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Well, today I passed my Technician and General exams for Ham license. When they told me I passed the General also, my mouth dropped open and all I could say was "WOW!" LoL I knew a few weeks ago I wanted to at least get my Technician license. And, I did order the book and got started studying for it. Along the way, I heard some folks on Facebook saying they wished they'd gone for the General too. Others said they hadn't studied for it, but were given the opportunity to take the test, and only missed by 2 or 3 questions. So, given the much increased communication privileges of the General, I decided to try to go for both of them. What a glutton for punishment! I was about 1/2 through my Technician book when I stumbled onto Ham Radio Prep and HamStudy.org. I signed up for the Technician/General package at Ham Radio Prep and started in. I found that liked working that way through the material better than the book. Also, I found the review tools at HamStudy were very good. Very helpful. It wasn't long before I was passing my Technician practice exams in the 80-90% ranges. At that point I moved on to the General studies via Ham Radio Prep. Gotta say, I was studying about as hard as I did back in my college days for a Final exam. I was even turning off the TV to really dig in!! LoL Even so, I sure didn't have the same confidence in the General material. Oh that math was messing me up. Never was that good in it, and this stuff, and their combining formulas, was making my head spin. On my first General practice exam I think I just got a 45%. Ugh! A few days later I tried again and happened to just squeeze out a 75%. "Okay, maybe this is doable." Mostly, the last couple days, I just finished the Ham Radio Prep material, and then I used the HamStudy tool to just keep reviewing, capturing my wrong answers to review the correct ones, and repeat. Actually, some of it was even making more sense to me! So, this morning when exam day came, I felt better, but I was still quite unsure of the General. Boy! I didn't figure on the stress of having 3 people watching me taking my exams! As I worked though the Technician exam I could hear myself thinking, "Take it easy. Don't mess this up. Relax. Go back and check." Ha! I passed the Technician, and it was on to the General. I knew it all depended on what group of questions I got from the pool. It could go either way. I was less sure on the General, that's certain. But, as I reviewed my answers, I thought perhaps I had a chance. I clicked that Submit button and held my breath. Shortly afterward I heard the moderator saying, "Well, you passed your General." I mean, my mouth literally dropped open, my eyes opened wide with amazement, and all I could say was "Wow! Wow! Wow!" So, looks like I'm a Ham now. My sister said, "A ham for a Ham!" LoL Oh, I just ordered a better HT too. ;-)

I'm hearing some folks using just the last 3 digits of their call signs to call a friend in order to start a conversation. They use their full call sign on clearing the channel. I have to assume they know each other pretty well.

I think so I’m calling buy two way tomorrow

Longer cable will make the electromagnetic field from the cable stronger. The coiling may or may not make it stronger, but will not reduce it on UHF. You need to suppress the common mode current on the outside of the cable shield (this is why quad shield will be no difference). On UHF this suppression is not as trivial as on VHF or HF. The 1/4 wave stubs are often used, but they are very narrow filters. Another approach is to have several ferrite beads (4-7) on the outside of your cable.

Thank you, but I have tried every combination in Chirp but nothing worked. Now I will have to quit playing as the HYT is out of juice and I don't have a charger. But thank you for your help.

Ah... a veteran of the Photobucket debacle. BTDT myself. It’s why I now use a paid service. A free forum is probably no more likely to persist image storage in perpetuity than a free photo hosting service.. at least that’s my assumption. Back to the OT: For remote mounting the mic with a Cat6 extension cable, this might come in handy (Cat6/RJ45 bulkhead mount): https://www.amazon.com/Installerparts-Shielded-Industrial-Bulkhead-Coupler/dp/B01D0N79K2 Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I don't have one. Judging by photos (post 29), it has two radiating elements with a phasing/loading coil between them. Upper element is probably 1/2 wave. But hard to tell.

FWIW the only currently available Midland GMRS radio capable of split tones is the MXT400, and that is only possible via PC programming. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks for the info. I need to relocate my firestik.

I have a TJ and both sides are Teraflex mounts. They make them for both sides. Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

On the cable PCO-03 $14.99 for the Wouxun 1000G comes with a CD disk with the drivers. As a comparison the Kenwood 8180 K is a solid transceiver and the two work fine. Where the 1000 K shines is 50 watts, dual band scanning (say your group uses GMRS on the trail but the leader and the talk gunner want to be able to talk on GMRS 22 to make sure every one is making the correct turns you can set the first side to GMRS 22 and the second side to GMRS 17 and monitor both at the same time). The programing with a cable is better than the key pad but the key pad does many things on the fly. Great radio so far and the squelch actually works!

There is no "request a vanity callsign" link in the ULS for GMRS licenses like there is for amateur radio.

Success! Michael WRHS965 KE8PLM

Well... Looks like I found my own answer! Overlooked it. Uggggg Menu 10 TO---Continues afer 5 sec CO---Continues after 3 sec (signal lost) SE---Scan stops... Press PPTor funcytion key to store it