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This kind of thing is why for some people...

404 - file not found. Probably a permission thing. As a guest you might not have permission to upload files.

Good one.

You forgot to mention the warning about the brake light will light up and make the brakes lock up everytime you key up the radio.

I had one on my Ram. Lasted a couple months shy of two years. Cracked around the antenna mount at the corners then grew out from there.. Its rotting in the dump right now

Gotcha. Then yeah, supporting them just provides some money to help protect amateur radio frequencies, educational and outreach programs, and other stuff. I haven't joined but I'm thinking about it.

Yea, shocking ain't it that so many people are clueless. It is the FCC's interpretation of the existing wording of the regs. (I posted a topic on this months ago called Base Stations Can't Use Repeaters.) As far as all the nutty explanations people make up to justify what they want it to be, I'll wait for FCC to offer one of those explanations as an official clarification (never gonna happen IMO) or change the rule (I understand now why it exists).

WARNING!!! "some people" are going to try and convince you that your setup will not work, nobody will hear you and it will burn-up your radio, because you do not have 6 inches of metal/ground plane in all directions under the bottom of the antenna.. As you probably already know by your real-world experience of actually using your setup, they can be ignored.. "some people" have difficulty differentiating from "the best" or "perfect" that they read about in a book and "plenty good enough for normal people outside in the real-world".

Here’s the rule. Different people interpret it differently. Some say that a base station becomes a “control station” when it transmits to a repeater. I am unsure of that, but it’s not important to me: 467 MHz main channels. Only mobile, hand-held portable, control and fixed stations may transmit on these 8 channels. Mobile, hand-held portable and control stations may transmit on these channels only when communicating through a repeater station or making brief test transmissions in accordance with § 95.319(c). The channel center frequencies are: 467.5500, 467.5750, 467.6000, 467.6250, 467.6500, 467.6750, 467.7000, and 467.7250 MHz

Huh?

My truck is not aluminum, so I did not have the mag-mount issue, but I wanted something more permanent. I had the same hesitation about putting a hole in the roof of my cab. I also have a retractable sunroof that limits the placement of an NMO mount and coax cabling in that narrow space between the roof and the headliner. I ended up using a 3rd brake light mounting solution. NO REGRETS. It is not cheap, but it is a very clean install that works great with no holes in your vehicle.

Thank you for the reply. To clarify, The question is not about 'Why ham' and more about joining the ARRL. I enjoy this hobby as well as GMRS (I'm bought in for both in more ways than one). Thank you for your perspective. I 100% agree and feel the exact same way: "I'm getting into it because I think the antenna theory stuff is neat and POTA sounds like fun. It's more of a hobby thing than the stash of GMRS radios I use to actually talk to people in my group."

Thank you. I got it downloaded and tried hooking up the cable and found a new problem. The radio either won’t turn on when hooked up to the pc or will cycle self test.

The ARRL is a non-profit org representing amateur radio operators, so... not much to stash in the garage other than maybe the magazine (which I guess is an additional cost now?). You don't need to be a member to use amateur radios. Supporting the ARRL mostly just supports the hobby, as they're the biggest political advocate for amateur radio. Unless you mean why get into amateur radio in the first place, in which case: if you want to do more with radios than talk to the same four people and fiddle with antennas on your HT, ham radio is where it's at. HF bands can take advantage of atmospheric skip and you can talk over longer distances. It's less about "I want to talk to this specific person" and more about "I want to play with radios and learn about how they work". Plus you get to make connections with "anonymous men" as a certain someone likes to say. If all you want to do is talk to friends and family over short distances and you don't really care about the radio side of things, then GMRS is close enough to the UHF/VHF bands you get access to with a Technician license that it's probably moot. Also the radios get expensive (you don't need a fancy radio but even the one I want to get is $650 without an antenna or power supply and that would buy a lot of Baofengs) and HOAs usually aren't happy when people start installing antenna masts. I'm getting into it because I think the antenna theory stuff is neat and POTA sounds like fun. It's more of a hobby thing than the stash of GMRS radios I use to actually talk to people in my group.

I frequently talk to POTA activators on HF as they quickly confirm their QSOs and move on. I have never been a POTA activator. That being said, every state and federal park in the USA qualifies as a POTA location, making it easy to find a qualified park and start activating! Check out POTA’s website for more information: www.parksontheair.com

I did look this mobile up on CHIRP so it's listed and should be easy to program. I can even set it up at home so my wife can to "talk" to the BTech 20v2 GMRS in my truck if we ever have cell service go out. I'd like to try some 2M POTA if I can find a book with all the location coordinates in it so I'll know where I'm TX'ing from and where I'm getting the RX from.

Why join the ARRL. Pro's and Con's. Honest feedback please. I do see some of both but being new, I don't wanna get into something that turns into the treadmill or breadmaker in the garage.

foliage punch is what I was looking for. Now I will work on better coax, verify quality of connectors and connections, upgrade the antennas. OF COURSE, I am new and excited but I need to take time to evaluate the amount of RF junk and etc... in the shack of radios A.O. Oh yeah, get the truck outta the trees and gain elevation! Calling my realty person, LOL.

Welcome! We were in Big Bend National a few years ago. Great place.

Channel A display is the same as Channel B display. One needs to be Name and the other needs to be Frequency. Line 11 and 12

I've confirmed this too. I was able to hit my house with my repeater (50w) but the 20w base couldn't hit the repeater reliably. I swapped up to a 50w mobile at the house and now it's a reliable connection. Before it would come in some days and others I could barely hear it. Now I've changed a few things out and it's so much better.

Hello all. Helping a buddy set a GMRS repeater up in the middle of the woods to see if the system will work for an upcoming event. Our weekend test was a bit of a bust. Several of the test radios from various makers didn't reliably hit the repeater. Then sometimes they did, then didn't again. Then most would but one wouldn't. Head scratching... All through the testing process this "tone" would start up and sometimes babble through all the radios for up to a minute. I should know the noise carried through our testing area better than anything else. I'll add a link to a 12 second audio file at the bottom. Equipment was a Retevis RT97 and a "slim jim" antenna strung 40 feet into a tree. We toyed with privacy on/off open repeater different channels, transmit powers, etc. Couldn't find a combination that worked for our purposes nor could we recreate this tone on demand. We assume it's coming from the repeater as when we configured the test radios to not use the repeater at all. No noise just expected range issues. Anyway, we are testing all cables, antenna, etc but in the meantime, I'm hoping you all can can help identify what that noise is what could be causing it. 12 Second Static and Unidentified tone Thanks in advance, Mike.

Many of us are very happy with the Radioddity DB20-G a/k/a Anytone AT-779UV, mini-mobile, 20 watts, cigarette lighter plug, Chirp and easily opens to Ham radio 2 meters and 70 cm for about $99.

I think I kind of did too, just wanted to bounce the idea off of the group for confrontation.