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While you're at it give the Extra a try when you finish the General exam at the test session. You might get lucky.

I know all about that! When I was in middle school and high school I played around with chemistry as a hobby. My younger brother was into model rockets. Those "D" series motors were expensive as a kid to buy. He asked me if I could "refill" them to save some money. Well I came up with a mixture to try out, no it wasn't home made gun powder. All I can say is the rocket "launched" in pieces, bits of cardboard tube, balsa wood and plastic all over the ground. He wasn't happy and NEVER asked me to try to refill one of his used motors again. I had no problem with that either.

You might want to consider mounting the control head in the sunglass holder. I have my head mounted there and close it when the radio is not in use for concealment. This is in both my Lincoln and F150.

Unfortunately, volunteers often stay beyond their “use by” date. They might have been very cheerful and supportive when they first started. There’s no excuse for it, but I see it all the time in my other hobby also. We have people who are charged with mentoring participants in Rocketry. Over the years they see people asking the same questions over and over and it becomes irritating. They develop an attitude that young people expect things to be handed to them, or that they’re trying to proceed too fast, or that people rely too much on unofficial, unreliable, and unsafe sources of information*. Over time the attitude becomes worse and worse. Unfortunately, the other attitude that some volunteers develop is “if I don’t do this there’s nobody else who will.” That’s usually incorrect, but I’ve seen it happen. In truth, if they were to retire from their volunteer positions it would leave a vacancy for a more positive person to fill. It’s not just age, but that’s sometimes part of it. Last night we tested two people for ham radio. One was a brand new candidate. He took his time, double checked his calculations, and went through every question twice. He passed his Technician test with flying colors, zero wrong. We encouraged but didn’t pressure him to take his General exam. He was concerned that it would be held against him if he didn’t pass but we assured him that wasn’t the case. He took the exam and although he didn’t pass (he hadn’t studied for it either) he expressed appreciation for the experience. I am sure he’ll be back and pass the General exam easily, maybe even the Amateur Extra at the same time. The other candidate tested for Amateur Extra. I know him and although he didn’t pass this time, he’ll be back too. *If you think that there’s bad advice about radios on YouTube you ought to see some of the homemade rocket motors that are little more than pipe bombs.

True, except that sometimes having a second HT in the house fails because the transmission from the first HT is orders of magnitude higher in power than the return signal from the repeater and the second HT is temporarily deafened, which is called “de-sensing.” But if you get someone to take that other HT some slight distance away it would work. And I want to point out that de-sensing isn’t a sure thing. My Yaesu and Alinco radios can be right on the same table and work fine with one transmitting to the repeater and the other receiving from the repeater. So try it. There’s nothing to lose.

1) I dont really know what you mean by "base mount" or "base antenna" - I am assuming you mean a large antenna designed to be mounted on your roof. So assuming both antennas are properly tuned for GMRS then the base antenna would be better, but not by huge margins 2) Shorter coax, especially if it is low-quality coax is better than longer coax, assuming you do a good job of putting a new connector on it - But the amount of improvement is probably minimal/negligible. If it was me, I would not bother.

There are materials you can very easily purchase at the drug, hardware and grocery stores to make "stuff." Some of it is VERY friction sensitive when mixed. For obvious reasons I won't mention what those are and the end results can be catastrophic. I leaned that the hard way from experience.

Well, after 3 years without a CB radio, I bought a new unit. It's a Cobra 75 All Road. I haven't been following CB, but i do know the FCC rule changes about a year ago now allow FM use. I have been curious about it, especially knowing how well FM works on 29 MHz. I had a customer tell me they were interested in this radio, asked if I had an opinion about it and asked if I would install it for them. So, I bought one to check it out. I have to say, it's a little weird running a "stock" CB... but so far, I like it. It's just AM/FM with weather channels, but the transceiver is remote and the controls are in the mic (a familiar setup). BUT, the mic and all the controls are done wirelessly. The mic plugs into any USB port you have, or comes with a power outlet adapter. The mic works over Bluetooth so well, that I had the transceiver in my Jeep, but tested the mic range in my son's Jeep. It works about 30 feet away, which was awesome. I haven't chatted with anyone yet, but I was listening to AM Skip from all over the country. The receiver sensitivity seems real good so far. I am going to ask a friend of mine with an FM CB to help me do some range testing. I'll follow up soon and share the results.

And 206.5 Hz

I had the same issue with my UV-9G purchased through Amazon, Radioddity was the seller. Sent the first one back through the Amazon return process and got a second one, it also had the same issue. At that point I contacted Radioddity through the Amazon app and asked about a fix for the problem. Radioddity quickly offered another replacement from their warehouse so they could check it before shipping. This radio unfortunately shipped from China so it took about 2 weeks to get it but works on all channels.

Set a roger beep on your radio. That's a sure-fire way to get a response. Perhaps not a favorable one, but maybe a response nevertheless.

I hear you. I'm just simpler than you when driving. I have adapted though. I have a cheat sheet to get what I need done. Stopping first of course. Just ordered my MXT575 because it seems that Midland is running dry on these. As for mounting mine will go under the seat. Beings that I will not drill my vehicle nor put stick things on leather I found this in Amazon. It's a cup holder that goes in the cup holder, with an arm to hang the mic/head on it. No idea how good it is but I'm getting one.. If it's crap or not, I'll let everyone know. Here's a screen clip and the link at Amazon: Amazon link

I connect to repeaters while they are available. After that, I take a nap until I get to my destination.

The Wouxun 1000 PLus was projected to start shipping today from BuyTwowayRadios. i hope I am not waiting for weeks.

You are correct. The same goes for Wyoming's Be 307 aware.

Just a thought. Are you going to be transmitting on both radios at the very same time all the time? It's good practice to have each radio on it's own rated circuit, but for the temporary install in your Lincoln. But... the best way to handle this situation if you want to do it 100% right is to get a fused power distribution box and run your heavy duty cable directly to the battery. You can run as many radios as you want on each of their own fused circuit.

There are a few LMR part 90 radios that fit the bill. In both my JT and my Challenger Scat Pac I run an 8500 with O3 control head. If you looked at the Scat Pac you would not know there is a radio in it.

If they're indeed each fused for 20 amps, the receptacles should be able to handle the 575 no problem (50 watts is usually around 10-11amps draw on full power). From there, the weak point is likely a 12v plug. I would want to 'improve' inside the plug so that little spring inside isn't the sole current path. Alternately, if the back side of any of the three receptacles are easily accessed, perhaps tapping the wires behind the scenes would be an easy minimal impact option, depending on the connectors. My older truck is also a ford product, and used basic spades on the back of the 12v sockets, which made for easy modifications; I'm thinking in terms of a short bit of a Y harness between the existing wiring and the receptacle, to give the radio somewhere to plug in but keep the socket usable when it isn't radio time. if you can match connectors, it could easily be removed without a trace, too. in terms of mounting, ProClips has a couple options that could work well for the mic/display; the high center mount might work well for the KG1000G remote head, though this side mount may be better suited for the midland. just throwing out some ideas...hope it helps, but feel free to disregard if not.

You take the technician exam first. If you pass, they offer the general exam right then and there. If you pass that, they offer the amateur extra exam right then and there. In theory, you could pass the whole thing in one sitting.

Speaking of infrastructure. I wonder how many of millions $$$ cumulatively clubs have spent to set up digipeaters. Just for the end user to have aprs functionality, not talking about the hobbies style with a Pico and baofeng. But rather an actual integrated ht or or mobile. There are no ht units sub $250, avg about $400+. Mobiles are the usually $300+. Higher then most gmrs users are willing to pay. If the FCC was considering having aprs down the road, I don't think they would of specifically said, ok you get a little digital (thx garmin for lobbying for this, not aure how much you guys paid), but you can't use it on the repeaters. In fact, any radio that has the capability must not have the functionality on the repeater pairs for type certification. This alone leads me to believe the FCCs attitude to be. You want it? We got a tech license for you to get, they have it. Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

All of those are optional, or, in the case of the the repeater ID, dependent on timing. The only way to be sure is to have someone else monitoring the repeater when you transmit.

This is apparently a new feature on a few models. I would recommend contacting the seller and tell them to send you one that works as advertised, or give back your money. If you purchased on Amazon, this is very easy to do.

20....as it has always been. Plus, 19 cannot be used north of Line A. Sent from my SM-A136U using Tapatalk

If you want more range, perhaps an antenna upgrade... Like this. 1

No. Too many people want to reinvent the wheel so to speak.

While I was traveling back from a car club driving tour outing up in the San Jacinto Mountains to the Resort where my car club is holding a week long National Convention, I came upon a multi-car traffic collision with the road almost completely blocked in a blinding curve, on State Route 74, between Palm Desert and Idyllwild, and I noticed several people trying to use their cellular telephone probably trying to report the collision. I assumed they were not having any success because we were in a cellular dead zone which was several miles long. I did not stop to check on injuries because there was no safe place to pullover since it was a narrow mountain road with essentially no shoulders. I continued on hoping to see some bars on my cell phone. Fortunately, I had both my portable and mobile GMRS units with me and I attempted to make contact with another station that could relay the incident to the California Highway Patrol. I knew there were two repeaters in the area so I tried Coachella Valley Repeater and called out in the blind asking if any station would relay the incident to the CHP. A station in the Salton City Area answered up and relayed the incident and came back to tell me he was successful in making contact with the CHP. I signed off and continued my drive back to La Quinta It pays to have a GMRS Radio as an additional means of communications to report emergencies to public safety agencies. Also, it pays to be prepared and know the GMRS system in the area you are traveling in and have your radio units programmed accordingly just in case. This was the “just in case”.

I think the Colorado Group improved on Wyoming’s “Be 307 Aware” scheme (Channel 3, PL #7) by leaving CTCSS/DPL OFF. Especially in an emergency situation, simpler is better.