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Big Bend at Thanksgiving Week, 2019

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Hope this ac works fine on the trip to BB
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Texasrider58 said:
My cargo trailer. Been wanting to get one for the trailer and use in my shop. Hope it works decently.
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I have a window unit in my shop and it works well. I have no experience with that brand or type. Jeff uses something similar in his trailer and it seems to work well. His trailer is 14' (maybe 12').
 
Going back to bringing two way radios, I can't find my old Icom W32A. So, I found a used Yaesu FT-60R locally. Programmed the radio in my truck already with Big Bend Amateur Radio Club repeaters. They'll cover most of the trip from Ft Stockton to Terlingua. Maybe that W32A will appear again. Pretty sure I played around with it a couple of years ago so it has to be in the house or workshop. The FT-60R has a great reputation for ruggedness, perfect for the DR tank bag.

This'll be my 4th trip to BB in 6 years, can't believe I didn't think of bringing the portable before. I've had mobiles in my trucks but they're not useful much when on your bike. Guess I could have my wife monitor but she's not licensed so unless it's an emergency can't talk.

At Round the Bend this year I was able to text with her from Rio Grande Village. Weak signal but just enough from the front of the store. We have Verizon.
 
I take my Ham test in a couple of weeks. I also programmed several of the Big Bend area repeaters into my little Baofeng.

I'm happy to finally get licensed (assuming I pass) but it's a bit disheartening. Since I've been actively listening and scanning around here (San Antonio/South Texas repeater network), there's *very* little use in this area, at least FM on 2m and 70cm. I'm not interested in anything more than voice on the common frequencies at this point.

But I am very much looking forward to checking it out in the BB area. I'd be happy to learn some things and hear stories from experienced Hams on the trip.
 
Not Dave said:
Going back to bringing two way radios, I can't find my old Icom W32A. So, I found a used Yaesu FT-60R locally. Programmed the radio in my truck already with Big Bend Amateur Radio Club repeaters. They'll cover most of the trip from Ft Stockton to Terlingua. Maybe that W32A will appear again. Pretty sure I played around with it a couple of years ago so it has to be in the house or workshop. The FT-60R has a great reputation for ruggedness, perfect for the DR tank bag.

This'll be my 4th trip to BB in 6 years, can't believe I didn't think of bringing the portable before. I've had mobiles in my trucks but they're not useful much when on your bike. Guess I could have my wife monitor but she's not licensed so unless it's an emergency can't talk.

At Round the Bend this year I was able to text with her from Rio Grande Village. Weak signal but just enough from the front of the store. We have Verizon.
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I'm hopeful that there would be people listening to those repeaters that would hear a call for help. Those Yaesu's are supposed to be great radios. Nice sound, quality built. I was lusting after a Yaesu FT3DR. Its water resistant and has built in bluetooth so hopefully it could integrate with my helmet comm system. Sadly its $500 and new, so its in high demand/short supply. So I'll stick with my little Baofeng for now.

You should just convince your wife to get her license.

Another option is the InReach. It gives you texting ability, but it's pricey. Obliviously worth it in an emergency, maybe not for just chatting.
 
randypower said:
I take my Ham test in a couple of weeks. I also programmed several of the Big Bend area repeaters into my little Baofeng.

I'm happy to finally get licensed (assuming I pass) but it's a bit disheartening. Since I've been actively listening and scanning around here (San Antonio/South Texas repeater network), there's *very* little use in this area, at least FM on 2m and 70cm. I'm not interested in anything more than voice on the common frequencies at this point.

But I am very much looking forward to checking it out in the BB area. I'd be happy to learn some things and hear stories from experienced Hams on the trip.
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I passed my test in the spring and haven't really used my radios at all. But I bought them for emergency communication, and I haven't yet had an emergency. I'm not going to complain about that. I know 1 other guy that uses a Ham radio for on the bike communication, but I seldom see or ride with that guy.
 
Perhaps we should decide on some frequencies ahead of the trip for simplex communication so I can program them into my radio. @Not Dave any suggestions? You're by far the most experienced ham here.
 
Dahveed said:
Perhaps we should decide on some frequencies ahead of the trip for simplex communication so I can program them into my radio. @Not Dave any suggestions? You're by far the most experienced ham here.
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Ha ha! Well I began with a Tech license 20 or 21 years ago in San Diego, CA. Then on the WIN System which is a linked UHF operation and top quality. Was closed, had to be a member so we were like a family. It was fun. I even went to a couple of mountain top repeater locations and got to see them. Pretty cool. Times changed and I moved to TX 19 years ago and Hams were the first people I got to know thanks to 2M VHF repeaters. The "fun" of the WIN System was gone, TX hams were friendly and all but boring. I slowly lost interest. When I met my now wife I pretty much stopped getting on the air (about 2012). I used to have interest in upgrading to General back in the beginning but am happy with 2M/70CM work on repeaters. I've done the 6M stuff for a time, talking to Australia (!) and several states like Florida. I even did 20 meters with a friend and talked to the South Pole. Not much interested in the HF stuff. I don't spend hours in a "hamshack" talking to people. When I was single I did talk more and got together for weekly/monthly breakfasts, etc. Been up a water tower for antenna work. Stuff like that is fun.

Simplex national call is 146.52. I'm used to 20mhz spacing but hear there's also 15 and 30mhz spacing between simplex freqs. I would say 146.54, 146.56, etc is OK but not to use 52 as the main one. Most have 2M radios, a lot have dual band which can cover 70CM. I have always had dual band radios.

Getting on the air now I don't hear much traffic at all either in the Austin area except during morning and afternoon commute times. I believe the internet and cell phones have something to do with that. I used to commute to downtown Austin from 2006-10 and would hop on then, it passed the time and was sorta fun.

I've learned there are more people listening than talking so if you don't key up you have no idea who's listening (lurking).

I still see amateur as a public service, not just a hobby. I'm still interested in ARES/RACES type stuff but being an LEO myself I am already trained in other ways and if there's a disaster I'm going to get called out on the law enforcement side. Like my school teacher wife who is getting training in active shooters, I've also had training for active shooters but our roles in those situations are completely different.

We can start a conversation or new thread for Ham if you guys would like. I consider myself "basic" because I've remained a no-code Technician (there used to be a code requirement for it) up until the late 90's.
 
@Not Dave, cool stuff. I'd be all in on a thread here for ham radio. However, I'm afraid my biggest contribution might be asking dumb newbie questions. It might also be interesting to hear stories of anyone who's used amateur while traveling on a motorcycle. Could be for rescue, meeting locals, whatever.
 
randypower said:
@Not Dave, cool stuff. I'd be all in on a thread here for ham radio. However, I'm afraid my biggest contribution might be asking dumb newbie questions. It might also be interesting to hear stories of anyone who's used amateur while traveling on a motorcycle. Could be for rescue, meeting locals, whatever.
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The mextrek guys use them. I know one other guy that uses a baofeng radio on his bike. He used it in California while motorcycling with his buddies there.

A thread about ham radio on motorcycles would be interesting. My contribution would mainly be asking stupid questions and giving wrong answers. 😂🤣😂
 
They say 750,000 licensed hams in the USA, how many are actually active is another "who knows." It's mostly guys, a few women, and mostly technology oriented folks. Not usually the life of the party types.

If we go on group rides in The Bend then it may be beneficial to have a ham with a radio in a group for just in case.

Being I haven't spent any time in the past monitoring the repeaters out there I'm clueless as to how much activity they get. I thought of shooting off an email to the club asking about it.
 
I have taken a dual band mobile radio to the Big Bend park area several times and was never able to contact anyone on the repeaters. But I had great success communicating via satellites passes with the radios. Search MARC (motorcycle amateur radio club) out of California they had useful info on ham radio on motorcycles.
 
I thought this thread was about going to BB at Thanksgiving??
Not radions..

Sent from my SM-G892A using Tapatalk
 
I am getting my trailer set up with electricity for the new ac unit. Had to get a new battery for the drz again. I didn't leave the trickle charger plugged in. This trip should be a lot of fun. I'll leave the Strom at home this time most likely. My favorite is Old Ore road.
 
jetdr21 said:
I thought this thread was about going to BB at Thanksgiving??
Not radions..

Sent from my SM-G892A using Tapatalk
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It is about radios and communication on motorcycles in big bend for that week. Deal with it. Are you even coming on this trip?
 
Texasrider58 said:
I am getting my trailer set up with electricity for the new ac unit. Had to get a new battery for the drz again. I didn't leave the trickle charger plugged in. This trip should be a lot of fun. I'll leave the Strom at home this time most likely. My favorite is Old Ore road.
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Hopefully you're all settled for the trip. Hopefully won't need AC but you never know. The only time I've been in November it was gorgeous weather, no AC needed but heat at night. That reminds me my ADV jacket that has a nice warm liner is wearing out. My only other jacket is a street mesh with no liner but I do have rain liners and can wear a sweatshirt underneath if it's chilly.

My favorite was Old Ore too, only rode it once. Was going to ride it earlier this year but the other guy I was with had a slow leak in his front tire so we opted to skip that and head back to town. I definitely want to ride Old Ore again even if it's the only road I ride so it's a priority!
 
randypower said:
I took my amateur radio Technician test last night and passed. So I'll be legal which may come in handy. The lack of success through the Big Bend repeater network shared above isn't promising. [emoji2369]
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Congrats on your license. We can all communicate on simplex around town maybe. If the repeaters have little to no traffic then they'll be ours to use I s'pose. I'll be sure to call once we get off IH 10 out of Ft Stockton, since they're linked we should be able to comm with Terlingua and much of the road in between.

Hoping the weather is fantastic. We'll be there all day Sun-Tue, one of those days I'll spend with my wife doing things like Alpine, Ft Davis and hanging out at the Starlight, stuff like that. When I do ride it's going to include Old Ore at the minimum. Oh, and maybe some photography here and there. In 2015 I brought an Olympus tough camera, threw it in the tank bag and it worked well.

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