Exam over yesterday.
Airband? U can get the triband radio. Else try looking for discontinued icom 2200. Got Airband freq. BUt U can listen only. Cant tx.

Thx for the info, mate. Rx is only what I'm looking for, not tx. Could you give me any location as to where I may find these? The closest mall to me is Mines, and there's definitely nothing there. How about LowYat Plaza?

U want Handy? Mobile? Or Station?

Haha, ppl are busy in FB la Bro .. no more time to be on air ..

uhhh..my email notification didn't work! Whats the difference between handy and mobile? (Pardon my ignorance)

Handy = HT (Handheld/Handy Talkie) = size as big as walkie talkie.

Example:


Mobile = Mobile radio = size as big as a book sometime, installed normally in your car/truck and requires external antenna.

Example:



Both can be used at home by connecting them to a base antenna. For rx only, you could either homebrew, commercial or amateur antenna.

Lowyat has a shop that sells radios and antennas but I believe most of the radios are China made one. They're cheap but I've no idea if they'll do AM (airband). I've a Yaesu FT-60R which is a handheld and could receive airband. Cost around RM600 and you could get it from the big two ham radio shops here in Klang Valley. One Communications at Sec13 Shah Alam, near the stadium, the other is Wave Communications at Sri Gombak.

This post has been edited by wiraone: Feb 5 2014, 07:11 PM

Thanks, wiraone! This really helped!
After some reseacrch, it seems that the Yaesu FT-60R is very impressive. From what it seems, it's the best in class, and the more expensive ones are only so because they're rugged, OR they have tx OR both. I think Ill go for it!
I actually have a computer-scientist cousin who has the only HAM radio system in the country he lives in! And the antenna he uses is a Yagi with a motor And with the external antenna he has, it's possible to receive airband from long distances!
Now, how does yours fare? I know it all depends on the antenna, weather etc, but still, have you tried KLIA Tower? About how far do you think is the range? And is it possible to connect a handheld to an external antenna? (of course, big ones would require a lot of power)
I checked the two shops' websites, and one sells it for 600, the other ~650
Thanks again!

Mine is not as good, I've only these ...



That is not for receiving the airband on VHF, but it could receive the airband on HF. You need a radio which could receive a single side band (SSB) to monitor the HF. I've Diamond X50 which I don't use to monitor airband but it could be used for it, from my house in Sg Buloh, I couldn't receive the transmission from KLIA Tower, but I could receive the one from the aircraft. Subang Tower is fine.

Yes, it is possible to connect your handheld to the external antenna, what you need is just a proper connector, it is normally the SMA to UHF connector. You could get it from those shops too. You don't need a lot of power to monitor, but with a good base antenna, with 5W from handheld, you could go quite far (depending on your location).

This post has been edited by wiraone: Feb 12 2014, 10:38 AM

Nothing fancy, but still awesome! hahaha
Subang airport must be, what, 5 kms from your house? Is your handy (60R) able to tune in to Subang tower? I remember that one of the mobiles had SSB, but the 60R doesn't, right? Btw, is yours Japanese-made?
Anyways, do many people here have HAM? Do you have a profile in DX or Qz?

This post has been edited by eMelus: Feb 18 2014, 11:12 PM

I'm around 10km away from Subang Airport, and nope, with just the rubberyducky (short antenna), I couldn't get Subang Tower, need to use the external antenna for it.

On SSB and airband, if you just want to monitor the frequencies, I'll suggest to go for those world radio which should be cheaper. There are few receivers with support for airband, SSB, AM and they're affordable too. One of them is TECSUN PL-660, review can be found here. This radio can be had for around RM450, available from lelong and some other website locally. The FT-60R is actually meant for ham radio operator with extra feature of monitoring airband frequencies and you're limited to the VHF/UHF bands while the world radio, you can monitor more frequencies. Other world radios that you could try are those made by Sony (ICF series, look for the bands you could monitor) and ETON world radio (the only sold by RadioShack locally don't have the SSB nor airband).

There are many hams here in Malaysia, we've two classes, A & B. There are around 500+ A-class licensed operators and almost 10K B-class operators but I believe only half are activate. Yes, my callsign can be found in QRZ.COM Search on the image I posted before, you can find my callsign there

Hope the above helps.

This post has been edited by wiraone: Feb 19 2014, 01:41 PM

Ah, forgotten, the cheapest way to monitor the bands .. Get yourself a cheap DVB-T dongle, around RM45 from ebay, get SDR software from the net and you can monitor most above 50MHz.

http://sdr.osmocom.org/trac/wiki/rtl-sdr

wts yaesu ft-60 handheld radio + charger+manual
condition : mint just a bit dust
price : rm450
cod cheras balakong,sg long,bmc
reason : need money+under utilize

Hello, anyone have 9W2KYR contact no. pls pm me. tqvm

Thanks, wiraone, it's been a long four months but better late than never....upon your initial advice, I got the FT-60R very very recently, haven't really gotten to test it out yet. And lately I really wanted a Tx feature What do you think is the best antenna I could attatch to it? Telescopic, perhaps?

This post has been edited by eMelus: Jun 16 2014, 05:40 PM

Depends on how far you want to transmit, the location, etc. Upgrading the antenna with gain will surely helps. Chk the specs of that telescopic antenna.

Hi, Salam contact kenal dan salam sejahtera.

I am new in this hobby. Currently, I only have a 5w dual band China made handheld transceiver and 4 antennas. Most of the time I am monitoring/listening on several repeates, such as 9M4RBC, 9M4RNS, 9M4RZS, 9M2RKK, 9M2RKL,

Usually I training my TX or QSO on silent/quiet repeaters such as 9M2RKK and 9M2RKL which located very near to my saltmine/office, during lunch (around 1300) time or while waiting for bus after office hour (around 1800).

QRA: 9W2GNU, Handle Operator: Bahathir @ Bakhtiar
Base : Kajang
Saltmine; Bandar Sri Damansara

73

Hi, welcome to the thread and to the hobby. May I know what do you mean by training? Hopefully not by triggering the repeaters but w/o giving your callsign, which I believe many have done this. If you want to meet someone on air, for 9M2RKL, there always someone there in the morning around 7-8:30am and probably in the evening to around 5pm. For 9M2RKK, I've no idea what the best time to find people on it .. I know 9M2WJ is now back on air and sometime he calls up during the lunch hour. For me, I rarely go on air unless I'm driving. My home setup has been take over for APRS activities, no more phone/voice conversation from home.

As I said in my post, I am training my QSO. and yes with my callsign. I got reply from 9W2TJK on 9M2RKK, 9W2GRY and 9W2AA on 9M4RKL (around 1000-1100). Yes, it is very rare to get reply on these repeaters. And yes, there were some 'empty' TXs, and I tried to QSO wtth... and most of the time.. "silence"....

73

Haha, okay, when you're on conversation on the air .. it is no longer training. Why the need for training anyway when you're already on the air Just follow the norm, ID with you callsign on every transmissions (Malaysian style).

... It is just like driving/riding vehicle. Actually, I am quite a shy person and not talking much. I just want to make sure, my voice can be heard properly. At the same time, I also want to know the limit of my transceiver, so I can use a proper antenna at the proper time and place. Most of time, I ask for the QRK (audio quality check) to make sure everything is in proper. Yeah, I only have handheld tranceiver, and need to get most from it.

I think we have to train, using proper QSOing based on the SKMM Guidlines For some people it is a simple task, but for me, it is quite difficult, so need to training lah. BTW, I self-studied RAE 3 months ago, took the RAE and pass 2 monts ago, and got AA 1 months ago. I did lots of listening before I got AA, and it is still some differences between listening and talking/transmitting.

I started involve in a Amatuer Radio association, called MARES (http://www.mares.org.my)/. which fits me well.. "Talk Less. More Action", or "Talk only when needed", which IMHO, the proper or the best way of using the Amatuer Radio.

Nice to meet you, and hope we can QSO sometime in future.

I think you are an 'otai" already and pretty sure you do some DXing on HF. But, till then, I use what I have, and capabilities.

Thank you.
73

This post has been edited by bahathir: Jun 27 2014, 03:04 PM