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Punched both tickets to jump straight to General last night. Since the library is still closed, they held the test outside in a parking deck. We had to bring our own chair and table, plus wear masks and gloves. It was pretty hot, but I'm just glad they still held a testing session. License showed up on the ULS this morning.

Thanks Marc! I'm not sure if I am just lucky, but there is a pretty good hotspot of activity where I am, with many different clubs. I have a daily morning net and a few evening nets. 2M & 70CM activity is pretty good, as well as there is a huge DMR presence. I see there is a pretty good 6M group as well, but I don't have anything that can even monitor that right now. I have a AT-D878 being delivered tomorrow, figured if I was going to spend real money on a nice HT, it minus well have one of the digital modes, and DMR seems to be the most common here.

Because GMRS is a service that exists for one simple purpose, providing voice communications in the local area, with a very low barrier to entry. Note, there are people who try to turn GMRS into a sort of mini amateur radio, and there are amateurs, who try to build a pseudo-GMRS service for friends and family. But, in the end each service has its own intended applications and it’s own reason for existence and that’s why I am licensed in both

GMRS repeaters do not have to ID. The users of the repeater must ID when they use it. When I first became licensed, about 25 years ago, you had to designate on the application IF you were going to have a repeater, how many mobiles, how many portables.... also you had to designate which pair you were using for the repeater, your LAT/LON and calculate your ERP. You don't have to do any of that now. If the FCC needed repeaters to be "registered" they would still require that. Tower wise, mine is beside a barn on a hill, it's about 35 feet with a 18 foot ASP fiberglass stick on top. There was never a requirement for a site registration because we are under 200' tower height, and not in a flight path. There are TV antenna towers at 60 feet around here...so no issue there.