Leaderboard

Oh, I can't agree more. If you are looking for a relative measurement the cheap meters are great. And if they are 10% or even 20% accuracy, they are enough to tell you that you are squirting RF out of the radio and the SWR is close or way off. And I have some of that stuff too. I run an Anritsu 412LMR Master and a 50dB Connecticut Microwave 100Mhz to 1Ghz directional coupler for doing high power readings. And I am expected by both my employer and my main client to check the loss of the cables I am using and do my power calculations with those loss numbers in mind. In fact the client saw me doing it and when they ask what I was doing and I explained it, they required everyone else in the state to do the same thing. So my coupler is 50dB down from the actual signal level. So a 100 watt signal (50dBm) would register at 0dBm without that cable loss but at 800 Mhz that cable has 2.7dB of loss so it's significant, and will through the readings WAY off if not accounted for. Of course it all got questioned until I connected the 3 thousand dollar Roade and Swartz watt meter up in line as was within 1.5 watts of what I had on the paper for my reading. At that point they were all happy and rewrote the procedure for doing RF power readings at an RF site. Now I don't break all that out to check the SWR on a mobile antenna for a vehicle install. I use one of my Bird meters for that. And it's MORE than accurate enough to do that work. And maybe I was a bit harsh on my reply, but I thought my head was gonna explode when I read that. Not your answer to it, but that it's a topic even being discussed. But I get a LOT of that. I had one today, guy was wanting to know why his vehicle repeater was not working when he was driving down the street. I wanted to tell him because whoever installed it actually did it right. They are connected to the park neutral switch so they specifically DON'T work when you are in motion. That's what the mobile radio in the vehicle is for..... the one connected to the VRS (vehicle repeater system) that you talk through when you are on a fire ground and OUT of the vehicle. I honestly told my boss what was up and to explain that the system is designed that way to keep from causing interference while responding and driving past another working incident where they were also using a VRS to extend their coverage.

If I read you correctly, in both cases the top of your mast was below the yellow/brass metal part of the antenna? Good then. What's likely happened is a bad contact/connector got better with the handling of the antenna. At any rate, use the configuration that works better. Antenna tuning is considered a black art by many. It is not, of course, but as long as a setup works for you it's good. You can always debug it later.

Thank you both, I thought you were to use the chart!!!! Thanks again, makes more sense why I was having trouble. Thanks again

I'm seeing the same thing. You may need to email the owner and ask them what it is. Good point. I forgot some meters need at least 5w to give any reverse reading.

SWR shouldn’t change with power output, but at low power and a low SWR it’s possible the reflected power is simply below the threshold of detection.

It's actually fantastic. Anything under 1.5 is great. Over time, I would keep an eye on it, is all. Make sure it doesn't creep up on you. 2:1 or less is good, less than 3:1 is safe to use but not ideal. 3:1 or higher and I would stop using it until its resolved. The attic install may be where the shift is coming from. If there is something metal within 2 or 3 feet that is larger than about 5"-6", it may be giving you a bit of resonance. Not a big deal though. As I mention, just make sure it doesn't get worse over time.

No, on the contrary, if you can have fun on MURS in VHF and FRS in UHF unlicensed with a cheap Chinese radio; all the more to you! I purchased the clone of the GM-30, the Pofung 15UV, but I was unable to open it up for Ham use, so I gave it to my grandson. I purchased instead the similar TYT-UV88 Ham Radio and opened it up to GMRS and MURS.

I appreciate the response from both of you gents. I never been replied to by a TV Star (Oooops You Tube Star :} before. Great content BTW. Well i ordered the KG1000 and will donate the 50x1 to one of my family members. As far as the tone goes, I will try to email the operator. Many Thanks,

Unmentioned: DTCS Pol would likely be "NN" (send/receive I presume).

That's true. I occasionally catch some DMR traffic on one of the GMRS simplex channels where I work. I verified that by using the digital monitor function on my D878UV I took into work one day just to see if I could identify the source. Nothing was said that I could use to figure out who was responsible. It doesn't happen often enough to bother checking frequently. About the rules you have a point. There are several people on this forum who have the attitude if the FCC hasn't busted anybody for an obvious rule violation then they mustn't care so it's OK to continue doing so. The worst part is when they encourage other users to do the same.

I wonder if i still have procomm plus on one of my old 90s computers, boy i feel old now.

What a fantastic fairy idiot! Look everybody, magic outside of Hogwarts.

Encryption is allowed for remote control of satellites in the amateur bands. That’s the only exception that I know of.

Agreed, and this also what I ran into years ago when trying to figure out what the heck this limitation meant, ultimately I took the "if it's not illegal it's legal" school of thought. The point of the wire-line definition exercise is just to allude that it's an inconclusive argument at best - you can't exactly cite the rules verbatim but then use anecdotal definitions where the rule is not clear. Lots of folks consider wire-line as just remote control over a dedicated twisted pair (such as dispatch consoles), some consider it phone, some consider it everything that comes out of a cable, the FCC has a wireline bureau which explicitly is for communications that are non-wireless, and then there's the whole debate on how this ties in if you use private non-IX reliant IP networking (such as p2p microwave. which is wireless), but there is no clear definition of the term that I could find within the scope of part 90/95. The rabbit hole deepens when you consider you can't carry messages over wire-line, but then you are allowed to to use PSTN and "other networks" for remote control under 95.1749, when the definition of remote control is explicitly just remotely using the station not within physical proximity to the transmitter, and makes no limitation to not include audio, nor does it imply it's only keying/unkeying/disabling control as yet some other folks will say: It again just comes back to not using the service to make phone calls to a phone number, which is where this debate always ends up.

Does it actually say "Ham Mode" now? Maybe that is one of the 2.33 improvements. I have 2.28 and 2.29 in my two Anytones and other than GMRS, Australian and Europe, it list specific frequency bands. I have mine set to (136-174)(400-470).