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Good grief! That is one awesome - but rather overpopulated - tower. I'm happy to have nothing that obscene anywhere near me!

The radio was only a few days old when it broke. The Ham Radio Outlet gave me a brand new radio and sent the damaged one back for analysis. It may be a month or so before we hear back. They may never tell me what the result is... but at least the HRO took good care of me.

Wow, just noticed how I spelled Waterproofing in the subject line. Maybe my next post will be about proofreading. Cheers

The heat shrink I got is the stuff with sealer used for underground well lines. The glue is pretty tough. I have used it in the past and it works really well. Made by T&B. Hopefully mine is only up until spring and i start my tower install.

One of my friends gave me a UV5R to replace my trusty BellSouth 1010 FRS radio so we can stay in touch over longer distances during trail rides (mountain biking). I've been using FRS radios since the mid 90s whenever they first appeared and it seemed odd that this radio could get significantly better range within the constraints of FRS (500mW). Of course the first thing I did was research the radio itself which led me down various paths which I'm sure you're all familiar with (surprise it's not FRS! ham licensing? no, but not FCC certified, legality?), but to sum up I discovered that GMRS is a thing, which I was previously unaware of. So initially during this crazy ride the info I found suggested the UV5R was legal to use as long as you had a GMRS license, so I ended up getting one (no exam, nice). I've read the FCC regulations myself and unless I'm reading them wrong (certainly possible) the UV5R is unquestionably illegal to use for FRS/GMRS. From what I've read here and elsewhere online it seems like there aren't many Part 95e certified radios for sale, everything is combo FRS/GMRS and most of them are not really GMRS, just FRS under the new FCC regs (8 more channels and up to 2W on some?). So that brings me to the advice part. I primarily use FRS radios to communicate with friends/family while biking, hiking, boating, etc. Kids/wife all have cheap 500mW FRS radios and we get about 1/4 mile in our neighborhood, maybe 1/2 mile when hiking/biking in state parks, probably 1 mile when boating. If I could double each of those ranges I would be happy. With the new FRS it looks like they share 100% of the channels with GMRS, and now they can transmit up to 2W, so what's the advantage of GMRS? Most handheld "GMRS" radios from Midland are only 2W, so I'd be gaining nothing and have to use a callsign? Should I just get some newer 2W FRS radios?

"Ham radio really starts at HF" is an old-fashioned view of a dynamic hobby. Every operator I have talked to who shares that "ham radio really starts at HF" view has told me some variation of "I can't possibly sit around on a 2-meter repeater, talking to the same people every day." VHF and UHF operation have evolved rapidly this decade (first with Wouxun and Baofeng, then with entry-level radios featuring digital voice), while HF has lagged behind. Nearly all of the development on HF since 2005 has targeted high-end radios, outside the scope of what new operators will be using to experience HF for the first or second time; it's about upselling the existing products, not creating a product less expensive for the consumers. IP linking of both analog and digital VHF/UHF systems have whittled away at HF's advantages for ragchew, all while requiring much less equipment investment. You'll hear "the magic isn't there", but that's from a lack of understanding of the underlying infrastructure that all has to work together to establish that connection. Ham radio can start anywhere. It could be on your local 2-meter repeater where a high-school student studied for their Technician license and bought an Anytone handheld to celebrate getting their first callsign. It could start with an unlicensed operator using their grandfather's radio under their supervision and callsign. It could start where my journey started, on someone else's HF receiver. It could start on a DMR hotspot, a satellite, a fresh-built uBITX, or even a packet node. But for most people entering the hobby, it's going to be on your local 2-meter repeater. Anyone who says that isn't really ham radio has lost sight of the hobby's goal.

That means Yaesu took care of you. The reason I say that is I used to be in the business, and Yaesu was always good to take care of the dealers. Kenwood, not so much. Don't get me wrong; I'm a fan of Kenwood commercial gear and also amateur gear from early '80s and back. But I worked for a full line dealer during the '90s, and Kenwood was dead last in customer service. Yaesu was first. Alinco ran a very close second. We couldn't just replace a Kenwood that failed. If we did, we would likely have to eat it.

This is most likely a repeater site ID'ing - while repeaters on GMRS are not required to identify themselves at regular intervals like other radio services, many do this as a courtesy to let other users know that there is an active repeater on that channel/frequency. The "travel tone" refers to 141.3 Hz, which is commonly used by GMRS operators on repeaters and/or simplex. Here are some relevant links that explain in further detail: Continuous Tone-Coded Squelch System Digital Code Squelch (DCS) CTCSS and DCS Tones -- What's the difference?

I just received mine and have had it a couple of days. Have compared it to the BTech GMRS-v1. This radio blows it away. RF performance is amazing and I can hit all of my local repeaters from inside my house. One of them almost 30 miles away. The circuitry is way superior to the radio on a chip unit. Wish the buttons were rubber instead of hard plastic. Screen viewing angle isn’t that great either. But the little cosmetic flaws aside it’s RF performance justifies the cost completely.

Look for the NWI GMRS Zello channel. When authenticated by the moderators, all traffic is linked to the RF network of 8 repeaters in Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and Sioux Falls South Dakota. A weekly net is held every Sunday evening at 9pm EST, 8pm CST, etc.

http://coaxseal.com/products/ Coax-Seal brand tapes. The original. The best.

Hmmmmmm, if you dont like your neighbor??....................,!!

The Luiton LT-590 UHF and the Midland 400, except for badging and firmware, are the same radio. I have both. Opened up they are identical. The Luiton comes with programming software and programming cable, 200 channels.

I'm so old that I did learn everything, but now I'm forgetting most of it.

Honestly, it's just enabled that way by default. It wasn't a conscious decision. It's probably for the best, like berkinet said. Someone will go crazy and like every single thing one day and just get annoying.

Not to drag this topic further into further CCR bashing there is one important item to consider. The desire to get into radio is something many dont do any more nor have any interest. So the good thing is some people still want to. The issue with the Baofeng or any CCR is the performance as many he mentioned. The performance can impact the users "taste" of the hobby and many times they loose interest cause it doesn't do what it should. I have had this happen in the SAR world and also Amateur world on top of my GMRS repeaters. 90% of the folks that buy those complain they can't hit the repeater or are so broken up and unreadable more folks tell them its junk. This causes them to loose interest and leave the radio world. For me I started grabbing cheap good radios when i have extra cash and leave them sitting. When i get a person who wants to use a baofeng I hand them one of these and let them use it side by side. Normally 2 days later I get "hey can i buy this from you". There is alot of good radios out there dirt cheap that works well for GMRS. I recently picked up 6 HT1000 portables for $50.00. Threw some $20.00 batteries on them and programmed up for GMRS. I have one left in the box. If your truly interested in radio get a reputable radio or your expectations will not be met. JMHO

I also get how many might not like some kind of membership fee for use....but as the sole financier of my own solar site @8800 ft in a remote area of New Mexico to help some 100+ families who have no cell service or other means of communication I didn't feel bad at all about asking for an annual donation that worked out about 9-12$\month....I have some $13K of my own in this site & must maintain batteries & all site maint on my own....Most who ask for some fee I will say are most likely just trying to cover their installation\operational costs....for the few who might be doing it for a profit motive...well I will leave judgment on that to others although I personally do not agree with trying to operate as a for-profit enterprise...so I practice what I preach..& "donations" to me for my site use are optional, not mandatory. And even like this nearly all who use it have tried to donate something to help so I still have some faith in human nature

1 for the most part GMRS is intended as a Family radio service. 2 cost. I have $$$ into 3 machines. my time, my $$, it is at my digression to let others use it. 3 people can be idiots. you want to act like a fool on my machines I shut them off. 4 this is not HAM as to being a member, you would have to ask permission and/or seek out the groups repeater you wish to use. given your location you should/could be hearing machines in LI possibly a couple of NYC machines.