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Showing content with the highest reputation on 06/24/24 in all areas

  1. Sab02r
    I commonly request permission to use repeaters that are listed as 'open' when I first see them listed. This is partially to ensure that the owner actually intended to list it as 'open', but more just to thank the owners for making them available and let them know that their generosity is appreciated.
    4 points
  2. SteveShannon
    First, I’m very sorry for your loss. Second, although there are some people who use GMRS like ham radio, listening for people to visit on either repeaters or using a popular calling channel like 19, for most of us it’s a service we use to support communications while engaging in other activities, like hiking, biking, rocketry (that’s mine) etc. Additionally some people have adopted it as a way to communicate and gather information in an apocalyptic event. But I will tell you that if you want to reach out to others over longer distances and visit with others who are interested in radio, ham radio is much more active than GMRS in more places. Plus it has never been easier to study for the tests and Morse code is no longer required.
    3 points
  3. OffRoaderX
    Because "some people" are very, very stupid.
    3 points
  4. kirk5056
    To me, the best day on GMRS is communicating with people I want to communicate with and not hearing anything I don't want to hear. Therefore, I love PL filters (CTCSS/DCS) and the 3,000+ combinations they give to our 22 rx frequencies.
    3 points
  5. catbrigade
    I got the license to use with family for emergency communications or if we go camping somewhere with bad cell coverage. It ended up being a gateway drug as now I have an extra class ham license to go with it.
    3 points
  6. AdmiralCochrane
    I'm dizzy
    3 points
  7. SteveShannon
    @JoCoBrian deserves full credit. In response to a post decrying the apparent lost of a repeater, I asked the original poster (OP) why he had gotten a GMRS license in the first place. JoCoBrian stepped up and gave a great answer and I realized this might be a good general interest question. I’ve been fascinated with radio as long as I can remember. My parents had one of those tall wooden consoles with a radio and record player and before I was school age I took it apart. Then in the 60s I became interested in two way radios while watching The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Every time a company came out with some kind of small walkie talkie I begged my folks for a set. In eighth grade I became interested in ham radio but I never followed through (a trait I still have). When I got into amateur rocketry a couple decades ago I noticed that people were carrying real radios. Eventually my mentor got a Garmin and I bought a less expensive Motorola Talkabout to talk to him. But neither of us were licensed. I signed up for an FRN in probably 2004 or 2005 but didn’t want to spend the money to buy the license. It took quite a few years but a few years ago (2021 I think) my conscience finally got the better of me. I got a license and started watching Notarubicon videos. Within a few months my interest in ham radio resurrected itself as well and in 2022, I took all three tests. But I still want a Man from U.N.C.L.E. communicator! So, why did you get a GMRS license?
    2 points
  8. WRQD922
    I can’t imagine using someone else’s equipment without asking first. It’s so simple it’s crazy. Doesn’t matter if it’s a mower, chainsaw or a repeater. JUST ASK . It’s the proper thing to do. Why is this so hard for people ?
    2 points
  9. gortex2
    No they dont but that doesn't mean you can use their system without permission. This is the issue with GMRS as of late. I spend thousands of dollars on my gear and use it for my use. Its not open for others. Your just as capable to spend that money and put up your own.
    2 points
  10. LeoG

    New toy incoming.

    Ziggidy and one other reacted to LeoG for a topic

    I don't know what happened. It snuck out of it's box and it's hiding in my truck
    2 points
  11. LeoG

    New toy incoming.

    SteveShannon and one other reacted to LeoG for a topic

    If I have to suffer... you have to suffer....
    2 points
  12. SteveShannon

    New toy incoming.

    bheiser1 and one other reacted to SteveShannon for a topic

    That’s a very nice box, possibly one of the nicer ones I’ve seen. I’m sure glad I checked for new unread posts so I could see it.
    2 points
  13. FlatTop
    QRP does add an interesting twist to things....what we learned in doing QRP CW for 5 or 6 years in row was this. Between 11PM and 6AM...it seemed like all the groups put their rookie CW ops on the air, and man if they could hear you a little bit, they worked you. We made 65-70% of our contacts from about 3-4 hours after FD started until the next day when it ended. At the beginning everyone is working the loudest low hanging fruit...at 30-40 WPM in many cases....that's when we'd start our fire and cook our dinner. Hahaha. We'd also run a 6m SSB station (MFJ something or other rig) that was low power, and it did a good job contacting FD stations within 75-200 miles.
    2 points
  14. gortex2
    Got it when I was old enough to do on my own. PArents had one for years. We used GMRS for a long time before cell phones and email. Still use it for what we did then but added off road stuff as well.
    2 points
  15. marcspaz
    It's tough doing QRP during some of these QRM contests. Even with 500w+, it can be difficult to get through the noise of 1kc of separation. Field Day is no exception. For the past 2 years I have skipped all contesting for health reasons and the fact that it has been close to 100 degrees two Field Days in a row. Normally, I bring out a portable shelter, solar and batteries, and I will string up a dipole between two 35' masts. Same thing on Winter Field Day. It's always fun, but its a lot of work to setup and tear down.
    2 points
  16. wayoverthere
    In terms of after-action, i'll say there's room for improvement. wasn't going for points, so i was doing some hunt and pounce between 20m and 40m, around 0700-0900 UTC. For some reason I decided to play on high difficulty, and on top of the compromised antenna (end fed wire, sloping from 7ft up to around 20 ft roughly east/west), I was running QRP phone. In retrospect, I should have either taken the effort to set up the interface box and computer for FT8, dragged out the 100 watt radio, or both. I heard club stations as far away as Indiana, Kansas, and Central FL, but nobody could hear me, apparently.
    2 points
  17. WSAH999
    I unfortunately don't have an HF transceiver but I did run my SDR with a homemade inverted V dipole wire antenna and was able to pick up California/Mexico very easily. (Am in Michigan) and I just had the wire elevated about 10 feet. It was more of a proof of concept as I am surrounded by trees so I wanted to check for future use. I heard mainly 20m, 17m and 15m. Was going to go to our local clubs field day, unfortunately it seems to have been rained it, but that's alright. All in all not bad. Hopefully by next year's field day I'll have a HF rig.
    2 points
  18. LeoG
    So did you ever return his money?
    2 points
  19. WRQC527

    ..nevermind....

    WRUU653 and one other reacted to WRQC527 for a topic

    From one of the many available dictionaries, including the Cambridge and Merriam-Webster dictionaries, (both very well-respected), @RayP used the word correctly. Hope this helps you and others. Anxiously Adverb 1. In an uneasy or worried manner. 2. In an earnestly desirous or eager manner.
    2 points
  20. JeepCrawler98
    While it's a good courtesy, realistically monitoring for co-channel traffic works for backyard repeaters, but as soon as you put up even a standalone machine on a mountaintop with a 100+ mile footprint, no user can adequately monitor for co-channel traffic on any significant area of the total footprint. Of course linking makes the monitoring footprint bigger and thus enhances the issue, I'm not saying there's no correlation there, but it exists on just about all repeaters to some degree and especially so for high-coverage machines. By nature repeaters exist to cover areas that you cannot monitor with your HT/mobile/base alone, and most repeaters (being duplex) cannot do BCL on their own transmit frequency without some external receiver that interlocks on the transmit frequency (which has other technical challenges, such as locking out on natural interference, or self-interlocking with its own carrier). The monitoring rule is intended to have users avoid getting a repeater to step on another station elsewhere in the coverage footprint by monitoring first, but this cannot be realistically ensured for even a decent standalone repeater, so this issue is not exactly linking-specific.
    2 points
  21. CALO50
    Off road/overlanding comms. Backup comms when power and cell towers go down in the Sierra Foothills.
    2 points
  22. dosw

    New to grms

    WRXB215 reacted to dosw for a question

    A repeater will take whatever signal it is receiving that opens squelch on an input frequency, and will retransmit it 5MHz lower on an output frequency. 467.7000 would retransmit on 462.7000 for example. It turns out that 462.7000 is also a simplex frequency (a regular channel), so when you hear a conversation on 462.7000 but they can't hear you, it's because that repeater is listening on 467.7000, not on 462.7000. And it's using tones that you probably don't have programmed into your radio. You can hear them, but you're neither transmitting on the correct frequency, nor with the proper tone to make them hear you. I don't know what you mean by only two people being able to use them at a time. Group conversations happen all the time. People just have to be patient and take their turn. Only one person can be talking at any moment in time, or there will be some strange interference.
    1 point
  23. WRXR255

    New toy incoming.

    Ziggidy reacted to WRXR255 for a topic

    Ahh, the stuff you dont want the missus to know you bought 8-P
    1 point
  24. FlatTop
    I am too far from the mall to get in on any of that. I do live close enough to a truckstop that once in awhile I can hear some of their security guys....tossing out the lot lizards, chasing off shoplifters, people trying and failing to steal fuel. Friday and Saturday nights are the most active. Once in a while they offer "topless" truck washes...I can only imagine what that is.
    1 point
  25. Lscott
    If you have any local malls within a few miles you might pickup the mall security, assuming they are on FM some are using NXDN or DMR by me, for entertainment. At times you hear some weird stuff. I've monitored reports of food fights in the food court, kicking hookers out of the mall, adult activity in back seats of cars in the lot, running down shoplifters, vehicle repo people with computer controlled license plate scanning cameras driving through the lots etc. They even kicked some local TV news crews off the property because they didn't get prior clearance. It gets much more active near Xmas. A few times some people were "asked" to put certain unnamed items back in their car, at least they didn't call the local PD on them, because it was prohibited to have them in the mall. I'll leave it to others to figure out what those were.
    1 point
  26. Radioguy7268

    ..nevermind....

    WRUU653 reacted to Radioguy7268 for a topic

    You are correct - and this specific problem is probably worse with GMRS than 'coordinated' Part 90 systems. However, the Linking issue can make the problem much worse over a much larger area. This exact issue would be part of the reason why people should read the "You just got your license, now you want to put up a repeater?" sticky - and then understand why overlapping coverage is usually less than ideal, and should be avoided. Still, there's a difference between me putting up a machine that I know might be lacking in coverage and still making best attempts to monitor before transmitting (up to and including monitoring the output freq. at my repeater site, in order to disable my repeater when a co-channel user is on the air), and me putting up a linked machine that by default says I don't care about your conversation, mine is somehow more important. If there are linked networks that are monitoring somehow, I'd still be interested to hear about it.
    1 point
  27. LeoG

    New toy incoming.

    Ziggidy reacted to LeoG for a topic

    It's here.... Now all I have to do is wait until after work
    1 point
  28. WRUE951

    ..nevermind....

    SteveShannon reacted to WRUE951 for a topic

    oh. you are missing out.. very good tool, much easier to navigate then use of the site navigation tools. And it has a LOT of other uses too...
    1 point
  29. WRXB215
    And the humidity was through the roof early when we started putting up antennas. We were all drenched is sweat by the time we were done. As the sun burned off the excess humidity and the breeze started, it got much more comfortable. Still hot but bearable.
    1 point
  30. tweiss3
    I did help setup. When I left, all the antennas were up, and all but 1 had the final run of coax connected to their radio. I did make a time lapse of the antenna erection, but I haven't had a chance to review it yet, I did get uploaded/backed up to the gopro server, just waiting on me I guess...... Boy was it a hot weekend.
    1 point
  31. GP62
    I got mine because of my concern to maintain communication with my family in the event of social calamity or worse. Things have been strange the last few years and while I am generally an optimist, I felt the need to at least have backup comms. I find that our setup works just fine for us.
    1 point
  32. amaff
    Amateur Motorsport comms, and now lots of other Activity Comms. Hiking or road tripping with the family. Talking to my kid on the pit-wall (or talking trash to another buddy on track). Talking to friends or family on a road trip in the other vehicle. I'm fortunate to be somewhere fairly repeater heavy, so it's also nice to have as a backup when hiking in case someone gets hurt where there's no cell service but I can probably hit 1 of the repeaters on a mountain top, which is nice. And sometimes I go overlanding. I'm new to it though, and I doing this right?
    1 point
  33. WRKC935
    No, but I did wire his tower building, mow the grass there every other week since 2019, painted the outside of the building, cut brush. Dragged thousands of feet of hardline to the site ranging from new 1/2 inch to several 200 plus foot lengths of 7/8 and 1 5/8 line. repair radios for him and a number of other things that I can't even remember right now. But I figure I should do that.
    1 point
  34. LeoG

    GRMS Needed?

    WRXR255 reacted to LeoG for a topic

    Not a problem at all. Honesty is the best policy as long as you don't really go overboard.
    1 point
  35. CALO50
    That's very cool.
    1 point
  36. WRQC527

    Air Band antenna

    WRXR255 reacted to WRQC527 for a question

    Antennas don't care if they're if they're listening to AM or FM. They care about resonance. Air band is in the VHF neighborhood, and lower frequency than the amateur radio two-meter band, so an antenna would need to be resonant at lower frequencies than a typical amateur dual-band HT antenna. A quarter-wave antenna for air bands is around 24 inches long, versus about 19 inches for an equivalent two-meter quarter-wave antenna. That's why it sounds "crunchy". It's not resonant on the air band. I have an Icom handheld airband transceiver with a rubber duck antenna specifically tuned for the air band. It has a BNC connector. Perhaps you could find such an antenna that you could afix to your Baofeng that would be more effective than the stock antenna. Check out suppliers of aviation handheld radios and perhaps they'll have replacement antennas available for you to purchase. Be mindful of the antenna connector on your radio as you might need an adapter, and that an air band antenna will be pretty useless as a TX antenna for the other bands your radio can transmit on.
    1 point
  37. FlatTop
    Adam I was looking at a group photo from a Field Day in 2000..I was only 40 then....in the group of 11 there are four of us left. It brings back a lot of good memories, but it's also a bit depressing. We met at Caesar Creek State Park in Ohio for 6 or 7 years in a row....some great times, and great memories. Flying Pigs QRP Club International was the group. We ran QRP CW for the entire Field Day. So much fun it should have been illegal.
    1 point
  38. nokones
    I got my first GMRS license in the early 90s because I like playing with radios. Also, I had a CB Class D license back in the day, a Class 3 Radio Telephone Operators license, a Restricted Operators License, and somewhere I recall having a Marine Endorsement on a license. I wish I kept my original GMRS license active just for the callsign.
    1 point
  39. WRZG694

    ..nevermind....

    amaff reacted to WRZG694 for a topic

    Oops rather than anxiously awaiting my guess is you are eagerly awaiting. Anxiously indicates fear, dread, foreboding, worrisome and the like. Anxiety and anxious are derived from the Latin word Angere, its meaning was to choke and strangle. Hope this helps you and others.
    1 point
  40. LeoG
    Hard to say unless you can look at the whole history of the introduction of these frequencies. Usually the govt is way behind on making rules. They are usually reactive. When something goes amiss they make up a new rule/regulation/law to said offense. When they opened the GMRS frequencies was it their intention to make it so people/families to be able to communicate farther than 1000 ft? And because of the new capabilities to the radios the manufacturers came out with new products that the Ef Sea Seas didn't have rules for? I don't know. But that is how innovation usually happens. The innovators are far ahead of the rulez makers and things get going before they can respond.
    1 point
  41. WRKC935

    GRMS Needed?

    gortex2 reacted to WRKC935 for a topic

    The answer is NO. We don't NEED it. We don't need a forum attached to it where clowns like the OP can come on and ask truly dumb questions, and yes folks there ARE indeed dumb questions. This thread right here proves that. Asking a bunch of people that are personally involved with something, on a forum were it's whole purpose is that something if it's needed. That would be a dumb question. We don't need people on such forums that are so full of themselves that they have created an AI chat where you can chat with their AI. Really? You actually did this? You self centered egotistical clown. I would rather wire my balls to a fence charger than have a conversation with you or your AI clone. Where does this shit come from? Can you actually fit your head through a doorway? The level of self promotion here is at a new level of wow. I half wonder if you, or someone with your mindset creates bogus accounts to post things like this to generate fodder and stir up hate and discontent for your own personal amusement. Which brings me to the stress of dealing with the outright stupidity part of dealing with the whole thing. People asking questions over and over that have been answered a hundred times already but are too lazy to search the forum to see if there is already an answer to their question. Trying to figure out the FCC and what they may or may not begin enforcement of the regulations. And what those broadly written, impossible to decipher codex's mean. And get to get hit every 6 months with some new video of some interpretation of said regulations, or the proposed threat of an enforcement action. Nope, we don't NEED that headache either. At least I don't. So, it comes down to this. We do this because we CHOOSE to. While GMRS, within it's written regulations, was really not meant to be a social gathering of people for idle discussions about a range of unrelated topics. That is exactly what it's being used for. We enjoy each others company, and engaging in those discussions. So we choose to engage. And it's not really a hobby per say. It's a conduit for direct conversation between people. We choose to have those conversations, to interact with those people at the other end of the radio for social reasons. And dealing with that number of people will bring out the need to deal with people that you might not want to deal with. But that's part of it too. But, remember this too. YouTube is monetized. For every click of a video, someone gets paid. That's a business, even if it's not a direct marketing of some material or intellectual item for direct sale, it's still a method of generating income.
    1 point
  42. SteveShannon

    Motorola model MT350R

    Raybestos reacted to SteveShannon for a question

    The MT350R was sold as a combination GMRS and FRS radio before the FCC changed the rules for both services. Some channels at that time were GMRS only and some were FRS only. As such, it was marketed as a combination GMRS/FRS radio. I think I still have a couple Motorola walkie talkies similar to those and a couple similar Midland radios that claim five watts. But it was never programmed to transmit on the repeater input frequencies, the 467 MHz Main Channels, or with an offset, so while you’ll be able to listen to repeaters you’ll not be able transmit to them. They are still usable with your GMRS license or using them as FRS radios, just not on repeaters. The good news is that there has never been a time when more inexpensive GMRS were available.
    1 point
  43. WRUU653
    I never said anything changed as far as I know. But hey I don’t remember what I had for lunch yesterday. I just shared a link, four months ago at that. But since you quoted me and made an inference allow me to retort. Here’s one straight from the rules if you prefer or even if you don’t, I didn’t write it. I didn’t even interpret it. Again it’s just a link. § 95.1749 GMRS network connection. Operation of a GMRS station with a telephone connection is prohibited, as in § 95.349. GMRS repeater, base and fixed stations, however, may be connected to the public switched network or other networks for the sole purpose of operation by remote control pursuant to § 95.1745
    1 point
  44. OffRoaderX
    Poppycock! I for one think that more threads with links to those videos are what society and the world needs! Think of the children!
    1 point
  45. Hoppyjr
    While I don’t dispute this happened, the issue of asking for call signs is a bridge too far. The owner should not need to produce any such info, but even if they do I doubt anything would come of it. The government always tends to overreach and it’s up to the citizens to push back and keep them in check.
    1 point
  46. WRKC935
    Yeah, mine is listed as open but I get requests all the time too. So you had an argument with the owner of the repeater that you were going to have FREE access to. That seems like perfectly reasonable thing to do... Do you remember (probably not) Nancy Reagan's catch phrase? You might look into that and take her advice. Then, with you hat in your hand, apologize to the guy and see if you can get back into his good graces and get permission, hoping he's not a scorched earth type of guy like I am. Because personally, if you are dumb enough to argue with me prior to getting permission of at any point after that, it would be a cold day in hell before I let you on my gear. But that's how I roll. But if it's the guy on here I am thinking it is. He's actually every bit the A-hole I am and wouldn't pee in your face at this point if you beard was on fire. So you might be screwed.
    1 point
  47. OffRoaderX
    Based on all your multiple previous comments about how EVERY person you know dumps EVERY radio (Midland, Retevis, TidRadio, Wouxun) unless that radio happens to be the same brand of radios that you use, it is becoming clear that you don't actually know anyone. ... Or, you are just F.O.S. But either way, your mythomaniac comments are great for pointing at and laughing so keep up the good work!
    1 point
  48. OffRoaderX

    NuBe Chirp Question

    WSCK206 reacted to OffRoaderX for a question

    If only someone would make a very simple to understand youtube video explaining this all in very simple terms that anyone could understand, while at the same time using very easy-to-understand hand-gestures.. Whoever could achieve that would literally become the queen of all that is GMRS!
    1 point
  49. WRUU653
    When the FCC comes...
    1 point
  50. Lscott

    WSDM599 reacted to Lscott for a gallery image

    You'll end up like me with a bunch more radios in your collection. It's addictive.
    1 point
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