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Yes

Well, are the Midland MXT500 and 575 straight or gay radios?

At some point, I may swap out the WP-9900 for something that operates on 1.25 meters (220). There's so little traffic on 1.25 that my buddy and I use it as our own private simplex band. There's a repeater in Oklahoma City, but I've never heard anyone on it. However, I'm using an HT and can only listen when I'm closer to the city. My buddy and are on 1.25 enough that I'd get some use out of a unit in the vehicle. Currently, I have a base unit in the house, a mobile in each vehicle, an additional mobile in the truck, and more HTs than anyone with good sense should own.

In your menu or CPS

Probably, but you'd be surprised the esoterica some law enforcement officers know. I once stopped an Army recruiter driving a GSA vehicle and he was dickish about it, so I demanded he cough up a Standard Form 46 (government driver license) before I'd give him the ticket and let him leave. This was a long time ago -- the government driver license hasn't been a thing for decades. A deputy sheriff in the county south of me owns the GMRS repeater in that area. If he was of a mind to be petty, he might demand some kind of documentation of your authorization to operate that radio. If you were operating it while driving, he'd be well with his authority to do so. I'm not saying we should all carry our license(s) on us -- I don't -- but there is a non-zero chance that someday you may wish you had.

No, not really. I have direct access to 12 radios from my desk sitting here. Mind you they are remote controlled via a dispatch console system and are at the tower. I am actually looking to add to the setup since I don't have 10 or 6 meters covered currently on individual radios. But the Yeasu 847 I can connect to via Remote Hams does offer me access to those bands. Not looking at 220 at this point, but I do have 900Mhz on analog, DMR and P25

Personally I was never into the 50 cal stuff, rifle or pistol. I would like to say that I have avoided anything chambered in 5 dollar bills or above, but I do have a couple rifles that do cross that river. So I reload those, and it's not as hard to deal with. Now, I will also say that reloading will NOT save you money in the long term. But when you can shoot the rifle 40 -50 times for 90 bucks, as opposed to 10 times (338 Lapua) you get to be a better shot and enjoy the rifle more. But it's still a 90 dollar range trip. Of course 50 or so rounds of 300 WM and a 100 or so rounds of 223, and possibly 45ACP. At least you leave with a smile on your face. And a sore shoulder. I also remember AMT and their stainless '1911' framed guns. The one I always wanted was the 'Long Slide' which was a 1911 with a 9 inch barrel if I remember right. I REALLY wanted one of those... until I found out they weren't the most reliable 1911 to own. At some point I will no doubt purchase a 1911 and the needed parts to build my own long slide. But tower's ant radio's are what I am involved with for the most part since 2018 when Matt bought the tower. At some point I will fire back up the press and turn out some 300 and 338 and make a range trip.

If you have one radio for 70cm, 2m, 6m, and 10m, another one for GMRS and MURS, two mikes hanging off the same mount, and dual antennas whipping in the wind (nod to Billy Ray Cyrus), are you overdoing it? I absolutely could not find a single antenna that covered all those bands. 2m/70cm antennas will often work great on GMRS/MURS, but when you add 6m or 10m, GMRS SWR goes stratospheric. It's just too much to ask one antenna to do. The driver side has a TYT TH-9800 under the seat mated to a Comet tri-band or Diamond quad-band as the fancy strikes me. Under the passenger seat is an Anysecu WP-9900 feeding a Nagoya 200C dual-band antenna tuned for GMRS and MURS (not useful on any ham bands). The TYT speaker is on a Lido headrest mount. I have an external speaker for the WP-9900, but I haven't figured out where I want it yet. The speaker for the 9900 has a volume control because it's a PITA to adjust volume on that unit. The NMO connectors on Breedlove mounts are each supplied with 10' of RG8x coax shielded with wire loom and the connections are sealed with waterproof heat-shrink tubing. The coax is fed up through the factory holes in the floor behind the seats. The radios are on quick-connectors, and I can swap one out for something else in a couple of minutes. Maybe overkill, but I figure at my age, I don't have many more years crawling under trucks and I want to install it once and call it complete.

Oh, he's just trying to start another argument with me. I swear if I said he was intelligent and handsome he would figure out a way to protest the statement. But he ain't and and I wouldn't, so we will miss at least THAT discussion.

NO, that just locks the keypad. Just quick-press the * key to toggle back and forth between High and Low power.

I just run a good ole Springfield Armory 1911a1 with stock furniture and iron sights.

My favorite 1911, a Randall lefty service model wears a laser.

Apparently, you've never been to Denali National Park or Wrangell-St Elias Alaska State Park (you should, BTW). For that matter, Black Mesa Oklahoma State Park would benefit from some boost if you're camping and day hiking. If I only went to Death Valley, I suppose I wouldn't need a repeater.

To some people, common sense clearly tells them it makes more sense to spend $50-100 bucks a year to utilize a well maintained repeater system that can reach across multiple counties and even states. Think about that for a minute, a repeater system with a net worth close to $50K and they only have to spend $100 year in membership fees.. As JB would say,,,, Common Mannnnnn

I have soldered 30 quake wire to some veery small digital command control boards on my n scale locomotives. It takes a super small tip and this solder to do. I won't even attempt stuff that small without a good magnifying glass or a digital microscope. I've never messed with surface mount components. When it comes to big stuff like 6 gauge wire and bigger, I just break out the propane torch. We had to replace a water heater at work one time and it took two of us using MAPP torches to get the 3 inch diameter copper pipe and fittings hot enough to solder together.

Hmmm... Yeah, you may be right. But as you point out, it would be pretty difficult to make a profit at it.

I learned to solder stuff from 0 gage battery cables down to 24 gage bell wire, but SMT stuff puts me in awe. I have removed some surface mount components, but never replaced or installed anything. I guess I need to watch some videos. I did tour a facility that made their own circuit boards and saw some components smaller than a flake of ground pepper. That stuff is sorcery

Weird, it double posted.

Gee Admiral, thanks for making me feel like such a dork.

I have been known to commit blasphemy and, one of my 6 1911's is 9mm - with a red dot sight ... double blasphemy, but it's a great host for my 9mm can

This is my RT97L

Nice fars.

Call up your friends who use GMRS radios and say “Let’s start a club!” Then just get together every so often and talk about GMRS radios. If you want to have a repeater, chip in some money (quite a bit) and put one up. If you want to solicit donations you’ll want to incorporate as a tax exempt corporation. There’s a fee for that. Then file a 1023 form with the government to get off to become a 501(c)3. The short form costs $275.

I like to know how do I go about starting a GMRS RADIO CLUB

Been testing it with some of the other ranchers so far in heavy woods we have gotten 14 miles south and 12 miles north of me so far.