What purpose does the extended tx serve

[VK2FRO]

On most ham radios? Apart from pirates putting them on 11m, to get the additional watts, what other use is unlocking a radio to freeband TX? Why do manufacturers include it, if all it does is allow chook dawg and his mates to put a ham radio online at 100W for 11m?

As I have a icom 208h which I need to de chook band, I've called the act of doing the mod "chooking" or "Chook banding" the radio.

It doesnt really seem to offer any advantage, except allowing you to TX where you shouldn't.

[VK5KAA]

hi
easy done.
look at this URL.
http://www.hampedia.net/icom/ic-208h-ex ... tx-mod.php
Gordon VK5KAA

[VK3DXE]

Probably has a lot to do with the American market.

Lifted from a US forum:

"MARS is the Military Affiliate Radio Service. They use HF and VHF frequencies near ham band to forward personal messages to/from military personnel. Very useful during major mobilization like we are seeing now.

CAP is Civil Air Patrol. Part youth group and part domestic search and rescue auxiliary for the Air Force. They also use frequencies near ham band, and ham volunteers, to coordinate search activities and relay messsages.

The mods you referred to are only authorized for those formally affiliated with one or the other organization, and the frequencies are for official use only.

If you have time to volunteer, these organizations could probably use the help. Hams have a long history of volunteering to help these folks with their communications needs."


.... and to sell a few extra units to freebanders, CBers, dodgy commercial users, etc.

[VK2CSW]

Not every country or "entity" has the same spread of frequencies or bands allowed.

If you live in or move to one of the countries with unusual band plans then it might come in handy.

[VK5ZD]

Hi

Apart from pirates putting them on 11m, to get the additional watts, what other use is unlocking a radio to freeband TX?

To use it as a tunable IF with a transverter. Of course, this does not need 100W output.

73
Iain

[VK2XSO]

But if I use the radio in band, it does.

Just look at using a 23cm transverter with a 20MHz split for repeaters.
One can use two crystals for 1273/1293MHz or use a 2m radio with 140-170MHz.

Just because a person owns a gun legally does not mean he is a potential bank robber or murderer.
Nor does owning a car with more horsepower and speed than you otherwise need make you a criminal.
A radio with extended transmit abilities has it's uses, not all of them illegal.
It's very difficult to prove intent and combined with the cost of prosecuting somebody for trivial thought crimes in the federal court system; you might go to hell, but it is unlikely you'll go to jail

Quite simply like gun owners, most hams have the evil ability and either never use it or bend the rules for minor transgressions.
I know of people who own one sort of gun or licence and they use that gun for hunting, which under their licence conditions isn't legal.

So it should come as no surprise if somebody uses their 70cm radio on UHF CB. In the case of the IC208, it's simple enough to program the channels into the radio and set them as 5W.
So while this is illegal, like a gun.. hunting wabbits with a glock on private property is not going to have the secret police hiding behind every tree in the country.

People do use one radio for multiple tasks and they otherwise operate within the conditions of those other services but for the equipment used.

[VK2FRO]

Hunting wabbits with a glock could actually be a tonne of fun!

Thanks for the replies guys. BTW trash I tried flipping the polarizing screen on my 208h, but couldn't seem to peel it off the LCD. Due to the delicate nature of the screen, I was being quite careful with it, and as such just put it back together. Green seems to work best for me on this LCD.

[VK2XSO]

Ah bugger. but at least you gave it a go.
If I get the chance, I will have a fool around with it too.

Hunting bunnies with anything is fun, damn shame I don't own a handgun.
The .22LR does the job just fine.

[VK3DXE]

Shotgun at close range is even more fun. You get a big hole with a little bit of wabbit around the outside

[VK2FRO]

If you find an area with a lot of bunnies, a 4x4 mounted minigun would be even more fun. See how many you can hit before they all scamper away

I was in Canada 2 years ago and took my icom 7000 with me. I have to say theres a LOT of hams in Canada compared to Australia. My hosts were amazed with ham radio and are going to have a shot at getting their license (no gun pun intended).

On the subject of handguns, I got to shoot off quite a few different specimens, from a S&W 45 M&P ACP (one of my hosts was a brinks armoured truck guard), a beretta 9mm, a revolver of some kind and a desert eagle. Paper targets were the order of the day, and although my targetting firmware could use an upgrade, making loud banging noises with a hand held pop pop was heaps of fun

Needless to say it was the first time I'd ever held a firearm when I took aim with the 45. When that first round went downrange, I had to keep a firm control of the weapon, keeping the muzzle pointed downrange and the contents of my bladder from escaping; as I turned to my friends and said "JESUS scared the crap outta me!". Its not the pop that frightens you, but rather the "wheres the sweet spot on the trigger"; so your gently squeezing and suddenly *BANG* and you just about wet yourself

[VK2XSO]

If you find an area with a lot of bunnies, a 4x4 mounted minigun would be even more fun. See how many you can hit before they all scamper away

This diverged subject is quiet funny because Dave vk2djs and I have been having a similar sort of debate.
Working out around Bourke this week I have seen a lot of road(not)kill. And the .22 would might solve some problems.
Dave suggested I use my 12g, but it doesn't really solve the problem any quicker or better.

I did however just suggest to him that a quad turret 50 call mounted on the car will fix a lot of things quicker than a .22 under the seat.

It is surprising how many hams are also gun owners.
For years I've wondered about amalgamating my two forms of fox hunting

[VK2MUS]

Shotgun at close range is even more fun. You get a big hole with a little bit of wabbit around the outside

quarter stick of jelly down the warren works well also.

[VK2FRO]

So does 100g of C-4

[VK2FRO]

Well no sooner had we mentioned the RI's, then I got inspected. Not needing to transmit out of band, the warning was "posession of gear that can TX on LMR frequencies". I showed willingness to comply by drilling a hole in the walkie talkie, and tried to un mod the 208h. I cannot, but will send it to a radio repair place to have it unmodded.

Seriously though, it really is a silly rule - the posession one - especially on a 2m/70cm set - why on earth would I be silly enough to tx on police frequencies, or WANT to talk on uhf CB?

oh and just to put everyone straight, the radio was purchased in this condition, I never did the mod myself (bloody hell my eyesights not good enough to read 1/4 watt resistors, let along remove smd ones!)

Now that I am in the spotlight I'll be making doubly sure my station complies with the LCD and REGs

[VK2MUS]

ah well it could have been the police to see if I had a half stick of jelly and to see if you had 100g of C4
john

[VK3BA]

Now that I am in the spotlight I'll be making doubly sure my station complies with the LCD and REGs

Yep, and one more tip, don't blab about it on forums like this! Same goes for those that try to sell dodgy stuff at hamfests... some people don't learn... come in spinner! It is well known that various forums and hamfests are regularly patrolled and rightly so. To quote Fish Mullet (ex VKC Police Association Sec), the straight up and down of it is, keep your gear above board and you'll be fine. Dance with the devil and you'll rightly go down one day...

Mark's probably pissing himself reading stuff like this...

Cheers,

[VK6OX]

Totally off topic:

Ferrets, Ferrets, FERRETS I TELL YOU!

[VK4WDM]

[quoteI need 141 MHz transmit so I can produce 2301 MHz for the EME segment. Also need 32 MHz for 2404 from another transverter.
][/quote]

So if mere possession of equipment that is capable of transmitting outside the ham bands and not usage of same is the crime
where does that leave those that do need something that transmits outside the ham bands for microwave IF's as in the example above? I don't ever remember that being an issue in the past!

Or me using an ex military transmitter that can transmit from 4-8MHZ on 40m during the RD contest.

This has been churned over and over in other threads yet we still don't seem to have clarity on the issue.

73

Wayne VK4WDM

(and I suggest we cut any references to guns, explosives etc out of radio related discussion. There are people that don't consider that funny at all and it might trigger (no pun intended) a visit from somebody a lot more scary than the RI?).

[VK1VMA]

Well no sooner had we mentioned the RI's, then I got inspected. Not needing to transmit out of band, the warning was "posession of gear that can TX on LMR frequencies". I showed willingness to comply by drilling a hole in the walkie talkie, and tried to un mod the 208h. I cannot, but will send it to a radio repair place to have it unmodded.

Seriously though, it really is a silly rule - the posession one - especially on a 2m/70cm set - why on earth would I be silly enough to tx on police frequencies, or WANT to talk on uhf CB?

oh and just to put everyone straight, the radio was purchased in this condition, I never did the mod myself (bloody hell my eyesights not good enough to read 1/4 watt resistors, let along remove smd ones!)

Now that I am in the spotlight I'll be making doubly sure my station complies with the LCD and REGs

I think I recall reading in AR sometime within the last few months an article suggesting that ACMA have had form lately for suggesting such things during inspections of other stations.

That's an absurd rule (probably the result of one of many, many poorly written regs that they've come out with over the years), and I'd quite frankly love to see how it plays out in court... as long as it's not me who takes the matter there!

According to ACMA, does this mean homebuilt gear and repurposed LMR equipment is out, too?

Pretty much any home built transmitter can transmit out of band, for instance; it's the responsibility of the appropriately qualified amateur operator to ensure it doesn't do so. And for that matter, most commercial off the shelf, unmodifed amateur HF transceivers sold at the moment can also transmit on bands that are not allocated to the amateur service in Australia, but you don't see ACMA laying the smackdown on Kenwood, Icom, Yaesu et al for selling such contraband.

Any LMR equipment either reprogrammed or modified for use on the amateur bands can also transmit on the LMR bands, but again, this is why we sit practical, theory and regs exams, to satisfy the Minister or whoever that we have the required technical knowledge to be able to play by the rules and not do things like this.

[VK3AIF]

This whole out of band thing seems to me to be an absurd rule if the piece of equipment is modified solely to be used as an IF for a legitimate amateur allocation. Everyone knows that a commercial transmitter be it a transceiver or otherwise has IFs that are not in allocated band segments and what is the ruling on a home brew IF on the same frequency? And if that is allowed, why is a commercial generator not?

Unfortunately it appears that some overzealous ill informed rule maker has with the stroke of a pen and no understanding of the technicalities involved caused this situation and until tested we have to try and work around it as best we can. I would have thought the ACMA would have had much bigger fish to fry in any case rather than chasing otherwise law abiding citizens. If one was to used a radio, modified or not, out of band that is a whole different matter. just because everyone has a knife in the kitchen drawer, that does not make them an armed robber or a murderer does it?