>>4110 Get a programming cable specific to your model radio, and download CHIRP. Before doing any programming, MAKE SURE YOU TAKE A BACKUP of the factory settings and save it, so if you fuck anything up, you can change back to factory easily. Without licensing, you're restricted from actually transmitting under rule of law (in US), but if you set your Baofengs to low power mode and transmit intermittently on an unused channel, you should go unnoticed. Check out repeaters in your AO on repeater book, they're fun to listen to if you find an active one, usually old dudes bitching about shit or just talking about their setups. Baofengs have a really annoying alarm feature which can be set to local only instead of transmitting on the channel you have selected. You can't disable it entirely, and it'll still sound on your radio's speaker if you hit it. I'd like to get a Motorola eventually, but I have fun with my shitty Baofengs.

>>4112 Don't forget to grab a copy of local PD/Fire/EMS (Usually just one or two for dispatch) frequencies. That way you can keep in touch on what's going down in the initial stages. Probably want to write those down.

>>4110 Get a copy of the ARRL study guide and get your HAM license. The books have good info in them, and if you're gonna read the whole thing you might as well get the license. There are a few non-HAM bands you can also tune into on your baofeng - GMRS, MURS, and FRS. Transmitting in these is a bit of a legal grey area though, so keep that in mind if you're going to use them. Generally speaking, so long as you're operating within the specifications of the band and not interfering with anyone else's communications I doubt anyone will complain. As for COMSEC, it depends on what you're trying to accomplish. Radio brevity is the easiest - you can't be tracked if you aren't transmitting so keep transmissions short and to the point. For communications from a semi-permanent station, you may want to invest in a directional antenna like a yagi. This has the double benefit of making your signal stronger for the intended receiver while making it harder to detect from other directions. Naturally, you'll have to have an idea of where the other person is located before you can use it. Conversely, if you're monitoring local freqs, having a directional antenna will give you the basis for beginning your own SIGINT program, as now you can get a rough line of bearing to whatever signals you pick up

I would like to get my HAM loicense but every place that did tests is closed.

>>4431 Yeah, this got me too. Have my technician and was hoping to get the general, but my state closed down the day before I was scheduled to test for general. Have an ICOM 7300 sitting around unused because of this crap.

>>4110 Unless you have someone to talk to, having a radio is pretty useless. However, it's pretty great for figuring out who and what is out there (SIGNIT). Get something entry level for the 2m band (VHF), and an SDR dongle. Antenna's matter a lot, so spend some time learning some basic wire antennas and using directional setups, find and listen to the local traffic using the SDR. This guy has some good intro articles: http s://brushbeater.wordpress.com/ In my part of the world, the CB band is totally dead but the VHF bands are packed so we moved into CB for local contact and HF AM SSB for the long range stuff.

Given that any civilian coms, especially handhelds basically have zero COMSEC to the point that any government and civilian radio operator can listen as they like, what are some good ways of keeping some level of OPSEC? I was thinking making a code sheet for various situations, locations, phrases so any one listen cannot figure out what we are saying but I do not know where to begin. Apologies for the nerco

>>6277 Encrypted packet communication over radio, but that's illegal I believe. Don't know much about it though to be honest

>>6277 Any rtty mode with a rotating code wheel or one time pad, will do the job. Even a scrambler will obfuscate a listener long enough until long after the deed is done.

>>6349 >>6382 These posts made me realize I am way over my head.

>>6424 I wish someone could bless us with a guide or some books to get started on this. With a proper starting point I think we could figure a lot of it out without chasing our tails

>>6382 At that stage why not just use morse code and OTP?

>>6424 Code books were how they did it in WW2. Of course it's not impossible to break, if you use it often enough they can corellate it with the user's actions. But it already presents a substantial barrier to anyone unwilling to invest substantial resources into it, moreso if you combine it with some simple-ish cypher. Or they can just steal the code book, though luckily for you, you don't have a large fleet spread out over thousands of miles, so distributing a new one won't be a logistical nightmare.

>>6349 Definitely illegal, but I hear that the chinamen over at baofeng and anytone don't care and have encryption options available on their digital HTs with a wink and a nudge about not using it unless you've got a proper business license. I bought some anytones on the advice of cuckchan, I'll report back on them once they arrive. The baofeng DMR radio seems half the price though, so it may be worth looking into that.

>>6426 >or some books to get started on this

>>4396 Found this by the way for anyone who wants it. Technician level.

>>6426 Here are two pdfs from a few years ago. Somebody also sent me pic related once which looks like a pretty similar cover, so the strelok might have made more, but I don't think they got posted on 8/k/.

>>7346 I ran into this cover picture as well - always wondered if someone had the full set.

>>7498 Never seen that one but here is a guide on a GIS utility and dumping a bunch of other stuff from the an old 8/k/ thread I have archived.

and some other random refs