Great video as always Damian, i find people on PMR are way more respectful than those i have found on CB here in Leeds, so I’ve put my Cb radio back into the cupboard, thank for posting 73 🙂👍
Great video and well considered points raised. I am in the Manchester area and PMR is very active and seems to be the way to go. I started on cb but the activity (albeit never particularly active)has dropped off a cliff. I have a sideband cb for dx, the odd net if you can hear the local stations over the noise another major issue with cb is the interference. DX is good when it is here, i particularly like Sporadic E in the summer. At present listening to more PMR local chat and calling nlow and again. I do like walks up the hills with a handheld, never had much luck with cb handhelds but had some good contacts on PMR 👍
@@26DR302 thanks for your interesting comment. I do believe that Manchester is quite active. I can't hear Manchester at all from home so I should find a high location and give it a go.
Good vid. CB isn't too bad around me but a lot of operators are using SSB rather than FM to avoid the muppets. This just makes the cb kit even more expensive compared to PMR. I'll keep using both but for up to 50+ miles contacts I'll stick to 446.
A good friend of mine collects old cb radios i do also for nostalgia i also do 11 meter dx but local fm no way forget it the most polite way i can describe it is it is like a school playground mentality .With guys in there 60s and older .SO i spoke to my friend on pmr fantastic nice and clear a joy to use .Amateur licence is on the cards
Thanks again for an informative vid. So looks like PMR is the way to go. Still a bit confused with PMR due to the privacy codes, guess if you want general contacts and chat then go with the out of the box codes. And if its family to family change a channel privacy code? Your thoughts pls :)
Thank you and your welcome. If your refiring to the tones like the CTCSS just turn them all off as they are really used for repeaters. If you have them turned on then anyone with them of will still be able to hear you. Normal defaults are off when you buy a radio. Hope that helps.
I have an Yaesu FT-991A as well, except mine works on 11m, free modification by Radioworld when it was purchased. Not that I've ever TX'd on 11m. It's a shame they cannot be modified to work on PMR446. Great little radio, though. 11m is completely dead here in the East Riding. That is, other than the Italians etc. Even the farmers have switched to PMR446. I agree with all the interference on the lower bands, I think it's all the cheap electrical goods from China, LED light bulbs, swiching mode power supplies etc. But around here there's massively strong bursts of digital information, upto S9+ on 70cm. The FM portion of the band is nigh-on impossible to use. That's why our group, EastRiding2WayRadioGroup, has switched to the all modes part of the band, using NFM. There seems to be less interference there. Take care, my friend. 7 3's G4MLZ
Thanks for the comment. my 991a was from Lmco and not modified, its a great radio and I enjoy using it and yes 446 would be very handy its a much better receiver. 70cms here is dead apart from some repeaters and there's interference on the FM calling frequency. PMR is more active here than 70 cms.
I was on CB in the 80s. It was good fun until the swearers, mike keyers and high power freaks made it not fun. Recently I took a Retevis R24 with 0.5w and fixed antenna up a hill and got someone 65 miles away. I think there was some tropospheric ducting on because there was a net running from county Durham to Suffolk. It was very friendly and well mannered and i enjoyed listening even though i couldn't reach most of them. It was
Depending when it was, we have just had some good atmospheric conditions for UHF and VHF. 65 miles on 0.5w just shows what can be done, well done. Thank you for your comment.
I have used PMR from my location found a mix of people some very rude telling me to F@&k off then the other end of the scale professional QSO over distance of some 40 odd miles on 500mw, tend to stick to channel 14, but scan the PMR band, 11m band activity good in my location and am active to be fair other than the odd station I can’t say I hear too much abuse on the band. I have heard as much silliness on the Ham bands over the past 2 years especially on 40/20m bands it dose make me think these guys have too much time to fool around causing trouble and QRM, well that’s my 10p worth Tony M7CVK
I do think problems on any band are a world wide problem. Well done with such distances on 0.5w, impressive. Its interesting how different areas use different calling channels. Thanks for your comment.
@ I think the guy’s down this way use PMR 14 as the DX channel down this way I mean Southwest, I normally hear the guys on the hills towards Bristol but have also had good cross country contacts further south, using a uhf 16 channel reprogrammed ICOM IC F2000 managed to grab 6 of them from the scrap bin when we went to digital radios 4 of them still in boxes. Best portable contact so far is from Kent coastline Camber Sands to the hill above the channel tunnel exit on the French 🇫🇷 side 5/9 both ways.
Great video as always Damian, i find people on PMR are way more respectful than those i have found on CB here in Leeds, so I’ve put my Cb radio back into the cupboard, thank for posting 73 🙂👍
Thanks for commenting. I was tempted to buy one to try out but I think I cand spend the money in a better direction. 73
CB tends to be a few potty mouths here in brum.
Great video and well considered points raised. I am in the Manchester area and PMR is very active and seems to be the way to go. I started on cb but the activity (albeit never particularly active)has dropped off a cliff. I have a sideband cb for dx, the odd net if you can hear the local stations over the noise another major issue with cb is the interference. DX is good when it is here, i particularly like Sporadic E in the summer. At present listening to more PMR local chat and calling nlow and again. I do like walks up the hills with a handheld, never had much luck with cb handhelds but had some good contacts on PMR 👍
@@26DR302 thanks for your interesting comment. I do believe that Manchester is quite active. I can't hear Manchester at all from home so I should find a high location and give it a go.
Good vid. CB isn't too bad around me but a lot of operators are using SSB rather than FM to avoid the muppets. This just makes the cb kit even more expensive compared to PMR. I'll keep using both but for up to 50+ miles contacts I'll stick to 446.
Yes this is true and it makes PMR446 more accessible.
A good friend of mine collects old cb radios i do also for nostalgia i also do 11 meter dx but local fm no way forget it the most polite way i can describe it is it is like a school playground mentality .With guys in there 60s and older .SO i spoke to my friend on pmr fantastic nice and clear a joy to use .Amateur licence is on the cards
Thanks again for an informative vid. So looks like PMR is the way to go. Still a bit confused with PMR due to the privacy codes, guess if you want general contacts and chat then go with the out of the box codes. And if its family to family change a channel privacy code? Your thoughts pls :)
Thank you and your welcome. If your refiring to the tones like the CTCSS just turn them all off as they are really used for repeaters. If you have them turned on then anyone with them of will still be able to hear you. Normal defaults are off when you buy a radio. Hope that helps.
can`t hear much from your radio,
I have an Yaesu FT-991A as well, except mine works on 11m, free modification by Radioworld when it was purchased. Not that I've ever TX'd on 11m. It's a shame they cannot be modified to work on PMR446. Great little radio, though.
11m is completely dead here in the East Riding. That is, other than the Italians etc. Even the farmers have switched to PMR446.
I agree with all the interference on the lower bands, I think it's all the cheap electrical goods from China, LED light bulbs, swiching mode power supplies etc. But around here there's massively strong bursts of digital information, upto S9+ on 70cm. The FM portion of the band is nigh-on impossible to use. That's why our group, EastRiding2WayRadioGroup, has switched to the all modes part of the band, using NFM. There seems to be less interference there.
Take care, my friend. 7 3's G4MLZ
Thanks for the comment. my 991a was from Lmco and not modified, its a great radio and I enjoy using it and yes 446 would be very handy its a much better receiver. 70cms here is dead apart from some repeaters and there's interference on the FM calling frequency. PMR is more active here than 70 cms.
I was on CB in the 80s. It was good fun until the swearers, mike keyers and high power freaks made it not fun.
Recently I took a Retevis R24 with 0.5w and fixed antenna up a hill and got someone 65 miles away. I think there was some tropospheric ducting on because there was a net running from county Durham to Suffolk. It was very friendly and well mannered and i enjoyed listening even though i couldn't reach most of them.
It was
Depending when it was, we have just had some good atmospheric conditions for UHF and VHF. 65 miles on 0.5w just shows what can be done, well done. Thank you for your comment.
@@G6PNH It was on Friday - the chap I spoke to longest said it had been even better earlier in the week. I was glad to catch the tail end of it 🙂
@@flippineckowmuch yes the best day was Wednesday and it tailed of to the weekend so you did very well.
I have used PMR from my location found a mix of people some very rude telling me to F@&k off then the other end of the scale professional QSO over distance of some 40 odd miles on 500mw, tend to stick to channel 14, but scan the PMR band, 11m band activity good in my location and am active to be fair other than the odd station I can’t say I hear too much abuse on the band. I have heard as much silliness on the Ham bands over the past 2 years especially on 40/20m bands it dose make me think these guys have too much time to fool around causing trouble and QRM, well that’s my 10p worth Tony M7CVK
I do think problems on any band are a world wide problem. Well done with such distances on 0.5w, impressive. Its interesting how different areas use different calling channels. Thanks for your comment.
@ I think the guy’s down this way use PMR 14 as the DX channel down this way I mean Southwest, I normally hear the guys on the hills towards Bristol but have also had good cross country contacts further south, using a uhf 16 channel reprogrammed ICOM IC F2000 managed to grab 6 of them from the scrap bin when we went to digital radios 4 of them still in boxes. Best portable contact so far is from Kent coastline Camber Sands to the hill above the channel tunnel exit on the French 🇫🇷 side 5/9 both ways.
@@TonyM7CVK Excellent result and a good achievement. well done!
...Also i don't need more power like CB users seem to fantasise just a 10 element yagi😂
Yes the wave length means you can use much better arial systems at a fraction of the cost which also means PMR446 is easier to experiment with.