# portable ham Q



## CrackbottomLouis (May 20, 2012)

Can you hook a small portable ham radio to a whip antenna to extend range? If so will it significantly drain your battery faster? Just wondering if you could, should or even needed to. Tryin to learn up for when I have a little dough and a lot of times the ham sites have trouble dumbin it down for a novice.


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## k0xxx (Oct 27, 2011)

If you referring to connecting a hand held radio to a whip antenna, then the answer is yes. There are some very portable antennas that can extend their range, as well as more efficient whip antennas. If you can give me some specifics, I'd be glad to offer some options.


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## CrackbottomLouis (May 20, 2012)

k0xxx said:


> If you referring to connecting a hand held radio to a whip antenna, then the answer is yes. There are some very portable antennas that can extend their range, as well as more efficient whip antennas. If you can give me some specifics, I'd be glad to offer some options.


It was more a general Q out of curiosity. I have yet to begin my foray into the world of civilian comms. Mainly for financial reasons. It is on the agenda for this year however. I am used to harris and of course singaars from military service. What I want out of a radio is portability ( roughly hand radio size), the ability to monitor a large portion of signals, be able to transmit a few miles ( the farther the better terrain dependent), and awesome battery life that can be charged with a portable solar mat. And of course all for the low low price of a nickel
Any thoughts on what gets me closest? Also, what are the rules or availability of encryption with civvie radios? Am I reduced to common code or is it possible?


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## DKRinAK (Nov 21, 2011)

CrackbottomLouis said:


> It was more a general Q out of curiosity. I have yet to begin my foray into the world of civilian comms. Mainly for financial reasons. It is on the agenda for this year however. I am used to harris and of course singaars from military service. What I want out of a radio is portability ( roughly hand radio size), the ability to monitor a large portion of signals, be able to transmit a few miles ( the farther the better terrain dependent), and awesome battery life that can be charged with a portable solar mat. And of course all for the low low price of a nickel
> Any thoughts on what gets me closest? Also, what are the rules or availability of encryption with civvie radios? Am I reduced to common code or is it possible?


You get what you pay for, there is no free lunch.

That said, several Chinese radios are being imported at prices under 150 USD.

Encryption is forbidden to hams. Kinda.
in Part 97 et al. Specifically Section 97.1 13(a)(4) of the FCC rules, which prohibits "messages in codes or ciphers intended to obscure the meaning thereof, except as otherwise provided herein.. ." 
If you send a message in digital form, it is (kinda) encrypted, in as much as a radio cannot make sense of it without special equipment. It's OK - as there is no intent to obscure the mmeaning.

Spend some time on the arrl.com site - worth the time to sort it all out.


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## LincTex (Apr 1, 2011)

CrackbottomLouis said:


> If so will it significantly drain your battery faster?


No - the amount of drain that occurs when transmitting depends upon the circuitry itself. It will draw "X" amount each time you push the TX button and create a signal wave.

How much of that wave "gets out" depends on the amount of area your antenna has to radiate. More is better.

This is a common practice in aircraft: All air-band transceivers use the same BNC connection for the antenna. If your radio in the airplane panel dies, reach behind and take the antenna coax off the back, add a male-female extension coax and attach to your handheld radio. The external antenna will let you talk 10 times farther than the rubber ducky will. This has saved my bacon a couple of times.


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## k0xxx (Oct 27, 2011)

LincTex said:


> No - the amount of drain that occurs when transmitting depends upon the circuitry itself. It will draw "X" amount each time you push the TX button and create a signal wave...


Thanks *LincTex*, I had completely forgot to answer this part of his post.

*CrackbottomLouis*, the best encryption that I know of that is available to us mere civilians, and that is cost effective, is the TriSquare eXRS radios. They operate in the 900MHz range and use frequency hopping spread spectrum. When anyone short of the NSA (and maybe a few other Fed agencies) tries to monitor them, it just appears that the noise floor increases slightly. They are cheap, about $35, and can easily be recharges via a small solar pad. Their problem is that they have a fixed, small antenna that limits their range.

A skilled technician may be able to replace the small antenna with a BNC or other connector, bit I haven't opened one up yet to see what it would involve.


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## LincTex (Apr 1, 2011)

k0xxx said:


> A skilled technician may be able to replace the small antenna with a BNC or other connector, bit I haven't opened one up yet to see what it would involve.


I wouldn't know where to begin to calculate the data to build that antenna. I have built some copper tube j-pole and Slim JIM antennae for 2-meter (by copying others' designs  ) but that wouldn't be much help here...


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## k0xxx (Oct 27, 2011)

LincTex said:


> I wouldn't know where to begin to calculate the data to build that antenna. I have built some copper tube j-pole and Slim JIM antennae for 2-meter (by copying others' designs  ) but that wouldn't be much help here...


By replacing the antenna with a connector, a commercial 900MHz duck antenna could be added, and when needed, a larger and portable commercial antenna could be used. 900MHz antennas are relatively inexpensive due to their small size, especially used. eBay is a good source for them.


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## jsriley5 (Sep 22, 2012)

ssssoooooo adding on on the encryption side are there any devices at reasonable cost out there that a network could have for post teotwaki ? I woulndt need it till then when I may want to send info or receive it froma closed network without making it common knowledge things like how to get where I am for resupply or vice aversae. It would actually seem that a burst transmitter with a encryption option would not be all that expensive to make if you had the technical skill unfortunately I don't have that skill. (marks that down on the recruitable skills page) I intend to get set up and use my radios to get familiar with them and create a network or join one that exists but would like in a desparate time be able to communicate really important and sensitive info without totally blowing opsec.


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## Paltik (Nov 20, 2012)

Post TEOTWAWKI, one needn't worry about the FCC monitoring and enforcing no-encryption laws. So you could speak in code ("The chair is against the wall. The chair is against the wall.") Or you could use digital coms like DLink or packet radio. Or you could use written communications with packet radio (easily done with ham radios) and run your message through any open-source PGP client.


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## bacpacker (Jul 15, 2011)

One thing to consider to increase battery life. Use the best antenna possible to transmit on, this will allow you to use a much lower power setting, which in turn lengthens battery life.


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