jeffsimmons1960
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Posts posted by jeffsimmons1960
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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.
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4 hours ago, WRWQ761 said:
I thought I saw that local clubs could also test you? Maybe that is outdated or not done anymore I am not sure. I am going to actually buy a practice book and really start learning. Hopefully I'll be fully prepared soon. Good luck!
I definitely had no idea! I have a older model uniden 401 pro and never would've thought it could go anywhere near that. I used to listen to cb when I lived in Baltimore and everyone just pushed as many watts as possible, pushing everyone (including others at the same meet!) Around and making it miserable. I would hope it would've gotten better!
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.
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3 hours ago, Sshannon said:
ARRL is not the only organization recognized as a testing organization, although they might be the largest in the USA. There are 14 Volunteer Exam Coordinators recognized by the FCC
I’m a volunteer examiner for the Laurel VEC. They have a lot of test locations every month.
Check their schedule at LaurelVEC.com. Click on “Exam Schedule” on the left.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.
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On 4/5/2023 at 3:02 PM, WRWQ761 said:
Excellent I will edit my post right after I'm done. Thanks for the simple info!
Ahhh 81. Love it or hate it depending on traffic haha do you know what IDs you heard just so I can try to narrow it down? Even areas help and I can look them up. Greenville is one I have a long with Warrenton and a couple others. Ill keep listening! 11 meters I hear some people love and some people hate. Personally I've been experimenting with 10 meters as I've heard sometimes the stars aline and you can go 100s of miles but I'm sure that's true with a lot of ham bands. May I ask where/who you are getting the license? I cannot connect with anyone including the Antietam radio association but am trying desperately to connect with some hams! I'm with you and always want to learn. I will host a meetup or anything else just to connect with some more like minded radio people!!!!
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.
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7 hours ago, Lscott said:
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.
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10 hours ago, Lscott said:
I have the Btech version which I use as a cheap scanner at the office. It's OK.
Another CCR, Cheap Chinese Radio, is the TYT TH-350 tri-band. For $70 I think it's better than the UV5R-X3 and Btech copy. I use one at home as a cheap scanner. One thing about the radios is the back light. It's so bright you can use it as a flashlight, and it's NOT adjustable in brightness.
https://www.buytwowayradios.com/tyt-th-350.html
If I were to recommend a CCR for a new Ham it would be the TH-350. Once you get settled and have a better idea of what you want and operate you can start looking at the more expensive stuff. Many people here use older, and new, commercial radios. My self I have a lot of used Kenwood analog and analog/digital mode portable radios. Those by the way are usually single band radios. There is a way to run multiple "RF Decks" using a single control. There is a thread here for one such mobile install, neat and impressive.
https://forums.mygmrs.com/topic/5521-new-install-dual-astro-xtl5000-vhf-uhf-110w/#comment-55274
If you're looking at any of the digital voice modes, System Fusion and D-Star, they are Amateur only modes. The other main digital modes are DMR, NXDN and P25 are typically commercial voice modes and are also found on the Amateur bands. In particular DMR is popular followed by P25 then NXDN.
DMR radios can be found in both Amateur and commercial model radios. The DMR and NXDN radios are usually reasonably priced if you shop around. There are no Amateur type radios for P25 and NXDN so your only choice is new/used commercial radios. P25 radios you'll likely get raped on the price, but some good deals do show up occasionally.
The usual manufactures you'll see for commercial radios are primarily Motorola, JVCKenwood (EF Johnson - Viking - Kenwood) and Icom followed by Vertex, Hytera and Harris. I'm sure I missed a few others. With some of the manufactures being purchased by others, with name changes at times, it sort of hard to keep straight who is who without a score card.
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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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10 hours ago, Lscott said:
Unfortunately the typical user thinks that a licensed frequency grants them exclusive use of a frequency. That might be how it was explained to them when they got the radios. Some will be receptive to an explanation. Others, unfortunately, will tell you to go bugger off and quit using "their" frequency/channel. Their learning experience will be longer and more stressful.
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.
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2 hours ago, Lscott said:
You might have found yourself operating on a frequency you weren't licensed to use in which case being told to leave wouldn't have been unexpected.
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.
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10 minutes ago, WRUU653 said:
I'm sure someone will chime in here that remembers when the rules changed and correct me if I get this wrong but my recolection is that the 90's is about when bubble pack FRS radios were introduced (Walmart, Costco...)with GMRS frequencies that were not a shrared channels yet. So people didn't pay any mind to the small print that you had to be licensed for GMRS on some of the channels. Thus the FCC changed the rules because it was to late to put the genie back in the bottle. So maybe that is why they were kicking you off. More likely they were associated with the fairground and not state constables though. I don't think that would happen today.
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.
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4 minutes ago, marcspaz said:
They definitely did not have the authority to do that. In the same way only the FAA regulates airspace over the US, the rules of the airwaves are regulated exclusively by the FCC under authority granted by Congress. The rules say that no one owns any frequency, the all operators work on the premise of first come, first serve. There is nothing that says you can't have a conversation in-between conversations, and it's actually pretty common, as long as no one is causing harmful interference and everyone must yield to emergency traffic. I love having that conversation with the idiots that tell me to "get off their frequency". LOL
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.
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On 3/18/2023 at 12:13 PM, Lscott said:
If that's too much to deal with then just go and buy a bunch of FRS radios. Most of the same regulations apply that you see for GMRS. The big differences are the radios are limited to 2 watts on most channels, no repeater access and no ID/license requirements.
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.
We need more GMRS Repeaters Deployed
in General Discussion
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I recently contacted Birmingham UK and Ireland with a bone stock Uniden 980 with 12 watts. The conditions have been booming.