ICOM 7300
I recently upgraded my Amateur radio license from Technical class to General class. To celebrate, I bought myself an ICOM 7300. The 7300 can connect to a computer via a USB cable. Connecting the computer to the radio is called Rig Control.
I didn’t really have any issues with ICOM 7300 Rig Control on Windows or Mac however I found that my radio wasn’t having any part of being controlled by my Linux Laptop.
Confusion ensued.
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In August 2017 I took and passed the Ham Radio License test for Technician Class. As soon as I completed that I decided I’d take a study break before pursuing the General Class license. That study break lasted about 7 years.
I recently purchased the General Class License Manual, 10th Edition. As I began to study I started hitting harder and harder material and just paused. To my surprise the local Amateur Radio Club offered a free 8 week General class (2 hours a week) and administered the exam at the end of the course. The book can cost about $25 to $35 depending on where you get it from and the exam costs $15.
The book has the actual test bank with answers in the back. Additionally, the ARRL website has a practice exam that uses the actual questions found on the final exam.
ARRL Practice Tests
A combination of attending class and taking the practice exams a few times a day allowed me to pretty easily obtain my General Class License. I highly recommend having at least one person in your circle getting and maintaining a ham radio license. After the last hurricane in Western NC and other states we proved that ham radio is still viable and works when nothing else does.
John – KN4FMV
XHDATA E-100
One of my favorite radio manufacturers just entered the amateur radio game. Introducing the XHDATA E-100. ($24.98 with a 15% off promotion currently). I was provided a pre-release radio about a month earlier to review and to provide feedback to XHDATA.
The official release date is 22 October 2024.
XHDATA has been making GREAT shortwave radios for ages and I think I own most of them. I’ve never had an issue and I’ve even reviewed a couple of them here on my blog.
So, after testing the radio for a month, I will tell you what I think.
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Astron SS-25M Power Supply
I’m an Amateur Radio operator and have all manner of short wave radios. Most of these radios require an external power supply to function. Generally, the voltage requirement is around 13.8 volts DC. Additionally, some of these power supplies can be pretty pricey. This quick entry will be about a score I made recently on Facebook Marketplace. I picked up an Astron SS-25M Power Supply for almost nothing.
Did I get a deal, or did I get taken to the cleaners? Let’s find out.
When I saw the ad I didn’t hesitate. I knew even if it were not functional that I could fix it. So I took a chance. When I received it, I quickly powered it up and noticed the output power was rock solid at 13.8 volts. Sweet.
The On/Off Switch LED was flickering and that could be anything from the lamp in the switch itself to a current problem. But the output power was solid so I figured it was the lamp.
Then I tried to install it and that’s why I realized I was able to score it for so cheap.
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Digital Mobile Radio, aka DMR Radios are expensive. If you are a Ham radio operator you can get a hand held radio that is decent for less than $50. Not so much in the world of digital hand held radios. The radio that seems to be ordained for the top slot costs around $329. John’s Tech Blog has ordained that the best DMR radio for 2024 is the Retevis RT3S which costs about $86 for a non-GPS version, and about $90 for the GPS version.
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TIDRadio TD-H3
Seems like there is no shortage of new Amateur Band and GMRS radios out there for sale. Today we’ll take a look at the TIDRadio TD-H3. TIDRadio has been around since 2013, however, this is the first one of their radios I have owned. They are available on Amazon for about $32. When you see what this radio can do you will recognize that $32 is a STEAL.
This radio follows a trend that I, and many others have noticed. The consumer wants a radio that can do it all despite any FCC rules or regulations stating otherwise. The buying public seems to want radios that can be unlocked to do much more than they are certified to do.
And that is pretty much what we have here with the TIDRadio TD-H3. It should be noted that if you buy the Amateur TD-H3 (HAM) it doesn’t break any rules. When you buy the TD-H3 (GMRS) version it is also set up for GMRS rules and regs.
It is when the owner unlocks the radio is where the fun begins. Again, it seems like this is what radio customers want these days.
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SharkRF Openspot 4 Pro
I bought a SharkRF Openspot 1 in around 2018. So I have been a long time user of SharkRF gear. I absolutely, positively did NOT need another DMR hotspot but I sprung for the SharkRF Openspot 4 Pro anyway.
Boy I sure am I glad that I did.
I am no hotspot rookie and currently have 4 Raspberry Pi with various MMDVM boards in rotation here at Casa John’s Tech Blog. I run Pi-Star and WPSD OS’s. And have toyed with various other OS’s over the years.
There are strengths and weaknesses in all these DMR hotspots. One weakness in the Pi-Star world is that it needs to be shut down elegantly. When you have a hotspot plugged in a USB port in your truck which uses your cell phone for internet it is kind of hard (and very inconvenient) to find the IP address, open a web page on your phone and shut it down. Sooner rather than later you are going to corrupt the SD card on the Raspberry Pi if you just kill the power. In fact I have done this a few times.
The SharkRF Openspot 4 Pro caught my eye because it is battery powered.
And that is all I really wanted for my mobile hotspot. Something I wouldn’t kill from uncommanded shut downs.
What I got was so much more than I expected. Read on.
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DMR Hotspot
So you have decided to take the leap into Digital Mobile Radio (DMR). DMR uses the internet as the backbone for carrying communications. Adding an MMDVM board to a Raspberry Pi is one common way to create a hotspot.
To get to that backbone you need to enter the internet either through a DMR Repeater or through a DMR Hotspot.
A hotspot is just a gateway to the internet and your radio talks to the hotspot and then your transmission is carried through the net to someone else’s repeater or hotspot.
I’d be remiss in not pointing out that so far no radio companies have really jumped in this market. You would think that the big dog radio manufacturers that sell DMR radios would also produce DMR Hotspots, but they really don’t.
It is mostly amateur operators who design and produce MMDVM boards and sell them to the public. You then roll your own. There are a couple of exceptions here as Bridgecom Systems sells pre-configured DMR Hotspots. Also, a company called Shark RF sells a hotspot called OpenSpot. Both are kind of pricey.
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The FCC started getting serious about the importation of unlocked ham radios sometime around 2019 or so. An unlocked radio is one that transmits on frequencies not intended for the type of radio that it is. For example, a GMRS radio should not be able to transmit on amateur radio frequencies and vice versa. Some folks also refer to this as jailbreaking although that term is more synonymous with cellular phones or game consoles.
The rules regarding the importation and sale of such radios in the US is pretty clear, especially regarding any Family Radio Services such as FRS, GMRS, and MURS.
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This is kind of a trick question. Technically, there are radios capable of doing this. And you can buy these radios today. The inherent problem though is that these radios violate the United States Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Title 47 and FCC Rules and Regulations for Amateur Radio and General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS) radios to include Family Radio Service (FRS) and Multi Use Radio Service (MURS).
Baofeng UV-5R Pre-2021
Actually, a few years ago there were radios being imported into the United States that were capable of VHF/UHF, FRS, GMRS, and MURS.
If you bought the venerable Baofeng UV-5R prior to 2021 you had all these capabilities. In 2021 the FCC started disallowing the importation of radios that didn’t meet newly written regulations.
Subsequently, I bought several of these things when I first got my FCC License and still have them all. The UV-5R’s prior to 2021 were the magic radios that did it all.
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