Tag: uhf

  • VHF/UHF Weak Signal SSB: Beyond the Local Repeater

    Part of our Getting On The Air guide. Most hams experience VHF and UHF exclusively through FM repeaters, and that is a perfectly good way to use those bands, but there is an entirely different style of operating happening on the same bands that most repeater users never encounter. Why Weak Signal SSB Exists FM…

  • Yaesu FT-857D vs FT-891, G90, FTX-1 Field, FTX-1 Optima, IC-7300 Mark II, and FT-817: Where Each One Actually Wins

    Part of our The Yaesu FT-857D: The Complete Guide. I get asked constantly how the FT-857D stacks up against the rest of the radios in my shack and go-bags, so here’s the honest rundown of where each one wins and where it doesn’t. Quick disclosure up front: I own and regularly use the FT-891, the…

  • Yaesu FT-857D Review: A Great All-Bander Held Back by Its Own Menu

    Part of our The Yaesu FT-857D: The Complete Guide. Still a Legit All-Bander I picked up the FT-857D for a great price and ran it in both the shack and the field kit, though it never rode in the Jeep. The reputation holds up. It’s a full HF/VHF/UHF all-mode radio, SSB, FM, and the data…

  • The Yaesu FT-857D: The Complete Guide

    The FT-857D is the radio I point people to when they want one box that covers HF, VHF, and UHF without carrying a second radio. It’s not the newest or the friendliest to program, but it earns its keep. This page rounds up everything I’ve written about it. Start Here Comparisons & Buying Guidance MARS…

  • I Bought a Yaesu FT-857D for a Great Price. Here’s Why I Sold It

    I picked up a used FT-857D for a great price, ran it for a while, and decided it wasn’t for me. Here’s what’s genuinely good about it and why I sold it and went back to the FTX-1.

  • The Frequencies Every Ham Radio Should Have Programmed for SHTF

    The exact frequencies I keep programmed into every radio I own, from NOAA weather to GMRS, MURS, CB, and ham simplex calling channels, so I’m never scrambling to find them when it matters.

  • What Is a MARS/CAP Mod? How It Works and the Legal Reality

    What a MARS/CAP mod actually does, who’s legally allowed to use it, and how to unlock extended transmit range on the Icom IC-2730A, AnyTone AT-D878UV II Plus, and AT-D578UV III Plus.

  • 1950s-70s: 70cm Opens and Repeaters Change Local Ham Radio

    Part of our The Evolution of Amateur Radio timeline series. Two meters got amateurs into VHF in 1946, but the real transformation of local ham radio took another three decades to arrive, once hams pushed into UHF and figured out what to do with repeaters. This period covers a lot of ground, from new band…

  • When the Repeater Goes Silent: Your Backup Plan for Grid-Down Comms

    Part of our Emergency Communications and Preparedness guide. Repeaters are one of the best parts of this hobby. Stick a repeater on a tower or a mountain and suddenly two handhelds that couldn’t hear each other across town can talk clearly across a whole metro area. Under normal conditions, this is exactly what GMRS and…

  • Ground Plane Verticals for 2m and 70cm: A Simple Build

    A quarter-wave ground plane vertical is the simplest antenna you can build for VHF and UHF, just one radiating element and a set of radials off a connector. Here is how to put one together.

  • The AnyTone AT-D578UV III Plus: Why I Own Three of Them

    One radio in the Jeep, one in the manpack, one in the shack. Here’s why the AT-D578UV III Plus earned three spots in my setup instead of one.

  • Tactical Team Comms vs. SHTF Comms: Why You Can’t Copy-Paste the Playbook

    Why the PACE-driven, locked-down comms plan of a tactical team doesn’t hold up in a grid-down scenario, and what your radio setup actually needs instead.

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