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I've been listening to the old dudes on the local GMRS repeater talk about french onion soup and basketball (separate conversations) for too long and decided I need different soup conversations*, so I took my technician exam today. Got 33/35. Thanks, hamstudy.org! The proctoring team told me I should study for the general while this test still fresh, so that's the next goal. I have a certification exam I need to study for at work, but... that's not as much fun. *the french onion soup conversation was the first thing I heard on the local repeater but the actual catalyst for getting an amateur radio license was I managed to catch some transmissions from the ISS a couple of nights ago. I was reading about how you could contact the ISS on 2m/70cm bands and then discovered the ISS was directly overhead. Ran outside with a HT and managed to catch what I assume were packet transmissions. Now I want to talk to a space station. 8 year old me would think it's the coolest thing ever. 42 year old me still thinks it's pretty rad. Maybe someone up there prefers broccoli cheddar soup.

she will not she is not capable of focusing long enough to study for the test

his.

I go back to the 12 cent comics but nothing in the last few decades.

My sincere apologizes. I might have screwed uo the name to begin with. Off and on and I have finally noticed I was wrong as it is Vance 600 after now.

200 miles can be a stretch even for VHF frequencies depending on location, terrain, height of the antennas, etc.. The antennas for our Motorola 2m and 70cm repeaters is at 900 feet above ground. And we are only getting around 85 mile radius on 2m and about 35 mile radius on 70cm.

I'm sure your wife won't be checking under your hood...

Lets see how deep you go in the batman fandom....maybe more like Red Hood? Lawless bloodshedding vigilante?

Is the original post coming thru or is it one that someone else quoted?

Just going up to my sons from CT to NY state in separate vehicles made it nice. Heck, we talked more on the radio than if we were in the same vehicle. I had my mobile in the truck and set up an HT with a microphone and an external antenna for the little lady. Much easier to pick up the mic and talk than it is picking up the phone, dialing, waiting to be picked up etc. I don't think we were ever more than a 1/2 mile apart.

Well, it wouldn't *be* on UHF, would it?

No not that. The bike had cables that ran down the right side which I guess I didn’t clean, ended up on my right knee which wasn’t great when you can’t wear shorts at work.

Whenever these break, it takes the entire antenna element with it.

So you got an itch you couldn't scratch in public. That must have been a miserable experience.

I try to avoid poison ivy/oak when possible. It's weird that sometimes I will breakout in a rash and other times I won't. One thing that will also help dry it out is put some epson salt in your bath.

We're stuck with the mistake the FCC made years back by allowing the sale of "dual mode" radios, combo of GMRS and FRS, at the time. The radios included the original 14 FRS only channels in addition to the GMRS specific channels. The radios came with a disclaimer the user could not use the GMRS specific channels in the radio without having a license. At that time the license was around $80 to $90 for 5 years, and the radios sold for maybe $50 for a pair in blister packs like kids toys. You think anyone read the disclaimer, and if so did they care when the cost of the license was so high? Nope! The just stuck the batteries in and keyed up on whatever channel the radio could operate on. So, what did the FCC do with the 2017 rule changes? Well they through in the towel and just made what people were already doing legal. Now they didn't have to deal with the enforcement issues, simple solution. Now we're stuck with it. At least the FRS radios can't use repeaters. That would have been a complete mess. I've been on a high altitude balloon chase once. Lots of fun. Got up to about 93K feet. The guys doing it had GPS tracking, track was shown live on a map using software running on a laptop, in the payload and a UHF live video down-link too. That was all done using Ham frequencies, including the balloon communications. You can't do that on any GMRS frequencies. That's why the FCC will tell people to get an Amateur License. As the link in my prior post mentions the FCC's statement about GMRS is for "short range communications." I wouldn't call 200 miles short range on UHF. What you're effectively proposing is a change in the nature of use the GMRS service is targeted to serve. That I think is going to be one very tough sell to the FCC. Not so much. The antennas are basically plug and play for the most part and so are the very basic radios. Where people get confused is mostly figuring out repeater access, and advance features like dual watch etc. If it wasn't for that it's nearly the same as 11m CB radio, which is about as plug-and-play as you can get. Of course there are those few who want to learn more and experiment building antennas, that's cool. Those people sooner or later end up getting their Armature License. Me, it was the reverse, Ham first, and later got the GMRS license because it seemed so cool to have. At the time it wasn't well known, and the license cost was up there. Didn't really use GMRS so let the license expire. Years later reapplied and got a new GMRS call sign, my current one.

Well noob is politer than NUG or FNG And we all learn everyday as long as we aren't hard headed know it alls.

yea, it's pretty misserable. . She told me to use Dawn Soap for my baths for next two weeks. They gave me a Kenalog steroid shot that helps (barley) with itching but still oozing this crap..

@Socalgmrs to Randy is like Kiteman was to Batman.

I greatly appreciate the cyber hugs!! Everything is relative. Compared to some I am a noob and I love the fact that I am learning everyday.

Every super hero needs a nemesis

I got the SoCal guy ignored but his stupid post are still coming thru??? Something not working?

The moment you said GMRS node you lost the argument that you are not using it for linking radios via the internet. Like zello. Ya see Gmrs, the R stands for radio. And Allstar is allowed for amateur radio. Not GMRS. Calling @SteveShannon a noob is both inaccurate and rude. Cheers