All Activity

Ah, the classic 87, it never goes out of style nor will it ever be discontinued. Don't remind me about clamp meters. My dumb ass left my old favorite Fluke ampprobe where I was working and didn't remember I forgot it till the next day. Needless to say somebody got an early Christmas gift. I bought a new one, it gets hooked to my belt. I ain't making that mistake twice.

Some sad hams hate on other amateur license holders especially the old curmudgeons that had to write essay answers on their tests and had to pass the CW code portion too. They feel that since they had to walk up hill in 2 feet of snow both ways to school that everyone else should have to do the same.

I have been assured by "some people" that this is a lie, this never happens, and it is impossible - and if you spread these lies you are a racist or a nazi, or "too dumb to pass the test"..

All I had to do is make mention of having a GMRS license on 2 meters. The attitude that came off of the Hams just about dissolved my speaker. Needless to say, I quit talking on ham. I hop on Ham on a rare occasion to check into a net or something but my days of having conversations is probably over. I got this same attitude over making mention of an experience I had on CB radio. Just say the name of another radio service and the most vile hatred oozes out of some Hams.

I'm still using the Fluke 73 III that I bought 25 years ago. It does most everything I need it to do. I have a new Klein clamp meter for amperage reading when needed

I have the 117 and really like it. Of course I wanted the 87 but I couldn’t justify the price difference.

None, all are located within and service the central Maryland area.

It seems to have some promising features. I guess I'd be interested in how well the programming app works, how you like the Bluetooth and it's multitude of options and do you find it to be an improvement in quality from it's BTech mobile predecessors? Looking forward to your video and thoughts.

Fixed stations don't connect to mobile stations.

I've found out the hard way in my younger days that if you skimp and buy inexpensive tools you pay for it in the end. If you're doing mobile GMRS installs or troubleshooting, and the gear and accessories are "Imported" it is inadvisable to use a domestically manufactured meter, even the legendary Fluke. To solve this dilemma I've been finding myself in more often than not is to purchase an "Imported" Fluke meter to get around this problem. Now when I'm in this situation again, I won't feel like I'm mixing matter with anti-matter. I love this meter!! Ain't she pretty? Now off to measure the current draw of my DB20.

I don't consider myself as "some people", at least I don't think so or willing to admit it, but I do consider myself as a "radio dork" and a Jeep Creep", and I will watch the video, but I'm curious if this BTech is similar or a copy-cat of the Midland MXT575 with a handheld controlhead/microphone and the transmitter/receiver unit gets put under the seat type configuration. Oh by the way, I don't get any Amazon deliveries, but the Amazon driver in our area is a Cute-as-a-button lady and no way near looks like an Amazon, nor do we allow Amazon Men in Sun City West.

The Amazon man just delivered my BTech GMRS 50Pro - ask your questions now/post your concerns! I will be uploading a video about it in the next day or two and looking for feedback/questions, even from "some people".

My suspicion is your problem is in the transition between to components. An example would be coax to connector, connector to antenna connector, antenna connector to radiating element, and so on. It's in there and I'm sure you will find it if you get aggressive looking for it.

How did the solder joints look on the antenna? Did you buy a complete cable or did you get bulk cable and install the ends yourself? The destructive way to see if water has gotten into the coax from the connectors is to cut the connectors off and examine the dielectric. The dielectric material will discolor when it gets wet. I've seen issues with bulk head and other adaptors where the treaded portion of the SO239 was too short and that can cause problems too. Another issue is a mismatch of threads IE standard versus metric or the thread pitch was off a little. I've had troubles with less expensive 90 degree PL259 to SO239 adaptors and with Pl259 to PL259 adaptors. They caused issues with SWR.

May have an official answer soon. (or it might be another meaningless exercise, never know with these folks)

There's a ham club in Bushnell. Have you contacted them to find out if any of their members could be bribed with a six-pack to help you out? Maybe they have some GMRS fans in their ranks who'd help in exchange for use of your repeater (or adult beverages). Crash their lunch or breakfast meeting, or send their contacts an email. https://k4hog.org/

I should have my RT97L in about a week.

So any one close to Bushnell, Fl can give me a hand? I can't clime my tower do to a injury. They repeater system should be hear in about a week.

I did a little testing using a Nagoya UT-72G antenna on a pizza pan about 9 feet off the ground on my back deck. Using an HT, I was able to get about 3 miles to the east and 1-2 miles to the south and southwest. Not spectacular, but not bad for an unfavorable setup. To my surprise, there were a couple of places about a mile to the west where I could access the repeater. I was surprised because there's a tall hill to my west. I guess there are a couple of places where radio waves can sneak around it. I plan to use it with a better antenna on a 25' mast attached to my truck or RV, so I expect much better distance under those circumstances. I just couldn't resist testing it. TBH, for a lot of purposes, i.e. camping, 2-3 miles is plenty. Still, I should be able to better that considerably with a gain antenna and more height.

Is 16 an emergency channel? People in Alaska use marine radios inland all day every day and I never heard of anyone getting in trouble for it. Maybe they know enough to stay off 16.

Staffords is P25 Phase II. Its very simple to do what he did. Ton of videos and forum directions on how to do what he did and folks helped him. Just like here.

Welcome to the forums!

Newbie to GMRS, but boat loads of radio experience from the Army. Not sure how much will be relevant. But I'm just in it for fun. After buying a pair of radios, I realized that there are ZERO repeaters near me.

As long it's brought up in the proper forum, then no you won't, but in the end it's up to the Moderators decision. Many of us use SDS100/200's to listen, as well as SDR's.

With more departments going digital, usually P25 with a few doing NXDN or even DMR, usually on a trunking system, its getting really hard to do. That's where using an SDR comes in handy. But then again you're not going to be TX'ing with an SDR so it's moot. Then there is the issue of encryption using the digital modes. Huge rants about that on "radioreference.com" to the point if you bring it up you can get booted.