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I've had to repair a few cold solder joints on brand new coax switches in the last 6-12 months. And they weren't the cheap MFJ junk either.

Good points about Ham operators. I think it’s important for Hams and Gmsrs to occasionally debate things in the forums amongst each other. But when it comes to engaging the law makers and bureaucrats who really don’t understand the different services we present a somewhat united front. I think politically letting the less educated politicians sometimes seeing us a one big group of “radio people” and the numbers behind that, can be helpful. Of course each group could still advocate for the issues important to them. Long story short is we all (Hams & GMRS) approach radio from many perspectives and have different goals. But presenting ourselves as more united than divided can often help.

Yes in part - the underlined sentence is enough by itself IMO. But there was more explanation that covering large areas was not the intent and there's no way to know what is going on at another repeaters location (like maybe 50-75 miles away), either another repeater that overlaps or a simplex conversation, and wide area coverage is a problem with the limited channels available..

I’ll make it easier for you. Here’s the interpretation. I suspect you’re referring to the part that I underlined: A GMRS user can expect a communications range of one to twenty-five miles depending on station class, terrain, and repeater use. GMRS stations cannot be interconnected with the public switched telephone network or any other network for the purpose of carrying GMRS communications, but these networks can be used for remote control of repeater stations. In other words, repeaters may not be linked via the internet—an example of an “other network” in the rules—to extend the range of the communications across a large geographic area. Linking multiple repeaters to enable a repeater outside the communications range of the handheld or mobile device to retransmit messages violates sections 95.1733(a)(8) and 95.1749 of the Commission’s rules, and potentially other rules in 47 C.F.R. Repeaters may be connected to the telephone network or other networks only for purposes of remote control of a GMRS station, not for carrying communication signals.

Some folks need to go back and read it again. I could probably find it and quote it but I'm not interested in the argument anymore since it was clear to me.

The company I worked for ran distribution centers and also made dispensing machines for pharmacies and hospitals. They did other stuff too, but I was not involved with any of that.

Contrare is all people do on this forum and the whole internet - I don't want any amateur speculative interpretations. I want the officials responsible to clarify. Everything else is BS. As far as EXTRAPOLATION, the regs should be written so we don't need to make up our own ideas of what we believe they mean. That is exact;y the problem we have right now. I wish I had a list of every BS explanation I've heard from people on this topic.

Au contraire, the rules tell us exactly what a fixed station is and the rules tell us exactly what the limits are. You just haven’t extrapolated from the rules how you might use one. Others have described how they could be used. A pair of fixed stations could be dedicated to provide an intercom between two households such as on a family farm, for example. Or for telemetry and control.

I actually worked on a network design for an installation at a Genentech site many years ago.. Not saying where, but i can tell you that place would blow your mind. When you see the measures they take when doing bio tech research, it would scare the hell out of you when you realize this is done basically in our back yards

Yea, I had 2 XPR3500 that had bad antenna sockets. Was fixed in about 20 minutes with the soldering station.

But not 'all' from China.. some and maybe the higher end are manufactured in S Korea, Japan, Taiwan and even Vietnam.. Unless China comes to a level fair ground with tariffs, i'm betting Baufang figures out a way to manufacture from one of these countries. Exactly what is happening with the Laser Hobby world

No, they said repeaters cannot be connected to a network for the purposes of linking. They said nothing about radio links.

No, there was another part to their clarification - we can't link by RF either because it can cover a wide area which was not the intent for GMRS.

And yes we all know the dangers of lithium batteries and how hard they are to put out if they catch fire. But a lead acid battery can explode just as easily when abused. Most combat vehicle, AKA tanks, use a bank of 8 12v DC batteries hooked up in series/parallel for 24 volts out. And they are high AH batteries that are needed to start those big V12 diesel engines or turbo shaft engines. Most armored personnel vehicle use 6 or 8 12V batteries while most wheeled vehicles use 4 batteries. And I have seen those batteries explode when mishandled, abuse, and/or damaged. One would have to abuse either battery type to have any safety issues.

Well, it seems that my Motorola XPR7550e also has cold solder joints (in fact 177 radios all from the same batch) near the top of the board. Dreaded issue with many series of radios, with wave soldering being used in production, the top of the board (where the antenna, channel selector, and volume/on/off knob are located) gets the cooler solder joints that fail over time. Or, as I put it.....Motorola Planned Obsolescence. Often times, Motorola (and other brands/model) radios end up in auction sites as they have intermittent issues related to their antenna connectors, power and volume settings (radios get bumped "Off" when the potentiometer begins to fail), or channel select issues when worn on the belt and the knobs are rubbed. This can often be cold solder joints from manufacture. This is not limited to Motorola (I have seen this with Kenwood as well 5100/5300 series handhelds). The fix is to re-solder the connections if the pots or antenna connector is just loose, to replacement of potentiometers if volume/on/off or channel select is too loose. 3D printing also came in handy as shields can also prevent torque on the top knobs and antenna connection, preventing wear on the circuit board connections that may be prone to poor soldering during manufacture. As for Motorola XPR7550e radios, Motorola has repaired them under warranty, or via flat-rate repair if out of warranty.....but will only support them for another three more years (the model was discontinued and replaced by the Motorola R7 series radio), you often get five years of production and five additional years of support. For those buying second hand, buyer beware, or use for negotiation of price. Anyone else experience this with their radios (any manufacture), if so, what was the fix?

Actually what was clairified about repeater linking by the fcc is linked over phone line and internet. It is still and has always been ok to link via radio waves. Just harder and more expensive to do. as far as it being in the rules. THIS right here is why every one needs to read the rules BEFORE paying your $35 fees. When you pay your fees you are swearing to the fcc that you have read AND understand the gmrs rules. Ignorance is not an excuse. Just read. Do your own research. 1/2 the posts on this site and all over the web could be deleted if people would just do research before asking to be hand fed. In this world no one has any excuse to be ignorant in anything.

And that tells us exactly nothing about what a fixed station is. Total bull. They have already said repeaters aren't allowed to be linked. Everybody wants to make up their own BS interpretation and none of it is official.

My last job was at a pharmaceutical distribution center. That company bought directly from the manufacturers and sold to the different pharmacies and hospitals. The company sold everything to the different pharmacies and hospitals for the exact same price. Yet you could go to 5 different pharmacies and there would be 5 different prices for the same thing. And it's common to be able to get medicine cheaper without using your insurance versus using insurance. The company I worked for actually took a loss per item but sold in a large enough volume to still make a profit. The pharmacies and the insurance companies have a definite effect on the prices of medicine. I was just the lowly maintenance technician so I didn't have anything to do with how the business ran.

I don't doubt that's what he said, but either he's using "wholesale" in a different sense than I understand it, or he has misunderstood tariffs. When they've taken effect, he may discover that it isn't going to be as bad as he thinks. I hope that's the case. If a major importer stops importing, no doubt the consumers will notice.

Unit Number: 10

Nope, just expressing my opinion when feel it necessary.

It's really easy to unlock. Buy the KG-UV980P instead. Same basic radio, HAM version, Chirp unlocks it to transmit GMRS. Contrary to one persons opinion, these are solid radios (the 1000 or the 980P), they perform very well, sounds great on TX/RX. No you can't just put the 980P config on a 1000, that wont "unlock" the 1000 because as it's been said, the 1000 has additional firmware burned into the thing to prevent out of GMRS bands/power levels/offsets etc. As it should as a part 95 certified radio.

It goes on far too long for a very simple thing. I’d rather link to it than repeat it.

May God bless and comfort your joints and spine. Thank you for your service! Best Regards!

From 47 CFR part 95.303: Definitions... Fixed station. A station at a fixed location that directly communicates with other fixed stations only. Base station. A station at a fixed location that communicates directly with mobile stations and other base stations.