True Dual Band vs Multi Function Single Reciever

[jsek29]

I am looking to add a radio to the Jeep and want VHF and UHF. We travel full time and do not have a home base nor a regular group we go out with. However, we have found ourselves meeting up with people that use radios and it would be nice to have our own. Some use 2m, some use 70cm.

I was looking at the Yaesu FTM 300DR, as it meets those needs. It is dual band/dual receive. Then I stumbled upon the FTM 6000DR and the new FTM 200DR. These are both dual band, single receive. I want to know what the advantages and drawbacks are, given my usage set, of these two types of radio. Is dual receive that much more useful than single receive? Thoughts?

 

[WanderingBison]

I’m certainly not the most experienced or knowledgeable Ham out there (I’m at best a Noob) but have the FTM400 and use it for exactly the same type of use you are considering.

We live full time on the road and had planned to drive the PanAm starting in 2019 …. Well, maybe we’ll start this year

I think dual band receive is a key feature.

If you intend to use APRS, having the ability to receive and transmit (albeit data) is great, but I’m not using APRS as much as I thought I would. I’ll likely eventually dedicate a separate radio for APRS and to receive AIS.

Being able to tune to receive two channels is handy if you are trying to keep in touch with your travel group while monitoring the local repeater or monitoring a GPRS channel for some in the group without a Ham radio.

It’s also really useful in severe weather situations (we were in NOLA this week) to monitor a couple of channels to stay on top of weather observers and the local NWS weather channel or another emergency channel.

It’s also useful if you like monitoring a couple of frequencies while you’re at an airport (think air show or to watch traffic).

These might all apply to your use case but I find I use monitoring two frequencies more than I had considered, hence not using APRS as much.

Hope this helps - feel free to fire any questions you might have.


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[wirenut]

If you use APRS then dual receivers allows use of it and voice at the same time. The Yaesu FTM-400 (and probably others) allow you to put the frequency the other band is set to into your APRS message. Then, someone monitoring APRS traffic can call you on that frequency if they want.
If you want to use the cross-band repeat function then you MUST have a true dual band radio. I use this funciton a lot when I'm working in areas with no cell phone coverage. I keep a small HT in my pocket and set up the radio in my truck for cross-band repeat to a repeater that my wife can access from our house. If she needs to contact me during the day I can hear her even if I'm in an attic, crawl space, basement, etc.
When just driving around solo I often monitor a local repeater and have the other band on scan. Sometimes I will set the other band to monitor 146.52.

 

[BigJimCruising]

I won't have anything other then a dual band radio. One channel for the group or friends I'm on the road or trail with and one for any local repeaters I can find just in case everything goes down the river without the paddles sort of thing. We are often outside of cell coverage so Ham is a great backup plan. If traveling single I'll usually listen to the national simplex channel and hopefully nearby repeaters, again just in case. Oh, and I also have an HF radio for the really really just in case situations! 73's

 

[vtsoundman]

I have both single and dual band radios (multiple of each).

Pretty simple:
I've never wished I had single band...but I have wished I had a dual band many times in the vehicles that have a FTM100Dr (single band, 'dual rcv')or similar.

Cross band repeater, APRS, monitoring 70cm and 2Mhz at the same time...(ex: local repeater and convoy/buddy)..dual band all the way.



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