What I Did Today...

[-0MEGA-] · 03-16-2008, 07:47 PM

If you don't know what ham/amateur radios are, then you should probably just stop reading as you won't have any idea what I'm talking about.

For those who do know, I have the Yaesu VX-170 which is a 2M radio. I came upon a modded radio on eBay and I starting searching for mods that were available for my radio. I easily found a mod which allows transmission from 137MHz - 174MHz, where as stock they only transmit from 144-148MHz. Granted this is against FCC regulations, I have no means to cause interference with legitimate traffic, I just did this for the "wow" factor, lol.

For those who don't know, the 144-148MHz range is for amateur radio use, where as 137-143 and 149-174 are for commercial / emergency use. Since I am on the fire department, I would be able to use this radio for communications in an emergency, which could be extremely helpful if I get stranded somewhere with no cell reception.

Anyways.... Now for what I actually did to accomplish this.

This is the radio I have:

I love this radio as it's waterproof, and very durable and was only $130.

I had to remove the resistor in the center of this photo (above the gap in the PCB) in order to "unlock" those frequencies.

Yes this is very random, but I was bored earlier and decided to try something out.

Kornowski · 03-16-2008, 07:50 PM

Quote:

Since I am on the fire department

What do you mean by that? You're in the Fire services?

**Archangel** · 03-16-2008, 08:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kornowski

What do you mean by that? You're in the Fire services?

well, someone's gotta lay the fires for the firefighters to have a job, right?

INTELCRAZY · 03-16-2008, 08:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kornowski

What do you mean by that? You're in the Fire services?

Yeah, he's a fire fighter...

I used to be on my town's fire department, good days...

It's really beneficial, you get community service for it(college resume and scholarships), gets you out of class if there was a fire or vehicle accident, and you get to legally drive above speed limit... I had red lights in my truck's dash, so the cops never stopped me to ask what I was doing..

I never did get on their emergency radio, I had a pager and a cell phone... I had a CB in my truck and they had CB's in their fire trucks.

[-0MEGA-] · 03-16-2008, 08:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by INTELCRAZY

Yeah, he's a fire fighter...

I used to be on my town's fire department, good days...

It's really beneficial, you get community service for it(college resume and scholarships), gets you out of class if there was a fire or vehicle accident, and you get to legally drive above speed limit... I had red lights in my truck's dash, so the cops never stopped me to ask what I was doing..

I never did get on their emergency radio, I had a pager and a cell phone... I had a CB in my truck and they had CB's in their fire trucks.

It is, although I go to school two towns over so I can't easily get out and go to a scene, so I usually just leave my pager at home or in the car and use the radio I posted above when I'm driving around.

I also have lights in my car, it is pretty cool when everyone moves out of your way though, lol. Anyways, I don't want to go off topic.

Ambushed · 03-17-2008, 12:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by [-0MEGA-]

It is, although I go to school two towns over so I can't easily get out and go to a scene, so I usually just leave my pager at home or in the car and use the radio I posted above when I'm driving around.

I also have lights in my car, it is pretty cool when everyone moves out of your way though, lol. Anyways, I don't want to go off topic.

Are you a voluntary firefighter or do you get payed?

[-0MEGA-] · 03-17-2008, 03:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ambushed

Are you a voluntary firefighter or do you get payed?

Volunteer. Our town isn't large enough for a full time staff (we get around 200-250 calls a year).

OvenMaster · 03-17-2008, 05:16 AM

Nice work, Omega. I've poked around a few scanners, a stereo receiver, and shortwave radios to unlock 24 hour clocks, expanded FM coverage (down to 76MHz), and enabled LW (150-280kHz) coverage. I never got around to getting a Tech ticket

, but I was up to about 20wpm with code! (I was gunning for General in the early 90's).
Tom

03-16-2008, 07:47 PM	#1 (permalink)
[-0MEGA-] VIP Member Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Concord, NH Age: 20 Posts: 27,374	What I Did Today... If you don't know what ham/amateur radios are, then you should probably just stop reading as you won't have any idea what I'm talking about. For those who do know, I have the Yaesu VX-170 which is a 2M radio. I came upon a modded radio on eBay and I starting searching for mods that were available for my radio. I easily found a mod which allows transmission from 137MHz - 174MHz, where as stock they only transmit from 144-148MHz. Granted this is against FCC regulations, I have no means to cause interference with legitimate traffic, I just did this for the "wow" factor, lol. For those who don't know, the 144-148MHz range is for amateur radio use, where as 137-143 and 149-174 are for commercial / emergency use. Since I am on the fire department, I would be able to use this radio for communications in an emergency, which could be extremely helpful if I get stranded somewhere with no cell reception. Anyways.... Now for what I actually did to accomplish this. This is the radio I have: I love this radio as it's waterproof, and very durable and was only $130. I had to remove the resistor in the center of this photo (above the gap in the PCB) in order to "unlock" those frequencies. Yes this is very random, but I was bored earlier and decided to try something out. __________________ Core 2 Quad Q9550 @ 4.1GHz Asus Rampage Formula X48 ATI 4870X2 2GB GDDR5 (800/1900) 4GB (2x 2GB) DDR2 960 (6-6-6-18) 750GB SATAII w/32MB Creative SB X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty SilverStone 750W +12V@60A 3DMark06: 22605 Last edited by [-0MEGA-]; 03-16-2008 at 07:49 PM.

03-17-2008, 05:16 AM	#8 (permalink)
OvenMaster VIP Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Red Sox Nation Age: 49 Posts: 2,033	Nice work, Omega. I've poked around a few scanners, a stereo receiver, and shortwave radios to unlock 24 hour clocks, expanded FM coverage (down to 76MHz), and enabled LW (150-280kHz) coverage. I never got around to getting a Tech ticket, but I was up to about 20wpm with code! (I was gunning for General in the early 90's). Tom __________________ Frankenbox III: CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ * MOBO: Biostar K8M800 Micro AM2 * RAM: 2x1GB Kingston DDR2 667 HDD: WD 80GB Master, Seagate 320GB Slave * OPT: two Pioneer DVR-115DBK DVD burners PSU: Antec Basiq 500W * GPU: PNY GeForce FX5200 256MB AGP 8x * MON: ViewSonic LCD VA721 CASE: EvTek minitower * SND: Diamond Xtreme 5.1 * OS: XP Home SP2 * ROUTER: Linksys BEFSR41

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