1st post- i think about getting a VX7rs

[scitamenic]

hey all this is my first post here. i first saw the site about 1.5 years ago or so and thought it was cool though i never really visited it much. now i think im going to start doing some of this myself (i never even thought about the intercom system until i saw it here).

im thinking about getting the VX7rs - http://www.hamcity.com/Detail.aspx?ID=329 - i heard this is on of the better ones to mod (ive seen tons online too). im not sure exactly but, would this be the right setup to purchase and Hypothetically talk to drive throughs?

i figure this is the best place to ask and get help. thanks.

 

[z09]

Looks fine.  I only have a cheap Kenwood.

[scitamenic]

whats the model of your keenwood? or post a link. can you also provide me with a link on how to mod it so i can talk to drive throughs.

i dont know why but for some reason i just heard the VX7r and the VX5r are really easy to mod and are the 'best'. if i could get away cheeper though i would really like it. im only working part time and going to college, so i try to save most of my money. but if i knew i could get something that works, then i will have no problem spending the money.

thanks for the reply. if i get this to work i plan on recording some of the pranks and phonecalls. i have made some funny calls, but it was just off hte top of my head and this site wants to make me record them.

[z09]

whats the model of your keenwood? or post a link. can you also provide me with a link on how to mod it so i can talk to drive throughs.

i dont know why but for some reason i just heard the VX7r and the VX5r are really easy to mod and are the 'best'. if i could get away cheeper though i would really like it. im only working part time and going to college, so i try to save most of my money. but if i knew i could get something that works, then i will have no problem spending the money.

thanks for the reply. if i get this to work i plan on recording some of the pranks and phonecalls. i have made some funny calls, but it was just off hte top of my head and this site wants to make me record them.

I have an older 8 chanel Kenwood.  It sucks.  You don't need to modify it all you need to do is program the frequecy. 

http://www.epinions.com/pr-TK_2200V8P_KENWOOD_PROTALK_8_CHNL_2WATT_2_WAY_RADIO

What do you have? 

[scitamenic]

right now i dont really have anything but a really old cb (it was my dads form the late 80's or early 90's) and some pos tiny little radios i got when i was like in 7th grade that i dont even know where they are.

ok so im trying to understand this. you are saying if i want to talk to drive throughs, i dont need to open up the ham radio (if thats the right term), and modify it at all? all i need to do is type in the frequenicy? which i could find at say:
http://www.bearcat1.com/fastfood.htm
http://www.monitoringtimes.com/html/EXfastfood.html
or hundreds more.

so essentially, if im getting this right, i would go near a drive through, type in the right frequency, and then start talking to them? no mods needed?

and personially, do you think it would be worth the money to get the VX7? i also plan on talking to other people besides fast food. i think talking to people that work at big hotels, or amusement parks would also be neat. thanks.

[Colonel Panic]

I have an old Yaesu VX-5 (pretty much the predecessor to the VX-7).

It's a great little radio. In performance, it's pretty good for 2m and 70cm. Although 5W sometimes seems a little bit underpowered when out in the suburbs, here in Chicago there are plenty of workable repeaters so it's really not not a problem. Besides, you can get some decent range with a good antenna. Its 6m performance isn't quite as good in my experience, but is still usable though I very seldom work 6m.

The VX-5 receives a range of commercial broadcast, dedicated industrial and public emergency services bands, including commercial AM/FM, TV audio, airlines, many security walkie-talkie frequencies and police/fire...

If you do get one of these Yaesu radios, do yourself a favor and buy the software package. It makes it so much easier to program frequencies or transfer them from one radio to another when you can use your computer instead of that dinky little keyboard and monochrome LCD display.

In case you're wondering, you can't mod these radios to receive/transmit on cell phone frequencies. Even though the bands for those communications are well within the range of the VX series hardware capabilities, the specific frequencies have been blocked at the microprocessor level, so that modification to those ends is not possible (at least not as far as I'm aware).

I haven't used the VX-7 yet, but I'm really happy with the VX-5 for purposes of monitoring or ham radio yakking, anyways.

[z09]

right now i dont really have anything but a really old cb (it was my dads form the late 80's or early 90's) and some pos tiny little radios i got when i was like in 7th grade that i dont even know where they are.

ok so im trying to understand this. you are saying if i want to talk to drive throughs, i dont need to open up the ham radio (if thats the right term), and modify it at all? all i need to do is type in the frequenicy? which i could find at say:
http://www.bearcat1.com/fastfood.htm
http://www.monitoringtimes.com/html/EXfastfood.html
or hundreds more.

so essentially, if im getting this right, i would go near a drive through, type in the right frequency, and then start talking to them? no mods needed?

and personially, do you think it would be worth the money to get the VX7? i also plan on talking to other people besides fast food. i think talking to people that work at big hotels, or amusement parks would also be neat. thanks.

If your radio can go on thoes freqencies then all you need to do is type it in.  If it can't I recomend getting a radio that can.  The vx7 can. 

If the frequncies are pre-programed, like family 2-ways or CB's, you will have to modify it. 

[Colonel Panic]

BTW my dad used to write for Monitoring Times. It's an interesting publication, sort of a listener's guide for shortwave and amateur radio hobbyists. Back in the late '80s he had a column that dealt with intercepting government radio transmissions, including some of the encoding techniques used by US intelligence acencies.

One weekend he had some DEA agents stop by the house to look at his setup, after he'd written a column on monitoring their activities (which included a list of tactical frequencies). I think they wanted to make sure he wasn't a spy for some drug cartel or something.

He was actually listening in on their radio conversations as they discussed meeting at the parking lot of a local home improvement center before coming to our house. A few minutes later, they dropped by and ended up staying for an hour or so.

Turned out they were also amateur radio hobbyists like my dad, so the 3 of them ended up mostly just chatting shop with my dad about radio stuff. Before they left, they politely asked him to refrain from publishing that kind of information in the future. He agreed.

My dad still does a lot of shortwave listening, though he no longer writes for the MT. I encourage you to check out the website though. They have a lot of interesting stuff on there.

[scitamenic]

cool thanks for all the replys. my only last question i can think of then is what is the purpose of the mods for this radio? ive seen several places that have instructions, but what exactly does it do then? i personially thought, for some reason, you needed to mod it to talk to drive throughs. also, i found these instructions on the internet:

Yaesu VX-7 R (VX 7 R VX7R) MARS/CAP and FREEBAND MOD

Remove the battery pack.


Remove the sticker/cover seal for the pressure sensing unit (SU-1), in the battery compartment. This is the black strip above cellular warning label and is where the SU-1 option goes.


Locate row of eight jumpers. They are numbered.


For Mars/Cap, remove solder jumper 5.


For Freeband, remove solder jumper 4 and 5.


Reset microprocessor. (Press and hold in the 4, band, and v/m keys while turning the radio on.


ENJOY
TX Frequencies:
Freeband: 40-224.995Mhz and 300-579.995Mhz
Mars/Cap: 50Mhz-54Mhz, 140Mhz-174Mhz, 222Mhz-225Mhz, and 420Mhz-470Mhz.

     ok now all that just gives it more range and stuff to hear?

thanks for all your help. is hamcity.com a trusted site? they look decent to me, but does anyone have a site they like to order from?

[immabadspellor]

The main differences IMO between the VX5 and the VX7 are that the VX7 is newer, it is submersible and it is made to transmit on the 1.25 meter ham band as well as 6m, 2m and 70cm out of the box. 

Very few ham radios transmit outside of the ham bands without some sort of modification, whether it be holding down 5 buttons at once and turning on the power button, or actually snipping some wires or pulling diodes inside of it, the VX5 and VX7 incliuded.  While these radios will receive out of the ham bands out of the box, they will not transmit outside of them without the modification posted earlier. 

I'd prefer a VX7 over cheaper radios for the fact that it can receive the VHF-low band, where the output of many drive-thru's are.  Many HT's can do 2 meters and 70cm and be modified to go between 138-174 and 400-500 MHz, but not so many can hear between 30-54.  This can be accomplisehd with any old scanner, but if you're looking for an all in one solution, the VX7 is it.  Also, it receives AM broadcast, shortwave, FM broadcast, cordless phones at both 49 (where it will also transmit) and 900MHz, VHF/UHF TV audio and most other services up to 999MHz.  The sensitivity does vary greatly and the antenna that comes with it is only made to work optimally for 6, 2, 1.25 and 70cm. It will transmit just fine on FRS, GMRS, MURS, drive-thru's, wireless mics at Sea World, whatever.  The only thing you could do better would be a W32A or D7 since they can receive and transmit at the same time, but I don't think they have 6m capability, their battery life stinks and they're priced $100 more, although crossband repeating a neighboring McDonalds into a Taco Bell drive through could be interesting. 

The VX7 can also scan for PL tones being used and DCS although I've never heard of a drive through using DCS.  I've heard a McDonalds one using a rapid touch tone at the beginning of their transmission, 0 for speaker and # for headset to headset, combined with a PL tone.  A lot of drive thru's are now going to 900MHz ISM band, which are unlicensed, or licensed in blocks but either way they don't appear in the FCC database.  These are wideband FM which can be received by the VX7 but it cannot transmit there, not that the VX7 can transmit a wideband FM signal anyways.  If you were close enough and had enough power, you could transmit at half the input frequency thus creating a harmonic at the input frequency, but it still would be narrowband and the voice would sound very quiet.  You could probably modify a Motorola Maxtrac or similar to operate at that frequency and bandwidth.  Drive-thru's using this system can be identified by the headsets without a belt pack and have buttons on the side of the headphones.  3M makes them, HME may now as well.  You can pull up the detailed specs on their website for any of their headsets or any of their things including their Opticom traffic light changer for emergency vehicles, thanks 3M! 

[Colonel Panic]

Oh wow. I didn't know the VX7 was a quad-band.

And that's very awesomel. I didn't know that there was a simple mod that allowed those radios to transmit on the industrial frequencies as well. Cool!

I wonder if you could transmit on the airlines frequencies as well... Could be good for a few laughs!

[kcochran]

I'm getting a VX-7R myself, both for legitimate Ham use, but also for the mod'd capabilities.

Keep in mind, while you're probably not going to raise a ruckus screwing with restaurants every now and then, if you start screwing with police/fire/emergency or airport stuff, you're going to bring a LOT of attention to the matter.

Not saying that they'll be able to instantly catch you or anything, simply saying that there's a lot of other things to screw with that aren't going to entail charges of terrorism, were you to get caught.

Now, I need to find myself a radio (even mobile) that's capable of trunking stuff in the 460mhz range - the local Target Distribution Center where some people I know work just changed from simplex to a trunked solution.

[Colonel Panic]

I think 460 MHz falls just above the 70cm ham band. A Yaesu VX-7 modded according to the "MARS/CAP and FREEBAND MOD" instructions (posted by scitamenic above) should work.

Yaesu VX-7 R (VX 7 R VX7R) MARS/CAP and FREEBAND MOD

   1. Remove the battery pack.

   2. Remove the sticker/cover seal for the pressure sensing unit (SU-1), in the battery compartment. This is the black strip above cellular warning label and is where the SU-1 option goes.

   3. Locate row of eight jumpers. They are numbered.

   4. For Mars/Cap, remove solder jumper 5.

   5. For Freeband, remove solder jumper 4 and 5.

   6. Reset microprocessor. (Press and hold in the 4, band, and v/m keys while turning the radio on.

   7. ENJOY

TX Frequencies:
Freeband: 40-224.995Mhz and 300-579.995Mhz
Mars/Cap: 50Mhz-54Mhz, 140Mhz-174Mhz, 222Mhz-225Mhz, and 420Mhz-470Mhz.

In case you want to see the webpage they came from, it's here.

So there ya go.

[immabadspellor]

The VX7 does key up in the aviation band, however I'm not sure how much power it outputs there nor if it does so in AM.  The further you get from the ham bands the less efficiently the radio operates and the less power it will put out, especially with the factory rubber duck antenna.  Another thing which sets the VX7 apart from other tri/quad band HT's is that it will transmit in AM on 6 meters, so it's possible that it does so on the aviation band as well.  As a private pilot, I've been in a situation before where I've lost all electrical power in the plane due to a failed alternator and having this HT at the time would have been great to call out on the unicom frequency of the airport.  Landing at a controlled field would have been next to impossible without a radio, and if you did land you'd have been interrogated upon landing as well.  These radios are not type approved for use on anything but the ham bands, but if I was ever in a life threatening emergency I would feel that much more comfortable knowing that I have a much better chance of getting a hold of someone with my HT opened up and I would not hesitate to use 121.5, police frequencies or whatever if it was a true emergency. 

Messing with aviation frequencies is bad.  Don't do it.  You can put many others lives in jeopardy and you have a good chance of getting caught.  There are low earth orbiting satellites whose sole purpose in life is to monitor the aircraft band, specifically the emergency and ELT frequencies.  If you go messing with it, they will hunt you down and show no mercy.  Not that messing with drive thru's is legal, but this is very illegal and can be life threatening. 

You could actually get licensed by the FCC to the same frequencies as what drive thrus are on and then just happen to use the same PL tones.  Drive thru's don't have exclusive use to their frequencies and are not protected so this is a possibility.  A fun, legal thing to do would be to post a sign on the drive thru speaker saying "Sing happy birthday to the drive thru person and get a free frosty" and listen to the fun afterwards.  Be creative.  You can put all sorts of signs out there and they'd never know what the heck was going on.  I know you'll find telling fatso in the McD's drive thru how her diet coke isn't going to help her much after her supersized double big mac meal much more entertaining but the former is an option for those with just scanners and no transmit capabilities too. 

Do the freeband mod.  It's just removing one more jumper with your snot sucker, or iron and braid.    Also, I think you'll find that the TX drop off is around 555 MHz rather than 580.  The protection circuitry inside the radio cuts it off much above this point.  The circuits are just not tuned to work at those frequencies on transmit.  I don't think that will be a big deal breaker for anyone as there's not much up there but TV and some wireless mics may go that high.

The VX7 also has a "channel counter" which is sort of a frequency counter, but slower and you have to have at least some sort of idea of what frequency they're on.  You can punch in 460 MHz and have it do a 10 MHz +/- sweep which takes about 5 seconds and if someone nearby is transmitting for that 5 seconds somewhere between 450 and 470 MHz you will lock onto their frequency.  Not as easy nor fast as an Optoelectronics Xplorer, but it is also about $500 cheaper and can transmit, too.  It also has a 16,581,375 color LED which is so 31337!

[kcochran]

You know, the great thing about the FCC and radio is that it's all public record.

For example, the Taco Bell in Albany, OR by K-Mart has their frequencies listed here:

http://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/UlsSearch/licenseFreqSum.jsp?licKey=1736895
The other Taco Bell in Albany has their frequencies here:

http://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/UlsSearch/licenseFreqSum.jsp?licKey=1727587

The ULS is pretty damned cool.

 

Other things are a wee bit harder to find, but not impossible.

For example, as I mentioned, the Target Distribution Center in Albany recently bought all new radio equipment, and changed from simplex to a trunked system.

Their old frequencies were registered in Albany, their new ones are registered to their corporate offices in Minnesota.  You just need to know the "store number" of the DC.