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Yes, good test equipment will last a very long time. Still using an old Fluke 87 (no series III or white backlight here). Leaking LCD crystal around its display.....and believe it or not, a metrology tech put the main knob on in the wrong position, had to correct that myself. (My personal fluke ended up in the work pool as it looks like many others.....has happened with a Motorola XPR7550e radio as well). Black gasket broke, so electrical tape seals the gap in places.....but still accurate and great for use in dark corners of electrical cabinets or floor board of cars. Some co-workers bought the cheaper Kelin Tools multimeters, only to find they lacked a backlight. The old expensive Fluke 87 continues to do the job (suspect mine is 30 years old or so). By once, cry once. Get good gear.

I think Steve nailed it.. Programing error. Factory reset try again.

Umm. As much as a can’t stand h3 radios I’d bet something else is going on. Normally I see a 50% fail rate not 100%. I agree they may have gone into ham mode some how so they won’t tx on gmrs or something similar in the programming. I’d reset everything and make sure they are both in gmrs mode then try again with programming. Maybe just dial up a simplex in vfo mode and see if they can communicate. I’ve never had any radio blow anything when tx,ing very close to one another.

Being within a couple feet of another should have no effect on the finals. I bet that something with the programming resulted in inhibited transmit.

Thanks I will try them.

Purchased a two pack of h3’s. Checked their power output when I opened them both were about 4.4 watts. Connected them to the antennas, and programmed them with chirp for local repeaters. Radios Wouldn’t connect to repeaters, I checked the power output and nothing. Tried the other h3 from the same pack. Nothing. wow. I’m scratching my head trying to figure out if something I did fried them or if this just happens with these cheaper ht’s? Can keying an ht next to another one fry both of them? I have 3 other cheap ht’s that work perfectly yet these two died instantly after the initial power meter test. I try not to ever key a radio when it’s within a couple feet of another one but if I’m being honest I did do this on these by accident but I’ve done this to my other ht’s a time or two and they all work fine to this day. sent them back. Hope these h3’s aren’t super fragile and pop their finals if they get any sort of rx overload from a close transmitter but that’s the only thing I can think of that might cause this?!? I would think this could damage a RX section of a radio not the transmitter section no?

Fortunately my work never involved more than 220. A lot was DC control power and 120 that was relay controlled to the equipment. But an old electrician gave me some advice early on. Have two sets of tools. One for electrical and the other for everything else. Keep them in separate tool bags and never mix them. I always bought the best tools I could afford. Retired now I still keep my electrical tools segregated from my others. Old habits die hard if you follow them, you will too.

I guess the gps would be something I’d be interested in hearing about also. I believe this would be the first we have seen this in a GMRS mobile. Does it rely on the phone app for this or does it operate on its own?

Too bad that it doesn't come with a bluetooth mic with the display. Wonder if such a mic will eventually be available.

A Fixed Station is one that's been repaired. /s

Ya ya. Just what I need. More toys

By accident. Apparently there is a 625 repeater that I know about, but he also has a 600 repeater I didn't know about. My repeater operates on 600 with a PL of 100 and apparently his is on 103.5. I can trigger his repeater on occasion when I key up. I noticed when I keyed up the other repeater would activate and it's a much stronger signal than mine. It would block out mine for a second before it released. One day I moved my TX PL and found it was only 1 click up from what I was using. Not sure if my radio PL is wobbly or the selectivity of his repeater is lax. Either way I've decided to change my PL to stop the interference.

You ought to invest in a NANO VNA. Good to have your tool box arsenal.

Interesting that it was demonstrably affected by temperature. At very specific temps. At 26ºF the problem would go away. As the temp approached and exceeded 32ºF the problem would return. Certainly sounds like a water problem to me. Cables were professionally made, doesn't make them infallible of course. All connections were tight and secure. All connections were triple sealed. 2 wraps of self fusing tape and electrical tape on top. It's not like this is my first foray into electronics, electrical or radio. Until I do some RF testing on both the coax and antenna I can't say what exactly happened. All I know is it was broke. I replaced the two components it could possibly be, and now it ain't broke lol.

I would add make sure what you think you’re testing is what you think it is before putting that meter on it also. I got called out for a blown fuse on 4160 three phase. Each leg supplied a group of transformers and the electricians (not our company) thought the high side was 480… they opened up the back, one guy put the probes on while the other held the 600 volt rated meter. They both lived but they both went to the burn ward. Be safe and pass on stories where things can go wrong so the newbies may learn and hopefully avoid bad mistakes.

For 12v dc the best investment a mechanic or hobbyist can make is a power probe. Testing grounds, relays, giving power or ground to something.

It will only hurt for a little bit - until you either trip the breaker or pass out from the pain. I've zapped myself with everything from 12 V DC to 480 V AC three phase. 120 is the worse since it wants to hold onto you. Generally (but not always) 220V and above will throw you off. I got hit with 480V three phase when testing a contact. The relay went bad and it was getting the full 480 across it. I had my left hand on the metal cabinet when it hit me. It instantly threw my hand off the door. One of the worse shocks I got was when working on a 36 V DC golf cart. I got zapped by the full 36 volts from 6 high amp 6 volt batteries. I was testing the big resistor that controls the speed and accidentally got my left forearm across all three terminals on the motor. I had to grab my left arm with my right hand to pull my arm off the motor. I won't go cheap when it comes to tool needed for electrical work. All of my screw drivers and some pliers are all rated for up to 600 volts. And I definitely won't use those pen testers.

Don't get me started on those pen testers. I always tell the new guys to NEVER rely on them. If you insist on using one you better check using your meter. 277v and 480v is so unforgiving.

That is the beauty of the 87, it's such a joy to use. I always thought the clamp was such a neat accessory.

Yeah they can be finicky, I trust them to tell me something is hot, I don’t trust them to tell me it’s not. Klein has certainly made some money off of me over the years too

I’d put my money on the latter. But at least exercise is supposed to be good for you.

Still prefer Klein. And I have never trusted those pen type devices to see if a circuit is live. I do have one old Fluke meter. All it measures is 129 or 240 voltage. It must be close to 60 years old now.

I agree that good tools are a joy to use. Like radios it seems I can never have enough. As for Flukes I have the Fluke 16 and Fluke T5 1000. Before I retired I used to have the 87, the 376 FC with the flexible clamp (that was a nice meter) and a 771 milliamp clamp on (usefull for 4-20 controls). All good meters.

Yea obviously, but how do you know a neighbor is calling from his house versus his car? (You have to respond to even ask.) All this rationalizing is useless. therefore.... (wait for it).