Episode 122 - Talkpod A36plus, another option for a new radio.

Following up on the video I just posted about the new Talkpod A36plus handheld.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hello everyone, Happy Tuesday. Currentlymobile heading to Orlando, Florida to do
some prep ahead of the Hurricane Idalia. We may need some generators that we
have a storage for the Big Bendarea and deploying at some sites, so

(00:20):
as some Honda portable generators, bigones, we may need those. So
we're going to make sure that wehave generators run, you know, do
some some PM on them. Makesure that they're all set ready to go.
Because we don't use them a lot. They sit there, and what
happens when things sit They don't runwhen you need them, right, So
always make sure you test your generators. Currently beaconing on APRS on three ninety

(00:44):
using my FT five days two.I just got finally got the stream tector
taken off and played with the radioa little bit. So if you want
to follow me APRS dot FI andyou can kind of see where I'm going
today, what I'm doing and againan episode about one hundred episodes ago.

(01:06):
I did you know APR S It'sit's a tactical exchange of information, So
it is not a way to watchme like a social media Hey look where
I'm doing, but I you knowwhat, here's your here's your homework for
today. Here's your challenge. Ifyou have APRIS and you're familiar, send
me a message to my radio kJfour y z I DASH seven. You
can go on there on your radioand send a message to me. Uh.

(01:30):
And I want to see if Iget it today. You know,
my my inbox on my ac FTfive D is lonely. So let's you
know, send me a message sayhey, what's up listening to you on
the podcast. That'll be extra credit. There's your extra credit. Send me
a message, not through email today, but through APRIS. I would love
to hear. It's so awesome.Uh. And we'll see how many people

(01:52):
actually have come through with that,and maybe I'll I did that one time
with a YouTube video with Windlink andboy it flooded my wind windlingk email.
You know you could use you coulduse APRS on a radio to send emails
through win Link and text messages andcell phones. But let's do it traditional.
Send me send me a message tomy radio via APR s. That'd

(02:13):
be cool. So yesterday last nightwas the first video I've done in a
long time. And actually, likeI said previous podcasts, the first video
I've done in many years without havinga drink, and not to say that
all my videos I was drunk,but you know a shot or two would
warm me up. Well. Idid a video last night on the Talk
Pod A thirty six plus handheld thatwas sent to me from a seller on

(02:37):
Amazon. Need a little radio soundspectacular. Uh, it's a It's got
a few cool features in it.Let's all the goods and bads, because
I know there's people that don't listenor don't watch my YouTube videos. They
just listen on this podcast and guys, I love you guys. You guys
are awesome. So to Talk PodA thirty six. You know everybody knows
where a Balfang is. Balfeg prettymuch started. I mean that's how he

(02:59):
started. Of My YouTube channel wasa bou thing UV five r U if
you if you haven't heard this story, I ordered one on Amazon twenty twelve,
thirteen and it was brand new.People weren't even making YouTube videos on
them yet. And I didn't evenhave a hand radio YouTube channel. In
fact, I think I had mychannel before Josh and Jason and though but

(03:22):
I had a vaping channel for Eastsagarettes. I used to do the same
thing as I do here for Eastsagarettes. Man, I had these mods.
I had one twenty four carat goldplate at me. These companies were
sending me stuff every day. Therewas a box at my door. Mods
and you know, ones that hadEP three players built all kinds of crazy
stuff. But that was not thatthe peak when vaping first came out,
so that was like two thousand seven, eight and nine. I had a

(03:45):
YouTube channel, early in YouTube days. So then I made I got this
V five R and two of themcame in the box I ordered on for
China and I so I got mistake, you know, a mistake here.
I got two of them. Wouldyou like me to send one? And
he goes, no, no,just don't worry about you keep it as
our fault. I said, well, how about I make a video on
it and we'll call it even youknow, and okay, if you want

(04:08):
to do that, cool. SoI made a video on it. It's
still to this day it's got onlya half a million views. That was
like my first video using a oldphone on a table where you didn't see
my face and oh yeah that wasold man. But anyways, that's what
started this. So this is likeyou know, nowadays when you talk about
a cheap Chinese radio as they callit, they're starting to get actually pretty

(04:30):
decent. There's a couple of flaws. This one's a flaw I'll tell you
about. But you know, aUV five R is still a staple.
And if it wasn't for that radio, there's tens of thousands of people that
would have never got their hand licensebecause it's expensive. Like this radio I
bought here. I sold a coupleof things. I had a couple of
points somewhere on a website from sellingother things back in the day. And

(04:54):
this FT fived he didn't cost meanything. Because I can't afford to buy
this right now. I needed likea hole in the head. So this
FT five D did not cost meanything. And but a lot of people
don't have that option, and Icertainly don't. So the talk pod eight
thirty six is like about a fiftydollars radio and a little bit better than

(05:16):
the battle thing. Why well,first of all, I love the color
of the thing. If a couplea couple of colors, I got the
lime green. I mean, thisthing is really just cool. It draws
attention when people look at it.Nice color screen, a dual line color
screen that's easy to read outdoor andindoor, and you know, nice flashy
green. Or you can get thecrystal, which is like a clear gray
and a couple of other colors.The audio quality is spectacular. And I

(05:42):
set this in the video, I'llstay it on the podcast. This is
gonna hurt some people, including myself. I have a ID fifty two icon,
which was like six hundred dollars andI bought it. I have a
y FT five D, which istheir top and line hand held, which
goes from under five hundred, andthat fifty dollars hand held has better audio
than both of those radios. That'sterrible. I'm not saying they are way

(06:06):
better engineers than the A Suit icon. The acas and the icons are referring
to have a waterproofing membrane, andit's kind of it muddles the sound.
I could take that talk pod leavingon my seat next to me and have
it cranked up in volume and Ican hear it clear across the truck with
wind in my ear. These yougotta have them facing your up to your

(06:26):
ear. I mean, they're notthat loud. So although there are waterproof
when this talk pod really, isn'tit splashproof, not submersible or whatever.
So that's the difference. You can'thave waterproof submersible millspeck with clear crystal clear
audio, you know what I mean, you got one or the other.
So that's why they increased the audioand the icon in the AC to one
wat instead of seven hundred and fiftyMilliwatt's the speaker to overpower that because people

(06:50):
complain about it. It's just notloud enough, though, I don't think
it works. If you're in thehouse, it's loud enough. If you're
out field, in the field,you're gonna have to have that thing somewhere
by your ear if it's windy outto hear it. Okay, So the
talk pod great audio. A coupleof people I talked to when the repeaters
and I sounded fantastic. Wow,what kind of radio is that? Well,
it's a fifty dollars cheap talk poteight thirty six plus and you know,

(07:15):
so great. The screen's good,the color is good, it sounds
good. I like how it hasUSB C charging. A lot of these
manufacturers, well the for instance,I mean that's a probably a three point
seven volt battery in there. Andthat's the reason you could charge a lot
of these radios, these China radiosthat are coming out with USBC because the
USBs five bowl, the YA suitin the icon were will usually seven point

(07:36):
four volt batteries. You can't chargea seven point four vault with a five
volt and you know they do havetwelve volt card actors and stuff. But
the talk pod you could charge witha battery bank. You can charge it
with a hand cranked dynamo. Youcan charge it with a laptop USB port.
You could charge it with a solarpanel that's got the USB five volt
output. That's cool for an emergencysituation, having something in a go kit

(08:01):
or a dashboarded glove box like abeat a radio that you could just you
know, for fifty bucks if itgets damaged whatever. You know, if
you want to let your friend borrowit. You don't want to let them
borrow the gays to FT five Dbecause they may break it. You may
never get it back. If youwant to get somebody into ham radio,
and you really need to be thatperson to buy it in that radio the
top pod. Listen to this guydoing one hundred and forty ninety five.

(08:28):
Can you hear that? That dudeis gone? He was in a cheat?
What was that A thirty five?Yeah, he's gone. Anyways,
where was I going with that?So a cheap radio is always good to
have, but you know the badthing about this one is the spectral purity
it is And actually the company hassent it to me, wrote an email

(08:50):
last night, probably overseas accumulately threein the morning, and I was sleeping
and I saw it this morning,said thank you for your honest review,
thank you for providing your detailed feedback. They didn't ask me to say anything,
they said, they just and that'swhy I like. They said,
we understand your comments on the spectralpurity for the RF. You know,

(09:13):
emissions are harmonics that are coming offthis thing in certain places, and they
said, we've seen that from otherYouTube channels, so we're going to work
on that. Now. That isa good customer service base if they really
do because surprise they had YouTubers.I didn't do this, because there's five
Seclory YouTubers that did this. Theyput it on a spectral analyzer and I
could have used an writ too.I could have used a comm one twenty

(09:37):
service monitor. I could have useda lot of different things that I have
in my possession to do this,to say, oh, but no,
these guys already showed it. There'scertain harmonics and they're not bad. They're
they're not terrible. But guess what, every bound thing in the world probably
did this, every one of theseTID radios and everything else, you know.
And the reason is is because thiscame as a GMRS radio. Okay,

(10:01):
that's how it's marketed, GMRS radiowith hand capability. What does that
mean? You hold the PTT button, you hold number eight, and you
turn it on. There goes expandmode. Now you can talk anywhere one
thirty six, one seventy, fourhundred and forty. Now I do use
GMRS, but it's not as popularas I'd like it to be. But

(10:22):
now you just expand it. Sowhat happens when you have a radio that
transmits that wide like that, Well, there's no way that could filter that
whole entire radio for fifty hours tobe able to be clean emissions on all
these frequencies. You know, ifit was a GMRS locked radio with no
possibility of using it on HAM andthey you know, because it says FCC

(10:43):
accepted. Well, guess what thatwent out the window when I opened it
up with the PTT and eight buttonbecause it's not approved to be used on
HAM. But they know people aregonna do this, that's why they did
it. But they said they're gonnawork on it. So that's cool.
Now are you gonna notice that?No? Is it wrong for me to
use the radio that is spurious emissions? Yes? Have I done it before?

(11:09):
Yes? Have you done it before? You're probably doing it right now.
But if you want my honest opinion, I'd rather people have a little
spur here and there and get onthe radio. Then people say, well,
I can't use radio because I can'tafford a five hundred dollars pure radio,
and this one's got a harmonic andthe two hundred and eighty five mega
hurts so or three hundred and fourteenmega hurts, those are spurious emissions,

(11:30):
so I can't use this. Thenwe're gonna go back to you know,
nobody's on the radio because whatever.But unless unless you're causing emissions are harmful
interference to people that are directly affected, and alerting you that you are causing
interference, I say it's Okay,that's just that's just my take on this.

(11:54):
So yeah, the Little Talk PodA thirty six plus for those of
you. I think this is thefirst time I've ever done a podcast where
I kind of visually reviewed a notvisually audio reviewed over a podcast when I
thought about a radio. So,I don't know, is it beneficial to

(12:15):
you? Dude? Does this?Uh? Does this make you thick?
Let me know if you know.I just figured something to talk about.
Man, I gotta burned some ofthis drive time, you know. And
like I said, I got somuch energy now not not on this uh,
not on this alcohol currently day seven, everybody hold on this. One's

(12:35):
got a all right? Day seven? Yes, I feel great, I
feel good, I feel wonderful,yes, so uh yeah, a lot
of energy. I got a channelthis energy into other stuff, so too.
I think tonight I'll make a videoon that radiotity QT forty h ten
meter radio which with a jumper,can we move to eleven and ten very

(12:56):
simply? Which I think will bepretty fun to have in my diesel,
my personal truck, because man,eleven meters on fire if I if I
go to eleven right now, we'regonna try it. There we go,
There we go, hold on,let me get out. I don't I
don't know if I have the antennatune for that. Let's say there,

(13:22):
good man, there's people on elevenmeters twenty seven three eight five, So
that'd be fun to have that thingthat was on my icon seventy mod it,
but that'd be fun to have inthe diesel. So there's people out
there talking. The one guy onin Delray four two nine, del Ray

(13:45):
Boy, he's got a pile upall the time. This guy's always got
someone calling for him in Delray Beach. And again I work these people on
eleven and I have just this iconseventy one hundred, so no crazy moon
acres with thousands of lots man andI got like fourteen cvs. I'm like
garage. I want to get playingwith again. When I get my shed

(14:07):
set up this weekend as my hamshocked. That's where everything's going, and
then I'll be able to start makingvideos out there. Didn't get done last
winter, probably because I was drinkingso much or just partying. So this
winter when it gets cold, alot of things are happening. So stay
tuned, and hey guys, thankeverybody. For listening. The ratings are
still showing I got forty something thousanddownloads, dude, So I know that

(14:31):
right now, when I did thispodcast in the morning, there's gonna be
about one hundred and ten to onehundred and thirty people that listen at this
time when I post this, it'sten sixteen. Now when I post this,
in about ten minutes, I seethat spike, then it flattens out,
and then later on you'll see thingstrickle in. But forty thousand downloads
on this podcast, I think that'spretty cool. That's pretty cool. It's

(14:52):
just a podcast about nothing. Ifif I really wanted to, I could
change the name of it. IfI didn't want to be HAM related,
I could make it a podcast aboutanything. I could talk about my Emerald
Legassi pasta machine that I use onthe daily now making fresh homemade pasta.
Last night I made zd Or Penneynight before I made Ravolis. Dude.

(15:15):
I can make a podcast about anything, but it is the Ham Radio Concepts
podcast. So whatever. If youdon't care what I make a podcast on,
let me know Ham Radio Concepts atgmail dot com. Tell me,
hey, man, I don't carewhat I listened to As long as it's
something to keep me entertained, I'lllisten. Hey, that'd be great.
Thanks to my sponsors, Ham RadioPrep with their new HF Masterclass, which
I'm making a video on that tomorrow. The HF Masterclass will make you a

(15:41):
better hand radio operator and get youinto DX, get you into all those
bands. Which bands are open atthis time of day? Which bands are
the best? What kind of antennadoes this? What does propagation mean?
How do I know when to callsecure, what bands work at this time?
Or how to really dig out thosecontacts? Man, the HF Master
Class is epic. And if youuse the code Eric twenty save twenty percent

(16:04):
on that as well. So upgradeto your general use the code ERIC twenty
save twenty percent. Get the HFMasterclass from Hammer Radio Prep. Use the
code Eric twenty save twenty percent onthat, and man, you'll be having
way more fun because everybody says it, I got my general, I got
my icon seventy three hundred. Nowwhat, well, the what is going

(16:26):
to be using Hammerdio Prep to showyou what you can do with that radio?
So thank you to Hammer Dio Prepfor being a great sponsor. And
hey, guys, stay safe ina hurricane if you're in the affected area.
If I end up going up thereto assist, I will do some
podcasts and some video footage to showsome of the aftermaths. I'll probably be
up there assisting. Maybe we'll findout. But everybody that's there, listen,

(16:51):
get prepared, be ready, geta plan, have a plan,
execute your plan, stay safe.Family first. Possessions can be rebought and
rehad, rebuilt, but human livesare the utmost importance. And if you're
in that area and you're deciding tostay like I would, because I will
not run, It's just me notsaying run like anybody's running like this should.

(17:11):
I'm saying I'm hard headed. I'mnot gonna leave my area if there's
Camp five because the first thing Iwant to do is be in that area
to assist. I want to goright to my neighbors, right to my
family, and right to my friends. That's that's why I'm not leaving because
it's not coming here. But ifthere's a hurricane coming here, everybody knows
ricane going nowhere, because I'm gonnabe deployed, ready to go to help

(17:32):
and assist in my immediate neighborhood rightaway. So if you are staying in
that hurricane, which is gonna becatastrophic in some areas along the coast,
do yourself. If you're a hamradio operator, do yourself favorite have your
radios on and ready in the eventthat you need to relay traffic or emergency
response. You know, if somebody'sthere and they're calling for help and nobody's

(17:55):
listening to the radio, at least, don't don't. You don't have to
get in and involve yourself in arepeater or a net or an aria's activation.
Just be listening. You never knowwho might pick up a radio and
say help, I need help.Emergency may be that person to be able
to reach out, calling out onone or relay a message to somebody else
who's in the area to help.So think about that. Do yourself or

(18:17):
do do something, show people thatyou have your hand radio stuff ready to
go. You may not need it, but someone else made me to talk
to you. So just think aboutthat and with that, eighteen minutes,
all right, guys, take care. Seven three