Ease of operation is important in any emergency communication situation.
In the interest of facilitating technical support for and among the members of the East Rockingham ARES membership, members are encouraged (not required) to use the Baofeng UV 5r Dual Band HT during all ARES events be they public service or in an actual emergency.
By standardizing our equipment we will be better able to provide technical support to other members or to utilize another member's equipment should that ever brome necessary.
The Baofeng UV 5r is a reliable and inexpensive choice for this purpose. Here is link for this radio at Amazon.com:
In addition, group members are encouraged to use CHIRP version 6.0 as the RCP for this radio. At an upcoming meeting, a standardized list of preprogramed frequencies in both simplex and duplex modes will be provided to members for cloning so that all operators will be able to reference a known list of channels during both operational and training nets. The link to download CHIRP follows: