I believe they are all BaoFeng UV-5R+/UV5R.
They were recommended for us when off roading to communicate between vehicles, but never seemed to work great at that.
Somewhere I think I still have the usb programming cable for them.
Edit: apparently the intent of my post was lost in my poor wording of the title. It has been updated to better reflect that I would like to use them, but for what? And how?
12 Comments
cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.de · 28 pts · 158d
They will work well for communication between vehicles, but you need to connect them to mag mount antennas. A car is basically a faraday cage. Radios don't work well inside unless you're running 900 MHz or higher.
DataCrime@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 23 pts · 158d
Save them for the collapse of society 😅
captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works · 13 pts · 158d
Done. Now what?
DataCrime@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 7 pts · 158d
LOL, I’d suggest a USB power strip to keep them charged. If you really want to get rid of them something like a local Boy Scout troop maybe? Obviously they have issues, there might be some other outfit like a local ARRL group.
nocturne@slrpnk.net · 3 pts · 158d
Well yes, but can they be used as police scanners? Weather update radios? Or are they strictly to communicate with another hand held?
TheOSINTguy@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 158d
They have a recieve range of 134-176 I think and 420-480, as long as it's standard analog you should be able program in some fun things to listen to.
I have one setup for railroad frequencies and I hear some unique conversations.
DataCrime@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 157d
My radio dummy tip (I’d definitely not an expert) is definitely go outside when scanning for interesting stuff to listen to. It took me a few afternoons of scanning to find anything, let alone anything interesting. Hopefully you’ll have better luck :-)
DontTreadOnBigfoot@lemmy.world · 22 pts · 158d
Send them to me 😁
We use them for Scout camping, and they work pretty well for that, but we're rarely spread out too far and not inside metal cages
Truscape@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 14 pts · 158d
Makeshift Repeaters would be an obvious solution :)
StarvingMartist@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 158d
Donate them to storm chasers?
elperronegro@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 158d
Apart from use as walkie talkies we can sometimes tune in and listen to the ISS as it passes over our location
nocturne@slrpnk.net · 3 pts · 158d
That sounds neat! Found a guide for it. Also if you use iOS there is a sky app called Night Sky that sends notifications when the iss is about to fly over your location.
https://www.ico-optics.org/how-to-listen-to-iss-on-baofeng/
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/night-sky/id475772902