Vertex 150

[Jerry Jacobs]

I recently bought a VX-150 with speaker mike that I'm using for HAM radio which has been working pretty well.  I just have two questions regarding the radio.

1) If the speaker mike gets pulled out a little it starts transmitting, this has caused embarrassing hot mikes twice. Is there anyway to fix this?

2) The radio has a Narrow Band/Wide Band option in the menu. Will this allow me to at least monitor CAP Frequencies? 

Thanks,


Jerry Jacobs
KJ6CCE

[Eclipse]

2) The radio has a Narrow Band/Wide Band option in the menu. Will this allow me to at least monitor CAP Frequencies? 

It is not a compliant radio, so it cannot be licensed for transmission, however I suppose if you're so inclined it could be used as a receiver / scanner.

[Jerry Jacobs]

2) The radio has a Narrow Band/Wide Band option in the menu. Will this allow me to at least monitor CAP Frequencies? 

It is not a compliant radio, so it cannot be licensed for transmission, however I suppose if you're so inclined it could be used as a receiver / scanner.

One way communication is better than no communication

[Major Lord]

Jerry,

The wide/narrow selection on the Vertex only acts to limit the deviation on the transmission side of things, it has no effect on receive. You will be able to monitor the CAP frequencies, although they may sound a bit quiet compared to the wider-band ham radio channel spacing. Don't try the surgery to unlock the VX-150 for CAP frequencies: it takes careful surgery, and it would be naughty. ( although it makes a great MURS and Marine Radio, nudge, nudge, wink, wink...) Congratulations on your Ham license! Time to start studying for your upgrade to General Class and beyond. I know that you will make short work of these somewhat more advanced tests if you give it a try!

Major Lord
AF60F
Y 222

[SarDragon]

I recently bought a VX-150 with speaker mike that I'm using for HAM radio which has been working pretty well.  I just have two questions regarding the radio.

1) If the speaker mike gets pulled out a little it starts transmitting, this has caused embarrassing hot mikes twice. Is there anyway to fix this?

2) The radio has a Narrow Band/Wide Band option in the menu. Will this allow me to at least monitor CAP Frequencies? 

Thanks,


Jerry Jacobs
KJ6CCE

I have a couple of Velcro cable ties wrapped around the plug and radio to keep the mic plug fully inserted.

Yes, it monitors CAP transmissions just fine.

[Jerry Jacobs]

Ok I'll keep my warranty and radio intact then. 

Oh and Major Lord thanks for the new toy  and I'll be getting around to taking my General soon.

[a2capt]

What I used to do it keep that mic in there was pull both parts of that rubber plug out, rotate it and then you can see where you can lean it over slightly and push the mic jack in, and then let it lean up against it,. It helps to hold it in and it also seems to block it from going in all the way.

Or you could just yank the rubber thing out ..

As well, by putting the mic cable around the back of the radio, though the belt clip it helps to keep it into the radio as it's pulling back and towards the radio with the cable.

As to the part about hot-mic when it's yanked there is nothing you can do about that, thats the way the connector is wired. If you don't pull/push fast it will sit in that position that causes it to key up.

One of those rubbery wrist bands or a those mini bungie like things that girls use for stuff can also work, and is instantly removable and reusable.

[Eclipse]

One of those rubbery wrist bands or a those mini bungie like things that girls use for stuff can also work, and is instantly removable and reusable.

I use(d) a spare boot blouser (it looks more tactical-ey)...   


My comm guy put these really professional-looking cable clips on the sides of all our radios which works(ed) great, but I still like the blousers.

Not going to have to worry about it much more, I doubt I'll even light up the 150's ever again. We're trying to figure out what the heck to do with these bricks after the end of the year.  The wing has already transitioned the repeaters, and while we're authorized for wideband simplex until 31 Dec, there's not much point in it.

My personal one I can dump on eBay, but the market is likely to be non-existent for a while with these things being dumped in quantity all over the place.

[Major Lord]

Ok I'll keep my warranty and radio intact then. 

Oh and Major Lord thanks for the new toy  and I'll be getting around to taking my General soon.

Jerry, You are very welcome! I think you will find it works really well with a Diamond MAY-1000 folding Yagi antenna, but just as a quick and dirty body-shield DF unit, it will be a great ramp  unit. You can also build a nice tape measure Yagi for 121.5 for a few bucks if you don't want to pay $100 for the MAY 1000. I like the MAY because you can plug it into your handheld with adjustments and use it on ham or CAP frequencies. ( note to ALCON: I am not talking about using the Vertex-just a little home-built DF unit I built for Jerry)

Major Lord

[Jerry Jacobs]

Being the poor college student I am, I am now building a tape measure yagi.  I'm going to use coax and try this with the Little-LPer and I have the adapters for the little 121.5 receiver. Should be fun