Kenwood TM-431A... some assistance, please?

[realist]

EB is there really that much difference? I guess I will have to look into it. I am just looking at starting to buy some gear to get started.

Regarding repeaters. The thing I do not like about them is they sound so convenient I would imagine it would be easy to become dependent on them. We have been having a lot of wild fires out here. I just read a story about one ham group who lost two of their repeaters to fire. So since they are normally out in the boonies and all by themselves I see them being gone in a SHTF situation.

[Kesephist]

EB is there really that much difference? I guess I will have to look into it. I am just looking at starting to buy some gear to get started.

Regarding repeaters. The thing I do not like about them is they sound so convenient I would imagine it would be easy to become dependent on them. We have been having a lot of wild fires out here. I just read a story about one ham group who lost two of their repeaters to fire. So since they are normally out in the boonies and all by themselves I see them being gone in a SHTF situation.

I think the repeaters, post SHTF, will be those few preppers that have the equipment on hand and the ability to defend it. Wouldn't surprise me a inch if some of the more savvy groups of post SHTF jackals have receivers with DF capability and use that to home in on those few. The notion being that "if they have working radios, they have power, and probably a lot of other stuff" and therefore a target.

Any remote standalone repeater with a big enough battery pack to run off-grid (with an attached windmill/solar panel lash-up), barring catastrophic damage, will continue to function until someone either smashes it up for the parts or flat out captures the thing whole. Said repeater would have to be fairly remotely located, so far out that the said jackals would have to go a long way to get at it.

Kesephist