UK Handheld Radios....

[fourpaws]

So whilst assembling my BOB kits for the house, I got to thinking about comms should disaster strike in whatever form it may take....

The question(s) is/are (for the knowledgeable out there !)

1. Is it illegal to LISTEN to police/ambulance/emergency services on a scanner (and yep, I know the police have secure Motorola Airwave)
2. IF its not illegal to listen to them, what type of scanner/transceiver have you got and is it any good ?
3. Can anyone recommend or have a good HF/VHF/UHF handheld that could be used in the UK ONLY for emergency comms purposes ?

mattltm - I'm kinda hoping that you may have some answers or help here seeing that you appear (apologies if I'm wrong!) to be a ham fan !

Price isn't an option although silly money is out of the question - I'd rather have quality than some bag of junk microchips etc and therefore expect to pay a bit more for that privilege....

I've looked at the Yaesu VX-5R

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Yaesu-VX-5R-50-144-430-TRIPLE-BAND-HEAVY-DUTY-FM-TRANSCEIVER-/290638671588?pt=UK_ConsumerElectronics_SpecialistRadioEquipment_SM&hash=item43ab6a2ee4#ht_818wt_1185

and it looks pretty good.. and not bad money for what I want it to do...

So, guys and gals... any thoughts ??

Cheers,

Paws.

(oh happy 1st December !! )

[mattltm]

Lol. Yes, I do like ham and cheese

Sorry for the late reply. Getting married really takes up a lot of time!

Ok, here we go...

1. It is illegal to listen to any thing that you do not have a licence for. This includes everything apart from commercial AM/FM/DAB radio and some licence free frequencies. You can not even listen to the marine band unless you have a marine radio licence. That said, there is no pratical of detecting illegal listening (there is a way but its a bit OT for here). From an emergency services standpoint, the system in use is powered by the 02/BT network and not Motorola. Motorola make some of the handheld radios so do Nokia. The system is called Airwave and it uses the TETRA network for secure comms. It is fully digital and every radio device has to register on the network before it can hear the chatter. It is currently 100% secure and the penalties in place for attempting to hack it will mean that it will remain secure for a long time (unless you want to be tried as a terrorist!).

2. See above. I can recommend a few good scanners and some fun stuff to listen to if your interested.

3. There are a ton of cheep Chinese VHF/UHF handhelds on the market BUT, if you are interested in comms, even for emergency only I STRONGLY urge you to do your ham foundation licence. It will give you a basic understanding of radio, propagation, bands, and operating procedures. It will also allow you to legally use the radio that you may buy and help you become a better operator. Many people will go out and buy a simple handheld radio for emergency comms but fail the first time they try to use it in an emergency due to lack of practice.

F.Y.I. - My emergency comms gear shapes up like this...

Yaesu FT857 with a custom build frame that holds a 7ah SLAB. Good for 4 hours at normal use with 50W output.
SGC 211 ATU and a selection of lengths of wire and coax.
A dipole antenna made from 2 telescopic stereo antennas.
A small SWR meter

Those items give me the ability to communicate around the world from any location. I have a bunch of other gear in my radio bag that allows me to do things like set up a local, secure comms network that unlicensed users can legally use. Maybe I could do a post about it?

[fourpaws]

Thanks Matt... Im going to reread this post later on when I get back to my basha... definetly some interesting points.. the Foundation Licence is definetly one thing I've looked into and there is a club/training establisment quite near me as well...

Bring back morse !! haha...

[Angry Sapper]

You want to see the panic involved when an air wave hand set goes walkies. It is truly a sight to see, as long as it wasn't your hand set.

[mattltm]

It's not an issue so long as it is reported. The airwave spec has many security features, not just digital TEAL/DES encryption, that include "over the air" stun that can kill any active radio rendering it useless and a registration system that "logs" radios onto the secure network.

Much better than the old days when we used to have to chase stolen PMR handsets around the county!

[fourpaws]

Matt - guys, my profuse apologies... I have just been going back through my posts and realised that I hadn't got back to you ref your post about comms kit.

I get home in about 4 weeks time and Ive got the address and contact numbers for a HAM club down in Worcs where I live. Im going to give them a shout when I get home and see what I can do about the Foundation licence. I have nearly 23 years in the comms world/background so I dont think that it will give me too much trouble.. however, lets see what it brings !

Next up will be the kit. Im not sure whether to get CB and HAM kit or just go for a HF/VHF/UHF HAM set.. I suppose that all depends on the prices of kit available - again I may bang you a PM and ask for your number/email addy so we can have a chat..

Again, thanks for the help and apologies again for not getting back to you sooner.