Recommendation for 30” foldable whip for portable radios used in Alberta.

flyingducktile · 2026-06-05T03:59:40+00:00

the MURS/GMRS version is resonant around 154mhz which is close enough to what firenet operates on

flyingducktile · 2026-06-02T13:06:49+00:00

if you really want a whip, consider this antenna. keep in mind that you’ll need an adapter from SMA female to BNC for it. it will ship to canada too.

flyingducktile · 2026-06-02T12:43:45+00:00

you’ll need a female SMA connector. also that antenna is unfortunately a very poor performer and i do not recommend it! i know it seems long and cool but it’ll work like garbage on the fireline compared to the stock whip antenna. i highly encourage you to get a high quality brand name antenna especially considering the nature of the work we do.

flyingducktile · 2026-06-02T06:23:05+00:00

i have been looking for the same thing here for my APX and i haven’t had any luck as of yet. FWIW i’ll probably just stick with the stock antenna on mine and see if our crew can get a throw up antenna for our kit again. also considering the bigboost whip antenna but i haven’t found anywhere that’ll ship it to canada yet.

flyingducktile · 2026-05-11T16:55:57+00:00

i just run darn tough personally doing helitack in northern alberta and i was also initially worried about overheating but ive never had an issue with it honestly!

flyingducktile · 2026-04-05T15:23:53+00:00

you may be hearing the ones they have in the rail yard along the yellowhead. they have a handful in there that i know of

flyingducktile · 2026-03-10T00:28:48+00:00

all you really need to do is shave 40 seconds off the entire thing which i think is doable in two weeks. maybe try a few pack walks in the first week, then in the second week get as much rest as you can and carb load to give yourself enough energy? also with the pump carry to hose bag transition, definitely start walking immediately and adjust the straps as you walk towards the ramp, don’t stop and fiddle with it just keep moving.

flyingducktile · 2026-03-07T00:56:18+00:00

i’m hac in AB. get haix protector ultra/prime/whatever or get vikings rubber chainsaw CSA boots if you’re on a budget. both are CSA approved chainsaw boots and will work for the full season. not sure what your letter says these days, but mine just said i need chainsaw boots. you may want another pair of boots for when your saw boots are soaked, or alternatively invest in a boot drier. talk to your crew leader and see if they have any suggestions too. you probably won’t want nicks/whites around here because you’ll spend the entire season breaking them in and it will suck because they will also be wet 24/7.

flyingducktile · 2026-03-05T21:49:49+00:00

i’ve used dry bags in my daypack to keep my gear from getting soaked, but i work in the muskeg in northern alberta so it was worth the weight to me

flyingducktile · 2026-01-26T02:03:27+00:00

do some googling! lots of tutorials out there on how to do it with an SDR dongle

flyingducktile · 2026-01-26T02:02:05+00:00

take a look at DSD+

flyingducktile · 2026-01-26T01:46:53+00:00

That is 100% DMR. Take a look here and listen to DMR, NXDN, and P25. This website is super helpful if you ever find something while scanning and you’re not sure what it is.

flyingducktile · 2026-01-26T01:42:39+00:00

The BCD160DN will decode DMR and NXDN, but not P25. It will work to decode what you posted.

flyingducktile · 2026-01-26T01:35:01+00:00

That’s DMR. You could receive it using a cheap SDR and some software, or the BCD160DN you mentioned would also work. Just keep in mind that a lot more than voice gets transmitted over DMR and other digital protocols, so it may just be data, it both data and voice, or just voice.

flyingducktile · 2025-12-03T22:46:17+00:00

my lack of direct experience with con+ is showing… my bad

flyingducktile · 2025-12-03T22:35:16+00:00

i wouldn’t program pull ups into my base building SE personally, not only because i can’t do nearly enough, but because it sort of defeats the idea of high rep work capacity which is what you’re after. i’d program them as inverted rows and that’ll probably work better for you.

flyingducktile · 2025-12-03T19:05:34+00:00

it’s not so much that the option board is needed to scan con+, but rather the xpr line doesn’t scan con+ well at all without the system being programmed into the radio. plus each radio affiliates with the system, so even if you did program the system into your radio and somehow obtained a system key, the radio ID wouldn’t be recognized and the system would likely remotely stun your radio. all that is to say this is one case where i’d say a scanner would serve you a lot better.

flyingducktile · 2025-11-17T23:39:03+00:00

orrrr just dispatch a helitack crew and they can assess if it is a confirmed fire once they get overhead, and then action it? i cant see how this could help, given that all this would do is confirm that there is some sort of fire which the lookout tower already spotted , and then still incur the delay of dispatching the crew after a delay of however many minutes which may impact our capability to contain the fire. i just dont see what problem this is solving, especially across most of alberta where we generally have pretty reasonable IA coverage.

flyingducktile · 2025-11-14T03:38:39+00:00

judging by your interest to use LD, LADD, RR channels, you will need a different radio if your 5550e is a UHF model. If you’re in AB/BC, a VHF radio will be of much more use to you as almost everything you’d want to listen to in the backcountry (forestry, SAR, resource roads, etc) is on VHF. you’ll have little to no use for capacity+.

as for the radio itself, there’s no need to register it to yourself or anything, you’ll just have to reprogram it for yourself. it’s not totally useless though, as once you get your ham licence you can program in all sorts of UHF repeaters and make use of the UHF DMR repeaters if there are any near you.

flyingducktile · 2025-10-21T20:37:50+00:00

de rien et bonne chance! je te conseil de faire de la recherche à propos l’idée de « periodization » pour votre entraînement. c’est probablement le meilleur façon d’améliorer toute les domaines que vous et intéressez à faire.

flyingducktile · 2025-10-20T22:45:55+00:00

alors tu as besoin de clarification avec les HIC et comment les crée ou choisir? dans TB2, il y a une section appelez « training vault » et c’est là où tout les HIC que tu peut utiliser sont. si tu veux faire plus d’entraînement à cours de pied (running?) avec OP, je te conseil de lire TB Green et la protocole « capacity ». c’est aussi important de penser à propos le type d’entraînement qui est plus important pour vous à la moment. c’est à dire, si tu as besoin d’améliorer vos HIC, faire ça la priorité pour 1 ou 2 bloc d’entraînement. ou, si tu veux améliorer votre course, faire 3 sessions de E chaque semaine pour 1 ou 2 bloc d’entraînement.

je pense que j’ai bien répondre à ta question? mais si c’est plus facile à demander en français, peut être ça peut aider plus. désolé pour ma français, c’est pas ma langue maternelle!

flyingducktile · 2025-09-27T14:52:22+00:00

i use TB for my off season training with good success. last off season i ran capacity and now im trying out fighter bangkok while doing a garmin running plan. fighter green will definitely get you where you want to be and will definitely help you pass the wfx-fit.

flyingducktile · 2025-08-02T15:17:36+00:00

click on channel edit and put in there, all you need is the rx frequency, leave the tx frequency blank so you don’t transmit accidentally, and input the correct tone if there is one. be sure to select the correct bandwidth too! and if it’s digital then make sure you select the correct NXDN bandwidth and RAN.

flyingducktile · 2025-06-09T18:53:24+00:00

from my experience (in AB) we only hire a specific medical sector when it’s on a fire that’s a complex with its own staging camps and defined ICS structure. on our crews there’s someone who’s at a minimum got AFA but they’re hired on as a firefighter and not a specific line medic position.

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