MDF Radio Equipment List
HF Receiving: For Digital Messaging:
General purpose antennas - Pick one based on your kit and where you want to mount your radio.
- Beofeng or Quansheng. Doesn’t matter the radio.
- K1 Data Interface Cable: https://a.co/d/gTtlmXh
- Phone/Tablet
- Radio: Quansheng UV-K6 UV-K5(8) https://a.co/d/1BBCCEa
- 40db Attenuator: https://www.amazon.com/BNC-J-K-Coaxial-Attenuator-6-0GHz-1-40db/dp/B07JN5XND1/
- Antenna:
- Yagi (Note these antenna’s are ONLY good for direction finding on GMRS and Ham 70cm band, but can also be used to boost transmit power in that direction as well. If the signal is on the 2m band or MURS, it will NOT work.)
- https://a.co/d/2iTpDqb Yagi 400-470MHz
- https://a.co/d/9yLgHtH Yagi 400-470MHz Foldable
- Loop Antenna
- (we will be building our own in July)
- https://www.arrowantennas.com/main/fhl.html This plugs directly on the top of the radio, works on all freqs the Baofeng transmits on, and is more precise. BUT it cannot be used for transmit and is bidirectional - the bearing may be for directly in front or directly behind you. I have a homemade version that only works on 2m/MURS but I hope to improve the design to work on GMRS/70cm as well.
- Yagi (Note these antenna’s are ONLY good for direction finding on GMRS and Ham 70cm band, but can also be used to boost transmit power in that direction as well. If the signal is on the 2m band or MURS, it will NOT work.)
- Hardware:
- https://a.co/d/ipzkYRp 8Pcs SMA Female to BNC Female
- https://a.co/d/5exQu5X BNC Cable
- https://a.co/d/8ECj8Zt BNC to UHF Antenna Adapter (1)
- https://a.co/d/66PgLS3 (BNC Male to SMA Male)
- Extra:
- TinySA Ultra Spectrum Analyzer 100kHz-5.3GHz,V0.4.5.1 https://shorturl.at/vW2ie
General purpose antennas - Pick one based on your kit and where you want to mount your radio.
- Any "dual band" antenna for 2m/70cm OR ~144MHz and ~440MHz will work.
- I use a CaaTail antenna that can be woven into my chest rig or plate carrier, and it comes with the BNC adapter: https://caatailantennas.com/collections/frontpage/products/baofeng-wearable-antenna-package
- If you want to be able to use yours handheld as well, a short BNC antenna or a "signal stick" stule long, flexible whip is a good choice: https://www.amazon.com/BNC-Antenna-HYS-701N-Kenwood-Handheld/dp/B0749NVPN2
- Another good antenna choice that is super flexible: https://www.amazon.com/GRA-SMA24-Super-Elastic-Flexible-Vertical-Dual-Band/dp/B07VDX5VRQ/