Leaderboard

Please reference your source for this. The “association rule” in 95E applies only to grandfathered GMRS licenses issued in the name of the association. This can not be stretched or bent to apply to individual licenses that are now the norm.

Short answer: NO Long answer: GMRS license will cover your family. Unless all of the "association" members are directly related to you, or related through marriage, it is not legal.

I got several solar panels new from the company linked below. I also purchased a few used ones at Ham Radio flea markets. I would recommend something in the range of 20 to 50 watts for the panel.This should be sufficient to keep a small handheld radio or a mobile radio running with the right sized battery pack and solar plane size. https://www.renogy.com/solar-panels/rigid-solar-panels/ I also have several of the MPPT charge controllers from this company. I have several of the GV-5 models. One for a lead acid type when there is nothing else available and several for LFP battery packs. https://sunforgellc.com/gv-4/ https://sunforgellc.com/gv-5/ https://sunforgellc.com/gv-10/ I wouldn't recommend the use of any kind of lead acid battery unless you want the cheapest portable battery solution. I've wrecked enough gel-cell and AGM types. They have to be kept on a trickle charger when left sitting around for more than a few weeks. If you don't the batteries self discharge quickly and the plates will sulfate. Once the plates are sulfated the battery is finished. I recommend going with a LFP, Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO4), batteries. They hold a charge for months, some even for a year or more, and don 't get ruined if they sit around only partially charged. The only caveat is the cost . I got a couple of the battery packs from the company at the link below. One was the 6 amp hour BLF-12045W and the 40 amp hour BLF-1240A. Don't forget to get the wall changers for these batteries. The above charge controllers I got were the models designed for LFP batteries, NOT lead acid or LiPO's. https://www.bioennopower.com/collections/12v-series-lifepo4-batteries I also have a 12 volt to 120 volt AC pure sine wave inverter for the rare case where I need 120 volts. I picked up a 300 watt unit which I have set up to work with the 40 amp hour battery. https://gpelectric.com/products/300-watt-pure-sine-wave-inverter/ Now a few words of caution about connecting solar panels to batteries. A few people skip the charge controller and wire the solar panel direct to the battery, through a blocking diode. While that will work in an emergency with lead acid types DON'T try this with LFP battery packs! Just about every LFP battery pack contains a battery protection module. The module will disconnect the internal battery cells from the external terminals in the case of a short circuit, over discharge resulting in a dangerous low voltage or when the battery pack reaches max cell voltage on charge. The last one is the killer. A so-called 12 volt panel is really 20 to 23 volts when open circuited. So when the battery reaches the max safe voltage the protection module will disconnect the internal battery pack so it effectively open circuits the solar panel, which promptly jumps way up in voltage. Most mobile equipment can't handle anything higher than 15 to 16 volts without damage.

I hear you. Looks like Anytone will be selling a lot more DMR radios until Kenwood, Icom and Yeasu get the big picture. While Motorola makes nice radios for DMR they are aimed at commercial users where they can get away with raping them for the programming software. For Ham radio that won't fly. Hams are cheap S.O.B's most of the time. I admit I am. If I can't find some place to download the software I'm not interested in the radio. I'm not spending $100's on software. I have 9 different software packages installed just for the commercial Kenwood radios in my collection. More if you count the Ham versions. Some are different versions of the same basic package because a few radios are European, or non North American, types that have slightly different hardware. Using a different install key doesn't work on those. For the life of me I can't see why people want to buy a Yeasu radio using their "System Fusion" digital format. Its only works with other Yeasu radios. At least with DMR there are a verity of radios and manufactures to choose from. And with D-Star at least you have Kenwood and Icom. While NXDN is interesting and several manufactures sell radios it seems more of a small market targeted to business users, like P25 is to public safety, and seems popular with the railroads too.

Its an old "the right tool for the right job" For my use I don't need changing tones or connecting to multiple repeaters. I only use one. My own. So I got two 50x1 for $400 instead of two woxouns for $700. Totally happy with 50x1. Can monitor 4 different frequencies at once!