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Don't laugh, I had one back in the 80s. Definitely a pretty cool animal.

I'm not sure where you (AI) pulled this, but it's all old, not part of the current FCC rules and have not been valid since 2017. The current rules are here... https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-47/chapter-I/subchapter-D/part-95/subpart-E

Agree, to me. The point being is if you are talking to someone on the other side of the world over VOIP there's absolutely no reason to get yourself excited as you really accomplished nothing radio related. Do it over the air and see how challenging it can be. Then you will have real excitement.

I use it as a derogatory pejorative and mean it. I think most hams now are appliance operators that DO NOT know how radios and antennas work. Those who really know are a shrinking minority.

Oh we all understand a frugal wife. When it comes to spending on our own toys we use our own money. When it comes to bills and such we use the my money is our money and her money is her money approach.

To you, perhaps.

If you mean "international QSOs" I am assuming you are talking about VOIP using a hotspot? Another boring aspect of digital amateur radio

Oh, I know that there are an extremely high amount of users on DMR as I routinely update the user databases on my 878s. The amount of users is irrelevant as most aren't active even though they are in the database. Only a few talk groups get high use The bulk of DMR conversations are radio checks and kerchunking. As for C4FM, I think that is by far the clearest and best sounding digital mode. I noticed in our area that a few of the C4FM repeaters went back to analog only. The owners finally got tired of broadcasting in an empty room.

Back in the day you had to build a lot of stuff to be an Amateur Radio Operator. Today the market is flooded with stuff so there's no longer a need to build stuff but you still need to know how to program it and what equipment is good and what's not so good. As someone with an Electronic Technician Degree from DeVry(class of '83, LOL) I know how to build stuff If I needed too but why. I just spend a few bucks and get something that works right out of the box. No need to fiddle with things.

No DMR radio is supported by Chirp

My wife is very, how shall I put this.................Frugal. I had to practically twist her arm a few years ago to spend $50 bucks on a pair of shows for work. She also knows are budget and all the bills/credit cards we need to pay off so what I get out of my Crypto with maybe a few bucks extra is going to be it. I'm actually looking at a good VHF/UHF antenna that I can put on a Tripod and adapt to my HT to improve the range. Plus, I can use the antenna/tripod if I want to do POTA.

@Northcutt114 I love your avatar.

Thanks Mark for your intellect. The TX/RX PL is set right according to the repeater info on maps. I'll try disabling the RX tone and see if there's any difference.

Is this radio on Chirp?

I'm sure there are sad hams that use the term "appliance operator" in a derogatory way but every time I've heard it so far has been a ham referring to himself.

Airwaves are free but repeaters are not. Someone spent resources putting that system together.

If you can see bars but no audio, you have the TX tone set right. Does your radio have a RX tone set and is it correct? Try disabling RX tone (if set) and check to see if you are getting a audible kerchunk.

If they did, they wouldn't be cheap.

I wasn’t certain if the waivers/conditions appeared on the reference copies the same as the official copy so I went through the pain of downloading an official copy. It no longer appears there either.

Thanks. I just tried it. downloaded a reference copy. Nothing is listed under Waivers/Conditions. Looks like I'll have to make a few code plug edit changes for my radios. Oh-well, more busy work.

Maybe.

Maybe. Not all repeaters give a kerchunk.

There are times when I reach out to a distant repeater and get only a signal (bars) kickback but no audible kerchunk. Am I still hitting that repeater? Thanks. WRXU693 James RSSI stands for Received Signal Strength Indicator.

My first thought it's just an inefficient government system. They are too lazy to go back and notify older licensees of an update.