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Wow! OK, I will log back in here next week sometime when I get back yet couple things. You have one of the quality ones (wife) and I totally admire the decision to do this and see it through with all that going on at home too! Thank you for telling this personal detail... Perhaps it will be seen by someone and become a catalyst. Again major major thumbs up!

If I had 10 thumbs to give you 10 thumbs up at age 32 for attacking this? I would do it! ??? And yes, EIT 4 years until ready to take PE exam is the norm...

Ok.... When shall I report for my weekly beating?

True that is... The purpose of a decent program is to build a solid foundation. This includes understanding how to learn, how to problem solve, and how to apply your foundation. This as you know is where solid knowledge gets built. Failure of something is a learning process toward success if possible. Graduate degree's don't mean you know everything, they mean you have specialized knowledge in some topic. Multidisciplinary teams can be best, as it builds much knowledge as we help each other to know things. IF everyone on the team has a decent foundation? We can move forward. If you are having problems finding candidates, talk to your hiring managers! They criteria they are using may be flawed somewhere. I knew lots of 20 somethings at GT that could do some amazing things are highly motivated.

Sure thing! I had just reflected on the significance of the larger picture and thought I better reposition. There is no way you could know my perspective, yet let me give you some detail and reason I had to do some back peddling. For 9 years and 9 months, I personally knew and had to deal with about 300 engineers of two kinds. I know how hard they worked to get through the program. For about 3%, it's not too stressful, for most it's very stressful. The university (Georgia Tech) I worked for (and none of them really) ever publish the mental effects of this stress (including suicides) that happen every year. I can can still see many of the faces in those programs. I just can't bring myself to diminish their struggles with the system (including my own), by throwing the "engineer" word around like that. I mentioned my brother, well I could also see all the others too. The word engineer, has at its implication a responsibility to the public based on a disciplined foundation built on years of structured and continually tested outcomes.

Thank you for the input on this... Yes EIT guys are on the way and I recall when my brother was in this category. This is all fine and glad you chimed in. I am going to maintain my position as forward looking in terms of maintaining an expectation of standards. Free to choose as it is said. The word is used pretty loose and free, yet when talking certain topics it is not. I'm not too worried about the thread premise, there is a lot of latitude here also. Cheers!

Ok, after reflecting on this from yesterday, I have to make a clear stance... We can engage in making, designing, creating, all of that. It is a stretch to call ourselves "engineers" if we are not trained as this. I am not sure what the hyper fascination is with this title. If a person designs and builds a house or houses, that alone does not make them an architect. There are laws that protect these professional titles, doctors, lawyers, engineers, architects, and onward. I know you already posed the scenario where I can be labeled with arrogance by agreeing with this protectionist position. My brother is an electrical engineer and worked damn hard to be trained as such. I never want to be a part of a position that undermines any of this. Professional standards are important and are required. So I formally retract my softer position on what I said yesterday. Yikes, my humble apologies to anyone on this forum who is in fact an engineer. I am embarrassed I soft peddled this yesterday.-- Joseph

OK, I have quietly followed suit. I have my application in for a commercial license. GMRS is nice but with the cheap boxes and discounted license fee's, I needed an escape hatch. Lots and lots of people flocking from hammy bands into GMRS for some reason too. On the other subject, your efforts are notable, yet getting a certain personality type to stop taking themselves so seriously won't happen. I have no idea what secret warehouse they are being manufactured in, but they wear the same style of super extra tight underpantaloons.

Yes. You are one of the lucky ones! I too worked for a start up company one time. The pay was low but it was a GREAT experience! Mine ran out of money also after a while but was resurrected and became a joint venture with an established company. The amount of creativity and energy is amazing that comes out of these things. This is kind of on topic from where this thread has been because coincidentally, I/we were doing a lot of "engineering" type work, yet I never once called myself an "engineer". We were and are "science nerds".... who happened to be doing a lot of design type work. The company is still around today and has grown a lot. I listed them on my Linkedin page also. It's called KBI BioPharma.

Wow... Interesting! I am familiar with Trimble and Leica total stations. I do surveys, yet use several GIS technologies to do this. I do not do boundary survey projects though. What became of the startup?

I wonder are you talking about an engineer for TV or radio by chance? I expect you are 100% right, sometimes these guys are really on top of things!

Yeah, there is some truth in what you said... I agree on the task being accomplished vs. some type of title. Yet, where it no longer applies is in liability. If there is a question, investors, insurance underwriters, lenders, risk management, and all... When this "thing" was done, did the person doing it have all bases covered with the current knowledge at the time? What did they know and not know? That is where the road can lead. It is indeed impressive that you have this title on the federal payroll. I have had some government jobs, and while I'm not an "engineer", they always fully vetted me beforehand. I expect it, and would not have it any other way. There is a large amount of fraud out there as usual also so that is part of the problem too. Ability, talent, formal training, can all be independent or unified. On the other subject of national frequency coordination, according to the coordinator I'm working with (and what Gortex said), it is normal and common. The only caveat is that some locations we may hear each other, yet that likely will not be an issue. National coordination will really help! It will make things 100% legit and I can issue temp operation to anyone I need to... way overdue!

Hello and OK... Some things here. I too was unclear about the the license and I can operate nationally even with my repeater pairs no problem! I was not aware of this detail either until Gortex (many thanks!) told me and I talked with the coordinator via phone. I am no expert and don't want to pretend to be, but I did not understand the acronym "SA" was all. This is forum lingo and I am awash in this from so many places. I have a comfort level with the hardware and attached a photo of one of my work spaces for electronics. I do in fact understand the protectionism engineering license boards are doing and it is necessary as there are issues. I was thinking mechanical, civil, chem, EE, or other when I saw engineer. Yes, Linkedin is kind of a cesspool and you have to be really careful! I use it for a contact network as phone and emails change at times.

Thanks Sshannon! Wow! I was thinking "South Asia"... Glad I asked as it seemed a super weird thing to say as the context was not clear on this. lol

What is this "SA"? I think this has appeared before? On another note, I was up early this morning and read through a number of other forum topics I had not seen. Some interesting things on here. Two things, I am in the process for obtaining a business license to get away from GMRS even with portable repeater use. The estimate is a wait time of 2-3 months for completion. The other is that while I have not worked in the Virginia/West Virginia area yet, I saw you mentioned you are a professional engineer. I would like to add you to my Linkedin profile, as I am always open to building my professional network to suit my needs. I have needs for various disciplines so do let me know. Perhaps we have the same alma mater? Thanks

Hi. I looked that radio up as I did not know what it was and was surprised to see it looks the same as my IC-735. Did you buy that locally while living in Japan by chance? In any case, that is a damn good radio! I use mine for SWL 99.5% of the time.

OK thanks for some context. Interesting display you have of your own radios also. It looks like digital artifacts from the main oscillator? DDS? Things like this can go away at higher sampling rates. I am not familiar with those two radio's you have and have never heard of them before. This kind of relates to another posting where I mentioned the issues with DSP hardware that have been known for two decades now. Radio manufacturers like DSP for some good reasons. Cost is one, and not less important is the fact that DSP circuits don't have the aging issues like the old hardware does. There are strengths and weaknesses for both schools. Sensitivity is not one, as there are plenty of old radios as sensitive as anything else you can buy today. DSP AGC issues are legendary but getting better, while many old school analog boxes have AGC's like butter. DSP IF's have made crystal and mechanical filters obsolete, yet some of the DSP noise reduction technology is kinda nasty also. Best advice though? Unless you are confident you can repair older hardware, stay clear of it.

Yeah, this plot is not very good... However, it was into a 50 Ohm load. A better measure in practice would be to do the same plot using the HT factory antenna, and measuring the same parameters using the off air antenna on the service monitor. A/B more complete characterization. Performance my be worse at 2nd or 3rd..., or could be better. Best I have ever heard is these radios are exactly what you pay for. They do have a giant upside though as people get in cheap with little downside $ risk. Oh, and was the one test sample random? How many were there? Just one won't do. Perhaps some are made that perform better?

Well... Yes. That one would never have occurred to me as rock bands are not on my radar at all. There are a few other codes used on this site I have no idea what they mean, and when I see them again I will ask. I had seen the CCR code enough that I used a google query with "radio" and "hobby radio" and that is how I found it.

OMG guys! Yes..... I did not know until about one minute ago what "CCR" even meant! This discussion started big time in the early 2000's. I knew several people at Universal Radio in Ohio, and they were fairly disgusted with the direction things were heading. To quote directly, "Most all the radios coming out now look like they were made in the Fisher Price toy factory". 9-11-2001 happened, and about 30 or 60 days after that? George Bush signed China into the World Trade Organization. Yes, it was a game changer on many levels. Goods, jobs, and many things. The newest hammy box I own is from the late 90's. Nothing on the new market adds enough increased performance value to make it worth buying for casual use, not one... DSP still has sampling rate issues and A/D artifacts that are an issue, unless you spend mega $$. While clunky at times, some older boxes are excellent performers if you are willing to put some work in. Here is a clip I took recently with my cell phone. Use good speakers or headphones to listen to these guys talking. This equipment is from 1973. Yes I have owned it a long time and done a lot to it but still, it's so deep into the "good enough" category that nothing new would help in actual casual use. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vawMCWYUKBo

Interesting yet missing important info... What was the equipment, coax, antenna, in use and what was the cause and cure?

OK yes this may indeed work. I talked to a coordinator about an hour ago and told him what I have, the 6 or more locations thus far that I need to use it. Two repeater channels and a simplex... I will forge ahead next week as this would allow me to 100% bail out on GMRS. I will update on this and NO I did not know that repeater assignments where available for this so thanks!

OK I see that link thanks! However, I see 4 UHF channels with no provision for repeater use? I defaulted to the UHF 35W selection.

Good question... Many years ago I tried this and there were kids and families on it at times. I recall a little kid asked me if I liked cheeseburgers, to which I said yes sometimes... I have not tried it since. Sometimes I'm sure it would work and then there are those other times.

Well done on all that! We are not islands on this planet... I was curious what you were using all this hardware for. thanks!