I’ve got some downtime today, so I’m working on setting up my HT. This involved some hardware and some software upgrades.

First off, the hardware. I’ve had this little Baofeng dual-band HT for a few years, and the antenna is passable, but I thought it was time for an upgrade. This new antenna is a little harder to store since it’s longer, but it’s got noticeably better performance on 2m than the stock antenna. I’ll keep the old one around in case I need something lower profile, but I’m definitely pleased with this change.

Next, the software. Well, and a programming cable. It turns out CHIRP is pretty cool! A cheap programming cable connects my laptop to the HT, CHIRP searches out nearby repeaters for me, and uploads the channel list to the radio. I went through to see which ones I could reach from my house and moved those to the top of the list, then repeated the same process at other locations of import. The result is that I can now get repeater coverage easily through my metro area, and the channels even have friendly human-readable names.

This was a great way to spend a few hours, and I feel more prepared now if I’m out in the field and need comms.