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Here in FL there've been band openings in the winter & spring when the mornings & evenings have been cool I'm in the Tampa Bay area close to the Gulf & several times I've connected to repeaters up towards the FL Panhandle I know of ops that live on the East side of Tampa Bay that have hit repeaters on the East Coast when the conditions allow it A Tip: on those cool mornings & evenings, check the 162 MHz NOAA weather channels, if you start copying NOAA stations from out of town that's a good indicator of a band opening

Yes.

What about 65 miles on my HT at 5 watts to a SSB station doesn’t work for you?!? It works for me!! OMG: I have an 80-6 meter vertical: all these years communicating with Hams with beams - my whole amateur radio career is trash!!! Geesh!! Let the OP live a little on 2 meters talking to SSB stations. He told you he can’t afford the Icom…

I am new to GMRS. So, I added a request to access a local repeater. The request has gone unanswered (been 5 days, maybe I'm being over anxious?). And, the request is not showing on my home page as PENDING (I would think that requests that have been sent, but not answered, would be PENDING). Query 1: Do most repeater owners answer fairly quickly, am I being too anxious? Obviously, I would like to program my radio for the repeater but I am not going to do so until I receive an acceptance. Query 2: How does the repeater owner control who has access to the radio when frequency, codes, etc. are published for all to see? Thanks, Ron (WSJH953)

No I do not get a commission from Icom or anyone else. The Icom IC-9700 IS the only new VHF/UHF radio available on the market that works on all modes. The only other options are to buy a shack in the box all band/all mode radio or search for a used all band/all mode radio. The issues with using a hand held for side band is the fact that most people using 2m SSSB will be using horizontally polarized antennas while HT antennas are vertically polarized. And this does make a big difference. You can get anywhere between a 15 to 40 dB loss when one person is using a vertical antenna and the other person is using a horizontal antenna. The signal loss will affect how well you hear the other person and also how far you can reach. Another issue is with using double side band. Most people using side band on 2m are going to be using upper side band only. You are splitting your single on both upper and lower side band with the Quansheng. This does have an effect on signal strength. Again I do have a Quansheng and have used it on DSB. But the difference in antenna polarization definitely hinders things.

No sweat, right? I do have some issues with Win 11 sometimes. So I still have Win 10 and XP when needed.

Yes, I'm on a Mac. It's been maybe a decade since I've had to run any Windows app but I just got Windows 11 set up using UTM quite easily. Got the CPS installed.

Did you write that opinion paper? If so, are those preferred modes something that users have to register for like DMR? I'm against giving some unknown group that authority, which is one reason I would not use DMR on ham.

While admittedly, Chirp is easiler, for the most part; what’s wrong with you using the Baofeng CPS? Are you talking about a “virtual machine” on a Mac? If so, I have been programming my non-Chirp radios in Parallels on a Mac since Windows XP back in those days!

What’s your point?!? The OP suggested SSB on 2 meters and you suggested a $1,900 Icom. I pointed out I make QSOs with 2 meter SSB stations at 5 watts HT for $20 and you are nit picking about DSB vs SSB Do you get a commission from Icom?!?

After digging a little bit more, I'm pretty sure the answer to my own question is is "no". Going to see if I can get CPS set up in a virtual machine before I order one of these.

One fall morning last year i was picking up repeater station from LA here in the Mojave Desert 150 miles north. The signal was coming like they were a block away.. Lasted about a minute and went away.. Every onnce in awhile i hear stations coming in that are not local. Usually when it's cooler out

Is it possible to program the channel groups/zones for the BF-F8HP Pro in CHIRP or does it have to be using the BTECH CPS?

Okay, they eventually sometimes maybe respond, but don't count on it.

I have the same radio and the same firmware installed. It does not work as a true single side band mode. It works in double side band mode. single side band is either upper or lower side band of the tiled frequency. Double side band uses both upper and lower side band. I've used the Quansheng on DSB mode and while it does wok, it is not the same as a radio with true single side band.

Oh sweet summer child....

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.

They probably respond to complaints, and they aren't getting any.

Its cute that it's taken you this long to realize this fact.

And yet, there is a group near me that has almost 20 repeaters linked to the 'net...and even have a zello channel. I'm beginning to think that the FCC's doesn't really enforce anything.

Bridgecomm's code plug isn't good for much more than connecting to their hotspot. It has no repeater channels but local to them IIRC. Other than as a starting point, it isn't worth anything as virtually the entire plug is copied from places like Brandmeister and RadioID. "

Doesn’t Bridgecom offer a codeplug that is a massive database of interesting frequencies!?

Check this site out Tropospheric Ducting Forecast for VHF & UHF Radio & TV

Sorry, I was just joking around. The FCC recently made clear that linking GMRS stations over the Internet was against the regs.

While I have great nostalgia for 6 meter AM when I was young, my experience here in SoCal is that 6 meters is dead, other than some FM repeaters that duplicate others on 440/220/145