# Emergency Radio



## tleeh1 (Mar 13, 2013)

This may not be the right place -- admins, please move if necessary. 

I need to replace my emergency radio. I'm leaning towards a Kaito Voyager Pro (KA600). Any other suggestions, comments?


----------



## TheLazyL (Jun 5, 2012)

tleeh1 said:


> This may not be the right place -- admins, please move if necessary.
> 
> I need to replace my emergency radio. I'm leaning towards a Kaito Voyager Pro (KA600). Any other suggestions, comments?


Cheap price got me to raise and eyebrow. Amazon reviews 4 out of 5 stars (493 reviews) got me to lower the eyebrow. If I needed one, I would not hesitate to invest in one.


----------



## jimLE (Feb 25, 2015)

i know extremely little about them..but yet,they look like that they might be a good buy to me..


----------



## kd4ulw (Feb 11, 2015)

I have an older Kaito analog radio that has held up well. This KA600 looks to have many nice features and is a big improvement in design. Might have to upgrade soon!


----------



## Dakine (Sep 4, 2012)

tleeh1 said:


> This may not be the right place -- admins, please move if necessary.
> 
> I need to replace my emergency radio. I'm leaning towards a Kaito Voyager Pro (KA600). Any other suggestions, comments?


The ETON's are nice, I have one of those.

http://smile.amazon.com/American-Cr...TF8&qid=1454560900&sr=8-1&keywords=eton+radio

I got this radio at REI and it was marked down to something silly and and then when they scanned it at the register it was like $27. It was in their clearance bin. I have absolutely no idea why they were blowing them out but when I looked it up to provide the link to it my jaw dropped when I saw the current price over $200

The benefit of the base camp radio is that it also transmits, that is a HUGE plus over the ETON and the Kaito.

http://smile.amazon.com/Midland-XT5...d=1454560654&sr=8-1&keywords=midland+basecamp

I actually had the opportunity to use both of my radios (at that time that was all i had, no ham stuff yet) when SoCal got hit with the huge power outage.. back in???? 2009?? was it really that long ago? I forget. anyway, they both worked like champs and buddies at work were asking about stuff and I told them what I had and what info I was able to get based on my equipment... whether any of them actually took action I have absolutely no idea at all lol...

ETA:

oh yes, for suggestions:

get your HAM license, it's actually not that difficult. I'm in San Diego, there are classes sponsored and taught by various HAM groups/clubs and the class I took to get my technician license was free! (there was a $5 charge to pay for the proctored test after the class)

fuzzy memory here so please forgive me if I get any of the small details wrong...

The test consists of 10 sections of what you need to know to operate a ham radio. Everything from very basics on electricity, transmitting radio, the legal issues that can arise, the type and nature of the equipment that is available, etc.

my class was hosted at a fire dept learning center about 20'ish miles away. It was an 8 hour class with the option (not required) to take the ham test for tech if interested and I think everyone did take the test, that's sort of the point. I also think there was 1 or 2 tech's there asking to take the test for the next level up (since the opportunity for a proctored test was convenient)

of the 10 sections of a test, there's X number of questions from each section, that are drawn from a POOL of the possible questions that the test will ask.

so just using numbers I'm completely making up here, lets say there are 100 possible pool questions that the HAM test can ask you for a section, of those, only alportion make it to the test, and the entire test is already known in advance. They are not allowed to change the test except on some kind of certain time interval.

so what the class does (the one I took) it goes through EVERY SINGLE QUESTION that you will be asked on the test, and NONE of the other pool questions. EVERY TEST QUESTION is addressed and there's opportunity for all to ask questions, to dig deeper, etc They even had physical examples of the various sorts of hardware that are used in all aspects for that test to hand around. everything from pieces of very simple co-ax cable that anyone who is used to hooking up cable TV is familiar with, to very specific pieces of gear.

the class I took required a pre-registration and seats were limited to the capacity of the learning center media room.

my class was top notch, and I was fortunate that it was either the 1st or 2nd class at that location, the media learning room was brand spanking new and it was state of the art with projection, display, space, tables, chairs, etc... everything was perfect. I honestly couldn't ask for a better use of my tax dollars in that regard (although ironically this was mostly paid for by the rez because that station is on their land, and it's only partially subsidized by USD taxes... anyway... moving on)

the class was 8 hours with a lunch an a few breaks, the test was available immediately after, no notes allowed, open brain test, not open book test lol...

The majority of the people in my class were there for either CERT programs to join the comm's team (like me) or were dune buggy/quad/off road mc guys that want to be able to call in helicopter evac for injuries when really bad things happen with those kinds of hobbies, because as I understand as a collective they really don't care that much about having the radio in their truck/rig, or using it, because nobody is... listening that cares enough try to find them and persecute them for doing it without the license.. they are out in the middle of the desert, so what... who cares???

but if you go rogue in the city, you can expect that some of the gray beards will DF you and find you and report you! so get your license. it's not terribly difficult and it lasts for 10 years and to renew all you have to do is just send the renewal form and whatever the nominal fee is, I think it's $5-10 bucks to the FCC or something like that.

long story short, go get your HAM tech license, and baofeng UV-5r radios are stupid cheap on amazon, the last one I bought was $25 I think? they work just fine!!!! you don't have to spend amounts of money to do this. invest a little time and $25 bucks and you're good!


----------

