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Showing content with the highest reputation on 10/02/24 in all areas
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I took my UV-5R8W and stuck the antenna up my right nostril, pushed the PTT button, and blew my brains out my left ear. I got better. @USNCB Welcome to myGMRS.com. You are going to love it here.4 points
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Sure, maybe you did but what about that poor antenna?3 points
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Just pulled the trigger on a Comet GP-9NC, wish me luck 😅
tcp2525 and one other reacted to SvenMarbles for a topic
I got it up on my pole this afternoon. The base of it is about 20ft up and the tip of the antenna is about 37 feet. early results seem awesome. Did some simplex testing from the car home to it and didn’t lose it in the amount of time that I had to drive around. It’s mainly what I wanted it for, to be able to simplex better. I need to test in all directions and with varying terrain, but I have at least 8 miles nice and loud due south to a ground level station. And judging by how clear the last transmission that my wife made before being pulled away by our 2 year old, it could have gone much further.. I’ve got more challenging terrain to the north and east of me so we’ll see what I can achieve when I have time to test it out… But already I can tell that it’s significantly stronger and clearer than what I was running before.2 points -
2 points
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Best coax for field-expedient station?
WRDJ205 and one other reacted to Skunkworks for a question
Thank you for that helpful bit of advice. SMH I always want to be able to talk further. I live in a very wooded area and have a fair amount of hills, so every advantage is helpful. There are no repeaters nearby and sometimes I want better simplex communication (like at the hunting camp). I'm using a good antenna and a very good radio. I just don't want to handicap myself by using crap coax.2 points -
Best coax for field-expedient station?
AdmiralCochrane and one other reacted to SteveShannon for a question
M&P Ultraflex or Hyperflex 10 is the same diameter as LMR400 or RG8 (not to be confused with RG8x), but has stranded center conductors for greater flexibility. They also make a 7 mm variant but with greater losses of course. What's nice is that they make a POTA coax that's brightly colored to help prevent accidents and make it harder to lose.2 points -
Radio Safety
WRUU653 and one other reacted to SteveShannon for a topic
You won’t find an American made GMRS radio. The pagers and radios issued to Hezbollah didn’t explode merely because they were made in China. In fact if they were really Icom radios they would have been made in Japan. If they were counterfeit I don’t know where they were made. It appears that someone intercepted the pagers and radios at some point after they were made but before they were delivered to Hezbollah and inserted explosives. Unless you’ve come to the negative attention of the Israeli intelligence forces I doubt you’ll have explosives in your radio. Welcome to the forum!2 points -
There are no American made GMRS radios. Even the Midland radios are made in China. If you stick with well known name brands sold by American resellers then you will be fine. I doubt you will have to worry about Baofeng radios sold by B-Tech. And I also would not worry about any radios sold by Buy To Way Radios. I haven't had any of my Baofeng, Icom, TYT, and Wouxun radios blow up on me.2 points
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Recommendations for mobile antennas?
WRZX493 and one other reacted to SteveShannon for a question
You might see a change to SWR, but comm results are the only thing that matters.2 points -
I have used a magnet mount on top of a small 9" x 20" tool box inside the house and it worked fine. Getting the antenna outside of the house will definitely work better. While the antenna worked on the tool box inside, things vastly improved once I moved that antenna outside. I used a couple of shelf brackets and an old 9x13 cookie sheet to set the antenna on. I did not have a rubber mat onto of my toolbox to deal with. Try it with or without the rubber mat to see how it does. I did this with both a dual band 2m/70cm antenna and a GMRS antenna. Using a mobile mag mount antenna is fine for a temporary setup. You will want to eventually get a base antenna up for a permanent base setup.2 points
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Massive Verizon Cell Outage
AdmiralCochrane reacted to tcp2525 for a topic
The bandwidth required would definitely kill GMRS. Just thinking what ifs out loud.1 point -
It's an FRS power GMRS on your wrist. I bet kids would love them. I remember walkie talkies in my childhood. They could do 100 feet to 100 yards at the very best. They were big with a huge antenna and the sound quality stunk. This little wristwatch HT would take those old fashion HT to the floor.1 point
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Can't register, callsign not valid
SteveShannon reacted to WRXB215 for a topic
It can sometimes take a few days for the data to update from the FCC database to the myGMRS.com database.1 point -
Good evening, I was recently looking for American made GMRS radio. Does anyone have a Made in USA hand held they would recommend? The reason I am looking for American manufacturing is concern over the radios and pagers that blew up. Several years ago, a group that I belong to bought several Baofeng UV-5r radios. Back then we could all use them since two of the members had GMRS license. The FCC changed the rule sometime in 2017, then every number had to have their own license. Different the new license was change to what it is like today, every family member can use the same license. The reason I mention this, about 12 years ago we were using the UV-5r for emergencies and local communication and they worked well. The UV-5r was a nice little radio for around $30.00. Back January 24, Members wanted to upgrade the radios. We bought Baofeng UV-5G Plus and Tidradios H3. My point is, here about 12 years later, with all the hyperinflation we are going through' these new radios with a lot more features and channels are still $30.00. We are a bunch of old-geezers and concerned about the many radios we gave to family members and friends. Does anyone have an idea on whether these radios could pose a danger? And does anyone know if there is a way to check them? This might be in the wrong category, if so, I would like to apology. Thank you for reading.1 point
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Just pulled the trigger on a Comet GP-9NC, wish me luck 😅
Davichko5650 reacted to tcp2525 for a topic
And don't forget to draw blood. If you don't have a bloody injury, even if it's a papercut,the project will fail. Trust me, that's the way it always works.1 point -
Found that the ones I have put out about 2W. Very compact and slip in a pocket easily. Even tested with the earpieces and really no complaints. These would be the radios I hand out for people who might be intimidated with too many options. At the price I bought them I’m not worried if they get lost.1 point
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TYT TH-7900 and split tones
WRXB215 reacted to SteveShannon for a question
Just set it to Tone mode instead of TSQL and the receive tone is disregarded.1 point -
Just pulled the trigger on a Comet GP-9NC, wish me luck 😅
Davichko5650 reacted to LeoG for a topic
But is it worth it... 12dB during hurricanes and tornadoes.1 point -
You are the best, sir. I don't care WHAT KAOS says about you!1 point
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Good Samaritans
WRUU653 reacted to SteveShannon for a topic
I’m certainly not bothered by it. It’s impossible to know everything that has been posted.1 point -
1 point
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GMRS Wristwatch
Hoppyjr reacted to SteveShannon for a topic
I’m waiting for a pen communicator “Open channel D” And now we know how old we are!1 point -
Now we await the GMRS shoe radio. But instead of CTCSS, it uses a new tech called "The Cone of Silence."1 point
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Recommendations for mobile antennas?
WRUU653 reacted to SteveShannon for a question
Maybe, but keep in mind that the magnetic mount is designed to stick to the metal with a designed in separation for the rubber pad that’s part of the magnetic mount base. Adding an additional sixteenth of an inch might be enough to reduce the effectiveness of having a ground. Try it and see. Or you might be able to remove the rubber pad that’s part of the mag mount base to make up for the additional rubber pad.1 point -
Massive Verizon Cell Outage
RayDiddio reacted to SteveShannon for a topic
I’m on Spectrum, which advertises wide availability because they use the Verizon network. When I learned of the Verizon outage yesterday I fully expected to not be able to make voice calls. My friends with Verizon had no service, but I was able to speak to my friends in town on Spectrum. I don’t know if local calls are handled fully within Spectrum before being transferred to Verizon for interstate calls. In any case I had no service interruptions on my cell phone. Later in the day however I had really bad service using Teams on the Internet (also Spectrum) with frequent reconnections. After about half an hour it settled down and worked reliably but during that half hour I was cursing.1 point -
And remember when people laugh at you when you mention having a two-way radio for emergency communication when cell phones are so much more convenient.1 point
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There are not a lot of dual band options that cover GMRS while also being stubby. The full length monster of a mobile antenna, the Comet CA-2X4SR-NMO covers 2m, 70cm, MURS, and GMRS. It even has reasonable SWR in Marine VHF and 1.25m. But it's 40 inches long. However, it can be folded down when you need to get into a garage, as it has a folding hinge. Some say it's not super in GMRS range. I would say its ears aren't quite as good as my MXTA26, but that's a tradeoff you might need to make to get a multi-band antenna. I have used it to achieve impressive distances, though. I like it. But you'll have to fold it down to get into the garage. There are some very good reviews for it online, and a few mixed. I guess I'm in the thumbs up group. A ground plane for GMRS needs to be metal, with a radius of about 6.4 inches or more. More doesn't hurt anything. Less hampers signal propagation. It doesn't need to be electrically grounded to the antenna, it just needs to be directly beneath the antenna. Ground plane radials are common for fixed (immobile) installations, while using a vehicle body for the ground plane for mobile antennas is common in that application.1 point
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Shawna, There is a lot to unpack in your message and I'll try to answer most of the points I see. First off, I agree with the statement you will not be able to connect to each other using hand-held radios WITHOUT going through a repeater. In an urban area the average range for one hand-held connecting to another is about 1/2 to 1 mile because of all the obstructions blocking the signal. Secondly, the radio service with the most likely success will be Amateur or ham radio. This is primarily because of the maturity of the service. Amateurs will have several VHF and UHF repeaters scattered around the area that can be used. The primary drawback to using amateur radio is the requirement to pass a 35-question test so you understand both the general rules on using radios in this service and you understand some of the theory about radios in general. The material is not overly technical and easy to understand with a middle school education. Local clubs often teach classes covering the licensing material so you can be prepared for the exam. Local club members are also a good resource for assistance with selecting radios and helping with operating them. As there are most likely several repeaters within your and your daughter's area, hand-held radios will work and the Baofeng UV-9 (ham version) is a good choice. Repeaters use a dedicated pair of frequencies in operation, you transmit on the repeater's input frequency and listen on the output frequency. A repeater immediately transmits what it hears on input over its output frequency so there is no time differential allowing a normal conversation where one radio is transmitting to the repeater and the other is listening to the repeater. Repeater operation is the same, regardless of the service it is used in. No, you are not automatically routed to a repeater, you have to have the repeater's frequencies in your radio and selected. Can GMRS work in your situation, perhaps. As the service hasn't been around as long as amateur radio there are fewer repeaters, but more are being installed every day. The disadvantage is there are fewer frequencies available for GMRS and the probability of congestion and interference is greater. The primary advantage is no test required even though the license cost is the same. If you have additional questions, you can click on my user name and send me a private message. Best of luck.1 point