Author |
Message |
Hotwire
Intermediate Member Username: Hotwire
Post Number: 480 Registered: 1-2005
| Posted on Monday, August 15, 2005 - 11:16 am: |
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I found an old Realistic walkie with 6 channels. I put a new antenna on it and solder some broken wires and works great. I was just wondering if anyone here has ever been able to shoot skip with a walkie? If not is does anyone think its possible? My walkie has about a 5 foot telescopic whip with a coil in the middle. It runs on 10 double A batterys or 12 volt supply and has a low and high power setting. Just something to think about. |
Nobodyknows
Member Username: Nobodyknows
Post Number: 60 Registered: 4-2005
| Posted on Monday, August 15, 2005 - 2:55 pm: |
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It can and has been done but, I think you'd be yelling till your blue in the face trying to shoot some skip on that walkie talkie. The problem is making yourself heard over top of all the other stations on the channel. |
Road_warrior
Advanced Member Username: Road_warrior
Post Number: 752 Registered: 7-2004
| Posted on Monday, August 15, 2005 - 5:33 pm: |
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I doubt shooting skip with a walkie talkie could happen, but, you just never know. I have tried years ago yielding no results. |
Patzerozero
Senior Member Username: Patzerozero
Post Number: 1238 Registered: 7-2004
| Posted on Monday, August 15, 2005 - 6:41 pm: |
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i still have the lafayette 3 channel walkie talkies that talked dx from the berkshire mtns of NW massachusetts back around 1979 or so. also, for kicks, took the rubber duckie antenna off a 200 channel yosan handheld & hooked up 5' fibeglas whip from a truck & 'got out'. with amp on it, it talked! poor audio, but, whaddaya expect! |
Nobodyknows
Member Username: Nobodyknows
Post Number: 64 Registered: 4-2005
| Posted on Monday, August 15, 2005 - 6:59 pm: |
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lol Pat. Is there anything you haven't shot skip on? Cordless phone skip? haha. hey, hmmmm I wonder.. |
Bruce
Senior Member Username: Bruce
Post Number: 3045 Registered: 9-2003
| Posted on Monday, August 15, 2005 - 7:11 pm: |
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Ive done it in 1969 with a 3 watt Ht i worked the west coast from Kentucky on cb and on 10 meters with a 4 watt HT i worked costra rica. On 6 i worked a guy in canada who was running a yaseu VX-5 ht on the rubber ducky! |
Road_warrior
Advanced Member Username: Road_warrior
Post Number: 754 Registered: 7-2004
| Posted on Monday, August 15, 2005 - 7:39 pm: |
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You guys did alot better than i ever did. Never made a DX contact on a Walkie Talkie. |
Patzerozero
Senior Member Username: Patzerozero
Post Number: 1240 Registered: 7-2004
| Posted on Monday, August 15, 2005 - 9:01 pm: |
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those 49mhz old style cordless phones, baby monitors & kiddie walkie talkies-never talked dx, but, when 6 meters is rollin', listen in on 'em!. QRP, around 1 watt on mobile antenna, or 'high performance' loop talks 1000 miles with 5/9 signal every bit as well as the guy next town over with 1000 watt commander & 9 element flatsider when Es or PRIME F2 is hummin' along on 6 meters-50mHz. hang the antenna out an attic window, no reason why 49mhz @ 100mW couldn't get out...
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Twowatt
Member Username: Twowatt
Post Number: 59 Registered: 7-2005
| Posted on Monday, August 15, 2005 - 10:49 pm: |
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some of those qrp guys will use only 100mW. build cw tx in tuna cans. wonder if the smell helps. ;) |
Bruce
Senior Member Username: Bruce
Post Number: 3047 Registered: 9-2003
| Posted on Tuesday, August 16, 2005 - 8:13 am: |
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On 49 mhz ( the frs of the 70's ) 49.860 AM was widely used. I could hear people all over the us when the band was open .... even with the 100 mw! BABY MONITORS Got to love them they allowed you to hear EVERYTHING going on in some ones home ( 49.830 mhz ) Now it was and still is NOT ILLEAGAL to monitor them they are not on a protected frequency ( you got to love that ) I have one good story my scanner would lock up on one about 3/4 miles west of my house .... like i said it was like have a spy mike in that home SOooooo being the nice guy I am i put a note on the door telling them to turn it off because i could hear everything going on in the house ...... They didn't ........ SOoooo I recorded them and lets say there were some tender moments on that tape. The monitor went off and was never on again! On 46 mhz the base station for your cordless phones could be found from the base you could hear BOTH sides of the conversation .... NOTE IN 1970's THIS WAS NOT ILLEAGAL many people hooked this base up to a outside antenna and when open on a good receiver they also could be heard on skip! On 27 mhz in 1963 Internation crystal made a part 15 base it was a 100 mw transmitter roof mounted and was not cheep. For the power it did work very well but few are still around today. |
Hotwire
Intermediate Member Username: Hotwire
Post Number: 481 Registered: 1-2005
| Posted on Tuesday, August 16, 2005 - 10:47 am: |
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Has anyone ever listened in on the highest UHF channels on a TV? Sometimes you can hear phone conversations on them. May be older sets though with the tuning ring on the channel selector knob. |
Bruce
Senior Member Username: Bruce
Post Number: 3048 Registered: 9-2003
| Posted on Tuesday, August 16, 2005 - 12:27 pm: |
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Hotwire Im ASHAME of you ..... lissing to c-phones on your TV ........ Just between us what channel was that? |
Hollowpoint445
Advanced Member Username: Hollowpoint445
Post Number: 673 Registered: 6-2004
| Posted on Tuesday, August 16, 2005 - 1:33 pm: |
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Hotwire - Those are analog cellular conversations. UHF TV channels 70-83(I think?) were taken away and that bandwidth was used to create the cellular telephone service and some 800MHz public service frequencies. Someone demonstrated on TV how easy it was to listen to cellular telephones with an older analog television and the cellular industry freaked out because they painted the illusion of privacy for their service when there was no actual privacy. That eventually led to the laws that made listening to cellular frequencies illegal, and then the ban on scanners or receivers of any kind that would receive on those frequencies. |
Yankee
Advanced Member Username: Yankee
Post Number: 839 Registered: 7-2003
| Posted on Tuesday, August 16, 2005 - 6:24 pm: |
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Yump, Sea to shinning sea 100 Miliwatt channel 14 walkie talkie, My conversion van parked right next to the ocean at York Beach Maine. Had it rigged so I could run it on my 4 foot Heli-Whip broadstick, talked to a mobile setting at some beach in Southern California. This is about somewhere around 15 years ago now, at the tail end of the last sun spot cycle. He thought I was joking about running a 100 miliwatt walkie. The most fun I ever had was with a two watt, 3 channel Midland on a rubber duckie from the top of Mt. Graylock at North Adams Mass., several of us did things like that many years ago. Now days I do wonders with my Radio Shack HTX-202, 2 meter handi, made by ICOM on a J-pole, running on my base power supply at 13.8 volts at 5 watts output to the J-pole. Carl CEF-357 |
Patzerozero
Senior Member Username: Patzerozero
Post Number: 1251 Registered: 7-2004
| Posted on Wednesday, August 17, 2005 - 8:48 am: |
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NORTH ADAMS! my walkie talkie dx was from the side of a small mountain or large hill somewhere between conway & ashfield mass! WHILE SITTING ON A SNOWMOBILE! |
Hotwire
Intermediate Member Username: Hotwire
Post Number: 483 Registered: 1-2005
| Posted on Wednesday, August 17, 2005 - 11:34 am: |
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Yeah Bruce I need help. But so you know, Hollowpoint is correct. The high channels betwwen 70 and 83. |
Sarge
Junior Member Username: Sarge
Post Number: 23 Registered: 11-2003
| Posted on Wednesday, August 17, 2005 - 12:30 pm: |
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Hotwire, What model of Radio Shack / Realistic walkie-talkie do you have? Some of the models had jacks for an external antenna, 12-volts DC and a hand microphone. The 6-channel model I have (I believe it is a TRC-203) was a Radio Shack "5-watt" model. This means it actually had about 3.5 watts of RF output when running on a full 13.8 Volts DC. (Radio Shack always liked to quote the obsolete input power reference of 5-watts, but it's the output power that counts). If your model has the external connections I listed, you can make it work for skip by using a good external base station antenna and regulated 12-volt power supply. Add an external hand microphone and it will be just like a base station. The key to working skip on 3.5 watts is propagation. 10 & 11 meters are presently at the bottom of the skip cycle, so your results will probably not be great. But give it 5-years or so when the cycle is at it's peak and you will be able to work the world with a decent antenna. |
Bruce
Senior Member Username: Bruce
Post Number: 3053 Registered: 9-2003
| Posted on Wednesday, August 17, 2005 - 7:25 pm: |
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70-83 now has trunking systems |
Al_lafon
Member Username: Al_lafon
Post Number: 70 Registered: 3-2005
| Posted on Thursday, August 18, 2005 - 12:03 am: |
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I'd Outband the thing |
Hotwire
Intermediate Member Username: Hotwire
Post Number: 487 Registered: 1-2005
| Posted on Thursday, August 18, 2005 - 12:49 pm: |
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Sarge, I have a TRC 218 3 channel and a TRC 220 6 channel. They have the external hookups and I have used them. Works very well and even put them on a small amp just for kicks.Its the DX with the telescopic ant I'm curious about. I do need some suggestions on what may be wrong with my 6 channel from anyone who wants to help. When my antenna is fully extended I get a sqeal. Now if I push down the section of antenna just above the coil load it goes away. Guess I push it down about 3 inches into the load. Could it be a bad load? Do I even need this load? Been thinking about just removing the copper winding all together but I'm not sure if that would be a good ideal/ |
Dale
Intermediate Member Username: Dale
Post Number: 224 Registered: 12-2002
| Posted on Thursday, August 18, 2005 - 5:30 pm: |
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never used one for dx.used one in apartment worked good around town.it was a perfect fix for a no antenna situation.lol DALE/CEF426 |