[aprssig] Chinese radios for APRS?

[Tom Hayward]

On Fri, Oct 9, 2015 at 9:10 AM, Robert Bruninga via aprssig
<aprssig at tapr.org> wrote:
> We need a cheap radio for our Ham Radio Club (students).
>
> I have not paid attention to any of the cheap Chinese radios.  But I think
> maybe we can get some funds to buy about a half dozen radios for the club.
> But I don’t want to make a dumb purchase.
>
> So, I’d like a radio that has external connections for audio as a minimum,
> plus DTMF memories…  Just about every thing else is just “radio”.
>
> If there is a model that has some true DTMF memories (16 digits) then that
> would be the DECISIVE factor.  I have heard that most Chinese radios only
> have some DTMF signaling, but not memories.

Bob,

You don't make it very clear what your needs are vs your wants. If
it's an APRS transceiver you're going for, check out this one:
http://amazon.com/dp/B00JLB94IS

No, it doesn't have DTMF or even a VFO, but it does a great job with
APRS. By itself, it can run as a tracker, or paired with a
smartphone/computer over Bluetooth it is a full KISS TNC you can use
with standard APRS applications. We've found they fit our use case for
SAR perfectly. I can nerd-out with my Bluetooth APRS app while the
normal people just use it as a black box tracker.

There are lots of other (and cheaper) Chinese handhelds with DTMF,
VFOs, memory channels, but no APRS, if that's what you need. (One
warning: I've seen the Chinese handhelds generate some poor DTMF that
not all DTMF decoders can handle.)

Is an APRS you need or a simple HT?

Tom KD7LXL