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Well, I'm not doing show and tell. You are wrong about the equipment. It does not have to be a desktop type rig, i.e. a true base radio; mobiles and handhelds in a house, garage, radio shack, office, etc. with an external antenna on a pole, roof, chimney or in a tree are base stations. That's what they mean by fixed location, and notice they always refer to base station not base radio. My DB20G can be setup as base station, mobile station and portable station. Even my UV5G can be a base station.

Show me a GMRS base station. One that is manufactured to fit the qualifications of a true base station, not cobbled together from a portable or mobile transceiver and power supply. The only units I can see that approximate the requirements of being in a fixed location are repeaters however, they fail the "communicates only with other fixed stations" prong of the FCC definition.

That doesn't match what FCC said. (I put that in another thread.) They specifically said "any station..." without qualifying it except for the specific fixed station limitations. So IMO a base setup definitely fits when it follows the fixed station rules. [And that's not what this topic/thread is about anyway.]

You really have that mixed up. Fixed station has nothing to do with this.

Love my anytone 778, in fact i have 2, have one in the car, and the other was my base unit until i came across a 50w anytone 5888 for $50 in "unknown" condition (translation... replace the fuse in the lead and it works) which is now the base radio...

The DB-25G has a lot of potential, but unfortunately seems to have quality issues (see Amazon note about frequently returned), a number of little firmware quirks, and in my experience output was a good bit below the advertised watts. I went through several (thank goodness for Amazon's easy returns/replacement) to end up with a unit that has a few quirks I can live with. At least one of the units I received had trouble with reading/writing with both the factory CPS and CHIRP. While not a GMRS radio, I have often wondered if the BTECH UV-25X2 (similar radio, but with BTECH custom firmware) solves a lot of the issues.

That’s a great example. Another example would be dedicated intercoms between two or three buildings.

I'm seeing that after reading what Boxcar posted.

GMRS channels/frequencies are shared with FRS and channels 8-14 are restricted to 0.5 watts. Make sure your radio doesn't have any "privacy" (they aren't private) tones set. If tones are set, you won't be able to hear anything that doesn't come from a radio using the same tone. You'll need to set tones to use repeaters, but first clear them all out and listen to see who's talking and what channel(s) they're using.

Yes. It's best to think of fixed stations as transmitters permanently attached to a fixed pad firmly attached to the ground under them. They are used to send information from one permanent location to another station meeting the same mounting requirements. The best example for the simpletons is a radio transmitter connected to a gauge monitoring liquid levels or pressure at one location sending to a receiver at another permanent location that receives only the information from the sending unit of the pair.

Don’t confuse Fixed Station with fixed location. A Fixed Station is not the same as a Control Station. Nor is a Fixed Station the same as a Base Station. All three are located in “fixed locations” but all three serve different purposes and have different limitations. A Fixed Station is limited to 15 watts and is required to only communicate with other Fixed Stations. Base Stations and Control Stations may have 50 watts and are used to communicate with other types of stations.

Look at this: The FCC defines "Control Station" in the context of radio services, particularly under Part 95 of Title 47 of the Code of Federal Regulations. While the term isn't always explicitly defined in every radio service, here's how it's generally understood: FCC Definition (Part 95 Context) A Control Station typically refers to: l l A fixed location station that communicates directly with mobile stations and other base stations. It may also serve as the central point of control for a system of cooperating stations, such as in repeater or auxiliary setups. In amateur radio (Part 97), related terms include: Control Operator: The person responsible for ensuring the station complies with FCC rules. Control Point: The location at which the control operator exercises control over the station. Remote Control: Operation of a station from a distance via a control link, still under the supervision of a control operator. You can explore the full regulatory definitions in 47 CFR § 97.3.

In order to be a control station it must be a fixed transmitter at 15 watts or less. Usually fixed meaning it only communicates with another fixed station. As soon as the net controller responds to others on the repeater he's not following fixed station etiquette and not a controller.

Yes. "Classic" Baofeng analog models have an LCD screen with a backlight that can be programmed to display different colors when the radio was transmitting, receiving, or idle. Like other screens of the era, they could only display pre-programmed symbols, with a dot-matrix area for the frequency display. Starting with the H802 (which was a development platform and never sold to end users), Baofeng switched to a pixel-addressable full-color screen - in the case of the BF-F8HP Pro, 160 pixels wide by 128 pixels high. That lets firmware display anything it wants (like user-customizable startup images). It also means that new firmware versions can display new symbols. For example, firmware V44 added a new antenna icon to make it more obvious which of A or B would be used when transmitting when Dual Watch was on.

“Full-color”??

Thanks! No, I came on-board for the BF-F8HP Pro project. A lot of the older Baofeng software was called VIP instead of CPS and was built using a different development environment - I'm not sure which one. I believe (but don't hold me to it) that the BF-F8HP Pro CPS is the first BTECH CPS to be done entirely by a contractor, as opposed to using the factory CPS, possibly with some BTECH-specific customizations. I think it has worked out well for customers, BTECH, and myself. If you download the BF-F8HP Pro CPS manual, Chapter 4 tells you about all of the differences between my CPS and the H802 that Baofeng has been using for almost all full-color analog models. I believe in telling users everything that was changed, not just the "fixed a couple of bugs, added some new features" that you usually get. The same level of detail is available in the firmware release notes, which I also wrote.

The main CPS is in Visual Studio 2019 C# + .NET 4. That was as modern as I could go and still maintain support for Windows XP and 32-bit operating systems. Since CHIRP now requires Windows 10 and newer, 64-bit only, we needed to have something available for users of older Windows versions. I'm pleased that I could extend support back that far. Visual Studio 2019 will be supported and receive fixes from Microsoft well into 2029. The helper programs vox and devox (used to convert to/from the radio's voice prompt format) are in regular C, also built with Visual Studio 2019. ffmpeg uses its own toolchain with many local modifications. That was the hardest thing to build, both because it dropped support for XP and 32-bit binaries years ago, and I had to put it on an extreme diet to get the executable (without needing shared libraries) down to less than 2% of the normal ffmpeg size. Since ffmpeg is a GPL program, it is built as a standalone executable. The CPS installation provides the GPLv3 license, ffmpeg build script and links to request the complete source + toolchain. They aren't included by default because they weigh in at around 4.4GB. The installer is Inno Setup 5.6.1. That version was chosen because it is the newest version that still supports Windows XP. All of the CPS executables including the installer and uninstaller, except for vox, devox, and ffmpeg, are digitally signed with my Windows code signing key, issued by DigiCert.

Nicecwork! I remember when the BTech UV-5x3 was released, it had more robust CPS features than my UV-5Rx3. Were you responsible for these too?

It's a great radio. I have one in my truck and it seems to work really well. It got a work out a few weeks ago when I helped out supporting an all day running event and it never skipped a beat.

No, net control is not a control station.

I like the screen invert feature of this radio. At first I didn't think I would ever use it. But where I mounted the radio, my right knee kept hitting the mic cable. Turning the radio over fixed that problem.

The way I learned it in ham, no. And I know those advocating anyone who talks on a repeater is a control station in GMRS would consider it obvious. But from those who don't think just talking makes you a control station, what do you think? And for context, assume the net controller is not the repeater owner, is not located physically at the repeater, and has not been given codes to control the repeater remotely. And that is probably the most common situation for the nets around me. It's been a busy day for me and I've had it for tonight. "I'll be back" as Arnold said, to see what y'all think tomorrow.

@TerriKennedy just curious, what programming language did you use?

Very True!! I live in one of those spots, and Starlink has been a blessing! The only reason we can use cell phones at home is because I connected a femtocell access point thru Starlink.

Thanks to @TheMeatTrapper (WRN250), @WSDV406 (me), @WSIY431, @SteveGibbs (WSBM431), @WRXS569, @WSAQ712, and @WSGE773 for taking time out of their busy Wednesday evening for this week's check-in net. I know today is a somber day for most folks that follow current events. But I greatly value these weekly times to connect with a few good folks for a quick chat. Tonight's question was: "What's a memorable piece of advice that has stuck with you?" A sampling of the answers were, "Not everyone was raised the same as you". "If women don't find you handsome, make sure they at least find you handy". "Always assume the microphone is hot". And "Trust your gut no matter what". If you're in range of the Brentwood 600 repeater, listen in to our weekly nets on Wednesday at 8pm. If you want to key up, feel free to do so. It's just a quick press of that little PTT button. We won't bite. Thanks to everyone that takes time out of their busy week to spend a few minutes connecting and getting to know each other a little better. *Point your browser to (or share with a friend) SCTNGMRS.com or SouthCentralTNGMRS.com for easy access to the club page.....and make sure to click "follow" so you can stay up to date with new posts in our club forum.*