Leaderboard

I wanted to stay out of this, but it's bugging me too much. LOL @Wrvq441 not attacking you... just my opinion... I interpret this as this whole thing 'originally' had nothing to do with politics (per se) and more about @Sab02r tried to make a political statement with his signature (which in and of it self was not so much the problem) and was obviously confusing Socialism with Communism. Socialism aims for gradual transition to a socialist society through democratic means, whereas Communism aims for a revolution to instantly establish a communist society. Socialism is a form of democracy, verses Communism is usually born out of war, driven by extreme Socialists desire to leverage Socialism to lift themselves (or their group) into a tyrannical positional of power, of which the only way liberation is found is either by war or total collapse of the nation-state. And THAT was the point. Not my forum, but I say have all the political conversation you want, if you can be civil. Politics does play into this radio service, just like everything else in our lives. understanding people's opinions and where they stand on certain ideologies can help guide a conversation. Just be sure you have an accurate understanding of what you are talking about and don't get but-hurt when someone corrects you for it if you don't. It's part of being an adult. JMHO And the answer is still "No."

Clearly I am responsible for causing this thread to take a downward turn, and for that I apologize. Since the US is neither socialist nor communist, I didn't, and still don't see that the content of the phrases that I co-opted into my signature temporarily were actually all that objectionable. MichaelLAX is correct however, that political statements such as the one I made, really have no place on this board. No one should be ignoring, blocking, or cancelling valuable input from others due to my poor judgement. Onward and upward...including the temperature please!

At our last ham club meeting we had a presentation about terrain assessment and antennas. The website https://www.heywhatsthat.com was brought up. You can put in your location your antenna height above ground and see how far you can "see". Because of my location, I can hit repeaters east of me with not much height but I found out I can put an antenna at 50 ft and still not go west.

I get the appeal of being able to hide everything but the mic..it really comes down to which features are more important to you, the stealth or the ability to load the extra channels...all we can do here is suggest, and try to help you (and others) get the radio(s) that best fit your wants and needs. On the profit thing, while the wouxun ARE made overseas, there IS definitely some profit staying stateside, with buytwowayradios (based in south carolina) ordering batches of them manufactured to spec to resell.

Pretty much any service that is not broadcast AM or FM limits the voice band to approximately 6000Hz (Amateur AM and any remaining shortwave broadcasters run in a 6kHz bandwidth when including both sidebands, single sideband often runs less than 3kHz -- 2.4kHz is one of the settings on my rigs, or 2700Hz minus 300Hz). The services are designed for communication, and most vocal formants fall into the octave of 300-3000Hz -- they are NOT designed for musical fidelity (and definitely do not pass all the higher harmonics in the 3000-30000Hz octave [note: I'm using octave in terms of order of magnitude: 30-300, 300-3000, 3000-30000, even though the 20000-30000 is pretty much inaudible to humans... NOT musical octave where an octave is a doubling -> 440A to 880A, etc. 300-3000Hz covers about 2.5 music octaves] Broadcast FM has a 200kHz channel spacing; not certain how much is actually used for signal deviation. Broadcast AM uses 10kHz spacing (5kHz per sideband -- so just one sideband is almost the entire width of shortwave double-sideband AM).

Maybe you shouldn't be looking at Midland then.

Have I mentioned my poor impulse control? LoL

Wow, someone voted down my comment? Sheesh... so much for trying to help. Guess someone missed the "don't get but-hurt' part. As far as your comments, Steve, I agree. Unfortunately true communism as you mentioned would be perfect, but human beings are inherently selfish and lazy. I guess that's why it has never worked. And yes, ignoring it or a PM would be better, for sure.

... and you will also find out that every normal DPL code has (at least 1) matching invert, which is really just another number on the DPL chart. So folks who (over)think it and decide that they're getting some type of super special "secure access" on their repeater by choosing some odd-ball Inverted code end up baffled when someone sniffs out their code over the air within 30 seconds. Inverted code/matching std code 023 047 025 244 026 464 031 627 032 051 036 172 When you're dealing with digital ones and zero's in a streaming bit code, the patterns end up repeating themselves, even if your bitstream originally started with a 0 instead of a 1. Someone with more patience and knowledge explained it better than me, but if you want to go for a deep dive - here it is: DPL demystified

Yep, and what's worse is that the original post was a simple question about the effect a rubber cover had on the performance of a magnetic base antenna, and that question was satisfactorily addressed early on.

There is a small gray x on the right hand side of each person’s signature. Just below the reaction button. It removes just that person’s signature from your view. I never noticed it before now.

OK, this is driving me nuts. Normal human hearing spans from 20 Hz to 20kHz (Outliers from 12 Hz to 28kHz, but those are rare). CTCSS tones are listed as ranging from approximately 6Hz to 260 Hz, all *well* within the range of the average human ear. So riddle me this, Batman(Batmen? Batfolk?): Why do we not all hear low-pitched buzzing during radio calls made with CTCSS tones in use?

This works fine for me. Not even a flicker on the TV when I key up my 20w base.

Road Trip! Take your HT for a drive.

I would leave it alone. To trim a dual band antenna for another frequency involves more that just shorting the radials. I would recommend you look for a GMRS specific base antenna. Members here have some very good recommendations they can offer.

I think the concession counter is still open.

Now, this is waaaayy better than my question being answered. But I'm out of popcorn now....

No. You would need to cut/trim the main (up and down) portion to get it tuned for GMRS. If you cut it too short, it could then be 'damaged', at least for use on GMRS. I would not attempt this without an SWR meter.

That’s a hard question. In terms of greatest likelihood of helping you hear weak signals, the antenna on the house is best, but what if there’s nothing to hear. I wouldn’t invest in a more powerful radio without hearing something first; a more powerful transmitter won’t fix your inability to receive.

I always liked the hum of 192.8 Hz PL tone.

I have the Wouxun KG1000G Plus. I really like the radio. It has a lot of features and I can store up to 999 custom channels, I like the two receiver feature and the option to switch back and forth to transmit. The software is easy to use and straight forward. I wish the radio had a feature to have zones/banks of channels, and talkaround. I had a Midland MXT400 but, you can't program it with the software using a Windows 11 PC. I got rid of it because you only get 8 channels for custom programming. I also have a Midland MXT500 and it has the same limited number of custom channels. Although, you do get 8 additional channels with fixed repeater channels which you can change the encode/decode tones. I only use this radio when my wife and I are traveling with two cars. I put this radio in her car.

I’m currently reading this book. It sticks with code, but refers to many other things/ concerns as well. It stresses that you also need to comply with your local building code. Especially since you’re mounting this on someone else’s building. For insurance purposes along with public and fire safety, you need to do everything possible to protect yourself from liability.

If I have added anyone to my ignore list, it’s certainly not your fault and it wouldn’t be entirely due to this thread anyway. And now we know that we all have the tools to ignore others’ signatures.

Wow this is great information. Thank you for taking your time to retrieve this info for me.

You're welcome! Try using your HT outside and see if you can hit those repeaters. Do you have a higher gain antenna for your HT, such as the Nagoya 771G? It sound like you are in Westchester, and if so Topanga (Saddle Peak) may be your best best to gain access. I actually like that repeater and when Kevin @w6wko was in his pre-amateur license days, and I were attempting to find stable communications between my location and his up over the Angeles National Forrest into Santa Clarita/Canyon Country, we discovered this repeater worked nicely for both of us. If you go the base station route: I am a big fan of the Radioddity DB20-G, which out of the box is an 18 watt, mini-mobile (fits in the palm of your hand), cigarette lighter plug for power and slap a $29 mag mount on the car and you're mobile! Costs about $109 depending upon the deals being offered at the time of purchase. I have two!

That site is a great resource...we've been half looking at houses, and I've been running potential homes against that to see what i'd be be up against for the hobby, both figuratively and literally.

I'm honestly tempted to try one just for giggles...I have a spare mount, and will have a diplexer free once I shuffle radios, since those all seem to be single band antennas. Since I don't have a source of freebies for testing, if I do give one a try, it'll most likely be a laird.

We have people in Minnesota and North Dakota that's as close as I get to -12 so you won't hear me complain about the cold.... wait, what? -34!!! Real feel -31? what kind of weather app crack is that? It's -34 but at least it feels like -31? The app should just say warning stay inside. As usual the site is restricting my number of likes so Happy Monday and stay warm. I removed my weather info out of respect to you both. ?

Happy Monday, my butt. It’s cold outside.

To be fair so did I and I didn't succeed either. I wouldn't say that. We all do. I just felt things were really going off the rails so I reacted as well. And I just about spit my coffee out! OMG you are from Wisconsin and that was classic Red Forman ? I love it. Best post ever. Let's call it good and all get a coffee (or whatever your favorite beverage is).

Further more; this doesn’t sit well with me that a person was bullied into removing their signature. If you don’t like something, don’t look at it. This past presidential election we had people in my neighborhood with yard signs for the candidate that they were supporting. Some were opposite of my beliefs, but I will defend that person’s right to vote for who they choose. If I ever catch someone vandalizing one of those signs, even if opposite my beliefs, I would put my foot right up their ass.

You’re absolutely right. I should have ignored @MichaelLAX; it wasn’t my place to react. I have no excuse.

@Sshannon I find to be a good example of how to be on the forum, helpful as often as possible and almost always one to take the high road. @MichaelLAX I have also witnessed being helpful to others here including me. I don't always agree with his approach, I will say you know where he stands. The signature as I see it was intended to provoke, push buttons. Mission accomplished. So respectfully sure you could ignore it and by that theory you could ignore @MichaelLAX's response. I thought @Sab02r was being a big person in removing it. As for "I don't make a habit of kowtowing to the perpetually offended" That just proves what the intent was in the first place. And that is the problem as I see it. Be good humans or don't, your choice. Why do I bother with my thoughts here? I enjoy the community and I like learning and helping others. That is what I enjoyed in my work before I retired. I like radios. The stuff in this thread... not so much.

But you didn’t ? and none of this has Jack to do with radios or magnetic mounts.

The radio that receives them filters them out.

Wow…. I have some friends with absolute opposite political views than mine. We at times wear shirts that represent our thoughts. We sometimes have civil conversations on why one represents such beliefs. Sometimes we sway, other times we agree to disagree. But when its all done and over, we all recognize that fact that we still live in a country where we are still allowed to voice our opinions without punishment. The day we stop respecting this is the day that we lose our freedom. There will be only one way. Actually two ways; life of compliance, or death from punishment. I’m not trying to stir the pot here, but, wow……. All this over a signature?

I will put together some programming worksheets for you to complete and I will email them to you. I doubt that the Motorola or other shops are willing or have the ability to program the codeplugs for these radios for you. You may want to make some calls to see if anyone can and/or willing, I can email the codeplug file(s) to you for to take to the shop. Is there any chance you can provide me with the model numbers of the radio(s) you want to program to see if I have the same model and feature set so I can build the codeplug file(s) without your radios at first?. The MT2000 radio comes in two versions, 48 channels or 160 channels. The 48 channel radio has a top six digit display and is referred as the A4 version and the 160 channel radio has a front face display with a full keypad and has a twelve digit display and is referred to as the A7 version. The display can be configured with either or both the Zone and Channel names with adjustable number of digits not to exceed a total of twelve. I.E., if you elect to have the Zone name with four digits than you can only have the channel name with eight digits. If you elect to have the top rotary knob as the channel selector than you will be limited to 16 channels per Zone. You can have as many zones as you want but, you can't exceed a total of 160 programmed radio positions. You will have the ability to select your zones through the keypad and/or the first three zones with the top A/B/C with if you elect to have that feature switch enabled. Food for thought I'll try to express your programming features options in the worksheets.

What you are hearing is a digital transmission, probably DMR. DMR is not permitted on GMRS, but that doesn't mean someone isn't using it.

For the win!

Here is my goofy setup. The one radio on top of the power supply is my GMRS base station radio. The other two radios are for the GMRS repeater package. I am using a Laird 5dB Omni antenna with an EMR Duplexer using a LMR400 coax cable with a lightning Arrestor connected to earth ground at the electrical panel. I switched the Antenna between the Base Station Radio and the Repeater Package with an antenna switch. I have other radios for all my vehicles.

I absolutely hate these style antennas. Just person opinion. A 1/4 wave antenna is about the smallest pure mechanical antenna you can have and have it be reliable. Antennas like the one you linked are 1/8th wave antennas and have a capacitance hat to kind of 'fake it' for the other 1/8 wave required. My problem is, in my personal experience the design is way more susceptible to failure due to damage and aging due to weather, and even over-driving the antenna with too much power. Me and friends of mine have own many of them over the years and there has been a 100% failure rate among us. Sometimes they broke within weeks. The longest anyone I know personal who had one that worked was about 2 years. I also think they are ugly. For whatever that is worth. LOL A 1/4 wave is literally just a 6 to 7 inch piece of stainless spring steel. Unless you use tools to damage it, the 1/4 wave will last several lifetimes. One of my 1/4 wave antennas is older than I am, and I have 3 grandchildren. Still looks great and works perfectly. I have a 5/8 wave rubber ducky antenna fir when I'm wheeling and I don't want to risk breaking the mount or stripping the antenna off the mount.

Thank you, first refresh took care of it ?

Question: What time is it? "Some People": The heart of a mechanical clock is the escapement mechanism, which is responsible for maintaining accurate timekeeping by allowing the clock's gears to rotate at a steady rate. The escapement mechanism typically consists of a pair of gears called the escape wheel and the verge. The escape wheel is driven by the clock's main power source, which is typically a weight or a spring, while the verge is connected to the clock's hands. As the escape wheel rotates, it drives the verge, which in turn moves the clock's hands. The escapement mechanism also includes a device called the pallet, which acts as a brake on the escape wheel, preventing it from rotating too quickly and keeping the clock's hands moving at a steady pace. In addition to the escapement mechanism, a mechanical clock also contains other components such as the mainspring, which provides the power to drive the clock, the gear train, which transmits power from the mainspring to the escapement mechanism, and the pendulum, which helps to regulate the clock's timekeeping by swinging back and forth at a constant rate.

There are so many better ways to communicate in an emergency these days so if I am using GMRS for an emergency it is because nothing else is available. In which case the channel I can contact someone on is going to be my emergency channel.

If you go to their submission for change on 6-21-21, the C2PC letter asking to go to 16kc from the 11kc, the documents very specifically say that no hardware changes were made to the transmit and receiver. It's not the full 20kc, it's 16kc by software. It could only go to 16kc and still remain in compliance.

The best antenna for you is going to vary a bit, depending on where you are going to be using the radio and what you want to accomplish. On a vehicle, a 5/8 wave antenna is going to show at least 3dB gain over a 1/4 wave, and at least 1dB of actual gain (depending on design, it can be much higher). This antenna has the least amount of elevation tolerance. So, if you live in a hilly/mountainous area, this may not be the best option, but it would be good in large geographically flat areas. A 1/2 wave doesn't require a ground plane and has about 2.1 dB of gain over a 1/4 wave, but it has no actual gain... its straight break-even. It also has a bit more tolerance to elevation. A 1/4 wave actually has a loss of about 2/10ths of a dB. While it doesn't provide as much range, in hilly or mountainous areas, its going to be the best choice due to the very high elevation tolerance. Based on this, I actually carry a 5/8 wave antenna that is about 32" tall and about 6dB gain, and a 1/4 wave antenna. Then I just swap them on and off the vehicle depending on the terrain I am in and the range needed.

This is the obvious answer.. Everyone knows that CB Ch19 is the unofficial official road channel so it makes sense that GMRS Ch19 would be the same.. Someone should go on Youtube and decree it, to make it official..