All Activity

Yes, but scanning (receiving) does not require a NB preset. Transmitting on MURS 1-3 does.

SOP for fed gov and state/local too.

Some years ago, the liberals were pushing the mantra that "shall doesn't mean must". I told one state agency head it was good enough for the 10 Commandments.

So, regulatory oversight, compliance, and control mechanisms? Socialism?

Man, The FCC's website is messed up. I logged in and looked for Apply for New License and went down the list and for the life of me I can't find "HAM Technician" anywhere. I know GMRS is under ZA or some such but what's HAM under???

Shall is a legal term without ambiguity. Should has a lot of ambiguity. You were reading the rules on my repeater and it said the repeater should be used with a 0dB gain antenna. Which of course means you can use anything you want. If it said you shall use it with a 0dB gain antenna there is no interpretation to that, it has 1 meaning. Having so many regulations that can be interpreted so many different ways is close to meaningless. And you can get into a lot of trouble when you think it says one thing and can explain why you think that and the FCC says they interpret it in a different way. There should be no way to interpret it except in the way it was meant to be. And it's nearly impossible because there are always groups of lawyers out there paid to find loopholes in regulations their clients want to get around.

I think the main reason is they want to enforce the distribution and sale aspect rather than cop on the beat individual use enforcement becuse they don't have the manpower (or the desire) to do the latter well.

I may be unqualified to speak for the GMRS community, but one thought comes to mind is to deregulate the GMRS radio certification. Cars don't break speed limits, it's the operator of the car breaking the speed limit. Why can't I use my UV-5RM (HAM radio) if I'm within GMRS guidelines? My understanding is the only thing making me a rule breaker, (if I use it), is that it is not FCC GMRS certified. Is this a good start or just scratching at the surface?

Skipping channels during a scan isn't allowed on the Midlands I think. I'll look into it.

Yep. Also, all the Public Safety channels I scan are NB as well.

I have been restricted from racing by three doctors because of three different surgeries. I was hit by car when a 92 year old driver ran a stop sign and hit me while I was riding my bicycle 4 years ago. My last surgery was for by lower back last April. So, no racecar driving for me yet. I did put 10 gallons of fresh Sunoco Race Fuel in my car this morning and took it for a 25 mile drive up and down the freeway just to keep the car happy since it has been sitting for awhile and I mean awhile. The tires are hard as a rock but everything seemed to be ok. I am able to get in and out of the car ok without any soreness or pain and I am able to lift/raise a 15 foot metal roll-up door and open/close the ramp door on my trailer. However, I am not ready to lift my tires and wheels up and into my tire rack in my trailer yet and that is my goal. Maybe later this year. I do feel like I may be able to change the tires now since I graduated from Physical Therapy three weeks ago and the progress I'm making with the exercises that were given to me by the doctors. All I can do now is just be in charge and organize the events. I think I may be able to drive after the first of the year. The Doctors don't want me to go crazy yet, but they are very pleased with my recovery so far and have allowed me to take on more exercises with more weight resistance. They have been real impressed with my speedy recovery especially for an old person. "XP", you have to run against Andy and Teresa McKee.

You may be right but "Bad policies force compliance, destroying freedom.” Ayn Rand (Philosopher)

And you weren't at the Vegas TT National event earlier this year? I'm very disappointed. That's awesome. I run U2 in my car for TT, XP for AutoX. Maybe we'll meet up at LVMS at some point, or one of the Cali tracks

Amen to that!

Here’s your chance. The FCC is asking for people to make suggestions for how to improve the regulations:

I don't know, Steve. Lawyers and legalese is often more the problem than the solution. (That goes for laws as much as regulations.) Part 97 doesn't seem to have so much vague language. Hams don't have to argue regulations much, but they do apply the perceived tradition without bothering to see if that is what the regs actually say.

Great job!

Ok, I've got Zoom set up and I've taken the Practice Test a couple more times, Scored 32/35 and 34/35. I think I'm ready. Just need to set up a time to take the test remotely.

Not unless you intend to make something mandatory. The single largest problem with regulations is that people don’t know how to read them. Words have very specific legal implications, no more and no less. Lawyers are trained in how to interpret those meanings. Most other people read something into them that doesn’t exist. I am a member of the NFPA Pyrotechnic Technical Committee. The amount of work and time it takes to add, subtract, or change a few lines of NFPA sample code is immense but the end goal is always that there be one and only one interpretation.

I've used the QRZ practice exams, HamStudy and ham exam.All three work.

A different default squelch for each channel would be good but sometimes that isn't enough because reception varies (weather related), especially when vehicle or pedestrian mobile.

This is my Time Trial and Autocross car with radio comm. The Antenna is an Antenex Non-Groundplane Phantom.

Yes, all FM radios need to have a fully variable squelch, analog not digital. Or like the power settings are individually saved for each channel slot the squelch should be too instead of a broad squelch over the band.

The newest Baofeng I have, K5+ (a 5RM with a different label), still requires using software to add/delete skip. My TYT UV88 ( a ham version of GM30) is the same and it even has starting scan as a menu function (f-1-f) rather than a long button press. My Yaesu ham mobile has it as an accessible menu function that can be changed as needed. There is no good reason to make it via software only. And they need to bring back squelch knob too!

Don’t forget: MURS 1-3 are narrowband FM.