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Having 50 BMG reloading stuff isn't all that weird. I have a set of dies for the .455 Webley. Just incase I ever do find a Webley Fosbery. I found the dies covered with dust in a shop in Culver city. I don't know if they didn't know what they had or the counter guy just looked at the dust covered box and pull a number out of his, err, hat. But $25 brought them home.

My dad impressed on me the point of using the right tool for the job. https://remstoolsusa.com/rems-164011-contact-2000-electric-soldering-unit/

The fcc post is asking for you to suggest rules that you want deleted or any other changes. Many have totally confused this . You need to go submit your comments in favor of GMRS linking and at the same time you must explain what linking is because others are making comments that we want to use up all repeater channels in a town linking them all together creating some type of mesh network. Creating interference. That's what the FCC is against. There is also a claim that repeater users would not be able to regain control of there repeaters. This is all nonsense. The linked system has been proven to work for about 10 years. Ref (Docket No. 25-133) https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-25-219A1.pdf https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/filings/standard I submitted a comment with a follow-up after I saw the anti-linking comments from people who have no ideal what we are asking for. https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/document/1042511135974/1 https://www.fcc.gov/ecfs/document/10426037020584/1 If you have not submitted a comment do so now, If you did submit a second one explaining what gmrs repeater linking is. It is not using several all channels.

Fiberglass is considered stronger than steel when comparing their strength-to-weight ratios, meaning fiberglass can provide similar strength while being much lighter. Carbon Fiber is even greater in strength than steel compared to to strength-to weight ratios and less in weight compared to to fiberglass. And then consider some vehicles are now made with aluminum, which is great for strength but offers poor flexibility and impact resistance which would be a poorer choice of mounting an antenna too.

O.K.Negative Nancy… .

There you go again, trying to talk as if you know,,, when clearly it seems you DON'T. We OWN THE SITE. The tower, property, building, all of it. So ALL costs are the responsibility of the owner / business. Yes, it's now an LLC. That I donate a LOT of time to which pays my way to have access. I wired it, installed the generators, battery plants, provided thousands of feet of cable. Every repeater at the site in use outside the two county owned repeaters. That I support via the business I work for. There are no 'free' tower sites any more. At least not around here. Everything and every place that at one time was accessible because the engineer for the station, or the owners of the site were friendly to ham radio have all sold off or have put their sites under commercial tower management and they all want over a 1000 a month in rent. A civil engineering study done before you can even get a contract written and require one of their 'approved' tower contractors to do the work or installing the antenna and line. And of course since the new TIA-222 standard just went to I from H, most towers don't pass and you are responsible to have the tower reinforced to meet the standard with your additional loading. Cell companies don't care, A tower serves hundreds or possibly thousands of users. They are making lots of money and they see it as a business expense. When it's hobby radio, ham, GMRS or whatever, the numbers keep them off the towers.

Funny how many are "blessed" when they get off their butt and open their eyes.

Seems they found a working solution for them that puts the text book junkies to shame. Funny how things work in the real world when you put the books down.

That's how they assemble Midland radios.

You sir are slacking. Not enough radios!!! Now that's areal nice setup. Enjoy.

Check out this guys solution. He says he uses a no ground plane antenna for vhf/uhf ham. Found one similar here although it says it's a tunable CB antenna from Firestik. Then I saw this, it looks like maybe a glass mount or lip, I don't know. He's going to fast around Nurburgring to see it very well I don't know if any of these are options you would consider but it was fun looking at what people have done. Good luck.

Good for you and your area. Not everyone Is blessed with your options, it’s a big world out there and everybody has their own ideas how to enjoy it.

Seems you simply don't know the right people to get access to good sites for free or at reduced rates. Seems utterly foolish to use that business model to suck in up to 50 "paying" GMRS members that will most likely move on when they see it's simply not worth the price of admission. Of course, if this is a commercial repeater site then it will have other renters and lease holders with deep pockets footing the bill to run the damn thing and show a profit for the owner. As for the GMRS repeater at this site, it will most likely be just a hobby for the owner or a friend of the owner. Don't urinate on my leg and tell me it's raining.

We have GMRS repeaters in the area that have phenomenal coverage and don't "demand" membership fees, but would gladly accept donations should they be offered. Guess what? They get donations. Simple choice, you want to be foolishly strong-armed for money to use a repeater, be my guest, not me. Way too many other options.

This is exactly the problem I've been chewing on all week. I appreciate you working through it with me. : Halo is aluminum so magnets are out. Halo to hatch lip panel gap is extremely narrow making targa top interface non viable without routing. That brings me to glass mount and hood mount. There is a no drill weather stripping bypass near the body line intersection of the a pillar for the coax pass through which makes me think lip mount on the aft passenger side edge of the hood is viable. For the grounding strap I was looking at using the R/H side of the firewall to pick up continuity. : There are a few ways I was thinking of making the ghost antenna working but they modifying the car in some way, shape, or form. Being that the Z06 hood is a prohibitively expensive item they all go out of the window. One idea that I was thinking could be cool is to scarf in a ground plane with a through connection on the lower surface. : Am I missing anything? It is a little difficult thinking through modification and install without all of the parts and car present. Sunday is the day though fingers crossed it all goes smoothly and I'm ready to roll.

My concern would be that the flexing of the antenna would cause the composite material to crack over time. Personally, I wouldn't do it. Metal is a lot more forgiving than either fiberglass or carbon fiber.

I know some guys that own a large number of different calibers. And it's NOT that I think one is better or worse than the other. I can't sit here and argue the 'stopping power' or the 45ACP, when I own a 454 Casull and KNOW BETTER. But a Elephant Pistol, Raging Judge Magnum, is NOT a concealed carry pistol, any more than a 556 AR pistol is. But the 454 DOES have superior stopping power to the 45ACP, or most any other pistol caliber. And of course it chambers 410 as well so there is that if I need a pistol with real power. I stay with 45 caliber pistols and 30 caliber rifles (308, 300WM) for lack of need to stock a huge number of different bullets to reload with. Other than the 240 grain 300's that will not fit in a 308, most all my rifles shoot the same bullets. The 223 of course, because everyone has an AR or 3 around, shoot the same loads. The odd man out is the 338. But that was my '50 BMG' type rifle that was more affordable to buy and shoot than the 50. Oddly enough I do have a complete setup to load 50BMG, just no gun to shoot them in.

Now, remember that this is coming from a guy that has an open repeater that covers 7 counties and REFUSES to take money because it's too much of a PITA to do so. YOU sir have NO idea what running a repeater actually costs. Outside of the 20 bucks a month your electric bill went up with your garage repeater that has a 5 mile range. Tower SITE.... 48K purchase price. Another 30K in electrical, roof, materials. 300 bucks a month in electric bill 200 a month in property taxes. A 300 dollar LIGHT BULB that has to be changed every 2 years. We change it ourselves or that would be a 3300 dollar light bulb. 300 for the bulb, 3000 to climb up and change it. Although at some point we will need to invest in a powered rope ascender that will 'pull' one of us up the tower when we are too old to physically climb the 230 foot ladder to access the light. Think battery drill powered winch. SO, paying 25 bucks a year, or even 10 bucks a month to access a repeater that has coverage in 7 counties is a STEAL as opposed to just the electric bill.

If you haven't already, look around for GMRS clubs in your area. If there are others, it might be very difficult to start another one. If there isn't much competition, it's really just a matter of passing around the word. You'll have to decide if meetings will be held in person, on the air, or both. You might want to have a short presentation on some GMRS-related topic at each meeting to keep people interested.

Went with the phantom antenna you suggested it will be here Monday. I appreciate all of the helpful suggestions.

No, but he/she could make the argument that you are in violation of the state law regarding use of radios while driving because you have no authority to operate that radio at all. Would it stick? Who knows? Probably depends on which judge you get. But it would be a nuisance to have to defend it. Do I know some officers who would do it if you were showing your ass? Oh, yes.

Not really. As mentioned, it's easy to show if you are putting any dues money in a specific account and only using that money for the repeater. But, for the sake of numbers. Lets say you have 50 users that all pay 20 bucks a month. That's $1000 a month. You are just dumping all that money in your personal bank account. You can show a 100 dollar a month electric bill at the site. You can show a 100 dollar a month site rent. And you can show two service calls from a radio shop at 500 dollars a trip for the last 12 months. So the 'dues' income is 12K. You have receipts for $3400 bucks for the last 12 months. If you don't have a minimum of $8600 in your bank account, you are profiting from the repeater. Because YOU spent the money for something outside of the repeater upkeep and maintenance. And again, I am speaking based on the RULEs / REGULATIONS as written, not what's being enforced. But, first thing is a file from the FCC, probably for MORE than what you are taking in per year in dues. Second is the FCC informing the IRS of the 12K per year, and operations of a for profit business. Now if you have all your ducks in a row and are claiming that as income, and depreciating the repeater, line, duplexer. Writing off the electric bill, maintenance costs and all the rest, then it's a business anyway. So no one is gonna do that. So the IRS smacks you. If you aren't doing all the business stuff, then the state will what their share too. And may come at you for operating a business without a license, insurance, or whatever other laws they have on the books. So we are back to, I put up a repeater. Everyone with a license is allowed to use the repeater WITHOUT paying a fee, dues or any of that. I put it up for my private use and ALLOW others to access it. Then when it's questioned, it's my repeater, for my needs and others are ALLOWED to use it. No business intent at all. Because the county is a tenant on our tower, we had to establish a business, move the ownership of the tower to the business, and all that stuff. It was a PITA. But the tower owner gained a tenant by doing all of it. Since he dislikes ham clubs as much as I do, so we don't even claim it's a club house.

Unless, there is a local ordinance or state statute or if he/she is a federal officer, I don't believe he/she can enforce a federal rule/code.

I got sidetracked and never got to finish the quiz.

Yes