Smokey down here too. Know a couple of people evacuated in the Santa Cruz hills and my roommates sister lost her home
California NorCal Jeep adventures!
- Thread starter bobthetj03
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Between the fires and Covid I'm getting stir crazy! How's the smoke at higher elevations in the Sierras?
We are down to 26 today down from 100+ seemingly forever and it's so freshing to actually enjoy being outside.
I can see the sun today for the first time since the fires started. I can’t even see black butte from Orland.
This pic is from the day before the lightning storms
This pic is from the day before the lightning storms
Here is a link to the next Rubicon trip if you're interested.I wish I could’ve made it but it was too short notice for a three hour one way trip. I’ll subscribe to this thread and Jeep an eye out for future trips.
https://wranglertjforum.com/threads/rubicon-trail-run-september-22nd-23rd-and-24th.39268/
The Kenwood was the one I was looking at tooI went with a kenwood TM-V71A because I wanted a detachable face and other than that wanting a somewhat simple interface.
I am super noob at this and @Mr. Bills has been super helpful in guiding me through the process.
He responded in this thread with a great amount of information for me.
https://wranglertjforum.com/threads/help-choosing-a-ham-radio.36288/
@Alex01 went a different route than me for different reasons so maybe he will chime in.
But here is where I am at with it.
First thing I think is to decide is if you need a detachable face or not. If you don’t that gives more options.
Here is a super simple breakdown the way I see it.
There are basically three tiers for mobile setups.
level 1 Single Band
These only offer one band and if you just want to treat it like a super powered CB these are great. However I was not able to find any with a detachable face.
Level 2 Dual Band
These offer two bands which gives you access to more repeaters etc. Many of these are available with a detachable face if it’s a feature you want. Many of these are basically two radios in one. This allows you to to cool stuff like monitor the repeater on the rubicon trail while having a separate channel for just your group at the same time.
Level 3 APRS/GPS/Other fancy stuff
Sky seems to be the limit on this. You can text message. Find yourself on maps. I think one even gave you the ability to send photos.
You also need to get a correct antenna if you decide to go Dual or Single Band.
Disclaimer: I learned this on the internet all in like the last 2 days so could be completely wrong.
@Indy needs to join this trip also so he can teach us how to use the radios.
He's got all the cool toys! It was pretty cool to be able to text my wife in SLT at Buck Island Lake, and she was able to track our progress on the trail with a simple hand held.
@tomtaylz has his GPS tracking on right now. I can see he is at Applegate Lake in OR. We've been testing out his aprs system every so often during his trip. It's really amazing what these radios are capable of. I sent @Chris a text the other day from my radio to his phone in AZ. From a communications and saftey standpoint CB has nothing on them. The only downside is the rest of you need to convert for we still can't communicate.
As long as you can hit an antenna and has gps tracking on you should never be able to get lost. Assuming someone actually knows they should be looking for you.
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Most likely I'll be moving during that time .. lol
I learned pretty much everything from youtube. APRS is awesome! Live GPS tracking, text messages and emails!
Rubicon has coverage everywhere. See this page for which frequencies to use: https://www.rubicontrailfoundation.org/ham-radios/
Right now, in the middle of process of buying a house in Lincoln. Next city to where I'm right now. Hopefully CA won't give me enough trouble to get out of here for next 10-15 years .. lol
So I'm planning on getting up early to trim my spring perches in the morning,
Looking at them it doesn't seem like I need to trim much but the question to you folks is how much or is there too much I could trim off ? I got Jim's picture of his trimmed perches as a template.
Looking at them it doesn't seem like I need to trim much but the question to you folks is how much or is there too much I could trim off ? I got Jim's picture of his trimmed perches as a template.
Doesn't really matter too much since the spring is held in place by the raised area of the pad. I cut mine about 1" out from the bolt hole for the brake hose bracket.
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