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73 is a Morse code leftover meaning "Best Regards". It is made by tapping out the numbers 7 and 3 run together: _ _ . . . . . . _ _ Dah Dah di di di di di di Dah Dah

Howdy, all! So glad the kids have taken to carrying their radios with them when they bike around town and are off with friends; getting the GMRS license is a no-brainer for active families. I'm looking to add a mobile unit to my car -- I'm looking at the Midland MXT400 -- and since we live in a rural area near Lake Erie and the Canadian Border, I'm confused as to what's permitted from a power standpoint North of Line A. Are mobile units limited to 5, 15, or 50 Watts? Is the MXT400 legal for use if the Power output can be reduced? Can it be reduced? Aside from well-known frequency restrictions, what are the power requirements north of Line A? Thanks in advance!

Disclosure: I'm not a lawyer, I'm not an engineer, and I'm not the one installing the radio. Tell him to search up the "Inverse square Law" along with SAR - "Specific Absorption Rates". This would also be a reason NOT to use cheap dual band radios without any FCC Type Certification (or worse yet, sketchy spec's at really odd power levels below what anyone actually uses). Long answer short, the further away you get from the antenna, the less RF energy you'll have going through your head. The amount of transmit power that you're pushing, as well as the given wavelength of the frequency you're dealing with, will also impact the amount of energy your body absorbs. Having a roof, a helmet, or other obstruction will impact the amount of exposure. Dealing with a out of spec radio that's pushing energy into bands that it wasn't actually supposed to transmit on just adds a few more variables to the equation. Different antenna gain patterns can also impact the amount of energy directed in a specific direction. Now that I've got you worried, consider that 20 years ago, most Public Safety folks spent a significant part of their life less than 18 inches away from a roof mounted radio that pushed out more than 100 watts, and it didn't affect them too badly (cue all the Barney Fife comments). Also consider that the FCC themselves said that the best way to reduce the amount of energy from your cellular phone was to use it away from your body, by using either speaker phone mode or getting a hands-free accessory. Of course, now that just makes me wonder how much RF energy my Bluetooth headset adds back into the equation...

If you want to save some money, there are GMRS Certified radios available on the used market that are both a lot less expensive than the Midland products, and a lot better. Search through this forum and you will find many recommendations.

Well, I wouldn't use ham grade gear as the standard to measure the CCRs up against either, when in reality most ham gear is also pretty subpar when compared to commercial or military grade gear. Receiver performance, in particular intermod rejection and selectivity is where most CCRs and ham gear tends to fall flat. The receiver sensitivity is a meaningless figure without taking into account selectivity. The TM-V71a has 0.16 uV sensitivity @ 12 SINAD in VHF/ UHF, which beats the 0.18uV of the IC-7000, and the 0.25uV of the Vertex Standard EVX-5400... but suffers heavily from intermod. When the TM-V71a is tuned to VHF frequencies, the NOAA weather station sitting 2 1/2 miles from home breaks through randomly regardless of whatever frequency you have the radio tuned to. On the other hand, the EVX-5400 hooked to the same antenna, in the same frequency never hears the NOAA station. That is an example of poor receiver performance. The TM-V71a can barely hear anything beyond 10 miles due to the receiver being saturated by the nearby RF noise, but the EVX-5400 almost full quiets from 10 miles away when talking to home from the same 5W portable... The CCRs, in particular all the TYT brands, those will simply desense down to zero when connected to my base antenna so reception range goes to zero. Now, perhaps If you live in a lower RF congested area then, perhaps, a CCR would be fine; but the again, owning a radio that only works in certain conditions is not a good radio to own IMO. If you need urban performance in crowded RF environments, then most of these Cheap Chinese Radios will disappoint. With that said, cheapies CCRs have their uses. For example, the Baofeng BF-1801 (Clone of the TYT MD-760) works great as a floor intercom radio... just don't expect that radio to make miracles in terms of range. Considering a lot of the Kenwood/Icom/Motorola commercial grade radios are sold for quite a bargain on eBay, I really don't see any reason to own a subpar radio... Buying cheap in radio gear is the surest way to buying twice. G.

You probably hear repeater traffic because signal reflects from the hills around you. 4W HT may not have enough power for reflected signal to open repeater. Mobile radio might have enough power. It's impossible to know in advance. Directional antenna may help too.

The Kenwood radios that cover the UHF amateur bands sound like the way to go because I want to take the Technician exam. Many years ago (and I mean many) I worked as an electronics tech. That was when all of the ICs were TTL. Mosfets were just barely getting a foothold. Surface mount PCs were unheard of. Still, the test questions don't look that difficult even now. Hopefully I can take the test this summer if the current conditions get much better. Even if I never really get into ham radio, getting the license and call sign will be something I've always wanted to do. But getting into such a complex hobby at sixtly-nine might be asking a lot of this old brain.

Sorry Logan5, but your case is not typical. You either live in a very flat place, at the top of a hill, or atop a mount, or even atop a mountain, b/c using 5W UHF where I live (near Madison WI), with my antenna placed atop a 40 feet mast, using Heliax 1/2" feedline doesn't reach reliably more than 5 miles out to HT, and that is spotty at best... even when pushing 50W GMRS out using Vertex Standard EVX-5400 mobile, through the same 40 feet antenna, it barely reaches 10 miles to another EVX-5400 mobile using a vehicle mounted NMO antenna (no magmount crap)... but to HT?... Sorry, but not typical to get 10 miles out of 5W. Using BTECH crap, TYT crap, or in general anything CCR crap, or anything that isn't commercial grade gear will result in disappointment. I've alredy been through the CCR road, and while they do have their uses, reliable comms at long range isn't one of them, and I am talking about all these cheapies with flashy screens and 10 million channels with fancy colored buttons and slick shapes... etc. In the end, my Vertex Standard EVX-5300 G7, with a single digit 8 segment LCD display and a total of 8 channels draws rings around all of these cheapies in terms of what matters: radio reception performance. G.

I just got this Slim Jim antenna for my go bag, and the clarity it delivers even to a Btech UV-82C is so astonishing, that it could easily be used as a permanent for a decent base radio. I ordered it with the 16' cable so I could tie paracord to it and throw it over a high tree branch. If someone else has a better idea for an on-the-fly antenna, I'm all ears!

Interesting discussion, gentlemen. There is a specific language in Part 95 that specifically, very clearly prohibits simplex repeaters on FRS and CB. There are no such statements in Part 95E. I will find the relevant references later, when have time. Regarding the Argent Data repeater, it is not a repeater, but rather a repeater controller. It uses your (certified, of course!!!) radio to receive, record and transmit if asked, so it does not have to be Part 95 certified. The default setting on ADS-SR1 is to record and do nothing. Only when DTMF "0" is heard on air, then the last recording is transmitted out. Of course, you can configure it as a true parrot repeater and annoy everybody in the range of 5 miles from your location. To deploy such system in urban area would be uncourteous at least. I use it when camping and hiking deep in the woods. Car with ADS-SR1 connected to TK-880 is parked somewhere (preferably high, but often not). Family is spread out and left for they own devices, some at the river bank, some sleep, some cook, some carve spoons out of pieces of wood. I could be 2 to 7 miles out from the camp. When I need to check on kids and adults, I call out and wait 20-30 seconds for them to answer. No answer heard, I send "0", and TK-880H blasts out my last transmission at 40W, now I've got everybody's attention.

I like the battery power supply option, You would purchase a nice deep cycle battery and an appropriate low noise charger for said battery. then connect your gear to the battery via a fused circuit. Your power will generally be 13.8v and during grid power fail, you will still have 12.5 to 13v and several hours of stand by power. In my case, I have a 110AH lead acid battery under my bench and 12v power outlets at my work space. I also have several 12v powered tools and a ventilation fan. I also have a 9" LED TV that only uses 5.5 watts. Great post storm set up, keeps communications going for several hours. Our repeater has a 55 AH AGM battery and operates for up to a day of lite to moderate use. clean quite power supplies like Astron can cost several hundred, this set is comparable in price.