Gday...

I have a GME TX6100 handheld. I also got the 12v charging cord so I can charge from the 12v socket in vehicle and/or van

https://www.gme.net.au/catalogue/discontinued/land/tx6100.aspx

I have had it for about three years and find it is excellent on the highway for talking to trucks and other road users - with line of sight I can talk to vehicles upto 1km away which is more than adequate for what I need.

Interestingly, the cost of the GME handheld is in the same 'ball park' as one that you can install into the vehicle.

I preferred the handheld for the 'versatility'.

Cheers - John

I have a GME fixed and wouldn't be without it. It has followed me in 3 different tugs now.

I saw one of the Auto shops had a deal going a while back, you got a fixed and hand held in the deal, maybe look for a deal. I THINK for memory it was Autobarn. I have been known to have a bad memory though. It's all Uncle Al's fault.

I have fixed Icom in the tug and 40 S older unit hand held Use the hand held when doing a walk in and Mrs Wombat stays in the vehicle , also a marriage saver when backing into tight spots. Suggest you get a two unit pack for that reason alone. They only have a short range line of sight type of thing but worth the low cost

We bought an Oricom 5 watt fixed radio, 2 x water proof hand helds and 2m fiberglass external aerial at a Caravan Show for $150 !

The only problem with a handheld in your vehicle is finding where its disappeared to as it slides round the place/dropping it on the floor and so on...........

i bought a 5 watt hand held  (not cheap a one)    and my mate had one (twin pair)  for a trip from nsw to darwin and back

following my mate towing his van.   a lot of the way it was useless even in the middle of no where and my mate was only a few car lengths a head  other times it worked

you never knew when it was going to work

would not buy again   

You don't need a 5 W model. We had friends following us with a 0.2 W model some years back. On long straight stretches if we could manage to see them in the rear view mirror we could communicate.

Just make sure that you have the set up on the dash if it only has a short aerial (this applies for sets of any transmitter power.) If the radio is down low you will not hear calls. Our friends hung theirs off the handle above the passengers door on a lanyard. This kept the antenna in a good signal area and the set was handy for use by the navigator. Using portables is a matter of technique as it is the transmitter power. A 5 W set down in the console area or worse still on the floor is behind the 8 ball when someone is trying to call it. A flea power set on the dash will out perform it every time.

Wombat 280 wrote:

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I have fixed Icom in the tug and 40 S older unit hand held Use the hand held when doing a walk in and Mrs Wombat stays in the vehicle , also a marriage saver when backing into tight spots. Suggest you get a two unit pack for that reason alone. They only have a short range line of sight type of thing but worth the low cost

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.. like Wombat 280 .. I also have an Icom fitted in the vehicle connected to a 6.5 antenna .. also 2 x IC41S hand-helds for local purposes as well.

These 41S were initially 40 ch, but a simple software upgrade brought them into 80 ch .. not cheapest to buy, but worth it .. 6 years on and still on original batteries too !

Wizardofoz wrote:

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I have a GME TX 6100 5watt hand held and I find it pretty ordinary because of all the static, where do you guys position youts? Mine sits in the drink holder of the Cruiser and is so annoying that I have to turn it down to low, should be at windscreen level or do I require an external antenna?

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.. the best way to explain .. is to have your antenna in a vertical position and in the best-line-of-sight to the other intended operator.

The more items/obstacles you have between you which impedes the line-of-sight, then the worse your transmission/reception to that location will be.

My suggestion would be an external antenna in a fairly clear position .. maybe a portable or fixed antenna.

also ..

when your hand-held is sitting in close proximity to electrical discharges (like from your dashboard area) then because of the poor reception due to bad line-of-sight signal, then

your h/h radio is susceptible to increased electrical interference audio ..

 

Gday...

I am fortunate to have a nice flat area on my dashboard so I have my handheld GME TX6100 mounted like this -

 

Easy to reach and return to cradle - gets good reception ... but I do have to take it down when I go offroad

Cheers - John

Cupie wrote:

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03_Troopy wrote:

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You might need to turn the squelch setting up a bit too. Back it off till you get the annoying static/ hash reception, then take it up just a tad higher so it cuts out the the hashy receptions.

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 This procedure takes me back to my CMF days.  

Once I became the BC's Survey Sergeant I was a stand alone unit and to give me something to do on Parade nights when others were playing with their Gun drill etc. I was required to train/lecture the Sigs (& the Driver /Cooks).  Of course being a PMG Technician at the time It was assumed (incorrectly) that I knew all about radio transmission.

I can clearly remember the Squelch procedure ... along with correct voice procedure & the phonetic alphabet. 

 

ps.  Off topic of course.....  The BC Survey Sergeant position was a plum one in the CMF.  Your main role was to go with the BC (Battery Captain) and wander about the scrub (up at the sharp end) with the arm that the battery was supporting .. scary.  But in the CMF it meant driving up close to the OP (Observation Point), sitting under a tree & plotting the target & fall of shot while the BC called out adjustments to the Guns.  Sweet job.

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 What used to annoy me was the incorrect terminology that lots use when talking about "Squelch" Most people seem to think the noise you hear is squelch, and consequently talk about squelch being too high. The term Squelch refers to squelching the reception by limiting the minimum receive signal level, so that weaker signals don't get heard, as they don't break through the squelch level. The term "wobulator" is one not many know about either , but that refers to a particular type of radar.

 

Edit: Being a RADTECHA in the RAAF, for some reason everyone used to think that only we could understand what pilots were saying when they called in, so we always got the job of monitoring the radio during sorties. That was a pain in the bum, because you couldn't get anyone to take over when you needed to go for a pee or go for a smoke.

-- Edited by 03_Troopy on Thursday 13th of August 2015 10:57:55 AM

Gee it's amazing what you learn when you ask a question here. I was also a sig sergeant in 11 Field Regiment RAA CMF in the 60's and 70's and used to call in fire missions at Tin Can Bay, Camp Kerr. Brings back a lot of good memories.

Hi Cupie, I sent a PM. Blair

03_Troopy wrote:

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 What used to annoy me was the incorrect terminology that lots use when talking about "Squelch" Most people seem to think the noise you hear is squelch, and consequently talk about squelch being too high. The term Squelch refers to squelching the reception by limiting the minimum receive signal level, so that weaker signals don't get heard, as they don't break through the squelch level.

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I think the thread has run long enouth to answer the OP's question so we can go off topic.

To clear this up, the derivation for the term squelch seems to have been lost in the annals of time. If we go to Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squelch - they don't mention it, the just say how it operates.

In telecommunications, squelch is a circuit function that acts to suppress the audio (or video) output of a receiver in the absence of a sufficiently strong desired input signal. Squelch is widely used in two-way radios to suppress the annoying sound of channel noise when the radio is not receiving a transmission.

The term comes from the squelching noise that you hear between the cessation of signal and the start of the silence period.

You get this squelch whether you have a carrier operated squelch circuit of a simple CTCSS. Motorola developed a CTCSS that eliminated the squelch, they called it Quiet Line. They used resonant reed to generate the sub-carrier tone and also detect it in the receiver. When the transmitter PTT was released there was a circuit in the CTCSS circuit that reversed the phase of the tone. They transmitted just enough cycles of tone to stop the vibration or the receiver reed and this would silence the receiver before the carrier ceased.

Whilst we are on the subject of radio maybe you can tell me something about CODAN.

ps, you will note I gave a link for the text I quoted, it p155es me off when forum members do not acknowledge where their quotes came from.

Actually here's a pretty simple explanation of it

from:

What is Squelch

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What is "Squelch" on a wireless receiver?

An circuit that is important to proper receiver behavior is called "squelch" or muting. The function of this circuit is to mute or silence the audio output of the receiver in the absence of the desired radio signal. When the desired signal is lost (due to multi-path dropout, excessive distance, loss of power to the transmitter, etc.) the "open" receiver may pick up another signal or background radio "noise." Typically, this is heard as "white" noise and is often much louder than the audio signal from the desired source.

The traditional squelch circuit is an audio switch controlled by the radio signal level using a fixed or manually adjustable threshold (level). When the received signal strength falls below this level the output of the receiver is muted. Ideally, the squelch level should be set just above the background radio noise level or at the point where the desired signal is becoming too noisy to be acceptable. Higher settings of squelch level require higher received signal strength to unmute the receiver. Since received signal strength decreases as transmission distance increases, higher squelch settings will decrease the operating range of the system.

 

One refinement of the standard squelch circuit is referred to as "noise squelch." This technique relies on the fact that the audio from undesirable radio noise has a great deal of high frequency energy compared to a typical audio signal. The noise squelch circuit compares the high frequency energy of the received signal to a reference voltage set by the squelch adjustment. In this system the squelch control essentially determines the "quality" of signal (signal-to-noise ratio) required to unmute the receiver. This allows operation at lower squelch settings with no likelihood of noise if the desired signal is lost.

A further refinement is known as "tone-key" or "tonecode" squelch. It enables the receiver to identify the desired radio signal by means of a supra- or sub-audible tone that is generated in the transmitter and sent along with the normal audio signal. The receiver will unmute only when it picks up a radio signal of adequate strength and also detects the presence of the tone-key. This effectively
prevents the possibility of noise from the receiver when the desired transmitter signal is lost, even in the presence of a (non-tone-key) interfering signal at the same frequency.

Turn-on and turn-off delays are incorporated in the transmitter tone-key circuits so that the transmitter power switch operates silently. When the transmitter is switched on, the radio signal is activated immediately but the tonekey is briefly delayed, keeping the receiver muted until the signal is stable. This masks any turn-on noise. When the transmitter is switched off, the tone-key is deactivated instantly, muting the receiver, but actual turn-off of the transmitted signal is delayed slightly. This masks any turnoff
noise. As a result, the need for a separate mute switch is eliminated. Finally, the tone-key signal is often used to transmit additional  information to the receiver. This may include battery voltage, transmitter audio gain settings, transmitter type, and transmitter power level.