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I'll try to summarize what came out of the discussion... Some people think that repeaters need to ID. Some people think there is a loophole somewhere that can be leveraged. Almost everyone agrees that regardless of the answer, the FCC appears to not care. Everyone is continuing to do whatever they feel like because it seems (unless you interfere with Public Safety) there are no repercussions, regardless of what the answer really is.

Yup. When I was out of college for a bit I was doing field service work on the company’s equipment. I learned real quick if it isn’t broke and you start screwing with it then it will end up broken almost for sure.

"Spurious RF emissions"

From you location you probably wouldn’t get much more range, but your transmissions will sound clearer with less background noise.. You might be able to get into the forests better and the receivers in the mobile radio might be better. On the other hand, a better antenna is always better. Gain works in both directions. Having more gain means your transmitted signals and received signals are both amplified.

Or operate a pirate FM radio station and not keep your public file correctly.

Really?

The official NOAA weather channel frequencies are on VHF. However some have discovered that the studio to transmitter site audio link at times is done on selected UHF frequencies. You can look at the attached file and see what kind of luck you have with it. NOAA UHF Weather Link Frequencies.pdf

The only thing I would add to what Steve mentioned is that 50 watts will help overcome antenna cable losses while transmitting. If you are barely receiving a signal from someone using 20w and you're feeding a coax that reduces your 4w-5w handheld signal down to 1.5w or less into the antenna... that other station isn't going to hear you. So, more power and a good antenna would be a good choice.

I think in modern radio-land, it's, "If it ain't broke, add more features 'til it is."

Yes, although the Thales AN/PRC-148 and Harris AN/PRC-152 are the very early models. The Harris lacks the GPS module while the Thales lacks the dual RF module. My cost was just under $6k for those four radios total, while retail it should have been closer to about $24k. The Harris XG-100P was only $1200 as an IWCE pre-release sample. That included RPM12 and programming cable as well. Great deal I could not pass up. I still use the radio for amateur use mostly, and on corporate P25 Phase I for testing.

I always thought a fixed station was one that was broken, but now isn't. ?

This is just a wild guess but you might be experiencing a case of intermod, inter-modulation interference. https://www.everythingrf.com/community/what-is-intermodulation-distortion https://static1.squarespace.com/static/53062f8de4b09e63a23ce552/t/532689a3e4b0825c71c80bc5/1395034531223/what_is_intermodulation_interference.pdf

10, 12 & 15 meters have been killer, even way into the dark hours. I even got one 2m FT8 contact, and 6m has been open more often than usual.

Nice. I'm 5 states away from working all 50 states. I've also contacted Japan, Australia, South America, eastern Europe, Canada and Mexico. Not nearly as many countries as you, but I'll get there. I've only been doing HF for a couple years.

A few things to check. Make sure your transmit CTCSS tone is correct. Make sure that if that repeater transmits a tone, your radio receive tone is set correctly, or turn off the receive tone setting. Make sure you are in a place where you can actually hit the repeater. Sometimes from inside a building or car, or if there are obstructions between you and the repeater, your signal simply can't get out. Let us know how it goes.

Very cool! That's a good number of countries. I was being lazy one night on the radio in VA, tuning up my audio. I didn't feel like doing the extra work of running the dummy load, so I turned my power all the way down, which is 0.4w. While I was doing my audio testing, I was using my call sign and saying things to make the adjustments. When I let the key up, I guy from Ohio came back to me saying he had a great copy on me and the audio sounded really good. He asked what mic I was using... ended up chatting for about 10 minutes, to Ohio, on 0.4w. It was mind-blowing.

I'm always surprised what can be done with only 5 watts on HF when things align. Since becoming licensed in 2020, I have 93 countries confirmed, totaling 648 grid squares. Lots of Europe and South America. I also got a new Africa station on Monday that isn't in my total log yet.

Great thread. I have dealt with Motorola, Thales, and Harris for a long while, and ended up working with Harris for field testing both the military AN/PRC-152 series and the XG-100P Unity radio for various agencies (my personal collection shown in the attached picture). Harris brought a multi-band radio with GPS to the table first, but then did not support it well when the sales did not take off (who could afford the XG-100P). In preparation for the 2009 Police and Fire Games, and Later the 2010 Olympic Games in Canada, many fire and police elements in northern Washington State were provided grant money for XG-100P/M radios. I bought a demo unit while working for the oil industry, being an intrinsically safe radio that allowed me to carry one radio instead of three (VHF,UHF and 7/800 MHz). However, I only have RPM12, so know I am missing out on some newer features. Compared to the military Motorola APX7000 (dual band I was issued), the Unity was a great radio. It still is for me now, but is heavy and lacks some refinement of newer Harris radio. They still come up on auction sites and used radio vendor sites for $800-1200 often though. There are people I know that use them for bragging rights as well, for those that want to flex on their radio geek friends. As mentioned by others the "mission plans" on the XG-100P are much like those on the true military AN/PRC-152 as well. Harris makes a great radio, but the price also reflects that. Now, if I could only buy AN/PRC-152's without dealing with export models (type of encryption or lack thereof) as having AM and FM (satcom, HPW and other military specific waveforms) in the same radio in very convenient, but comes at a huge cost many hobbyist can't afford. But, I see that like Motorola making Trbo DMR and P25 TDMA in the same radio, only a wish that may never happen, or will only happen a huge cost.

Thanks for this! I downloaded the PC version of Zello from Zello yesterday (188mb) and couldn't get it to work right or even log in correctly with my existing account. The version you have is only 3.5mb and works like a champ.

Thank you -- much easier to read. Different browsers may use different fonts. At least on mine, your original post looked like something carved into a Roman temple ?

You sure you guys are excited Do you like it now

I'm just wondering... And anyone feel free to chime in here. Who, exactly, is monitoring my GMRS communications for hidden meanings, and more importantly, am I going to get busted for asking my wife to "Rendezvous at Location Sierra Bravo" instead of saying "Meet me at Sonic Burger"?