jeffsimmons1960

I recently contacted Birmingham UK and Ireland with a bone stock Uniden 980 with 12 watts. The conditions have been booming.

I live in rural Northeastern Pa., and the are none here. There is a 2m repeater. There are a couple in the nearest cities, but I can't get them from here.

Thanks! There are plenty of places online to take actual practice tests. Yes, unfortunately the guys running high power are out there still annoying people. ?

Good info there. thank you! I saved the site to my favorites. I am going to the Vestal, NY one on the 19th. I contacted them, he said GMRS FRN # doesn't work, he said they had a problem with one last month, so I got another one.

Sorry, just saw this. I don't remember for sure, but I'm thinking in the Harrisburg/Carlisle area. I just had the handheld with me. I went to the ARRL site to look up test locations, and the closest to me was Vestal, NY. That's where I am going to take it. The 11 meter (CB) band has been booming during the day. Last week I talked to Birmingham, England and Ireland on 12 watts in my mobile! The problem is the yo yos that just want to get on there and make it miserable for people trying to have fun.

Nothing surprises me anymore. I guess it's possible.

The good old Iron Duke 2.5. How about that 350 converted to diesel that they put in everything from Sevilles, C10s, and Oldmobile station wagons? You could hear them coming 6 blocks away.

Thanks, good info there. I figured I'd start out cheap, and move up. We use Kenwoods at work in our trucks on UHF, they run 24/7 and are indestructible. The only issues we have with them are mic wires and connectors, which is understandable because they are constantly in use, swinging back and forth, etc.

I have a UV5R-X3, which is actually a tri band radio. I bought it for my trek into 2 meter. I've only been listening, so I can't comment on performance. Maybe I just don't know any better, I don't know. I also have a Radioddity GA 30. Seems to work well, I've only used it simplex talking to my daughter down at her camper. Anytone AT-77UV mobile is on the way. That's a dual band. I almost went with a single band 2 meter Yeasu but I wanted the GMRS capability too. Maybe down the road I'll go with a better one. I also have an Anytone 6666 for 10 and 11 meter. Sorry to ramble, again, I don't know any better. ? ?

I was just through there on 81 on Friday. I didn't hear anything but did hear some repeater IDs in spots, can't remember exactly where. Heard a couple of guys talking south of you in the Greenville, Va. area. I am new to this repeater stuff, I've been an 11 meter guy since the 70s. I'm going to take the Technician test on the 19th. I'm sure there is a lot of help here, I'm looking forward to learning.

I just ordered a Nagoya UT-72 that they claim works both bands, along with an Anytone AT-778UV dual band, as I'm going for my amateur license this month. Obviously, I don't have any experience with them, I just went by reviews and YouTube. Hope this helps. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSQszkFH3G4

That's what I mean, it's one thing if they are polite about it and say "hey, we do business on this channel, would you mind moving?", but when they try and throw an authority trip on you like "you need to vacate this frequency NOW, or you'll get arrested for interfering with our official business" that kind of changes things. Like I said, I have all the respect in the world for law enforcement, but these local warrant servers around here with their antics are laughable.

That could be. I didn't push it, I didn't know well enough to give them an argument. I thought I was on a half watt FRS channel.

They were definitely Walmart bubble pack radios, but if I remember right they were strictly FRS. It's been a while and the old memory isn't that sharp anymore. I have all the respect in the world for law enforcement, but the state constables around here are pretty over the top.

Yeah, they were jerks about it too. But that's typical of my area. And it was an FRS channel to boot. At the time I just let it go. It wasn't like I knew they were on it and deliberately tried to interfere, I just picked a random channel to communicate with my son. They just chose to be ignorant about it. But we're talking about small town fair security and warrant servers that ride around in a golf cart with a mounted shotgun, 3 sets of handcuffs and tasers and guns, and probably is really bummed out because they can't do traffic stops, lol.

Hello, new guy here, first post. Back in the 90s, I was at a local fairground using an FRS channel talking to my son. Turned out the state constables or the fairground operators or somebody was using that channel for their operations, with obviously higher powered radios, and kicked me off of the channel. I didn't argue and went to another channel, but I've always wondered about the legality of that.