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1.25 is useful in and around some cities but not here. For me, it would be a less monitored frequency to use for local comms (like walkie talkie use). The comments I hear about 6m aren't very favorable. Same for 10m except when they get excited over band openings.

The FCC just recently made it officially legal on 11M. I guess it's popularity all depends on equipment availability and any real world advantage it might have over AM/SSB. Some people have no interest in digital on GMRS. That's OK. However there are apparently enough who do that a few threads have commented about the proliferation of digital voice signals in some areas, and it's not even legal! Oh well. The point of digital voice is the ability to have reasonably clear communications out to nearly the limit of the traditional FM UHF signal range. FM can get really ratty and noise polluted at extended ranges. One other reason to use it the digital signals, using the right mode, can fit between the main FM repeater channels with the likely hood of not interfering at higher power levels, unlike the narrow band FM currently allowed at 0.5 watts. In areas with substantial GMRS usage this opens up the service for much better coverage without begging the FCC for more spectrum we're very unlikely to get. GMRS Digital Voice - 20250723.pdf

While it’s still fresh in your mind start going through the General material. It builds on the technician test and adds more technical detail. I really enjoyed the studying experience. Upgrading your license doesn’t require additional money to the FCC.

All of the radios I'm using have 1.25M RX/TX and I have a couple 1.25M Repeaters in my programming list. One radio I'm looking at will do HF with 6M on the standard antenna.

Don't waste your time or money on an HF HH. Bite the bullet for a true HF base or a "shack-in-a-box" radio. General is almost as easy as Tech and it opens almost all the frequencies. Check with a local club before making any purchase, but don't overlook used radios. There are some good deals out there if you know what you want and can be patient. I bought my HF with extras for about $300 less than new. "

And if they finally cracked it using all that wasted effort, they will ask themselves was it really worth it. The fun part would be cracking it. Beyond that, another exercise in futility.

Using anything other than FM on VHF/UHF is sort of a specialty, including digital voice. Most of your digital voice operations you'll typically find on UHF, normally the 70cm band. There is some on the 33cm band but it's done almost exclusively with new/used commercial radios. There is some activity on VHF. Other modes, like SSB can be found on VHF and UHF by a small number of stations. Where it really explodes is on the 6M band during an opening. The SSB section of the band goes from nearly DEAD to wall-to-wall signals at that time. You also might find the occasional AM station on 6M too. The 1.25M band is a bit spotty. It can see significant use in some areas and almost nothing in others. There aren't too many radios with 1.25M TX/RX. Before investing in expensive equipment for that band do some monitoring and see what the local activity level is like. If 2M and 70cm is crowded in your area then the 1.25M band might be attractive if you prefer talking to a group of friends and don't want to hunt around for an open frequency/repeater to use all the time. Some also claim 1.25M has the propagation characteristics of 2M and 70cm making it a good choice when indoors or outside.

I just don't see GMRS a good match for digital. You are most likely right, it will eventually be here. As for FM on 11m, do people still use it? I gave up on it almost 40 years ago.

Welcome

With analog fading is fine as you can still hear the transmission, albeit with a little more noise but it's readable.

All right, just found this page, a year later. Never saw any notes about activity in here, or how to find this location till just now. Thanks for all the info, and fun sarcasm. I understand it all. I guess I paid for the wrong license first, my gmrs, thinking I could use it most places. Mostly I hear walmart, lowes, home depot and a few others in my travels. And still trying to learn this tid h3 on adding tone in n out. But am waiting for a replacement as the new hardware update ruined the radio. I will be stationary for awhile, in the st louis, jefferson county, mo area. So will try to get codes dded to new chabbels whenI receive my replacement h3 gmrs/ham radio. Happy Monday, first one in August.

Looking at videos on both. The Radtel doesn't use the standard K1 programming cable so that's a deal breaker. I can do 6M with the standard antenna that comes with the TK-11 so that would give me more frequency range than the 2M/1.25M/70cm that my current radios so I'll have more to explore now that I have my HAM license. Either way I'll be a couple weeks before I get anything because I need some Crypto I have to unstake to get funds.

I have a buddy at work here that keeps saying he wants to get his Ham license but claims he doesn't have time to study. This has been going on for several years now. I don't bother to ask him anymore. If he wanted his license that bad he would have put in the effort. As you discovered it doesn't take that much. Congratulations on getting your Tech Class license. Now you get to spend even more money and buy more radios.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropospheric_propagation

I sometimes hear traffic from a GMRS repeater in Tulsa 110 miles away. I guess it's possible we have a good enough line of sight for that, but I've also wondered if sometimes atmospheric conditions are causing some sort of skip. If it were due to line of sight, I think I'd hear it more than once every 1-2 weeks.

I was surprised at how easy the Technician Test was after only 3 days of studying on HamStudy.org. That really is an awesome resource for anyone wanting to get their Amateur license. I ended up with a 34 out of 35 and it makes me wonder why I didn't do this sooner.

Why? There's nothing worthwhile to listen to on HF and you can't even join in the HAM games with an HT. A plain ole DB-20G would give you a lot more to receive and talk to. I know you're new, but you are over complicating the idea of communication by looking for features or gadgets that don't and won't matter when you really need comms.

I've been looking at some HTs that can do HF and saw these two. Does anyone have any experience with either and which one would you recommend? I know I'll not get the range out of either like I would a dedicated 10M base station with a good antenna but I'd at least be able to play around a bit and explore it to see if I'd want to invest in better equipment. If anyone has any other recommendations for a sub-$100 HT that'll do HF please let me know. Thanks and 73's.

As with GMRS, Get one up high enough (top of hill as a router or repeater) to increase line of sight and you'll get a LOT more distance than you expect. Battery-powered solar nodes used as repeaters and mesh expansion are smallish, fairly cheap, and require little maintenance. Having them run off a phone makes it real easy for the uninitiated to use them. Certainly looks less dorky to text via your phone than to use a handheld. Some nodes look like (and are no bigger) than an access card. It's just another mode of communication. I don't poo-poo any of them, be they RF or IP related, so to each his/her own.

A big change in atmospheric temps like in spring and fall mornings can also cause ducting. Low cloud cover during storms is another example. I live in Mid Missouri about an hour east of Columbia and 1 1/2 hours west of St Louis. When atmospheric conditions are just right we can hear the Pacific. Mo GMRS repeater just as strong as our GMRS repeater. Both are on the same channel and use the same tones. There has also been times that I have talked on the GMRS repeater 50 miles west of me with a guy around Springfield Il. Conditions have to be just right for that to happen. And that usually happens in the spring and fall due to temperature inversions. Another example happened last week. My brother and I both have UHF Allstar nodes. We were using the same frequency and tones since we live 19 miles apart and never had an issue until then. We use no more than 5 watts when using our nodes. That day there was a heavy storm in between us which was bouncing our low power signals so that I could hear him at 1 watt and he could hear me at 5 watts. We couldn't hear each other once the storm moved out. And yes I changed the frequency my node uses after that.

More likely tropospheric ducting which is caused by an atmospheric condition and affects UHF signals.

Not yet anyway. That could change at some point. People are doing it now regardless of the rules. If the practice continues, expands and no FCC enforcement action then we could see the FCC just throw in the towel again, like they did in 2017 rule changes with FRS/GMRS combo radio, and make it legal. Then the question will be what mode(s), power and where. Some have pushed the idea to add more channels to GMRS. Very likely won't happen. As it is the service has 7 nearly useless interstitial channels, 8 to 14, limited to narrow band, 0.5 watts and handheld units only with fixed antennas. Finding a better use for those, at higher power and use on mobile radios, would be equivalent to adding 7 additional channels, no extra spectrum required. I posted an opinion paper, based on a suggestion made in an old thread on this forum, these nearly useless channels could be the location for a dedicated home for a digital voice mode. Some won't like the idea of digital voice on GMRS, but hey for example, the FCC finally got around to adding FM to 11M CB radio. Took them long enough.

I think the difference here is you have a friend, if not more than one, using the Mesh that you need to check up on. (loved that "I'm calling the Cops" on the video) I can't think of anyone I know using it that I'd care to send or receive text messages from, even in a truly SHTF kind of event.

Same here. That was pre integrated circuits. Have soldering iron will travel.

DMR is digitized voice and reception depends on if the D to A decoder can receive the digital string with enough good bits or not. So, it's an either/or situation. You either decode the voice or you don't. The advantage is there is no fading as the transmitter moves away from the receiver.