaway to a tracker. Obfuscation of location by setting up the repeater as a sacrificial goat in a location you can see or monitor electronically so that you are alerted when someone tracks down the source of the banned transmissions. In this situation, a simple alarm circuit could close the push to talk switch on the external microphone connection and transmit an alarm tone. The location chosen should be one that someone observing from a distance will believe there might be a station operator present. Putting it at the top of a telephone pole for instance would just advertise to the people trying to find you that you are using a repeater. This would lead to them using a scanner on all related bands to find transmission times that duplicate the transmitter they have located. If they are able to do this from far enough away, you may not see them until they knock on your door. To really confuse them, you could set up multiple repeaters like this, all with the same transmit frequency, but each having a different receive frequency. This way you could switch back and forth between them to throw off directional receivers.

Other features:

I don’t know why, but they always include an LED flashlight function on these little radios.

The big display shows receive and transmit power on both channels. (Red is transmit and green is receive) These same colors are used on the LED’s on top of the radio to indicate transmit and carrier detect.

Switching the display between channel names and frequencies is done with just a button press.

Built-in Stopwatch

DTMF encoding and decoding. I’m not sure exactly how to use this, but you can set squelch on different channels to respond to DTMF number strings. This should be similar to caller-id.

PL tone decode is simple with a button press. This can be helpful when debugging the connections of other radios to a repeater.

Channel labels are up to 8 characters in length.