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.

Always the fourth full weekend of June.

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.

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.

Steve this is a really good question. I know you didn't ask me but here goes. Curiosity. I had no idea what to expect. Yes, I think it was my curiosity about GMRS. I've been a licensed ham since 1988, and a full time QRP CW operator since 1998, and I am an Extra class licensee and POTA is my favorite amateur radio activity. In March 2020 my employer sent all us IT types home to work, pandemic and all, and then they sold our building and decided to leave us working from home...thing was I enjoyed listening to and participating in the local drive time 2m traffic...but...here we are with 20+2m repeaters and the largest majority of the day, they are dead. Sometimes in the morning you can catch some conversations, sometimes in the drive home time but not always. So early last year I bought a pair of GM-30 Chinese wonder rigs for cheap, and taught my wife how to use them. I was able to monitor GMRS traffic and stumbled on a couple repeaters I could hear but couldn't hit. BUT when I go fishing at a pond a mile away, I can talk to my wife simplex. When she goes out walking the neighborhood with her sister, she can talk simplex to me. So really I got a GMRS license out of curiosity. Thanks to local upgrades to the repeaters near me, and my slightly better antenna, I can talk on the two repeaters but frankly, I just listen. It beats Bob and Tom in the morning. And there is more traffic on those two repeaters ALL DAY than 20 2m repeaters in the area. I joined one of the local GMRS groups and gave them some financial support (very little actually) and I am enjoying their system. When school is in session, I listen to the local maintenance guys on MURS as they have all the latest filthy jokes and they are a straight up hoot to listen to. I hope you had a good Field Day.

Is your Surecom meter rated for UHF???

Nothing is. It's a crapshoot when the excrement hits the rotary oscillator. I guess we all need to be good little Scouting America scouts and do our best to be prepared. Satellite phones are becoming more affordable. I may look into getting one for emergencies. They will have the same problem as cellular if too many users are subscribed.

I have some GM-30's. They are prob not the best but they work for us. They were cheap, not Baofeng cheap, but close enough.

Figured what out.....phone rang....I said hello...he said hey...then told me about his lousy living conditions. He had to live in his storage shed for 6 weeks waiting on construction company to put his roof back on. He got a genset and ran a small window AC unit to keep it cool enough to sleep in. Was a real mess.

I don't disagree...I'd love to put up a small low power repeater to cover our neighborhood, but not sure anyone would even use it. So I don't. That and I'm cheap...and have no where to put it up high.

Lived here since 1966 and I don't remember a single hurricane. Been in some tornados, big boomer storms, hail the size of canned hams, but no hurricanes. My friend lives in Port Charlotte...direct hit from the last hurricane through there. No power for almost a month. No ham repeaters working after a few days. No cell service for days on end. He called me from his land line.

Certainly this could be done with a couple of phone calls,or perhaps listening to the evening media shows.

So my field day plans are boofed...what are you all going to be doing? I may have some time late Saturday to setup on the back pasture and run some FD CW....but that's about it.

Scanning simplex I have never heard anything interesting on FRS/GMRS....lots of comedy on the repeaters. MURS is better entertainment, although VHF...I listen to the maintenance guys at the local school tell filthy jokes and make fun of their boss.

Repeaters on 462.575 on my GM30 is Channel 24. Offset is already there at 5 Mhz. Use the CPS and add a name for the repeater and input your TX tones. Like Randy said...don't confuckulate things with the RX tones. I've had my GM-30's for about 18 months, really like them. We added the RD-332 antenna to ours and it did make a difference in simplex range...1.75 miles to about 2.25 miles.

Local school system maintenance guys use MURS. I monitor for the sheer humor factor. They tell dirty jokes, make hilarious comments about students, teachers, admins...

I like QEX being online. QST is so stale by the time you get it, you've already read all that news a month ago.

No. They don't. They have a legal person you can ask questions. They don't do anything other than that.

My ARRL membership renewal time is here...what to do...what to do.

Not sure about GMRS but in the amateur radio portion of 440 Mhz, we are essentially guest users. US Military or US Government are the primary users according to the FCC. Means we hams have to put up with whatever they need to use it for. In 35 years I have NEVER once been asked to move off a 440 frequency though....but if they ask, you have to move.

My hundred dollar bills are my hundred dollars bills...and I will wipe anything that I wish with my hundred dollar bills. You seem easily butthurt...have you tried the cream or the sprays for that?

Martin Jue is 80 years old...and wants to spend what he has left of his life, enjoying his family. I'd prefer to see some outfit, like Vibroplex, buy the company and keep it going somehow. I was amazed they still did manufacturing in Mississippi....figured it was all outsourced. Best of luck to them....in 30 + years I have spent thousands with MFJ.

I prefer the Radioddity CPS to Chirp for my GM-30.

I wanted to try one but got over it. I ordered one from Amazon...2 days later its on my porch...opened it up and it's DOA. FIled an exchange with Amazon...new replacement arrives...dead in the box. I gave up and just got a refund. I know I know...they aren't all like that. I'm over it.

Ham radio and GMRS is the same as far as Morse Code goes....not required for either one.