As I moved to California about 4 months ago – 33cm all of a sudden was a complete new band for me. Unfortunately there are no commercial HAM radios available (anymore) for 33cm.
So what to do. A little research resulted that I choose for the Motorola solution. 800/900 Mhz Motorola radio´s are available on Ebay for little money and can be used, if you know how to apply the workaround for the band restrictions.
I got a:
- Motorola XPR 6580 handheld
- Motorola XPR 5580e mobile radio
The 6580 I got from Skyler W0SKY, who was great and programmed the first 12 channels for my local repeaters in the radio.
My learnings:
Use a radio with a firmware version below 2.10 which will allow the v1 CPS for programming of the radio. CPS 2 does NOT work and radios that have a firmware that needs CPS2 will therefor also not work.
Antenna
There are not HAM Antennas available for 33cm, but many 900 outdoor antennas exist. I ordered the following from E-Bay (https://www.ebay.com/itm/203957481084):
After I get the antenna delivered, I will test it with my VNA.
It has the following specs:
Electrical Data
Frequency: 900-930 MHz
Gain: 9 dBi
VSWR: < />
Polarization: Vertical
Horizontal Beamwidth: 360°
Vertical Beamwidth: 20°
Nominal Impedance: 50 Ohms
Max Input Power: 50 W
Mechanical Data
Connector: Female
Dimensions: Ø24*1315mm
(diameter*length): /Ø0.95*51.8in
Weight: 0.6kg/1.3lb
Radome Material: Fiberglass
Mounting Method: Mast
Mast Size: Ø25-Ø54mm
Rated Wind Velocity: 210km/h
Operating temperature: -40~+65°C
