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I bought this power & SWR meter and dummy load from Amazon:<br>
<br>
SURECOM SW-33 Mark II VHF/UHF 100W Power & SWR Meter<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B075H8FDDR">https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B075H8FDDR</a><br>
<br>
Hestish 50 Ohm Dummy Load RF Coaxial Termination<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B077PC9ZLD">https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B077PC9ZLD</a><br>
<br>
Total spent at the time (including sales tax) was approx. $60 USD.
That's just about the price of a new BF-F8HP from BaoFeng Tech. But
at that point I was already over a dozen HTs into the
hobby/obsession, so what the heck...<br>
<br>
My specific use case for these items was to fine tune output power
on my BTECH DMR-6X2 after putting it in test mode. "Low" power at
the ~1W factory setting is way too high for my needs, and I ended up
cutting that back to 500 mW (still far higher than I need to hit a
hotspot in the same room).<br>
<br>
IMHO, this power meter worked fine for that task, but I wouldn't
trust it to fine tune any increase in power levels. I have no way
to know how well it's calibrated, other than to compare it's
readings to what I expected to see on the 1/2.5/5/7W settings of my
DMR-6X2. And the differences in the lower power readings between
the VHF vs. UHF bands leads me to believe that the factory
calibration on this radio is not that accurate.<br>
<br>
I was already licensed by the time I did this, but I'm curious as to
the opinion of the list here:<br>
<br>
Does pressing PTT with a dummy load in place of an antenna still
constitute "transmitting" per the letter of the FCC regs?<br>
<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 6/3/2020 1:57 PM, Stefan Halvorsen
via chirp_users wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:18572200.1606031.1591217848070@mail.yahoo.com">
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<div id="yiv5020370810"><br>
I ordered the kid from Amazon that included the TIDRADIO
"version" of what I believe is the BF-F8HP because it's 8 watt
high, 4watt medium, and 1 watt low.
<div id="yiv5020370810yMail_cursorElementTracker_1591217175640">I
can confirm that the cable in the kits labeled it had FTDI
chip worked with chirp, and my Linux machine running Linux
mint 19.3. </div>
<div id="yiv5020370810yMail_cursorElementTracker_1591217252351">I
did have to run chmod command before chirp had access to the
USB0. Without the command it says access denied in chirp when
I try to clone from radio.</div>
<div id="yiv5020370810yMail_cursorElementTracker_1591217308937">I
followed protocol of how to plug in and in what order and it
was able to download from radio with no issue. Max volume on
radio.</div>
<div id="yiv5020370810yMail_cursorElementTracker_1591217339658">Also,
I was able to select BF-F8HP as the device and was able to set
power levels for each freq in low/Med/high. </div>
<div id="yiv5020370810yMail_cursorElementTracker_1591217381903">I
was able to successfully download program to radio. </div>
<div id="yiv5020370810yMail_cursorElementTracker_1591217450996">I
have no way to measure transmit power to know if it's actually
8 watt or actually has 3 power levels, since I haven't gotten
my license yet and am just listening while I study. I also
have no device to measure.</div>
<div id="yiv5020370810yMail_cursorElementTracker_1591217511270">I
have heard that some shady companies are marketing these
radios as 3 power levels and 8 watts on high and some hacking
firmware to show 3 levels but only transmitting 4 watt on
medium and high. But it does seem legit.</div>
<div id="yiv5020370810yMail_cursorElementTracker_1591217567390">TIDRADIO
told me this was their OEM version of the BF-F8HP. </div>
<div id="yMail_cursorElementTracker_1591217665244">BF-F8HP seems
to be the BTech oem version.</div>
<div id="yMail_cursorElementTracker_1591217693421"><br>
</div>
<div id="yMail_cursorElementTracker_1591217694459">But I wanted
to confirm that, at least with my Linux distro Linux mint 19.3
and chmod command, I was able to download to chirp and select
the BF-F8HP as the model to set 3 power levels on frequencies.</div>
<div id="yMail_cursorElementTracker_1591217762110"><br>
</div>
<div id="yMail_cursorElementTracker_1591217762935">I will try on
my windows machine but the way I see it, if it works on my
Linux machine then it'll easily work on windows.</div>
<div id="yMail_cursorElementTracker_1591217816209"><br>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
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