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If you had any actual understanding of how radio waves work and how not everybody lives in the same place as you do/everyone has different geographic constraints, you would understand how utterly ree-tahr-ded you just made yourself look.

If one doesn't vote then one can't complain about the results. I would urge everyone to go and vote for the candidate of your choice. I don't care who it is. One buddy in my coffee group said if he doesn't like any of the candidates he just writes his own name in on the ballot, but he does vote.

That’s it. Every vote sends a message. Collectively the message can be heard.

I also haven’t given up hope and I’ve been voting for nearly fifty years. During that time I’ve seen both good and bad candidates from both parties, but I’ve always felt like my vote counts. And I’ve seen the difference in results, especially at the local and state level.

There's a few people on here that think because they can get many fars that everyone should be able to do the same

I've never made a simplex greater than 12 miles. I guess all my radios are garbage.

Im just proud that its not me this time.

Currently, only one account can be created per GMRS callsign as a security measure to prevent multiple random people from trying to register the same callsign. This works fine for families where one member is the coordinator of the communications, but I know it isn't ideal when multiple people have an interest in participating independently. I was thinking about changing the user accounts on this website to allow a single "main account" per callsign. The account holder can then create multiple subaccounts sharing the same callsign: this way, the account holder/licensee controls who may share their license regarding a myGMRS account and we prevent the issue of random people trying to claim a callsign over and over again. Imagine how many people would try to claim mine, for example. What does everyone think about that?

At least you didn't accidentally cover up the battery pack charge contacts.

Look, I didn’t tell you that to start an argument. I did actual work on the generator syncing and transmission protection systems for generators in four different utility power plants and visited several others. Every one turned the generators at 3600 rpm when generating. The prime movers varied from hydroelectric turbines (the Nisqually project in the nineties), to coal fired steam turbines (Colstrip power plant from 2005-2008, largest thermal plant west of the Mississippi at the time), to dual fuel gas/diesel turbines at the David G. Gates plant until I retired in 2015. All of these plants spun their generators at exactly 3600 rpm. They would trip offline if they sped up or slowed down. All were three phase system with the Colstrip 3 and 4 units generating 740 megawatts each. That’s how utility generation works. Each winding adds a North and South Pole and gets you another phase. If you insert a second winding in a generator you get another lobe of generated power that is offset by some number of degrees. If you add a winding that’s perpendicular to the first winding, you end up with a full AC wave in each winding and each wave is separated from the other by 90°, but you don’t double the frequency of a single AC system, regardless of what your article says. Each winding is its own AC system. I don’t understand what kind of generator they’re talking about when they say they can add a set of poles to generate AC at 120 Hertz. Four poles would result in two sets of North pulses followed by two South pulses. Because the poles must be diametrically opposing you can’t arrange the windings to get a north pulse followed by a south pulse followed by another north pulse followed by a final south pulse, and if combined they won’t look like the clean 120 Hertz sinusoidal AC power that electric machines require. I think they would only be useful for generating DC and then fed to an inverter. So, as I said, I just don’t understand how the generators cited in the article you pasted work as described. That’s not to say it’s not possible because there are clever engineers out there, it’s just not the way it could work in any AC generator whose controls I ever worked on. Now in a car alternator they do keep adding poles, but the goal isn’t to generate higher frequency AC. They’re rectifying the power produced by each pole before combining it for DC.

They may be on a repeater or just using tones simplex. Read up on repeaters and tones. It's called Chinglesh and by the time you learn it you will already be an expert on your radio.

I don't vote because I refuse to be part of a system that I don't believe in. You are in fact not picking a President. You are given two choices and you didn't even pick those two. The money being spent on elections is out of control. And by voting you're contributing to the circus. It also divides the country. I don't want any part of it. When I had my Business I didn't care who you voted for. That's how I feel about my friends. Ross Perot was a good candidate because he ran as an independent. I like him, and he received a large number of votes. But because of the system he had zero chance of winning. My right to vote also give me the right not to vote. Also when you vote for one of them you're giving them carte blanche to do whatever they want.

Apologies for the off topic but yes they are, good eye and thanks. One of my retirement projects. I installed Bluetooth. used it for Christmas music with family here last year. Dual cone Pioneer car speakers I had laying around. Transformer is below the wire wheel base

I’ve heard of it happening with ham radios but usually higher power than MURS. You might check to see if your GFI is truly grounded. Sometimes GFIs are installed in lieu of a ground wire in older homes.

I'm sorry to hear you say that. I haven't given up hope yet.

What does “duty cycle” mean? I bring up duty cycle every time I hear somebody talking about making a repeater out of cheap Chinese mobiles and worse any type of handhelds. Duty cycle is the maximum time an amplifier may transmit within a five minute interval, expressed as a percentage, to avoid overheating. Suppose a mobile amplifier is rated at 30% duty cycle. This means that it may transmit for no longer than 1.5 minutes and must remain off for not less than 3.5 minutes. Some people forget that a repeater is transmitting for 2 or more people, duty cycle will be reached quickly if you get into conversation. More people in the conversation just amplifies the issue. Once a radio reaches it's thermal design limits it will no longer be able to adequately cool the output transistors. Even if a radio is not hot to the touch the transistors are, in part because of the inefficient transfer of heat to the units housing or internal heat sink. The longer you exceed the duty cycle the more heat builds on the transistors, surrounding electronics and heat sink effecting it's ability to remain on frequency without spurious emissions. Exceed duty cycle long enough and you will need a new transmitter or radio. I have tested a few Baofang and TYT radios on my service monitor without great results. All of the radios started deviating outside of the allotted channel bandwidth after simulated conversation at 50% duty cycle, the longer I allowed this the worse if got. Testing was done using an Aeroflex 2975 IFR recently back from the calibration lab. GMRS is a tiny sliver of spectrum surrounded by the commercial land mobile part 90 service. It is important that any repeaters that are built or re-purposed are held to the highest standards and operated as to not cause any interference inside or outside of our allocated spectrum. I wont get into the part 90/95 debate but i do stand firm that non certified import equipment has no place on GMRS.

Shit happens.

Lack of available RAM

No, you're mixing up the process. The state did not try to regulate ham radio, at least not in any enforced way. They told ham operators, in particular the net control who went along with their approach, that hams or other individuals listening should not be doing the actual on-the-ground welfare checks. They said to refer the requests to the central state NIMS position which in this case was AUXCOMM and they would follow up at the appropriate time after search and rescue phase was completed. But they were not doing anything with them right away. It was a very poor, short-sighted approach since doing the checks quickly could save lives.

I got some ferrite cores that I can clamp on the cables and power wires at the recommendation of WRYZ926. I put 4 along the coax trying to place them evenly along it, and I put 2 on each end of the radio units power wires. I now am receiving all but 1 of the signal bars on my radio. There is a hint of static left, but it is a massive improvement. I am already looking at getting a 5/8 wave antenna, so that should improve things. How important is VSWR for mobile radios. In HT I never dealt with this so I never invested in the equipment. If it makes my equipment last longer or get better reception then I don't mind getting it, just not sure if its worth it.

i loved this statement

2 pole vs 4 pole on the little ones only have two 'magnets' or fields for the stator. That's how you get 3600 and 1800 RPM with the poles. My guess is, since I don't know on the stuff you were dealing with is if they were multiple parallel sets of 3 phase poles and magnetic fields clocked around the stator. The little ones of course don't really have much room and the field is the armature. It has two poles and is spun. With a much larger head, I could see it having them in parallel, but I have never messed with stuff the size you are talking about or ever really looked into it. The biggest stuff I have first hand experience with is the sub 350Kw stuff down to the pull start 5 HP things. Of course with what you are talking about those heads were smaller than the exciters on the generators you were dealing with. But yes, North pole, south pole and it creates opposing phases. I would assume that since you were generating 3 phase, that it's all paralleled internally to increase current. But in truth, it's all about rise and decay time of the voltage wave. Has to be 60 Hz when it's all done. Phasing is just the timing of the events. For single phase, the events' are 180 degree's out of phase. For 3 phase, it's 120 degree's from each of the other two phases. Still all adds up to 360 degrees. The timing, depending on a fixed RPM is all going to be decided by the clocking of the poles and the number of fields crossing the poles. To make "big power" you parallel the fields and poles to increase current. The voltage of course is controlled by the flux density of the field and the winding count in the stator windings. But I will agree that trying to make sense of whats' going on with a 5 HP portable generator when your experience is with monsters you worked with would be difficult to make sense of. Even looking at the 1 / 3 phase units that are between 10 and 100KW can be daunting. They are wired like a 12 wire electric motor, and the windings can be connected in different series / parallel configurations to produce anything from 120/240 single phase to 480 3 phase. I still don't fully understand how that works, only that if you have the connection diagram for the different ways to wire it, that it will indeed do it. Again, purely guessing, but I would figure you were generating at 13.2KV or something like that to keep the voltage to a minimum because the issues with the insulation on the windings not being able to take much more than that.

Speakers are along back window. Works perfect for 4. I had ordered the covert ones but they didn't arrive in time so used the standard speakers. I had been tempted to swap them out but thye work solid. I put them on an aluminum angle iron to an aluminum flat stock. It bolts into a factor bolt and has 3m tape. It is solid.

I like the way my 5 Ft CB Firestik II antenna arcs back in the wind at 75 MPH on the Freeway.

"Team Drill" - Meaning no mag mounts no glassm ounts, drill the darn hole. As for my preferred NMO I use a mix of MSI and Laird. The Laird NMOKHF200NOCONN is my preferred mount but all my radios come with the motorola NMO and use them alot as well. I like the Laird as it is a sealed bottom and in the fringe areas on VHF simplex we are in for SAR they help that little bit. They are also ideal for antenna brackets on some Jeeps and are pretty water resistant vs standard NMO with the plastic cap on the bottom. All my Jeeps run that mount and a couple are almost 15 years old and stil lsweep fine. I do run the Laird NMOKHFDSTHK on one of my Jeeps with my BACK RACK as its a good 1/8" steel and a standard NMO wouldn't work. We run those same mounts in our command post as they are aluminum in construction (like an ambulance). In the end I've never had issues with either the MSI or Laird and still install MSI mountso n all our UHF stuff as thatsm ostly repeater or TLMR use and not simplex.

@gortex2 I'm curious also. Do you mean like a unibit or one of those expensive dedicated bits?

@WSFL639 Welcome to GMRS. Lots of mobile radios to choose from. Price and quality both have a fairly large range. The DB-20G is very affordable and is a very popular radio. It goes up from there depending on what you want.

We update the database daily, but the FCC data we have access to is typically 1-2 days behind the FCC website, unfortunately.

@SteveShannon as you are aware a properly installed NMO will not leak nor casue issues with resale trade in value. Other than my Jeeps every vehicle I have owned for 30+ years has had NMO mounts in the roofs. On my last F150 (2020) it had 6 NMO plus 2 GPS antenna's. My previous F150 (2019) had 4 mounts and the dealer never said a word when I traded it in. I put black NMO caps on them and I am sure no one even realized they were there. I've probably installed over a thousand NMO mounts sinces I've been in 2 way radio and in the end its always the right choice. As said I like the simple approach of not seeing cables, worring about cables etc. I drive thru car washes all the time and I'd definately not do that with a mag mount. I'm definately team drill it.... (btw...even my 2023 Scat has a NMO in the trunk for a 1/4 wave VHF...)

But really I’m just building up the nerve to install permanent NMO mounts in the roofs of my pickup and my 4Runner. I saw a comment on a YouTube video yesterday where a person attempted to denigrate the YouTuber for punching a hole in the roof of his new truck. It made me wonder again why we own vehicles. Aren’t these vehicles supposed to improve our lives? I would argue that in at least an incremental way, having an antenna permanently mounted, with neatly hidden coax and a nice mount for the radio makes our lives better than having to worry about the coax whipping around in the wind at highway speeds.

no difference at all , but thanks for the try

I’ve had decent results with the Midland mag mount. My friend down the street picked up a Comet mag mount and it seems to work very well also. Both of us use the Comet SBB5 for 2 meter and 70 cm and I use the Midland MXTA26 for GMRS.

I noticed my tdh8 not being as good as my other radios in fars.. I dont have a power meter but i ran the power tuner program and although it would not allow me to read, i heard hitting write did not require the password. Nothing really made me thing that it took, however it can hit repeaters that it couldn't before. Look into running that application.

I have found that the Midland Mag-Mounts have the best results for VSWRs on GMRS freqs than any other brand of Mag-Mounts, even better than Laird.

Yup. The typical automotive alternator is a 3-phase device. They usually embed a 3-phase full wave rectifier on the frame on the back, 6 diodes. The output is DC with a small AC ripple at 6 times the AC frequency of one phase. The reason 3-phase is used is due to the low AC ripple after rectification. In many applications it can be used directly without filtering. The attached file goes into the electrical theory behind the above. Rectifiers.pdf

That’s okay that it’s not certified. Lots of people use non-certified radios. I’m not gonna point fingers. There are two ways to program the right transmit frequency. One is to simply insert the two different frequencies into the RX frequency and TX frequency columns if the software accepts that. The other is to insert the RX frequency into that column and then insert an offset frequency of 5.000 MHz into the offset column and hopefully the software will add the offset to the RX frequency and put the right frequency in the TX frequency column.

@WRTZ361, I have a few questions for you Did you have the noise issue when using the magnetic mount? How is the radio power leads connected? Having the excess coax coiled normally won't cause any issues/interference. From your first post, it sounds like you are getting interference from the vehicle electric system. Some clamp on ferret beads on the cable connecting the alternator to the battery will help as will making sure the alternator is properly grounded. Also use some copal on ferrite beads on the power connection of the radio. You can also put 1 or 2 clamp on ferrite beads on the coax where it attaches to the radio to see if that helps. I have no experience with the Melowave antennas but you are using a good NMO mount and radio. The reason I mentioned putting clamp on ferrite beads on the cables/wires, is that it can and will help eliminate RFI and EMI issues. I was occasionally getting some noise when I would transmit while my 2023 Ford Escape was running. This was with my Wouxun KG-1000G and TYT TH-7800 radios. I'm using Midland NMO mag mounts. adding ferrite beads to the cables helped. I still get occasional noise but it is way less than before.

I don’t see anything there that makes me cringe. The radio is as good of a GMRS certified radio as you can get. The Midland mount is okay. It’s nice to install because it only requires a 3/8” hole. It might not be “commercial radio” quality like a police car or ambulance would get, but it should be fine. If it fails then ask one of the guys like Kenny what NMO mount they use in a public safety vehicle where price is no object and reliability is the only concern. The Melowave antenna is not one I’m familiar with, but I have seen them sold on one of the buy two way radios websites. There’s no reason to doubt it, but as far as I know it’s strictly GMRS.

I went out to my car this morning and turned my car on. Turned on the radio and it just worked. I changed nothing since trying it last night and it just started receiving. There is a small amount of noise coming in with the transmission, but still less noise than my HT at that same location. If I grab the coax cable with my hand. the noise diminishes. the tighter I grab it, the less noise there is. Now I might have been stupid for doing this, but I wrapped the extra coax in a nice clean coil. I am self diagnosing this as poor shielding, and my body is acting like a ground for it. Let me know if I am wrong in that thinking. I am trying to learn as much as I can about these systems. I have already been bitten by the small bug of collecting HT radios. This is my first foray into anything more intricate than that. I am completely self taught with people like you guys helping me along.

I highly suggest you read the PDF that @SteveShannon posted a link to. @WRZR953 I have a ground rod right below where my coax cables enter the house and another ground rod at the base of my antenna mast. Both are tied into/bonded to my service ground which is in the middle of both locations. Follow the actual NEC codes for proper station grounding.

Yes, if they have no tone squelch enabled, they should be able to hear you fine. I would recommend improving your communication plan, however. While it's not likely you will get in any trouble, one-way communication is heavily restricted to specific types information. Not to mention, if you can't hear them to know they received the message, it can very likely lead to confusion and missed messages.

I don't know about that cable. There is no reason to have a drip loop at the antenna. You want one at the location where the coax enters the house so water drips off before running into the wall. You may need a choke at the antenna depending on the antenna type. That can be a coil of a couple of wraps however that can be impractical with large diameter coax. In that case snap on ferrite chokes are better. The radius is from the center of the coil so a 2.5" radius make a 5" circle.

GMRS Repeater Owners Are Not Required To List On Any Web Site. I Suggest You Monitor - Catch A Call Sign Or Two - An Attempt To Find The Repeater Owner For Access...... Good Luck.

If you have "that many" (as in a lot) of requests, then you might be in a position to help your community. Assuming you have a good location for the repeater. You might have lost interest in it but maybe the inrush of "new blood" will renew your interest a bit. It certainly has changed from what you ol' timers in GMRS saw back in the day, but the new people seem eager to learn. Apparently there is nothing wrong with starting a club and crowd funding new repeater hardware if the system you have in place now is not up to the task of changing frequencies. I don't understand the "hams" getting upset at someone else using the frequency. Hams have their own frequencies. A GMRS frequency is certainly not "theirs" in any shape, form, or fashion. Yours is also not a new repeater in the area, and you have every right to bring it back to active use. The repeater being used may bother others, but it would not be you who is stepping on anyone's fun rag chewing net. It would be your community, who has a lot of weight to collectively throw around as far as who gets to use a public frequency.

It tells you in the manual you cannot change the option unless you set the radio into frequency mode. Once you change it it will allow you to change it.

I think it’s pretty obvious that we’re all a bit nerdy, but that Morse code station ID is some next level pocket protector stuff.

Great follow up! I was hoping this topic would generate some conversation. I personally don't own any repeaters that are less then full duty cycle and I dont use time out timers on the repeaters. We link several machines together using VOIP and at times the conversations can get long winded with many users engaging I have seen them go for 45 min or longer. In the beginning we set the TOT for 2 min and had different machines resetting at different times causing lots of missed conversations etc. After a year of that we went to a system wide TOT of 5 min and that's been working out great as all the machines will reset at once. As far as the repeaters, we only use Motorola MTR2000's of the 100 watt configuration. At full power these machines are designed for 100% duty cycle, so at our allowed 50 watts they are hardly breaking a sweat.

Good explanation Corey. Its also important to note that even repeaters have some form of duty cycle and that the duty cycle can change depending on output power. A great example is the motorola 1225 series repeater. At full power, 45 watts, the repeater is limited to a 50% duty cycle. In low power, 25 watts, they are 100% cycle. Luckily, good repeaters have protection in the form of a Time Out Timer (TOT) and usually a ReSet Timer (RST) When set up correctly, the TOT should cut off the TX BEFORE the duty cycle is reached, and the RST should prevent transmissions until the appropriate rest period has passed. This helps extend the life of the repeater even when your not there to monitor it. Almost ALL radios now-a-days have a TOT as well. Typically I set mine for 2 minutes which is more than I need to transmit for, but is less than the duty cycle permits thus protecting the transistors. I've had people tell me its dumb to do as no idiot would want to talk non-stop unless they are in a net or special operation. That's when I give them this story: A while back when I was on the first aid squad, I was getting ready to go to sleep. Turned out the lights, laid my head on the pillow, then came the sound of a soft moan from a woman. Now, this would have been great, if there had been a woman in bed with me. The moaning continued and a bit confused I began looking for the source. Didn't take long to find my squad radio was receiving, and after turning it up a little, yep you guessed it. Turns out, the LT's portable radio had fallen between the bed and the night stand and as they and their lover were going at it, it was all transmitted quite clearly to the repeater, then retransmitted for the ENTIRE COUNTY to listen to. To make matters worse, the radios all had ID numbers so we knew whos radio was transmitting, and even worse, the LT had shut their phone off, so calling them to tell them their private session was public was not doable. Finally, the radios did not have TOT's at the time and so for a good while (I just shut my radio off but a friend at the county said they heard every minute of the 15+ minute incident. When the portable finally cut out, either from overheating or a dead battery or from falling loose of the PTT button, there wee quite a few catcalls to let them know everything was public including a few repeats of nick-names used during the session. So folks, learn two things from this story. A: TOT's work, especially when a mistake is made or you don't realize the transmit button is pushed, it will work and save your radio from damage and possibly you from some embarrassment. B: Someone is always listening, so keep in mind what you say or do on the radio, especially if you work for a public safety organization because if you say the wrong things you could find yourself in quite a bit of trouble.