All Activity

I am new to the group. Curious if anyone is using the RT97L yet and what are your thoughts on it? Thanks!

This is correct. Anyone can send a message through the Hams. We do it al the time. It's our #1 task with ARES.

yes, I figured you might but, no worries, you will get more radios to review from them, you've definitely earned it! thank God for the "ignore" option

I don’t think you have to be a ham to use the NTS. You just need to know hams who can help you use NTS.

I looked it up but I am still confused.

yes, you missing the fact that you are arguing against a strawman (look it up).

No you are not. One shouldn't expect a manufacturer or reseller to replace a defective product after any and all warranties have expired. I don't know of any manufacturer or reseller of any consumer products that will replace or fix (free of charge) any product after the warranty has expired.

Am I the only one thinking it's weird/irrational that the OP expects warranty support from a vender when the product is no longer under warranty and will angrily boycott that vender when denied free out-of-warranty support? or, maybe i'm just missing something?

BSR is just a vender for the Wouxun product. His warrantee options are based on what the manufacture supports for their products. My very first Wouxun KG935G i bought developed a dirty volume control potentiometer 2 months after the warrantee expired. Like you, i contacted the vendor i purchased from, (BuyTwoWayRadios) hoping for some leniency on the warranty but no luck.. They said the manufacture would not support a replacement.. But they did give me some tips how to correct the problem with simple contact cleaners, it worked and I'm happy.

Thanks for the info, i am getting close to being confident in passing the technician license, so thats one step closer, but my wife isnt too excited about being a "radio dork"....LOL i would likely have better luck trying to skip 11m to her truck cb than getting her to get any sort of ham ticket...

There’s always the National Traffic System. https://www.arrl.org/nts Volunteers relay messages from point to point every day. It doesn’t get much use these days but we have a daily net designed to accept and deliver traffic. There’s also WinLink, which many of us use and which works like email for hams.

Well what the hell, I’ll jump in. I had a very good experience with BTWR customer service. I had a KG-Q10H and the last call icon didn’t work. I sent it back to them and they replaced it. They were pleasant and quick, my replacement was in the mail before I knew they received the one I sent back. They treated me great! The warranty is good for a year. I feel if you’re going to have an issue it’s likely going to show up before the warranty expires. At least this has been my experience. As for my Wouxun radios I have six, three or four are out warranty and continue to work.

Yeah, thats the sort of thing that actually got me looking into radios, was the rapid radios ads on my local talk radio, thinking hmmm... that could come in very handy having long range comms for an emergency....but then find out that they all use LTE, so its kinda pointless in a situation where a cell phone wouldnt work.... for context on this, my wife is an over the road trucker, so having long distance comms for us is vital.... especially considering that any given truck load that she hauls "could" put her right in the path of a blizzard, hurricane or tornado... Still havent found a viable/reliable setup past cell phones for these types of situations unfortunately...

I can’t speak for the Admiral, but to me choosing “Scan for Tones” from the menu seems automatic. I don’t know how much more automatic it could be.

Can't argue with an Admiral!

For GMRS... 100% agree.

CW - "Continuous Wave" - Basically... Morse code

I get those all the time, I usually just "X" them out.

I was joking with the digital mode thing since they said "off-grid communications" (although Rapid Consulting's "nationwide radio" uses LTE which does feel like cheating), but on the topic - I've talked to a couple of local hams on a club repeater and they were all about it. It's not their main thing, but they had lots of recommendations if I ever wanted to get into it. Seems like there's quite a few Fusion repeaters around here but they also told me I could just set up a Pi Star hotspot and run whatever I wanted.

Well, you can always get you one of these..

I agree, but I don't see another way to remain within GMRS, unless you use two antennas and mount them like a dipole and only use 1/2W. I have a trunked P25 P1 "site" in my living room where the CC is 0.05MHz below the VC, RX antennas are pointed up, and TX antennas are left and right away from each other. Works well, but it's only putting out 0.1W. In theory, its a $7+M idea that would likely just become space junk before it is used.

Finding something that is going to be more than 5-6m/18-20 feet tall at a decent price is gong to be a challenge. Giga Parts has a tripod with 18 ft telescoping pole for $199. https://www.gigaparts.com/intellitron-am-2509ex-18-ft-telescopic-fiberglass-mast-with-tripod-stand.html

I'm a member there as well, and I sometimes get a little salty when people do that. I tell them to be Elmer, not Mr. Magoo. I do get good information sometimes, but I often have to sift through some trash. With regard to the Linux forums, the Ubuntu forum is usually helpful. I mostly avoid the others.

Cue the "that's not real radio" SadHam comments!

An oldie but a goodie. That one's been hammered to death by the Hams, both Happy and Sad over the last couple of years. Yeah, with EchoLink or DMR/C4FM, etc., et al, I can talk thousands of miles on my handheld. But I prefer the old school nothing between me and the other guy than the ether...