HT's vs. Mobiles

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v     HTs/ Mobiles/ Bases

Decide for yourself some various factors such as where you will do your operating…will it be from the home or will it be from the car?? How much can you afford for not only the radio, but for additional equipment, such as a power supply if used from the house, an antenna, coax feedline?? In my humble opinion I do not feel a HT is a good choice for a new ham for their first radio for a few reasons. 1) low power: most HT’s output 5W as compared to 50W for a mobile or base 2) the supplied rubber ducky antenna for a HT is just about worthless as opposed to a good RF emitter in most cases. 3) in some cases the microphone may be of lower quality on an HT than another radio and the speaker may most likely not be able to produce a louder volume than a mobile or a base. You can always add an external speaker and/or microphone, and an external antenna, but then that may not fit all into one hand so easily. You may find yourself more frustrated with a HT than with a mobile because you possibly may get reports from other hams that “You are not holding the repeater” or “You are dropping out”. You may not know that you are not transmitting well into the repeater EVEN though you can hear it no problem. That is because the repeater generally is outputting more power than you. In essence it has a louder voice than you. I feel that this may be a frustrating deterrent to a new ham joining the hobby. I always suggest to new hams to purchase a 2M mobile radio. I should have practiced what I preach, I did not...I purchased a HT for my first radio. It was a good HT, but not very good for driving around the city where I may not have been heard by the repeater too well. HT's have their purpose, but not for your first radio. They are good for swaps and public service events.

If you have your radio and antenna set up in a car, in time, you will learn the limits of where you are and how much power you might have to run to carry on a conversation that the repeater can hear you. Some people may tell you that you've "reached the end of your string" or some other colloquialism. You will then know what area you can be heard intelligibly and keep it in mind for future reference when you are about that location..

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