Last week, my wife remembered that a husband of a co-worker who was no longer interested, was selling some ham stuff and she scored this on Tuesday for $100.



A Yaesu FT70, hardly used with box, manual. This will be used to monitor ham frequencies and maybe transmit future local ham emergency channels.

But the cool thing is today, I performed the "MARS mod" on it, allowing transmitting on 137-174 and 420-470 MHz frequencies. Yes, GMRS transmissions. It is actually a good radio, works well.

Some “radio Karens” might tell you that’s illegal. I’d do the same mod if I were you though

The clear case version is $10 cheap than the $59 black one I use for the HT home base station. Better display than the BF IMHO.

Edit: looking at the pics, I'd rather pay the extra $10 actually.

(2nd Gen) TIDRADIO H8 GMRS Handheld Radio with Bluetooth Programming, Repeater Capable, NOAA, Long Range Two Way Radios, Walkie Talkie with 771 Long Antenna, Rechargeable Battery - Crystal, 1Pack https://a.co/d/eIWddgw

Or the green for $55

(2nd Gen) TIDRADIO H8 GMRS Handheld Radio with Bluetooth Programming, Repeater Capable, NOAA Weather, Dual Band Long Range Two Way Radios with 2500mAh Rechargeable Battery- Green, 1Pack https://a.co/d/4JLbrZR

quote:

Originally posted by oddball:
Last week, my wife remembered that a husband of a co-worker who was no longer interested, was selling some ham stuff and she scored this on Tuesday for $100.

A Yaesu FT70, hardly used with box, manual. This will be used to monitor ham frequencies and maybe transmit future local ham emergency channels.

But the cool thing is today, I performed the "MARS mod" on it, allowing transmitting on 137-174 and 420-470 MHz frequencies. Yes, GMRS transmissions. It is actually a good radio, works well.

Nice!! I think that's going for about $160 locally. It's a more feature rich version, including digital, of what I bought. Mine is analog only. If I buy more, I may buy digital capable versions.

Let me know how you set yours up (Yaesu SW? RT ADMS sw? Chirp?). I bought the Yaesu USB-Serial cable but haven't decided what PC sw to use yet.

The mod is just a desolder / resolder a specific cap?

^^^^^^^^^^^

I haven't done any programming on it, just inputed some frequencies in its memory banks. I haven't even hooked up my Wouxun HTs to a computer, no need for me to do so. But for now, the FT70 is on the back burner, the Wouxuns are my main radios for two-way comms. And yes, the MARS mod was knocking off a soldered resister with a tiny screwdriver, which opens up frequencies for transmitting.